1+ hour, 9+ min ago (811+ words) If visitors to Art Basel Miami Beach, which runs Friday through Sunday, venture beyond the fair tents, they will find a city with a wealth of culture and history " and an area that could be described as an exclave of Cuba. Here is a selection of sights and shows. The year 1959 was revolutionary for Cuba: Fidel Castro toppled the Cuban government early that year and went on to hold power for nearly five decades. That was also a transformative year for Miami. Around 250,000 Cubans fled to the United States in the first few years after the revolution, with over half settling in Miami, and hundreds of thousands coming over the next decade. Today, there are about 900,000 residents of Cuban descent in Miami-Dade County (Miami and its surrounding areas) " out of around 1.6 million in the state of Florida. The first generation…...

12+ hour, 25+ min ago (299+ words) The attempted erasure of Black history within the U.S. military has gotten itself into a quagmire of resistance in a land far away and a time long ago, back to the days of Jim Crow. It also reflected recent efforts in the Netherlands to learn more about and make note of 172 African Americans buried at Margraten, including three from our region: John Clark, Jr. and Richard Willoughby of Norfolk, and Alpheus Hughes of Charles City County. For the Dutch, the Margraten displays were recognition of what Black soldiers faced in their country in 1944-45. It's history that should not be forgotten, if it is even known in the present day. The remembrance community surrounding Margraten has been proactive since the beginning, and reactive when it needs to be. Kees Ribbens, Ph.D, is director of the Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide…...

12+ hour, 25+ min ago (299+ words) The attempted erasure of Black history within the U.S. military has gotten itself into a quagmire of resistance in a land far away and a time long ago, back to the days of Jim Crow. It also reflected recent efforts in the Netherlands to learn more about and make note of 172 African Americans buried at Margraten, including three from our region: John Clark, Jr. and Richard Willoughby of Norfolk, and Alpheus Hughes of Charles City County. For the Dutch, the Margraten displays were recognition of what Black soldiers faced in their country in 1944-45. It's history that should not be forgotten, if it is even known in the present day. The remembrance community surrounding Margraten has been proactive since the beginning, and reactive when it needs to be. Kees Ribbens, Ph.D, is director of the Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide…...

21+ hour, 30+ min ago (99+ words) [A man in a suit and hat appears to be riding a large moose through a body of water, with trees visible in the background. The image is in black and white.]It's easy to imagine that anxiety over manipulated images began with Photoshop or AI, but photographers have been wrestling with the problem almost since the birth of the medium. More than a century ago (113 years back to be exact), the U.S. faced a scandal over doctored images of the president, and the outrage nearly led to a national ban on fake photos. [Read More]...

1+ day, 16+ hour ago (1799+ words) Ann Hauge, third-generation owner of the Snake River Ranch in Wyoming, was instrumental in building the first new port in Haiti's southern peninsula in 50 years. She says that, like Wyoming, Haiti feeds her pioneer spirit. Ann Hauge will tell you up front she's more New York than Wyoming, though she is a third-generation owner of the Snake River Ranch near Wilson, which lays claim to being the largest deeded ranch in the Jackson Hole area. Forty-some years ago, Hauge had the chance to go to Haiti just after graduating from Harvard with a law degree. It wasn't supposed to be a lifelong thing, but Haiti has a way of'burrowing under'the skin, down deep into a person's soul, she said. Once that happens, it will never quite let you go, no matter how many times you return home to enjoy a…...

1+ day, 20+ hour ago (382+ words) On Nov. 23, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center (ETIC) acquired the barn connected to the 1955 murder of Emmett Till,securing one of the mostsignificant and fragile sites in American civil rights history after agreeing to a purchase price of $1.5 million. The purchase ensures the structure'which eyewitness Willie Reed identified as the location where Till was tortured before his death'will be preserved and transformed into a "sacred space for truth, healing, and national reflection." The move is designed to prevent the site from being exploited by speculators or hate groups, securing the narrative's integrity for public memory. The ETIC, a community-based organization with a two-decade history of ethical stewardship in the Mississippi Delta, will hold the title to the property. Leadership stated the decision was guided by Till's mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, whose charge to "let the world see remains central to the…...

1+ day, 21+ hour ago (331+ words) A decision to banish a monument to two of Australia's most well-known colonial explorers from the centre of Melbourne has sparked outrage in Victoria. The Burke and Wills monument, sculpted by Charles Summers and unveiled in 1865, had previously been located on the corner of Swanston and Collins streets until 2017 " when it was removed to make way for the Metro Tunnel Project. Since then it has gathered dust in storage. But instead of being returned to the spot where it has resided for more than 150 years, the monument is now slated to be sent to the Royal Society of Victoria on LaTrobe Street. The society is yet to decide what it will do with it. The two explorers famously set out to map the interior of Australia from Victoria up to the Gulf of Carpenteria in 1860, but a series of unfortunate…...

1+ day, 22+ hour ago (282+ words) [On This Day: Amistad Survivors Begin Their Journey Home] (AURN News) " On this day in 1841, 35 survivors of the Amistad mutiny departed New York City to return home to Africa. The men, members of the Mende tribe, had been violently captured and forced aboard the Spanish slave ship La Amistad. Refusing to accept enslavement, they staged a courageous revolt and attempted to [] The post On This Day: Amistad Survivors Begin Their Journey Home appeared first on The Black Chronicle. [On This Day: Amistad Survivors Begin Their Journey Home] (AURN News) " On this day in 1841, 35 survivors of the Amistad mutiny departed New York City to return home to Africa. The men, members of the Mende tribe, had been violently captured and forced aboard the Spanish slave ship La Amistad. Refusing to accept enslavement, they staged a courageous revolt and attempted to steer…...

1+ day, 22+ hour ago (197+ words) On This Day: Amistad Survivors Begin Their Journey Home - The Black Chronicle On This Day: Amistad Survivors Begin Their Journey Home (AURN News) " On this day in 1841, 35 survivors of the Amistad mutiny departed New York City to return home to Africa. The men, members of the Mende tribe, had been violently captured and forced aboard the Spanish slave ship La Amistad. Refusing to accept enslavement, they staged a courageous revolt and attempted to steer the vessel back toward Africa. Instead, the ship drifted to Long Island, New York, where the men were taken into custody. Their struggle ignited a groundbreaking legal battle in the United States that ultimately reached the Supreme Court. In a landmark ruling, the Court found that the Africans had been illegally enslaved and were justified in fighting for their freedom. Click play to listen to the…...

1+ day, 23+ hour ago (410+ words) MACON, Ga. " After more than a decade of planning, fundraising and construction, the newly renovated Rosa Parks Square is reopening in Downtown Macon " just in time for the city's annual Christmas Light Extravaganza. Alex Morrison, executive director of the Macon-Bibb Urban Development Authority, said the project has been years in the making. "It's been over a decade worth of work from the time that we started doing the plans, raising money for the park, working on getting it done and then another year for construction," Morrison said. "I'm really excited to see this park through, to see what it will really mean to the community " that a park that bears this name, that bears this legacy, is delivered." Rosa Parks Square sits between City Hall and the Macon City Auditorium. It was first built as a civic plaza in 1978 and…...