1862 military order requiring people to sign up for military duty or they’d be considered marauders and robbers.
Category: Black History
An exhibit, the Boone home and black history events
I love the Beatles. It’s hard for me to believe that it might be possible someday for people to not know the names of John, Paul, Ringo and George. But that could happen and that’s what might have happened to the musician J.W. “Blind” Boone (1864-1927) if the residents of Columbia and the city hadn’t…
Six degrees of connection: Lucile H. Bluford
History is all about connections, change and, I hope, progress. Lucile H. Bluford isn’t from Columbia, Missouri but she’s connected to Columbia, Missouri. A book about this journalist, Black feminist and civil rights advocate was published on April 23, 2018 and I apologize for not publicizing it then. To buy it direct, click the title: “Lucile…
Black history is our history
James T. Nunnelly made Columbia a better place to live by taking part in the sit-in at the Minute Inn. Read about the 1960 event in this “The Sit-in at the Minute Inn: A Columbia native and the civil rights protest that shaped him,” published on Nov. 18, 2018 in Vox magazine. As the plaque…
I never get tired of this
One of the best things that happened in Columbia was when Sharp End was marked. Here’s a 2015 video about the marking of this economic and social heart of Columbia, which was lost due to urban renewal and some misguided policies. I never get tired of watching this video about Sharp End, an area of…
A historic note on #MeToo
The recent news about Harvey Weinstein and Hollywood’s outrage about his sexual assaults shows news affects people even when it happens far away. In 1855, 26 miles from Columbia, Missouri, a slave woman was hanged after she killed her white owner who had been raping her for years. The headline merely says a Missouri woman…
Three reasons lynching matters today
Lynching hit the news again in the Sunday, July 2, 2017 Columbia Missourian. The article relates that Missouri has the highest number of lynchings, 60, from 1877 to 1950 outside of the deep south. The headline calls lynching an old disgrace. I believe it is not a disgrace, it is a tragedy for three reasons….
The arts — and history — aren’t dead
Nine historic figures from Columbia, Missouri’s past will come to life during four-minute monologues to be presented from 1 to 4 p.m. on May 29
Another view of history
During the student protests against racist event in the fall of 2015, some people shook their head and privately wondered — and even some publicly asked — why were students and residents were so angry, so willing to react and protest. Perhaps one answer lies in Columbia’s history. This article published in the December 2016…
Lynching: History finds a home
One of the reasons for this blog is to mark history, and historic homes are, in a way, a marker of history. But for a long time, there wasn’t a marker for a major historic event in Columbia, Missouri: the lynching of James Scott. This article, reprinted with permission from George Kennedy and the Columbia…
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