A new generation of young African American female architects are on the horizon. These architects have enthusiastic ties to their communities, and they understand the need to reassess architectural practices and the existing built environment that affect people, neighborhoods, domestic housing and public spaces in order to create integrated functional design. June Grant … [Read more...] about Wednesday Open Thread: African-American Architects
Wednesday Open Thread
Wednesday Open Thread: The History of Blacks and SKA music
Toots and the Maytals, originally called The Maytals, are a Jamaican musical group and one of the best known ska and rocksteady vocal groups. The Maytals were formed in the early 1960s and were key figures in popularizing reggae music. Frontman Toots Hibbert's soulful vocal style has been compared to Otis Redding, and led him to be named one of the 100 Greatest Singers … [Read more...] about Wednesday Open Thread: The History of Blacks and SKA music
Wednesday Open Thread: African-Americans and the Labor Union Movement
The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union (STFU) was founded in 1934 as a civil farmer's union to organize tenant farmers in the Southern United States. Since the Reconstruction era the vast majority of Southern farmers were exploited under semi-feudal labor conditions, paying for their land usage with crops, and easily subject to the whims of the white landowners. Their plight was … [Read more...] about Wednesday Open Thread: African-Americans and the Labor Union Movement
Wednesday Open Thread: The Blackness of Country Music
Arnold Shultz (1886–1931) was an African-American fiddler and guitarist who is noted as a major influence in the development of the "thumb-style," or "Travis picking" method of playing guitar. Shultz, the son of a former slave, was born into a family of touring musicians in Ohio County, Kentucky, in 1886. In 1900, Shultz began studying guitar under his uncle, developing a … [Read more...] about Wednesday Open Thread: The Blackness of Country Music
Wednesday Open Thread: African-American Generals
Dennis L. Via (born c. 1958) is a former United States Army four-star general who last served as the 18th commanding general of the United States Army Materiel Command (AMC) from August 7, 2012 to September 30, 2016, which is headquartered at Redstone Arsenal, AL. He is the first Signal Corps Officer since General Henry H. Arnold to achieve four-star rank. He retired from the … [Read more...] about Wednesday Open Thread: African-American Generals