Devon McCurdy, Author at

Student Historian

Devon McCurdy is pursuing a Ph.D. in history at University of Washington. He studies American environmental history and the American West. McCurdy received an M.A. in history from University of Colorado in 2007. He graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Carleton College with a B.A. in history in 2005.

Piri Thomas (1928-2011)

Image Courtesy of Suzie Dod Thomas Author and activist Piri Thomas became one of the first Americans of Puerto Rican descent to win literary acclaim when he published his 1967 memoir Down These Mean Streets. Born Juan Pedro Tomas to Cuban and Puerto Rican parents … Read MorePiri Thomas (1928-2011)

William T. Coleman Jr. (1920-2017)

William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr., a prominent Republican lawyer and businessman, served as Secretary of Transportation under President Gerald Ford. Born on July 7, 1920 to a middle class Philadelphia, Pennsylvania family, Coleman attended a segregated elementary school. When he moved to Germantown High School he … Read MoreWilliam T. Coleman Jr. (1920-2017)

Langston University (1898- )

In March 1897 the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature created a land grant college to train African American teachers, calling it the Colored Agricultural and Normal University. Classes opened in the fall of 1898 in a church in the town of Langston. Langston had been founded in … Read MoreLangston University (1898- )

Glenn C. Loury (1948- )

Glenn C. Loury was the first African American Professor to earn tenure at Harvard. He also achieved prominence as a public intellectual, first as a conservative and then as a more liberal commentator. Born in 1948, Loury grew up on Chicago, Illinois’ South Side. His … Read MoreGlenn C. Loury (1948- )

Congress of Racial Equality (1942)

The Congress of Racial Equality pioneered direct nonviolent action in the 1940s before playing a major part in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Founded by an interracial group of pacifists at the University of Chicago in 1942, CORE used nonviolent tactics … Read MoreCongress of Racial Equality (1942)

Forty Acres and a Mule

The phrase “forty acres and a mule” evokes the federal government’s failure to redistribute land after the Civil War and the economic hardship that African Americans suffered as a result. As Northern armies moved through the South at the end of the war, blacks began … Read MoreForty Acres and a Mule

Parren James Mitchell (1922-2007)

Parren James Mitchell was a civil rights activist, the first African American elected to Congress from the South since 1898, and a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Born in 1922, Mitchell grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and attended public schools there. His father … Read MoreParren James Mitchell (1922-2007)

Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007)

In June 2007 the United States Supreme Court issued a narrow five to four ruling invalidating racial integration plans in Seattle, Washington and Louisville, Kentucky. The Court reasoned that the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause prohibited schools from voluntarily using racial classifications to achieve integration. … Read MoreParents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007)