Thursday, September 9th, 2010

Black History in the News

Allensworth: The town that refused to die

One hundred years ago, there was a unique town in the southwest corner of Tulare County where African Americans lived and thrived in a discrimination-free society. Today, you can gain a sense of what life was like for those courageous individuals and families by visiting Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park. Located seven miles west of Earlimart, the park has 22 lovingly restored and reconstructed... [Read more]


Dig reveals story of America’s last slave ship — and its survivors

From bits of brick, pieces of slate and shards of glass, Neil Norman is hoping to piece together the lost world of Africatown. For the last several weeks, the anthropology professor from the College of William & Mary has excavated sites in Plateau, in north Mobile County, looking for remnants of the daily life of the Africans who arrived in Mobile in 1860 as captives on the slave ship Clotilda.... [Read more]


James Bolridge finally gets a tombstone

James Bolridge finally gets a tombstone

A concrete block marks his grave. There’s no name. No date of birth or death. No insight into who is buried there. The grave holds the final resting place of James L. Boldridge. On Saturday, Boldridge gets a tombstone. An unveiling and dedication ceremony will be held at Woodlawn Cemetery in Independence, a fitting tribute to the influential Independence man who happened to be black. Boldridge was... [Read more]


State’s oldest African-American town to celebrate 111 years

The blacks of Oxford were once segregated to a small segment of the city known as Mooree Quarter. In the late 1890s, the small community was kicked out all together and left to fend for itself. The residents did just that, and their community has been called Hobson City ever since. Hobson City was officially incorporated Aug. 16, 1899; named after Spanish-American War hero, Richard P. Hobson of Greensboro. The... [Read more]


Historically black cemetery is a gateway to our collective past

Behind the 7-Eleven and underneath a stand of slash pines and cabbage palms, at least 13 of Ora Brown’s relatives lie in the ground. The grave of her great-grandmother, Harriett Turner, a former slave who lived to 105, sits yards away from the halting traffic on Monterey Road. Brown was 6 when she went to Turner’s funeral in 1950. Brown’s maternal grandmother, Mary Lee Hamilton, is interred nearby.... [Read more]