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Number23

(24,544 posts)
Fri May 25, 2012, 06:31 PM May 2012

Black history that doesn't make it into the history books v2.0

This discussion thread is pinned.
(This thread, which is hands down one of the two greatest threads in DU history, was too valuable to lose. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=258&topic_id=2983 It was started in 2006 by the incomparable Brewman_Jax)


As most readers here know, US history has been sanitized for "our" protection. This being black history month, please put down historical events, good and/or bad, that aren't generally known.

Here's my entry--Torn from the Land

Please post your own examples as you come across them.
103 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Black history that doesn't make it into the history books v2.0 (Original Post) Number23 May 2012 OP
Mass incarceration xrayvision2005 May 2012 #1
Amazing story of the partnerships between black escaped slaves and the native americans Baobab May 2016 #72
One set of events that was instrumental in the creation of an underclass was the biggest mistake Baobab May 2016 #73
We have to fix the 13th Amendment !!!! Civic Justice Mar 2018 #97
Private Prisons dandrews Nov 2021 #99
welcome to DU gopiscrap Nov 2021 #101
How Memorial Day Was Stripped of Its African American Roots Blue_Tires May 2012 #2
Wow! Number23 Jun 2012 #3
That piece of history also mind blowing. I do know that in one of the old 'wards' in Houston, freshwest Jul 2015 #20
Destroying a people with by hiding their history. The truth should've been taught all along! freshwest Jul 2015 #19
My memory is getting bad -- too much stress Blue_Tires Jul 2015 #21
Supreme Court Rolls Back the Voting Rights Act Number23 Jun 2013 #4
National Museum of African American History to Display Photos of the Gullah People Number23 Mar 2014 #5
First learned about the Gullah People at the 2003 Florida Folk Festival mia Aug 2015 #23
The harlem Hellfighters/ Bronze Men etherealtruth Apr 2014 #6
Oh my God!! Amazing! Number23 Apr 2014 #7
I listened to an incredible story about them on NPR ... etherealtruth Apr 2014 #8
One last kick Number23 Jul 2015 #9
Black History in Canada is also not covered well at all, imo... Spazito Jul 2015 #10
An AMAZING contribution to this thread Number23 Jul 2015 #11
I agree, black history is world history! Spazito Jul 2015 #12
Frederick Douglass speech July 5, 1852. lovemydog Jul 2015 #13
Another AMAZING contribution. Anything involving FD gets a huge okay from me. Number23 Jul 2015 #15
That's a pretty awesome thread to find from the archives by Brewman_Jax, 23.. Mahalo! Cha Jul 2015 #14
M0rpheus, an exceptional DUer, PM'd me and suggested that I pin these two threads to the top Number23 Jul 2015 #16
Oh, thanks for the history on that and what BrewmanJax is doing now, 23! Yeah, it's too bad about Cha Jul 2015 #17
Bookmarking valuable historical reading, AuntPatsy Jul 2015 #18
I discovered an amazing historical connection between a black Canadian doctor and Lincoln's... Spazito Aug 2015 #22
How the heck did I miss this??? Number23 Aug 2015 #24
It HAS been crazy here lately, hasn't it! Spazito Aug 2015 #25
This is probably the most awesome thing anyone has ever said about ANY group on DU Number23 Aug 2015 #26
Thank you so much! Spazito Aug 2015 #28
A black doctor did the first open heart surgery. xfundy Aug 2015 #27
His name is Daniel Hale Williams ... Spazito Aug 2015 #29
Thanks, xfundy. I think this is one example where it actually DID make it into the history Number23 Aug 2015 #30
My offering here Chitown Kev Aug 2015 #31
Holy crap what a find! I don't know how the heck I missed this until now Number23 Sep 2015 #32
Photo of the presentation of the report: Starry Messenger Sep 2015 #33
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. azurnoir Sep 2015 #34
Wonderful. Thanks so much for this contribution Number23 Sep 2015 #35
Dr. Beny Primm, Pioneer in AIDS Prevention, Dies at 87 MADem Oct 2015 #36
This is wonderful and awesome Number23 Oct 2015 #37
I'm glad that now I know it's here--more to come, eventually! nt MADem Oct 2015 #38
The Jim Crow Museum Kind of Blue Nov 2015 #39
Wow! This is an excellent contribution. Number23 Nov 2015 #40
Thank You, Number23!!! Kind of Blue Nov 2015 #41
One of the things I love so much about this thread is its international flavor Number23 Nov 2015 #42
It will be my honor and pleasure Kind of Blue Nov 2015 #43
Museum Promotion dandrews Nov 2021 #100
African AMerican Intellectual History Society tishaLA Jan 2016 #44
Very nice. And you're right, the blog is absolute gold Number23 Jan 2016 #45
The Birth of White Racism hibbitus Sep 2017 #96
The Story of Sembene!: How Ousmane Sembene Invented African Cinema lovemydog Jan 2016 #46
This is such a beautiful contribution to this thread. I love the international flavor here Number23 Jan 2016 #47
yw n23 lovemydog Jan 2016 #48
The OTHER trail of tears. Slave driving in the early 1800s Takket Jan 2016 #49
An amazing contribution to this thread Number23 Jan 2016 #50
What happened to black Germans under the Nazis BlueMTexpat Jan 2016 #51
This is amazing. The list of Nazi victims is immense but this is the first time that I've seen peopl Number23 Jan 2016 #52
Unfortunately, the US does not BlueMTexpat Jan 2016 #53
You are absolutely right. The US does not and never has cornered the market on racism Number23 Jan 2016 #54
Extremely malodorous stench indeed! BlueMTexpat Jan 2016 #55
Message auto-removed Name removed Jan 2017 #94
When You Kill Ten Million Africans You Aren’t Called ‘Hitler’ Kind of Blue Mar 2016 #56
Girl, THIS kind of thing right here is why every day that you don't post you are so sorely missed!!! Number23 Mar 2016 #57
Aww, Number23, Thank You! Kind of Blue Mar 2016 #58
Thank you for this. thucythucy Jun 2016 #76
Thucythucy, you're welcome! Kind of Blue Jun 2016 #81
Per your request today ... BlueMTexpat Mar 2016 #59
Absolutely fabulous. Thanks so much! Number23 Mar 2016 #60
This is a great thread. BlueMTexpat Mar 2016 #62
La Florida, St. Augustine, Little Africa, now Lincolnville, Florida Kind of Blue Mar 2016 #61
Freaking fabulous. How come stuff like this is hardly ever on the History Channel?? Number23 Mar 2016 #63
I know, right? Kind of Blue Mar 2016 #64
I love this thread too! It's the best one on DU. I am so glad that Brewman_Jaxx started it Number23 Mar 2016 #65
Oh, now it sinks in why the v.20! Kind of Blue Mar 2016 #66
Whitewash Kind of Blue Apr 2016 #67
Jesse L. Brown 4Q2u2 Apr 2016 #68
K & R for an amazing thread thucythucy Apr 2016 #69
Never Forget: America’s Forgotten Mass Lynching: When 237 Black Sharecroppers Were Murdered In AR MrScorpio May 2016 #70
Mr. S, a great contribution. There are so many Rosewoods and similar in American history Number23 May 2016 #71
Well...here was something I just learned about a couple of weeks ago. Chitown Kev Jun 2016 #74
Kev, what an amazing find! An incredible contribution to this thread Number23 Jun 2016 #75
Young Fidel looks quite interesting as well Chitown Kev Jun 2016 #80
I have spent my whole evening on this thread. DamnYankeeInHouston Jun 2016 #77
I have to say, this thread and its creator -- Brewman Jaxx -- are the absolute best this web site Number23 Jun 2016 #78
I'm a teacher, but only a student here. DamnYankeeInHouston Jun 2016 #79
Just so you know ... 1StrongBlackMan Jun 2016 #82
Black folks with guns have ALWAYS put fear in certain people's hearts. Number23 Jun 2016 #83
Yep ... 1StrongBlackMan Jun 2016 #84
Not sure if this is known or not Separation Jun 2016 #85
Thanks for letting me know. Number23 Jun 2016 #86
A Long-Lost Manuscript Contains a Searing Eyewitness Account of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 sheshe2 Jun 2016 #87
That is incredibly difficult but incredibly IMPORTANT reading Number23 Jun 2016 #88
Witchhunt in New York: The 1741 rebellion JustAnotherGen Sep 2016 #89
JAG a fantastic and incredibly interesting contribution Number23 Sep 2016 #90
Wait until I post about Jim Guise JustAnotherGen Sep 2016 #91
"Inner Freedom Under Captivity" Kind of Blue Sep 2016 #92
Too bad that thread is no longer there JonLP24 Dec 2016 #93
New York's Buried African-American History HAB911 Feb 2017 #95
tulsa 1921 llashram Jun 2021 #98
I grew up in Europe and went to school there off and on gopiscrap Nov 2021 #102
African Americans are often mislabeled. endinequalitynow Feb 2022 #103

xrayvision2005

(31 posts)
1. Mass incarceration
Tue May 29, 2012, 01:34 PM
May 2012

Mass incarceration would perhaps better labeled: Hyper Incarceration. "Mass" is not exactly accurate because the targets are identified by class and race, namely African-Americans, not random members of society. Prison is the "New Ghetto", the mental institutions of last resort, social hygiene at it's most evil and viscous manipulation. (Daedalus, Spring 2010) Some people that the civil war ended when it "ended". History is proving that it was, in fact, just the beginning of a brutal and unjust struggle. This great "land of the free" is one of the most desegregating farces of all time. We can just throw up our hands or we can take positive action.

Here's a good place to start: [link:www.ProvidenceBTB.org|

Baobab

(4,667 posts)
72. Amazing story of the partnerships between black escaped slaves and the native americans
Sat May 21, 2016, 08:22 PM
May 2016

native americans in places like the frontier of the South before Florida became part of the US, Lots of escaped slaves had successfully fled to Florida, and been assimilated into the floridian native american community and grown prosperous. Also the story of the Buffalo Soldiers, who fought on the side of the Union in the Civil War and refused to hurt Indians.

there is really an amazing body of history there and very few people know much about it.

Baobab

(4,667 posts)
73. One set of events that was instrumental in the creation of an underclass was the biggest mistake
Sat May 21, 2016, 08:32 PM
May 2016

-the worst example of privatization disasters- between the 1930s and 1970s, a holding company set up by general motors, national City Lines, covertly bought up and intentionally neglected and then destroyed hundreds of urban mass transit systems, electric trolley systems, in order to force people to buy cars. This was a huge mistake. the towns that managed to resist it and keep their trolleys now are quite substantially more prosperous than those that lost them. The loss of ability to get around for people who could not afford cars was a huge factor in the creation of an underclass.

the trolleys were popular and energy efficient, even by today's measures. They made communities walkable.

national City Lines was also a notoriously racist company. the bus that Rosa parks was riding when she refused to give up her seat and go stand in the back was run by National City Lines.

Its possible the racism was a calculated ploy to attempt to decrease ridership so that the bus lines could be abandoned.

This loss of what was previously the best public transit system in the world also led directly to our current dependence on cheap oil, numerous wars, and an unimaginably large number of unnecessary deaths.

 

Civic Justice

(870 posts)
97. We have to fix the 13th Amendment !!!!
Tue Mar 27, 2018, 11:07 AM
Mar 2018

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1105732

13th Amendment:
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

THIS PART NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN INCLUDED >
(except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted)
Let's stand as Democrats and Get it REMOVED.

13th Amendment should read as follows:
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts)
2. How Memorial Day Was Stripped of Its African American Roots
Thu May 31, 2012, 08:32 AM
May 2012

File this one under "I learned something new today." It's the first I heard of African Americans having a role in the founding of memorial day.

"What we now know as Memorial Day began as 'Decoration Day' in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. Civil War. It was a tradition initiated by former slaves to celebrate emancipation and commemorate those who died for that cause.

These days, Memorial Day is arranged as a day 'without politics'--a general patriotic celebration of all soldiers and veterans, regardless of the nature of the wars in which they participated. This is the opposite of how the day emerged, with explicitly partisan motivations, to celebrate those who fought for justice and liberation. The concept that the population must 'remember the sacrifice' of U.S. service members, without a critical reflection on the wars themselves, did not emerge by accident. ..."

continued:
http://www.dominionofnewyork.com/2012/05/27/the-african-american-roots-of-memorial-day/#.T8QpYtX2ZLc

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002738510

Number23

(24,544 posts)
3. Wow!
Fri Jun 1, 2012, 05:31 PM
Jun 2012

I never knew that either! That is fascinating stuff.

Then, black Charlestonians in cooperation with white missionaries and teachers, staged an unforgettable parade of 10,000 people on the slaveholders’ race course. The symbolic power of the low-country planter aristocracy’s horse track (where they had displayed their wealth, leisure, and influence) was not lost on the freed people. A New York Tribune correspondent witnessed the event, describing “a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before.”

At 9 a.m. on May 1, the procession stepped off led by 3,000 black schoolchildren carrying armloads of roses and singing “John Brown’s Body.” The children were followed by several hundred black women with baskets of flowers, wreaths and crosses.

Then came black men marching in cadence, followed by contingents of Union infantry and other black and white citizens. As many as possible gathered in the cemetery enclosure; a childrens’ choir sang “We’ll Rally around the Flag,” the “Star-Spangled Banner,” and several spirituals before several black ministers read from scripture.


Amazing. Thanks for posting that.

freshwest

(53,661 posts)
20. That piece of history also mind blowing. I do know that in one of the old 'wards' in Houston,
Sat Jul 18, 2015, 06:04 PM
Jul 2015
which was built and owned by black freedmen, the streets had names like Wilburforce and others that I checked into and learned more history.

Enough to go further, and when in 1969 I entered college, I took 2 semesters of AA history. It went a long ways back, learningTimbuktu was a center of learning while Europe was still stuck deep in the Dark Ages. This was in addition to the history I was living in.

That ward was one the many AA neighborhoods I canvassed in the summer of 1969 to elect Curtis Graves, who served in the state legislature, as mayor. I was given the opportunity to try to get him elected. Like many I have worked for, he was not elected.

Of course this is old stuff.

Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts)
21. My memory is getting bad -- too much stress
Sat Jul 18, 2015, 10:38 PM
Jul 2015

This past memorial day a friend of mine was telling me this story, and it was like I'd never heard of it, lol...

mia

(8,356 posts)
23. First learned about the Gullah People at the 2003 Florida Folk Festival
Sat Aug 15, 2015, 06:53 PM
Aug 2015

Last edited Sat Aug 15, 2015, 07:29 PM - Edit history (2)

The festival is held every year at the Stephen Foster Park and Campgrounds. That year, The Sea Island Singers performed under a very large chickee in the middle of the woods. It was such a memorable event and I was glad to find this recording from that day.

https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/241520


Historic video of The Sea Island Singers. The video begins at the one minute mark and is interrupted a few times with commercials from the early 60s.

etherealtruth

(22,165 posts)
6. The harlem Hellfighters/ Bronze Men
Tue Apr 1, 2014, 06:12 PM
Apr 2014
While the Great War raged in Europe for three long years, America steadfastly clung to neutrality. It was not until April 2, 1917, that President Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany. "The world," he said, "must be made safe for democracy." Quickly, Americans swung into action to raise, equip, and ship the American Expeditionary Force to the trenches of Europe. Under the powers granted to it by the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8) "to raise and support Armies," Congress passed the Selective Service Act of 1917. Among the first regiments to arrive in France, and among the most highly decorated when it returned, was the 369th Infantry (formerly the 15th Regiment New York Guard), more gallantly known as the "Harlem Hellfighters." The 369th was an all-black regiment under the command of mostly white officers including their commander, Colonel William Hayward.


So much more at the link


http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/369th-infantry/

Number23

(24,544 posts)
7. Oh my God!! Amazing!
Tue Apr 1, 2014, 06:19 PM
Apr 2014
The extraordinary valor of the 369th earned them fame in Europe and America. Newspapers headlined the feats of Corporal Henry Johnson and Private Needham Roberts. In May 1918 they were defending an isolated lookout post on the Western Front, when they were attacked by a German unit. Though wounded, they refused to surrender, fighting on with whatever weapons were at hand. They were the first Americans awarded the Croix de Guerre, and they were not the only Harlem Hellfighters to win awards; 171 of its officers and men received individual medals and the unit received a Croix de Guerre for taking Sechault.


Thank you so much for posting this!

etherealtruth

(22,165 posts)
8. I listened to an incredible story about them on NPR ...
Tue Apr 1, 2014, 06:24 PM
Apr 2014

... on my way home from work today. It was absolutely chilling and beautiful

Who Were the Harlem Hellfighters? | The African Americans: Many ...
www.pbs.org/.../who-were-the-harlem-hellfi...?
Public Broadcasting Service


“Up the wide avenue they swung. Their smiles outshone the golden sunlight. In every line proud chests expanded beneath the medals valor had won. The impassioned cheering of the crowds massed along the way drowned the blaring cadence of their former jazz band. The old 15th was on parade and New York turned out to tender its dark-skinned heroes a New York welcome.”

So began the three-page spread the New York Tribune ran Feb. 18, 1919, a day after 3,000 veterans of the 369th Infantry (formerly the 15th New York (Colored) Regiment) paraded up from Fifth Avenue at 23rd Street to 145th and Lenox. One of the few black combat regiments in World War I, they’d earned the prestigious Croix de Guerre from the French army under which they’d served for six months of “brave and bitter fighting.” Their nickname they’d received from their German foes: “Hellfighters,” the Harlem Hellfighters.

Spazito

(49,768 posts)
10. Black History in Canada is also not covered well at all, imo...
Fri Jul 3, 2015, 09:51 PM
Jul 2015

I did find this fascinating piece "A Quick History of Black Canadians"

I didn't know much of what is covered in this piece and found it very interesting:

http://www.blackhistorysociety.ca/news.php/news/30

Number23

(24,544 posts)
11. An AMAZING contribution to this thread
Fri Jul 3, 2015, 10:14 PM
Jul 2015

Lots of similarities to the AA experience.

Thanks, Spaz. I'd love to see other global contributions to this thread. Black history is world history, after all.

Spazito

(49,768 posts)
12. I agree, black history is world history!
Fri Jul 3, 2015, 10:25 PM
Jul 2015

It would be fascinating to see how black history is recognized in other countries.

lovemydog

(11,833 posts)
13. Frederick Douglass speech July 5, 1852.
Sat Jul 4, 2015, 01:06 AM
Jul 2015

It's been called the greatest July 4 speech in American history. It's also one of the best speeches in world history.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6937658

ORATION, DELIVERED IN CORINTHIAN HALL, ROCHESTER, BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS, JULY 5TH, 1852.

Published by Request
ROCHESTER: PRINTED BY LEE, MANN & CO., AMERICAN BUILDING.
1852.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS ESQ.:

Link to the speech: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=2945

Cha

(295,929 posts)
14. That's a pretty awesome thread to find from the archives by Brewman_Jax, 23.. Mahalo!
Sat Jul 4, 2015, 01:15 AM
Jul 2015

Excellent thread.

Number23

(24,544 posts)
16. M0rpheus, an exceptional DUer, PM'd me and suggested that I pin these two threads to the top
Sat Jul 4, 2015, 06:50 PM
Jul 2015

of the AA forum. I think it's a wonderful idea.

In addition to being an excellent educational tool here, it can also be kind of a tribute to another exceptional DUer, BrewmanJax, who started all of this way back in 2006. I miss that guy so much but I fully understand why he is no longer posting on DU.

Last I saw, he was on DemocratsforProgress and probably doing amazing stuff there as well.

Cha

(295,929 posts)
17. Oh, thanks for the history on that and what BrewmanJax is doing now, 23! Yeah, it's too bad about
Sat Jul 4, 2015, 10:21 PM
Jul 2015

DU and the wonderful people who leave because of the hostility and mean spiritedness of certain members.

I know of one in particular who left in 2009 and started her very own successful website.. she isn't Black but she was treated badly for posting pics of our Democratic President on DU!



Oh this is from her website now! http://theobamadiary.com/2015/07/04/fourth-of-july-at-the-white-house/

Spazito

(49,768 posts)
22. I discovered an amazing historical connection between a black Canadian doctor and Lincoln's...
Thu Aug 13, 2015, 12:45 PM
Aug 2015

assassination! There is a new show on our CBC channel called Canadian Connections and in it's first show it covered the amazing story of Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott, the first black doctor in Canada in 1861. He went back to the US in 1863 to serve the Union Army. What happened after was extraordinary for the times, imo!

"In February 1863, during the American Civil War, he applied for a commission as an assistant surgeon in the Union army. His offer was evidently not accepted. In April Abbott, who was conscious of the risks faced by blacks in the military, reapplied, this time to be a “medical cadet” in a coloured regiment. He was finally taken on as a civilian surgeon under contract. Between June 1863 and August 1865 he served in Washington, D.C., first at the Contraband Hospital (Camp Baker) and then at the Freedman’s Hospital; subsequently he had charge of a hospital in Arlington, across the Potomac from Washington. Abbott received numerous commendations and became popular in Washington society. Among the select group who stood vigil over the dying President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865, he was later presented by Mary Todd Lincoln with a shawl her husband had worn to his first inauguration."

http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/abbott_anderson_ruffin_14E.html

What I find appalling is this has been a hidden history because Dr. Abbott was a black man. Had he been a white man with the same amazing connections this would have been in our history books in a large way.
I am very glad this amazing man has finally gotten some recognition, not enough by any means but hopefully the beginning of a more accurate historical telling of the rich history of the black community in Canada.

Number23

(24,544 posts)
24. How the heck did I miss this???
Sat Aug 15, 2015, 07:16 PM
Aug 2015


Probably because it's been so insane around here lately.

This is absolutely amazing. You have been finding the most amazing gems. And I love the international flavor of your contributions. Thanks so much for that.

Spazito

(49,768 posts)
25. It HAS been crazy here lately, hasn't it!
Sat Aug 15, 2015, 08:54 PM
Aug 2015

I am glad you liked my find, I was blown away by it for sure. Thanks for the compliment about my 'gems'. I love history and am now discovering Canada's black history and it's due to reading/listening to all of you in the AA group, it has been a wonderful, sometimes heartrending education.

Number23

(24,544 posts)
26. This is probably the most awesome thing anyone has ever said about ANY group on DU
Sat Aug 15, 2015, 10:30 PM
Aug 2015
I love history and am now discovering Canada's black history and it's due to reading/listening to all of you in the AA group

This right here, is what it's all about. Sharing experiences and learning from one another.

You bring so much to this forum and we are lucky to have you here.

Spazito

(49,768 posts)
28. Thank you so much!
Sat Aug 15, 2015, 10:45 PM
Aug 2015

It was your invitation for me to come visit that set me on my journey and it really has been a journey of self-discovery and a whole new way of looking at so many things.

xfundy

(5,105 posts)
27. A black doctor did the first open heart surgery.
Sat Aug 15, 2015, 10:38 PM
Aug 2015

Most people don't know about that. I forget his name.

Spazito

(49,768 posts)
29. His name is Daniel Hale Williams ...
Sat Aug 15, 2015, 10:51 PM
Aug 2015

I knew nothing about him until your post, thank you for bringing it up! Here is an article I found about him:

"Daniel Hale Williams Performed Nation's First Open Heart Surgery In Chicago 119 Years Ago

In 1893, exactly 119 years ago Monday, Chicago surgeon Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful open-heart surgery, in what would become both a significant medical advancement, and a huge step in the fight for equality, since Williams was one of the nation's few black cardiologists at the time.

Called "the father of black surgery,", according to TMW Media, which makes educational videos for use in schools. (See their video about Williams' history above.)"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/09/daniel-hale-williams-perf_n_1659949.html

"Williams' name is absent from many medical history books". A deliberate decision which is all too common and absolutely appalling.

Number23

(24,544 posts)
30. Thanks, xfundy. I think this is one example where it actually DID make it into the history
Sun Aug 16, 2015, 05:25 PM
Aug 2015

books. Dr. Williams is well known but it's always good to have a reminder.

Thanks for your contribution.

Chitown Kev

(2,197 posts)
31. My offering here
Sun Aug 23, 2015, 06:22 PM
Aug 2015
We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief From a Crime of The United States Government Against the Negro People (1951) -

A statement written by the Civil Rights Congress and presented to the United Nations.

The entire document is worth a good read. The portion that I quote should sound eerily familiar.

There was a time when racist violence had its center in the South. But as the Negro people spread to the north, east and west seeking to escape the southern hell, the violence, impelled in the first instance by economic motives, followed them, its cause also economic. Once most of the violence against Negroes occurred in the countryside, but that was before the Negro emigrations of the twenties and thirties. Now there is not a great American city from New York to Cleveland or Detroit, from Washington, the nation’s capital, to Chicago, from Memphis to Atlanta or Birmingham, form New Orleans to Los Angeles, that is not disgraced by the wanton killing of innocent Negroes. It is no longer a sectional phenomenon.

Once the classic method of lynching was the rope. Now it is the policeman’s bullet. To many an American the police are the government, certainly its most visible representative. We submit that the evidence suggests that the killing of Negroes has become police policy in the United States and that police policy is the most practical expression of government policy.

Our evidence is admittedly incomplete. It is our hope that the United Nations will complete it. Much of the evidence, particularly of violence, was gained from the files of Negro newspapers, from the labor press, from the annual reports of Negro societies and established Negro year books. A list is appended.

But by far the majority of Negro murders are never recorded, never known except to the perpetrators and the bereaved survivors of the victim. Negro men and women leave their homes and are never seen alive again. Sometimes weeks later their bodies, or bodies thought to be their and often horribly mutilated, are found in the woods or washed up on the shore of a river or lake. This is a well known pattern of American culture. In many sections of the country police do not even bother to record the murder of Negroes. Most white newspapers have a policy of not publishing anything concerning murders of Negroes or assaults upon them. These unrecorded deaths are the rule rather than the exception—thus our evidence, though voluminous, is scanty when compared to the actuality.

Number23

(24,544 posts)
32. Holy crap what a find! I don't know how the heck I missed this until now
Sun Sep 13, 2015, 05:03 AM
Sep 2015

That is an absolutely magnificent contribution to this thread.

As an addendum to your post, I have been taking alot of courses on the UN lately and everyone that is remotely interested in the UN, international diplomacy or black American history must familiarize themselves with this gentleman:

Ralph Bunche

Ralph Bunche's enduring fame arises from his service to the U. S. government and to the UN. An adviser to the Department of State and to the military on Africa and colonial areas of strategic military importance during World War II, Bunche moved from his first position as an analyst in the Office of Strategic Services to the desk of acting chief of the Division of Dependent Area Affairs in the State Department. He also discharged various responsibilities in connection with international conferences of the Institute of Pacific Relations, the UN, the International Labor Organization, and the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission.

...From June of 1947 to August of 1949, Bunche worked on the most important assignment of his career - the confrontation between Arabs and Jews in Palestine. He was first appointed as assistant to the UN Special Committee on Palestine, then as principal secretary of the UN Palestine Commission, which was charged with carrying out the partition approved by the UN General Assembly. In early 1948 when this plan was dropped and fighting between Arabs and Israelis became especially severe, the UN appointed Count Folke Bernadotte as mediator and Ralph Bunche as his chief aide. Four months later, on September 17, 1948, Count Bernadotte was assassinated, and Bunche was named acting UN mediator on Palestine. After eleven months of virtually ceaseless negotiating, Bunche obtained signatures on armistice agreements between Israel and the Arab States.

Bunche returned home to a hero's welcome. New York gave him a «ticker tape» parade up Broadway; Los Angeles declared a «Ralph Bunche Day ». He was besieged with requests to lecture, was awarded the Spingarn Prize by the NAACP in 1949, was given over thirty honorary degrees in the next three years, and the Nobel Peace Prize for 1950.

Starry Messenger

(32,342 posts)
33. Photo of the presentation of the report:
Sun Sep 13, 2015, 06:39 PM
Sep 2015


Paul Robeson and the Civil Rights Congress submitting We Charge Genocide petition to the United Nations Secretariat, New York, December 17, 1951, Daily Worker/Daily World Photographs Collection, Tamiment Library, New York University.

- See more at: https://www.americanquarterly.org/interact/beyond_subprime.html#sthash.DGCSt5sw.dpuf

azurnoir

(45,850 posts)
34. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Mon Sep 21, 2015, 04:13 AM
Sep 2015

In 1951, a 31-year-old woman by the name of Henrietta Lacks took her last breath. Unfortunately, she succumbed to the cervical cancer that took residency in her body, but the legacy that she left behind shaped DNA and cancer research as we know it. She was treated for her illness at Johns Hopkins. During one of her radiation sessions, two samples were taken from her cervix without her permission. One sample was swapped from a healthy area of her cervix, while the other was taken from a cancerous area.The cells eventually became known as HeLa immortal cell line and are generally used in biomedical research. The interesting tale is best recounted in 2010 best-seller, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

The legal battle was a rather legnthy one, but the family reached a settlement with the National Institutes of Health. According to Washington Post, under the new agreement, two family members will retain seats on the six-member committee that regulates scietists and doctors who want to conduct research on the cells. In addition to being including in the decision making,they will receive their due credit in any scientific journals that come as a result of the research being conducted on the cells. According to the Huffington Post, this decision was reached after the family raised concerns about researchers who wanted to go public with Henrietta’s DNA makeup.

http://madamenoire.com/290235/family-of-henrietta-lacks-reach-settlement-in-hela-cancer-research-case/

Number23

(24,544 posts)
35. Wonderful. Thanks so much for this contribution
Mon Sep 21, 2015, 05:35 PM
Sep 2015

More proof that black women's bodies have never actually belonged to us. Glad that her family will get some form of compensation.

MADem

(135,425 posts)
36. Dr. Beny Primm, Pioneer in AIDS Prevention, Dies at 87
Mon Oct 26, 2015, 04:39 AM
Oct 2015

It's not that this guy died--it's how he lived. A remarkable man, a remarkable life:




Dr. Beny J. Primm, left, with Mayor John V. Lindsay of New York, center, and Dr. Bertram S. Brown, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, in an undated photo. As mayor, Mr. Lindsay secured money used by Dr. Primm to open a methadone clinic in Brooklyn in 1969.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/nyregion/dr-beny-primm-pioneer-in-aids-prevention-dies-at-87.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-2&action=click&contentCollection=Health&_r=0

Beny J. Primm, a doctor who started some of New York City’s first methadone clinics to treat heroin addicts in the 1960s and who, during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, became a nationally prominent advocate for changing public health policy toward intravenous drug users, died on Oct. 16 in New Rochelle, N.Y. He was 87.

His daughter Annelle Primm confirmed the death.

Dr. Primm was treating trauma cases at Harlem Hospital in the early 1960s when he became aware of the havoc that drug addiction was causing. “As an anesthesiologist, I saw young people in the E.R., their bodies riddled with bullet and knife wounds,” he wrote in his 2014 memoir, “The Healer: A Doctor’s Crusade Against Addiction and AIDS,” written with John S. Friedman. “I knew that behind this devastation was the scourge of drugs, and I made a promise to myself that I would work to stop these black kids from going down.”

In 1969, he founded the Addiction Research and Treatment Corporation, which opened a methadone clinic in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn and, within a few years, a half-dozen treatment centers in Brooklyn and Manhattan. He became recognized as an authority on heroin addiction and its treatment.

Dr. Primm saw his first AIDS case in 1983 when examining an addict at one of his treatment centers. As tests became available for H.I.V., the virus that can lead to AIDS, he discovered that more than 40 percent of his patients were infected with the virus. The finding turned him into an outspoken advocate for clean-needle programs and robust information campaigns aimed at high-risk populations.

....


A remarkable guy with a compelling backstory--just the way he got a medical degree was pretty amazing!

Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts)
39. The Jim Crow Museum
Thu Nov 12, 2015, 02:18 PM
Nov 2015
"Tour the Jim Crow museum with founder and curator, Dr. David Pilgrim. Dr. Pilgrim discusses some of the major themes of the Jim Crow Museum. Jim Crow was not just a character or a set of laws, it was a system that built upon itself to create and sustain a society with a racial hierarchy.

The Museum also offers a comprehensive timeline of the African American experience in the United States. The timeline is divided into six sections: Africa Before Slavery, Slavery in America, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, Civil Rights and Post Civil Rights.

The Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University strives to become a leader in social activism and in the discussion of race and race relations. This facility will provide increased opportunities for education and research. Please join us as we embark on this mission."
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/

#t=86

Also, "How America Bought and Sold Racism, and Why It Still Matters," a look at the omnipresence of Jim Crow and the ongoing violence.

"Dr. Pilgrim thinks it’s important that Americans examine the evidence our nation’s racist history, even if it hurts."

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/how-america-bought-and-sold-racism/

Number23

(24,544 posts)
40. Wow! This is an excellent contribution.
Thu Nov 12, 2015, 04:30 PM
Nov 2015

I bet the Africa Before Slavery exhibit will be one hell of an experience.

Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts)
41. Thank You, Number23!!!
Thu Nov 12, 2015, 06:25 PM
Nov 2015

There wasn't much but a write-up at the site. BUT I'm so glad this thread is Black History That Doesn't Make It Into History Books because there's so much that could be included here about Africa Before Slavery!!!

One story that touched my heart is knowing what Timbucto means, Bouctou's well, named for Bouctou, a Taureg woman, who, legend has it, discovered this well around which the whole city sprang along the trans-Saharan trade route.

So many stories before and during the enslavement of our people that I'm going to enjoy posting here.

Thanks, Number23 for maintaining this thread

Number23

(24,544 posts)
42. One of the things I love so much about this thread is its international flavor
Thu Nov 12, 2015, 06:36 PM
Nov 2015

We have stuff posted from black Canada, the Caribbean and I'd love to see alot more articles/pieces from Africa. I have no doubt that Africa is an area that ALL of us could learn a hell of a lot more about.

So if you ever come across some pieces about the Motherland (particularly your family's home country ) they would be welcome additions to this thread.

 

hibbitus

(4 posts)
96. The Birth of White Racism
Sun Sep 3, 2017, 03:53 PM
Sep 2017

I am a white 70 year old retiree. When I was young, I used the N word like everybody I knew. But as I grew up, I stopped using it. I didn't stop because I found the word itself offensive (words are just sounds we make) but because I saw it hurt people who I respected and who were good friends.

The above paragraph is to let you know my own perspective. What I want to write about is some history from Howard Zinn, in "The peoples History of the United States". (I am quoting the title from memory and it may not be exact.) Zinn was one of the most respected historians of the last century. I am writing this because I know that the working poor (whatever your color) have little time or energy to do much research. I have the time and I want to make use of it because I am tired of seeing a country I once loved becoming something to feel ashamed of.

Zinn writes about the very first black people in the Americas. This was as much as 100 years before the land was an independent country. Some black people came of their own volition and most came in the Dutch slave ships. They were met by a population of poor white people who were indentured servants (white slaves) and a few white plantation owners.

The plantation owners used both black and white men as field hands in those early days, but a problem arose. There are records showing that blacks and whites were marrying pretty frequently and they were having children. There is evidence that the two groups partied together, played together, and grieved together. And they scared the plantation owners badly enough to soil themselves.

So the plantation owners did what greedy cowards usually do (and are still doing). They set about splitting the two groups up and sowing the seeds of fear and hatred between them. They began by giving small parcels of land to "pure" white people and then told them that the black people wanted to steal their land and rape their women. (If you are an American Indian, some of this may sound familiar.).

The plantation owners still abused these white people and laughed at them behind their backs, (the phrase "poor white trash" comes to mind), but when they were talking to the poor whites, face to face they told them about how superior all white people were to the "black skinned savages". Of course the poor whites believed them. Sadly, when you are poor and have nothing else, somebody to feel superior to is like a crust to a hungry man.

The strategy worked. Before long there were no more white people marrying black people. The poor whites didn't associate with the black slaves. The plantation owners were safe for almost 200 years. They continued to work up hatred between the two groups and sided with the poor whites against black people. They did other things like offer large rewards for catching black slaves who escaped and bringing them back. Many times they made examples of the slaves who were returned and Zinn offers documented evidence of "punishments" which turned my stomach.

I am going to make a special request to any black people reading this posting. I am not offering this as a defense of white prejudice. I am offering it in the same spirit as Howard Zinn. Healing has to start with the truth and this is the best estimate of the truth available. Like most fear and hatred between groups of people, this was engineered by a class of greedy men to protect their property. To white people reading this, try to recognize racial hostility for what it is. And to the Mexicans and any other oppressed group reading this try to understand what I believe is really going on. From those early days, the same kind of men have been using the same kind of tactics. It is time for everyone to tell the bastards to kiss our a**ses. As long as skin color has a place in the working class struggle, the rich bastards are sure to come out on top. When it ceases to matter, the rich will soil themselves again.

lovemydog

(11,833 posts)
46. The Story of Sembene!: How Ousmane Sembene Invented African Cinema
Tue Jan 26, 2016, 07:35 PM
Jan 2016

Last edited Tue Jan 26, 2016, 09:46 PM - Edit history (1)

By Bilge Ebiri for Vulture:

This year’s Sundance Film Festival was filled with movies about the love of movies: The drama smash Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and the documentary The Wolfpack both featured characters whose lives centered around a fascination with classic films, and who strove to re-create those films in their own way. But no film demonstrated the power of cinema more resonantly than Sembene!, directed by Samba Gadjigo and Jason Silverman, which screened as part of the world-documentary competition.

The Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene (1923–2007), often called the father of African cinema, had a seismic career. He effectively created an African film industry out of nothing: In 1963, with a used 16mm camera and leftover film stock sent by friends from Europe, he made a short called Borom Sarret (The Wagon Driver), considered the first African movie made by a black African. Until the independence of French West Africa in 1960, French colonial authorities had made it illegal for Africans to make films of their own, so countries like Senegal had no film equipment, no professional actors, and no funding; Sembene used friends and family to put the film together. “Any time I hear an American independent talking about his war story in getting a film made, I have to smile to myself and think of Ousmane Sembene,” says co-director Silverman.

In 1966, Sembene made La Noire de … (Black Girl), the first feature film ever released by a sub-Saharan African director; it was awarded France’s prestigious Prix Jean Vigo and put him on the map, making him a mainstay on the festival circuit. From there, his profile rose. With the politically charged epics Xala (1975), Ceddo (1977), and Camp de Thiaroye (1987), he created some of the most beautiful films of all time, courting both controversy and acclaim and ensuring that African cinema had a place on the world stage. Ceddo was so inflammatory it was banned in some African countries for its depiction of strife between Muslims and Christians. Thiaroye, about a colonial-era massacre of African troops by the French, was banned in France but won six awards at the 1987 Venice Film Festival. Sembene’s devastating final film, Moolade, about female genital mutilation, won the Un Certain Regard award at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

Sembene! documents the filmmaker’s eventful life — he grew up in a family of fishermen on the shores of the Casamance River in rural Senegal, living a life of what he termed “daily vagrancy.” Kicked out of school for insubordination, uninterested in fishing and wanting to see the world, he stowed away to France. He was working as a dockworker in Marseilles in the 1950s when he wrote his first novels, out of a desire to see the Africa that he knew depicted in literature. When he turned to cinema in the 1960s, it became a vital link for him between the oral cultures of his youth and the timely political issues of his day. His films often start off in simple, fablelike ways, but they proceed to ask complex questions about identity and tribal, spiritual, and political allegiance. These are serious films about serious subjects, but thanks to Sembene's poetic style of storytelling, they hover between realism, ritual, and myth. They are, all of them, utterly intoxicating.



much more here: http://www.vulture.com/2015/02/how-ousmane-sembene-invented-african-cinema.html

Sembene! trailer:

Number23

(24,544 posts)
47. This is such a beautiful contribution to this thread. I love the international flavor here
Wed Jan 27, 2016, 06:27 PM
Jan 2016

Thanks so much, lmd.

Takket

(21,425 posts)
49. The OTHER trail of tears. Slave driving in the early 1800s
Thu Jan 28, 2016, 01:27 PM
Jan 2016

Fantastic article I read in Smithsonian Magazine that I was pleased to see was on-line so I can share it. The author traces the footsteps of slaves forced to march from Virginia to Louisiana but also looks at it from a president perspective of the African Americans fighting for recognition of these events at the same time whites are trying to bury them. Its quite a long article. Set a side a good hour at least!

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/slavery-trail-of-tears-180956968/

When Delores McQuinn was growing up, her father told her a story about a search for the family’s roots. He said his father knew the name of the people who had enslaved their family in Virginia, knew where they lived—in the same house and on the same land—in Hanover County, among the rumpled hills north of Richmond.

“My grandfather went to the folks who had owned our family and asked, ‘Do you have any documentation about our history during the slave days? We would like to see it, if possible.’ The man at the door, who I have to assume was from the slaveholding side, said, ‘Sure, we’ll give it to you.’

“The man went into his house and came back out with some papers in his hands. Now, whether the papers were trivial or actual plantation records, who knows? But he stood in the door, in front of my grandfather, and lit a match to the papers. ‘You want your history?’ he said. ‘Here it is.’ Watching the things burn. ‘Take the ashes and get off my land.’

~snip~

Number23

(24,544 posts)
50. An amazing contribution to this thread
Thu Jan 28, 2016, 04:56 PM
Jan 2016
Scholars of slavery are quite familiar with the firm of Franklin & Armfield, which Isaac Franklin and John Armfield established in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1828. Over the next decade, with Armfield based in Alexandria and Isaac Franklin in New Orleans, the two became the undisputed tycoons of the domestic slave trade, with an economic impact that is hard to overstate. In 1832, for example, 5 percent of all the commercial credit available through the Second Bank of the United States had been extended to their firm.


This article is a tremendous and important find. Thank you for posting it.

BlueMTexpat

(15,349 posts)
51. What happened to black Germans under the Nazis
Fri Jan 29, 2016, 07:11 PM
Jan 2016

Per your request ...

******************
A targeted group that has received scant attention ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/what-happened-to-black-germans-under-the-nazis-a6839216.html

The 1935 Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their German citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with “people of German blood”.

A subsequent ruling confirmed that black people (like “gypsies”) were to be regarded as being “of alien blood” and subject to the Nuremberg principles. Very few people of African descent had German citizenship, even if they were born in Germany, but this became irreversible when they were given passports that designated them as “stateless negroes”.
...
Instead, the process that ended with incarceration usually began with a charge of deviant or antisocial behaviour. Being black made people visible to the police, and it became a reason not to release them once they were in custody.

In this respect, we can see black people as victims not of a peculiarly Nazi racism, but of an intensified version of the kinds of everyday racism that persist today.


Very interesting read.

Number23

(24,544 posts)
52. This is amazing. The list of Nazi victims is immense but this is the first time that I've seen peopl
Fri Jan 29, 2016, 07:14 PM
Jan 2016

of African descent really added to it.

In 1941, black children were officially excluded from public schools, but most of them had suffered racial abuse in their classrooms much earlier. Some were forced out of school and none were permitted to go on to university or professional training. Published interviews and memoirs by both men and women, unpublished testimony and post-war compensation claims testify to these and other shared experiences.


Sounds as though the Nazis picked up some tactics from America here. Makes me ever so proud.

BlueMTexpat

(15,349 posts)
53. Unfortunately, the US does not
Fri Jan 29, 2016, 07:45 PM
Jan 2016

corner the market on racism. Most early settlers in the Americas (both North and South) were descendants of western European peoples. An overwhelming belief in the superiority of European peoples was part of their make-up, I am sorry to say, and that belief came to the New World intact. Interestingly, however, those of Latin heritage, e.g., French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese nationalities seem to have assimilated more rapidly - both with the native populations and later, with the "forced immigrants" (i.e., slaves) from Africa.

After first enslaving the native peoples with limited success and often destroying their cultures (e.g., Aztec, Incas, etc.) as well, the early settlers began importing slaves from Africa. Africans were generally deemed to be better workers. Africans also seem to be more successfully integrated among the Central and South American populations today. That likely has a lot to do with the fact that there were far fewer Anglo-Saxons in those areas.

There is something about the Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon mindsets that have made those nationalities among the most racist in the New World - and per the Nazi Reich especially, also in the Old. I trace much of my own heritage to such, but like to hope that I am much more enlightened and humane here in the 21st century.

Number23

(24,544 posts)
54. You are absolutely right. The US does not and never has cornered the market on racism
Fri Jan 29, 2016, 10:42 PM
Jan 2016

But when I see legal policies that specifically denote that children of certain races cannot attend public -- TAX FUNDED -- schools or that people of certain races cannot live or work in certain areas, that definitely has the stench of American apartheid on it.

Response to BlueMTexpat (Reply #51)

Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts)
56. When You Kill Ten Million Africans You Aren’t Called ‘Hitler’
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 03:18 PM
Mar 2016

Take a look at this monster


His name is King Leopold II of Belgium.

He “owned” the Congo during his reign as the constitutional monarch of Belgium. After several failed colonial attempts in Asia and Africa, he settled on the Congo. He “bought” it and enslaved its people, turning the entire country into his own personal slave plantation. He disguised his business transactions as “philanthropic” and “scientific” efforts under the banner of the International African Society. He used their enslaved labor to extract Congolese resources and services. His reign was enforced through work camps, body mutilations, torture, executions, and his own private army.

Most of us aren’t taught about him in school. We don’t hear about him in the media. He’s not part of the widely-repeated narrative of oppression (which includes things like the Holocaust during World War II). He’s part of a long history of colonialism, imperialism, slavery, and genocide in Africa that would clash with the social construction of a white supremacist narrative in our schools. It doesn’t fit neatly into school curriculums in a capitalist society. Making overtly racist remarks is (sometimes) frowned upon in ‘polite’ society; but it’s quite fine not to talk about genocide in Africa perpetrated by European capitalist monarchs.1

Mark Twain wrote a satire about Leopold called “King Leopold’s Soliloquy; A Defense of His Congo Rule”, where he mocked the King’s defense of his reign of terror, largely through Leopold’s own words. It’s an easy read at 49 pages and Mark Twain is a popular author in American public schools. But like most political authors, we will often read some of their least political writings or read them without learning why the author wrote them in the first place. Orwell’s Animal Farm, for example, serves to reinforce American anti-socialist propaganda about how egalitarian societies are doomed to turn into their dystopian opposites. But Orwell was an anti-capitalist revolutionary of a different kind—a supporter of working class democracy from below—and that is never pointed out. We can read about Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, but “King Leopold’s Soliloquy” isn’t on the reading list. This isn’t by accident. Reading lists are created by boards of education in order to prepare students to follow orders and endure boredom. From the point of view of the Department of Education, Africans have no history.

Leopold was just one of thousands of things that helped construct white supremacy as both an ideological narrative and material reality. I don’t pretend that he was the source of all evil in the Congo. He had generals, and foot soldiers, and managers who did his bidding and enforced his laws. He was at the head of a system. But that doesn’t negate the need to talk about the individuals who are symbolic of the system. But we don’t even get that. And since it isn’t talked about, what capitalism did to Africa, all the privileges that rich white people gained from the Congolese genocide, remain hidden. The victims of imperialism are made, like they usually are, invisible.


Photos of Leopold's genocide are too hideous to include here and not for the faint of heart.

http://www.walkingbutterfly.com/2010/12/22/when-you-kill-ten-million-africans-you-arent-called-hitler/

Number23

(24,544 posts)
57. Girl, THIS kind of thing right here is why every day that you don't post you are so sorely missed!!!
Wed Mar 23, 2016, 04:56 PM
Mar 2016

Such an INCREDIBLE contribution. And particularly timely given the events from earlier this week.

Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts)
58. Aww, Number23, Thank You!
Thu Mar 24, 2016, 02:13 AM
Mar 2016

That means a lot to me!

I was in Belgium for a month back in the late '80s. The Belgians were the warmest, most down to Earth people I met in Europe, not that I've visted every country to be really fair. Years later, future husband turns out to be 1/2 Belgian. It was husband who clued me to the never-mentioned reign of Leopold.

So as soon as I thought, why attack Belgium, I remembered Leo and felt let's mourn the milions upon millions of Congolese victims and plunder of the country's riches, well into the 1940s, that eventually made Belgium the 2nd richest European country. I mourn all of the dead innocents.

There's this interview from Last Year, after the Paris attack, of Vincent Kompany, star footballer born of a Belgian mom and Congolese dad, and outspoken critic of the government.

"When I was a kid in my neighborhood there was nobody that supported Belgium," Kompany told CNN. It was impossible and unthinkable because there was nothing they could relate to." http://us.flash24.news/sport/paris-attacks-belgium-must-heal-divisions-says-vincent-kompany/

Kompany said Belgian politicians had failed to recognize the potential problems because of their lack of interaction with the local communities.

“There’s a sense of me that really believes that it was predictable, really predictable,” Belgium’s national captain, who grew up in a troubled Brussels neighborhood, told CNN’s Amanda Davies.

“I think it was inevitable, because I only used to see politicians in our neighborhoods once every six years when they needed to come for votes,” he said.

“But I have really struggled to see a real concern, a genuine desire to be a part of making those neighborhoods.”

However, if Belgium is fighting for the hearts and minds of the disenfranchised, Kompany fears the battle is being lost.

“The reason why it hurt me so much is because they’re not people of a religious faction, they’re people that have been able to fall off the grid and people have been able to indoctrinate them,” the 29-year-old said.
http://wgno.com/2015/11/26/paris-attacks-politicians-failed-the-people-of-brussels-says-vincent-kompany/

I can only imagine King Leo is part of the ever-present history that fuels radicalization of disenfranchized Arabs and Africans who've been in Belgium for generations.

thucythucy

(7,986 posts)
76. Thank you for this.
Mon Jun 6, 2016, 09:02 PM
Jun 2016

The people of central Africa are still dealing with the consequences of that unbelievably brutal oppression.

Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts)
81. Thucythucy, you're welcome!
Wed Jun 8, 2016, 10:21 AM
Jun 2016

I've read several accounts that though Hutu and Tutsi existed together since time immemorial, the almost non-existent division between the two was intensified by pure fantasy, when the Belgian colonizers just up and decided that the Tutsi were closer to white- measuring heads, noses, height and whatnot- and therefore the natural leaders. Once upon a time, from what I've read, since the people were intermixed, Hutu and Tuti became signifiers of proximity to the king's court.



II. RACIAL CLASSIFICATION AND COLONIALISM
In order to strengthen their control, the Belgian colonists divided Rwanda’s unified population into three distinct groups: Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa. In order to do this, the colonists created a strict system of racial classification. Both the Belgians and the Germans, influenced by racist ideas, thought that the Tutsi were a superior group because they were more “white” looking. The colonists believed that the Tutsi were natural rulers, so they put only Tutsis into positions of authority and discriminated against Hutus and Twa. The size of the nose and the color of the eyes were factors that determined whether a person was classified as Hutu, Tutsi or Twa. Even though prior to colonization, the people of the region that became Rwanda lived together, the Belgian colonization put one group above the other
https://www.wcl.american.edu/humright/center/rwanda/documents/Jigsaw1_History.pdf

BlueMTexpat

(15,349 posts)
59. Per your request today ...
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 05:11 PM
Mar 2016


Beyond Victimhood: 5 Slaves Who Fought Back and Changed History

Not all of these had the African American experience of slavery, but ALL changed history.

http://www.juancole.com/2016/03/beyond-victimhood-5-slaves-who-fought-back-and-changed-history.html

March 25 marks the United Nations’ “International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery,” which aims to draw attention to the more than 15 million men, women and children who fell victim to the Transatlantic Slave Trade that lasted from the 15th through to the 19th century.

The United Nations calls this 400-year-period “one of the darkest chapters in human history.” And according to the U.N., March 25 is aimed at raising awareness of the dangers of racism and prejudice today.

To mark the day, teleSUR aims to commemorate all victims of the trade but will pay special attention to those who dedicated their lives to ending slavery through resistance and rebellion.

Number23

(24,544 posts)
60. Absolutely fabulous. Thanks so much!
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 05:16 PM
Mar 2016

Last edited Sun Mar 27, 2016, 06:07 PM - Edit history (1)

Of course everyone knows about Frederick Douglass and Toussaint but I had no idea about Ms. Harriet. Thanks so much for this.

Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts)
61. La Florida, St. Augustine, Little Africa, now Lincolnville, Florida
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 06:25 PM
Mar 2016

This such an important story that's so huge and simply left out. Maybe because it involves the Spanish and not necessarily the colonies of the British Empire. Maybe it's because there was a period of time in America's history that there was harmony and freedom to a large extent, diverse with all kinds of people who populate the United States today. Not only that but the story came full circle directly associated with President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act.



Full video that I can't post is here.
http://www.lasvegasnow.com/journey-2016/americas-untold-journey-450-years-of-the-african-american-experience

Number23

(24,544 posts)
63. Freaking fabulous. How come stuff like this is hardly ever on the History Channel??
Mon Mar 28, 2016, 05:14 PM
Mar 2016

You can learn the average shoe size of a typical Nazi but so little about the slave trade!

Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts)
64. I know, right?
Mon Mar 28, 2016, 05:37 PM
Mar 2016

I think our history is just too freaking fabulous and there's just much too much to make palatable for the dominant culture. Too much communication, trade, discoveries that would leave supremacy in a shambles.

That's why I LOVE this thread. We all have bits and pieces of information we're constantly finding and it's so nice to come here to post.

Thank you

Number23

(24,544 posts)
65. I love this thread too! It's the best one on DU. I am so glad that Brewman_Jaxx started it
Mon Mar 28, 2016, 10:08 PM
Mar 2016

and that so many are contributing.

Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts)
66. Oh, now it sinks in why the v.20!
Tue Mar 29, 2016, 12:10 PM
Mar 2016

Yes, thanks be to Brewman_Jaxx for the ongoing thread of excellent finds!

Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts)
67. Whitewash
Sat Apr 2, 2016, 06:56 PM
Apr 2016
"Whitewash," the documentary, is a film exploring the complexity of race in America through the struggle and triumph of the history of black surfers. Narrated by Grammy Award® winner Ben Harper with Tariq “Blackthought” Trotter of the Roots, the story is told through the eyes of black surfers and historians from Hawaii, Jamaica, Florida, and California.

This controversial and probing film looks deep into America’s painful and pervasive legacy of slavery and exclusion. From surfing’s “discovery” by Captain James Cook in Hawaii in 1778 through the explosion of surf culture during the days of segregated Jim Crow America in the1960’s, Whitewash explores the myths that black surfers have overcome in their search for waves.
http://newyorksurffilmfestival.com/2009featurefilms/whitewash

As a side note: My dad was a great swimmer and surfed a lot well into his teens while still a lad in Africa. He had no idea it was only for white people when he came here in his 30's back in the mid '60s. As he used to say, coastal people just naturally surf. I was really grateful when this film came out few years ago and it included surfing in Ghana that slave traders stopped.

If interested, but unfortunately, the entire documentary is no longer available online for free. But can be viewed on YouTube for $1.99 at Virgil Films.

thucythucy

(7,986 posts)
69. K & R for an amazing thread
Thu Apr 14, 2016, 09:44 AM
Apr 2016

that should be on the greatest page.

The most informative thread I've ever seen on DU. Thank you for this.

MrScorpio

(73,626 posts)
70. Never Forget: America’s Forgotten Mass Lynching: When 237 Black Sharecroppers Were Murdered In AR
Sun May 15, 2016, 06:12 PM
May 2016

In 1919, after the end of World War I, Black sharecroppers in Arkansas began to unionize. This attempt to form unions, triggered white vigilantism and mass killings, that left 237 Blacks dead.

Towards the end of 1918, attorney Ulysses S. Bratton of Little Rock, Arkansas listened to Black sharecroppers tell stories of theft, exploitation, and never ending debt. One man by the name of Carter, explained how he cultivated 90 acres of cotton and then had his landlord confiscate the crop and all of his possessions. Another Black farmer, from Ratio, Arkansas said a plantation manager would not give sharecroppers an itemized record of their crop. No one realized that within a year of meeting with Mr. Bratton, one of the worst incidents of racial violence in U.S. would take place. In a report released by the Equal Justice Initiative, white people in the Delta region of the South, started a massacre that left 237 Black people dead. Even though the one-time death toll was unusually high, it was not uncommon for whites to use racial violence to intimidate Blacks.

Mr. Bratton represented the deprived sharecroppers who became members of a new union, the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America. The new union was founded by a Black Delta native named Robert Hill. With no prior organizing experience, all Robert Hill had going for him was ambition. Mr. Hill said “the union wants to know why it is that the laborers cannot control their just earnings which they work for,” as he asked Black sharecroppers to each persuade 25 new members to join a lodge.

http://blackmainstreet.net/never-forget-americas-forgotten-mass-lynching-237-black-sharecroppers-murdered-arkansas/

Number23

(24,544 posts)
71. Mr. S, a great contribution. There are so many Rosewoods and similar in American history
Mon May 16, 2016, 02:39 AM
May 2016

One of the many, many reasons why for so long "black" and "wealth" were never mentioned in the same sentence.

One of the most incredible things about this country is how well the pervasive and brutal treatment of people of color has always been under wraps.

Chitown Kev

(2,197 posts)
74. Well...here was something I just learned about a couple of weeks ago.
Mon Jun 6, 2016, 04:08 AM
Jun 2016
African Americans and Cuba's First Experiment in Tourism: The Joe Louis Commission in Post Revolutionary Havana, 1959-1960

...This enlarged his personal powers and involved him directly in the administration of all new government programs. As president of the National Tourist Institute, Castro launched a campaign to revive Cuba’s tourist industry.

During the spring of 1959, Castro contacted former boxing champion Joe Louis through Rowe-Louis-Fischer-Lockhart, Inc., an advertising firm based in New York City. Joe Louis and Billy Rowe, a former columnist with the Pittsburgh Courier, had been long-time friends and partners in this advertising business since 1935. The former heavy weight champion helped Rowe recruit clients, made commercial appearances, and participated in social and promotional events arranged by wealthy businessmen who wanted to bask in the fame and national prominence of the Brown Bomber.

Castro, who witnessed the glory years of Louis’s boxing career as a Cuban youth in the 1930s, also admired Louis’s athletic achievements and his struggle against overwhelming disadvantages as the son of an Alabama sharecropper and great grandson of a slave. The accomplishments of the former boxing champion captured the imagination of African America, elevated the Brown Bomber to the status of the first black hero in white America, and made Joe Louis an international celebrity among colonial subjects who had battled the ravages of American and European imperialism. The Cuban leader also understood that Joe Louis could provide the first serious link with middle-class African Americans. They had tourist dollars to spend but were prohibited by “Jim Crow” restrictions that were standard problems for African American travelers throughout resort venues in the Caribbean. Louis eventually assembled an impressive delegation of seventy-one prominent leaders, personalities, and newspaper editors who were all well-known throughout black America. Noted members of this delegation included: John H. Sengstacke, Sr., publisher and general editor of the Chicago Daily Defender, the largest black owned daily in the world, and co-founder and past president of the National Negro Publishers Association; Attorney Loren Miller, the editor-publisher and legal counsel for the California Eagle; and Carl Murphy, editor and publisher of the Baltimore Afro-American. Other participants represented the Pittsburgh Courier, the New Orleans Louisiana Weekly, the Los Angeles Sentinel, the Ohio Sentinel, the Philadelphia Tribune, Johnson Publications (Ebony Magazine and Jet Magazine), the Cleveland Call Post, True Magazine, and the New York Amsterdam News.

The Joe Louis Commission was given official governmental recognition in Cuba but in the United States the white press viewed this effort as solely another commercial venture by the former boxing champion desperately seeking to satisfy pressing financial obligations. As American-Cuban diplomatic relations rapidly deteriorated in 1960, Louis’s activities in the island were chastised as supportive of a communist inspired regime. The mindset of Cold War policy makers and their anticommunism supporters viewed indigenous challenges to American international supremacy as Communist orchestrated. Ironically, while Louis was attacked, white owned corporations continued to do business with the new revolutionary government.


-
December 31, 1959 Havana, Cuba

Number23

(24,544 posts)
75. Kev, what an amazing find! An incredible contribution to this thread
Mon Jun 6, 2016, 08:32 PM
Jun 2016

The Brown Bomber -- fighter and would be DIPLOMAT. That is too cool.

Chitown Kev

(2,197 posts)
80. Young Fidel looks quite interesting as well
Wed Jun 8, 2016, 12:54 AM
Jun 2016

I actually "get" his sex appeal as a young man (I've heard a few older women mention it)...

DamnYankeeInHouston

(1,365 posts)
77. I have spent my whole evening on this thread.
Mon Jun 6, 2016, 11:06 PM
Jun 2016

And I have richly educated because of it. I am grateful to so many contributors.

Number23

(24,544 posts)
78. I have to say, this thread and its creator -- Brewman Jaxx -- are the absolute best this web site
Tue Jun 7, 2016, 02:14 AM
Jun 2016

has to offer.

I am so glad that you enjoyed the thread. You are most welcome, especially if you have some nuggets you'd like to add yourself!

Number23

(24,544 posts)
83. Black folks with guns have ALWAYS put fear in certain people's hearts.
Fri Jun 10, 2016, 02:40 AM
Jun 2016


What an amazing find! I'm still not sure why it was called the "Ethiopian" regiment though??
 

1StrongBlackMan

(31,849 posts)
84. Yep ...
Fri Jun 10, 2016, 10:41 AM
Jun 2016

To be honest, I had never heard of the Ethiopian regiment until it was mentioned on Roots v 2.0. From there, it was to the Google.

And, while wondering around the google, I found a bunch of other Black people, places and things that I will be posting ... probably a item a day.

I had forgotten how important this particular thread is.

Separation

(1,975 posts)
85. Not sure if this is known or not
Mon Jun 20, 2016, 05:59 AM
Jun 2016

But I went to click on the original link and got a 404. Does anyone have a link to the original?

Number23

(24,544 posts)
86. Thanks for letting me know.
Mon Jun 20, 2016, 07:28 PM
Jun 2016

I'm not sure if this is the same piece that Brewman was referring to (it has literally been years since I read the piece he was referring to) but it's a great one nonetheless.

Torn from The Land - This Associated Press series documents a largely untold chapter of America’s violent racial history. Reporters Dolores Barclay, Todd Lewan and editor Bruce DeSilva teach the importance of investigative reporting by proving the complaints about land thefts that are central to the reparations movement.
http://theauthenticvoice.org/mainstories/tornfromtheland/

sheshe2

(83,355 posts)
87. A Long-Lost Manuscript Contains a Searing Eyewitness Account of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921
Wed Jun 22, 2016, 11:21 PM
Jun 2016
http://www.democraticunderground.com/118754118

snip//

An Oklahoma lawyer details the attack by hundreds of whites on the thriving black neighborhood where hundreds died 95 years ago

snip//

“I could see planes circling in mid-air. They grew in number and hummed, darted and dipped low. I could hear something like hail falling upon the top of my office building. Down East Archer, I saw the old Mid-Way hotel on fire, burning from its top, and then another and another and another building began to burn from their top,” wrote Buck Colbert Franklin (1879-1960).

The Oklahoma lawyer, father of famed African-American historian John Hope Franklin (1915-2009), was describing the attack by hundreds of whites on the thriving black neighborhood known as Greenwood in the booming oil town. “Lurid flames roared and belched and licked their forked tongues into the air. Smoke ascended the sky in thick, black volumes and amid it all, the planes—now a dozen or more in number—still hummed and darted here and there with the agility of natural birds of the air.

“The side-walks were literally covered with burning turpentine balls. I knew all too well where they came from, and I knew all too well why every burning building first caught from the top,” he continues. “I paused and waited for an opportune time to escape. ‘Where oh where is our splendid fire department with its half dozen stations?’ I asked myself. ‘Is the city in conspiracy with the mob?’”




Read more:http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/long-lost-manuscript-contains-searing-eyewitness-account-tulsa-race-massacre-1921-180959251/?no-ist







Number23

(24,544 posts)
88. That is incredibly difficult but incredibly IMPORTANT reading
Tue Jun 28, 2016, 10:02 PM
Jun 2016

Exterminated, not only for being black for having the nerve to be black and self sufficient. Being black and successful.

Thanks so much for adding this to the thread, sheshe.

JustAnotherGen

(31,688 posts)
89. Witchhunt in New York: The 1741 rebellion
Mon Sep 5, 2016, 06:14 AM
Sep 2016
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p286.html


The government, in an attempt to expose the culprits, offered a handsome reward and, if necessary, a pardon to anyone who would name names. Authorities questioned Mary Burton, a sixteen-year-old white indentured servant (a servant contracted to work for a set amount of time). Promised her freedom and 100 [pounds], she revealed the plans of a vast conspiracy to burn down the city and kill whites. She pointed the finger at John Hughson, the owner of the tavern where she worked, Hughson's wife, as well as two slaves and a prostitute who were regulars at the tavern. They were all tried by the New York Supreme Court. All denied knowing anything about the conspiracy. All were hanged.

The accusations continued. Authorities were particulary suspicious of persons with ties to the Spanish colonies or to the Catholic Church, for Protestant England was at war with Catholic Spain at the time. Five Spanish Negroes were implicated, convicted and hanged. A white teacher named John Ury was suspected of being a Jesuit priest in disquise and the instigator of the uprising. Mary Burton confirmed this. He was hanged. The list goes on.

The "witchhunt" ended when Mary began to accuse wealthy, prominent New York citizens. She was then granted her freedom and given her 100[pound] reward.

Eighteen blacks had been hanged. Thirteen had been burned to death. More than seventy had been deported. To this day it remains a topic of debate among historians whether this episode involved paranoid white fears, an organized conspiracy, or both.

Number23

(24,544 posts)
90. JAG a fantastic and incredibly interesting contribution
Wed Sep 21, 2016, 11:29 PM
Sep 2016

Muchas gracias

Funny how the witchhunt only ended after "prominent" read: white and rich folks starting getting named.

gopiscrap

(23,674 posts)
102. I grew up in Europe and went to school there off and on
Wed Nov 17, 2021, 01:03 PM
Nov 2021

from the mid 60's to the mid 70's and US History is taught quite different there

endinequalitynow

(33 posts)
103. African Americans are often mislabeled.
Sun Feb 6, 2022, 03:13 PM
Feb 2022
&t=8s , Look at the racist fool that John Hagee is. He's the GOP top religious guru.

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