The First Black Child in Her White School

You may have heard of Ruby Bridges.  At the age of six, she single-handedly integrated her all-white school in New Orleans.  Single-handedly, but with help.  On her first day of school, she was met by an angry white mob.  

That was in 1960.  In this NPR piece, Bridges describes the loneliness she experienced because she never saw another child in the school.  She found out later that the white children were being hidden.  She also talks about her white teacher, Mrs. Henry, who advocated for her.  Go here to listen.  

Go here for lots more Black history blogs.  

How much do you know about Ruby Bridges and/or desegregation?  Please leave your comments below.  

Black History Blogs Part 2

Chadwick Boseman Black Panther

I have posted lots more since my previous list of Black history blogs.  I have linked to some of them below.  

Does Black History Matter? Interview with Brother Tony Warner of Black History Walks

Who Were the Scottsboro Nine?

Spree of Executions during Trump’s Final Days

Black Jeopardy with Tom Hanks

Black Jeopardy with Chadwick Boseman

Injustice: The Film the Police Tried to Ban – Interview with Ken Fero

Lockdown Learning: African History Quizzes

Lockdown Learning: Black History Quizzes

What Does the Black Panther Movie Tell Us about Black People?  

Black Panther's African History + the Books to Prove It

100 Years Since the Destruction of the Black Wall Street 

What can we learn from Black history and how can we use this to create a better future?  Please post your answers below and please share this with your networks.  Thanks.  

Go here for my list of Black/African heritage museums in the U.S., Africa, the Caribbean and Europe.  

 

Black History: Who Were the Scottsboro Nine?

The Scottsboro Nine

Content Warning:  This post contains adult content and is not suitable for children.  

In 1931, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, nine Black teenagers, known as the Scottsboro Nine, were convicted of raping two white women.  The men were completely innocent of this crime.  It took just four days for an all-white jury to convict them.  

 As Paul Gardullo, a curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, states, there existed "a myth of black predation on white women when the reality was the polar opposite".  In slavery, Black women were routinely raped and Black men, women and children were exploited and brutalised.  

Go here for more about the Scottsboro Nine.  

Ida B. Wells, a tireless anti-lyching campaigner, produced the Red Record, having systematically researched accounts of lynchings which were based on the fallacy of Black men raping white women.  Wells proved that these accounts were wholly false.  

For more about Ida B. Wells, see:  Ida B. Wells:  a Passion for Justice.  

See also:  Black History:  New Revelations about Emmett Till. 

Go here for more of my Black history blog posts.  

I have two questions for you today:  

1) Does this incident remind you of anything that has happened in the past year or few years?; and 

2) If so, what can be done about this repeated pattern?  

I have my own thoughts about this, but I want to know what you think.  

Please comment below and please share this with your networks.  Thanks.  

Does Black History Really Matter?

London Black History Walks

I very much enjoyed this conversation with Brother Tony Warner of London Black History Walks.  

As always, he shared loads of Black history information and details.  Listening to Brother Tony is an education. 

Listen below.  

We discussed:

• Are people in the UK aware of Black history in Britain, the United States and elsewhere?
• And are African Americans aware of Black British history?
• What has been the contribution of Black women to Black history?
• How have Black women been represented in history and in film?
• African Odysseys films - how and why did they come into being, and what is the significance of this ongoing series?

One thing that came out of this discussion was the importance of sharing this information globally.  People in the United States are unaware of UK Black history, and often know nothing about the experience of Black people globally.

I urge you to attend Black history walks, talks, films, and, now, bus tours and boat trips with London Black History Walks (once the lockdown is lifted).

Go here for lots of my Black history blogs. 

I have Black history quizzes for all the family on my Coronavirus Resources page. 

Please share this with your networks and please leave your comments below.  Thanks.

Lockdown Learning: Black History Quizzes

Garrett Morgan

The covid-19 lockdown offers us a great opportunity to brush up on Black history.  And if your children are bored at home, you can complete these online quizzes with them.  They provide fun for the whole family.  

If you are serious about Black history, you will want to read my book Black Success Stories, in which I interviewed the late Len Garrison, founder of the Black Cultural Archives, and Jak Buela, creator of the Black history quiz game “Nubian Jak”

and author of Nubian Jak's Book of World Facts.  Garrison describes how he collected Black archive material and explains you can research your family history. “Nubian Jak” shares a huge range of factual information about Black people all over the world.

It's Black History Month Trivia!

This is an easy quiz, accessible for children and young people. It focuses primarily on U.S. Black history. 

And remember, every month is Black History Month.   

Sample question: Garrett Morgan is responsible for which two inventions?

1. Traffic light, gas mask
2. Traffic light,cars
3. Gas mask,stop sign

Women of Black History: Quiz

This is a slightly harder Black history quiz. This one also focuses primarily on African American (U.S.) history.

Sample question: She starred in an all-black version of the play, Hello Dolly!

• Pearl Bailey
• Leontyne Price
• Josephine Baker
• Isadora Duncan

Black History Trivia Questions & Answers Quiz

This one is slightly harder. Again, this quiz focuses primarily on African American (U.S.) history.

Sample question: What was the first American state to ban slavery?

Go here for my short film Harriet, a Choreopoem, which imagines a meeting between Harriet Tubman and Harriet Jacobs.

Go here for loads more Black history and African history blogs.

I am listing resources for the Coronavirus lockdown, including meditation, relaxation, music, financial abundance resources and more, here.

Tomorrow, I will post about online African history quizzes.  

 

Celebrating Coretta Scott King with Dr. Barbara Reynolds

Dr. Barbara Reynolds of Black Women for Positive Change on Coretta Scott King - mother, organiser, campaigner, and widow of Dr. Martin Luther King.

See also:  "MLK on Why Black Is Beautiful".

Go here for more Black history blogs.

Please share this with your networks and please leave your comments below.  Thanks.

Black History: How to Give the Gift of Knowledge

Len Garrison

Do you want to give the gift of knowledge to your child?  Do you want your child to be aware of Black history and heritage?

Did you know that the late, great Len Garrison, who created the Black Cultural Archives in London, did so with no training and no funding?

Want to find out how he did it and how to research your own history?  Read my interview with him. Go here for my book Black Success Stories.  Order your copy today!

Go here for more Black history blogs.

Please share this with your networks and please leave your comments below.  Thanks.

Black Panther's African History + the Books to Prove It

This is another highly enjoyable, engaging and educational event from London Black History Walks. If you want to learn about the practical, historical basis for The Black Panther Movie, take the opportunity to attend this event. 

Go here to read my review of The Black Panther Movie. 

And go here for the next event, on 28th April.  

I am not going to share all the knowledge Brother Tony dropped on us.  Instead, I will raise some of the questions he asked. 

What was the first superhero film produced by Marvel Studios?  Okay, I will give you that one.  Go here for the answer.  

Who is the richest superhero in the Marvel universe?  

Is there a real-life precedent for a rare precious mineral which is found in abundance in an African country?  

Who first used the term "Black Panther" and used a black panther logo?  (It's probably not who you think.)  

Are there real-life examples of an African king or leader having an all-female bodyguard?  

What African language does the Black Panther speak?  

What is another name for the British Museum?  

What precious African artefacts are held in the British Museum and other collections?  Again, I'll give you this one - go here for one answer- one of many. 

Go here for more Black history and African history blogs.  


Please share this post with your networks and please leave your comments below.  Thanks. 

Black History Blogs

MLK voting 1964

I have posted many Black history posts on this blog and I think it's useful to list them.  So you can find many of them listed below (in no particular order).

Plus click here for some of my African history blog posts.

Please share these with your networks, and particularly with parents, children and young people, and teachers and schools.  Please leave your comments on the individual blog posts.

Please note, I DO NOT distinguish between African history and Black history. Its all the history of African people on the Continent and in the Diaspora. If you are familiar with my work, such as my More Black Success ebooks, you now that all of my work has a global

Slavery by Another Name

African focus. Whether we are in Africa, in the Caribbean, in Europe, in the United States or the Americas – wherever we are, we are African people.

But since I know that some people make a distinction between Black people and African people, and because I know this distinction is important to some people, I have listed them separately. Remember, we are one people, and it is all the history of African people. And remember, too, EVERY MONTH IS BLACK

Josephine Baker

HISTORY MONTH.

Black History Blogs

Black History Presentation: The Black Image

The Black History of X-Men

Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey on the Importance of History

African Hair before Bondage

Why Black History Matters

Why Black History Matters Part 2

Aimé Césaire Centennial at the Schomburg

What Can We Learn from Our History?

Samuel L. Jackson on 12 Years a Slave

70th Anniversary of D-Day

Break the Silence Congo Week

Remembering The Somme

The Negro Soldier

Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey on the Importance of History

Ida B. Wells – A Passion for Justice

Mary Seacole Strikes Back

Slavery by Another Name

MLK's “Lost” Newcastle Speech

MLK: Black Is Beautiful

Harriet, A Choreopoem

Black in London

Celebrating Black History

Healing Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome

Is Black Really Beautiful?

Soul Survivors Slave Narratives

Civil Rights, Fannie Lou Hamer, Black Women and Hysterectomy

Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey: The Mothers of Modern Gynecology

Gil Scott Heron: Message to the Messengers

You Couldn't Even Try on Shoes 

Black History Film:  Freedom Riders  

Click here for some African history blogs.   

Please share these with your networks and please leave your comments on the individual posts.  Thanks.