Last month, a moment that was important to American history got lost in the swirl of the usual economic doom saying, political punditry, celebrity worship: On November 1, President Obama signed a proclamation designating Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia, a national monument. It is not glamorous or sexy or controversial, but it is significant. Using his authority under the Antiquities Act, (Theodore Roosevelt used it in 1906 to establish...

American Legacy mourns the loss of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, a leader of the civil rights movement who was at the forefront of the battle against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Calmly, doggedly, and at great risk to his life, he chipped away at the implacable system that was Jim Crow until it was dismantled. Below is a Fall 2006 article on his struggle, and eventual victory. ON ONE SIDE WAS THE SQUAT, PUGNACIOUS EUGENE “BULL”...

Back in December 2008, prompted by the death of the folk music queen Odetta, I began to prepare an entry about all of the musical lights the world has lost since our 2008 Music issue. The plan was to post it here during Black Music month. But it seemed that every time I started to work on it, another name had to be added. Already on my list was Bo Diddley, who brought American music his timeless rhythm, and Isaac Hayes, funk king extraordinaire,...

In the run up to the dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial in Washington, D.C. on August 28, smaller stories bubble to the surface. One that caught our notice was an NPR report about the Tuskegee Airmen—America’s first black military pilots—and their 70th anniversary, celebrated at their national convention last week. The veterans, numbering some 100 (more than 1,000 men trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field in...

The truly perfect film Black Orpehus is 52 years old and it still fascinates. I’ve been to Brazil since the first time I saw the movie at least 20 years ago, and darned if the energy and music and beauty in Salvador da Bahia in 2005 wasn’t like that in Rio in 1959. A synopsis from Gene Seymour in an article for the Fall 2005 issue of American Legacy “The ill-starred ancient Greek romance of Eurydice (played by the luminous...