The architect of the legal strategy to end segregation that culminated in the Brown vs. Board ruling is virtually unknown because he died before this landmark victory was achieved. #BlackSky #bhm #charleshamiltonhouston lestercraven.substack.com/p/the-man-wh...

South Carolina’s population was majority Black in 1910, yet anti-Black voter oppression was so effective it kept Blacks out of government then and kept them out decade after decade after decade. #BlackSky #bhm #restorethevra lestercraven.substack.com/p/blacks-led...

Sophiatown was hardly the Black Wall Street of South Africa, yet because Black people were enjoying freedom there, it was a threat to the apartheid government and therefore it had to be destroyed. #BlackSky #bhm #sophiatown lestercraven.substack.com/p/sophiatown...

The forced removal of millions of Black people from their homeland in southern Africa began with the British occupation and continued for decades under the apartheid government of independent South Africa. #BlackSky #bhm #forcedremovals lestercraven.substack.com/p/south-afri...

In 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that segregated education was unconstitutional and 15 years later emphatically affirmed its decision, then just 5 years later it said remedying the problem isn’t allowed. #BlackSky #bhm #millikenvbradley lestercraven.substack.com/p/brown-v-bo...

Gloria Richardson was captured in an iconic photo that perfectly conveyed her courage and uncompromising commitment to obtaining equality for Black Americans. #bhm #gloriarichardson lestercraven.substack.com/p/gloria-ric...

When Jefferson wrote that all men should be free, everyone knew that not everyone could be free. What was at stake was who would get to decide. #BlackSky #bhm #declarationofindependence lestercraven.substack.com/p/the-right-...

Despite being denied frontline assignments under Jim Crow, Black soldiers proved their worth through their achievements in the work they were given. #BlackSky #bhm #buffalosoldier lestercraven.substack.com/p/black-sold...

Hollywood made sure that every one of us knows about Doris Miller even if we don't know his name. #BlackSky #bhm #dorismiller lestercraven.substack.com/p/americas-f...

In its first 134 years of existence, fewer than 0.04% of West Point graduates were Black, but that was too many for key supporters of the institution. #BlackSky #bhm #invisiblegenerals lestercraven.substack.com/p/black-cade...

A.G. Gaston was famous for making money but less famous for how he used that money to improve people’s lives. #BlackSky #bhm #aggaston lestercraven.substack.com/p/self-made-...

Black Americans have repeatedly overcome enormous obstacles to build vibrant economies, only to have them destroyed by the government. Yet, many people today ignorantly ask, “Why can’t Black people succeed in business?” #BlackSky #bhm #hayti lestercraven.substack.com/p/us-governm...

Ah, the n-word. It’s unspeakable, but the idea behind it sure isn’t. How one word used to describe Black people became the most unspeakable word in English and was replaced with something else. #BlackSky #bhm #ojsimpson lestercraven.substack.com/p/the-histor...

After looting the colonies, the plunderers gave the keys back to the locals but kept the money. #BlackSky #bhm #neocolonialism lestercraven.substack.com/p/independen...

Spain responded to its genocide of the Taíno people by importing tens of thousands of Africans to Puerto Rico. #BlackSky #bhm #puertorico lestercraven.substack.com/p/spains-sla...

City planners in Pasadena had a less expensive freeway construction option and still chose the more expensive one that also destroyed more Black-owned houses and businesses. #BlackSky #bhm #pasadena lestercraven.substack.com/p/i-210-drov...

Colonists used their capital as the fuel for developing economic engines in their colonies, then gave the colonies their independence and took away the fuel. #BlackSky #bhm #neocolonialism lestercraven.substack.com/p/colonialis...

The justification for the 911 emergency telephone system wasn’t public safety but control of people to “maintain order.” #BlackSky #bhm #911 lestercraven.substack.com/p/911-was-in...

In 1967, a group of dedicated, hardworking young Black men developed a new branch of mobile emergency services that has since saved countless lives in the US and around the world. #BlackSky #bhm #freedomhouse lestercraven.substack.com/p/black-trai...

A named tragedy cost Black Tulsans their lives in 1921; fifty years later, an unnamed tragedy cost them their land. #BlackSky #bhm #tulsamassacre lestercraven.substack.com/p/tulsas-mas...

George Washington Carver is famous for his peanut products but it’s his spirit of innovation that continues to inspire people to do great things. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/carvers-pe...

We all can learn from anyone’s history from anywhere because we’re all part of the same shared story. #BlackSky #bhm #america250 lestercraven.substack.com/p/how-will-y...

Given an opportunity that lasted just one week in 1968, Harry Belafonte broke ground in late-night television that still produces results today. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/how-harry-...

The story of the 1874 election day massacre in Eufaula, Alabama, has been intentionally hidden and remains untaught in Alabama schools today. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/forgotten-...

Known as the Harlem of the South, The Scrub was the home of Tampa's Black community until freeway construction obliterated it. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/freeway-co...

White leaders in Birmingham, Alabama thought it was better for their citizens to have no public facilities than to have to share them with Black people. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/birmingham...

Activists in 2020 revealed the long-hidden history of the murder of a small town’s first Black commissioner and constable. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/town-commi...

To keep a negative portrayal of Atlanta from spreading, city leaders ordered the removal of information about a massacre of Black Americans by a mob of White men. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/atlanta-ma...

The economic and political success of African Americans in North Carolina triggered a viciously violent backlash from Whites, the effects of which would last decades. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/the-only-s...

After Georgia state representative Denmark Groover created Georgia’s runoff election system that disadvantaged Black candidates, he admitted, “If you want to establish if I was racially prejudiced, I was.” #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/georgia-ru...

A friend shares the story of how her family learned after Grandpa died that he’d been in the KKK. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/we-all-inh...

Targeted marketing has had a greater impact on who consumes Coke and Pepsi than the taste of the colas themselves. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/racialized...

For decades, everyone noticed that photos of Black people were of lower quality than photos of White people, but it was because the film made them look that way. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/color-phot...

Black midwives, who for hundreds of years had successfully delivered both White and Black babies, were deemed unnecessary after the Civil War when White men decided that they wanted to deliver babies, at least the White ones. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/black-midw...

In the early 20th century, state governments saw lynch mobs as a direct threat to their authority, so they convinced the mob that the state could execute Blacks just as effectively. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/only-black...

Diahann Carroll was a history maker, a captivating performer, and a selfless advocate for people. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/diahann-ca...

Descendants of the last enslaved Africans brought to America are still living in a community in Mobile, Alabama. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/banning-sl...

Past government economic policies were justified in part by the expertise of Milton Friedman, but he provided no evidence to support his expertise regarding racial discrimination in the marketplace. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/influentia...

The colonists knew they had to suppress the truth of how Black slaves successfully fought for their liberty in Haiti to keep slaves in the US from believing that they could do the same. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/haitis-ind...

“If you teach that ni**er how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.” – Frederick Douglass quoting his slavemaster (1845) #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/educated-s...

"In playing with these toys, White children reenacted the roles of slave masters who forced African Americans to perform for Whites' enjoyment." - Kristina DuRocher, "Raising Racists: The Socialization of White Children in the Jim Crow South" #BlackSky substack.com/home/post/p-...

Houston police used peaceful protests of a hazardous waste site in a Black neighborhood as a pretext to raid an HBCU in 1967. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/police-sho...

When people say Blacks make up a disproportionate portion of the prison population, it's largely because the system convicts Blacks unfairly. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/louisiana-...

The South African government was increasingly using violence to put down Black citizens’ cries for freedom when Reagan became US president and, in a reversal of US policy, began supporting White supremacy in South Africa. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/archbishop...

For over fifty years, the FBI aggressively used surveillance and disinformation in response to the threat of Black Americans becoming equal to White Americans. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/fbi-spent-...

For over 150 years, the federal government has systematically prevented Black American farmers from owning farmland. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/federal-go...

“Lynching is a clear example of one’s inhumanity toward another. It’s a uniquely American act of terrorism that is motivated by hatred, and, before today, was never punished by our legal system,” Rep. Bobby Rush, March 29, 2022. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/congress-t...

A memorial honoring defenders of White supremacy still stands today in Colfax, Louisiana, but it took 150 years to honor the Black victims of their violence. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/white-mob-...

DC and USVI have been denied statehood for over a century because their populations were majority Black. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/black-vote...

The Constitution guarantees rights but apparently not the ability to access those rights. #BlackSky lestercraven.substack.com/p/poll-taxes...