In 1939, 20-year-old Jesse Lee Bond was lynched in Tennessee after asking a store for a receipt. More than eight decades later, his great-granddaughter, Kyra Harris Bolden, made history at just 34 years old as the first Black woman to serve on the Michigan Supreme Court.
Black jockeys won fifteen of the first twenty-eight Kentucky Derbies.
By 1921 there were none. Not fewer — NONE. They were removed from the sport entirely and it took sixty-nine years before another Black jockey rode in the Derby.
Isaac Murphy was the best of them. He was born enslaved in Kentucky. He won the Derby three times — the first jockey ever to do it and rode with a win rate he reported at around forty-four per cent, a figure no modern jockey approaches.
As prize money and prestige grew, white jockeys organised to force Black riders out — boxing them in on the rail, refusing to ride against them, pressuring owners.
Racing associations stopped licensing them.
Within twenty years, an entire profession that Black men had dominated since before the Civil War was simply emptied.
This is the pattern that repeats everywhere in this archive and almost nobody names it: Black excellence does not get pushed out of the poor jobs. It gets pushed out of the jobs that become lucrative.
We must never forget our history
Atlanta HBCU students gathered to protest for Nolan Wells chanting “No water in his lungs.” Nolan Wells will not be forgotten, and the youth is making sure of it.
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Happy Birthday
Jesse Owens🏅
Owens specialized in the sprints & the long jump and was recognized in his lifetime as "the greatest and most famous athlete in track & field history". He achieved international fame at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, by winning four gold medals
📸 Introducing "Behind the photograph," a new series uncovering the stories behind iconic moments in Dr. Maya Angelou’s life.
January 20, 1993, when she made history reciting "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Clinton’s inauguration.
#MayaAngelou
Happy 102nd Birthday to Rev. Bill Greason, the oldest baseball Major Leaguer and last living player from the Negro League era.
☆ Greason, a pastor, World II veteran and baseball trailblazer, honored today by the Birmingham Barons
So y’all are telling me Angela Bassett played Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, Tina Turner, Betty Shabazz, Stella got her groove back, burned her cheating husband’s clothes, became the mother of Wakanda’s king… and Hollywood STILL gave her no Oscar? 😭
Today, The King Center joins wth the Divine Nine to launch #D9StrongerTogether in support of The King Center’s King100. The Divine Nine is the first organizational partner to publicly support King100, which commemorates the 100th birthdays of King Center founder, Coretta Scott King (April 27, 1927), and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929).
Learn how D9 Stronger Together will honor Dr. and Mrs. King, while investing in the continuation of their work through The King Center: https://t.co/JPJLrVj7ea
#King100 #CorettaScottKing #TheKingCenter #MLK