Mystery confines Estebanico, black explorer of US Southwest A drawing of Estebanico (The Brownsville Herald) A black Moroccan slave who explored present-day Texas, New Mexico and Arizona with Spanish conquistadors is credited with being the first person of African descent to enter the American Southwest, but he's all but absent from the [...]
Lerone Bennett dies at 89; historian, journalist, writer chronicled black history Lerone Bennett Jr. Lerone Bennett Jr., who wrote influential books on African-American history and resilience and chronicled key events in the civil rights movement as a journalist and top editor at Ebony magazine, has died at 89 in Chicago. He had [...]
John Payton PV football great, John Payton passes Was also first black coach at Beaumont’s Lamar U. Running back, all-time leading rusher and two-time black college All-American John Payton passed away on Saturday Jan. 27 at age 83. A Livingston, Texas native, Payton was a key component on the Panthers 1953 National [...]
True sons of freedom The experience of African-American soldiers in World War I shaped the struggle for racial justice The 15th Regiment of the New York National Guard became the 369th Infantry Regiment attached to the French Army – and returned home as one of the most decorated U.S. units of World War [...]
Wreck found by reporter may be last American slave ship, archaeologists say Site of partially buried remains of the Clotilda alongside an island in the lower Mobile-Tensaw Delta near Mobile, Ala. Credit: Al.com. (AL.com) Relying on historical records and accounts from old timers, AL.com may have located the long-lost wreck of the [...]
This new exhibit shows how Latino and African-American solidarity built a better Austin Members of the Austin Welfare Rights Organization (AWRO) led protests at the Texas State Capitol against proposed cuts to welfare checks. (Published in The Rag Vol. 4 No. 17, March 3, 1970). (Remezcla) Long before East Austin became synonymous [...]
Real black Houston history - Robert Merritt Catchings: The proud legacy of a Houston historian Robert Merritt Catchings and family (Houston Forward Times) Robert Merritt Catchings was one of those individuals who made a mark for himself and his family in Houston. Born July 17, 1882, Robert and the Catchings family settled [...]
A monument to SC’s black Confederate soldiers? None fought for the South, experts say Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery (The State) Two South Carolina lawmakers want to erect a monument on the State House grounds to African-Americans who served the state as Confederate soldiers. But records show the state never accepted [...]
East Austin plaque unveiled to remember lynching victims The Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative plans to install similar plaques in other communities that had lynchings between the Reconstruction period and 1950. (Austin American-Statesman) The details of the Travis County lynching in 1894, based on news accounts from the time, are discouragingly sparse. Even [...]
Prairie View pianist got his start in a small Texas town Danny Kelley (Houston Chronicle) Driving to Cameron a couple of weeks ago, the little town southeast of Waco that had the audacity - with native-son Drayton McLane's encouragement - to make a bid for Amazon's second headquarters, I was mulling over [...]
