Trailblazing Activist ~ Mary Church Terrell

"Even if I believed that women should be denied the right of suffrage, wild horses could not drag such an admission from my pen or my lips...

Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954)

“What could be more absurd and ridiculous than that one group of individuals who are trying to throw off the yoke of oppression themselves, so as to get relief from conditions which handicap and injure them should favor laws and customs which impede the progress of another unfortunate group and hinder them in every conceivable way. For the sake of consistency, therefore, if my sense of justice were not developed at all, and I could not reason intelligently, as a colored woman, I should not tell my dearest friend that I opposed woman suffrage.”

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Legendary TV Characters ~ Fred Sanford & Aunt Esther

“Esther, I could stick your face in some dough, and make gorilla cookies .” Fred G. Sanford ( Redd Foxx ) talking to sister-in-law and frequent foil “Aunt” Esther ( Lawanda Page ) on Sanford & Son , the venerable sitcom that, since its debut on the NBC television network in January 1972, has never been off the air .

Everyday Black History ~ Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was born in Chicago on May 19, 1930 to politically-active parents Carl, a real estate broker, and Nannie, a schoolteacher. When she was in third grade, Lorraine and her family were forced to move from the all white neighborhood they had moved into on Chicago's South Side after taunting, harassment and a lower court ruling that upheld restrictive housing covenants in Chicago which barred blacks from moving into white areas. Carl Hansberry challenged the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled in his favor and struck down restrictive housing covenants. ( Hansberry v. Lee, 1940 ) In addition to her interest in theater, Hansberry also dabbled in art and studied painting at several schools, including the Art Institute of Chicago . Later, while a student at New York's New School for Social Research , Hansberry met Paul Robeson and began working first as a reporter and later as an associate editor for Freedom , Robeso...

Everyday Black History ~ Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday c. 1933 From An Accident Comes a Legend Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in Baltimore on April 7, 1915, the illegitimate child of Sadie Fagan, a domestic and Clarence Holiday, a musician who abandoned Sadie and the young Eleanora for the grind and glory of the road. It is said that he referred to his adoring daughter as an “accident” and “something I stole when I was fifteen.” Young Eleanora stayed with relatives in Baltimore while her mother labored as a domestic in New York City. The girl spent a good portion of her time at a neighborhood brothel where she would spend hours listening to the music of Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong on its Victrola . After almost being raped at the tender age of 10, Eleanora was sent away to an institution ran by Catholic nuns as punishment for allegedly enticing the man who almost stole what little innocence she had. 'Lady Day' c. late 1930s An Extraordinary Career Begins When she was 18 in ...

Sepia Starshine

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