nypl:

Was one of Brooklyn’s finest in Harlem in 1939? This Sid Grossman photo of “Harlem Loiterers” from the Prints Collection at NYPL’s Schomburg Center for Research In Black Culture has created quite a stir since being posted to the Center’s Facebook page the other day. Why? Because the man on the right looks a heck of a lot like Jay-Z (for evidence, check out these photos of Jay-Z when he visited The New York Public Library in 2011). Cue Twilight Zone music, right? Schomburg’s Curator of Digital Collections Sylviane A. Diouf found the photo while researching an exhibition, and said, “I was immediately struck by the similarity to Jay-Z and actually laughed out loud … I still hope somebody will tell us who that you man really was.”

So is Jay-Z a time traveler? Is this someone else - anyone know who? What do you think?

Hovito’s doppelgänger

like-air-i-rise:

WHEN ASKED WHAT HE WANTS TO BE WHEN HE GROWS UP,
THE BLACK BOY SAYS,”I WANT TO BE A WHITE MAN
CAUSE MY MAMA SAY, ‘A NIGGER AIN’T SHIT.’”

- Carrie Mae Weems

Out the mouths of babes

This photo was taken in 1957, the little girl is my mother Doris. Sitting behind her is my grandmother Gertrude and to her left are my cousins Beatrice and Betty. I’ve never seen such a pretty picture as this one.