History

Struggling State Loses Only Burn Center to Covid and Boredom

The state of Mississippi is losing its only burn center at Merit Health Central in South Jackson. The JMS Burn and Reconstruction Center,...

Rediscovering the Value of Telling Slave Stories Through Barry Jenkins’ ‘The Underground Railroad’

Before watching “The Underground Railroad,” now streaming on Amazon Prime, I first saw the show’s companion piece, “An Act of Seeing:...

Black Women Superintendents Teaching Civil Rights History at National Parks

Judy Forte remembers a 1966 judge’s desegregation order forcing her and her brothers to transfer to the all-white elementary school near...

The Story Behind Haiti’s Political Turmoil Is More Complicated Than You Think

illustration by Jamilla Okubo Most white people in the U.S. lazily tuck African-Americans away into one category: the Black one. There’s...

Courtroom Kiki and the Dream of Self-Determination

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash In the first and second seasons of A Black Lady Sketch Show on HBO, there is a recurring sketch titled,...

COVID-19 and Spanish Flu Pandemics Both Aggravated by Machismo and Lies

Back in 1918, a previously unknown influenza crept over the world, infecting almost one-third of the planet’s human population. The world...

Some Black People Leery of Vaccines, as COVID Cases Spike

Chris Montgomery, via Wikimedia Commons Mississippi retiree Brenda Cheeks knows all about the COVID-19 pandemic burning through her...

Immigrant Women, Forced Sterilization | Same Song?

A nurse at a private immigration detention center in Georgia blew the whistle on something that sounds right out of a nightmare....

Uprooting to Grow

As the seasons changed from autumn to winter, I found myself reflecting on the transitions I’ve gone through this year. Throughout last...