All posts tagged "Civilrightsmovement"

More than 50 years after being introduced, the first Black “Peanuts” character will get his proper due in a new streaming special on Apple TV+. Premiering Feb. 16, “Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin” will explore the origin story of beloved character Franklin Armstrong, who was first introduced to prime-time viewers in 1973’s “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.” While the cartoon’s inclusion of diversity was welcomed in the aftermath of the tumultuous civil rights movement, the show hit a sour note with viewers by segregating its only Black character from the rest of the Peanuts gang — having......

SEATTLE — Billy Frank Jr. was arrested over 50 times trying to preserve his and his tribe's treaty right to fish in their ancestral waters. Now, the legendary Nisqually elder who was a central figure in the fight for tribal fishing rights and environmental protections in the Pacific Northwest will have a U.S. Navy ship named after him. A future U.S. Navy Navajo-class towing, salvage and rescue ship — TATS-11 — will be named the USNS Billy Frank Jr., officials announced this month. "This is truly an honor for the Frank family, Wa-he-lut School and the Nisqually Nation," said Willie Frank III, s......

For the first time in 40 years, a comprehensive new biography of Martin Luther King Jr. takes another look at a man etched into the nation’s history. Jonathan Eig, a New York Times bestselling author, spent six years researching and writing his biography, "King: A Life," featuring newly released FBI information. The book is the first major biography of MLK to be published in 40 years, according to Eig’s website. And it's the product of six years of research, including use of personal papers from King’s family and friends, as well as newly released FBI files. Eig’s other biographies include “Al......

Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease eight years ago, is stepping down from the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the influential Chicago-based civil rights organization he founded through its predecessor, Operation PUSH, more than 50 years ago. After ceding day-to-day operations last year, Jackson, 81, is formally handing the reins to a successor who is expected to be announced this weekend at the annual Rainbow/PUSH convention, sources close to the organization said Friday. Headquartered in a former temple in the Kenwood neighborhood on the South Side, the Rainbow/PUSH Co......

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Richard Davis keeps his replica Congressional Gold Medal in a glass case that his wife had specially made to hold the award.. The 97-year-old Davis, who lives in Sacramento’s Pocket-Greenhaven community, is one of around 200 people left from roughly 23,000 who trained at the segregated Montford Point Marine camp in North Carolina between 1942 and 1949. These men were the first African-Americans to serve in the United States Marines Corps. And in 2012, the unit was awarded the medal, Congress’s highest expression of appreciation for an individual’s or group’s contributions......

The Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr. lives just outside Justice. This has been true his whole life. In the geographic sense, he has lived in Summit, Illinois (or the subdivision of Argo, annexed long ago into Summit), for most of his 83 years. Summit ambles alongside the Des Plaines River, a bit north of the village of Justice. In a more poetic sense, though, Parker has also lived outside justice since 1955, when he visited Mississippi with his cousin Emmett Till. He is the last witness to the encounter that sealed Till’s fate and the last living witness to Till’s abduction four nights later. Other tha......