So Very Few Americans Know Our Own National History

This man, Matthew Cooke, says it so well and so right.  Go here and watch this video.  And know it's true. Know he has his facts andour American history straight and correct. It's a very brief but very helpful to the point of important video, I feel strongly.

Trump-Republicans are the Modern Confederates: Let us not repeat 150-year old mistakes

I've said time and again, so very few Americans know our full, true national history and what that has meant for----and done to--- African-Americans and Blacks in our nation, even right up to today. 

We have to learn.

And then we have to react. We have to correct.

Fortunately, some, a few, are now seeing the insurrection and attack on our nation's Capitol last month for the treason it was.

McConnell: Trump Tricked Me Into Backing His Coup

They're also seeing Ms. Greene for what and who she is.

McConnell calls Rep. Greene's 'loony lies' a 'cancer' on GOP

No situation any better proves the old adage that if you don't know your own history, you are bound to repeat it any better than now, especially with that insurrection and treason of the traitors last month with the attack on our nation's Capitol.

Rather Shocking Racist, White Catholic News Breaking Today

 I couldn't believe what my eyes were telling me today. This broke a few hours ago.

Pope Francis Appoints First African-American Cardinal

Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, who led the Roman Catholic Church’s response to the sexual abuse crisis in the early 2000s, was among 13 new cardinals named on Sunday.

What the what??

This Pope, Catholics, appointing their FIrST African-American Cardinal??

Now??  October 25, 2020??  Now??

How long have they been in Africa?  How many years?  Hell--pun intended--how many CENTURIES??

So I searched it.  From Wikipedia:

The Catholic Church in Africa refers to parts of the Catholic Church in the various countries in the continent of Africa.

Christian activity in Africa began in the 1st century when the Patriarchate of Alexandria in Egypt was formed as one of the four original Patriarchs of the East (the others being Constantinople, Antioch, and Jerusalem).

All that time, all these centuries, in fact, in Africa and you're only just now, in late 2020 APPOINTING YOUR FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN CARDINAL??

And check this out, too. In my research, I found a Catholic website and page and look at this little fact about Catholics and the people and continent of Africa.

Why is Catholicism so vibrant in Africa?

This:

A person recently moaned to me about the slippage in regular Mass attendance in this country and the drought in vocations. This person had a point. Regular Mass attendance on weekends quickly is becoming the exception, rather than the rule, in this country. Nuns are few and becoming fewer. Seminarians are not many, compared to the past.

This same person opined that celibacy has caused this decline in vocations to the priesthood, and if the pope and bishops had any sense, they would end mandatory celibacy for priests tomorrow.

I simply asked, what about Africa? Celibacy is required there, and they do not have enough seminaries despite the flood of vocations. (We see a sign of this phenomenon in this country: African priests are serving in almost every diocese in the United States, because they are sent here as missionaries!)

No way I thought it would take to now, today, literally, this day in 2020 to finally, finally have an African-American Cardinal. They've been all over the African continent for literally centuries and they're JUST NOW getting the first African-American Cardinal?

Bleached white religion much? Wow. That is some major chutzpah.

In the 60's, when there was so much racial strife and protests and killings and burnings, apparently the Catholics and their Church didn't think it necessary to maybe, just maybe, after all those centuries, of, say,  elevating an African-American to the level of Cardinal in their organization. I find it extremely difficult to believe there was no candidate or were no candidates available that could have filled the role.

So now, as of today, this Pope and the Catholic Church finally, finally appointed an African-American for the post of Cardinal.

How good of them.

Bleached white religion there much, fellas?

Because, Hell, we know you're not putting yer wimmin' in charge.

Right?

And if you look at one at their own Catholic page websites, they're actually congratulating themselves for this announcement today.

Stunning. Seriously stunning. Shocking.

Racist and sexist, both. Those Catholics got it all goin' on.

I can't imagine how they aren't personally and collectively embarrassed by this.

Link:

Catholic Church in Africa 

America's Persistent Racism--And Just Two of Its Effects

Two quick statistics, out today in the Sunday New York Times, from two separate articles:

--In the early 1950s, the median income of Chicago's public housing residents was nearly two-thirds of the citywide average. By 1970, it was barely one-third that.

--And today, Black mothers--and babies, both--in the United States are dying at more than double the rate of white mothers and babies.

But, sure, someone ask why they don't "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps."

We segregate, separate, large numbers of fellow Americans, by color, for God's sake, away from us but also away from jobs, certainly away from the better paying jobs, too, give them an inferior education then are surprised they're on welfare. Then, when they can and do get some measly help, that welfare, we insist they work for it, as though it's easy for them to have a car. Keeping in mind, we also don't want there to be mass transit so maybe they can get around our cities, to and from those jobs, quickly, easily and at low cost.

Freaking brilliant.

And then it's done by the wealthy of our society, people who were born to and given large amounts of money, from birth, like our own current President, and too many of the rest of us go along with this ugliness and insanity.

It's a great thing we're a "Christian nation", isn't it?
Links:

Why America's Black Mothers and Babies 

Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis 

Mass incarceration of African Americans 

affects the racial achievement 

Black Americans incarcerated five times 

more than white people

Why We Have Black History Month

What it's like to be Black in America.

How segregated school districts 

keep black children in poverty

How Home Ownership Keeps 

Blacks Poorer Than Whites - Forbes

Black People More Likely to Be Stopped 

by Cops, Study Finds

Blacks Are Most Likely To Be 

Arrested By Police

Black people twice as likely to be charged with drugs

Black people six times more likely to face drug arrest

Study: Whites More Likely to Abuse Drugs Than Blacks

Whites deal more drugs, but 

blacks get arrested more often

Black People Are Way More Likely To Be Killed By Police Than Their White Peers: Study

Black Americans incarcerated five times 

more than white people

Nonwhites Are 2/3 of US Prisoners

Kristof: U.S. imprisons blacks at rates higher 

than South Africa

U.S. Imprisons More Blacks Than Apartheid South Africa

What part or parts of any of this seems remotely fair or just or right?

Keep in mind, too, this is just a small portion of all the many, many statistics on America, Americans and how Blacks are treated in our nation and have been since the nation's inception.

This isn't "Black History" so much as what has been going on for the past 300 years and what's still going on and why we need to change it. Why we need to change all of it.

Links:

Slavery by Another Name

From Slavery to Mass Incarceration, the Role of Prisons

'13TH' Argues Mass Incarceration Is An Extension Of Slavery

The Case for Reparations - The Atlantic

Separate, Unequal, and Ignored

Pretty Incredible Kansas City and American History

Dang, Kansas City. Did you know this part of our history?

I just ran across this on a friend's Facebook page. Once I saw this, I had to search it out so I did just that. I came up with this, quickly.

Rector, Sarah (1902–1967) 

 The Black Past: Remembered

A bit from this link:

Sarah Rector received international attention at the age of eleven when The Kansas City Star in 1913 publicized the headline, “Millions to a Negro Girl.” From that moment Rector’s life became a cauldron of misinformation, legal and financial maneuvering, and public speculation.

More here:

Remembering Sarah Rector, 

Creek Freedwoman

It was fascinating and initially sad but fortunately turned out well, overall.  Rather than copy and paste it all here, I highly recommend going to one of the article links here and reading. It's incredible Kansas City history but American history on a larger scale, too.

Additional links:

The Unlikely Baroness | This Land Press

She Was the Richest Black Girl in the World

Sarah Rector: The Richest Colored Girl in the World

America's First Black Female Millionaire

On This Day in American History -- A "Two-fer"

On this day (from today's New York Times:

It took more than 100 years after the Civil War for an African-American to join the presidential cabinet, and even longer for one to be elected governor. Both milestones happened on this day.

Robert C. Weaver was appointed secretary of housing and urban development by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966, and L. Douglas Wilder took the oath of office as governor in Richmond, Va., in 1990.

Weaver, who had three Harvard degrees, was the great-grandson of a slave and an expert strategist in the civil rights movement. “Fight hard and legally,” he said, “and don’t blow your top.”

His government service began during the New Deal, when he tried to harness benefits for blacks from the domestic spending programs. Weaver has been followed by 19 other African-Americans in the cabinet.

Mr. Wilder, a grandson of slaves, won the governorship in the onetime capital of the Confederacy with 50.19 percent of the vote. History was made only after a recount.

His margin of victory lagged far behind those of his Democratic running mates, suggesting that many Democrats did not vote for him.

Only one other African-American has been elected governor of a state: Deval Patrick, a Democrat who led Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015.

Links:  Robert C. Weaver - Wikipedia

Robert C. Weaver - Britannica.com

Robert C. Weaver: First African-American Cabinet Secretary

Douglas Wilder - Wikipedia

Douglas Wilder - Governor, Mayor - Biography.com

L Douglas Wilder - Encyclopedia.com

Independence Day

Just Before We Celebrate Our Own Independence Day

On this day in American history:


The city of East St. Louis, Illinois was the scene of one of the bloodiest race riots in the 20th century.  Racial tensions began to increase in February, 1917 when 470 African American workers were hired to replace white workers who had gone on strike against the Aluminum Ore Company.

The violence started on May 28th, 1917, shortly after a city council meeting was called.  Angry white workers lodged formal complaints against black migrations to the Mayor of East St. Louis.  After the meeting had ended, news of an attempted robbery of a white man by an armed black man began to circulate through the city.  As a result of this news, white mobs formed and rampaged through downtown, beating all African Americans who were found.  The mobs also stopped trolleys and streetcars, pulling black passengers out and beating them on the streets and sidewalks.  Illinois Governor Frank O. Lowden eventually called in the National Guard to quell the violence, and the mobs slowly dispersed.  The May 28th disturbances were only a prelude to the violence that erupted on July 2, 1917.

After the May 28th riots, little was done to prevent any further problems.  No precautions were taken to ensure white job security or to grant union recognition.  This further increased the already-high level of hostilities towards African Americans.  No reforms were made in police force which did little to quell the violence in May.  Governor Lowden ordered the National Guard out of the city on June 10th, leaving residents of East St. Louis in an uneasy state of high racial tension.

On July 2, 1917, the violence resumed.  Men, women, and children were beaten and shot to death.  Around six o’ clock that evening, white mobs began to set fire to the homes of black residents.  Residents had to choose between burning alive in their homes, or run out of the burning houses, only to be met by gunfire.  In other parts of the city, white mobs began to lynch African Americans against the backdrop of burning buildings.  As darkness came and the National Guard returned, the violence began to wane, but did not come to a complete stop.

In response to the rioting, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) sent W.E.B. DuBois and Martha Gruening to investigate the incident.  They compiled a report entitled “Massacre at East St. Louis,” which was published in the NAACP’s magazine, The Crisis.  The NAACP also staged a silent protest march in New York City in response to the violence.  Thousands of well-dressed African Americans marched down Fifth Avenue, showing their concern about the events in East St. Louis.

The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) also responded to the violence.  On July 8th, 1917, the UNIA’s President, Marcus Garvey said “This is a crime against the laws of humanity; it is a crime against the laws of the nation, it is a crime against Nature, and a crime against the God of all mankind.”  He also believed that the entire riot was part of a larger conspiracy against African Americans who migrated North in search of a better life: “The whole thing, my friends, is a bloody farce, and that the police and soldiers did nothing to stem the murder thirst of the mob is a conspiracy on the part of the civil authorities to condone the acts of the white mob against Negroes.”

A year after the riot, a Special Committee formed by the United States House of Representatives launched an investigation into police actions during the East St. Louis Riot.  Investigators found that the National Guard and also the East St. Louis police force had not acted adequately during the riots, revealing that the police often fled from the scenes of murder and arson.  Some even fled from stationhouses and refused to answer calls for help.  The investigation resulted in the indictment of several members of the East St. Louis police force.

Sources:

Allen D. Grimshaw, “Actions of Police and the Military in American Race Riots,” Phylon 24:3 (3rd Qtr, 1963); Robert A. Hill, ed., The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, Vol. I, (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1983); Elliot M. Rudwick, Race Riot at East St. Louis: July 2, 1917 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1964).

Contributor:

• Wang, Tabitha C.

University of Washington, Seattle

- See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/east-st-louis-race-riot-july-2-1917#sthash.NGnusI9f.dpuf

An American History Anniversary (guest post)

The American history we don't know.

The American history we're not taught.

The American history we don't want to know.

BLACK WALL STREET - Today is the 94th anniversary of the Race Riot and Bombing of Black Wall Street in Tulsa Oklahoma, May 31st, 1921.Read The Article: You do know that Black Wall Street was rebuilt by the Black residents after the bombing took place in 1921. They rebuilt it with their own money and got no government support.

"After the riot, black Tulsans, who were living in tents and forced to wear green identification tags in order to work downtown, still managed to turn the tragedy into triumph. Without state help, they rebuilt Greenwood, and by 1942 the community had more than 240 black-owned businesses.

"If we did it once we can do it again.

http://www.theroot.com/…/greenwood_oklahoma_from_the_black_…

Sign up for The African History Network email newsletter by texting the word "Kemet" to 22828.

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If you want to learn more about African History and African-American History to counteract the negative images we see of ourselves on the TEL-LIE-VISION (TV), please visit www.AfricanHistoryNetwork.com. We have information to Educate, Empower and Inspire people of African Descent throughout the Diaspora and around the world.

Listen to “The African History Network Show” with host Michael Imhotep, every Thurs, 8pm-11pm EST and “The Per Ankh Hour Q & A Show” with Prof. Kaba Kamene (aka Booker T. Coleman) of “Hidden Colors 1 & 2” and Michael Imhotep of The African History Network every Wednesday 10:00pm-11:30pm EST athttp://www.blogtalkradio.com/theafricanhistorynetworkshow orwww.AfricanHistoryNetwork.com by phone, when we are LIVE at (914) 338-1375. Call in with your questions and comments. Archived episodes are available for you to listen and are also archived on www.Itunes.com.

And in our national history, it's not that isolated an incident, either, this Tulsa, Oklahoma killing and murder. Don't think for a moment that it is.

Missouri's Going to Execute Again

With Missouri's last execution, of a 74 year old man who was missing part of his brain, literally, and so, had a low IQ, it seems certain Missouri will once again execute another inmate tomorrow:

Advocates for inmate ask Missouri governor to halt execution

It seems certain.

After all, he's black.

Forget that he was tried back in 1992 in St. Louis when blacks/African-Americans were excluded from juries in that area.

Forget that.

He's scheduled to be executed tomorrow, too. Precious little time to get anything done on this now, likely.

I wonder where the "pro-life" people are on this one? All the Catholics, all of them. Anyone screaming that "life is precious."

No, I thought not.

It doesn't look good.

We have to go through with that age-old "good idea" that killing people is a great idea, to show people shouldn't kill people.

Links: 

Congratulations, Missouri! You kill me!

• Shame on you, Missouri

What some---too many---in the Right Wing believe

A friend sent me an email a "friend" of ours had sent him. The original sender is a rabid Right Winger , racist and, by his own admission, an Obama hater. Here's a list--probably a short one--of just some of the things they believe about this president:

QUIT BASHING OBAMA

Quit trashing Obama's accomplishments. He has done more than any other President before him. Here is a list of his impressive accomplishments:

1. First President to be photographed smoking a joint. (Really?)

2. First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner. (He was born in Hawai'i).

3. First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in. (More of the birther nonsense)

4. First President to preside over a cut to the credit-rating of the United States. (Which, actually, was the Republicans' doing because they wouldn't do their own job)

5. First President to violate the War Powers Act. (These people clearly don't know their own nation's history. He's no way the first president accused of this)

6. First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf
of Mexico. (Sometimes--and frequently--you can't even tell what they're referring to because naturally they reference nothing)

7. First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party. (Not acknowledging the requirement to purchase car insurance, etc., etc. and they put this on President Obama solely though it was passed by Congress. Adn thank goodness)

8. First President to spend a trillion dollars on "shovel-ready" jobs when there was no such thing as "shovel-ready" jobs. (Again, no reference from them)

9. First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters. (??  GM? Who knows?)

10. First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat. (Well, yes, no other president had a "Dream Act."  Okay)

11. First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal
immigrants across the U.S., including those with criminal convictions. (No reference)

12. First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees. (Wha?)

13. First President to tell a CEO of a major corporation (Chrysler) to resign. (Well, let's see, the man's work was driving General Motors into financial ruin and the nation was going to bail them out with Federal moneys. He should be kept?)

14. First President to terminate America’s ability to put a man in space. (Blame the president for the progress of the nation's space program, over which he has no control. Okay. Sure. I guess)

15. First President to cancel the National Day of Prayer and to say that America is no longer a Christian nation. (A blatant untruth. Google it)

16. First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present. (None other than President Harry Truman first used the autopen. They really want to go there?)

17. First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it. (??  Again, nothing. No reference. No specifics)

18. First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke out on the reasons for their rate increases. (Well, let's see, we have the most expensive health care system in the world, it's the number one reason for bankruptcy in the nation and we are to do nothing?)

19. First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state it is allowed to locate
a factory. (???)

20. First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH,
IN). (Actually, not the president but his administration and it was over civil rights, if I can figure out what they're referring to here)

21. First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago. (Again, no idea. What I do know is that these people LOVE the status quo and so, support staying on fossil fuels, no matter what)

22. First President to actively try to bankrupt an American industry (coal). (Again, another blatant untruth)

23. First President to fire an inspector general of AmeriCorps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.  (I had to research this one. There may or may not be merit here. Naturally, I hope there isn't. I'll have to research more. I would think that, if there were any truth to it, he would be eaten alive by the Republicans)

24. First President to appoint 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office. (Google this yourself. It's nonsense)

25. First President to surround himself with radical left wing anarchists. (That's one of my favorites--"radical left wing anachists." Wow).

26. First President to golf more than 150 separate times in his five years in office. (This in spite of all the data out there that proves Dubya' vacationed FAR more than no. 44).

27. First President to hide his birth, medical, educational and travel records. (Blatant silliness, if not absurdity)

28. First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it. (They gave him the Nobel Prize. It's his fault. Got it).

29. First President to go on multiple "global apology tours" and concurrent "insult our friends"
tours. (A claim of the most outrageous and silly)

30. First President to go on over 17 lavish vacations, in addition to date nights and Wednesday
evening White House parties for his friends paid for by the taxpayers. (Search this one for yourself, too. Dubya' went on far, far more vacations and Pres. Obama hasn't saddled us with a bunch of trips, all on our expense)

31. First President to have personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife. (One more time, search it for yourself. Ridiculous)

32. First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000 a year at taxpayer expense. (Patent nonsense. Check it out for yourself. Somebody's smoking something)

33. First President to fly in a personal trainer from Chicago at least once a week at taxpayer expense. (They pay their trainer $60/hr)

34. First President to repeat the Quran and tell us the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth. (If you Google this, it comes out this same way, word for word. They love calling Pres. Obama a liar, a Muslim, a Kenyan and/or a Communist)

35. First President to side with a foreign nation over one of the American 50 states (Mexico vs
Arizona). (I've no idea what the reference is hear)

36. First President to tell the military men and women that they should pay for their own private insurance because they "volunteered to go to war and knew the consequences." (Probably often repeated by the Right Wing but again, patently untrue)

37. Then he was the First President to tell the members of the military that THEY were UNPATRIOTIC for balking at the last suggestion.  (???)
_____________________________________________

Who knows what else they believe---and want to believe---about this president? The only things you can count on is that they'll keep creating more and more, until he's out of office and theyl'l believe everyone of them.

It's Not Just MIchael Brown, Not Just Ferguson

Michael Brown's situation isn't the problem. At least, by itself, it's not the problem.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the problem.  It's not one person. It's all the people who keep dying like this. And keep in mind, this is no way close to all the people who have died. Not even close.

It's that unarmed men keep getting killed. And it's that no one, time and again, is held responsible for it.

Meanwhile, across the country:

And then there's this:

Killing four people while white gets you probation

Crazy.

And we've got to stop this horrible insanity.

Racial History in America, 1700 to today

First we owned them--Africans, later to be African-Americans--and beat them and kept them down and tortured them and killed lots and then, after the Civil War and ever since, we locked lots and lots of them in jails and prisons and wouldn't let them live near us or get or have a great education or the good jobs.

And that takes us up to today.

And all us whites, out in our comfortable suburbs don't understand.

Imagine that.

The problem is also that there are far too many Michael Browns in this country

It's one thing that one young person, a young man, Michael Brown, was unarmed and shot and killed in St. Louis recently, sure. That's bad enough.

But the problem is, there are far, far too many Michael Browns in this nation. It's horrific enough a shooting, let alone a killing takes place once but it happens repeatedly here. As examples, here are just a few recent headlines from around our nation:

North Carolina officer shot unarmed man 10 times

Officer Randall Kerrick faces manslaughter charges on Tuesday for allegedly shooting dead a car crash victim in Charlotte

Teenager's mysterious death evokes painful imagery in North Carolina

Police say they have no evidence of foul play in the hanging death of black teenager Lennon Lacy. But in a case with disturbing racial overtones, his family are left with haunting questions

Gym mat death of Ga. teen still being questioned

White Dallas man shoots 8-year-old black boy in the face while playing 'tag'

And then there's Trayvon Martin and all the others we've already forgotten.

How is this possible?

How are all these things and all these incidents and all these horrors possible?

And yes, how are they possible even once, let along repeatedly?

Who are we that we're capable of these things, time and again, too, especially after all this time?

Some statistics: The Racial Disparity in Fatal Police Shootings

On this day, American History

Happy Birthday, Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

The oldest of eight children, Ida B. Wells was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Her parents, who were very active in the Republican Party during Reconstruction, died in a yellow fever epidemic in the late 1870s. Wells attended Rust College and then became a teacher in Memphis, Tennessee. Shortly after she arrived, Wells was involved in an altercation with a white conductor while riding the railroad. She had purchased a first-class ticket, and was seated in the ladies car when the conductor ordered her to sit in the Jim Crow (i.e. black) section, which did not offer first-class accommodations. She refused and when the conductor tried to remove her, she "fastened her teeth on the back of his hand." Wells was ejected from the train, and she sued. She won her case in a lower court, but the decision was reversed in an appeals court.

While living in Memphis, Wells became a co-owner and editor of a local black newspaper called THE FREE SPEECH AND HEADLIGHT. Writing her editorials under the pseudonym "Iola," she condemned violence against blacks, disfranchisement, poor schools, and the failure of black people to fight for their rights. She was fired from her teaching job and became a full-time journalist. In 1892, Tom Moss, a respected black store owner and friend of Barnett, was lynched, along with two of his friends, after defending his store against an attack by whites. Wells, outraged, attacked the evils of lynching in her newspaper; she also encouraged the black residents of Memphis to leave town. When Wells was out of town, her newspaper was destroyed by a mob and she was warned not to return to Memphis because her life was in danger. Wells took her anti-lynching campaign to England and was well received.

Wells wrote many pamphlets exposing white violence and lynching and defending black victims. In 1895 she married Ferdinand Barnett, a prominent Chicago attorney. The following year she helped organize the National Association of Colored Women. She was opposed to the policy of accommodation advocated by Booker T. Washington and had personal, if not ideological, difficulties with W.E.B. Du Bois. In 1909, she helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Wells-Barnett continued her fight for black civil and political rights and an end to lynching until shortly before she died.

She documented her anti-lynching work in Souther Horros and Other Writings available here: http://amzn.to/1mLr5DE

On this day...in nearby Oklahoma, 1921

From the  Zinn Education Project

In 1921, Greenwood (in Tulsa, Oklahoma) was one of the most prosperous African-American communities in the U.S. Serving over 8,000 residents, Greenwood’s commercial district was known nationally as the ‘Negro Wall Street’. The community boasted two newspapers, over a dozen churches, and hundreds of African-American-owned businesses. On the evening of May 31, 1921, Greenwood was ravaged by a white mob. By the conclusion of the riot at midday, June 1, virtually every building in a 42-square-block area of the community--homes, schools, churches, and businesses--was burned to the ground and thousands were left homeless. Over 1,200 homes were destroyed. Every church, school, and business in Greenwood was set on fire. Approximately 8,000 African-Americans were left homeless and penniless. (Continue reading here: http://bit.ly/1pGWfv5.)

(People) need to learn the hidden history of the 1921 Tulsa race riot (massacre) and how this links to racial wealth inequality today. Read "Burning Tulsa: The Legacy of Black Dispossession" by Linda Christensen of Rethinking Schools and see her classroom lesson: http://bit.ly/1fDOUvG


You can read and see more about that ugly, fateful day, here:

What happened to Black Wall Street on June 1, 1921?

Which brings up this article from this past week from The New Yorker:

What We Talk About When We Talk About Reparations

And it is based on this recent article from The Atlantic

The Case for Reparations

Most Americans likely don't know there were, in fact, some reparations paid for slavery just after the Civil War, as Ta-Nehisi Coates points out.  Trouble is, they were paid to slave owners.  How's that for irony?  And hypocrisy.

Food for thought.

Enjoy your Sunday, everyone.