In honor of el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz aka Malcolm X’s birthday on May 19, 1925, below are excerpts from one of his more famous speeches, The Ballot or the Bullet. He was, as actor Ossie Davis said in his eulogy “Our Shining Black Prince.” By Malcolm X April 3, 1964 Cleveland, Ohio Although I’m still a […]readmore
African-American Scholar Sharon Austin: “We are still fighting many of the same battles as Dr. King did in his day.” By: Sharon Austin theconversation.com On Apr. 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee while assisting striking sanitation workers. That was 50 years ago. Back then, the wholesale racial integration required by […]readmore
By: Dr. Maulana Karenga In the midst of the widespread euphoria about the “debatable real” and actually imagined qualities, achievements and benefits of the fantasy movie “The Black Panther,” it is good to remember that no matter how long we stay in the theater and no matter how many times we return to cheer, clap […]readmore
Wyatt Tee Walker, civil rights leader, pastor and theologian, was born on August 16, 1929 in Brockton, Massachusetts to John Wise and Maude Pin Walker. Wyatt attended elementary and high school in Merchantville, New Jersey and earned a B.S. in chemistry and physics from Virginia Union University in Richmond in 1950. That same year, he […]readmore
By Professor Milfred Fierce Thomas Jefferson Randolph, nephew of Thomas Jefferson, speaking to the same Virginia legislature during the winter of 1831-1832, boldly asserted: “The exportation has averaged 8,500 for the last twenty years. It’s a practice, and an increasing practice, in parts of Virginia to rear slaves for market. How can an honorable mind, […]readmore
When I was in the 8’s* at the Little Red Schoolhouse, a very progressive private school in “the city”, we had projects for Black History Month. I was part of a team of two. Our project was Sojourner Truth. After school, my teammate and I would go to her house and work on our “project”. […]readmore
November 1997 (Winner 1998 New York Association of Black Journalists First Place in Personal Commentary) The empty buses rolled into Brooklyn early Saturday morning. Across the rain-washed Manhattan Bridge, the Greyhounds came, their empty seats silhouetted against gas station neon, appearing as ghosts through fog-wet windows. The buses were coming to transport the keepers of […]readmore
On the closing day of Reel Sisters Film Festival presentations, Sunday, October 21, a discussion moderated by ImageNation co-founder Moikgantsi Kgama circled into great stories untold, lost or forgotten within our own families and networks. Stories that would make great films. That topic was inspired by Reel Sisters’ founder Carolyn Butts response to one of our questions in the […]readmore
