Black History Ain’t just for us Black Folks
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver Velez
One of the most well-known quotes from Maya Angelou is: "You Can't Really Know Where You Are Going Until You Know Where You Have Been" and that applies to all of us here in these United States, no matter race, ethnicity, gender or national heritage. The Trump regimes’ efforts to erase Black History is part of a racist Project 2025 plot to chart a new white wing future for us all. Black history is American history, and we all have to be part of an erasure resistance movement.
I often wonder where readers here learn or have learned their Black History, and how many readers avail themselves of both online sources, and the physical sites in their areas? I have gathered some news items of interest as well as links to sources that I suggest you may be interested in following.
My daily cyber search routine doesn’t take up much of my time and I learn a lot I didn’t know.
I start my day checking in to Black Facts — who send me a daily email with a “Fact of the Day”
Here’s what they linked me to for Oct. 7
This video introduces the organization:
After checking out their daily feed, I head over to Twitter, Bluesky, and Spoutible — where I follow accounts which are heavy on History, and also those with editorial cartoons.
Next stop is the Equal Justice Initiative (founded by Bryan Stevenson who also have a daily calendar, and who post to Twitter and Bluesky where for me they are a must follow:
I then take a look at posts from African & Black History
and Jazz the Professor, who covers both history and Black music.
My next stop is Black Kudos who feature birthdays and departures
A great source is:
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH®)
The mission of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH®) is to promote, research, preserve, interpret and disseminate information about Black life, history and culture to the global community.
Wiki has a “List of museums focused on African Americans” How many have you visited?
I won’t detail the rest of my follows but they aren’t hard to find, just type “Black History” into your search bars on the platforms you subscribe to — including here at Daily Kos which has a Black History tag.
A brief google search turned up these stories that interested me, some of which were not posted so I took a few minutes to do so.
Old Settlers Reunion Website becomes a digital museum
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Michigan: Old Settlers Reunion Website becomes a digital museum
The digital museum, “Where Black History Lives,” celebrates the heritage and preserves the cultural and historical resources of the Mecosta, Isabella and Montcalm counties
www.bigrapidsnews.com/news/article...
[image or embed]
— Denise Oliver-Velez (@deniseoliver-velez.bsky.social) October 7, 2025 at 2:41 AM
Statue of Thurgood Marshall unveiled in downtown Columbia
Free Black History Series Returns Amid Rising Censorship
Once condemned for demolition, Civil War-era home to become new museum for Black history
‘Bodies of Labor,’ Hearts of Hope
A new Black History Museum exhibition explores experience through toil | Photos courtesy Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia
Quirky Baseball Card Set Combines Country Music, Pickup Trucks, and Black History
The Fight Against Jim Crow 2.0: Protecting Black History and Education
I’m not able to go to demonstrations and other such events due to age and health status — but I have my computer, and time to ensure that I keep learning, along with other folks. Want to thank
Debtors Prison for his collections of reads he compiles for us here:
What are your Black History sources?
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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It all started during a conversation with author Ta-Nehisi Coates. Reid got candid about what her parents experienced as immigrants from the Congo and Guyana. She told Coates that when her parents migrated, they got a “rude awakening” about the racism Black people face in the U.S. Reid was simply minding her business when Vance shared his two cents when no one had asked him.
On Thursday (Oct. 2), Vance said the journalist should be a lot more grateful for the life she’s built in the states. “Joy Reid has had such a good life in this country. It’s been overwhelmingly kind and gracious to her,” the vice president began on X. “She is far wealthier than most. Yet she oozes with contempt.”
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Vance went on to give her some advice. “My honest, non-trolling advice to Joy Reid is that you’d be a much happier person if you showed a little gratitude,” he said. Reid didn’t seem to appreciate his comments, and during an interview with Tommy Christopher on Substack, the journalist went off.
“JD Vance, since you’re paying attention to me, f*ck you,” Reid said. “And I say that on behalf of every Black woman who heard you call Kamala Devi Harris ‘the trash,’” she continued, referring to the vice president’s 2024 words about his predecessor.
The journalist went on, adding, “There’s nothing you could ever say that I would take as advice, friendly or otherwise.” Reid is a known critic of President Donald Trump and his administration. “I don’t need advice from you,” Reid further told Vance. “You need to learn how to be a decent human being and you need to apologize to Kamala Harris for what you said. So let’s start with that.”
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The Trump administration’s war on DEI is having a chilling effect on Black military service members, as advocates warn it’s part of a broader objective to exclude Black Americans from every corner of the federal government.
Last week, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered highly politicized speeches before the military’s top generals and admirals. They doubled down on their belief that diversity, equity, and inclusion policies lower the standard of so-called “fitness” and “preparedness” for the U.S. Armed Forces.
The Trump administration’s perceived hostility toward Black military troops was especially exemplified in a reversal of a decades-old grooming policy that allowed mostly Black service members to receive waivers and avoid having to shave due to a skin condition known as pseudofolliculitis, or PFB, which causes painful bumps. The condition affects 60% of Black men, according to the American Osteopathic College of Dermatology.
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If you’ve spent any time searching for work online, you already know that submitting a resume on job search platforms like Indeed and LinkedIn can feel like tossing your resume into a black hole where it will never be seen or heard from again.
One Black woman got tired of hearing crickets when she applied for jobs she knew she was more than qualified for and decided to conduct a little experiment to see if her name and profile picture had anything to do with why she wasn’t getting anywhere – and the results were shocking and disturbing.
After receiving more than her fair share of “nos” from potential employers, Jones decided to see if she would get more replies to her profile if she changed her name from Aliyah Jones, an experienced marketing strategist from the DMV to Emily Osborne, a white woman from Los Angeles.
And as you can probably imagine, hiring managers showed Emily’s CV way more love. Jones documented her eight-month corporate catfish experiment in a docuseries, “Corporate Catfish: Being Black in Corporate America,” which she shared on social media. The viral reaction from thousands of people who saw Jones’ story let her know that she was just scratching the surface.
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The international criminal court has convicted a leader of the Janjaweed militia of playing a leading role in a campaign of atrocities committed in the Sudanese region of Darfur more than 20 years ago.
It was the first time the court had convicted a suspect of crimes in Darfur. The court ruled that the atrocities, including mass murders and rapes, were part of a government plan to snuff out a rebellion in the western region of Sudan.
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd–al-Rahman, also known by the nom de guerre Ali Kushayb showed no emotion as the presiding judge, Joanna Korner, read out 27 guilty verdicts.
“The chamber is convinced that the accused is guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crimes with which he has been charged,” said Korner. She added that sentencing would take place at a later date.
Korner detailed harrowing accounts of gang rapes, abuse and mass killing. She said that on one occasion, Abd-al-Rahman loaded about 50 civilians on to trucks, beating some with axes, before making them lie on the ground and ordering his troops to shoot them dead.
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