juneteenth Read, Listen and Learn: How to Observe Juneteenth Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when the Emancipation Proclamation was brought to enslaved people in Texas — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued it. After Juneteenth became a federal holiday, more corporations got involved in promoting and celebrating it — though not all efforts have been well-received. Dartmouth history professor Matthew Delmont joins LX News to...
slavery Hundreds of Wrecked Slave Ships Have Never Been Found. These Divers Want to Find Them Historians estimate about 1,000 slave ships wrecked in the Atlantic Ocean during the slave trade, but fewer than 10 of the wrecks have been found and documented. “There is just a whole part of our history…that is missing. I think that those stories deserve to be told,” says Tara Roberts. She and the group Diving With a Purpose go looking...
black legacy Black Innovator Mark Dean Is a Huge Part of Computer History Mark Dean went from top of his class at the University of Tennessee in 1979 to co-creating IBM’s first personal computer in 1981. Dean holds three of the nine patents for the historic device, and is in the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
TikTok Black History Teacher ‘Mr. Crim' Became ‘Fearless' After a Viral Racist Attack In 2016, a woman approached Ernest Crim III and his wife at an outdoor event in Chicago, yelled racial slurs and spat on them. Crim posted a video of the incident that went viral and was picked up by several news outlets. Today, you might recognize him for his TikToks about Black history (he posts as @mrcrim3). Crim tells LX...
black legacy Lauren Simmons Was the 2nd Black Woman to Ever Trade on the NYSE Floor Lauren Simmons was the youngest woman ever, and only the second Black woman, to trade stocks on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange. Now she hosts the Going Public podcast, which tells the stories of companies seeking an initial public offering. Simmons says after her story inspired people who have been left out of Wall Street, she decided...
black legacy This Black Entrepreneur's Scholarship App Blew Up After ‘Shark Tank' Christopher Gray got Shark Tank funding from Lori Greiner and Daymond John for his app Scholly, which connects students to available scholarships to help pay for college. Gray hopes to be a role model for more Black entrepreneurs, especially in the tech field. “You don’t have to just buy the product. You can create the product,” he said.
black legacy An NBCLX Producer Spent Months Researching Her Genealogy. Here's What She Learned NBCLX’s Brittney Williams didn’t know much about her family’s history, so she decided to do the research herself. She reveals what she learned through conversations with her grandma and experts at the DNA Discussion Project, as well as her DNA results.
HBCUs BLM Has Made HBCUs More Popular Than Ever. But Will the Support Last? Students and faculty of HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) have long praised the value of institutions where Black students can feel at home with others who share their history and experiences. But after years of struggle for the same money and resources as predominantly white institutions, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement has ushered in a wave...
black inventors The Super Soaker Was Invented by a Black NASA Engineer The Super Soaker is a classic childhood favorite. But did you know it was created by a Black inventor with a Master’s Degree in nuclear engineering who worked on NASA’s Galileo mission to Jupiter? Meet Lonnie G. Johnson.
