Our Story!

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Well this is it until next year. I hope you all have enjoyed the BlackFacts I've posted for Black History Month and most importantly I hoped you've pass them on to other's on your mailing list, especially the kids. The last BlackFact is the great Vernon Johns.

Marting Luther King, Jr. had big shoes to fill when he succeeded Minister Vernon Johns. Vernon John's motto was "If you see a good fight, get in it!"

Vernon Johns (April 22, 1892 – June 11, 1965) was an American minister and civil rights leader who was active in the struggle for civil rights for African Americans from the 1920s.

He is considered the father of the American Civil Rights Movement, having laid the foundation on which Martin Luther King, Jr. and others would build. He was Dr. King's predecessor as pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama from 1947 to 1952, and a mentor of Ralph Abernathy, Wyatt Walker, and many others in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Johns was born in Darlington Heights, Prince Edward County, Virginia. He died of a heart attack in Washington, D.C. at age 73.


*******************************************************************************

Vernon Johns:
Farmer, Preacher, Civil-rights Pioneer
by Maelinda Turner
Oberlin College Alumna, Class of 1991





"I want to know whether you want students with credits or students with brains," said Vernon Johns in 1915 to the deputy dean of the Oberlin Theological Seminary (later renamed the Graduate School of Theology). Undaunted by a letter telling him that his credits were useless, Johns had come to the dean's office and boldly announced that he was willing to start classes.

Johns was tested in the reading of Greek scripture by Edward Increase Bosworth, dean of the seminary. Johns passed the test with flying colors, and Bosworth admitted him on a trial basis. By the end of the semester Bosworth made Johns a regular student and helped him find part-time work as a preacher to support himself while he studied.
Self-taught scholar

Vernon Johns, one of the pioneers of the civil-rights movement, was born in 1892 in Prince Edward County, Virginia. His parents did not have enough money to send him to school, so he educated himself while working. He was frequently seen plowing and reading at the same time. He was said to have a photo-graphic memory, and he was able to recite long biblical passages, including the entire book of Romans. He taught himself Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and German.

Johns's academic achievements at Oberlin soon made him a scholastic class leader, displacing Robert M. Hutchins. (The future president of the University of Chicago was a freshman in 1915 and left Oberlin in 1917). According to author Taylor Branch, Hutchins said it was impossible for a "country Negro" to make the grades Johns did without cheating. Johns responded to this attack by punching Hutchins in the mouth. The two eventually made up and remained friends for many years. Before his graduation in 1918, Johns was chosen to give the annual student oration at the Memorial Arch. He was highly respected by his classmates, and in later life he spoke of many positive experiences at Oberlin.

(Left: Click on the document to read a letter that Vernon Johns wrote to Oberlin Professor G.W. Fiske two years after Johns's graduation.)

After graduating from Oberlin, Johns enrolled in the graduate school of theology at the University of Chicago. His success there and his reputation as an intellectual and a preacher brought him many job offers,in the pulpit as well as in the classroom. With his fiery temper, he did not keep any job for long.

Sermon published

He became a wandering preacher, lecturing and farming in the East and South. At this time liberal and fundamentalist preachers were debating issues ranging from biblical interpretation to the social responsibility of preachers. Johns, irritated because no black preachers were included in the debate and none of their sermons were being published, sent the works of his fellow preachers, Mordecai Johnson and Howard Thurman, to publishing houses. When they were rejected, Johns submitted a sermon of his own, "Transfigured Moments". In 1926 it was the first work by a black preacher to be published in Best Sermons of the year.

Johns acquired a reputation as an eccentric. He would preach immediately after plowing, standing in the pulpit in dirty overalls with mud on his shoes. He would leave his family for months at a time to preach on the road, to farm, and to sell various knickknacks. He liked being able to travel light-sometimes packing all his belongings in a paper bag.
Church in Montgomery

In 1947 Johns found his way to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. In spite of his eccentricities, its black-elite congregation liked his preaching and his leadership. Within two years, however, he started to speak out about racial issues and to castigate his congregation for ignoring them. He was critical of both the black and the white population of Montgomery.

Race was not a popular topic in the press in the late 194Os. It was assumed that black people would accept their position unquestioningly, but Johns started to make waves. He persuaded black women to bring charges in court against their white rapists, and he helped the women with their cases. No one was convicted, but just getting the white men into court was an achievement. Several years before 1955, when Rosa Parks made history by refusing to move to the back of the bus, Johns tried to sit in the white section. When the bus driver refused to let him, Johns demanded to have his fare back and got it. Johns was even bold enough to order food in an all-white restaurant.
Scolding the congregation

Members of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church congregation were increasingly discomfited by his behavior and by his criticism of them. He scolded them for being consumers unwilling to do manual work. He accused them of doing nothing while their race was being killed. Johns eventually offered his resignation, and the deacons accepted it after much debate. In 1952 Johns was once again a traveling preacher, and the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church searched for a more conservative preacher They found one two years later: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Vernon Johns died in 1965 of a heart attack. He was a man ahead of his time in the civil-rights movement. Believing that all it took for evil to flourish was for good people to do nothing, he did something.

In 1990 Oberlin's annual minority's scholars day was renamed in honor of Vernon Johns.



Maelinda Turner, president of the class of 1991, wrote the paper on which this article is based for a private reading course with associate professor of black studies Adrienne Jones. Turner used material in the Oberlin College Archives and in Taylor Branch's Parting the Waters: America in the King Years (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988).

Note on the use of images:


The photographs and drawings provided by the Oberlin College Archives for the EOG website may be downloaded for educational use in the Oberlin School District classrooms. For other use of Archives photographs--including reproduction in a brochure, scholarly article or book, or other publication--please seek permission from Oberlin College Archives, 420 Mudd Center, Oberlin, Ohio, 44074. Images from the Oberlin College Archives are protected by copyright laws. For use of other images in this website, please write to the EOG webmaster.

 

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Rediscovered Letter From 1865, Former Slave Tells Old Master To Shove It

First Posted: 02/ 1/2012 2:12 pm Updated: 02/ 1/2012 3:52 pm



In the summer of 1865, a former slave by the name of Jourdan Anderson sent a letter to his former master. And 147 years later, the document reads as richly as it must have back then.

The roughly 800-word letter, which has resurfaced via various blogs, websites, Twitter and Facebook, is a response to a missive from Colonel P.H. Anderson, Jourdan's former master back in Big Spring, Tennessee. Apparently, Col. Anderson had written Jourdan asking him to come on back to the big house to work.

In a tone that could be described either as "impressively measured" or "the deadest of deadpan comedy," the former slave, in the most genteel manner, basically tells the old slave master to kiss his rear end. He laments his being shot at by Col. Anderson when he fled slavery, the mistreatment of his children and that there "was never pay-day for the Negroes any more than for the horses and cows."

Below is Jourdan’s letter in full, as it appears on lettersofnote.com. To take a look at what appears to be a scan of the original letter, which appeared in an August 22, 1865 edition of the New York Daily Tribune, click here. As Letters Of Note points out, the newspaper account makes clear that the letter was dictated.


Actual Letter
Dayton, Ohio
August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee
Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.
Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,
Jourdon Anderson.

"Always do the right thing; even if nobody's looking" -Unknown-


Having a great day?

Be Well & stay up!

 

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I hope you're enjoying the Black Facts so far this year. Some of you have said they're a little lengthy this year. I appreciate the feedback (keep the feedback coming); I can edit to shorter versions for some of the "Facts" but by necessity, this one is rather lengthy but an absolute good read. And for those just tuning in, each year as my personal contribution to "Black History" month I send out hundreds of emails throughout the month of notable Black Historical facts and people of African descent that may not be so well known, but have made great personal achievements/accomplishments and significant contributions to society/humanity. Please pass them on to other's and especially the youth... If you need me to resend any of our "Black Facts," simply shoot me an email with your specific request by date or BF name/title.
Bessie Coleman

(Yup she is a beautiful young woman - Fine!)

Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman (January 26, 1892 – April 30, 1926 - aged 34) was an American civil aviator. She was the first female pilot of African American descent and the first person of African American descent to hold an international pilot license.

Early life

Coleman was born on January 26, 1892 in Atlanta, Texas, the tenth of thirteen children to sharecroppers George and Susan Coleman. Her father was part Native American (Cherokee). Coleman began school at age six and had to walk four miles each day to her all-black, one-room school. Despite sometimes lacking such materials as chalk and pencils, Coleman was an excellent student. She loved to read and established herself as an outstanding math student. Coleman completed all eight grades of her one-room school. Every year, Coleman's routine of school, chores, and church was interrupted by the cotton harvest. In 1901, Coleman's life took a dramatic turn: George Coleman left his family. He had become fed up with the racial barriers that existed in Texas. He returned to Oklahoma, or Indian Territory as it was then called, to find better opportunities, but Susan and the children did not go with him. At the age of twelve, Coleman was accepted into the Missionary Baptist Church. When she turned eighteen, Coleman took all of her savings and enrolled in the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now called Langston University) in Langston, Oklahoma. She completed only one term before she ran out of money and was forced to return home. Coleman knew there was no future for her in her home town, so she went to live with two of her brothers in Chicago while she looked for a job.

Career

Chicago
In 1915, at the age of twenty-three, Coleman moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she lived with her brothers and she worked at the White
Sox Barber Shop as a manicurist. There she heard tales of the world from pilots who were returning home from World War I. They told stories about flying in the war, and Coleman started to fantasize about being a pilot. Her brother used to tease her by commenting that French women were better than African-American women because French women were pilots already. She could not gain admission to American flight schools because she was black and a woman. No black U.S. aviator would train her either. Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender, encouraged her to study abroad. Coleman received financial backing from Jesse Binga (a banker) and the Defender, which capitalized on her flamboyant personality and her beauty to promote the newspaper, and to promote her cause.

France

Coleman's aviation license
Coleman took French language class at the Berlitz school in Chicago, and then traveled to Paris on November 20, 1920. Coleman learned to fly in a Nieuport Type 82 biplane, with "a steering system that consisted of a vertical stick the thickness of a baseball bat in front of the pilot and a rudder bar under the pilot's feet." On June 15, 1921, Coleman became not only the first African-American woman to earn an international aviation license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, but the first African American woman in the world to earn an aviation pilot's license. Determined to polish her skills, Coleman spent the next two months taking lessons from a French ace pilot near Paris, and in September sailed for

New York.
Airshows

Coleman quickly realized that in order to make a living as a civilian aviator—the age of commercial flight was still a decade or more in the future—she would need to become a "barnstorming" stunt flier, and perform for paying audiences. But to succeed in this highly competitive arena, she would need advanced lessons and a more extensive repertoire. Returning to Chicago, Coleman could find no one willing to teach her, so in February 1922, she sailed again for Europe. She spent the next two months in France completing an advanced course in aviation, then left for the Netherlands to meet with Anthony Fokker, one of the world's most distinguished aircraft designers. She also traveled to Germany, where she visited the Fokker Corporation and received additional training from one of the company's chief pilots. She returned to the United States with the confidence and enthusiasm she needed to launch her career in exhibition flying.

In September 1921, she became a media sensation when she returned to the United States. "Queen Bess," as she was known, was a highly popular draw for the next five years. Invited to important events and often interviewed by newspapers, she was admired by both blacks and whites. She primarily flew Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" biplanes and army surplus aircraft left over from the war. In Los Angeles, California, she broke a leg and three ribs when her plane stalled and crashed on February 22, 1922. She made her first appearance in an American airshow on September 3, 1922, at an event honoring veterans of the all-black 369th Infantry Regiment of World War I. Held at Curtiss Field on Long Island near New York City and sponsored by her friend Abbott and the Chicago Defender newspaper, the show billed Coleman as "the world's greatest woman flier" and featured aerial displays by eight other American ace pilots, and a jump by black parachutist Hubert Julian. Six weeks later she returned to Chicago to deliver a stunning demonstration of daredevil maneuvers—including figure eights, loops, and near-ground dips—to a large and enthusiastic crowd at the Checkerboard Airdrome (now Chicago Midway Airport).
But the thrill of stunt flying and the admiration of cheering crowds were only part of Coleman's dream. Coleman never lost sight of her childhood vow to one day "amount to something." As a professional aviator, Coleman would often be criticized by the press for her opportunistic nature and the flamboyant style she brought to her exhibition flying. However, she also quickly gained a reputation as a skilled and daring pilot who would stop at nothing to complete a difficult stunt.


Bessie Coleman
Through her media contacts, she was offered a role in a feature-length film titled Shadow and Sunshine, to be financed by the African American Seminole Film Producing Company. She gladly accepted, hoping the publicity would help to advance her career and provide her with some of the money she needed to establish her own flying school. But upon learning that the first scene in the movie required her to appear in tattered clothes, with a walking stick and a pack on her back, she refused to proceed. "Clearly," wrote Doris Rich, "[Bessie's] walking off the movie set was a statement of principle. Opportunist though she was about her career, she was never an opportunist about race. She had no intention of perpetuating the derogatory image most whites had of most blacks."

Coleman would not live long enough to fulfill her greatest dream—establishing a school for young, black aviators—but her pioneering achievements served as an inspiration for a generation of African American men and women. "Because of Bessie Coleman," wrote Lieutenant William J. Powell in Black Wings 1934, dedicated to Coleman, "we have overcome that which was worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream". Powell served in a segregated unit during World War I, and tirelessly promoted the cause of black aviation through his book, his journals, and the Bessie Coleman Aero Club, which he founded in 1929.

Coleman's Death
On April 30, 1926, Coleman, at the age of thirty-four, was in Jacksonville, Florida. She had recently purchased a Curtiss JN-4 (Jenny) in Dallas, Texas and had it flown to Jacksonville in preparation for an airshow. Her friends and family did not consider the aircraft safe and implored her not to fly it. Her mechanic and publicity agent, William Wills, was flying the plane with Coleman in the other seat. Coleman did not put on her seatbelt because she was planning a parachute jump for the next day and wanted to look over the cockpit sill to examine the terrain. About ten minutes into the flight, the plane did not pull out of a dive; instead it spun. Coleman was thrown from the plane at 500 ft (150 m) and died instantly when she hit the ground. William Wills was unable to gain control of the plane and it plummeted to the ground. Wills died upon impact and the plane burst into flames. Although the wreckage of the plane was badly burned, it was laterdiscovered that a wrench used to service the engine had slid into the gearbox and jammed it.

Legacy and honors
Her funeral in Jacksonville, Florida on May 2, 1926 was attended by 5,000 mourners. Many of them, including Ida B. Wells, were prominent members of black society. Three days later, her remains arrived in Orlando, Florida, where thousands more attended a funeral at the city's Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church. Her last journey on May 5 was to Chicago's Pilgrim Baptist Church. An estimated 10,000 people filed past the coffin all night and all day. After funeral services, she was buried in the Lincoln Cemetery.

Over the years, recognition of Coleman's accomplishments has grown. Coleman's impact on aviation history, and particularly African Americans in aviation, quickly became apparent following her death. In 1927, Bessie Coleman Aero Clubs sprang up throughout the country. On Labor Day, 1931, these clubs sponsored the first all-African American Air Show, which attracted approximately 15,000 spectators. That same year, a group of African American pilots established an annual flyover of Coleman's grave in Lincoln Cemetery in Chicago. Coleman's name also began appearing on buildings in Harlem.

In 1989, First Flight Society inducted Coleman into their shrine that honors those individuals and groups that have achieved significant "firsts" in aviation's development.
A second-floor conference room at the Federal Aviation Administration, Washington, DC, is named after Coleman. In 1990, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley renamed Old Mannheim Road at O'Hare International Airport "Bessie Coleman Drive." In 1992, he proclaimed May 2 "Bessie Coleman Day in Chicago."

Mae Jemison, physician and former NASA astronaut, wrote in the book, Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator (1993): "I point to Bessie Coleman and say without hesitation that here is a woman, a being, who exemplifies and serves as a model to all humanity: the very definition of strength, dignity, courage, integrity, and beauty. It looks like a good day for flying."
In 1995, she was honored with her image on a U.S. postage stamp, and was inducted into the Women in Aviation Hall of Fame. In 1999 she was designated a Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project.

In November 2000, Coleman was inducted in The Texas Aviation Hall of Fame. She is the subject of Barnstormer, a musical that debuted 20 October 2008 at the National Alliance for Musical Theater Festival in New York; the book and lyrics are by Cheryl Davis and the music is by Douglas Cohen.

In 2004, a small park in the Southside Chicago Hyde Park neighborhood was named "Bessie Coleman Park." Additionally, the Bessie Coleman park council was formed in 2005 as one of many responses to a serious increase in crime, shootings, and disorderly loitering in and near the park, at 54th St. and Drexel Ave.

In 2007, a street in Gateway Gardens, Frankfurt am Main, Germany was named after her. The ninetieth anniversary of her first flight, July 23, 2011, was commemorated by a reading of parts of some of her biographies and an exhibition of model aircraft at Miller Field (Staten Island, New York), a former United States Air Force facility.

Kanuri of West Africa - proposes this riddle for his students of philosophy:
What are two things, that an ostrich, even with his long neck and sharp eyes, can never see?

Let us know if you think you have the answer - (Answer in tomorrow's BF)

Regardless of the consequences, at the end of tough times, no matter the final set of circumstances, nothing is lost - except the pain from the change. -Milosophy-


“Keep going, no matter what.”

Stay up!

 

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It's that time again for Black Facts - for those of you who don't know, each year as my personal contribution to "Black History" month I send out hundreds of emails throughout the month of notable Black Historical facts and people of African desent that may not be so well known, but have made great personal achievements/accomplishments and significant contributions to society/humanity.

Maggie Lena Walker

Maggie Lena Walker (July 15, 1864(4-7)-December 15, 1934)
was an African American teacher and businesswoman. Walker was the first African American female bank president and the first woman to charter abank in the United States. As a leader, she achieved successes with the vision to make tangible improvements in the way of life for African Americans and especially women. Disabled by paralysis and limited to a wheelchair later in life, Walker also became an example for people with disabilities. Walker's restored furnished home in the historic Jackson Ward neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia has been designated a National Historic Site, operated by the National Park Service.
Childhood, education
According to biographical material she supplied, Walker was born as Maggie Lena Mitchell in Richmond, Virginia to William Mitchell and Elizabeth Draper Mitchell 2 years and 2 months after the end of the American Civil War. Census information, as well as a diary passage saying that she was four years old on her mother's wedding on May 1868, set the date back to 1864 or 1865. Her mother was a former slave and assistant cook in the Church Hill mansion of Elizabeth Van Lew, who had been a spy in the Confederate capital city of Richmond for the Union during the War, and was later postmistress for Richmond. Her father was a butler and writer.The Mitchell family moved to their own home on College Alley off of Broad Street nearby Ms. Van Lew's home where Maggie and her brother Johnnie were raised.The house was near the First African Baptist Church which, like many black churches at the time, was an economic, political, and social center for the local black community. After the untimely death of William Mitchell, Maggie's mother supported her family by working as a laundress. Young Maggie attended the newly-formed Richmond Public Schools and helped her mother by delivering the clean clothes. In 1923 Walker received an honorary Master's degree at Virginia Union University, a historically black university in Richmond.
Teacher, mother, leader
She taught grade school for three years until, in 1886, when she married Armstead Walker Jr., a wealthy black contractor and member of her church. Her husband earned a good living, and she was able to leave teaching to take care of her family and her work with the Independent Order of St. Luke. Maggie and Armstead Walker Jr. had sons, Russell and Melvin, and purchased a home in 1904.
She served in numerous capacities of increasing responsibility for the Order, from that of a delegate to the biannual convention to the top leadership position of Right Worthy Grand Secretary in 1899, a position she held until her death.

Mrs. Walker became an important community organizer for the Independent Order of St. Luke, a fraternal burial society that provided humanitarian services to the elderly and encouraged individual self-help and integrity. Mrs. Walker was also an activist for African American and women’s rights. She was a member of the National Association of Colored Women, and also the vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for the Richmond chapter.


Businesswoman, banker
In 1902, Walker started a newspaper for the St. Luke organization in 1902 called the St. Luke Herald. After the success of the newspaper she started the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank and became the first woman in the United States to charter a bank. She was also the bank's first president. During the Great Depression two other banks in Richmond merged with St. Luke to become The Consolidated Bank and Trust Company which continues to be the oldest black-owned and black-run bank in the United States.
she established a newspaper for the organization, The St. Luke Herald. Shortly thereafter, she chartered the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank. Mrs. Walker served as the bank's first president, which earned her the recognition of being the first woman to charter a bank in the United States. Later she agreed to serve as chairman of the board of directors when the bank merged with two other Richmond banks to become The Consolidated Bank and Trust Company, which grew to serve generations of Richmonders as an African-American owned institution.

Tragedy struck in 1915 when her husband was accidentally killed, leaving Mrs. Walker to manage a large household. Her work and investments kept the family comfortably situated. When her sons married they brought their wives to 110½ East Leigh Street, her home in Richmond's Jackson Ward district, the center of Richmond's African American business and social life at the turn of the century.

Ms. Walker received an honorary Masters degree from Virginia Union University in 1923, and was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2002
Persevering despite disability
Mrs. Walker's health gradually declined, and by 1928 she was using a wheelchair due to paralysis. Despite her physical limitations, she remained actively committed to her life's work including serving as leader of the Independent Order of St. Luke and chairman of the bank until her death on December 15, 1934. She is buried in Richmond's Evergreen Cemetery.
Heritage
In Maggie's honor Richmond Public Schools built a large brick high school adjacent to Virginia Union University. Maggie L. Walker High School was one of two schools in the area for black students, during the period of racial segregation in schools. The other was Armstrong High School. After generations of students spent their high school years there, it was totally refurbished in the late 20th century to become the regional Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies.
The National Park Service operates the Maggie L. Walker Historical Site at the former Jackson Ward home. In 1978 the house was designated a National Historic Site and was opened as a museum in 1985. The site states that it "commemorates the life of a progressive and talented African American woman. She achieved success in the world of business and finance as the first woman in the United States to charter and serve as president of a bank, despite the many adversities. The site includes a visitor center detailing her life and the Jackson Ward community in which she lived and worked and her residence of thirty years.The house is restored to its 1930's appearance with original Walker family pieces."
By 1928, Walker's health began to decline and she was soon confined to a wheelchair because of paralysis. Nonetheless she remained president of St. Luke’s Bank until her death on December 15, 1934.


Have a great day and remember that nothing is too difficult a bit at a time - "It's a sinch by the inch..."


Stay up!

 

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Good Morning Fam!

Each year as my personal contribution to "Black History" month I send out thousands of emails throughout the month of notable Black Historical facts and people of African descent that may not be so well known, but have made great personal achievements/accomplishments and significant contributions to society/humanity. Please pass them on to other's and especially our youth...
(The answer to yesterdays riddle can be found at the end of the text.)





Gabriel's Conspiracy (enslaved black men plan their freedom).
1799 - 1800

Gabriel Prosser

Gabriel was born in 1776, on Thomas Prosser's tobacco plantation in Henrico County, Virginia. When he was about ten, Gabriel and his brother Solomon began training as blacksmiths. Although almost nothing is known about Gabriel's parents, it is likely that his father was a blacksmith, because skills were typically passed from generation to generation in Virginia slave families. As a child, Gabriel was also taught to read and write.

Gabriel was unusually intelligent, and unusually large; by the age of 20 he was six feet, two or three inches tall, and was enormously strong from his years of smithing. Even older slaves saw him as a leader.

Prosser died in 1798, and his son Thomas Henry Prosser, at the age of 22, became the new master of the Brookfield Plantation. Thomas Henry was a cruel and economically ambitious master, and it is likely that he pushed his slaves too hard. He also hired out some of his skilled slaves, including Gabriel and Solomon, a practice that was common in Virginia at the time -- and one that allowed slaves more freedom than some Virginians were comfortable with. Although the state legislature made laws attempting to curtail hiring out, they were not enforced, largely because local merchants and artisans relied heavily on the cheap labor that they could get from hiring slaves, as opposed to white tradesmen.

Thomas Henry allowed Gabriel to hire himself out to masters in and around Richmond, giving him access to a certain amount of freedom, as well as money. Gabriel also met fellow hired slaves, free blacks, and white laborers, with whom he shared work and leisure time.

Many free blacks, though they faced overwhelming discrimination, managed to prosper as small business owners in the Richmond economy. Even more threatening to city authorities were the bonds that were formed among slaves, free blacks and working class whites, who worked and socialized together, especially in a city in which whites, and especially wealthy whites, were in the minority. Laws were passed curtailing socializing between slaves and free blacks, and interracial grog shops were raided.

Gabriel experienced several strong influences: the rhetoric of the American Revolution; the uprising in Saint Domingue, the radical words of white artisans who championed the working class; the success exhibited by free blacks; his own hatred of the merchants who routinely cheated the slaves they hired; his desire to be free and to prosper. He was moving toward a revolutionary stance that Solomon described in his court confession: "My brother Gabriel was the person who influenced me to join him and others in order that (as he said) we might conquer the white people and possess ourselves of their property."

In September of 1799, Gabriel, Solomon, and a fellow slave named Jupiter stole a pig. When caught by white overseer Absalom Johnson, Gabriel wrestled him to the ground and bit off most of his ear. In court, he was found guilty of maiming a white man, a capital offense, but Gabriel escaped execution through a loophole called "benefit of clergy," that allowed him to choose public branding over execution, if he could recite a verse from the Bible. Gabriel recited his verse, and then was branded in his left hand in open court. The branding, as well as the month he spent in jail, was the last in a long chain of offenses that pushed him toward open rebellion.

Inspired by Saint Domingue and spurred on by working-class talk of a truly egalitarian society, Gabriel decided it was time to act. He believed that if the slaves rose and fought for their rights, the poor white people would join them. His plan involved seizing Capitol Square in Richmond and taking Governor James Monroe as a hostage, in order to bargain with city authorities. According to later testimony, one of the conspirators also "was to go to the nation of Indians called Catawbas to persuade them to join the negroes to fight the white people." It was also believed that a French "army was landed at South Key, which they hoped would assist them." Their banner would bear the motto "death or Liberty," the battle cry of Saint Domingue.

Gabriel conveyed his plan to Solomon and Ben, another of Prosser's slaves, and the men began recruiting soldiers. They were later joined by other recruiters, most notably Jack Ditcher and Ben Woolfolk. The rebels did not include women in their army. While the majority of the men were slaves, the conspirators also drew free blacks and a few white workers to their cause, especially as they began recruiting in Richmond. Two Frenchmen and militant abolitionists, Charles Quersey and Alexander Beddenhurst, joined the ranks as leaders. A slave recruit named King, when told of the plot, said, "I was never so glad to hear anything in my life. I am ready to join them at any moment. I could slay the white people like sheep."

The conspirators continued recruiting from Richmond and other Virginia towns, including Petersburg, Norfolk and Albemarle, and from the counties of Caroline and Louisa. After some difficulty, they were also successful in recruiting slaves from the Henrico County countryside. In this way they were preparing for the most far-reaching slave revolt ever planned in U.S. history. They also amassed weapons and began hammering swords out of scythes and molding bullets.

By August of 1800, Gabriel's army was ready. Their plan, necessarily more elaborate now, included the taking of Norfolk and Petersburg by the men living there. Gabriel announced that they would move on the night of Saturday, August 30. As the lieutenants delivered news of the date to the outlying areas, a rumor of insurrection surfaced among Richmond whites, who reported it to Governor Monroe, who ignored it.

On August 30, a torrential rain began, described by James Callender, a person in jail for violating the sedition law, as "the most terrible thunder Storm... that I ever witnessed in this State." A handful of men gathered at the appointed meeting spot, but it soon became clear that the quickly rising water would make key roads and bridges impassable.

The conspirators decided to postpone until Sunday evening, August 31. But before they had a chance to carry out their plan, slaves in two different locations cracked under the pressure and told their masters. Soon Governor Monroe was alerted, and white patrols, later joined by the state militia, began roaming the countryside searching for rebels. Gabriel and Jack Ditcher disappeared. Others eluded capture for several days, but by September 9, almost 30 slaves were in jail awaiting trial in the court of "Oyer and Terminer," a special court in which slaves were tried without benefit of jury.

When the trials began on September 11, Gabriel and Ditcher were still at large, and white authorities had no idea of how extensive the insurrection had been. But white Virginians were terrified at the thought of how close the danger had come. One white fear, typical in times of black rebellion, was that black men were out to get white women.

One strategy that the white authorities used was to offer a full pardon to a handful of slaves who were willing to give testimony against the other conspirators. Gervas Storrs and Joseph Seldon, two of the court magistrates, found two key witnesses in this way: Ben, one of Prosser's slaves, and Ben Woolfolk. Prosser's Ben came forward first, and his testimony sent a number of slaves from his area to the gallows, including Gabriel's brothers Solomon and Martin. But Prosser's Ben did not have enough contact with slaves from the outlying areas, and so the court looked to Ben Woolfolk to give the damning evidence. Other slaves provided further testimony.

On September 14, Gabriel swam to a schooner called Mary on the James River. He asked to see the captain, a white man named Richardson Taylor. Two black men on board, Taylor's former slave Isham and a slave named Billy, identified Gabriel as the leader of the plot. Though a former overseer, Taylor had apparently had a change of heart about slavery. He attempted to take Gabriel to freedom. However, when the ship docked in Norfolk, Billy alerted white authorities to Gabriel's presence on board, no doubt thinking of the $300 reward being offered for Gabriel's capture. Gabriel and Taylor were both arrested. Billy was rewarded, but not what he had expected. He received $50, far below what he needed to purchase his freedom.

On October 6, Gabriel was put on trial. Several witnesses came forward, but Gabriel himself refused to make a statement. He was sentenced to be executed the next day, but asked that his sentence not be carried out until October 10, so that he could be executed along with six other slaves who were to hang on that day. The court agreed, but on October 10 they hanged the slaves in three different locations; Gabriel was hanged alone on the town gallows.

In all, the trials lasted almost two months, and 26 slaves were executed by hanging; one more died by hanging while in custody. At least 65 slaves were tried; of those not hanged, some were transported to other states, some were found not guilty, and a few were pardoned. By law, slaveholders had to be reimbursed by the state for lost property, so in cases where slaves were executed or transported, their masters were reimbursed for their total worth declared by the court. Virginia paid over $8900 to slaveholders for the executed slaves.

Although most of the suspects were tried in Richmond, blacks captured in other counties were tried in those locations. Many of them shared the same fates as the Richmond slaves. However, in Hanover County, two slaves escaped with the help of blacks outside the prison and were never recovered. In Norfolk County, the magistrates questioned slaves and working-class whites alike, trying to find witnesses. But no one, including the accused slaves, would come forward with evidence, and the slaves were released. In Petersburg, four free blacks were arrested, but they too were released after the frustrated authorities could find no viable witnesses. There were slaves willing to give condemning evidence, but the testimony of slaves against free people was inadmissible in Virginia courts.

Kanuri of West Africa - proposes this riddle for his students of philosophy:
What are two things, that an ostrich, even with his long neck and sharp eyes, can never see?
(Answer: The past nor the Future )


There is no pain in change, the pain is from the resistance to change... -Ora-


Peace and Blessings & Stay Up!

 

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Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al-Mansour

If you are fortunate enough to find his book entitled "Betryal, by any other name," please read it. You will enjoy it! It is close to 800 pages but you will not be able to put the book down.

Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al-Mansour
Dr. Al-Mansour is an International Attorney and Businessman. His college education was obtained at Howard University, where he majored in Philosophy and Logic, and at the University of California School of Law at Berkeley where he received his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree.

He is a Phi Beta Kappa recipient and is listed in the World's Who's Who in Finance and Industry, International Who's Who in the Arab World, Who's Who in Public Affairs, Royal Blue Book of London, International Who's Who of Intellectuals, Who's Who in American Law, Who's Who in California, Who's Who in the World and Who's Who in Black America.
Dr. Al-Mansour has spent most of his adult life as a businessman/lawyer, intellectual, religious activist, author and teacher. His business and professional interests include co-founding the International Law Firm of Al-Waleed, Al-Talal & Al-Mansour, representing the O.P.E.C. interest of the famous Los Angeles trial, I.M.A.W.C. vs. O.P.E.C.; and serving as a co-founder and director of the Saudi African Bank (SAB), the United Bank for Africa (UBA) and the World United Bank for Africa (WUBA).

A resolution honoring Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al-Mansour.
by the Senate in 1997

Full Text
SR 356 LC 19 3568


A RESOLUTION

1- 1 Honoring Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al-Mansour; and for other
1- 2 purposes.

1- 3 WHEREAS, Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al-Mansour is an
1- 4 internationally esteemed attorney, author, and lecturer
1- 5 whose views have garnered worldwide attention; and

1- 6 WHEREAS, he is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Howard
1- 7 University and a graduate of the University of California at
1- 8 Berkeley School of Law; and

1- 9 WHEREAS, he is a co-founder of the international law firm of
1-10 Al-Waleed, Al-Talal and Al-Mansour; and

1-11 WHEREAS, he is a member of the board of directors of various
1-12 international corporations involved in the fields of
1-13 biomedicine, electronics, insurance, real estate, banking,
1-14 and financial investments; and

1-15 WHEREAS, he has lectured throughout the world including
1-16 guest lectureships at such prestigious institutions as
1-17 Harvard University, the University of California at
1-18 Berkeley, the University of California at Los Angeles, and
1-19 Howard University; and

1-20 WHEREAS, in recognition of the scope and value of his
1-21 achievements and contributions, he has been honored by
1-22 inclusion in the World Who's Who, World Who's Who in Finance
1-23 and Industry, International Who's Who in the Arab World,
1-24 World Who's Who of Intellectuals, Who's Who in Black
1-25 America, World Who's Who in American Law, the Royal Blue
1-26 Book of London, Two Thousand Men of Achievement, Who's Who
1-27 in the West, Who's Who in California, and the American Hall
1-28 of Fame; and

1-29 WHEREAS, he is author of 16 books including the latest and
1-30 most popular one, Betrayal By Any Other Name.

1-31 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE that the
1-32 members of this body honor Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tariq
1-33 Al-Mansour for his outstanding achievements and for his
1-34 active and significant role in shaping and interpreting
1-35 world events.

-1-

2- 1 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of the Senate is
2- 2 authorized and directed to transmit an appropriate copy of
2- 3 this resolution to Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al-Mansour.

When I look at the future, it's so bright it burns my eyes - Oprah Winfrey.


Enjoy the Super Bowl! - NY Giants Baby!



Make Yourself a Lovely Day!


Peace and Blessings & Stay Up!

 

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The Women of Tuskegee

As the Tuskegee Airmen fought for their place in the skies during World War II, they were supported by a dedicated and often forgotten cadre of women.

They were nurses, mechanics, supply pilots and secretaries. They nursed injured bodies and souls, packaged and repackaged parachutes, cleared land for runways and base buildings, delivered supplies and did the other work that helped keep the base running.

The Tuskegee Airmen, whose combat service is depicted in the recently released film "Red Tails," earned their place in history by being the first African-American pursuit squadron. They were charged with protecting bombers from enemy fire while flying missions over parts of Europe and North Africa. Their training program, first based at the historically black Tuskegee Institute in 1941, eventually grew to include nearly 1,000 pilots and several air bases.

It isn’t clear exactly how many women were included among the estimated 15,000 people that worked as part of the program. But Ruth Jackson, a research librarian at the Universityof California–Riverside, said her research confirms at least 41 women were nurses. The university houses a large archive of material related to the Tuskegee Airmen, and Jackson has been collecting oral histories from many of the female personnel.

"They believed very strongly, just the way the men did, that it was ridiculous for the barriers to exist, and for the military to have believed that African-Americans were not intelligent enough or brave enough to fly," Jackson said. "They were very much devoted to the cause and the success of the experience. They felt very special to be a part of it, as a matter of fact."

Some of the women working with the program married the airmen, and continued their supportive role as wives. Irma "Pete" Dryden served in such a dual role – first working as a nurse at the Tuskegee air base’s hospital. Dryden, whose nickname is derived from her childhood habit of wiggling her nose like Peter Rabbit, eventually married an airman she met her first day on base. Charles "A-Train" Dryden was an instructor and pilot, commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1942. At the time, he was part of the second-ever class of black pilots to complete the U.S. Army Air Corps training program. They were married 32 years, then divorced. Charles Dryden remarried and passed away in 2008.

"Pete" considers her service as a Documented Original Tuskegee Airman among her proudest accomplishments. She’s remained an active member of Tuskegee Airmen Inc., the nonprofit organization that preserves and teaches about the group’s legacy.

She volunteered to serve as a nurse on base just after finishing her training at Harlem Hospital. She was 23 when she boarded a train in April 1943 to travel to the air base being built outside Tuskegee, Alabama. A New York City native, she had never experienced the Jim Crow racism of the south, but she and two fellow black nurses got their introduction after having to change to a segregated train in Washington, D.C.

The train didn't have a separate dining car for African-Americans, so Dryden and two fellow nurses were given strict rules about when and where they could eat their meals. They were to be only at certain times, and as they ate, a curtain was pulled around them so that the white passengers wouldn't have to acknowledge the "coloreds" in their midst.

MORE HERE: http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/...-black-pilots/



I want to thank the original poster for the research on this BF..

If American women would increase their voting turnout by 10 percent, I think we would see an end to all of the budget cuts in programs benefiting women and children. - Coretta Scott-King


Stay out of your own way and have a great day!


Peace and Blessings & Stay Up!!!

 

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What is Jim Crow? The Black and Brown youth in America know very little about the "way of life" endured by Black and Brown people in the United States during the Jim Crow era (1876 to 1965).

Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system which operated primarily, but not exclusively in southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid-1960s. Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-Black laws. It was a way of life. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens. Jim Crow represented the legitimization of anti-Black racism. Many Christian ministers and theologians taught that Whites were the Chosen people, Blacks were cursed to be servants, and God supported racial segregation. Craniologists, eugenicists, phrenologists, and Social Darwinists, at every educational level, buttressed the belief that Blacks were innately intellectually and culturally inferior to Whites. Pro-segregation politicians gave eloquent speeches on the great danger of integration: the mongrelization of the White race. Newspaper and magazine writers routinely referred to Blacks as ******s, coons, and darkies; and worse, their articles reinforced anti-Black stereotypes. Even children's games portrayed Blacks as inferior beings (see "From Hostility to Reverence: 100 Years of African-American Imagery in Games"). All major societal institutions reflected and supported the oppression of Blacks.

The Jim Crow system was undergirded by the following beliefs or rationalizations: Whites were superior to Blacks in all important ways, including but not limited to intelligence, morality, and civilized behavior; sexual relations between Blacks and Whites would produce a mongrel race which would destroy America; treating Blacks as equals would encourage interracial sexual unions; any activity which suggested social equality encouraged interracial sexual relations; if necessary, violence must be used to keep Blacks at the bottom of the racial hierarchy. The following Jim Crow etiquette norms show how inclusive and pervasive these norms were:
A Black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a White male because it implied being socially equal. Obviously, a Black male could not offer his hand or any other part of his body to a White woman, because he risked being accused of rape.
Blacks and Whites were not supposed to eat together. If they did eat together, Whites were to be served first, and some sort of partition was to be placed between them.
Under no circumstance was a Black male to offer to light the cigarette of a White female -- that gesture implied intimacy.
Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another in public, especially kissing, because it offended Whites.
Jim Crow etiquette prescribed that Blacks were introduced to Whites, never Whites to Blacks. For example: "Mr. Peters (the White person), this is Charlie (the Black person), that I spoke to you about."
Whites did not use courtesy titles of respect when referring to Blacks, for example, Mr., Mrs., Miss., Sir, or Ma'am. Instead, Blacks were called by their first names. Blacks had to use courtesy titles when referring to Whites, and were not allowed to call them by their first names.
If a Black person rode in a car driven by a White person, the Black person sat in the back seat, or the back of a truck.
White motorists had the right-of-way at all intersections.
Stetson Kennedy, the author of Jim Crow Guide, offered these simple rules that Blacks were supposed to observe in conversing with Whites:

Never assert or even intimate that a White person is lying.
Never impute dishonorable intentions to a White person.
Never suggest that a White person is from an inferior class.
Never lay claim to, or overly demonstrate, superior knowledge or intelligence.
Never curse a White person.
Never laugh derisively at a White person.
Never comment upon the appearance of a White female.1
Jim Crow etiquette operated in conjunction with Jim Crow laws (black codes). When most people think of Jim Crow they think of laws (not the Jim Crow etiquette) which excluded Blacks from public transport and facilities, juries, jobs, and neighborhoods. The passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution had granted Blacks the same legal protections as Whites. However, after 1877, and the election of Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, southern and border states began restricting the liberties of Blacks. Unfortunately for Blacks, the Supreme Court helped undermine the Constitutional protections of Blacks with the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) case, which legitimized Jim Crow laws and the Jim Crow way of life.

In 1890, Louisiana passed the "Separate Car Law," which purported to aid passenger comfort by creating "equal but separate" cars for Blacks and Whites. This was a ruse. No public accommodations, including railway travel, provided Blacks with equal facilities. The Louisiana law made it illegal for Blacks to sit in coach seats reserved for Whites, and Whites could not sit in seats reserved for Blacks. In 1891, a group of Blacks decided to test the Jim Crow law. They had Homer A. Plessy, who was seven-eights White and one-eighth Black (therefore, Black), sit in the White-only railroad coach. He was arrested. Plessy's lawyer argued that Louisiana did not have the right to label one citizen as White and another Black for the purposes of restricting their rights and privileges. In Plessy, the Supreme Court stated that so long as state governments provided legal process and legal freedoms for Blacks, equal to those of Whites, they could maintain separate institutions to facilitate these rights. The Court, by a 7-2 vote, upheld the Louisiana law, declaring that racial separation did not necessarily mean an abrogation of equality. In practice, Plessy represented the legitimization of two societies: one White, and advantaged; the other, Black, disadvantaged and despised.
Blacks were denied the right to vote by grandfather clauses (laws that restricted the right to vote to people whose ancestors had voted before the Civil War), poll taxes (fees charged to poor Blacks), white primaries (only Democrats could vote, only Whites could be Democrats), and literacy tests ("Name all the Vice Presidents and Supreme Court Justices throughout America's history"). Plessy sent this message to southern and border states: Discrimination against Blacks is acceptable.

Jim Crow states passed statutes severely regulating social interactions between the races. Jim Crow signs were placed above water fountains, door entrances and exits, and in front of public facilities. There were separate hospitals for Blacks and Whites, separate prisons, separate public and private schools, separate churches, separate cemeteries, separate public restrooms, and separate public accommodations. In most instances, the Black facilities were grossly inferior -- generally, older, less-well-kept. In other cases, there were no Black facilities -- no Colored public restroom, no public beach, no place to sit or eat. Plessy gave Jim Crow states a legal way to ignore their constitutional obligations to their Black citizens.

Jim Crow laws touched every aspect of everyday life. For example, in 1935, Oklahoma prohibited Blacks and Whites from boating together. Boating implied social equality. In 1905, Georgia established separate parks for Blacks and Whites. In 1930, Birmingham, Alabama, made it illegal for Blacks and Whites to play checkers or dominoes together. Here are some of the typical Jim Crow laws, as compiled by the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site Interpretive Staff:
Barbers. No colored barber shall serve as a barber (to) white girls or women (Georgia).
Blind Wards. The board of trustees shall...maintain a separate building...on separate ground for the admission, care, instruction, and support of all blind persons of the colored or black race (Louisiana).
Burial. The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any colored persons upon ground set apart or used for the burial of white persons (Georgia).
Buses. All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races (Alabama).
Child Custody. It shall be unlawful for any parent, relative, or other white person in this State, having the control or custody of any white child, by right of guardianship, natural or acquired, or otherwise, to dispose of, give or surrender such white child permanently into the custody, control, maintenance, or support, of a negro (South Carolina).
Education. The schools for white children and the schools for negro children shall be conducted separately (Florida).
Libraries. The state librarian is directed to fit up and maintain a separate place for the use of the colored people who may come to the library for the purpose of reading books or periodicals (North Carolina).
Mental Hospitals. The Board of Control shall see that proper and distinct apartments are arranged for said patients, so that in no case shall Negroes and white persons be together (Georgia).
Militia. The white and colored militia shall be separately enrolled, and shall never be compelled to serve in the same organization. No organization of colored troops shall be permitted where white troops are available and where whites are permitted to be organized, colored troops shall be under the command of white officers (North Carolina).
Nurses. No person or corporation shall require any White female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed (Alabama).
Prisons. The warden shall see that the white convicts shall have separate apartments for both eating and sleeping from the negro convicts (Mississippi).
Reform Schools. The children of white and colored races committed to the houses of reform shall be kept entirely separate from each other (Kentucky).
Teaching. Any instructor who shall teach in any school, college or institution where members of the white and colored race are received and enrolled as pupils for instruction shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined... (Oklahoma).
Wine and Beer. All persons licensed to conduct the business of selling beer or wine...shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room at any time (Georgia).2

The Jim Crow laws and system of etiquette were undergirded by violence, real and threatened. Blacks who violated Jim Crow norms, for example, drinking from the White water fountain or trying to vote, risked their homes, their jobs, even their lives. Whites could physically beat Blacks with impunity. Blacks had little legal recourse against these assaults because the Jim Crow criminal justice system was all-White: police, prosecutors, judges, juries, and prison officials. Violence was instrumental for Jim Crow. It was a method of social control. The most extreme forms of Jim Crow violence were lynchings.

Lynchings were public, often sadistic, murders carried out by mobs. Between 1882, when the first reliable data were collected, and 1968, when lynchings had become rare, there were 4,730 known lynchings, including 3,440 Black men and women. Most of the victims of Lynch-Law were hanged or shot, but some were burned at the stake, castrated, beaten with clubs, or dismembered. In the mid-1800s, Whites constituted the majority of victims (and perpetrators); however, by the period of Radical Reconstruction, Blacks became the most frequent lynching victims. This is an early indication that lynching was used as an intimidation tool to keep Blacks, in this case the newly-freedmen, "in their places." The great majority of lynchings occurred in southern and border states, where the resentment against Blacks ran deepest. According to the social economist Gunnar Myrdal: "The southern states account for nine-tenths of the lynchings. More than two thirds of the remaining one-tenth occurred in the six states which immediately border the South."3

Many Whites claimed that although lynchings were distasteful, they were necessary supplements to the criminal justice system because Blacks were prone to violent crimes, especially the rapes of White women. Arthur Raper investigated nearly a century of lynchings and concluded that approximately one-third of all the victims were falsely accused.4

Under Jim Crow any and all sexual interactions between Black men and White women was illegal, illicit, socially repugnant, and within the Jim Crow definition of rape. Although only 19.2 percent of the lynching victims between 1882 to 1951 were even accused of rape, Lynch law was often supported on the popular belief that lynchings were necessary to protect White women from Black rapists. Myrdal refutes this belief in this way: "There is much reason to believe that this figure (19.2) has been inflated by the fact that a mob which makes the accusation of rape is secure from any further investigation; by the broad Southern definition of rape to include all sexual relations between Negro men and white women; and by the psychopathic fears of white women in their contacts with Negro men."5 Most Blacks were lynched for demanding civil rights, violating Jim Crow etiquette or laws, or in the aftermath of race riots.

Lynchings were most common in small and middle-sized towns where Blacks often were economic competitors to the local Whites. These Whites resented any economic and political gains made by Blacks. Lynchers were seldomly arrested, and if arrested, rarely convicted. Raper estimated that "at least one-half of the lynchings are carried out with police officers participating, and that in nine-tenths of the others the officers either condone or wink at the mob action."6 Lynching served many purposes: it was cheap entertainment; it served as a rallying, uniting point for Whites; it functioned as an ego-massage for low-income, low-status Whites; it was a method of defending White domination and helped stop or retard the fledgling social equality movement.
Lynch mobs directed their hatred against one (sometimes several) victims. The victim was an example of what happened to a Black man who tried to vote, or who looked at a White woman, or who tried to get a White man's job. Unfortunately for Blacks, sometimes the mob was not satisfied to murder a single or several victims. Instead, in the spirit of pogroms, the mobs went into Black communities and destroyed additional lives and property. Their immediate goal was to drive out -- through death or expulsion -- all Blacks; the larger goal was to maintain, at all costs, White supremacy. These pogrom-like actions are often referred to as riots; however, Gunnar Myrdal was right when he described these "riots" as "a terrorization or massacre...a mass lynching."7 Interestingly, these mass lynchings were primarily urban phenomena, whereas the lynching of single victims was primarily a rural phenomena.

James Weldon Johnson, the famous Black writer, labeled 1919 as "The Red Summer." It was red from racial tension; it was red from bloodletting. During the summer of 1919, there were race riots in Chicago, Illinois; Knoxville and Nashville, Tennessee; Charleston, South Carolina; Omaha, Nebraska; and two dozen other cities. W.E.B. DuBois, the Black social scientist and civil rights activist, wrote: "During that year seventy-seven Negroes were lynched, of whom one was a woman and eleven were soldiers; of these, fourteen were publicly burned, eleven of them being burned alive. That year there were race riots large and small in twenty-six American cities including thirty-eight killed in a Chicago riot of August; from twenty-five to fifty in Phillips County, Arkansas; and six killed in Washington."8
The riots of 1919 were not the first or last "mass lynchings" of Blacks, as evidenced by the race riots in Wilmington, North Carolina (1898); Atlanta, Georgia (1906); Springfield, Illinois (1908); East St. Louis, Illinois (1917); Tulsa, Oklahoma (1921); and Detroit, Michigan (1943). Joseph Boskin, author of Urban Racial Violence, claimed that the riots of the 1900s had the following traits:
In each of the race riots, with few exceptions, it was White people that sparked the incident by attacking Black people.
In the majority of the riots, some extraordinary social condition prevailed at the time of the riot: prewar social changes, wartime mobility, post-war adjustment, or economic depression.
The majority of the riots occurred during the hot summer months.
Rumor played an extremely important role in causing many riots. Rumors of some criminal activity by Blacks against Whites perpetuated the actions of the White mobs.
The police force, more than any other institution, was invariably involved as a precipitating cause or perpetuating factor in the riots. In almost every one of the riots, the police sided with the attackers, either by actually participating in, or by failing to quell the attack.
In almost every instance, the fighting occurred within the Black community.9
Boskin omitted the following: the mass media, especially newspapers often published inflammatory articles about "Black criminals" immediately before the riots; Blacks were not only killed, but their homes and businesses were looted, and many who did not flee were left homeless; and, the goal of the White rioters, as was true of White lynchers of single victims, was to instill fear and terror into Blacks, thereby buttressing White domination. The Jim Crow hierarchy could not work without violence being used against those on the bottom rung. George Fredrickson, a historian, stated it this way: "Lynching represented...a way of using fear and terror to check 'dangerous' tendencies in a black community considered to be ineffectively regimented or supervised. As such it constituted a confession that the regular institutions of a segregated society provided an inadequate measure of day-to-day control."10
Many Blacks resisted the indignities of Jim Crow, and, far too often, they paid for their bravery with their lives.

© Dr. David Pilgrim, Professor of Sociology
Ferris State University
Sept., 2000
1 Kennedy, Stetson. Jim Crow Guide: The Way It Was. Boca Raton: Florida Atlantic University Press, 1959/1990, pp.216-117.
2 This list was derived from a larger list composed by the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site Interpretive Staff. Last Updated January 5, 1998. The web address is: http//www.nps.gov/malu/documents/jim crowlaws.htm.
3 Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma. New York: 1944, pp. 560-561.
4 Myrdal, op. cit., .561.
5 Ibid., pp.561-562.
6 Arthur. A. Rapier, The Tragedy of Lynching. Chapel Hill, 1933, pp.13-14.
7 Myrdal, op.cit., p.566.
8 W.E.B. Dubois, Originally in Dust of Dawn. Cited here from DuBois: Writings, Nathan Huggins (editor). New York: Viking Press, 1986, p.747.
9 Joseph Boskin, Urban Racial Violence. Beverly Hills, 1976, pp.14-15.
10 George M. Fredrickson, The Black Image In The White Mind: The Debate on Afro-American Character and Destiny 1817-1914. New York: Harper & Row, 1971, p.272.


I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in "We, the people." ~Barbara Jordan

Live today as if it were your last...

Peace and Blessings & Stay Up!!!

 

[gotay]

Good Reading...Thanks You

 

[mrbillcollecta]

Bookmarked for toilet bowl reading.

 

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Nat Turner's Rebellion
1831

Nat Turner was born on October 2, 1800, in Southampton County, Virginia, the week before Gabriel (BF 2/4/12) was hanged. While still a young child, Nat was overheard describing events that had happened before he was born. This, along with his keen intelligence, and other signs marked him in the eyes of his people as a prophet "intended for some great purpose." A deeply religious man, he "therefore studiously avoided mixing in society, and wrapped [him]self in mystery, devoting [his] time to fasting and praying."

In 1821, Turner ran away from his overseer, returning after thirty days because of a vision in which the Spirit had told him to "return to the service of my earthly master." The next year, following the death of his master, Samuel Turner, Nat was sold to Thomas Moore. Three years later, Nat Turner had another vision. He saw lights in the sky and prayed to find out what they meant. Then "... while laboring in the field, I discovered drops of blood on the corn, as though it were dew from heaven, and I communicated it to many, both white and black, in the neighborhood; and then I found on the leaves in the woods hieroglyphic characters and numbers, with the forms of men in different attitudes, portrayed in blood, and representing the figures I had seen before in the heavens."

On May 12, 1828, Turner had his third vision: "I heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first... And by signs in the heavens that it would make known to me when I should commence the great work, and until the first sign appeared I should conceal it from the knowledge of men; and on the appearance of the sign... I should arise and prepare myself and slay my enemies with their own weapons."

At the beginning of the year 1830, Turner was moved to the home of Joseph Travis, the new husband of Thomas Moore's widow. His official owner was Putnum Moore, still a young child. Turner described Travis as a kind master, against whom he had no complaints.

Then, in February, 1831, there was an eclipse of the sun. Turner took this to be the sign he had been promised and confided his plan to the four men he trusted the most, Henry, Hark, Nelson, and Sam. They decided to hold the insurrection on the 4th of July and began planning a strategy. However, they had to postpone action because Turner became ill.

On August 13, there was an atmospheric disturbance in which the sun appeared bluish-green. This was the final sign, and a week later, on August 21, Turner and six of his men met in the woods to eat a dinner and make their plans. At 2:00 that morning, they set out to the Travis household, where they killed the entire family as they lay sleeping. They continued on, from house to house, killing all of the white people they encountered. Turner's force eventually consisted of more than 40 slaves, most on horseback.

By about mid-day on August 22, Turner decided to march toward Jerusalem, the closest town. By then word of the rebellion had gotten out to the whites; confronted by a group of militia, the rebels scattered, and Turner's force became disorganized. After spending the night near some slave cabins, Turner and his men attempted to attack another house, but were repulsed. Several of the rebels were captured. The remaining force then met the state and federal troops in final skirmish, in which one slave was killed and many escaped, including Turner. In the end, the rebels had stabbed, shot and clubbed at least 55 white people to death.

Nat Turner hid in several different places near the Travis farm, but on October 30 was discovered and captured. His "Confession," dictated to physician Thomas R. Gray, was taken while he was imprisoned in the County Jail. On November 5, Nat Turner was tried in the Southampton County Court and sentenced to execution. He was hanged, and then skinned, on November 11.

In total, the state executed 55 people, banished many more, and acquitted a few. The state reimbursed the slaveholders for their slaves. But in the hysterical climate that followed the rebellion, close to 200 black people, many of whom had nothing to do with the rebellion, were murdered by white mobs. In addition, slaves as far away as North Carolina were accused of having a connection with the insurrection, and were subsequently tried and executed.

The state legislature of Virginia considered abolishing slavery, but in a close vote decided to retain slavery and to support a repressive policy against black people, slave and free.


Hatred, slavery's inevitable aftermath - JOSÉ MARTÍ



Move towards your vision; your vision is what you see when you dream... - Milosophy-
.


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NP

Bookmarked for toilet bowl reading.

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http://www.blackfacts.com/

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Thanks for the great info. I have a slew of historical buffs to share this with.

 

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Good Morning Fam!

Each year as my personal contribution to "Black History" month I send out thousands of emails throughout the month of notable Black Historical facts and people of African descent that may not be so well known, but have made great personal achievements/accomplishments and significant contributions to society/humanity. Please pass them on to other's and especially the youth... If you need me to resend any of our "Black Facts," simply shoot me an PM with your specific request by date or BF name/title.

***​

In it's 48-year history, affirmative action has been both praised and pilloried as an answer to racial inequality. The term "affirmative action" was first introduced by President Kennedy in 1961 as a method of redressing discrimination that had persisted in spite of civil rights laws and constitutional guarantees. It was developed and enforced for the first time by President Johnson. "This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights," Johnson asserted. "We seek… not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result."
A Temporary Measure to Level the Playing Field
Focusing in particular on education and jobs, affirmative action policies required that active measures be taken to ensure that blacks and other minorities enjoyed the same opportunities for promotions, salary increases, career advancement, school admissions, scholarships, and financial aid that had been the nearly exclusive province of whites. From the outset, affirmative action was envisioned as a temporary remedy that would end once there was a "level playing field" for all Americans.
Bakke and Reverse Discrimination
By the late '70s, however, flaws in the policy began to show up amid its good intentions. Reverse discrimination became an issue, epitomized by the famous Bakke case in 1978. Allan Bakke, a white male, had been rejected two years in a row by a medical school that had accepted less qualified minority applicants-the school had a separate admissions policy for minorities and reserved 16 out of 100 places for minority students. The Supreme Court outlawed inflexible quota systems in affirmative action programs, which in this case had unfairly discriminated against a white applicant. In the same ruling, however, the Court upheld the legality of affirmative action per se.
A Zero-Sum Game for Conservatives
Fueled by "angry white men," a backlash against affirmative action began to mount. To conservatives, the system was a zero-sum game that opened the door for jobs, promotions, or education to minorities while it shut the door on whites. In a country that prized the values of self-reliance and pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps, conservatives resented the idea that some unqualified minorities were getting a free ride on the American system. "Preferential treatment" and "quotas" became expressions of contempt. Even more contentious was the accusation that some minorities enjoyed playing the role of professional victim. Why could some minorities who had also experienced terrible adversity and racism-Jews and Asians, in particular-manage to make the American way work for them without government handouts?
"Justice and Freedom for All" Still in Its Infancy
Liberals countered that "the land of opportunity" was a very different place for the European immigrants who landed on its shores than it was for those who arrived in the chains of slavery. As historian Roger Wilkins pointed out, "blacks have a 375-year history on this continent: 245 involving slavery, 100 involving legalized discrimination, and only 30 involving anything else."
Considering that Jim Crow laws and lynching existed well into the '60s, and that myriad subtler forms of racism in housing, employment, and education persisted well beyond the civil rights movement, conservatives impatient for blacks to "get over" the legacy of slavery needed to realize that slavery was just the beginning of racism in America. Liberals also pointed out that another popular conservative argument-that because of affirmative action, minorities were threatening the jobs of whites-belied the reality that white men were still the undisputed rulers of the roost when it came to salaries, positions, and prestige.
Black-and-White Polemics Turn Gray
The debate about affirmative action has also grown more murky and difficult as the public has come to appreciate its complexity. Many liberals, for example, can understand the injustice of affirmative action in a case like Wygant (1986): black employees kept their jobs while white employees with seniority were laid off. And many conservatives would be hard pressed to come up with a better alternative to the imposition of a strict quota system in Paradise (1987), in which the defiantly racist Alabama Department of Public Safety refused to promote any black above entry level even after a full 12 years of court orders demanded they did.
The Supreme Court: Wary of "Abstractions Going Wrong"
The Supreme Court justices have been divided in their opinions in affirmative action cases, partially because of opposing political ideologies but also because the issue is simply so complex. The Court has approached most of the cases in a piecemeal fashion, focusing on narrow aspects of policy rather than grappling with the whole.
Even in Bakke-the closest thing to a landmark affirmative action case-the Court was split 5-4, and the judges' various opinions were far more nuanced than most glosses of the case indicate. Sandra Day O'Connor, often characterized as the pivotal judge in such cases because she straddles conservative and liberal views about affirmative action, has been described by University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein as "nervous about rules and abstractions going wrong. She's very alert to the need for the Court to depend on the details of each case."
Landmark Ruling Buttresses Affirmative Action
But in a landmark 2003 case involving the University of Michigan's affirmative action policies-one of the most important rulings on the issue in twenty-five years-the Supreme Court decisively upheld the right of affirmative action in higher education. Two cases, first tried in federal courts in 2000 and 2001, were involved: the University of Michigan's undergraduate program (Gratz v. Bollinger) and its law school (Grutter v. Bollinger). The Supreme Court (5-4) upheld the University of Michigan Law School's policy, ruling that race can be one of many factors considered by colleges when selecting their students because it furthers "a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body." The Supreme Court, however, ruled (6-3) that the more formulaic approach of the University of Michigan's undergraduate admissions program, which uses a point system that rate students and awards additional points to minorities, had to be modified. The undergraduate program, unlike the law school’s, did not provide the "individualized consideration" of applicants deemed necessary in previous Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action.
In the Michigan cases, the Supreme Court ruled that although affirmative action was no longer justified as a way of redressing past oppression and injustice, it promoted a "compelling state interest" in diversity at all levels of society. A record number of "friend-of-court" briefs were filed in support of Michigan's affirmative action case by hundreds of organizations representing academia, business, labor unions, and the military, arguing the benefits of broad racial representation. As Sandra Day O'Connor wrote for the majority, "In order to cultivate a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry, it is necessary that the path to leadership be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity."

Read more: Affirmative Action History & Timeline (Civil Rights Act, Supreme Court Cases, etc) — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/spot/affirmative1.html#ixzz1lgNPX6Xy


"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." -Martin Luther King

Peace, Blessings & Stay Up!!!

 

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Thanks for the great info. I have a slew of historical buffs to share this with.

NP and big thanks!

 

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Good Evening Fam!

I hope you're enjoying the Black Facts so far this year. For those just tuning in, welcome. Each year as my personal contribution to "Black History" month I send out thousands of emails throughout the month of notable Black Historical facts and people of African descent that may not be so well known, but have made great personal achievements/accomplishments and significant contributions to society/humanity. Please pass them on to other's and especially the youth... If you need me to resend any of our "Black Facts," simply shoot me an email with your specific request by date or BF name/title. Enjoy today's BF it's an easy read...


Norma Merrick Sklarek

...was the first African-American woman to be licensed as an architect in the United States. She was born April 15, 1928 in New York City and graduated from Barnard College (part of Columbia University) in New York, New York with a degree in architecture in 1950. She became a licensed architect in New York State in 1954, and in California in 1962. She was the first African-American woman director of architecture at Gruen and Associates in Los Angeles. In 1966, she was the first woman to be elected Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Some twenty years later, in 1985, she became the first African-American woman architect to form her own architectural firm: Siegel, Sklarek, Diamond. At the time, this was the largest woman-owned and mostly woman-staffed architectural firm. Among Sklarek's designs are the City Hall in San Bernardino, California, the Fox Plaza in San Francisco, Terminal One at the Los Angeles International Airport.


Old U.S. Embassy in Japan

New U.S. Embassy in Japan by: Norma Merrick Sklarek

San Bernardino City Hall

Fox Plaza, San Francisco, CA

Barriers facing African-American women in business include negative, race-based stereotypes; more frequent questioning of their credibility and authority; and a lack of institutional support.

Research Reports
Published: February 2004



The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

Maya Angelou


When you want it bad enough, then you'll do whatever it takes! -- Milosophy


Challenge for today: - Smile - Care - Love somebody including yourself-



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Edith S. Sampson

Edith Spurlock Sampson (13 October 1901? – 8 October 1979) was an American lawyer and judge, and the first Black U.S. delegate appointed to the United Nations.

Youth and Education
Sampson was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. to Louis Spurlock and Elizabeth A. McGruder. Despite family financial difficulties, she graduated from Peabody High School in Pittsburgh. She then went to work for Associated Charities, and studied at the New York School of Social Work. One of her instructors, George Kirchwey of Columbia, encouraged her to become an attorney. She studied law while working as a social worker in Chicago, taking night courses at John Marshall Law School, from 1922 to 1925.

Legal work

In 1924, Sampson opened a law office on the South Side of Chicago, serving the local black community. From 1925 through 1942, she was associated with the Juvenile Court of Cook County, serving as a probation officer. Sampson became the first woman to earn a Master of Laws from Loyola University's Graduate Law School in 1927. She also passed the Illinois State Bar exam that year. In 1934, she was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court. In 1943, she became one of the first black members of the National Association of Women Lawyers. In 1947, she was appointed an Assistant State's Attorney in Cook County.
International politics

In 1949, Sampson was part of the Round-the-World Town Meeting, a program that sent twenty-six prominent Americans on a world tour, meeting leaders of foreign countries and participating in public political debates and radio broadcasts. In these meetings, Sampson sought to counter Soviet propaganda regarding civil rights struggles in the U.S. During one meeting in India, she said:
“ The question is, quite bluntly, 'Do Negroes have equal rights in America?' My answer is no, we do not have equal rights in all parts of the United States. But let's remember that 85 years ago Negroes in America were slaves and were 100 per cent illiterate. And the record shows that the Negro has advanced further in this period than any similar group in the entire world. You here get considerable misinformation about American Negroes and hear little or nothing that is constructive. ”
She also stated that "I would rather be a Negro in America than a citizen in any other land." Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas said that her actions "created more good will and understanding in India than any other single act by any American".

United Nations

As a result of the Town Meeting tour and her other public speaking, President Truman appointed Sampson as an alternate U.S. delegate to the United Nations in August 1950, making her the first African-American to officially represent the United States at the UN. She was a member of the UN's Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee, where she lobbied for continued support of work in social welfare. She also presented a resolution pressuring the Soviet Union to repatriate the remainder of its Prisoners of War from World War II. She was reappointed to the UN in 1952, and served until 1953. During the Eisenhower Administration, she was a member of the U.S. Commission for UNESCO. In 1961 and 1962, she became the first black U.S. representative to NATO.

Judgeship

In 1962, Sampson ran for associate judge of the Municipal Court of Chicago, and easily won the election; she was the first black woman to be elected as a judge in the state of Illinois. In 1966, she became an associate judge for the Circuit Court of Cook County. Most of the cases that she heard were housing disputes involving poor tenants, in which she was perceived as "an understanding but tough grandmother".[3] She continued as a Circuit Court judge until she retired in 1978.

Family

Sampson first married Rufus Sampson, a field agent for the Tuskegee Institute. They divorced, but she retained the name Edith Sampson as she was already professionally known by it. In 1935, she married lawyer Joseph E. Clayton, with whom she shared her legal practice until his death in 1957. Two of her nephews, Charles T. Spurlock and Oliver Spurlock, were also judges. Her niece, Jeanne Spurlock, became the first African American woman to be dean of an American medical school (Meharry Medical College). Sampson's great-niece, Lynne Moody, is an actress who appeared in the television miniseries, Roots.


Treat your guests as a guest for two days and on the third day give them some chores. -A wise parent-


A merry heart is like a good medicine - Proverb 17:22


Be happy and have a great day!



Peace, Blessings & Stay Up!

 

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Good Morning Fam!

Each year as my personal contribution to "Black History" month I send out thousands of emails throughout the month of notable Black Historical facts and people of African descent that may not be so well known, but have made great personal achievements/accomplishments and significant contributions to society/humanity. Please pass them on to other's and especially the youth... If you need me to resend any of our "Black Facts," simply shoot me an email with your specific request by date or BF name/title.

In it's 48-year history, affirmative action has been both praised and pilloried as an answer to racial inequality. The term "affirmative action" was first introduced by President Kennedy in 1961 as a method of redressing discrimination that had persisted in spite of civil rights laws and constitutional guarantees. It was developed and enforced for the first time by President Johnson. "This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights," Johnson asserted. "We seek… not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result."
A Temporary Measure to Level the Playing Field
Focusing in particular on education and jobs, affirmative action policies required that active measures be taken to ensure that blacks and other minorities enjoyed the same opportunities for promotions, salary increases, career advancement, school admissions, scholarships, and financial aid that had been the nearly exclusive province of whites. From the outset, affirmative action was envisioned as a temporary remedy that would end once there was a "level playing field" for all Americans.
Bakke and Reverse Discrimination
By the late '70s, however, flaws in the policy began to show up amid its good intentions. Reverse discrimination became an issue, epitomized by the famous Bakke case in 1978. Allan Bakke, a white male, had been rejected two years in a row by a medical school that had accepted less qualified minority applicants-the school had a separate admissions policy for minorities and reserved 16 out of 100 places for minority students. The Supreme Court outlawed inflexible quota systems in affirmative action programs, which in this case had unfairly discriminated against a white applicant. In the same ruling, however, the Court upheld the legality of affirmative action per se.
A Zero-Sum Game for Conservatives
Fueled by "angry white men," a backlash against affirmative action began to mount. To conservatives, the system was a zero-sum game that opened the door for jobs, promotions, or education to minorities while it shut the door on whites. In a country that prized the values of self-reliance and pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps, conservatives resented the idea that some unqualified minorities were getting a free ride on the American system. "Preferential treatment" and "quotas" became expressions of contempt. Even more contentious was the accusation that some minorities enjoyed playing the role of professional victim. Why could some minorities who had also experienced terrible adversity and racism-Jews and Asians, in particular-manage to make the American way work for them without government handouts?
"Justice and Freedom for All" Still in Its Infancy
Liberals countered that "the land of opportunity" was a very different place for the European immigrants who landed on its shores than it was for those who arrived in the chains of slavery. As historian Roger Wilkins pointed out, "blacks have a 375-year history on this continent: 245 involving slavery, 100 involving legalized discrimination, and only 30 involving anything else."
Considering that Jim Crow laws and lynching existed well into the '60s, and that myriad subtler forms of racism in housing, employment, and education persisted well beyond the civil rights movement, conservatives impatient for blacks to "get over" the legacy of slavery needed to realize that slavery was just the beginning of racism in America. Liberals also pointed out that another popular conservative argument-that because of affirmative action, minorities were threatening the jobs of whites-belied the reality that white men were still the undisputed rulers of the roost when it came to salaries, positions, and prestige.
Black-and-White Polemics Turn Gray
The debate about affirmative action has also grown more murky and difficult as the public has come to appreciate its complexity. Many liberals, for example, can understand the injustice of affirmative action in a case like Wygant (1986): black employees kept their jobs while white employees with seniority were laid off. And many conservatives would be hard pressed to come up with a better alternative to the imposition of a strict quota system in Paradise (1987), in which the defiantly racist Alabama Department of Public Safety refused to promote any black above entry level even after a full 12 years of court orders demanded they did.
The Supreme Court: Wary of "Abstractions Going Wrong"
The Supreme Court justices have been divided in their opinions in affirmative action cases, partially because of opposing political ideologies but also because the issue is simply so complex. The Court has approached most of the cases in a piecemeal fashion, focusing on narrow aspects of policy rather than grappling with the whole.
Even in Bakke-the closest thing to a landmark affirmative action case-the Court was split 5-4, and the judges' various opinions were far more nuanced than most glosses of the case indicate. Sandra Day O'Connor, often characterized as the pivotal judge in such cases because she straddles conservative and liberal views about affirmative action, has been described by University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein as "nervous about rules and abstractions going wrong. She's very alert to the need for the Court to depend on the details of each case."
Landmark Ruling Buttresses Affirmative Action
But in a landmark 2003 case involving the University of Michigan's affirmative action policies-one of the most important rulings on the issue in twenty-five years-the Supreme Court decisively upheld the right of affirmative action in higher education. Two cases, first tried in federal courts in 2000 and 2001, were involved: the University of Michigan's undergraduate program (Gratz v. Bollinger) and its law school (Grutter v. Bollinger). The Supreme Court (5-4) upheld the University of Michigan Law School's policy, ruling that race can be one of many factors considered by colleges when selecting their students because it furthers "a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body." The Supreme Court, however, ruled (6-3) that the more formulaic approach of the University of Michigan's undergraduate admissions program, which uses a point system that rate students and awards additional points to minorities, had to be modified. The undergraduate program, unlike the law school’s, did not provide the "individualized consideration" of applicants deemed necessary in previous Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action.
In the Michigan cases, the Supreme Court ruled that although affirmative action was no longer justified as a way of redressing past oppression and injustice, it promoted a "compelling state interest" in diversity at all levels of society. A record number of "friend-of-court" briefs were filed in support of Michigan's affirmative action case by hundreds of organizations representing academia, business, labor unions, and the military, arguing the benefits of broad racial representation. As Sandra Day O'Connor wrote for the majority, "In order to cultivate a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry, it is necessary that the path to leadership be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity."

Read more: Affirmative Action History & Timeline (Civil Rights Act, Supreme Court Cases, etc) — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/spot/affirmative1.html#ixzz1lgNPX6Xy


"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." -Martin Luther King






Peace, Blessings & Stay Up Fam!!!

 

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Ursula Burns was born on September 20, 1958, in New York; she grew up in the projects on Delancey Street in Manhattan with her mother and two siblings. Although her father was not a part of the family, she was able to attend private schools because her mother ran a successful day-care center out of her home while also taking in ironing. Throughout her schooling Burns was a math ace; she eventually earned an engineering degree from the Polytechnic Institute of New York and went on to earn a graduate degree from Columbia University.
Ursula Burns
Chief executive officer, Xerox Corp.

Burns joined Xerox in 1980 as a mechanical engineering summer intern and later assumed roles in product development and planning. From 1992 through 2000, Burns led several business teams including the office color and fax business and office network printing business. In 2000, she was named senior vice president, Corporate Strategic Services, heading up manufacturing and supply chain operations. She then took on the broader role of leading Xerox's global research as well as product development, marketing and delivery. In April 2007, Burns was named president of Xerox, expanding her leadership to also include the company's IT organization, corporate strategy, human resources, corporate marketing and global accounts. At that time, she was also elected a member of the company's Board of Directors. Burns was named chief executive officer in July 2009.
Burns earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Polytechnic Institute of NYU and a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University. She serves on professional and community boards, including American Express Corp., CASA - (The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse) at Columbia University, FIRST - (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), National Academy Foundation, MIT, the U.S. Olympic Committee and the University of Rochester.
Ursula M. Burns is the first African American woman CEO to head a Fortune 500 company, serving as chairwoman and CEO of Xerox Corporation (2010), also becoming the first female CEO to succeed another woman as head of a Fortune 500 company. Burns has been recognized among the top business professionals in the world, being listed as one of FORTUNE's Most Powerful Women in Business and Forbes' Most Powerful Woman in the World.

Tough times don't last; tough people do... -Unknown-


Be yourself, no one can do you better... -Milosophy-






Peace, Blessings & Stay Up Fam!!!

 

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February 12, 1962 - Bus boycott started in Macon, Georgia
Why Our Black Boys Fail
by Dr. Charles A. Williams III on December 16, 2010
in Culture & Community,Features

So, now that Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (aka Lil Wayne) is out of prison, he can get back to playing the critical role of universal mentor and role model to black boys all across America.

After all, with a rap sheet long enough to pave the road to hell, it makes perfect sense that he’d hold such a key position, one that lets “Weezy,” as he’s affectionately known, shape the beliefs, attitudes and expectations of a group of young people who are currently in a state of crisis.
Documentaries like the recent “Beyond the Bricks” chronicle the struggles of black boys dropping out of high school, a report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy says black males are three times more likely to live in poverty, the Pew Center highlights the fact that one in nine black males from 20 to 34 is behind bars (more than those who are gainfully employed).
And don’t forget the ubiquitous issue of violence. Since 2000, the U.S. has had a 39 percent increase in the number of black boys killed between the ages of 14 and 17, according to a Northeastern University study.
Consideri ng all the recent unfortunate trends plaguing the lives of so many of our black boys, one question begs to be asked: What is responsible for such awful trends?
Well, it is my humble opinion that one of the culprits is the constant barrage of negative male images and stereotypes presented to our black boys, much of which is, unfortunately, supported by the black community itself.
At almost every turn, young black males are inundated with stories and images of athletic prowess, criminal deviance or the drug-dealer-turned-rapper-turned-millionaire (real or imagined).
A nd while I know this represents the vestiges of an era where some whites sought to subjugate the newly “freed” slaves through the emerging power of the media (think blackface and minstrel shows), who can deny the fact that black folks today are all too willing to embrace such negative stereotypes?
And, while publicly complaining, black folks promote and have helped to transform the business of black male stereotyping into a worldwide, multibillion-dollar enterprise – Black Entertainment Television.
So let’s reflect on the consequences of such ill-gotten lucre. In 2001, the year that BET founder Bob Johnson sold his black-owned and -operated cable channel for $3.3 billion to Viacom, black males were dro pping out of high school at a rate almost twice that of white males, their fourth-grade reading scores were lower than that of any other group, and we saw an increase in attempted suicides among black teens.
I hope Mr. Johnson reflected on the tragic reality that he helped shape, while sipping champagne bought and paid for by the tens of thousands of dead and mutilated bodies of black boys rotting away in forgotten graves. After all, BET told them repeatedly to “hustle” and be “gangsta,” and this would lead to money, power and respect.
And while I’m apoplectic at this irresponsible and ethically abhorrent behavior, BET doesn’t even bear the full blame.
When a few fortunate black boys muster the courage to exist outside of the stereotypes, they often face constant and unending ridicule from those in their own community.
This is a phenomenon I’m all too familiar with. On more than one occasion, I’ve been chastised for not being “black enough” or for “acting white.”
Let me get this straight. If I score 18 points in the second quarter or get shot six times, there’s no question of my authenticity? But it’s these culturally reinforced stereotypes that are literally killing our black boys.
But if we’re to turn the tide on the many crises facing our black boys, we’ll have to realize that the black community needs to promote more diverse and positive images of successful black men. We have to show them that they can and should seek to become bankers, lawyers, physicians, journalists, educators, entrepreneurs, engineers and – above all – good men.
Recently, I visited the website theblackyouthproject.com, whose mission is the empowerment and development of black youth. The site’s founder is Cathy J. Cohen, a professor of political science and deputy provost of graduate education at the University of Chicago.
On the site, there was an article discussing the lunacy of celebrating the criminal shenanigans of rappers in which the author suggested that such behavior is now a rite of passage, not just merely a response to racial oppression. He writes that, if “we continue to praise celebrity incarceration, many young people will trivialize going to jail.”

Black boys will be who we tell them to be. The real question is, who is that?
Article by Dr. Charles A. Williams III
Charles A. Williams III, PhD is an educational psychologist and serves as an assistant clinical professor and director of the Center for the Prevention of School-Aged Violence at Drexel University's Goodwin College of Professional Studies. He writes regular opinion columns for the Philadelphia Daily News and can be seen on his weekly television segment on Fox in Philadelphia.

Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the socity in which they live, but also about the intensity social character has on their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation
-Angela Davis-


I am my greatest adversary... -Milosophy-


Challenge for today: Create the life you want to live today...



Peace, Blessings & Stay Up Fam!!!

 

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What up Fam!

The Underground Railroad


During the 1800s, estimates suggest that more than 100,000 enslaved people sought freedom through the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad is the symbolic term given to the routes enslaved Black Americans took to gain their freedom as they traveled, often as far as Canada and Mexico. Free Blacks, Whites, Native Americans and other slaves acted as conductors by aiding fugitive slaves to their freedom. This 19th century freedom movement challenged the way Americans viewed slavery and freedom.

Historic Timeline of Slavery and the Underground Railroad

1501-African Slaves in the New World
Spanish settlers bring slaves from Africa to Santo Domingo (now the capital of the Dominican Republic).
1619-Slaves in Virginia
Africans brought to Jamestown are the first slaves imported into Britain's North American colonies. Like indentured servants, they were probably freed after a fixed period of service.
1700-First Antislavery Publication
Massachusetts jurist and printer, Samuel Seawell, publishes the first North American antislavery tract, The Selling of Joseph.
1705-Slaves as Property
Describing slaves as real estate, Virginia lawmakers allow owners to bequeath their slaves. The same law allows masters to "kill and destroy" runaways.
1775-Abolitionist Society
Anthony Benezet of Philadelphia founds the world's first abolitionist society. Benjamin Franklin becomes its president in 1787.
1776-Declaration of Independence
The Continental Congress asserts "that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States."
1793-Fugitive Slave Act
The United States outlaws any efforts to impede the capture of runaway slaves. (Also see 1850)
1808-United States Bans Slave Trade
Importing African slaves is outlawed, but smuggling continues.
1820-Missouri Compromise
Missouri is admitted to the Union as a slave state, Maine as a free state. Slavery is forbidden in any subsequent territories north of latitude 36°30'.
1834-1838-Slavery in England
England abolishes slavery in its colonies including Jamaica, Barbados, and other West Indian territories.
1850-Compromise of 1850
In exchange for California's entering the Union as a free state, northern congressmen accept a harsher Fugitive Slave Act different from the previous one of 1793.
1854-Kansas-Nebraska Act
Setting aside the Missouri Compromise of 1820, Congress permits these two new territories to choose whether to allow slavery. Violent clashes erupt.
1857-Dred Scott Decision
The United States Supreme Court decides, seven to two, that Blacks can never be citizens and that Congress has no authority to outlaw slavery in any territory.
1860-Abraham Lincoln Elected
Abraham Lincoln of Illinois becomes the first Republican to win the United States Presidency.
1861-65-United States Civil War
Four years of brutal conflict claim 623,000 lives.
1862
On September 22, Lincoln drafts the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. The final is issued on January 1, 1863.
1863-Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln decrees that all slaves in Rebel territory are free on January 1, 1863. The Proclamation only freed those slaves in states that were in rebellion against the United States. The proclamation did not free slaves in the states that never left the Union.
1865-Slavery Abolished
The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution outlaws slavery.


What was the Underground Railroad?

Reverend John Rankin & Jean Rankin Home Ripley, Ohio
Photograph by Richard Cooper, Interpretive Services Manager NURFC
For more information about the Rankin House please visit http://www.ripleyohio.net/htm/rankin.htm.

The Underground Railroad is a term for the covert network of people and places who assisted fugitive slaves as they escaped from slavery in the South. Most widespread during the three decades prior to the Civil War, this activity primarily took place in the regions bordering slave states, with the Ohio River being the center of much of the activity. Of course, Underground Railroad activity did not literally take place unde-rground or via a railroad, nor was it an official organization with defined structure. It was simply a loose network of people who attempted to move enslaved individuals escaping from slavery to and from safe places in a quick and largely secretive manner.

At the heart of the Underground Railroad were the beliefs of the abolitionist movement. The 18th Century Quakers, members of the Religious Society of Friends, were the first organized abolitionists, believing that slavery violated Christian principle. By the first decades of the 1800s, every state in the North had legally abolished slavery. Abolitionist ideas then spread West into the territories that would soon become Indiana and Ohio. Abolitionists firmly believed that slavery was against their Christian faith, awhile others, as well, considered the contradictory aspects of independence for country that held enslaved individuals, leading many to become active on the Underground Railroad.

People involved with the Underground Railroad developed their own terminology to describe participants, safe places, and other codes that needed to be kept secret. People who guided slaves from place to place were called "conductors." Locations where slaves could safely find protection, food, or a place to sleep were called "safe houses" or "stations." Those who hid fugitive slaves in their homes, barns, or churches were called "station masters." Slaves who were in the safekeeping of a conductor or station master were "cargo." Code words were also used to enable fugitive slaves to find their way North. The Big Dipper, whose handle pointed towards the North Star, was referred to as the "drinking gourd." The Ohio River was frequently referred to by a biblical reference, the River Jordan. Canada, one of the final safe havens for many fugitive slaves was called the "Promised Land" (Although Canada was the destination that many runaway enslaved individuals strived to reach, it was not the only destination for those escaping. Many enslaved people escaped to cities in the North or went to Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, South America, or even to remote areas of the South, and West). These terms allowed people to communicate about the Underground Railroad without being obvious about their true intentions.

It is important to realize that while conductors and fugitive slaves were participating on the Underground Railroad, all of their actions were illegal. The federal government had passed Fugitive Slave Acts as early as 1793 that allowed slave catchers to come north and force runaways back into slavery. By the 1830s and 1840s, these laws were expanded in reaction to increased Underground Railroad activity. With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, assisting or helping hide fugitive slaves became a federal offense, making all Underground Railroad activity subject to six months in prison and a $1,000 fine. Escaping from slavery or helping someone to escape from slavery was a very difficult and dangerous task.

Where does the Term Underground Railroad Come From?

View of the Ohio River and downtown Ripley, Ohio from the Reverend John Rankin House.
Photograph by Richard Cooper, Interpretive Services Manager NURFC

There are several versions of the origin of the term "Underground Railroad." One story says that in 1831 a fugitive slave named Tice Davids escaped from Kentucky to safer ground in Sandusky, in northern Ohio. When David's master looked in vain for him in Ripley, just across the Ohio River, he is said to have commented, "The ****** must have gone off on an underground railroad." Another version explains that the term came into use among slave hunters in Pennsylvania who experienced similar frustrations. Yet a third story places the origin in Washington DC, in 1839, when a fugitive slave, after being tortured, allegedly claimed that he was to have been sent north, where "the railroad ran underground all the way to Boston." Whatever the actual first use of the term, it was common by the mid-1840s to speak and write of the Underground Railroad as a clandestine system for runaway slaves. It was already in part a legend, a construction of historical memory, as much as it was historical by the time of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
David Blight

Passages to Freedom.


What are a few myths about the Underground Railroad?

A satire on the antagonism between Northern abolitionists on the one hand, and Secretary of State Daniel Webster and other supporters of enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Here abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (left) holds a slave woman in one arm and points a pistol toward a burly slave catcher mounted on the back of Daniel Webster. The slave catcher, wielding a noose and manacles, is expensively dressed, and may represent the federal marshals or commissioners authorized by the act (and paid) to apprehend and return fugitive slaves to their owners.
Behind Garrison a black man also aims a pistol toward the group on the right, while another seizes a cowering slaveholder by the hair and is about to whip him saying, "It's my turn now Old Slave Driver." Garrison: "Don't be alarmed Susanna, you're safe enough." Slave catcher: "Don't back out Webster, if you do we're ruind." Webster, holding "Constitution": "This, though Constitutional, is "extremely disagreeable." "Man holding volumes "Law & Gospel": "We will give these fellows a touch of South Carolina."Man with quill and ledger: "I goes in for Law & Order." A fallen slaveholder: "This is all "your" fault Webster."
In the background is a Temple of Liberty flying two flags, one reading "A day, an hour, of virtuous Liberty, is worth an age of Servitude" and the other, "All men are born free & equal." The print may (as Weitenkampf suggests) be the work of New York artist Edward Williams Clay. The signature, the expressive animation of the figures, and especially the political viewpoint are, however, uncharacteristic of Clay. (Compare for instance that artist's "What's Sauce for the Goose," no. 1851-5.) It is more likely that the print was produced in Boston, a center of bitter opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 and 1851. -Library of Congress

The Underground Railroad is often portrayed as the result of benevolent abolitionists who toiled out of the kindness of their hearts to lead and shelter fearful runaway slaves, helping them break free from the bonds of slavery to start life anew in the promised land. These abolitionists are depicted as white people who placed lamps in windows or quilts on fences as signals for safe places. Slaves would then hide in the homes and barns of conductors, hidden in their secret hiding rooms and passage ways. This scenario is the legend of the Underground Railroad.

The reality of the Underground Railroad was much less romantic. Escaping enslaved individuals often had no help or guidance from anyone throughout the majority of their journey. While it is a common belief that white Northerners were going into the South and bringing slaves from the farms and plantations into the North, the truth is that most enslaved individuals left on their own. When the enslaved did have assistance, the aid they received varied from being given a place to rest in barns and sheds to being provided with a small amount of food and sent on to the next location. Those seeking freedom would have had to place a good amount of trust in the people who were assisting them, for at any moment their safety could be compromised, leading to recapture.

It is also a common misconception that all people working to assist escaping individuals were white Northerners. The fact is that the majority of the conductors on the Underground Railroad in the South were Black, often still enslaved themselves.

Many people today are familiar with songs and symbols that were supposedly used by people involved with the Underground Railroad. Songs include, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Wade in the Water," "Steal Away," and most famously, "Follow the Drinking Gourd." Current scholarship is debating the songs being used on the Underground Railroad or the time / origins of them. There is little to no historical evidence to suggest that these songs were sung by slaves to help disseminate knowledge about Underground Railroad routes, safe places, or code words. Despite this, these songs continue to be cited as key components of the Underground Railroad.

One of the most famous symbols of the Underground Railroad is the quilt. Supposedly used as an indicator of a safe place, it is claimed that quilts were hung from roofs, barns, and fences to signal to enslaved individuals the location was a station on the Underground Railroad. There are two pieces of evidence that allow many historians to question the validity of Underground Railroad quilts. The first being that no former enslaved individuals accounts mentioned these quilts in the Works Progress Administration Slave Narratives from the 1930s. Second, that quilts also were not mentioned in any 19th Century slave narratives. Had these quilts been utilized by those participating in the Underground Railroad, it is likely that they would have appeared in at least a few of these narratives. There is also no hard evidence of their existence; no quilt with proven Underground Railroad usage has been found. Still, these quilts remain one of the most famous symbols of the Underground Railroad.


Reasons for escaping? Who escaped? How did they escape?

Print, 'Tom's Feelings'
Available in the Freedom Center Online Gift Shop

The enslaved individuals who escaped on the Underground Railroad were of different ages and genders and from all parts of the country. However the majority of the enslaved individuals were men in the prime of their lives. Men were more easily able to survive on their own. They could travel both farther and for longer periods of time. It was difficult for women to escape, as they often had children or other people with them. Older enslaved individuals would have had trouble with the physical strain of escaping. Even still, hundreds and even thousands of enslaved individuals escaped.

The most common form of transportation for escaping enslaved individuals was walking. Those attempting to escape walked the hundreds of miles from the South to the North and even all the way to Canada. But that wasn't the only way to travel; slaves frequently traveled by wagon, boat, horseback and even train with the help of those working on the Underground Railroad. Secret compartments, traveling only at night, using disguises and carrying false papers provided cover for these risky methods of escaping. When escaping slaves arrived at safe locations they were often given shelter in barns, stables, false rooms in houses, attics, basements, cupboards, or under floor boards.

A strong oral tradition gave enslaved individuals the necessary knowledge to begin their journey north and connect with Underground Railroad sties. For example, it was known to look for moss on the north side of trees. Some slaves even knew about using the North Star, the brightest star in the nighttime sky, to guide them in a northerly direction. From this oral tradition enslaved individuals also knew to travel during the nighttime and to follow rivers and streams to hide their scent from dogs and slave catchers.

Making the decision to escape was often under very difficult circumstances. For many slaves, the conditions they endured while enslaved - long works days, harsh punishments, inadequate housing, and poor diets - provided the incentive to escape. W.H. Lyford, an abolitionist from Illinois, pointed out that the majority of the slaves who escaped did so because they had finally reached a point in their lives where they could no longer tolerate their enslavement. In spite of the difficulties they would face, individuals wishing to run away believed that their lives in slavery were worse than any hardship they would encounter in the effort to gain freedom.

Jacob Blockson, an enslaved individual from Delaware, gives insight into another reason why many enslaved individuals would have decided to escape. He says, "My master was about to be sold out this fall, and I made up my mind that I did not want to be sold like a horse...I resolved to die sooner than I would be taken back." For enslaved individuals like Jacob, the thought of being sold or having a family member sold from them was a fate worse than death. Slave sales tore family, friends, and communities apart and forced enslaved individuals who were sold to start their lives over with new owners, new people, and no familiar connections. Enslaved individuals in these circumstances were more willing to run if they were soon to be sold away from their loved ones.

 

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The Underground Railroad part two


What did Escaping Slaves Endure/Risk?

Highlighted section reads: On Motion of Br. Lewis that a fund be kept, for Escaping Fugitives. Which shall be taken upon the last Sabbath in Ebony. Motion Carried.
Union Baptist Church records. Collection of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

Those attempting to escape on the Underground Railroad faced a long journey filled with uncertainty, fear, and the very real possibility of never reaching their goal. Prevailing wisdom gave winter as the best time of year to escape, since the long nights provided for a frozen Ohio River. Enslaved individuals would often be given free time around Christmas, which made opportunities to escape more frequent. Regardless, traveling into the colder weather of the North could be difficult. There was also the question of finding safe places and people to trust; fugitive slaves might go several weeks between stations and, even when they did arrive at one, they risked being found by slave catchers. By the time of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, more and more slave catchers were traveling north with guns, horses, and bloodhounds, eager to take fugitive slaves back by any means. The journey north was also hundreds of miles long in, especially for slaves who wanted to go to Canada. Having little knowledge of the land, little or no money or personal property, avoiding slave catchers, finding safe stations, and trusting the instructions given by others about how to get to freedom all made escaping risky and difficult.

Many enslaved individuals were not lucky enough to make it to freedom. Current estimates place the number of enslaved individuals who successfully escaped at 100,000, but there are countless more who made the attempt but did not succeed. Being discovered by slave catchers, facing illness, and abandoning the attempt were all too common reasons for not making it to freedom. Enslaved individuals caught by slave catchers were often harshly punished upon their return, by beatings, imprisonment, or punishments even harsher still. But even if enslaved individuals did not gain their freedom, their attempts were not in vain; the knowledge of the paths to take, where the safe places were, and who could be trusted were all passed on to others who might make the same attempt.



What were a few Routes Along the Underground Railroad?

Poster of Underground Railroad routes, circa 1850s.

There were many towns and cities in the North with connections to Underground Railroad activity and, not surprisingly, many of these cities and towns were located in an region called the Borderland, the geographic area located along the borders between free and slave states. The most well known border was the Ohio River. Underground Railroad activity was strong in places such as Cincinnati, Oxford, and Ripley, Ohio. In Indiana, Richmond, Madison, and Newport (today, Fountain City) had many conductors of the Underground Railroad. Further east, especially in the active region of the Chesapeake Bay area, citiessuch as Philadelphia and Baltimore were hot spots. Further north, Boston, Massachusetts, and Rochester, New York were also strongly involved.

While some fugitive slaves settled in the cities and towns they reached after entering the North, many enslaved individuals wanted to continue their journey all the way to Canada. Slavery was illegal in Canada and there were no laws in place protecting slave owners or slave catchers. It was by far the safest place a fugitive slave could be. The province of Ontario had the largest population of free slaves, a number estimated at around 17,000. Many of the fugitive slaves entering this area of Canada came through either Ohio or New York.

Slaves in Virginia and North Carolina sometimes found shelter in the Great Dismal Swamp, a thousand square-mile area of forested peat bog along the border of these two states. The density of vegetation and the difficulty of traveling through the swamp made it an ideal hiding place for escaping slaves. The communities in the Great Dismal Swamp are examples of so-called maroon communities, or permanent settlements of fugitives slaves that existed all over the South in areas of thick forest or dense swamps.

Early in United States history, several parts of the country were controlled by Spain or Native American populations. Enslaved individuals were often able to escape and find assistance at the Spanish-controlled Fort Mt. Mose in St. Augustine, Florida, or with Seminole populations in other parts of Florida. While Underground Railroad activity was concentrated mostly in the regions of the Ohio River and the Chesapeake Bay, many enslaved individuals escaped further south to the regions controlled first by Spain and later by Mexico. Though these areas saw very little Underground Railroad activity, many enslaved individuals escaped there seeking their freedom.


Who were some of the participants?

It is very difficult to know the exact number of people who escaped from slavery and even harder still to know the exact number of people who escaped with the help of the Underground Railroad because no complete records were kept. Best estimates put the number at 100,000. The same situation is problematic for the estimation of people who assisted fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad.

The thousands of people, both famous and not, who escaped or assisted on the Underground Railroad were very brave individuals whose courage, cooperation, and perseverance helped them to survive and endure. Here are some of the stories of these heroic people.

 

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Now the players!


Henry 'Box' Brown

The Resurrection of Henry Box Brown at Philadelphia
Lithograph by Samuel Rowse, Accession no. 2005.149

Brown, enslaved in Richmond, Virginia, convinced Samuel A. Smith to nail a box shut around him, wrap five hickory hoops around the box, and ship it to a member of the Vigilance Committee in Philadelphia. The box was 2 feet 8 inches wide, 2 feet deep and 3 feet long.

At 5 feet 10 inches and more than 200 pounds, Brown had very little space for movement. Even though the box was marked "This side up with care," he spent some of the time upside down. He could not shift his position because that might attract attention. Brown took only a little water to drink, and also to splash on his face if he got to warm, and some biscuits. There were tiny holes within the box so he could breathe. In all, the trip took 27 long hours. When the box finally arrived in the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery office, four people locked the door behind them, knocked on the box, and opened it up. Henry stood up and reached out to shake their hands. He was a free man!

Henry 'Box' Brown went on to speak all over the U.S. and Europe about his escape. Samuel A. Smith tried to help another slave escape in the same way, but was caught and sent to prison in Richmond for more than seven years.




Margaret Garner

The Modern Medea, 1867 - Thomas Satterwhite Noble

Enslaved with her four children on the Archibald Gaines farm in Boone County, Kentucky, Margaret and her husband, who was enslaved on a nearby farm, broke away one January night in 1856. Crossing the frozen Ohio River on foot, Margaret and her children went on to the home of a black man.

But they were seen, and soon the owners and officers surrounded the house. A battle began. Determined not to surrender her children to the horrors of slavery, Margaret saw that the owners would win. She took a knife and cut the throat of her young daughter and tried to do the same with her other children, but was stopped. The runaways were arrested and jailed.

After a long trail that lasted several weeks, the U.S. Commissioner ruled that the runaways must be returned to slavery. Margaret was sold South. On the way, by ship, an accident occurred aboard and one of Margaret's children drowned. Margaret survived the event and lived in slavery for another two years, when she died of a horrible fever in 1858.



John Parker

1827 - 1900

John Parker House, Ripley, Ohio

Born enslaved in Virginia, Parker was sold away from his mother at age eight and forced to walk in a line of chained slaves from Virginia to Alabama. After several unsuccessful attempts, he finally bought his freedom with the money he earned doing extra work as a skilled craftsman.

Parker moved to Cincinnati and then to Ripley, where he became one of the most daring slave rescuers of the period. Not content to wait for runaways to make their way to the Ohio side of the river, Parker actually "invaded" Kentucky farms at night and brought over to Ripley hundreds of slaves. He kept records of those he had guided towards freedom, but he destroyed the notes in 1850 after realizing how the Fugitive Slave Law threatened his home, his business, and his family's future.



Reverend John and Jean Rankin

Bust of John Rankin, by Ellen Rankin Copp

This Presbyterian minister was one of the earliest voices in the country against slavery. Rankin's "Letters on Slavery" - written to his brother in Virginia - greatly influenced William Lloyd Garrison and many other abolitionists. Reverend Rankin severed ties with several religious congregations due to his vehement antislavery stand.

He, his wife Jean, and their thirteen children all helped fight slavery. Reverend Rankin spoke across the country and began local anti-slavery organizations throughout the region. Mrs. Rankin sewed clothes and cooked for runaways visiting their "Liberty Hill" home overlooking the Ohio River and the slaveholding land of Kentucky. Their sons often led runaways on horseback to other Underground Railroad members in Red Oak, Sardinia, and Decatur, Ohio. In all, the Rankins are reported to have sheltered more than 2,000 runaways.


Robert Smalls

Bust of Robert Smalls by Marion Talmage Etheredge

1839 - 1915

Years of working on ships around Charleston, South Carolina paid off for Robert Smalls and twelve other enslaved people. On May 13, 1862, Smalls, his wife and two children, and twelve other slaves took over the Planter, a steamboat built to haul cotton.

Dressed as the captain, Smalls used the signals he knew would allow passage by Fort Sumter. He then steered the ship towards the Union Navy, which was currently blockading the port. Hoisting the white flag of surrender, Smalls offered the boat to the Union forces.

Not only had he won freedom for himself, his family, and twelve others, but Smalls had also given the Union a ship, weapons, and important information about the Confederates' defenses. President Lincoln authorized a bill giving Smalls $1500 for his actions. He was named captain of the Planter, and took part in seventeen engagements (events during the Civil War) on behalf of the Union.

When the war was over, Smalls lectured throughout New York. He bought the Beaufort, South Carolina, home where he and his mother had been enslaved; he lived there for the rest of his life. Smalls served terms in the South Carolina Senate and House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S. Congress for five years.




William Still

William Still was only a small child when he escaped slavery with his siblings and his mother by following the North Star. In his twenties he taught himself to read and write. As the Executive Secretary of the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society, he kept thorough records of runaways. Still interviewed as many as possible of those who passed through Philadelphia on their way to freedom. One individual was his own long-lost brother Peter Still. His careful records helped many families reunite in later years.

Still and the Vigilance Committee were instrumental not only in helping fugitives escape but also in setting up new lives for themselves in the North. In 1872, he published "The Underground Railroad," one of the earliest accounts of these activities. After the Civil War he continued to press for equal rights for Blacks, including organizing an interracial rally to oppose segregation in Philadelphia's streetcars.



Last but not least Mrs. Harriet Tubman

1822 - 1913


When, as a young child on a plantation in Eastern Maryland, Tubman tried to protect another slave, she suffered a head injury that led to sudden blackouts throughout her life. On her first escape, Tubman trekked through the woods at night, found shelter and aid from free Blacks and Quakers, and eventually reached freedom in Philadelphia to align with William Still and the Vigilance Committee.

After hearing that her niece and children would soon be sold, Tubman arranged to meet them in Baltimore and usher them North to freedom. It was the first of some thirteen trips during which Tubman guided approximately 50 to 70 people to freedom.

Tubman spoke often before antislavery gatherings detailing her experiences. She was never captured, and went on to serve as a spy, scout, and nurse for the Union Army. When the government refused to give her a pension for her wartime service, Tubman sold vegetables and fruit door-to-door and lived on the proceeds from her biography.

Peace, Blessings & Stay Up Fam!!!

 

[H.Clarke]

Good Reads.

My advice, shorten the reads and give links to the complete article.
This'll keep Colin out of ur posts.

Good Work

My $0.02

I scannned through it all...... good shit & much respect

This is knowledge that isn't taught in schools & I wonder how many young black males have clue or care about our history

 

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I scannned through it all...... good shit & much respect

This is knowledge that isn't taught in schools & I wonder how many young black males have clue or care about our history

Thanks Bruh. I started with my kids when they were 4 & 2 years of age. So they use to dislike me drilling it in them but today they are 20 & 18 and at times they are teaching me.
I was talking to my son yesterday and he was thanking me. He is in school at Kingston Collage in the UK, he told me he had the entire class in the palm of his hand. They know about MLK, Malcolm X, Etc. But when he started talking about Benjamin Banneker and some of the things they give him credit for is incorrect and they did not believe him until someone in the class looked it up. They had no clue about Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr. or his son Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr. the first Black General in the United States Air Force.

If only one person read this and learn something then I did Okay. However, what difference does it make if the article is long or short. If you are going to read something you read it. Link or no link. But that is just it… reading… people (some Black) don’t read!

 

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Steve Biko (1946-1977), a political activist and writer, is regarded as the father of the Black Consciousness movement in the Union of South Africa.
Stephen Bantu Biko (a. k. a. Bantu Stephen Biko) was born in King Williamstown, Cape Province, South Africa, on December 18, 1946. He was the second son (third child) of Mzimgayi Biko. Raised and educated in a Christian home, Biko eventually became a student at Wentworth, a White medical school in Durban. There in 1968 he formed SASO (South African Students' Organization), an activist group seeking equal rights for South African black people. Expelled from Wentworth in 1972 (the stated cause being poor academic performance), Biko devoted his time to activist activities. His concept of black consciousness continued to develop as he next went to work for BCP (Black Community Programmes). By 1973 his political activities had caused him to be banned from Durban and restricted to his hometown. Back in King Williamstown, undaunted, he set up a new branch of BCP—only to have it banned there as well
Still, Biko continued to work for black consciousness. This led to repeated detentions and caused him to be placed in security over and over again. Yet he was never charged. In 1977 he became honorary president of the Black People's Convention he had founded in 1972. His appointment was to be for a period of five years, but nine months later he died of brain damage after being beaten by police officers while in detention.
Biko's short 30-year life was consumed with the development of an acute awareness of the evils of apartheid, the social system under which non-Whites lived in South Africa. Apartheid is based on the idea of institutionalized separate development for blacks and whites. To paraphrase Biko, he was able to outgrow the things the system had taught him. One of his unique characteristics may be summed up in the title of an edited collection of his writings, I Write What I Like (1978, Aelred Stubbs, ed.). Much of what Biko "liked to write," not surprisingly, dealt with the definition of black consciousness and setting it out as an approach to combatting White racism in South Africa. Indeed the very phrase "I write what I like" was boldly used as a heading to begin many of his political essays. One such essay was accompanied by the by-line "Frank Talk," an aptly chosen pseudonym.
A magnetic, eloquent, tall, and large-proportioned person, Biko inspired love and loyalty. In 1970 he married Ntsiki Mashalaba, then a nursing student in Durban. When the couple had been restricted to King Williamstown, Ntsiki commuted to work at an Anglican mission 35 miles away in order to earn money to keep the family together. Biko's father died when he was four years old. His mother courageously supported her son's activities, welcomed him home during the years of restriction, helped protect him from the inquiring eyes of government security forces, and provided a Christian (Anglican) home environment for his children.
Biko's death echoed around the world—an irony, given the repeated attempts made to silence him while he lived. As a leader of South African blacks, Biko is likened in importance to others such as Nelson Mandela and Robert Sobukwe who preceded him. Like Biko, their influence was during the post-1948 years—that is, after the African National Congress began to gain support throughout the nation in the interest of black liberation. Mandela and Sobukwe, too, were repeatedly banned and imprisoned. In fact, it was while they were in detention in the 1960s that Biko formed SASO to fill the "vacuum in South African politics" that they had left.
Biko's "Black Consciousness" was a call to black young people to dissociate white control and black fear in South Africa and to adopt an attitude of psychological self-reliance in the struggle for liberation from white rule. The proponents of Black Consciousness urged blacks to withdraw from multiracial organizations. The resulting formation of the all-black SASO alienated some white liberal students—particularly those who belonged to NUSA (National Union of South African Students). These students' idealism was given a jolt by SASO's assertion of an independent black struggle.
The concept of Black Consciousness has been preserved in Biko's writings and in transcripts taken in the BPCSASO trial at which Biko was called to testify, allowing him to break a three-year imposed silence. This trial was the only opportunity Biko had to speak out after 1973 when his travel, public speaking, and writing for publication had been banned. The trial also turned out to be the last time Biko was heard from before his death in Port Elizabeth on September 12, 1977.
The South African government disclaimed any responsibility in Biko's death, and official pronouncements about its circumstances revolve around talk of a hunger strike while others cite evidence of beatings. Twenty years later, in 1997, five former police officers acknowledged responsibility for his death of a brain hemorrhage. The officers made their confession to South Africa's Truth Commission, which has the power to grant amnesty to individuals willing to reveal their role in the violence against anti-apartheid activists.
The effect of Biko's death, seen by many as symbolic of black South Africa suffering under apartheid and the most widely publicized dramatization of the apartheid system in operation, added impetus to Black Consciousness—the very movement that repeated bannings and restrictions by government officials sought to quell. The idea of Black Consciousness is thought by many to have uplifted and inspired South African black people and to have given direction to their lives.
To Biko, black psychological self-reliance was the path to social equality. His vision of the future for South African blacks was one "looking forward to a nonracial, just and egalitarian society in which color, creed, and race shall form no point of reference." Many hoped Biko's dream would become reality when apartheid was disbanded and in 1994, ANC leader Nelson Mandela was elected president of the country.

"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."
-Stephen Biko-

Always do YOUR part... -Milosophy-

The day has barely begun and already I believe this is the greatest day of my life!



Peace, Blessings & Stay Up Fam!!!

 

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Good Morning Fam!

Each year as my personal contribution to "Black History" month I send out thousands of emails throughout the month of notable Black Historical facts and people of African descent that may not be so well known, but have made great personal achievements/accomplishments and significant contributions to society/humanity. Please pass them on to other's and especially the youth... If you need me to resend any of our "Black Facts," simply shoot me an email with your specific request by date or BF name/title.

When Don Cornelius passed away at the beginning of this month, many of our BF readers sugested I do a piece on him. It was current news so I sort of set the idea aside until a colleague and dear friend shared her personal experience with me. This is what she said: "Soul Train was a mainstay in my Saturday mornings in the 70's and early 80's-can you imagine a Polish girl (I came here in 1973) learning about American culture this way? It was fantastic! - love, peace and soul!" Thank you for sharing this with me and I hope you didn't mind me sharing this with other's.

The following is a New York Times article remembering him..
Don Cornelius, ‘Soul Train’ Creator, Is Dead at 75
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
Published: February 1, 2012

Don Cornelius, the smooth-voiced television host who brought black music and culture into America’s living rooms when he created the dance show “Soul Train,” was found dead at his home in Los Angeles early Wednesday in what appeared to be a suicide, the authorities said. He was 75.


MadVision Entertainment
Don Cornelius hosting "Soul Train" in the 1970s. More Photos »
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Exporting Soul
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Remembering Don Cornelius

Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press
Don Cornelius in 2006.

Police officers responding to a report of a shooting found Mr. Cornelius’s body at 4 a.m. on the floor of his house on Mulholland Drive with a gunshot wound to the head. It appeared to have been self-inflicted, said Ed Winter, the Los Angeles County assistant chief coroner.
He was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The police said they had ruled out murder and were talking to relatives about Mr. Cornelius’s mental state.
“Soul Train,” one of the longest-running syndicated shows in television history, played a critical role in spreading the music of black America to the world, offering wide exposure to musicians like James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson in the 1970s and ’80s.
“ ‘Soul Train’ created an outlet for black artists that never would have been if it hadn’t been for Cornelius,” said Kenny Gamble, who with his partner, Leon Huff, created the Philly soul sound and wrote the theme song for the show. “It was a tremendous export from America to the world, that showed African-American life and the joy of music and dance, and it brought people together.”
News of Mr. Cornelius’s death prompted an outpouring of tributes from civil rights leaders, musicians, entrepreneurs, academics and writers. “He was able to provide the country a window into black youth culture and black music,” said Lonnie G. Bunch III, the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. “For young black teenagers like myself, it gave a sense of pride and a sense that the culture we loved could be shared and appreciated nationally.”
Mr. Cornelius, a former disc jockey, created “Soul Train” in 1970 for the Chicago television station WCIU and served as its writer, producer and host. When it became a local sensation, he moved the show to Los Angeles and began broadcasting nationally in 1971, beginning a 35-year run in syndication.
In its heyday, it was a formative experience every Saturday morning for young people of all backgrounds and afforded some of the most important soul and R&B acts their first national television exposure. It was also a platform for white rock musicians like Elton John and David Bowie to reach black audiences.
Beyond music, “Soul Train” showcased dances and clothing styles then popular among young blacks. It laid the groundwork for dance programs like Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” and MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew.”
Born on Chicago’s South Side on Sept. 27, 1936, Mr. Cornelius had an early craving to go into broadcasting. He graduated from DuSable High School in 1954, did a stint in the Marine Corps and then returned to Chicago to marry a childhood sweetheart, Delores Harrison. They had two sons, Anthony and Raymond, who are among his survivors.
In 1966, he gave up a career selling insurance and cars to take a three-month broadcast course, despite having young children to feed. With his deep baritone, he landed a job as a substitute disc jockey at WVON in Chicago and later as a sports anchor on the television program “A Black’s View of the News.” He produced the “Soul Train” pilot with $400 of his own money, taking the title from a road show he had created for local high schools.
“ ‘Soul Train’ was developed as a radio show on television,” Mr. Cornelius told The New York Times in 1995. “It was the radio show that I always wanted and never had. I selected the music, and still do, by simply seeing what had chart success.”
He said the show was originally patterned on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand,” but with a focus on black music, fashion and dance. “There was not programming that targeted any particular ethnicity,” he told The Associated Press in 2006. “I’m trying to use euphemisms here, trying to avoid saying there was no television for black folks, which they knew was for them.”
The formula for the show did not change much over the years, though the sets were updated and the music evolved from Motown to funk and eventually to rap. As the host every week, Mr. Cornelius, tall and powerfully built, would play the hottest songs and corral a few performers to be interviewed. They would do a song or two, sometimes live, sometimes lip-synching. He signed off each show by intoning “Love, peace and soul.”
Mr. Cornelius stepped down as host in 1993, handing the reins to a series of actors, comedians and other guest hosts. “I took myself off because I just felt that 22 years was enough and that the audience was changing and I wasn’t,” he said.
It was not until 2006, however, that he stopped producing new shows. He sold the franchise and the archives two years later to a subsidiary of Vibe Holdings LLC.
In recent years he went through a bitter divorce from his second wife, Viktoria Chapman-Cornelius, a Russian model. In 2008 he was arrested and charged with spousal battery, assault with a deadly weapon and dissuading a witness from making a police report, all misdemeanors, after a domestic dispute with his wife in their home.
A year later he was sentenced to three years’ probation after pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges of spousal battery in a plea bargain. During divorce proceedings later that year, he mentioned having “significant health problems” but did not elaborate.
Clarence Avant, a former chairman of Motown Records, said the suggestion that Mr. Cornelius had committed suicide surprised his friends. He did not appear despondent or upset when the two men met for lunch last week, Mr. Avant said, though Mr. Cornelius did mention that he had had seizures recently and avoided driving himself. “He was very private,” Mr. Avant said
.

It's always a pleasure to find something that matters.
Don Cornelius

If you want your life to change; start with changing yourself - Milosophy-

R.I.P.

Peace, Blessings & Stay Up Fam!!!

 

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http://www.nbccongress.org/black-catholics/african-popes.asp



Reflections on the African Popes
According to the Liber Pontificalis, three popes-Pope St Victor I (ca186-198), Pope St Miltiades (311-14), and Pope St Gelasius (492-496)-were Africans. The Liber Pontificalis is composed of a series of biographical entries, which record the dates and important facts for each pope. It is the oldest and most detailed chronicle dating from the Early Church. The Liber Pontificalis is dated from the sixth century. The record of names begins with St Peter. As the work progressed the entries became longer and more detailed. The Liber Pontificalis continued to be written until 1431.1
The African popes in question are said to have come from the North African area that is present-day Algeria, Mauretania, Numidia, and Tunisia. Historians name this area the maghreb. Today it is mostly Muslim. The indigenous people of North Africa are Berbers, brown skinned as among the Tuaregs and Algerians. By the time of Pope Victor I, the Roman aristocracy had large land holdings on the Mediterranean coast. Carthage was the center.2 The language was Latin. The Berbers lived in the rural areas and the larger towns. Carthage was the primacy. Small scattered dioceses in the rural areas. The indigenous population, the Berbers, gradually accepted Christianity, but the details of evangelization are unclear.
Most historians today are of the opinion that Victor was a North African. He was the first Latin-speaking pope. He had to be persuaded to permit the Asian Churches of Syria to continue celebrating Easter on the 14th day of Nisan. Victor had desired to force the Asian churches to accept the Roman method of calculating the celebration of Easter, that is the first full moon on the Sunday after the vernal equinox. Contemporary with Victor I was Tertullian, the North African writer, who reworked Latin for expressing second-century theology. Just after the death of Victor I, St Perpetua and St Felicity underwent their martyrdom in Carthage (Perpetua was from the landowner class; Felicity the slave). The Scillian martyrs, first African martyrs put to death in Carthage just prior to the pontificate of Victor, with St Cyprian, the great bishop and martyr of Carthage martyred in 258 half a century after Victor. As one historian writes, it was "remarkable… that Latin should have won recognition as the language of African Christianity from the outset, while the Roman church was still using Greek."3 Although martyrdom was the great seal of African Christianity, most historians have concluded that Victor I was not martyred in Rome.
St Miltiades (311-14) is the second pope identified as an African. The Liber Pontificalis names him as born in Africa. More recent scholars consider that Miltiades was probably from an African family in Rome. In fact, Miltiades was pope in Rome at the time of the victorious battle of the Milvian Bridge when Constantine the Great defeated and killed Maxentius. With this victory, Constantine opened the way to the end of persecution of Christians. Miltiades is not recorded as making any intervention in drawing up the Edict of Milan that recognized the freedom of religion for all peoples. When the Donatists in North Africa had recourse against the Catholic Church, Constantine asked Miltiades to listen to their complaints. At this time the opposition in North Africa are called Donatists. They are the poor and the peasants. They make up the opposition to the well-to-do landholders. At present there is much study of the Donatists. These people are Berbers not Romans. Miltiades called a synod of bishops to examine the case. Historians have considered that Miltiades, seemingly an African, was chosen precisely because he had connection with the Church in North Africa.4
More recent historical studies consider that the question of Donatism in North Africa are not only doctrinal but also sociological, economic, and political factors. The schism continued after the death of Miltiades.
Finally, St Gelasius (492-496) is called an African in the Liber Pontificalis. In another document, Gelasius referred to himself as "born a Roman." It is suggested that he was of African family origin. He is known especially for his strained relationship with the Byzantine emperor Anastasius in Constantinople. Gelasius I unequivocally proclaimed his authority as pope over that of the emperor. The collection of liturgical prayers that bear his name belong to the seventh century.5
See The Liber Pontificalis. Texte, Introduction et Commentaire. Ed. Abbé L. Duchesne. 3 volumes. Paris: E. de Boccard, Editeurs. 1955.
The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis). The Ancient Biographies of the First Ninety Roman Bishops To A.D.715. Trans. Raymond Davis. Liverpool University Press, 1989.
See J. Desanges, "The Proto-Berbers" in the General History of Africa. II. Ancient Civilizations of Africa. Ed. G. Mokhtar. (Heinemann, CA: UNESCO. ) 423-440.
A. Mahjoubi, "The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa," Ibid., 497.
See also: Victor Saxer, Pères saints et culte Chrétien dans l'Eglise des premiers siècles. "Victor. Titre d'honneur ou nom propre.." (VARIORUM 1994 Collected Studies Series CS446.) I, 217.
The Papacy. An Encyclopedia. s.v. "Victor I (189-99)." By Jean-Pierre Martin.
W.H.C. Frend, The Rise of Christianity, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984) 290-91.
Finally, for the most recent studies, see Maureen A. Tillet, "North Africa" in The Cambridge History of Christianity. Origins to Constantine. Eds. Margaret Mitchell and Frances Young. 381-396. (Cambridge University Press, 2006.)
Frend, Rise of Christianity, 490-91. See also The Papacy. An Encyclopedia. s.v. "Miltiades (or Melchiades)." By Elisabeth Paoli. See also Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie Ecclésiastiques. s.v. "Donat de Carthage." By J. Ferron.
The Papacy. An Encyclopedia. s.v. "Gelasius I." By Claire Soliner.
Cyprian Davis, O.S.B., Ph.D.
Professor, Church History
St Meinrad School of Theology



Peace, Blessings & Stay Up Fam!!!

 

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Thanks and credit go to Bruh Solomon for his post on this subject. Big thanks Bruh and I hope you did not mind me using it!

http://www.pbs.org/special/black-history/

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MLK: A Call to Conscience
Tavis examines the forgotten agenda of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 

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This thread is MAJOR!

Thanks for the share everyone...

 

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Big thanks for this Bruh!