Its February! Happy Black History Month !

[MissAnne]

Oh I am very excited about Steve Mcqueen's upcoming film 12 Years A Slave. I read this book in college and I have to say that it is one of the best books I have ever read. This shockingly true story is an amazing page turner and first account of a free Black man, Solomon Northup, being kidnapped and forced into slavery.

Its not upbeat but its brillant. I would like to read it again before the film comes out.

Here is Michael Fassbender talking about it, sort of.



The book is short and I recommend it to the highest degree.

[xbuzzerx]

Also if you guys liked the Uhura story.. the way I heard it told was that she was actually pretty deadset on leaving the show and had "had it" with the role and the limits of it, feeling like a "secretary in space." And when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was put on the phone with her, all anyone nearby heard her say for the whole conversation was "Yes sir." She never said another word about turning down anything Star Trek.

[MissAnne]

Also if you guys liked the Uhura story.. the way I heard it told was that she was actually pretty deadset on leaving the show and had "had it" with the role and the limits of it, feeling like a "secretary in space." And when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was put on the phone with her, all anyone nearby heard her say for the whole conversation was "Yes sir." She never said another word about turning down anything Star Trek.

Really ? Wow

[xbuzzerx]

Really ? Wow

Amazing how right he turned out to be, too, about how influential and important it was for her to be there, even if the role itself was so limited by the sensibilities of the times as to what a black woman could "believably do", so many people have pointed to her as their inspiration, female pilots and astronauts and actresses.

[MissAnne]

I downloaded The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl a couple of months ago. I have not finished it, so I cant give it a full review.

This was written by Harriet Ann Jacobs, a survivor of slavery. She tells her story and gives us a female perspective. This again is not an upbeat book, but I feel like its an important story and is really interesting. Its free on the kindle.

Here is someone reading a little bit of it.

Amazing how right he turned out to be, too, about how influential and important it was for her to be there, even if the role itself was so limited by the sensibilities of the times as to what a black woman could "believably do", so many people have pointed to her as their inspiration, female pilots and astronauts and actresses.

Yes! That is so true. There is nothing like tuning into to a TV show, reading a magazine, seeing a film etc. and seeing someone that looks like you do. You feel so visible.

[Hard-up1]

The thing that I find rather interesting is that Black History is still being made in the US, and it's not always 'good' history. At times, it seems to be regressing.

In all progressive movements there are lurches, setbacks and problems, but there has unquestionably been a march forward.

The changes brought by the election and re-election of President Obama will keep emerging for years and generations from now. There were many, and among the black population certainly, that a black absolutely could not be elected to the highest office. Now that Mr. Obama has been elected twice, a great many who were cynical are forced to re-examine the assumptions.

True, there have been political backlashes, but no violence really, and certainly no riots like the 60's. Progress is progress.

[eastofeden]

For Black History Month...I would like to give a shout out to one of my heroes..Angela Davis. Her book...If They Come In The Morning...changed my life. I have never have been the same after reading it and I thank her for that.

I actually voted for the Communist ticket for President when I saw her as the VP nominee one year...I didn't expect it but I was in the voting booth already and didn't realize she was on the ballot.

I have read all of her books and attended a few lectures...she is a brilliant warrior. I love her.

[Huntneo(PT)]

"On my underground
railroad I never ran my train off the track, and I
never lost a passenger."

-Harriet Tubman






I have so much reverence for her. I'm still in awe at such bravery.

[xbuzzerx]

-Harriet Tubman






I have so much reverence for her. I'm still in awe at such bravery.

Considering she did all her work with probable brain damage from a hit she took to the head while younger, it's pretty amazing what a force she was.

[dereperez]

I liked this video.

[loveguys72]

Here's my only question: why February, the shortest month of the year?

Oh, and Dr. George Washington Carver? I love that man! He gave me peanut butter. He was a GENIUS!

Also one hell of a scientist.

[Axxess]

I would simply hope that Harriet Tubman is known to anyone who took grade school in the United States, but I guess we all know better than to assume anyone paid attention in history classes. :/

Well, leave it to me to shatter your hope. I never learned about this Harriet Tubman person in school; I don't even know who she is now*. We only learned about Black History Month in elementary school, and every year it was the same two things: Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech and Rosa Parks. Every. Year. We didn't learn about Plessy v. Ferguson, Dred Scott, Jim Crow Laws, Brown v. Board of Education, and the civil rights movement in general until high school.

Happy "How Come There Isn't A White History Month?" Month! It's that time of year again…

Was it wrong of me to assume that this link was from reddit?

*I'll look her up after I'm done posting this.

[MissAnne]

Well, leave it to me to shatter your hope. I never learned about this Harriet Tubman person in school

Well this is probable.

When I went to college I learned that a lot of people had not learned much about Black History. Which is really just American history with Black people in it. I had to help my friend research some stuff about the Civil Rights Movement for a paper because she didn't even know where to start. I went on youtube and played something from PBS and she said "When did they have seperate drinking fountains?"

Needless to say, we had to start further back. It was really overwhelming to her and she got angry because she then realized that her school had skipped over an entire section of American History.

Personally, I can't even begin to explain how amazing Harriet Tubman was. She came long before the Civil Rights Movement and when you think about it, a lot of Black people wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her.

Harriet Tubman escaped slavery to become a leading abolitionist. She led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom along the route of the Underground Railroad.

It still amazes me that this woman not only had the courage to escape but she kept going back to help others. It really blows your mind.

[Hard-up1]

Here's my only question: why February, the shortest month of the year?

It's easy to imagine some Foghorn Leghorn maneuvering to have the month chosen as a slight, but it can't really matter, can it? Is a 28-day month really too short to give national emphasis to black history? Is three days a significant tilt? I don't think so.

As a teacher, I think I remembered it having to do with a place in the curriculum in which it could be emphasized with enough time to give it due emphasis. It doesn't have to compete with football PEP rallies, finals, proms, homecoming events, or any other competing events in the school calendar. February is a great month to enable the proper focus and assemblies to occur.

So, regardless of whether there was any implied slight there or not, it has worked out well, and a natural segue to follow MLK Day.

After all, Black History Month is primarily an educational emphasis, and the schools are the main setting for it.

[loki81]

Black History Month was originally Negro History Week, and it occurred in February on the week that both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas were born.

when it was expanded to a month in the 60's/70's, it was kept in February.

http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/about.html

[MissAnne]

Louis Gates Jr. (The Genealogy Man)did another documentary entitled Blacks in Latin America. It was really interesting. I watched it on youtube earlier this year. I hope that its still there because its worth watching.

While many people in the United States view Latinos as a race, the societies of Latin America are multicultural and multiracial. More people of African descent live in Brazil than any country in the world besides Nigeria. Another 8 million African-descended people live in Colombia, and millions more in the Caribbean countries of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Venezuela, Panama and elsewhere.

Here is another really interesting group of interviews done by Mun2. The actors are talking about being Black and Latino in Hollywood.

[MissAnne]

Black History Month was originally Negro History Week, and it occurred in February on the week that both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas were born.

when it was expanded to a month in the 60's/70's, it was kept in February.

http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/about.html

I didnt know that, thanks!

While watching that video in the opening post, the interviewer asked "What do you do to celebrate Black History Month ?" while they were joking about eating fried chicken it had me thinking. 'I don't do anything to celebrate BHM and maybe I should'. I would like to learn something new everyday.

[bankside]

Its Black History Month here in the USA.

Btw, this is officially recognised as black history month in Canada too.

The government of Canada site.
The Historica Dominion Institute site.

Lots of good info in both sites.

[ChickenGuy]

I posted this before somewhere, but can someone remind me again about these two historical events that are very vague in my mind and lacking in context....

1. A black man was admitted to a (college? university?) in the South in the 1960's and someone (a senator? governor?) had this famous photo taken where he is seen physically trying to blockade a door with his body. Have I got that recollection right? And was this the same occasion that the President (Johnson? Nixon?) had to send in troops like the National Guard or something?

2. This is some famous pilgrimage or something and is called a 'road to' somewhere or a 'bridge' or something and I remember that this time (2004?) Hilary Clinton showed up and put on a fake Southern accent in a speech or something - and later on, Al Sharpton said a statement to the effect of "there are SOME of us who come here EVERY year'" (was it the Democratic candidate race in 2004?) meaning Hilary was just there for P.R. and her public profile. Does anyone know more about this?

Thanks.

[gsdx]

1. A black man was admitted to a (college? university?) in the South in the 1960's and someone (a senator? governor?) had this famous photo taken where he is seen physically trying to blockade a door with his body. Have I got that recollection right? And was this the same occasion that the President (Johnson? Nixon?) had to send in troops like the National Guard or something?

That was James Meredith and the University of Mississippi. I've seen several documentaries about him. That man had guts. Most people would have given up the first day. Things got so bad that Robert Kennedy called in US Marshals to take control. His brother, John Kennedy, called in the army.

[ChickenGuy]

That was James Meredith and the University of Mississippi. I've seen several documentaries about him. That man had guts. Most people would have given up the first day. Things got so bad that Robert Kennedy called in US Marshals to take control. His brother, John Kennedy, called in the army.

Thanks for the info, gsdx. I looked him up on Wiki and YouTube.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Meredith



So it was slightly further back than I thought, in 1962.

Robert Kennedy called in 500 U.S. Marshals to take control, who were supported by the 70th Army Engineer Combat Battalion from Ft Campbell, Kentucky. They created a tent camp and kitchen for the US Marshals. To bolster law enforcement, President John F. Kennedy sent in U.S. Army military police from the 503rd Military Police Battalion, and called in troops from the Mississippi Army National Guard and the U.S. Border Patrol as well. In the violent clash, two people died, including the French journalist Paul Guihard, on assignment for the London Daily Sketch. He was found dead behind the Lyceum building with a gunshot wound to the back. One hundred-sixty US Marshals, one-third of the group, were injured in the melee, and 40 soldiers and National Guardsmen were wounded.

I can only imagine the sheer level of conviction, courage, and strength of will and spirit this young man needed to have. To try to study and graduate and when all of THAT insanity is swirling around you. Well done him.

50 years later, and he's still going strong.

[hungprep]

Nina Simone – Mississippi Goddam…

[bankside]

I can only imagine the sheer level of conviction, courage, and strength of will and spirit this young man needed to have. To try to study and graduate and when all of THAT insanity is swirling around you. Well done him.

True. It also gives one occasion to think on the mind-boggling stupidity on the part of those who opposed his education. To be that committed to self-delusion and petty ignorance is also some kind of perverse achievement.

[loki81]

had to share this insanity somewhere...

[xbuzzerx]

Well, leave it to me to shatter your hope. I never learned about this Harriet Tubman person in school; I don't even know who she is now*. We only learned about Black History Month in elementary school, and every year it was the same two things: Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech and Rosa Parks. Every. Year. We didn't learn about Plessy v. Ferguson, Dred Scott, Jim Crow Laws, Brown v. Board of Education, and the civil rights movement in general until high school.




Was it wrong of me to assume that this link was from reddit?

*I'll look her up after I'm done posting this.

I guess you probably already know since you said you were going to look it up, but she was big on the "Underground Railroad", guiding slaves along the system of safehouses (or hiding out in the woods) on the trek north to Canada. The travelling was mostly done at night, so navigation was often done by stars and moss on trees. If I RECALL correctly she was a little involved with the infancy of the women's suffrage issue as well. She had been beaten severely in her days as a slave and had permanent brain damage from an injury to her head, which resulted in lifelong fainting spells.

[Huntneo(PT)]

2. This is some famous pilgrimage or something and is called a 'road to' somewhere or a 'bridge' or something and I remember that this time (2004?) Hilary Clinton showed up and put on a fake Southern accent in a speech or something - and later on, Al Sharpton said a statement to the effect of "there are SOME of us who come here EVERY year'" (was it the Democratic candidate race in 2004?) meaning Hilary was just there for P.R. and her public profile. Does anyone know more about this?

Thanks.

I think you may be talking about the marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The bridge you're referring to is the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of Bloody Sunday.

Article about the Clintons in Selma here

Is that what you were talking about?

[DigitalFudge]

G3rls,


I don't know nothin about my history but I KNOW this man needs to be my future

[Huntneo(PT)]

had to share this insanity somewhere...

DO.NOT.WANT.

[xbuzzerx]

Saw this on buzzfeed...

Happy "How Come There Isn't A White History Month?" Month! It's that time of year again…

I missed this link the first time around.

Well, if anyone is lurker reading the thread and secretly agrees with that idea, or is hesitant to ask what's wrong with it, I'll give a short answer. American History essentially is, barring some sidebars or segues in modern history books, white history. And it was even moreso in the past where contributions, inventions or participation by nonwhite people was marginalized or left out entirely. The entire movement to bring about ethnic studies and recognition of minority contributions was because you used to be able to get a PhD in History and not know a single thing about any minority contributions to the greater flow of American History.

American History remains, regardless of many people's bloated sense of "having stuff about other groups forced down their throat all the time, essentially still a story about mainstream history, which means white history for the most part. Black History month exists to shine some spotlight on the achievements and contributions of black Americans to our history which, in a formal textbook, will come only in a designated chapter about slavery or the civil rights movement or a sidebar about Frederick Douglas in a book which otherwise tells the effectually white mainstream story of history and from that perspective primarily.

[hungprep]

Someone earlier in the thread mentioned Langston Hughes…

Here’s a recent, very interesting, literary history I can recommend that focuses on the relationship Hughes had with Carl Van Vechten, a cosmopolitan, white, writer/photographer/socialite, in 1920-50s New York, who fostered the careers of a very large number of writers of the so-called, ‘Harlem Renaissance.’

As well as Langston Hughes, Van Vechten’s amazingly influential, mainly gay (but pre-gay lib), literary/musical/artistic/theatrical ‘salon’ included such otherwise-closeted, gay luminaries (and literary lights) of the age, as Gertrude Stein (who chose him, over her publisher Bennett Cerf, to be her ‘literary executor’ upon her death), W. Somerset Maugham, Evelyn Waugh, Noël Coward, Glenway Wescott, Monroe Wheeler, Donald Vining, Marsden Hartley, Hart Crane, Wallace Thurman, Alain Locke, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Thornton Wilder, Christopher Isherwood, Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Connor, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, Charles Henri Ford, W. H. Auden, Frank O’Hara, John Ashbery, James Schuyler, Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, and Paul and Jane Bowles.

He also knew (and entertained at his frequent ‘at homes’ in Manhattan and elsewhere around the world) such singers, musicians, and composers, as Ada “Bricktop” Smith, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Alberta Hunter, Ethel Waters, Arthur Gold, George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Virgil Thompson, Leonard Bernstein, Lorenz Hart, and Billy Strayhorn.

Among the artists, photographers, and architects he befriended (and whose careers he also helped) were Jacob Epstein, Gaston Lachaise, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Thomas Hart Benton, Thomas Scofield Handforth, Paul Cadmus, Fairfield Porter, Pavel Tchelitchew, James Richmond Barthé, Georgia O’Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Imogen Cunningham, Miguel Covariances (Van Vechten’s own photography teacher and mentor), George Platt Lynes, Horst P. Horst, and Philip Johnson.

Among the dancers, choreographers, balletomanes, critics, and actors of his personal acquaintance were Josephine Baker, Jerome Robbins, Lincoln Kirstein, Edwin Denby, Parker Tyler, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Laurence Olivier, Danny Kaye, Tallulah Bankhead, and the unfortunate Ramon Novarro.

‘Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance: A Portrait in Black and White’ – by Emily Bernard

And click the link ‘Read’ at the beginning of the review (or here) for an introductory essay by Professor Bernard, Hands Across Time, which begins in the following fashion:

Carl Van Vechten detested “sincerely.” He reprimanded Langston Hughes more than once for signing his correspondence that way. For Van Vechten, letters were opportunities for affection and imagination. Over the course of many years of snooping through his mail, I rarely came across a recycled valediction. Once he wished Hughes “768 white penguin feathers for 76 black swans.” A few years later, it was “four brightcolored roosters to you and a hen to make them happy!” In July 1941, when Hughes was in California for work, Van Vechten ended a letter with “hands across the states.”

[MissAnne]

And, like someone said in the Buzzfeed comments, Black people arent the only ones with a heritage month.

There is an Italian American heritage month, Irish American heritage month, Hispanic heritage month, Asian Pacific American Month etc. but people still think that Black people are the only ones with a heritage month.

Maybe its because you hear about Black History Month the most.

I read somewhere that Black History Month was also created in order to highlight the achievements of Blacks in the US because, at the time, many were saying that Blacks weren't productive members of society with no positive contributions to the country. Black History Month dispels this stereotype.

[MissAnne]

[MissAnne]

Black Same Sex Couples

These people arent famous but these flickr photos are worth looking at.



Here is the link:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/hidden-...472079/detail/

I only wish that he could have found some women too.

Whelp...

[rareboy]

I enjoy all the heritage months.

And I love June because it is homo month.

[pat grimshaw]

...American History remains, regardless of many people's bloated sense of "having stuff about other groups forced down their throat all the time, essentially still a story about mainstream history... in a formal textbook

You have to know 'the big picture' before delving into the details so you can appreciate them in context.

So many school kids resent having to attend school at all let alone having a basic education being 'forced down their throat'.

E.G. http://www.justusboys.com/forum/thre...ghlight=school

[xbuzzerx]

You have to know the main stuff before you delve into the details. You need 'the big picture' and the context before seeing the details.

You mention stuff being 'forced down their throat'— this earlier thread shows how many school kids resented a basic education being 'forced down their throat'.

http://www.justusboys.com/forum/thre...ghlight=school

You're only obliquely relating to the point I was making at all, which is kind of usual.

People talk about a sidebar about Harriet Tubman or a week on civil rights out of a school year as "always being forced to hear about blacks" the same way that straight people upon even hearing that someone has a boyfriend talk about "homos always shove it in your face", with no sense of proportion.

[BFizzle]

As the caucasian ambassador for this forum I'd like to marinate on the fact that the legendary lineup of Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé performed at the Super Bowl last night.

[pat grimshaw]

^ they certainly were no 'sidebar' during the match

[BFizzle]

As the caucasian ambassador for this forum I'd like to marinate on the fact that the legendary lineup of Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé performed at the Super Bowl last night.

Oh, Kelly and Michelle too. I guess.

[xbuzzerx]

^ they certainly were no 'sidebar' during the match

Oh please Pat. Obama's had 2 terms. His inauguration celebrating a lot of accomplished black Americans is overwhelming forcefeeding compared to the total history of white Presidential inaurugations going back 200 years?

[ChickenGuy]

I think you may be talking about the marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The bridge you're referring to is the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of Bloody Sunday.

Article about the Clintons in Selma here

Is that what you were talking about?

Yes! That's the one! Thanks Hunty!

I searched the event on Youtube and found a link courtesy of Fox News,

....but nevertheless they make the point I remembered.

Hilary 'speaking' in Selma, Alabama.



^ It's a bit ridiculous, isn't it? Trying to pretend like she's a Southern preacher of the same talking style that you see from the pulpit of the church services. I'd have been a bit offended by that if I were one of the crowd, she just seems to be pandering.

[MissAnne]

What I learned about my own city:

Pennsylvania Hall was built in 1838 by the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. This group, (Black and White) raised over $40,000 to build a safe place to gather peacefully and discuss their beliefs. The building was burned to the ground by rioters three days after it was built. Firemen stood by and watched it burned. Anyone that attempted to put out the fires were attacked by the rioters.

One of the main problems that the rioters had was the fact that Blacks and Whites were meeting together.

[xbuzzerx]

^ MissAnne, is it bad that when I saw that 2nd picture I thought it was a representation of JUB?

[pat grimshaw]

...^ It's a bit ridiculous, isn't it? Trying to pretend like she's a Southern preacher of the same talking style that you see from the pulpit of the church services. I'd have been a bit offended by that if I were one of the crowd, she just seems to be pandering.

Yes. She is a politician which is very much like play-acting. She may have Illeism or one of those mental conditions that Johann Bessler keeps on advocating.

[MissAnne]

^ MissAnne, is it bad that when I saw that 2nd picture I thought it was a representation of JUB?

LOL, why ?

[MissAnne]

Today in Black History:

Columbia University graduate and Harvard University law student Barack Obama became the first African American named president of the Harvard Law Review

-Pink Progressives

[Ganoderma]

Black Same Sex Couples These people arent famous but these flickr photos are worth looking at.
Here is the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hidden-...472079/detail/

Very nice pictures, but I was wondering how sure it is that all of these guys are gay, or just (close) friends of each other. My PC does not have speakers, so I cannot listen to the video


So I like the pictures very much, as they give a nice insight in the past. But I do get the idea that the majority of these pictures (especially the ones with only a very vague (or no information at all) about site & date & circumstances are plates of (random) guys (without knowing anything about their sexual activities / interests).

Thanks in advance for providing me some insight in this topic.

[gsdx]

Very nice pictures, but I was wondering how sure it is that all of these guys are gay, or just (close) friends of each other.

The narrators says about Dr. Christopher West, the professor of history examining the photos at the 2:45 mark, "Whether it's a romantic relationship or just a platonic friendship, one thing is very clear. These men were fearless."

Dr. West: "And I think what you're seeing in some of the images is, there's clearly a courage. If you're choosing to memorialize the image, one can presume that, on the spectrum of 'I'm going to conform' and 'I'm going to be who I am', that you're seeing men toward 'I'm going to be who I am'."

Some photos were inscribed on the back with some rather 'telling' information. Otherwise, it is the photos themselves which reveal that the feelings seem to go beyond mere friendship.

Here's the website link again. Go visit it and look at the photos more closely: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hidden-...472079/detail/

[MissAnne]

So I like the pictures very much, as they give a nice insight in the past. But I do get the idea that the majority of these pictures (especially the ones with only a very vague (or no information at all) about site & date & circumstances are plates of (random) guys (without knowing anything about their sexual activities / interests).

Yeah, I wondered that myself. Some of them are pretty obvious. The collector said that on the back of one picture someone wrote "Bob and his special friend" lol. So they could probably be determined as a couple. I also suspect that he gathered some of the photos from people that actually knew the men and probably could give some information on the nature of their relationship.

Either way, its nice to see Black men being affectionate towards one another. You don't often see that in today's culture.

[MissAnne]

Claudette Colvin at 15, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger nine months before Rosa Parks' famous bus boycott. The NAACP didn't want to use her in the movement because she became a unwed teenage mother and they didn't think that she sent the correct message.

Contrary to popular belief, Rosa Park's boycott was done purposefully and was orchestrated by the NAACP. Parks was an educated, NAACP Secretary.