First Pan-African Congress in Paris
...on this day in 1919, W.E.B. Dubois organized the first Pan-African Congress, held in Paris, France.
Racist treatment reinforced a sense of solidarity within the Diaspora. This found expression in a series of Pan-African meetings. In 1909 the first Pan African Conference was held. In 1919 the first of five Pan-African Congresses was held. This was organised by the African American thinker and journalist, W.E.B. DuBois. Fifty seven delegates attended representing fifteen countries. Its principal task was petitioning the Versailles Peace Conference, then meeting in Paris. Among its demands were:a) The Allies administer the former German territories in Africa as a condominium on behalf of the Africans who lived there.b) Africans should take part in governing their countries "as fast as their development permits" until, at some unspecified time in the future, Africa is granted home rule.
...more on the pan-Africanism, by Dr. John Henrik Clarke...:
Early in this century, Caribbean intellectuals began to produce the concept called Pan-Africanism. This was a new international education whose full dimension few of us understood. The idea of bringing the totality of the African world together as one people, looking at the very essence and existence of African people. The first Pan-African Congress was called in London by H. Sylvester Williams in 1900. W.E.B. DuBois, who would later be referred to as "the Father of Pan-Africanism," was really the intellectual guardian of Pan-Africanism and its finest scholar. In my opinion, the first Pan-African Congress, 1900, and the fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester, England, 1945, were the most significant. The basic ideas that went into the African independence explosion came out of the fifth Pan-African Congress convened by George Padmore, Kwame Nkrumah, and other Africans, some of whom would become future heads of state.
Again, in my opinion, what could have been the most important PanAfrican Congress and the first to meet on African soil was the Sixth Pan-African Congress. It was the largest and most diverse of these meetings. It was unwieldy and very little was accomplished. Too many Africans from different parts of the world and from within Africa itself came with different agendas. Not much was achieved except some good and bad conversations and an unfortunate fight over ideologies. There should have been a preparatory meeting in order to clarify the terms of the Sixth Pan-African Congress. The sixth Pan-African Congress that met in Tanzania, in my opinion, was a great opporninity misunderstood and killed by selfish, petty, amateur political hacks who had no clear idea of what the concept of African unity could be.
All "Pan" efforts among African people must ultimately lead to a concept of a world union of African people, in spite of geography, religion, and culture. African people live in many lands, under many regimes and practice many religions and represent many cultures. Wherever they are on the face of this earth they must think of themselves as first and foremost an African people, no less patriotic to the nations where they live outside of Africa.
The acceptance of the African American history and the African American historian as a legitimate part of the academic community did not come easily. Slavery ended and left its false images of black people intact. In his article, "What the Historian Owes the Negro," the noted African American historian, Dr. Benjamin Quarles, says:
The Founding Fathers, revered by historians for over a century and a half, did not conceive of the Negro as part of the body politic. Theoretically, these men found it hard to imagine a society where Negroes were of equal status to whites. Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, who was far more liberal than the run of his contemporaries, was never the less certain that "the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government."
The role and importance of ethnic history is in how well it teaches a people to use their own talents, take pride in their own history and love their own memories. In order to fulfill themselves completely, in all of the honorable endeavors it is important that the teacher of history of the black race find a definition of the subject, and a frame of reference that can be understood by students who have no prior knowledge of the subject.
The following definition is paraphrased from a speech entitled, "The Negro Writer and His Relation To His Roots," by Saunders Redding, in 1960:
Heritage, in essence, is how a people have used their talent to create a history that gives them memories that they can respect, and use to command the respect of other people. The ultimate purpose of history and history teaching is to use a people's talent to develop an awareness and a pride in themselves so that they can create better instruments for living together with other people. This sense of identity is the stimulation for all of a people's honest and creative efforts. A people's relationship to their heritage is the same as the relationship of a child to its mother.
I repeat:
History is a clock that people use to tell their time of day. It is a compass that they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It also tells them where they are, and what they are. Most importantly, an understanding of history tells a people where they still must go, and what they still must be.Rational For Pan-AfricanismLabels: John H. Clarke, Pan-Africanism, W.E.B. Dubois
My top 10 "F@%& him girl" lyrics for V-Day
...yup...right here in crimson "go to hell red" text. Screw everybody who had a traditional "oh so wonderful" Valentine's Day. And all you dudes who didn't participate...screw yall too!Here's for coping ladies. Enjoy while eating candy from your damn self!- "I hate you so much right now.....aaaarrrggghh!" -- Kelis
- "So since i'm not your everything, how about I'll be nothing at all to you?" --Beyonce
- "I don't want you stayin' around...if I make you so miserable...if you don't want me, then to talk to me!" -- Fantasia
- "I get tired of your shit...you don't never buy me nothing" ..."everytime you come around, you gotsta bring Jim, James, Paul and Tyrone" -- Erykah Badu
- "I tried to be blind to your game...deep down I knew you wouldn't come around" -- Brandy
- "I used to think that I wasn't fine enough...and I used to think that I wasn't wild enough...but I won't waste my time tryna figure out...why you're playing games, what's this all about?" -- Keyshia Cole
- "I said I wanna be with you, so why'd you have to go and run away?...is it 'cuz you weren't true, and you never had plans to stay?" -- Nivea
- "I was a fool to let you break me down...to think, by now, that I wouldn't know just what to expect from you" -- Xscape
- "hey ladies, why is it that men can go do us wrong?...Why is it that we just decide to keep holding on? Why is it that, we never seem to have the strength to leave?" -- Destiny's Child
- "look how I smile, all you did was help the next man...this relationship has made me who I am" -- Brandy
Labels: ...venting
Happy Birthday Frederick Douglass!
....From his biography: Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey (or Baily), later known as Frederick Douglass, was born in February 1818* near Easton, Maryland. He was the son of Harriet Bailey, a slave. Captain Aaron Anthony claimed ownership of Douglass. (It is believed that Captain Aaron Anthony was not related to Susan B. Anthony.)
Douglass spent his early childhood in a cabin with his grandmother Betsey. His mother was hired out and he only saw her on rare visits. In 1824, Douglass was separated from his grandmother and taken to live on the large plantation of Colonel Edward Lloyd, where Captain Aaron Anthony worked. In 1826, he was sent to Baltimore, Maryland to live with Hugh and Sophia Auld, in-laws of Lucretia Anthony Auld, Captain Anthony’s daughter.
Douglass lived in Baltimore from 1826 until 1833, where his first job as a child was to look after the Aulds’ son, Tommy. While he was in Baltimore, Douglass learned to read and write. He was taught by Sophia Auld until her husband forbade it. After that, Douglass taught himself in secret.
Once he had learned to read, Douglass read newspapers and learned about the debate over slavery. He also attended the free African-American churches in Baltimore. At the age of 12 or 13, Douglass bought his own copy of The Columbian Orator, a popular nineteenth-century book on rhetoric. He studied the book, went through the exercises, and taught himself public speaking.
In 1833, Douglass was taken from Baltimore and brought to St. Michael’s, Maryland by his master, Thomas Auld (son-in-law to Captain Anthony, who was now deceased). While there, Douglass organized secret schools for slaves and refused to submit to whipping. One of the schools was broken up by a mob, and he was hired out to farmers known as "slave breakers," who sought to control his rebellious activities. Yet he continued to defy his slave status. In 1836, he planned to escape but was caught, imprisoned, and eventually sent back to Thomas Auld.
After his failed escape attempt and imprisonment, Douglass was sent back by Auld to Baltimore. There, he was hired out to a local shipyard to learn the trade of a caulker. He joined an improvement society of free black caulkers and attempted, unsuccessfully, to buy his own freedom. In 1837, he met Anna Murray, a free African-American woman.
In September 1838, Douglass escaped from slavery. He first went to New York City. There, he sent for Murray to join him, and they were married. The Douglasses were to have five children in the next eleven years: Rosetta (b. 1839), Lewis Henry (b. 1840), Frederick Jr. (b. 1842), Charles Remond (b. 1844) and Annie (b. 1849).
...more on Douglass: Wikipedia
Labels: black folks
Founder's Day for the NAACP
...from the site: On February 12th, 1909, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded by a multiracial group of activists, who answered "The Call," in the New York City, NY. They initially called themselves the National Negro Committee.
FOUNDERS
Ida Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. DuBois, Henry Moscowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villiard, William English Walling led the "Call" to renew the struggle for civil and political liberty.
Mission: The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.Vision Statement
The vision of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights and there is no racial hatred or racial discrimination.Theme for 2007: From Slavery to Freedom: Africans in the Americas
The transition from slavery to freedom represents one of the major themes in the history of the African Diaspora in the Americas. Under and against the rule of various powers, Africans experienced emancipation during the course of the nineteenth century. In Jamaica and Brazil, freedom came peaceably, but bloodshed also accompanied slavery’s death. In the United States, the rebirth of freedom resulted from what was at the time the world’s most destructive civil war, a war in which liberated slaves and free Blacks played a vital role in determining the victor and securing their own liberty. In Saint Domingue, the slaves, under the leadership of Toussaint L’Ouverture, engaged in violent revolution and won their freedom and independence, establishing Haiti, the world’s first Black republic. Regardless of the path to freedom, African peoples in the New World had to continue to struggle for liberation. Where ex-slaves formed the majority, the quest for sovereignty, independence, and equality remained elusive or hollow. Elsewhere they rarely enjoyed equal citizenship and the untrammeled right to pursue happiness.
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) dedicates its 2007 national theme to the struggles of peoples of African descent to achieve freedom and equality in the Americas during the age of emancipation. Over a half-century ago, the celebrated historian John Hope Franklin, a leading light of
ASALH, identified the struggle for slavery and freedom as the central theme of African American history. We take up this theme to honor him and to place before the nation and the world the historical importance of slavery and freedom in the making of modern societies in the Americas.
NAACPLabels: NAACP
Arthur Ashe Jr. ....
On this day in 1964, Arthur Ashe becomes the first black on the U.S. Davis Cup team.
As a tennis player, Arthur Ashe was one of the most prominent players of his time, capturing the NCAA Championship at UCLA, winning three Grand Slam events, including Wimbledon in 1975, and earning election into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985. His legacy, however, will be the positive changes he helped forge and the causes he championed, both within tennis, and in society as a whole. As the first and only African-American to be ranked No. 1 in the world, and the first black male to win the U.S. Open and Wimbledon, Mr. Ashe not only left his mark on the game viscerally, through his pioneering success, but also financially and philosophically, through his actions as a leader in the formation of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). As a youngster, Mr. Ashe was barred from playing on most public courts and in most local tournaments involving whites, yet he still managed to earn a tennis scholarship to UCLA, where he then earned a business degree in 1966.
In 1963, as a 20 year old, he was asked to become the first African-American on the U.S. Davis Cup team. Over the next 15 years, he won 28 of 34 Cup matches. In 1968, Mr. Ashe lifted his tennis game to a new level, leading the U.S. to its first Davis Cup win in five years, winning the national amateur title and becoming the first U.S. Open Champion in the open era. Mr. Ashe turned pro in 1970, won the Australian Open, and then, two years later, became the first American tennis player to exceed $100,000 in annual earnings. Mr. Ashe complemented his playing career with successes in journalism, media and philanthropic endeavors, and was named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 1992. He was the author of the three-volume, critically-acclaimed, A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete, which was later adapted for television. He also established the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS and received the first Leadership Award from the Harvard AIDS Institute
Labels: black folks
Happy Birthday Eubie Blake!
...on this wonderful day in black history, ragtime pianist and composer Eubie Blake was born.
From his bio:
Eubie Blake was born James Hubert Blake in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 7, 1883. He played the organ at six years old, got his first job playing in a brothel at 15, and made his professional stage debut in a Pennsylvania medicine show at the age of 18.
In 1905, Blake moved to New York City, where he decided to try to publish his first song, "Sounds of Africa." He asked the influential but fiery Will Marion Cook to accompany him to the publisher, and his song was accepted for $100. However, when Kurt Schindler, the arranger who was going to score it, asked why Blake changed keys without modulation, Blake related: "Cook flared up and said, `What right have you to question my protege? How long have you been a Negro?' `I'm only asking a question,' Schindler said. `Well you have no right to ask it. We write differently from other people.' `Good day, gentlemen,' said Schindler, and all bets were off." The song, renamed Charleston Rag, was not published until after 1919.
Blake went home to Baltimore where he played in local establishments, performing with and learning from such great African-American pianists as "Willie the Lion" Smith, C. Luckeyeth Roberts, and James P. Johnson. In 1910, he married Avis Lee, an accomplished classical pianist. Four years later, he published his first song, Chevy Chase.Blake's bioLabels: black folks
Langston Hughes...great man of poetry
...In honor of Black History Month, I decided to post a few black facts. Enjoy.
February 1, 1902: HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANGSTON HUGHES (he was born just four years before my great granny)
Born in Joplin, Missouri, James Langston Hughes was a member of an abolitionist family. He was the great-great-grandson of Charles Henry Langston, brother of John Mercer Langston, who was the first Black American to be elected to public office, in 1855. Hughes attended Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio, but began writing poetry in the eighth grade, and was selected as Class Poet. His father didn't think he would be able to make a living at writing, and encouraged him to pursue a more practical career. He paid his son's tuition to Columbia University on the grounds he study engineering. After a short time, Langston dropped out of the program with a B+ average; all the while he continued writing poetry. His first published poem was also one of his most famous, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", and it appeared in Brownie's Book. Later, his poems, short plays, essays and short stories appeared in the NAACP publication Crisis Magazine and in Opportunity Magazine and other publications.
Labels: black folks
Hallmark Creative Recruiting Studio
...well I'll be damned. They picked ME...(that's right...ME PEOPLE! :D) to participate in their creative workshop on February 20th! I will be prepared with my senior portfolio in hopes of getting an intern(and/or externship with them) . I can't believe it!...I am sooo happy! (big grin)...thanx C-dawg!
Bascially, I had to send them my resume, along with 6 samples...I owe all that mean criticism to Mr. Green. Maan, I would go in thinking I wrote a beautiful poem, and he would just shatter my lil dreams..."be more explicit" he would say. "oh, come on. you can do better than that. that's a shitty ass poem...START OVER" *sniff sniff* (thanx Mr. Green!)...I guess I can say all that editing won the Hallmark folks over, because THEY PICKED ME!
I hope they help workshop some of our poems.
Labels: ...this calls for a Bloody Mary on the Rocks, ain't that interesting
