The AFRO special section highlights the achievements and contributions of African Americans in various fields, including politics, business, arts, and sports.
Category: Black History Month 2017
Posted inBlack History Month 2017
What you need to know about the origins of Black History Month
By Jesse J. HollandThe Associated Press Black History Month is considered one of the nation’s oldest organized history celebrations, and has been recognized by U.S. presidents for decades through proclamations and celebrations. Here is some information about the history of Black History Month. How did Black History Month start? It was Carter G. Woodson, a […]
Posted inBaltimore News
AFRO Hosts Event Honoring Black Educators
On Feb. 23 at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, the AFRO honored those leaders in the Maryland/D.C. area making a positive impact on the education of the Black community. The theme for this year’s Black History Month, decided by the Association for the Study of African American Life […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Washington D.C. Arts Collective Promoting Local Black Storytelling Industry
Three arts groups based in Washington, D.C., are joining forces to create a film and theater collective to galvanize the Black storytelling industry, locally. Prosperity Media, a nonprofit media arts organization, Koalaty Entertainment, a film and video production company and The Zhanra Group, a play development company, will announce the move at a news […]
Posted inNational News
Definitely Back to Birmingham’ Pledges Dr. King
During Feb. the AFRO has been celebrating the work of former AFRO Executive Editor Moses J. Newson, who turned 90-years-old this month. In this final installment, Newsom reports from the South Christian Leadership Conference where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pledged to bring back massive protests to Birmingham, Al. in the face of continued segregation. […]
Posted inInstantArticles
Black Women Change Wildest Dreams into Reality
Stephanie Wilson and Joan Higginbotham, two Black women who dared to dream the impossible. One reached for the stars, the other was exceptional at math. Nevertheless, both reached, what seems, the ultimate height – making their dreams reality. As a young girl growing in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a small town of 44,000 and 130 miles west […]
Posted inNational News
Dr. Robert Higgins: A Hopkins Historical First
Exceeding Expectations – two words characterize Dr. Robert S. D. Higgins’s life as a son, surgeon and the first African American appointed as Director of the Department of Surgery at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine. Dr. Robert Higgins is the first African-American Director of the Department of Surgery at Johns Hopkins University in […]
Posted inBaltimore News
Spotlight on Black Educators: Sonja Santelises, CEO, BCPS
Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) CEO Sonja Santelises has always loved everything about the learning process. As an educator, she said she is privileged to be able to merge the need to engage in work that impacts those beyond her inner circle, and leverage her position as a Black woman in power to provide opportunity […]
Posted inSports
Sam Lacy Scoop Derailed History at University of Maryland
Former Afro Sports Editor and Hall of Fame journalist Sam Lacy was always ahead of his time. He tackled the social injustices of race in sports with a voracity that changed the complexion of college and pro athletics. He was so far ahead of the curve and his relevance only grew during his career because […]
Posted inCommentary
Civil Rights: Unfinished Business of Our Nation’s History
As one of his final acts in office, President Obama established the Freedom Riders National Monument. Building upon the ‘Journey of Reconciliation,’ an integrated bus ride through the Upper South 56 years ago, the Freedom Riders sought to test if bus stations in the Deep South were complying with U.S. Supreme Court desegregation decisions. On […]
Posted inInstantArticles
Civil Rights Icon Calls on Students
Bowie State University students received a call to action from the first Black person to graduate from Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. Their speaker, Ernest Green, was the oldest of the Little Rock Nine, a group of nine Black students who integrated the Arkansas public schools. Ernest Green, the oldest of the Little […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Spotlight on Black Educators: University of D.C. President Ronald Mason
The University of the District of Columbia is recognized federally as an urban land-grant institution and a HBCU. In May 2015, Ronald Mason was hired for the presidency by the board of trustees of UDC and has since worked to upgrade the school. He told the AFRO of his many accomplishments since being selected as its […]