Observance inspires celebration, but does cultural saturation mean success ( Read more... )

Stealing the Blues: Does Intellectual Property Appropriation Belong in the Debate Over African-American Reparations? Black artists and performers created virtually every original American musical genre, but found their work appropriated wholesale in the early American music industry. The combination of copyright and contract law grafted upon a ( Read more... )

PUTTIN' ON THE RITZFrom the film "Puttin' On The Ritz" (1930) (Irving Berlin ( Read more... )

From "'scuse Me While I Lindyhop"The lindy hop is generally said to have been ‘invented’ in the Savoy ballroom in Harlem in the late twenties. It’s premier dancer, "Shorty" Snowden, threw off his partner in a competition before a large press contingency and performed a brief "breakaway" of fancy footwork that wowed the audience. Referring to the ( Read more... )

18th-Century Slave Gets New Life, New RecognitionSeptember 16, 2003 · A small museum in Waterbury, Conn., is struggling with a big question: what to do with a set of human remains in its collection. In the next installment of All Things Considered's "Hidden Treasures" series, Harriet Baskas reports on a real skeleton in the closet ( Read more... )

It feels like we are losing a lot of great writers, great thinkers, great leaders lately.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/national/30cruse.html?

Harold Cruse, Social Critic and Fervent Black Nationalist, Dies at 89
By CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPTPublished: ( Read more... )

Ota Benga commits suicide! March 20 ( Read more... )

Products touted under guise of paying homage to African AmericansWASHINGTON - The green and yellow flier from the Kmart in Aspen Hill proclaimed, "Celebrate Black History" and then advertised "3 for $1 Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix" and "3 for $10 Tone 6-Bar Soap ( Read more... )

White vs. black perspectives on history are at odds in movies and in sculpture. While I don't feel that this is a 'racist' portrayal of the 54th regiment--it does present the African American experience through a white perspective. The black soldiers aren't stereotyped--I guess we should be grateful--but when will black soldiers be glorified for ( Read more... )