The Super Bowl is a microcosm for observing how marketers are reacting to societal shifts that underscore the need for frequent, realistic, and diverse portrayals of minority groups. With that in mind, I recently asked my students to undertake an assignment in which they assessed diversity in Super Bowl advertising over the past five years. Continue reading Diversity Is The New Norm In Super Bowl Advertising: Study →

Cornell University Library has just made its Loewentheil Collection of African-American Photographs — 645 rare images dating from the 1860s through the 1960s that show a slice of American life not widely visible or preserved — available online. Donated to the university by Stephan and Beth Loewentheil in 2012, the collection includes famous faces, like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Muhammad Ali, but mostly historical images of African-Americans going about their daily business or commemorating occasions like graduations and weddings. Continue reading Rare Images Shed Light on a Century of African-American Life →

By Vera M. Kutzinsk

Langston Hughes, whom Carl Van Vechten memorably called “the Poet Laureate of the Negro race,” was born on 1 February 1902 in Joplin, Missouri; he died in New York City on 22 May 1967. This year, then, we celebrate Hughes‘ birthday at the beginning of what is now Black History Month, and we honor the fiftieth anniversary of his untimely passing. Remembering Hughes will no doubt lead to more books, articles, and conferences, which is as it should be. This work will be added to what has already been written about Hughes, much of it based on the Langston Hughes Papers at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale. Continue reading The wonderful poetic production of Langston Hughes →