Negro Art in Belgian Congo 1958

More African Art to Come...

 

What is Love? (Poem) - Charles Frederick White 1896

 

Love: what is love;

That fascinating power, divine,

Which fills the heart with thoughts sublime,

Which causes men to tear their hair,

Which brings delight and brings despair

Into the peaceful mind?

In vain, in vain, I've delved to find,

To fathom from its mystic rhyme,

As down the stealthy roll of time

It spreads its blessings o'er mankind,

Or, laughing wildly at his fear,

Sends down its vengeance, year by year,

The incantations of this word

Which, though I sleep, are ever heard.

Perchance, some mortal who has found

Himself within this magic mound

Of uninvited thought can give

The explanation of this myth

Which has, by its unwonted skill,

Defied the universe at will

For these long years. 

May. 1896.

Juan Francisco Manzano - Poems by a Slave 101

Juan Francisco Manzano's slave narrative is the only known writing on Latin American slavery by a black person before 1886, when slavery was abolished in Cuba. The narrative, with a collection of Manzano's poetry, was first published in English by T. Ward & Company in London in 1840; it was not published in its original Spanish until almost a century later. Anselmo Suárez y Romero, author of the seminal Latin American antislavery novel Francisco (1880), edited Manzano's manuscript for its London publication. The manuscript was translated into English by Irish physician and abolitionist Richard R. Madden, who had lived in Cuba. Madden added some of his own writing to the volume, and may have done some editing to protect Manzano from reprimands. The English publication’s full title was Poems by a Slave in the Island of Cuba, Recently Liberated; Translated from the Spanish, by R. R. Madden, M.D., with the History of the Early Life of the Negro Poet, Written by Himself; to which are prefixed two pieces descriptive of Cuban Slavery and the Slave-traffic, by R. R. M.

The Slave-Trade Merchant

Behold, yon placid, plodding, staid old man,

His still and solemn features closely scan!

In his calm look how wisdom's light is shed,

How the grey hairs, become his honored head!

Mark how the merchants bow, as he goes by,

How men on 'Change, at his approach draw nigh,

"Highly respected," and esteemed; 'tis said,

His fame to Afric's farthest shore is spread!

Behold, his house:—if marble speak elsewhere,

"Sermons in stones" are with a vengeance here,

Whate'er the potent will of wealth can do

Or pride can wish, is offered to your view.

Those gay saloons, this banquet hall's array,

This glaring pile in all its pomp survey

The grandeur strikes—one must not look for taste—

What's gorgeous, cannot always be quite chaste.

Behold, his heart! it is not all that's fair

And smooth without, that's staunch and sound elsewhere.

E'en in the calmest breast, the lust of gold

May have its firmest seat and fastest hold,

May fix its fatal canker in the core,

Reach every feeling, taint it more and more;

Nor leave one spot of soundness where it falls,

Nor spark of pity where its lust enthralls.

Behold, his conscience! oh, what deep repose,

It slumbers on in one long deadly doze:

Why do you wonder that it thus does sleep;

That crime should prosper, or that guilt so deep,

So long unfelt should seem unscathed, in fine,

Should know no shame, and fear no law divine.

Is there a curse like that which shrines offence,

Which hardens crime and sears the moral sense,

And leaves the culprit in his guilt unshamed,

And takes him hence unchanged and unreclaimed.

Behold, the peace that's owned by him who feels

He does no wrong, or outrage when he deals

In human flesh; or yet supplies the gold

To stir the strife, whose victims you behold.

The Cuban merchant prosecutes his trade

Without a qualm, or a reproach being made;

Sits at his desk, and with composure sends

A formal order to his Gold-coast friends

For some five hundred "bultos" of effects,

And bids them ship "the goods" as he directs.

That human cargo, to its full amount,

Is duly bought and shipped on his account;

Stowed to the best advantage in the hold,

And limb to limb in chains, as you behold:

On every breast, the well-known brand, J. G.

In letters bold, engraved on flesh you see.

The slaves by times are in their fetters used

To dance and sing, and forcibly amused,

To make the negroes merry when they pine,

Or seem to brood o'er some concealed design.

And when the voyage to its close draws near,

No pains are spared to make the slaves appear

In fit condition for the market stall;

Their limbs are greased, their heads are shaved, and all

These naked wretches, wasted as they are,

And marked with many a recent wound and scar,

Are landed boldly on the coast, and soon

Are penned, like cattle, in the barracone.

Tricked out for sale and huddled in a mass,

Exposed to ev'ry broker who may pass,

Rudely examined, roused with the "courbash,"

And walked, and run, and startled with the lash,

Or ranged in line are sold by parcel there;

Spectres of men! the pictures of despair.

Their owner comes, "the royal merchant" deigns

To view his chattels, and to count his gains.

To him, what boots it, how these slaves were made,

What wrongs the poor have suffered by his trade.

To him, what boots it, if the sale is good,

How many perished in the fray of blood!

How many peaceful hamlets were attacked,

And poor defenceless villages were sacked!

How many wretched beings in each town

Maimed at the onslaught, or in flight cut down!

How many infants from the breast were torn,

And frenzied mothers dragged away forlorn!

To him, what boots it, how the ship is crammed;

How many hundreds in the hold are jammed!

How small the space! what piteous cries below!

What frightful tumult in that den of woe!

Or how the hatches when the gale comes on,

Are battened down, and ev'ry hope seems gone;

What struggling hands in vain are lifted there,

Or how the lips are parched that move in prayer,

Or mutter imprecations wild and dread,

On all around, the dying and the dead:

What cares the merchant for that crowded hold,

The voyage pays, if half the slaves are sold!

What does it matter to that proud senor,

How many sick have sunk to rise no more;

How many children in the waving throng.

Crushed in the crowd, or trampled by the strong!

What boots it, in that dungeon of despair,

How many beings gasp and pant for air!

How many creatures draw infected breath,

And drag out life, aye, in the midst of death!

Yet to look down, my God, one instant there,

The shrieks and groans of that live mass to hear;

To breathe that horrid atmosphere, and dwell

But for one moment in that human hell!

It matters little, if he sell the sound,

How many sick, that might not sell, were drowned;

How many wretched creatures pined away,

Or wasted bodies made their "plash" per day?

They're only negroes:—true, they count not here.

Perhaps, their cries and groans may count elsewhere,

And one on high may say for these and all,

A price was paid, and it redeemed from thrall.

If the proud "merchants who are princes" here,

Believe his word, or his commandments fear,

How can they dare to advocate this trade,

Or call the sacred scriptures to its aid.

How can they have the boldness to lay claim,

And boast their title to the christian name;

Or yet pretend to walk in reason's light,

And wage eternal war with human right.

The pen does all the business of the sword,

On Congo's shore, the Cuban merchant's word

Serves to send forth a thousand brigands bold,

"To make a prey," and fill another hold;

To ravage distant nations at his ease,

By written order, just as he may please:

"Set snares and traps to catch" his fellow-men

And "lie in wait" to link their fetters, then,

Send forth his agents to foment the strife

Of hostile tribes—and when their feuds are rife,

To waste a province to provide a prey,

Yet dare to make humanity his plea.

Is there no sacred minister of peace

To raise his voice, and bid these horrors cease?

No holy priest in all this ruthless clime,

To warn these men, or to denounce their crime?

No new Las Casas to be found once more,

To leave his country for this blood-stained shore;

And tell the titled felon of his deeds,

With all the freedom the occasion needs?

Alas! no voice is raised in Cuba—save

To plead for bondage, and revile the slave,

Basely to pander to oppression's aim,

And desecrate religion's sacred name.

Yet in this moral Golgotha, where round

The grave of mercy none but foes are found.

Some lone and weary pilgrim may have come,

And caused a voice to echo from this tomb.

From him, perhaps, the proud oppressors e'en

May hear the crimes, they still would strive to screen,

And find a corner of the veil they cast

O'er Cuban bondage has been raised—at last,

And some, perhaps, at length aroused may think,

With all their gold they stand on ruin's brink,

And learn, at last, to ask of their own breasts,

Why have they used their fellow-men like beasts;

Why should it be that each should thus "despise

His brother" man, and scoff "the stranger's cries?"

"Have they not all one Father who's above?

Hath not one God created them in love?

Are they not all in God's own image made,

Or were the words of life to be obeyed?"

Or held unworthy of the Lord on high,

"He that shall steal and sell a man shall die?"

Perhaps, fanatics only in their zeal,

May think that others, thus should speak or feel,

And none but zealots dream, that negroes' rights

Were God's own gifts, as well, as those of whites.

Perhaps, the Cuban merchants too, may think

In guilt's great chain, he's but the farthest link.

Forsooth, he sees not all the ills take place,

Nor goes in person to the human chase;

He does not hunt the negro down himself,

Of course, he only furnishes the pelf.

He does not watch the blazing huts beset,

Nor slips the horde at rapine's yell, nor yet

Selects the captives from the wretched band,

Nor spears the aged with his own right hand.

The orphan's cries, the wretched mother's groans,

He does not hear; nor sees the human bones

Strewed o'er the desert bleaching in the sun,

Memorials sad, of former murders done.

He does not brand the captives for the mart,

Nor stow the cargo—'tis the captain's part;

To him the middle passage only seems

A trip of pleasure that with profit teems;

Some sixty deaths or so, on board his ship,

Are bagatelles in such a gainful trip;

Nay, fifty thousand dollars he can boast,

The smallest cargo yields him from the coast.

He need not leave his counting-house, 'tis true,

Nor bid Havana and its joys adieu,

To start the hunt on Afric's burning shore,

And drench its soil with streams of human gore;

He need not part with friends and comrades here

To sever nature's dearest ties elsewhere;

Nor risk the loss of friendship with the host

Of foreign traders, when he sweeps the coast.

But this most grave and "excellent Senor,"

Is cap in hand with the official corps,

Receives the homage due to wealth that's gained,

No matter how, or where it be obtained.

His friends are too indulgent to proclaim

What deeds are coupled with his wide-spread fame.

'Tis true, he merely purchases the prey,

And kills by proxy only in the fray;

His agents simply snare the victims first,

They make the war, and he defrays the cost.

Such is the merchant in his trade of blood;

The Indian savage in his fiercest mood

Is not more cruel, merciless in strife,

Ruthless in war, and reckless of man's life!

To human suffering, sympathy, and shame,

His heart is closed, and wealth is all his aim.

Behold, him now in social circles shine,

Polite and courteous, bland—almost benign,

Calm as the grave, yet affable to all,

His well-taught smile has nothing to appal;

It plays like sunbeams on a marble tomb,

Or coldly glancing o'er the death-like gloom,

Creeps o'er his features, as the crisping air,

On Lake Asphaltes steals, and stagnates there.

Serene as summer how the Euxine looks

Before the gale its slumb'ring rage provokes.

Who would imagine, while the calm is there,

What deadly work its depths might still declare?

Or think, beneath such gently swelling waves

Thousands of human beings find their graves,

But who can ponder here, and reconcile

The scowl of murder, with its merchant's smile!

Behold, his friends! observe the kindred traits,

They must resemble, for one draught pourtrays

The tribe of Cuban traders, linked in crime

Of ev'ry grade in guilt, of every clime.

Stealers of men, and shedders of man's gore;

The more they grasp, the rage for gain the more,

Contagious guilt within their circle reigns,

And all in contact with it shows its stains.

Behold, the land! regard its fertile fields,

Look on the victims of the wealth it yields:

Ask of these creatures how they came to be

Dragged from their homes, and sold in slavery?

And when you hear "the cry" of men "go up."

"Robbed of their hire," and made to drink the cup

Of grief, whose bitter anguish is above

All human woe, the wretched can approve,

Think on their wrongs, and venture to reply,

"Shall not the land yet tremble" for this cry!

God of all light and truth, in mercy cause

The men who rule these lands to fear thy laws

O'erthrow oppression, stalled in guilty state;

Raise the poor stranger, spoiled and desolate.

Reprove the despot, and redeem the slave;

For help there's none, but thine that here can save.

Thou who can'st "loose the fettered in due time,"

Break down this bondage, yet forgive its crime;

Let truth and justice, fraught with mercy still,

Prevail at last o'er every tyrant's will.

The Real Buffalo Soldiers

Buffalo Soldiers originally were members of the U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, formed on September 21, 1866 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The nickname was given to the "Negro Cavalry" by the Native American tribes they fought; the term eventually became synonymous with all of the African-American regiments formed in 1866;

• 9th Cavalry Regiment
• 10th Cavalry Regiment
• 24th Infantry Regiment
• 25th Infantry Regiment

Although several African-American regiments were raised during the Civil War to fight alongside the Union Army (including the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and the many United States Colored Troops Regiments), the "Buffalo Soldiers" were established by Congress as the first peacetime all-black regiments in the regular U.S. Army. On September 6, 2005, Mark Matthews, who was the oldest living Buffalo Soldier, died at the age of 111. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Sources disagree on how the nickname "Buffalo Soldiers" began. According to the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, the name originated with the Cheyenne warriors in the winter of 1867, the actual Cheyenne translation being "Wild Buffalo." However, writer Walter Hill documented the account of Colonel Benjamin Grierson, who founded the 10th Cavalry regiment, recalling an 1871 campaign against the Comanche tribe. Hill attributed the origin of the name to the Comanche due to Grierson's assertions. Some sources assert that the nickname was given out of respect for the fierce fighting ability of the 10th cavalry. Other sources assert that Native Americans called the black cavalry troops "buffalo soldiers" because of their dark curly hair, which resembled a buffalo's coat. Still other sources point to a combination of both legends. The term Buffalo Soldiers became a generic term for all African-American soldiers. It is now used for U.S. Army units that trace their direct lineage back to the 9th and 10th Cavalry, units whose service earned them an honored place in U.S. history.

During the American Civil War, the U.S. government formed regiments known as the United States Colored Troops, composed of black soldiers. After the war, Congress reorganized the Army and authorized the formation of two regiments of black cavalry with the designations 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry, and four regiments of black infantry, designated the 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st Infantry Regiments (Colored). The 38th and 41st were reorganized as the 25th Infantry Regiment, with headquarters in Jackson Barracks in New Orleans, Louisiana, in November 1869. The 39th and 40th were reorganized as the 24th Infantry Regiment, with headquarters at Fort Clark, Texas, in April 1869. All of these units were composed of black enlisted men commanded by both white and black officers. These included the first commander of the 10th Cavalry Benjamin Grierson, the first commander of the 9th Cavalry Edward Hatch, Medal of Honor winner Louis H. Carpenter, the unforgettable Nicholas M. Nolan and the first black graduate of West Point Henry O. Flipper.

From 1866 to the early 1890s, these regiments served at a variety of posts in the Southwestern United States (Apache Wars) and Great Plains regions. They participated in most of the military campaigns in these areas and earned a distinguished record. Thirteen enlisted men and six officers from these four regiments earned the Medal of Honor during the Indian Wars. In addition to the military campaigns, the "Buffalo Soldiers" served a variety of roles along the frontier from building roads to escorting the U.S. mail. On 17 April 1875, regimental headquarters for the 9th and 10th Cavalries were transferred to Fort Concho, Texas. Companies actually arrived at Fort Concho in May 1873. At various times from 1873 through 1885, Fort Concho housed 9th Cavalry companies A–F, K, and M, 10th Cavalry companies A, D–G, I, L, and M, 24th Infantry companies D–G, and K, and 25th Infantry companies G and K.

A lesser known action was the 9th Cavalry's participation in the fabled Johnson County War, an 1892 land war in Johnson County, Wyoming between small farmers and large, wealthy ranchers. It culminated in a lengthy shootout between local farmers, a band of hired killers, and a sheriff's posse. The 6th Cavalry was ordered in by President Benjamin Harrison to quell the violence and capture the band of hired killers. Soon afterward, however, the 9th Cavalry was specifically called on to replace the 6th. The 6th Cavalry was swaying under the local political and social pressures and was unable to keep the peace in the tense environment. The Buffalo Soldiers responded within about two weeks from Nebraska, and moved the men to the rail town of Suggs, Wyoming, creating "Camp Bettens" despite a racist and hostile local population. One soldier was killed and two wounded in gun battles with locals. Nevertheless, the 9th Cavalry remained in Wyoming for nearly a year to quell tensions in the area.
  
1898-1918

After the Indian Wars ended in the 1890s, the regiments continued to serve and participated in the

1898 Spanish-American War (including the Battle of San Juan Hill) in Cuba, where five more Medals of Honor were earned.

The regiments took part in the Philippine-American War from 1899 to 1903 and the 1916 Mexican Expedition.

In 1918 the 10th Cavalry fought at the Battle of Ambos Nogales, where they assisted in forcing the surrender of the federal Mexican and German forces. Buffalo soldiers fought in the last engagement of the Indian Wars; the small Battle of Bear Valley in southern Arizona which occurred in 1918 between U.S. cavalry and Yaqui natives

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Little Rock 'Nine' - Segregated Schools

The Little Rock Nine was a group of African-American students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The ensuing Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, and then attended after the intervention of President Eisenhower, is considered to be one of the most important events in the African-American Civil Rights Movement.

Supreme Court Decision

The U.S. Supreme Court issued its historic Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, on May 17, 1954. The decision declared all laws establishing segregated schools to be unconstitutional, and it called for the desegregation of all schools throughout the nation. After the decision the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) attempted to register black students in previously all-white schools in cities throughout the South. In Little Rock, the capital city of Arkansas, the Little Rock School Board agreed to comply with the high court's ruling. Virgil Blossom, the Superintendent of Schools, submitted a plan of gradual integration to the school board on May 24, 1955, which the board unanimously approved. The plan would be implemented during the 1958 school year, which would begin in September 1957. By 1957, the NAACP had registered nine black students to attend the previously all-white Little Rock Central High, selected on the criteria of excellent grades and attendance.

The nicknamed "Little Rock Nine" consisted of Ernest Green (b. 1941), Elizabeth Eckford (b. 1941), Jefferson Thomas (b. 1942), Terrence Roberts (b. 1941), Carlotta Walls LaNier (b. 1942), Minnijean Brown (b. 1941), Gloria Ray Karlmark (b. 1942), Thelma Mothershed (b. 1940), and Melba Beals (b. 1941). Ernest Green was the first African American to graduate from Central High School.

National Guard Blockade

Several segregationist councils threatened to hold protests at Central High and physically block the black students from entering the school. Governor Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to support the segregationists on September 4, 1957. The sight of a line of soldiers blocking nine black students from attending high school made national headlines and polarized the city. Regarding the accompanying crowd, one of the nine black students, Elizabeth Eckford, recalled "they moved closer and closer". "Somebody started yelling"' I tried to see a friendly face somewhere in the crowd — someone who maybe could help. I looked into the face of an old woman and it seemed a kind face, but when I looked at her again, she spat on me." On September 9, "The Council of Church Women" issued a statement condemning the governor's deployment of soldiers to the high school and called for a citywide prayer service on September 12. Even President Dwight Eisenhower attempted to de-escalate the situation and summoned Governor Faubus to meet him. The President warned the governor not to interfere with the Supreme Court's ruling.

Armed Escort

The next day, Woodrow Mann, the Mayor of Little Rock, asked President Eisenhower to send federal troops to enforce integration and protect the nine students. On September 24, the President ordered the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army to Little Rock and federalized the entire 10,000 member Arkansas National Guard, taking it out of the hands of Governor Faubus. The 101st took positions immediately, and the nine students successfully entered the school on the next day, Wednesday, September 25, 1957.

"Nine Negro students attended Little Rock Central High School last week for the first time in history. They arrived at the school Wednesday, September 25, accompanied by crack paratroopers of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. An Army station wagon carried the students to the front entrance of the building while an Army helicopter circled overhead and 350 armed paratroopers stood at parade rest around the building."


A Tense Year

By the end of September 1957, the nine were admitted to Little Rock Central High under the protection of the U.S. Army (and later the Arkansas National Guard), but they were still subjected to a year of physical and verbal abuse (spitting on them, calling them names) by many of the white students. Melba Pattillo had acid thrown into her eyes. Another one of the students, Minnijean Brown, was verbally confronted and abused. She said "I was one of the kids 'approved' by the school officials. We were told we would have to take a lot and were warned not to fight back if anything happened. One girl ran up to me and said, 'I'm so glad you’re here. Won’t you go to lunch with me today?' I never saw her again." Minnijean Brown was also taunted by members of a group of white, male students in December 1957 in the school cafeteria during lunch. She dropped her lunch – a bowl of chili – onto the boys and was suspended for six days. Two months later, after more confrontation, Brown was suspended for the rest of the school year. She transferred to New Lincoln High School in New York City. As depicted in the 1981 made-for-TV docudrama Crisis at Central High, white students were only punished when their offense was "both egregious and witnessed by an adult".

Governor Faubus  

Governor Faubus' opposition to desegregation may have been politically and racially motivated. Faubus had indicated that he would consider bringing Arkansas into compliance with the high court's decision in 1956. However, desegregation was opposed by his own southern conservative Democratic Party, which dominated all Southern politics at the time. Faubus risked losing political support in the upcoming 1958 Democratic gubernatorial primary if he showed support for integration. Most histories of the crisis conclude that Faubus, facing pressure as he campaigned for a third term, decided to appease racist elements in the state by calling out the National Guard to prevent the black students from entering Central High.

Harry Ashmore, the editor of the Arkansas Gazette, won a 1958 Pulitzer Prize for his editorials on the crisis. Ashmore portrayed the fight over Central High as a crisis manufactured by Faubus; in his interpretation, Faubus used the Arkansas National Guard to keep black children out of Central High School because he was frustrated by the success his political opponents were having in using segregationist rhetoric to stir white voters. Congressman Brooks Hays, who tried to mediate between the federal government and Faubus, was later defeated by a last minute write-in candidate, Dale Alford, a member of the Little Rock School Board who had the backing of Faubus's allies. A few years later, despite the incident with the "Little Rock Nine", Faubus ran as a moderate segregationist against Dale Alford, who was challenging Faubus for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1962.

Madam C. J. Walker - Black Inventor

Madam C.J. Walker (December 23, 1867 – May 25, 1919) was an African-American businesswoman, hair care entrepreneur and philanthropist. She made her fortune by developing and marketing a hugely successful line of beauty and hair products for black women under the company she founded, Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company. The Guinness Book of Records cites Walker as the first female who became a millionaire by her own achievements.

She was born Sarah Breedlove in Delta, Louisiana. She was the first member of her family to be born free, to parents who had been slaves. By the time she was seven, both of her parents had died. (Some sources claim that they died of yellow fever, but that information is not correct.) Her mother died first, probably of cholera. Her father then remarried and died shortly afterward. The exact cause of death is unknown and no death certificate exists for either. At age 14, Sarah Breedlove married a man named Moses McWilliams and was widowed at age 20. The cause of Moses's death is unknown. Although some sources claim he was lynched or murdered, there is absolutely no documentation or evidence to support this. Sarah Breedlove McWilliams then moved to St. Louis, Missouri to join her brothers. Sarah worked as a laundress for as little as a dollar and a half a day, but she was able to save enough to educate her daughter. While living in St. Louis, she joined St. Paul's African Methodist Episcopal Church, which helped develop her speaking, interpersonal and organizational skills.



Around the time of the St. Louis 1904 World's Fair, she worked as a sales agent for Annie Malone, another black woman entrepreneur who manufactured hair care products. Unsatisfied with Malone's products, Sarah began to experiment with her own formulas. Later some sources say she consulted with a Denver pharmacist, who, may have analyzed Malone's formula and helped Walker formulate her own products. In addition, she often told reporters that the ingredients for her "Wonderful Hair Grower" had come to her in a dream. In 1906 she married Charles Joseph Walker, a St. Louis newspaperman , and changed her name to "Madam C.J. Walker". She founded the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company to sell hair care products and cosmetics. She and Charles Joseph Walker left Denver in 1906 after her daughter, A'Lelia McWilliams (who later changed her surname to Walker), had arrived in Colorado to run the Denver office. Madam Walker and her husband traveled for a year and a half until they settled in Pittsburgh, where they opened the first Lelia College of Beauty Culture, named after her daughter. In 1910 Walker moved her growing manufacturing operation to Indianapolis, IN where she built a new factory. In 1912 she divorced her husband.

'I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations...I have built my own factory on my own ground.'

Walker saw her personal wealth not as an end in itself, but as a means to promote economic opportunities for others, especially women and African Americans. She took great pride in the profitable employment — and alternative to domestic labor — that her company afforded many thousands of black women who worked as commissioned agents. Her agents could earn at least $5 to $15 per day in an era when unskilled white laborers were making about $11 per week. Marjorie Joyner, who started work as one of her employees, went on to lead the next generation of African-American beauty entrepreneurs.

Walker was known for her philanthropy, setting aside in a trust two-thirds of her estate to educational institutions and charities, including the NAACP, the Tuskegee Institute and Bethune-Cookman College. In 1919, her $5,000 pledge to the NAACP's anti-lynching campaign was the largest gift the organization had ever received. Walker had a mansion called "Villa Lewaro" built in the wealthy New York suburb of Irvington on Hudson, New York, near the estates of John D. Rockefeller and Jay Gould. Today that home is a private residence and a [National Historic Landmark]. She spent tens of thousands of dollars on furnishings. The Italianate villa was designed by architect Vertner Tandy, the first licensed black architect in the state of New York, in 1915. Walker also owned houses in Indianapolis and New York.

Madam Walker died on May 25, 1919, at age 51, at her estate Villa Lewaro from kidney failure and other complications related to a long battle with hypertension. She was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Her daughter A'Lelia Walker carried on the tradition of hospitality, opening her mother's home and her own to writers, actors, musicians and artists of the emergent Harlem Renaissance. She promoted important members of that movement. She converted a section of her Harlem townhouse at 108-110 West 136th Street into the Dark Tower, a salon and tearoom where Harlem and Greenwich Village artists, writers and musicians gathered. Poet Langston Hughes called her "The joy goddess of Harlem's 1920s" in his autobiography The Big Sea, because of the lavish parties she hosted in Harlem and Irvington.

Ms. Walker was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1992 and in 2002, Molefi Kete Asante listed Madam C. J. Walker on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans. She also has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, the National Cosmetology Hall of Fame and the National Direct Sales Hall of Fame. On 28 January 1998 the USPS, as part of its Black Heritage Series, issued the Madam C.J. Walker Commemorative stamp. On 16 March 2010, Congressman Charles Rangel introduced HJ81, a Congressional House Joint Resolution, honoring Madam C. J. Walker. That legislation currently awaits a vote.

 

Warrior Woman - Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Warrior Woman - Ida B. Wells-Barnett

In the latter part of nineteenth century, social theories from Ida B. Wells-Barnett were forceful blows against the mainstream White male ideologies of her time. Ida Wells was born on July 16, 1862, in Holly Springs, Mississippi. It was the second year of the Civil War and she was born into a slave family. Her mother, Lizzie Warrenton, was a cook; and her father, James, was a carpenter. Ida's parents believed that education was very important and after the War, they enrolled their children in Rust College, the local school set up by the Freedmen's Aid Society (Hine 1993). Founded in 1866, the Society established schools and colleges for recently freed slaves in the South, and it was at Rust College that Ida learned to read and write.

Everything changed for Ida the summer she turned sixteen. Both of her parents and her infant brother died during a yellow fever epidemic, and Ida was left to care for her remaining five siblings. She began teaching at a rural school for $25 a month and, a year later, took a position in Memphis, Tennessee, in the city's segregated black schools. Upon arriving in Memphis were teaching salaries were higher than Mississippi, Wells-Barnett found out that even though there was a stronger demand for literate individuals to teach, there was a stronger need for qualified ones. According to Salley (1993), because she needed qualifications in order to teach, she enrolled into Fisk University and gained her qualification in under a year. While returning to Memphis from a teaching convention in New York, she was met with racial provocation for the first time while traveling by railway. Ida was asked by the conductor to move to the segregated car, even though she had paid for a ticket in the ladies coach car. She refused to leave, and bit the conductor's hand as he forcibly pushed her from the railway car. She sued the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, and was awarded $500 by a local court.

 
Even though she won the case, the headlines read, "DARKY DAMSEL GETS DAMAGES," and the decision was appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court and was reversed (Bolden, 1996). She was ordered to pay court frees in the amount of $200. This incident infuriated Ida and spurred her to investigate and report other incidents of racism. Outraged by the inequality of Black and White schools in Memphis and the unfairness of Jim Crow segregation, Ida became a community activist and began writing articles calling attention to the plight of African Americans. She wrote for a weekly Black newspaper called The Living Way. Wells-Barnett's teaching career ended upon her "dismissal in 1891 for protesting about the conditions in Black schools" (Salley, 1993, p.115). During her time as a school teacher, Wells-Barnett along with other Black teachers was said to have gathered and "shared writing and discussion on Friday evening, and produced a newspaper covering the week's events and gossip." (Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley, 1998, p.151). The newspaper was officially established and published and distributed under the name Memphis Free Speech and Headlights throughout the Back community a year after she was dismissed. It has been said that her motivation to become a social analyst was the results of her involvement with the Memphis Free Speech and Headlights both as editor and columnist under the pen name Lola and as part owner.

Unfortunately, her printing press was destroyed and she was run out of town by a White mob (Sally, 1993). After getting dismissed from her teaching position, her attention then shifted from schools to the issue that would dominate her work for most of her life; lynching. Lynching was the brutal and lawless killing of Black men and women, often falsely accused of crimes, and usually perpetrated by sizable violent mobs of Whites.

It was during this Reconstruction Era, after the Civil War, that Black men made immediate civil gains such as voting, holding public office, and owning land. Yet, groups like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) developed at the turn of the century as a response. They made it difficult for Southern Blacks to vote or live in peace, attempting to maintain White supremacy through coercion and violence, including lynching (Salzman, 2004) . Infuriated by the Memphis lynching in 1892, which involved a close friend, Ida expressed her grief in an editorial: "The city of Memphis has demonstrated that neither character nor standing avails the Negro if he dares to protect himself against the White man or become his rival. There is nothing we can do about the lynching now, as we are outnumbered and without arms. There is therefore only one thing left we can do; save our money and leave town which will neither protect our lives and property, nor give us a fair trial in the courts, when accused by White persons" (Hine, 1993).

At the same time Wells saw what lynching really was; an excuse to "keep the nigger down" and execute Blacks "who acquired wealth and property." (Duster, 1971) This sparked her investigation into the causes of lynchings. Since Whites could no longer hold Blacks as slaves they found in mob violence a different means of maintaining a system of "economic, psychological, and sexual exploitation" (Duster, 1971).  In addition, the result of her investigation and editorial sparked the Black community to retaliate and encourage all who could to leave, and those who stayed to boycott the city Railroad Company. Ida saw the success of the boycott, and asserted, "the appeal to the White man's pocket has ever been more effectual than all appeals ever made to his conscience." (Duster, 1971.)

As mentioned earlier, because of Well-Barnett's racial identity, her social theory was well shaped by the events unfolding within her community as experienced by the first generation of African-Americans after Emancipation (Lengerman and Niebrugge-Brantley, 1998). According to Lengerman and Niebrugge-Brantley (1998): "This community took as one assumption that White dominance and its accompanying doctrine of White supremacy had to be confronted. American social Darwinists were giving doctrine of White intellectual legitimacy to Whites, which at this time meant Anglo-Saxon, imperialism abroad and supremacy at home, providing dogma such as that in James K. Hosmer's"Short History of Anglo-Saxon Freedom"(p. 159). Wells-Barnett's social theory is considered to be a radical non-Marxian conflict theory with a focus on a "pathological interaction between differences and power in U.S. society. A condition they variously label as repression, domination, suppression, despotism, subordination, subjugation, tyranny, and our American conflict." (Lengerman and Niebrugge-Brantley, 1998, p.161).

Her social theory was also considered "Black Feminism Sociology," and according to Lengerman and Niebrugge-Brantley (1998), there was four presented themes within the theory: one, her object of social analysis and of a method appropriate to the project; two, her model of the social world; three, her theory of domination and four, her alternative to domination. Although those four themes were present in her theory, one could assume that the major theme above the four was the implication of a moral form of resistance against oppression, which is not farfetched seeing that oppression was the major theme in her life.

She used an amazingly straight-forward writing style to prove a very bold argument against lynching, discrediting the excuse of rape and other excuses. Wells used specific examples and sociological theories to disprove the justifications of lynching made by Southerners. Within her pamphlets, Wells portrays the views of African-Americans in the 1890s. Southerners allowed widespread lynchings while hiding behind the excuse of "defending the honor of its women."(Jones-Royster, 1997). The charge of rape was used in many cases to lynch innocent African-American men. The victim's innocence was often proved after his death. Wells states that the raping of White women by Negro men is an outright lie. Wells supports her statements with several stories about mutual relationships between White women and Black men. White men are free to have relationships with colored women, but colored men will receive death for relationships with white women (Duster, 1971). As shown by Wells, the excuses used by Whites to torture and murder African-Americans were false. In no way can these kinds of crimes ever be truly justified because of the victim's crimes. Perhaps the most obvious reasons these crimes happened are hate and fear. Differences between groups of people have always caused fear of the unknown, which translates into hate. Whites no longer depended on African-American slave labor for their livelihood. When African Americans were slaves they were considered "property" and "obviously, it was more profitable to sell slaves than to kill them"(Jones-Royster, 1997). With all restraint of "property" and "profit" lifted, Whites during and after Reconstruction were able to freely give into their fear and hate by torturing and killing African-Americans.

Wells' investigations revealed that regardless of whether one was poor and jobless or middle-class, educated, and successful, all Blacks were vulnerable to lynching. Black women, too, were victimized by mob violence and terror. Occasionally they were lynched for alleged crimes and insults, but more often these women were left behind as survivors of those lynched. Up to this time, African-Americans had almost never been free from some form of persecution; the period of Reconstruction was particularly difficult. With the occurrences of lynching steadily increasing with no hope of relenting, their new found freedom ensured little safety. Eventually, Wells was drawn to Chicago in 1893 to protest the racism of the exclusion of African Americans from the World's Fair. With the help of Frederick Douglass, she distributed 20,000 pamphlets entitled "The Reason Why the Colored American is Not in the Columbian Exposition." On June 27, 1895, she married Ferdinand Lee Barnett, lawyer and editor of the Chicago Conservator, and continued to write while raising four children with him (Duster, 1971).

Ida believed firmly in the power of the vote to effect change for African-American men and women. She saw enfranchisement as the key to reform and equality, and she integrated the Women's Suffrage movement by marching in the 1913 Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C., with the all White Illinois delegation (Sterling, 1979). She continued to write in her later years, and remained one of the most widely syndicated Black columnists in America. She published articles on race issues and injustices that were printed in African-American newspapers nationwide. Toward the end of her life, Ida worked to address the social and political concerns of African-Americans in Chicago. She made an unsuccessful run as an independent candidate for the Illinois State Senate in 1930, and died the next year of the kidney disease uremia (Duster, 1971). Wells-Barnett's influence was profound. When the federal government built the first low-income housing project in Chicago's "Black belt" in 1940, it was named in her honor (Sterling, 1979). Her autobiography was published posthumously by her daughter, Alfreda Duster in 1971. In Chicago, she helped to found a number of Black female and reform organizations, such as the Ida B. Wells Club, the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago, and the Chicago Negro Fellowship League. She also served as director of Chicago's Cook County League of Women's Clubs. These clubs were a means for Blacks to join together for support and to organize to effect change (Duster, 1971). At the national level, Wells-Barnett was a central figure in the founding of the National Association of Colored Women, a visible organization that worked for adequate child care, job training, and wage equity, as well as against lynching and transportation segregation.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett's passion for justice made her a tireless crusader for the rights of African Americans and women. She was a social reformer, a suffragist, a civil rights activist, and a philanthropist. Her writings, regardless of the risk to her safety and life, raised public awareness and involvement to address a number of social ills resulting in the oppression or murder of African Americans. Her service of time through the creation of myriad clubs and organizations improved the lives of her people. Her work in Chicago, in her final years, focused on providing for the needs of the city's African American population. Modeled after Jane Addams' Settlement House efforts, Wells created urban houses for Black men, where they could live safely and have access to recreational amusements while they searched for employment (Hines, 1993). Ida B. Wells-Barnett is sometimes referred to as the "Mother of the Civil Rights movement." She refused to be moved from the Whites only railway car eighty years before the famous Rosa Parks held her seat on an Alabama bus. She encouraged the Black community to take steps to gain political rights, using the same means that would successfully be used much later during the Civil Rights movement such as economic and transportation boycotts (Hines, 1993).

In similar fashion to Margaret Sanger (of the Birth Control movement) and Susan B. Anthony (of the Women's Suffrage movement), Wells-Barnett was a woman who dedicated her entire life to upholding her firm beliefs about social reform. She began by writing about the disparity in education and school conditions for Black children and spent much of her life working to abolish lynching through public awareness (Hines, 1993). Ida, through her example, writings, speaking, and service in various organizations, elevated the voice of women's equality and suffrage. She was a pioneering Black female journalist, and led a very public life in a time when most women, Black or White, did not actively participate in the male political realm. Ida B. Wells-Barnett was connected to many prominent leaders and reformers, male and female, during her lifetime. Among them: Jane Addams (1860-1935) was a social reformer, social worker and the founder of Chicago's Hull House, the most famous of the settlement houses. Addams and Wells-Barnett successfully worked together to block the segregation of Chicago's public schools (Sterling, 1979). She was also connected to W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963) who was a famous Black scholar, sociologist, researcher, writer, and civil rights activist who voiced opposition to the accomodationist views of his contemporary, Booker T. Washington (1856-1915). Washington urged African Americans to focus on self-improvement through education and economic opportunity instead of pressing Whites for political rights.

Ida B. Wells outwardly disagreed with Booker T. Washington's position on industrial education and was mortified with his implication that "Blacks were illiterate and immoral, until the coming of Tuskegee." (Hine, 1993) Outraged by his remarks, she considered his rejection of a college education as a "bitter pill." (Hine, 1993). She wrote an article entitled "Booker T. Washington and His Critics" regarding industrial education. "This gospel of work is no new one for the Negro. It is the South's old slavery practice in a new dress." (Hine, 1993).

She felt that focusing only on industrial education would limit the opportunities of aspiring young Blacks and she saw Washington as no better than the Whites that justified their actions through lynching. Wells-Barnett joined DuBois in his belief that African Americans should militantly demand civil rights, and the two worked together on several occasions, most substantially as co-founders of the NAACP. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), of which Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a founding member, is still a thriving organization with thousands of members nationwide (Hines, 1993). The association continues to advocate and litigate for civil rights for African Americans.

Two of the primary issues on which Wells-Barnett worked on, anti-lynching and women's suffrage, are now defunct issues. Lynching is a federal crime and women received the vote in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. For this reason, related groups that arose at the time, such as the Anti-lynching League, the Freedmen's Aid Society, and the National Association of Colored Women are no longer in existence. Yet, the League of Women Voters was created as an outgrowth of the suffragist movement, and is an organization that still educates men and women about their responsibilities as voters. Wells-Barnett's contribution to the field of sociology is so significant that her work "predates or is contemporaneous with the now canonized contributions of White male thinkers like Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, George Simmel, and George Herbert Mead, as well as the contributions of White female sociologists like Adams, Gilman, Marianne Weber, Webb, and the Chicago Women" (Lengerman and Niebrugge-Brantley, 1998, p.171). Ms. Wells-Barnett is an inspiring example of the power of the written word and the determination to succeed despite the odds. She was an African American woman, the daughter of slaves and considered the lowest of the low on the historical totem pole in American society and her tenacity, ambition, courage and desire for justice changed history. She was direct and possessed strength during a time when this was unheard of by a woman, especially a Black woman. A reformer of her time, she believed African-Americans had to organize themselves and fight for their independence against White oppression. She roused the White South to bitter defense and began the awakening of the conscience of a nation.

Through her campaign, writings, and agitation she raised crucial questions about the future of Back Americans. Today African-Americans do not rally against oppression like those that came before. Gone are the days when Blacks organized together; today Blacks live in a society that does not want to get involved as a whole. What this generation fails to realize is that although the days of Jim Crow have disappeared, it is important to realize that the fight for equality is never over. In the preface of On Lynching: Southern Horrors, A Red Record and A Mob Rule in New Orleans (a compilation of her major works), she writes, "The Afro-American is not a bestial race. If this work can contribute in any way toward proving this, and at the same time arouse the conscience of the American people to a demand for justice to every citizen, and punishment by law for the lawless, I shall feel I have done my race a service. Other considerations are of minor importance" (Wells, 1969).




By Kathy Henry

Ida B Wells Foundation

Thurgood Marshall - A Black Colored Legend

There are a number of legendary personalities who have come from the black community. When the whole black community was at stake due to the tremendous oppression by the white community, a number of national heroes were born to save the black colored people from the termination and destruction. The black community had no value in the society. They were compelled to do laymen's work without expecting the good wages. They were sold to rich businessmen or traders for higher amount and they were obliged to provide the free service to their masters.

King Luther was such a national hero whose heart ached for his black brothers and he started organizing the black colored people to unite for the revolution to secure their rights. However, there are other eminent political figures whose contribution to get the justice back to the black community is not negligible. However eventually after the Civil War, the slavery was stopped or banned or removed totally from the society. Thurgood Marshall is a black colored eminent scholar who has brightened the history of African Americans. If you review his biography, you will come to know that Thurgood was actually the son of a slave family. His forefathers were bonded laborers. However, his father was very good and conscious of the importance of the education.

Therefore, Thurgood was sent to school for getting qualitative education for the upgradation of his career in life. He was brilliant student and successfully completed his graduation from Howard University. He started his professional career as a lawyer. He has the brilliant performance track record. You will be surprised and enamored to check his performance graph. Marshall showed his expertise to fight against the indiscrimination and racial segregation. He is the representative of the black community. Marshal always tried to use his logistic aptitude to get victory over the racial segregation and color distinction. He won every case which he fought in the court to bring back the justice to the victims. He argued total 29 times and every time he was successful in getting legal victory. Thrugood Marshall became the chief council of NAACP.

You should remember the historical case proceeding which was Brown VS Board of Education. It was a severe legal battle to establish the civil rights in the schools where the black colored students were obstructed and prevented from meeting with white colored students. Thurgood Marshal was the lawyer on behalf of Brown and won the legal tussle. Finally, the school authority permitted the black boys to sit with white colored boys in the class and since then the racial segregation was eliminated from the education institutes. He studied lot to find out the possible ways to escalate the economic condition of the black community.

By Irsan Kao