Farrell Evans

Farrell Evans is an award-winning journalist who writes about sports and history.

Latest from this author

Bob Marley sings at the One Love Peace Concert in Kingston, Jamaica on April 22, 1978.

Marley hoped the star-studded concert, held in Kingston, Jamaica in 1978, could help bring stability and peace to a divided, violence-stricken country.

How Laws First Passed in Jim Crow Era Suppressed the African American Vote

In the wake of the passage of the 15th Amendment and Reconstruction, several southern states enacted laws that restricted Black Americans' access to voting.

Moses Fleetwood Walker, Six Decades Before Jackie Robinson, This Man Integrated Major League Baseball

Moses Fleetwood Walker played for a Major League Baseball team in the 1880s.

Nat 'Sweetwater' Clifton, the first Black player to sign an NBA contract

After WWII, racial barriers in sports slowly began to drop. Jackie Robinson was not the only athlete on the front lines of these changes.

Buck Leonard of the Homestead Grays dashes to first during a 1940 Negro League game against the New York Black Yankees.

Denied entry into Major League Baseball, power hitters Buck Leonard, Josh Gibson and five others were later enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

The Roman Colosseum

The iconic Roman structure stood as the largest and most complex permanent amphitheater in the ancient world.

St. Louis, Missouri: Exodus of African American families from Louisiana and Mississippi to St. Louis. Procession of refugees from the steamboat landing to the colored churches. Engraving, 1879.

Many of the migrants, known as the Exodusters, fled the South after Reconstruction, seeking land and opportunity in Kansas.

What Was Christmas Like for America’s Enslaved People? Winter holidays in the Southern States, Christmas Eve, 1857

For some, it was a rare time of respite; for others, an opportunity for resistance.

John Jordan Crittenden, 1857. Artist George Peter Alexander Healy.

The author of Crittenden Compromise argued his six amendments presented a good deal. But then-President-elect Lincoln drew a firm line.

The two 19th century leaders had deep respect for each other. But one was openly—and harshly—critical.

sepia colored wood engraving half-portraits of a 19th century Black couple

Abolitionist Frederick Douglass called the Supreme Court ruling 'a vile and shocking abomination.' It inspired Abraham Lincoln to help speed slavery's 'ultimate extinction.'

Lincoln wanted to end slavery—but wasn’t keen on integrating African Americans into US society. His first attempt to send them offshore proved disastrous.

A group of young people listening to a portable radio on the beach at Coney Island, New York, July 1947.

Fireside Chats. The 'Fight of the Century.' A live report from Pearl Harbor. These are just a few of the historic radio broadcasts that seemed to have the whole nation listening.

A neighborhood map that outlines the different restrictive covenants on the homes in Montgomery County's Rock Creek Hills neighborhood in Maryland

Communities across the U.S. required home deeds to include clauses that explicitly denied buyers based on race, ethnicity or religion.

United States Air Force Staff Sergeant Edward Williams (right) of St. Louis, Missouri, exchanges a handshake with his Commander-in-Chief, President Harry S. Truman

Executive Order 9981, one of Truman's most important achievements, became a major catalyst for the civil rights movement.

How Tuskegee Airmen Fought Military Segregation With Nonviolent Action

Their coordinated efforts to integrate a white officers' club set an example that wasn't lost on leaders of the burgeoning civil rights movement.

Detroit Riots, 1967

In what came to be known as the 'long, hot summer,' US cities exploded—more than 150 times—into violent upheaval.

Six Influential African American Judges

These jurists had to break barriers to get to the bench—and didn't stop once they got there.

James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr.

In 1965, the two prominent intellectuals faced off in Cambridge, England over whether the American dream is at the expense of African Americans. Baldwin won.

1950s father lying in the grass reading to his son and daughter

And of course, all that grass inspired innovations in mowing.

Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921: The Aerial Assault

Few historians dispute that planes flew low over the city's prosperous Black district during the 1921 attack. What's less clear: whether bullets were fired or incendiaries were dropped.

Why Ice Cream Soared in Popularity During Prohibition

No beer? No problem. Better refrigeration, together with innovations in making and selling frozen treats, helped steer people toward this 'refreshing and palatable food.'

Eleanor Roosevelt and Dr. Mary Bethune Visit George Washington Carver HallEleanor Roosevelt and Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune are visiting George Washington Carver Hall, a men's dormitory for blacks. Washington, D.C., May 1943. | Location: George Washington Carver Hall, Washington, D.C., USA. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Led by Mary McLeod Bethune, this informal network of advisors was the first group to press for civil rights from within the federal government.

America’s First Black Regiment Fought for the Nation’s Freedom—As Well as Their Own

The Slave Enlistment Act of 1778 stipulated that any enslaved person accepted to the 1st Rhode Island Regiment be “immediately discharged from the service of his master or mistress, and be absolutely free."

A Black Students Union leader in front of a crowd of demonstrators at San Francisco State College in December 1968. The union had gone on strike after racial strife between students and administration.

The 1968 strike was the longest by college students in American history. It helped usher in profound changes in higher education.

Reconstruction: A Timeline of America's First Attempt at Tackling Slavery's Legacy. Freedman's Bureau

For a 14-year period, the U.S. government took steps to try and integrate the nation's newly freed Black population into society.

Charles McGee, a Tuskegee Airman and a veteran of three wars.

These pioneering Black aviators not only took on the Germans; they shattered racist stereotypes and helped advance civil rights.

The Unsung Black Scientists of the Manhattan Project

At least 12 Black chemists and physicists worked as primary researchers on the team that developed the technology behind the atomic bomb.

South Africa captain Francois Pienaar receives the William Webb Ellis Trophy from President Nelson Mandela after the home team defeated arch rival New Zealand in the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup in Johannesburg.

In a nation bitterly divided by apartheid, Mandela used the game to foster shared national pride.

Why Isn't Washington, D.C. a State?

When the plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field on September 11, it was 20 minutes flying time from the nation's capital.

Why Frederick Douglass Passionately Recruited Black Soldiers During Civil War

He believed that, as soldiers, men of color could gain self-respect, self-defense skills and an undeniable justification for the rights of citizenship.

Frederick Patterson standing beside a bare Patterson-Greenfield automobile chassis, probably for a larger touring car body.

C.R. Patterson & Sons, which started as a carriage building firm, produced luxury roadsters and, later, bodies for service vehicles.

The Opelousas Massacre terrorized African American voters and stopped local Black political progress in its tracks.

Thomas Morris Chester (1813-1903)

Thomas Morris Chester, whose mother had escaped slavery, covered the final year of the war for a white-owned newspaper.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a crowd from his front porch, at his home in Montgomery, Ala., on Jan. 30, 1956, after it was bombed.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s wife and child were inside when his home was bombed on January 30, 1956. Thankfully neither were harmed.

America's interstate highway system cut through the heart of dozens of urban neighborhoods.

During WWII, Trezzvant Anderson embedded with the Army’s first Black tank squad to see combat. He deployed their stories in the broader fight for equality.

Martin Luther King and Dr. Spock lead protest against Vietnam War.

In 1967, several prominent antiwar activists urged MLK to run for president with Dr. Spock as his VP.

Who Invented Golf?

The game's rules were formally written down in 1744, but people had already been playing for centuries.

Stephanie St. Clair Hamid, the "Numbers Queen"of Harlem, being held on charges of attempted assault.

Against the odds, Stephanie St. Clair became Harlem's 'Queen of Numbers,' facing down corrupt cops and violent mobsters.