Tag Archives: Slavery in the United States

27Jun/23

How many members of America’s political elite are direct descendants of people who were slaveholders?

June 26, 2023 /Politics/ — According to a 2023 report by Reuters, at least 100 members of the 117th United States Congress are direct descendants of people who were slaveholders. This includes 28 members of the Senate and 72 members of the House of Representatives.

The report found that the descendants of slaveholders are disproportionately represented in Congress, making up about 20% of the body despite comprising only about 1% of the overall population. This is likely due to the fact that many of the families who owned slaves were also wealthy and well-connected, which gave their descendants an advantage in terms of education and opportunity. Continue reading

19Jun/23

What to know about the holiday Juneteenth

June 19, 2023 /Social/ — Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the end of slavery in the country. The holiday falls on June 19, which is the date in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce that the enslaved people in the state were free, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.

Juneteenth has been celebrated by African Americans since the late 1800s, and it became a state holiday in Texas in 1980. In the decades since, every state but South Dakota has formally recognized Juneteenth as a state or ceremonial holiday. In 2021, President Joe Biden signed a bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday. Continue reading

05Feb/23

A Black history primer on African Americans’ fight for equality – 5 essential reads

Howard Manly, The Conversation

As the father of Black history, Carter G. Woodson had a simple goal – to legitimize the study of African American history and culture.

To that end, in 1912, shortly after becoming the second African American after W.E.B. Du Bois to earn a Ph.D. at Harvard, Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915.

Continue reading