black history
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Bloody Sunday, the day when hundreds of people peacefully marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, yet were met with violence, occurred 60 years ago (March 7, 1965) today. In the decades since the disturbing events of Bloody Sunday, some strides were made, yet racial tensions remain as strained as ever in parts of the country.
The efforts of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in the southern states were noteworthy as there existed the tendrils of Jim Crow despite landmark rulings such as the Civil Rights Act being passed in 1964. The SNCC rallied its efforts to bring forth voter equality for the Black electorate and was met with barriers of all sorts.
With the brutal police shooting death of activist and deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson, SNCC and SCLC leaders used the moment as a spark for a peaceful march from Selma to Montgomery. The march was comprised of around 600 people, with Rev. Hosea Williams, just 19, leading the charge on the SCLC’s behalf. SNCC’s chairman, John Lewis, met with Williams at the Brown Chapel AME Church with his members, and there were plans to have Martin Luther King Jr. join the march at some point.
It was hoped that the march would demonstrate the unity of the SNCC and SCLC and push their larger agenda of equal rights for Black voters and civil rights as a whole. What did occur on that fateful day would shock the nation.
When the marchers reached the Edmund Pettus Bridge, state troopers and white residents began to impose their will. Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark made a wide call to all white men to essentially come to arms and gave out deputy status to anyone who volunteered. The officers attempted to tell the marchers to turn around verbally. From there, the troopers became aggressive and unleashed blows with their nightsticks regardless of age or gender. Adding to this, some troopers fired tear gas into the crowd.
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Lewis was severely injured during the Bloody Sunday march, and images of the future politician are still jarring. Among the dozens of images to emerge from Bloody Sunday, the image of civil rights activist and Dallas County native Amelia Boynton Robinson (who had been registering voters for years) being held by a fellow marcher also stirred the souls of many.
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With the photos of the violence of the march hitting every major news outlet in the States and around the globe, the civil rights movement once more found a catalyst to push for equal voting rights. In the same year, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.
Williams, who was with King on the night of his assassination in 1968 in Memphis, became the executive director of the SCLC and remained in the position until 1979. He was elected to the Georgia General Assembly in 1974, holding that post for a decade before yielding the seat to his wife, Juanita. Williams later was elected to the Atlanta City Council and was also the DeKalb County commissioner.
Lewis remained connected with the SNCC in the wake of Bloody Sunday and King’s passing but moved on to other organizations, involving himself in voter registration work and advancing civic participation. Like Williams, Lewis was elected to the Atlanta City Council in the early 1980s and later was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986. Lewis worked as a congressman until July 2020.
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Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX halftime show performance will be dissected and discussed for weeks if not months on end, due to the easter eggs and cultural references throughout. Ahead of the rapper dropping the “Not Like Us” diss track, Kendrick Lamar opened up with a verse referencing “40 Acres and a Mule” to introduce the song as it built to its epic opening.
Kendrick Lamar rapped the lines, “40 acres and a mule, this is bigger than the music. They tried to rig the game, but you can’t fake influence,” each stanza punctuated by the keyboard stabs from DJ Mustard’s production. The line has many wondering what “40 acres and a mule” means and with this being Black History Month, we’re offering our brief explainer of the line.
The “40 acres and a mule” is a phrase that refers to a section of Special Field Orders, No. 15 issued by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1865 after slavery was officially abolished via the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. With the Union Army poised to vanquish the Confederate soldiers in the U.S. Civil War, Gen. Sherman’s declaration to divvy up land owned by the Confederacy to formerly enslaved Black people was a promise that became upended by the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
With Andrew Johnson taking control of the White House in succession, the promise was dismissed with the land going back to the original owners. Historians note that this takeback began a long and systemically planned series of maneuvers to keep Black people from ascending to the same level as their white counterparts, even during the largely fruitful yet brief period of Reconstruction. Today, proponents of reparation for the descendants of Black slaves in America point to this broken promise as grounds to advance their cause.
A small handful of individuals did receive land under the special field order, especially in southeastern Virginia, and parts of South Carolina including coastal lands, but those efforts were met with roadblocks eventually held up by President Johnson rescinding the offer.
Kendrick Lamar employed deeply symbolic messages throughout his performance, with many believing his American Flag-influenced backdrop, the including of Samuel L. Jackson as a brash and outspoken Uncle Sam, and the Compton native’s unrelenting focus on platforming Black music and culture was an indictment of recent political happenings.
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Naturally, many pundits, including those in right-wing media circles and even in the mainstream, have little understanding of why Jackson as Uncle Sam was pivotal to the performance and harkened back to Lamar’s loving ode and dire warning to Black America via his acclaimed third studio album, To Pimp A Butterfly.
Given the themes of some of his past releases, it could be assumed that Lamar is a champion of reparations or, further, a champion of Black excellence and perseverance despite the broken promises of 40 Acres and a Mule. Regardless of where the intent truly lay, America, especially those who have endured despite being mostly frozen out from the dream of having our own, definitely took notice.
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The Philadelphia residence of John Coltrane is going to be restored as part of a new initiative by philanthropic foundations.
On Tuesday (March 5), it was announced that the former Philadelphia home of the late jazz great, John Coltrane, would be the first to receive financial support through a new initiative entitled the Descendants and Family Stewardship. The program, created by the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, will aid the transfer of the home back to Coltrane’s extended family from its current owner. The row house, located in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood east of Fairmount Park, was purchased by Coltrane in 1952 and was his primary residence as well as a place he went to first after returning from tours until he died in 1967. The home was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1999.
“These funds are very vital and very much needed for any repairs and restorations. We certainly hope within the next few years to completely stabilize the home and foundation,” said his son, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane. “We are all on board with the mission of opening the house to the public and having it there in the community as something symbolic of what John Coltrane was able to do there, which is to be a beacon for the highest possibilities of creative achievement.” The home had fallen into some disrepair since it was last owned by a cousin, Mary Alexander, in 2004. The friends of the John and Alice Coltrane Home non-profit overseeing the Dix Hills, Long Island, estate of Coltrane is also involved.
The African American Cultural Heritage Fund is a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation that began in 2017. According to its website, it has allocated $91 million to support 242 preservation projects nationwide. The fund, which has partnered with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and philanthropist McKenzie Scott, was created to address the disparity of historic places in the United States that center Black Americans. To date, only 2% of the 95,000 listed sites are classified as such.
“It is exceptionally important as we grow the U.S. historic preservation movement and advance values of equity and inclusion that the future of this movement be sustained through the engagement and leadership of descendants and families,” said AACHF executive director, Brent Leggs. “They are critical to the future of our work to expand the American narrative and to build a true national identity that reflects America’s diversity.”
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Black History Month is here and, for many of us in the culture, the history and contributions of our people remain front and center all year long. On X, formerly known as Twitter, Black History Month became the top trending topic and sparked several replies we’ve gathered below.
Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) Former President Daryl Michael Scott shared in an essay on the ASALH website that definitively explains the rich history of Black History Month and its founder, Dr. Carter G. Woodson.
In the summer of 1915 in Chicago, Woodson, who attended the University of Chicago, traveled to the city to join in a celebration of the 50th anniversary of emancipation. With thousands of Black attendees at the event, Woodson and others held exhibits displaying varying articles related to Black history. For three weeks, crowds converged upon the Coliseum, which sparked Woodson to form an organization dedicated to studying Black life and history. On Sept. 9 of that year, Woodson met with A. L. Jackson and three others to establish the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH).
More from the ASALH website:
He hoped that others would popularize the findings that he and other black intellectuals would publish in The Journal of Negro History, which he established in 1916. As early as 1920, Woodson urged black civic organizations to promote the achievements that researchers were uncovering. A graduate member of Omega Psi Phi, he urged his fraternity brothers to take up the work. In 1924, they responded with the creation of Negro History and Literature Week, which they renamed Negro Achievement Week. Their outreach was significant, but Woodson desired greater impact. As he told an audience of Hampton Institute students, “We are going back to that beautiful history and it is going to inspire us to greater achievements.” In 1925, he decided that the Association had to shoulder the responsibility. Going forward it would both create and popularize knowledge about the black past. He sent out a press release announcing Negro History Week in February, 1926.
Woodson chose February for reasons of tradition and reform. It is commonly said that Woodson selected February to encompass the birthdays of two great Americans who played a prominent role in shaping black history, namely Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, whose birthdays are the 12th and the 14th, respectively. More importantly, he chose them for reasons of tradition. Since Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, the black community, along with other Republicans, had been celebrating the fallen President’s birthday. And since the late 1890s, black communities across the country had been celebrating Douglass’. Well aware of the pre-existing celebrations, Woodson built Negro History Week around traditional days of commemorating the black past. He was asking the public to extend their study of black history, not to create a new tradition. In doing so, he increased his chances for success.
The 1970s saw a wider embrace of a longer celebration period, something Woodson advocated for in his lifetime along with other educators. At Kent State University, the Black United Students Group and other Black educators combined their efforts for a Black History Month celebration in 1970.
In 1976, the month-long celebration began taking root across the country after President Gerald Ford recognized the month during the celebration of the United States Bicentennial. Across the globe, Black History Month jumped off at varying intervals with the United Kingdom first celebrating the month in 1987, with Germany and Canada joining along in the 1990s.
Keep scrolling to see the reactions from X below.
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President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which ended the legal practice of slavery, went into effect on January 1, 1863, a reluctant move on his part that satisfied the wants of abolitionists. On June 19, 1865, enslaved Blacks in Texas were finally alerted that they were freed and thus, Emancipation Day, better known as Juneteenth, was born.
Lincoln’s path to signing the proclamation was wrought with barriers that were mostly political, if not racially motivated. Slavery was a big business and with the Union victorious over the southern Confederate states, there was some resentment for the North’s desire to do away with one of its best money-makers in slavery. Lincoln treaded carefully but signed the law in 1862 before it went into effect.
On that day in 1865, Union troops made their way to the coastal city of Galveston, Texas. Texas, like many southern and non-battleground states, was resistant to ending slavery. However, the law of the land prevailed and the slaves being held in bondage finally enjoyed true freedom. But as expected, the newly emancipated were given their “Freedom Day” with a bit of a warning.
From Union Army Gen. Gordon Granger:
The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.
From that point, Juneteenth became a moment of pride and togetherness for Blacks in Texas and across the South. The celebration eventually spread to other states and cities, primarily in rural areas before expanding wider.
Public figures and celebrated Black writers such as Maya Angelou and Ralph Ellison both have centered their work on the holiday as well. Juneteenth even found itself in the crossfire of Hip-Hop angst at a time.
In 1992, Geto Boys rapper Wille D’s “U Still a aggiN” references the holiday, although not positively.
“Mama’s outside, barbecuing ribs and links/It’s Juneteenth, but to me it don’t mean stink/It’s a day of emancipation, but everybody wonder why Willie ain’t celebrating/But things ain’t perfect, I’m looking beyond the surface/So instead of drinking beer, and playing Dominoes/I’m sitting in the room with my eyes closed,” Willie D rapped.
Today, 28 states recognize Juneteenth as a public holiday, which means state government offices are closed. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, with some states offering the day off as a paid holiday or a day of observance.
Learn more about the Juneteenth holiday here.
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While white conservatives like Ron DeSantis are on a mission to whitewash and completely erase Black history from schools, Jesse Williams is countering their efforts in a unique, fun way.
Jesse Williams set Broadway ablaze with an eye-opening and thirst-inducing performance in Take Me Out as a gay professional baseball player. Now, he is returning to his activist roots with his latest project.
The Tony Award-nominated actor and conceptual artist Glenn Kaino linked up for Homeschooled, a brand-new gaming app for players of all ages that will teach and celebrate diversity in the United States through trivia.
Pop Culture will be the focus of the app, and it will feature categories like “Growing Up Black,” “Soul Brothas,” and “Divas.” There will also be multiple choice sections on sports, geography, and the internet and even a Grey’s Anatomy section with science-related questions, which is a nod to Williams’ role as Dr. Jackson Avery on ABC medical drama.
Each category has a time limit, and players can compete against family, friends, and celebrities.
Jesse Williams Says Its Time To Teach Ourselves
Per the Huffington Post, the father of two said, “You have to be more self-reliant if you want your history to be taught, because we have this war on nonwhite history in American schools. They’re not going to teach us about Black or brown or Asian history in school ― OK, how can we teach it to ourselves?”
Before getting into acting, Williams taught at a high school in Philadelphia. He said that the app is a product of the shift to homeschooling at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, plus the sudden pushback to diversity education in many conservative-led states.
On the app, he serves as the “dean of culture” and hopes to lure in other guest instructors.
“So much of my work is around serious social justice work, these things that really demand our sober attention,” he explained. “That’s of course a priority. But folks of color also like to game, have game nights and be spontaneous and be fun and be creative, and we’re often left out. We’re not included in those games and don’t see ourselves in them.
Homeschooled is available for download in the App Store and Googe Play by heading here.
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The Rev. Al Sharpton led a protest in Florida on Wednesday (Feb. 15) aimed at criticizing the state’s racist erasure of Black history from its educational system, led by the efforts of Gov. Ron DeSantis. As noted during a speech delivered by Sharpton, DeSantis ordered the removal of a high school Black history course, which sparked concerns among several Black leaders nationwide.
The Miami Herald published a pair of reports regarding the march, centering on Rev. Al Sharpton and his efforts to bring attention to Gov. DeSantis’ decision to have the course removed and hopefully staving off a national movement among conservative elected officials who wish to do away with the looming specter of Black history subjects many on that side incorrectly view as negative in nature.
From the Miami Herald:
“Our children need to know the whole story. Not to not only know how bad you were, but to know how strong they are,” Sharpton told the crowd, adding, “If you would study history, governor, you would have known to mess with us and education always ends in your defeat.”
At the root of the protest was DeSantis striking down an Advanced Placement Black studies course aimed at high schoolers and the reason for the removal of the course was that the state believed it wouldn’t add “educational value” among other points.
DeSantis joins a growing list of GOP representatives who have an irrational fear of Critical Race Theory, using it as some manner of dog whistle among the base to stoke fears of some massive “woke” agenda sweeping the nation. When challenged, those against this so-called agenda can never fully explain what they are fighting against and it simply comes across as “don’t let the Blacks learn too much or else.”
We’ll share some videos of the protest led by Rev. Al Sharpton below. A scan of his Twitter feed goes even more into detail regarding this latest effort.
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