slavery

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which meets at City Hall, accepted a draft plan of more than 100 recommendations for reparations to eligible Black residents. But the move was largely procedural and doesn't bind the city to any of the proposals.

San Francisco will discuss reparation proposals — but even supporters are split

7:03am March 18, 2023

by Vanessa Romo

While many cheered the possibility of a huge financial windfall for the city's Black residents, one civil rights leader says the proposal is a distraction from tangible efforts to redress racism.

Ilyon Woo, the author of Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom.

Books

Ilyon Woo's new book explores the relentless pursuit of freedom

1:01pm January 24, 2023

by Reena Advani

In "Master Slave Husband Wife," Ilyon Woo describes the story of Ellen and William Craft escaping slavery.

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Activists march toward the German consulate during a rally to support two Filipina domestic workers in their lawsuit against a German diplomat.

No region is 'immune' as the number of people in 'modern slavery' climbs to 50 million

5:32pm September 13, 2022

by Juliana Kim

According to a new report, the number of people subject to forced labor or marriage or trafficking has increased substantially since 2016, with the majority of forced labor cases in rich countries.

Juneteenth highlights 'kaleidoscope of how freedom is delayed'

10:08am June 17, 2022

by Eddie Garcia

Juneteenth, now federally recognized, celebr

Tenor Jamez McCorkle, who debuted the title role in the opera Omar, by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, which received its world premiere on May 27 in Charleston, S.C., at Spoleto Festival USA.

The debut of 'Omar,' a thoroughly American opera

12:20pm June 07, 2022

by Anastasia Tsioulcas

Composers Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels have brought a true story to the opera stage: the life of Omar Ibn Said, a Senegalese Muslim scholar who was enslaved and brought to the Carolinas.

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A general view of Harvard University campus is seen on April 22, 2020 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

National

Harvard releases report detailing its ties to slavery, plans to issue reparations

5:54am April 27, 2022

by Ayana Archie

A committee formed by Harvard President Lawrence Bacow found that Harvard faculty and staff enslaved 70 people from the school's founding in 1636 to the banning of slavery in Massachusetts in 1783.

Mary Stepp Burnette Hayden, pictured around 1942, with her granddaughter, Mary Othella Burnette, and two of Hayden's great-grandchildren.

National

A granddaughter passes on the legacy of 'Granny Hayden,' a midwife born into slavery

2:31pm February 18, 2022

"If somebody needed help — Granny was going. Black and whites alike, it made no difference to her," Mary Othella Burnette says of her late grandmother, a second-generation midwife in Black Appalachia.

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High Point commission will study possible slavery reparations

10:43am February 09, 2022

by Neal Charnoff

The city of High Point is appointing a commission that will study potential slavery reparations for Black residents.

Footmen walk alongside the Golden Carriage as Netherlands' King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima arrive at Noordeinde Palace on Sept. 17, 2013.

World News

Dutch king won't use a royal carriage that's been criticized for a colonial image

5:09pm January 13, 2022

by The Associated Press

The king ruled out using, for now at least, the "Golden Carriage," which bears a painting that critics say glorifies the Netherlands' colonial past, including its role in the global slave trade.

Jo (left), Joy Banner and their parents fled to the Big House on the Whitney Plantation to ride out Hurricane Ida last Sunday. They say their enslaved ancestors helped build the house.

National

Descendants Of The Enslaved Sheltered From Ida In A Historic Plantation's Big House

11:11am September 05, 2021

by John Burnett

Joy Banner's family took shelter in a house on a plantation their ancestors helped build. "They were not able to have this kind of house for their own protection when a hurricane hit them," she says.