#BlackHistory
It's Shirley Chisholm's birthday!
"Born 99 years ago today, Shirley Chisholm knew she wasn’t going to win when she ran for president 48 years later in 1972. America wasn’t ready for her. But she was going to get it ready! The fiery former teacher wanted to redefine the realm of the possible and give a voice to those who were traditionally marginalized in the political process."
Article
https://400years.substack.com/p/if-they-dont-give-you-a-seat-at-the
Thread by @Deglassco
TITLE: OT: "Polite" Codes in Racism?
I'm a 54-year-old White guy in the USA and I have to infer that there must have been -- at one time not too long ago -- racist codes for "let the White person go first". I was never taught them, but I have to infer this from a few decades now of observing the following:
When I am standing in a small family-run store checkout line, and elderly Black people are in front of me, if I have a cough or need to clear my throat, something very strange happens. All eyes swivel backwards to look at me, and the elderly Black people in front of me all but fall over themselves to waive me to the FRONT OF THE LINE. Sometimes if I lock eyes with the shop keeper at the register, HE waives me forwards. At this point, there is NO POLITE GETTING OUT OF IT. I can try saying "I'm so sorry, I have a cold", or "you are clearly in front of me, please proceed", and none of it will work. Instead, I am given excuses to help ME feel better about myself. "Oh, no, I'm in no hurry", or "I have not quite decided if I have everything yet", or "the shopkeeper and I were just talking, we will be awhile, so please checkout first".
To be clear, I'm not the one being hurt (they are), but I AM mortified and embarrassed.
I've had to develop special procedures to combat this. I always stand a little further back in line, NEVER make eye contact with anyone, look intently at merchandise while waiting to checkout, and UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ever clear my throat no matter how much I may need to.
I was reminded of this today when I (with plenty of room) passed an older Black woman in an aisle and merely nodded hello. She said "excuse me" and stepped backwards to give me more space. Huh.
Younger Black people don't do this (happily). Older Black people sometimes seem startled, like they have not encountered a White person coughing behind them in a long time -- but then their automatic training kicks in...
When I think about racism, I usually think about the more egregious examples (lynchings, denial of voting rights) but I have to wonder -- **what was it like to just go on a mundane daily shopping trip in 1960?**
QUESTION: Older folks reading this. Did/does this cough/throat-clear signal actually exist??
Thanks,
Michael
~~
#racism #black #white #socialjustice #1950s #1960s #equality @EqualRightsAdvocates @blackmastodon #blackhistory
ICYMI: Activist Kristi Williams Opens School To Teach Black History After Oklahoma Passed To Censor America’s Past https://shinemycrown.com/activist-kristi-williams-opens-school-to-teach-black-history-after-oklahoma-passed-to-censor-americas-past/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #News #Activist #ambiguity #BlackHistory #BlackHistorySaturdays
I just finished the first essay in #JeffSharlet’s “#TheUndertow: scenes from a slow #civilWar. ” It’s a reflection on the ‘masks’ we wear (w/ #HarryBelafonte).
I know it’s not possible to know everything. But there’s so much that I didn’t know. Like this desegregated Revlon-sponsored, award-winning 1959 #TV special: https://youtu.be/L6oBqOR8kzo?feature=shared
#Books
#bookstodon
#ToRead
#segregation
#BlackHistory
#musicians
#EmmyAwards
#History
#Jamaica
#YouTube
Activist Kristi Williams Opens School To Teach Black History After Oklahoma Passed To Censor America’s Past https://shinemycrown.com/activist-kristi-williams-opens-school-to-teach-black-history-after-oklahoma-passed-to-censor-americas-past/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #News #Activist #ambiguity #BlackHistory #BlackHistorySaturdays
Article by former Olympic athlete Valerie Jerome.
https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/black-life/valerie-jerome-first-person-1.7039864
[Lewis H. Latimer: A Life of Lightbulb Moments]
“Lewis H. Latimer, an impoverished son of escaped slaves, defied the odds to lead a life of invention and re-invention.”
https://spectrum.ieee.org/lewis-latimer-history-lightbulb-moments
Sissieretta Jones Plaque in Providence, Rhode Island
This plaque honors the unsung Black songstress once known as the “greatest singer of her race.”#memorials #musichistory #blackhistory #section-Atlas
Sissieretta Jones Plaque
The #Rightwing’s reliance on tactics like #gerrymandering, #votersuppression, #bookbans, and #educational #content #restrictions regarding #Blackhistory and #LGBTQ #issues is #repressive and #wrong.
@AbandonedAmerica A heartbreaking story - in words and pictures - of #racism and the life of a black community. #blackHistory
Helen and James Glover II
📆 1945
📍 Public School Stadium
The "Public School Stadium" will not sound very familiar to any Houstonian born after 1958.
This stadium, located on the University of Houston campus, was renamed to "Jeppesen Stadium" in 1958.
It was renamed once more to "Robertson Stadium" and remained so until its demolition in 2012.
In 2013, the TDECU Stadium was built in its place.
#houston #history #histodons #houstonhistory #blackhistory blackmastodon
RT @keithboykin@threads.net Oklahoma made it illegal to teach anything in the classroom that makes white people feel uncomfortable about the past. So a group of Black teachers came together and created a free new course called “Black History Saturdays.”
https://www.threads.net/@keithboykin/post/Cz_h9bDrRgj/
#Oklahoma #OK #USA #racism #history #BlackHistory #BlackHistorySaturdays #BlackExcellence #WhiteSupremacy #KKK #Tulsa
A big #FF for @Deglassco who has one of the most informative accounts on #BlackHistory on Mastodon.. I'm learning *a lot* reading these threads.
In 1917, 110 of the Buffalo Soldiers, the all-Black U.S. Army regiment, were convicted of crimes such as murder and mutiny after clashes with white civilians and police officers. 19 of the soldiers were executed. On Monday, officials announced they were overturning all those convictions on the basis that the soldiers were wrongly treated because of their race. The AP has all the details.
📆 1915 - 1925
📍 Somewhere in Houston
This looks to be two different photos of the same little girl, in front of the same house.
In one photo, she appears to be wearing 1920s-era swim wear. In the other, she's wearing a dress.
#histodons #history #houston #photo #BlackMastodon #blackhistory
Why Is #America #Afraid of #BlackHistory?
No one should fear a #history that asks a #country to live up to its highest #ideals.
#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Conservatives #Extremism #Fascism #RepublicanParty #Hate #Bigotry #Violence #Genocide #Discrimination #Racism #Homophobia #Transphobia #ThePartyOfHate
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/12/freedmens-bureau-act-project-records/675807/
📆 1950s
📍 Houston's Fifth Ward
📸 Unknown
#houston #history #histodons #photo #blackandwhite #blackhistory #blackjoy
This is my favorite poem by Langston Hughes
Harlem
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
http://code-wyrm-grimoire.rf.gd/archives/3252
#poetry #blackfedi #blackmastodon #LangstonHughes #blackhistory #writing
On this day in 2008, Barack Obama was voted the first Black president in American history.
#OnThisDay #History #America #UnitedStates #President #POTUS #BarackObama #BlackHistory #BlackCulture
A post from February:
Charles Henry Turner was a pioneer in entomology - and he couldn't get a job in higher ed, so he taught high school biology.
"Across his distinguished 33-year career, Turner authored 71 papers and was the first African American to have his research published in the prestigious journal Science."
His simple but elegant experiments in public parks revolutionized understanding of bees.
#BlackHistory #BlackFriday #BlackHistoryMonth @blackmastodon
On this day in 1868: John W. Menard becomes the first African American to be elected to Congress.
Menard, (1838 - 1893), an American publisher and politician who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1868, the first African American to win election to the U.S. Congress, defeating a white candidate, 5,107 to 2,833 in an election in Louisiana's Second Congressional District. However, he was denied his seat by the House.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Willis-Menard
#UShistory #BlackHistory #BlackFriday
“For Black people, education was in and of itself an act of active resistance against racial disenfranchisement….
Black teachers used classrooms to not only impart the lessons of history, but also to encourage students to be actively involved in the fight for racial equity.”
https://theconversation.com/lessons-for-today-from-the-overlooked-stories-of-black-teachers-during-the-segregated-civil-rights-era-213811
#histodons #BlackHistory #education #BlackMastodon @blackmastodon @histodons
Another fascinating #BlackHistory thread from @Deglassco, this time on #GunControl in the #US, and how policy has been linked to concerns about #race.
#guns
https://mastodon.social/@Deglassco/111320188593940678
The exhibition is on until April 2024. Get more details here:
Frederick Douglass is the latest subject of the One Life series at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition includes the first photo of Douglass — the 19th century's most photographed American — as well as the handwritten ledger of his first enslaver, and portraits of other progressives of the time. Here's more on what to expect.
I have been quite obsessed with this lady's channel and wanted to share with all of my fellow #histodons.
NotYourMommasHistory is run by historian Cheyney McKnight, who teaches history by living it. She produces phenomenal content and does not mince words when it comes to the reality of enslaved persons.
The linked video is about the life of an enslaved "lady's maid" and her day-to-day duties as she tends to her mistress.
Boy Scout Troop #16
📆 July 1953
📍 Houston, headed to Santa Anna, California for a "Boy Scout Jamboree"
#blackhistory #histodons #houstonhistory #houston #photo #blackmastodon #history
📆 1930s
📍 Somewhere in Houston
I found another adorable photo of an unidentified 1930s couple and just had to share.
The difference in facial expressions is sending me. 🤣
Our guy looks cheesily happy and in love while sis is giving a bombastic side-eye to some poor soul off camera.
Who has her brow this furrowed during the couples' photoshoot?!
#histodons #houston #photo #blackmastodon #blackhistory #houstonhistory #history
@Deglassco is at it again with a master class on a master musician, Thelonious Monk. Dive in:
https://mastodon.social/@Deglassco/111213057641184816
#music #BlackArtists #BlackMastodon #BlackMastodonAlly #BlackHistory
@garius Brilliant thread here about how a railway accident in a London suburb and the actions of a USAF medical team, particularly that of a nurse, led to the development of paramedics.
#RailwayHistory #BlackHistory