I’m sure I had seen the drawing somewhere before, but I apparently was so awed by its towering figure that I didn’t read past the title. This time, I did. I went to see the Charles…
Month: November 2018
Roaming an estate sale for signs of Frank Rizzo
Posted in Clothing, collectibles, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Politics
Frank Rizzo’s presence had long left the house, which exuded a warmth that I did not expect from the abode of a man with such a notorious reputation. During the 1960s and 1970s, Rizzo ran…
I was browsing some of the vintage cookbooks I had picked up at auction and came across one with illustrations of kitchen items from the 19th century. I realized that I have updated versions of them…
A different take on black boy-with-watermelon stereotype
Posted in Art, Black history, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and history
When I first saw the modern painting of a little black boy with a watermelon, I was torn. I have seen so many derogatory images of black-boy-with-watermelon that I shun them. Going to auctions, it’s…
Lynn & Leslie, Constance Bannister’s African American babies
Posted in Black history, Books, Children, history, and Photos
Leslie did most of the crying. She wouldn’t sit still for the shoot by famed baby photographer Constance Bannister that day in the early 1960s. Usually, her brother Kevin, about 5 years old, could get her…
Ragan A. Henry amassed a bevy of radio stations on the East Coast, starting in the 1970s when it wasn’t easy for black people to own any at all. But with smarts, wits and a dream, he…
Limiting black voting has always been a Georgia pastime
Posted in African American women, Black history, civil rights movement, and Politics
I don’t even remember what the white woman looked like, but I do recall her attitude. I was a junior at Paine College in Augusta, GA, a city on the tip of the northwest corner…