HONOLULU (January 2020) — The U.S. Navy is expected to honor a World War II hero when a new aircraft carrier is named for Mess Attendant 2nd Class Doris Miller. The announcement is expected to be made at Pearl Harbor Monday, January 20, 2020, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Friday. Miller was the first African American…
Former UTK macebearer and professor Dr. John H. Morrow, Jr. is the recipient of the 2019 Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing. By Patricia Williams CHICAGO, IL (Nov 2019) – In 1971, Dr. John H. Morrow, Jr. became the first African-American faculty member in the College of…
Theotis Robinson, Jr. acknowledged with 2019 Distinguished Alumnus Award and an honorary Doctorate from the School of Social work for over 60-years advocating for social justice. A Volunteer, trailblazer, and an advocate for equality, Theotis Robinson Jr. has diligently served the University of Tennessee since working to open its doors for African American undergraduates in…
“Before this website, it was impossible to search the web and find an accurate scope of the history of American lynching. The names have always been kept safe but distant, in old archives and scholarly books and dissertations. This site leaves the record open for all Americans, especially high school students who want to learn…
It’s homecoming week at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. For a listing of homecoming events sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Student Life and the Frieson Multi-cultural Center visit; https://multicultural.utk.edu/. Some events are not open to the public. The University unveiled the African-American Hall of Fame on October 1, 1994, as a part of the…
KNOXVILLE, TN (Oct. 2019) The Knoxville Area Urban League honored “The Clinton 12” with its lifetime achievement award at the Equal Opportunity Awards Gala that was on Thursday, Oct. 24 at the Knoxville Convention Center. The volunteer, minority business and corporate leadership award winners were also recognized. Jazz and gospel performer Chanté Moore was the…
The Clinton 12 Commemorative Walk, Monday, August 26, 2019 at 10 a.m. The remaining 8 living members of the Clinton 12 and other dignitaries will walk from Green McAdoo Cultural Center (the former Green McAdoo School) to Clinton Middle School (the former Clinton High School), to honor the actions of the 12 high school students…
Republished from December 2015 in the Knoxville News-Sentinel to honor Mrs. Olga Lash Barnes who died in June 2019. Go to the ETE Obituaries for more information. By Patricia Williams (KNOXVILLE, TN – Dec. 2015) – Mrs. Olga Josephine Lash Barnes recently celebrated her 100th birthday at the Holston Hills home of her daughter and…
Knoxville, TN — Brianna Mason, a 23-year-old Nashville native, has recently been crowned Miss Tennessee, making her the first-ever Black woman to win the title since the competition started over 80 years ago. And Mason had to try competing four times before actually winning it. “I can’t even put into words how special that is,…
Schumer: “Any Unnecessary Delays to Honor Harriet Tubman, Especially for Political Reasons, Are Improper and Unacceptable” NNPA NEWSWIRE — Washington, DC – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer sent a new letter to the U.S. Department of Treasury Inspector General formally requesting an investigation into the Trump Administration’s decision to delay the release of the redesign of the…
The UCLA ophthalmologist worked to combat blindness in underserved communities. By SHAWNA WILLIAMS (Jun 6, 2019) Retired University of California, Los Angeles, ophthalmologist Patricia Bath, an inventor whose research on lasers advanced cataract surgery and a physician who strove to prevent blindness, died on May 30. She was 76. Bath became the first African American…
(Feb. 2019) There’s Black girl magic on the front and the back cover of TIME magazine’s 2019 Optimists issue. The cover features the legendary Cicely Tyson and was guest-edited by visionary filmmaker Ava DuVernay. Tyson chose DuVernay to present her with her honorary Academy Award back in November of 2018 when she became the first Black woman…
KCean, Board Chair, Civil Rights Legend, History Maker Dies By Franklin Tate She came to Knoxville College (KC) on a scholarship from Mayflower, Arkansas, graduated, and became the first black student to enter any medical school in the South. Civil Rights legend and pioneer Dr. Edith Irby-Jones died Monday in Houston; she was 91….
Leon’s Thriftway, the country’s oldest Black-owned grocery store located in Kansas City, Missouri, has closed its doors marking the end of 51 years in business. Leon Stapleton, the store’s owner, is now 93-years old and says the main reason for their closing was lack of support from the local community.
World-acclaimed author, educator and poet Nikki Giovanni will read her “Knoxville, Tennessee” poem during the unveiling of a Mulvaney Street historic marker at Cal Johnson Recreation Center. Mayor Madeline Rogero and other City officials will host Nikki Giovanni at 10 am, Thursday, May 23, 2019, to assist with the unveiling of a historic marker…
Carl Cowan was born in Knoxville and lived in Mechanicsville on College Street, near the Knoxville College campus, with his father and mother, Hugh and Maggie, and his younger brother, Clause. Cowan attended Knoxville College and was active in student civic, social, and athletic organizations. He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, played…
Civil Rights Icon and the first black woman mayor in the State of Mississippi. Unita Blackwell died May 13, 2019, in Biloxi, Mississippi of complications of dementia at the age of 86 as reported from the Clarion Ledger. Blackwell was a civil rights activist who rose from a young life as a sharecropper to become…
By Patricia Williams For the first time in the history of the top beauty pageants in the country, three Black women are simultaneously wearing crowns as 2019 Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss America. When Cheslie Kryst was announced as Miss USA on Thursday she completed the historic trio with pageant winners 2019 Miss…
Arlington , TX – On April 3, 2019, Davene Delories (Davis) Thomas, 77, a native of Knoxville, Tennessee and former resident of Paducah, Kentucky, departed her earthly home on Wednesday April 3, 2019 at Arlington Memorial Hospital in Arlington, Texas.
Seventy-five years after his fighter plane crashed in Austria, Tuskegee Airman Capt. Lawrence E. Dickson was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, March 23, 2019. Air Force jets roared overhead and his 76-year-old daughter, Marla L. Andrews, received a folded flag from an Army general who knelt before her as his grandchildren…
By Angela Dennis When we think of black history often times vacation destinations are left out of the dialogue. Our past is well documented with stories of slavery, plantations, and oppressive reality yet little do we know of how some of our ancestors and those who came before us celebrated their lives. As I decided…
One of the Central Park Five will be the featured speaker tonight Feb. 25th at 6 pm in the UT-Knoxville Student Union Ballroom 272C. Yusef Salaam will address “Visions of American Criminal Justice Reform: Lessons From the Central Park Five.” In the early 1990s, the Central Park 5 case divided the nation across racial and…
“BENDING THE ARC OF THE MORAL UNIVERSE: WHITE SUPREMACY, BLACK NATIONALISM, AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT” will be the subject of guest speaker Prof. Hasan Kwame Jeffries at the Fourth Annual Fleming-Morrow Distinguished Lecture in African-American History at 5:30 pm, Thursday, February 28 in the Lindsay Young Auditorium on the campus of the University of…
(KINGSPORT, TN) An ongoing effort has been launched to document and record, in perpetuity, the accounting of Blacks and African Americans as far back as you have documents, photographs and oral accountings from or passed down from elders. The Kingsport Friends of the Archives in partnership with East Tennessee PBS wants to document and share your families…