Behind the new look of Houston's oldest park, a complex racial history (Texas Observer) Emancipation Park was the first public park in Houston, and it has a complicated history. Its story is one of racism and segregation, resistance and revitalization. Now that the park has been transformed by a $33.6 million renovation led by Phil [...]
African Americans Have Lost Untold Acres of Land Over the Last Century An obscure legal loophole is often to blame In the 45 years following the Civil War, freed slaves and their descendants accumulated roughly 15 million acres of land across the United States, most of it in the South. Land ownership meant stability and [...]
The East St. Louis Race Riot Left Dozens Dead, Devastating a Community on the Rise Three days of violence forced African-American families to run for their lives and the aftereffects are still felt in the Illinois city today Photo: Two National Guardsmen escort an African-American man in the tense summer weeks of 1917 in East [...]
How African Americans Use DNA Testing to Connect With Their Past Genetic tests have ushered in a new era of root-seeking and community-building, says social scientist Alondra Nelson Photo: Before genetic testing, the writer Alex Haley’s 1977 television miniseries "Roots" inspired many African Americans to start tracing their own ancestries. (The Atlantic) In 1977, Alondra [...]
