African Americans

Did the expression "woke" originate from the phrase "willingly overlooking known evil"? No, that's not true: The term "stay woke" was first used in a 1938 song by blues musician Lead Belly about Black teenagers accused of raping white women, according to a linguistics professor. Usage of the expression "woke" to indicate awareness of injustices dates to the Black labor…

Are Black Americans descended from the original indigenous inhabitants of North America and not from enslaved persons taken from Africa? No, that's not true: This notion descends from the Moorish Science Temple, a pseudoscience organization that argues without evidence that Black people are of "Moorish" descent and the original indigenous group of North America. Black Americans are descendants of enslaved…

Is the U.S. covered with the sites of ancient pyramids associated with a pre-Columbian African civilization known as the Moors? No, that's not true: Hundreds of ancient earthworks and mounds scattered throughout North America have been linked to the continent's earliest inhabitants. However, these archaeological sites were built by Native Americans who migrated to North America from Asia approximately 15,000…

Were there eight presidents of the United States before George Washington and did several Black presidents serve before Barack Obama was elected in 2008? No, that's not true: Washington was the first elected American president. There is a lack of historical evidence; plus, examples of genealogical research and, more recently, DNA testing that show no president prior to Obama was…

Did Bank of America announce a mortgage program for which "Whites and Asians need not apply"? No, that's not true: Race is not a determining factor in eligibility for the Community Affordable Loan Solution mortgage program, a Bank of America spokesperson said. Eligibility for the program is primarily based on the home location and the income of the applicants. The…

Do African Americans make up 87 percent of kidney dialysis patients in the United States in 2022? No, that's not true: According to government data, the proportion of Black recipients of the treatment is 35 percent. The claim appeared in a TikTok video shared on Facebook on July 27, 2022. The post features a 30-second video and audio clip of…

Do "trans kids" not exist in the "rest of the world" outside the United States or only in "certain countries"? No, that's not true: There have been multiple news reports about transgender children around the globe, from Japan to South Africa to Colombia and more. The United Nations runs an international campaign that began in India to "raise awareness among…

Is a post saying "Harriet Tubman is not a real person" accurate? No, that's not true: Multiple historians told Lead Stories this claim is false. One of them, the author of "Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom," wrote, "I can suggest that the notion that Harriet Tubman was not a real person, but a manufactured piece of fiction is categorically…

Was the Black lawn jockey statue used as a signal to guide escaping slaves on the Underground Railroad? No, there is no primary evidence to support this claim, according to the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia and a professor emeritus at Ohio State University's Department of African American and African Studies. The claim originally appeared as a Facebook post…

Do 44% of the Black population in the United States have HIV? No, that's not true: If 44% of the African American population in the U.S. had HIV, that would mean around 21 million Black people would test positive for HIV. According to HIV.gov, there are around 1.2 million people total who have HIV in the U.S. The claim appeared…