The case of Shelley vs. Kraemer dates back to 1945, when the family of J.D. Shelley purchased a home in a St. Louis neighborhood that had apparently been under a restrictive covenant. This meant that white families in the area had a clause in their real estate contracts stating that no family with “Negro or […]

Back when R&B singers were fully grown men, there was a guy who burst out of Minneapolis on the strength of his own talent. No, we’re not talking about Prince. We mean soul man Alexander O’Neal. http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/entertainment/blak_music_month/22163

Hubert Julian, also known as The Black Eagle or The Black Lindbergh, became the first black man to fly coast-to-coast over the U.S. in 1931. At the same time, he broke the world record for flying, with a non-stop non-refueling flight of 84 hours and 33 minutes. http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/news/the_black_diaspora_news/22119

Robert Reed Church Sr. was a man of great stature in Memphis, Tennessee. He is known for financing and creating the first major black-owned urban recreational area in America. But his efforts did not come without great physical sacrifice. http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/news/the_black_diaspora_news/22016

The name Richard Poplar resonates largely with the people of Petersburg, Virginia, especially on Sept. 18th, when the town will celebrate its 7th annual Richard Poplar Day. Private Richard “Dick” Poplar was a 19th century African-American Confederate soldier who was held captive as a P.O.W. in July 1863 during the battle at Gettysburg. It was […]

This past Friday, longtime political activist and beloved college professor Dr. Ronald Walters died of lung cancer. In his hometown of Wichita, Kansas, Walters led one of the nation’s first lunch counter sit-in protests of the civil rights movement. http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/news/the_black_diaspora_news/21887

Few things are more comforting than being welcomed back to a loving home. Whether you’ve been away at school, in the military, on the road working or just spent too many hours past your curfew, it feels good to know that you were missed, and nobody’s mad at you. You may have not made the […]

When I was asked to write this blog for this very important initiative – “Take a Loved One to The Doctor” Day – I jumped at the chance to use this forum as an opportunity to spotlight the disease of drug addiction. http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/life_style/fitness_life_style/21805

The Negro Motorist Green Book was a publication released in 1936 that served as a guide for African-American travelers. Because of the racist conditions that existed from segregation, blacks needed a reference manual to guide them to integrated or black-friendly establishments. That’s when they turned to “The Negro Motorist Green Book: http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/news/the_black_diaspora_news/21801

Alice Dunbar Nelson was a teacher and writer from New Orleans, praised for her activism and poetry. A graduate of Dillard University, she would publish her first book in 1895 called “Violets and Other Tales, a Collection of Short Stories.” She used her Creole background as a topic for many of her stories and became […]

A woman named Abby Fisher, a former slave from South Carolina, is the author of the first published African-American cookbook and the first cookbook published by a former slave. Born in 1832, Fisher worked and came to know cooking in the kitchens of the plantations. Freed after the Civil War, Fisher and her husband, Alexander, […]

Alberta Hunter was a jazz and blues artist who was in high demand all over the world in the 1920’s. Born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1895, Hunter came from a poor family. To pursue her dream of singing, she packed up and moved to Chicago. A teenage Hunter worked as a potato peeler to earn […]