Reginald Shepherd was an poet who has been widely anthologized and has appeared in four editions of The Best American Poetry. Shepherd was born in New York City and raised in the Bronx. He graduated from Bennington College in 1988, and received MFAs from Brown University and the University of Iowa, where he attended the […]
Flipboard has been used to gather some of the world’s greatest minds together to order to increase awareness, share information, and open our minds to knowledge not often seen throughout mainstream media. In this Flipboard Find byDanielle Jones, we learn more about The Unknown Legacy of the 13th Amendment On January 31, 1865, Congress […]
Angola prison, the maximum security state penitentiary of Louisiana is the biggest prison in America. Built on the site of a former slave plantation, the 1,800-acre penal complex is home to more than 5,000 prisoners, 85 percent of whom will die there. Also known as the Farm, Angola took its name from the homeland of […]
In the first part of “Sergeant Smack” Ike Atkinson, we went into his drug operation in Asia’s Golden Triangle. The most important part was the distribution into the U.S. and the myth surrounding how it happened—as told by Frank Lucas. Frank Lucas’ Account According to Frank Lucas who teamed up with Ike Atkinson in 1974, […]
Born November 1925 in Goldsboro, North Carolina, Ike Atkinson was a master sergeant in the U.S. Army before turning to drug trafficking during the Vietnam War. He worked with kingpin Frank Lucas during the late 1960s into the 1970s. Sergeant Smack and the Golden Triangle Most of what is known about Ike Atkinson’s life […]
Group of African American boys, circa 1920’s Vintage African American photography courtesy of Black History Album, The Way We Were.
When Bill White was named president of baseballs National League in 1989, he became the highest-ranking black executive in all of professional sports. With a salary of $250,000 per year in a demanding administrative position that requires resolution, judgment, and a thorough grounding in the game of baseball, White was not only expected to bring […]
Many times when we think of Civil Rights leaders and activists in class or speak about them in public, we hear the name Martin Luther King Jr.. Many other dedicated activists become forgotten. One of which is Fannie Lou Hamer, a grassroots organizer in Mississippi. She was born on October 6, 1919 in rural Mississippi […]
In part one, we went into soccer pioneer Walter Tull’s short career in English professional football. A stellar athlete he performed well on each of the clubs he joined. It would be a sense of British patriotism during World War I that ended his professional career. World War I Service Europe was at war in the […]
Hailing from 1888 Folkestone, England, Walter Tull was one of the early Black soccer players. He played for six years and with three teams. His career was shortened as a result of joining the British military effort in World War I. Youth The son of a British mother and Barbadian father, Walter Tull was orphaned very early in life […]
Dr. Ella Mae Piper was a well-known business woman and civic worker. She was born in Brunswick, Georgia on March 8, 1884, and was the only daughter of Ned Bailer and Sarah Williams. Piper established the first beauty parlor and chiropody office in Fort Myers, Florida. She attended Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia and graduated from the […]
In 1814 Levi Coffin (1798-1877), a Quaker and North Carolina native, his father Vestal and brother Addison, helped to found the North Carolina Manumission Society. In 1818, the Society merged with the American Colonization Society. Rejecting the notion that slaves should be removed to Africa to obtain freedom, the Coffins separated themselves from the Society […]
