Posts published in “History”

20th Century Global Superstar, Activist and Spy Josephine Baker’s Cheeky Quote on Getting Ahead From Behind (LISTEN)

20th Century Global Superstar, Activist and Spy Josephine Baker’s Cheeky Quote on Getting Ahead From Behind (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 23, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

We celebrate the iconic, internationally famous entertainer Josephine Baker in today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast with some history along with her humorously clever quote regarding her ticket to fame, fortune and freedom in her adopted homeland of France, and around the world.

It’s based on the Wednesday, March 23 entry in “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. Today we offer a quote from internationally famous singer and dancer Josephine Baker:

“My face and my rump were famous! I could honestly say that I’d been blessed with an intelligent derriere. Most people’s were only good to sit on.”

Born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, after stints in vaudeville and musical revues like Eubie Blake’s Shuffle Along, Josephine Baker immigrated to France in the 1920s to find freedom and grow her talents into the pinnacle of singing, dancing, acting and comedic entertainment that brought her fortune and fame.

Known for her iconic “Banana Dance” in the Folies Bergere, Baker became a global sensation.

She was a member of the French Resistance during World War Two, spied on the Nazis for her adopted homeland, spoke out for civil rights, worked with the NAACP, spoke at the March on Washington, and adopted 12 children from all races, countries and religions, calling them her Rainbow Tribe.

Baker passed in 1975 and in 2021, she became the first Black woman inducted into France’s National Panthéon.There is so much more to learn more about Bakers’ life and work, but you can start by reading 2018’s Josephine Baker’s Last Dance by Sherry Jones, 2001’s Josephine Baker: The Hungry Heart by one of her sons, Jean-Claude Baker, watch Baker’s movies, Princess Tam Tam, Siren of the Tropics and Zou Zou, which can be found in the Josephine Baker DVD Collection, the recently restored film from 1940 called The French Way, and there’s also 1991’s The Josephine Baker Story, an HBO movie starring Lynn Whitfield, also available on DVD.

The main documentary I found on her is 2018’s Josephine Baker: The Story of An Awakening, produced by Terranoa, which can currently be found in some PBS local listings.

There’s also the BBC Wales’ 2006 documentary Josephine Baker: The 1^st Black Superstar, currently posted on YouTube.

Links to these and other sources are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. Additional music includes “J’ai Deux Amours” performed by Josephine Baker and employed under fair use.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(paid links)

Paul Laurence Dunbar: The 19th Century Poet, Lyricist and Author Who Celebrated Black Speech and Vernacular #WorldPoetryDay (LISTEN)

Paul Laurence Dunbar: The 19th Century Poet, Lyricist and Author Who Celebrated Black Speech and Vernacular #WorldPoetryDay (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 21, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

On #WorldPoetryDay, we celebrate poet and author Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of the first African American writers to celebrate Black speech and vernacular in his works.

Dunbar is featured in today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast, based on the Monday, March 21 entry from our “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022:

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Monday, March 21st, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Though several O.G. rappers jump-started their careers by selling CDs out of the trunks of their cars, the real O.G. was 19^th century poet Paul Laurence Dunbar – he sold his poems to people riding in the elevator he operated!

One of the first African American writers to garner international fame, Dunbar celebrated Black speech and vernacular in many of his works.

In 1903 he wrote the lyrics for In Dahomey, the first all-African American musical produced on Broadway, but his best-known legacy — other than the poem “We Wear The Mask” — most likely springs from 20^th century poet Maya Angelou, who “sampled” Dunbar’s poem Sympathy for her autobiography’s title: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

To learn more about Dayton, Ohio native Dunbar, read the 2017 paperback of The Life and Works Of Paul Laurence Dunbar: Containing His Complete Poetical Works, His Best Short Stories, Numerous Anecdotes And A Complete Biography Of The Famous Poet, you can pre-order the upcoming 2022 release Paul Laurence Dunbar: Life and Times of a Caged Bird by Gene Andrew Jarrett, check out the 2018 documentary Paul Laurence Dunbar: Beyond The Mask produced by the Central Region Humanities Center at Ohio University, and the 2021 episode about Dunbar of the virtual series We, Too, Sing America produced by Aural Compass Projects, currently available on YouTube. A great deal of Dunbar’s poetry also can be found in the public domain.

Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(paid links)

GBN’s Daily Drop (bonus): Celebrating Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Rock and Roll Innovator Born On This Day in 1915 (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop (bonus): Celebrating Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Rock and Roll Innovator Born On This Day in 1915 (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 20, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is a bonus episode about rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe who was born #OnThisDay in 1915, for Sunday, March 20 and based on the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 format:

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a bonus daily drop of Good Black News for Sunday, March 20th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

When gospel and R&B guitar sensation Sister Rosetta Tharpe reportedly said, “Can’t no man play like me,” she might not have had a clue how many would actually try.

Little Richard cited Tharpe as one of his major influences, and Chuck Berry once said his career was “one long Rosetta Tharpe impression.”

Born on this day in 1915, Arkansas native Tharpe’s 1930s and 1940s recordings of “Rock Me”:

[Excerpt of “Rock Me”]

“Strange Things Happening Every Day”:

[Excerpt of “Strange Things Happening Every Day”]

“I Want A Tall Skinny Papa”:

[Excerpt of “I Want A Tall Skinny Papa”]

and the classic “Didn’t It Rain”:

[Excerpt of “Didn’t It Rain”]

These songs melded gospel, jazz and Rhythm and Blues into what was soon and would forever be called rock n roll. In 2018, Tharpe was finally and rightfully inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her musicianship and influence.

To learn more about Tharpe, read the 2008 biography Shout, Sister, Shout: The Untold Story of Rock-And-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe by Gayle Wald, watch the 2011 documentary The Godmother of Rock and Roll – Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Gibson Guitars-produced short documentary Shout, Sister, Shout: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, as well as performance clips of her available on YouTube.

This February, Gibson Guitars also debuted the Rosetta Tharpe Collection of merchandise in tribute to her, including a miniature replica of the iconic 1961 Les Paul she used to play.

Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a bonus daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. Excerpts of songs by Rosetta Tharpe permitted under fair use.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

[Photo: Tony Evans/Getty]

(paid links)

Born On This Day in 1894: American Comedy Pioneer Moms Mabley (LISTEN)

Born On This Day in 1894: American Comedy Pioneer Moms Mabley (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 19, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN’s Daily Drop podcast features Jackie “Moms” Mabley, the first woman comedian in the U.S. to have a long-lasting and successful career.

It’s based on the Saturday, March 19 entry from the Black Comedians category called “Yeah, You Funny”in our “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022:

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Saturday, March 19th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. It’s in the category for Black Comedians we call, “Yeah, You Funny”:

Jackie “Moms” Mabley was the first woman comedian in the U.S. to have a long-lasting and successful career. Born #onthisday in 1894, in Brevard, North Carolina, Mabley got her start performing on vaudeville’s “chitlin’ circuit” for years before becoming widely known from the 1940s to the 1970s for her movie appearances, hit comedy albums, variety show guest spots, and as a headlining stand-up act at venues such as the Apollo Theater, where she appeared more than any other performer in history.

Mabley mostly played the character of an older woman in a housedress who offered subtle commentary on politics, racism, sexism… all while musing on her desire for younger men.

Today we share one of Mabley’s clever quips of the latter variety, which juxtaposed so greatly with her presentation and still feels contemporary:

“There ain’t nothin’ an old man can do for me but bring me a message from a young one.”

To learn more about Moms Mabley, check out the Whoopi Goldberg-directed documentary on her from 2013 called Moms Mabley: I’ve Got Somethin’ To Tell You, watch her in movies such as Amazing Grace from 1974, Killer Diller or Boarding House Blues, both from 1948, or check out her comedy albums like Moms Mabley at the Playboy Club, Moms Mabley at the Geneva Conference, Young Men, Si – Old Men – No, Moms Mabley at the U.N. or her Top 40 pop and Top 20 R&B hit version of “Abraham, Martin & John” from 1969.

All albums are available to stream on Apple Music and some of them are also on Spotify. You can also check out Wanda Sykes’ Emmy-nominated portrayal of Moms Mabley in the Amazon original series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing. Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

And today, in honor of Moms Mabley’s birthday, we’re closing with a snippet of her version of “Abraham, Martin and John,” written by Dick Holler:

[Excerpt of “Abraham, Martin and John”]

Sources:

GBN’s Daily Drop: “Freedom’s Journal,” the 1st Black-Owned Newspaper in the U.S., Founded 195 Years Ago #OnThisDay (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop: “Freedom’s Journal,” the 1st Black-Owned Newspaper in the U.S., Founded 195 Years Ago #OnThisDay (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 16, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is about Freedom’s Journal, the first Black-owned newspaper founded in 1827 #onthisday by Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm. It’s based on the Wednesday, March 16 entry from the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022:

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Wednesday, March 16th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. It’s in the category of Black Firsts we call, “It’s About Time”:

Fed up with reading racist commentary in the 19^th century mainstream press, Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm started their own paper – Freedom’s Journal.

Founded March 16, 1827, in New York City — the same year New York State abolished slavery — the four-page weekly was the first Black-owned newspaper in the United States.

It denounced slavery and lynchings, advocated for voting rights, covered international news and celebrated Black achievements.

Although Freedom’s Journal folded in 1829, shortly before Russwurm emigrated to Liberia, its two-year existence helped spawn at least 40 similar papers over the next four decades and kicked off the long standing, time-honored tradition of the Black Press in America.

To learn more about Freedom’s Journal, you can check out the digitized archive of all 103 issues of the paper on wisconsinhistory.org, as well as other sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

[Photo: Samuel E. Cornish, l, John B. Russwurm, r, via uniquecoloring.com]

GBN’s Daily Drop: Dr. Saint Elmo Brady, the 1st African American Person to Earn a Chemistry Ph.D. in the U.S. (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Dr. Saint Elmo Brady, the 1st African American Person to Earn a Chemistry Ph.D. in the U.S. (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 14, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is about Dr. Saint Elmo Brady, the first African American person in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry, based on the Monday, March 14 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022:

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Monday, March 14th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Dr. Saint Elmo Brady was fired up in 1916 when he became the first African American person in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry.

Dr. Brady was published three times in Science magazine, taught at Tuskegee Institute, then taught at Howard University – where he built and chaired the Chemistry department.

He took that same position as Chemistry chair at HBCU Fisk University and was there for 25 years. In 2019, Dr. Brady was honored with a National Historic Chemical Landmark at his alma mater, the University of Illinois.

To learn more about Dr. Brady, you can watch the short documentary Twenty Whites and One ‘Other’, read about his contributions to chemistry on the American Chemical Society website, ACS.org, or if you are science-minded or just totally brave and curious, check out Dr. Brady’s work entitled The Scale Influence of Substituents in Paraffine Monobasic Acids, the Divalent Oxygen Atom: Thesis… available on Amazon.

Links to these and other sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

[photo: Saint Elmo Brady circa 1910 via chemistry.illiois.edu]

GBN’s Daily Drop: Learn About Mary Fields aka “Stagecoach Mary” – 1st Black Woman Contracted to Deliver U.S. Mail

GBN’s Daily Drop: Learn About Mary Fields aka “Stagecoach Mary” – 1st Black Woman Contracted to Deliver U.S. Mail

By goodblacknews on March 12, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Saturday, March 12 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 about Mary Fields aka “Stagecoach Mary” the formerly enslaved woman who delivered mail for the U.S. Postal Service in the Old West:

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Saturday, March 12th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Nicknames in the Old West had to be earned, not given. “Stagecoach Mary” was no exception. After the Civil War, the newly freed Mary Fields worked as a groundskeeper at a convent.

After clashing with several nuns who objected to her smoking, drinking and gun-toting gruffness, Fields accepted a donated stagecoach from a sympathetic Mother Superior and used it to pursue a new line of work.

In 1895, Fields became the first Black woman to get a postal service contract to deliver the U.S. mail. With her guns and tough demeanor, “Stagecoach Mary” unfailingly protected her route from bandits and became beloved by locals in Cascade, Montana.
To learn more about Stagecoach Mary, you can read Deliverance Mary Fields, First African American Woman Star Route Mail Carrier in the United States: A Montana History by Miantae Metcalf McConnell from 2016, the 2019 children’s picture book Fearless Mary: Mary Fields, American Stagecoach Driver written by Tami Charles and illustrated by Claire Almon, or the 2007 book African American Women of the Old West by Tricia Wagner on which Mary graces the cover.

You can also watch 2016’s True First: African American Legends and their Untold Stories documentary on her on AllBlk via Amazon, or listen to the very informative 2021 episode about Mary on the podcast Black Cowboys.

Links to these and other sources are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. Additional music permitted under Public Domain license: “Maple Leaf Rag” composed by Scott Joplin.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(paid links)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Black Lexicon – What “Sadiddy” Means (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Black Lexicon – What “Sadiddy” Means (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 11, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast looks at our Black Lexicon category “Lemme Break It Down” from the Friday, March 11 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 where we explain the term “Sadiddy”:

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Friday, March 11th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

It’s in the category we call “Lemme Break It Down,” where we explore the origins and meanings of words and phrases rooted in the Black Lexicon and Black culture. Today’s word? “Sadiddy.”

“Sadiddy” — s-a-d-i-d-d-y — is a term meaning stuck-up, snobby, arrogant, conceited or superior- acting. What Brandy says she ain’t in her 2004 song of the same name:

[Excerpt from “Sadiddy” by Brandy]

Alternate spellings include “s-e-d-i-t-ty-,” “s-a-d-d-i-t-y,” “s-a-d-i-t-t-y” or basically any two words put together that sound like “suh” and “ditty.” The word is traceable in written form to the 1940s, where it was employed in several African American newspaper columns.

Example usage: “She used to be cool, but ever since she bought that used Mercedes, she’s acting all sadiddy.”

To learn more about sadiddy, there are two great segments on the A Way With Words show on Soundcloud, that discuss the etymology of “sadiddy” in more detail, and I’ll provide the links to both in today’s show notes as well embed them in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

GBN’s Daily Drop: Quote on Women’s Rights from Abolitionist and Activist Sojourner Truth (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Quote on Women’s Rights from Abolitionist and Activist Sojourner Truth (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 10, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Thursday, March 10 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 and features a quote from abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Sojourner Truth:

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Thursday, March 10th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Today we offer a quote from Sojourner Truth, the first Black woman in America to obtain national fame for her activism and protesting, and who was featured in our March 2^nd Daily Drop. Here’s the quote:

“That…man…says women can’t have as much rights as man, ‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman. Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with him.”

This quote from the formerly enslaved Truth comes from a speech she gave in 1851 at a women’s rights convention.

To learn more about Truth, I’ll include the link to our March 2^nd Daily Drop, as it contains more details on her life and work, as well as providing links to sources for further exploration and research. Enjoy.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com,Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can give a positive rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

GBN’s Daily Drop: Quote from Journalist and Anti-Lynching Activist Ida B. Wells on Virtue and Respect (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Quote from Journalist and Anti-Lynching Activist Ida B. Wells on Virtue and Respect (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 8, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Tuesday, March 8 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 that features a quote from formidable journalist, anti-lynching and women’s rights activist Ida B. Wells Barnett:

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Tuesday, March 8th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Today we offer a quote from formidable journalist, anti-lynching and women’s rights activist Ida B. Wells Barnett, from her landmark 1895 book The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States. Here’s the quote:

“Virtue knows no color line, and the chivalry which depends upon complexion of skin and texture of hair can command no honest respect.”

In 2020, Wells received a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for journalism, and her face honored the centennial of the U.S. Suffragist Movement in a mosaic art installation in Washington D.C.’s Union Station. And in 2022, Mattel added a tribute doll of Wells to their Barbie Inspiring Women Series.

In her hometown of Holly Springs, Mississippi, the Ida B.Wells-Barnett Museum acts as a cultural center of African American history. Awards have been established in Wells’s name by the National Association of Black Journalists, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and the New York County Lawyers Assn., among others.

Wells is a helluva historical figure who, even with recent documentaries and accolades, is still not known well enough. Her whole life is fascinating, and worth learning about extensively, and I shortly will point you to several resources. But if you don’t have time for it now, here is a great quote summing up Wells’ importance in the fight for equality and justice from the New York Times review of the 1999 biography on Wells. And here’s the quote:

“Linda O. McMurry‘s important new biography, To Keep the Waters Troubled, tells the story of an extraordinary American who would have been at the very summit of our national pantheon except for two things: her sex and her race. But then again, being born into a society that promised individual freedom and personal power — just not to blacks, not to women and above all not to black women — was the source of Ida B. Wells’s remarkable story.”

To learn more about Wells, read her pamphlet published in 1892 titled Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, 1895’s The Red Record, which covered Black people’s struggles in the South since the Civil War and explored the alarmingly high rates of lynchings in the U.S.

You can also check out her autobiography, Crusade for Justice which Wells started in 1928 but left unfinished when she died of kidney failure in 1931. Her youngest daughter, she worked for 40 years to get it into print. There are also the biographies Ida: A Sword Among Lions from 2009 by Paula J. Giddings, To Keep the Waters Troubled: The Life of Ida B. Wells by Linda O. McMurry from 2000 and To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells by Mia Bay from 2010, and there’s also a visual documentary by WTTW Chicago available on YouTube.

Links to these and other sources are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing. Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. Additional music included and permitted under Public Domain license was “Gladiolus Rag” cmposed by Scott Joplin.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

Posts published in “History”

20th Century Global Superstar, Activist and Spy Josephine Baker’s Cheeky Quote on Getting Ahead From Behind (LISTEN)

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Paul Laurence Dunbar: The 19th Century Poet, Lyricist and Author Who Celebrated Black Speech and Vernacular #WorldPoetryDay (LISTEN)

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GBN’s Daily Drop (bonus): Celebrating Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Rock and Roll Innovator Born On This Day in 1915 (LISTEN)

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Born On This Day in 1894: American Comedy Pioneer Moms Mabley (LISTEN)

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GBN’s Daily Drop: “Freedom’s Journal,” the 1st Black-Owned Newspaper in the U.S., Founded 195 Years Ago #OnThisDay (LISTEN)

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GBN’s Daily Drop: Dr. Saint Elmo Brady, the 1st African American Person to Earn a Chemistry Ph.D. in the U.S. (LISTEN)

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GBN’s Daily Drop: Learn About Mary Fields aka “Stagecoach Mary” – 1st Black Woman Contracted to Deliver U.S. Mail

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GBN’s Daily Drop: Black Lexicon – What “Sadiddy” Means (LISTEN)

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GBN’s Daily Drop: Quote on Women’s Rights from Abolitionist and Activist Sojourner Truth (LISTEN)

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GBN’s Daily Drop: Quote from Journalist and Anti-Lynching Activist Ida B. Wells on Virtue and Respect (LISTEN)

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Posts published in “History”

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