At the turn of the 20th century, African Americans founded and developed the Greenwood district in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Built on what had formerly been Indian Territory, the community grew and flourished as a Black economic and cultural mecca—until May 31, 1921.
That's when a white mob began a rampage through some 35 square blocks, decimating the community known proudly as "Black Wall Street." Armed rioters, many deputized by local police, looted and burned down businesses, homes, schools, churches, a hospital, hotel, public library, newspaper offices and more. While the official death toll of the Tulsa race massacre was 36, historians estimate it may have been as high as 300. As many as 10,000 people were left homeless.
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Disney’s Oscar-winning 1933 cartoon, “The Three Little Pigs,” originally featured a scene in which the Big Bad Wolf disguises himself as a Jewish peddler to trick one of the pigs. It’s quite a disguise: Stills show him wearing a grotesquely phallic nose, a long black beard and an ankle-length caftan – and he speaks in a Yiddish accent. “Der Sturmer” might have complained it was over the top.
Ethnic stereotypes were of course common at the time: The Marx Brothers, for example, are each based on an ethnic type, from Groucho’s “Jewish” professor to Chico’s Italian trickster. You can barely watch a black-and-white film on TCM without seeing a cringe-inducing stereotype. That’s the defense being offered by the anti-“cancel culture” crowd: The Seuss books need to be understood and appreciated in their original context.
The story behind Bruce’s Beach tells a narrative of Black ownership in America. The original property owners of the resort, Charles and Willa Bruce, had their land seized by the City of Manhattan Beach. The local government managed the rights to the land for almost 100 years. However, on Thursday, September 30, the authority of Bruce’s Beach has been given back to the descendants of the original landowners.
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The historic Bruce's Beach case is inspiring social justice leaders and reparations activists to fight for other Black families whose ancestors were also victims of land theft in the United States.
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In a time when Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party was engulfing Europe in hatred and fear, everyday heroes emerged to stand up to the terror.
Many fought quietly, as a Swiss diplomat who took advantage of Nazi officers' respect for paperwork, or the Dutch teacher who saved 600 children by smuggling them out of Nazi-occupied Amsterdam in baskets. Others were more brazen in their defiance, including a teenage girl who, with her sister, shot Nazi officers from her bicycle.
Some of these heroes would survive the war, others weren't as fortunate. All demonstrated a humanity that history shows persists even in the darkest of times.
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A 19th-century statue of Thomas Jefferson that’s been in New York City Hall for more than century was removed from the City Council chambers Monday, weeks after officials voted unanimously to banish the statue because of the former president’s history as a enslaver.
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