Tag Archives: history

Maya Angelou and Sally Ride to Become First in Series of Women Who Will Be Honored on U.S. Quarters

The United States Mint has announced that Maya Angelou and Sally Ride will be the first two women honored as part of the American Women Quarters Program, which will commemorate the accomplishments and contributions of 20 prominent woman in American history by putting them on the back of quarters, New York Times reports.

Juneteenth: The 155-Year History of America’s Other Holiday

Today, as demonstrators continue to fight for justice for Ahmaud ArberyBreonna TaylorGeorge Floyd, and a growing list of others, the country is getting ready to celebrate the 155th anniversary of a milestone in the liberation of Black people by way of America’s other holiday: Juneteenth. Continue reading Juneteenth: The 155-Year History of America’s Other Holiday

UNDERSTANDING THE HISTORY OF RACISM IN AMERICA

In a short essay published earlier this week, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch wrote that the recent killing in Minnesota of George Floyd has forced the country to “confront the reality that, despite gains made in the past 50 years, we are still a nation riven by inequality and racial division.” Continue reading UNDERSTANDING THE HISTORY OF RACISM IN AMERICA

The Timely Return of the Drive-In Restaurant

For a city that’s still on substantial lockdown, including the suspension of dine-in eating due to COVID-19, San Francisco’s Mel’s Drive-in—at least, its parking lot along Geary Boulevard—is buzzing. Cars occupy many of the restaurant’s parking spaces, each one filled with customers awaiting orders of the burgers, milkshakes and french fries that have made this 1950s-style eatery famous. But there’s something else that has brought them here: the revival of Mel’s carhop service, a once prominent part of its offerings when Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs opened the California restaurant chain’s original location back in 1947. At that time, it was the allure of car-oriented leisure offerings that inspired drive-in restaurants. Today it’s a pandemic. Continue reading The Timely Return of the Drive-In Restaurant