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Although Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday will not be nationally observed until January 21st this year, we want to honor King today as well, on his actual day of birth. Learn more about this monumental agent of change, his life and work on biography.com, and watch his famous last speech “I’ve Been To The Mountaintop” above.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
Posts tagged as “history”
Emancipation Proclamation Stamp dedication at The National Archives by (left to right) Danny Davis, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Ronald Stroman, David Ferriero, A’Leila Bundles, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon. (Photo: U.S. Postal Service)
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, creating what Deputy Postmaster General Ronald A. Stroman called, “a powerful symbol of President Lincoln’s determination to end the war, to end slavery, and to reconstruct the economy of the country without slave labor.
Some may not know how much of a part African-Americans played in the Civil War, but the National Library of Medicine has produced a free, traveling exhibit to shed light on their work in the health field during that time. “Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries” explores black Americans’ contributions as nurses, surgeons and hospital staff during the war.
According to the National Library of Medicine, for African-Americans, the Civil War was “a fight for freedom and a chance for full participation in American society.” “Their participation challenged the prescribed notions of both race and gender and pushed the boundaries of the role of blacks in America,” the site reads.
Eartha Kitt (left); Dizzy Gillespie (Ebony Collection)
You’ve heard the expression “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Photos have the ability to tell complex stories, convey important information and elicit emotional responses from viewers who may know nothing of the subject matter. One frame can change the world. Think of the iconic photographs that have come to symbolize a movement, a way of being or a slice of life.
Joe Rosenthal’s “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima“; Moneta Sleet Jr.’s “Deep Sorrow,” featuring Coretta Scott King at the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.; James Van Der Zee’s photo of black nationalist and pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey; Elizabeth “Tex” Williams’ war photographs; Art Kane’s “A Great Day in Harlem“; Gordon Parks’ “American Gothic“; Carrie Mae Weems’ “Kitchen Table Series“; and Jean Moutoussamy-Ashe’s photo book, Daddy and Me, featuring images of her late husband, tennis legend and civil rights activist Arthur Ashe, with their daughter, Camera.
Photos offer us a peek into unknown worlds and, in some cases, worlds we know all too well. Chronicling our lives and society, they capture history and the profound experiences of a complex world. The Johnson Publishing Co.’s Ebony Collection, now available to the public for the first time, does just that. This historic photo archive offers 2,000 photos taken over the last 70 years, documenting the rich and layered black experience in the United States.
In Oklahoma, two judges have made history by becoming the first African-Americans to head up two of the state’s highest courts.
Tom Colbert is set to become chief justice of the nine-member Oklahoma Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Colbert’s law school classmate, David B. Lewis, is poised to become presiding judge of the five-member Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.
The Tulsa World describes what both men have in common:
Both men were raised by single mothers, are former prosecutors and worked in private practice.
Both are runners – Colbert is a sprinter, while Lewis runs for distance.
And former Gov. Brad Henry appointed both as the first blacks to hold a post on their respective appeals courts.
Colbert says he owes his success to those who came before him and paved the way for him.
The chief justice will be in charge of overseeing district courts in Oklahoma’s 77 counties. But as far as Colbert is concerned, his job doesn’t stop there. He’s looking forward to mentoring kids so that he can pass on some of what he’s learned on his road to success.
Colbert also offered a bit of advice, saying, ”There are great opportunities out there if you believe in yourself and try to stay on the right path,” he said. Lewis said that he happy with his achievements, but went on to say that it is important for people to understand that success doesn’t happen overnight.
article via yourblackworld.net
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.
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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.
In this 1996 photo released by Ana de la Merced Guimaraes, bones from African slaves sit in boxes after being recovered by Guimaraes in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (AP Photo/Ana de la Merced Guimaraes)
RIO DE JANEIRO — Wearing full-skirted white dresses and turbans, the religious leaders chanted blessings and sprinkled water on the concrete floor of a modest house near this city’s port. Beneath their feet were the remains of tens of thousands of African slaves who had died shortly after arriving from their horrific sea voyage. The bodies had been dumped into a fetid, open-air cemetery, often chopped up and mixed with trash. With the 15-minute ceremony this week, the Afro-Brazilian priests were finally giving the slaves at least the semblance of a proper burial centuries later.
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — A U.S. man says he has discovered the audio tape of a forgotten interview with civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that was never published.
Stephon Tull says he recently found the nearly pristine reel-to-reel recording in his father’s attic in Tennessee. His father interviewed King in 1960 for a never-written memoir.
The tape captures King talking about the civil rights movement and relations with Africa. New York collector Keya Morgan authenticated the tape and is arranging a private sale.
Raymond Winbush of the Institute for Urban Research says there are few recordings of King speaking about the civil rights movement’s global impact.
On tape, King says of the struggle, “… historians will have to record this movement as one of the greatest epics of our heritage.”
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
via New Martin Luther King Jr audio found | theGrio.