‘MLK’s Mother Was Assassinated Too’ In February 2021, a long-circulating meme about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s mother's death reappeared on social media.
‘Why Did Slaves Come to America?’ School Worksheet In March 2019, two viral Facebook posts circulated with an image of an alarmingly inaccurate “Why Did Slaves Come to America?” worksheet. The viral Facebook posts were part of a larger controversy in February and March 2019 about myriad incomplete, deeply inaccurate, and outright misleading school lessons on slavery in various places across the United States in […]
Underground Railroad to Mexico? On February 13 2019, a Facebook user shared a screenshot of a tweet, originally tweeted a day earlier by @HISTORY about a purported version of the Underground Railroad running south to Mexico: Text for the tweet read: Slaveholders knew that enslaved people were escaping to Mexico, and the U.S. tried to get Mexico to sign […]
Has Wu-Tang’s GZA Lectured on Quantum Physics at Harvard? In February 2019, a #BlackHistoryMonth post on Facebook asserted that the Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA (also known as The Genius) is a scientist, has lectured at Harvard, and is educated in quantum physics: Above two photographs of GZA, text stated: People you didn’t know were scientists: GZA of Wutang Clan is educated in quantum physics & […]
Was the Original ‘Lone Ranger’ a Black Man? In January 2019, a meme that appeared to be a screenshot of an older post asserting that the real Lone Ranger was a black man named Bass Reeves spread on social media: Above what appeared to be an archival photograph of a black man and the television character the Lone Ranger, a screencaptured Facebook post […]
1921 Tulsa Race Riot In February 2019, a meme about the 1921 Tulsa race riot was shared to Facebook, racking up tens of thousands of shares in 24 hours: Above what looked to be an archival photograph of Ku Klux Klan members lining a dirt road, and caption (“History we should all know”), it read: May 31st 1921 The […]
Were Modern Caesarean Sections Invented in Africa? On February 6 2019, a Facebook post circulated claiming that “modern c-sections” were invented by midwives in Africa. The post had the hashtag #BlackHistoryMonth, and it said in its entirety: Did you that modern C sections were invented by African women— centuries before they were standard elsewhere? Midwives and surgeons living around Lake Tanganyika and […]
