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Posted by: Malea Walker
Althea Gibson dominated women's tennis in the 1950s, winning titles at all of the major tournaments. But as the first African American woman to win those events, and in some cases, the first to be allowed to play in them, the road was rough.
Posted in: African American History, Biography, Digitized Newspapers, Sports, Women's History
Posted by: Malea Walker
The following is a guest post by Arlene Balkansky. Arlene recently retired from being a librarian in the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room, and was a regular writer for Headlines and Heroes. One hundred years ago, Greenwood, a prosperous Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, described as Black Wall Street, was destroyed by white mobs in …
Posted in: African American History, Digitized Newspapers, Journalism, Newspapers
Posted by: Malea Walker
The following is a guest post by Arlene Balkansky. Arlene recently retired from being a librarian in the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room, and was a regular writer for Headlines and Heroes. On May 29, 1851 at the Woman’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth delivered what would …
Posted in: African American History, Digitized Newspapers, Journalism, Newspapers, Women's History
Posted by: Megan Halsband
In 1966, Bertram A. Fitzgerald began publishing an educational comic series on Black history in the hopes of inspiring students in much the same way he had been inspired by comics series like Classics Illustrated and Black writers such as Alexandre Dumas, author of the Three Musketeers, and Alexander Pushkin, a Russian poet, playwright, and …
Posted in: African American History, Comic Books, Let's Talk Comics
Posted by: Heather Thomas
The amount of people who owe their lives to Dr. Charles R. Drew is beyond measure. The African American physician and surgeon pioneered the preservation of blood and plasma at the start of World War II and remained a leading authority on the subject for the rest of his career. He is responsible for America's first major blood banks and introduced the use of mobile blood donation and transport stations—later known as “bloodmobiles.”
Posted in: African American History, Biography, Digitized Newspapers, Newspapers
Posted by: Amber Paranick
Presenting feel-good news stories to round out our posts for the year and say farewell to 2020 on a positive note! Hopefully, these uplifting, heartfelt, funny, and touching stories from yesterday’s news in Chronicling America* serve as a diversion from the darker news of this year… In 1947, after scouring newspaper stories around the country, …
Posted in: African American History, Digitized Newspapers, Holidays, Newspaper Comic Strips, Newspapers, Sports, Women's History
Posted by: Heather Thomas
One hundred years ago, the world was a very different place. But many things from 1920 changed the course of history and, in a lot of ways, helped to shape the world we live in today.
Posted in: African American History, Baseball, Crime, Digitized Newspapers, Newspapers, Sports, Women's History
Posted by: Malea Walker
This guest post by 2020 Junior Fellow Sophia Southard provides a history of African American newspapers with examples from our rich collections. Read more about how these black-owned businesses have provided voices for their communities from 1827 until today.
Posted in: African American History, Newspapers
Posted by: Heather Thomas
There are some cases that capture the public's imagination and cause a media frenzy. There's the political trials, which cover treason, spying, dissidents, and radicals. Celebrity trials that involve high-profile people, whether victims or defendants. And the "whodunit" trials that are surrounded in mystery. Whatever the case, 19th century America has its share of legendary trials that captivate the public interest and newspapers deliver all the sensational details.
Posted in: African American History, Crime, Digitized Newspapers, Newspapers, U.S. Presidents