Celebrating Black History Month

MCcuddles2

I'll start by listing one of my favorite people. I had his posters, and this one in particular, growing up. A symbol of physical and mental strength, moral courage and how to make a stand against oppression and injustice.

I grew up poor and around violence. I drew a lot of strength and inspiration from this man.

Babichev

I remember Muhammad Ali. I remember his bluster and bravado, we kids loved to mimic him at the time. I did not appreciate him until much later in life.

I went to see the film I Am Not Your Negro when it came out a few years ago. I remember some of the events that are recorded in that film. One of the things that particularly struck me was a clip of James Baldwin on the Dick Cavett Show. Baldwin was very blunt and did not hold back at all what he had to say about race relations in the U.S. I admired him for speaking out and gained a new respect for Cavitt. What Baldwin had to say was pretty radical and it was bold of Cavitt to give him a platform to say it. I saw the other day that - I think it’s Hulu - has it this month. I recommend it.

Meanwhile, here’s a recording of a famous debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley Jr. that took place in 1965. I wonder if Buckley was embarrassed about it later in life.

I admire Baldwin. A lot.

JoyfulHeart

Today is Rosa Parks' birthday. ❤️

Mela_B

He was a great man.

As part of my certification program with Cuddle Sanctuary, I was required to complete a twenty one day racial equity challenge, which included reading, watching, listening, and engaging with material produced by people of color.

I've already spent much of my life educating myself, as any non person of color should do, but the emotional impact this challenge had on me has been irreversible.

I was also required to read the book "My Grandmother's Hands, by Resmaa Menakem. It was profoundly life changing for a number of reasons, and I am wholly grateful to Cuddle Sanctuary for promoting this challenge, and changing my life. ❤️

Babichev

Shirley Chisholm is another person I admired a lot. She was the first woman of African descent to be elected to Congress. She had class.

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/shirley-chisholm

MCcuddles2

@Babichev thanks for bringing up James Baldwin. I really enjoyed his book "go tell it to the mountain".

I've also watched some of his debates and they are really impactful. I haven't seen the one you posted but I will watch it.

supadupa

Thomas Sowell, a great man and a great thinker

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sowell

MCcuddles2

Two other fictional books, both written by black authors, which are interesting for anyone wanting to understand the black experience through black authors.

ClubSamwiches

Ohhh yess! I’ve been waiting for this thread to happen. I’m half black and proud af! I’m going with a musical theme for my post…

My great grandfather, the king of hi-de-ho, Cab Calloway 😍🥰

Rock & Roll pioneer, the first androgynous gender-bending rockstar, Little Richard

The queen of black musical social justice, Nina Simone

Guitar hero, Jimi Hendrix

The king of funk, George Clinton 🤩

DaringSprinter

Alexandre Dumas. Another of my favorite authors!

The wonderful Pauli Murray.

Pauli was arrested two decades before the American Civil Rights Movement for sitting in the 'whites only' section of a bus. This was the impetus for pursuing a law degree at Harvard, where he graduated top of his class.

Due to Harvard policy of the time to limit postgraduate study to (cisgender) men, Pauli instead attended Yale, where he became the first African American to earn a doctorate of jurisprudence. A paper written by Pauli helped to challenge the Jim Crow laws, and Pauli became an activist for both women's rights and Black rights, among other things, organising sit-in that successfully desegregated restaurants in Washington, D.C.

Pauli was the first African American AFAB person to be ordained an Episcopal priest. He has since been venerated as a Saint.

Pauli Murray was assigned female at birth but never felt that the label fit, instead describing himself as having an 'inverted sexual identity' in which he desired to be in a monogomas relationship with a woman, but as a man. He frequently used either masculine or gender neutral language to describe himself, having not had the language at the time to describe himself as transgender. Out of respect to Pauli's self-identified gender identity I have used he/him pronouns throughout, something which I wish he had had the ability to do for himself as a young man. Pauli was a trailblazer in so many ways, and sacrificed his own personal happiness and loving relationships with women in order to improve the lives of people around him, while trying to avoid the stigma of his relationships and personal identity from derailing or undermining his cause.

Ironman294

This is Johnny Hartman a wonderful jazz singer who was a contemporary of Nat King Cole who overshadowed him. But listen to his beautiful voice in this song!

snugbuddy

To celebrate I started reading Robert Cardinal Sarah's book The Day is now Far Spent

MCcuddles2

There is a Buffalo soldier museum in Houston. I found my time there to be saddening and informative.

I love this song by Bob.

UKGuy

I recommend the "Hidden Figures" movie.
Preview:

CuddlesByGracie

Colson Whitehead, uniquely talented at blending sci-fi/speculative fiction with allegorical social commentary. His debut novel 'The Intuitionist' just blew me away and I've loved everything he's written since.

tucsonaz

Ben Carson performed the first successful separation of conjoined twins who were attached at the back of the head.

Babichev

Lots of good stuff here!

Sojourner Truth has long been a favorite figure of mine both as an abolitionist, her work on the Underground Railroad, and as a feminist.

This link has her famous “Ain’t I A Woman” speech, which was how I first learned about her.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/sojourner-truth.htm

Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to upload a photo of her. However, in trying to figure out how to do that I came across this fascinating article about how she was an early pioneer in using photography to help end slavery.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-sojourner-truth-used-photography-help-end-slavery-180959952/

SSRequiescence

Celebrating Jimmy Cobb. I saw him live at a Jazz festival and I really admired his techniques, even at a whopping 89/90 years old still beating the drums with the same energy he did in his younger years!!! I was really impressed and inspired by his energy once he started playing, this made me so proud of him from afar! Jimmy Cobb was a huge part of Miles Davis’s iconic Jazz ensemble and was the last surviving member, unfortunately he passed away during Covid. I’m very lucky to have seen this legendary Jazz drummer a few years ago while I had the chance. I do enjoy all different types of music but classical,jazz, and the blues really speak to me!

ClubSamwiches

PUT IT ON THE WATCHLIST!

JoyfulHeart

I was always fascinated by George Washington Carver, who invented crop rotation; it's a concept that is now taken for granted throughout agriculture, but it has a profound effect on soil productivity.

He also discovered over 300 uses for the peanut. Before he did that, the peanut wasn't even considered to be a crop. Although he didn't invent peanut butter, his work effects all of our lives today.

CuddleDuncan

@JoyfulHeart he may well have been an advocate of crop rotation but he did not invent it. It's been used for at least 8,000 years.

Spud424

If you have the PBS app you must see the Ken Burns documentary on Muhammad Ali that premiered last fall. An outstanding film about an outstanding man https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/muhammad-ali/

SincereGenuine

My Favorite Moments in Black History: Richard Nixon Was a Friend to Black People

JoyfulHeart

@CuddleDuncan I stand corrected: you are right.

DaringSprinter

Ah, yes. MLK and Nixon.

“And I had known Nixon longer. He had been supposedly close to me, and he would call me frequently about things, seeking my advice. And yet, when this moment came, it was like he had never heard of me. So this is why I really considered him a moral coward and one who was really unwilling to take a courageous step and take a risk.”

—Martin Luther King Jr

Babichev

An interview with Dorothy Butler Gilliam, the first African-American reporter at the Washington Post and a trailblazer in the field of journalism. When she came to the post, they did not report on the deaths and murders of black people because they did not think their lives had value.

ShaneSchrute

(Edited to keep this thread on topic.)

Ironman294

..

MCcuddles2

For those who would like to vigorously debate about who should and shouldn't be in this thread, you are welcome to do so in a separate thread. Please leave this thread alone.

DaringSprinter

Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician and scientist, was pretty dang awesome.

She helped send humanity to the moon—and only died two years ago, at the ripe old age of 101. This amazing woman showed strong mathematical abilities from an early age, but because Greenbrier County didn't offer public schooling for African-American students past the eighth grade, her family had to arrange for her to attend high school in Institute, West Virginia.

Imagine if they hadn't been able to make the arrangements! (Imagine how many similarly talented black kids' parents weren't.) What a terrible waste that would have been.