Tag: overlooked

Overlooked No More: Before Kamala Harris, There Was Charlotta Bass

In today’s terms, many of Bass’s beliefs — civil rights, organized labor, redirecting military budgets to social needs, universal health care — might have been labeled Democratic socialism, said Anne Rapp, a historian who wrote her doctoral dissertation on Bass.But in that era, they were radical — and Bass became the subject of government surveillance

The Overlooked Black History of Memorial Day

Nowadays, Memorial Day honors veterans of all wars, but its roots are in America’s deadliest conflict, the Civil War. Approximately 620,000 soldiers died, about two-thirds from disease. The work of honoring the dead began right away all over the country, and several American towns claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. Researchers have traced…

These Overlooked Black Women Shaped Malcolm X’s Life

The anniversary of the Feb. 21, 1965, assassination of Malcolm X was surrounded by a renewed wave of interest in the black nationalist leader’s life and death — particularly with the release of the recent Netflix series Who Killed Malcolm X? and the subsequent news that the Manhattan District Attorney will review the investigation of…

Overlooked No More: Bessie Coleman, Pioneering African-American Aviatrix

In 1921 Coleman became the first black woman in the United States to earn a pilot’s license, then barnstormed around the country thrilling audiences and inspiring later generations.Bessie Coleman in 1923. She learned how to fly in France after no pilot in the United States would give her lessons.Credit...George Rinhart/Corbis, via Getty ImagesDec. 11, 2019Overlooked…

Overlooked No More: Lillian Harris Dean, Culinary Entrepreneur Known as ‘Pig Foot Mary’

From a baby carriage on a Manhattan street corner, she sold Southern food to African-Americans who, like her, had moved to New York during the Great Migration. Left, the corner of 135th Street and what is now Malcolm X Boulevard in the 1920s, near where Lillian Harris sold her traditional Southern meals. Above, Benja Kay…