Black History Month for 2025

officerripley

officerripley

Well-known Member
Location
Porlock, Calif
This is not recent history, but it's a quote from Ahmed Baba Al Massufi Al Timbukti, a polymath and writer at the University of Sankore in Timbuktu, Mali in the 16th Century:

"...{J}ust the fact of becoming an owner of another person bruises the heart, because servitude is inseparable from the idea of violence and domination, especially when it relates to a slave taken far away from his country."

Ahmed Baba Al Massufi Al Timbukti was a very interesting individual living in very interesting times, what has been referred to as the Golden Age of Timbuktu. He wrote 60 books for the University's library, including astronomical treatises and conflict resolution. I just recently discovered this while reading The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer.
 

All stories are important but I really enjoy the little local stories that often get lost.

The William’s brothers are an example of those quiet heros that made a good life for themselves and their families while providing a valuable neighborhood service during very difficult times.

"The Williams brothers, Charles, Thomas and George opened the Williams Bros grocery store in 1913 at Washington and Irving Streets in Syracuse, New York. The store stayed open until 1944."

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Thank you so much for starting this thread Officer ❣️ I was going to do it and the title was to be exactly what you wrote! I had never heard of the gentleman you wrote about in your OP. I love that you found and shared this with us. I also love learning new things about our cultural history and the amazing people who are a part of it.
 
"The first black newspaper in the United States, Freedom's Journal, was established in 1827 by John Russwurm, the first African American to graduate from a university, Bowdoin in Maine, and Samuel Cornish, a militant clergyman in New York City. To read the article:

Magazines and Newspapers, African American | Encyclopedia.com


Another site gives links to actual copies of the Journal, from The Wayback Machine; fascinating! (You'll probably have to use a magnifying glass to read 'em though, lol.):

Freedom's Journal, the First U.S. African-American Owned Newspaper | Wisconsin Historical Society
 
OneEyedDiva said:
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Check out the article below, which includes pictures of 4 of the cowboys. One of the 5 was Bass Reeves who became one of the first Black federal deputy marshals. Prime Video is (was) showing Bass Reeves and Lawmen: Bass Reeves can be seen on Paramount+.
5 Black Cowboys Who Shaped the American West
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In the 1800s, the term "outlaws" referred to bandits, so that's not necessarily a good thing that Blacks were "cowboys." :ROFLMAO:

The gunfight at the O.K. Corral was Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp and his brothers against the organized crime of the "cowboys."

It wasn't until the 20th century Hollywood whitewashing of western tales and romanticization of the old west that it came to mean what it means today.

I'll need to check out that video you referenced. Ever since Paramount's agreement to pay off *blankity-blank*, I hate to watch anything on that service, but they do have a good selection.
 
Henrietta Lacks Posted SF Feb 2024.jpg

The family of Henrietta Lacks has reached a settlement with a science and technology company that it says used cells taken without Lacks' consent in the 1950s to develop products it later sold for a profit.

Lacks was being treated for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins University in 1951 when doctors removed cells from her tumor without her knowledge or permission.

Those cells — now known as HeLa cells — had remarkable properties that allowed them to be endlessly reproduced, and they have since been used for a variety of scientific breakthroughs, including research about the human genome and the development of the polio and COVID-19 vaccines. https://www.npr.org/2023/08/01/1191283359/henrietta-lacks-descendants-settlement-stolen-cells
 
Belle da Costa Greene was an American librarian who managed and developed the personal library of J. P. Morgan. After Morgan's death in 1913, Greene continued as librarian for his son, Jack Morgan, and in 1924 was named the first director of the Pierpont Morgan Library.


images
Library-Ceiling-1.jpg

Just a few of the rare books Miss Greene found and organized for J.P. Morgan.
 
Della said:
Belle da Costa Greene was an American librarian who managed and developed the personal library of J. P. Morgan. After Morgan's death in 1913, Greene continued as librarian for his son, Jack Morgan, and in 1924 was named the first director of the Pierpont Morgan Library.


images
Library-Ceiling-1.jpg

Just a few of the rare books Miss Greene found and organized for J.P. Morgan.
Click to expand...
Wow!đź‘Ť
 
When The Cosby Show came out, there were people who thought affluent Black people were an anomaly, but there have been successful, affluent African Americans throughout our cultural history. Sadly, in the cases of Black Wallstreet (Tulsa, OK) and Rosewood (FLA) , these affluent Black communities were literally destroyed due to hateful White people. Too many lives were lost and entire communities destroyed.

Black Wall Street, former byname of the Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where in the early 20th century African Americans had created a self-sufficient prosperous business district. The neighborhood was targeted by a white mob in the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, in which more than 1,400 homes and businesses were burned, and nearly 10,000 people were left homeless. The area eventually recovered, but declined following desegregation in the late 1950s. The name has also been applied more generally to districts of Black American high economic activity.

The full article, linked below is in two parts and doesn't end until just before you see List of Race Riots and Massacres In the United States.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Tulsa-race-massacre-of-1921

Before and After:

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BlackWallStreetBefore.jpg

download.jpg
 
The African American Experience in the U.S. Navy:



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"Today’s African American Sailors stand proudly knowing the accomplishments of their predecessors, including the eight black Sailors who earned the Medal of Honor during the Civil War; Dick Henry Turpin, one of the survivors of the explosion aboard the battleship Maine; and the 14 black female yeomen who enlisted during World War I." To read the rest of the article:

https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/one-navy/african-americans.html
 
HermitHogan said:
In the 1800s, the term "outlaws" referred to bandits, so that's not necessarily a good thing that Blacks were "cowboys." :ROFLMAO:

The gunfight at the O.K. Corral was Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp and his brothers against the organized crime of the "cowboys."

It wasn't until the 20th century Hollywood whitewashing of western tales and romanticization of the old west that it came to mean what it means today.

I'll need to check out that video you referenced. Ever since Paramount's agreement to pay off *blankity-blank*, I hate to watch anything on that service, but they do have a good selection.
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I don't see what outlaws and bandits have to do with Black men being cowboys, as far as historical reference. The point is that we never saw Black cowboys on TV (as many TV westerns as there were back in the day) or learned about them in history books. Were some Black cowboys outlaws? Probably so, but I doubt a majority of them were.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
I don't see what outlaws and bandits have to do with Black men being cowboys, as far as historical reference. The point is that we never saw Black cowboys on TV (as many TV westerns as there were back in the day) or learned about them in history books. Were some Black cowboys outlaws? Probably so, but I doubt a majority of them were.
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I was just making the point that they probably weren't called "cowboys" back then. No offence meant. :)
 
HermitHogan said:
I was just making the point that they probably weren't called "cowboys" back then. No offence meant. :)
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Where are you from Hermit? I'll be 78 this month and since I was little, they were called cowboys. In fact, one of the things little boys (usually) played back then was Cowboys and Indians. So you're saying that by the time TV shows were produced, the producers changed the term for the benefit of audiences? I didn't think you meant to be offensive.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Where are you from Hermit? I'll be 78 this month and since I was little, they were called cowboys. In fact, one of the things little boys (usually) played back then was Cowboys and Indians. So you're saying that by the time TV shows were produced, the producers changed the term for the benefit of audiences? I didn't think you meant to be offensive.
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It was in the early 20th century during the time of silent movies that cowboys were glamorized. But before then, in Arizona, anyway, (where Tombstone and the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place), the word "cowboy" was sometimes used to describe lawless cattle rustlers, bandits, and outlaws who engaged in theft, smuggling, and stagecoach robbery. This was in contrast to law-abiding ranchers and cattlemen, who preferred the term cattleman or rancher over cowboy. The Clanton and McLaury families, involved in conflicts with the Earp brothers, were among those referred to as "cowboys" in this more criminal sense.
 
I watched the first part of this documentary a few hours ago on Prime Video...

American Coup: Wilmington 1898
AMEX_AmericanCoupWilmington1898_Horiz_lo-res-resize-500x0-50.jpg

American Coup: Wilmington 1898 tells the little-known story of a deadly race massacre and carefully orchestrated insurrection in North Carolina’s largest city in 1898 — the only coup d’état in the history of the US. Stoking fears of “***** Rule,” self-described white supremacists used intimidation and violence to destroy Black political and economic power and overthrow Wilmington’s democratically-elected, multi-racial government. Black residents were murdered and thousands were banished. The story of what happened in Wilmington was suppressed for decades until descendants and scholars began to investigate. Today, many of those descendants — Black and white — seek the truth about this intentionally buried history.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/american-coup-wilmington-1898/
 
Della said:
Belle da Costa Greene was an American librarian who managed and developed the personal library of J. P. Morgan. After Morgan's death in 1913, Greene continued as librarian for his son, Jack Morgan, and in 1924 was named the first director of the Pierpont Morgan Library.


images
Library-Ceiling-1.jpg

Just a few of the rare books Miss Greene found and organized for J.P. Morgan.
Click to expand...
She spent her life passing for white.
 

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