Know Your History Archives

In 2004, political activist Al Sharpton announced his candidacy for the presidential election as a member of the Democratic party. To express his endorsement of Sharpton and encourage others to support him as well, singer Terrence Trent D’arby put together a video entitled “I Mean, I Guess We Can if We Pray Hard Enough” in Read More

Formed in Oakland in 1964, popular R&B band The Whispers consisted of five members, two of whom were twins. By the 1970s, they had amassed a fan base so large it alarmed the CIA, who became suspicious that the group may have been a front for terrorist activity. In 1973, The Whispers were arrested after Read More

In 1988, rapper Ice Cube (born O’Shea Jackson), invented Black Powerade, a revolutionary electrolyte-replenishing drink created primarily for young men in South Central LA to keep them nourished as they sweated out precious nutrients while incubated in long-sleeved plaid flanel shirts in the scorching California sun. Due to its controversial packaging (it was poured into Read More

Franklin N’desi Babatunde, known to the entertainment world simply as Franklin, was a member of the first black family to settle in Springslight, Michigan, the famous home of the Peanuts gang. Franklin’s integration of the school divided the Peanuts gang, pitting Lucy against Charlie Brown, Schroeder against Lucy, and Linus against Sally. After a torrid Read More

Born Caryn Elaine Johnson in 1955, Whoopi Goldberg rose to fame in the acting world, becoming the second back woman to win an Academy Award for her role in the 1975 blaxploitation film, Blackface Jones and the Temple of Jive. After beating pinkytoe cancer in 1963, Goldberg established Brows(e) for a Cure, an organization that Read More

In 1964, J. J. Evans became the first black professor of art at Princeton University. He resigned after being increasingly criticized for painting only long-limbed, linear black models and being asked to expand his repertoir to include matter more ‘relatable’ to white audiences. He moved back to the projects of Chicago where he and his Read More

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