Black History Fact of the Week

Black History Fact of the Week: Shields Green and John Copeland
OW Staff Writer
Dec 23 2010

"Death Trap"

It was 1857 when John Brown, a White abolitionist, devised a plan to wage war against slavery with an army of enslaved African Americans and abolitionist supporters. His goal was to seize the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. But his plan of insurrection was put on hold after a disciple of Brown's turned on him and revealed the conspiracy to authorities.

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Black History Fact of the Week: Ella Baker
Dec 9 2010

Civil Rights activist

Ella Baker, born Dec. 13, 1903, in Norfolk, Va., was a prominent, behind-the-scenes figure in the Civil Rights Movement. Known most for her work alongside more famous leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, and Martin Luther King Jr., Baker inspired, mentored, and groomed some of the most up-front civil rights leaders and liberationists of the 20th century.

Her journey to leadership began as a child, when she listened to the stories her formerly-enslaved grandmother told her about slave revolts and the need to fight for justice.

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Black History Fact of the Week: Integrated neighborhoods
OW Staff
Nov 11 2010

Hansberry v. Lee

It has only been about 70 years now, that Black people in America have been able to live in any neighborhood we so please.

And that came about because on Nov. 13, 1940, the United Supreme Court, in the case of Hansberry v. Lee, ruled that it was unlawful for Whites to bar African Americans from living in White neighborhoods.

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Black History Fact of the Week: Carol Moseley Braun
OW Staff
Nov 4 2010

First African American woman elected to the Senate

On Nov. 3, 1992, Carol Moseley Braun made U.S. history, when she became the country’s first African American woman elected to the Senate, beating out a 10-year incumbent. She also became the first woman Illinois ever elected to the seat.

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Black History Fact of the Week: Aesop the storyteller
OW Staff
Oct 28 2010

Aesop, who is incorrectly depicted as a White Greek man, was born some time in 620 B.C.E.

An enslaved African in Greece, he was and is known for his fables such as “The Tortoise and the Hare,” “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” and “The Ant and the Grasshopper.” There are at least 656 short stories and fables Aesop told that have been recorded and are still being told to this very day. Many of his wise creations are called nursery rhymes. 

The storyteller is described as having had an oversized head, short in stature, and he wore a scraggly beard and did not appear to groom often.

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Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.

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This Week in LA

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