BAPcast, a Black and proud herstory podcast, is set to release its first episodes on June 19th. With a focus on Black women who tend to exist in the periphery of U.S. history lessons, host Mary Eliska Dorn seeks to fill in some of the gaps she suspects are as prevalent in the average American’s understanding of Black history as they have been in her own. Mary Eliska is a Brooklyn photographer whose interest in critical race theory and history has only been piqued in recent years. “As a kid growing up in a predominantly white Austin, Texas suburb, I instinctively recoiled from anything that stood to set me apart from my peers, including suppressing any curiosity about Black history or culture,” Dorn says, “The way my history education was set up made it almost seem like Black people didn’t exist between slavery and the 20th Century Civil Rights Movement, and those lessons tended to focus on the struggle and victimization Black people endured. I remember being taken aback the first time I saw images of Black Victorians. Of course, there were Black Victorians… why are these images of dignified, ornately dressed, wealthy Black people from late 19th century America so surprising?”
To many, she's a hero, to others, a terrorist. One thing is for certain: there's a lot more to Assata Shakur than the FBI has told us, and Mary doesn't even care that the FBI agent who lives in her phone knows she knows that. Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/13/assata-shakur-civil-rights-activist-fbi-most-wanted https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/assata-shakur-was-convicted-of-murder-is-she-a-terrorist/2013/05/08/69acb602-b7e5-11e2-aa9e-a02b765ff0ea_story.html https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/wanted_terrorists/joanne-deborah-chesimard/download.pdf http://www.assatashakur.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assata_Shakur https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvYqYlvboEg
On a sweltering July day in 1854, Elizabeth Jennings had zero intention of letting racial discrimination make her late to church. Her violent removal from the “whites-only” streetcar she had been riding was the beginning of the end for racial segregation on New York streetcars. https://daily.jstor.org/the-woman-who-refused-to-leave-a-whites-only-streetcar/ https://ny.curbed.com/2020/2/4/21120447/nyc-history-elizabeth-jennings-graham-public-transit https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/elizabeth-jennings-graham/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Jennings_Graham
Mary Fields had to be tough as nails to thrive in the untamed American midwest as the first Black woman to be a star-route mail carrier. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Fields https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMxSTtRBa-o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khhIwpxrtFk https://www.history.com/news/meet-stagecoach-mary-the-daring-black-pioneer-who-protected-wild-west-stagecoaches https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Fields
Vaudeville child mega-star Esther Lee Jones has been gaining more recognition as the true inspiration behind the cartoon character, Betty Boop. However, Baby Esther herself gained a lot of inspiration for her act from 1920s Broadway star, Florence Mills. https://www.thecut.com/2017/03/the-forgotten-black-woman-behind-betty-boop.html https://bettyboop.fandom.com/wiki/What_Ever_Happened_to_Baby_Esther%3F https://www.harlemworldmagazine.com/the-amazing-story-of-harlems-esther-jones-videos/ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Florence-Mills http://www.florencemills.com/music_and_shows.htm https://songbook1.wordpress.com/fx/si/african-american-musical-theater-1896-1926/blackbirds-1926-selected-recordings-of-songs-in-the-revue/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Mills
Barbara Jordan is in with the in-crowd as a Texas State Senator, but she's faced with new challenges and exponentially increased recognition as the first Black United States congressperson from the south.
Young Barbara Jordan was blessed with incredible determination and a powerful voice. Both would be essential in her ascent from Houston's Fifth Ward to the Texas State Capitol. Barbara Jordan: American Hero by Marybeth Rogers https://www.chron.com/local/history/houston-legends/article/In-a-life-of-firsts-Barbara-Jordan-won-a-lasting-7966574.php https://userpages.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/come_out.html https://victoryinstitute.org/black-history-month-spotlight-barbara-jordan/
Juneteenth commemorates the day enslaved people in Texas were notified of their freedom, but what were the vibes surrounding the first one? In this episode, Mary Eliska highlights the key events and players leading up to this turning point in American history, with some really fire quotes from Frederick Douglass and Charlotte Grimkè and some goofy quotes from some goofy southern white people. Further reading : Emancipation Proclamation by Tonya Holden
Major Charity Adams enters the European Theatre of Operations and establishes the first all-Black battalion of the Women's Army Corps to serve overseas during WWII.
Charity Edna Adams grew up experiencing the hardships of segregation, but never let it detract her from doing her best, even in the completely uncharted territory of the U.S. Women's Army Auxillary Corps. Further reading: “One Woman's Army” by Charity Adams Earley https://www.army.mil/women/history/wac.html “The Black Female Battalion That Stood Up to a White Male Army” Christina Brown Fisher for The New York Times
BAPcast, a Black and proud herstory podcast, is set to release its first episodes on June 19th. With a focus on Black women who tend to exist in the periphery of U.S. history lessons, host Mary Eliska Dorn seeks to fill in some of the gaps she suspects are as prevalent in the average American's understanding of Black history as they have been in her own. Mary Eliska is a Brooklyn photographer whose interest in critical race theory and history has only been piqued in recent years. “As a kid growing up in a predominantly white Austin, Texas suburb, I instinctively recoiled from anything that stood to set me apart from my peers, including suppressing any curiosity about Black history or culture,” Dorn says, “The way my history education was set up made it almost seem like Black people didn't exist between slavery and the 20th Century Civil Rights Movement, and those lessons tended to focus on the struggle and victimization Black people endured. I remember being taken aback the first time I saw images of Black Victorians. Of course, there were Black Victorians… why are these images of dignified, ornately dressed, wealthy Black people from late 19th century America so surprising?”
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