Civil Rights
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
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Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
Wilmington, North Carolina once had a thriving Black middle class and an elected interracial government. In 1898 white supremacists used violence to overthrow that government, kill Black residents and drive many others from the city.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
A disaster is an event that causes such serious harm to people, buildings, economies, or the environment that the affected community cannot manage without external assistance or relief. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction defines a disaster as "a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability and capacity, leading to one or more of the following: human, material, economic and environmental losses and impacts". Natural disasters like avalanches, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires are caused by natural hazards. Human-made disasters like oil spills, terrorist attacks and power outages are caused by people. It may be difficult to separate natural and human-made disasters because human actions can make natural disasters worse. Climate change also affects how often disasters due to extreme weather hazards happen. Disasters usually affect people in developing countries more than people in wealthy countries. Over 95% of deaths from disasters happen in low-income countries, and those countries have higher economic losses compared to higher-income countries. For example, the damage from natural disasters is 20 times greater in developing countries than in industrialized countries. This is because low-income countries often do not have well-built buildings or good plans to handle emergencies. To reduce the damage from disasters, it is important to be prepared and have fit-for-purpose infrastructure. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) aims to make communities stronger and better prepared to handle disasters. It focuses on actions to reduce risk before a disaster occurs, rather than on response and recovery after the event. DRR and climate change adaptation measures are similar in that they aim to reduce vulnerability of people and places to natural hazards. When a disaster happens, the response includes actions like warning and evacuating people, rescuing those in danger, and quickly providing food, shelter, and medical care. The goal is to save lives and help people recover as quickly as possible. In some cases, national or international help may be needed to support recovery. This can happen, for example, through the work of humanitarian organizations.
Disaster!: A Major Motion Picture Ride...Starring You! was a dark ride attraction at Universal Studios Florida. Set on a soundstage of a fictitious movie company, Disaster! was based on the park's former Earthquake: The Big One ride, which comically illustrates how special effects are filmed for use in movies. The attraction's climax cast the riders as movie extras for a movie final scene involving an earthquake in a subway station. Using high-speed editing techniques, the riders got to see themselves in the form of a movie trailer that included film sequences shot throughout the attraction's pre-show and main ride. In August 2015, Universal announced that the attraction would close on September 8, 2015, to make way for Fast & Furious: Supercharged, based on the blockbuster film franchise.
On 26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union, exploded. The accident resulted in dozens of direct deaths and a major release of radioactive material into the environment, causing widespread health effects and requiring the establishment of the Chernobyl exclusion zone. The response involved more than 500,000 personnel and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles (about $85 billion in 2026). It remains the most destructive nuclear disaster and the most expensive disaster in history, with an estimated cost of US$700 billion. It is one of only two nuclear accidents rated at the maximum severity on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. The disaster occurred while conducting a test to simulate the cooling of the reactor during a serious accident in blackout conditions. The operators carried out the test following an accidental drop in reactor power. Upon shutting down the reactor in such conditions, pervasive design flaws led to a power surge. The reactor components ruptured and lost coolant, and the resulting steam explosions and meltdown destroyed the reactor building. This was followed by a meltdown and fire that dispersed radioactive contaminants across the Soviet Union and Europe. The Soviet government established an exclusion zone with a 10-kilometre (6.2 mi) radius 36 hours after the accident, initially evacuating around 49,000 people. This was later expanded to 30 kilometres (19 mi), resulting in the evacuation of approximately 68,000 more people. The government did not publicly acknowledge the disaster until two days after the explosion, when elevated radiation levels were detected in Sweden. Following the explosion, which killed two engineers and severely burned two others, an emergency operation began to put out the fires and stabilize the reactor. Of the 237 workers hospitalized, 134 showed symptoms of acute radiation syndrome (ARS); 28 of them died within three months. Over the next decade, 14 more workers (nine of whom had ARS) died of various causes mostly unrelated to radiation exposure. It is the only instance in commercial nuclear power history where radiation-related fatalities occurred. As of 2005, 6000 cases of childhood thyroid cancer occurred within the affected populations (15 of them fatal), "a large fraction" being attributed to the accident. Long-term death estimates range from up to 4,000 in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia (per the United Nations) to 16,000 in total across Europe. Pripyat was abandoned and replaced by the purpose-built city of Slavutych. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant sarcophagus, completed in December 1986, reduced the spread of radioactive contamination and provided radiological protection for the crews of the undamaged reactors. In 2016–2018, the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement was constructed around the old sarcophagus to enable the removal of the reactor debris, and clean-up is scheduled for completion by 2065.
It's a Disaster is a 2012 American art-house black comedy film written and directed by Todd Berger. The film was made by Los Angeles-based comedy group The Vacationeers and stars Rachel Boston, David Cross, America Ferrera, Jeff Grace, Erinn Hayes, Kevin M. Brennan, Blaise Miller, Julia Stiles, and Todd Berger. The film premiered on June 20, 2012, at the Los Angeles Film Festival. It's a Disaster was commercially released in US theaters by Oscilloscope Laboratories, which acquired the US distribution rights to the film, on April 12, 2013.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Madam C.J. Walker
