“This has been a very difficult time for our state,” Haley said. “We have stared evil in the eye. … Our state is grieving, but we are also coming together.”
“Today, we are here to say it is time to move the flag from the Capitol grounds,” said Haley, surrounded by top leaders including U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, both Republicans like the governor. The other politicians broke out in cheers during the announcement.
The decision follows days of protests inside the state and growing pressure on Republican leaders to back away from the flag. Roof, 21, is being held on nine murder charges in connection with the shooting last Wednesday. Pictures of Roof have surfaced showing the high school dropout with the flag.
Though she sharply condemned the alleged shooter, Haley noted that the flag represents many positive things for people in her state. “The hate-filled murderer has a sick and twisted view of the flag,” she said, adding, “we have changed through the times and we will continue to do so, but that doesn’t mean we forget our history.”
In calling for the removal of the Confederate flag from state grounds, Haley said: “My hope is that moving a symbol that divides we can move forward and honor the nine blessed souls who are in heaven.”
Religious and political leaders including Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. said earlier Monday that they would push for the flag’s removal when the Legislature returns. Riley has led protest marches against the flag and has called for its removal from state grounds before.
“The time has come for the Confederate battle flag to move from a public position in front of the state Capitol to a place of history,” Riley said at a televised news conference. The flag “was appropriated years and years ago as a symbol of hate,” Riley said, and should be moved to a museum.
The Rev. Nelson B. Rivers III of the National Action Network said the flag should be removed before the body of state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, who was killed in the attack, lies in state on Wednesday. Pinckney was also pastor of Emanuel AME.
Republicans, who control South Carolina’s state Legislature, have rebuffed many previous calls to remove the flag, which dates from the Civil War. For civil rights activists and many others, the flag is a racist symbol of the state’s slave past. The flag has also been adopted by some white supremacist groups in modern times.
Nine victims of the Charleston church shooting. Top row: Cynthia Hurd, Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton Middle row: Daniel Simmons, Rev. Depayne Middleton Doctor, Tywanza Sanders Bottom row: Myra Thompson, Ethel Lee Lance, Susie Jackson (Photos via Facebook and Getty Images)
First and foremost, all of us at Good Black News are heartbroken over the loss of the nine precious lives taken this week by senseless, hateful murder at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and our sympathies and prayers go out to the families and loved ones most acutely affected by this domestic terrorism.
Even though you may already know the names of the unintended martyrs, they bear repeating, and often, so we never forget: Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Tywanza Sanders, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Daniel L. Simmons, Ethel Lee Lance, Myra Thompson, and Rev. Depayne Middleton-Doctor.
We call them martyrs because they are now part of the unfortunately long lineage of named and unnamed African-Americans subjected to racially-motivated violence in the United States. From enslaved persons who died on slave ships in the Middle Passage, to persons enslaved in the colonies, to Reconstruction, to the Jim Crow era, to the Civil Rights movement and up through today, the pattern is plain: you are black, you are hated, your life doesn’t matter, you die violently.
I have spent a lot of time this past week reading and watching coverage of this national tragedy, not only to gather as much information as possible, but also to process and attempt to think of the right words to share on how to move forward in a positive manner, as that is overriding philosophy and mission of Good Black News. I do think it is crucial first, however, to talk about WHERE this happened, HOW it happened and WHY it happened.
South Carolina State Capitol Building (top left); Mammy magnets for sale to Charleston tourists (top right); bumper sticker souvenir (bottom)
As everyone knows by now, South Carolina so proudly claims its antebellum history that the Confederate flag still flies on its State Capitol building. The battle at Fort Sumpter in 1861, right outside of Charleston, which occurred not long after South Carolina seceded from the Union, set off the Civil War.
Tourist shops in Charleston casually sell merchandise such as mammy magnets and confederate bumper stickers, which are symbols of racial oppression to my eyes, but symbols of “the good ol’ days” to others.
The other “where” in this situation is specifically the Emanuel AME Church. The history of this church is steeped in the fight for African-Americans to create their own place of worship and the freedom to express their humanity.
One of the church founders, Denmark Vesey, attempted in 1822 to organize a slave rebellion from this space, which, although thwarted, created mass hysteria among the slave owners in the Carolinas and lead to the church being burned. It has been rebuilt several times and stands as a consistent symbol of black pride, resistance and fortitude. So the choice of this place for this action makes it clear this was a targeted, racially-motivated attack.
CHARLESTON, SC – JUNE 18: People stand outside the Emanuel AME Church after a mass shooting at the church that killed nine people (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
On Wednesday night, in the spirit of fellowship, church members welcomed Dylann Roof, the unfamiliar stranger who would become their assassin, to join and participate in their bible study.
He took advantage of their compassion and open hearts to forward a racist agenda that is centuries-old and still pervasive in the DNA of this country, and particularly so in South Carolina and the South.
In the 1960s, people didn’t call the killers of Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Jr., or the four African-American girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama “mentally insane.” They called them what they were – Klan members and/or racists. Regardless of whether or not Roof has mental problems, his racism and desire for racial supremacy is the primary motivation behind his actions.
So, clearly knowing all of that, what are some positive, actionable ways we can move forward as a nation, in our communities and in our personal lives from this horrific event?
Petition/protest/vote for removals of all symbols of oppression and hate from government buildings, streets, tourist centers and shops.
Contribute to the donation fund set up for the families of the victims of the Emanuel AME shootings.
Support/join organizations such as the NAACP, ACLU or the National Urban League, that are dedicated to protesting racial injustice and empowering minorities.
Educate all children of all colors and creeds about the racial history of the United States from slavery to the present and call it what it is. Visit civil rights museums. Read, know and learn the history. Just as Jewish peoples around the world make sure each generation “never forgets” the Holocaust – so should we never forget about American racial injustice.
Keep calling out and protesting current injustices – we need to keep filming and reporting and being sources for unjust police actions, racial disparities in the workplace and even in our personal conversations. Let’s not be Roof’s friend Joseph Meek Jr.,who now regrets not checking his friend more thoroughly about his racist vitriol.
Love. Find forgiveness in our hearts just as the family members of several of the victims are doing for the assailant. Meeting hate with hate solves nothing.
Oldest Living Pullman Porter Lee Wesley Gibson observes his 105th birthday at Maggiano’s Italian Restaurant in Los Angeles on Thursday, May 21, 2015 with family friend Jan Tuggle at his side. (Photo via eurweb.com)
Over 100 family and friends came to celebrate the 105th birthday of Lee Wesley Gibson at Maggiano’s Italian Restaurant in Los Angeles on Thursday, May 21st, given by his three daughters, Gwendolyn Reed, Barbara Leverette and Gloria Gibson of Los Angeles.
According to records at the A. Phillip Randolph Museum in Chicago, Gibson is currently the oldest living Pullman Porters. Gibson was immaculately dressed wearing a designer suit and tie, a custom white dress shirt with “105” embroidered on cuffs.
The invocations was given by his pastor, Bishop Craig A. Worsham of People’s Independent Church of Christ in Los Angeles. The guests dined to a sumptuous meal, which included crabcakes, fried zucchini, pecan, apples and grapes garden salad, chicken marsala, tilipia, eggplant, spinach and mash potatoes, fresh fruit and New York cheesecake.
Gibson received a congratulatory letter was received from President Barack Obama, as well as resolutions from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas, as well as, President of the Los Angeles City Council Herb Wesson, signed by all members of the council.
Larry Jefferson, a close family friend, sang a soaring, acapella rendition of Happy Birthday prior to Gibson blowing out the candles on his cake. As the afternoon came to a close, Gibson’s daughters, Gloria and Gwendolyn, paid tribute to their father and thanked everyone who helped make the afternoon possible.
Gibson was born on May 21, 1910 in Keatchie, Louisiana. His family moved to Marshall, Texas when he was a young boy. He later married Beatrice A. Gibson in 1927 and they moved their family to Los Angeles, California in 1936.
His beloved wife passed away in 2004 after 76 of marriage. Gibson retired from Union Pacific Railroad in 1974 after serving for 38 years as a Pullman Porter.
Even after retirement, he continued to live life to the fullest. He volunteered at Los Angeles International Airport assisting travelers. Gibson also managed income tax preparation offices for H&R Block. He served as District Director for AARP tax preparation assistance program for seniors.
Gibson has served as church treasurer, deacon, and officer of the church credit union at People’s Independent Church, where he has been a member for over 65 years. Most recently Mr. Gibson was featured in a TV commercial for Dodge entitled “Wisdom,” which honored centenarians. It aired during the 2015 Super Bowl telecast.
Gibson is in great health, taking only a daily vitamin. He enjoys going to church, spending time with family and friends, watching the Los Angeles Dodgers and attending social events. In addition to his three daughters, he is the grandfather of six, great-grandfather of nineteen, great-great-grandfather of twenty-two and the great-great-great-grandfather of three. article via eurweb.com
Engraving of the stowage plans of the Liverpool slave ship Brooks. (Photograph: PoodlesRock/Corbis)
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture will display objects from a slave ship that sank off the coast of Cape Town in 1794, it announced today.
The artifacts were retrieved this year from the wreck site of a Portuguese slave ship that sank on its way to Brazil while carrying more than 400 enslaved Africans from Mozambique. Objects recovered from the ship, called the São José-Paquete de Africa, include iron ballasts used to weigh the ship down and copper fastenings that held the structure of the ship together. Lonnie G. Bunch III, the director of the African American history museum, said in a statement that the ship “represents one of the earliest attempts to bring East Africans into the trans-Atlantic slave trade”.
“This discovery is significant because there has never been archaeological documentation of a vessel that foundered and was lost while carrying a cargo of enslaved persons,” he said.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is currently under construction in Washington and scheduled to be completed in the fall.
The objects from the slave ship are to be on a long-term loan to the Smithsonian from the Iziko Museums of South Africa. Officials have known the site of the wreck for a number of years and suspected the ship was a slave ship, but research only recently confirmed it.
About half of the people on board the ship died when it sank. Others made it to shore but were sold back into slavery, according to the Smithsonian.
Professor Derrick P. Alridge (photo via curry.virginia.edu)
The University of Virginia is conducting an oral history project that is documenting the stories of teachers during the civil rights movement. The project is called Teachers in the Movement and it is led by Derrick P. Alridge, a professor in the Curry School of Education at the university.
The project focuses on oral history interviews with elementary, secondary, and university teachers and educators of all races in several states about their participation in and efforts during the Civil Rights Movement. By the end of 2016, the researchers hope to have recorded 200 interviews.
“Teachers played very important roles in the movement,” said Professor Alridge. “What drives our research team is our desire to bring their stories to light. We intend to put the project on par someday with other major oral history projects that cover the Civil Rights Movement, such as The Behind the Veil Project at Duke University and the Southern Oral History Project at the University of North Carolina.”
Professor Alridge holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He earned a Ph.D. at Pennsylvania State University. article via jbhe.com
Born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska and known primarily as Malcolm X, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was an African-American minister for the Nation of Islam and a human rights activist who rose to national and international prominence in the 1960s.
He was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans, and one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in U.S. history.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley and published in 1965, remains an important, seminal work to this day, and the Spike Lee-directed feature film Malcolm X garnered critical acclaim as well as an Academy Award nomination for Denzel Washington.
To more fully appreciate the genius of this man, it pays to hear him speak for himself. Even if you just watch the first two minutes of the video below, you will have done yourself an immeasurable favor:
Harlem Hellfighter Henry Johnson
A member of the best-known African-American unit of World War I, popularly known as the “Harlem Hellfighters,” is scheduled to receive a posthumous Medal of Honor on Friday from President Barack Obama for heroism during combat.
The Medal of Honor will be bestowed upon Private Henry Johnson for his actions while serving as a member of Company C, 369th Infantry Regiment, 93rd Division, American Expeditionary Forces, according to a White House news release.
Command Sergeant Major Louis Wilson, New York National Guard, will join the president at the White House to accept the Medal of Honor on Private Johnson’s behalf. Army Sgt. William Shemin, who was Jewish and from the Bronx, NYC, is also scheduled to be honored for rushing three times across a battlefield to pull wounded comrades to safety in August 1918.
Nearly 100 years ago, then-Private Johnson, a train station porter from Albany, distinguished himself during combat near the Tourbe and Aisne Rivers, northwest of Saint Menehoul, France, on May 15, 1918. From the White House:
While on night sentry duty on May 15, 1918, Private Johnson and a fellow Soldier received a surprise attack by a German raiding party consisting of at least 12 soldiers. While under intense enemy fire and despite receiving significant wounds, Johnson mounted a brave retaliation resulting in several enemy casualties. When his fellow soldier was badly wounded, Private Johnson prevented him from being taken prisoner by German forces. Private Johnson [put] himself [in] grave danger by advancing from his position to engage an enemy soldier in hand-to-hand combat. Displaying great courage, Private Johnson held back the enemy force until they retreated.
The “Harlem Hellfighters” were a group of brothers serving as U.S. soldiers amid intense racism. “The French called them the Men of Bronze out of respect, and the Germans called them the Harlem Hellfighters out of fear,”according to NPR. From BlackPast:
Dubbing themselves “Men of Bronze,” the soldiers of the 369th were lucky in many ways compared to other African American military units in France in 1918. They enjoyed a continuity of leadership, commanded throughout the war by one of their original organizers and proponents, Colonel William Hayward. Unlike many white officers serving in the black regiments, Colonel Hayward respected his troops, dedicated himself to their well-being, and leveraged his political connections to secure support from New Yorkers. Whereas African American valor usually went unrecognized, well over one hundred members of the regiment received American and/or French medals, including the first two Americans – Corporal Henry Johnson and Private Needham Roberts – to be awarded the coveted French Croix de Guerre. Spending over six months in combat, perhaps the longest of any American unit in the war, the 369th suffered approximately fifteen hundred casualties but received only nine hundred replacements. Unit histories claimed they were the first unit to cross the Rhine into Germany; they performed well at Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood, earning the epithet “Hell Fighters” from their enemies. Nevertheless, the poor replacement system coupled with no respite from the line took its toll, leaving the unit exhausted by the armistice in November. Although the 369th could boast of a fine combat record and a regimental Croix de Guerre, the unit was plagued by acute discipline problems resulting from disproportionate casualties among the unit’s longest-serving members and related failures to assimilate new soldiers. After considerable effort by Colonel Hayward, the 369th was welcomed home with a parade in February 1919 and reabsorbed into the National Guard.
Congratulations, Private Johnson, and thanks to President Obama for recognizing a brave solider. article by Lynette Holloway via newsone.com
Chaz Ebert (Photo via eurweb.com)
Shatterglass Films and Chaz Ebert, the wife of the late Roger Ebert, said they will adapt the Emmett Till book “Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America” into a feature film.
The book, co-written by Till’s mother Mamie Till and journalist Christopher Benson, was nominated for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the death of Till, who was 14 years old and visiting relatives in the Mississippi Delta when he was slain after allegedly whistling at a white woman. The 1955 murder made headlines around the world and set in motion the civil rights movement that was to come.
His story has been the subject of several documentaries including the 2003 PBS American Experience film “The Murder Of Emmett Till” and Keith Beauchamp’s 2003 “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till.”
“The full Emmett Till story needs to be told now and told well as a narrative for our times, given all that is happening on American streets today, and Shatterglass Films are the people to tell it,” Ebert said.
The plan is to wrap principal photography next year after shoots in Chicago, the Mississippi Delta and Central Illinois, according to Deadline.com. article via eurweb.com
According to the U.S. Department of Education, we learn most rapidly during the early years of childhood. More importantly, a child’s first five years are most critical to the development of security and self-confidence. To the black community, this simply suggests that we began teaching our children to take pride in who they are, our culture and our history at an early age.
It can be quite a challenge to find creative and effective methods when teaching young children about their ancestry. However, in February freelance journalist and copy editor Chauncia Boyd Rogers came up with a unique idea. She decided it was time to teach her 5-year-old daughter, Ava Noelle Rogers, about eminent woman in black history.
To ensure Ava retained the information, Chauncia decided to create a photo project implementing what Ava likes best…playing dress up. Chauncia dressed her daughter as several prominent black women and took pictures so that Ava would never forget the experience and she put them on Facebook.
NBCBLK contributor Alicia Hadley recently spoke with Chauncia and Ava about the details of their creative project.
AH: How did you come up with the idea?
Chauncia: I had a Timehop photo and it showed me and Ava in 2011 at our church’s Black History program. During that program, every week in February, one of the teens at church dressed as an historical [black] figure and did some sort of presentation as that figure. So I just wanted to borrow from that.
Ava as Josephine Baker
And Ava, she just really likes to repurpose things around the house. So I said, “I’m just going to use Ava’s simplicity-take things around the house and make them work for the pictures. And it will be a way for her to enjoy it.”
I wanted Ava to learn about black history. She didn’t participate in my church’s celebration in February 2011 because she had just turned one. But she turned five in December 2014 and I felt that at this age, she would be more receptive to the information.
Ava as poet Phillis Wheatley
I’m also from St. Louis. We just moved to Orlando about a year ago and Michael Brown was my niece’s cousin. He’s on her dad’s side of the family and so the entire situation is very close to home. My cousin and my aunt live on the street he was killed on. I grew up in Ferguson. I lived in Ferguson from age three to nine. I see what’s going on in St. Louis and right now a part of me is glad that I’m away in Orlando because it’s just traumatic and dramatic. But then a part of me wants to be out there doing what I can to help. I guess the situation in my hometown is another thing that inspired me. I just want Ava to know that she can be better, and that she can do better.
AH: There have been so many significant black women who have helped shape our society. How did you decide which women made the cut?
Martin Nesbitt, chairman of the Barack Obama Foundation, announced on Tuesday that the library would be built in Chicago’s South Side. (Credit: Joshua Lott for The New York Times)
CHICAGO — Maybe the Obamas will never return to live in Chicago after the presidency is over, their global celebrity pulling them toward New York or Los Angeles and away from the unpretentious Midwest. But Chicagoans will always have this: As it was formally announced on Tuesday, their city will be home to his presidential library.
“His journey began on the South Side and now we know that it will come full circle with his library coming home to the South Side of Chicago,” an elated Mayor Rahm Emanuel said on Tuesday at a ceremony here, where the Barack Obama Presidential Center, which is to include the library, museum and space for the president’s foundation, will be built.
But as Chicago officially notched a victory over New York and Hawaii, which were also contenders, it immediately turned to the next question: Where, exactly, on the South Side will the library be built?
The Obama Foundation says it is still undecided on the location and will make the announcement in roughly the next six to nine months. Two parks near the University of Chicago’s campus on the South Side are being considered for the library: Washington Park, a 380-acre space that borders several neighborhoods, including Washington Park and Hyde Park; and Jackson Park, which hugs both the neighborhood of Woodlawn and Lake Michigan, and is the site of the Museum of Science and Industry, a golf course, soccer fields and a children’s hospital. The transfer of about 20 acres where the library could be built was approved in February by the Chicago Park District.
City officials have trumpeted the project’s potential to give the South Side a much-needed influx of tourism, new jobs and economic development. (Credit: Joshua Lott for The New York Times)
The library will be built in a partnership with the University of Chicago, where President Obama once taught law, and could open by 2020 or 2021. Amid the triumphant announcement and buoyant speeches by civic leaders, there are still concerns being raised by some people about the permanent loss of valuable parkland in a highly populated part of the city.
Lonnie G. Bunch III, the director of the African American history museum, said in a statement that the ship “represents one of the earliest attempts to bring East Africans into the trans-Atlantic slave trade”.
by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (
