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Posts published in “History”

45 Years Ago Today: John Carlos and Tommie Smith Give Black Power Salute at 1968 Olympic Games

By goodblacknews on October 16, 2013
Tommie Smith (C) and John Carlos (R) at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City (AP Photo)
October 16th marks the 45th anniversary of an iconic moment in sports history, in African-American history and in civil rights history.  On this day in 1968, at the Olympics Games in Mexico City, two black U.S. medalists—Tommie Smith and John Carlos—took the victory stand with their heads bowed and eyes closed, their hands raised with black gloves, and fists clenched.  Their “black power salute” during the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner was a silent protest by these athletes against racial injustice, and their statement, viewed then as a controversial combination of Olympic sports and politics, sent shock waves throughout the games.

Although the now legendary photo of the two men standing with clenched fists is universally recognized, the story behind the story is seldom mentioned, much less taught in schools.
The actions of Smith—the gold medalist in the 200-meter race—and Carlos—the bronze winner—must be viewed within the context of the times in which the men lived.  And the times were turbulent and divisive.  After all, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy had been assassinated only months before the games at Mexico City.  The United States was engulfed in anti-Vietnam War protests and civil rights demonstrations.  Antiwar protestors had been beaten by police during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.  There were calls for black power in African-American communities throughout the nation, and the Black Panther Party had expanded to cities across America.
Enter Harry Edwards, author of The Revolt of the Black Athlete.  Edwards was the organizer of theOlympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR), an effort of black athletes to boycott the Olympics in protest of racial discrimination.  The project was part of a push to have black athletes speak not only to the interests of athletes, but to show a concern for their communities and connect to the larger civil rights movement as well.

Inspired by Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., Investor Makes Huge Gift for Black Studies

By goodblacknews on October 14, 2013

Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard, left, and Glenn Hutchins of Silver Lake. The two became friends after meeting 10 years ago.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard, left, and Glenn Hutchins of Silver Lake. The two became friends after meeting 10 years ago. (Robert Caplin/New York Times)

Just over 10 years ago, the private equity mogul Glenn Hutchins was on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard. With his 25th Harvard College reunion near, he was thinking about how to put some of his wealth to good use.  One afternoon, clad in a T-shirt and board shorts, he stopped at an old whaling chapel, where Henry Louis Gates Jr., the prominent professor of African and African-American studies at Harvard, was leading a symposium.  That encounter gave Mr. Hutchins his cause.
Since then, Mr. Hutchins has strengthened his connection to Mr. Gates and the Harvard program. Their bond will become stronger on Wednesday, when Mr. Hutchins is expected to announce a gift of more than $15 million to create the Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research, solidifying Harvard’s program as one of the top in its field.  “It creates an infrastructure for the department and a solid foundation on which they can thrive,” Mr. Hutchins said in an interview this month.
The gift — part of a previously announced $30 million donation to the university whose uses had not all been specified — also bespeaks a friendship between two men unlike each other in many respects. One is a wealthy white financier whose firm, Silver Lake, is on the verge of taking over the computer maker Dell with its founder, Michael S. Dell; the other is a celebrated black professor who helped popularize African-American studies as an academic field and social phenomenon.

Jamie Foxx and Oliver Stone in Talks to Star and Direct Martin Luther King Film

By goodblacknews on October 11, 2013

Jamie Foxx Oliver Stone Martin Luther

After hitting a home run with Lincoln, DreamWorks looks ready to take on another prominent historical figure. DreamWorks and Warner Bros. are in early talks with Oliver Stone to direct and Jamie Foxx to star as Martin Luther King Jr. in an untitled biopic.  Both studios have been trying to get the picture up and running for some time, after putting the project into development in 2009 when it was supposed to team with Warner Bros. for a co-production.
The MLK drama is still far away from a greenlight but getting both Stone and Foxx to sign would speed up the process.  Pic would follow the famous civil rights activist from his rise all the way to his assassination in 1968.  Kario Salem wrote the original script with Steven Spielberg, Suzanne De Passe, Madison Jones and Samuel Nappi producing.
Both Foxx and Stone are no strangers to tackling projects dealing with historical events and iconic individuals — Stone with JFK, World Trade Center and W and Foxx with Ray Charles in Ray, for which he won an Academy Award.

article by Justin Kroll via Variety.com

Cambridge University in England Hosts Major Exhibition Devoted to Afro Combs

By goodblacknews on September 23, 2013

fitzwilliam-installations-3

The University of Cambridge is staging a mayor exhibition exploring the 6,000-year history of the afro comb and the politics of black hair.  The fascinating display charts the inception of the comb in Ancient Egypt through to its ascendancy as a political emblem post-1960s.

“What we know from the early hair combs is they were connected to status, group affiliation, cultural and religious beliefs,” says curator Sally-Ann Ashton. “In more recent times, the ‘black fist’ comb that references the black power salute has wider political connotations.”
The material is being showcased at 2 university sites: The Fitzwilliam Museum, and alongside life-size installations created by artist Dr. Michael McMillan at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA).  Items on display at Fitzwilliam include hundreds of combs from pre-dynastic Egypt to contemporary picks. Some interesting artifacts include a 5,500-year-old comb from Southern Egypt and the original black fist comb, which was patented in 1976 in America.
The idea behind the exhibition was to take a fresh look at Egyptology within the parameters Africa in all its diversity, rich heritage, and culture, says Ashton. Interestingly, she says the earliest combs in the collection are from Egypt and this alongside her scholarly research has left her with no doubt that ancient Egyptians were racially and culturally black African.
“People do not want to admit or believe that these early civilizations were non-European but they were,” says Ashton.  Associated material includes paintings, sculpture and images showing the variety and complexity of hair styles found in Africa and on the Diaspora.

Best-Selling Slave Memoir "The Bondswoman's Narrative" is Authenticated by South Carolina Professor

By goodblacknews on September 23, 2013

“By Hannah Crafts,” reads this page from the 1850s novel “The Bondwoman’s Narrative.” (The Bondwoman's Narrative, Beineke Library, Yale University)
“By Hannah Crafts,” reads this page from the 1850s novel “The Bondwoman’s Narrative.” (The Bondwoman’s Narrative, Beineke Library, Yale University)

In 2002, a novel thought to be the first written by an African-American woman became a best seller, praised for its dramatic depiction of Southern life in the mid-1850s through the observant eyes of a refined and literate house servant.  But one part of the story remained a tantalizing secret: the author’s identity.
John Wheeler lived on the plantation where Hannah Bond escaped slavery.

That literary mystery may have been solved by a professor of English in South Carolina, who said this week that after years of research, he has discovered the novelist’s name: Hannah Bond, a slave on a North Carolina plantation owned by John Hill Wheeler, is the actual writer of “The Bondwoman’s Narrative,” the book signed by Hannah Crafts.

Beyond simply identifying the author, the professor’s research offers insight into one of the central mysteries of the novel, believed to be semi-autobiographical: how a house slave with limited access to education and books was heavily influenced by the great literature of her time, like “Bleak House” and “Jane Eyre,” and how she managed to pull off a daring escape from servitude, disguised as a man.

The professor, Gregg Hecimovich, the chairman of the English department at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., has uncovered previously unknown details about Bond’s life that have shed light on how the novel was possibly written. The heavy influences of Dickens, for instance, particularly from “Bleak House,” can be explained by Bond’s onetime servitude on a plantation that routinely kept boarders from a nearby girls’ school; the curriculum there required the girls to recite passages of “Bleak House” from memory. Bond, secretly forming her own novel, could have listened while they studied, or spirited away a copy to read.

The research also shows that Bond may have been given a man’s suit by a member of the Wheeler family who was sympathetic to her desire to flee.

Professor Hecimovich, 44, said that he has verified the writer’s identity through wills, diaries, handwritten almanacs and public records. He intends to publish his full findings in a book, tentatively titled “The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts.”

His work has been reviewed by several scholars who vouch for its authenticity, including Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation’s pre-eminent scholars of African-American history. Professor Gates bought the obscure manuscript at auction in 2001.

Phylicia Rashad Takes on Directing Role to Mark 50th Anniversary of Alabama Church Bombing

By goodblacknews on September 15, 2013

thWASHINGTON – Phylicia Rashad is best known for starring roles on stage and television, but as a director she decided to commemorate a historic moment that helped spur the civil rights movement.
The Tony Award-winning actress directed a reading of the play “Four Little Girls: Birmingham 1963” at the Kennedy Center Sunday to mark the 50th anniversary of the bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four girls were killed in the explosion, which was set by white supremacists and helped spur passage of landmark civil rights legislation.
Rashad, who is recognized for her portrayal as the matriarch on “The Cosby Show” TV series and Broadway’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” said she wanted the reading to emphasize the “sanctity of joy, human existence and the value of all life.”
The play, written by Christina Ham, starred students from Howard University and the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C.
Rashad, an alumna of Howard University, said acting and directing are both challenging and rewarding. In her role as director, Rashad said she works to keep the creative energy in line with the writer’s vision, “while leaving room for people to add to the vision in a collaborative effort.”
article by Stacy A. Anderson, AP via ca.yahoo.news.com

Congress Honors ’4 Little Girls’, Civil Rights Era Bombing Victims

By goodblacknews on September 11, 2013
President and CEO of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Lawrence Pijeaux, front, lays on a table the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously awarded in honor of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, the four young black girls who lost their lives in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963, presented by Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, back center, during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013. Others are, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., from back left, Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., obscured, unidentified, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President and CEO of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Lawrence Pijeaux, front, lays on a table the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously awarded in honor of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, the four young black girls who lost their lives in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963, presented by Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, back center, during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013. Others are, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., from back left, Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., obscured, unidentified, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON (AP) — House and Senate leaders on Tuesday awarded Congress’ highest civilian honor to four girls killed in the Alabama church bombing nearly 50 years ago that became a watershed moment in the civil rights movement.
The Congressional Gold Medal went to Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, who were all 14, and Denise McNair, who was 11. The ceremony came five days before the 50th anniversary of their deaths inside the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.
“Their names remain seared in our hearts,” said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California. She was joined at the commemoration by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Republican House Speaker John Boehner and cmembers of Alabama’s congressional delegation.  Along with the many lawmakers in the crowd paying tribute were director Spike Lee, and several relatives of the girls.

Remembering the Legacy of Union Leader A. Phillip Randolph on Labor Day

By goodblacknews on September 2, 2013

A. Phillip Randolph (AP Photo)
A. Phillip Randolph (AP Photo)

“We are the advance guard of a massive moral revolution for jobs and freedom. This revolution reverberates throughout the land, touching every village where black men are segregated, oppressed and exploited,” the 74-year-old A. Philip Randolph told the estimated 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom fifty years ago on August 28, 1963.
Although today Dr. King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech often symbolizes the March for many, it was very much a stand for black workers with longtime labor leader Randolph at the forefront. He was so committed that neither advanced age nor the death of his wife shortly before the March could keep him home.
More than twenty years before, it was Randolph who had conceived the massive demonstration.  Scheduled to take place July 1, 1941, the original March was intended to protest discrimination against black employment in defense industries and federal bureaus and demand that President Franklin D. Roosevelt issue an Executive Order to end such practices.
So, on June 25, 1941, when Roosevelt, after exhausting all means, including personal appeals from his wife Eleanor to Randolph, to call off the march which anticipated 100,000 participants, issued Executive Order 8802 creating the Fair Employment Practices Committee and barring discrimination in defense industries and federal bureaus, Randolph called off the March in victory.  Merging the philosophies of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois by setting economic justice as the foundation of civil rights, Randolph would not stop or even begin here.
Born Asa Philip Randolph, the second of his parents’ two sons, on April 15, 1889 in Crescent, Fla, near Jacksonville where he later grew up, service was a consistent message in his childhood. His father, the Rev. James W. Randolph, in keeping with the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) philosophy, ministered to his congregation’s social and spiritual needs. Rev. Randolph and his wife Elizabeth, who hailed from a once enslaved family who were also AME members, taught their sons racial pride and self-respect. Encouraging young Asa Randolph’s healthy thirst for knowledge, Rev. Randolph filled the family’s home.
Tall, handsome, popular and smart, Randolph sang in the choir, was a star baseball player and a great speaker. Despite graduating valedictorian from Cookman Institute (later incorporated into Bethune-Cookman in Daytona Beach, Fla.) in 1907, there was not suitable employment for him in Jacksonville. Not wishing to follow in his father’s footsteps as minister, Randolph hired himself out as a hand on a steamship and headed for New York City in 1911, shortly after he turned 22, with dreams of becoming an actor.
In New York, he worked several jobs, including elevator operator, porter and waiter, while also studying English Literature and Sociology at City College at night. Despite organizing the Shakespearean Society in Harlem and playing several roles, including Hamlet, Othello and Romeo, Randolph was clearly destined to make his mark on a different stage. With kindred spirit Chandler Owen, a Columbia University student, Randolph founded the employment agency, the Brotherhood of Labor, where the two tried to unionize black workers.

MUST WATCH: President Barack Obama's March on Washington Speech Today (VIDEO)

By goodblacknews on August 28, 2013

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOBSeN205pI&w=560&h=315]
29obama-articleLargeOn the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, President Barack Obama honored the legacy and spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with his own inspired speech this afternoon, echoing the call to freedom and justice that King’s own “I Have A Dream” speech did 50 years ago today.  Obama’s speech was the culmination of a full day of celebration of the March on Washington’s golden anniversary.  Watch his entire address above.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson

Fifty Years Ago Today: Martin Luther King Jr. Leads March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

By goodblacknews on August 28, 2013

martin-luther-king
The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom turns 50 today.  A new PBS documentary reveals the details of what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described would be considered the “greatest demonstration for freedom” in American history.  Narrated by Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington, The March dedicates the majority of the 55 minute running time to the build-up of the momentous event (see clip below).
Some 250,000 people gathered in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963, to raise awareness of the poor economic realities of African-Americans and to demand the passage of strong civil rights legislation.  Clayborne Carson, a professor of history at Stanford University, was just 19 when he attended the march.  “Every time I think back, I draw different meanings from it because of my subsequent experiences,” Carson told theGrio.com. “At the time I would not have fully understood the significance of what Dr. King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech.” 
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZQ35wzQ2ns&w=420&h=315]
Carson, whose commentary is featured in The March, is also the director of Stanford’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. He says America does not have a good track record when it comes to understanding what King stood for.  “The main thing we’ve gotten right is that he deserves a national holiday,” Carson said. “He was the most prominent figure in one of the most important movements in American history.”