Bob Dockery Jr. is a radio and television producer, playwright, and former advertising executive. He was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, and then moved with his parents and sister to Louisville, Kentucky. While the family lived in Alabama, Dockery’s father, Bob Dockery Sr., was a prominent physician who practiced family medicine at the Army Air Force Base. The family soon left […]

Waves of racial tension began to form at the port of Brownsville almost immediately after the erection of dock facilities in 1934. The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) organized the piers by establishing the all-Black Local 1368 and the all-white Local 1367. In the port’s first six years of operations, shipping companies almost exclusively hired white dock workers. In 1940, the […]

In the summer of 1964, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) reached what the Pittsburgh Courier considered to be a “precedent-shattering ruling” regarding racial bias at the Hughes Tool Company, a manufacturer of drilling equipment in Houston, Texas. There, the Board found the collective bargaining contract between the company and the associated union to be in violation of federal fair […]

On December 15, 1966, the United States Justice Department filed suit against Local 53 of the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers Union of New Orleans, Louisiana. The Justice Department charged that the all-white Local 53 was in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Title VII of the Act prohibits employment discrimination based on race, […]

In 1866, newly freed people in Selma, Alabama, came together for a prayer movement. For some time, they met in each other’s homes. During a meeting in the basement of the Hotel Albert, they formed an African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) church, and one year later, they were admitted into the A.M.E. Connection, making them an official congregation of the global […]

When a nation tells the truth about itself, it gives future generations the tools to do better. That is why the Smithsonian Institution and other museums that document the history and afterlives of slavery are not “out of control”—they are doing the hard, patriotic work of memory. Recent efforts by President Donald Trump to pressure the Smithsonian to deemphasize “how […]

There is a rich history of Black graduation ceremonies in the United States focused on celebrating the unique experiences and achievements of Black university students. In Canada, the tradition gained attention with the University of Toronto’s 2017 celebration. Since then, annual Black graduation ceremonies have been embraced by many other institutions, including McMaster University, Toronto Metropolitan University and Concordia University. […]

The Ontario government has introduced legislation that will make its school boards run more like businesses. The recently announced Putting Student Achievement First Act reduces the power of elected trustees and creates a powerful new chief executive officer (CEO) position to head school boards. Unlike previous directors of education who were required to have education backgrounds and shared power with […]

Over 70 years after Brown v. Board of Education, public schools in the U.S. remain deeply segregated. AP Photo/Phil Long John Washington, now in his 50s, attended a public elementary and middle school in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia and then went to a large magnet high school, a type of public school that has a selective admission process. […]

Jackson State University students attend an event in Mississippi in October 2025. Aron Smith/Jackson State University via Getty Images Historically Black colleges and universities, often known as HBCUs, are well known for their deep roots in U.S. higher education and proven effectiveness at graduating Black students who go on to become professionally successful. HBCUs are colleges and universities that were […]