African-American History Topics

Mlk

Democracy Now! stories, posts and pages that relate to African-American History

Newest First | Oldest First
  • Angela-davis-dn

    Angela Davis on the Prison Abolishment Movement, Frederick Douglass, the 40th Anniversary of Her Arrest and President Obama's First Two Years

    For over four decades, Angela Davis has been one of most influential activists and intellectuals in the United States. An icon of the 1970s black liberation movement, her work around issues of gender, race, class and prisons has influenced critical thought and social movements for years. She is a leading advocate for prison abolition, a position informed by her own experience as a fugitive on the FBI’s Top 10 most wanted list forty years...
    Oct 19, 2010 | Story
  • Jackson-fowler

    45 Years Later, Former Alabama State Trooper Pleads Guilty to Killing Black Civil Rights Worker Jimmie Lee Jackson

    A white former Alabama state trooper has pleaded guilty to killing a black civil rights worker 45 years ago at the height of the civil rights movement. Seventy-seven-year-old James Bonard Fowler was sentenced to six months in prison for the 1965 shooting of 26-year-old Jimmie Lee Jackson during a melee in a restaurant in Marion, Alabama. We speak to John Fleming, the reporter to whom Fowler first confessed, and Democratic Congress member John...
    Nov 17, 2010 | Story
  • C-west

    Cornel West on Charles Rangel, Bush & Kanye West, and Why Obama Admin "Seems to Have Very Little Concern for Poor People"

    Princeton University professor and author Cornel West join us to talk about Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) being censured for ethics violations, President George W. Bush saying the worst moment of his presidency was when Kanye West called him a racist, and President Obama’s policies toward the poor. "The Obama administration seems to have very little concern for poor people and their social misery," West said. [includes rush transcript]
    Nov 19, 2010 | Story
  • Glover_play

    "The Black Power Mixtape" - Danny Glover Discusses New Doc Featuring Rare Archival Footage of Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, Stokely Carmichael

    We broadcast from Park City, Utah, home of the Sundance Film Festival, the nation’s largest festival for independent cinema. One of this year’s selections that is creating a lot of buzz is a documentary called The Black Power Mixtape. The film features rare archival footage shot between 1967 and 1975 by two Swedish journalists and was discovered in the basement of Swedish public television 30 years later. We speak with renowned actor and...
    Jan 24, 2011 | Story

  • "Uprisings: From the Middle East to the Midwest" By Amy Goodman

    The workers of Egypt were instrumental in bringing down the regime there, in a remarkable coalition with Egypt’s youth. In the streets of Madison, under the Capitol dome, another demonstration of solidarity is taking place.
    Feb 23, 2011 | Columns & Articles
  • Freedom

    50th Anniversary of the First Freedom Ride: New Documentary Recounts Historic 1961 Effort to Challenge Segregated Bus System in the Deep South

    It was 50 years ago today, on May 4, 1961, when mixed groups of black and white students took two public buses from Washington, D.C., and intended to arrive in New Orleans two weeks later. They were risking their lives to challenge segregation, and called themselves the “Freedom Riders.” President Obama has issued a proclamation honoring May 2011 as the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides, and called on Americans to celebrate their struggle...
    May 04, 2011 | Story
  • Play_pratt

    Former Black Panther Leader, Geronimo Ji-Jaga Pratt, Wrongfully Imprisoned for 27 Years, Dies in Tanzania

    We look at the life of former Black Panther, Geronimo ji-Jaga Pratt, who died in Tanzania on Thursday. In 1972, Pratt was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Caroline Olsen for which he spent 27 years in prison, eight of those in solitary confinement. He was released in 1997 after a judge vacated his conviction. The trial to win his freedom revealed that the Los Angeles Black Panther leader was a target of the FBI’s counterintelligence...
    Jun 06, 2011 | Story
  • Troy_web

    Over 500,000 Sign Petition to Stop Georgia Execution of Troy Davis

    Thousands of people who believe the state of Georgia is about to execute an innocent man are rallying behind the high-profile death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis. Davis was convicted of the 1989 killing of an off-duty Savannah police officer, Mark MacPhail, but has always maintained his innocence. His case has become a focal point for anti-death penalty activists in the United States and abroad, attracting supporters such as Pope Benedict XVI,...
    Sep 16, 2011 | Story
  • Davis_sis_web

    Troy Davis's Sister: "The Fight for Troy Has Brought Us a Whole New Family All Over the World"

    The campaign to stop the Sept. 21 execution of death row prisoner Troy Davis has been led by his sister, Martina Correia, who herself is fighting for her life in a bout with cancer. We’re joined by Troy Davis’s other sister, Kimberly Davis, from Savannah to talk about the global day of action to save her brother. "Even though Martina is sick now in the hospital, she is still fighting from her hospital bed," Davis says. "We’re...
    Sep 16, 2011 | Story
  • Attica_web

    40 Years After Attica Rebellion, New Tapes Reveal Nixon, Rockefeller Praised Deadly Crackdown

    It was 40 years ago this week when New York state police raided the prison in Attica, New York, ending a prison uprising to protest inhumane conditions at the facility. On Sept. 13, 1971, then-New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller ordered armed state troopers to raid the prison. Troopers then shot indiscriminately some 2,000 rounds of ammunition. In the end, 39 men would die: 29 prisoners and 10 guards. After the shooting stopped, police beat and tortured...
    Sep 16, 2011 | Story