Tumgik
#Booker T Washington High School
gigijb1969 · 11 months
Text
The Texas Rocket Trail 2023 Ended in Southeast Texas/Smith Point Friday
Friday marked the end of the Texas Rocket Trail for Rockets 2023, as the second and final day of launches in Smith Point boasted good weather and a steady line of rockets coming for testing. The original schedule listed 22 rockets for testing, but by day’s end one carryover from Thursday added and 5 vehicles dropped off the docket, leaving only 18 to launch which still creates a full day. Most…
Tumblr media
View On WordPress
0 notes
specialagentartemis · 1 month
Text
Public Domain Black History Books
For the day Frederick Douglass celebrated as his birthday (February 14, Douglass Day, and the reason February is Black History Month), here's a selection of historical books by Black authors covering various aspects of Black history (mostly in the US) that you can download For Free, Legally And Easily!
Slave Narratives
This comprised a hugely influential genre of Black writing throughout the 1800s - memoirs of people born (or kidnapped) into slavery, their experiences, and their escapes. These were often published to fuel the abolitionist movement against slavery in the 1820s-1860s and are graphic and uncompromising about the horrors of slavery, the redemptive power of literacy, and the importance of abolitionist support.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - 1845 - one of the most iconic autobiographies of the 1800s, covering his early life when he was enslaved in Maryland, and his escape to Massachusetts where he became a leading figure in the abolition movement.
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft - 1860 - the memoir of a married couple's escape from slavery in Georgia, to Philadelphia and eventually to England. Ellen Craft was half-white, the child of her enslaver, but she could pass as white, and she posed as her husband William's owner to get them both out of the slave states. Harrowing, tense, and eminently readable - I honestly think Part 1 should be assigned reading in every American high school in the antebellum unit.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs writing under the name Linda Brent - 1861 - writing specifically to reach white women and arguing for the need for sisterhood and solidarity between white and Black women, Jacobs writes of her childhood in slavery and how terrible it was for women and mothers even under supposedly "nice" masters including supposedly "nice" white women.
Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup - 1853 - Born a free Black man in New York, Northup was kidnapped into slavery as an adult and sold south to Louisiana. This memoir of the brutality he endured was the basis of the 2013 Oscar-winning movie.
Early 1900s Black Life and Philosophy
Slavery is of course not the only aspect of Black history, and writers in the late 1800s and early 1900s had their own concerns, experiences, and perspectives on what it meant to be Black.
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington - 1901 - an autobiography of one of the most prominent African-American leaders and educators in the late 1800s/early 1900s, about his experiences both learning and teaching, and the power and importance of equal education. Race relations in the Reconstruction era Southern US are a major concern, and his hope that education and equal dignity could lead to mutual respect has... a long way to go still.
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois - 1903 - an iconic work of sociology and advocacy about the African-American experience as a people, class, and community. We read selections from this in Anthropology Theory but I think it should be more widely read than just assigned in college classes.
Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W.E.B. Du Bois - 1920 - collected essays and poems on race, religion, gender, politics, and society.
A Negro Explorer at the North Pole by Matthew Henson - 1908 - Black history doesn't have to be about racism. Matthew Henson was a sailor and explorer and was the longtime companion and expedition partner of Robert Peary. This is his adventure-memoir of the expedition that reached the North Pole. (Though his descriptions of the Indigenous Greenlandic Inuit people are... really paternalistic in uncomfortable ways even when he's trying to be supportive.)
Poetry
Standard Ebooks also compiles poetry collections, and here are some by Black authors.
Langston Hughes - 1920s - probably the most famous poet of the Harlem Renaissance.
James Weldon Johnson - early 1900s through 1920s - tends to be in a more traditionalist style than Hughes, and he preferred the term for the 1920s proliferation of African-American art "the flowering of Negro literature."
Sarah Louisa Forten Purvis - 1830s - a Black abolitionist poet, this is more of a chapbook of her work that was published in newspapers than a full book collection. There are very common early-1800s poetry themes of love, family, religion, and nostalgia, but overwhelmingly her topic was abolition and anti-slavery, appealing to a shared womanhood.
Science Fiction
This is Black history to me - Samuel Delany's first published novel, The Jewels of Aptor, a sci-fi adventure from the early 60s that encapsulates a lot of early 60s thoughts and anxieties. New agey religion, forgotten technology mistaken for magic, psychic powers, nuclear war, post-nuclear society that feels more like a fantasy kingdom than a sci-fi world until they sail for the island that still has all the high tech that no one really knows how to use... it's a quick and entertaining read.
58 notes · View notes
madamlaydebug · 1 month
Text
Tumblr media
Erykah Badu Posing for her High School Senior Picture in 1989.
The Photo at the very bottom was also Taken in 1989.
Erica Abi Wright (born February 26, 1971), known professionally as Erykah Badu, is an American singer and songwriter. Influenced by R&B, soul, and hip hop, Badu rose to prominence in the late 1990s when her debut album Baduizm (1997), placed her at the forefront of the neo soul movement, earning her the nickname "Queen of Neo Soul" by music critics.
Erykah Badu was born in Dallas, Texas. Badu had her first taste of show business at the age of four, singing and dancing at the Dallas Theater Center and The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL) under the guidance of her godmother, Gwen Hargrove, and uncle TBAAL founder Curtis King. By the age of 14, Badu was freestyling for a local radio station alongside such talent as Roy Hargrove. In her youth, she had decided to change the spelling of her first name from Erica to Erykah, as she believed her original name was a "slave name". The term "kah" signifies the inner self. She adopted the surname "Badu" because it is her favorite jazz scat sound; also, among the Akan people in Ghana, it is the term for the 10th-born child.
After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Badu went on to study theater at Grambling State University, a historically black university. She left the university in 1993 before graduating, to focus more fully on music. During this time, Badu took several minimum-wage jobs to support herself. She taught drama and dance to children at the South Dallas Cultural Center. Working and touring with her cousin, Robert "Free" Bradford, she recorded a 19-song demo, Country Cousins, which attracted the attention of Kedar Massenburg. He set Badu up to record a duet with D'Angelo, "Your Precious Love", and eventually signed her to a record deal with Universal Records.
Badu's career began after she opened a show for D'Angelo in 1994 in Fort Worth, leading to record label executive Kedar Massenburg signing her to Kedar Entertainment. Her first album, Baduizm, was released in February 1997. It spawned four singles: "On & On", "Appletree", "Next Lifetime" and "Otherside of the Game". The album was certified triple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Her first live album, Live, was released in November 1997 and was certified double Platinum by the RIAA.
Her second studio album, Mama's Gun, was released in 2000. It spawned three singles: "Bag Lady", which became her first top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100 peaking at #6, "Didn't Cha Know?" and "Cleva". The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA. Badu's third album, Worldwide Underground, was released in 2003. It generated three singles: "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)", "Danger" and "Back in the Day (Puff)" with 'Love' becoming her second song to reach the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #9. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA. Badu's fourth album, New Amerykah Part One, was released in 2008. It spawned two singles: "Honey" and "Soldier". New Amerykah Part Two was released in 2010 and fared well both critically and commercially. It contained the album's lead single "Window Seat", which led to controversy.
Badu's voice has been compared to jazz singer Billie Holiday. Early in her career, Badu was recognizable for her eccentric style, which often included wearing very large and colorful headwraps. She was a core member of the Soulquarians.
As an actress, she has played a number of supporting roles in movies including Blues Brothers 2000, The Cider House Rules and House of D. She also has appeared in the documentaries Before the Music Dies and The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975.
AWARDS & NOMINATIONS
▪In 1997, Badu received twenty nominations and won three, Favorite Female Solo Single for "On & On", Favorite Female Solo Album for Baduizm and Best R&B/Soul or Rap Song of the Year for "On & On" at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards.
▪In 1998, Badu received fourteen nominations and won eight, including Favorite R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist at the American Music Awards; Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for "On & On" and Best R&B Album for Baduizm at the Grammy Awards; Outstanding New Artist and Outstanding Female Artist at the NAACP Image Awards; Favorite Female Soul/R&B Single for "On & On", Favorite Female Soul/R&B Album for Baduizm and Favorite New R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist for "On & On" at the Soul Train Music Awards.
▪In 2000, Badu received two nominations and won one, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the Grammy Awards.
▪In 2003, Badu received twelve nominations and won two, including Video of the Year for "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)" at the BET Awards and Best Urban/Alternative Performance for "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)" at the Grammy Awards.
▪In 2008, Badu received eleven nominations and won two, including Best Director for "Honey" at the BET Awards and Best Direction in a Video for "Honey" at the MTV Video Music Awards. Overall, Badu has won 16 awards from 59 nominations.
▪In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Badu at number 115 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.
12 notes · View notes
cozyaliensuperstar7 · 5 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Richard Roundtree (July 9, 1942 – October 24, 2023) was an American actor, noted as being "the first black action hero" for his portrayal of private detective John Shaft in the 1971 film Shaft, and its four sequels, released between 1972 and 2019. For his performance in the original film, Roundtree was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor in 1972.
Born July 9, 1942, in New Rochelle, New York, to John Roundtree and Kathryn Watkins, Roundtree attended New Rochelle High School; graduating in 1961. During high school, Roundtree played for the school's undefeated and nationally ranked football team. Following high school, Roundtree attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. Roundtree dropped out of college in 1963 to begin his acting career.
Roundtree began his professional career around 1963. Roundtree began modeling in the Ebony Fashion Fair after being scouted by Eunice W. Johnson. After his modeling success with the Fashion Fair, Roundtree began modeling for such products as Johnson Products' Duke hair grease  and Salem cigarettes. In 1967, Roundtree joined the Negro Ensemble Company. His first role while a part of the company was portraying boxing legend Jack Johnson in the company's production of The Great White Hope.  According to J. E. Franklin, he acted in the Off-Off-Broadway production of her play Mau Mau Room, by the Negro Ensemble Company Workshop Festival, at St. Mark's Playhouse in 1969, directed by Shauneille Perry.
Roundtree was a leading man in early 1970s blaxploitation films, his best-known role being detective John Shaft in the action movie, Shaft (1971) and its sequels, Shaft's Big Score! (1972) and Shaft in Africa (1973). Roundtree also appeared opposite Laurence Olivier and Ben Gazzara in Inchon (1981). On television, he played the slave Sam Bennett in the 1977 television series Roots and Dr. Daniel Reubens on Generations from 1989 to 1991. He played another private detective in 1984's City Heat opposite Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds. Although Roundtree worked throughout the 1990s, many of his films were not well-received, but he found success elsewhere in stage plays.
During that period, however, he reemerged on the small screen as a cultural icon. On September 19, 1991, Roundtree appeared in an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 with Vivica A. Fox. The episode was "Ashes to Ashes", Roundtree playing Robinson Ashe Jr. Roundtree appeared in David Fincher's critically acclaimed 1995 movie Seven, and in the 2000 Shaft, again as John Shaft, with Samuel L. Jackson playing the title character, who is described as the original Shaft's nephew. Roundtree guest-starred in several episodes of the first season of Desperate Housewives as an amoral private detective. He also appeared in 1997's George of the Jungle and played a high-school vice-principal in the 2005 movie, Brick. His voice was utilized as the title character in the hit PlayStation game Akuji the Heartless, where Akuji must battle his way out of the depths of Hell at the bidding of the Baron.
In 1997–1998, Roundtree had a leading role as Phil Thomas in the short-lived Fox ensemble drama, 413 Hope St. He portrayed Booker T. Washington in the 1999 television movie Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years.
Beginning in 2005, Roundtree appeared in the television series The Closer as Colonel D. B. Walter, U.S.M.C. (retired), the father of a sniper, and in Heroes as Simone's terminally ill father, Charles Deveaux. Next, Roundtree appeared as Eddie's father-in-law in episodes of Lincoln Heights. Roundtree then had a supporting role in the 2008 Speed Racer film as a racer-turned-commentator who is an icon and hero to Speed. He also appeared in the two-parter in Knight Rider (2008) as the father of FBI Agent Carrie Ravai, and co-starred as the father of the lead character on Being Mary Jane, which has aired on BET since 2013.
In 2019, Roundtree co-starred in the comedy film film What Men Want, and returned to the role of John Shaft in Shaft, a sequel to the 2000 film, opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Jessie Usher, who portray John Shaft II and John Shaft III, respectively. This time, Roundtree's character was described as Jackson's character's father, while acknowledging that Roundtree had pretended to be Jackson's Shaft's uncle in the 2000 movie. He also starred in the movie, Family Reunion in 2019.
Roundtree was married and divorced twice and had five children. His first marriage was to Mary Jane Grant, whom he married on November 27, 1963. Roundtree and Grant had two children before divorcing in December 1973. He dated actress and TV personality Cathy Lee Crosby shortly thereafter. Roundtree later married Karen M. Ciernia in September 1980; together they had three children. Roundtree and Ciernia divorced in 1998. Roundtree was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993 and underwent a double mastectomy and chemotherapy.
Roundtree died of pancreatic cancer at his Los Angeles home on October 24, 2023, at the age of 81.
My deepest condolences to his family and friends. 🙏🏾❤️🕊
11 notes · View notes
Text
It Happened Today in Christian History
Tumblr media
June 1, 1909: Rosa Jinsey Young, the valedictorian of Payne University, Selma, Alabama delivered a speech titled “Serve the People.” The nineteen-year-old sat to give her speech because she had worked so hard her body had broken under the strain. She said nothing of her suffering, however, and spoke a message of selflessness instead:
   “Every vocation in life implies service. Those who are aspiring for high positions should seek to become the servants of all... The talent we possess is for the service of all. The truth we hold is the truth of all mankind... ‘He that is greatest among you shall be your servant,’ is the language of the Great Teacher. To serve is regarded as a divine privilege as well as a duty by every right-minded man... As we go from these university halls into the battle of life, where our work is to be done and our places among men to be decided, we should go in the spirit of service, with a determination to do all in our power to uplift humanity... It makes no difference how circumscribed opportunities may be, show yourself a friend to those who feel themselves friendless.”
Idealistic as her words may have been, Rosa Young turned them into reality.  
Born in Rosebud, Alabama, she was the daughter of a black Methodist circuit rider, and was determined to use her education to better the lot of African-Americans. After several years teaching in Alabama towns, she yearned to open her own school. Believing that this good desire was from God, she stepped forth in faith and opened a private school near home for seven students.
In three terms, the school had grown to 215 students. However, the students’ families were poor and could pay little toward expenses. The cotton crop had fared poorly because of boll weevils and she had no money to keep the school open. After paying her sister, whom she had hired to help her, she only had a few cents left. She turned to her church, to well-to-do whites, and to anyone who might be able to help. Although she received small contributions, it was not enough.
Young went home and prayed. Then it occurred to her to write to the black educator Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Institute. Washington replied that he was unable to help, but advised her to contact the Board of Colored Missions of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). According to Washington, Lutherans were doing more for African-Americans than any other denomination.
The LCMS sent pastor Nils Bakke to investigate. When he found she was telling the truth, he arranged for help. Young joined the Lutheran church and with its aid founded thirty rural schools, a high school, and a teacher training college, on whose faculty she served. She also planted Lutheran churches. Although derided for leaving the Methodists, she defended herself: “I was born and reared in gross darkness, wholly ignorant of the true meaning of the saving Gospel contained in the Holy Bible...I did not know that I could not read the Bible and pray enough to win heaven.”
Young worked tirelessly almost to the end of her 81 years, even mortgaging her own property to keep the work alive. In 1961, Concordia Theological Seminary in Springfield, Illinois awarded her an honorary Doctor of Letters degree. Ten years later, in 1971, she died, having contributed to the education of thousands of students while spreading the Gospel in Alabama. She titled her autobiography Light in the Dark Belt.
15 notes · View notes
lboogie1906 · 1 year
Photo
Tumblr media
Selma Hortense Burke (December 31, 1900 – August 29, 1995) was a sculptor and a member of the Harlem Renaissance movement. She is known for a bas relief portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt that inspired the profile found on the obverse of the dime. She described herself as "a people's sculptor" and created many pieces of public art, often portraits of prominent African-American figures like Duke Ellington, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Booker T. Washington. She was awarded the Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award. She became involved with the Harlem Renaissance cultural movement through her relationship with the writer Claude McKay, with whom she shared an apartment in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. She began teaching for the Harlem Community Arts Center under the leadership of sculptor Augusta Savage and would go on to work for the Works Progress Administration on the New Deal Federal Art Project. One of her WPA works, a bust of Booker T. Washington, was given to Frederick Douglass High School in Manhattan. She traveled to Europe twice in the 1930s, first on a Rosenwald fellowship to study sculpture in Vienna. She returned to study in Paris with Aristide Maillol. While in Paris she met Henri Matisse, who praised her work. One of her most significant works from this period is "Frau Keller", a portrait of a German-Jewish woman in response to the rising Nazi threat which would convince her to leave Europe later that year. With the onset of WWII, she chose to work in a factory as a truck driver for the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She returned to the US and won a scholarship for Columbia University, where she would receive an MFA. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #deltasigmatheta https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm1U_72rr7A/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
22 notes · View notes
hagfishviperfish · 2 months
Text
posting all about college on here, but i keep having thoughts..
i just feel like i'm missing something in these classes this semester. maybe it's because i'm so exhausted, or putting off a lot of my work, just putting things off. but it really feels like the learning is so surface level? i do all of the readings, i do notes, i even do a few extra things sometimes out of my own interest, and it's only when i do those extra things that i feel like i'm really learning something valuable and past the surface.
which is great and all, but i didn't really give these people my money to be the one educating myself. i could have done this kind of research when i'm bored on a saturday afternoon without splurging 10k on tuition fees.
it's mostly my american literature class giving me grief. it moves quickly. we read and talk about 1-2 authors a day, then move on after that hour is over. why are we learning about these people? what is their significance in american literature? what did they really achieve? what did their writing mean to people? how did it impact americans? why am i writing a response paper about w.e.b. du bois and booker t. washington if we never will come back to them and only learned about them for one day in a very surface level, digestible, quick manner?
overanalysis is one thing, but at least it paints a bigger picture in an american literature class.
i realize you put your own significance to these things, but what's unclear to me is, is this an english class or a history class? it's so formulaic. it feels like talking about literature to people who don't know anything about literature, or about history to people who just want to get the history down for an exam. it feels like a generalized class for high school students. i see the attempts to make it not so but the class is just organized poorly. not really digging it
i don't know, i just expected more. i feel like there should be more. i feel like there should be focus, instead of a wandering general theme. i guess it's because it's a 200 level course at a small college.
2 notes · View notes
naturalrights-retard · 8 months
Text
Who on earth came up with the idea that racing to the bottom would close the achievement gap among minorities, Whites, and Asians? Some schools are going gradeless, canceling honors classes, and not informing students that they received National Merit scholarships. This is carrying diversity, equity, and inclusion too far. As Booker T. Washington said,
“No greater injury can be done to any youth than to let him feel that because he belongs to this or that race, he will be advanced in life regardless of his own merits or efforts.” The whole point of innovative educational policies should be to raise the achievement level of underachievers, not to stunt the progress of the high achievers to even things out.
This wrongheaded trend reminds me of various programs in 1964’s War on Poverty that sought to lift people out of poverty but resulted in, for many, intergenerational dependence on the government and stagnation at the subsistence level.
The tactics of the War on Poverty included AFDC — Aid to Families with Dependent Children — where there was a man in the house, there were no welfare benefits. What happened to keeping a family together during troubled times? What happened to encouraging families to lean on one another and discuss and hopefully resolve their financial issues?
The thought process behind AFDC was only the beginning of the state’s new role in loco parentis. This goes beyond temporary co-parenting: parental rights are under assault. Laws are emerging that allow teachers more control over the intimate details of our children’s lives than their parents have. In multiple states, children can have abortions with no parental involvement, irrespective of possible harm due to abuse in several states.
A proposed California law (AB665) would allow any minor as young as age 12 to seek mental health services and go to a government “residential shelter” without their parent’s knowledge or consent. Current law quite reasonably allows parents to be out of the loop only if the child presents as a danger of serious physical or mental harm to themselves or others or to be the alleged victim of incest or child abuse.
Another California bill (AB957) that has passed through the assembly “would include a parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity as part of the health, safety, and welfare of the child.” This would become a factor in determining whether a parent is guilty of child abuse in custody hearings. How is this in the best interests of the child when this bill applies to children of all ages, not just, for example, 12 and up? So, the parent who “affirms” gets custody, and the other parent is labeled a child abuser.
I have 5 words for these legislators:
Stay Away From Our Children.
My guest and I will discuss some policies of some of our schools that intrude on parental rights, often resulting in harm to children medically and educationally.
Dr. Diana Blum is a board-certified neurologist who completed her medical school training at the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine, and her Neurology Residency training at Stanford University Medical Center. She is currently in private practice in Silicon Valley, California, where she focuses on the chronic management of patients with Parkinson’s Disease. When not practicing clinical medicine, Dr. Blum is a fierce patient and physician advocate, defending the Hippocratic oath of medicine and the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship through education and activism.
5 notes · View notes
Photo
Tumblr media
"One of the most popular features on WDIA is 'Tan Town Jamboree,' the first program introduced by Nat Williams…The South's first Negro disk jockey, Nat is considered by both white and Negro listeners as one of the best early-morning personalities on the air when he broadcasts his 'Tan Town Coffee Club' at 6:30." – The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN), June 20, 1954
Nathaniel "Nat" D. Williams became the first black radio announcer in Memphis when he began broadcasting for WDIA in 1948. (This was in addition to his work as a high school teacher at Booker T. Washington High School, a columnist for the Pittsburgh Courier, a journalist for the Memphis World, and Master of Ceremonies for Amateur Night at the Old Palace Theater.) Williams was so successful at WDIA that the station switched to all-black programming and became the city's top station. After a boost to 50,000 watts, Williams and other WDIA personalities were heard across the Mississippi Delta.
Library of American Broadcasting archives  |  Tumblr Archive  
13 notes · View notes
Text
The Town That Desegregated in the 1870s: Race in America isn’t only a story of horror and oppression. By Robert L. Woodson Sr. (9- 8-2022)
Tumblr media
Did you know that during the 1870s there was a little town in Michigan where white and black people lived together peacefully? Don’t feel too bad if you didn’t. Most schools don’t teach their students about Covert, Mich. The question is: Why not?
For far too many American schoolchildren, the only black stories they hear are ones of oppression and victimization. The Maryland Lynching Memorial Project asks students to write poetry about the black men and women lynched in the state. The group says it is working “to advance reconciliation . . . by documenting the history of racial terror lynchings.” Lynching, which victimized whites as well as blacks, is an important part of American history that shouldn’t be ignored. But should it be a primary lens through which we understand our racial history?
Teaching black students that their ancestors’ only role in American history was as targets of white brutality is both dangerous and disabling. It implies that blacks are powerless against racism, absolves them of responsibility for their choices and actions, deprives them of the belief that they can shape their own destiny, and encourages bitterness instead of hope.
What if students also learned about stories like Covert? There, men of all races flourished as equals, despite the post-Civil War chaos afflicting much of the country. “Here were religious, teetotaling Yankees, deeply accented Europeans, Indians still walking the deepest woods, and Pilgrims’ descendants, all trusting their businesses and safety to black men who judged and policed the community from lovely homes on rich farms,” historian Anna-Lisa Cox wrote in “A Stronger Kinship,” her 2006 history of the town.
The city had racially mixed communities when integration was illegal. Citizens freely elected black city officials, sheltered interracial couples and fostered school integration by declining to record the race of black students. Slavery and racial strife are hardly unique to America. But I wonder how many towns like Covert there were in 1870.
The residents of Covert resisting segregation is only one example of how racial harmony prevailed and black advancement occurred during Jim Crow. These same values of self-determination and perseverance in the face of opposition are alive and well today. We can look to the history of schools such as Baltimore’s Frederick Douglass High School, Atlanta’s Booker T. Washington School, and McDonough 35 High School in New Orleans. These black schools outperformed white schools by a large margin—all while their students were using hand-me-down textbooks in overcrowded and rundown buildings with half the budgets of white schools.
People are motivated to achieve when they learn about victories that are possible. If we want America’s young people to build a prosperous future together across racial and ethnic boundaries, we should teach them about our past successes, not only our past horrors.
Mr. Woodson is founder and president of the Woodson Center and author of “Red, White, and Black: Rescuing American History From Revisionists and Race Hustlers” and “Lessons From the Least of These: The Woodson Principles.”
32 notes · View notes
galaxiacultural · 1 year
Text
Martin Luther King.
Martin Luther King Jr.  nacido con el nombre de Michael King Jr. nace en Atlanta, Georgia, Estados Unidos, el 15 de Enero de 1929.
Fue un pastor de la iglesia bautista y un activista que hizo una gran labor social en Estados Unidos frente al movimiento de los derechos civiles para los afroestadounidenses.
Hijo del pastor de la iglesia bautista Martin Luther King Sr. y de Alberta William King. Martin Luther King Jr. tenía dos hermanos: Christine King Farris, mayor que el y Alfred Daniel William King que era menor que el..
Desde niño vivió la experiencia de una sociedad racista. Con 6 años dos niños blancos le dijeron a Martín que no estaban autorizados a jugar con el.
En 1939 cantó en el coro de su iglesia  en Atlanta para la participación de la película ¨Lo que el viento se llevó¨.
King estudió en la Booker T. Washington High School de Atlanta hasta el 8 grado. No estudió el 9 grado. Con 15 años estudio en el Morehouse College, una universidad exclusiva para jóvenes negros, donde en 1948 se graduó de Sociología, se matriculó en el Crozer Theological Seminary en Chester (Pensilvania) donde se licenció en Teología en 1951. En Septiembre de 1951 empezó sus estudios de Teología Sistemática en la Universidad de Boston en la cual recibió el 5 de Junio de 1955 el titulo de Doctor en Filosofía.
Se caso el 18 de Junio de 1953 con Coretta Scott . Tuvieron 4 hijos: Yolanda King (1955), Martin Luther King III (1957), Dexter Scott King (1961) y Berenice King (1963).
King a los 25 años fue nombrado pastor de la iglesia bautista de la Avenida Dexter en Montgomery (Alabama).
El 1 de Diciembre de 1955 Rosa Park, una mujer negra, fue arrestada por haber violado las leyes racistas de la ciudad de Montgomery, al no ceder su asiento a un hombre blanco. King comenzó un boicot de autobuses con la ayuda del pastor Ralph Abernathy y de Edgard Nixon, director local de la Nacional Asociation for the Advancement of Colored People. La población negra apoyo el boicot, organizaron un sistema de viajes compartidos, Martin Luther King fue arrestado durante esta campaña. Él 30 de Enero de 1956 la casa de Luther King fue atacada con bombas incendiarias. Los boicoteadores sufrieron constantes agresiones físicas, pero el conjunto de los 40.000 negros de la ciudad siguieron su protesta llegando a caminar algunos 30 kilómetros para llegar a su puesto de trabajo. El 13 de Noviembre de 1956 termina el boicot gracias a una decisión de la Corte Suprema de los Estados Unidos, declarando ilegal la segregación en autobuses , restaurantes, escuelas y otros sitios públicos.
King se adhirió a la filosofía de la desobediencia civil no violenta.
En 1958 mientras estaba firmando ejemplares de su libro en una tienda de Harlem, King es apuñalado por Izola Curry , una mujer negra que lo acuso de ser un jefe comunista. King se salvo por los pelos de la muerte, ya que la herida le había rozado la aorta. Perdonó a su agresora. Las protestas del boicot de autobuses duraron 381 días.
En 1959 abandonó su pastorado en Montgomery para ejercer en la iglesia baptista de Ebenezer en Atlanta
El 28 de Agosto de 1963 Martin Luther King junto a 200.000 personas que marcharon sobre Washington en apoyo de los derechos civiles, cuando llegaron al monumento de Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King pronunció  su discurso más famoso ¨I have a dream¨.
En 1963 se puso al frente en Birmingham (Alabama) en una campaña a favor de los derechos civiles para lograr  el censo de votantes negros y de esta manera tratar de acabar con el racismo.
Martin Luther King recibió el Premio Nobel de la Paz por su resistencia no violenta a la discriminación racial en 1964, para entonces Martín tenía 35 años de edad. Ha sido la persona mas joven en ganar el premio Nobel.
El 4 de Abril de 1968 King es asesinado en Memphis (Tennessee). James Earl Ray, un preso blanco que había escapado de la cárcel, fue arrestado por el asesinato, declarado culpable en Marzo de 1969. Fue sentenciado a 99 años de cárcel.
En el año 1986 se declaró que el 3 Lunes de Enero se convirtiera en feriado por ser el día mas próximo al nacimiento de Martin Luther King.
Tumblr media
8 notes · View notes
gigijb1969 · 11 months
Text
Rockets 2023 Southeast Texas/Smith Point Launches Thursday Recap
Southeast Texas Rockets started off Thursday in Smith Point. After a rainy and stormy set up day on Wednesday, we enjoyed partly cloudy skies, and a breeze for most of the day. It was humid and steamy, and puddles riddled the site, but it was still a manageable weather situation for the launches. The drawbacks for the day were that we started off with the Internet and the port-a-potties still MIA…
Tumblr media
View On WordPress
0 notes
lucids · 2 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Lift Every Voice and Sing, written by James Weldon Johnson, music by John Rosamond Johnson. Brief history and meaning of the song, info about the lyricist/poet and also the composer, statement in Weldon's own words, full lyrics, official US stamp of James Weldon, and (at the bottom of the post) some music videos by: unknown artists, Alicia Keys, Stanford Talisman Alumni Virtual Choir, and Tasha Cobbs Leonard. Photos are of James Weldon and the last photo his brother John Rosamond.
I still remember all the lyrics to this Anthem.  Growing up in the (back then) largest African American community of the USA, we use to sing this song at every special school event, at every church event, at any special event.  For school we sang the US National Anthem (a requirement, mandatory for all US schools), then afterwards we sang the Black National Anthem (voluntarily, to us this song was specific to our ancestors' freedom)...Lift Every Voice and Sing.  It was important we knew ALL the lyrics, the entire song...we sang it with pride and unity.  The song was featured in our church hymn books and in our heritage history references.
This song is important to the black community, about their struggles and their hopes. From the depths of hell called slavery, to a new day of freedom and a life of liberty... There was faith and hope, there was opportunity, there was a future for themselves and their children. James Weldon Johnson wrote a vision for his people.
-
Lift Every Voice and Sing
By James Weldon Johnson
In his own words:
"A group of young men in Jacksonville, Florida, arranged to celebrate Lincoln’s birthday in 1900. My brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, and I decided to write a song to be sung at the exercises. I wrote the words and he wrote the music. Our New York publisher, Edward B. Marks, made mimeographed copies for us, and the song was taught to and sung by a chorus of five hundred colored school children.
Shortly afterwards my brother and I moved away from Jacksonville to New York, and the song passed out of our minds. But the school children of Jacksonville kept singing it; they went off to other schools and sang it; they became teachers and taught it to other children. Within twenty years it was being sung over the South and in some other parts of the country. Today the song, popularly known as the Negro National Hymn, is quite generally used.
The lines of this song repay me in an elation, almost of exquisite anguish, whenever I hear them sung by Negro children."
Full lyrics:
Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise High as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us. Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod, Bitter the chastening rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; Yet with a steady beat, Have not our weary feet Come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Out from the gloomy past, Till now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way; Thou who hast by Thy might Led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee, Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; Shadowed beneath Thy hand, May we forever stand. True to our God, True to our native land.
Source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46549/lift-every-voice-and-sing
-
"This poem was written in 1900 for the celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday at a segregated black school, and in particular to introduce Booker T. Washington–at the time the most recognized black person in the country.
Almost immediately, the audience recognized its power, and James' brother John set it to music. That version began to circulate taped in the back covers of hymnals in black churches, and it was adopted as 'the Negro National Anthem' by the NAACP in 1919.
The combination of pain, hope, faith, and a sense of steady progress, enhanced even more by the steady march of the musical setting, has made this part of the standard hymnody of many churches, both black and white."
-
"Often referred to as 'The Black National Anthem,' Lift Every Voice and Sing was a hymn written as a poem by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson in 1900. His brother, John Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954), composed the music for the lyrics. A choir of 500 schoolchildren at the segregated Stanton School, where James Weldon Johnson was principal, first performed the song in public in Jacksonville, Florida to celebrate President Abraham Lincoln's birthday.
At the turn of the 20th century, Johnson's lyrics eloquently captured the solemn yet hopeful appeal for the liberty of Black Americans. Set against the religious invocation of God and the promise of freedom, the song was later adopted by NAACP and prominently used as a rallying cry during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s."
Lyricist: James Weldon Johnson
Forms: Hymn
Source: https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/lift-every-voice-and-sing
-
"The James Weldon Johnson stamp was issued February 2, 1988. James Weldon Johnson was a noted writer, lawyer, educator, and civil rights activist."
-
"James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) Author James Weldon Johnson published his first book of poetry in 1917 and was historian of the Harlem Renaissance."
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/james-weldon-johnson
-
"James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938) was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he started working in 1917. In 1920, he was the first African American to be chosen as executive secretary of the organization, effectively the operating officer. He served in that position from 1920 to 1930. Johnson established his reputation as a writer, and was known during the Harlem Renaissance for his poems, novel, and anthologies collecting both poems and spirituals of black culture. He wrote the lyrics for "Lift Every Voice and Sing', which later became known as the Negro National Anthem, the music being written by his younger brother, composer J. Rosamond Johnson.
Johnson was appointed under President Theodore Roosevelt as U.S. consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua for most of the period from 1906 to 1913. In 1934, he was the first African-American professor to be hired at New York University. Later in life, he was a professor of creative literature and writing at Fisk University, a historically black university."
Sources and full information:
https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/civil-rights-leaders/james-weldon-johnson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Weldon_Johnson
-
Composer of Lift Every Voice and Sing
"John Rosamond Johnson (1873 – 1954; usually referred to as J. Rosamond Johnson) was an American composer and singer during the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, he had much of his career in New York City. Johnson is noted as the composer of the hymn 'Lift Every Voice and Sing'. It was first performed live by 500 Black American students from the segregated Florida Baptist Academy, Jacksonville, Florida, in 1900. The song was published by Joseph W. Stern & Co., Manhattan, New York (later the Edward B. Marks Music Company)."
"Teaming up with his brother James Weldon Johnson, James went on to compose dozens of songs, many of which appeared in Broadway musicals. He is well known today as the composer of 'Life Ev'ry Voice and Sing', a song that has played a central role as an anthem for African Americans."
"Composer, actor, and pioneer in his field, John Rosamond Johnson was one of the most successful of the early African American composers. Born on August 11, 1873 in Jacksonville, Florida, Johnson was the younger brother of prominent composer and civil rights leader James Weldon Johnson."
J. Rosamond Johnson was the younger brother of poet and activist James Weldon Johnson, who wrote the lyrics for "Lift Every Voice and Sing". The two also worked together in causes related to the NAACP.
Sources and more information:
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/johnson-j-rosamond-1873-1954
https://songofamerica.net/composer/johnson-john-rosamond
https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200038845
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Rosamond_Johnson
-
Lift Every Voice and Sing with Lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONgOH_tq7-Q
3 minutes 34 seconds video
[This is how we usually sang the song.]
Comment:
"This song was sung for the first time in 1900 by a choir of Jacksonville children for a celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday. James Weldon Johnson: a school principal, founder of the first Black high school in Florida, poet, lawyer, Republican, wrote it and his brother, John Rosamond Johnson, a pianist for from the Harlem Renaissance, set it to music. These impressive men were well accomplished people and it sure seemed they took advantage of the opportunities available to them at the time." Cuahuil Tecan7
-
Alicia Keys - Lift Every Voice and Sing Performance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS60luWpBe0
2 minutes 25 seconds video
Comment:
"My grandma told me about this on the phone last night. Said it reminded her of the Sundays in church when they would sing this song as a congregation. She said it gave you a special feeling to sing it in unison, to sing about this unity among our people, and people would throw their heads back to sing it out, and the song would be in her heart for hours after the church service. Since my grandma attended several churches in her lifetime I asked her which one. 'All of them,' she replied." Valeria Wicker
-
Stanford Talisman Alumni Virtual Choir - Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8pGp7N9bG8
7 minutes 11 seconds video, song begins at 1:18 minutes
"We are Stanford Talisman, a group of singers on Stanford’s campus who since our origins have sung music stemming from Black liberation struggles across the world. Our alumni and current group came together to create a virtual choir of Lift Every Voice and Sing, the Black National."
"Stanford Talisman is a student a cappella group at Stanford University, dedicated to sharing stories through music. Started in 1990 by a Stanford student."
-
Tasha Cobbs Leonard - Lift Every Voice And Sing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgN35XWnPKg
3 minutes 44 seconds video
5 notes · View notes
mmmthornton · 2 years
Text
Tumblr media
Started reading Booker T Washington's Up From Slavery for the first time since high school and I am already a fan of what the editor has to say in the preface.
1 note · View note
dankusner · 11 days
Text
Tumblr media
The Big D Bracket Challenge
Pick your favorite Dallas icons and see who — or what — advances
I’m a hooper.
After playing in college, I officiated basketball for nearly 20 years.
Not surprisingly, March Madness is my favorite time of year.
This year, I decided to combine my love of basketball with my love of Dallas.
When your name is Dallas, you must like the city.
Along with a not-so-illustrious panel of friends and colleagues, I’ve selected 64 well-known icons in our city.
Now we’re inviting readers to decide who wins the tournament.
Which of these 64 is our city’s most beloved icon?
There are no rules. This is not serious. Just vote for your favorite things about Big D.
Like the NCAA Tournament, it should be fun to watch winners advance and underdogs surprise us.
The top seeds were no surprise, with Reunion Tower, J.R. Ewing, Big Tex and area code 214 striding confidently into the fray.
There was, however, no love for area codes 469 or 972.
As tournament director, I refused any mention of silly upstart area code 945.
Hopefully, a number of your favorites are in the field.
There were plenty of “bubble teams” that failed to make it to the Big D Dance.
Sparkman Hillcrest, for instance, is a Dallas icon, but the panel did not see fit to allow them in.
So, too, the Petroleum Club, Dallas Country Club and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts are staying home.
Some restaurants with long histories did not make the cut, including Cafe Pacific, the Dairy-Ette and Circle Grill.
Both Beverly Drive and Strait Lane were not beloved enough for the group.
Kessler Park and Lakewood also are not in the field.
Cypress Waters, one of the most important new developments in Dallas (technically), was left out in the cold.
Old-line companies from EDS to Oncor and Beck Group failed to make the grade.
What was the committee looking for, other than more beverages and snacks while we debated these teams at a local watering hole?
We liked inventions that came from our fair city: laser tag, Mariano’s first frozen margarita machine, the Slurpee and Liquid Paper all made the bracket.
So, too, did we appreciate the unusual characters that Dallas is noted for: Mr. Peppermint, Barney and the Von Erichs of Iron Claw fame.
We mostly avoided living people or businesses still in operation.
And in some obvious places, we chose an icon-of-an-icon in place of an actual person (Mary Kay Ash’s pink Cadillacs, for example).
We also avoided North Texas landmarks outside of Dallas.
There are much-beloved Texas icons in Forth Worth, Arlington, Frisco and other cities, but we’re keeping this focused on Big D.
Perhaps the best first-round matchup pits two uniquely Dallas tastes: Fletcher’s Original Corny Dogs against the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek’s tortilla soup.
And there could be another tasty matchup in the second round if both Snuffer’s cheese fries and Mariano’s frozen margarita machine advance.
The committee appreciated haberdashery with both Don Carter’s cowboy hat and Tom Landry’s fedora in the field. (If you love the Landry hat, see the high school football coach with the second most wins in state history, Randy Allen, who has his hats made by the same maker as Landry, on the sideline on Fridays coaching the state’s all-time winningest team in Highland Park. How did they not make the group?)
Here’s how the process will work. Today, The Dallas Morning News is publishing the Big D bracket in print and online. All voting will be done online at DallasNews.com/bracket. The deadline to make your picks is March 27. (One detail for those participating: The voting tool will show you each matchup head to head. Don’t be surprised when you see repeats. That’s the system advancing your picks through the bracket. You’ll pick the whole bracket — all 63 matchups — at once. It takes less than five minutes.) We will announce updates of icons that advance in sync with the NCAA tournament: the Sweet 16 on March 31, the Final Four on April 7 and the winner on April 8, the same day as the NCAA Tournament championship game.
There are no winners or prizes for the person whose picks match the popular winners. But there are plenty of chances to compare brackets with your friends and debate the merits of our city’s cultural and historical icons.
I’ve already picked my bracket.
My final four includes Big Tex defeating the frozen margarita machine in one semifinal, while J.R. Ewing edges past upstart Tom Landry’s fedora. In a battle of true Texas legends, Big Tex triumphs. But don’t let my picks influence you. I’m prepared to be the only one
in town with the right answers while the rest of you, who aren’t actually named for this city, get it wrong. Happy voting!
Dallas Cothrum is current president of Masterplan, a Milrose company. He is a contributing columnist for The Dallas Morning News.
0 notes
lboogie1906 · 2 years
Photo
Tumblr media
Hampton University is a private research HBCU. It was founded on April 1, 1868, by black and white leaders of the American Missionary Association after the American Civil War to provide education to freedmen. It is home to the Hampton University Museum, which is the oldest museum of the African diaspora in the US, and the oldest museum in the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1878, it established a program for teaching Native Americans that lasted until 1923. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". The campus looking south across the harbor of Hampton Roads was founded on the grounds of "Little Scotland", a former plantation in Elizabeth City County not far from Fortress Monroe and the Grand Contraband Camp that gathered nearby. These facilities represented freedom to former slaves, who sought refuge with Union forces during the first year of the war. The American Missionary Association responded in 1861 to the former slaves' need for education by hiring its first teacher, Mary Smith Peake, who had secretly been teaching slaves and free blacks in the area despite the state's prohibition in law. She first taught for the AMA on September 17, 1861, and was said to gather her pupils under a large oak. After the tree was the site of the first reading in the former Confederate states of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it was called the Emancipation Oak. The tree, now a symbol of the university and the city, is part of the National Historic Landmark District at Hampton University. The Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, called the Hampton Institute, was founded in 1868 after the war by the biracial leadership of the AMA, who were chiefly Congregational and Presbyterian ministers. It was first led by former Union General Samuel Chapman Armstrong. Among the school's famous alumni is Dr. Booker T. Washington, an educator who founded the Tuskegee Institute. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #hbcu https://www.instagram.com/p/CcVHhSxLxSS9gpziOvc33eC5wpa0u-uLxtLo0E0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
19 notes · View notes