Ken Makin

2 weeks ago | andscape.com | Ken Makin

The flower of choice for Aprils in Augusta, Georgia, is the azalea – its pink petals adorning the city’s golf scene and most prominent course. But there is another profound bloom about 5 miles from Augusta National, a towering magnolia tree hanging in a period garden about the Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History. Legendary Black golfer Jim Dent, who grew up in Augusta and played a consequential role in its golf history, died May 2 in the Georgia town.

2 weeks ago | csmonitor.com | Ken Makin

It was fitting that author and historian Peniel Joseph found himself near the “Embrace” sculpture on a cool Wednesday evening on Boston Common. The bronze monument depicts the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, clasping arms. For years, Professor Joseph has written about activists such as Dr. King, Malcolm X, and Kwame Ture (formerly known as Stokely Carmichael).

2 weeks ago | csmonitor.com | Ken Makin

Malcolm X is one of the most misunderstood activists in history. There are various examples of how perspectives on the icon can be downright ironic. One is a 1959 documentary titled “The Hate That Hate Produced,” which introduced the country to a form of Black nationalism promoted by the Nation of Islam. In many ways, the documentary contributed to how a significant number of people still see Malcolm X – as a violent and virulent racist.

2 weeks ago | csmonitor.com | Ken Makin

Stepping foot on Claflin University’s campus in Orangeburg, South Carolina, is walking onto “Freeland,” the name that was given to the campus during the Civil Rights Movement. It is a legacy that endures and that I experienced in Ministers’ Hall at Claflin, when I sat with some of the elders from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Their presence inspired me, because I knew what they had done as teenagers through the sit-in movement and how it changed the world.

3 weeks ago | csmonitor.com | Ken Makin

In mid-April, the U.S. Department of Justice revoked a settlement that dealt with wastewater problems in Alabama’s Lowndes County. Only a week prior to that decision, which sought to advance “President [Donald] Trump’s mandate to end illegal DEI and environmental justice policies,” I sat in a room with civil rights activists and learned about the contentious civil rights history of Lowndes County. The county, which had an ominous nickname in the 1960s, lies between Selma and Montgomery.