The Million Man March (pictured throughout), one of the most moving and emotional moments ever in African-American history, took place on the grounds of the National Mall on this day in 1995. The symbolic importance and cultural impact of the huge gathering signified a shift in the attention on issues that plagued urban environs and minorities. The National African American Leadership Summit and the Nation of Islam worked in tandem alongside local chapters of the NAACP to make the March a reality.
Posts published in “History”
On Oct. 14, 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the civil rights movement at age 35, making him the youngest person to receive the honor. By the mid-’60s, King was known internationally for his work in advocating racial equality through nonviolent civil disobedience. King was influenced by Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi and appropriated many of his theories about nonviolence in his organization of peaceful protests that were often met with brutal violence by whites.
Upon notification of his Nobel win, King announced that he would donate the $54,123 in prize money to further the civil rights movement. King continued to work as an activist and an outspoken advocate of civil rights until he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee.
article by Naeesa Aziz via bet.com (Photo: Keystone/Getty Images)
article by Naeesa Aziz via bet.com (Photo: Keystone/Getty Images)
Scores of men, women and children attended the recent unveiling of a statue honoring the late civil rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer in her hometown of Ruleville, Miss. Hamer, who would have been 95 on Oct. 6, is remembered the world over as a woman who was “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” At the time of her death, on March 14th, 1977, Hamer was almost penniless, yet her funeral was well attended by celebrities, social activists and political leaders from all walks of life.
Article below reprinted from newsone.com:
The men and women who serve on the front lines as firefighters, rescuing citizens in harm’s way, should be saluted daily for their bravery. In one of the most-dangerous and selfless occupations in the world, firefighters risk their lives for the safety of others at a moment’s notice. Even though history has not been kind to the memory of African-American firemen, their contribution to firefighting is a significant one. Still, even with the most-dedicated research, it is difficult to ascertain who were the first African-Americans who took up the role as firefighters.
Several sources, including the richly detailed website from historian Mike Legeros, all point to the summer of 1817 as being the earliest record that Black firemen existed in New Orleans, La. Although Black men stamping out blazes could have happened before then, there is no real evidence available in capturing this historic truth. According to Legeros, 1821 and 1833 also show evidence of freed men joining firemen ranks in New Orleans, but like before, the records were poorly kept and the facts disjointed.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFqDKg5YSnY&w=560&h=315]
Col. John McKee’s vision of his legacy, meticulously recorded in his will, was breathtaking:
A garrisonlike naval academy would grace the bank of the Delaware River in Bristol. A bronze replica of the colonel on horseback would survey the boys who traversed the integrated campus. Embossed on their brass buttons would be the name of McKee, said to be the richest African American at his death in 1902.
History did not quite unfold according to McKee’s plan.
Today, McKee remains an obscure giant of Philadelphia history, a businessman whose achievements in life have been at least matched by his contribution in death.
He is responsible for considerably more than 1,000 scholarships given to fatherless boys during the last 57 years, according to the administrator of a trust he endowed. In the last 10 years alone, the McKee Scholarships have funded almost $4 million for the postsecondary education of 239 young men.
And yet for 89 years, he lay in an unmarked grave; not the brick-and-marble family vault he ordered in his will, not even in his original plot.
McKee wrote his will almost two years before his death, drafting exactly how he wanted to be remembered. But even with a fortune estimated at $2 million, in death he quickly lost control of events.
Born in Alexandria, Va., McKee made his way at 21 to Philadelphia in the early 1840s.
He initially found work in a livery stable and then a restaurant at Eighth and Market Streets owned by James Prosser, a well-known African American caterer. McKee married Prosser’s daughter Emeline, and ran the restaurant until 1866, before he started buying property throughout Philadelphia.
At his death, his holdings were an empire: more than 300 rental houses in the city, as well as his own house at 1030 Lombard St., an estate in Bristol Township, Bucks County, and several hundred thousand acres throughout West Virginia, Georgia, and Kentucky.
ST. HELENA ISLAND, S.C. — The Penn Center, a historic African American cultural institution that once educated freed slaves on the South Carolina coast and later served as a retreat center for civil rights leaders such as the Rev. Martin Luther King, is celebrating its 150th anniversary.
The Penn Center on Saint Helena Island started in 1862 as one of the nation’s first schools for emancipated blacks and, at the turn of the 20th Century, became an agricultural and industrial school.
Duke University has announced that it has acquired a vast archive of papers of John Hope Franklin. Professor Franklin was the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University and one of the most prolific and respected historians of the twentieth century. He died of congestive heart failure on March 25, 2009 at Duke University Hospital. He was 94 years old.
The archive includes more than 300 boxes of materials that were donated to the university by his son and daughter-in-law. Included in the archive are diaries, correspondence, manuscripts, drafts of speeches, photographs, and video recordings. The collection will be housed at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke. The collection will be made available to researchers once it has been preserved and cataloged.
John Hope Franklin was born in Rentiesville, Oklahoma, in 1915. His grandfather had been a slave. His father was one of the first black lawyers in Oklahoma. His mother was a schoolteacher. Franklin was named after John Hope, the former president of Morehouse College and Atlanta University.
Franklin attended racially segregated schools in Oklahoma. He was valedictorian of his high school class. He wanted to attend the University of Oklahoma but at that time, and for many years later, the state’s flagship university was closed to blacks.
The Austin History Center has a story tell you — it’s tales of the African-American community during Travis County’s first 100 years. It’s called “Building a Community: The First Century of African-American Life in Travis County.” The exhibit begins in 1839 when the county was found, followed by the end of slavery in 1865, and follows all the way through 1940. Many freed slaves opened up businesses around town.
Figures inside the African Burial Ground museum, depicting a burial. (Amal Chen/The Epoch Times)
NEW YORK—The African Burial Ground National Monument, a hallowed resting place for slaves for more than a century and from which 419 remains were exhumed in the early ’90s, is set to reopen after renovations finish in October. The burial ground is on the corner of Duane and Elk Streets, just north of City Hall.
The story of J. Herman Banning, an aviator who made a series of historic firsts, is an inspiring tale worthy of being retold for generations on end. Born James Herman Banning in Oklahoma in 1899, he would later move his family to the town of Ames, Iowa in 1919. Enrolling into Iowa State, Banning briefly studied electrical engineering but later ended his collegiate career after being called to the skies.