Tag: Black History

Juneteenth–2020

Closing Thought–19Jun20

Donald the Orange has decided to once again hold his rallies…the only way he can control the message in public…..he will return to the propaganda trail in Tulsa…..

President Trump is planning to hold his first rally of the coronavirus era on June 19 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And he says he’s planning more events in Florida, Texas, and Arizona as well. Trump made the announcement as he met with a handful of African American supporters Wednesday afternoon for a roundtable discussion, the AP reports. Trump’s signature rallies often draw tens of thousands of people but have been on hiatus since March 2 because of the coronavirus pandemic. “A beautiful new venue, brand new. We’re looking forward to it,” Trump said during a White House event. “They’ve done a great job with COVID, as you know, the state of Oklahoma.” The rally will take place on Juneteenth, the commemoration of the ending of slavery in the US.

Sorry but a bad choice….unless you want to reinforce the racist accusations against the campaign…..

I have written several post explaining the importance of 19 June or Juneteenth…..https://lobotero.com/2017/06/19/juneteenth-our-other-independence-day/  or  https://lobotero.com/2018/06/19/closing-thought-19jun18/ and more  https://lobotero.com/2019/06/19/the-other-independence-day/

Trump will do something…..Out of respect? 

“Many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of respect for this Holiday, and in observance of this important occasion and all that it represents,” he wrote Friday night in a series of tweets. He noted that the “big deal” rally is now scheduled for next Saturday, June 20, and claimed that ticket requests have been “in excess of 200,000.” The Hill notes that his switch regarding the rally, which will be his first one in over three months due to the coronavirus pandemic, is a “rare instance of [him] giving in to criticism,” though Trump had insisted earlier that the choosing of June 19 as the original date wasn’t intentional.

Out of respect is just another lie for the slobbering supporters.

Trump was not finished embarrassing his ass…..he then asserts that no one every heard of Juneteenth……until he brought it to the news…..

“I did something good: I made Juneteenth very famous,” Trump said, a reference to his decision to postpone a campaign rally from June 19 to June 20. He said a black Secret Service agent told him about the day’s significance: a celebration of the end of slavery. “It’s actually an important event, an important time. But nobody had ever heard of it.” Trump was surprised when informed his own White House has previously marked the occasion. Sen. Kamala Harris was among those ridiculing Trump’s assertion, notes USA Today.

But in case you are on of those people that never heard of the day and  would like more info and history on why this is a terrible idea……to hold a racist rally on this day that is……https://theblackwallsttimes.com/category/history

And before Tulsa there was a riot in East St. Louis about 4 years earlier……

In East St. Louis, as in other cities across the nation, white people resented every effort of African Americans to improve their social and economic conditions during the 20th century. In this instance, white residents erupted in violence in response to Black migrants coming into the city in droves — mostly from the South. During World War I, the labor market significantly expanded to meet the needs of military production. With a growing demand for industrial workers in the North, Black Southerners flocked to places like East St. Louis. In response, white business owners worked to block new migrants from gaining economic or political power.

Even though Black workers held the most menial jobs and received lower wages than their peers, white people in East St. Louis still viewed them as a threat. And they were determined to keep Black people “in their place” through acts of violence and intimidation. In May 1917, a group of white workers filed formal complaints against Black migrants in the city, blaming African Americans for taking “their” jobs in local factories.

https://theintercept.com/2020/06/10/east-st-louis-race-riot-1917-protests/

As the lives of Afro-Americans were starting to improve the rest of society was not handling it well and riots broke out trying to put blacks back in the “place”.

And that brings us to today…and not much has really changed.

Sorry but a change in date will not make things better for this president……

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Get Over It!”

It is the “real” Memorial Day and as a Vietnam veteran I have often wondered why all the films made about that war feature mostly white guys….Blacks came home to worse things than us whites….and no one has ever cared…..

Spike Lee will change that…..finally the story of black Vietnam veterans will be told.

When Dedan Kimathi Ji Jaga returned from combat in Vietnam, he painted his walls black, covered his windows and sat in darkness all day. His injuries and post-traumatic stress were severe, but as with many African American soldiers in 1968, the US government gave him little support.

“They summarily released me back to the streets with no aid,” said the 72-year-old California resident.

Black veterans across America are hoping this painful and enduring legacy will get the attention it deserves in Spike Lee’s new film, Da 5 Bloods, which chronicles the journey of four African American vets who return to Vietnam in search of their fallen squad leader and buried gold.

“The plight of African American service members who served in Vietnam, where they are now, why they are the way they are, this should be brought to light,” said Richard D Kingsberry, a veteran in Charlotte, North Carolina, who began his service in 1972 in the navy. “A lot of African American service members never got cared for properly after they returned, and that is a life-altering impact.”

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/may/22/spike-lee-vietnam-da-5-bloods-black-veterans

After so many years their stories can be told…..a bit late but maybe it will help people understand….

Here is a story that will NEVER be told…..

Image

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Death Of Malcolm X

On 21Feb1965 Black leader Malcolm X was assassinated in NYC……..

In New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights.

https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/142725

The question still remains……why was he killed?

Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, born Malcolm Little) was an influential and inspirational figure to the Afro-Americans in the United States.  A powerful orator, excellent debater and willing to preach “The price of freedom is death,” led for his personality and teachings to be printed across the U.S. and the world.

There are three possible answers.  Three—because each on its own isn’t satisfactory.  Examining the motives behind the killing inevitably leads for more questions to be asked and before you know it, you’re in too deep.

https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/142725

Many people do not like Malcolm X because of his supposed hate for white people….some of that is warranted but after he returned from the Hajj his tone changed for the better to include all people…….

I offer a few videos for those interested…..

https://youtu.be/iAgNk4LzbIw

This video is a long piece but should be seen to understand the man and the movement he inspired……

https://youtu.be/i7klC1zR60M

This one is a short video that was made for children to acquaint them with the man…..

https://youtu.be/lERbO006Ppk

Malcolm X was more than the negativity that is always bought up when his name is mentioned…….he should be required for any history of America.

Black Face–Another Sad Chapter

We are still hearing about the use of black face by white people to depict a black person…..why?

Virginia is in the news and black face is also…..but what of black face?  It is the 21st century and we are still talking about this act of bigotry.

Yes, there is a long disgusting history of its use in the US…..

Once called the “king of performers,” Al Jolson was famous in the 1920s for his portrayal of blackface.

It’s ironic on the first day of Black History Month a raging controversy erupted in America that recalls one of the more demeaning chapters, that of ‘blackface’, of American Black History.

The controversy prevailed after pages from the 1984 year-book of Virginia Governor Ralph Norton’s tenure at medical school was made public showing individuals dressed in blackface, and a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) uniform, hood and all.

The gravity of the situation not recognized

As the controversy rage, with calls for Northam to resign over his association with the blatant racist images, which he denies involves him, some people within the Caribbean American community failed to recognize the gravity of the situation. Some wondered why should the government pay a price for behavior as a young man of 25, some 35 years ago?

It’s not surprising this question would be asked. As has been seen in the past, several Caribbean Americans, although they are of the black race don’t fully comprehend, or appreciate some of the significance, especially the more negative aspects, of American Black history.

https://caribbeantimesnyc.com/2019/02/blackface-a-sorry-aspect-of-black-history/

I think it is sad that since this situation is a dire need of a solution that I had to find this article in the Caribbean Times…..

Now I ask….are we truly having a conversation on this situation or we just throwing diatribes at it?

I grew up in the racist South of the 50s and 60s and I do not see this as something that we should avoid….we need to air all the

Further Reading……..arguments and not the platitudes.

https://www.black-face.com/

https://www.vox.com/2014/10/29/7089591/why-is-blackface-offensive-halloween-costume

Lincoln And The Emancipation

As a history buff I am always looking for stuff that the normal person may not be aware of or did not learn while in school…..the major event in American history that gets a lot of attention is the “emancipation” but is it all that we think we know about it?

John Brown was executed by the state of Virginia with the approval of the national government. It was the national government which, while weakly enforcing the law ending the slave trade, sternly enforced the laws providing for the return of fugitives to slavery. It was the national government that, in Andrew Jackson’s administration, collaborated with the South to keep abolitionist literature out of the mails in the southern states. It was the Supreme Court of the United States that declared in 1857 that the slave Dred Scott could not sue for his freedom because he was not a person, but property.

Such a national government would never accept an end to slavery by rebellion. It would end slavery only under conditions controlled by whites, and only when required by the political and economic needs of the business elite of the North. It was Abraham Lincoln who combined perfectly the needs of business, the political ambition of the new Republican party, and the rhetoric of humanitarianism. He would keep the abolition of slavery not at the top of his list of priorities, but close enough to the top so it could be pushed there temporarily by abolitionist pressures and by practical political advantage.

Lincoln could skillfully blend the interests of the very rich and the interests of the black at a moment in history when these interests met. And he could link these two with a growing section of Americans, the white, up-and-coming, economically ambitious, politically active middle class. As Richard Hofstadter puts it:

https://libcom.org/history/lincoln-emancipation-howard-zinn

I like Zinn and may I suggest that his book “A People’s History Of The United States”….. a long read but well worth the time to do so.

Learn Stuff!

The more you learn the more you know……how’s that for a profound statement?

Class Dismissed!

Ever Hear Of The “Harlem Hellfighters”?

Sunday and I must get off my butt and start getting the garden ready for the crops of the year…..but before that I need to offer up another history lesson….(I hear those heavy sighs)…..

I have been writing and trying to get more Americans to pay attention to World War One……it was century ago and while American troops were only there for about a year and actually fought for about 6 months we still lost about 116,000 troops……in case you cannot feel the size of that…we lost 53,000 in Vietnam in ten years….

There were and are many stories of the units that fought in this war and one of those units is the Harlem Hellfighters……

A century ago, on Feb. 17, 1919, the US Army’s 369th Infantry Regiment, nearly 3,000 African American soldiers and known as the Harlem Hellfighters, returned from World War I and marched up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan before hundreds of thousands of cheering New Yorkers. The Harlem Hellfighters weren’t supposed to be heroes, but they were among the “hyphenated” troops whose accomplishments demonstrate that the United States’ asymmetric advantage, in war as well as in peace, is diversity.

The 369th Infantry Regiment was part of the Army’s Rainbow Division, 27,000 troops from across the country quickly mustered after the US entered World War I in April 1917. Most of the division shipped out to Europe in August of that year; the Hellfighters didn’t arrive in France until late December. They had not been allowed to march off to war with the rest of their Rainbow Division because “black is not a color of the rainbow.”

American military leaders expected the troops of the 369th to be terrible soldiers. Like most black recruits in World War I, they weren’t intended to fight but to be manual laborers at the front. They were issued inferior uniforms and weapons, and then, in an emergency, they were transferred to the French army, whose officers were explicitly told to treat them as second-class soldiers.

Despite the discrimination and the disadvantages, the men of the 369th became one of the war’s most decorated and celebrated units.

Read the full piece in the Los Angeles Times.

That is my offerings for the day……

Go! Learn Stuff!

Have a great day……I shall be back in full force come Monday…..

Closing Thought–19Jun18

Today is Juneteenth……and most Americans this means nothing to them other than another day in June …..but this day is full of history……I guess it could be billed as the Black Independence Day……

June 19 is just another day, and another insignificant day on the calendar. However, for those who are direct descendants of former slaves, the day holds a much bigger significance, as it is the oldest known celebration to commemorate the ending of slavery in the United States.

According to Juneteenth.com, June 19, 1865 was the date that Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas and brought the news that the Civil War was officially over and those who had previously been enslaved were not free men and women. The website notes how important that is in relation to President Abraham Lincoln’s famous Emancipation Proclamation, which had become official two and a half years earlier, on January 1, 1863.

“The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order,” the website states. “However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865 and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.”

http://www.ibtimes.com/what-juneteenth-why-it-celebrated-2553731

For more information in case you missed it……

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States.  Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – which had become official January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865, and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.

http://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm

Hopefully you learned something today…..peace out my friends….chuq

Closing Thought–19May17

Remembering Malcolm X

On this day, 19May, in 1925 a great American civil rights activist was born…..

African-American leader and prominent figure in the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X articulated concepts of race pride and black nationalism in the 1950s and ’60s.

Born on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska, Malcolm X was a prominent black nationalist leader who served as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam during the 1950s and ’60s. Due largely to his efforts, the Nation of Islam grew from a mere 400 members at the time he was released from prison in 1952 to 40,000 members by 1960. Articulate, passionate and a naturally gifted and inspirational orator, Malcolm X exhorted blacks to cast off the shackles of racism “by any means necessary,” including violence. The fiery civil rights leader broke with the group shortly before his assassination on February 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, where he had been preparing to deliver a speech.

Source: Malcolm X – Civil Rights Activist, Minister – Biography.com

A short vid about Malcolm’s last years……

Source: X: Malcolm’s Final Years

This country is a better place when we have people like Malcolm fighting for our rights……we need more Malcolms and less d/bags….

That ends my week……I will start my weekend with a smile and a song….

Jackson State: The Other “Kent State”

Closing Thought–15May17

Today in History

1820–the US Congress designates the slave trade as a form of piracy…..

1970–year of student deaths…….

We were recently reminded about the deaths among the protesting students at Kent State…..but why is that news and a couple a weeks later students were killed at a prominently black university in Mississippi, Jackson State?

Yep, another history lesson is on the way…..

In the Spring of 1970, campus communities across this country were characterized by a chorus of protests and demonstrations. The issues were the escalation of the war in Vietnam and the U.S. invasion of Cambodia; the ecology; racism and repression; and the inclusion of the experiences of women and minorities in the educational system. No institution of higher education was left untouched by confrontations and continuous calls for change.

On May 14-15, 1970, Jackson State students were protesting these issues as well as the May 4, 1970 tragedy at Kent State University in Ohio. Four Kent State students — Alison Krause, Sandra Scheuer, Jeffrey Glenn Miller and William K. Schroeder — were killed by Ohio National Guardsmen.

According to reports, the riot began around 9:30 p.m., May 14, when rumors were spread that Fayette, Mississippi mayor Charles Evers (brother of slain Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers) and his wife had been shot and killed. Upon hearing this rumor, a small group of students rioted.

Source: The Jackson State shootings, 1970

Neither at the time, nor 45 years later did the Jackson State killings have the same effect on people that Kent state did. (Not that middle America was terribly worried about the Kent State killing either, since 58 percent of them decided the students were to blame.) Perhaps they simply were overpowered by the loudness of Kent state, and a similar incident with a smaller body count was doomed to appear as just aftershocks. Yet, it seems unjust to forget one and sing about the other.

Source: Jackson State and Forgotten History by — Antiwar.com

It is sad that this incident is basically forgotten in the annals of history……

Black History Month–William Carney

During Black History Month I like to spotlight some people that most Americans have never heard of or the contribution they made to our society….

Who was the first African-American to win the Congressional Medal of Honor?

You guessed it…….William Carney.

William Carney was the first African-American recipient.

He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions on July 18, 1863 at Fort Wagner, S.C. while a member of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment in the Civil War — the state’s first all-black regiment. During the disastrous battle at Ft. Wagner, Carney noticed that the man who carried the flag had been wounded.

So Carney bravely rescued the flag and carried it for him. He delivered it safely to his regiment and reportedly shouted “Boys, the old flag never touched the ground.” Carney was wounded during the battle but was not killed.

After the war he spent 31 years working for the postal service. Finally, in May 1900, Carney became the first African-American to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. His brave deed is depicted on the Saint-Gaudens Monument in Boston and the rescued flag is enshrined in Memorial Hall, also in Boston.

Here is more information on Carney from the William H. Carney Elementary School and the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.