If you start practicing now, you can probably eliminate these words from your vocabulary by Black History Month — Statistically speaking, about 75% of White people don’t even have a Black friend, but on the off chance that you are one of the White people who do, I have a message for you from your (one) Black friend: Do better. In her New York Times bestselling book White Fragility…

The delegate from the D — On August 7, 1954, Charles H. Mahoney made history. Mahoney was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to serve as a United Nations delegate — making him the first Black American to serve in this capacity. I planned on doing a standard biopic article on Mahoney’s life and legacy, but…

Because sometimes violence is the answer When it comes to Black historic figures, their entire catalog of work is usually reduced to their greatest hits (*coughs in I have a dream*), and Frederick Douglass is no exception. I grew up hearing the famous quote “power concedes nothing without a demand…

Serving Alabama Docks Energy for over 30 Years In a previous article on Naomi Sims, I talked about how in 1948, activist and union organizer A. Phillip Randolph told President Harry Truman that Black Americans would not continue to serve in a segregated U.S. Army. Staring down the barrel, Truman…

Or America’s Next Top Model (ANTM) — On March 30, 1948, A. Phillip Randolph went to D.C. to meet with President Harry S. Truman on behalf of the Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service and Training African Americans. Randolph told the President that Black Americans would not continue to serve in a segregated U.S. Army, laying…

She literally gave us life — “We use those cells everyday, and I’ve never heard of her until right now.” a biomedical engineering student told me at a cocktail party. Slender, short, with thick black hair and bookish good looks, his countenance shifted before my eyes. The easy confidence that comes from being both the youngest…

Decolonizing Black resistance In 1926, Carter G. Woodson designated the second week of February as Negro History Week. Fifty years later, America finally took the hint and upgraded Negro History Week to Black History Month. Yes, it’s the shortest month of the year, and yes, the basis for its existence…

Cuz I’m Black yall — August is National Black Business Month. It also happens to be an awareness month for bullying, immunizations, road victims, world cancer support and many other worthy and oft overlooked issues and causes. I’m not here to talk about any of those. I’m here to talk about Black August. Until yesterday…

Life is worth living. They won’t be better off without you You didn’t let them down And if you did, it can be healed Restor(i)ed Resolved. Yes, the hole is deep, But there are stairs. Yes, your feet are bleeding, But there are chairs. Someone cares Someone cares Someone always cares. Something is…