Black History

America 250: Why Crispus Attucks Matters Today

AFRO-AMERICAN – WASHINGTON — As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, a discussion has emerged about how the nation should commemorate this milestone. The article suggests focusing on Crispus Attucks, an formerly enslaved man whose death marked the first casualty of the American Revolution.

Published

2 months ago

July 6, 2026

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Death of Crispus Attucks, William L Champney, Boston Massacre

Instead of choosing between competing July Fourth celebrations, honor the man whose death helped ignite the American Revolution.

By New York Amsterdam News

Division is a word that stands in stark contrast to the ideals inherent to the United States of America, but it has become an operative one for Donald Trump and his administration.

As Americans celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, this commentary argues the country should look beyond competing political commemorations and honor Crispus Attucks, the formerly enslaved sailor whose death in the Boston Massacre made him the first casualty of the American Revolution—and a symbol of the nation’s unfinished pursuit of freedom. Credit: National Archives and Records Administration

Even as the nation gathers to celebrate its 250th birthday, we witness an insuperable divide, keenly illustrated in the notion of two differing commemorations. One is “America 250” and the other “Freedom 250.”

The latter was initiated by Trump to counter the prior one established by Congress in 2016 as the official, nonpartisan commission and often cited as “America’s Block Party.”

In 2025, Trump issued an executive order, thereby creating an arm of his administration‘s Task Force 250. What we have, as one pundit put it, is one birthday and two planners.

First to Die for His Country

Of course, early on, the country observed that someone else’s birthday was in the mix when Ultimate Fighting Championship events were staged on the South Lawn of the White House on June 14.

This was just another blatant example of his egomania, his narcissism that has imperiled us since the inauguration of his second term. We have, in these pages, posted countless critiques of his tyranny of monarchy, and there is so much more to be said as we endure his assault on our democratic rights.

Evidence of this occurs daily — the evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, the suspension of the Temporary Protection Status that threatens the deportation of Haitians and Syrians, and at the same time opening our portals to allegedly racially embattled white South Africans, the militarization of our streets with ICE agents, ending the Constitutional guarantees of birthright, an unsanctioned and reckless war with Iran, and ad infinitum.

Illustrated portrait of Crispus Attucks, hero of the Boston Massacre in 1770. Credit: The New York Public Library Digital Collections

So you have your choice as to which of the two parties to hang your hat, commit your loyalty, and attend. What we are proposing is a third option — let’s celebrate the birthday of Crispus Attucks, the first to fall in the Boston Massacre in 1770.

Sailor, Whaler, Patriot

There is still debate about his ancestry, whether he was Black, Native American, or a bit of both. To a certain degree, that is inconsequential when you consider he escaped from bondage and ended up among those protesting the presence of British soldiers in Boston. According to the best records, he was born in 1723, predating the Declaration of Independence by 53 years.

Before and after his enslavement, Attucks worked as a sailor and whaler, and sometimes on the docks. One of my favorite accounts of his courage and death was written by historian Kenneth C. Davis in his book, “Don’t Know Much About History — Everything You Need to Know about American History but Never Learned.”

“Early in March 1770,” the book reads, “a group of ropemakers fought with a detachment of soldiers who were taking their jobs, and all around Boston, angry encounters between soldiers and citizens became more frequent. Tensions mounted until March 5, where a mob, many of them hard-drinking waterfront workers, confronted a detachment of nine British soldiers.”

“Confronted by a taunting mob calling for their blood, the soldiers grew … nervous. It only took the word ‘fire,’ and most likely yelled by one of the crowd, to ignite the situation. The soldiers shot, and five bodies fell. The first to die was a fifty-year-old former slave, either a Black or Indian mulatto sailor named Crispus Attucks.”

Cries for Justice and Freedom

Thus began the Revolutionary War, the subsequent rise of the so-called founding fathers (many of them slave holders), and those hallowed but unfulfilled words of the Declaration of Independence.

The call to honor Attucks’ place in the nation’s history gives resonance to the millions of enslaved African Americans, the decimation of Native Americans, and their ongoing cry for justice and total freedom.

Added to this cry is the demand for reparations, an end to the electoral college, expansion of the Supreme Court, and erasure of the unitary executive theory, the constitutional law that Article II of the Constitution vests all executive power directly in the president. Already, the current president is invested with far too much unchecked authority.

We are not sure of the date of Attucks’ birth, so we have made it July 4, 1776. Let us hope and pray it doesn’t take 250 more years to obtain our meager demands. On that day, we can truly celebrate an undivided United States.

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

The post America 250: Why Crispus Attucks matters today appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

Based on reporting by Afro-American – Washington.

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Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026

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5 days ago

September 7, 2026

Oakland Post

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Jackie Wright Champions Bay Area Stories, Filmmakers and Cultural Institutions

As an award-winning communications professional, Wright has worked with corporations, nonprofits, government agencies, educational institutions, artists, and community organizations. In 2026, she expanded that work by launching an introductory public relations class for small businesses and nonprofits, offering practical tools for gaining visibility, shaping messages and building productive relationships with the media.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 30, 2026

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Jackie Wright of Wright Enterprises. Photo courtesy of Wright Enterprises.

By Carla Thomas

Jackie Wright has spent more than two decades helping people, organizations and communities understand the power of a well-told story.

As founder and president of Wright Enterprises, a San Francisco-based strategic communications and public affairs firm, Wright has built a career spanning journalism, public relations, media relations, crisis communications, community engagement and multimedia storytelling.

Wright’s commitment to storytelling is also deeply personal. She wrote and co-directed the 15-minute documentary, “Love Separated in Life…Love Reunited in Honor,” which chronicles the story of her parents, Specialist Five (S5 Wyley Wright Jr. and Ouida Fay McClendon Wright. Her father, a U.S. Army helicopter crew chief, died in Vietnam in 1964 while serving as an honor guard during a visit by then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Decades later, Wright and her siblings had their father exhumed from a segregated cemetery in Jacksonville, Florida, and their mother moved from her burial place in Georgia so the couple could be reunited at Arlington National Cemetery in 2014.

The family journey later took Wright and her sister to Vietnam, where they discovered the former military compound that had been named in honor of their father and another fallen soldier. The documentary, centered on love, war, family, racial understanding, and remembrance, earned festival recognition at screenings.

“It was quite an honor to learn about my family’s history and share it on film,” said Wright.

That filmmaking experience complements Wright’s longstanding advocacy for independent cinema. She has served as a media partner and brand ambassador for Bay Area film festivals, including the San Francisco Black Film Festival, Oakland International Film Festival, and the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa.

“It’s important to help filmmakers and underrepresented stories reach broader audiences,” said Wright.

Whether promoting a neighborhood organization, championing an independent filmmaker or preserving her own family history, Wright has remained consistent. Through Wright Enterprises, she has turned communications into both a profession and a form of community service, telling stories that might otherwise go unheard.

“Our stories are an integral part of our history, and our history is not only American history, but worldwide,” she said.

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BOOK REVIEW: Every Inch of a Lady

“Born, bred, toasted, buttered, jellied, and honeyed in Harlem” in 1937, Audrey Smaltz was a force to be reckoned with almost from the time she could walk. Her parents imbued confidence in her; they nurtured her creativity and sent her to charm school, but they never allowed her to create a stir.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 30, 2026

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Audrey Smaltz' latest book "Every Inch a Lady" with Alina Mitchell, is a colorful autobiographical story following a young Black model's pursuit to become a fashion designer in New York City during the pre-Civil Rights era.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: Audrey Smaltz with Alina Mitchell, foreword by Michael Kors, Copyright: c.2026, Publisher: Amistad, SRP: $27.99, Page Count: 256 Pages, Snaps, zippers, buttons, ties.

Toss that garment on, pull it up, wrap it around; you know what you like and how to wear it. The color is perfect for your skin tone, and the fabric enhances your figure. Yep, you always look your best and, as in the new book “Every Inch a Lady” by Audrey Smaltz (with Alina Mitchell), that best is fabulous.

“That,” says Smaltz, “is not what ladies did.”

By the time she was a teenager, Smaltz was modeling for New York City designers. Shortly thereafter, she started working for a married man with whom she had an affair, and whom she loved very much. She broke up with him, attended college, and worked a series of jobs that taught her about fashion and jobs that didn’t seem to fit her. An ill-fated marriage took her to Chicago, where she ultimately landed a position that sent her to work in Ebony magazine’s New York office.

Working at Ebony was a career-changer, in a way. Smaltz traveled the world and learned more about fashion, but she didn’t exactly get along with her boss.

Finally, seizing an opportunity, Smaltz decided to launch her own company, Audrey Smaltz, Inc., a “fashion production business,” but she couldn’t get any designers to take a chance on her. Undaunted, she reorganized, re-branded, hit the streets, and knocked on doors until she finally found one client, which led to many others.

Through it all, her personal life was a whirlwind. She dated “more men than you can shake a book at,” settling down occasionally, briefly. Fashion had always been her first love, but she accidentally found real love, “the love of a woman,” at a leadership course…

There’s an old saying that writers need to add lots of “color” into their stories. Read a little of “Every Inch a Lady,” and you’ll notice immediately that author Audrey Smaltz (with Alina Mitchell) quite literally takes that to heart by mentioning nearly every color of the spectrum here. Hmm.

That oddity aside, Smaltz is a wonderfully lively storyteller, speaking with the energy of a woman much younger to the heart of anyone who loves fashion. That glee extends to collectors of vintage clothing, who will be delighted to read about the industry long ago and the way things worked then. Smaltz says she experienced racism, which is not unusual for pre-Civil Rights America, but doors were surprisingly closed for other reasons that will astound anyone who’s savvy about the fashion industry, even today.

There’s quite a bit of name-dropping in this book, but most of it belongs in the anecdotes, so you likely won’t mind. If you’re a fashionista, too, find “Every Inch a Lady,” and snap it up.