This Week in African-American History: May 9 to May 15
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May 9
1800:Abolitionist John Brown is born.
1867:Abolitionist and feminist Sojourner Truth delivers a speech at the first meeting of the American Equal Rights Association.
May 10
1837:Pickney Benton Stewart Pinchback, a lieutenant governor of Louisiana during the Reconstruction Era is born.
1919:One of the riots associated with the Red Summer of 1919 occurs in Charleston. Two African-Americans are killed.
1950:Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to appear of the cover of Life magazine.
May 11
Louis Farrakhan, a leader in the Nation of Islam is born.
May 12
1950:Oscar DePriest, the first African-American to serve in the United States Congress, dies.
1968:Participants in Martin Luther King Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign begin a two-week protest in Washington D.C.
May 13
1914: Heavyweight boxing champion, Joe Louis, is born.
May 14
1963:Arthur Ashe becomes the first African-American to make the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team.
May 15
1942:The 92nd Infantry is activated in the South Pacific, becoming the first African-American division formed during World War Two.
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http://womenshistory.about.com/od/sojournertruth/a/sojourner_truth_bio.htm
Preserving the Underground Railroad
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Why is legacy so important?
Clarence Still, a local New Jersey historian and descendant of abolitionist William Still, spent his lifetime answering this question.
In 1989, Still worked diligently to stop real estate developers from tearing down the Peter Mott House, a station on the Underground Railroad. Then the home was no more than a crumbling wooden structure that was in the way of development. But for Still, it was an important part of telling the story of African-American resistance to slavery in the 18th Century.
Today, the home is a museum. For the past eleven years, Still and other members of the Lawnside Historical Society worked to preserve and maintain the Peter Mott House. The Lawnside Historical Society has also worked to preserve the legacy of Lawnside, the state's oldest African-American incorporated municipality.
And every year, Still hosted the Still Family Reunion--bringing William Still's descendants together from all over the United States.
Still passed away on Friday in his home. However, Still's legacy as a historian and preserver of African-American history lives on.
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This Week in African-American History: May 2 to May 8
1844: Inventor Elijah McCoy, also known as the "Real McCoy," is born in Ontario, Canada. An inventor, McCoy owned patents to fifty inventions that enhanced the running of many engine-operated machines.
1920: The National Negro Baseball League plays its first game in Indianapolis.
May 3
1845: Macon B. Allen becomes the first African-American allowed to practice law in the United States after he passed the Massachusetts bar. In 1873, Allen was appointed to a judgeship in South Carolina.
May 4
1891: Provident Hospital, the first integrated hospital in the United States is founded by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. Located in Chicago, Provident Hospital becomes a training ground for African-American doctors and nurses.
1961: The thirteen Freedom Riders begin traveling through the South on buses to assess Southern compliance with the 1960 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that outlawed segregation in interstate transportation facilities.
May 5
1865: Baptist minister and community activist Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. is born. Under his tutelage, Abyssinian Baptist Church becomes the largest Protestant congregation in the United States.
1905:
Using a collection of articles from other news publications and his own reporting, Robert S. Abbott publishes the first issue of the Chicago Defender.May 6
1787: Prince Hall establishes the first African-American Masonic Lodge in Boston.
1812: Pan-Africanist Martin R. Delay is born in Charles Town, Va.
May 7
1950: Poet Gwendolyn Brooks is awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
May 8
1858: Prominent abolitionist and writer, William Wells Brown, publishes the first play by an African-American. Entitled "Escape," the play emphasizes the complex feeling of being American.
1925 The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters is founded by Asa Philip Randolph.
Paul Laurence Dunbar: Voice of a Generation
Today is the last day of National Poetry Month and I've decided to end with a discussion of one of my favorite poems, "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Published six years before W.E.B. Du Bois coined the term "double consciousness," Dunbar's poem evokes the feelings of African-Americans desiring true citizenship in a country that was consistently creating barriers that would hinder their inclusion in society.
My favorite lines of the poem are "With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,/And mouth with myriad subtleties." In my opinion, these lines show not only the emotional distress associated with being African-American at the height of the Jim Crow Era but also the perseverance to achieve greatness in United States' society.
What is your favorite Dunbar poem?
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Booker T. Washington: Unapologetic Accommodationist
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Booker T. Washington once said, "an inch of progress is worth a yard of complaint."
Throughout Washington's career, he countered with much opposition from men such as William Monroe Trotter and W.E.B. Du Bois who felt that he was not doing enough to fight for an immediate end of racism and segregation in the United States.
Yet, Washington also had the support of working class African-Americans in the South who benefited greatly from his advocacy of industrial education. But most interesting to me, was his close relationship with white philanthropists and politicians. I have often wondered if Washington's philosophy of promoting education and entrepreneurship in lieu of racial equality was in the best interest of African-Americans during this time period. I still don't have an answer.
What do you think? Was Washington right to argue that African-Americans should prove their worth before gaining equal rights? Do you think he really believed in this philosophy or, was it a means to an end?
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Black and Progressive
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W.E.B. Du Bois once wrote that African-Americans "may and must criticize America, describe how she has ruined democracy...and led her seats of justice astray."
Social, political and legislative reformers brought many changes to United States' society during the Progessive Era. However, the needs of African-Americans were largely ignored.
As a result, African-American men and women became reformers for their own community. African-Americans in the Progressive Era developed many methods of countering racism and sexism in society. These tactics included:
Although African-Americans suffered extremely during the Jim Crow Era, these are just a few of the gains made by men and women who were intent on making a way out of no way.
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Countering Jim Crow
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One of the biggest contradictions of the Progressive Movement was the existence of Jim Crow laws in the South and de facto segregation in the North.
Men such as W.E.B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter relentlessly fought for racial equality in the United States through their work as sociopolitical organizers and writers.
My favorite quote by Trotter is "...My vocation has been to wage a crusade against lynching, disenfranchisement, peonage, public segregation, injustice, denial of service in public places for color, in war time and in peace" shows his tireless desire to end racism in the United States. Yet, Trotter and Du Bois' fight would not be easily won. It would be another fifty years after these men organized the Niagara Movement that African-Americans would begin seeing changes in society.
Do you think the work of men such as Du Bois and Trotter was in vain? Or, was it planting seeds for the Civil Rights Movement?
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Great Migration
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One of my favorite poems by Langston Hughes is "One Way Ticket." In eleven lines, Hughes informs readers about the Great Migration , a term used to describe the six million African-Americans who left the South in search of better employment and educational opportunities.
Hughes writing is firm yet filled with zeal and anticipation, showing the desire of African-Americans searching for a better life.
The image above is of a migrant family arriving in Chicago during the Great Migration. Like Hughes' poem, I believe the photo underscores the drive African-Americans had to escape racism and inequality.
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A Poet's Rage
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One of my favorite poems is "Claude McKay's "If We Must Die."
Passionate and defiant, McKay's sonnet illustrates the harsh consequences that racism presents not to all Americans. Inspired by images of race riots that he saw in various African-American newspapers, McKay wrote "If We Must Die" to show the desires of African-Americans to overcome rage and alienation and assimilate into American society.
Although inspired by the way that African-Americans were treated during these various riots, McKay never once mentions race in the poem. Instead, he wrote that he wanted the words of "If We Must Die" to speak to any group who had been "abused, outraged and murdered, whether they are minorities or nations, black or brown or yellow or white."
National Poetry Month is well underway. Throughout the rest of the month, I'll be sharing some of my favorite African-American poets with readers. In the meantime, share with me: who are your favorite African-American poets?
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Celebrate Life, Not Death
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Learned. Charismatic. Thoughtful. Task-Committed. Everlasting.
When I think of Martin Luther King, Jr. , these words immediately come to mind. Although he was assassinated 44 years ago today, his legacy--which professed a love for every human being, an end to inequality in American society and universal peace is alive.
One of my favorite quotes from King can be found in Letter From a Birmingham Jail, a note written to eight white clergyman in response to their argument that the fight to end racial segregation should be fought through the legal system and not in the streets. In his letter, King writes, "shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute understanding from people of ill will," showing everyone--in 1963 and in 2012, the power and honesty of his words.
King's assassination took all but a minute--a few bullets from a man who was symbolic of so many people who were afraid of change. But King's candor, strength and perseverance lives on through his words, his images and in the hearts of all Americans who want to create change in society.
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