From Trail of Tears to $750M Sovereignty Comeback The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians' story isn't just history—it's a blueprint for tribal self-determination. Around 5,000 Choctaw refused removal in 1831 and remained in Mississippi, surviving 150 years of dispossession. By 1900, only 2,000 remained, living in poverty. But in 1945, they achieved federal recognition and sovereignty under the Indian Reorganization Act. Then Chief Phillip Martin took office in 1979, witnessed 75 percent unemplo

Frederika “Fredi” Washington, a Black performer traveled with Duke Ellington and his band in the early 1930s. Lithe and light-skinned, she was pale enough to “pass” as white in the color-obsessed South, and during the tour she took advantage of her skin color to slip into whites-only ice cream parlors and buy ice cream for the entire band. Washington may have used her skin color to procure cool treats on the road, but she refused to use it for economic and social gain. #BlackHistoryMonth To lear