Podcasts about african american history culture

Kevin Young, Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, discusses James Baldwin's burgeoning career as a writer and critic as well as his tortured relationship with his own sexuality and desire for love through the lens of his controversial second novel Giovanni's Room. Then Baldwin historian Ed Pavlić reveals some surprising mentors and influences on Baldwin, including Zora Neale Hurston, Henry James, Richard Wright, Beauford Delaney, and others. This podcast is a production of Penguin Random House Media + Knopf Publishing. It is hosted by Cree Myles, produced by Stephanie Bowen and Shalea Harris, edited by Clayton Gumbert, and executive produced by Trevor Baldwin.For more information and to get the deluxe centenary editions of James Baldwin's works, check out JamesBaldwinBooks.com, JamesBaldwin.info, and All Ways BlackListen to more podcasts from Penguin Random House:THIS IS TASTE, a food culture podcast CRIMINAL TYPES, a podcast featuring your favorite crime fiction authorsMARLON & JAKE READ DEAD PEOPLE, co-hosted by Marlon JamesBOOKS CONNECT US

This week on the Music Halls of Fame podcast, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip hop at a party in the Bronx, we honor the year in music for 2009, along with a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class of 2009. We also make the case for putting Outkast into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Plus, our spotlight museum is the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. ALL MY MUSIC HALLS OF FAME PODCAST AUDIO LINKS - allmylinks.com/musichallsoffamepodcast CHECK OUT MY OTHER PODCAST, THE MUSIC HISTORY TODAY PODCAST - SPOTIFY LINKS: spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/j38tIzvNxAb Rock & Roll Hall of Fame - rockhall.com Smithsonian Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, D.C. - nmaahc.si.edu --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/musichistorytodaypodcast/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/musichistorytodaypodcast/support

Today we're traveling back to the 1820s and the Kingdom of Dahomey with The Woman King! Join us as we learn about cowrie shells, Agojie weapons, the 1820s slave trade, King Ghezo, and more! Sources: Wendy Ide, "The Woman King review - a thunderously cinematic good time," The Observer (1 Oct 2022). https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/oct/01/the-woman-king-review-a-thunderously-cinematic-good-time-viola-davis-gina-prince-bythewood-sheila-atim   RT: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_woman_king  Robert Daniels, "The Woman King," (16 Sept 2022) https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-woman-king-movie-review-2022  ITV News, "Viola Davis defends new film The Woman King after Dahomey slave trade history backlash | ITV News," YouTube, https://youtu.be/ZxsvsSDvDcE   The Daily Show, "Thuso Mbedu - “The Woman King” & Social Impact with Paramount+ | The Daily Show," https://youtu.be/HAMULqA8cEw   Good Morning America, "Viola Davis talks new film, 'The Woman King' l GMA," YouTube https://youtu.be/fKGpMU2xSJk   Marion Johnson, "The Cowrie Currencies of West Africa, Part I," The Journal of African History 11, no.1 (1970): 17-49. https://www.jstor.org/stable/180215  Mahir Saul, "Money in Colonial Transition: Cowries and Francs in West Africa," American Anthropologist 106, no.1 (2004): 71-84. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3567443  "Cowrie Shells and Trade Power," National Museum of African American History & Culture, Smithsonian, https://nmaahc.si.edu/cowrie-shells-and-trade-power  Barbara J. Heath, "Cowrie Shells, Global Trade, and Local Exchange: Piecing Together the Evidence for Colonial Virginia," Historical Archaeology 50, no.2 (2016): 17-46. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24757075  Akinwumi Ogundiran, "Of Small Things Remembered: Beads, Cowries, and Cultural Translations of the Atlantic Experience in Yorubaland," The International Journal of African Historical Studies 35, no.2/3 (2002): 427-57. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3097620  Paul E. Lovejoy and David Richardson, "British Abolition and its Impact on Slave Prices Along the Atlantic Coast of Africa, 1783-1850," The Journal of Economic History 55, no.1 (1995): 98-119. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2123769  Peter Morton-Williams, "The Oyo Yoruba and the Atlantic Trade, 1670-1830," Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 3, no.1 (1964): 25-45. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41856687   Randy J. Sparks, "Blind Justice: The United States's Failure to Curb the Illegal Slave Trade," Law and History Review 35. no.1 (2017): 53-79. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26338410  Augustus A. Adeyinka, "King Gezo of Dahomey, 1818-1858: A Reassessment of a West African Monarch in the Nineteenth Century," African Studies Review 17, no.3 (1974): 541-48. https://www.jstor.org/stable/523800  Group Portrait, Paris, 1891: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahomey_Amazons#/media/File:COLLECTIE_TROPENMUSEUM_Groepsportret_van_de_zogenaamde_'Amazones_uit_Dahomey'_tijdens_hun_verblijf_in_Parijs_TMnr_60038362.jpg Frederick Edwyn Forbes, "Dahomey and the Dahomans: Being the Journals of Two Missions to the Kingdom of Dahomey, and the residence at his capitol, 1849 and 1850," available at https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_ngLr7B6zBM8C/page/n41/mode/2up Maeve Adams, "The Amazon Warrior and the De/Construction of Gendered Imperial Authority in Nineteenth-Century Colonial Literature," Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies 6, 1 (2010) Augustus A. Adeyinka, "King Gezo of Dahomey, 1818-1858: A Reassessment of a West African Monarch in the Nineteenth Century," African Studies Review 17, 3 (1974) E.A. Soumonni and E.A. Soumoni, "Dahomean Economic Policy Under Ghezo, 1818-1858: A Reconsideration," Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 10, 2 (1980) Robin Law, "The Politics of Commercial Transition: Factional Conflict in Dahomey in the Context of Ending the Slave Trade," Journal of African History 38, 2 (1997)

On this episode of Mutuality Matters, host Angela sits down with Dr. Yolanda Pierce, dean of Howard University School of Divinity, and author of In My Grandmother's House: Black Women, Faith, and the Stories We Inherit. Pierce lifts the role of church mothers in the Black church tradition, centering their experiences as they both taught and protected her so that as a Black woman she would survive in this world. Through them, she learned about, “The Divine who has been showing up at the kitchen tables of Black women for a long time.” Listen and learn how a grandmother's theology carries wisdom strong enough for future generations. Disclaimer: sexual abuse and trauma are mentioned in this episode. Listener discretion is advised.   Further Reading:  In My Grandmother's House Black Women, Faith, and the Stories We Inherit: https://www.amazon.com/My-Grandmothers-House-Stories-Inherit/dp/1506464718?tag=mochaglobal10-20&ascsubtag=srctok-b63e47f7a51c4734&btn_ref=srctok-b63e47f7a51c4734  Hell Without Fires: Slavery, Christianity, and the Antebellum Spiritual Narrative (History of African American Religions) https://www.amazon.com/Hell-Without-Fires-Christianity-African-American/dp/0813068592/ref=sr_1_1?crid=16ODZ9ZE394DV&keywords=Hell+without+Fires&qid=1663891253&s=books&sprefix=hell+without+fires%2Cstripbooks%2C92&sr=1-1'    Bio:  Yolanda Pierce is a professor and dean of Howard University School of Divinity. She is a scholar of African American religious history, womanist theology, race, and religion, as well as a public theologian, activist, and commentator. Pierce served as the founding director of the Center for the Study of African American Religious Life at the National Museum of African American History & Culture. Her writings have appeared in Time, Sojourners, and The Christian Century, and she is the author of the book Hell Without Fires. Pierce lives in Washington, D.C.  Web: yolandapierce.com  Twitter: @YNPierce  Facebook: /ynpierce 

In August 1963, people traveled far and wide to Washington DC to advocate for civil rights. They took planes, trains, and automobiles. However, one man traveled there in a different way.    To commemorate the 59th anniversary of the March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom, we lace up our skates to tell the story of Ledger “Roller Man” Smith and his almost 700-mile journey to Washington DC.    In this episode, you will hear: Why Ledger Smith went to the March On Washington on roller skates Why Dr. King thought it was essential for Civil Rights to desegregate places of leisure Ledger Smith route from Chicago to Washington DC Why media was essential to the Civil Rights movement More about an unlikely ally in the Civil Rights movement The Children's March and Kelly Ingram park Notable figures mentioned in this episode: Martin Luther King Jr. John Lewis Mamie Chalmers Bayard Rustin  A.G. Gaston A. Phillip Randolph President John F. Kennedy  Attorney General Robert Kennedy President Barack Obama The Black Is America podcast, a presentation of OWLS Education, was created and is written, researched, and produced by me, Dominic Lawson. Executive Producer Kenda Lawson Cover art was created by Alexandria Eddings of Art Life Connections. Credit for this episode's cover art: The Baltimore Afro American Sources to create this episode come from The National Civil Rights Museum, History.com, The New York Times, The Baltimore Afro American,  The National Museum of African American History & Culture, WAMU National Public Radio in DC Scenes from United Skates are courtesy of Vice and HBO Documentary Films, a Warner Brothers Discovery Company.   Mamie Chalmers audio courtesy of Comcast NBCUniversal's Voices of the Civil Rights Movement David Vann and A.G. Gaston audio courtesy of the Youtube Channel curated by Geoff Hiron (Note: The host could not locate the original source of audio) "Beat It" is written and performed by Michael Jackson and produced by Michael Jackson & Quincy Jones for Epic Records.  "I'm On My Way" performed by Mamie Brown & Choir from "Lest We Forget, Vol. 2: Birmingham, Alabama, 1963 - Mass Meeting" from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Audio of Martin Luther King Jr. courtesy of Martin Luther King Jr Research and Education Institute at Stanford University Audio of John Lewis courtesy of the National Archives Audio of President Barack Obama courtesy of BBC News Be sure to Like, review and subscribe to the Black Is America Podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, where ever you like to listen to podcasts. Also, let people know about the podcast. We would appreciate that very much.  For a full transcript of this episode and other resources, go to www.blackisamericapodcast.com. You can read our blog, leave us a review, or leave a voicemail where you can ask a question or let us know what you think about the show we may play in an episode. You can also hit the donation button if you like what you heard, which helps us to create more educational content like this. 

In this episode, the guys discuss their experience at the The Natural Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington D.C. They break down why everyone should go to the museum, how they felt walking through the exhibits and what they learned. Later, they discuss impostor syndrome and how they overcame it throughout their career. Tune in. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/30tolifepod/support

Historian Ed Baptist provides context on the creation and enforcement of a U.S. racial binary that endures today, as well as Black resistance as a force for political change. And Aisha White urges educators to ask themselves, “What did you learn about race when you were younger?” before they engage with children. She argues that self-reflection and ongoing education are vital tools to combat the fallacy of ignoring students' racialized experiences. Educators! Get a professional development certificate for listening to this episode—issued by Learning for Justice. Listen for the code word, then visit tolerance.org/podcastpd. To start the conversation in your classroom, this overview of the “Historical Foundations of Race” by David Roediger is a comprehensive and perfect for educators—from the National Museum of African American History & Culture. For younger learners, P.R.I.D.E.'s Research Findings offer valuable insights into child development and race. And elementary teachers may want to use this lesson—“Looking at Race and Racial Identity in Children's Books”—from Learning for Justice.  If you're interested in bringing archival sources into your lessons, Freedom on the Move provides some wonderful, detailed K-12 lessons utilizing fugitive slave ads. And here's the 1910 essay “The Souls of White Folk” by W.E.B. Du Bois that was quoted in the introduction.  And be sure to visit the enhanced episode transcript for even more classroom resources about the construction of race and the history of whiteness.

If someone asked you “what is racism” how would you respond? Would you be able to help them understand the different ways that racism rears its ugly head in our society? In this episode we are getting back to basics and breaking down the three components of racism: implicit bias, overt interpersonal racism, and systemic racism. I will teach you how to spot each of these components in your everyday life and illustrate how they work together to form the system of oppression that we are fighting so hard to dismantle.  Sign up here to be the first to know when Bite-sized Black History is released!   Join the First Name Basis Patreon Community Make sure to join our Patreon Community to take part in our monthly Q&A sessions and download the detailed notes from this episode!   First Name Basis Website   Join us on Instagram    This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell   Understanding Implicit Bias-Kirwan Institute   Talking About Race-National Museum of African-American History & Culture   Woman Accuses Teen of Stealing Her Phone   Man who is shopping at Old Navy is accused of stealing a jacket    Black man renting an Air bnb, white couple walks in and questions him    How COVID 19 Unmasks Inequality In Our Society-First Name Basis Podcast, Season 2 Episode 8   White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo   Song Credit: “Sleeper” by Steve Adams” and “Dive Down” by VYEN 

Useful links: View this conversation and the pics on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4jof4t5eClU Enroll in my Master Photo Printing course.  https://brentbergherm.com/training-center/course-info/master-photo-printing/ Get some free resources here: https://brentbergherm.com/info/resources/ Palouse Shoot-n-Print Photography and Printing Workshop Get on the list for updates on Latitude Photography School  Shop at lensrentals.com with my affiliate link and I’ll get a small commission of the sale. Use the code "latitude15" at checkout and you'll get 15% off your order. I also have an affiliate link with ThinkTank Photo  Thank you for your support! Introduction Hello and thank you for joining me for this very special episode. I’ve been trying to think what I could do for episode 100 and when the opportunity came to speak with my special guest today I just knew I had to make it happen for this episode.  Dr. Gusky and I talked in mid-August 2020 and we happened to mention a few items that are rather time sensitive, so please do keep that timing in mind. I did not plan on holding on to this interview for over four months before it would be released, but due to my challenges I had starting in August and ending in November a delay was inevitable.  So let’s hop on over to the conversation now where Dr. Jeff fills us in on the power of serendipity and how it led to him photographing the last remnants that was left behind from the only all African-American combat unit in the U.S. Military and their contributions to World War One. As this is a special episode I’m withholding any announcements and this is also released on YouTube. If you’re watching it on YouTube please do look up Latitude Photography Podcast in your favorite player and you can listen here. If you’re listening and you’d rather watch the slide show then by all means, head on over there, it’ll be the first link in the show notes under “useful links.”  Thanks so much for being here, let’s get to the conversation now! The Power of Serendipity Conversation. When the power of the modern world disappears, all we have left is each other. Everything gets real in a heartbeat. We discover strength and courage we didn’t know we had. We reconnect to meaning, purpose and to each other through selfless acts of courage & kindness. We get very clear about what really matters. And we rediscover what’s been there all along … a vast reservoir of human decency and goodness just beneath the surface of modern life that’s never left us which abounds with hope. When crisis turns our world upside down, paradigm shifts that restore what’s humanly safe and humanly real are critical. Recently featured at The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, Jeff Gusky found a secret, hidden for a hundred years, that changes the way we see race in America and the way we heal ourselves. Gusky discovered the only surviving trace from World War I of a black combat unit beneath a farm field in France on the former front line: the underground command post of a unit the Germans called “The Black Devils” because of their fierceness in combat. They weren’t just any black unit, they were the ONLY ALL AFRICAN AMERICAN UNIT in the United States military. By 1918, they were already 49 years old. This discovery reveals that nearly everything we thought we knew about Race In America is WRONG. We’ve been living a lie for 125 years & the truth is MUCH BETTER & MUCH WORSE than we know. Reminders Find us on the web at http://latitudephotographypodcast.com Find me on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/brentberghermphoto/ Find the podcast facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1892577214293688/ Find me on instagram @brentbergherm Find me on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/brentberghermphotography Find me online at https://brentbergherm.com Find Dr. Jeff online here: https://jeffgusky.com It is my goal for 2021 to be the  lensrentals.com top affiliate. If you’re going to rent something anyway I’d love it if you’d be able to help support me and the show by using my link in the show notes. My goal is to rent a lot of gear in 2021 and I’d love to just turn all these affiliate earnings back in to rentals. So if you’d like me to review more gear on the show this is one way to support that :)

Welcome back to Eggs! On this week's show, we have Dr. Jeff Gusky. Dr. Gusky is a board-certified emergency physician currently on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, he is a renowned National Geographic photographer and explorer who's discoveries and works are featured at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. Dr. Gusky joins us today to discuss the current state of research on the novel Coronavirus pandemic and solutions he is exploring in the little town of Roma, TX.  ----DISCLAIMER: Before we start the show, we should inform you that while our guest is a doctor, his ideas and opinions are his own and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Eggs the Podcast or it's hosts. This show is not meant to be taken as medical advice and is for entertainment purposes only. If you are in need of medical attention or advice please contact your physician or medical professional immediately.----Our Guest:Dr. Jeff GuskyER Doctor and National Geographic photographerhttps://jeffgusky.com/https://www.cityofroma.net/visualizinghope.htmlWant more information on anything Dr. Gusky mentioned? Click here for reference materials and links: https://bit.ly/gusky-reference-materialsCredits:Hosted by: Michael Smith and Ryan RoghaarProduced by: Michael SmithTheme music: "Perfect Day" by OPMThe Carton:https://medium.com/the-carton-by-eggsFeature with Zack Chmeis of Straight Method up now! https://medium.com/the-carton-by-eggs/zack-chmeis-35dae817ac28The Eggs Podcast Spotify playlist:bit.ly/eggstunesThe Plugs:The Showeggscast.com@eggshow on twitter and instagramOn iTunes: itun.es/i6dX3pCOn Stitcher: bit.ly/eggs_on_stitcherAlso available on Google Play Music!Mike "DJ Ontic" shows and infodjontic.com@djontic on twitterRyan Roghaarhttp://ryanroghaar.com

Born in Chattanooga and now based in Johnson City, Amythyst Kiah’s commanding stage presence is matched by her raw and powerful vocals—a deeply moving, hypnotic sound that stirs echoes of a distant and restless past. Accompanied interchangeably with banjo, acoustic guitar, or a full band, her eclectic influences span decades, finding inspiration in old-time music, alternative rock, folk, country, and blues. Our Native Daughters, her recent collaboration with Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell (Birds of Chicago), has delivered a full-length album produced by Rhiannon Giddens and Dirk Powell, Songs of Our Native Daughters (out now on Smithsonian Folkways). NPR described the opening track, Black Myself, written by Amythyst, as “the simmering defiance of self-respect in the face of racism.” The supergroup will hit the road in July with a series of special dates that include performances at Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian Museum of African American History & Culture as well as the Newport Folk Festival. Most recently, the group has been nominated for Duo/Group of the Year at the 2019 Americana Honors & Awards. Amythyst regularly tours the United Kingdom and has performed at Celtic Connections, Southern Fried Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival, the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, and SummerTyne Americana Festival. She is a crowd favorite at Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion in the U.S. and has shined at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Smithsonian Folk Life Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival, and opening for artists such as the Indigo Girls, Rhiannon Giddens, Dom Flemons, Old Crow Medicine Show, First Aid Kit, Darrell Scott, and Tim O’Brien. Provocative and fierce, Amythyst’s ability to cross boundaries is groundbreaking and simply unforgettable.

Episode No. 464 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Torkwase Dyson and historian Dennis Reed. The New Orleans Museum of Art is showing "Torkwase Dyson: Black Compositional Thought, 15 Paintings for the Plantationocene," a series of works made for the museum. These new paintings were inspired by Dyson's interest in the systems that underlay water delivery, energy infrastructure and by the physical impacts of climate change. Through this and other work, Dyson investigates the legacy of agriculture enabled by slave economies and its relationship to the environmental and infrastructural issues of the present, a relationship known as the “plantationocene.” The exhibition is on view through December 31, 2020. Dyson is an artist-in-residence at the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University. She is preparing work that will be included in "Climate Changing: On Artists, Institutions, and the Social Environment," which is scheduled to debut at the Wexner on January 30, 2021. Dyson's previous solo museum exhibitions have been at the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery at Columbia University, at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at Cooper Union, at the Colby College Museum of Art, The Drawing Center, Eyebeam, and more. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Smith College Museum of Art, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. On the second segment, historian and curator Dennis Reed discusses the J. Paul Getty Museum's acquisition of 79 pictures made by Japanese-American photographers between 1919 and 1940. Reed's collection and the Getty's acquisition of it is a result of 35 years of work Reed and his students at Los Angeles Valley College did to learn about Japanese-American photographers who made work before the war. Reed and his students built a list of 186 names from photography catalogues at UCLA's Charles E. Young Research Library and painstakingly cold-called the photographers and their relatives in an effort to build knowledge related to an art-making community that was disappeared by the illegal American internment of Japanese-Americans. Reed's collection -- which includes the only surviving work by several of the artists -- has been exhibited in venues such as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington. The Getty, which remains closed due to the pandemic, will be exhibiting work from the acquisition at a date to be announced. In addition to the images below, the Getty and Google created this slideshow.

Jeff Gusky, MD FACEP is a Board-Certified Emergency Physician now on the front lines against COVID-19. Dr. Gusky is also a renowned National Geographic Photographer & Explorer. His discoveries & photographs are now featured at The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. He found a secret hidden for a hundred years that changes the way we see race in America and the way we heal ourselves. Americans now fear the air they breathe, the surfaces they touch, and their physical proximity to one another. Gusky’s mission is to prepare your listeners for a marathon, not a sprint with three paradigm shifts vital to their safety, that will protect them and those they love until a vaccine is ready. When the power of the modern world disappears, all we have left is each other. Everything gets real in a heartbeat. We discover strength and courage we didn’t know we had. We reconnect to meaning, purpose, and to each other through selfless acts of courage & kindness. We get very clear about what really matters. And we rediscover what’s been there all along … the avast reservoir of human decency and goodness just beneath the surface of modern life that’s never left us which abounds with hope. When crisis turns our world upside down, paradigm shifts that restore what’s humanly safe and humanly real are critical.   More about Dr. Gusky   Resources: Airborne Transmission of COVID-19 Respiratory Transmission of COVID-19

“Craft has a lot to tell about a person’s country and identity.”It is often said that you can learn a lot about the history of a community or culture through their textiles. However, that is only possible if those textiles have survived the human experience of war and conflict. In many countries, cultures have been erased by colonial homogenization or appropriated by selective extraction. During this episode, we explore the impact of Colonization on indigenous communities in Colombia, how the legacy of colonization continues to dictate social structures, and its impact on traditional art forms.“The nostalgia of not knowing if I may be, a part of my ancestry is Muisca, I don’t know…we don’t see much culture left. Maybe some people have heritage of the Muisca people, but as a culture, it’s completely gone.”In episode 4, I am joined by Tatiana Andrea Ordoñez Casallas of Zuahaza, a home textile studio based in Bogota, Colombia. Following an era of intense conflict, which continues to shape and affect Colombia today, Zuahaza seeks to participate in the peacemaking efforts to reunite and heal the country through art. Tatiana will be sharing her journey with rediscovering the rich history of her country, and how that has influenced the way she approaches her business.The Single NarrativeColombia is more than the single story you have heard time after time about drugs and war. As a society, we often feel this need, at least in the United States, to put people in a box. But that can be really dehumanizing. It rejects how within a country people have different experiences based on a variety of factors including region, religion, social economic status, and so much more.“We have a lot of problems like a lot of other countries, but there is another story to tell.”We also see this often in the social impact space, where we create these single stories of people from countries and sometimes even continents, erasing historical context and the rich heritage of the various communities that reside within any given country or continent. This single narrative then reinforces harmful stereotypes.What does racism look like in Colombia?“There is not an easy way to describe racism in Colombia, but is not just a matter of skin color, it is also a matter of wealth distribution. The poorest regions of our country are either majority black or majority indigenous. In parallel these happen to be regions that are most affected by guerrilla conflicts. With this long history of conflict fueled by the drug trade (which is another article for another time), we have become a separated people. We made fences. We hired security guards. We built walls around our neighborhoods, and in all this, we prolonged the separation and discrimination against our fellow black and indigenous Colombians.” Colorism + WhitenessThe National Museum of African American History & Culture has an excellent article on their website exploring the concept of whiteness, which they thoughtfully define as the way that white people, their customs, culture, and beliefs operate as the standard by which all other groups of are compared. In my understanding, this normalization then manifests itself in form of cultural hegemony, power dynamics, and racist power structures that have then been internalized by marginalized communities themselves. This makes whiteness something to strive for, often putting what is considered "global north" countries on a pedestal.Unlike many of her peers who used education as an excuse to leave Colombia, Tatiana used the skills she built while studying textile design in the States to reconnect with her ancestral roots in Colombia. She moved back and began using her talents as a weaver to connect with other weavers and work to revive textile traditions lost to colonial destruction.Resources + LinksInterested in reading some of the resources I reference during the episode? Check out these links:[Resource Page] Whiteness by The National Museum of African American History & Culture[Article] Black Lives Matter Movement: What does it look like in Colombia? by Tatiana Ordoñez[Resource Page] Learn more about the Muisca civilization that was completely erased by Spanish colonizers in Colombia[Podcast] Which is it? Cultural Appreciation or AppropriationConnect with ZuahazaPlease make the effort to support small businesses — you can follow Zuahaza on Instagram and shop their textile collection online.Thank YouThis podcast is dedicated to creating a safe space to discuss and challenge topics surrounding how we each navigate our personal advantages and disadvantages. I want to thank Tatiana for joining me and sharing her experiences and valuable insights.Finally, thank you for listening! Please subscribe, download, and leave a review for Art of Citizenry Podcast — I appreciate your love and support on this exciting journey! Interested in attending a future webinar or workshop? Keep an eye on Art of Citizenry! Also, if you want to connect, please feel free to follow me and share your thoughts with me on Instagram @manpreetkalra.

In this episode, I take time to discuss the chart on what it means to be white or the white culture that was presented by the National Museum of African American History & Culture.   --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/i61-exploits/message

Returning to the Battles of the First World War Podcast is Dr. Jeff Gusky, an emergency physician, artist, photographer for National Geographic, and explorer. I’m grateful that with the ongoing epidemic Dr. Gusky is able to come on the show and share his latest work with us, which is part of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture’s “We Return Fighting” exhibit.    Dr. Gusky is the photographer and talent behind the fascinating Hidden World of WW1, an exploration of the many unknown underground cities inhabited by soldiers of both sides of the Western Front during the Great War. His photographs have been seen worldwide through National Geographic, Smithsonian museum exhibitions, and featured in several newspaper and television articles worldwide. His work truly is remarkable, and brings a world silent and in darkness for over a century back into the light. I urge you to follow his work if you haven’t already done so.    In this interview we discuss Dr. Gusky’s contribution to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture’s “We Return Fighting” exhibit, as well as his discovery of the only remaining command post of the 370th Infantry under the old battlefields of France. The 370th Infantry Regiment was a segregated African-American unit during WW1; however it also had the distinction of being the only regiment also led by Black American officers. The men of the 370th were called the “Black Devils” by the Germans due to their fierceness in combat.    Jeff’s discovery has been called “I Have a Dream...before I Have a Dream.”   In the course of the conversation I made an error in the first time Jeff Gusky came on the podcast; it wasn’t two years ago but three. Just goes to show you how the years pass by without you knowing it sometimes.    Dr. Jeff Gusky’s work: https://jeffgusky.com/ Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture’s “We Return Fighting:” https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/we-return-fighting The BFWWP is on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BattlesoftheFirstWorldWarPodcast.    Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter at @WW1podcast, the Battles of the First World War Podcast page on FaceBook, and on Instagram at @WW1battlecast. Not into social media? Email me directly at verdunpodcast@gmail.com. Please consider reviewing the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes. 

Join HBR Debate as we examine an infographic released by the National Museum of African American History & Culture explaining how "whiteness" permeates our society with things like family, respect for authority, delayed gratification and individualism.

National Museum of African American History & Culture says rational thought and time are aspects of “Whiteness,” Portland officials ask Trump to stop kidnapping US citizens, hackers blow awesome opportunity for mayhem with Twitter takeover, DeepFakes not just for porn anymore, June US budget deficit higher than most annual deficits, and we pray for a solar storm.

These include but are not limited to being polite, supporting hard work, engendering autonomy and self-reliance, and advocating for the scientific method. Link from The National Museum of African American History & Culture: https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/whiteness _______________________________________ This clip was posted earlier today (July 15, 2020) on my YouTube channel as THE SAAD TRUTH_1101: https://youtu.be/GX5ielKqLOo _______________________________________ Please visit my new website gadsaad.com, and sign up for alerts. If you appreciate my content, click on the "Support My Work" button. I count on my fans to support my efforts. You can donate via Patreon, PayPal, and/or SubscribeStar. _______________________________________ Dr. Saad's fourth book The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense will be released on October 6, 2020. Pre-order your copy now. https://www.amazon.com/Parasitic-Mind-Infectious-Killing-Common/dp/162157959X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= https://www.amazon.ca/Parasitic-Mind-Infectious-Killing-Common/dp/162157959X https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parasitic-Mind-Infectious-Killing-Common/dp/162157959X _______________________________________

These include but are not limited to being polite, supporting hard work, engendering autonomy and self-reliance, and advocating for the scientific method. Link from The National Museum of African American History & Culture: https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/whiteness _______________________________________ This clip was posted earlier today (July 15, 2020) on my YouTube channel as THE SAAD TRUTH_1101: https://youtu.be/GX5ielKqLOo _______________________________________ Please visit my new website gadsaad.com, and sign up for alerts. If you appreciate my content, click on the "Support My Work" button. I count on my fans to support my efforts. You can donate via Patreon, PayPal, and/or SubscribeStar. _______________________________________ Dr. Saad's fourth book The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense will be released on October 6, 2020. Pre-order your copy now. https://www.amazon.com/Parasitic-Mind-Infectious-Killing-Common/dp/162157959X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= https://www.amazon.ca/Parasitic-Mind-Infectious-Killing-Common/dp/162157959X https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parasitic-Mind-Infectious-Killing-Common/dp/162157959X _______________________________________

This chat goes taps into a key element of creativity, problem solving. It is with Nikki Igbo. She is the features editor at Radiant Health Magazine. Creativity is also problem solving, so we discussed the current unrest we are going through at the moment. But to solve problems you need “Good Data”. Nikki provided some. We talked a lot about education and making an effort to be informed. She provides resources to help further any research you would like to do. Below is what she sent in her words: _____________________________________________________ For anyone who truly wants to educate themselves on racism, its legacy and what can be done to move closer to an America (and a world) without racism, there is a wealth of information and knowledge readily available. Below you'll find links to some of my favorite personally-penned Black History Month posts as well as quotes of the Black creatives mentioned during our discussion. You'll also find information about the Anti-racism educator (and her video) I referenced. I've included information on Tierra Bomba and the Charrua people of Uruguay. Finally, I've included links to the National Museum of African-American history and culture and other online destinations offering tons of resources. My favorite Black History Month blog posts: WHAT DO WATERMELONS ACTUALLY HAVE TO DO WITH US? https://nikigbo.com/2019/02/09/black-history-month-what-do-watermelons-actually-have-to-do-with-us/ CELEBRATING BLACK VISUAL ARTISTS: JEAN MICHEL BASQUIAT https://nikigbo.com/2016/02/01/celebrating-black-visual-artists-jean-michel-basquiat/ ALL ABOUT ATLANTA: THE WASHERWOMEN STRIKE OF 1881 https://nikigbo.com/2020/02/12/all-about-atlanta-the-washerwomen-strike-of-1881/ In every human Breast, God has implanted a Principle, which we call Love of Freedom; it is impatient of Oppression, and pants for Deliverance. - Phyllis Wheatley http://www.pwacleveland.org It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives its most distinctive characteristic.- James Weldon Johnson https://www.jamesweldonjohnson.org It is your responsibility to change society if you think of yourself as an educated person. - James Baldwin http://www.iamnotyournegrofilm.com Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible. - Maya Angelou https://www.mayaangelou.com Whenever I see an opportunity and a chance to change something, I go at it and I lay out all the facts to everybody. And when I come to this space, I'm going to come with talent, I'm going to come with focus. And I'm going to do the job as competitively as the next guy.- Robert Johnson https://www.robertjohnsonbluesfoundation.org Also Mentioned During Our Conversation Radiant Health Magazine, the Rebirth Issue https://www.radianthealthmag.com/health-wellness/the-rebirth-issue-radiant-no-14-editors-note/ Jane Elliott https://janeelliott.com and Her Video https://youtu.be/4yrg7vV4a5o The Island of Tierra Bomba of Columbia https://lab.org.uk/colombia-collective-land-titles-for-afro-communities/ The Charrua People of Uruguay https://youtu.be/LXF2t1AEzi4 In-Person and Online Resources for African-American History and Anti-racism Activism The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture https://nmaahc.si.edu Black Lives Matter Resources https://blacklivesmatter.com/resources/ Let's Fight Racism https://www.un.org/en/letsfightracism/ White Anti-Racism: Living the Legacy https://www.tolerance.org/professional-development/white-antiracism-living-the-legacy I hope this helps. Best, Nikki --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/creativecourage/support

This was also a video interview: https://youtu.be/1_glpsCPmnY  Jeff Gusky, MD FACEP is a Board-Certified Emergency Physician now on the front lines against COVID-19. Dr. Gusky is also a renowned National Geographic Photographer & Explorer. His discoveries & photographs are now featured at The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. He found a secret hidden for a hundred years that changes the way we see race in America and the way we heal ourselves.Americans now fear the air they breathe, the surfaces they touch and their physical proximity to one another. Gusky’s mission is to prepare your listeners for a marathon, not a sprint with three paradigm shifts vital to their safety, that will protect them and those they love until a vaccine is ready.When the power of the modern world disappears, all we have left is each other. Everything gets realin a heartbeat. We discover strength and courage we didn’t know we had. We reconnect to meaning, purpose and to each other through selfless acts of courage & kindness. We get very clear about what really matters. And we rediscover what’s been there all along ... a vast reservoir of human decency and goodness just beneath the surface of modern life that’s never left us which abounds with hope.When crisis turns our world upside down, paradigm shifts that restore what’s humanly safe and humanly real are critical. Jeff's Links Web: https://jeffgusky.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeff_gusky/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/hiddenwwi  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/HiddenWWI Listen on Apple or Google Podcasts: Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/2X66ZKsGoogle Podcasts: http://bit.ly/2MgbiQX    And don’t forget to support the podcast by subscribing for free, reviewing, and sharing.   New Livestreams https://youtube.com/erichunley   Web: https://unstructuredpod.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/unstructuredp Facebook: https://facebook.com/unstructuredp Instagram: https://instagram.com/unstructuredp Join the Facebook group: fb.com/groups/unstructured

Kai Frazier is an educator turned EdTech entrepreneur passionate about using tech to provide inclusive and accessible opportunities for underestimated communities.She is the founder & CEO of Kai XR, a Techstars backed company that creates inclusive mixed reality spaces allowing kids to explore, dream, & create.Before creating Kai XR, she worked with several museums such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as well as the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, specializing in digital strategy and content creation.Kai served as an entrepreneur in residence at the Kapor Center for Social Impact.Her work has been featured in Forbes, NBC, the Steve Harvey Show & more.

Join us in this bonus episode as I read an essay on my visit to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. To see American history and black people's trials and triumphs so beautifully and wholly displayed, was nothing short of magic. I was inspired by the galleries, and honored to take the journey into the past. The article was originally published at AmericanOriginStories.com.

Dr. Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., talks about becoming comfortable with her role as a living legacy to her parents. And Mary Elliott, of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History & Culture, talks with U.S. Bank Chief Diversity Officer Greg Cunningham about curating and opening the museum.

Welcome back to "Live from the ManCave!!!" If you don't know (that this is a never-ending episode), now ya know, son. You might even learn a thing or two. In this episode, CraigMakk finally says something not totally shitty about the President (and almost immediately regrets it); Serious Jest educates you on the finer points of the PC Police Force; and the guys dig into a ton of topics that range from the National Museum of African American History & Culture, the "classic" film Soul Man, the horrifying death of Danye Jones, Alec Baldwin's fun crimes, and Big Bird, all while drinking some incredible beers that will make you jealous. As a bonus, you'll get to listen to the ultimate pimp host himself, Mr. Rogers, prove that he will always be a better person than either of these two knuckleheads. So strap in, grab yourself a beer, and welcome back to "Live from the ManCave!!!" Beer(s) of the Show: Lagunitas Brown Shugga' Sweet Release Ale and Third State Brewing Irish Tenth Imperial Stout.

Now celebrating 25 years, Lisa Price created hair and body products from her kitchen that is now sold around the world, making history in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture known as Carol's Daughter.

Autumn and adrienne are back from their summer break. In this episode, the Brown sisters share their powerful experience at the National Museum of African American History & Culture and the National Portrait Gallery, and the lessons they took away about black apocalypse, black resilience, and black love. Music by Tunde Olaniran and Mother Cyborg - www.patreon.com/Endoftheworldshow endoftheworldshow.org @endoftheworldPC --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/how-to-survive-the-end-of-the-world/message

Still the most exclusive ticket in town, access to the halls of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African-American History and Culture (NMAAHC) has been in high demand since it opened in September 2016. Timothy Anne Burnside is a curatorial museum specialist for the NMAAHC and is a self-proclaimed music history nerd. She launched the hip-hop collecting initiative at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in 2006 and has since gathered a wealth of artifacts now on view at the NMAAHC - From J Dilla's minimoog to the track sheet for "Ladies First". The guys talk with Timothy Anne about her career in music history, music as the great equalizer of people, her craziest experiences collecting for the Smithsonian and her Random Aside. #NecessaryListening Follow Timothy Anne: www.timothyanneburnside.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/Timothyanne Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/timothyanne Follow (and VISIT) the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History + Culture: https://nmaahc.si.edu Twitter - https://twitter.com/nmaahc Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nmaahc Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NMAAHC YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/WatchNMAAHC Snapchat - https://www.snapchat.com/add/nmaahc All The Fly Kids Links: Website - www.alltheflykids.com Twitter - www.twitter.com/AllTheFlyKids Instagram - www.instagram/alltheflykids Facebook - www.facebook.com/alltheflykids SoundCloud - @the-all-the-fly-kids-show Apple Podcasts - apple.co/2DNSEJ2 Google Play - bit.ly/2DLCL5M Stitcher - bit.ly/2zrT1ps Simplecast - http://alltheflykids.simplecast.fm The All the Fly Kids Show is where the cool, calm and connected talk straight – No chaser. Your hosts, Geronimo Knows and Backpack Matt, sit down each week with culture creators you [should] know specializing in moments of good taste within the arts, fashion, food, business and more. A necessary listen for the urban lifestyle enthusiast.

In celebration of Black History Month, we bring in four people, turn on the mic and let the experience happen.  The epidoe is inspired by the National Museum of African American History & Culture and our ancestors whose journeys allow us to proudly say that Black History is American History...and then some.   Malcolm X - Democracy is Hypocrisyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNfAFfu6VD0Martin Luther King - from Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Debatehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4PqLKWuwyU&t=183sOprah Winfrey at the Stanford Graduate School for Business - I Stand for 10,000https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Li0J57d3YARep John Lewis - Speech at the March on Washingtonhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFs1eTsokJg&t=28s        Website http://www.deeperdishchi.com/ Itunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/deeper-dish-authentic-chicago/id1188432918 Google Play https://play.google.com/music/listen?authuser#/ps/Inoi6zizwvluw43dn2s2lk3f7yy Twitter https://twitter.com/DeeperDishChi Stitcher http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/httpdeeperdishchipodbeancom/deeper-dish    

Hello history lovers and welcome to rememberinghistory.com where we are remembering history and we’re making it.   Hi, I’m Robin the host and in-house historian at rememberinghistory.com.   We hope that you enjoyed the November podcasts that discussed African Americans in the military, focusing mostly on Black veterans. We heard some great stories, some sad stories and some inspirational stories. And remember the quote by WEB Dubois: We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting. I’m still moved whenever I read that quote. African Americans had it hard after they returned home from various wars. They weren’t welcomed as the heroes they were, who had fought for freedom and democracy around the world. But WE can recognize their courage and service and we should do so throughout the year. These stories and podcast shows are just one way but it’s important that they are remembered for their service. I know that some of the stories were a bit heavy, but I hope that the lessons were learned and that the inspiration was felt.   I’m so glad that you’ve returned for this great and groundbreaking show that will inspire YOU and your FAMILY with true stories, real experiences, practical lessons, cultural traditions, and fun celebrations—all inspired by African American history and culture. I find history to BE inspirational, instructional and entertaining. And African American history and culture fit the bill in all of these ways. Personally, I hate boring stuff. So boring stuff is not allowed at rememberinghistory.com or at this Wiki history podcast show.   Speaking of the show, the Wiki history podcast show for December will focus on a very special theme: The celebration of Kwanzaa! Yes, this is the month that many Black people—African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans and continental Africans—celebrate Kwanzaa. And that’s what we are going to do this month.   The format of the show will also be a bit different too. Today’s show will introduce the celebration of Kwanzaa, what it’s about, who started it, when was it founded, WHY it was started, then I’ll briefly introduce the 7 days of Kwanzaa.   Each of the next 7 shows will be dedicated to celebrating one of the 7 Kwanzaa days. These shows are for the whole family—all of the rememberinghistory.com shows are good for the whole family—but these Kwanzaa shows can be enjoyed during the Kwanzaa season. There will be great information but, more interestingly, there will be a Kwanzaa story that explains the daily Kwanzaa theme. It will be great for families to discuss the Kwanzaa theme, what it means and how individuals and families can incorporate this theme into their lives.   So, you see, this is very different from our usual Wiki history podcast format. It’s more interactive and celebratory. By the way, I would love to know your thoughts about these podcasts after you have listened to them. It can help us to improve these podcasts to make them more meaningful and impactful (I love that word!) for you.   Before we begin, just a bit of housekeeping.   During this podcast, you will hear about the rituals, the objects and different words in Swahili related to Kwanzaa. You will HEAR about them, but I completely understand if you want to actually SEE them, too. You can find visuals and words on the Wiki History Podcast Page on Facebook. You will find pictures, animated videos and a community of history lovers. There is also a place for comments, which I hope that you will leave for us because we really appreciate them and we do respond. Also, if you enjoy this show, please let others know about it. They might like it and find it inspirational too. Let’s change the way that we think of history—one friend at a time.   And the Rememberinghistory.com staff is committed to presenting the stories and contributions of African Americans but we also want to encourage you to make history today. We hope that this show does that but also we have the Making History Today! newsletter that teaches people how to change the world! It’s actually easier than you might think but it’s a great newsletter that you can subscribe to at the Rememberinghistory.com website and Facebook page. Don’t be shy; go right ahead and subscribe and get started changing the world and making history!   Let’s begin talking about Kwanzaa! Tis the season!   Habari gani!   Habari gani!   That’s a traditional greeting in the Swahili language. And it is always the way of starting the Kwanzaa celebration for the day.   We’re gonna begin the discussion in a slightly different way. Before we talk about what Kwanzaa is, let’s talk about what Kwanzaa is not.   Kwanzaa is NOT political. Kwanzaa is NOT religious. And Kwanzaa is NOT related to Christmas.   Kwanzaa IS a wonderful week-long celebration of African culture and spirituality. (It is NOT associated with any religion.) It was designed to help African Americans remember the history, richness and rituals of African culture, particularly the African mindset of showing gratitude for the harvest, honoring the ancestors and remembering the family unit. Kwanzaa celebrates all of this.   Kwanzaa was founded in 1966 by Dr. Ron Karenga who was an active part of the Black nationalist movements of the 1960s and 1970s. He designed it as one of the first specifically African American holidays. During the 1960s and 70s, there was a movement by African Americans to reconnect with African culture and history—things that were systematically stripped away from us during slavery and then diminished and disregarded for years. So, Kwanzaa is a cultural celebration. No, it is NOT political. It is NOT religious. It is NOT related to Christmas. It is cultural and educational.   Today, Kwanzaa is celebrated by about 30 million people worldwide—in the United States, in Canada, the Caribbean and several European countries.   Kwanzaa (which means “first fruits”) begins on December 26th and ends on January 1st (New Years Day).   It’s important to remember that Kwanzaa is a celebration of African heritage. So, start with decorating your home, making your home beautiful with pictures, posters, art, statues or anything else that uplifts your spirit and beautifies your home. Place African crafts, baskets, cloth patterns, sculptures, banners and pictures throughout your home. Focus on the Kwanzaa colors of black (which represents the African people), red (which represents the blood or struggle of the African people) and green (which represents the land and future of the African people). Most important thing: create a space in a prominent area for the Kwanzaa table or altar. You will use that every day throughout Kwanzaa.   What will you need   You need 3 things:   Kwanzaa mat (mkeka). You can use the Kwanzaa flag, Pan-African flag or a tablecloth with 1 or all of the Kwanzaa colors. A candleholder (kinara) with 7 candles mishumaa saba. 1 black candle, 3 red candles and 3 green candles. Unity cup kikombe cha umoja—any simple or elaborate cup or goblet.   That’s it. Yes, of course, there is a lot more that you can add but these are the basics. And you will use these items on every day of the Kwanzaa celebration.   So, let’s get to it:   Each of the 7 days of Kwanzaa has a theme on which you will focus during the ceremony. Let’s go through the theme first then we’ll go through the activities. By the way, I’m gonna give you the daily theme in Swahili first then in English. It really doesn’t matter which language you use. Personally, I like using new languages but just use whichever feels better to you.   Day 1. Umoja!   Harbari gani! On the first day of Kwanzaa, we recognize Umoja or the concept of Unity.   Dr. Karenga (remember he founded Kwanzaa) thought of Umoja (Unity)—working for and maintaining harmony and togetherness in the family, the community, the nation and the world.   The first day of Kwanzaa is celebrated on December 26. It begins with lighting the Black candle at the center of the kinara. Lighting the Black candle marks the beginning of the festive Kwanzaa season. Someone will then make a statement, tell a story or even say a poem about the concept of Unity. This part is very flexible. You can sing a song, play an instrument, perform a dance or do anything that illustrates the concept of unity. Afterwards, the unity cup is filled. Then it is passed around the table. Everyone takes a sip from the unity cup. After the sharing of the cup, the Black candle is blown out and the ceremony for the day is ended.   (Day 2): Kujichagulia!   Harbari gani! December 27 is the second day of Kwanzaa. On Day 2, we celebrate Kujichagulia or self-determination.   Dr. Karenga thought of self-determination as defining who we are, creating who we are, and acting and speaking for ourselves.   On this second day of Kwanzaa, first the black candle is lit then the red candle (farthest to the left) is lit. Then someone will make a statement or tell a story about the principle of self-determination in his or her own life. Again, this part is very flexible. You can be as creative as you like. Afterwards, the unity cup is filled then passed around the table. Everyone takes a sip from the unity cup. After the sharing of the cup, the Black and Red candles are blown out and the ceremony for the day is ended.   (Day 3): Habari gani! Ujima!   Remember that everyone will greet each other with habari gani.   December 28 marks the third day of Kwanzaa. On Day 3, we celebrate Ujima or collective work and responsibility.   Dr. Karenga thought of Ujima as building and maintaining our community together, sharing our joys and problems and solving our problems together.   Next we light the candles in the following order:   Black candle (in the middle) is lit Red candle to the far left is lit Green candle to the far right is lit   Then someone present will then make a statement, tell a story or discuss about the principle of collective work and responsibility. Afterwards, the unity cup is filled. Then it is passed around the table. Everyone takes a sip from the unity cup. After the sharing of the cup, the candles are extinguished and the ceremony for the day is ended.   (Day 4): Ujamaa!   Harbari gani! December 29 marks the fourth day of Kwanzaa. On day 4, we celebrate Ujamaa or cooperative economics.   Dr. Karenga thought of the concept of Ujamaa as building and maintaining our own businesses, and supporting the businesses of others and growing and profiting from them together.   On the fourth day of Kwanzaa, you will light another red candle. So the order is:   Black candle (in the middle) is lit first. Red candle to the far left is lit Green candle to the far right is lit Finally the red candle farthest to the left is lit.   Then someone will make a statement, tell a story or discuss about the principle of cooperative economics in their life or as it affects others. Afterwards, the unity cup is filled then it is passed around the table. Everyone takes a sip from the unity cup. After the sharing of the cup, the candles are extinguished and the ceremony for the day is ended   (Day 5): Nia!   Harbari gani! December 30 marks the fifth day of Kwanzaa. On day 5, we celebrate the principle of Nia or purpose.   Dr. Karenga thought of nia as focusing on building our communities together, maintaining them, and restoring them to greatness.   On the fifth day of Kwanzaa, you will light another green candle. So the order is:   Black candle (in the middle) is lit first. Red candle to the far left is lit Green candle to the far right is lit Then the red candle farthest to the left is lit. Then another green candle farthest to the right is lit.   Then someone will make a statement, tell a story or discuss about the principle of purpose. Afterwards, the unity cup is filled with juice. Then it is passed around the table. Everyone takes a sip from the unity cup. After the sharing of the cup, the candles are extinguished and the ceremony for the day is ended.   (Day 6): Kuumba!   Harbari gani! December 31st marks the 6th day of Kwanzaa and it is a very special day! On the 6th day, we celebrate the principle of Kuumba or creativity. As it is New Year’s Eve, the day is an especially festive day because it marks the last day of the calendar year.   Dr. Karenga thought of kuumba or creativity as working hard to make our communities more beautiful and functional for today and for future generations.   Then we light the candles:   First, the Black candle (in the middle) is lit. Red candle to the far left is lit Green candle to the far right is lit Then another red candle farthest to the left is lit. Then another green candle farthest to the right is lit. Then final red candle is lit.     On this special final day of the year, the home is specially decorated with traditional Kwanzaa colors of black, red and green. Special dishes are made for the family and guests. On December 31, families and communities hold a karamu which is a special feast, including readings, remembrances and a festive meal. The karamu feast may consist of traditional African dishes, as well as those featuring ingredients that Africans brought to the United States...sesame seeds, peanuts, sweet potatoes, collard greens and spicy sauces, for example. This celebration may be held at a home, church or community center.   Then the unity cup is passed around. All members who are present should remember their ancestors while the Unity cup is shared.   (Day 7): Habari gani! Imani!   The last and final day of Kwanzaa falls on January 1st, New Year’s Day.   The focus on the seventh day of Kwanzaa is on Imani or faith.   Dr. Karenga thought of Imani as believing in ourselves, our people, our parents and teachers and our leaders. Believing in the importance of our vision for a better community and for a better world.   Next the candles are lit:   Always begin with the Black candle in the center then alternate back and forth between the red and green candles until all are lit.   Then someone will make a statement, tell a story or discuss about the principle of creativity. Afterwards, the unity cup is filled with juice. Then it is passed around the table. Everyone takes a sip from the unity cup. After the sharing of the cup, the candles are extinguished and the ceremony for the day is ended.   The last day of Kwanzaa...the first day of the New Year...has been a time of serious appraisal for African people. Also known as the "Day of Meditation" or "Day of Assessment," it is a period of self-reflection related to things done and things yet to be done. Following in this tradition, it is a time to ask yourself the following three questions: "Who am I?" - "Am I really who I say I am" - "Am I all I ought to be?" In addition, this is also a day when many Kwanzaa participants choose to pay particular homage to the ancestors...those of the national community as well as those of the family.   Everyone concludes the entire ceremony saying "Harambee!" (which is a reminder to “let’s pull together!”) seven times—one time for each day of the Kwanzaa ceremony.               So, lots of information just now. Just to recap.   Step 1: Everyone stands around the Kwanzaa table. Bid each other the traditional greeting of Habari gani. Answer by saying the theme of the day. Take this opportunity to practice your Swahili. Answer: Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity) or Imani (faith)   Step 2: Light the candles for the day. Always start with the black candle in the middle then alternate between the red and green candles.   Step 3: Someone present will make a statement, tell a story, say a poem, sing a song or just discuss the daily theme in his or her life. Get creative here and just express yourself in any way that works best for you.   Step 4: Fill the Unity cup and pass it around the table. Everyone will take a sip from the cup.   Step 5: Put the candles out. You’re finished.   These steps are continued for the seven days of Kwanzaa. At the end of the 7th day, everyone shouts “Harambee!” seven times. Harambee means “let’s pull together!”   So, that is the celebration of Kwanzaa. You see that it can help individuals and families to remember and feel the connection with their African roots, culture and heritage. There is a lot more that you can do as part of this celebration. Do it YOUR way but don’t be shy about expanding yourself and reaching for new experiences.   And, as I promised in the beginning, you can get more information about Kwanzaa from Maya Angelou. She and award-winning filmmaker, MK Asante made a movie about Kwanzaa called The Black Candle. It is the first movie ever made about Kwanzaa and was filmed in the United States, Africa, Europe and the Caribbean. The film discusses Kwanzaa’s growth during the Black Power movement through the modern day experience as a global pan-African movement. This is an excellent film for all ages and can help to understand the context, meaning and importance of Kwanzaa to families and communities. The Black Candle has been described as more than a film about a holiday: it’s a celebration of a people! Highly recommended. You can get more information about The Black Candle on the Wiki History Podcast page on Facebook and you can rent the film on iTunes.   Speaking of excellent films about Kwanzaa, the rememberinghistory.com team has created an animated video about Kwanzaa—what it is, what it means and how to celebrate it. You can find it on the rememberinghistory.com website and the Wiki Podcast page. It’s short, educational and lots of fun. Your whole family will enjoy it.   So, that’s all for this introduction. I know that I mentioned a lot of words in Swahili. Again, you can find them at the Wiki History Podcast page on Facebook. You will also find pictures of the items like the kinari (the candleholder), the unity cup (kikumba cha umoja) and lots of other helpful items. Most importantly, you will find a lively group of African American history and culture enthusiasts who enjoy meeting new people and discussing these topics. Everyone is welcome!   Finally, I just want to remind you that 2017, the Wiki History podcast show is dedicated to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. Located in Washington, DC, the National Museum of African American History & Culture opened in 2016. This kind of museum was long overdue but it finally happened and it is a place that everyone should visit and explore. Museums are a great way to bring history to life and to keep it alive for future generations. Wiki History is honored to be a part of this important process. For every person that listens to this podcast show, rememberinghistory.com will donate $1 to the National Museum of African American History & Culture.   Are you ready to learn about Kwanzaa and hear some great Kwanzaa stories? Great! Go ahead and listen to Day 1 of Kwanzaa!             If you have any questions about Kwanzaa or want to share your stories of how you celebrate Kwanzaa or even why you choose NOT to celebrate Kwanzaa, please contact me at robin@rememberinghistory.com. I love hearing your thoughts and stories. Also, as promised, when you contact me and leave your email address, I will send you a special e-gift for Kwanzaa (yes, Kwanzaa also can involve gift-giving!)   On that high note, a very joyous Kwanzaa from everyone at rememberinghistory.com where we are remembering history and we’re making it! Every day. Ha  

Welcome back! That last section was pretty heavy. The racial terror and violence inflicted on Black veterans who had fought for their country are difficult subjects to hear and infuriating to learn about. But it’s even more infuriating that these stories are not taught in schools or discussed on the Veteran’s Day or Memorial Day holidays. Yet these stories need to be told and remembered. Why? It’s history. Not the glamorous and happy history but still it is a part of American history AND the African American experience. It honors the Black soldiers who fought, endured and persevered through the wars, the discrimination and the violence. Again, it reminds me of the quote by WEB DuBois: We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting.   Second, this dishonorable behavior by white Americans who were determined never to accept or respect the contributions of African American soldiers is instructive. We can learn something from their behavior: Why did they act as they did? What were they thinking? What were they afraid of?   Some historians have responded to these questions by focusing on the trigger of their behavior. They didn’t like the thought of a Black veteran wearing his uniform with pride, unity and confidence. This conflicted with the white supremacist picture and structure that they had worked hard since the slavery period to develop. A skilled and confident Black serviceman in uniform is a different person than an uneducated and enslaved person in rags. The former terrified white people. The latter appeased them.     Think of Black Navy veteran Joe Nathan Roberts who, in June 1947, was studying at Temple University as a result of the GI Bill. He went to visit family in Georgia when a group of white men became upset because he refused to call them “sir.” Later that night, Mr. Roberts was abducted from his parents’ home and shot to death. African American veterans had definitely changed and this was disturbing to the white population, particularly in the south.   Then the federal government made a bold move to help veterans. They passed the GI bill. And that permanently changed life in America.   What is the GI Bill?   The GI Bill was officially known as the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944. It was a law that provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans (who were commonly referred to as G.I.s). It was an important race-neutral piece of legislation for veterans. However, we will see that African American veterans did not receive the full benefits of this historic legislation.   Benefits included dedicated payments of tuition and living expenses to attend high school, college or vocational or technical school, low-cost mortgages, low-interest loans to start a business, as well as one year of unemployment compensation. It was available to all veterans who had been on active duty during the war years for at least 90 days and had not been dishonorably discharged—exposure to combat was not required. By 1956, roughly 7.8 million veterans had used the G.I. Bill education benefits, some 2.2 million to attend colleges or universities and an additional 5.6 million used the GI bill for some kind of training program.   Historians and economists judge the G.I. Bill as a major political and economic success—especially in contrast to the treatment of World War I veterans—and a major contribution to America's long-term economic growth.   Although the G.I. Bill did not specifically advocate discrimination, it was interpreted differently for blacks than for whites. Historians have argued "the law was deliberately designed to accommodate a “Jim Crow” or segregation-based society. Because the programs were directed by local, white officials, many Black veterans were refused benefits. For example, of the first 67,000 mortgages insured by the G.I. Bill, fewer than 100 were taken out by non-white vets.   Why is this part of the story important to remember? Because it helps explain the ongoing challenges of African-Americans to build wealth and achieve intergenerational mobility.    How the GI Bill played out is one of those reasons. Whites were able to use the government guaranteed housing loans that were a pillar of the bill to buy homes in the fast growing suburbs. Those homes subsequently rose greatly in value in coming decades, creating vast new household wealth for whites during the postwar era.  But black veterans weren't able to make use of the housing provisions of the GI Bill for the most part. Banks generally wouldn't make loans for mortgages in black neighborhoods, and African-Americans were excluded from the suburbs (and other predominantly white neighborhood) by a combination of racially restrictive covenants (that were still legal) and informal racism.  In short, the GI Bill helped fostered a long-term boom in white wealth but did almost nothing to help blacks to build wealth or to help Black veterans to re-adjust after their military service. We are still living with the effects of that exclusion today -- and will be for a long time to come.  THIS is why it is so important to discuss this GI bill of 1944. What happens in the past can definitely have an effect in the present: The GI bill is a great example of that. But the GI bill did have its benefits for Black veterans too. The GI bill did have a very positive effect in one area: Education. The passage of the G.I. Bill in 1944 set off an explosion in higher education. It provided veterans with generous financial aid for tuition and living expenses. By 1947, 49 percent of all college students were veterans and nearly half of the 16 million eligible veterans had used the G.I. Bill for higher education or job training when it ended in 1956. It has been passed again to extend it for veterans of later wars.) The G.I. Bill changed the structure of the United States, creating access to education for millions of Americans and helping to spawn the modern middle class. But this increased opportunity was not universal even in education. Many African-American veterans could not attend college because of their sub-standard Jim Crow primary and secondary educations. Those with high school diplomas were largely limited to overcrowded and under-funded historically black colleges and universities that often lacked the liberal arts education available at predominantly white institutions. While these veterans were often only able to choose among overcrowded black colleges, the influx of subsidies for black students forced many white universities to open their doors to nonwhites, helping begin the great integration of higher education. Of course, many of the southern universities remained solidly segregationist. Eventually, the supreme court (with the help of federal troops) forced them to integrate.    So, the GI Bill (The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944) had a positive impact on veterans following World War II and fortunately it was passed again for subsequent wars. In some ways, it contributed to creating or solidifying an American middle class—by helping people to buy homes, receive unemployment benefits and attend high school and college. In fact, President Bill Clinton called it one of the most important pieces of economic legislation that was ever passed in the United States. But it’s clear that the benefits were unequal. African American veterans (and other non-white veterans) were not able to reap the benefits of the GI bill. The social structure that kept whites on top and blacks on the bottom had not been resolved in such a way that Black veterans were able to fully access the benefits of the bill in the way that white veterans were able to. But access to education was certainly one way in which African Americans were able to benefit. And they took full advantage of that opportunity. That benefit had an impact on generations of African Americans. But the financial benefits offered by the bill that would help with mortgages and assist in home ownership were largely inaccessible to African Americans. And that also had an impact on generations of African Americans. We’re gonna come to a close now. This podcast is getting rather long. But the story of African Americans in the military needs to be told. We’ve only touched on it. I haven’t even mentioned the Black heroes—both men and women—who served with great distinction and honor in the military. They deserve to be remembered. And I haven’t mentioned the servicewomen and men who TODAY are serving courageously and protecting freedom and democracy around the world. They deserve a podcast show too.         Remember that the African American experience in the United States is not all doom and gloom. It’s also victory and achievement. Courage and honor. Greatness and glory. In spite of everything, African American veterans and civilians have achieved so much in this country and contributed so much to building and protecting the United States.   Remembering history means remembering everything including the good, the bad and the ugly. Let’s end with the following quote: On the battlefield, the military pledges to leave no soldier behind. As a nation, let it be our pledge that when they return home, we leave no veteran behind.   So, what can WE do?   At rememberinghistory.com, we want to learn the history but we also want to take action. We can we do so that no veteran (Black or otherwise) is ever left behind?   It’s a good question but I don’t have all the answers. I have some ideas though.   I want to hear your thoughts and ideas. But I also want to see you at the next show where you can hear practical tips for helping our veterans. They did for us. Now it’s time to do for them. We don’t want any of our service women or men left behind.   So, let’s confront this tough task in the next show. It should be interesting and I hope actionable. It is time to take real action to respect, protect and support our veterans and their families. So that brings us to the end of today’s podcast show.   I realize that I mentioned lots of names, places, events, experiences and other information that you might want more information about. The rememberinghistory.com team has you covered. You can get more information, see the people and places, read the “What You Can Do” list, see great pictures and even find good a book list at the Wiki History podcast page on Facebook. You can also find the newsletter called Making History Today! which discusses practical ways that you can actually MAKE history through education, the arts, political activism or whatever interests you.   Finally, I just want to remind you that 2017, the Wiki History podcast show is dedicated to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. Located in Washington, DC, the National Museum of African American History & Culture opened in 2016. This kind of museum was long overdue but it finally happened and it is a place that everyone should visit and explore. Museums are a great way to bring history to life and to keep it alive for future generations. Wiki History is honored to be a part of this important process. For every person that listens to this podcast show, rememberinghistory.com will donate $1 to the National Museum of African American History & Culture.   Come back soon to Remembering History where we ARE remembering history and we’re making it. Every day! And, like Matthew Henson, get ready to sit on top of the world! Bye for now!            

Black Veterans Podcast #1   Welcome to rememberinghistory.com where we are remembering history and we’re making it. I’m Robin Lofton, the Chief In-house Historian and host of this great and groundbreaking show that will inspire YOU and your FAMILY with true stories, real experiences, practical lessons, cultural traditions, and fun celebrations—all inspired by African American history. I find history to BE inspirational, instructional and entertaining. And African American history fits the bill in all of these ways. Personally, I hate boring stuff. So boring stuff is not allowed at rememberinghistory.com or at this Wiki history podcast show.   Speaking of the show, today’s podcast show is about African American servicewomen and men and veterans. I think that this is a great time to learn about Black veterans. Why? Because it’s November. In the United States, we celebrate Veterans Day on November 11, which is also Remembrance Day or Armistice Day in other parts of the world.   Yes, this is the month in which we celebrate the service of the brave men and women in the United States military. It is truly an honor and a pleasure to remember them but I often feel that this is not enough. One month and the sincerest thank you are not enough to compensate them for their courage, their commitment and their sacrifice. So, I’m inclined to thank them every day. To show appreciation every day.   How can we show real appreciation to our African American veterans for what they have endured?   Several ways. First, we can learn the history. We can learn what they have endured as servicemen and women. And it goes far beyond their service on the battlefield. Second, we can remember their contributions, their heroism and their undying commitment to fighting for freedom. Third, we can ask what we can do for THEM today. We can give back to these people who gave us so much.   And that is what this Wiki history podcast show is going to do this month.   I just want first to mention that, during this podcast, you will hear about people, places, events and issues. You will HEAR about them, but I completely understand if you want to actually SEE them, too. You can find pictures of them on the Wiki History Podcast Page on Facebook. You will find pictures, animated videos and a community of history lovers. There is also a place for comments, which I hope that you will leave for me because I really appreciate them and I do respond. Also, if you enjoy this show, please let others know about it. They might like it and find it inspirational too. Let’s change the way that we think of history—one friend at a time. And the Rememberinghistory.com staff is committed to presenting the stories and contributions of African Americans but we also want to encourage you to make history today. We hope that this show does that but also we have the Making History Today! newsletter that teaches people how to change the world! It’s actually easier than you might think but it’s a great newsletter that you can subscribe to at the Rememberinghistory.com website and Facebook page. Don’t be shy; go right ahead and subscribe and get started changing the world and making history!   Let’s begin with the history right now.   Did you know that African Americans have served in every major American war since arriving in the American colonies? From Crispus Atticus in the Revolutionary War up to modern times, African Americans have always had a strong presence in the U.S. military. Yes, even in the two world wars, African Americans were a dominant force. The Vietnam War saw the largest number of African American soldiers in combat. And also the youngest group of soldiers, but of course this was true for soldiers of other ethnicities as well.* More recently, African Americans have served in the Persian Gulf wars and in Iraq* and Afghanistan.     I think that the African American experience in the military was perfectly summarized by historian and scholar, WEB Dubois when he said:   We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting.   We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting.   What did Dr. Dubois mean by this statement? He wrote it in May, 1919 following the World War I. This meaning has changed over time but it reflects the difficulties that African American servicemen and women faced in the past and continue to be confronted with. But the point is that African American servicemen and women and veterans are still confronted with different issues than their white counterparts. Today it is frustrating and infuriating. In the past, it was fatal.   Let me explain. From the end of the Civil War through the end of the second world war, African Americans who served their country were confronted with violence and terror. During the period between 1877 and 1950, more than 4,000 African Americans were lynched. (By the way, this important research was done by the Equal Justice Initiative—and was the most comprehensive research done to date. They should definitely be commended for this unprecedented survey of the lynching of African Americans, showing that there was a virtual reign of terror happening against Americans during that period.) Yes, more than 4,000 African Americans were killed during that period. And research showed that no one was more at risk of experiencing violence and targeted racial terror than Black veterans. White soldiers absolutely did not face this kind of treatment following their military service.   On this point, Bryan Stevenson (executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative) said, “We do so much in this country to celebrate and honor folks who risk their lives on the battlefield. But we don’t remember that black veterans were more likely to be attacked for their service than honored for it.” Wow!   Let’s look back to the armistice following world war I. Black soldiers returning home were greeted with a wave of intense hostility and discrimination. Whites were suspicious and angered at the thought of Black soldiers enjoying certain freedoms, civil rights and possibly liaisons with white women in Europe. And the black soldiers had experienced freedoms in Europe and they were ready to assert those rights when they returned back to the United States. The stage was set for an intense conflict. It began in the summer of 1919, which became known as the Red Summer.     Anti-black riots erupted in 20 cities throughout the United States. A Louisiana newspaper editor wrote, “This is the right time to show them what will and what will not be permitted.” At least 13 African American veterans were killed by lynch mobs. Countless more endured beatings, shootings and whippings. The Red Summer is still remembered by older Black veterans and their families. It was a rude awakening to the fact that even though African Americans had fought valiantly, died courageously and contributed constantly to the war effort, they were not going to enjoy the civil rights and freedoms that they had fought for in Europe. And white citizens were quick to remind them that the white supremacist social structures still existed.   Just the sight of a Black veteran wearing a soldier’s uniform put that soldier at risk of serious bodily harm or death. In fact, the only provocation was often a black man’s insistence on wearing his soldier’s uniform in public. Again, Bryan Stevenson explains it. “Just the sight of a black soldier, just the suggestion that he might take on that empowered, adult, mature identity—that could get him killed.”   And it did. In Hickman, Kentucky in December 1918 just weeks after the end of WWI, recently-discharged African American soldier named Charles Lewis was standing on the street in his uniform when a white police officer began harassing him and claimed that he fit the description of a robbery suspect. Mr. Lewis insisted that he was a good soldier and would not commit robbery. He was arrested. At midnight, a mob of masked men broke into the jail, seized Mr. Lewis and hanged him. They left his body (still in uniform) hanging for all to see. A newspaper headline the following morning was titled, “Nip it in the bud.”   Then there is the story of World War II veteran, Isaac Woodard. On February 12, 1946, Isaac Woodard wore his uniform on a Greyhound bus travelling from George to North Carolina. When he protested mistreatment from the white bus driver, South Carolina police beat him so severely that he was permanently blinded. Although the NAACP protested the attack and demanded prosecution for the offenders, no one was ever convicted. Mr. Woodard later stated, “ We went overseas and did our duty and now we’re home and have to fight another struggle that I think outweighs the war.”   He wasn’t alone in his experience. Civil rights activist, Hosea Williams, had been captured by Germans during the second world war. After his release, he stated, “I want to tell you the Germans never were as inhumane as the state troopers of Alabama.” That says a lot.   So while Black and white Americans fought for freedoms and democracy abroad, white Americans were willing to accept, condone or remain silent on the issue of racial terror, violence and oppression targeted towards African Americans--particularly African American VETERANS—in their own country.   But this racial terror did not start in the 20th century. It began much earlier. As I said, African Americans have been fighting in wars since the American Revolution. But the real terror began following the Civil War.   More than 200,000 African Americans fought in the Civil War. Originally, the Union army was reluctant to allow Black soldiers to fight at all, claiming that that the Black soldiers would feel entitled to respect and rights after the war ended. They served as soldiers, spies, nurses and in supportive roles. In fact, Sojourner Truth served as a spy during the Civil War. The movie, Glory, showed a major battle at Fort Wagner that the 54th Regiment (an all-Black unit) courageously fought but, unfortunately, never won for the Union. But this was just the beginning. Afterwards, many Black soldiers were allowed to join the Union army and President Lincoln credited them with the Union’s victory.   However, following the war at the start of the Reconstruction era in 1877, African American soldiers lost the rights that that had fought for. They were no longer slaves but they were still living in a society founded on white supremacy.   They were prohibited from handling or carrying weapons, they were assaulted, driven from their homes and killed by lynch mobs.   Nevertheless, 380,000 African Americans enlisted in the segregated Army to fight during the First World War.   Why would they do that?   Many had a sense of “patriotic unity” and they hoped that it would increase their social status in the United States. Mississippi Senator James Vardaman warned that this would happen. In a speech on the senator floor in 1917, he stated, “The return of black veterans to the South would inevitably lead to disaster because once you impress the negro with the fact that he is defending the flag and inflate his untutored soul with military airs, he will believe that his political rights must be respected.” In his crude and demeaning way, the senator was right. After Black soldiers returned from Europe where they experienced freedom and more equality, they did expect the same type of treatment when they returned home. But all that they discovered was a society holding on its white supremacist foundation and willing to maintain it through terror and violence. That’s how the Red Summer began. Hundreds of Black men, women and children were killed by mobs and police violence throughout the country. Black veterans were specifically targeted. They were shown no appreciation or respect for their service.   I don’t know if you have heard of the Harlem Hellfighters. They were the 369th infantry regiment who fought in the first world war. They fought so courageously and effectively that France awarded them the country’s highest military honor. Yes, they were an African American unit. Shown the highest respect in Europe but at home they were shown neither respect nor honor.   And this continued following the Second World War in which more than a million African Americans enlisted. Despite all of the violence, discrimination and America’s commitment to maintaining a social structure that kept Blacks in an inferior position, more African Americans than ever enlisted to fight for freedom and democracy abroad. And African Americans continued to fight with skill and honor. I hope that you have heard of the Tuskegee Airmen who served in World War II. Yes, there were many others—if we have time, I’ll discuss them but you can also find them on the Wiki History Podcast page on Facebook.             Yet, as in the first world war, discrimination was active and virtually mirrored the segregated, white supremacist society at home. Black soldiers worked in inferior positions, cleaning the officer’s quarters and latrines or were given highly dangerous, front-line combat missions that were considered too dangerous for white soldiers. Punishments for Black soldiers were often excessively harsh. Black soldiers at military bases in the segregated south were forbidden from eating in restaurants though the restaurants would serve German prisoners of war. White supremacy remained the norm in military life as in the civilian world.   After the war and the return of the Black veterans to the United States, the terror and violence resumed and even increased for Black veterans. Any African American in uniform was at high risk for violence and killing.   You might ask why the soldiers would wear the uniforms if that would put them at increased risk of violence. Great question.   But I see that there was pride in their military service and what they contributed to fighting tyranny and protecting democracy around the world. The soldiers walked with confidence and a newly discovered feeling of entitlement. They had experienced freedom in other parts of the world. They wanted—demanded—those rights when they returned home. The proud and confident black soldier scared many white people and threatened the white supremacist social structure. So, yes, the violence increased. But the African American veterans were changed forever and this changed the entire Black community forever. The modern civil rights movement was imminent, brought in part by these confident and uplifted Black veterans of the second world war. I’m thinking about Hosea Williams (he was the one who preferred the experience as a POW in a German prison to facing Alabama state troopers). And Medgar Evers who became a powerful leader in the NAACP. The black soldiers and veterans changed their communities and the country.   But the fight was not over yet. The United States federal government passed the GI bill—and it “attacked” African American veterans and their families on a different front. This will take us directly into the second part of this great and groundbreaking podcast show.   If you like, you can take a break here. Then continue on to the next podcast that discusses the GI Bill and its effect on African American veterans, their families and communities. But please don’t stop here because you don’t want to miss that exciting and disturbing part about how Black veterans struggled in the past and how they AND their families are still struggling.   But if you choose to stop--Hey, it’s a free country--I just want to remind you of the Wiki History Podcast Page where you can find more information and pictures of the people discussed in this podcast. Also, you will find interesting discussions, questions, videos, games and a whole community of history lovers just like me and you. So please stop by the facebook page and join the fun. Also, I will give you a sneak peek into the podcasts for December. Rememberinghistory.com and Wiki podcast page will discuss Kwanzaa! Yes, it’s that season again and we will discuss the 7 fantastic days of that great and festive celebration.   Finally, please remember that for everyone who listens to these podcast shows, the rememberinghistory.com staff will donate $1 to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. It’s a great museum—long overdue—but it’s here now and we must support it and other efforts to preserve and honor African American history.   So that’s all for now. You can’t see me but I’m standing and saluting our Black servicewomen and men on active duty AND our Black veterans. Let’s remember to honor them this month and every month.   See you soon at rememberinghistory.com where we our remembering history AND we’re making it every day. Bye for now!    

Welcome to rememberinghistory.com where we are remembering history and we’re making it. I’m Robin Lofton, the Chief In-house Historian and host of this great and groundbreaking show that will inspire YOU and your FAMILY with true stories, real experiences, practical lessons, cultural traditions, and fun celebrations—all inspired by African American history. I find history to BE inspirational, instructional and entertaining. And African American history fits the bill in all of these ways. Personally, I hate boring stuff. So boring stuff is not allowed at rememberinghistory.com or at this Wiki history podcast show.   Speaking of the show, today’s podcast show is about Black explorers and adventurers. I think that this is a great time to learn about Black explorers. Why? Because it’s October. In the United States, October is the month that many people celebrate Columbus’s birthday. Yes, it’s a federal holiday celebrated on the second Monday in October. But it’s important to know many individual states are celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ day instead of Columbus’s birthday. And I think that we all know the reason for that.   Here at rememberinghistory.com, we are celebrating Black explorers as we have for the past several years by discussing a few Black explorers and their inspirational stories. However, this year, we’re doing something a bit different. We are going to examine WHY people explore, why exploration is so important, and then we’re gonna ask for your thoughts about what exploration means to you and where you might like to explore one day.   During this podcast, you will hear about people, places, events and issues. You will HEAR about them, but I completely understand if you want to actually SEE them, too. You can find pictures of them on the Wiki History Podcast Page on Facebook. You will find pictures, animated videos and a community of history lovers. There is also a place for comments, which I hope that you will leave for me because I really appreciate them and I do respond. Also, if you enjoy this show, please let others know about it. They might like it and find it inspirational too. Let’s change the way that we think of history—one friend at a time.   So, why is exploring important? First let’s look at what exploring actually is.   To explore means to travel to an unfamiliar area in order to learn about it.   Throughout the centuries, exploring has taken different forms. Yet there was always the aspect of a “new and unfamiliar” place. In days past, many people explored new areas to find new riches and wealth like gold or other precious minerals. Others explored new areas to acquire land that they could homestead and farm. Still others were interested in the peoples of new and unfamiliar lands for reasons such as enslavement, slave trading or promoting “civilization.”   Wow, these past purposes of exploration were not so noble or endearing. Exploitation was the focus. And we know the damage and destruction that was done to indigenous peoples and their land. Gee, this makes me think of the quote “I fear the evil that men do in the name of evil but God save us from the evil that men do in the name of good.” Lots of death and destruction in the wake of many early explorers. Columbus included. But did you know that there were several Black explorers who traveled with Columbus like the Nina brothers Juan (he actually helmed La Nina), Francisco who was a sailor and Pedro who was actually with Columbus when he landed in Trinidad. Another Black explorer, Juan Guarrido, accompanied Vasco de Gama in his search of the Fountain of Youth. Juan Guarrido was also part of the Cortez-led invasion of Mexico, which led to the conquest of the Aztecs in 1519. (Okay, that’s not a great legacy for an explorer but he is also credited with harvesting the first commercial wheat crop in the Americas.)   Modern exploration is MUCH different from exploring in days long past. (Unless perhaps you’re thinking of exploration for oil, rubber or other precious commodities.)   Modern explorers focus more on the educational and observational aspects of exploring. Today’s explorers really want to learn about a new place or to discover the existence of the new place. Take Matthew Henson for example. He is credited as being the first African American to reach the North Pole. (Some say that he was actually the first person from anywhere to reach the North Pole!)   But Matthew Henson was an able and experienced sailor, navigator and craftsman. He learned the Inuit language and culture, married an Inuit woman and learned to build igloos and drive dogsleds in the Inuit way. I remember an iconic quote from Henson saying, “I think that I am the first man to sit on the top of the world!”           And, of course, there was William Henry Sheppard who explored the Congo river area in Central Africa. Born a free man in Virginia in 1865, he attended a “colored” school where he learned to read and write then actually took classes with Booker T. Washington at Hampton College. After becoming a Presbyterian minister, he developed a burning desire to become a missionary in Africa. He was finally allowed to go to the Congo river basin in what is today called the Democratic Republic on Congo. He settled in a village called Luebo.   He met the Bakuba people and learned their methods of survival and culture. He studied their crops, textiles and music. He studied the way that the Bakuba people worshipped their ancestors. He learned to hunt and killed snakes and large game to help feed the villagers. He even killed a hippopotamus and learned to dry the meat to trade and share with the villagers.   Sheppard learned to speak the Kuba language, which helped him to discover parts of the Congo region where no American or European had ever gone. Sheppard and his local Bakuba guide would go from village to village buying eggs at different markets. For three months, he would buy and eat eggs and preach the gospel at every village where he stopped. For years, he stayed and studied the culture and, because of his excellent language skills and respectful manner, he was welcomed into the villages by the local leaders. William Henry Sheppard was definitely an explorer!   As a boy, Sheppard had often said of Africa, “When I grow up, I shall go there.” And that’s exactly what he did!   Barbara Hillary also went there! Not to the Congo but to the North Pole. Then to the South Pole. Many people told her that she was too old and that she would die from the cold and hardships. That the North Pole was no place for a 75-year old woman from New York who had reduced breathing capacity about a bout with lung cancer. But she went there anyway. At the age of 75, she went to the North Pole. Then at 79 years old (in her case, 79 years young), she went to the South Pole! She always said that age was just a number. To get out a challenge yourself. That was exactly what she did.       Another explorer who wouldn’t let age stop her was Sophie Danenberg who at age 34 became the first African American woman to climb Mount Everest. Through the urging of a childhood friend, she started mountain climbing while living in Illinois.   Danenberg's first major climb was at Mount Rainier in Washington State in 2002.  Over the next two years, she scaled Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Baker in Washington state, and Mount Kenya, 2003.  In 2005 she scaled five more major peaks including Denali and Mount Tasman.   But 2006 proved to be her big year!   Sophie received a surprise phone call to inform her that she was permitted to join the expedition that was going up Mount Everest. And she only had one week to prepare! Yes, it was a struggle. On the mountain of mountains, she developed bronchitis, frostbite and a clogged oxygen mask. Yet but she persisted and prevailed. And, on May 19, 2006, she became the first Black woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.   Sophie was the first Black person but definitely NOT the last. With privately raised funds and sheer focus and determination, men and women from the African continent have scaled Mount Everest. Notably, Saray Khumalo from South Africa climbed Kilimanjaro, Mera Peak, LoBuche East, Elbrus and Aconcagua—all in four short years. She has faced Everest but, unfortunately, nature stood in the way. In 2014, she was deterred by deadly avalanche that killed 16 sherpa. The following year, an earthquake prevented her from climbing Everest. But Saray Khumalo will not be forever deterred and she’s already started raising the money for her next excursion—this time to the summit!—going up Everest, encouraged by a quote from Nelson Mandela: It always seems impossible until it’s done! Saray climbs for herself but also for others: she has raised money to building libraries and schools in South Africa and to provide lunches for school children. And, by the way, another South African, SibuSiso Vilane, became the first Black man to climb Mt. Everest in 2003 and has actually climbed all seven major peaks and completed the 3 Poles Challenge (you know, North Pole, South Pole and Everest).     But explorers have not stopped with Mount Everest. That’s the highest peak offered on this planet but other Black explorers went beyond the limits of planet Earth. Where did they go? They went into space! African American astronauts are a group of extreme explorers and have gone “where no man (or no ONE) has gone before!” (Sorry I just couldn’t resist that Star Trek quote!)   Let’s quickly meet them:   *Colonel Frederick Gregory—an accomplished pilot and test pilot BEFORE joining NASA. He spent more than 18 days in space and he was the first African American to pilot and command a space shuttle mission.   *Mae Jemison was a scientist and medical doctor before joining NASA. She spent 190 hours in space as a mission specialist and conducted groundbreaking experiments in space on weightlessness and motion sickness. In 1992, she became the first African American woman to go to space.   *Major General Charles Bolden was an experienced marine aviator and test pilot before joining NASA. He went on 4 flights and served as commander and pilot on the different flights. Major General Bolden spent more than 28 days in space.   *Colonel Guion Bluford, Jr.—a fighter pilot and engineer before joining NASA. In 1983, Colonel Bluford became the first African American to go to space, logging in more than 28 days in space as a mission specialist.   *Stephanie Wilson was an aerospace engineer before joining NASA as an astronaut. She has spent more than 42 days in space as a mission specialist and was responsible for robotics for spacewalking support. Ms. Wilson is still in active duty with NASA.   *Joan Higginbottam was an electrical engineer before joining NASA. She logged in more than 12 days in space where she operated the space station remote manipulator system.   *Robert Satcher was a surgeon, chemical engineer and professor at Feinburg School of Medicine before joining NASA. He was a mission specialist logging in 10 days and 2 walks in space. *Robert Curbeam was a Naval flight officer, pilot and engineer before joining NASA as an astronaut. He worked as the spacecraft communicator and spent 37 days in space, including 45 hours on 7 walks in space. And yes THAT is the record for time spent walking in space!   *Lieutenant Colonel Michael P. Anderson was a physicist before joining NASA as an astronaut. He spent more than 593 hours in space as a mission specialist, payload commander and lieutenant colonel in charge of science experiments.   *Captain Winston E. Scott is an engineer, pilot and (today) Dean of the Florida Institute of Technology before joining NASA. Captain Scott logged in 24 days in space, including 19 hours spent on 3 WALKS in space.   *Alvin Drew was a physicist and aeronautical engineer before joining NASA. He spent more than 25 days in space as a mission specialist and CAPCOM officer. He also did 2 walks in space for 12 hours!   *Leland Melvin was a materials science engineer before joining NASA. He has since logged in more than 23 days in space as a mission specialist.   *Bernard Anthony Harris was a biologist, medical doctor and pilot before joining NASA. He logged in 18 days in space as mission specialist and payload officer. In 1995, he became the first African American to do extra-vehicular activities, meaning that he actually WALKED in space.   Wow, we could make an entire show of the African American astronauts who have graced the NASA program AND ventured into outer space.   I want to give a special salute to two astronauts who died during their explorations:   *Major Robert Lawrence, Jr. was a skilled pilot and scientist. He was the First African-American astronaut; the first to be selected for astronaut training in 1967 in the Manned Orbital Laboratory program, which predated NASA. Major Lawrence was killed in a jet accident.   *Ronald McNair—was an optical physicist when he was selected by NASA. McNair was killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster mission in 1986.   Before we move on to another interesting group of explorers, I do want to mention one more astronaut: Jeannette Epps. She has not yet gone into space but her time is coming. In 2016 NASA announced that Ms. Epps will launch on her first spaceflight in May 2018. She will be a flight engineer on Expedition 56, remaining on board for Expedition 57. Ms. Epps will become the first African-American crew member on the space station!   Let’s cheer her on in May of 2018. Great to watch a first flight AND a great step forward for African Americans and women everywhere!   But African American explorers didn’t only just aim higher and higher. They also set their sights on what lies beneath. In this case, they aimed—and conquered—the Mammoth caves in Kentucky.   We’re gonna stop here in this podcast show. We’ve covered a lot of great explorers; people who explored the North and South poles and the Congo. We just discussed people who have explored outer space and even walked in space! I think that we’ve gone high enough for now. In the next podcast show, we’re gonna explore another dark and untouched part of THIS planet. And we’re gonna continue our discussion about why we explore and why exploring is so important. I hope to see you at Part II of this great and groundbreaking discussion.   Also, please remember that you can “meet” many of these people on Facebook at out Wiki History Podcast page. Or at least you can see them. Pictures really do say a thousand words and seeing these people can help to bring them to life. You will also find our newsletter that helps you to learn history and teaches ways that you can MAKE history. Remember, we’re all history makers. We all have something to contribute. These stories show that ordinary people can do extraordinary things and live extraordinary lives.   So, I look forward to seeing you at Part II of the Black explorers podcast show at rememberinghistory.com where we are remembering history and we’re making it every day. Bye for now!                                                                           Welcome back to rememberinghistory.com where we are remembering history and we’re making it. I’m Robin Lofton, the Chief In-house Historian and host of this great and groundbreaking show that will inspire YOU and your FAMILY with true stories, real experiences, practical lessons, cultural traditions, and fun celebrations—all inspired by African American history.   This is part II of the podcast show on Black explorers. In the previous show, we discussed the importance of exploration and how exploration has changed over the centuries. And we discussed people who had aimed high (Mount Everest high) and even higher (outer space). Those were such interesting and inspirational stories. I hope that you’ve listened to part I of this series. I promise that you’ll be ready to stand and salute these brave men and women. But for now, I think that we should continue with the discussion of Black explorers.   Remember at the end of the show, I introduced the next group of explorers. They didn’t aim to go higher and higher. They were focused on discovering a part of this planet that had been ignored and feared: the Mammoth Cave system in Kentucky. Let’s get straight to their fascinating stories and then we’ll end with a discussion of why exploring is important and why it’s important to learn the stories of these great explorers.   The Mammoth caves make up the longest known cave system in the world, with more than 400 miles explored. Did that stop or scare these explorers? Not for a minute. In fact, many African Americans (some former enslaved persons) extensively explored this grand, gloomy and peculiar place.   Let me just mention a few of these courageous and skilled cave navigators.   Although human activity has been recorded in the Mammoth caves for more than 6,000 years, Stephen Bishop was one of the lead explorers and guides in the complex and yes dangerous subterranean cave system. In fact, he is the person who coined the “grand, gloomy and peculiar” term to describe the Mammoth Caves.   Stephen Bishop came to the Mammoth caves in 1838. He was African American, 17 years old and enslaved. Yet because of his great exploration and guiding skills, he did enjoy some freedoms and privileges in the Mammoth caves—and avoided the grueling physical work and suffering endured by other enslaved people. In fact, he was first introduced to the Mammoth caves by a white explorer. This developed Bishop’s love of exploration—and he spent the next two decades exploring the Mammoth caves.   Although he was introduced to the caves by other explorers, Stephen Bishop went far beyond those explored and toured areas. Bishop discovered miles of new routes that no human eye had ever seen. And he opened the gateway for modern exploration of these vast and incredible caves. Bishop also worked to draw a map from memory of the different passages in the caves. It was published in 1844 and was the defining map of the caves for over 40 years!   Yes, he made history: Stephen Bishop was the first to cross the “Bottomless Pit” which was a series of deep vertical shafts. Other explorers had stopped at the Bottomless Pit, refusing to cross over that dangerous abyss. Quite understandable but Bishop was not scared or stopped. He continued past the Bottomless Pit and into areas that had been completely unexplored. And he later safely guided others over the Bottomless Pit and into new regions of the caves. Bishop also explored and guided others into areas of the Mammoth Caves called Fat Man’s Misery (I can only guess why it was given that name!), Cleveland Avenue and the Mammoth Domes. Those are some of the most famous areas of the caves, made famous and popular by Stephen Bishop. Other popular attraction discovered by Stephen Bishop He discovered strange blind fish, snakes, silent crickets, and the remains of cave bears.     He absolutely loved the Mammoth caves and had a real drive for exploration. Still it was hard work and he crawled through tight winding passageways, discovered an underground river, scaled huge rocks, and dared to walk on a rickety nature-made ladder across the "Bottomless Pit."   In 1856, Stephen Bishop received his freedom but unfortunately died the following year at the age of 37.   Stephen Bishop might have been born into slavery, but he was never a slave. He was an explorer! And today he is a legend!   Another Black explorer who came to the Mammoth caves in 1838 was Nick Bransford. However, Bransford didn’t become a full-time explorer for nearly 20 years after moving to the caves. He started full-time guiding in 1857, after the death of Stephen Bishop.   Nick Bransford was an enslaved person (born during the period of slavery). Like Bishop, he was leased out and sent to the Mammoth caves to work. And interestingly there were records showing that he was valued at $800, which was substantially more than for other enslaved persons. This was most likely because of his skills as an explorer and guide.   Bransford later purchased his freedom by selling eyeless fish that he captured in the underground rivers within the caves.   The Mammoth Caves attracted many formerly enslaved people. Ed Bishop for example. No relation to Stephen Bishop. He came to the Mammoth caves in 1886.   Among his greatest achievements was to guide the German cartographer, Max Kamper, into the Mammoth Caves. For 8 months, he and Kamper remained at the cave, visiting all the known sections. But Ed Bishop also discovered new sections that he presented to Max Kamper. One such newly discovered point (located on the Violet City Lantern route) was named Bishop’s Pit in 1908, in honor of Ed Bishop. Together Bishop and Kamper produced a map representing more than 35 miles of passages in the cave. Ed Bishop was widely recognized for his knowledge of the cave and as a teacher for the guides.   Ed Hawkins discovered a monumental series of vertical shafts. The passage leading up to these incredible shafts was later named Hawkins Pass. A great honor to this great explorer. And, yes, visitors can still see these shafts. Just take the Wild Caves Tour!         The last person that we’ll discuss who was important at the Mammoth Caves was Will Garvin. He was a private in the army, serving in a Colored Troop during the Civil War. Will Garvin was never an enslaved person. Following the Civil War, he began exploring and guiding in Mammoth caves where he made his mark for discovering an area later call the Corkscrew. This was actually a maze through collapsed rubble that linked the upper levels of the cave system to the lower levels near the water table. This area also provided an exit from the cave so visitors wouldn’t have to retrace their steps.   Some people say that Will Garvin also discovered the Colossal Caverns. This area was so treacherous that it even wasn’t opened to the public until 1972 (some 70 years after its discovery). It is one of the caves still protected within Mammoth Cave National Park.   But Will Garvin also made another important discovery—or had an important experience. This is really interesting.   He was the first person to experience the optical illusion called the Statue of Martha Washington. As he was exiting the cave, he saw a spectral silhouette of a woman who looked just like Martha Washington! I know strange things can be seen in the caves but this was one of the strangest! And it is still occasionally seen on certain tours in the historic section!   So, that concludes the discussion about Black explorers at the Mammoth Caves. And it concludes the presentation of Black explorers.   Now I just have one question:     Why do we care about these explorers?   Because they faced their challenges with honor, courage, and determination.   Whether it was Mount Everest, the Mammoth caves, the mighty Congo River, the North and South poles or outer space, they went there (using the words from Henry Sheppard in the Congo!) And they went boldly!   Everyone has an Everest. Everest can take many forms: going to school, applying for a job, fighting injustice, writing a book, public speaking or fighting an addiction. We all have our Everests. We are ALL explorers. The personal accounts in this podcast are stories of REAL people. And we can have a story too. We just have to find our challenge and face it. Victory is inevitable.   So we have much to learn from explorING and from exploRERS. Like many other people, I have done my share of exploring. And I think that the main thing that explorers discover is actually something within themselves. It is strength, courage, determination, creativity, persistence and other qualities that helped them to endure hardships, face their fears and rise to new heights. As Barbara Hillary said, when she reached the North Pole at the age of 75, there are no limits to what we can do and we can all challenge ourselves to do great things.   On that high note, I think that this is a great place to conclude this podcast. I hope that you have found it fun, educational and inspirational. I definitely have!   One interesting thing that I noticed about all of these great explorers is that they had so many different interests. Of course, they were completing committed to their explorations and their time, energy and focus were always in that direction. But they were multi-dimensional people in every respect. Matthew Henson—who went to the North Pole—was also a survivalist and linguist who loved the Inuit culture.   William Henry Sheppard –who explored the Congo—was also an avid art collector.   Mae Jemison—the first African American woman in space—loves African history and dance and speaks four languages: Swahili, Russian and Japanese in addition to English.   Others are voracious readers, cartologists, scuba divers, marathon runners, musicians, public speakers, sculptors and so many different interests. So, it’s important to remember that we can have many interests—some might be consistent with your dharma (life’s purpose) but others might conflict. Yet these interests make us complete people.   And, since I mentioned Mae Jemison, I read a story about her. After she had finished her medical studies and returned from the Peace Corps, she received a phone call. It was from NASA. She had submitted an application to NASA years before. On the phone call, they asked her: “Are you still interested in becoming an astronaut?” She answered simply “yeah”. That answer opened up a whole new world to her and within 2 years she went to outer space. Lesson here: Say “yes!”.   All of these explorers said yes to new experiences even when others were telling them to say no. But saying yes opened them to becoming great explorers.   Finally, Charles Bolden, the astronaut who was the first African American to become head of NASA, showed how there are no limits except what we can envision. He said,   "You know, the universe is a big place. I'm a practicing Christian, so in my faith, I learn about omnipotent, omnipresent God, which means he's everywhere. He's all-knowing. He does everything. And I just cannot bring my little pea brain to believe that a God like that would pick one planet of one of millions of suns and say that's the only place in the vast universe that I'm going to put any kind of life. And so the problem is I haven't been far enough away." [29]   I realize that I mentioned lots of names, places, events, experiences and other information that you might want more information about. The rememberinghistory.com team has you covered. You can get more information, see the people and places, read the “What You Can Do” list, see great pictures and even find good a book list at the Wiki History podcast page on Facebook. You can also find the newsletter called Making History Today! which discusses practical ways that you can actually MAKE history through education, the arts, political activism or whatever interests you.   Finally, I just want to remind you that 2017, the Wiki History podcast show is dedicated to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. Located in Washington, DC, the National Museum of African American History & Culture opened in 2016. This kind of museum was long overdue but it finally happened and it is a place that everyone should visit and explore. Museums are a great way to bring history to life and to keep it alive for future generations. Wiki History is honored to be a part of this important process. For every person that listens to this podcast show, rememberinghistory.com will donate $1 to the National Museum of African American History & Culture.   Come back soon to Remembering History where we ARE remembering history and we’re making it. Every day! And, like Matthew Henson, get ready to sit on top of the world! Bye for now!    

Marching Podcast #1   Welcome back to rememberinghistory.com where we are remembering history and we’re making it every day! March is the month in which we focus on—surprise!—marching! Marching is one of the most common and I would say most effective ways to protest. And Americans have been protest marching since the country was founded.     Americans have marched for many reasons. American marched to protest the Stamp Tax—actually that march took place even before the United States officially existed. Americans have marched to protest wars like the War of 1812 and the Vietnam War. We have marched to protest racial inequality. We have marched to ensure the right to vote for women and people of color. We have marched to bring attention to and protest against police violence and gun “carry” laws. Americans have marched to show unity and solidarity with immigrants, refugees and other vulnerable and disenfranchised groups. Americans have been marching for almost 250 years and there is no reason to think that we will ever stop marching. In fact, I hope that we don’t stop marching because it is the hallmark of a democracy that people can “speak out” against their government’s action.   Of course, Americans aren’t the only people who march. I’m reminded of Gandhi marching against British rule in India. I’m also reminded of Black South Africans who marched against the violent and racist regime of apartheid. I can’t forget the suffragettes in England who marched to demand the vote for women AND for other social and economic rights for women. And, on a smaller but still important scale, I remember the students at Oxford in 1973 were marching and chanting: “What do we want? A student union! When do we want it? Now! What are we wearing? Dirty jerseys!” This was a major act of civil disobedience by Oxford students in violation of a strict and centuries-long dress code. And yes they DID get their student union. And India got independence from Britain. And apartheid was ended in South Africa. And English women got the right to vote. Marching works!       Yes, marching is a worldwide phenomenon to demand, to oppose, to protest and to bring attention to a problem and evoke emotion in people. Marching is effective. Marching is powerful. Marching makes history. So, this month (March), rememberinghistory.com salutes all of those brave, strong and committed people who get out and march. And just as people need marches, marches need people. And the people who brave the elements, the security forces, the wrath and power of the government, and the criticism of friends and family members to get out and march deserve our respect and our gratitude. So, this episode is dedicated to marchers and marches around the world.   In this first show about marching, we will look at some marches from the past. Some of the marches are VERY famous and iconic. Others are not-so-famous or widely-known. However, the common thing about all of these marches is that they were very effective in what they were trying to achieve. That takes us directly to our second podcast show this month which will discuss how to conduct a march effectively and how to participate in a march safely. Marches are often started by ordinary citizens just like you—individuals who CARE about an issue and want other people and their government to know about it and DO something about it. These were people who cared enough to get involved. And they made history. You can also make history and the next podcast show can help to you organize a march or participate in one.   One last bit of housekeeping then we’ll get straight to learning about marches in history:   First, if you enjoy this show, you can get more information at the Wiki history podcast page on Facebook. You will find pictures, short videos and a community of history lovers. There is also a place for comments, which I hope that you will leave for me because I really appreciate them and I do respond. Also, if you enjoy this show, please let others know about it. They might like it and find it inspirational too. We can all remember history AND we can all make history!             Finally, I just want to remind you that in 2017, the Wiki History podcast show is dedicated to the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington DC. Museums are a great way to bring history to life and to keep it alive for future generations. Wiki History is honored to be a part of this important process. For every person that listens to this podcast show, rememberinghistory.com will donate $1 to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. I also donate personally and I hope that you will too.   That’s enough for now. Let’s get started with this great and groundbreaking Wiki history podcast show. Today’s show is called “marches that made history.”   When I was remembering or reading about important marches, I found myself torn between marches that were huge—100,000 people or more—and marches that were relatively small—some were less than 50 people. We will discuss a march that had only ONE person. Which marches had the most impact? Which marches got media attention? Which marches changed laws and society? Which marches are still remembered?   What I discovered was nothing short of remarkable. Size didn’t matter! The number of people participating in the march was not as important as the organization, focus and determination of the marchers. Of course, participation is important—I really want to stress that—but I want to stress even more that the determination of the marchers was more important than any other factor. Their determination to affect change, to persist in the face of adversity, to be united in their cause, and to be committed to this form of nonviolent protest. With that said, let’s begin our journey down the memory lane of marching!   We will open with a small march that left a mark on the city of Oakland and perhaps beyond: The Twelve-Man March   This march was organized to bring awareness to the reality and the dangers of racial profiling. This was a great march: here’s what they did:  On July 19, 2013, twelve African American men marched to Oakland’s city hall.  All the men wore business attire: suit, tie, dress shoes, etc. All the African American men presented as businessmen.  They peacefully marched to city hall holding signs condemning racial profiling and the negative portrayal of African American men in the media.     In speeches at Oakland’s famous Ogawa Hall, the protesters cited the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida and Alan Blueford in Oakland. Both were African American, young, and unarmed when they were killed. Alan Blueford killed by law enforcement. Trayvon Martin by a self-proclaimed neighborhood watch officer.  No one was convicted in either killing.  Racial profiling was the cause that identified (incorrectly and unjustly) these young men as dangerous criminals. Racial profiling had also been involved in other kinds of harassment of African Americans by law enforcement officers.   This was a small, but powerful and focused march that that brought awareness to racial profiling and presented a powerful vision of African American men that is rarely shown to the public.   Let’s jump back in time for a moment—and for some of the most famous marches. We’re going to the 1960s. This was a huge decade of social change and it witnessed LOTS of marches.   Of course, there was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom held on August 28, 1963. Did you know that was the FULL name of the march? The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his iconic “I have a dream speech.” There were an estimated 250,000 people in attendance—people of all races, ethnicities, genders and religious backgrounds. The focus of the march was to encourage President Kennedy to sign a civil rights bill that prohibited discrimination in employment, housing, education and the use of public facilities.   Also in the 1960s, staying with the same theme were the Selma to Montgomery marches. These were a series of three marches to demand the passage of a voting rights act. The marchers walked along Route 80 from Selma, Alabama to the capitol in Montgomery. On March 7, 1965, as the marchers peacefully crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, state troopers and county possemen attacked the unarmed marchers with billy clubs and tear gas after they passed over the county line. It was a violent and aggressive act by law enforcement that was witnessed by the entire country and even internationally. This event became known as Bloody Sunday.         The second march took place March 9. Troopers, police, and marchers confronted each other at the county end of the bridge, but when the troopers stepped aside to let them pass, King led the marchers back to the church. The third march started March 21. Protected by 1,900 members of the Alabama National Guard under federal command by President Johnson, and many FBI agents and Federal Marshals, the marchers averaged 10 miles (16 km) a day along the highway. The marchers arrived in Montgomery on March 24 and at the Alabama State Capitol on March 25.[11] With thousands having joined the campaign, 25,000 people entered the capital city that day in support of voting rights. The route is memorialized as the "Selma To Montgomery Voting Rights Trail," and is designated as a U.S. National Historic Trail. The Voting Rights Act was passed in that same year.   Another march that turned violent was an Anti-Vietnam War march, held on November 15, 1969. More than a half-million people marched on Washington, DC to protest the US sending troops to fight in Vietnam. This was just one of many marches opposing the Vietnam War—some were peaceful, some were not. But they all were impassioned and determined. (Just a separate note here: some people claimed that the Vietnam War was one of the first wars to ignite public protest and marches. Not true. The first major movement against an American war was to protest the War of 1812. These marches often did become violent, threatening President Madison and members of Congress.)   Leaving the 1960s, the Reagan presidency (1981 to 1989) ignited another wave of marches and protests.   One of the largest and most memorable (for its uniqueness) was the Solidarity Day march. Do you remember that march? I do even though I was a teenager at the time! On September 19, 1981, more than 260,000 people marched in Washington DC in support of the air traffic controllers. President Reagan had just summarily fired 12,000 air traffic controllers who had gone on strike for better wages and safer working conditions (for instance, to limit their working hours). But the larger goal of the march was to protest Reagan’s budget cuts and tax policies. Labor unions—particularly the AFL-CIO—and civil rights organizations met at the Washington Monument to show solidarity against the president’s policies.   The next year, 1982, witnessed one of the biggest marches in US history against the building and proliferation of nuclear weapons. Held on June 12, 1982, more than a million people marched in New York City to protest President Reagan’s proposed budget that expanded the military budget to allow for the research and building of nuclear weapons—while cutting the budgets for health care and education. These marches remained peaceful—by both marchers and law enforcement—but tensions and passions ran very high during these events.   And who could ever forget the National March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian rights? Held on October 11, 1987—still during Reagan’s presidency—the “Great March” as it was dubbed was attended by 200,000 people—of all orientations—demanding federal money for AIDS research and treatment and an end to discrimination against homosexuals. This march was held during the “AIDS epidemic” which was disproportionately affecting the gay and lesbian communities but the federal government had not responded with federal funds or legislation to protect this segment of American society.   The next major march on this issue was the March on Washington for LGBT rights and LIBERATION. Held on April 25, 1993 (just 6 years after the previous march on Washington for Gay and Lesbian rights), an estimated million people marched to demand a civil rights bill against discrimination, to demand more funding for AIDS research and for reproductive rights.   Two years later, Washington DC experienced its next million-person march called the Million Man march. Held on October 16, 1995, more than a million people marched in Washington DC. This march had a different goal than the others—it was not primarily making demands on the government (for legislation for example) or telling the government to stop something (like the Vietnam War or funding nuclear weapons). The million-man march—more accurately could be called the million black man march. It focused on bringing solidarity and unity to the African American community. It was a serious march and also a fun and festive black family day of picnics, music and fun.       The new millennium witnessed a new kind of marching. Single city marches expanded into multi-city, even multi-national marches--all coordinated on a single day or weekend. In other words: marching went global!   The invention of the Internet/World Wide Web and later social media helped to expand the reach and inclusion and coordination of marchers and protesters focused on a single goal.   One of the biggest of these modern marches was the march against the Iraq war. This march was held on February 15 and 16 in 2003 and occurred in cities across the United States (including New York, Seattle and Los Angeles). More than 10 million people attended. This march is known as the largest march in world history and it demanded that President Bush stop the invasion of Iraq.   Another large, multi-city march was held the following year on April 25, 2004 in cities across the United States. It was the march for women’s lives and was the largest pro-choice march ever held in the United States--attended by 1.5 million people both women AND men.   Wow, so the marches got larger but more focused. More diverse, inclusive and sophisticated. This is activism at its finest and these marches all made a difference. And the marchers made history.   While the early marches (like the Vietnam War marches) might seem like they were unsophisticated and simple, that is simply untrue. People were focused and passionate. They coordinated their efforts and took to the streets—sometimes facing the wrath of law enforcement. The people on that fateful bridge in Selma* had very little protection from law enforcement or recourse for the violence taken by the police or military. These marchers put their lives on the line. (And lest one thinks that this cannot happen today, just look at the DAPL marchers* in North Dakota, facing private military forces and being deprived of basic necessities in their protest march for clean water and respect for their sacred lands.)           Without the Internet and social media back in the 1960s, people relied on phones, meetings and word of mouth. I remember in college that I would see posters that advertised marches about issues like the environment, rights of minority groups and health care. Marching has definitely evolved over the decades (actually centuries!) but they continue to be an essential tool to let our government know what we think and to make demands for our rights.   And marching continues to bring us together as a people. Think of January 21, 2017. The Women’s march following the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th U.S. president took place in numerous cities and countries (including my resident city of Brussels, Belgium). And it brought us all together to remember that we are “ONE” people and that we must support each other during bad times and good. It was one of the most unifying events that I have ever witnessed, seeing women AND men and everyone else standing together as one. It reminded of that saying, “A people united can never be defeated.”   I want to conclude this Wiki history podcast show by discussing one more march. It is a notable march though you probably won’t read about it in many history books. It is not notable because it involved thousands of people because it didn’t. It is not important because it involved multiple cities or countries. It isn’t notable because so many famous people participated in it. But it IS important and it IS notable. This march definitely made history.   This march involved one man with an important cause. His name was William Lewis Moore. Moore was a white man, a former graduate student at Johns Hopkins and postal worker who became an activist supporting rights for mentally ill persons and later supporting civil rights for African Americans. (In fact, he became a member of CORE—the Congress of Racial Equality). William Moore participated in a series of one-man marches in support of civil rights. On his first march he walked to Annapolis, Maryland, the state capital. On his second march he walked to the White House. His third march started in Chattanooga, Tennessee and was headed to the state capitol in Jackson, Mississippi. He was carrying a letter that he planned to hand-deliver to Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett urging racial equality and an end to segregation. During his march, he wore a sandwich board sign that said “Equal rights for all and Mississippi or bust!” Moore said: "I intend to walk right up to the governor's mansion in Mississippi and ring his doorbell. Then I'll hand him my letter." ***** Unfortunately, on April 21, 1963, 70 miles into his march to Mississippi, Moore was found dead by the roadside, having been shot twice in the head at close range. No one was ever convicted of his murder. In his bag, he had the letter that he had planned to deliver. In part, it said, "the white man cannot be truly free himself until all men have their rights." He asked Governor Barnett to "Be gracious and give more than is immediately demanded of you...." Moore was 36 years old at the time of his murder. You can find additional information about William Moore, including pictures, on the Wiki History podcast page on Facebook.   This might be a downer to end with but I do want it to have an impact. This was a march by one brave man who stood for racial equality and wanted to take his views directly to the governor of Alabama. That took courage! He deserves to be remembered for his bravery and activism. That’s what rememberinghistory.com is all about!   So, that’s all for today’s podcast show. Marches are great! I hope that this trip down the memory lane of marches and marching has left you feeling as inspired as I am. From the biggest multi-city, multi-national marches to the 12-man march in Oakland and William Moore’s one-man march in Alabama, individuals can have an impact and make a difference. And marching is one way to make a difference AND make history.   In the next podcast show, you will learn HOW to march and the elements of an effective protest march. Learning history IS important but MAKING history is essential. And you’re gonna learn how to do JUST that in the next show. Remember to go to the Wiki History Podcast page for more information about great marches and great marchERS. And that for everyone who listens to these great and groundbreaking podcast show, rememberinghistory.com will make a contribution to the National Museum of African American History & Culture.   And let’s all remember the words of William Moore, "Be gracious and give more than is immediately demanded of you."   See you next time at rememberinghistory.com where we are remembering history AND we’re making it. Every day. Bye for now.  

Great American Marches in History   Welcome back to rememberinghistory.com where we are remembering history and we’re making it every day! March is the month in which we focus on—surprise!—marching! Marching is one of the most common and I would say most effective ways to protest. And Americans have been protest marching since the country was founded.     Americans have marched for many reasons. American marched to protest the Stamp Tax—actually that march took place even before the United States officially existed. Americans have marched to protest wars like the War of 1812 and the Vietnam War. We have marched to protest racial inequality. We have marched to ensure the right to vote for women and people of color. We have marched to bring attention to and protest against police violence and gun “carry” laws. Americans have marched to show unity and solidarity with immigrants, refugees and other vulnerable and disenfranchised groups. Americans have been marching for almost 250 years and there is no reason to think that we will ever stop marching. In fact, I hope that we don’t stop marching because it is the hallmark of a democracy that people can “speak out” against their government’s action.   Of course, Americans aren’t the only people who march. I’m reminded of Gandhi marching against British rule in India. I’m also reminded of Black South Africans who marched against the violent and racist regime of apartheid. I can’t forget the suffragettes in England who marched to demand the vote for women AND for other social and economic rights for women. And, on a smaller but still important scale, I remember the students at Oxford in 1973 were marching and chanting: “What do we want? A student union! When do we want it? Now! What are we wearing? Dirty jerseys!” This was a major act of civil disobedience by Oxford students in violation of a strict and centuries-long dress code. And yes they DID get their student union. And India got independence from Britain. And apartheid was ended in South Africa. And English women got the right to vote. Marching works!       Yes, marching is a worldwide phenomenon to demand, to oppose, to protest and to bring attention to a problem and evoke emotion in people. Marching is effective. Marching is powerful. Marching makes history. So, this month (March), rememberinghistory.com salutes all of those brave, strong and committed people who get out and march. And just as people need marches, marches need people. And the people who brave the elements, the security forces, the wrath and power of the government, and the criticism of friends and family members to get out and march deserve our respect and our gratitude. So, this episode is dedicated to marchers and marches around the world.   In this first show about marching, we will look at some marches from the past. Some of the marches are VERY famous and iconic. Others are not-so-famous or widely-known. However, the common thing about all of these marches is that they were very effective in what they were trying to achieve. That takes us directly to our second podcast show this month which will discuss how to conduct a march effectively and how to participate in a march safely. Marches are often started by ordinary citizens just like you—individuals who CARE about an issue and want other people and their government to know about it and DO something about it. These were people who cared enough to get involved. And they made history. You can also make history and the next podcast show can help to you organize a march or participate in one.   One last bit of housekeeping then we’ll get straight to learning about marches in history:   First, if you enjoy this show, you can get more information at the Wiki history podcast page on Facebook. You will find pictures, short videos and a community of history lovers. There is also a place for comments, which I hope that you will leave for me because I really appreciate them and I do respond. Also, if you enjoy this show, please let others know about it. They might like it and find it inspirational too. We can all remember history AND we can all make history!             Finally, I just want to remind you that in 2017, the Wiki History podcast show is dedicated to the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington DC. Museums are a great way to bring history to life and to keep it alive for future generations. Wiki History is honored to be a part of this important process. For every person that listens to this podcast show, rememberinghistory.com will donate $1 to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. I also donate personally and I hope that you will too.   That’s enough for now. Let’s get started with this great and groundbreaking Wiki history podcast show. Today’s show is called “marches that made history.”   When I was remembering or reading about important marches, I found myself torn between marches that were huge—100,000 people or more—and marches that were relatively small—some were less than 50 people. We will discuss a march that had only ONE person. Which marches had the most impact? Which marches got media attention? Which marches changed laws and society? Which marches are still remembered?   What I discovered was nothing short of remarkable. Size didn’t matter! The number of people participating in the march was not as important as the organization, focus and determination of the marchers. Of course, participation is important—I really want to stress that—but I want to stress even more that the determination of the marchers was more important than any other factor. Their determination to affect change, to persist in the face of adversity, to be united in their cause, and to be committed to this form of nonviolent protest. With that said, let’s begin our journey down the memory lane of marching!   We will open with a small march that left a mark on the city of Oakland and perhaps beyond: The Twelve-Man March   This march was organized to bring awareness to the reality and the dangers of racial profiling. This was a great march: here’s what they did:  On July 19, 2013, twelve African American men marched to Oakland’s city hall.  All the men wore business attire: suit, tie, dress shoes, etc. All the African American men presented as businessmen.  They peacefully marched to city hall holding signs condemning racial profiling and the negative portrayal of African American men in the media.     In speeches at Oakland’s famous Ogawa Hall, the protesters cited the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida and Alan Blueford in Oakland. Both were African American, young, and unarmed when they were killed. Alan Blueford killed by law enforcement. Trayvon Martin by a self-proclaimed neighborhood watch officer.  No one was convicted in either killing.  Racial profiling was the cause that identified (incorrectly and unjustly) these young men as dangerous criminals. Racial profiling had also been involved in other kinds of harassment of African Americans by law enforcement officers.   This was a small, but powerful and focused march that that brought awareness to racial profiling and presented a powerful vision of African American men that is rarely shown to the public.   Let’s jump back in time for a moment—and for some of the most famous marches. We’re going to the 1960s. This was a huge decade of social change and it witnessed LOTS of marches.   Of course, there was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom held on August 28, 1963. Did you know that was the FULL name of the march? The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his iconic “I have a dream speech.” There were an estimated 250,000 people in attendance—people of all races, ethnicities, genders and religious backgrounds. The focus of the march was to encourage President Kennedy to sign a civil rights bill that prohibited discrimination in employment, housing, education and the use of public facilities.   Also in the 1960s, staying with the same theme were the Selma to Montgomery marches. These were a series of three marches to demand the passage of a voting rights act. The marchers walked along Route 80 from Selma, Alabama to the capitol in Montgomery. On March 7, 1965, as the marchers peacefully crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, state troopers and county possemen attacked the unarmed marchers with billy clubs and tear gas after they passed over the county line. It was a violent and aggressive act by law enforcement that was witnessed by the entire country and even internationally. This event became known as Bloody Sunday.         The second march took place March 9. Troopers, police, and marchers confronted each other at the county end of the bridge, but when the troopers stepped aside to let them pass, King led the marchers back to the church. The third march started March 21. Protected by 1,900 members of the Alabama National Guard under federal command by President Johnson, and many FBI agents and Federal Marshals, the marchers averaged 10 miles (16 km) a day along the highway. The marchers arrived in Montgomery on March 24 and at the Alabama State Capitol on March 25.[11] With thousands having joined the campaign, 25,000 people entered the capital city that day in support of voting rights. The route is memorialized as the "Selma To Montgomery Voting Rights Trail," and is designated as a U.S. National Historic Trail. The Voting Rights Act was passed in that same year.   Another march that turned violent was an Anti-Vietnam War march, held on November 15, 1969. More than a half-million people marched on Washington, DC to protest the US sending troops to fight in Vietnam. This was just one of many marches opposing the Vietnam War—some were peaceful, some were not. But they all were impassioned and determined. (Just a separate note here: some people claimed that the Vietnam War was one of the first wars to ignite public protest and marches. Not true. The first major movement against an American war was to protest the War of 1812. These marches often did become violent, threatening President Madison and members of Congress.)   Leaving the 1960s, the Reagan presidency (1981 to 1989) ignited another wave of marches and protests.   One of the largest and most memorable (for its uniqueness) was the Solidarity Day march. Do you remember that march? I do even though I was a teenager at the time! On September 19, 1981, more than 260,000 people marched in Washington DC in support of the air traffic controllers. President Reagan had just summarily fired 12,000 air traffic controllers who had gone on strike for better wages and safer working conditions (for instance, to limit their working hours). But the larger goal of the march was to protest Reagan’s budget cuts and tax policies. Labor unions—particularly the AFL-CIO—and civil rights organizations met at the Washington Monument to show solidarity against the president’s policies.   The next year, 1982, witnessed one of the biggest marches in US history against the building and proliferation of nuclear weapons. Held on June 12, 1982, more than a million people marched in New York City to protest President Reagan’s proposed budget that expanded the military budget to allow for the research and building of nuclear weapons—while cutting the budgets for health care and education. These marches remained peaceful—by both marchers and law enforcement—but tensions and passions ran very high during these events.   And who could ever forget the National March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian rights? Held on October 11, 1987—still during Reagan’s presidency—the “Great March” as it was dubbed was attended by 200,000 people—of all orientations—demanding federal money for AIDS research and treatment and an end to discrimination against homosexuals. This march was held during the “AIDS epidemic” which was disproportionately affecting the gay and lesbian communities but the federal government had not responded with federal funds or legislation to protect this segment of American society.   The next major march on this issue was the March on Washington for LGBT rights and LIBERATION. Held on April 25, 1993 (just 6 years after the previous march on Washington for Gay and Lesbian rights), an estimated million people marched to demand a civil rights bill against discrimination, to demand more funding for AIDS research and for reproductive rights.   Two years later, Washington DC experienced its next million-person march called the Million Man march. Held on October 16, 1995, more than a million people marched in Washington DC. This march had a different goal than the others—it was not primarily making demands on the government (for legislation for example) or telling the government to stop something (like the Vietnam War or funding nuclear weapons). The million-man march—more accurately could be called the million black man march. It focused on bringing solidarity and unity to the African American community. It was a serious march and also a fun and festive black family day of picnics, music and fun.       The new millennium witnessed a new kind of marching. Single city marches expanded into multi-city, even multi-national marches--all coordinated on a single day or weekend. In other words: marching went global!   The invention of the Internet/World Wide Web and later social media helped to expand the reach and inclusion and coordination of marchers and protesters focused on a single goal.   One of the biggest of these modern marches was the march against the Iraq war. This march was held on February 15 and 16 in 2003 and occurred in cities across the United States (including New York, Seattle and Los Angeles). More than 10 million people attended. This march is known as the largest march in world history and it demanded that President Bush stop the invasion of Iraq.   Another large, multi-city march was held the following year on April 25, 2004 in cities across the United States. It was the march for women’s lives and was the largest pro-choice march ever held in the United States--attended by 1.5 million people both women AND men.   Wow, so the marches got larger but more focused. More diverse, inclusive and sophisticated. This is activism at its finest and these marches all made a difference. And the marchers made history.   While the early marches (like the Vietnam War marches) might seem like they were unsophisticated and simple, that is simply untrue. People were focused and passionate. They coordinated their efforts and took to the streets—sometimes facing the wrath of law enforcement. The people on that fateful bridge in Selma* had very little protection from law enforcement or recourse for the violence taken by the police or military. These marchers put their lives on the line. (And lest one thinks that this cannot happen today, just look at the DAPL marchers* in North Dakota, facing private military forces and being deprived of basic necessities in their protest march for clean water and respect for their sacred lands.)           Without the Internet and social media back in the 1960s, people relied on phones, meetings and word of mouth. I remember in college that I would see posters that advertised marches about issues like the environment, rights of minority groups and health care. Marching has definitely evolved over the decades (actually centuries!) but they continue to be an essential tool to let our government know what we think and to make demands for our rights.   And marching continues to bring us together as a people. Think of January 21, 2017. The Women’s march following the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th U.S. president took place in numerous cities and countries (including my resident city of Brussels, Belgium). And it brought us all together to remember that we are “ONE” people and that we must support each other during bad times and good. It was one of the most unifying events that I have ever witnessed, seeing women AND men and everyone else standing together as one. It reminded of that saying, “A people united can never be defeated.”   I want to conclude this Wiki history podcast show by discussing one more march. It is a notable march though you probably won’t read about it in many history books. It is not notable because it involved thousands of people because it didn’t. It is not important because it involved multiple cities or countries. It isn’t notable because so many famous people participated in it. But it IS important and it IS notable. This march definitely made history.   This march involved one man with an important cause. His name was William Lewis Moore. Moore was a white man, a former graduate student at Johns Hopkins and postal worker who became an activist supporting rights for mentally ill persons and later supporting civil rights for African Americans. (In fact, he became a member of CORE—the Congress of Racial Equality). William Moore participated in a series of one-man marches in support of civil rights. On his first march he walked to Annapolis, Maryland, the state capital. On his second march he walked to the White House. His third march started in Chattanooga, Tennessee and was headed to the state capitol in Jackson, Mississippi. He was carrying a letter that he planned to hand-deliver to Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett urging racial equality and an end to segregation. During his march, he wore a sandwich board sign that said “Equal rights for all and Mississippi or bust!” Moore said: "I intend to walk right up to the governor's mansion in Mississippi and ring his doorbell. Then I'll hand him my letter." ***** Unfortunately, on April 21, 1963, 70 miles into his march to Mississippi, Moore was found dead by the roadside, having been shot twice in the head at close range. No one was ever convicted of his murder. In his bag, he had the letter that he had planned to deliver. In part, it said, "the white man cannot be truly free himself until all men have their rights." He asked Governor Barnett to "Be gracious and give more than is immediately demanded of you...." Moore was 36 years old at the time of his murder. You can find additional information about William Moore, including pictures, on the Wiki History podcast page on Facebook.   This might be a downer to end with but I do want it to have an impact. This was a march by one brave man who stood for racial equality and wanted to take his views directly to the governor of Alabama. That took courage! He deserves to be remembered for his bravery and activism. That’s what rememberinghistory.com is all about!   So, that’s all for today’s podcast show. Marches are great! I hope that this trip down the memory lane of marches and marching has left you feeling as inspired as I am. From the biggest multi-city, multi-national marches to the 12-man march in Oakland and William Moore’s one-man march in Alabama, individuals can have an impact and make a difference. And marching is one way to make a difference AND make history.   In the next podcast show, you will learn HOW to march and the elements of an effective protest march. Learning history IS important but MAKING history is essential. And you’re gonna learn how to do JUST that in the next show. Remember to go to the Wiki History Podcast page for more information about great marches and great marchERS. And that for everyone who listens to these great and groundbreaking podcast show, rememberinghistory.com will make a contribution to the National Museum of African American History & Culture.   And let’s all remember the words of William Moore, "Be gracious and give more than is immediately demanded of you."   See you next time at rememberinghistory.com where we are remembering history AND we’re making it. Every day. Bye for now.  

Do you recognize the names of Emmett Till, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, David Richmond or Ruby Bridges?   Perhaps you recognize some but not others. Perhaps none.   That’s okay. They weren’t seeking fame or fortune. They just wanted to get an education, vote or just eat at a cafeteria lunch counter. You might not know their names but they made a difference for all of us. In this podcast show, you’re gonna here EXACTLY what they did.   Hi, I’m Robin Lofton, the Chief In-house Historian and host of this great and groundbreaking show that can inspire YOU and your FAMILY with true stories, real experiences, practical lessons, cultural traditions, and fun celebrations—all inspired by African American history. I find history to BE inspirational, instructional and entertaining. And African American history fits the bill in all of these ways. Personally, I hate boring stuff. So boring stuff is not allowed at rememberinghistory.com or at this Wiki history podcast show.   This was planned as the third and final podcast in our series on civil rights and the civil rights movement. But the rememberinghistory.com team decided that a change was necessary: This show about student activists has been divided into TWO parts. Why? Because this is a FASCINATING topic (you’re gonna here some great stores) and we wanted to make it practical too. So we’ve added a section on ways that young people and students TODAY can also help to make changes and have an impact in their communities, the country and world. So, that’s what we’ll discuss in part II of the series.   In the previous podcast shows, we discussed lessons we can STILL learn from Martin Luther King. If you haven’t heard that show, I really encourage you to do so because there were great lessons—yes, we can still learn from Dr. King and it stirred up a lot of interesting discussion. Spoiler alert: The first lesson was called “be maladjusted.” People really had a lot to say about that and I’m sure that you will too. The other podcast show was about voting rights in America. Yes, there is still a lot of discrimination in voting—in deciding how districts will be formed, in the voter registration process, even directly at the polling stations. And we presented specific and doable ways to fight discrimination in voting. The types of voter discrimination actions were shocking but it was also an empowering show. So be sure to listen so that you are ready to fight for your right to vote. And, of course, we made great animated videos to summarize the issues and entertain you as well. You can find them at rememberinghistory.com and on our YouTube channel. Remember, we don’t “do boring” here so prepare to be entertained AND learn a little something useful.   Today’s show refocuses on the people in history: a very special group of people who participated—and gave special momentum—to the civil rights movement. Young people and students. I planned to focus on college students. Yes, they did a lot. But as I thought about it more, I remembered that high school students and even elementary school students played an important part in the movement. So, we gonna include them in this discussion too. You see, even a CHIEF inhouse historian can change her mind and learn something new.   This is a particularly important show. Often, young people feel they can’t make a difference that they can’t have an impact and that decisions are being made only by the adults. This show will prove that this is simply not true. And I hope that it will convince young people and students that they do have a voice and an important role to play in protecting civil rights or in any cause that they’re passionate about. That’s important to remember. While these shows focus on civil rights, there are many causes that need and deserve attention and action. But protecting civil rights is an urgent focus right now—perhaps now more than in any time since the civil rights movement of the 1960s. And this show will suggest some ways in which they can get involved in protecting the civil rights—of people of color, of the economically disadvantaged, of refugees and immigrants and frankly of any group under attack or suffering injustice. Remember those famous words of Dr. Martin Luther King: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”   Well, let’s get to the show, “The Youth and Students in the Civil Rights Movement”*           Is it strange of think of young people and students focused, committing and working for civil rights? If you find it hard to imagine that children were brave enough, that high school students were focused enough and that college students were concerned enough to work together for civil rights, then it’s time to grab a chair and get comfortable. Perhaps even grab your kids to listen with you. This is history at its finest! This is the story of young people from elementary school—the youngest was only 7 years old!—through the college who showed commitment and courage under fire. And the “fires” that they faced were real and deadly—beatings, dog attacks, imprisonment, threats, and yes murder as well. Yet these young people stood up for their rights to equality and justice—and they stood up for your rights too. In one youth-led movement in 1963, Martin Luther King told the students who had been jailed (in Birmingham, Alabama) : “What you do this day will impact children who have not yet been born.” Wow. Sooo true. And these kids DID forge a path for us. Stay tuned—remember in Part II, we will present ways that young people can continue to be involved in social activism and have an impact on kids that are not yet born.   *[Applause break here]   Many of the young people involved in the Civil Rights Movement actively joined and participated in the meetings, marches, demonstrations and other nonviolent activities to draw attention to their cause. Others became involuntary victims of the racist and oppressive culture of segregation. However, both groups—whether actively participating or involuntarily drawn in-- made an invaluable contribution to the cause.                         We are gonna begin today’s journey by discussing a name whom I hope is familiar. Very familiar. Sadly familiar. But don’t worry if it’s not because we’re learning here together. The name: Emmett Till.   Personally, I don’t remember the first time that I heard the name of Emmett Till. I must have been too young. But he was a name that was always deeply embedded in me—not the details of his horrific claim to fame. But the feeling his fate stirred up: sadness, anger, disbelief, fear. I’m sure that all of these feelings came from my parents and I picked them up as an impressionable child. But his name is a part of my life story. Why? Because ALL Black children could have been young Emmett. Actually, I know that there were other Emmetts but HIS terrible experience changed everything. I’m jumping ahead of myself. Let’s hear the story.   In the summer of 1955, Emmett was just like any other 14-year old Black kid. Just finished the 7th grade at his Chicago school. High-spirited. Fun-loving. Growing into manhood. Polite. Looking forward to a great summer. Adored by his mother. Emmett was especially excited because he would spend the summer with his cousins in Mississippi. Emmett had never visited the segregated south so his mother counseled him about how to behave around white people.   The rest of the story has become a sad legend. Emmett enjoyed his first few days in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. Worked in the cotton fields during the day and played with his cousins in the evening. On his third day there, he went to a grocery store with his cousins and that’s when the trouble started. There is no clear account of what happened but Emmett might have whistled at the wife (who was white) who owned the store. A few nights later, her husband and brother-in-law went to house of Emmett’s uncle in the dead of night mind you, snatched Emmett out of bed and drove off with him into the night. Three days later, Emmett’s horribly mutilated body was discovered in a river. I won’t go into details, but young Emmett had been tortured, beaten and shot in the head. Witnesses recounted hearing a young boy screaming and calling for help from a barn. He was mutilated beyond recognition.         His grieving but brave mother firmly decided on an open casket at his funeral in Chicago. Thousands of mourners filed past the casket. Jet Magazine and several other Black publications printed the graphic photos of Emmett’s body. I have seen the horrific almost gruesome pictures and I will never forget them. Several of older friends actually went to Emmett’s funeral and viewed his body. I can see the pain and sadness still in their eyes—from 1955.   The murderers of Emmett Till were quickly tried and acquitted. I think that it took only an hour. Is that scenario familiar today? One of the killers even gave an interview to LOOK Magazine detailing how they killed Emmett.   Many people say that the murder of Emmett Till sparked the modern Civil Rights Movement. It brought light to the brutality and regularity of lynching in the south, the effects of segregation and the vulnerability of Black lives. Emmett Till could have been any Black man, woman or child in the Jim Crow south. African Americans demanded justice for Emmett. And young Black children and students were especially outraged and fearful because Emmett was only 14 years old so they connected with this movement perhaps feeling that their lives hung in the balance. The Civil Rights Movement was on—and young people were a committed and focused part of it. Emmett was not a voluntary student-activist but his name will be remembered as someone who started a movement.   The first real student-involved movement (that we’ll discuss) took place in 1957, just two years after the lynching of Emmett Till.   It involved 9 brave African Americans kids attempting to attend a white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. These kids became known as the Little Rock Nine. Let’s back up just a bit to 1954.   The United States was in chaos. (More was to come, of course, but most people didn’t know that.) Interesting thing about history—it’s not the story of people living in the present. It’s the story of people living in the present, THEIR present. So, in 1954, many people didn’t know or didn’t accept that change prompted by the civil rights movement was looming in their future. Hmm…gotta think about that one. Anyway, in 1954, the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education had just been decided by the Supreme Court. The decision that desegregated public schools.   Remember that’s where we got the “separate but equal is inherently unequal” quote and that THIS violated the 14th Amendment. So, segregated schools were declared illegal and ordered to integrate “with all deliberate speed.” (another great quote). But many school districts especially in the southern states refused to accept this decision. They fought back. Some just ignored the decision and dared the federal government to try to enforce it. Others closed down schools rather than integrate them. Let’s jump from the immediate aftermath of the Brown case back to the summer of 1957, Little Rock Arkansas.   The NAACP (Arkansas Branch) was determined to integrate the high schools, beginning in Little Rock, the state’s capital. Daisy Bates, president of the Arkansas Branch of the NAACP recruited nine high school students whom she believed possessed the strength and determination to face the RESISTANCE to integration. During that summer, the students participated in intensive counseling sessions on what to expect and how to respond to the reaction from the white community--students AND parents.   Just before school opened in September, Arkansas Governor Oval Faubus ordered the National Guard to bar the African American students from entering the state’s schools. He claimed that it was for “their own protection” (quote. Don’t we hear that one a lot today?) The next day, a federal court judge issued a counter-ruling that desegregation would proceed.   As the nine Black students attempted to enter the school, a huge crowd of angry white students and adults as well as the Arkansas National Guard (ordered by the Governor) barred the students’ from entering. White protesters threatened the students, screamed racial slurs and spit on them. They were not able to enter the school that day.   Days later, the students tried to enter the school again with a police escort. However, more than a thousand white protesters appeared and again blocked the students’ from entering the building. President Eisenhower finally sent federal troops to enforce the integration order. Army troops actually had to escort the students to their first day of class.       But that wasn’t the end of the story. Protests against integration continued. The 101st Airborne Division stayed at the school to protect the students for an entire year. The nine kids faced verbal and physical abuse. One student had acid thrown in her face. Another was pushed down the stairs. The threats were constant and real. Both teachers AND students were hostile. But the kids survived and even thrived at their high school. All graduated and held distinguished careers. However, they only stayed at Little Rock Central High School for a year. The school board voted by 3 to 1 to close the school rather than officially integrate (of course, they cited budget cuts as the reason for the school closure.) But the brave high school students had stood up for their rights in a hostile and dangerous situation. Just imagine having to be escorted to school by federal guards. Imagine parents shouting ugly remarks at you. Imagine being spat upon, pushed around or down stairs, ignored by teachers and facing a large hostile crowd in the school cafeteria. This was definitely courage under fire and these kids deserve to be recognized and respected for their great achievement. And I want to say their names because they should become a familiar part of African American history:   Elizabeth Eckford Ernest Green Thelma Mothershed Melba Patillo Minnijean Brown Gloria Ray Terrence Roberts Jefferson Thomas Carlotta Walls   [Break for applause.]   By the way, during this podcast, you have heard and will continue to hear about people, places, events and issues. You will HEAR about them, but I completely understand if you want to actually SEE them, too. We got that covered on the Wiki History Podcast Page on Facebook. You will find pictures, animated videos and a community of history lovers. There is also a place for comments, which I hope that you will leave for us because we really appreciate them AND we do respond. Of course, we welcome all questions too.   Moving on…1960 was a BIG year for student activism. It’s really hard to know where to begin.   But I’ll adopt a “ladies first” position here—especially for this little lady named Ruby Bridges.   Ruby wanted to attend William Frantz Elementary School, which was an all-white school based in New Orleans. (I know what you’re thinking: you can’t have an all-white school because the Brown v. Board of Education case declared them illegal. Well, just like in Little Rock, the school boards were NOT going to give up their segregated lifestyle and institutions willingly. So the fight continued.) And little Ruby Bridges wanted to attend this school in her neighborhood school and for which she had passed a rigorous entry test. (This test had ACTUALLY been designed to screen out Black students and had been successful until Ruby.) So, she was excited to attend the kindergarten. Yes, that’s right little Miss Ruby Bridges was seven years old. She had to be escorted to school every day by 4 U.S. Marshals. She spent her first day in the principal’s office and watched as white parents removed their kids from school. A compromise was reached in which white students would return to school and Ruby would be isolated in a classroom on a floor separated from the other students. Only one teacher (Barbara Henry who was from Boston) agreed to teach her. For the remainder of the year, Mrs. Henry and Ruby would sit side-by-side going over lessons in the classroom. At recess, Ruby would stay in the classroom and play games or do calisthenics. At lunch, Ruby would eat alone in the classroom. Outside the school, the parents continued to protest against Ruby. One woman threatened to poison her every day. Another put a black baby doll in a coffin and left it at the school. Ruby said that scared her more than anything! Her father lost his job. Her mother was banned from shopping at the local grocery store.   This behavior seriously affected Ruby—as it would affect any 7-year old child. She began having nightmares. Stopped eating and started to have crying fits. She received counseling and gradually settled into a normal routine with the help of her teacher, Mrs. Henry. By the second year, Ruby started making friends and attending classes with the other students. Ruby attended integrated schools all the way through high school and went on to business school. (Interestingly, Ruby was reunited with Mrs. Henry on the Oprah Winfrey show.) That must have been an emotional reunion! Teachers really do make a difference. But it was Ruby’s strength and determination that helped her to succeed. Still--no one does it alone.   Remember to look for the pictures of Ruby Bridges and Barbara Henry on the Wiki History Podcast page on Face book. I’m really moved by two pictures of 7-year old Ruby marching into school escorted by 4 US Marshals. One is a real-life picture. The second is what has become an iconic portrait made by Norman Rockwell called “The Problem we all live with.”   We’re still in 1960 and now we have the Greensboro Four and their protest is marked as the beginning of student activism during the civil rights movement.   The group known as the Greensboro four was attending the North Carolina A & T State University. They were dedicated students who were fans of Mahatma Gandhi, believed in nonviolence and spent their evening studying and discussing current events. Like many other young people, they had been and still were deeply affected by the murder of Emmett Till 5 years earlier. They had also been very impressed and moved by the Freedom Rides in the Deep South led by the Congress of Racial Equality (or CORE). They acknowledged some progress but also recognized and refused to be distracted into thinking that this progress was good enough. Most businesses were privately owned and therefore not subject to federal law that banned segregation. They decided to take action.   On February 1, 1960 at 4:30pm, all four students walked into a Woolworth in Greensboro, North Carolina. Wearing their Sunday best, they sat at the whites-only lunch counter and requested service. They were denied. They continued to request service in a polite way but they were continuously denied by store manager. They were told to leave but they refused. Police were called but they didn’t arrest the students because they had not been violent or disorderly. Media arrived. Crowds developed. The students stayed at the lunch counter for the entire day until the store closed. Woolworth issued a statement to the press that it would continue to “abide by local custom”, meaning that it would continue to practice segregation.   The Greensboro Four went back the next day. More students joined the sit-in, this time from the Bennett College, which was an all-women’s college in Greensboro. Each day more students joined the protest—and it spread to other southern cities like Richmond and Nashville. By February 5th, hundreds of students joined in the lunch counter sit-ins. It paralyzed all business at the counter. The student protesters were verbally abused and threatened by white customers. THIS sit-in launched a nationwide movement at segregated lunch counters across the country. It also sparked a movement on college campuses that brought ATTENTION to the civil rights situation in the United States. The sit-in protests in Greensboro and other cities received lots of attention from the media and eventually the government. By the end of the year, many restaurants, lunch counters and privately-owned business had desegregated their facilities without any court action or marshals. And, yes, Woolworth in Greensboro also desegregated its lunch counters. Sit-ins were one of the most effective kinds of protests during the Civil Rights Movement. And it started with four intelligent, ambitious and civic-minded African American students and grew to more than 70,000 people protesting throughout the country. The protest ended on March 25th—lasting 5 months, 3 weeks and 3 days.   I absolutely love this story; it is SO inspirational on many different levels. The close friendship among the students. Their motivation, discipline and courage. Their education and reliance on a philosophy of non-violence and civil disobedience. The quick growth of the protests among college students who seemed ripe and ready to show their discontent and ability to fight for their rights. I could go on and on about this but I think that you see the same picture.* And because these students deserve our respect and have earned their place in history, I want to mention their names:   Ezell Blair, Jr. David Richmond Franklin McCain Joseph McNeil   *[Applause track here]       This story shows how a small but determined group can create a big and lasting change. As a follow up, although their protests were successful and many people praised them, both Black and White, all of the Greensboro Four had to leave the city because of harassment and death threats. They had been labeled as troublemakers so the local white population made life difficult and dangerous for the men to continue living there. Today there are several statues and remembrances of the protests initiated by the Greensboro Four. The February One statue of the four student-activists is located on the campus of North Carolina A & T State University. It is really moving. And you can find the original four lunch counter seats at the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro. I also have pictures on the Wiki History Podcast Facebook page. I strongly encourage you to see them. I’m sure that you’ll be moved too.   Our last group of student-activists (in Part I) took the fight for civil rights to another level—the international level. They forged a CONNECTION with the civil rights movement in the United States and the anti-colonial movement that was sweeping across the continent of Africa. But I’m jumping ahead of myself; I’m just so excited to talk about this group. The group’s name: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (or SNCC). Let’s start at the beginning.   Still--in 1960.   In April, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) sponsored a conference on student leadership and nonviolent resistance. This conference was partially initiated by the sit-ins in Greensboro and other cities. 300 students attended that conference. These students (who acted as delegates and observers) witnessed the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. SNCC was born!   The members of SNCC joined the Freedom Riders that were sponsored by CORE (remember, Congress of Racial Equality). The Freedom Riders would take people all over the southern states to test the public facilities at the bus stations. However, the Freedom Riders started facing VERY intense attacks and violence. Buses were burned. People were assaulted with baseball bats, bombs and other weapons. Because of these attacks, in 1961, CORE suspended its Freedom Rides. SNCC decided to start running its own Freedom Rides. A SNCC member said, “There was so much at stake, we could NOT allow the segregationists to stop us. We HAD to continue that Freedom Ride EVEN if we were killed in the process.” So SNCC started making its own Freedom rides into the southern states.After numerous members of SNCC were beaten, tortured and imprisoned on false charges during the Freedom Rides, the government was forced to intervene and repeal the segregation laws that regulated interstate public transportation. SNCC had won—but at a great cost.   But the students wanted more. Their next campaign was for voting rights, which they started in 1963. Their slogan “one man, one vote” became the cornerstone of SNCC’s programs. SNCC demanded universal suffrage in the United States, continuing to parallel the efforts in the U.S. with the efforts taking place within the anti-colonial struggle in Africa. These were some serious students!   SNCC continued its sit-in protests and also met with the Oginga Odinga, the president of the newly independent government of Kenya. The racist image of the United States that SNCC’s work showed to the world was a sharp contrast to the picture of democracy painted by the politicians in Washington. And this became a problem.   In 1964, SNCC embarked on its most challenging effort with the Mississippi Summer Project. SNCC joined with other civil rights organizations in the state. (Like the SCLC and church organizations.) The coalition mobilized nearly a thousand volunteers from northern universities to travel to Mississippi to organize an independent Freedom Democratic Party and to register thousands of African Americans to vote. This was the famous Freedom Summer. The white protesters (including Klan members, law enforcement, policians and members of citizen’s councils) responded to SNCC’s civil rights activities with murder, beatings and imprisonment. If you’re wondering, this WAS summer that Cheney, Goodman and Schwerner kidnapped and killed were killed by police and the ku klux klan. More young lives cut short for trying to register Black voters. Unfortunately, the Freedom Democratic Party was never seated at the National Democratic Convention in 1964 and universal suffrage wouldn’t be guaranteed until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, but the work by SNCC brought many more people into the movement for political and economic equality.   Because SNCC had gained a high level of prominence from its consistent work and many successes, the student organization was invited to send a delegation to tour several independent countries in Africa during the fall of 1964. They visited the Republic of Guinea and received a special invitation to meet President Sekou Toure. One of SNCC’s leading members, John Lewis also visited Kenya, Zambia and other African countries. After this important trip, SNCC created an international affairs section, which made a powerful presentation before the United Nations Committee on Decolonization. The role of SNCC during this period illustrated the interconnectedness of the African American struggle for equality and the struggle for independence by the colonized countries on the African continent. Independence, equality, and civil rights were now expanded beyond U.S. borders into an international movement on two continents! Wow. That is huge! Students took the struggle to a new level—as only young people can do!   But SNCC never lost sight of its commitment and work in the cities, small towns and rural areas of the south, working with farmers and young activists on a daily basis to fight for civil rights.   SNCC was a strong and sophisticated organization. It took political activism to a new level while always staying true to its vision. And its members bravely put themselves in harm’s way to demand the right to vote and to demand equality in housing and education. They even faced the issue of police brutality together with its close ally, The Black Panthers. (Did you know that the Black Panthers’ full name was the Black Panthers for Self-Defense?) I just have to give a big shout out to the Black Panthers (who were made up mostly of young people and students) for their efforts in the civil rights movement and for Black empowerment. Everyone had a role. But I want to mention just a few names from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee:   Ella Baker Marion Barry John Lewis Kwame Ture Julian Bond   [Applause here.]*   Julian Bond, who was a former founding member of SNCC and eventually served in the Georgia Senate and House of Representatives, remarked, "a final SNCC legacy is the destruction of the psychological shackles which had kept black southerners in physical and mental servitude; SNCC helped break those chains forever. It demonstrated that ordinary women and men, young and old, could perform extraordinary tasks."   This wise statement applies to all of these student and youth activists. And we’ll definitely see this in the next group of young people. Then in Part II, you will learn ways that YOU can make a positive difference in your own town, country or even the world. And, yes, it IS possible!   We’re gonna go back in time and back down south to Birmingham, Alabama, 1963. There was no Civil Rights Act. No Voting Rights Act. Segregation was still the law in many states in the south and whites fiercely defended this way of life in Alabama. Dr. Martin Luther King, the SCLC, SNCC and other civil rights organizations and churches are DETERMINED to release the racist grip that the Ku Klux Klan, law enforcement, white politicians and citizens’ councils hold on the city. In Dr. King’s words, it was a true symbol of “hard-core resistance to integration.” [pause]* May 1963. Birmingham, Alabama is “ground zero” in the fight for civil rights.   Civil rights leaders needed to take a stronger and more radical approach to their nonviolent protests. So, they decided to request the help and participation of students. They approached high school students and college students to volunteer in a march. And the students stepped up the plate. The students were trained in the tactics of non-violent resistance. Thus began the famous, never-to-be forgotten Children’s Crusade.   On May 2, 1963, 800 Black students skipped school and gathered at the 16th street Baptist Church, awaiting for instructions. They marched 10 miles to downtown on a mission to meet with Birmingham Mayor about segregation. As the students approached city hall, singing songs of freedom, they were corralled by police and arrested. Hundreds were put into paddy wagons and taken to jail.   But that wasn’t the end.   The march would eventually include 3,000 children.   The next day, May 3rd, the march resumed. But this time it was NOT met with a peaceful response. Police were waiting for them with clubs, water cannons and police dogs. The Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner—the infamous Bull Connor--ordered the men to immediately attack the students. They released the dogs and sprayed the students with the water cannons. The scene turned from a peaceful and quiet march of students singing along their way to city hall into a violent scene of terror with kids scattering and screaming as they were beaten and attacked by dogs.   The media captured the violent attack against the unarmed youngsters. Videos were shown around the country, actually the world. White-owned businesses and the white residents of Birmingham were criticized and ostracized by people across the country. On May 10, city leaders agreed to desegregate businesses and public facilities. It also captured the attention and sympathy of the President Kennedy who felt then compelled to public support federal Civil Rights legislation, leading to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Oh, yeah, and Martin Luther King negotiated having Bull Connor removed from public office!   The Children’s Crusade was an essential part of the Civil Rights Movement. Not just because it happened in what was called the “most racist city in the South.” But also because the children were so determined and focused. They were prepared to face violence. Many of the adults didn’t want to face arrest and imprisonment so they refused to participate. (Please understand that I’m not making any judgments about them.) But the kids were simply fed up and refused to back down. Many of them were arrested multiple times, had been beaten on numerous occasions and faced expulsion from school. Yet they kept coming back in greater and greater numbers. Why would they do that? Here are the words of one of the high school student activists:         Jessie Shepherd, then 16, was soaking wet (from the fire hoses) when she was loaded up in a paddy wagon. “I was told not to participate,” says Shepherd, now a retired clinical diet technician. “But I was tired of the injustice.”     “I couldn’t understand why there had to be a colored fountain and a white fountain,” says Shepherd. “Why couldn’t I drink out the fountain that other little kids drank out of? As I got older, I understood that’s just the way it was, because my skin was black, and we were treated differently because of that.” So she marched.   And that march changed the nation.   As we end Part I of this podcast show on student-activism in the civil rights movement, I would ask that if you participated as a student-activist in this march or any of the numerous other marches, sit-ins, Freedom Rides or any other protests, please contact rememberinghistory.com and tell your experience. We want to hear YOUR story. Please add your story and experiences on the comment page. Or you can send me a personal email message to robin@rememberinghistory.com. And please tell your story to YOUR children, your nieces, nephews and other children that you. They NEED to know that young people and students CAN make a difference. That they HAVE power and influence. And knowing YOUR experience and knowing African American history (no matter about yours or the child’s cultural background) shows proof of the power that young people hold in their hands.   On that high note, we will turn to present ways that YOU can get involved, ways that YOU can help. I hope you’ve seen that everyone can contribute. And that everyone has reserves of strength and courage that they probably never knew existed…until they are called to show it. That’s exactly what the young people and students did during the Civil Rights movement. And the young people and students TODAY also have the strength and courage to make a positive impact in the lives of their families, communities, the country and even the world. And, as 2017 begins, it IS clear that strength and courage as well as integrity, passion and vision are going to be needed. As Dr. King remarked, what they do now will impact children who have not yet been born. Please join us in Part II to start making an impact. We have reached the end of this podcast show. Are you feeling inspired? I really am! And I hope that you too.   Please remember to look at the Wiki History Podcast page on Facebook so you can actually SEE these brave kids and for really candid scenes of their experiences. I have deliberately decided NOT to put the mutilated picture of Emmett Till on the page but you can find a picture of him as a promising and eager young man who was the apple of this mother’s eye. You will also see other scenes from Money, Mississippi. And definitely don’t miss the picture of Ruby Bridges being escorted into school surrounded by federal marshals. It’s all there on the Wiki History Facebook page.   Also, if you enjoyed this show, please let others know about it. They might like it, find it inspirational too. We are growing a community of historians of all ages, backgrounds and interests. Everyone is welcome. Let’s change the way people think about history—one good friend at a time.   And we have a special announcement and offer to make to all Wiki History podcast listeners in the next show. Especially for Black History month.   So,come back soon to Remembering History where we ARE remembering history and we’re making it. Every day!                                             At the end of the show: Finally, I just want to remind you that 2017, the Wiki History podcast show is dedicated to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. Located in Washington, DC, the National Museum of African American History & Culture opened in 2016. This kind of museum was long overdue but it finally happened and it is a place that everyone should visit and explore. Museums are a great way to bring history to life and to keep it alive for future generations. Wiki History is honored to be a part of this important process. For every person that listens to this podcast show, rememberinghistory.com will donate $1 to the National Museum of African American History & Culture.   And we have a special announcement and offer to make to all Wiki History podcast listeners.   Come back soon to Remembering History where we ARE remembering history and we’re making it. Every day!   Bye for now!           ************************************************************   But what TO do? How can YOU have a positive impact?   Recognize that there are major problems and challenges around the world. Some problems that existed and led to the Civil Rights Movement STILL exist. Problems like discrimination in voting, education, job and housing still exist. Police violence, poverty and cultural and religious intolerance STILL exist. There are more than * refugees around the world. The environment is under threat. I don’t want to even try to list all the problems on a worldwide scale, but I just recognize that the world is a far from perfect place. There’s a lot that you can do to have an impact. But awareness is the first step.   Get your education. Learn history. The rememberinghistory.com team is committed to keeping history alive and spreading the word so that we can avoid the mistakes of the past, learn the lessons of great people from the past. The world needs more people with education and insight. This doesn’t only mean an “academic” education. Learn a trade. Develop a skill. Read a lot. Okay, these were 2 good ways to prepare yourself to save the world. Now, let’s look at some specific things that you can do.   Do you have a cell phone? Well, you can use it to document racist behavior, threatening behavior or anything that is unacceptable. The camera on your phone can save a life. Remember, the world would never have known about the police beating of Rodney King. You can also use your phone to call for assistance from family, friends or the police. Trayvon Martin used his phone to report that he was being followed. Your phone can be a powerful tool.                                                         After the first discussion:   Also, if you enjoy this show, please let others know about it. They might like it, find it inspirational too. Let’s change the way people think about history—one good friend at a time.     At the end of the show: Finally, I just want to remind you that 2017, the Wiki History podcast show is dedicated to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. Located in Washington, DC, the National Museum of African American History & Culture opened in 2016. This kind of museum was long overdue but it finally happened and it is a place that everyone should visit and explore. Museums are a great way to bring history to life and to keep it alive for future generations. Wiki History is honored to be a part of this important process. For every person that listens to this podcast show, rememberinghistory.com will donate $1 to the National Museum of African American History & Culture.   And we have a special announcement and offer to make to all Wiki History podcast listeners.   Come back soon to Remembering History where we ARE remembering history and we’re making it. Every day!   Bye for now!    

Can you vote? Do you want to vote? Do you even have a vote?   Great questions!   You might have a quick answer that “of course” you can vote. Or you WILL vote after you turn 18. That’s excellent if you do!   Now what if someone told you that YOU couldn’t vote?   You might answer: No, that’s wrong. I meet the age requirement. I’m over 18.   But then you are asked:   Do you know the US Constitution?   Of course! I know about it, you say.   Then the registrar says: Great. Now recite the entire Constitution.   Do you mean that I should read it to you?   Can you read?   Yes, again, of course.   No, she says, just recite the entire Constitution from memory.   But I don’t KNOW it from memory!   So, the registrar says, “Then you can’t vote. Your application to register to vote is denied!”   Or the scenario could go this way:   You might be asked: Did you pay the $1,000 poll tax?   No, but I can pay it. I can write you a check right now.   Then the registrar says: No, you have paid it for 10 years. You owe $10,000 plus fines. Can you pay it now? Your answer: No. Then you cannot register to vote!   Or you might have been asked: Was your granddaddy registered to vote before the Civil War? Or explain what “Full faith and credit” means or what “ex post facto laws” are. Or I noticed that your name has a hyphen on the registry but not on your ID.   Denied. Denied. Denied.   I think that you get the picture: You are not going to be allowed to vote. Not today.   This was the situation faced by most African Americans in the after they received their freedom. They were regularly denied the right to vote.   And that is not the whole story. Many African Americans were threatened with losing their jobs, they were beaten, had their house burned down or even killed if they tried to register to vote. This was happening primarily—but not exclusively—in the southern states. And this was what African Americans, former enslaved persons, their children and grandchildren faced until the 1965.   So, when I asked: can you vote, do you want to vote and do you have a vote, I hope that you answered a resounding “yes!” to those questions. Because African Americans (and others) fought for the right to vote for a very long time. And the fight continues today—we’ll get to that a bit later.   First, I want to welcome you to Rememberinghistory.com where we are remembering history and we’re making it.             Hi, I’m Robin Lofton, the In-house Historian and host of this great and groundbreaking show that inspires YOU and your FAMILY with true stories, real experiences, practical lessons, cultural traditions, and fun celebrations—all inspired by African American history. I find history to be inspirational, instructional and entertaining. And African American history fits the bill in all of these ways. Personally, I hate boring stuff. So boring stuff is not allowed at rememberinghistory.com or at this Wiki history podcast show. So, if you’re looking for boring, sorry you might have to turn to the other media. (I won’t mention any names.)   In the previous podcast show, I mentioned how my history of jazz course in college has inspired a lifelong love of jazz. Some of you sent me your stories about how a history class and even a history teacher inspired you to read more, learn African history, to teach and even to go to law school. History really does have it all—the mystery, the drama, the suspense, the personalities, the victories and yes even the crushing defeats. My favorite historian—yes, I have a favorite historian-- David McCullough, said, “For almost anyone with the normal human allotment of curiosity and an interest in people, history is a field day!” He continues on to say, “Why would anyone wish to be provincial in time any more than being tied down to one place through life, when the whole reach of the human drama is there to experience in some of the greatest books ever written?”   And this applies to all kinds of history—not just western civilization, American or European history. But also to African history (remembering the great Oyo and Ashanti Empires, the Kingdom of Kush, the amazing empires of Benin, Wolof and Kanem-Bornu—which flourished for a thousand years and there were so many others), and of course African American history (including but definitely not limited to slavery) and evolving as an integral part of American history. The saga continues. Like I said, you won’t ever find boring stuff here. Okay, let’s get back to the show!   Every month, the Wiki history podcast show focuses on a theme. The theme for January is: civil rights. And an essential part of civil rights is…voting rights. That’s what we’ll discuss in this show.           The previous show in January (for the new listeners) was a fun and innovative podcast called Lessons from a King. (Martin Luther King, that is.) His birthday is celebrated in January so the rememberinghistory.com team thought that this was a good opportunity to discuss Dr. King. We discussed 3 lessons—and they weren’t what you might have expected. I don’t want to spoil the surprise and ruin the fun so I’ll just encourage you to listen to the previous podcast: Lesson from a King. Get ready to be surprised. And inspired.   The next and last show in January on civil rights won’t focus on the law or rights but instead on the modern civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s. The show will focus on a group that is often neglected though they had a huge impact: college students. College students were often on the front lines of civil rights activities. These student-activists were marching, engaging in sit-ins, writing articles and making speeches, registering people to vote and so many other activities. They were often threatened, beaten and sometimes worse. But their impact is undeniable. Stay tuned for this important show. Students can make a difference. So that’s where we’re going in the next podcast show.   We will get started with today’s show in just a moment. Just a bit of information first.   During this podcast, you will hear about people, places, events and issues. You will HEAR about them, but I completely understand if you want to actually SEE them, too. We got that covered on the Wiki History Podcast Page on Facebook. You will find pictures, animated videos and a community of history lovers. There is also a place for comments, which I hope that you will leave for me because I really appreciate them and I do respond. Also, if you enjoy this show, please let others know about it. They might like it and find it inspirational too. Let’s change the way that we think of history—one friend at a time.   I have one more item of interest, it’s about our podcast dedication for 2017—but I’ll save it for AFTER the show.   That’s enough for now. Let’s get started with this great and groundbreaking Wiki history podcast show called “The Fight for the Right: Voting Rights in America.”         Let’s think back to the opening of this podcast to the scenario where you were submitting your application to register to vote and the voting registrar asked crazy questions, made crazy demands and basically set up insurmountable barriers to voting (like requiring you to recite the entire 4500-word Constitution). In the end, you were not allowed to vote. And this was the situation faced by many African Americans for almost a hundred years—until 1965 with the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Yes, that’s right, this discriminatory voting system started around 1870 (shortly after the end of slavery) and continued until 1965. In some ways, it continues today but we’ll get to that a bit later.   You might say but wait, what about the 15th Amendment to the Constitution?!   Great question and it’s a great place to start with our discussion about voting rights in the United States.   The 15th Amendment (passed in 1869) was short. It said,   “The right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”   That should resolve the question right there. Race, color or previous condition of servitude (namely enslavement) should not prevent a person from voting.   The immediate effect of the 15th Amendment was that more African Americans started voting and more African Americans were elected to public office. This didn’t last long, however.   This short and vague amendment merely forbade the denial of the vote based on race, color and previous enslavement (weird thing to say). But it (very conspicuously) ignored more detailed issues such as the use of indirect methods to block the vote—like the poll tax and literacy test in the opening scenario of this podcast. Did you notice that they never asked or commented on your race in the opening scenario? And these “INDIRECT methods of disenfranchisement” were directly responsible for keeping African Americans out of the voting booths for nearly 100 years.   During that period, there was systematic disenfranchisement of African Americans led by conservative southern Democrats (yes, Democrats).   They used: Literacy tests—first used in South Carolina. (Most former slaves couldn’t read.) Understanding tests—the potential voter had to demonstrate an understanding of certain clauses in the Constitution. Poll taxes—large sums were required to register to vote, sometimes cumulative back taxes were required. This eliminated most African Americans and poor whites from registering. Grandfather clauses—your grandfather must have been eligible to vote before the Civil War. Of course, most enslaved persons and their children would not qualify to vote under the grandfather clauses. Fortunately, the Supreme Court invalidated these grandfather clauses in a case against Oklahoma in 1915. Residency requirements—you had to have resided in a specific area to vote. Long-term residency requirements Constant re-residency requirements—changing the reqs without notice   Election fraud was rampant. There was ballot box stuffing, throwing out votes by African Americans, and the refusal to count votes for Black candidates (this was discovered in Kentucky) but happened throughout the southern United States in the early 1900s. And violence was actually the principal means used to disenfranchise African Americans and to keep them from voting or running for elected office. The Ku Klux Klan (founded in Kentucky in 1866) was formed with the purpose of terrorizing African Americans who acquired economic and/or political power, particularly focusing on Blacks who tried to vote. But “citizens councils” and other groups used violence to disenfranchise African Americans.         This period of black disenfranchisement (1870 to 1965) demonstrates that it was not caused solely by the actions of Southern states and individual people using violence and terror. It was also a failure of the PRESIDENT to uphold and exercise federal power to ensure that Blacks could participate in the electoral system. CONGRESS also failed to use its powers under the 14th and 15th amendments. And the SUPREME COURT actively undermined federal executive powers to protect black voting rights, refused to acknowledge racial discrimination even when it was obvious, and it accepted blatant constitutional violations. Lots of cases about that but too many to mention now. We’ll examine one case soon though.   Let’s move from THAT bleak picture to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.   The Voting Rights Act prohibits racial discrimination in voting. Notice the difference from the 15th Amendment? No focus on merely race or color or previous enslavement. The focus of the Voting Rights Act is on prohibiting ANY kind of action that in purpose or effect discriminates against racial minorities. That’s big. Much bigger than the deliberately watered-down language of the 15th Amendment.   The DOJ said it best: the Voting Rights Act is the most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country.   It was signed by President Lyndon Johnson and has been amended at least 5 times to expand its scope.   The immediate and lasting effect of the Voting Rights Act was to SUSPEND literacy tests, poll taxes, understanding tests, grandfather clauses and all the other obstacles placed before African Americans applying to vote. But it did even more than that. It assigned federal examiners to oversee elections and assigned observers to help people register to vote. And most importantly it required states that had a history of racial discrimination in voting to apply to the U.S. Attorney General WHENEVER the state or local government wanted to create new laws, rules or codes that might result in racial discrimination in voting. Again, that’s another “wow!”   The Voting Rights Act contains numerous provisions that regulate election administration. The Act's "general provisions" provide nationwide protections for voting rights.   The Act also contains "special provisions" that apply ONLY TO CERTAIN JURISDICTIONS. A core special provision is the Section 5 preclearance requirement, which prohibits certain jurisdictions from implementing any change affecting voting without receiving preapproval from the U.S. Attorney General that the change doesn’t discriminate against protected minorities.   Remember this special preclearance requirement (where they had to get approval from the Attorney General) only applies to certain jurisdictions. I’m sure that you can guess which, but I’ll tell you anyway.   Alabama Georgia Louisiana Mississippi South Carolina Virginia   Alaska, Arizona and Texas were added in 1975.   And a few counties in California, Florida, New York, North Carolina (actually 40 counties in NC) and South Dakota.   Just look at the immediate effect. In 1964, a year before the Voting Rights Act was passed, 29 percent of African Americans were registered to vote. (That’s a nationwide percentage—the figures in the southern states were definitely lower.) But just 2 years AFTER the Voting Rights Act was passed, 52 percent of African Americans were registered to vote. From 29 percent to 52 percent in just 3 years. The Voting Rights Act was POWERFUL. No wonder that it was a prime objective of Dr. Martin Luther King to pass this law!     If you’re still not impressed, let me give you some real numbers. Going beyond registered voters. Here’s one figure. In 1964 (the year before the Voting Rights Act), 6 percent of African Americans were registered to vote in Mississippi. By 1969, 59 percent of African Americans were registered! That’s impressive!   But I’m sorry to say that problems continue for African Americans and other racial, ethnic and language minorities in the American voting system.   In one of its worst blows to civil rights, the Supreme Court invalidated important sections of the Voting Rights Act. The case was called County of Shelby v. Holder, decided in 2013. In a 5-4 decision, the Court admitted that voting discrimination continues to exist but said the Voting Rights Act exceeded Congress’s power to enforce the 15th Amendment and was punishing states for past behavior that might not be relevant today.   The Shelby County v. Holder case was an unfortunate step backwards in the long struggle to end discrimination in voting. The reality is that discrimination in voting REMAINS a real and immediate problem. Violations still occur. And any violation (even if it seems small) often impacts thousands, tens of thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of voters. (Recent presidential elections have been decided by these kinds of numbers!)   I have official reports that list serious violations in practically every state in the country. The violations are numerous. The reports are detailed. And they show unequivocally that discrimination in voting remains a serious problem. I won’t list all the violations here—there are just too many of them—but they are important so maybe I’ll make a different podcast discussing them. But the most common violations can be grouped under the category of vote dilution. Attempts to dilute the voting power of individuals or groups of minorities.           Vote dilution is the practice of reducing he potential effectiveness of a group’s voting strength by limiting the group’s chances to translate voting strength into voting power. In the United States, this occurs when a traditional white majority precludes a minority group’s choices from having any bearing or significant meaning in an election on par with the white voters in the same election. (I know that’s vague so I’ll try to get more specific.)   The usual device for diluting the minority vote is manipulation of district lines either by fragmenting the minority voters into several districts where a bloc-voting majority can routinely outvote them or “packing” minority voters into a small number of districts to minimize their influence in adjacent districts. This kind of re-districting is common, effective and insidious in disenfranchising African Americans and other minority groups. And it is happening right now.   I do want to mention other modern ways of disenfranchising voters.   Requiring state ID for voters. This was done in Georgia, Kansas and Alabama. Excessively long waiting lines in some areas (for example, Maricopa County in Arizona had ONLY one polling station for every 21,000 residents while the rest of the state had one for every 11,000 residents.) People waited for hours to vote and sometimes the voting station closed before everyone in line could vote. Closing polling stations in exchange for mail-only polling station. This was done in San Juan County, Utah. This opens the door to voter fraud and rejecting ballots from voters in certain areas (identified by the zip code). Rejecting people whose names don’t match EXACTLY the driver’s license or social security cards. People were rejected for a missing accent or hyphen on the card. This particularly affected women, Latinos and African Americans. Prohibiting people with a felony conviction from voting. That means more nearly 6 million Americans, including 1 in 13 African Americans are forever barred from voting.   These are pretty sneaky but effective ways of prohibiting large groups of people from voting. And it definitely has an effect in elections.   But don’t despair. All is not lost. The Voting Rights Act is not dead. In 2014, Congress introduced the Voting Rights Amendment Act (with bipartisan support!) directly in response to the Supreme Court case. The VRAA includes NEW methods of federal action, NEW tools to identify and stop voting discrimination BEFORE it occurs and it works to ensure that election changes are transparent. So, the fight against voting discrimination continues in the Congress.   That brings me to the final section that examines what YOU can do to fight voting discrimination. Everyone has a role to play and, as you can see from the history, people from all backgrounds, races, genders and ethnicities have been working hard to ensure the right to vote and that the vote has an impact.               So, what can YOU do?   Be sure to register to vote. Check your registration status periodically to ensure that you have not been removed from the voter registry. (This happens A LOT!) But don’t just focus on federal elections. Vote in state, county and local elections. Most voter discrimination happens at the local level. Keep abreast of changes to the voting rules in your district. Again, remember to watch the local elections too—where most voter discrimination occurs. Watch everything from federal elections down to the local school board election. It all matters! Speak out and challenge any rules that negatively affect your ability to vote. Get to know your local representative and contact them whenever changes are made. Encourage others to speak out against discriminatory voting laws and rules. Help others register to vote and assist people in getting to the polls. At the voting polls, be observant. Report harassment, excessively long lines, intimidation of ANY kind or hints of voter suppression. Definitely report it. Volunteer at voter registration events. The NAACP and other organizations regularly host these events. Sign up for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights at www.civilrights.org. They will send notifications whenever changes are proposed to the voting laws in your district. Then, take action!   So, you see? There is a lot that you (and I) can do to fight discrimination in voting. And we HAVE to do it if we want to ensure voter access and equality. We’ve come too far to drop the ballot now! Voter discrimination remains, “an insidious and pervasive evil” (that’s a direct quote from the Voting Rights Act).   That wraps up this Wiki history podcast called “The Fight for the Right: Voting Rights in America.” I hope that you enjoyed it, learned a little something and felt inspired and moved to do what you can to protect the right to vote. More people need to know about this continuing struggle. And it definitely IS continuing.   I realize that I mentioned names of laws and other information that you might want more information about. The rememberinghistory.com team has you covered. You can get more information, read the “What You Can Do” list, see great pictures and even find good a book list at the Wiki History podcast page on Facebook. You will also find a link to a short animated video about voting rights. It’s only 2 minutes and I think that you’ll find interesting and fun. And it’s great for kids of all ages.   Finally, I just want to remind you that 2017, the Wiki History podcast show is dedicated to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. Located in Washington, DC, the National Museum of African American History & Culture opened in 2016. This kind of museum was long overdue but it finally happened and it is a place that everyone should visit and explore. Museums are a great way to bring history to life and to keep it alive for future generations. Wiki History is honored to be a part of this important process. For every person that listens to this podcast show, rememberinghistory.com will donate $1 to the National Museum of African American History & Culture.     The next show is about the role and impact of students in the civil rights movement. These student-activists were bold, brave and didn’t back down. You definitely don’t wanna miss that show! After that we’re heading into Black History Month, which is always an exciting month at rememberinghistory.com. And we have a special announcement and offer to make to all Wiki History podcast listeners.   Come back soon to Remembering History where we ARE remembering history and we’re making it. Every day!   Bye for now!              

Rememberinghistory.com Podcast Show January 2017   Hello and welcome back to rememberinghistory.com where we are remembering history and we’re making it. I’m Robin Lofton, the host of this great and groundbreaking show that inspires YOU and YOUR family with stories, experiences, lessons, traditions, and celebrations—all from African American history. That’s right—it’s inspirational. History—in all its forms--can be inspirational. American history, ancient history, European history, music history, history of medicine, history of technology, history of law, women’s history. All kinds of history can be inspirational, instructional and entertaining. And African American history fits the bill in all of these ways.   I remember taking a course on the history of jazz when I was in college. Confession time, I took the class because I heard that it was easy and that I would easily get a good grade. What do you think that I discovered when I actually took the class? It WAS easy and I DID get a good grade. But it was easy because it was so interesting. I listened to and learned about great jazz musicians like Muddy Waters, Louie Armstrong, Count Basie, Chet Baker, Miles Davis and so many others. I learned about how and why jazz (and the blues) developed, how it changed over time and heard amazing true stories about the people who created this form of “folk music”. Yes, history of jazz was easy for me because it was absolutely fascinating. And I’ve been something of a jazz maniac ever since, going to jazz festivals throughout the United States and Europe. One class—one history class—changed me forever. That’s what history can do. I hate “boring stuff”. So you won’t ever find boring stuff here. Okay, let’s get back to the show!   Every month, the rememberinghistory.com podcast show (which is actually called Wiki History) focuses on a theme. The theme for January is: civil rights. I know that you’ve heard of them but what are “civil rights”? Broadly, civil rights (as defined by Wikipedia—and a big shout out to them for their work) is a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. That’s pretty general but it’s accurate. So, this month, the Wiki History podcast show will have two shows on civil rights.       The first show on civil rights is about the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Act prohibited discrimination in voting based on race, gender, religion and other characteristics. I think that this is a particularly important time to discuss the Voting Rights Act because the right and ability to vote are (in my humble but educated opinion) at the very heart of democracy. If there is no voter equality then there is really isn’t a functioning or legitimate democracy. So, this will be discussed in the podcast coming later this month.   The second show on civil rights will not focus on the law but on the modern civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s. The show will focus on a group that is often neglected though they had an enormous impact: college students. College students were often on the front lines of civil rights activities. These student-activists were marching, engaging in sit-ins, writing articles and making speeches, registering people to vote and so many other activities. They were often threatened, beaten and sometimes worse. But their impact is undeniable. Stay tuned for this important show. Students can make a difference.   But today’s show is a slightly different—only slightly—because it is about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He fought hard for civil rights; we all know that. But his birthday is also in January—January 15th to be exact—so I felt that it was important to have a show that gives a “shout out” to him and remembers his birthday, which is celebrated as a federal holiday in the United States on the third Monday of January. Today’s Wiki history show about Dr. King won’t focus so much on what he did—though that will be discussed—but rather on how he can continue to inspire us, long after his early death in 1968. This show and every Wiki history podcast show is history at its finest. We’ll go beyond the names, dates and death counts of your high school history classes. (Remember, there is no “boring stuff” allowed here!) Instead, we’ll use history as a stepping stone to greater heights of wisdom and inspiration. We’re gonna get to it after just a bit of important information that you might find helpful.   First, if you enjoy this show, you can get more information at the Remembering history podcast page on Facebook. You will find pictures, short videos and a community of history lovers. There is also a place for comments, which I hope that you will leave for me because I really appreciate them and I do respond. Also, if you enjoy this show, please let others know about it. They might like it and find it inspirational too. Let’s change the way that we think of history—one friend at a time. By the way, you also find a short animated video of this podcast on the Remembering history Podcast Page (again on Facebook.)   Finally, I just want to remind you that 2017, the Wiki History podcast show is dedicated to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. Located in Washington, DC as part of the Smithsonian, the National Museum of African American History & Culture opened in 2016. This kind of museum was long overdue but it finally happened and it is a place that everyone should visit and explore. Museums are a great way to bring history to life and to keep it alive for future generations. Wiki History is honored to be a part of this important process. For every person that listens to this podcast show, rememberinghistory.com will donate $1 to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. I also donate personally and I hope that you will too.   That’s enough for now. Let’s get started with this great and groundbreaking Wiki history podcast show. Today’s show is called “Lessons from a King.”               “I have a dream” (speech excerpt) Play excerpt   August 28, 1963. I think that we all recognize this speech by Dr. Martin Luther King—one of the most famous speeches ever—given at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It’s also one of the most important glimpses into the heart and mind of Dr. King. The strength to dream, to envision a better world. The depth to let his spiritual side lead and encourage him to new heights. The audacity to challenge everyone to dream and work towards a world where equality, justice and peace are the norm.   And this speech is so inspirational that people want to wake up from their dreams to stand up and cheer. I certainly wanted to while I was listening to this recording.   We gonna hear more quotes from Dr. King throughout this podcast—he was one of the most quotable people on the planet—and his speeches inspired a generation. And continues to inspire people. There is so much that we can still learn from Martin Luther King and that is the focus of today’s podcast. We are gonna focus on the lessons learned from and inspirations acquired from Dr. King. His legacy will never die.   By the way, this is one of the joys of history. We can be inspired by people who are no longer here. We can continue to learn from their lives, the mistakes and their victories. Their stories never die. They become part of the never-ending human drama.   So, what lessons can we get from Dr. Martin Luther King? How can he inspire us?   So many ways but we will focus on just three.   Lesson #1: Be Maladjusted. Lesson #2: Work together. Lesson #3: Take action.   He spoke about these lessons. But, more importantly, he lived these lessons. And they inspired the world!           Let’s talk first about lesson #1. Be maladjusted.   That doesn’t sound right, does it? Why should we be maladjusted? Maladjusted means “failing to cope with one’s social environment or norms.” Did Dr. King really encourage us to be maladjusted? In a word, “yes!”   In a speech to the YMCA on June 4, 1957, Dr. King spoke to a group of students. He said,--and I gotta apologize that I’m not have a lot of audio recordings of Dr. King’s speeches. Instead, I will read an excerpt. Hope that’s okay. He said, “There are some things within our societal order to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I call upon you to be maladjusted. I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to mob rule. I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic effects of the methods of physical violence and to tragic militarism. I call upon you to be maladjusted to such things.” Later, speaking a Western Michigan University in 1963, he further said, “I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. I am proud to be maladjusted.”   Wow! Here is Dr. King encouraging you to question societal norms that are inconsistent with your values and rights. Of course, things that Dr. King was fighting like segregation and discrimination are no longer legal but there are certainly other things happening and accepted today that you might not want to accept as normal, even if society does such as continued racial discrimination, LGTBQ discrimination, police violence, religious intolerance, economic inequality to name just a few.   Being maladjusted takes courage and conviction. It means going against an impassioned and fearful majority and deciding right and wrong on your own terms. This can be difficult but, as Dr. King said, “Our lives begin to end the day that we become silent about things that matter.” Being maladjusted means not being silent. It means speaking out. It means taking a stand. It means doing something. It can even be dangerous if others who disagree with you feel threatened and become violent. But it is definitely the “high road.” Creative maladjustment does not ask “is it safe?” “is it expedient?” “is it popular?” or “is it efficient?” Creative maladjustment simply asks “is it right?” Only your conscience can answer that question. And, as Dr. King said, “The time is always right to do the right thing.”       Being maladjusted can be expressed in so many ways that can improve your life. It can encourage you to go to college or start a business when others are telling to get a low-paying, dead-end job. It can encourage you to travel and meet new people when others are telling you that it’s better just to stay home. It can encourage you to follow your dreams to be a writer, musician or any other career ambition when others are telling to remain in your comfort zone or take something safe and steady. Being maladjusted can help you to live YOUR life rather than limiting yourself to what other’s say is possible for you.   What an inspirational and courageous concept! With all the difficulties that we face today—things can be quite confusing!—we can all follow the enduring legacy of Dr. King and remain true to our values and let our conscience to our guide.   "There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right."    Let’s move on to the next lesson. Lesson #2 is to work together.   At the commencement speech at Oberlin College in 1965, Dr. King while discussing the importance of unity said, “We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”   When many people talk about the civil rights movement, they focus on the work of Martin Luther King. There’s no doubt that he was at the center of the movement. But he was not alone. There were many organizations and people of all races, ethnicities, genders and backgrounds involved in the civil rights movement. And each person and organization played an important role.   Dr. King was not just a single person leading the movement. He was a founding member and the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, formed in 1957* following the successful 381-day Montgomery bus boycott. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (or SCLC) was a group of Baptist ministers who recruited members from churches to participate in civil rights demonstrations.       There was the NAACP—working nationally and locally to ensure economic, social and political equality, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (or SNCC)—you will hear more about them in a podcast on students in the civil rights movement later this month, there was the Nation of Islam whose most famous member was Malcolm X who focused on Black nationalism, CORE—the Congress of Racial Equality who were instrumental in the freedom rights to register Blacks to vote in the southern states, NAACP Legal Defense Fund led by William Hastie and Thurgood Marshall working hard to document disparate education between schools for Blacks and whites and to abolish the federal and state segregation laws. There were many other organizations involved and thousands of people working at the national and grassroots levels during the civil rights movement. I’m reluctant to mention any names because I can’t say them all and I don’t want to imply that any one was more important than another. But I can’t resist mentioning the “mother of the civil rights movement” Rosa Parks had worked to document and report incidents of white men engaging in systematic and unprosecuted sexual assaults against Black women. She had been involved in this risky work even before she refused to give up her seat on the Montgomery bus on December 1, 1955. There was Harry T. Moore* working in Florida to desegregate schools and demand equal pay for Black teachers. He and his wife were unfortunately killed in a bomb attack by the KKK. His story is amazing but often neglected. There was Viola Davis, a white housewife killed for transporting people during the March on Washington. (Remembering history has made an interesting but sad podcast about people killed fighting for civil rights. You can find it on the Facebook page.) And, of course, there were thousands of people who participated in the marches, sit-ins, freedom rides, boycotts and demonstrations. So many people. All working together.   Of course, there were conflicts and disagreements. Organizations had different approaches to achieving civil rights. Individuals had different motives and visions. But everyone ultimately wanted the same thing: freedom, justice and equality. I think that Dr. King: “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” They had to learn to work together.   No, Dr. King did not act alone. The lesson here is that we must work together towards our common goal. Whether that goal is the cause of justice and equality, fighting for the environment, helping the poor or displaced persons, passing a law, stopping violence or raising a family, nobody walks alone. We must work together. It takes a village!   The lesson is clear: Look for ways to live and work together. Or else everyone loses. Everyone will be defeated. There really is strength in numbers.   Now, let’s turn to the third lesson (and arguably the most important and inspirational lesson of all). Lesson #3 is that you MUST take action.   Martin Luther King was a philosophical man, an educated man, a thinking man and a deeply spiritual man. But he was also a man of action. He was at the forefront of the modern civil rights movement from the beginning. Sometimes, we like to think of him as a man with dreams—and he certainly had dreams and visions of a better world. But he was absolutely committed to working—and I mean working hard—for change in the United States and around the world. And he always encouraged others to take action.   He once said, “Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.”   Is there any doubt that Dr. King was a man of action?   He organized and participated in numerous marches, sometimes in the front of the line. He also organized and participated in demonstrations and boycotts, gave speeches, wrote letters and sometimes just made an appearance to give people hope.   Dr. King was acutely aware that the work also had to occur in the political arena. He met with U.S. presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and Bobby Kennedy (who was attorney general under President Kennedy) constantly pressuring them for legislation on civil rights and voting rights, pressuring them to use federal troops to protect peaceful demonstrators and to enforce the desegregation orders in public schools.   He faced attack dogs, fire hoses and billy clubs in demonstrations. No, he wasn’t present at the Bloody Sunday march from Selma to Montgomery in which the police and local citizens brutalized the nonviolent demonstrators. Afterwards, Dr. King stated, “If I had any idea that the state troopers would use the kind of brutality they did, I would have felt compelled to give up my church duties altogether to lead the line.” He was arrested numerous times, risking getting beaten or killed in jail. Even when he was imprisoned, he wrote his famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail in which he stated firmly that Blacks can’t be patient and wait for change. Change had to happen NOW.   This podcast is just too short to list all of Martin Luther King’s work for civil rights. I just mention a few activities to reinforce the lesson that you must act to make things happen. Whether it is working for a cause, building a business, attending school, looking for a job or anything that is important to you, you must take action to make it happen. Sure, dream about it, envision it, plan it out. But also get to work to make it happen! And remember the words of Dr. King, “If you can’t fly then run. If you can’t run then walk. If you can walk then crawl. But whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”   So, you have the 3 lessons from Dr. Martin Luther King.   To recap:   Be maladjusted—don’t accept the norm if it conflicts with your values. Dare to be different. Work together—the more, the merrier and the more powerful. You don’t need to do it alone, Take action—work, work and keep working to achieve your goals.   That wraps up this Wiki history podcast. I hope that you enjoyed it, learned a little something and felt inspired. If you did like it, I would be grateful if you would tell others about this podcast and about the Wiki history show.   I realize that I mentioned a lot of quotations, names of people and organizations who were instrumental in the civil rights movement. You can get more information, see iconic pictures, find the quotations and even good a book list at the remembering history podcast page on Facebook. You will also find a link to a short animated video about “Lessons from a King”. It’s only 2 minutes and I think that you’ll find interesting and fun. And it’s great for kids of all ages.   The next show is about the Voting Rights Act. Dr. King was absolutely committed to the passage of this important law. You’ll learn about it and how effective it remains today. (Spoiler alert: The Supreme Court has not reigned supreme in protecting voting rights!)   And the final show for January is about the role of student-activists during the civil rights movement. They were bold, brave and didn’t back down. You definitely don’t wanna miss that show!   Come back soon to Remembering History where we ARE remembering history and we’re making it. Every day!   Bye for now!

Today’s guest on the show is documentary photographer Jamel Shabazz. Jamel’s contributions to documentary photography are applauded the all over the world and in my humble opinion Brother Shabazz the is the Gordon Parks of my generation. I marveled at his work way before I knew his name. You have no idea how happy it made me feel to sit at a chess table in the middle of Brooklyn and kick it with some who has and still inspires me to do my best with my skill set every single day. We met up in Dr. Ronald McNair Park across from the Brooklyn Museum to talk about growing up in Brooklyn, self publishing vs traditional publishing, his experience in the military, the summer of 1980, striving to capture images that say something profound, the importance of empathy, the crack era, giving back to the community and much much more. As you are listening to this conversation, I highly recommend you pull up Jamel’s Instagram, website or flip through one of his many photography books as you listen. It will be a great reference to what we are talking about. I’ve provided links to it all at NewYorkSaid.com  Side note, we are in the middle of Brooklyn. So, there will be sirens, there will be interruptions and that’s what you get when you record outside in New York, it tends to want to be present right there with you. That’s enough intro for one show, please enjoy. More About Jamel Shabazz Official Site - http://www.jamelshabazz.com Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jamelshabazz/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Jamel-Shabazz-16841597946/ Shop for Books by Jamel Shabazz Back in the Days - http://amzn.to/2f2MxIc The Last Sunday June - http://amzn.to/2gcrRJJ A Time Before Crack - http://amzn.to/2fNVx2W Seconds of my Life - http://amzn.to/2gy0i1I Pieces of a Man: Photography of Jamel Shabazz: 1980-2015 - http://www.artvoicesartbooks.com/shop/51k7s88fwm6869fxpfenq2lmkhj9yd Links to the Stuff they Talked About West Indian Parade - http://wiadcacarnival.org Eastern Parkway - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Parkway Brooklyn Museum - https://www.brooklynmuseum.org Brooklyn Botanical Gardens - http://www.bbg.org Powerhouse Books - http://www.powerhousebooks.com Black In White America, a book by photojournalist Leonard Freed - http://n.pr/2fBF0fK Alex Haley: The Playboy Interviews - http://amzn.to/2fBzdXB Platoon (1986) - Rotten Tomatoes - http://bit.ly/2flyJna Marvin Gaye (Song) - What's Happening Brother - http://bit.ly/2gi63Oe Luke Cage - http://bit.ly/2fZ2Jal Puma - http://bit.ly/2fBArBT Delancey Street - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delancey_Street Riders Island - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delancey_Street Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson - http://bit.ly/2gi5R1x Short Eyes (Film) - http://bit.ly/2fnwIKR Attica Correctional Facility - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attica_Correctional_Facility Crack Cocaine - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_cocaine Self Destruction (Song) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxyYP_bS_6s The Central Park Five - http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/centralparkfive/ Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come (Official Lyric Video) - http://bit.ly/2fnInZN Book of Eli - http://bit.ly/2ge0xyl Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture - https://nmaahc.si.edu This episode is sponsored by Gorilla Coffee.

BANG! @southernvangard #radio presents the #DresThaBeatnik interview session! It’s always great to have the home team on the show, and Dres is no exception. The beatbox Jedi and host extraordinaire has been building up the ATL hip-hop underground for decades now, so we had to have him on the show when we heard about the return of Mic Club. The weekly MC battle event has been a proving ground since the early 2000s, along with the complimentary Mighty Mighty Beatdown producer battle, and it’s made a return this fall to the scene at the Music Room on Edgewood in Old 4th Ward. We also get into Dres’ incredible placement at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History Culture, taking Mic Club to other cities across the US and discuss who he feels is moving the needle in the ATL underground at the moment. So sit back, hit play, #FOLLOWTHEHAT and never forget it's ALWAYS that #smithsonian #grade #twiceaweek // @southernvangard on #itunes #podcast #stitcherradio #soundcloud #mixcloud // #hiphop #rap #dj #mix #interview #podcast #twiceaweek #ATL #WORLDWIDE Recorded live October 02, 2016 @ Dirty Blanket Studios, Marietta, GA southernvangard.com @southernvangard on #itunes #podcast #stitcherradio #soundcloud #mixcloud twitter/IG: @jondoeatl @southernvangard @cappuccinomeeks @beatlabusa

Smithsonian's Grand Opening of National Museum of African American History & Culture... Renowned Ballet Dance, Lauren Anderson's Toe Shoes Enshrined... The Not Old Better Show celebrates the Grand Opening of the National Museum of African American History & Culture. Renowned ballet dancer, Lauren Anderson, has her ballet toe shoes enshrined and featured in our video. Enjoy.

In advance of his talk as part of Old Dominion University's President’s Lecture Series, we're joined by CNN presidential historian, Douglas Brinkley, to hear his thoughts on this year’s presidential election and “The Evolution of the American Presidency.” And later, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History & Culture opened its doors for the first time this weekend -- we'll talk with the museum’s Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs, Dr. Rex Ellis, about the years of work and research that went into the new museum's creation.