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.
In 1968 Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress. In 1972 she launched a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, breaking another political barrier.
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
Roy is both a given name and a family surname with varied origins.
Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were in the early 1960s and the late 1980s. Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male performers projected strength. He performed with minimal motion and in black clothes, matching his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses. Born in Texas, Orbison began singing in a country-and-western band as a teenager. He was signed by Sam Phillips of Sun Records in 1956 after being urged by Johnny Cash. Elvis Presley was leaving Sun and Phillips was looking to replace him. His first Sun recording, "Ooby Dooby", was musically akin of Presley's early Sun recordings. He had moderate success at Sun, but enjoyed his greatest success with Monument Records. From 1960 to 1966, 22 of Orbison's singles reached the Billboard top 40. He wrote or co-wrote almost all of his own top-10 hits, including "Only the Lonely" (1960), "Running Scared" (1961), "Crying" (1961), "In Dreams" (1963), "Oh, Pretty Woman" (1964), "I Drove All Night" (1987), "She's a Mystery to Me" (1988), "You Got It" (1988), and "California Blue" (1988). After the mid-1960s, Orbison suffered a number of personal tragedies and his career faltered. He experienced a resurgence in popularity in the late 1980s following the success of several cover versions of his songs. In 1988, he co-founded the Traveling Wilburys supergroup with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. Orbison died of a heart attack that December at age 52. One month later, his song "You Got It" (1989) was released as a solo single, becoming his first hit to reach the top 10 in both the US and UK in nearly 25 years. Orbison's honors include inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2014. He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and five other Grammy Awards. Rolling Stone placed him at number 37 on its list of the "Greatest Artists of All Time" and number 13 on its list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In 2002, Billboard magazine listed him at number 74 on its list of the Top 600 recording artists.
Roy Fox Lichtenstein ( LIK-tən-STYN; October 27, 1923 – September 29, 1997) was an American artist. A leading figure of the Pop Art movement, he is best known for his large-scale paintings inspired by comic books, advertisements, and mass-produced imagery. Lichtenstein's art is represented in major museum collections worldwide, and he remains one of the most influential and recognizable artists of the 20th century. Emerging in the early 1960s, Lichtenstein gained international recognition for works that employed bold outlines, flat colors, and his signature use of Ben-Day dots—a mechanical printing technique he meticulously replicated by hand. Through this approach, Lichtenstein challenged traditional distinctions between "high" art and popular culture, transforming seemingly banal source material into monumental, self-aware compositions. His work often explored themes of romance, war, consumerism, and art itself, frequently incorporating irony and detachment to comment on modern visual culture. Beyond his comic-inspired paintings, Lichtenstein's wide-ranging career included sculpture, murals, prints, and reinterpretations of canonical works by artists such as Picasso, Monet, and Matisse. His best-known works include Look Mickey (1961), Whaam! (1963), and Drowning Girl (1963), which helped define his visual language and establish Pop Art as a dominant movement of the era. Lichtenstein's most expensive work, Masterpiece (1962), sold privately in 2017 for a reported $165 million. Lichtenstein received numerous accolades during his career, including election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1979 and the National Medal of Arts in 1995. Lichtenstein also received several Honorary Doctorates in Fine Art from institutions, including California Institute of the Arts, Ohio State University, and George Washington University.
Roy Richard Scheider ( SHY-dər; November 10, 1932 – February 10, 2008) was an American actor who achieved fame with his leading and supporting roles in celebrated films from the 1970s to the mid-1980s including the lead role in Jaws. He was nominated for two Academy Awards, one Golden Globe, and one BAFTA Award, and won both an Obie and Drama League Award for his stage performances. Scheider's best-known film roles include Frank Ligourin in Klute (1971), Police Chief Martin Brody in Jaws (1975) and its 1978 sequel, "Cloudy" Russo in The French Connection (1971), "Buddy" in The Seven-Ups (1973), Doc Levy in Marathon Man (1976), Scanlon / Dominguez in Sorcerer (1977), Joe Gideon in All That Jazz (1979), and Frank Murphy in Blue Thunder (1983). Subsequent credits included Naked Lunch (1991), Romeo Is Bleeding (1993), The Myth of Fingerprints (1997), The Rainmaker (1997), and The Punisher (2004). He also starred as Captain Nathan Bridger on the NBC television series seaQuest DSV (1993–96).
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 →Mae Jemison, aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.