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< Back Jesse Lytle (1838-1922) was the Worth-McAlister Family “outdoor man”—gardener, groom, and livestock caretaker. ​ Jesse Lytle (1838-1922) was the Worth-McAlister Family “outdoor man”—gardener, groom, and livestock caretaker. The Lytle Family were members of Randolph County’s,(NC) African American aristocracy. His grandfather, Frank Lytle (c, 1774-1869) was freed in 1795 after the death of his master and father, Thomas Lytle of the Caraway community. The General Assembly passed a bill in 1795, which legalized his freedom for meritorious services. The County had a small but respected group of free Black Citizens, including not only the Lytle family, but the Chavis and Walden families as well. *Researcher- Stan Best* Previous Next

< Back Maj Charity Adams Photo: Maj Charity Adams (centre) inspects the first arrivals to the 6888th in England in February 1945. Photo: Maj Charity Adams (centre) inspects the first arrivals to the 6888th in England in February 1945. The success of the formation of the all black female battalion was thanks to Mary McLeod Bethune, an African American civil rights activist who at the time, appealed to the then-first lady of America, Eleanor Roosevelt, to create more meaningful roles for black women in the army to help balance out the shortage of soldiers The first time American women fought in a war was during the American Civil War. Women were not allowed to be selected into the draft, so they disguised themselves as men and fought instead. A few of them were only discovered to be women when found dead. American women were only allowed to serve in the army during the First World War. Many of the women were nurses and staff who cooked and catered for injured soldiers. But many of these women were white as at the time slavery and racism prevented black women from giving their services to America. The success of the formation of the all black female battalion was thanks to Mary McLeod Bethune, an African American civil rights activist who at the time, appealed to the then-first lady of America, Eleanor Roosevelt, to create more meaningful roles for black women in the army to help balance out the shortage of soldiers. Mary’s appeal gained the attention of the first lady who then helped the military create a space for an all-black female group to work in the war in Europe. Women were recruited and trained until May 1942 when the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps was formed, and women of all races were allowed to serve in the war officially. Soon after, in July 1942, through their hard work and dedication, women were given full benefits in the military, and the word “auxiliary” was removed from their name. The Corps became known as the Women’s Army Corps. The military trained women of all races in all divisions and sections of the army in preparation for war. In 1945, history was made when the first all-black female battalion in the world was sent from the U.S. to serve in parts of Europe during the Second World War. Known as the 6888 Central Postal Directory Battalion, the all black female battalion of the Women’s Army Corps were sent to parts of France and England to contribute to solving problems that the Second World War brought with it. With the main task of clearing several years of abandoned and backlogged mail in Europe, The 6888 Central Postal Directory Battalion were trained and sent off to help with managing the postal service in Europe. They set off for Europe on February 3, 1945, and arrived in France on February 14 where they were quickly taken to Birmingham, England. The battalion sent to Europe was made up of 855 women who served under the command of Major Charity Williams. Their motto was no mail, no morale and they were popularly known as the six triple eight. Between 1945 to 1946, the majority of the women worked under the mail service while others served as cooks, mechanics, nurse assistants and other roles as and when necessary.They worked under dangerous and risky conditions in abandoned and infested aircraft and offices throughout the war. For their hard work, they were honored with the European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the Good Conduct Medal and the World War II Victory Medal whiles they were still offering service. Photo is part of story about Obituary: Millie Dunn Veasey, pioneering sergeant turned rights activist By Roland Hughes BBC News 18 March 2018 Previous Next

< Back The Asheville Royal Giants baseball team at Pearson Park, West Asheville, NC on July 4, 1916. The Royal Giants were Asheville‘s first black baseball team, founded by community leader E. W. Pearson Sr. The Asheville Royal Giants baseball team at Pearson Park, West Asheville, NC on July 4, 1916. The Royal Giants were Asheville‘s first black baseball team, founded by community leader E. W. Pearson Sr. Previous Next

< Back Robert Allen Robert Allen (1891_1935), son of Green & Alice Cardwell Allen. Shown in his military uniform. This image is part of a collection of family artifacts, papers, including several albums. Robert Allen (1891_1935), son of Green & Alice Cardwell Allen. Shown in his military uniform. This image is part of a collection of family artifacts, papers, including several albums. This collection was compiled by Joann Marie Davis, whose forebears lived in the 19th and 20th centuries primarily in Stoneville (Shiloh) and Mayo Township, Rockingham County. Source: PC2154_V11_Pgs_78_87_ From Private Collection, PC.2154, Vol. 11. Allen, Carter, Gwynn & Associated Families, Rockingham County, N.C. State archives of NC Previous Next

< Back Jacqueline Avant, Wife Of Music Executive Clarence Avant Clarence Avant, is known as the “Godfather of Black Music” and was recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Jacqueline Avant, Wife Of Music Executive Clarence Avant, Found Shot To Death In Beverly Hills Home Invasion By Associated Press Today at 2:00 p.m. EST BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Jacqueline Avant, a Los Angeles philanthropist and the wife of music legend Clarence Avant, was fatally shot in Beverly Hills, California, early Wednesday, according to authorities and a Netflix spokeswoman. Netflix spokeswoman Emily Feingold confirmed that Jacqueline Avant was killed in the shooting. Avant’s daughter, Nicole, is married to Ted Sarandos, Netflix co-CEO and chief content officer. Jacqueline Avant was a local philanthropist who was president of the Neighbors of Watts and served on the board of directors of the International Student Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her husband, Clarence Avant, is known as the “Godfather of Black Music” and was recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Former President Barack Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris were among those who paid tribute to him in a video made for the induction ceremony in October. Nicole Avant, who served as U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas from 2009 to 2011, is now a film producer whose work includes a 2019 Netflix documentary about her father, “The Black Godfather.” In an interview with NBC News about the documentary, she praised her mother. “My mom is really the one who brought to my father and our family the love and passion and importance of the arts and culture and entertainment,” she said. “While my father was in it, making all the deals, my mother was the one who gave me, for example, my love of literature, my love of filmmaking, my love of storytelling.” Beverly Hills police have not identified Jacqueline Avant as the victim in Wednesday’s violence. They have only said that detectives are investigating a shooting that killed one person. The coroner’s office has not yet officially identified the person, either, but said the victim was reported as a woman in her 80s. The suspect — or suspects — fled the scene and have not been found, Beverly Hills police said in a news release. Police received a call at 2:23 a.m. reporting the shooting in a neighborhood. Officers found a person with a gunshot wound, who was later pronounced dead. The police chief was expected to hold a briefing later in the day with more information. TMZ first reported Jacqueline Avant’s death. The Avants were married in 1967. They had two children, Nicole Avant and Alexander Du Bois Avant. Clarence Avant, 90, is a Grammy-winning executive, concert promoter and manager who mentored and helped the careers of artists including Bill Withers, Little Willie John, L.A. Reid, Babyface, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. He founded Sussex Records and Tabu Records in the 1960s and 1970s, and was chair of Motown Records in the 1990s. Basketball icon Earvin “Magic” Johnson wrote on Twitter that he and his wife were “devastated” by the news of Avant’s death, calling her “one of our closest friends.” “This is the saddest day in our lives,” he wrote. Rep. Karen Bass, a Democrat from California, said she was heartbroken by the violence. “Mrs. Avant was a force of compassion and empowerment locally and nationally for decades, as well as a model of service and giving back to those who needed it most,” Bass wrote on Twitter. Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../d45c9138-52d3-11ec... ----- BEVERLY HILLS (CBSLA) — Jacqueline Avant, the wife of music executive Clarence Avant, was shot to death Wednesday in an apparent home invasion in Beverly Hills. Beverly Hills police say a shooting at the 1100 block of Maytor Place was called in at 2:23 a.m. Wednesday. When officers arrived, they found a woman with a gunshot wound, and there were no suspects at the scene. The woman was taken to a hospital, but did not survive. Statements from the Bakewell family of the Los Angeles Sentinel and Netflix identified the woman as 81-year-old Jacqueline Avant, the wife of 90-year-old music executive Clarence Avant and mother-in-law of Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos. Clarence Avant, who was not injured in the shooting, is known as the “Godfather of Black Music” who nurtured the careers of Michael Jackson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, and Babyface, according to Variety. “Words cannot express the pain and devastation the Bakewell family, our community of well-wishers, and fans feel this morning over the senseless murder of our beloved friend/family member, Mrs. Jackie Avant,” a statement from the Los Angeles Sentinel said. “Her brutal murder is not only a loss to her entire family but is a terrible loss to everyone who met her. Her warm and kind personality was evident to everyone who came into contact with her, and her loving smile was a blessing to us all.” The Avants were married for 54 years. Danny Bakewell Sr., who says he is a lifelong friend of the Avant family, said he was “overwhelmingly pained” at the loss of such a beautiful person. “For her to be killed in such a senseless way is unfathomable. There are no human beings more kind and generous than Clarence and Jackie, and for their home and their lives to be violated in such a violent manner is unconscionable,” he said in a statement. Homicide investigators are at the home, which is located in the Hollywood Hills, between Coldwater Canyon and Laurel Canyon Boulevards. It’s not clear if the Avants were a victim of a follow-home robbery, which have been on the rise throughout the area and have prompted the LAPD to issue an alert last month. A number have involved celebrities. Source: https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/.../jacqueline-avant.../ Previous Next

< Back JoAnne Smart Drane ​ JoAnne Smart Drane Remembers The Integration of Woman's College UNCG Monday, February 11, 2013 In 1954, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision that state-sanctioned segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. This decision eventually led the state of North Carolina to begin the process of desegregating its three branches of the Consolidated University of North Carolina: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State College in Raleigh, and Woman’s College in Greensboro. In 1956, Woman’s College (now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro) admitted the first two African American students – JoAnne Smart and Bettye Tillman. Smart recalls in her oral history interview, conducted in 2008 for The University of North Carolina at Greensboro Institutional Memory Collection, that she decided to apply to the previously all-white Woman’s College after she became aware of the Supreme Court decision. She learned about being accepted to the college from an Associated Press reporter who called her in mid-August of 1956 to ask her how it felt being accepted to the Woman’s College. Smart said the telephone call “boggled her mind” since she had not gotten an acceptance letter from the college. When Smart arrived on campus on September 13, 1956, she learned that she had been assigned to Shaw Residence Hall where she met her new roommate, Bettye Tillman. She and Tillman not only shared a room but an entire wing of the first floor of Shaw dorm. The college made this special arrangement to prevent the two black students from sharing bathroom facilities with their white classmates – separation of bathroom facilities had been a major concern often mentioned in letters from white parents when news began to spread that two black students were being admitted to the college. This arrangement left several rooms in that wing of Shaw dorm empty while other students were housed three or four per room across campus. The internal segregation lasted for a couple of years until several white students asked permission from the college administration to move into the empty rooms. During the next few years, black students moved into other dorms on campus, but were always assigned rooms together and often in former dorm counselors rooms that had private bathrooms. Smart also talked about being treated fairly by most faculty members and students. Some students would ignore her but that was rare. She was never in the same class as Tillman, they were always the only black student in a class during their entire four years, and they never had a black instructor at Woman’s College. Regarding her social life on campus, Smart remembers that it was almost non-existent since movie theaters, restaurants, and other public places were still segregated in the late 1950s. Smart said that she did socialize with the other black students on campus or with students from the historically black North Carolina A&T State College located in east Greensboro. Smart and Tillman had their education classes on campus but were not allowed to do their student teaching at the Curry Practice School located on campus. Smart recalls taking a taxi across town to do her student teaching at all-black Dudley High School. After graduating from Woman’s College in 1960, Smart went to North Carolina Central College and Duke University to complete her master’s in guidance counseling. She eventually held several positions in the Raleigh City Schools and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. In 1992, the parlor of Shaw Residence Hall was named for JoAnne Smart and Bettye Tillman and in 2008; the Smart-Tillman Distinguished Professorship in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance was created in their honor. Photo description: JoAnne Smart on the left and Bettye Tillman on the right. Bettye is holding an open book. Both women are looking at the camera and smiling. Photo date is 1956. HERE Is The Link to JoAnne Smart Drane's Oral Interview: http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/.../collection/ui/id/59874/rec/12 HERE Is The Link To JoAnne Smart Drane's Full Written Interview: http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/.../collection/ui/id/59612/rec/11 HERE is the source link for the article posted above: https://uncghistory.blogspot.com/.../joanne-smart-drane... Previous Next

< Back Reverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis Reverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis (born Gary D. Davis, April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972), was a blues and gospel singer who was also proficient on the banjo, guitar and harmonica. Gary Davis - Blues Musician (30 Apr. 1895–5 May 1972) Reverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis (born Gary D. Davis, April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972), was a blues and gospel singer who was also proficient on the banjo, guitar and harmonica. Born in Laurens, South Carolina and blind since infancy, Davis first performed professionally in the Piedmont blues scene of Durham, North Carolina in the 1930s, before converting to Christianity and becoming a minister. After relocating to New York in the 1940s, Davis experienced a career rebirth as part of the American folk music revival that peaked during the 1960s. Davis' most notable recordings include "Samson and Delilah" and "Death Don't Have No Mercy". Davis' fingerpicking guitar style influenced many other artists. His students included Stefan Grossman, David Bromberg, Steve Katz, Roy Book Binder, Larry Johnson, Nick Katzman, Dave Van Ronk, Rory Block, Ernie Hawkins, Larry Campbell, Bob Weir, Woody Mann, and Tom Winslow. He also influenced Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Wizz Jones, Jorma Kaukonen, Keb' Mo', Ollabelle, Resurrection Band, and John Sebastian (of the Lovin' Spoonful). Davis was born in Laurens, South Carolina, in the Piedmont region. Of the eight children his mother bore, he was one of two who survived to adulthood. He became blind as an infant. He recalled being poorly treated by his mother and that his father placed him in the care of his paternal grandmother. Davis reported that when he was 10 years old, his father was killed in Birmingham, Alabama. He later said he had been told that his father was shot by the Birmingham sheriff. He sang for the first time at Gray Court's Baptist church in South Carolina. He took to the guitar and assumed a unique multivoice style produced solely with his thumb and index finger, playing gospel, ragtime, and blues tunes along with traditional and original tunes in four-part harmony. In the mid-1920s, Davis migrated to Durham, North Carolina, a major center of black culture at the time. There he taught Blind Boy Fuller and collaborated with a number of other artists in the Piedmont blues scene, including Bull City Red. In 1935, J. B. Long, a store manager with a reputation for supporting local artists, introduced Davis, Fuller, and Red to the American Record Company. The subsequent recording sessions (available on his Complete Early Recordings) marked the real beginning of Davis's career. He became a Christian and ordained as a Baptist minister in Washington, North Carolina in 1933. Following his conversion and especially after his ordination, Davis began to prefer inspirational gospel music. In the 1940s, the blues scene in Durham began to decline, and Davis moved to New York. In 1951, he recorded an oral history for the folklorist Elizabeth Lyttleton Harold (the wife of Alan Lomax). who transcribed their conversations in a typescript more than 300 pages long. The folk revival of the 1960s invigorated Davis's career, and he performed at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. Eleven songs from those performances were released on the 1967 album At Newport. In March 1969, Davis' former student and driver, John Townley, who had since established Apostolic Recording Studio, persuaded Davis to his first recording studio session in five years. The resulting album, O, Glory – The Apostolic Studio Sessions would be Davis' final studio album, released posthumously in 1973. Peter, Paul and Mary recorded Davis' version of "Samson and Delilah", also known as "If I Had My Way", a song by Blind Willie Johnson, which Davis had popularized. Although the song was in the public domain, it was copyrighted as having been written by Gary Davis at the time of the recording by Peter, Paul and Mary. The resulting royalties allowed Davis to buy a house and live comfortably for the rest of his life, with Davis referring to the house as "the house that Peter, Paul and Mary built." The Grateful Dead covered "Samson and Delilah" on their album Terrapin Station and credited it to Davis. They also covered Davis' song "Death Don't Have No Mercy". Eric Von Schmidt credited Davis with three-quarters of Schmidt's "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down", which Bob Dylan covered on his debut album for Columbia Records. The Blues Hall of Fame singer and harmonica player Darrell Mansfield has recorded several of Davis's songs. The Rolling Stones credited Davis and Mississippi Fred McDowell for "You Gotta Move" on their 1971 album Sticky Fingers. Davis died of a heart attack in May 1972, in Hammonton, New Jersey. He is buried in plot 68 of Rockville Cemetery, in Lynbrook, Long Island, New York. Previous Next

< Back Freeman Vines For nearly half a century, the North Carolina native has created instruments out of found wood—including some from a notorious hanging tree THE REMARKABLE LIFE AND WORK OF GUITAR MAKER FREEMAN VINES For nearly half a century, the North Carolina native has created instruments out of found wood—including some from a notorious hanging tree BY Ted Scheinman Smithsonianmag.Com | Sept. 1, 2020, Freeman Vines has spent almost half a century creating the most distinctive guitars in America. No two look or sound the same. A few of the 78-year-old’s guitars are carved to look like African masks; others partake in the famously boxy Bo Diddley style, and others resemble nothing so much as the leaf off a tree, or the flat part of a well-used oar. For materials, Vines works with wood salvaged from unlikely places: the soundboard of a discarded piano, the front step of an old tobacco barn, the plank from a mule’s trough. Vines is on a quest. He’s trying to build a guitar with an eerily perfect tone that he first heard as a young man, and which he hasn’t been able to wring out of any of the dozens of guitars he’s crafted. “It’s a tone where you become part of the sound—it turns you into a part of the music, like a string vibrating,” he tells me during a Zoom call from his home, which he shares with an unspecified number of dogs and guitars, in eastern North Carolina, the same area where his family has lived ever since they were enslaved. Now, with coauthor Zoe Van Buren, who serves as folklife director at the North Carolina Arts Council, Vines has released Hanging Tree Guitars, an impressionistic memoir with photographs by Timothy Duffy, founder of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, who spent five years chronicling Vines’ process. Duffy’s remarkable photographs take up roughly half of the book, interspersed with detailed storytelling from Van Buren, snippets of conversation between Duffy and Vines and prophetic-sounding soliloquies from the veteran luthier. The book is packed with fascinating details about Vines’ idiosyncratic approach to guitar-making, and about his early life in Jim Crow North Carolina, where a legacy of racist violence shaped his view of the world, and continues to exert a deep influence over his guitar designs. Perhaps the most notable found wood that Vines has used in his instruments comes from a black walnut “hanging tree” that used to stand a few short miles from Vines' current home. Vines has now turned its wood into four guitars. “More than one man had been hung on that tree,” Vines writes early in the book. “Who they hung, or how many they hung, I don’t know.” Vines grew up in Greene County, North Carolina, and worked on a plantation under Jim Crow for poverty wages on a good day. Sometimes he received no wages at all: “You go to the white man and ask for some doggone money, you’d get your head busted open,” Vines recalls in the book. Somewhere in those early days, perhaps from a guitar played at church, or an animal howling at night outside his window—Vines can’t quite recall—he heard the timbre that he would spend his life trying to elicit from the guitars he builds. For a period, Vines toured as a guitarist with various artists on the famed Chitlin Circuit, and has played many shows with gospel groups such as the Blind Boys of Alabama and the Vines Sisters. He also did a little prison time here and there—the longest spell was in the 1960s, for moonshining—and has practiced witchcraft, particularly during the years he lived in rural Louisiana. But otherwise he’s spent his life looking for the wood that will give him the special sound he’s been seeking so long . When Duffy first visited Vines, in 2015, Vines was considering quitting his guitar-making work on account of his diminishing eyesight and the swelling and pain in his hands that wouldn’t go away. Duffy began visiting every other week, sometimes more often, for five years, to document Vines’ process—and to marvel at the beauty of the guitars. “The wood itself was alive with its exposed texture,” Duffy writes in the book. “They were unpainted, and the wood grain of each body was as singular and varied as skin.” Vines, for his part, drew energy from Duffy’s presence. His eyesight and joint pain persisted, but instead of quitting the luthier game, he ended up embarking on one of his most ambitious projects yet: building the hanging tree guitars. Duffy and Vines grew close, and Duffy canvassed local white families to learn more about the tree that Vines had wrought into those four guitars. Eventually, Duffy got the answers: In August 1930, Oliver Moore, a 29-year-old black tenant tobacco farmer was accused of molesting two of his white boss’ daughters and imprisoned in the Edgecombe county jail. Soon after, 200-odd white men kidnapped Moore from the prison, carried him to a spot near where Wilson and Edgecombe Counties meet and hanged him while shooting over 200 bullets into his body. “Two hundred damn people to kill one man,” Vines writes after learning Moore’s story. Following the Moore revelation, Vines’ guitar designs took a grimmer turn, as Van Buren, Vines’ coauthor, notes: “A series of guitars with haunting skull and snake imagery followed the revelation.” Of the resulting photographs, Duffy would say: “I attempted to capture the horror Freeman felt from the blood that was in that wood. Of course, it is in the wood. It terrifies me.” When I ask Vines what it feels like to play the guitars from that black walnut, Vines recalls that “the sound was awesome” when they first put one of the instruments through an amplifier. It’s “something strange and supernatural,” Vines says, as though the wood itself is trying to tell you a story when you pick on the strings. (Like nearly all of Vines’ creations, the hanging-tree guitars are not for sale, though if you visit Vines’ workshop, he might let you strum one.) Despite the swollen hands, the dwindling eyesight and the ghosts who can’t stop tugging on his sleeve, Vines is playful and gregarious in conversation, clearly energized by the new book, and by the new guitars that he’s been making. Collectors looking to buy a Freeman Vines original won’t have much luck if they show up on his property; he tends to turn away prospective buyers even when they make the pilgrimage. Still, those curious still have ample opportunities to inspect Vines’ work. A selection of his guitars went on view earlier this year at a gallery in Kent, England, and while Covid-19 has delayed the stateside exhibitions meant to accompany the release of the Hanging Tree Guitars book, the Music Maker Relief Foundation has created a digital exhibit of Vines’ work. Now, people all over the world can marvel at the instruments crafted by this singular man, and how each of his creations seems to embody a dance between life and death. Toward the close of Hanging Tree Guitars, Duffy asks Vines: “Do you think the spirits are in the hanging tree wood?” Vines responds: “You know they are. They’ve got to be. They’ve got nowhere else to go.” --- Photo collage description: Top Left image credit, “Freeman Vines at Work" (Timothy Duffy, 2018). Top middle image credit, Music Maker Relief Foundation article. Top Right image credit, Music Maker Relief Foundation article. Bottom left image, credit, “Freeman's Hands" (Timothy Duffy, 2016). Bottom middle and right image credit, “Freeman Vines and his Guitars No. 1" (Timothy Duffy, 2015). Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/.../remarkable-life-and.../ Previous Next

< Back The 57th Anniversary Of The March On Washington For Jobs And Freedom Today, August 28, 2020 is The 57th Anniversary Of The March On Washington For Jobs And Freedom - August 28, 1963 The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. At the march, Martin Luther King Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech in which he called for an end to racism. The march was organized by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, who built an alliance of civil rights, labor, and religious organizations that came together under the banner of "jobs and freedom." Estimates of the number of participants varied from 200,000 to 300,000, but the most widely cited estimate is 250,000 people. Observers estimated that 75–80% of the marchers were black. The march was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers, was the most integral and significant white organizer of the march. The march is credited with helping to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and preceded the Selma Voting Rights Movement which led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. BACKGROUND Although African Americans who were prior slaves had been legally freed from slavery, elevated to the status of citizens and the men given full voting rights at the end of the American Civil War, many continued to face social, economic, and political repression over the years and into the 1960s. In the early 1960s, a system of legal discrimination, known as Jim Crow laws, were pervasive in the American South, ensuring that African-Americans remained oppressed. They also experienced discrimination from businesses and governments, and in some places were prevented from voting through intimidation and violence. Twenty-one states prohibited interracial marriage. The impetus for a march on Washington developed over a long period of time, and earlier efforts to organize such a demonstration included the March on Washington Movement of the 1940s. A. Philip Randolph—the president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, president of the Negro American Labor Council, and vice president of the AFL-CIO—was a key instigator in 1941. With Bayard Rustin, Randolph called for 100,000 black workers to march on Washington, in protest of discriminatory hiring by U.S. military contractors and demanding an Executive Order.Faced with a mass march scheduled for July 1, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 on June 25. The order established the Committee on Fair Employment Practice and banned discriminatory hiring in the defense industry. Randolph called off the March. Randolph and Rustin continued to organize around the idea of a mass march on Washington. They envisioned several large marches during the 1940s, but all were called off (despite criticism from Rustin). Their Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, held at the Lincoln Memorial on May 17, 1957, featured key leaders including Adam Clayton Powell, Martin Luther King Jr., and Roy Wilkins. Mahalia Jackson performed. The 1963 march was an important part of the rapidly expanding Civil Rights Movement, which involved demonstrations and nonviolent direct action across the United States. 1963 also marked the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln. Members of The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference put aside their differences and came together for the march. Many whites and blacks also came together in the urgency for change in the nation. Violent confrontations broke out in the South: in Cambridge, Maryland; Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Goldsboro, North Carolina; Somerville, Tennessee; Saint Augustine, Florida; and across Mississippi. Most of these incidents involved white people retaliating against nonviolent demonstrators. Many people wanted to march on Washington, but disagreed over how the march should be conducted. Some called for a complete shutdown of the city through civil disobedience. Others argued that the movement should remain nationwide in scope, rather than focus its energies on the nation's capital. There was a widespread perception that the Kennedy administration had not lived up to its promises in the 1960 election, and King described Kennedy's race policy as "tokenism". On May 24, 1963, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy invited African-American novelist James Baldwin, along with a large group of cultural leaders, to a meeting in New York to discuss race relations. However, the meeting became antagonistic, as black delegates felt that Kennedy did not have an adequate understanding of the race problem in the nation. The public failure of the meeting, which came to be known as the Baldwin–Kennedy meeting, underscored the divide between the needs of Black America and the understanding of Washington politicians. However, the meeting also provoked the Kennedy administration to take action on the civil rights for African-Americans. On June 11, 1963, President Kennedy gave his famous civil rights address on national television and radio, announcing that he would begin to push for civil rights legislation—the law which eventually became the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That night, Mississippi activist Medgar Evers was murdered in his own driveway, further escalating national tension around the issue of racial inequality. PLANNING A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin began planning the march in December 1961. They envisioned two days of protest, including sit-ins and lobbying followed by a mass rally at the Lincoln Memorial. They wanted to focus on joblessness and to call for a public works program that would employ blacks. In early 1963 they called publicly for "a massive March on Washington for jobs". They received help from Amalgamated Clothing Workers unionist Stanley Aronowitz, who gathered support from radical organizers who could be trusted not to report their plans to the Kennedy administration. The unionists offered tentative support for a march that would be focused on jobs. On May 15, 1963, without securing the cooperation of the NAACP or the Urban League, Randolph announced an "October Emancipation March on Washington for Jobs". He reached out to union leaders, winning the support of the UAW's Walter Reuther, but not of AFL–CIO president George Meany. Randolph and Rustin intended to focus the March on economic inequality, stating in their original plan that "integration in the fields of education, housing, transportation and public accommodations will be of limited extent and duration so long as fundamental economic inequality along racial lines persists." As they negotiated with other leaders, they expanded their stated objectives to "Jobs and Freedom" to acknowledge the agenda of groups that focused more on civil rights. In June 1963, leaders from several different organizations formed the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership, an umbrella group which would coordinate funds and messaging. This coalition of leaders, who became known as the "Big Six", included: Randolph who was chosen as the titular head of the march, James Farmer, president of the Congress of Racial Equality; John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; Martin Luther King Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Roy Wilkins, president of the NAACP; and Whitney Young, president of the National Urban League. King in particular had become well known for his role in the Birmingham campaign and for his Letter from Birmingham Jail. Wilkins and Young initially objected to Rustin as a leader for the march, because he was a homosexual, a former Communist, and a draft resistor. They eventually accepted Rustin as deputy organizer, on the condition that Randolph act as lead organizer and manage any political fallout. About two months before the march, the Big Six broadened their organizing coalition by bringing on board four white men who supported their efforts: Walter Reuther, president of the United Automobile Workers; Eugene Carson Blake, former president of the National Council of Churches; Mathew Ahmann, executive director of the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice; and Joachim Prinz, president of the American Jewish Congress. Together, the Big Six plus four became known as the "Big Ten."[38][39] John Lewis later recalled, "Somehow, some way, we worked well together. The six of us, plus the four. We became like brothers." On June 22, the organizers met with President Kennedy, who warned against creating "an atmosphere of intimidation" by bringing a large crowd to Washington. The civil rights activists insisted on holding the march. Wilkins pushed for the organizers to rule out civil disobedience and described this proposal as the "perfect compromise". King and Young agreed. Leaders from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), who wanted to conduct direct actions against the Department of Justice, endorsed the protest before they were informed that civil disobedience would not be allowed. Finalized plans for the March were announced in a press conference on July 2. President Kennedy spoke favorably of the March on July 17, saying that organizers planned a peaceful assembly and had cooperated with the Washington, D.C., police Mobilization and logistics were administered by Rustin, a civil rights veteran and organizer of the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, the first of the Freedom Rides to test the Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel. Rustin was a long-time associate of both Randolph and Dr. King. With Randolph concentrating on building the march's political coalition, Rustin built and led the team of two hundred activists and organizers who publicized the march and recruited the marchers, coordinated the buses and trains, provided the marshals, and set up and administered all of the logistic details of a mass march in the nation's capital. During the days leading up to the march, these 200 volunteers used the ballroom of Washington DC radio station WUST as their operations headquarters. The march was not universally supported among civil rights activists. Some, including Rustin (who assembled 4,000 volunteer marshals from New York), were concerned that it might turn violent, which could undermine pending legislation and damage the international image of the movement. The march was condemned by Malcolm X, spokesperson for the Nation of Islam, who termed it the "farce on Washington". March organizers themselves disagreed over the purpose of the march. The NAACP and Urban League saw it as a gesture of support for a civil rights bill that had been introduced by the Kennedy Administration. Randolph, King, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) saw it as a way of raising both civil rights and economic issues to national attention beyond the Kennedy bill. CORE and SNCC saw it as a way of challenging and condemning the Kennedy administration's inaction and lack of support for civil rights for African Americans. Despite their disagreements, the group came together on a set of goals: Passage of meaningful civil rights legislation; Immediate elimination of school segregation; A program of public works, including job training, for the unemployed; A Federal law prohibiting discrimination in public or private hiring; A $2-an-hour minimum wage nationwide (equivalent to $17 in 2019); Withholding Federal funds from programs that tolerate discrimination; Enforcement of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution by reducing congressional representation from States that disenfranchise citizens; A broadened Fair Labor Standards Act to currently excluded employment areas; Authority for the Attorney General to institute injunctive suits when constitutional rights are violated. Although in years past, Randolph had supported "Negro only" marches, partly to reduce the impression that the civil rights movement was dominated by white communists, organizers in 1963 agreed that whites and blacks marching side by side would create a more powerful image. The Kennedy Administration cooperated with the organizers in planning the March, and one member of the Justice Department was assigned as a full-time liaison. Chicago and New York City (as well as some corporations) agreed to designate August 28 as "Freedom Day" and give workers the day off. To avoid being perceived as radical, organizers rejected support from Communist groups. However, some politicians claimed that the March was Communist-inspired, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) produced numerous reports suggesting the same. In the days before August 28, the FBI called celebrity backers to inform them of the organizers' communist connections and advising them to withdraw their support. When William C. Sullivan produced a lengthy report on August 23 suggesting that Communists had failed to appreciably infiltrate the civil rights movement, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover rejected its contents. Strom Thurmond launched a prominent public attack on the March as Communist, and singled out Rustin in particular as a Communist and a gay man. Organizers worked out of a building at West 130th St. and Lenox in Harlem. They promoted the march by selling buttons, featuring two hands shaking, the words "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom", a union bug, and the date August 28, 1963. By August 2, they had distributed 42,000 of the buttons. Their goal was a crowd of at least 100,000 people. As the march was being planned, activists across the country received bomb threats at their homes and in their offices. The Los Angeles Times received a message saying its headquarters would be bombed unless it printed a message calling the president a "Nigger Lover". Five airplanes were grounded on the morning of August 28 due to bomb threats. A man in Kansas City telephoned the FBI to say he would put a hole between King's eyes; the FBI did not respond. Roy Wilkins was threatened with assassination if he did not leave the country. Convergence Thousands traveled by road, rail, and air to Washington D.C. on Wednesday, August 28. Marchers from Boston traveled overnight and arrived in Washington at 7am after an eight-hour trip, but others took much longer bus rides from places like Milwaukee, Little Rock, and St. Louis. Organizers persuaded New York's MTA to run extra subway trains after midnight on August 28, and the New York City bus terminal was busy throughout the night with peak crowds. A total of 450 buses left New York City from Harlem. Maryland police reported that "by 8:00 a.m., 100 buses an hour were streaming through the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel." The United Automobile Workers financed bus transportation for 5,000 of its rank-and-file members, providing the largest single contingent from any organization. One reporter, Fred Powledge, accompanied African-Americans who boarded six buses in Birmingham, Alabama, for the 750-mile trip to Washington. The New York Times carried his report: The 260 demonstrators, of all ages, carried picnic baskets, water jugs, Bibles and a major weapon - their willingness to march, sing and pray in protest against discrimination. They gathered early this morning [August 27] in Birmingham's Kelly Ingram Park, where state troopers once [four months previous in May] used fire hoses and dog to put down their demonstrations. It was peaceful in the Birmingham park as the marchers waited for the buses. The police, now part of a moderate city power structure, directed traffic around the square and did not interfere with the gathering ... An old man commented on the 20-hour ride, which was bound to be less than comfortable: "You forget we Negroes have been riding buses all our lives. We don't have the money to fly in airplanes." John Marshall Kilimanjaro, a demonstrator traveling from Greensboro, North Carolina, said: Contrary to the mythology, the early moments of the March—getting there—was no picnic. People were afraid. We didn't know what we would meet. There was no precedent. Sitting across from me was a black preacher with a white collar. He was an AME preacher. We talked. Every now and then, people on the bus sang 'Oh Freedom' and 'We Shall Overcome,' but for the most part there wasn't a whole bunch of singing. We were secretly praying that nothing violent happened. Other bus rides featured racial tension, as black activists criticized liberal white participants as fair-weather friends. Hazel Mangle Rivers, who had paid $8 for her ticket—"one-tenth of her husband's weekly salary"—was quoted in the August 29 New York Times. Rivers stated that she was impressed by Washington's civility: The people are lots better up here than they are down South. They treat you much nicer. Why, when I was out there at the march a white man stepped on my foot, and he said, "Excuse me," and I said "Certainly!" That's the first time that has ever happened to me. I believe that was the first time a white person has ever really been nice to me. Some participants who arrived early held an all-night vigil outside the Department of Justice, claiming it had unfairly targeted civil rights activists and that it had been too lenient on white supremacists who attacked them Click Source Link To Read More. Source Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/.../March_on_Washington_for_Jobs... Previous Next

< Back Golden Asro Frinks Golden Asro Frinks (August 15, 1920 – July 19, 2004) was an American civil rights activist and a Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) field secretary who represented the New Bern, North Carolina SCLC chapter. He is best known as a principal civil rights organizer in North Carolina during the 1960s which landed him a reputation as "The Great Agitator", having been jailed eighty-seven times during his lifetime. Frinks was also a United States Army veteran who fought in World War II and worked at the U.S. naval base in Norfolk, Virginia. After his military career, he began promoting equality for African Americans through organized demonstrations. Frinks' involvement in the Civil Rights Movement brought early civil rights victories to North Carolina, and his willingness to engage in nonviolent, direct action served as a catalyst for civil rights movements in Edenton and nearby towns. After becoming a field secretary of the SCLC, Frinks built a close relationship with Martin Luther King Jr. and often worked with the civil rights leader in organizing desegregation movements until King's death in 1968. Frinks' work as a field secretary and his direct actions against the Jim Crow Laws began a new era for the civil rights movement in North Carolina and the desegregation of the South. Early Life Golden Asro Frinks was born to Mark and Kizzie Frinks on August 15, 1920, in the small town of Wampee, South Carolina, and is the tenth of eleven children in the Frinks family. His unusual name came from a profound "golden text" that Frinks' mother witnessed at Sunday services just before Frinks was born that afternoon. At the age of nine, Frinks moved to Tabor City, North Carolina. This small town served as the primary location for Frinks' childhood. Frinks' father, Mark Frinks, worked as a millwright while mother, Kizzie Frinks, worked as a domestic helper for the town's mayor, J. L. Lewis. Not long after moving to Tabor City, Frinks' father died and Frinks' mother was left to take care of the large household. As a single parent, her strong will and determination made a lasting impact on Frinks during his childhood. She taught her children not to conform to society's status quo, but strive for the change they wanted. This influence will later set the stage for Frinks' outlook on life and push him to fight for racial equality. Another key person during Frinks' childhood was Fannie Lewis, the wife of the town mayor who Frinks' mother worked for. Having lost her son at an early age, Lewis took special interest in Frinks and viewed him as a surrogate son. Her relationship with Frinks brought him into the social sphere of the white community in Tabor City, exposing him to ideas and knowledge that black children rarely experience. During that time, the Jim Crow Laws, racial segregation laws that were enacted after the Reconstruction period which segregated public facilities in the former Confederate states, were widely observed in the South and strict racial segregation was enforced below the Mason–Dixon line. Having learned about the South's racial culture, attempts at desegregation, and the rise of prominent black leaders from Lewis, Frinks developed ideas of rebellion against the Jim Crow Laws and discrimination in the South at a young age. Early Civil Rights Activism And The Edenton Movement At the age of sixteen, Frinks left Tabor City and set off to enlist in the United States Navy in Norfolk, Virginia. After a brief detour in the city of Edenton, North Carolina, Frinks arrived at Norfolk and secured a job at US naval base. It was at Norfolk where Frinks first learned about the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP) through the politically active black community in the city. Returning to Edenton in 1942, Frinks married Mildred Ruth Holley and they had a daughter, Goldie Frinks. Soon after, Frinks briefly served in the United States Army as a staff sergeant during World War II. After the war, Frinks moved to the District of Columbia in 1948 to seek new job opportunities. In Washington D.C. Frinks had his first encounter with civil rights activity. In January, 1953, while working at Waylie's Drug Store, Frinks saw his employer refuse to serve lunch to a group of black teens and was deeply bothered by the injustice he witnessed. The event prompted him to join a six-month-long picketing campaign on the drug store. For an hour a day, Frinks led the protest in front of the drug store and brought together other blacks to demand the desegregation of the store. Through his persistency, Frinks learned that continuous picketing and organized group protests deteriorated the strength of the Jim Crow Laws, resulting in the Supreme Court to rule on June 8, 1953, that "segregated eating facilities in Washington, D.C. were unconstitutional." While small in magnitude, the drug store sit-in gave Frinks a taste of civil rights victory and cemented his commitment to help fight segregation using the tactics he learned. Frinks soon left D.C. and returned to Edenton. There, he became actively involved with his family in the Chowan County Branch of the NAACP and served as secretary of the chapter. It was during his time in the NAACP that Frinks realized a major issue with black activism is the unwillingness of some black leaders to actively engage in civil rights activity. At the annual NAACP town meeting on March 3, 1960, the local chapter president refused to support a petition by black children in the town to desegregate the local theater in fear of losing his real estate holdings by supporting such a movement. On March 4, 1960, Frinks resigned from his position in the local NAACP and proceeded to organize his own protest with children from the NAACP Youth Council using the experience he learned from his first protest in Washington, D.C. The protest on the theater was a success and its victory help spread Frinks' name as a North Carolina civil rights activist. Ironically, the hesitancy of the local NAACP chapter to challenge segregation motivated Frinks to take his own direct actions. In the months following the first victory, Frinks began what is known as the Edenton Movement. The Edenton Movement was the series of protests and pickets throughout the early 1960s to desegregate public locations in Edenton, North Carolina. Frinks led the town's young activists to participate in his desegregation effort and made them the main participants of the movement. Their efforts helped successfully desegregate several public locations in Edenton including the courthouse, library, and the historically white John A. Holmes High School. Nationally, the Edenton Movement put the small town on the civil rights radar. This attention brought animosity from the white community towards Frinks and his supporters because many whites viewed the movement as a disturbance to peace in the town. Thus, as the leader of the movement, Frinks constantly faced threats and acts of hatred. In one instance, local whites burnt a cross in Frinks' yard and left a dead rabbit on the porch with an ominous message stating that Frinks will "end up like this rabbit if he does not stop protesting." In an interview with Goldie Wells, Frinks recalled that there were moments when he feared for his life and the safety of his family but "kept praying and kept marching," demonstrating his resilience and commitment to his cause Southern Christian Leadership Conference In 1962, Frinks was first arrested during the Edenton Movement for a demonstration at a theater when Frinks refused to stop what police considered "unlawful picketing".This incident was the first of Frinks' eighty-seven self-reported arrests for civil rights demonstrations throughout his lifetime. While direct, Frinks' methods for picketing often irritated law enforcement, leading to his frequent arrests and earning him the nickname of "The Great Agitator". During one particular protest in 1962, Frinks was arrested along with several teenagers from the community. The NAACP agreed to pay off Frinks' bail but refused to pay for the teens, citing that it was the responsibility of the parents to pay for their children. News quickly spread and got to Martin Luther King Jr. the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The SCLC is a nationally recognized African-American civil rights organization which operated through several regional chapters that promoted activism and desegregation in the south during the civil rights movement. Frinks' relationship with the SCLC began when King sent funds to bail all the protesters out of jail after the NAACP refused to pay for the other demonstrators. Throughout the Edenton Movement, King and other SCLC leaders such as Fred LaGarde, the SCLC's regional representative for northeastern North Carolina, followed the demonstrations and protests closely and noted Frinks' enthusiasm towards civil rights activity in his town. Thus, in 1963, when the SCLC sought a field organizer in North Carolina, King requested Frinks to meet him face-to-face in Norfolk, Virginia with two character witnesses. Frinks brought his pastor and SCLC representative, LaGarde, and longtime friend, Norman Brinkley, to vouch for his character. When King met Frinks in Norfolk, he hired Frinks as one of the twelve national SCLC Field Secretaries.[18]As a field secretary, Frinks was in charge of overseeing the desegregation efforts in North Carolina. However, in the following months Frinks also traveled to other states including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Kentucky to scout out the locations and make sure it was fit for King's arrival. Through his position as field secretary of the SCLC, Frinks worked closely with King on many occasions and was constantly organizing civil rights activities. His relationship with the civil rights leader and new position helped fuel his activism and gave him the resources to begin campaigns in his hometown of Edenton and other rural areas of North Carolina. Williamston Freedom Movement In the summer of 1963, King received notice of garbage not being collected in black communities in Williamston, a town forty miles south of Edenton. Knowing the capabilities of Frinks and his familiarity with eastern North Carolina, King sent Frinks to lead the black community to take action against this and other injustices in what is known as the Williamston Freedom Movement. On June 30, 1963, Frinks and another local civil rights activist, Sarah Small, led the first march on the Williamston town hall which lasted twenty-nine consecutive days. Before the protest, Frinks had a meeting with other civil rights leaders in the area to discuss their activist plans in Williamston and their assault on the Jim Crow Laws in the area. During the meeting, Frinks sat next to an NAACP representative who spoke about the matter in a "calm and dignified manner" which didn't seem to arouse the attendees. When Frinks got his turn to talk, he fervently displayed his passion for justice by jumping onto the tables and shouting "Do you want your freedom?" Historian David Cecelski commented that it was because of Frinks' "streaks of wildness" that successfully led him to civil rights victories and the support of other civil rights activists who admired his uninhibited display of action. Throughout the movement, Frinks led several notable protests to desegregate public locations in Williamston. On July 1, 1963, Frinks led a protest to desegregate Watts Theater in the center of town, resulting in the first arrests of the movement. Other events include a sit-in at Shamrock Restaurants, a march to protest the segregation of S&V Food Store, and a campaign to desegregate schools in Martin County and obtain equal resources for black students. Throughout the movement, Frinks assumed a leadership position and brought together the black community. Marie Robertson, a demonstrator, recalled "Our demonstrations and marches were really unnerving to the white community. The togetherness of the black people was something they were not accustomed to." Frinks' position as a civil rights leader helped him consolidate support to overturn the inequality that was oppressing the black people of Williamston. While Frinks was the main organizer of the Williamston Freedom Movement, information about his protests and plans were constantly leaked to the outside white community and to the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. The information that was passed on to the Klan was a great risk that Frinks' constantly faced and could only occur with the assistance of blacks, hinting that Frinks did not have the full support of the entire black community during the Williamston demonstrations. Both the Klan, and blacks who did not support Frinks, carefully watched his actions as he was considered a "troublemaker" of the movement. The primary reason why some blacks did not support Frinks' demonstrations was their economic dependency on the white community and their fear of being cut off financially. In the 1960s, North Carolina farmed tobacco as its main cash crop, producing over two-thirds of the nation's tobacco crop. A large number of blacks worked on tobacco plantations for wealthy white plantation owners. These black tobacco farmers feared that activism will cause the plantation owners to fire black laborers and switch over to using machines instead as the tobacco farming sector was becoming mechanized. Frinks recognized this financial problem early on in his campaign and used it to his advantage by leading boycotts on white businesses in Williamston and directed the black consumers' business elsewhere. In the end, the "power of the purse" was strong enough to weaken the Jim Crow Laws as the boycotts were successful in hindering the local economy and gave the black community an upper hand in negotiations for desegregation Later Activism Beginning in 1968, Frinks and other SCLC officials began a boycott in Hyde County, North Carolina, to desegregate public schools. With King's assassination on April 4, 1968, Ralph David Abernathy assumed the role of the national SCLC president and visited Hyde County to lend his support for the school boycott, implying national SCLC support of the movement. In the spring of 1969, Frinks led two nationally covered marches advocating integration in Hyde County; one from Swan Quarter to Raleigh and another from Ashville to Raleigh called the Mountaintop to Valley March. The goal of these marches was to travel through as many towns as possible to inform them of the movement going on in Hyde County and gain support of neighboring towns. Using the same technique of persistent, frequent protests he had been for over a decade, Frinks' efforts paid off. On November 1969, Hyde County citizens voted on a referendum that provided the necessary funding to desegregate the Mattamuskeet School. Despite the victory, Frinks' image was hurt when the North Carolina governor at the time, Bob Scott, called for a State Bureau of Investigation case claiming that Frinks pocketed money donated to him for the boycott. The accusation brought a considerable amount of negative attention towards Frinks as he had previously been arrested on December 28, 1968, for paying a motel tab with a worthless check during his demonstrations in Swan Quarter. In April 1973, Frinks lent his help to the Tuscarora Indians of Robeson County, North Carolina by leading a march on the state capitol to demand tribal recognition for the group and obtain federal aid. For over a century, the Tuscarora Indians were not nationally recognized as a tribe and were considered part of the Cherokees. This event demonstrated Frinks' willingness to move away from the civil rights movement to help other groups obtain equality and also highlighted a national concern for minorities that do not receive the proper recognition or federal aid they require. Frinks was also a supporter of women's rights. In August 1974, when Joanne Little was accused of murdering her white jailer, Frinks jumped to Little's defense and suggested she had been attacked in her cell and acted out of self-defense. When Little's first lawyer withdrew from her case, Frinks publicly guaranteed Little's safety and set up a defense team using his personal civil rights attorneys to ensure Little a speedy trail. He also set up the Joanne Little Legal Defense Fund to raise money for her case. On August 14, 1975, the jury acquitted Little from her murder charges. The Joanne Little case was an example of a women's right to defend herself against possible rape and the rights of a prisoner to protect themselves from being abused. Frinks played an integral part throughout the murder trial, ensuring Little a safe trial and rallying up supporters for her defense. During the Wilmington Movement of 1978, Frinks again stirred up controversy and accusations of fraud. Kojo Nantambu, a local in the Wilmington black community, reported that "the black community were together until Golden came. Golden came in and he divided the community. He also went around taking donations and they were taking that money and pocketing it." The statements from Nantambu indicates that Frinks did not have the full support of the black community. Some blacks in Wilmington were concerned that Frinks was causing a split in the community between those who supported his wild activism and others who disagreed with his protesting methods. The accusations of Frinks mishandling money added to the controversy since money issues were present several times in Frinks' past which caused some people to doubt his motives. Death And Legacy When Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 1964, he alluded to Frinks during his acceptance speech when he stated "I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful journey possible- the known pilots and the unknown ground crew." While Frinks was not a nationally known figure, he was crucial shadow in the civil rights movement and was partially responsible for King's success. In 1977, Frinks officially ended his employment with the SCLC but continued to support the SCLC's activities. In a 1978 interview, Frinks said that he was satisfied with his valuable position in the struggle for African American equality and that he intended continue his lifelong goal even though he was no longer an active protester by commenting "if my people call, I will be ready to answer." Frinks' commitment and dedication to the civil rights movement landed him numerous awards and recognitions including but not limited to, a resolution from the Georgia General Assembly, recognition from the National SCLC, the Chowan County NAACP Achievement award, the Edenton Movement Service Award, the Rosa Parks Award, and the North Carolina Black Leadership Caucus Award. Golden Asro Frinks died on July 19, 2004, in Edenton, North Carolina, at the age of 84. In the end, Frinks' lifelong dedication to civil rights activism and desegregation inspired countless others to stand up in pursuit of social justice and equality. References: Wells, Goldie Frinks and Crystal Sanders. Golden Asro Frinks: A Biography of a Civil Rights Activist: Telling the Unsung Song. Aardvark Global Publishing, February 10, 2011. P.39. Smith, Amanda Hillard. The Williamston Freedom Movement: A North Carolina Town's Struggle for Civil Rights, 1957-1970. McFarland & Company, Inc. June 30, 2014. P.33. Wells, Goldie Frinks and Crystal Sanders. Golden Asro Frinks: A Biography of a Civil Rights Activist: Telling the Unsung Song. Aardvark Global Publishing, February 10, 2011. P.20. Wells, Goldie Frinks and Crystal Sanders. Golden Asro Frinks: A Biography of a Civil Rights Activist: Telling the Unsung Song. Aardvark Global Publishing, February 10, 2011. p. 22. Staunton, Vanee. "Golden Frinks: Profile of a Civil Rights Agitator". The Virginian-Pilot, June 20, 1993. Spicer, Shirl. "The Great Agitator: Golden A. Frinks". North Carolina Museum of History, 2004. Cornell University Law School. District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. Inc. June 8, 1953. Cunningham, David. Klansville, U.S.A.: The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights-Era Ku Klux Klan. Oxford University Press, November 14, 2012. p. 115. Wells, Goldie Frinks and Crystal Sanders. Golden Asro Frinks: A Biography of a Civil Rights Activist: Telling the Unsung Song. Aardvark Global Publishing, February 10, 2011. P.40. Smith, Amanda Hillard. The Williamston Freedom Movement: A North Carolina Town's Struggle for Civil Rights, 1957-1970. McFarland & Company, Inc. June 30, 2014. p. 36. Wells, Goldie Frinks and Crystal Sanders. Golden Asro Frinks: A Biography of a Civil Rights Activist: Telling the Unsung Song. Aardvark Global Publishing, February 10, 2011.p.47. Frinks, Golden A. Interview with Dr. Goldie Wells.2001. Frinks, Golden A. Interview with Pamela Maxine Foreman. 1963. Spicer, Shirl. "The Great Agitator: Golden A. Frinks". North Carolina Museum of History, 2004. "SCLC's Frinks Is Arrested Following Protest at School". Afro-American (1893-1988). September 24, 1966. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/532357405 "Golden Frinks Arrested on Check Charge". New Journal and Guide (1916-2003). December 28, 1968. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/568969292 Cunningham, David. Klansville, U.S.A.: The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights-Era Ku Klux Klan. Oxford University Press, November 14, 2012. P.91. Wells, Goldie Frinks and Crystal Sanders. Golden Asro Frinks: A Biography of a Civil Rights Activist: Telling the Unsung Song. Aardvark Global Publishing, February 10, 2011. P.62. Smith, Amanda Hillard. The Williamston Freedom Movement: A North Carolina Town's Struggle for Civil Rights, 1957-1970. McFarland & Company, Inc. June 30, 2014. P.3. Cunningham, David. Klansville, U.S.A.: The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights-Era Ku Klux Klan. Oxford University Press, November 14, 2012. P.114. Wells, Goldie Frinks and Crystal Sanders. Golden Asro Frinks: A Biography of a Civil Rights Activist: Telling the Unsung Song. Aardvark Global Publishing, February 10, 2011. P.70. Cecelski, David. Along Freedom Road: Hyde County, North Carolina, and the Fate of Black Schools in the South. The University of North Carolina Press, April 29, 1994. P.85. Smith, Amanda Hillard. The Williamston Freedom Movement: A North Carolina Town's Struggle for Civil Rights, 1957-1970. McFarland & Company, Inc. June 30, 2014. P.36. Carter, David C. "The Williamston Freedom Movement: Civil Rights at the Grass Roots in Eastern North Carolina, 1957-1964". The North Carolina Historical Review. Vol. 76, No. 1 January 1999. pp. 1-42. Wells, Goldie Frinks and Crystal Sanders. Golden Asro Frinks: A Biography of a Civil Rights Activist: Telling the Unsung Song. Aardvark Global Publishing, February 10, 2011. p. 97. Carter, David C. "The Williamston Freedom Movement: Civil Rights at the Grass Roots in Eastern North Carolina, 1957-1964". The North Carolina Historical Review. Vol. 76, No. 1 January 1999. pp. 1-42. Cecelski, David. Along Freedom Road: Hyde County, North Carolina, and the Fate of Black Schools in the South. The University of North Carolina Press, April 29, 1994. P.128. Cecelski, David. Along Freedom Road: Hyde County, North Carolina, and the Fate of Black Schools in the South. The University of North Carolina Press, April 29, 1994. p. 139. Macewan, Arthur. "Power Concedes Nothing Without a Demand". Review of Along Freedom Road: Hyde County, North Carolina, and the Fate of Black Schools in the South, by David S. Cecelski. University of Illinois Press, Spring 1996. Wells, Goldie Frinks and Crystal Sanders. Golden Asro Frinks: A Biography of a Civil Rights Activist: Telling the Unsung Song. Aardvark Global Publishing, February 10, 2011. P.120. "Golden Frinks Arrested on Check Charge". New Journal and Guide (1916-2003). December 28, 1968. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/568969292 Wells, Goldie Frinks and Crystal Sanders. Golden Asro Frinks: A Biography of a Civil Rights Activist: Telling the Unsung Song. Aardvark Global Publishing, February 10, 2011. p. 137. Wells, Goldie Frinks and Crystal Sanders. Golden Asro Frinks: A Biography of a Civil Rights Activist: Telling the Unsung Song. Aardvark Global Publishing, February 10, 2011. P.148. "Ms. Little's First Lawyer Withdraws From Her Case". Atlanta Daily World (1932-2003). April 18, 1975. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/491436779 Nantambu, Kojo. "Frinks Mishandled Money and Manpower." Southern Oral History Program Collection, May 15, 1978. Nobelprize.org. "Martin Luther King Jr. - Acceptance Speech." Nobel Media AB. Accessed November 24, 2014. Retrieved from http://www.nobelprize.org/.../1964/king-acceptance.html. King, Van. "Golden Warrior". Greensboro Daily News, May 21, 1978. Wells, Goldie Frinks and Crystal Sanders. Golden Asro Frinks: A Biography of a Civil Rights Activist: Telling the Unsung Song. Aardvark Global Publishing, February 10, 2011. p. 165. Previous Next

< Back Willie Gertrude Brown On Friday, 04.20.1888, W. Gertrude Brown was born. Willie Gertrude Brown was an African American activist for racial justice and the rights of children and women. Although little is known of her formative childhood years, it is certain that Brown’s Charlotte, North Carolina education was impacting on her values and career. From 1906 to 1911, then known as Willie G. Brown, she was enrolled at Scotia Seminary in Concord, NC. This was a school founded by the Presbyterian Church to educate newly freed African American girls; Mary McLeod (Bethune) was a former graduate. The curriculum there was designed for Black women in the south to learn and to serve their people by educating them. After graduation in 1911, Brown became a teacher in the Charlotte public school system where she spent six years. She entered social work as a friendly visitor for the Associated Charities for two summers then worked at the Traveler’s Aid desk for another year, all in her hometown. Brown founded the first hospital for African Americans in Charlotte and that city’s Sabbath School Association. While working in these capacities, she continued her education. Brown took courses at the Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro in 1913, at Cheyney Institute for Teachers in Pennsylvania in 1915, and at Hampton Institute in 1918. In 1919, she moved to Dayton, Ohio. There she worked at the Linden Community Center, first as Director of Girls and Women’s work for three years, then as executive secretary for two more years until 1924. She was also executive secretary of Federation of Social Services for Negro Women in Dayton. Continuing her education, Brown studied at the Playground and Community Center in Atlanta, GA., in 1919, and in Chicago in 1920. In 1923, she received a B.S. from Columbia University. In the fall of 1924, W. Gertrude Brown moved to Minneapolis to head the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House. While directing the programs there, she took summer courses at Oxford University and traveled in circles of those who were interested in combating racism in America. The Paris conference of settlements was held in June of 1926 and attended by 250 delegates from twenty countries. Brown was one of about 30 American representatives who came away excited about the show of peace and cooperation from delegates from around the world. Unfortunately, back in the United States, even among her white colleagues, she would remain a second-class citizen and viewed as having questionable ideas. She resigned as director of the Phyllis Wheatley House in 1937 and moved to Washington, D.C. W. Gertrude Brown died in an automobile accident in 1939. Reference: Black Women in America An Historical Encyclopedia Volumes 1 and 2, edited by Darlene Clark Hine Copyright 1993, Carlson Publishing Inc., Brooklyn, New York ISBN 0-926019-61-9 ------ The Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House in Minneapolis was established in 1924 by a coalition of Black and white women to serve primarily African Americans. Under the leadership of Head Resident W. Gertrude Brown, a Black social worker originally from North Carolina, the house rapidly expanded its programs and facilities, serving both as a settlement house for its immediate neighborhood and as a social and agitational center for the city's entire Black population . For many Blacks, Phyllis Wheatley Community Center was a safe port in the midst of a racially segregated city. In fact, it was the only place where visiting Blacks could stay in Minneapolis because hotels were segregated. A. Phillip Randolph, while organizing the Pullman Porters, often met at the house. Other influential individuals who stayed at the settlement house’s transient bedrooms included W.E.B. Dubois, Marian Anderson, Langston Hughes, Roland Hayes, Ethel Waters, the Mills Brothers, the Ink Spots, Paul Robeson, Richard Harrison and others. In its early years, Phyllis Wheatley was a safe place for young African American women to seek shelter, receive guidance and marketable skill development. Gradually, the agency became the center of the African American social scene and it evolved into a home-away-from-home for numerous African-American civic leaders, educators, entertainers and students. The Wheatley, as it was affectionately called, was the only place in Minneapolis where non-whites were permitted to lodge during those days. Today Phyllis Wheatley programs address the needs of children, youth, families and elders by providing tailored education and skill building opportunities to help individuals and families discover their strengths, develop their personal networks of support and take control of their futures. The second home of Phyllis Wheatley Community Center on Aldrich Avenue North housed its Mary T. Wellcome Child Development Center, a gym, auditorium, and apartments. Built in 1929, the building was later demolished to make way for Interstate 94. Phyllis Wheatley Community Center was recognized by the Minnesota Historical Society in conjunction with Minnesota’s sesquicentennial celebration and highlighted in the MN150 exhibit from 2008 -2011 as one of “the 150 people, places and things that shaped our state”. The year was 1924. W. Gertrude Brown, a Black from Dayton, Ohio who graduated from Columbia University and studied at the University of Chicago, was the first head resident. She was a personal friend of Jane Addams and she had a wide range of experience in settlement work before coming to Phyllis Wheatley. In his autobiography, Overcoming, Mr. W. Harry Davis recalled that Miss. Brown built a Center that would train young black people for leadership in the community, for college and professional positions. He wrote, “Miss Brown helped shape our attitudes about white people in a way that kept us from becoming racist.” Needing a larger facility in 1928, Mary T. Wellcome, whose sister, Laura Taylor was President of the Wheatley Board, donated $10,000 to the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House. A capital campaign followed with a goal of $95,000. Blacks gave $3,972.41 and that sum was matched by Mrs. H.G. Harrison, who had promised to match each dollar given by Blacks with one of her own. The Wellcome sisters each gave $5,000 and their brothers $500, bringing the Wellcome family total to $25,000 in donations. Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House was quite literally the center of the north Minneapolis African American community prior to World War II. The House provided education, recreation, day care, temporary housing and public meeting space. W. Harry Davis wrote: “During the 40’s young African American men were encouraged to jump at the chance at good-paying jobs. Some of the new black hires in defense plants felt as much discomfort as did the white people working alongside them. They too had racially insular lives. But that had not been the case with me. From the time I started Michael Dowling School as a kindergartner, I frequently had been in situations in which my skin color was different than those around me. Every school I attended had been integrated. Meanwhile at Phyllis Wheatley, I had experienced the comfort and confidence building that comes from associating with people of my own race. Through Wheatley athletics, I met white kids from other settlement houses around the city. I learned what it meant to show respect to all people. I began my career with determination and considerable optimism… ” Although Phyllis Wheatley’s original buildings were demolished in 1970 when I-94 was built, a range of quality programs in education, early childhood development and family programs continue to strengthen and empower families in the greater Minneapolis area. Each program reflects the treasured history of the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House. Phyllis Wheatley Trailblazers Trailblazers is a special identification that can be attributed to a person who historically and or/now is the first. Like Phillis Wheatley, the first African American to have her poetry published, the Wheatley Trailblazers are the ones who start the imprint on the fabric. The fabric is our culture, metaphorically speaking, and this imprint continues and it is woven and carried on by others. Trailblazers are people who contribute to the human community, to humanity and in many, many areas. They bring hope and inspiration to others; they are many. Marian Anderson Marian Anderson, the internationally known contralto, stayed at Phyllis Wheatley just weeks before she became the central figure in a notorious bit of discrimination in Washington D.C. where she was denied use of the Daughter’s of the American Revolution (DAR)’s performance hall because she was black. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR in protest and arranged for Anderson to sing at the Lincoln Memorial instead. W. Harry Davis wrote, “Her Easter Sunday open-air concert in 1939 became a triumphant celebration of liberty and justice for all and sealed her place in the nation’s civil-rights history". The events in Minneapolis in February foreshadowed that episode. Marian Anderson had been in Minneapolis and had stayed at Phyllis Wheatley. But this time she tried to reserve a room at the Dyckman Hotel, one of the city’s finest, on Sixth Street between Nicollet and Hennepin. Her request was denied. The Women’s Christian Association (WCA), to its credit, was the first to register public protest. It was also most likely the first protest involving Phyllis Wheatley youth. Davis continued, “some of us had come to know her when she stayed at the Phyllis Wheatley during earlier visits to the city, and we sat in on her rehearsals". Staff members at Phyllis Wheatley, Leo Bohannon and John Thomas, said, "you guys are teenagers now. You’ve come through the NAACP's Leadership Program. We’ve taught you about civil rights". The next day they were carrying signs in front of the Dyckman Hotel. It was the first time I had done such a thing, and it felt good. We walked alongside members of the senior NAACP, as well as white people who supported our cause. I met the legendary Rabbi Roland Minda and recognized members of the WCA whom I had seen at Phyllis Wheatley. A few days later we got word that the WCA had negotiated with the Dyckman Hotel and that Marian Anderson would be able to stay. We were pleased and proud that we had played a role in making that change.” – W. Harry Davis. Clyde Bellecourt Clyde Bellecourt, who worked for Northern States Power, and his brothers were in the Golden Gloves Boxing Program. Davis wrote: “they had a dream to extend the benefits of the civil rights movement to Native Americans". They wanted to organize AIM, the American Indian Movement. They needed time away from their jobs to do it. Together we approached Steve Keating at Honeywell and Don McCarthy at NSP and persuaded them to make Clyde and Dennis loaned executives at the Urban Coalition. They had a variety of jobs, but their main assignment was to create an organization that would advocate for full civil rights for Native Americans. Mr. W. Harry Davis Mr. W. Harry Davis, who passed away in July of 2006, was a Trailblazer. He was the first African American to chair the Minneapolis Public School Board and he served 21 years on the school board. Mr. Davis was the first African American to run for the office of Mayor with major party backing in 1971. “He overcame poverty and segregation and campaigned for racial progress and reconciliation”, former Vice President Walter Mondale said about W Harry Davis. “He’s been one of the voices for civil rights, sanity and decency in the community.” Harry Davis mentored Richard Green who went on to become the first Black superintendent in Minneapolis schools and later headed the New York City Schools. Davis’ autobiography, "Overcoming", devotes a chapter to his growing up at the Phyllis Wheatley Center and includes many, many references about the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center and its impact in his life and others. At the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center’s current location, Mr. Davis Chaired the Phyllis Wheatley Board and served as a Board Member of the Minneapolis Public Schools, Theartrice (T) Williams was the Executive Director of the Center at that time. He left in 1972 to become Minnesota and the nation’s first Ombudsman for Corrections. Other Trailblazers Trailblazer women who are with us today include Mrs. Marion McElroy, first African American woman to be employed by Northwestern Bell and Ms. Bertha Smith, who walked from north Lyndale Avenue to the University of Minnesota, was the first African American hired as a teacher in the Minneapolis Public Schools. Other Trailblazers include the first African American couple to receive a loan to open their successful hair business, the first woman hired by the Minneapolis Public Library, and Mr. Earl Miller who was the first African American President of the Postal Workers Union. Golden Gloves Boxers were made famous at Phyllis Wheatley. Mr. Larry Brown was a Golden Gloves Boxer at Phyllis Wheatley who went on to work in East Africa helping emerging governments with tax policies. This is a sampling of the noted individuals who were a part of the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center and Mary T. Wellcome's Child Development Center. Many were or are the first African Americans in their professional fields of endeavor. Their lives touched and impacted the social, economic, business, and education institutions that benefited our entire community. Their influence is well documented. The Minnesota Historical Society has a significant collection of artifacts from what is now known as the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center. South Hill Films has produced a video documentary on this historically important agency entitled "The Heart of Bassett Place: W. Gertrude Brown and the Wheatley House". The video is in DVD format and is available for purchase from the Minnesota Historical Society. Source:http://phylliswheatley.org/history ------ The Heart of Bassett Place: W. Gertrude Brown and the Wheatley House Documentary In the early 20th century, community centers called settlement houses were established across America. This documentary relates the history of one such facility—the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House, known in its time as “the greatest settlement house in the U.S. for Negroes.” The program profiles its first director, W. Gertrude Brown, who touched the lives of generations of African-Americans, and describes life at the Minneapolis center. The history of 20th-century African American culture is paralleled, since many social and artistic leaders—including Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, Marian Anderson, and W. E. B. Dubois—called the Wheatley House their second home. (47 minutes) Previous Next

< Back The FREEDOM RIDERS I The FREEDOM RIDERS Stopped Through Greensboro By Jim Sshlosser- Staff Writer/News & Record May 3, 1991 Updated Jan 24, 2015 They stopped in Greensboro 30 years ago to rest and invite people to join them. ``We gave them our blessings, but that was about it,' says Dr. George Simkins, former Greensboro NAACP chapter president. To have gone, he adds, ``would have been like going into a mine field down there.' ``Down there' was the Deep South, destination of 13 bus travelers known as the ``freedom riders.' They were seven whites and six blacks who left Washington May 4, 1961 - exactly 30 years ago today - determined to challenge segregated facilities in bus stations in the South. All the way through Dixie, the freedom riders sat together, ate together, drank from the same fountains and waited in the same waiting rooms. Rider John Lewis, now a U.S. House member from Georgia, and two others were attacked in a whites-only waiting room in Rock Hill, S.C. The Ku Klux Klan burned a bus in Alabama. The riders were jailed in Birmingham. Lewis was knocked unconscious on the Alabama-Tennessee border. The riders encountered little trouble in Greensboro, a city slowly starting to integrate, thanks to challenges by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and events such as the 1960 Woolworth sit-ins. But national civil-rights leader James Farmer worried during a stopover meeting at Shiloh Baptist Church that ``a little steam' had gone out of the civil-rights movement since the Woolworth ``coffee party.' ``We're fighting for future generations who can travel anywhere, by bus, train, plane or car, stop at any place and use any restaurant, hotel, theater that they please and feel free and secure,' said Farmer, whose Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sponsored the rides. Shiloh's pastor, the Rev. Otis Hairston, remembers three bomb threats phoned in during the meeting. No one budged. ``I knew what was happening,' he recalls. ``It had happened in other cities. It was a pattern to try and stop the rallies.' The riders included one Piedmont resident, the Rev. B. Elton Cox, then of High Point, who boarded in Washington. He no longer lives in the area. As a result of the freedom riders, the Interstate Commerce Commission ordered all ``Whites' and ``Colored' signs removed from buses and terminals - replaced by warnings that it was unlawful to discriminate. -END Article ---- Image 1- BELOW are short biographies of each person in the collage above and their involvement in the FREEDOM RIDERS MOVEMENT--PLEASE Click to Next Photo to continue reading the Short Biographies of the Freedom Riders. Thank You. NOTE: These are but a few of the anti-segregation Freedom Riders-End Note. ---- 1. Ralph Abernathy, Montgomery, AL - Rev. Ralph Abernathy was a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and beyond. As the young pastor of First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Al, he and Martin Luther King, Jr. were among the leaders of the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott organized in response to the arrest of Rosa Parks. In 1961, Abernathy's First Baptist Church was the site of the May 21 "siege" where an angry mob of white segregationists surrounded 1,500 people inside the sanctuary. At one point, the situation seemed so dire that Abernathy and King considered giving themselves up to the mob to save the men, women, and children in the sanctuary. When reporters asked Abernathy to respond to Robert Kennedy's complaint that the Freedom Riders were embarrassing the United States in front of the world, Abernathy responded, "Well, doesn't the Attorney General know we've been embarrassed all our lives?" On May 25, Abernathy was arrested on breach of peace charges after escorting William Sloane Coffin's Connecticut Freedom Ride to the Montgomery Greyhound Bus Terminal, neither the first nor the last instance of civil disobedience in a lifetime of activism. After Dr. King's assassination on April 4, 1968, Abernathy took up the leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Poor People's Campaign and led the 1968 March on Washington. Ralph Abernathy died in 1990. 2. James Farmer, New York, NY -Co-founder and National Director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), James "Jim" Farmer was the architect of the original CORE Freedom Ride of 1961. He saw the significance of desegregating interstate travel and the potential of repeating CORE's 1947 Journey of Reconciliation as a movement tactic. He endorsed a new name, "Freedom Ride," to win media attention and better communicate the mission and goals of the trip. A child prodigy who earned early fame as a debater, Farmer grew up in Marshall, Texas, where his father, James L. Farmer, Sr. was a professor at the historically black Wiley College. Farmer devoted his career to civil rights and social justice causes, working for the NAACP and the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), CORE's parent organization, prior to his February 1961 election as director of CORE. Farmer's signature initiative was the Freedom Rides, initiated just three months after he took office. At that time, CORE was less well known than the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Dr. Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Coalition (SCLC) or the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Farmer envisioned the ride as a way to vault CORE and its philosophy of nonviolent direct action to prominence on the national stage, with attendant opportunities for policy-making and fundraising. Farmer took part in the ride, but returned to Washington, D.C. from Atlanta, GA on the morning of May 14 for his father's funeral. He was haunted by guilt as a result, especially since he was spared from some of the Rides' worst violence - the May 14 Anniston, AL Greyhound bus burning and the Birmingham, AL Trailways Bus Station Riot. Farmer later recalled his emotions upon learning of his father's death in Atlanta. "There was, of course, the incomparable sorrow and pain," he said. "But frankly, there was also a sense of reprieve, for which I hated myself. Like everyone else, I was afraid of what lay in store for us in Alabama, and now that I was to be spared participation in it, I was relieved, which embarrassed me to tears." On May 21, Farmer flew to rejoin the riders in Montgomery, AL. Upon arriving in Jackson, MS, three days later, Farmer was jailed for "breach of peace" and other charges and later was transferred to Mississippi's notorious Parchman State Prison Farm. Historians acknowledge Farmer's central visionary role in bringing the Freedom Rides to fruition. In 1966, Farmer eventually left CORE and the Civil Rights Movement, citing its growing acceptance of racial separation as his reason. He served in the Nixon Administration as Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and co-founded the Fund for an Open Society in 1975. President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. James Farmer died from complications of diabetes in 1999. 3. Benjamin Elton Cox, High Point, NC - Part of the original May 4 CORE Freedom Ride, the Rev. Benjamin Elton Cox was an outspoken black minister based in High Point, NC who had traveled through the region spreading the gospel of nonviolence during the spring and summer of 1960. Cox also participated in the July 8-15, 1961 Missouri to Louisiana CORE Freedom Ride. Defending the actions of the Freedom Riders, Cox argues in Freedom Riders, "If men like Governor Patterson [of Alabama] and Governor Barnett of Mississippi... would carry out the good oath of their office, then people would be able to travel in this country. Then people in Tel Aviv and Moscow and London would not pick up their newspaper for breakfast and realize that America is not living up to the dream of liberty and justice for all." The preacher and longtime civil rights activist was arrested 17 times over the course of several decades. Prior to retirement, he served as minister at Pilgrim Congregational Church in High Point, NC, as chaplain at the VA Hospital in Urbana, IL, and as a middle school counselor in Jackson, TN. 4. Rabbi Israel "Si" Dresner, Springfield, NJ - Later dubbed "the most arrested rabbi in America," the outspoken Rabbi Israel "Si" Dresner participated in the June 13-16 Interfaith Freedom Ride from Washington, DC to Tallahassee, FL. The son of a Brooklyn delicatessen owner, he graduated from the University of Chicago (1950) and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Theology. After successfully completing the Freedom Ride to Tallahassee, the Interfaith Riders had planned to fly home. First, however, they decided to test whether or not the group would be served in the segregated airport restaurant. As a result 10 Freedom Riders, later known as the Tallahassee Ten, were arrested for unlawful assembly and taken to the city jail. They were convicted and sentenced later that same month; legal appeal of the airport arrests continued for years. Dresner returned along with 9 of the original riders to serve brief jail terms in August 1964 - and ate triumphantly in the same airport restaurant that had earlier refused them service. Dresner continued his civil rights activism and advocacy throughout his career as a reform Jewish rabbi in northern New Jersey, participating in the 1962 Albany campaign to desegregate municipal facilities and in the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march. He retired in 1996. 5. Glenda Gaither Davis, Great Falls, SC - A student at Claflin College in Orangeburg, SC, 18-year-old Glenda Gaither —sister of CORE field secretary Tom Gaither— was already a veteran of the state's sit-in movement to end lunch counter segregation. On May 30, 1961, she arrived in ackson, MS as part of the first group of eight Freedom Riders from New Orleans, LA to conduct tests at a railway terminal. When they attempted to use the white restrooms, they were arrested for disorderly conduct and sentenced within the hour to a $200 fine and a 60-day jail term. In 1965 Gaither married her boyfriend Jim Davis, a participant in the same ride, and later worked as a job placement director at Spelman College. She recalls in Freedom Riders, "Even though we came from many different places and we had many different cultures and many different home environments, in some ways we were very much unified because we had a common cause... we knew that we had taken a stand and that there was something better out there for us." 6. William Harbour, Piedmont, AL- A native of Piedmont, AL, William Harbour was the oldest of eight children and the first member of his family to go to college. At age 19, while a student at Tennessee State University, he had already participated in civil disobedience, traveling to Rock Hill, SC to serve jail time in solidarity with the "Rock Hill Nine" — nine students imprisoned after a lunch counter sit-in. One of the first to exit the bus when the Nashville Movement Freedom Ride arrived at the Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station, Harbour encountered a mob of 200 people wielding lead pipes and baseball bats. Harbour survived the riot but after the end of the Freedom Rides, still faced hostility in his native Alabama. He was also one of 14 Freedom Riders expelled from Tennessee State University. "Be best for you not to come [home]," his mother warned him in 1961. With the exception of one brief visit, he stayed away from Piedmont for the next five years. After the Freedom Rides, Harbour taught school for several years, and eventually became a civilian federal employee specializing in U.S. Army base closings. Today, Harbour acts as the unofficial archivist of the Freedom Rider Movement. He moved to Atlanta, GA in 1969. 7. Catherine Burks-Brooks, Birmingham, AL - Birmingham, AL native, 21-year-old Catherine Burks was a student at Tennessee State University when she volunteered for the Nashville Movement Freedom Ride. On May 18, she bantered with the ultra-segregationist Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor as he drove the Nashville riders from jail back to the Tennessee state line. In Freedom Riders, Burks says she borrowed a line from the Westerns of the day, telling Connor, "We'll see you back in Birmingham by high noon." Two days later, she found herself in a riot at the Montgonery Greyhound Bus Station. In Freedom Riders, she vividly recalls the assault on fellow Freedom Rider Jim Zwerg. "Some men held him while white women clawed his face with their nails. And they held up their little children --children who couldn't have been more than a couple years old -- to claw his face. I had to turn my head back because I just couldn't watch it." She described the beginning of the siege of the First Baptist Church in Montgomery by an angry segregationist mob on the following day. "I heard a rock hit the window. Some of us got up to look out the window and we got hit by more rocks. That's when a little fear came." In August 1961, she married fellow Freedom Rider Paul Brooks. They were later active in the Mississippi voter registration movement, co-editing the Mississippi Free Press from 1962-1963. In the decades following the Freedom Rides, Burks owned a successful jewelry boutique and worked as a social worker, teacher, and Avon cosmetics sales manager. 8. Stokely Carmichael, Bronx, NY - At the time of the Freedom Rides, Stokely Carmichael was a 19-year-old student at Howard University, the son of West Indian immigrants to New York City. Carmichael made the journey to Jackson, MS from New Orleans, LA on June 4, 1961 by train, along with eight other riders, including JOan Trumpauer. The group was ushered by Jackson police to a waiting paddy wagon; all Riders refused bail. Carmichael was transferred to Parchman State Prison Farm, which proved to be a crucible and testing ground for future Movement leaders. Other Freedom Riders recalled his quick wit and hard-nosed political realism from their shared time at Parchman. The acerbic Carmichael would go on to become one of the leading voices of the Black Power Movement. In 1966 Carmichael became Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) chairman and, in 1967, honorary prime minister of the Black Panther Party. He moved to West Africa in 1969, and changed his name to Kwame Ture in honor of African leaders Kwame Nkruma and Sekou Toure, later traveling the world as a proponent of the All African Peoples Revolutionary Party. He died in Conakry, Guinea in 1998 of prostate cancer at the age of 57. In his posthumously published autobiography, Carmichael spoke about the significance of the Freedom Rides: "CORE would be sending an integrated team-black and white together-from the nation's capital to New Orleans on public transportation. That's all. Except, of course, that they would sit randomly on the buses in integrated pairs and in the stations they would use waiting room facilities casually, ignoring the white/colored signs. What could be more harmless... in any even marginally healthy society?" --- Please Click to Next Photo to Continue Reading About These Freedom Riders Involvement. The Source for these Biographies is from PBSdotOrg - American Experience-Meet The Players of The Freedom Riders Movement Previous Next

< Back Sharecroppers- Tenant - Migrant Farm Workers Sharecropping was for the landless people. It was kin to slavery but with a different name. Sharecropping was based on the business deal that the white landowner would "rent" out plots of land and Black people would farm the land giving a large portion of the money the crops brought in to the white landowner. Tenant farming has been in the US from the 1870s to the present. Tenants typically bring their own tools and animals. To that extent it is distinguished from being a sharecropper, which is a tenant farmer who usually provides no capital and pays fees with crops. . The term “migrant farmworker” includes people working temporarily or seasonally in farm fields, orchards, canneries, plant nurseries, fish/seafood packing plants, and more. . Sharecropping was for the landless people. It was kin to slavery but with a different name. Sharecropping was based on the business deal that the white landowner would "rent" out plots of land and Black people would farm the land giving a large portion of the money the crops brought in to the white landowner. It was backbreaking work, and many, but not all, of the white landowners were cruel and violent to the Black sharecroppers, often cheating them out of their fare share of the work they did. For many Black people after Emancipation and those generations born free this was the only work and housing they could find. This system was set up so that the Black sharecroppers always stayed in debt hardly being able to make ends meet. Which also kept the Black people in another form of slavery for many years during racial segregation and the creation of Jim and Jane Crow laws Previous Next

< Back Coretta Scott King, and daughter, Yolanda, Image: April 9th 1968: Coretta Scott King, widow of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr (1929 - 1968), and their daughter, Yolanda, sit in a car as it leaves for Martin Luther King Jr’s funeral, Atlanta, Georgia. The reflection of a group of mourners standing in front of a house is visible in the window of the car. Photo by Santi Visalli Inc. On April 4, Civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at age 39 by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was laid to rest in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 9, 1968, five days after his assassination at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Many of those attending King’s memorial service and his funeral were, of course, nationally known ― activists, preachers, politicians, artists, athletes and others who had been by King’s side at countless marches and rallies through the years. But many, many more of the tens of thousands who lined Atlanta’s streets or walked behind the mule-drawn casket were average Americans: the men, women, and children that he fought so hard to help Get the rewards of Freedom and Gain Equity, Equality and Justice. They came from around Atlanta and around the country to pay their final respects, in person, to a man who gave his life in the struggle for freedom, justice, and peace. The funeral service was at King’s own Ebenezer Baptist Church and from the far larger public memorial afterward at his alma mater, Morehouse College Previous Next

< Back Jordan H. Dancy. Jordan H. Dancy. Dancy was one of the first African Americans to be elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1896. He represented the Tarboro District in the legislature for two years before the Wilmington Race Riots disenfranchised African Americans. His granddaughter, Mittie Miller, said that he was born into slavery in 1860 and emancipated at five-years-old after the Emancipation Proclamation was ratified in December of 1865. “He didn’t like the way that blacks were being treated and he wanted to do something about it,” Miller said. “That’s what made him go into politics and to study law.” Dancy studied law at Shaw University, North Carolina’s oldest HBCU. After the Wilmington Race Riots ended his career in politics, Dancy went to St. Augustine’s College to study ministry. Over the course of his lifetime, Dancy was not only a politician but also a single father, brick mason, minister, teacher, and founder of the Union Baptist Church in Tarboro. “I do remember my mom and her sister saying that he used to go from Tarboro to Raleigh for the legislative sessions on horse and buggy,” Miller said. Dancy’s outstanding legacy came to an end when he passed away on April 21, 1934, at the age of 75. However, his descendants went on to achieve remarkable things, too. Source: Black History in Edgecombe County. Previous Next

< Back Sojourner Motor Fleet Photo description: Hardy Frye and Howard Jeffries standing next to the Holly Springs project’s Plymouth with the SNCC logo painted on the door. Source: Frank Cieciorka Collection, crmvet.org. ---- Sojourner Motor Fleet “When a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) field secretary began work in Marshall County, Mississippi in the summer of 1962, he had to ride a mule from settlement to settlement.” The same was true in Wilcox County, Alabama in 1965. “Neither worker was trying to impress the local citizens,” the SNCC fund raising appeal stated, “They just didn’t have cars.” SNCC workers needed to traverse rutted, dusty back roads and long stretches of highway to organize in the rural areas of the Deep South. Cars were so important that SNCC formed its own transportation company, the Sojourner Motor Fleet, Inc., to keep its staff mobile. In the early days, SNCC drove old family cars, donated at the very end of their lives to the cause of freedom. A 1956 Ford station wagon, a 1952 Studebaker, a 1951 Buick sedan, a 1953 Dodge. Ivanhoe Donaldson’s car was missing a floor. His main co-organizer, Charlie Cobb, used to joke that they were more likely to die of suffocation from the Delta dust swelling up inside their car than from the Ku Klux Klan. SNCC workers drove their already well-used cars hard, outrunning hostile nightriders. The cars often ended up in mechanic’s shops needing repairs and frequently stayed there because no one had the money to pay the bill. SNCC cars were owned and insured by individuals, which created its own set of problems. A field worker in Canton bought a car with funds donated to SNCC. But the insurance was in their name, and they refused to let anyone else drive it. Transferring titles when cars moved to a new project was also a bureaucratic nightmare. By the middle of Freedom Summer, the car situation had “gotten out of hand.” One report explained, “Interested individuals are giving SNCC used cars, summer volunteers are giving SNCC cars, SNCC is buying cars, SNCC is thinking about renting cars.” In June 1964, SNCC created the Sojourner Motor Fleet, Inc. to deal with its transportation problems. The fleet–named after Sojourner Truth–assumed legal ownership of SNCC’s vehicles and insured them all under fleet rate insurance. This not only took the cars out of the names of individuals, but it gave the Sojourner Motor Fleet control over where and to whom SNCC cars were assigned. All SNCC drivers first had to be authorized for insurance purposes, and then the Sojourner Motor Fleet could lease a car to them. Ruby Doris Smith administered the Motor Fleet’s operations from SNCC’s Atlanta headquarters. The apple of the Sojourner Motor Fleet’s eye was the fleet of 23 new, tan Plymouths that SNCC acquired from a United Auto Workers local in Detroit. The UAW’s labor contract mandated that SNCC could purchase cars at cost, so the progressive, mostly Black local fronted for SNCC, selling them the Plymouths at a savings of around $2,800 per car. Not thinking about how these cars would spend most of their time cruising hostile backroads, someone painted SNCC’s logo–black and white hands clasped together–on the car. The field staff wasn’t happy, and the insurance company flat out refused to insure the cars…so the logos came off. “Course every project wanted one of these babies,” explained Stokely Carmichael, and keeping track of them was no small feat. The fall after Freedom Summer, Casey Hayden attempted to figure out exactly how many cars SNCC owned, who was driving them, and where they were. She titled her report “Results of Hayden Masterful Investigation of the SNCC Car Confusion.” There were a number of cars no one seemed to know anything about. Hayden deemed Southwest Georgia a “special category since there seems to be immense confusion about cars they have/used to have/never had.” In 1964, a few of the cars were used to transport COFO workers from Mississippi to Atlantic City for the Democratic Convention. Their tan color at times made other motorists think they were police cars, a reaction that added some humor to a serious and sometimes tense drive. Maintaining SNCC cars was about as difficult as keeping track of them. George Greene over in Greenwood had souped up engines on the engines on their project’s new Plymouths, so they could outrun any Klansman or sheriff. But he also taught his SNCC staffers how to do “high-speed turns and ‘fishtails’ and generally how to take evasive action at high speeds,” as Carmichael remembered. The Sojourner Motor Fleet took a beating. By summer 1965, SNCC opened its own mechanic shop to service the almost 60 cars and trucks in the fleet. Meanwhile, SNCC’s program department pleaded with staff members to take better care of their cars. Even with all the problems associated with the Sojourner Motor Fleet, the cars remained a welcome–and necessary–addition to SNCC’s resources. ---- Sources: Stokely Carmichael with Ekweme Michael Thelwell, Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) (New York: Scribner, 2003). Cynthia Griggs Fleming, Soon We Will Not Cry: The Liberation of Ruby Doris Smith Robinson (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998). Riots, Civil and Criminal Disorders, U.S. Congress, Senate. Committee on Government Operations, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, 1969, 3988. Charlie Cobb, “Remarks at Ivanhoe Donaldson’s Memorial Service," May 13, 2016, Civil Rights Movement Veterans Website,. Letter from Betty Garman to Hal Light, May 7, 1965, Sojourner Motor Fleet Records, January 1, 1964-January 31, 1964, SNCC Papers, ProQuest History Vault. Memo to Friends of SNCC re: Sojourner Motor Fleet Shop in Atlanta, July 7, 1965, Alicia Kaplow papers, Wisconsin Historical Society. Memo to Jessie Harrison from Casey Hayden, ‘Results of Hayden Masterful Investigation of the SNCC Car Confusion,” Septempber 18, 1964, Sojourner Motor Fleet Records, January 1, 1964- January 31, 1964, SNCC Papers, ProQuest History Vault. Memo from Shessie Johnson and Dinky Romilly re: Automobiles, July 31, 1964, Samuel C. Shirah, Jr. Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society. “You Can Help Too,” SNCC fundraising appeal for Cars for Freedom, [n.d.], Civil Rights Movement Veterans Website. Judy Richardson, correspondence, September 2016. ----- Article Source: https://snccdigital.org/.../snc.../sojourner-motor-fleet/... Previous Next

< Back Marjorie Diggs Freeman's "DIFFERENT TARGETS...WHY?" "DIFFERENT TARGET...WHY?" by Marjorie Diggs Freeman Over the past few years, endless news reporst/videos have shown numerous Black males killed as police preformed their duty of protect themselves first. Many killed were unarmed, walking away or surrendered. Under identical circumstances, While males when shot, were only incapacitated, but not killed! Why the difference? Machine appliqued and quilted — in Warrenton, NC. Previous Next

< Back Near Olive Hill, North Carolina, July 1939. Thirteen year old daughter of Negro sharecropper planting sweet potatoes. Thirteen year old daughter of Negro sharecropper planting sweet potatoes. Near Olive Hill, North Carolina, July 1939. Thirteen year old daughter of Negro sharecropper planting sweet potatoes. She walks down the row and places the young plants in the holes her father has dug with a hoe. They will return down the row, water the plants with a bucket, then cover the roots with earth. Her father hopes to send her to school. Note pine woods and light colored soil. Photographer: Dorothea Lange Source: LOC Digital Collection Previous Next

< Back Wes Chris 1939 - Feeding the sorghum cane into the mill to make syrup on property of Wes Chris, a tobacco farmer of about 165 acres in a prosperous Negro settlement near Carr, Orange County, North Carolina. Source LOC Photographer: Marion Post Wolcott. Previous Next

< Back Asheville Colored Hospital Only in the last fifty years has access to Asheville’s hospitals been available to every citizen. Before the 1950s a third of the population was legally segregated from seeking medical treatment. In 1922 Blue Ridge Hospital at 186 Fayetteville Street in West Asheville opened to serve the black population of Asheville, but when the Great Depression hit in 1929 the hospital was denied needed funding that was provided to the white hospitals, and it closed. In 1939 Asheville had 5 hospitals, but people of color were excluded from all but one – Mission, which provided 18 segregated beds in the basement. As a Citizens Times article of the time pointed out, there was 1 bed for every 100 white residents, while there was 1 bed for every 1000 black residents. Care in the segregated ward of a white hospital was also susceptible to prejudice. It is fair to say that at this time in Asheville the vast majority of black citizens were denied medical treatment; with only 18 hospital beds available in the entire city, physicians would have to wait for months to schedule even serious major operations, minor treatments were all but ignored, and many people died from inadequate healthcare. Seeing this crisis Dr. Mary Shuford, who returned to Asheville in 1928 after attended medical school at Columbia University and University of Chicago, began treating black patients. Surely facing her own obstacles as one of the few women attending medical school and becoming a doctor, Dr. Shuford was from a prominent white Asheville family and met with some resistance from the white community that had put in the place the boundaries between the black community and basic care. In 1935 she opened the Shuford Clinic for Negroes in a house at 269 college street with private donations. It consisted of nine patient beds, an operating room, a bedroom for nurses, a kitchen, examination room and offices. In the first year she did over 200 operations and saw over 2,000 outpatients. The need was greater than Dr. Shuford could handle in her small clinic, so along with Charles Webb who published the Asheville Citizen Times newspaper, they began a fundraiser. With the funds raised by the community a two-story brick building that had been the former home and clinic of Dr. Reuben Bryant, one of the first African American physicians in Asheville, at the intersection of Biltmore and Southside Avenue. The building was remodeled into a 35 bed hospital, and opened in 1943. The opening of the hospital also provided a place for black doctors and nurses to practice their profession, as they too met many obstacles in gaining employment and treating patients in Jim Crow Asheville. In 1951 the hospital merged with Mission. The building was later used by Jesse Ray Funeral Home and by Eugene Ellison’s law office. Just recently the building was razed to make a parking lot for Green Man Brewing. #ashevillenc #hospitals #BlackHospitals #NCsegregation #BlackPeople #NChistory #NCBlackHistory #westernNC #Irememberourhistory #preservingBlackHistory #teachthechildren Previous Next

< Back Charlotte Hawkins Brown Dr Charlotte Hawkins Brown with student in her office at Palmer Memorial Institute. Dr Charlotte Hawkins Brown with student in her office at Palmer Memorial Institute. This photo is part of the Griff Davis collection, photo shoot for Ebony Magazine, 1947. Previous Next

< Back Negro tenant farmer's house. Near Farrington, Chatham County, North Carolina May 1940 Contributor: Delano, Jack Negro tenant farmer's house. Near Farrington, Chatham County, North Carolina May 1940 Contributor: Delano, Jack Negro tenant farmer's house. Near Farrington, Chatham County, North Carolina May 1940 Contributor: Delano, Jack Previous Next

< Back Greensboro, NC native Fred “Curly” Neal, age 77, has died. March 2010 when Freddie “Curly” Neal, of the famous Harlem Globetrotters’ as a good will ambassador, watches the antics of the current team games taking place on court at the coliseum. Greensboro, NC native Fred “Curly” Neal, age 77, has died. He attended Dudley High, was inducted into the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2008. The Globetrotters retired No. 22 that same year. Image description: top photo is from March 2010 when Freddie “Curly” Neal, of the famous Harlem Globetrotters’ as a good will ambassador, watches the antics of the current team games taking place on court at the coliseum. Bottom photo is when Curly was on the team in his younger years. Date unknown ---- Greensboro native Fred “Curly” Neal, who dribbled his way into history as a member of the Harlem Globetrotters exhibition team for 22 years, died today-March 26, 2020, as HBCU Gameday is reporting. Neal, 77, who attended Dudley High, was inducted into the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2008. The Globetrotters retired No. 22 that same year. Freddy Johnson, boys basketball coach and athletic director at Greensboro Day School, said family had confirmed Neal died today. One of Neal's children attended Greensboro Day. Steve Joyner Sr., the head coach of Johnson C. Smith, said he had heard that Neal died in Houston. He had been in failing health for a while, according to Joyner. "He's one of the ones that set the school's name up there pretty high," Joyner said about Neal, who is in the Johnson C. Smith Hall of Fame and the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. Joyner said that Neal was a constant contributor to Johnson C. Smith through various appearances through the years. “He made several visits here up until about 10 years ago,” Joyner said. Neal played in the CIAA in the early 1960s and averaged 23.1 points a game over his career and was named All-CIAA. “He not only elevated Johnson C. Smith back when he played but he did so much for HBCU’s in general because of how talented he was on the basketball court,” said Joyner, a Winston-Salem native who has more than 500 career wins coaching his alma mater. In 1986 Neal was also inducted into the CIAA’s John B. McLendon Hall of Fame. READ More About Curly Here: https://www.facebook.com/.../a.228662.../284880298903226/... Previous Next

< Back Teena Crawshaw's "SOMEBODIES WATCHING YOU" "SOMBODIES WATCHING YOU" by Teena Crawshaw Technology and violence in our lives. Today violence, no matter what form it takes, "black on black, "blue on black", or "white on "black", is being captured on cell phones. These images are then going "viral", around the world holding injustice at bay, and speaking to truth. Sparking protests and demanding involvement. Showing inhumanity, or showing the best of our society. The pooint being, do you know whose watching you? Appliqued and quilted — in Warrenton, NC. Previous Next

< Back Association for the Black Revolution and the White Backlash Event Materials produced by the Association for the Black Revolution and the White Backlash event, including a sheet for submitting audience questions for the panel and a transcript for the event. Also included is an autographed letter signed in a postmarked envelope written to the Association by Maxine McNair, mother to Denise McNair, one of the children who died in the bombing. Sourced from: Boo Hooray.com Previous Next

< Back Bennett College-A group of college students posing on the steps of Jones Hall at Bennett College ​ A group of college students posing on the steps of Jones Hall at Bennett College hold up banners and pennants from Shaw University, Bennett College for Women, Palmer, Livingstone and A&T College in 1941. Source: Gateway - Triad Digital History Collections - Photograph part of the Art Shop Collection housed at the Greensboro History Museum Previous Next

< Back Richard Lewis Spencer In 1969, Mr. Spencer wrote and sang the Grammy award winning song, “Color Him Father,” which reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart. He is also the owner of the famous Amen break featuring a drum solo by G.C. Coleman. There are some who claim that this piece of music helped to launch hip-hop and the electronic subcultures. Richard Lewis Spencer was born and raised in Wadesboro NC, but later moved to Washington D.C. where he began his musical career with two other artists in Otis Redding’s band, that later, with the addition of two other members, became the very successful R&B/soul group “The Winston’s.” In 1969, Mr. Spencer wrote and sang the Grammy award winning song, “Color Him Father,” which reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart. He is also the owner of the famous Amen break featuring a drum solo by G.C. Coleman. There are some who claim that this piece of music helped to launch hip-hop and the electronic subcultures. The announcement from the North Carolina Music Hall Of Fame listed Richard Lewis Spencer as one of the inductees for 2017. "On Thursday, October 19, 2017, the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame will hold it’s 2017 Induction Ceremony in Kannapolis, NC. Inductions are held annually to commemorate the musical legacy of North Carolina’s greatest music makers. In our efforts to honor, promote, commemorate, and preserve, North Carolina’s great music history, we present to you the 2017 Induction Ceremony." In the comments below, we will post a video that gives a brief history of the #AMENBREAK Drum Solo that band member drummer G.C. Coleman created on Side B of their most popular record. Previous Next

< Back Mr. Melvin Parker One Of The Greatest Drummers To Live, Who Flew Under The Radar. Mr. Melvin Parker-One Of The Greatest Drummers To Live, Who Flew Under The Radar, Passed At Age 77, on Friday December 3, 2021 in Baltimore, MD. Musician Mr. Melvin Parker, was born June 7, 1944 in Kinston, North Carolina. He was one of five children born to Maceo and Novella Parker. Kellis, Maceo Jr., Melvin, DeLond and Valerie. He and his brother, saxophonist Maceo Parker, were key members of James Brown's band. Parker's drumming style was a major ingredient in Brown's funk music innovations in the 1960s. In 1964 and 1965 Parker was the drummer on three of Brown's recordings: "Out of Sight," "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag," and "I Got You (I Feel Good). "The greatest drummer I ever had in my life was Melvin Parker," Brown reflected in 2004. "'I Feel Good', 'Papa's Bag' (sic) – nobody ever did that. Nobody. And they can't do it now. And if I was getting ready to cut a record that was right, I would go get Melvin today, because he's just like a metronome. Parker's first association with Brown ended when he was drafted in the mid-1960s. He was replaced in the band by Clyde Stubblefield and Jabo Starks. Parker rejoined Brown's band in 1969 and appeared on the album Sex Machine. In 1970, Parker was part of a mutiny by Brown's band. After leaving Brown, Parker joined his brother Maceo's band, Maceo & All the King's Men. He rejoined Brown briefly in 1976 and played on the hit "Get Up Offa That Thing". Source: Wikipedia ---- Maceo and Melvin Parker: Early Influences by the North Carolina Arts Council. Originally published in African American Music Trails of Eastern North Carolina, 2013. Saxophonist Maceo Parker (born in 1943) and drummer Melvin Parker (born in 1944) are brothers born in Kinston. Rising from a musical family -- their father played piano and drums and their mother sang at church -- they both became key members of James Brown's band in the 1960s. Melvin Parker contributed a unique drumming style that helped define Brown's funk innovations, and he is considered a legend in funk and soul. Saxophonist Maceo Parker later formed his own band. After playing on and off with James Brown in the 1960s, Melvin Parker joined his brother's band. Kinston musicians helped shape the sound that became known as funk and propelled the James Brown Band to new levels of performance and recognition. Nat Jones, Dick Knight, Levi Raspberry, and the brothers Melvin and Maceo Parker were influential members of the James Brown Band. Maceo Parker, still a very popular musician, has a busy schedule of performances around the world. Maceo and Melvin Parker trace their own musical beginnings to childhood experiences (growing up in Kinston). Maceo recalls: "At a very early age, I knew people in your [own] family are going to be a little bit partial. You could sound like frogs, but it’s, “Oh, that’s cute! Oh, my goodness!” You know? But then when you get that from somebody on the other side of town who don’t really know you, to say, “Man, that’s all right,” then you start hearing. Some complete stranger says, “That’s not bad. That’s pretty good.” Then you feel like you’re sort of on the right road, and perhaps you can pursue some kind of career. " Melvin Parker, too, remembers that in their family, music started at an early age: "Mom and Dad used to have us give a play, a program, and it had to include music, and we would do that every Sunday morning on the front porch of the house—a little house at 121 Railroad Street. We used to do poetry and songs that we had learned in school or at Sunday School and church. And Mother and Daddy and anybody else in the family who were adults who viewed those presentations really made us feel that we were the best in the world, you know, the best thing that could ever possibly happen! And Daddy used to line us up. Well, there was Kellis, who was the oldest, and Maceo Jr. next, and then me, and then two years later, Delon. And Daddy would line us up in the front yard and teach us “Left face,” and “Right face,” and “About face,” and even doing half-lefts and half-rights and oblique moves. And we would march to time. And he had us doing so well at time that we could do silent cadence at probably—I must have been about four or five years old, and I could march to a silent cadence. But I didn’t realize that he was teaching us time and rhythm. " When they were children, Melvin, Maceo, and Kellis Parker found a place for their band to perform at the movie theater. Melvin Parker tells the story: "On Saturday mornings, we found a little talent show at the “colored” theater, the State Theater. We won that talent show a couple of times. It was sponsored by Maola ice cream. We wrote a little song about Maola ice cream, and we became the sort of house band for the talent show. All the kids in town would come to the State Theater on Saturday mornings to watch the Junior Blue Notes play at the Maola Ice Cream Talent Show. I don’t think we got paid! They would give us some ice cream and, of course, free tickets to the movie theater, and we enjoyed it. We were just having fun! And the song went something like this: Maola Maola ice cream Maola ice cream is a treat It really is hard to beat Everybody at school and all the kids in the neighborhood knew that song." Image credit: Right top photo- photograph by Titus Brooks Heagins, of Melvin Parker at the former site of the Sahara CLub in Kingston, North Carolina. In African American Music Trails of Eastern North Carolina. (China, 2013), p.14. Previous Next

< Back Moses Lee Rascoe Southern Blues musician, Moses Lee Rascoe, began playing blues at the age of 13 in Windsor, Bertie County, NC. He spent his teen years playing juke joints around the South, literally singing for his supper. Tracking The Migration of Families Out of Bertie Co, NC to York, PA. By Samantha Dorm. Narrative and images credit: Samantha Dorm Moses Lee Rascoe was born on July 27, 1917, and died on March 6, 1994, at 76 years of age. He was the son of Bryant and Elizabeth Hawkins Rascoe. He served in the Navy during WWII. March 17, 1994 (The York Dispatch) – Southern Blues musician, Moses Lee Rascoe, began playing blues at the age of 13 in Windsor, Bertie County, NC. He spent his teen years playing juke joints around the South, literally singing for his supper. In 1938 he moved to York, PA, and spent the next five decades living, working, and playing blues in relative obscurity. The obscurity ended in 1987 when he recorded an album for Chicago’s Flying Fish Records. Suddenly, at 71, Rascoe found himself a star of the international blues and folk music circuit. Music by Moses Lee Rascoe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BFUrVskUYU Previous Next

< Back 1938 - Negro family on front porch of old home on badly eroded land near Wadesboro, North Carolina. 1938 - Negro family on front porch of old home on badly eroded land near Wadesboro, North Carolina. 1938 - Negro family on front porch of old home on badly eroded land near Wadesboro, North Carolina. Photographer: Marion Post Wolcott Source: LOC, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives Previous Next

< Back Shaw University in Raleigh, NC has the first building ever established for the higher education of African American women in the United States. ​ Shaw University in Raleigh, NC has the first building ever established for the higher education of African American women in the United States. In 1874, Shaw University, having already made progress as the one of the nation's first Historically Black Universities, opened Estey Hall for the higher education of African American women. However, nearly a decade before the construction of Estey Hall on Shaw University's campus, Sarah Tupper (wife of Shaw University's founder, Henry Martin Tupper) began teaching classes to freed Black women at the Guion Hotel, alongside her husband's classes for the men. Estey Hall is still standing, one of the historic landmark buildings on Shaw University's Campus, and a reminder of the important "firsts" accomplished by the university--first Historically Black college in the nation to offer a four-year medical program; first Historically Black college to be granted an "A" rating by the State Department of Public Instruction; and the first college in the nation to open its doors to educating African American women. Today Etsy Hall is used by the president of Shaw University, Dr. Paulette Dillard's office and her administrative team. Previous Next

< Back Title: Dewberry pickers, near Southern Pines, N.C. Ca. 1920's. Photograph shows ten African American children of various ages in a field picking berries. Title: Dewberry pickers, near Southern Pines, N.C. Ca. 1920's. Photograph shows ten African American children of various ages in a field picking berries. Published by Hayes. Source: LOC Previous Next

< Back Zula Clapp Zula Clapp (1882-1976) was 1 of 3 girls who made up the first graduating class of Palmer Memorial Institute, in 1905. She married Riley Totton in 1918. Together they reared 12 children and instilled in them the value of educational pursuit and moral character. Her high school years were spent at Palmer Memorial Institute. She taught school for several years, but after marriage, she devoted time solely to family and church activities. Zula Clapp (1882-1976) was 1 of 3 girls who made up the first graduating class of Palmer Memorial Institute, in 1905. She married Riley Totton in 1918. Together they reared 12 children and instilled in them the value of educational pursuit and moral character. Her high school years were spent at Palmer Memorial Institute. She taught school for several years, but after marriage, she devoted time solely to family and church activities. A staunch believer in education, she ensured that all of her children received an education with degrees ranging from high school diplomas to the terminal degree. She was a charter member of Bethany Congregational Church. She served the church and the community in various roles and capacities. Zula Totton was the First Worthy Matron of Five Point Chapter #510 Order of the Eastern star. Source: (Totton Family Collection) (Page 31 of 'Sedalia and the Palmer Memorial Institute' By Tracey Burns and Andre D. Vann) Previous Next

< Back Straight University’s graduating class of 1896. ​ Left image: a graduation program from 1893 Straight University. Right image: Straight University’s graduating class of 1896. Straight University, one of the first Historically Black Colleges in the state of Louisiana, which later became Dillard University. Photos sourced from: Amistad Research Center. . Previous Next

< Back Geer Cemetery-Jeff Bass Photograph and narrative source: Friends Of Geer Cemetery - Durham, NC. “Gone but not forgotten,” the family of Jeff Bass had inscribed on his headstone, a lamb symbolizing the loss of a sibling and son just turned 18. Jeff was one of 15 children born to Charlie and Sallie Miller Bass. Married in Franklin County in 1895, they raised their growing family on farmland near Youngsville before migrating to Oak Grove Township in eastern Durham County around 1920. Photograph and narrative source: Friends Of Geer Cemetery - Durham, NC. “Gone but not forgotten,” the family of Jeff Bass had inscribed on his headstone, a lamb symbolizing the loss of a sibling and son just turned 18. Jeff was one of 15 children born to Charlie and Sallie Miller Bass. Married in Franklin County in 1895, they raised their growing family on farmland near Youngsville before migrating to Oak Grove Township in eastern Durham County around 1920. Among 11 children ranging from 16 months to 20 years when the 1920 census was taken, 15 year-old Jeff was the oldest of four siblings still in school. Shortly thereafter, it seems the Bass family moved closer into town, with some members taking work in Durham’s factories. The 1922 City Directory placed father Charles, Jeff, and another of his working-age siblings at 1307 Albright (now North Hyde Park Avenue) northeast of downtown. By the next spring, however, Jeff developed a troubling throat tumor. Local treatment may have been unsuccessful; in late April 1923 he was admitted to the segregated State Hospital in Goldsboro. Opened in 1880 as the “Asylum for the Colored Insane” and later known as Cherry Hospital, this was not a facility from which many African Americans returned in improved condition. Jeff Bass was unfortunately no exception; after nearly five months supervising his care, the presiding physician recorded his death on the morning of September 9, 1923. Securing the return of their son’s remains for burial at Geer Cemetery would have been a significant expense. Many others who died in treatment at Goldsboro - including Jeff’s younger sister, Henrietta, who was committed to psychiatric facilities there for two years before she passed in 1927 - were interred at cemeteries on site. Surviving family members spread across the city to live in the Walltown and Crest Street neighborhoods, while some remained in Albright. The last siblings of Jeff Bass - an elder sister, Arletta Bass Harris, and a younger brother, Fleming Bass - died in the mid-1990s. Previous Next

< Back Geer Cemetery-Samuel Barbee Photograph and narrative sourced from: Friends of Geer Cemetery - Durham, NC .#IrememberOurHistory® Samuel Barbee was born on March 15, 1872, in Johnston County, North Carolina to Joseph and Louisa McCullers Barbee. By 1880, he was living in the small rural community of Pleasant Grove with his older brother Julius and two younger sisters, Clara and Martha. He was later joined by three more younger sisters: Emma, Pattie, and Viola. Photograph and narrative sourced from: Friends of Geer Cemetery - Durham, NC .#IrememberOurHistory® Samuel Barbee was born on March 15, 1872, in Johnston County, North Carolina to Joseph and Louisa McCullers Barbee. By 1880, he was living in the small rural community of Pleasant Grove with his older brother Julius and two younger sisters, Clara and Martha. He was later joined by three more younger sisters: Emma, Pattie, and Viola. The Barbees were farmers, so Samuel likely grew up helping his family around the farm. By 1892, the family had migrated to Durham and were living on Corporation Street, perhaps drawn by the promise of work in booming Bull City industries like tobacco and textile production. On December 26, 1895, Samuel Barbee married Annie Brown, with Rev. Paul Yancey, the pastor of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church, officiating. At first the newlyweds rented a home, and both worked in the city’s factories. However, by 1906, the couple had saved enough money to purchase property just south of downtown, in an area known as Doom’s Hill (now referred to as St. Teresa or Southside). Samuel began working as a bricklayer and Annie as a homemaker, their work and property ownership placing them squarely in Durham’s growing Black middle class. In 1915, Samuel Barbee founded a funeral service company with Johnson Ray, known as Ray & Barbee. Over the years, the company grew, taking on new employees. The name changed to Barbee, Williams, Dunnegan and Company in 1919. By 1922, it was known as Samuel B. Barbee and Company. Death certificate research has identified over 300 burials at Geer Cemetery that were handled by Barbee’s companies. In addition to his work as an undertaker, Barbee was also on the Board of Trustees of the Fraternal Bank and Trust, which served Durham’s Black community and later merged with Mechanics and Farmers Bank. Samuel and Annie were active in their community, particularly as members of White Rock Baptist Church. Annie, in fact, was listed on the honor roll of members who had given weekly to the church in October, November and December, 1927. Samuel Barbee passed away on May 9, 1928. He is buried in Geer Cemetery along with his wife, Annie, his older brother, Julius Barbee, and his sister, Emma Barbee Howell. Previous Next

< Back 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus Contrary to what so many Americans learn in school, the pre-Columbian Indians were not sparsely settled in a pristine wilderness; rather, there were huge numbers of Indians who actively molded and influenced the land around them. The astonishing Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan had running water and immaculately clean streets, and was larger than any contemporary European city. Mexican cultures created corn in a specialized breeding process that it has been called man’s first feat of genetic engineering. Indeed, Indians were not living lightly on the land but were landscaping and manipulating their world in ways that we are only now beginning to understand. Challenging and surprising, this a transformative new look at a rich and fascinating world we only thought we knew. A groundbreaking work of science, history, and archaeology that radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492—from “a remarkably engaging writer” (The New York Times Book Review) Previous Next

< Back Delta Sigma Theta Sorority , 1922, Wilberforce University. ​ Delta Sigma Theta Sorority , 1922, Wilberforce University. Source: Wilberforce Collection at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division Previous Next

< Back The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism Paperback – October 25, 2016 Book Summary: A groundbreaking history demonstrating that America's economic supremacy was built on the backs of slaves Americans tend to cast slavery as a pre-modern institution -- the nation's original sin, perhaps, but isolated in time and divorced from America's later success. But to do so robs the millions who suffered in bondage of their full legacy. As historian Edward E. Baptist reveals in The Half Has Never Been Told, the expansion of slavery in the first eight decades after American independence drove the evolution and modernization of the United States. In the span of a single lifetime, the South grew from a narrow coastal strip of worn-out tobacco plantations to a continental cotton empire, and the United States grew into a modern, industrial, and capitalist economy. Told through intimate slave narratives, plantation records, newspapers, and the words of politicians, entrepreneurs, and escaped slaves, The Half Has Never Been Told offers a radical new interpretation of American history. Previous Next

< Back COVID-19 Vaccine Descendants of Tuskegee Syphilis Study Survivors Say It Was Nothing Like the Covid-19 Vaccine They want to set the record straight on their fathers’ legacies and the ahistorical information. Though this article/interview is aboutThe Tuskegee Syphilis Study, we feel it's relevant to NC Black Health care history. American systemic racism structures have created injustices for Black Americans no matter which state we are from or live in now. By Morgan Jerkins-Zora Medium-December 16, 2020 Though two Covid-19 vaccines have been approved for distribution, it’s been a touchy subject — and a fertile ground for conspiracy theories — about whether or not the vaccine is safe for Black people. One of the parallels that Black social media users have referred to is the Syphilis Study at Tuskegee University. From 1932 to 1972, the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) began working at Tuskegee University to study syphilis. The study, which initially involved 600 Black men (399 with the disease and 201 without), was conducted without these men’s consent or having informed them of the purpose of said study. Instead, the researchers told the men that they had “bad blood,” which was a term used to describe ailments such as anemia, fatigue, and syphilis. When an advisory panel realized what the USPHS had done, the study was stopped. Then, in 1973, study participants and their families filed a class-action lawsuit and were awarded $10 million in an out-of-court settlement the following year. I spoke with two descendants of one of the men who was unknowingly a part of the study in order to bridge the gap between the past and present and underscore the nuances across Black American anxieties, the legacy of experimentation on marginalized people, and the current global pandemic. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. .... Q-ZORA: Can you tell me how you got started with the Voices for Our Fathers Legacy Foundation and how you were able to find other descendants? A-Lillie Head: In 1997, there was an apology by then-President Clinton. In that apology, accommodations were made for the building of the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care at Tuskegee University. That came into fruition, and there was an opening in 1999 for the Center. As many descendants that the Center could contact, they invited them to the opening and celebration. From 1999 until 2011, we would go to the Commemoration of the Apology and participate in symposiums and sessions about ethical procedures and biomedical research. But we weren’t really doing anything to honor and remember our fathers. In 2011, we expressed our desire to hear from the descendants to the director of the Center, Dr. Reuben Warren. Their stories and our fathers’ were not being told. We started off with three descendants, Clemmons Julkes, Rev. Roosevelt Baums, myself included, as the families’ team leaders. In 2014, we became a 501(c) organization. We wanted to tell the full story and clear the misinformation that was out there. We would come each year, and it’s all a part of the healing. We would do healing sessions, including this year virtually. A-Joyce Christian: I know my dad would be so proud of my sister Lillie because they had no voice. Whatever we can do to make their voices heard, that’s our platform. “He didn’t even know he was a part of a study. He just knew he had the bad blood and they were recruiting. ” Q-Can you talk a bit about these healing sessions? A-LH: You talked about your anger that you felt towards the study. You have to remember how long it’s been since the study has been known. It was in 1972, and there we were in 1999 and 2014. You’d be amazed at how anger and shame and trauma can last within you if you bury it. Some of the descendants contracted syphilis that was passed down from their mothers who got it from their fathers. Some had fathers who went blind. So we started talking about that and what we could do to transform the legacy of the United States Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee and Macon County, Alabama, that would honor and remember and honor the sacrifices of our ancestors. We award scholarships, and we have identified an anthropologist, Dr. Arvilla Payne-Jackson, who would help us tell those untold stories. We also want to build an inspiration and memorial garden at the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care at Tuskegee University to preserve the history and tell the legacies of these men. They’re unsung heroes. Q-What is some of the misinformation about the study that’s been floating about these days? A-JC: The other day, I was listening to MSNBC, and Rev. Al Sharpton was referring to the “Tuskegee Experiment,” but it wasn’t that. The Tuskegee Experiment was about the Tuskegee Airmen because they didn’t believe Black folks could fly airplanes. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was a United States Public Health Service (USPHS) study that was done by the federal government. Even Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo misstated. People don’t have a clear understanding of what the Tuskegee Experiment and what the study was. It’s up to our foundation to point out the difference between them. Some people also think it was an experiment that gave these men syphilis, and it wasn’t. They didn’t give these men treatment. They wanted these men to die so they could do autopsies and study the results. They had already done syphilis studies in Europe. It was an absolutely egregious thing. I don’t think many in our community know much about this study. Q-Miss Joyce, what made you become a nurse? A-JC: I wanted to know about what was happening with my body and be able to help my mother, my father, my brothers and sisters, and everyone in my family. And it has paid off tremendously that I’ve been able to help other people in decision-making, medical diagnosis, and questions to ask. Being an advocate. We need to be at the table, and we need to be saving lives, and Black lives do matter. Q-Can you tell me a bit about what your father, Freddie Lee Tyson, was like? A-LH: He was a wonderful person. He was of strong character, and he loved his family. He didn’t even know he was a part of a study. He just knew he had the bad blood and they were recruiting. In Macon County, Tuskegee, there was an epidemic proportion of syphilis. My father wanted to protect himself and his family. He wanted to get the benefits that were offered. Keep in mind, this was in 1932 when he was recruited. These were very difficult times in the rural South. He just got married in 1931. This was before any of his nine children were born. After researching my father’s medical records at the CDC archives, we found out that he had congenital syphilis. Without health care at that time, it was an opportunity, along with the free burial and lunch. He did stop going and having his blood drawn. Q-What made him stop? A-LH: My grandmother, Maggie Guin Neal, was a well-known midwife in Macon County, and she had a close relationship with one of two White doctors in town. She’s the one who told my father to stop taking those blood tests. Several women were affected by what was going on. Some had stillborn babies or babies born with symptoms. Some women had other health issues like arthritis. It was so troubling. “In order to have trust, you have to have trustworthiness. If you haven’t proven yourself over time, no one is going to trust you.” Q-With regards to the descendants and with the Black community at large, have you found that there is a mistrust in the public health system given the legacy? A-JC: I think it’s not so much about the study but rather about the disparities that are ongoing. It’s very important that we look at the facts and the truth. A-LH: I think it’s because of over 400 years of social injustice and the way African Americans have been treated in this country. For this period of time, the study is the most recent, and people can relate to it because many people have heard about it. It’s a combination of everything, but people are using the study as one of the reasons for a lot of trust. In order to have trust, you have to have trustworthiness. If you haven’t proven yourself over time, no one is going to trust you. Q-So do you think the comparisons between the Syphilis Study at Tuskegee and the Covid-19 vaccine are misguided? A-LH: What I find interesting is that when penicillin became known as the therapy for treating syphilis, those men were denied treatment. I’m having trouble understanding the logic. The men in the study didn’t get a vaccine. You are comparing men not getting a vaccine to a vaccine that is available. So how can you compare not having something to the opportunity to have something? I can see if some people believe, well, they’re not gonna give it to us anyway or if what they give us may be different than someone else. But that’s not the case either. Because of what happened during the Syphilis Study at Tuskegee, an Institutional Review Board (IRB) was created, and part of that board is responsible for analyzing and approving the Covid-19 vaccine. A-JC: I remember when the swine flu was going on, there were people who didn’t want to get the swine flu vaccine. But in the end, everything worked out fine. Just today, 300,000 people have died. I know that there are health disparities in the Black and Brown communities, and they are very fearful to take something from someone who’s been oppressing them since slavery. But we need to be at the table. We need to be a part of something that’s bigger than us, and we need to step out on faith. I know that the 623 men in the United States Public Health Syphilis Study at Tuskegee in Macon County stepped out on faith. They believed that they were going to get treatment. I think our father would want us to step out on faith. We have been brought to our knees, and we need to stand together. We need to seek some relief. Photo Collage Description: Top photo-Lillie Head with her father Freddie Lee Tyson. Photos courtesy of Lillie. Bottom photo - Lillie’s parents — Johnnie Mae and Freddie Lee Tyson. WRITTEN BY - Morgan Jerkins Morgan Jerkins is the Senior Editor at ZORA and the author of the forthcoming “Wandering In Strange Lands” and the NYT bestseller, “This Will Be My Undoing.” Source: https://zora.medium.com/descendants-of-the-tuskegee... Previous Next

< Back Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity Bethune-Cookman University. 1950. Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity dressed in tuxedoes and prepared for a ball on campus. Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity Bethune-Cookman University. 1950. Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity dressed in tuxedoes and prepared for a ball on campus. The group is composed of African American men who are all wearing tuxedoes and bowties. Some are wearing boutonnieres. Four of the men are wearing white tuxedo jackets; the rest are wearing black jackets. The decorations include crepe paper hanging from the ceiling, as well as balloons and palm trees line the floor. President Richard V. Moore is the sixth person standing from the left, and Dr. Texas Adams, the college physician, is the first man standing on the right of the image. The photographer of the image is unknown. Source: Bethune-Cookman University Photograph Collection Previous Next

< Back America's Tenth Man A Pictorial Review of One-Tenth of a Nation -Presenting the Negro Contribution to American Life Today Published 1957 A Pictorial Review of One-Tenth of a Nation -Presenting the Negro Contribution to American Life Today Published 1957 Edited and Compiled by Lucille Arcola Chambers The North Carolina Nurses Association dissolved in 1949 and the Negro Nurses were given membership into the State Association with all other nurses. Standing center is Mrs. Alma Vessels John, formerly Executive Secretary of the now dissolved National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses. She has her own "Home Makers" radio show on WWRL, in New York City, now in its third year. Previous Next

< Back Black History-White Artists-Black Models ​ Black History-White Artists-Black Models ----- "One of the central aims of "Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today," which is currently up at Wallach Art Gallery, is to recognize the centrality of black women in the French artistic canon. One under-acknowledged figure of the Parisian art world was Aïcha Goblet. Goblet worked as a model and actress while rubbing shoulders with the starving artists of Montparnasse. She was painted by Félix Vallotton in her signature turban in 1922—though she also sat for Jules Pascin, Amedeo Modigliani, Man Ray, Moïse Kisling, Henri Matisse, Marc Vaux, among others." This post is shared from the fb page, Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom https://www.facebook.com/.../a.456027.../957488037779911/... Previous Next

< Back Leonard Medical School Leonard Hall, left, was constructed in 1881 and served as the base of operations for the Leonard Medical School. The "new" hospital, shown right, was completed in 1910, just 8 years before the school's closing. Courtesy State Archives of North Carolina. In our posts on Thomas J. Bullock and Henry Johnson, we discussed the unique challenges military training and service posed to Black North Carolinians in a racialized south. African American soldiers were often relegated to labor roles and served in racially segregated units that were typically officered by White men. One beacon of hope during this time, however, was the establishment of an officer candidate school for Black men at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. The selection process for the school was extremely competitive, with the Army selecting only 1,249 candidates nationwide. Just a little over half of that number earned their commissions. In North Carolina specifically, only 49 of the 21,609 Black men who served during the war were selected for the training. Of these, 27 received commissions. But there was one other way Black men could earn commissions during World War I, and that was through medical training. Just 104 Black physicians graduated from Medical Officers Training Camp (MOTC). Many of these men were recent medical school graduates of schools such as Mehary Medical College in Nashville, the medical school at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Leonard Medical School at Shaw University in Raleigh. In 36 years of operation, from 1882 to 1918, Leonard Medical School produced nearly four hundred African American physicians. Thirteen of the 104 Black physicians commissioned for service in the army during the war had attended and graduated from Leonard. Perhaps the most notable of Leonard’s alumni who served in the First World War was Urbane Francis Bass. Bass was a Richmond native who graduated from Leonard in 1906. In the years between graduation and the war, he operated a pharmacy and medical practice in Fredericksburg, VA. As war loomed on the horizon, Dr. Bass wrote the Secretary of War to offer his services, telling a friend that he was willing to give up his life in order to save others. “He was committed to the end,” his friend recalled. Upon completion of the MOTC, Bass was commissioned a first lieutenant and assigned to 93rd Division, an all-Black infantry division serving under French command. During the course of heavy fighting on October 17, 1918, Lieutenant Bass was treating wounded soldiers at a forward aid station. A shell hit very near the station’s vicinity, sending shrapnel through the tent. Both of Lieutenant Bass’s legs were severed. He died before he could be evacuated, leaving a wife and four children behind. For administering “first aid in the open and under prolonged and intense shell fire, until he was severely wounded,” Lieutenant Bass was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross. Leonard Medical School encountered hard times during the war as well. Advancements in science had moved medical study from the classroom to laboratories, an exorbitantly expensive transition. The knockout blow came in 1910 when a report by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching called for more rigorous training standards and recommended the shuttering of all but two black medical schools—Meharry and Howard. Leonard continued to hemorrhage money until officials, determining they could save Shaw only if they let Leonard go, closed the medical school for good. Interested in learning more about African American physicians in World War I, including the other twelve Leonard Medical School graduates who served in uniform? I highly recommend the groundbreaking study of W. Douglas Fisher and Joann H. Buckley called African American Doctors of World War I: The Lives of 104 Volunteers. Source: https://www.ncdcr.gov/.../leonard-medical-school-and-war... Previous Next

< Back Emma Dupree Emma Dupree (1897-1992) was an influential black herbalist from Falkland and Fountain, in Pitt County in North Carolina. She was known locally as “granny woman.” She was the daughter of freed slaves and grew up on the Tar River. She was known for her work with native herbs: Sassafras, white mint, double tansy, rabbit tobacco, maypop, mullein, catnip, horseradish, and silkweed. Here is an excerpt from an article published shortly after her death: "From the time she could walk, Emma felt drawn to the land. She would roam the woods, plucking, sniffing, tasting weeds. She grew up that way, collecting the leaves, stems, roots and bark of sweet gum, white mint, mullen, sassafras in her coattail or a tin bucket. She'd tote them back to the farm, rinse them in well water and tie them in bunches to dry. In the backyard, she'd raise a fire under a kettle and boil her herbs to a bubbly froth, then pour it up in brown-necked stone jugs: A white-mint potion for poor circulation; catnip tea for babies with colic; tansy tea - hot or cold - for low blood sugar; mullein tea for a stomach ache. Mixed with molasses or peppermint candy to knock out the bitterness. Her kind of folk medicine dates back centuries. In the 1600s, African slaves brought root-doctor remedies to America. Indians and immigrants had cure-alls, too. In some rural areas, scattered herbalists still practice." She was born on July 4, 1897, the seventh among 18 siblings, Emma Williams Dupree grew up on the Tar River and was known in her family as "that little medicine thing" because of her early understanding of herbs. Her parents, Pennia and Noah Williams, were freed slaves farming in Falkland, NC. She told an interviewer in 1979 that her mother remembered being "on the porch of the old Wooten's farm home when freedom came. She was 16 when Mr. and Mrs. Wooten walked out on that porch and told her she was 'as free as they were, but they loved her just the same.'" She was married for one year to Ethan Cherry, a farmer. She divorced him and remarried another farmer, Austin Dupree, Jr., who was born in 1892. Emma and Austin moved to Fountain, NC in 1936 and had five children, whose ages in the 1930 U.S. Census are indicated in parentheses: Lucy (12), Herbert (9), John (5), Doris (3), and Mary (1). They remained married until his death at age 90. She died at home, at 3313 N. Jefferson St, Fountain, on March 12, 1996. She is buried at Saint John's Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery, in Falkland,NC. Emma Dupree's "garden-grown pharamacy" included sassafras, white mint, double tansy, rabbit tobacco, maypop, mullein, catnip, horseradish, silkweed and other plants from which she made tonics, teas, salves and dried preparations. These were cultivated in her yard and gathered from the banks of the Tar River. She told Karen Baldwin that she grew a special tree in her back yard, which she called her "healing berry tree." She explained, "Now that tree, I don't know of another name for it, but it's in the old-fashioned Bible and the seed for it came from Rome." She also told Baldwin of being an especially alert baby: "They said I was just looking every which way. And I kept acting and moving and doing things a baby didn't do. And I walked early. I was walking at seven months old, just as good and strong. When I got so I got out doors, I went to work. I was pulling up weeds, biting them, smelling in them, and spitting them out. And folks in them days, they just watched me, watched what I was doing. Awards and Recognition In 1984, Dupree was awarded the Brown-Hudson Award by the North Carolina Folklore Society, recognizing her as an individual who contributed significantly to the transmission, appreciation and observance of traditional culture and folk life in North Carolina. In 1992, Dupree received the North Carolina Heritage Award, lifetime achievement recognition for outstanding traditional artists in North Carolina NOTE: Here is a link to a video of Mrs Emma Dupree being interviewed by students of the ECU medical research department. This video is Produced by the office of Health Services Research and Development, School of Medicine, East Carolina University. It is 40 minutes long. Link: https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/58575... Source;https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/ncpi/view/5581 Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Dupree --- Herbalist, 94, Lets Nature Heal by Paige Williams Feb 20, 1992 Because she prays, she brews herbs. Because she brews herbs, she heals. Because she heals, she is the undisputed sage of Pitt County. They say her home remedies can quiet a colicky baby, cure a mean cold and scare lice off a hog. "All that we see, everything that is growin' in the earth," Emma says, "is healin' to the nation of any kind of disease." Before her came African root doctors and Indian medicine men. People believed their mystical potions could cure body and soul and sometimes they could. Some modern medicines still use herbal derivatives. Few old-time herbalists like Emma are left in North Carolina. Hospitals first forced her kind out of business. Death is finishing the job. Emma Dupree's hanging tough, though, pushing 10 decades. She takes the tonic, see. Drinks it like water. She jumps out of her chair, props fists on her waist and swivels her hips Hula-Hoop style. She holds both hands out flat and squirms her wrinkled fingers all around, crossing and uncrossing, like she's making a million wishes. No arthritis there. "There's something to that stuff," said her granddaughter, Sandra White. Joe Exum, town grocer, keeps a Crown Royal bourbon bottle under the front seat of his pickup truck. It holds the slimy remnants of Emma's tonic: oily brown syrup that looks like tobacco spit, stings the nose like paint thinner and tastes like pine tar smells. "I'd pay $50 for a bottle right now," Exum said. "Two swallers and it'll knock the sore throat right out." He's waiting for Emma to brew another batch. She stewed her last at Christmas. She used to make the tonic right steady, every day almost, the way she learned 80 years ago, when the woods first called her. Pitt County borders the Pamlico River 80 miles east of Raleigh. Its largest town is Greenville, the county seat, population 44,972. One of its smallest is Fountain, population 445, founded in 1900 on the western rim. Emma Dupree was Emma Williams then, a 3-year-old growing up the daughter of freed slaves on a farm 9 miles east in Falkland, where she was born the Fourth of July, 1897. Emma was the knee baby, second from the youngest of seven girls and four boys, and always hanging on her mama's knee. Early on, Pennia and Noah Williams knew she was nature's child. From the time she could walk, Emma felt drawn to the land. She would roam the woods, plucking, sniffing, tasting weeds. She grew up that way, collecting the leaves, stems, roots and bark of sweet gum, white mint, mullen, sassafras in her coattail or a tin bucket. She'd tote them back to the farm, rinse them in well water and tie them in bunches to dry. In the backyard, she'd raise a fire under a kettle and boil her herbs to a bubbly froth, then pour it up in brown-necked stone jugs: A white-mint potion for poor circulation; catnip tea for babies with colic; tansy tea - hot or cold - for low blood sugar; mullen tea for a stomach ache. Mixed with molasses or peppermint candy to knock out the bitterness. Her kind of folk medicine dates back centuries. In the 1600s, African slaves brought root-doctor remedies to America. Indians and immigrants had cure-alls, too. In some rural areas, scattered herbalists still practice. "It's dying out," says Charles Reagan Wilson of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. "People more and more rely on modern science." Pitt County's got both. Modern medicine and Emma Dupree. Her school was God's school; her classroom, the land. While the other children played, she picked herbs. Sometimes she caught the other children talking about her: "There comes that ol' rovin' gal. Reckon where she goin' now?" Yet they always followed her. When Emma was about 20, she married Ethan Cherry, a farmer. It lasted about a year. The story goes that Cherry went one wisecrack too far about how many women it takes to satisfy a man. Emma whacked him with a chair. Knocked him out cold. Then she divorced him. "He wasn't no good husband." She married another farmer, Austin Dupree. They moved to Fountain in 1936. Old age killed him in the the early 1970s. He was nearly 90. Of Emma's five children, only Doris, 66, is left. She lives next door to Emma's little white-and-green house on Jefferson Street, a longtime magnet to the afflicted. Herbs' earthy aroma herbs brewed day and night. Their warm earthy aroma filled the whole house. Emma poured her tonic up in glass vinegar jugs and canning jars and kept it in a pantry off the kitchen. Somebody was always knocking on the front door. Emma would fetch it: "Now you take this with faith because it's not me. I'm just the instrument." She never set a price. People paid what they could, sometimes $5, sometimes $30. "It was a common thing for people to literally be waiting in line," said White, 38, the granddaughter Emma raised. People sought advice, too. They'd bang on the door, pull her aside: "Can I talk to you?" Fountain's own Ann Landers. "You can tell her a problem and she can work it out so it don't seem so bad," White said. Some, she couldn't help. Once, a young girl dying of leukemia and weary of doctors showed up at Emma's door. Emma suspected it was hopeless. Still, she couldn't say no. She gave her the tonic. "I don't want to make her sound like a saint," White said, "but she tried to help everybody." Emma won't take the credit. "Whatever your talent, whatever you is, you come with it," she said. "When you come into this world, God's done fixed you with what you got to do." To townspeople, she's "Aunt Emma." In December, they made her grand marshal of the Fountain Christmas parade, all two blocks of it. She waved from the back of the long white limousine borrowed from the local funeral home. Only the best for the sage of Pitt County. Source:https://www.tulsaworld.com/.../article_3b0e06d1-4af9-5567... Previous Next

< Back Eliza Bryant NOTE: We found different accounts concerning Eliza Simmons Bryant's ethnicity. Also there are different accounts concerning whether she was a free Black woman or enslaved. We give both accounts in this post. Below: We also added the history about The Eliza Bryant Nursing Home In Ohio . Eliza Bryant was born on Tuesday, 04.10.1827 1827, she was a Black abolitionist, a humanitarian and a businesswoman. She grew up on a plantation in Wayne County North Carolina her parents were Polly Simmons, a slave, and her master. In 1848 her mother was freed and her family moved north, purchasing a home in Cleveland, Ohio with funds from her master. Young Bryant’s education is unknown but she was a pioneer in the movement to welcome and assist Blacks to the Cleveland area, particularly those moving from the southern states through the Great Migration after emancipation. It was here that she learned of the special needs of elderly Blacks left alone due to slavery. At the time facilities denied access to Blacks and Bryant, and around 1893 her and others established a home for aged Blacks. In January 1895 a board of trustees was named and the “Cleveland Home for Aged Colored People” opened on August 11, 1897. Bryant married and had several children. She died on May 13, 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio and is buried in Woodland Cemetery. Reference: WOMEN IN HISTORY P.O. Box 770682 Lakewood, OH 44107I ------ Eliza Simmons Bryant (1827 – May 13, 1907) was an American humanitarian. She was the daughter of a free woman of color, possibly Native American. She moved to Cleveland, OH during the 1850's. After the American Civil War, she and her mother helped former slaves who came to Cleveland. With a group of other women, she established the Cleveland Home for Aged Colored people in 1896 which has become the longest continuing home for aged colored people. In 1960, its name was changed to Eliza Bryant Home for the Aged, in honor of its founder. Later, in 1999, the name was changed to Eliza Bryant Village Mary Simmons nicknamed "Polly" was born in 1804 to Fereby Simmons, a free woman of color in North Carolina. Therefore Eliza Simmons Bryant, who was her daughter, was also born free. It is possible these women were descended from the Winyaws Tribe of the Tuscaroras Nation. Eliza was raised on a plantation in Wayne County. Polly Simmons bought property from her brother Calvin in 1838 and additional land from a neighbor Kinon Milard in 1847. Needham Bryant applied for a marriage license for himself and Eliza Simmons in Cuyahoga County in 1853. Buckner and John Simmons can be found in various Cleveland City Directories from 1848. The family was known for providing shelter, food and water to black families. Eliza Bryant became a pioneer in the movement to assist African Americans in the Cleveland area, especially those who had moved from the southern states during the Great Migration after Emancipation Proclamation. She became particularly concerned for elderly African-Americans, who were tremendously suffering from the poor living conditions in Cleveland. The majority of these were freed slaves, with nothing given to them except their freedom. Because of ethnic, religious and racial segregation, existing facilities such as the Dorcas Home (aged white women) or the Baptist Home would not admit African Americans. In 1893, after a visit to the Pittsburgh Home for Aged Colored People, Edith Jackson gathered a group of women which included Eliza Bryant, Sarah Green and Lethia Flemming. These women began the work of establishing a home for aged black women, but also allowed male residents. They sought help for their cause through churches, community groups, business community, friends and family. Eliza and members of the Lady Board of Managers recruited volunteers who went door to door to raise money, food and clothing. Because of the appeal of a group of black women that included Prudence Jones, Lethia Fleming, Marie Taylor Perkins; Mrs. Laura Spellman Rockefeller made a financial contribution, which helped to enable the purchase of the first home. In January 1895 a board of managers composed of women and a male treasurer was named for the proposed home. By 1896, enough funds were raised and a house was purchased for $2,000 with barely any necessities. The Cleveland Home for Aged Colored People was incorporated on September 1, 1896, and opened on August 11, 1897. The home has been a central fixture of philanthropy by and for African Americans in Cleveland. Eliza Bryant died in 1907, and is buried at Woodland Cemetery in Cleveland. Over the years, the Cleveland Home for Aged Colored People struggled to support itself, but has been a pillar of the Black Community. After the advent of Social Security and eventually Medicaid the financing became more stable. The Dorcas Home closed and moved to the Cleveland Suburbs in 1967 selling its property in Hough to Eliza Bryant for $1. Another major gift from the closing of Forest City (African American) Hospital enabled the home to renovate, modernize and continue its tradition of quality and compassionate care for elderly African Americans. Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliza_Bryant ------ THE HISTORY OF ELIZA BRYANT VILLAGE: CARING FOR SENIORS FOR OVER 121 YEARS... Please Click Source Link to Read about The Eliza Bryant Nursing Village Source:https://www.elizabryant.org/about-the-village/history/ See less Previous Next

< Back John N. Smith Cemetery The John N. Smith Cemetery is the largest African American cemetery in Brunswick County where many notable Southport citizens were interned, including servicemen from every war since the Civil War. The John N. Smith Cemetery is the largest African American cemetery in Brunswick County where many notable Southport citizens were interned, including servicemen from every war since the Civil War. The JNS cemetery is the final resting place of many notable Southport residents including Union soldiers Abram Galloway and Abram Blount, Mary Ann Galloway, oldest Southport resident, suffragist Anna Clemons, Elias "Nehi" Gore known as Southport's gentle giant, midwife Eliza Wortham and business leaders Dollie Evans, Malissa Jackson, Herbert Brown, to name just a few of the more than 1000 marked and unmarked graves. This is an African American cemetery in the small town of Southport, North Carolina. The first recorded burial was in 1874, when Southport was called Smithville. Located at 225 E. Leonard St. the cemetery was named after the first person to be buried there, John N. Smith. The Cemetery is the final resting place for an estimated 1500 souls, all of whom are believed to be African American. Combined these individuals represent an essential component of Southport’s collective memory and of the history of this town on the shore of the Cape Fear River. Interred in this Cemetery were slaves, farmers, teachers, businessmen, laborers, domestic servants, homemakers and entrepreneurs. Veterans dating from the Civil War and subsequent military campaigns are also buried here. Often cemeteries are the only remaining artifacts of a community’s early residents. By making connections from the present to the past, the John N Smith Cemetery can serve as an inspirational starting point for showing how all races are connected by historical events. If Southport loses the assets it’s only black cemetery represents, the connective tissue that once bonded people together disappears. However, once a chronicle of the factual history of the Cemetery is realized the result will be pride, respect and appreciation among Southport’s residents. The preservation of the Cemetery can have a unifying influence on Southport while enabling many persons to reclaim a heritage that might otherwise be loss for the ages. The John N. Smith Cemetery Restoration and Preservation Inc. is a third generation cemetery organization. The organization invites any and all willing to join. Source link: https://www.johnnsmithcemetery.org/about-us Previous Next

< Back Minnie Wood Perkins "Minnie Wood Perkins was born in Northampton County on January 31, 1910, to Will and Jane Flood Wood. She attended Waters Training School in Winton. She married Claude Deans in 1929 and their only child, Iris, was born in 1931. Later, she married Charlie Perkins and worked as a domestic until she was encouraged by Dr. Futrell of Murfreesboro in the late 1940s to seek a career as a midwife. With the help and encouragement of Reverend and Mrs. Rouson and Dr. Futrell, Minnie Wood Perkins attended classes in Fayetteville. She had nearly a 40-year career of midwifery and newborn care that, at one time, she assisted nearly every black and white child within Murfreesboro and the immediate area. Mrs. Perkins was a member of the First Baptist Church and several fraternal organizations. She counseled family and community members in times of family stress. Mrs. Perkins died in 1995 maintaining a legacy to this day, that her family, church, and community have come to embrace. Photo is from early 1940s." Photo description: Mrs Minnie Wood Perkins is standing in front of a backdrop depicting a beach scene. She has her right hand holding her left wrist, she is looking at the camera. This post is shared from Cultivator Book Store fb page #Cultivatorbookstore #BlackHistoryMonthDay59 #Bhim365 #nchistory #downeastNC #Irememberourhistory #midwifery #catchingbabies #BlackHealthcare #healthcare #Murfreesboro Previous Next

< Back Monroe Nathan Work, a leading early 20th Century sociologist ​ Monroe Nathan Work, a leading early 20th Century sociologist, was born on August 15, 1866 to his ex-slave parents in Iredell County, North Carolina. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Cairo, Illinois where Monroe’s father worked as a tenant farmer. They aspired to own their own land and in the early 1870s moved to Kansas and purchased a 160-acre farm in Summer County. Work received his elementary education in a local church building and stayed in Summer County to help on the farm until 1889, when his mother died and his father went to live with one of the married children. At the age of 23 Monroe Work enrolled in high school in Arkansas City, Kansas. After graduating (third in his class), he tried teaching, preaching, and homesteading before continuing his education at the Chicago Theological Seminary. Work became disenchanted with seminary and transferred to the Sociology Department of the University of Chicago in 1898. Work’s passion for sociology was driven by his belief that education eradicated racial prejudice. He once noted, “In the end, facts will help eradicate prejudice and misunderstanding, for facts are the truth and the truth shall set us free.” Thus began a life long career dedicated to finding and documenting the facts of black life in the United States. While at the University of Chicago, Work wrote a paper on crime in the African American community that later became the first article written by a black scholar that was published in the American Journal of Sociology. Monroe Work also studied Africa, and wrote many articles about the continent and its culture that made him one of the pioneer scholars in that field. In June of 1903, Work received his Master’s degree and accepted a faculty position at Georgia State Industrial College in Savannah. While in Savannah, Monroe worked with W.E.B. DuBois in the anti-Washington Niagara Movement (1905-1910). He also founded the Savannah Men’s Sunday Club (1905-1911), an organization dedicated to improving living conditions among poor African Americans in the city. In 1908, despite his membership in the Niagara Movement, Work accepted a position at Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama, and thus became the first man to work closely with both DuBois and Washington. At Tuskegee Work founded the Department of Records and Research, where he compiled and catalogued a broad assortment of material on the African American experience. This research led to the publication of the first Negro Year Book in 1912 which became an annual (and later, periodic) publication. His masterwork was the Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America, which appeared in 1928 and included 17,000 entries. That year he received the Harmon Foundation Award for Distinguished Achievement. Negro Year Book was a permanent record of current events, an encyclopedia of facts, and a directory of persons and organizations. Published by Tuskegee, it became the most well known and accepted source of facts about black life in the United States. That same year Work also published the first of a biannual “lynching report” which for the first time exposed the nation on an ongoing basis to the practice. In 1928 Work published A Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America. The book was the first of its kind and was used by many scholars and laymen interested in African America. During his career Work published 66 lynching reports, nine editions of the Negro Year Book, and more than 70 articles. Monroe Work died at Tuskegee on May 2, 1945 at the age of 78. He was survived by his wife, Florence Hendrickson Work. Source:http://www.blackpast.org/aah/work-monroe-nathan-1866-1945 Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Work Previous Next

< Back Here, let us Fix that for you. Here, let us Fix that for you. Be Careful supporting and celebrating the false identities created by the White Americans to sanitize Rev. Dr. King Jr. to make him and the whole racial and social justice movement more comfortable for White Americans. Oh yes, they claim they love him so dearly, I tell you to pay attention, they continue to tell us that they don’t share his life's purpose with the values, integrity and fight for justice that he lived. Folks want to feel comfortable so they make him a magical negro by always using the “I Have A Dream” part of that speech creating a version of Rev. Dr. King that makes him seem docile. To make him appear that he held their feelings higher than the fight for our human rights and American freedoms. This is willfully choosing to ignore the Rev. Dr. King Jr. who called White America “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.“ And to ignore this, “Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn. The reality of substantial investment to assist Negroes into the twentieth century, adjusting to Negro neighbors and genuine school integration, is still a nightmare for all too many white Americans…These are the deepest causes for contemporary abrasions between the races. Loose and easy language about equality, resonant resolutions about brotherhood fall pleasantly on the ear, but for the Negro there is a credibility gap he cannot overlook. He remembers that with each modest advance the white population promptly raises the argument that the Negro has come far enough. Each step forward accents an ever-present tendency to backlash.” — Where Do We Go From Here: 1967 Oh, they love the version of Rev. Dr. King who wanted all people to be "judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin", but they devalue the Rev. Dr. King who said, “I am sorry to have to say that the vast majority of White Americans are racists, either consciously or unconsciously.” As if the truth about their characters is invisible to us, because it's not. It's always been quite clear. They adore the Rev. Dr. King who said “let freedom ring,” Yet, stand against those of us who continue to have to fight for All the freedoms that he was murdered for fighting to have them released from being held hostage from us. The same freedoms that White Americans today still feel we do not deserve and continue to not help us Fight for all that is rightfully ours as Americans. And then there's the whole why are we still having to fight for what is rightfully given to White Americans and not us truth. And by Only lifting up the White American sanitized version of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, they reveal more about their flawed character, they reveal more about their true motives and more that speaks loudly they align with white supremacy and racism then they realize. We are not fooled as they continue to fool themselves. They do Black Women like this Every day. They will always fight to keep Whiteness above all else as that is their way of keeping power and privilege theirs. Previous Next