AFRICAN AMERICANS

Slave-owning US presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and James Madison, as well as leaders Daniel Webster and Francis Scott Key, were members of the ACS.

Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy. I was raised in a family that was very active in the fight to secure civil and voting rights for African Americans. This is something I have personally experienced alongside family members who have been on the front lines of the fight. If we don’t succeed in the preservation of equal and fair voting rights, the America we will be left with is an America none of us wants to contemplate; an America where voices are silenced and not heard. That’s why I am urging you to get to the polls on Tuesday if you haven’t already submitted your absentee ballot.

A conversation with author W. Nolan Gray on the social and economic costs of urban zoning and what American cities can learn from Houston.

A new research collaboration between Harvard University and Oxford University Press aims to compile the first fully-formed dictionary of African American English.

A coalition of more than 40 organizations is joining forces to mobilize African American turnout for the fall midterm elections.

The era's near-misses and misunderstandings serve as a cautionary tale as the United States again faces off with great-power rivals.

The Bruce family suffered racist harassment from white neighbors, and in the 1920s, the property was seized by the Manhattan Beach City Council through eminent domain.

Concerned about the future of newly-emancipated Black Americans, President Grant saw the Dominican Republic as a place where they could live freely.

Ten months after Hurricane Ida damaged a museum celebrating New Orleans' African American parading culture, the Backstreet Cultural Museum is reopening.

Laura Smith likened overturning Roe vs. Wade to the fall of the Dred Scott decision, which in 1857 denied African Americans citizenship and allowed slavery in U.S. territories. It made moot after the Civil War by the 13th and 14th amendments. She called it the moment historic, the biggest of “our lives,” and a chance to restart.

The best data shows neighboring Charles County has become majority-Black in recent years, and incomes there are much higher than in Prince George's County.

An appeals court backed the district court’s decision, but the state legislature refused to redraw the map. The Supreme Court majority on Tuesday did not supply a reason for granting the state’s request, as is common in emergency orders. In a separate case in February, the Supreme Court stopped a lower court’s order that Alabama redraw its congressional map to accommodate the growth of Black voters there. “But the Court’s case law in this area is notoriously unclear and confusing.”The Alabama case, Merrill v. Milligan, is one of the first the court will consider in October. Tuesday’s order said the Louisiana case would be held until the Alabama case is decided.

On abortion, guns and religion, the court is giving its Republican sponsors what they hoped for.

We should celebrate the end of slavery and America’s progress toward racial justice. We should also reflect on how far the nation still needs to go.

Juneteenth became a federal holiday last year, but many African Americans have celebrated it for years. It marks the day when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas learned they were free.

They're young, they're Black, and they started businesses before the age of 20. Here is their advice on overcoming the odds and finding success.

President Joe Biden moved quickly last year to recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday.

President Joe Biden moved quickly last year to recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday.

As the United States marks only the second federally recognized Juneteenth, Black Americans living overseas have embraced the holiday as a day of reflection and an opportunity to educate people in their host countries on Black history.

During a time of segregation in the US, there was one destination in Detroit where people from around the world, no matter their color or culture flocked to for a great time. That was “Paradise Valley,” where thousands of African Americans thrived and owned over 300 businesses. It was located in an area known as Black Bottom.

The federal holiday signifies the emancipation of African Americans who were enslaved in the country at one point.

Linda Villarosa says bias in the health care system and the "weathering" affect of living in a racist society are taking a serious toll on African Americans. Her new book is Under the Skin.

Newsrooms in U.S. cities were already suffering a declining audience and lost revenue to Facebook and Google, now some face takeover from opportunistic hedge funds. Jon Wertheim reports.

Officials have described the recent shooting as an aberration in the “City of Good Neighbors.” But this conceals the city’s long-standing racial divisions.

"Watermelon and Red Birds" is the first major cookbook devoted to the holiday.

The report recommends ways to address the "lingering negative effects" of slavery — from policing reforms to housing grants to increased voting access to free tuition.

California released an exhaustive report detailing how government laws and policies perpetuated discrimination against African Americans.

The high level of maternal mortality is a product of something Republicans say doesn’t exist: systemic racism

Wayne Black was one of the few African Americans in the crowd as about 100 people gathered recently at the Republican Party headquarters near Columbus, Georgia, to hear from U.S. Senate candidate and football legend Herschel Walker. A member of the Muscogee County Republican Executive Committee, Black said he found a certain promise in Walker's candidacy, a GOP voice who could appeal to African Americans and others in Georgia who have traditionally voted Democratic.

The Naming Commission released the names it's proposing for nine U.S. military installations that honor confederate leaders and is reviewing the names of more than 750 other military assets.

Two years after George Floyd’s murder, nearly 8 in 10 Black Americans say there has been little or no improvement in how police treat Black people, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll.

Stephen Henderson explores disparities in mental health awareness for the Black community. Plus, an update on the fight against COVID-19.

Stephen Henderson talks to Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network CEO Eric Doeh about Mental Health Awareness Month in the Black Community.

The young white man who killed 10 people in Buffalo represents a new generation of white supremacists: isolated and online, radicalized on internet memes and misinformation, inspired by livestreams to find fame through bloodshed.

An expert on the white-power movement and the “great replacement” theory puts the act of terror in context.

Statistics who that 85% of menthol smokers are African Americans. People are gathering together to create a FDA proposal to phasing them out.

In the 1990s, Republicans spread fear over people of color "replacing" white people in California. It's tenet of white supremacy we must confront.

The question arises: Since when did so much of our politics have to do with religion? And the answer is, since the beginning — and even before.

The decision comes after some voters sued the state, saying a map drawn by DeSantis's staff unfairly eliminates a congressional district held by a Black Democrat.

The judge found that the map violates the state constitution by diluting the Black vote in a northern Florida district.

The judge found that the map violates the state constitution by diluting the Black vote in a northern Florida district.

The April jobs report provided mixed signals on the economic issue most on the minds of Americans: Chronically high inflation.

A coalition including the four medical schools at the nation's historically Black colleges and universities has announced a new initiative aimed at increasing the number of Black Americans registered as organ donors and combating disparities among transplant recipients.

The Food and Drug Administration has announced plans to ban menthol cigarettes, which the tobacco industry has aggressively marketed toward African Americans since 1964.

For centuries, sleeping outside has been embraced or condemned, depending on who’s doing it.

Several recent TV shows focused on Black characters share an obsession with “cash and glamour,” the historian Tanisha C. Ford writes. But they also feel out of step.

California's Reparations Task Force is preparing to release its first report on the impact of racism on African Americans in June. It's the next step for the Task Force, following a narrow vote late last month to exclude some Black residents from being eligible if and when a reparations plan becomes law. Under the current proposal, only those who can trace their lineage to enslaved or freed Black people before the end of the 19th century will qualify for reparations from the state. Some Black Californians are fine with that for now. State residents Derika Denell Gibson, Taiwo Kujichagulia-Seitu, and Kaelyn Sabal-Wilson discuss what reparations would mean to them.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Larry Doby, Sam Jethroe, Minnie Minoso and others faced similar challenges integrating Major League Baseball.

On Tuesday, an announcement was made that some of Michigan’s oldest African American neighborhoods will be documented.

Several recent Black shows have leaned into glitzy melodrama and decadent escapism. They also feel completely out of step with their core audience.

Thousands of drilling operations are within 100 meters of redlined communities, according to a new study.

The National Urban League released its annual report on the State of Black America on Tuesday, and its findings are grim. This year’s Equality Index shows Black people still get only 73.9 percent of the American pie white people enjoy. While Black people have made economic and health gains, they’ve slipped farther behind whites in education, social justice and civic engagement since this index was launched in 2005.

Speaking at the White House on Friday, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson delivered remarks about the historic nature of being the first African American woman to be confirmed to the Supreme Court. Speaking about the sacrifice of African Americans who made the moment possible, Jackson quoted Maya Angelou's poem "Still I Rise," saying, "I am the dream and the hope of the slave."

A case before the Supreme Court this fall could determine whether Republicans are forced to draw more Black districts, but voting rights advocates fear it also could backfire and weaken their protections.

COVID313 explores Black pioneers of mental health services for Black History Month. Plus, an Omicron variant update and a yoga practice.

California took a big step this week toward becoming the first U.S. state to make some form of restitution a reality by tackling the divisive issue of which Black residents should be eligible to receive reparations for the atrocity and injustices of slavery and racism.

On March 30, 1997, the first Color of Money column appeared in the business section of The Washington Post. It was the start of a 25-year journey of helping people figure out the world of personal finance.

President Biden has signed a law making lynching a federal hate crime, enacting a policy generations of lawmakers unsuccessfully pursued.

Less than a year after the board that manages James Madison’s Montpelier estate in Virginia announced plans to share authority equally with descendants of people once enslaved there, the board has voted to strip power-sharing status from a group representing African Americans who trace their roots to the historic estate. The Montpelier Descendants Committee chose three descendants of enslaved people serving on the board and the foundation picked another two, but Friday’s vote means the committee can’t name future members, giving the foundation greater control over the board’s makeup, The Washington Post reported. “It is a complete reversal of their public commitment that was made on June 16, 2021,” said James French, head of the committee and a member of the Montpelier Foundation’s board.

But as the first Black woman nominated to the high court, Jackson also bears certain burdens that have become evident during her confirmation hearings. References to Martin Luther King Jr. punctuated the preliminary comments from some GOP senators. On Tuesday, Jackson was asked by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) On March 22, Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson answered questions from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on interpreting the Equal Protection Clause. Jackson cited Jones and the project as part of a speech about the role of Black women in American history.

Scientists are getting their first peek at the genes of nearly 100,000 Americans in what's considered a uniquely diverse genomic database.

Stephen Henderson talks with author Rae Chesny about her book 'Dear Zora' and the late author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston's legacy.

President Joe Biden is signaling an election year shift to the center to help protect fragile Democratic majorities in Congress, even as key voices across his party’s sprawling political coalition threaten revolt.

Throughout February Washtenaw Community College is celebrating Black History Month with several free events open to the public.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is drawing criticism for comments he made shortly before the GOP blocked a federal elections bill, when he said that “African American” voters cast ballots at similar rates to “Americans.”.

A trilogy by award-winning children’s author Kwame Alexander that tells the saga of an African family begins this fall with “The Door of No Return.”.

Current and former Black state lawmakers in Detroit have announced a pending lawsuit to block Michigan’s newly drawn congressional and legislative districts, contending they illegally dilute the voting strength of African Americans.

When Americans are asked by pollsters about their religious identity, the fastest-growing major group consists of those who don't affiliate with any organized religion.

A quilt exhibit at Jackson State University honors dozens of lives lost in the U.S. to racial violence.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says the state's redistricting commission should not have held a private meeting to discuss memos related to racially polarized voting and the federal Voting Rights Act’s requirement that people be able to elect minority candidates.

September wasn’t exactly the robust month for hiring that many had expected and hoped for.

The brick foundation of one the oldest Black churches in the United States has been unearthed by archeologists at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.

A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction and death sentence of a man on federal death row for the racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation.

Four law enforcement officers have detailed the racism and bigotry on display during the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

Stalled COVID-19 vaccination rates are causing concern in Michigan and across the U.S., particularly as the more contagious delta variant spreads throughout the nation.

Civil rights pioneer Gloria Richardson has died.

A Metro Detroit couple is suing the Michigan State Police after they said they were racially profiled during a traffic stop two years ago.

Here's what is happening for Juneteenth around Ann Arbor.

Juneteenth marks freedom, a second and final liberation for African Americans in the United States. It’s also an opportunity to focus on parts of the nation’s history that often go untold.

A first-in-the-nation task force in California to study and recommend reparations for African Americans met for the first time Tuesday.

LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and a slew of networks are among those releasing documentaries based on the tragic backstory of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

President Joe Biden says the conviction of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd “can be a giant step forward” for the nation in the fight against systemic racism.

President Joe Biden says the conviction of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd “can be a giant step forward” for the nation in the fight against systemic racism.

A House panel has advanced a decades-long effort to pay reparations to the descendants of slaves, approving legislation Wednesday night that would create a commission to study the issue.

President Joe Biden’s difficult balancing act on policing was put on vivid display over the course of a few hours as he tries to navigate criminal justice and civil rights.

President Joe Biden’s difficult balancing act on policing was put on vivid display over the course of a few hours Tuesday as he tries to navigate criminal justice and civil rights.

Students at Clemson University who found an unkempt graveyard on campus last year sparked the discovery of more than 600 unmarked graves most likely belonging to enslaved Black people, sharecroppers and convicted laborers.

The FDA advisory committee that recommended the Pfizer vaccine largely agreed it was safe and effective. One of those No votes came from Dr. A. Oveta Fuller, a virologist and viral pathogen researcher at the University of Michigan. Ad“I was aware that there were not that many people of color, not very many African Americans and I remember thinking surely this is so fascinating. And so, with some help of others we founded a chapter of the National Technical Association, which is a stem across the organization of African Americans. This brings us back to her yes vote for the emergency use authorization for the Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vaccines and the no vote to Pfizer.

In a Feb. 25-March 1, 2021 poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, about 1 in 5 Americans say they lost a relative or close friend to the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)WASHINGTON – About 1 in 5 Americans say they lost a relative or close friend to the coronavirus, highlighting the division between heartache and hope as the country itches to get back to normal a year into the pandemic. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research illustrates how the stage is set for a two-tiered recovery. The AP-NORC poll found about 30% of African Americans, like Parks, and Hispanics know a relative or close friend who died from the virus, compared with 15% of white people. AdThe poll found two-thirds of Americans say their fellow citizens nationwide haven’t taken the pandemic seriously enough.

Japan has confirmed 345 cases of the more contagious new variants, mostly the kind first found in Britain, the health ministry said. ___WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand has removed remaining coronavirus restrictions on the city of Auckland after containing a small outbreak. Ad___WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is planning to announce during his prime-time address Thursday night that he’ll deploy 4,000 additional U.S. troops to support coronavirus vaccination efforts. Thursday’s announcement from the Department of Corrections comes a year after suspending visits at prisons because of the coronavirus pandemic. John Bel Edwards has loosened his COVID-19 restrictions.

Lung cancer is the nations top cancer killer, causing more than 135,000 deaths each year. Lung cancer is the nation’s top cancer killer, causing more than 135,000 deaths each year. Usually, lung cancer is diagnosed too late for a good chance at survival. But "unfortunately, lowering the age and pack-year requirements alone does not guarantee increased equity in lung cancer screening,” wrote Dr. Yolonda Colson and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital. AdOne recent study found just 14% of people eligible for lung cancer screening under the prior guidelines had actually gotten it.

The year 2020 became a year of social justice movements. Was the call for change growing louder or were more people finally listening? The question that remain unanswered: Will the renewed quest for racial equality evolve into real lasting reforms? Watch the full report in the video above.

DETROIT – The Midnight Golf Program has done wonders for African Americans in a sport that’s dominated by White males; however, that’s something the program is hoping to change. “Midnight Golf started 20 years ago with only 17 students, and as of today, we’ve had 3,500 students,” said founder Renee Fluker. For 20 years, the Midnight Golf Program has been taking kids off the streets and placing golf clubs in their hands -- giving them a different alternative in life. Fluker said the program started when her son had a rough time being the only person of color on his high school golf team. AdThat’s when she started the program in 2001, not only to help young African Americans get involved in golf, but also to help them through college with 16 mentors to help.

For Black Americans, that drop is nearly three times worse. Read: US life expectancy drops a year in pandemic, most since WWIIAnthony says that the proof is in the numbers. Researchers at the CDC say the life expectancy for Black American populations declined by 2.7 years since 2019. The report essentially says Black Americans are expected to live until 72 years old, on average, the lowest life expectancy for the demographic since 2001. AdLatino populations in the U.S. reportedly have the second largest decline in life expectancy, falling 1.9 years since 2019.

President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with labor leaders in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021, in Washington. Biden backs the idea of studying the issue, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday, though she stopped short of saying he would sign the bill if it clears Congress. Even with Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House, passing a reparations bill could prove difficult. Most Black Americans favored reparations, 74%, compared with 15% of white Americans. AdRep. Burgess Owens, a first-term Republican from Utah, argued against a reparations commission.

Dr. Rita McGuire, an obstetrician and infection control specialist at Roseland Community Hospital talks Friday, Jan. 29, 2021, with staff members about taking the COVID-19 vaccine. "It’s not something that I trust right now,’’ says Bland, 50, who worries about how quickly the COVID-19 vaccines were developed. Many holdouts come from the mostly Black, working class neighborhoods surrounding the hospital, areas hard hit by the virus yet plagued with vaccine reluctance. She acknowledged "centuries of medical injustice’’ against Black Americans but said COVID-19 vaccines resulted from years of solid research. Many workers ‘’have not forgotten about those studies where they used us as experiments,’’ McGuire said, including the infamous Tuskegee research on Black patients with syphilis.

Before the virus erupted in the United States in March, weekly applications for jobless aid had never topped 700,000, even during the Great Recession. The job market had shown tentative improvement last summer but then slowed through the fall and in the past two months has essentially stalled. Nearly 10 million jobs remain lost to the pandemic. Unlike the previous expiration of extended unemployment aid, which occurred on Dec. 26, the cut-off would be phased in between March 14 and April 11. “Additional fiscal stimulus and broader vaccine diffusion will eventually allow the labor market to heal,” Oxford Economics said in a note Thursday.

“For a few years this was the Black hospital in the city of Detroit,” Jordan said. Jordan said Sweet worked at Dunbar Hospital. READ: More Black History Month coverageIn 1925, Sweet bought a home in a white neighborhood, and a mob tried to force the family out. And one of the most recognizable faces of the civil rights movement is Rosa Parks. But many do not know that Parks continued her fight for civil rights in Detroit.

DETROIT – February is Black History Month -- a time dedicated to celebrating the achievements of African Americans in U.S. history. “Some people say to me, ‘Well, why Black History Month?’ Well, we just want equity and equality and appreciation,” Detroit historian Ken Coleman said. ”Black folk have played a significant role in what we call today, the United States of America.”READ: More Black History Month coverageDaniel Hirschman is a sociology professor at Brown University. “There’s no White history month because most white history is taught, or a version of white history -- so you see white people in statues, and books and textbooks,” Hirschman said. “White history month in America is everyday,” Coleman said.

WDIV-Local 4, the Graham Media Group owned NBC affiliate in Detroit, announced today their continuing commitment to honoring African American achievement through an initiative called Celebrating Black History Month. Anchor/reporter Priya Mann takes us on the Black Scroll Network History Tour and shows us how the tour of important places and people in Black History continues even through the pandemic. AdDevin Scillian, Steve Garagiola, Larry Spruill, and Nick Monacelli also will contribute to Celebrating Black History Month. Co-hosts Jason Carr and Tati Amare will join “Live in the D” reporters Kila Peeples and Michelle Oliver in celebrating Black History Month all throughout February. For more information about Local 4 and ClickOnDetroit’s Celebrating Black History Month programming and content, go to clickondetroit.com/blackhistorymonth.