Black History
The Northwest African American Museum Hosts Grand Reopening on Monday, January 16 in Honor of MLK, Jr. Day
Last Updated on January 15, 2023 by Daily News Staff
Acclaimed Actor and Activist Jesse Williams to Hold Moderated Conversation Responding to NAAM’s King Day Theme of “All, Here, and Now”
SEATTLE /PRNewswire/ — The Northwest African American Museum (NAAM) will host a grand reopening and commemorate the King Day holiday on Monday, January 16, 2023. The event will feature guided tours of the galleries and exhibitions, screening of a Civil Rights film and an interactive video moderated conversation with Jesse Williams, actor, director, and activist noted for his role as executive producer of the powerful documentary film, Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement. With sponsorship support from Boeing and Union Bank, NAAM’s reopening represents the return of the Museum to its physical space after a three-year closure due to the pandemic.
NAAM’s King Day theme, “All, Here, and Now,” is based on the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said, “No, what we are saying to this nation is that we want all of our rights. We want them here, and we want all of them not next year, not next week, but we want them now, at this hour.”
“NAAM is a resilient, innovative organization committed to our mission no matter what. We uplift, share, and celebrate Black stories, even when our doors are closed,” noted LaNesha DeBardelaben, the President and CEO of the Northwest African American Museum. “We are thrilled to reopen our doors on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with a robust program of activities offered all day for the entire family and community.”
King Day at NAAM is free and open to the public, and donations are encouraged. The family-friendly event will begin at 11:00 a.m. and will feature activities for kids, including live art activations, soccer training with the Seattle Sounders, storytime, and face painting. The event will also include musical performances by NAAM’s African American Cultural Ensemble (ACE) and will host a variety of speakers including spoken word artist Tia-Nache and local historian Dr. Daudi Abe. There will also be voter registration and a hygiene supply drive during the event. The celebration will continue in the early evening with an After Party featuring local deejay Chukundi “Kun Luv” Salisbury.
The featured exhibitions during NAAM’s King Day reopening to be on view through June 19 include:
- Hallway of Healing and Hope – The exhibit tells the story of the Colman School building.
- Making a Way: Jacob Lawrence and the Northwest Black Experience – This exhibition celebrates the life and artistic legacy of Jacob Lawrence as a Northwest artist.
- The Colors of Life: African American Abstract Art and the Regathering of Community – This exhibition uses colorful abstract works by Northwest African and African American artists to resurrect our hope, connection, contemplation, and action as a community. Featured artists include LoMar Metoyer, Yeggy Michael, Shantell Jackson, Vincent Keele.
- A Long Walk to Hope: The Photography of Seattle’s Martin Luther King, Jr. March – This exhibition showcases the energy and magnitude of Seattle’s annual King Day march through photographs taken by photographer Susan Fried.
- Notables of the Northwest Hallway – A hallway featuring photos of notable African American musicians of the Northwest and a thoughtful quote from each of them.
NAAM is also partnering with the Onyx Fine Arts Collective to showcase works of five Black artists of the Collective: Asha Helmstetter, Johnny Harris, Eddie Reed, Ashby Reed, and Earnest D. Thomas.
“NAAM is an institution that captures our hopes and dreams in a world of pandemics and problems,” said former Seattle Mayor Norman Rice and NAAM board member. “Our region is happy to see NAAM reopen. Our past and future are both there at NAAM, where excellent things are happening.”
For more information about NAAM’s King Day, please visit https://www.naamnw.org/king-day-2023.
The Northwest African American Museum (NAAM) is a regionally prestigious institution housed in the historic Colman School within Seattle’s Central District. Since opening in 2008, hundreds of thousands of visitors have come to the museum to view exhibitions, participate in dynamic public programs, and take part in private events. As a premier African American museum in the region, NAAM fills a void in the regional cultural scene by offering a space where community members come to reflect, to gain perspective, to learn, listen, and heal. NAAM uses Black history, art, and culture as a starting point that inspires, empowers, and informs all visitors about ourselves and our shared past. NAAM’s mission is to spread knowledge, understanding, and enjoyment of the histories, arts, and cultures of people of African descent for the enrichment of all.
SOURCE Northwest African American Museum
https://www.naamnw.org/king-day-2023
https://stmdailynews.com/category/the-bridge/
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Space and Tech
Astronaut Victor Glover is the latest in a long line of Black American explorers − including York, the enslaved man who played a key role in the Lewis and Clark expedition
Last Updated on April 10, 2026 by Daily News Staff
Craig Fehrman, Indiana University
Astronaut Victor Glover
In April 2026, four astronauts are scheduled to fly around the Moon. As part of NASA’s Artemis II mission, they will become the first humans to do so in half a century. One crew member, pilot Victor Glover, will become the first Black astronaut to ever orbit the Moon.
Glover’s achievement is worth celebrating. But it’s also worth remembering that he belongs to a long and underappreciated history. America’s first Black explorer didn’t fly an Apollo rocket or sail with the U.S. Exploring Expedition. He traveled with Lewis and Clark, and he was known by a single name: York.
I’m a historian who spent five years writing a book about Lewis and Clark, and I found new documents that show York was one of the most important people on their expedition. Even in a party that could number as many as 45 men, York stood out – for his courage, his skill and his sacrifices that helped the famous captains reach the Pacific Ocean.
York’s life as a slave
York was born in Virginia around 1770. Growing up, he was a creative and sociable child, unusually tall with dark hair and a dark complexion – “black as a bear,” a contemporary noted.
He was also enslaved by the Clarks. William Clark, who was around the same age, was also unusually tall, though his hair was a rusty red, and sometimes the boys played together. But the playing stopped once York turned 9 or 10. That’s when he joined the adult slaves in working full time. That’s also when he began to note the differences between his life and William’s – differences that became only clearer once William started ordering him around.
In the 1780s, the Clark household headed to Kentucky. York met a Black woman there and married her. He also became William’s “body servant.”
A body servant was a slave who stayed close to his owner and prioritized his comfort, laying out his clothes and serving his meals. When Meriwether Lewis asked Clark to join his expedition, in 1803, Clark ordered York to accompany him.
Perhaps York was excited for this adventure. Perhaps he was not – it would be punishing, and he would be separated from his wife.
Either way, York didn’t have a choice.
The Corps of Discovery
York proved his worth from the start. Once they reached St. Louis, the soldiers, later known as the Corps of Discovery, rushed to raise winter quarters. Working in hail and snow, York and the others built log huts. They needed rough planks for their tables and bunks, but the carpenters had only a single whipsaw to make them. They chose two men to operate this crucial tool. One of them was York.
On May 14, 1804, the corps began ascending the Missouri River. York helped row and tow the party’s barge, which was the size of a semi-truck trailer. He carried a rifle and hunted – according to the expedition’s journals, he was only the fifth named member to bring down a buffalo. York cooked for the captains. He collected scientific specimens. He nursed the sick, including several soldiers and, later on, Sacagawea, a Shoshone woman who would also prove essential to the expedition’s success.
The soldiers were not always kind in return. During this period, officers rarely brought along enslaved body servants. York’s race probably made some of the men angry or uncomfortable. One day, someone threw so much sand in his face that it nearly blinded him. Clark claimed it was “in fun,” but he also wrote that York was “very near losing his eyes,” and no one else got cruelly sprayed with sand.
That fall, during councils with Native leaders, York played a surprising and vital role. The Arikara, Mandan and Hidatsa all crowded in to see him and to touch his skin. They had never met a Black person before, and York showed off his strength and played with the Native children. Later, the Arikara said York was “the most marvelous” thing about the corps.
The next year, the expedition crossed the Rockies and the Continental Divide. York’s most important – and most overlooked – contributions came soon after. On the Columbia River and its tributaries, the party had to dig out five new canoes and then paddle them through treacherous rapids.
Lewis and Clark allowed only their best rivermen on these foaming, rock-riven waters. One of them was almost certainly York. During my research, I found an unpublished letter in which Clark praised York’s ability to “manage the boats.”
Just as important, York was a strong swimmer, a rare thing in an era when many people never learned to swim.
York’s life as an explorer
On the Columbia River, the corps survived a series of terrifying choke points – soggy hazards they referred to as the “Long Narrows” and the “Great Chute.” After that came the ocean. They had traveled together for more than 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers), and when the captains asked the men to vote on where to put their final winter quarters, they made sure to ask York, too.
It was the latest sign that his role had changed during this epic journey. But those changes began with York. In the West, he found ways to make choices and assert himself. He sent a buffalo robe to his wife in Kentucky. When Clark told him to scale back his performances for Native people, York ignored him – because he wanted to, and because he could.
York’s vote was also evidence that, like Victor Glover today, he was an official American explorer, a key member of a sprawling, federally funded mission. From 1804 to 1806, the government devoted a larger percentage of its budget to the corps than it devotes to NASA today.
Part of that money was earmarked for York. The Army gave officers who brought along their slaves a monthly ration or its cash equivalent. When the corps made it home, the government paid US$274.57 for York’s labor, a sum similar to what the privates received. But that money didn’t go to York. It went to Clark.
The hidden history of Black explorers
There have been many Black explorers in American history. Thomas Jefferson launched other expeditions besides Lewis and Clark’s, and those expeditions also included enslaved people, though their names have not survived. Isaiah Brown served on the Wheeler Survey, which mapped the West in greater detail after the Civil War. Matthew Henson accompanied Robert Peary on his Arctic expeditions, which received some federal support. More recently, NASA has depended on Black astronauts such as Guy Bluford, Mae Jemison and Jeanette Epps, among others.
York and Victor Glover are, for now, the first and most recent examples of this inspiring tradition. But their contributions go beyond that. When the captains asked York to vote on the winter quarters, they were acknowledging in some small way that he’d proven he was more than a body servant.
Of course, York had always been more than that. It just took 4,000 miles for Lewis and Clark to see it.
Craig Fehrman, Adjunct instructor at the Media School, Indiana University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
🧠 Forgotten Genius Fridays
A Short-Form Series from The Knowledge by STM Daily News
Every Friday, STM Daily News shines a light on brilliant minds history overlooked.
Forgotten Genius Fridays is a weekly collection of short videos and articles dedicated to inventors, innovators, scientists, and creators whose impact changed the world—but whose names were often left out of the textbooks.
From life-saving inventions and cultural breakthroughs to game-changing ideas buried by bias, our series digs up the truth behind the minds that mattered.
Each episode of The Knowledge runs 30–90 seconds, designed for curious minds on the go—perfect for YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Reels, and quick reads.
Because remembering these stories isn’t just about the past—it’s about restoring credit where it’s long overdue.
🔔 New episodes every Friday
📺 Watch now at: stmdailynews.com/the-knowledge
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The Bridge
McKinley Thompson: African American Auto Designer
The first-generation Bronco was designed by McKinley Thompson Jr., Ford’s first African American designer. This highlights his significant contribution to the automotive industry during Black History Month.
Last Updated on July 11, 2025 by Daily News Staff
The first-generation Bronco was designed by McKinley Thompson Jr., who was the first African American designer hired at Ford Motor Company.
Edited by: Rod Washington
Images: Ford Motor Company
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Wikipedia Wiki Commons
Visit: https://stmdailynews.com/category/the-bridge/black-history/
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News
The Controversy Surrounding the Jackie Robinson Biography at the U.S. Naval Academy
The Trump administration’s push to ban Jackie Robinson’s biography from the U.S. Naval Academy Library highlights tensions over diversity narratives in education, sparking controversy and raising concerns about historical representation amid ongoing political divisiveness.
Last Updated on April 30, 2025 by Daily News Staff
Jackie Robinson, first baseman with the Brooklyn Dodgers, circa 1949.
In an alarming move reflecting ongoing tensions over diverse narratives in education and public discourse, the Trump administration is reportedly pushing to ban a biography of Jackie Robinson from the Nimitz Library at the U.S. Naval Academy. This follows a week of controversy sparked by the temporary removal and subsequent restoration of an article on Robinson’s Army service from the Pentagon’s website.
According to a report from The New York Times, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed the Naval Academy to review its library collection for works that embody themes of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The biography of Robinson, alongside around 900 other titles—including Martin Luther King Jr.’s autobiography and “Einstein on Race and Racism”—has been flagged for removal under this directive.
Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for the Naval Academy, stated, “The U.S. Naval Academy is fully committed to executing and implementing all directives outlined in executive orders issued by the president and is currently reviewing the Nimitz Library collection to ensure compliance. The Navy is carrying out these actions with utmost professionalism, efficiency, and in alignment with national security objectives.”
With Hegseth scheduled to visit the Academy soon, it remains uncertain whether these controversial titles will be removed from the library before his arrival. The issue has sparked substantial outcry, particularly in light of the administration’s recent criticism over removing articles that celebrate influential figures in U.S. history, like Robinson and the Navajo code talkers.
In a discussion prompted by ESPN’s Jeff Passan, Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot reiterated the administration’s stance against diversity initiatives, indicating that some content may have been removed inadvertently. His comments drew significant backlash, leading to a follow-up statement emphasizing “patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission” rather than racial or ethnic identities.
Robinson, a second lieutenant in the Army from 1942 to 1944, served with the 761st Tank Battalion, the first Black tank unit to see combat in World War II. His court-martial for refusing to adhere to a racist bus policy only underscores his enduring struggle against racial injustice, paving the way for his groundbreaking success in Major League Baseball as he broke the color barrier.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, Robinson’s team for a decade, are scheduled to visit President Trump at the White House to celebrate their 2024 World Series title this April, coinciding with Jackie Robinson Day. This timing juxtaposes their celebration of his legacy against the backdrop of an administration taking steps to diminish recognition of such key figures in American history.
As this situation unfolds, it raises critical questions about the role of educational institutions, historical representation, and the importance of equitable narratives in our national dialogue. In today’s divided political landscape, the removal of influential and diverse voices from public access can serve not just as a reflection of current priorities but also as a forewarning about the future of discourse surrounding diversity and inclusion in America.
Related article: https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/article/trump-administration-reportedly-moves-to-ban-jackie-robinson-biography-from-naval-academy-library-235013259.html
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