Category: Biography

  • Bliss Broyard’s father kept his black roots a secret his whole life. Her journey of self-discovery led her to the understanding that believing the results of a DNA cheek swab to be more meaningful than one’s experiences is a ridiculous notion

  • Before Rachel Dolezal, there was Walter White The Christian Science Monitor 2015-06-15 Randy Dotinga The man known as ‘Mr. NAACP’ was blonde, blue-eyed and 5/32nd black, all of which provoked an outcry similar to that over contemporary NAACP official Rachel Dolezal. Walter White, known as “Mr. NAACP,” didn’t look black. He had blue eyes and…

  • The Gains and Losses of Passing for White – Ernest Torregano Creolegen 2015-05-31 Jari Honora, Founder and Consultant In 1912, Ernest Joseph Torregano, a thirty-year old New Orleans native, was a porter on the Southern Pacific Railroad. For about three years, Torregano had worked the run from New Orleans to San Francisco. After each successful…

  • 10 Afro-Puerto Ricans Everyone Should Know La Respuesta: A magazine to (Re)Imagine Boricua Diaspora 2015-06-03 La Respuesta magazine is dedicated to both resurrecting lost history and highlighting marginalized communities within our “gran familia puertorriqueña”. Afrodescendientes boricuas is one such community, who are, at best – forgotten or ignored – and at worst – exoticized, feared,…

  • Mystery, and Discovery, on the Trail of a Creole Music Pioneer The New York Times 2015-05-28 Campbell Robertson, Southern correspondent PINEVILLE, La. — Somewhere among the thousands beneath a grassy hill here lies the body of Amédé Ardoin. He was singular in life: one of the greatest accordion players ever to come out of south…

  • Tony Williams’ “Wilderness” and Mixed-Race Identity through Jazz Soundscapes and Such: Critical Thoughts on Sonic Subjects 2015-05-27 Shawn M. Higgins University of Connecticut Tony Williams (source: Wikipedia) Why do song writers choose the song titles they do? Perhaps Herbie Hancock’s 1980 track “4 A.M.” was recorded at that exact time – or maybe finished then?…

  • Who is Ismael Ozanne, Wisconsin’s prosecutor in Tony Robinson’s death? Cable News Network (CNN) 2015-05-12 Michael Martinez, Newsdesk Editor & Writer (CNN) Ismael Ozanne wiped a handkerchief across his forehead, nervously tapped a stack of papers on the podium and slowly cleared his throat. It wasn’t the first time he’d made history; that happened in…

  • Movie about Va.’s now-defunct ban on interracial marriage to be shot in state The Washington Post 2014-05-14 Laura Vozzella, Richmond Bureau Reporter RICHMOND — Virginia has landed a movie project about Richard and Mildred Loving, the real-life Virginia couple arrested in 1958 for violating the state’s interracial marriage ban. The Lovings filed a lawsuit that…

  • The Nine Lives Of Dianne White St. Louis Magazine August 2005 Nancy Larson Photograph by Katherine Bish “‘Old what’s-her-face–is she still alive?’ About half of you folks thought I was pushing daisies. Well, surprise, surprise–I’m still here.” That’s the way Dianne White Clatto imagines that fans from her Channel 5 days think about her–if they…

  • Dianne White Clatto, Weathercaster Who Broke a Color Barrier, Dies at 76 The New York Times 2015-05-07 Sam Roberts, Urban Affairs Correspondent (@samrob12) Dianne White Clatto, in 1967, giving the weather report on KSD-TV. Credit St. Louis Post-Dispatch Twelve years before Al Roker started as a weather anchor for a CBS affiliate in Syracuse, Dianne…