February 23, 2018

World Book’s celebration of Black History Month continues with happy birthday wishes for African American leader W. E. B. Du Bois <<doo BOYS>>, who was born 150 years ago today on Feb. 23, 1868. During the first half of the 1900′s, Du Bois was the leading black opponent of racial discrimination in the United States. He also won fame as a historian and sociologist. Modern day historians still use Du Bois’s research on blacks in American society.

W. E. B. Du Bois was born 150 years ago today on Feb. 23, 1868. Credit: Library of Congress

Du Bois was one of the first African Americans to express the idea of Pan-Africanism. Pan-Africanism is the belief that all people of African descent have common interests and should work together to conquer prejudice. In 1900, Du Bois predicted that humanity’s chief problem of the new century would be “the color line.”

Credit: © African American History Month

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on Feb. 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He graduated from Fisk University in 1888. In 1895, he became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. degree at Harvard University. From 1897 to 1910, Du Bois taught history and economics at Atlanta University. In 1900, he attended the First Pan-African Conference in London, England. He later organized Pan-African conferences in Europe and the United States.

To fight racial discrimination, Du Bois founded the Niagara Movement in 1905. In 1909, he helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). From 1910 to 1934, he was editor of the NAACP magazine, The Crisis. Du Bois left the NAACP in 1934 and returned to the faculty at Atlanta University. From 1944 to 1948, he again worked for the NAACP. After 1948, Du Bois became increasingly dissatisfied with the slow progress of race relations in the United States. He moved to the west African country of Ghana in 1961. Du Bois died in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, on Aug. 27, 1963.

August 17, 2015

Julian Bond, lifelong champion for civil rights, died on Saturday, August 15, at the age of 75. Handsome and charismatic, with an intolerance for injustice ofttimes obscured by his calm demeanor, Bond took up the banner for equal treatment for African Americans as a teenager in Atlanta, Georgia, and carried it through to the end of his days.

Julian Bond served as chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1998 to 2010. Before taking the NAACP post, Bond had worked for civil rights as a university professor, a Georgia state legislator, and a student protester. (© Frederick M. Brown, Getty Images)

Horace Julian Bond was born in 1940 in Nashville, Tennessee, the son of a librarian mother and an educator father. As a 17-year-old student at Morehouse College, Bond led protests against racial discrimination in Atlanta parks and other public places. In 1960, Bond helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which led peaceful protests and demonstrations against segregation and voter suppression in the American South.

Bond won election as a Democrat to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965 but was initially barred from taking office. In January 1966, Georgia legislators refused to seat Bond, accusing him of allegiances inconsistent with the Georgia Constitution after he endorsed a SNCC statement equating the work of soldiers drafted to serve in Vietnam with the travails of workers in the Civil Rights Movement. A ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States later sided with Bond on free-speech grounds, and Bond served in the body from 1967 through 1975.

Bond added his passionate voice to the clamor at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, where proponents of reform vied for recognition with defenders of old-guard party politics. Bond led a group that challenged the seating of the Georgia delegation hand-picked by avowed segregationist Governor Lester G. Maddox. The dispute was settled by giving each of the two delegations half of Georgia’s votes.

In 1971, Bond helped found the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was the organization’s president from 1971 to 1979. In 1977, Bond showed his lighter side when he hosted—with musical guests Tom Waits and Brick—the comedy sketch program “Saturday Night Live.”

Bond served in the Georgia Senate from 1975 to 1986, when he resigned to run for election to the U.S. House of Representatives. In a stunning upset, Bond lost the bid to John Lewis, a fellow black civil rights leader, in a heated primary runoff election to represent most of Atlanta in Congress.

In 1998, Bond was elected chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He held the position for several years. In his later years, Bond taught at several universities and made his presence felt at demonstrations on topics ranging from corporate outsourcing to the Keystone XL pipeline. In 2009, he won the Spingarn Medal, the highest honor given by the NAACP.

Other World Book articles

• Democratic Party (1968-a Back in time article)
• Election (1986-a Back in time article)
• Vietnam War

In a landmark decision this morning, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that states cannot ban same-sex marriage. The ruling establishes a new civil right in a long and hard-fought battle for the gay rights movement and makes the United States the 21^st country to legalize same-sex marriage.

Supporters of same-sex marriage celebrate outside of the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C., on June 26, 2015, after the court ruled that states cannot ban same-sex marriage. © Jacquelyn Martin, AP Photo

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in the 5 to 4 decision. “[The hope of same-sex couples] is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions,” he wrote. “They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”

Chief Justice John Roberts, however, wrote that the decision had nothing to do with the Constitution. “If you are among the many Americans—of whatever sexual orientation—who favor expanding same-sex marriage, by all means celebrate today’s decision. Celebrate the achievement of a desired goal,” he wrote. “Celebrate the opportunity for a new expression of commitment to a partner. Celebrate the availability of new benefits. But do not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it.”

Speaking at the White House later this morning, President Barack Obama said “America should be very proud” because “small acts of courage” … “slowly made an entire country realize that love is love.”

Today’s decision came nearly 46 years to the day after a riot at New York City’s Stonewall Inn ushered in the modern gay rights movement. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage. In October 2014, the Supreme Court justices refused to hear appeals from rulings allowing same-sex marriage in five states. That non-decision delivered a tacit victory for gay rights, immediately expanding the number of states allowing same-sex marriage to 24, along with the District of Columbia. By 2015, more than half of all American states had legalized same-sex marriage.

Additional World Book articles:

• Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
• Civil rights (2010-a Back in Time article)
• Civil rights (2012-a Back in Time article)
• Civil rights (2014-a Back in Time article)
• Supreme Court of the United States (2013-a Back in Time article)
• Supreme Court of the United States (2014-a Back in Time article)

April 11, 2014

At a summit celebrating the 50th anniversary of the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964, United States President Barack Obama praised President Lyndon Baines Johnson for “opening new doors of opportunity and education” for him and millions of other Americans. Johnson “knew that he had a unique capacity as the most powerful white politician from the South to not merely challenge the convention that had crushed the dreams of so many but to ultimately dismantle for good the structures of legal segregation,” President Obama said. The summit was held in Austin, Texas, at the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum. Johnson, who served as president from 1963 to 1969, signed the landmark measure on July 2, 1964, the day it was finally passed by Congress. The law was a major accomplishment of the civil rights movement, the main domestic issue in the United States in the 1950′s and 1960′s. Other speakers at the summit included former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Lyndon Baines Johnson (AP/Wide World)

One of the nation’s strongest civil rights laws, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed to address the widespread political, economic, and educational oppression of African Americans and other minority groups. Beginning in the late 1800′s, blacks in the South increasingly suffered from segregation, the loss of voting rights, and other forms of discrimination. These practices were designed to keep the vast majority of African Americans in the South in a form of slavery known as peonage. This was especially true of blacks who worked as sharecroppers. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 transformed American society by banning discrimination because of a person’s color, race, national origin, religion, or sex. It opened to all Americans hotels, motels, restaurants, and other businesses that serve the public. At that time, many businesses, especially in the South, refused to serve blacks.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act also outlawed discrimination against minority voters, which included numerous state and local laws as well as violent intimidation, and guaranteed equal job opportunities for all. Johnson, a former U.S. senator skilled in dealing with legislators, pushed the law through Congress, overcoming fierce opposition by some members.

Additional World Book articles:

• Jim Crow
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Civil rights (1964) (a Back in Time article)

August 28, 2013

The civil rights march held on Aug. 28, 1963, known in full as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, became a turning point in the movement to end racial discrimination in the United States.

The ringing of bells, marches, commemorations, Twitter streams, and a major address by President Barack Obama are helping the international community mark the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the “I Have a Dream” speech given by civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. The site was well chosen, as King referenced President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in his speech. In King’s speech—one of the most significant in United States history—he outlined his dream for the nation. He dreamed of a future when his children, and all children, would be judged on their character and not their skin color; a time when the sons of slaves and the sons of slaveholders would sit down together in brotherhood; a time when justice would become a reality for all. King also called on the government to improve the economic conditions of both black and white Americans.

The march and speech inspired U.S. legislators to pass new laws to improve racial equality. The Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination because of a person’s color, race, national origin, religion, or sex, was passed in 1964. The Voting Rights Act, which states that “no voting qualification or prerequisite to voting … shall be imposed … to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color,” was passed in 1965.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (© Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Today, at 3 p.m. Eastern Time, the hour at which King gave his speech, bells rang from sites, including New Hampshire, California, and Stone Mountain in Georgia, that were called out when he demanded that freedom be allowed to ring. Bells rang in nearly every U.S. state and from many places in Washington, D.C. At the Lincoln Memorial, a bell was rung by President Obama, who was joined by former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, members of King’s family, and Georgia representative John Robert Lewis. Lewis was a keynote speaker at the march in 1963. In his speech, President Obama paid tribute to the heroes of the civil rights movement, arguing that their sacrifices benefitted all Americans. Stressing the link between liberty and livelihood, the president also decried growing economic inequality and called on Americans to work toward equal opportunity for all.

Internationally, commemorations will be held in London, at Trafalgar Square, as well as in such countries as Japan, Switzerland, and Liberia.

Additional World Book articles:

• “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Protestantism (a back in time article-1963)

June 24, 2013

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a five-to-four ruling, today struck down a central provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Section 4 of the act provided a formula for determining which states must submit any changes to existing voting laws to the Justice Department or to a federal court for approval. The Supreme Court ruled that Congress had not provided adequate justification for subjecting nine states, mostly in the South, to federal oversight.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts declared that Section 4 is unconstitutional because the standards by which states are judged are “based on decades-old data and eradicated practices. . . . Nearly 50 years later, things have changed dramatically. In 1965, the states could be divided into two groups: those with a recent history of voting tests and low voter registration and turnout, and those without those characteristics. Congress based its coverage formula on that distinction. Today the nation is no longer divided along those lines, yet the Voting Rights Act continues to treat it as if it were.”

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 protects the voting rights of African Americans and members of other minority groups in the United States. (National Archives)

The Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in the dissent: “Congress’s decision to renew the act and keep the coverage formula was an altogether rational means to serve the end of achieving what was once the subject of a dream: the equal citizenship stature of all in our polity, a voice to every voter in our democracy undiluted by race.”

Congress last renewed the law in 2006. In the majority opinion, Roberts noted that Congress remains free to try to impose federal oversight on states where voting rights are at risk, but must base that oversight on contemporary data. Political experts suggest that given the current partisan deadlock in Congress, the imposition of new oversight is highly unlikely.

Additional World Book articles:

• Judicial review
• Poll tax
• Congress of the United States 1965 (a Back in Time article)

Feb. 27, 2012

President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and former First Lady Laura Bush attended a February 22 groundbreaking ceremony for a national museum that will focus on African American history and culture. The museum, scheduled for completion in 2015, will be built on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The museum’s staff has been planning exhibits for nine years, scouring the nation for historical artifacts. Their goal is to provide the visitor with a sweeping history that confronts racial oppression while highlighting the achievements of the black community in America. “This day has been a long time coming,” stated the president. “The time will come when few people will remember drinking from a colored water fountain or boarding a segregated bus . . . it will be a monument for all time, it will do more than simply keep those memories alive.” Laura Bush, a member of the advisory council, noted that the museum “will pay tribute to the many lives known and unknown that so immeasurably enriched our nation.”

The historical trove assembled by the staff includes a slave cabin, shackles worn by slaves brought from Africa, and personal items that belonged to abolitionist Harriet Tubman. Another treasure is an airplane used during World War II (1939-1945) to train the famed African American fighter pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Other holdings include shards of stained glass from a Birmingham, Alabama, church that was bombed in 1963, killing four girls. A turning point in the civil rights movement, the bombing helped convince members of Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

About 250,000 people, including both blacks and whites, took part in the March on Washington in 1963 on the National Mall. The new National Museum of African American History and Culture will join other museums on the Mall. Wide World

The groundbreaking ceremony, attended by some 600 guests, was planned to coincide with Black History Month. The National Museum of African American History and Culture will be part of the famed Smithsonian Institution, which includes a number of museums on the National Mall.

Additional World Book articles

• Association for the Study of African American Life and History
• Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
• Uncovering African Americans’ Buried Past (a special report)
• Civil rights 1963 (Back in Time article)
• Civil rights 1964 (Back in Time article)