Langston Hughes’ collection of rent party cards : Slate.com

Photo: Courtesy the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University.

These sound like a good time and remind me of the rent party on “Good Times.” — tanya b.

A cousin of the late Emmett Till wonders if Lil Wayne understands just how damaging it was when he rapped a vulgar reference to the black U.S. teen whose death in 1955 became a significant moment in the civil rights movement.

Airickca Gordon-Taylor says Till’s family would like an apology from Lil Wayne for the brief but disturbing lyric on Future’s “Karate Chop” remix. But more than that, she’d like the platinum-selling New Orleans rapper to understand how his comparison of a sex act to the 14-year-old Chicago native’s torture death in Mississippi is hurtful to the black community.

“It was a heinous murder,” Gordon-Taylor said in a phone interview Thursday from Chicago. “He was brutally beaten and tortured, and he was shot, wrapped in barbed wire and tossed in the Tallahatchie River. The images that we’re fortunate to have (of his open casket) that ‘Jet’ published, they demonstrate the ugliness of racism. So to compare a woman’s anatomy — the gateway of life — to the ugly face of death, it just destroyed me. And then I had to call the elders in my family and explain to them before they heard it from some another source.”

— 

Emmett Till’s family reacts to Lil Wayne lyric - Yahoo! News

Is Lil’ Wayne wrong? Why or why not? — tanya b.

With all the media attention they’ve been getting lately, I think it’s safe to say that “blerds” — black nerds — are now officially a thing. Since Eric Deggans’ 2012 NPR story “Move Over Urkel, There Are New ‘Blerds’ Around,” the Internet has been ablaze with blerdness: What is a blerd? No, seriously, what is it? How do you date one?

Yes, blerds are having the best year ever, but they are nothing new. The blerd was not invented with the NPR story. It didn’t take its first breath when Donald Glover began his campaign to be the first black Spider-Man. It didn’t materialize the first time Steve walked through the Winslows’ door. Though the portmanteau is fresh and faddy, the blerd is as old as black folk are beautiful.

We all know the story of America’s inception: The British were like, “I say, do what we tell you, won’t you, old chap?” and then America was like, “Nah, bruh. We’re not calling cookies ‘biscuits’ anymore.” And the British were all, “Oh, bother. I fear we shall have to thrash you.” And Americans were like, “LOL, nope,” and then they won their freedom in the dawn’s early light. Also, slavery happened. It was with the transport of those unfortunate first slaves that the first blerd seeds were planted. These blerds were innovators — among the first to do what they did.

— Blerds Through History: From Crispus Attucks to Ellen Craft : TheRoot.com

Nutmeg is a feel-good holiday spice found in cakes and cider, and even spiking our spinach, if we’re lucky. But it once caused serious bloodshed and may have even been a reason the Dutch were willing to part with Manhattan back in the 1600s.

No Innocent Spice: The Secret Story Of Nutmeg, Life And Death : The Salt

Photo: Wiki Commons

life:

Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy confers with his brother and campaign organizer, Robert Kennedy, in a hotel suite during the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.

See more photos of LIFE’s coverage from the Democratic National Convention through the years here.

pbsthisdayinhistory:

Tuesday, Sept 4: “Little Rock Nine” Denied Entrance to School

On this day in 1957, the “Little Rock Nine,”  a group of African American high school students, unsuccessfully attempted to pass through angry crowds to integrate Central High School in Arkansas. Governor Orval Faubus had called out the National Guard to prevent them from entering the school.

Later that month, the students finally were able to enter the school under the protection of paratroopers dispatched by President Dwight Eisenhower.

Explore American Experience’s photo gallery from the southern school desegregation years of 1957-1962.

Photo: U.S. Troops escort African American students from Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas on October 3, 1957 (Library of Congress).

Wow. — tanya b.

le-temps-des-cerises:

The Rescuing of the Abu Simbel in 1968. They were moved to a new site to save them from being swallowed up by the Nile River, because of the construction of the Aswan High Dam

The story of The Highwaymen is one of biracial friendships, lingering racism, painting and a murder — culminating in a contemporary clash over an artistic legacy.

via The Murder Of A Protege: The Story Of Alfred Hair by Jacki Lyden

Photo: Courtesy of Doretha Hair Truesdell

~~~~

This story is fascinating. — Tanya B.

Three Ways Pie History Is Like HBO's 'Game of Thrones'

(Source: npr)

oldflorida:

Florida faces, ca. 1900’s.