Edward Brooke
Mike Seccombe
You might expect the first black man ever popularly elected as a United States senator would be out there rooting for the election of the first black President. But no. Edward W. Brooke has never thought race — or gender, for that matter — had anything to do with worthiness.
African American History
Julia Rappaport
The day outside was cold. A real winter northeaster was blowing in and the gray clouds above promised snow. The door to Vera Shorter’s Vineyard Haven home, however, was open. She had just indulged in what is quite possibly her only vice she said as she spread a stack of ginger snaps on a plate. She braved the cold so her home would not smell like the cigarettes she cannot seem to give up. She would hate for the smoke to offend the guests who stop in from time to time.
Profiles
Martha's Vineyard NAACP
African American History
house
Jim Hickey
It may be hard to tell now, but there was a time when the Bradley Memorial Church was arguably the spiritual and social center of Oak Bluffs.
Denniston House
African American History
Zita
Alexander Trowbridge
Black-owned businesses on Martha’s Vineyard span its economic and cultural niches while catering to a general audience. They are inns, art galleries, boutiques and restaurants as well as service providers from real estate to holistic weight loss. But many African American business owners, year-rounders, vacationers and community leaders agree that, given the Island’s history and large African American summer population, there are not nearly enough black-owned businesses based here.
African American History
Alexander Trowbridge
Linsey Lee emerged from what was once the Vineyard’s first African American church last week peeling a respirator from her face. By her count, she had spent more than 150 hours in the Bradley Memorial Church in Oak Bluffs, and the mask stood as a shield between her and decades of dust.
Martha's Vineyard Museum
Denniston House
African American History
MV Museum History
Bradley Memorial Church
pictures
Mark Alan Lovewell
Longtime friends and followers of the late Dorothy West gathered on Saturday afternoon in the shade on a hot August day to pay tribute to the writer, who was the last surviving member of the Harlem renaissance, and to share memories.
African American Heritage Trail
African American History
Dorothy West
Mike Seccombe
Vineyard voters came down decisively on the winning side of history on Tuesday, turning out in record numbers to help elect America’s first black President.
African American History
Barack Obama
Presidential elections
Magdalena
Sam Bungey
The last time a new president was sworn in the only Vineyard party to make the news was an anti-inaugural street march complete with protest placards and a theme song.
African American History
Elizabeth Gates
In early October 2008 I was invited to Chicago to sit in the Family and Friends Tent in Bryant Park and witness the possible election of our nation’s 44th President, Barack Hussein Obama.
Barack Obama
African American History
In Search of Our Roots
Bettye Foster Baker
IN SEARCH OF OUR ROOTS: How 19 Extraordinary Americans Reclaimed Their Past. By Henry Louis Gates Jr. Crown. January, 2009. 424 pages. $27.50.
Book reviews
African American History
henry louis gates
Mike Seccombe
Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Solow had the overflow crowd roaring with laughter from the very start of his introduction of Henry Louis Gates Jr. at the Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival on Sunday. “It’s not often,” he deadpanned, “that you get the chance to introduce a deserving but obscure scholar . . . .” And people say Americans don’t understand irony.
African American History
Mimi Wells
It was a busy day for Kamala Harris; her Vineyard vacation was drawing to a close and she was pressed for time. Stopping for a television interview on her way to catch a flight to New York city, the San Francisco district attorney, who is running for California Attorney General in 2010, arrived hurried but not flustered. The lights snapped on, a cameraman mimed a countdown, and she was on; speaking with precision about crime rates, recidivism, and the California budget crisis.
Politicians
Famous visitors
Presidential Visits
Kamala Harris

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