AltWeeklies Wire
Stolen Lives: Remembering the Tragedy of Slaverynew
A half moon disappeared as the sun rose out of the Atlantic Ocean on Sept. 1, 1832. The humid coastal winds filled the sails and carried the ship through the waves as J.W. Martin captained the Schooner Wild Cat, a 40-plus ton sailboat, out of the port of Charleston, S.C.
Among the tons of cargo, the ship carried six slaves, bound for new owners in New Orleans.
Jackson Free Press |
Jacob Fuller |
06-01-2012 |
Race & Class
When it Comes to Arkansas Black History, Annie Abrams Has Just About Seen It Allnew
In an illustrated history of signal African-American events in the past half century, one person would be always in the picture: Annie Mable McDaniel Abrams.
Arkansas Times |
Leslie Newell Peacock |
02-25-2010 |
Race & Class
Professor Pellom McDaniels Wants to Move Kansas City's Black History Beyond Entertainmentnew
Most black school kids, he says, view entertainment -- being a professional athlete or a performer -- as the only form of success available to them. McDaniels, who happens to be a former NFL player, sees history as the key to breaking the cycle of poverty and opening a wider future.
How Today's Pot Debate is Like the Fall of Prohibitionnew
Law-enforcement maverick Norm Stamper noted "striking" parallels between Prohibition of a bygone era and today's drug debate. "Major difference? It took us only 13 years to end the former" over "essentially identical" reasons: violence, overdose deaths on bad "bathtub gin," public health and revenue.
San Diego CityBeat |
John R. Lamb |
10-07-2009 |
Drugs
Nukes Mean Mines: Are We Digging a New Toxic Legacy Before the Last One's Filled In?new
The risks involved in uranium mining and processing should be a starting point for any debate about the promise and peril of nuclear power. The aftermath of our last uranium boom still echoes loudly in South Texas.
San Antonio Current |
Greg Harman |
09-17-2009 |
Environment
Looking Back on Walter Cronkite, the Last Man to Unite Us as Americansnew
Cronkite was the last newsman to make us feel that we were one country. We saw ourselves as united in a voyage of discovery, having to fend off evil and outside perils, and on a mission to make our lives and the world we lived in better. We were basically a good people who sometimes screwed up, but we were trying to make a living and make sense of this world together.
Metro Times |
Jack Lessenberry |
07-28-2009 |
Media
Ink-Stained Kvetches: Where Are All the Editorial Cartoonists Going?new
As newspapers cut back on staff, editorial cartoonists are losing their positions at newspapers across the nation. In Texas, only the San Antonio Express-News, the Houston Chronicle, and the Austin American-Statesman still employ staff cartoonists.
The Texas Observer |
Brad Tyer |
10-08-2008 |
Media
Arkansas Nuns Recall Admitting Black Students in 1952 for DVD Projectnew
Before any other school in the state, as far as they know, the nuns of St. Scholastica monastery invited a couple of girls who'd recently graduated from an all-black Catholic grammar school to enroll in their previously all-white girls high school. Now Fort Smith Historical Society members are interviewing the surviving nuns from that era and preserving the interviews on DVD.
Arkansas Times |
Jennifer Barnett Reed |
09-05-2008 |
Race & Class
Fifty Years Ago, Black Activists Stood Up to Discrimination by Sitting Downnew
When 13 youths requested equal service at Katz Drug Store on Aug. 19, 1958, they tipped off what some say were the first major sustained sit-ins in the American civil rights movement.
Oklahoma Gazette |
Emily Jerman |
08-06-2008 |
Race & Class
In Texas, A Storied Prison Farm Gives Way to Suburban Sprawlnew
Today it's almost impossible to tell where Houston ends and Sugar Land begins, and therein lies the story of how Sugar Land's historic prison, once considered the pride of the Texas penal system, came to find itself in the middle of one of the fastest-growing communities in the nation.
The Texas Observer |
Patsy Sims |
06-18-2008 |
Housing & Development
UNLV Prof Questions Science Behind Finding African Ancestorsnew
Rainier Spencer, the founder and director of UNLV's Afro-American Studies Program, thinks programs offering to link American blacks to their African lineage through DNA (for a fee) are a black-on-black rip-off, since they commercialize a promise they can't truly keep.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Damon Hodge |
05-02-2008 |
Race & Class
South Carolina's Racist History Should Not Be Sanitizednew
Tearing down statues of white supremacists isn't the answer. Assembling an accurate record, no matter how ugly, violent and bloody, and letting people reach their own conclusions -- that's how we'll learn rather than being spoon-fed a sanitized version of the past.
Charleston City Paper |
D.A. Smith |
04-23-2008 |
Race & Class
Choice, Before and Afternew
Vermont's first abortion providers give Roe v. Wade a check-up.
Seven Days |
Amy Lilly |
01-18-2008 |
Sex
It's In for Historical Revisionists to Out Dead Guys
In recent years, people have speculated, often on thin evidence, that Leonardo da Vinci, Thoreau, Hitler and Jesus are gay.
Boise Weekly |
Nicholas Collias |
08-07-2004 |
LGBT
