Tributes to Historical Figures

Native American History: Isobel de Olvera

November 13, 2012

This Native American History Month I propose we celebrate Isobel de Olvera, a Native American who also had African ancestors. She was a single, free woman of color who lived in the last years of the 16th century and early years of the 17th century and comes to us through her own words. Olvera’s date […]

Read this essay →
Thumbnail image for Gil Noble (1932-2012)

Gil Noble (1932-2012)

April 9, 2012

Gil Noble was a well-informed, charming, confident broadcaster devoted to seeing real news reached his community – all of New York. Operating within a network and system [ABC-TV] that treated news as entertainment and, often as political containment, he stood as an intrepid, challenging force. From 1969 on when his “Like It Is” interviewed me […]

Read this essay →
Thumbnail image for Lucy Gonzales Parsons: A woman for all seasons

Lucy Gonzales Parsons: A woman for all seasons

March 7, 2012

On March 7, 1942, fire engulfed the simple home of 89-year-old Lucy Gonzales Parsons on Chicago’s North Troy Street, and ended a life dedicated to liberating working women and men of the world from capitalism and racial oppression. A dynamic, militant, self-educated public speaker and writer, she became the first American woman of color to […]

Read this essay →

Of Howard Zinn and Other Heroes

February 9, 2010

In less than a year the battle for truth has lost three of its most innovative and stalwart voices, historians John Hope Franklin, Ivan Van Sertima and now Howard Zinn. Each challenged aspects of the cheerfully bigoted narrative that has passed for history in schools, colleges, texts and the media. Each created works that made […]

Read this essay →

Homage to Dear Friend Dr. Ivan Van Sertima

October 24, 2009

[On September 12, 2009 colleagues, students and family members gathered at Kirkpatrick Chapel on the Rutgers University campus for a Memorial Service honoring Ivan Van Sertima, the distinguished anthropologist, historian, linguist and author. William Loren Katz prepared these words about his colleague and friend of many years.] I first wish to thank and honor Jacqueline […]

Read this essay →

Paul Robeson at 100 Years

October 26, 2008

On April 9, 1898 Paul Robeson was born to a family steeped in resistance. His father had escaped from slavery. Young Robeson grew to be a majestic figure in the United States, beginning at Rutgers as an all-star athlete, then a singer and actor, and finally as an activist devoted to fighting racism here, colonialism […]

Read this essay →

Harry Belafonte Reaffirms a Proud Tradition

November 23, 2006

“He [President George W. Bush] lied to the people of this nation, distorted the truth, declared war on a nation who had not attacked us . . . put America’s sons and daughters in harm’s way . . . and destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of [Iraqi] women and children who had nothing […]

Read this essay →

John Henrik Clarke: A Scholar for All Seasons

January 28, 2006

Though I had been reading his works for many years, my relationship with Dr. Clarke began back in the 1960s when he was editor of Freedomways, a liberation magazine I read and admired. In 1968 when the New York Times considered me as an editor of a Black History reprint series, it was Dr. Clarke […]

Read this essay →

Paul Robeson, Spain and the Anti-fascist Crusade

January 28, 2006

By 1937 Paul Robeson had become world famous as a concert singer, stage and movie performer, and he was still under forty. That year fast-moving global events forced him to face what he called “a major turning point in my life” and make a decision that forever altered his life. Fascist forces had begun their […]

Read this essay →

John Brown: A White Role Model

January 21, 2006

This year marks the bicentennial of John Brown, born in 1800, and he was executed by the state of Virginia 141 years ago, on December 2, 1859. This year a PBS documentary film continued an effort that began even before his execution to sully his reputation. Why? He was a white man who gave his […]

Read this essay →

Samori Marksman: A Recollection and Appreciation

January 21, 2006

It is so hard to believe that my friend Samori with his rich storehouse of rare knowledge, wry sense of humor, and warm tone, is gone. So enthusiastically alive, so dedicated to getting out the truth, so needed today—how could he have left us as the Amadou Diallo protests escalated into the largest civil rights […]

Read this essay →