“We Shall Overcome” bridges the civil rights movements in the United States and Northern Ireland, says Glen Whitcroft, but does this overlook the diversity in Northern Ireland protest history? Continue reading
Artists such as KRS-One, Public Enemy and Chuck D. position themselves as heirs to the legacy of the Panthers and Malcolm X by creatively updating the “media-conscious iconography of sixties black radicalism for a 1990s constituency”, says Hannah Jeffery. Continue reading
The battle in Puerto Rico was over. By no means had it been bloodless. Eighteen Nacionalistas had been killed and eleven wounded. Seven policemen and a Guardsman were killed while twenty-one police officers and eleven soldiers were wounded. A fireman and two civilians also died during the gunfights. After his arrest, a still defiant Albizu Campos declared that the “nation was undergoing a glorious transfiguration.” By contrast, Muñoz Marín instead talked of the “tragic and useless death of 31 Puerto Ricans.” Continue reading
That the Nacionalistas were planning a coup or insurrection was hardly a secret. Emboldened by the apparent inaction of the insular government, Albizu Campos continued his call to arms against the U.S. and its representatives in the island – Muñoz Marín, the Populares, and anyone who served, worked, or were in any way related to the metropolis. Continue reading
In the first of three posts examining the Puerto Rican Uprising of 1950, Dr Harry Franqui-Rivera discusses the political developments that led to the nationalist revolt. In his inaugural address of 20 January 1949, President Harry S. Truman announced that, as leader of the free world, the U.S. was bent on… Continue reading
Josephine Baker’s successful Parisian career is often cited as proof that France was a “colour-blind” nation in the 1920s, says Bethan Hughes, but this overlooks how Baker’s blackness was intrinsic to her success due to French perceptions of black sexuality. Continue reading
Following the success of the American colonies in gaining their independence from Britain, an endeavour in which he had played no small part, Thomas Jefferson hoped that people of other nations would follow his countrymen down the road to political revolution. But the black republic of Haiti and its citizens became a national nightmare at this foundational moment of American history, and in many ways have retained that identity for over two hundred years. Continue reading
Glen Whitcroft re-evaluates the financial and musical legacy of some of America’s most beloved and commercially successful African American entertainers, such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Nina Simone. Continue reading