Khalilah L. Liptrot
@khalilahliptrot.bsky.social
Unearthing buried stories. Mapping cultural fault lines. (Re)formed in newsrooms + archives + chancel rails.
“A first-class citizen does not beg for freedom.” — Gloria Richardson
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
Cambridge, Maryland. Summer 1963.
Gloria Richardson had been organizing for two years. Sit-ins. Protests. Economic boycotts that broke white businesses.
The National Guard occupied her city. Bayonet...
substack.com
November 17, 2025 at 2:09 PM
“A first-class citizen does not beg for freedom.” — Gloria Richardson
Lorraine Hansberry walked into a Central Park apartment in 1963, saw political theater and walked out.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
Lorraine Hansberry walked into a Central Park apartment in 1963, saw political theater and walked out.
The Attorney General had summoned famous Black artists: Hansberry, James Baldwin, Harry Belafont...
substack.com
November 14, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Lorraine Hansberry walked into a Central Park apartment in 1963, saw political theater and walked out.
1957. Robert F. Williams and 60 armed Black veterans stopped the Klan in Monroe, NC.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
In 1957, Robert F. Williams stood on Dr. Albert Perry's porch in Monroe, North Carolina. Rifle in hand. Sixty Black veterans stood with him.
Perry was vice president of the local NAACP. Williams was ...
substack.com
November 11, 2025 at 10:19 PM
1957. Robert F. Williams and 60 armed Black veterans stopped the Klan in Monroe, NC.
A. Philip Randolph threatened to march 100,000 Black workers on Washington in 1941.
He was bluffing.
Six days later, the President signed an executive order.
He was bluffing.
Six days later, the President signed an executive order.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
A. Philip Randolph threatened to march 100,000 Black workers on Washington in 1941.
The White House panicked. They sent everyone to stop him: the First Lady, his friends, his allies.
He refused them...
substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:27 PM
A. Philip Randolph threatened to march 100,000 Black workers on Washington in 1941.
He was bluffing.
Six days later, the President signed an executive order.
He was bluffing.
Six days later, the President signed an executive order.
Fela Kuti carried a coffin to
Nigerian military barracks.
And left it at the gates.
Nigerian military barracks.
And left it at the gates.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
February 18, 1977. One thousand soldiers stood at the gates of Kalakuta Republic.
Fela Kuti had built the commune on Agege Motor Road in Lagos. Recording studio, free health clinic, housing for his b...
substack.com
November 8, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Fela Kuti carried a coffin to
Nigerian military barracks.
And left it at the gates.
Nigerian military barracks.
And left it at the gates.
Eartha Kitt raised her hand at a 1968 White House lunch and told the First Lady the truth about Vietnam. Days later, the CIA called her a “sadistic nymphomaniac.”
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
January 18, 1968. Old Family Dining Room at the White House. Fifty women discussing youth crime. The First Lady kept calling on others.
Eartha Kitt kept her hand raised.
She stood.
"You send the be...
substack.com
November 5, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Eartha Kitt raised her hand at a 1968 White House lunch and told the First Lady the truth about Vietnam. Days later, the CIA called her a “sadistic nymphomaniac.”
The U.S. deported her on Christmas Eve 1955.
Four years later, she created Britain’s biggest street festival.
Four years later, she created Britain’s biggest street festival.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
West Indian Gazette. Brixton basement, 1958.
Claudia Jones wrote the stories, laid out the pages, sold the ads, walked the papers to the stands herself.
Rent strikes, political meetings, weddings, ...
substack.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:12 PM
The U.S. deported her on Christmas Eve 1955.
Four years later, she created Britain’s biggest street festival.
Four years later, she created Britain’s biggest street festival.
She'll drink water so her children can eat. This is America.
Who Puts the Babies in the Baskets
Vol. 1, Issue 37 | November 3, 2025 - November 9, 2025
open.substack.com
November 2, 2025 at 3:04 PM
She'll drink water so her children can eat. This is America.
“A tiger does not shout its tigritude.”
Wole Soyinka wrote that after 15 months in solitary confinement.
Wole Soyinka wrote that after 15 months in solitary confinement.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
Wole Soyinka spent more than a year in solitary confinement writing on toilet paper.
He made ink from dirt and water, sharpened bones from his prison meals into pens. Visitors smuggled the pages out....
substack.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:51 PM
“A tiger does not shout its tigritude.”
Wole Soyinka wrote that after 15 months in solitary confinement.
Wole Soyinka wrote that after 15 months in solitary confinement.
Spring 1975. 1,200 students jumping in their seats at a Maryland HBcU. Days later, the organizing meeting: almost nobody showed.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Spring 1975. Ella Fitzgerald Auditorium — 1,200 students, faculty, staff packed in.
Kwame Ture arrived with Mukasa Dada. Mukasa warmed up the crowd for twenty mi...
substack.com
October 29, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Spring 1975. 1,200 students jumping in their seats at a Maryland HBcU. Days later, the organizing meeting: almost nobody showed.
I wrote about Jet yesterday. This afternoon? Proof.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
Yesterday I wrote about how Jet moved through hands that would never meet. This afternoon: a Fellow Travelers character saying he’s going to work for the magazine. As if naming it summoned the proof.
substack.com
October 27, 2025 at 11:25 PM
I wrote about Jet yesterday. This afternoon? Proof.
1994. Nelson Mandela arrived to vote for the first time.
Gay McDougall walked beside him, his hand on her arm.
Gay McDougall walked beside him, his hand on her arm.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
April 27, 1994. Ohlange High School, Inanda, a green, hilly township north of Durban.
Nelson Mandela arrived to vote for the first time in his life.
Before entering the school, he walked to the gra...
substack.com
October 27, 2025 at 2:10 PM
1994. Nelson Mandela arrived to vote for the first time.
Gay McDougall walked beside him, his hand on her arm.
Gay McDougall walked beside him, his hand on her arm.
On stage, Anna Deavere Smith is four different people.
A mother. A grandmother. A teacher. An organizer.
One body holding four truths.
A mother. A grandmother. A teacher. An organizer.
One body holding four truths.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
On stage, Anna Deavere Smith is a Black mother whose son was killed by police. She's the grandmother raising his children. She's a teacher who saw him in class the day before. She's a community organi...
substack.com
October 24, 2025 at 1:14 PM
On stage, Anna Deavere Smith is four different people.
A mother. A grandmother. A teacher. An organizer.
One body holding four truths.
A mother. A grandmother. A teacher. An organizer.
One body holding four truths.
Misty Copeland made baller do something it never did before.
Leave the theater.
Leave the theater.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
Misty Copeland walks into the studio. Wraps her feet, tapes her toes, slides into pointe shoes.
She stretches at the barre—plié, tendu, développé. Then rehearsal. Hours refining pirouettes, perfecti...
substack.com
October 22, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Misty Copeland made baller do something it never did before.
Leave the theater.
Leave the theater.
Before Ruth Carter: Hollywood guessed.
After: meticulous research.
After: meticulous research.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
Ruth E. Carter opens archives. Studies photographs of how people dressed: Harlem in the 1920s, Boston in the 1940s, Brooklyn in the 1980s. She sources fabric that matches the period, the culture, the ...
substack.com
October 22, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Before Ruth Carter: Hollywood guessed.
After: meticulous research.
After: meticulous research.
One in 12 Black Americans carried the sickle cell trait in 1971. Most didn’t know. There was no screening program.
The Black Panther Party built one.
The Black Panther Party built one.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
Oakland. 1971.
Black Panther Party health workers knocked on doors in the Acorn housing projects. They carried coolers with test tubes packed in ice, consent forms, pamphlets explaining sickle cell a...
substack.com
October 20, 2025 at 2:17 PM
One in 12 Black Americans carried the sickle cell trait in 1971. Most didn’t know. There was no screening program.
The Black Panther Party built one.
The Black Panther Party built one.
“Did anyone you love ever make a mistake? Should they lose their vote forever?”
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
"Did anyone you love ever make a mistake?"
Desmond Meade stood on porches across Florida asking that question. 799 miles. Pensacola to Key West.
Everyone said yes.
Then: "Should they lose their vo...
substack.com
October 17, 2025 at 1:53 PM
“Did anyone you love ever make a mistake? Should they lose their vote forever?”
1919-1926: Jessie Redmon Fauset read unsolicited manuscripts at The Crisis.
Hughes. Cullen. Toomer. McKay. Larsen.
The Harlem Renaissance.
Hughes. Cullen. Toomer. McKay. Larsen.
The Harlem Renaissance.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
October 1919.
Jessie Redmon Fauset left Philadelphia, moved to New York, became literary editor of The Crisis.
Her office at 70 Fifth Avenue.
She'd been writing for the magazine for years—poems, ...
substack.com
October 15, 2025 at 3:48 PM
1919-1926: Jessie Redmon Fauset read unsolicited manuscripts at The Crisis.
Hughes. Cullen. Toomer. McKay. Larsen.
The Harlem Renaissance.
Hughes. Cullen. Toomer. McKay. Larsen.
The Harlem Renaissance.
Every Tuesday for 27 years, Benjamin E. Mays told Morehouse students their minds were free.
Spring 1960: They closed 16 Atlanta lunch counters in one afternoon.
Spring 1960: They closed 16 Atlanta lunch counters in one afternoon.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
Chapel wasn't optional at Morehouse when Benjamin E. Mays was president. Every Tuesday morning, Sale Hall filled with students—freshmen in front rows, seniors in back, all required to be there.
Mays ...
substack.com
October 13, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Every Tuesday for 27 years, Benjamin E. Mays told Morehouse students their minds were free.
Spring 1960: They closed 16 Atlanta lunch counters in one afternoon.
Spring 1960: They closed 16 Atlanta lunch counters in one afternoon.
The Boy King showed us a boy in 1986. The prophet was already dead. We’ve been saying “one day, one day” ever since.
One Day, One Day
Vol. 1, Issue 35 | October 13, 2025 - October 19, 2025
open.substack.com
October 12, 2025 at 3:34 PM
The Boy King showed us a boy in 1986. The prophet was already dead. We’ve been saying “one day, one day” ever since.
Oscar Micheaux made 44 films over 30 years–carrying every reel theater to theater himself. Most people have never heard his name.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
Oscar Micheaux wrote The Homesteader in 1917. His own story, barely disguised.
A Black man claims land in South Dakota, marries a preacher's daughter, loses everything when her father sells the prop...
substack.com
October 10, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Oscar Micheaux made 44 films over 30 years–carrying every reel theater to theater himself. Most people have never heard his name.
What happens when you teach women chemistry, bookkeeping, and how to keep 100% of their profits?
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
Madam C.J. Walker made a formula in St. Louis and went door to door.
At churches and lodges, in women's kitchens, she demonstrated the Walker Method—washed hair with her gentle shampoo, worked the tr...
substack.com
October 8, 2025 at 2:55 PM
What happens when you teach women chemistry, bookkeeping, and how to keep 100% of their profits?
Pullman porters carried the Chicago Defender in their luggage, folded inside uniforms, tucked between cargo.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
Robert Sengstacke Abbott started the Chicago Defender in his landlord's kitchen in 1905 with 25 cents.
He knew what people needed to see: train schedules North, photographs of Chicago's schools and ...
substack.com
October 6, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Pullman porters carried the Chicago Defender in their luggage, folded inside uniforms, tucked between cargo.
A bone saw. A 4 a.m. flight. A family waiting. The stories news organizations aren’t covering.
The Substance of Things Hoped For
Vol. 1, Issue 34 | October 6, 2025 - October 12, 2025
open.substack.com
October 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM
A bone saw. A 4 a.m. flight. A family waiting. The stories news organizations aren’t covering.
2013: A compilation.
2021: A library shipping rare books for free.
2025: An institution.
2021: A library shipping rare books for free.
2025: An institution.
Khalilah L. Liptrot (@khalilahliptrot)
In 2013, Solange Knowles commissioned Rashaad Newsome to wrap a Lamborghini.
She made a compilation. Twelve tracks. No record stores. She sold them from the Lamborghini, hand to hand, meeting people ...
substack.com
October 4, 2025 at 12:36 PM
2013: A compilation.
2021: A library shipping rare books for free.
2025: An institution.
2021: A library shipping rare books for free.
2025: An institution.