SOME BLACK HISTORY ITEMS TO KNOW
Even though our recent federal administration seems to be against DEI – diversity, equity, inclusion – as though it were some kind of disease, February is still “Black History Month” and is still important. For centuries the Black race in America was treated harshly, worse than even cattle and dogs sometimes.
As slaves on plantations, if they protested against their situation they were beaten, separated permanently from their families, not allowed to grieve, read, or write. Shouldn’t we all feel a bit sad about this?
The book, Crazy as Hell: The Best Little Guide to Black History, tells the tales of many prominent and not so prominent African Americans, from Cole Porter to O. J. Simpson and more. And let’s look at a few you may not be that aware of, such as Medgar Evers. Netflix showed a bio pic on him called Ghosts of Mississippi, starring Whoopi Goldberg and Alec Baldwin. Evers was a WW II veteran, at a time when Blacks were mostly given menial jobs, like loading and unloading ships (probably a lot safer than storming the beaches of Normandy on D Day).
Later, he became a Civil Rights activist, shot in the back in front of his home on June 12, 1963. The “Ghosts” movie is about a white attorney who brings Evers’ killer to justice in 1994, with some new evidence. (I “guess” it is not double jeopardy, because he was not convicted in the other Evers trials.) That man, Byron de la Beckwith, was finally convicted and died in prison in 2001.
Angela Davis is also in this book and represents an intelligent Black woman fighting for change. As an active member of the Communist Party she was a bit controversial. She had to go to court to fight to keep her professor’s job because she had supported the “Soledad Brothers” in their quest for justice, which they eventually got. You can read more about her here.
Other “crazy” people in the above mentioned book include Underground Railroad gal Harriet Tubman, activist W. E. B. Du Bois, even poet Langston Hughes. I’m certain scientist George Washington Carver, with his many uses for the peanut, is also in there somewhere.
In my state of Virginia, Booker T. Washington was known as a famous educator and a promoter of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. But first, he walked from West Virginia, where he had been a slave in his early years, to the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia. He walked 500 miles, and took a few odd jobs along the way. And he became a bit controversial because he advocated for Black people to learn to be needed in the trades and not compete with whites for jobs. His school eventually (now Tuskegee University) had over 100 buildings and 200 faculty to teach over 30 trades and professions. There is a monument to him in rural Franklin County in Virginia.
The Black community has given us jazz, the blues, early rock and roll, leaders like President Barack Obama and Hakeen Jeffries, famous ball players and actors. They are a creative community who deserve some respect and thanks for all they did for their “white folk” over the centuries, don’t ya think?
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