Tag Page BlackHistory

On December 8, 2021, the U.S. Postal Service finally delivered a long-overdue tribute, announcing that Edmonia Lewis would join the 2022 USPS stamp series. Lewis was a 19th-century sculptor whose life reads like a testimony of talent pushing through every barrier placed in its path. Born in 1844 to a Caribbean father and an Indigenous mother, she carved her way into history at a time when opportunities for women of color in the arts were nearly nonexistent. She refused the limits placed on her, mastering neoclassical sculpture and building a career that stretched from Boston to Rome. Her works stood out not just for their technical skill but for their storytelling. Lewis centered themes of identity, freedom, and faith at a time when the country was still divided by the aftermath of the Civil War. Her sculptures of abolitionist icons and spiritual narratives carried a boldness rarely afforded to someone of her background, yet she created with clarity, intention, and a vision that still resonates more than a century later. The USPS stamp wasn’t just an honor… it was a reminder. Acknowledgment of a woman who shaped the art world long before the world was willing to recognize her. A nod to someone who carved her legacy from marble when society tried to carve her out of the record. Today, her work lives on in museums, archives, and now in the hands of anyone placing that stamp on a letter. It’s a piece of history made visible again. #LataraSpeaksTruth #BlackHistory #EdmoniaLewis #NewsBreakCommunity

December 8, 2019 felt like the world finally looked up and saw what had been glowing the whole time. When Zozibini Tunzi of South Africa claimed the Miss Universe crown, she didn’t just win a title… she completed a historic sweep. For the first time ever, all five major global beauty crowns were held by Black women at the same time. Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, Miss America… every stage, every spotlight, every headline carried a face that had been overlooked for generations. But on that night, the standard shifted for good. What made Zozibini’s win cut even deeper was how she dared to show up. Short natural hair. Dark skin. No apology, no shrinking, no bending to old expectations. She stood there with that quiet blaze, speaking about leadership, self-confidence, and a beauty that stands firm instead of folding. It wasn’t just a crown, it was a declaration. A reminder that representation doesn’t tiptoe… it walks in like it belongs, because it finally does. For young girls watching around the world, especially the ones who never saw themselves in spaces like this, her victory whispered something steady… you are not the exception, you are the mirror. And this moment wasn’t diversity for show. It wasn’t a trend. It was a once-in-history alignment born from decades of fighting to expand what the world calls beautiful. This remains one of the most powerful images of global representation… and it deserves its place in every timeline we refuse to let fade. #ZozibiniTunzi #MissUniverse #BlackHistory #RepresentationMatters #BeautyReimagined #LataraSpeaksTruth

DORIE MILLER DESERVED MORE THAN THE BOX THEY PUT HIM IN

Every year when December 7 comes back around, people talk about Pearl Harbor like it was just ships, explosions, and history book dates. But they never talk enough about the man who had every reason to freeze and still chose courage… Doris “Dorie” Miller. He wasn’t allowed to be anything but a mess attendant. The Navy said that was the limit for Black sailors. Serve food. Clean up. Stay in the background. But the morning the sky erupted over Pearl Harbor, he did the exact opposite of what the system designed for him. He ran toward danger. He carried wounded men through fire. And when he saw an anti aircraft gun sitting empty, he climbed behind it and defended the ship with no training and no warning. He just did what needed to be done. What gets me every time is this… he saved lives in a uniform that never treated him like an equal. He proved ability in a system that spent years pretending Black excellence needed permission slips. And even after he received the Navy Cross… the first Black American to ever receive it… the nation still didn’t give him the full honor he earned until long after he was gone. Dorie Miller is the kind of story America likes to tuck in the footnotes until we pull it out and hold it to the light. A reminder that our people have always shown up with courage, even when the country refused to show up for them. His heroism wasn’t an accident. It was legacy… it was instinct… it was truth rising to the surface no matter how deeply the world tried to bury it. #BlackHistory #AmericanHistory #PearlHarbor #DorieMiller #NavyCross #UnsungHeroes #HistoryMatters #LataraSpeaksTruth

Mabel Keaton Staupers… The Nurse Who Changed Everything

Mabel Keaton Staupers spent her life fighting for doors that should’ve never been closed in the first place. Long before diversity statements and public-facing promises, she was challenging America to live up to its words. And she refused to settle. Born in Barbados and raised in Harlem, Staupers trained as a nurse at a time when Black nurses were pushed to the margins. Hospitals didn’t want them. The Army Nurse Corps didn’t want them. And the American Nurses Association wouldn’t even let them join. She looked at all of that… and started swinging. As executive secretary of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, Staupers pushed the military to stop excluding Black nurses during World War II. She met with officials, wrote letters, built coalitions, and applied pressure until the excuses ran out. By 1945, the Army finally opened its doors. Thousands of Black nurses served because she refused to accept “no.” America changed because she did not back down. On November 29, 1989, Mabel Keaton Staupers passed away. But her impact didn’t. Every Black nurse walking into a hospital, a clinic, a military base, or a graduate program is standing on the foundation she built. She is one of the quiet architects of our history… and she deserves her name said out loud. #MabelKeatonStaupers #BlackHistory #NursingHistory #LataraSpeaksTruth #NewsBreakCommunity #UnsungHeroes #AmericanHistory #WomenWhoLed

The Return of the Amistad Survivors

1841 marked a turning point that rarely gets the attention it deserves. After a long legal fight in the United States, 35 surviving Africans from the Amistad case finally prepared to leave American shores. Their story began two years earlier, when they were captured in West Africa, forced onto a Spanish ship, and pulled into the transatlantic trafficking system. But they refused to accept that fate, rising up, taking control of the vessel, and eventually ending up in the U.S., where their case climbed all the way to the Supreme Court. The Court ruled in their favor, declaring that they had been illegally taken and had the right to fight for their freedom. After months of delays and uncertainty, the survivors boarded a ship called the Gentleman in New York and set sail for West Africa. When they arrived in Sierra Leone, they stepped into a home that wasn’t the same as the one they were taken from. The people, the land, and the world around them had shifted. But returning still meant everything. It meant reclaiming their names, their futures, and a life stolen from them. It meant going home on their own terms. This moment remains one of the clearest examples of resistance meeting justice at a time when both were nearly impossible to find. #Amistad #BlackHistory #OnThisDay #LataraSpeaksTruth #LearnThePast

Evacuation Day 1783, Black Loyalists

On November 25, 1783, the British marched out of New York, closing the curtain on the American Revolution. For nearly three thousand Black Loyalists, this day was not an ending. It was a leap into a new beginning. They boarded ships with their names written in the Book of Negroes, often the first time they were recorded as free people. They sailed toward Nova Scotia, the Caribbean, and other British territories, carrying hope like a small flame against a cold wind. Some would later journey to Sierra Leone, still chasing the freedom they had been promised. The good was the chance to claim that freedom. The British had offered it to enslaved people who joined their forces. The bad was the fight over their status. American leaders demanded they be returned as “property.” The British refused, but the argument showed how fragile freedom could be in the new nation. The ugly arrived in Nova Scotia. The winters were brutal, the wages were low, the land grants were broken, and discrimination followed them across the sea. Many families spent years struggling for even a piece of what they had been told they would receive. Yet their departure mattered. Evacuation Day became one of the first large-scale movements of Black Americans choosing their future for themselves. Their courage was recorded. Their journey reshaped the Black diaspora. #BlackHistory #AmericanHistory #OnThisDay #LataraSpeaksTruth #CommunityFeed

The Eve Gene… Facts They Can’t Argue With

Some comments don’t even be aimed at me, but they hit that nerve anyway. Especially the tired ones about what Black women “can” or “can’t” look like. It’s wild, because science been confirmed what some folks still refuse to accept… Black women are the blueprint. Every human alive today shares mitochondrial DNA that traces back to an African woman who lived over 150,000 years ago. That’s the Eve Gene. That’s not a theory. That’s documented genetics. Mitochondrial DNA comes only from mothers, so the unbroken line that connects the entire human family runs straight through a Black woman’s lineage. Black populations also hold the highest genetic diversity on Earth… which is exactly why natural blonde hair, red hair, blue or green eyes, freckles, every texture, every shade, all exist in African DNA without needing outside mixing. Melanesians alone prove this with their natural blonde hair caused by a TYRP1 gene variant that developed in their community, not Europe. High diversity means oldest population. Lower diversity means newer offshoots. Which means every branch of humanity is a remix of the original. So when people try to drag a Black woman for wearing blonde hair, they’re ignoring the simple truth… our DNA created the possibility in the first place. #EveGene #BlackHistory #Genetics101 #LataraSpeaksTruth

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield: The Black Swan Who Sang Against the Odds

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield came into this world in 1824, born enslaved in Mississippi. Fate pulled her north as a child, and in Philadelphia she found something no chain could hold back: a voice built to shake ceilings. Stages in her era were not just closed to Black women; they were practically walled off. Yet Greenfield stepped up anyway. People said her range stretched from velvet-deep contralto to bright soprano, like she carried two singers inside one body. In 1851, she made her public debut in Buffalo, New York, and from that moment the road called her forward. Everywhere she traveled, she met resistance. Racist policies. Barred doors. Crowds that could not see past her skin. But she kept singing, and her voice kept winning rooms over. By 1853, she crossed the Atlantic to London, performing at Exeter Hall and earning the respect of Britain’s elite. She did not need a queen in the audience to stand on one of the grandest stages of her time. She was a Black woman refusing to dim her light. Greenfield did not just sing; she carved out space where none existed. Her legacy stands as proof that Black artistry has never waited for permission. She broke ground that generations of performers would later walk with pride. #GoneButNotForgotten #TheBlackSwan #ElizabethTaylorGreenfield #LataraSpeaksTruth #BlackHistory #MusicLegends

York… The Man History Tried to Forget

York was the only Black member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, yet he returned home to the same bondage he left with. His strength, hunting skills, diplomacy, and endurance helped carry the Corps of Discovery through some of its hardest moments. While others received pay and praise, York received nothing. His story deserves to be remembered for what it is… the truth. York’s contributions were woven into every part of the expedition. He hunted for food, carried heavy loads, provided protection, and helped build relationships with Indigenous communities who showed him respect. Journals from the journey make it clear he worked just as hard as any man on the team. In many moments, he worked harder. Even so, he returned home with no credit and no reward. York’s role highlights how the story of America is often told without the voices of the people whose labor made survival possible. #York #LewisAndClark #HiddenHistory #AmericanHistory #BlackHistory #LataraSpeaksTruth

November 11th: The Day They Tried to Silence Nat Turner

November 11th, 1831, marked more than a sentence carried out. It was the day America tried to silence a man whose faith and conviction shook the very foundation of slavery. Nat Turner wasn’t just fighting for himself, he was fighting for generations who would come after him. His stand came with a cost, but his message could never be buried. Each year this date reminds us that courage often looks like defiance, and freedom always demands a price. #NatTurner #November11 #BlackHistory #WeRemember #FreedomFighter #OurHistory #LegacyLivesOn