e-culture: Celebrate Black History, Chinese New Year and Mardi Gras
February 04, 2002
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Celebrating Black History Month
The History of Black History Month
Black History Month Spotlight: Frederick Douglass
Black History Month Resource Links
Black History in Houston
Black History Month Events in Houston
Black History Month Recommended Reading
THE HISTORY OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Black History Month was established in 1926 to formally recognize the achievements and contributions of African Americans, which were mostly unacknowledged in the 400 year history of colonization and course of empire in the "New World". Africans came with the first Spaniards, as slaves and as conquerors. Africans, such as the Moorish slave Esteban, led Spanish explorations and their influence is present in the architecture of churches and other historic structures in the Spanish colonial cities today. African culture is firmly rooted in the diverse peoples of North and South America, and can be found directly in traditional arts, such as music and dance, from Brazil to Chicago and beyond. Through traditional arts, Africans found commonality with many of the oppressed indigenous cultures in the Americas. Like the indigenous peoples of the Americas, they had no other voice.
Slavery was abolished later in the United States than in most Latin American countries. Prior to the U.S. Civil War, nations like Nicaragua and Mexico fought with factions of Anglo colonists who wanted to re-instate slavery where it had been outlawed. While the United States was growing into an economic power in the Western Hemisphere, conditions for African Americans continued to deteriorate in the decades following Emancipation.
The need for a voice in government was most urgent, when Abraham Lincoln appointed abolitionist Frederick Douglass to be his presidential adviser during the Civil War. Douglass was instrumental in the passage of laws and amendments that guaranteed civil liberties and voting rights for African Americans. Other Black voices were soon heard in the U.S. government, as Hiram Revels became the first Black United States Senator on February 25, 1870.
Many important milestones led to the establishment of Black History Month and many have followed.
January 1, 1863, at the insistance of Frederick Douglass, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, decreeing freedom for slaves.
With the Union victorious, the Civil War ended on April 9, 1865.
Proposed on January 31 and ratified December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery.
On February 3, 1870, passage of the 15th Amendment granted African Americans the right to vote.
The NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was formed on February 12, 1909.
In 1926, Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson established "Negro History Week" during the second week of February to commemorate the birthday of Frederick Douglass and create a purposeful forum that has since become Black History Month. He established The Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History (See links below) more than a decade earlier in 1915.
Frederick Douglass Patterson established the United Negro College Fund in 1944.
Though it was nearly 100 years after the Civil War, an event on February 1, 1960, would be marked as the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. Perhaps through the greater consciousness inspired by Black History Month and the legacies of leaders like Frederick Douglass and Carter G. Woodson, a group of college students organized "sit-in" demonstrations to protest segregation at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH SPOTLIGHT: FREDERICK DOUGLASS
In February of 1818, Frederick Douglass was born the son of a slave, Harriet Baily, and an unconfirmed White father, believed to be the plantation owner. He later took the name Douglass in his flight for freedom.
It was illegal to teach slaves to read. When Douglass learned this was to prevent slaves from seeking their freedom, he studied the alphabet on his own and found poor White children around his home near Easton, Maryland willing to pass on their school lessons to him. He bought newspapers and printed versions of speeches, and cultivated his political ideology of democracy for all before becoming a teenager. He made several attempts to escape to Pennsylvania, where slavery was banned. When he finally escaped, he continued on to New York City to avoid slave catchers.
An Underground Railroad organizer helped Douglass find work and security in Massachusetts, where he became associated with the American Anti-Slavery Society. Using debate skills that he practiced during his secret association with free Blacks in Maryland, he impressed the attendees at an annual meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society and in 1841, William Garrison asked him to become an agent of the organization. Douglass was 23.
In 1845, Douglass published his true life story, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. To avoid being reclaimed by his former owner in Maryland, Douglass toured England, where slavery was abolished in 1838, and lectured to highly-receptive audiences. English sympathizers bought his freedom so Douglass could return to America without fear, though Douglass maintained their support was unnecessary as no man had the right to own any other man. After the English campaign boosted Douglass to the level of international celebrity, in 1947 the 28-year-old Douglass returned to the United States. He created the abolitionist journal, the North Star.
Based in Rochester, New York, the North Star grew to become the most famous abolitionist newspaper in the country. As the editor, Douglass became involved in the growing cause of equal rights and voting rights for women. He associated with the most important activists of the day, including Susan B. Anthony, Garrit Smith, John Brown and Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. He worked to associate the anti-slavery cause with that of women's rights and to press for a political solution to the issue of slavery. He successfully ended segregation in Rochester schools.
The hard road to end slavery came with unexpected detours. Following the arrest and execution of John Brown for his October 16,1859 attack on Harper's Ferry, Virginia, Douglass was accused of supporting the operation. He fled to Canada fearing an unfair trial. In 1859 and 1860, Douglass lectured in England and France.
In the presidential election of 1861, Douglass first backed Liberty candidate Garrit Smith and later Abraham Lincoln, believing the Republican abolitionist candidate's victory essential and more achievable. As the Confederate States seceded from the Union, Douglass campaigned for Blacks to join the Union army to fight against the South. Douglass also campaigned for the Emancipation Proclamation, made by Lincoln on December 31, 1862. Douglass became an adviser to Lincoln and was charged with planning a mass evacuation of slaves from Southern States should the North lose the war. Even in the favor and service of the President of the United States, Douglass was denied equal treatment by government officials.
In December of 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment officially abolished slavery and Douglass turned his efforts to achieving the right for Blacks to vote and for Blacks to receive the full benefit of citizenship enjoyed by Whites. In March of 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment gave Blacks, but not women, the right to vote; Women supports were upset that sympathetic suffrage activists like Douglass had not been able to gain the right for women. Douglass continued to campaign for an end to the violence of oppressive organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. He continued to tour and lecture on a variety of subjects, in addition to holding several government posts. He wrote prolifically on many subjects, including his life and discrimination.
Frederick Douglass has been called "the father of the Civil Rights movement in the United States." For more than 70 years, Douglass struggled for his own freedom from slavery and dedicated his life to freedom for all African Americans. Frederick Douglass died on February 20, 1895 in Washington, D.C. at 77.
Recommended Reading:
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (1845)
My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass (1855)
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (1881)
"The Meaning of the 4th of July for the Negro" (speech) by Frederick Douglass
"The Lesson of the Hour" (speech) by Frederick Douglass
A biography of Frederick Douglass
http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/douglass/home.html
On Racial Frontiers: The New Culture of Frederick Douglass, Ralph Ellison and Bob Marley by Gregory Stephens (1998)
More Information On Line:
Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
http://www.nps.gov/frdo/freddoug.html
(Note: Many park service web sites are currently unavailable due to a law suit.)
The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/doughtml/
BLACK HISTORY MONTH RESOURCES LINKS
Gateway to African American History
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/blackhis
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History
http:www.asalh.com
Excerpt of a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
http://www.houstonculture.org/hifc/quote10.html
National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
http://www.voterights.org
National Civil Rights Museum
http://www.mecca.org/~crights
More information on Memphis:
http://www.houstonculture.org/terra/delta.html#memphis
BLACK HISTORY IN HOUSTON
Houston's history is marred with racist attacks and riots caused by repression of African Americans in the decades that followed the Civil War leading up to World War I. Predominantly Black prison labor was used to replace slave labor on the plantations in and around Houston. It didn't require much more than being Black to become a prison laborer.
The oppression of African Americans culminated in the Camp Logan Riots of 1918, when armed Black troops from Camp Logan, now the site of Memorial Park, marched to the police station to demand answers following the brutal beating of a Black woman and two Black Military Police officers in an incident involving Houston's notoriously racist police force. The angry troops were confronted by armed policemen, civilians and National Guardsmen. A lengthy gun battle resulted in the deaths of twelve Whites and one Black soldier. Lawmakers' response was to remove Black soldiers from Houston and ban the induction of Blacks into the army.
Graduate students from the College of Education at the University of Houston are creating an important web site chronicling this little-known time period in Houston's history. Please consult this valuable resource:
UNTOLD STORIES: The Strange Demise of Jim Crow in Houston
http://www.coe.uh.edu/untold_stories
"Untold Stories" chronicles important events in Houston's own Civil Rights movement and describes the role of prominent African Americans, such as Thurgood Marshall and Reverend Bill Lawson.
The web site will offer supporting resources for the book, "No Color Is My Kind: The Life of Eldrewey Stearns and the Integration of Houston", by Thomas R. Cole.
http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/colnoc.html
Some of Houston's most notorious law officers are immortalized in Leadbelly's song, "Midnight Special", in which the folk singer recalls his experience living in Houston and spending time on the Central State Prison Farm in Sugar Land. Today, Leadbelly is considered one of the most prolific songwriters to emerge from Houston's troubled past.
Read more about him:
Huddie Ledbetter, aka "Leadbelly"
More interesting links:
Cultural Crossroads
In our April Newsletter, we will bring you the tragic story of "Black Wallstreet" (and a Tulsa, Oklahoma event with some parallels to the Camp Logan Riots), and its unusual pop cultural connection. Stay tuned.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH EVENTS IN HOUSTON
Honorable: Buffalo Soldiers
Friday, February 1 through Friday, March 1
Display case exhibits authentic clothing and artifacts worn by the renown Buffalo Soldiers with photos and a brief history of the exhibit.
and, Ensemble Theater
Tuesday, February 12, 7:00 p.m.
A joyous evening of dramatic performances commemorating African American history. Suitable for all ages.
Black Heritage Committee
and, Black Heritage Committee Celebration
Tuesday, February 19, 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
A joyous evening of dramatic performances commemorating African American history.
Suitable for all ages.
Black Heritage Committee
Houston Public Library, Vinson Branch Library
3100 West Fuqua
Houston, Texas 77045
http://www.hpl.lib.tx.us/hpl/branches/vin_home.html
Black History Month Display
Monday, February 4 through Thursday, February 28
Display case exhibits African American art and artifacts.
and, African American Storytime and Craft
Tuesday, February 19, 10:30 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.
Children's area
A special craft and storytime for Black History Month!
Suitable for children 2+ accompanied by an adult.
Houston Public Library, Freed-Montrose Branch Library
4100 Montrose
Houston, Texas 77006
http://www.hpl.lib.tx.us/hpl/branches/mon_home.html
More of Black History Month 2002 at the Houston Public Library:
http://www.hpl.lib.tx.us/gala/bhm2002
Citywide African American Artists Exhibition
February 1 through 28
In celebration of Black History Month, every February the African American Art Advisory Association (Five-A) of the MFAH goes citywide.
This year marks the sixth annual citywide art exhibition. Five-A is exhibiting works by local artists at the ExxonMobil Building, the Houston Area Urban League, the Houston City Hall Annex, the Houston Public Library Downtown Branch, the Ley Student Center at Rice University, the Pennzoil-Quaker State Building, Prairie View A&M College of Nursing, and the Robert J. Terry Library at Texas Southern University.
Five-A was established to expand the museum's permanent collection of African and African-American art and to educate the community about this art. Five-A membership dues and fund-raising proceeds support programs and purchases of art for the MFAH permanent collections. For more information about the Citywide African American Artists Exhibition or Five-A, call 713-639-7864.
and, Eye on Third Ward: Yates Magnet School Photography
Now through February 24, 2002
The Caroline Wiess Law Building
This annual collaborative exhibition, cosponsored by the MFAH and Jack Yates High School's Magnet School of Communication, features black-and-white photographs taken by students at Yates High School.
Since the founding of this innovative museum-school partnership eight years ago, museumgoers have marveled at the students' ability to capture the daily life of Houston's Third Ward neighborhood through timeless, vibrant images. Following the MFAH showing, the exhibition will travel to churches, libraries, and community centers throughout Texas.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
1001 Bissonnet (at Main), Houston, Texas 77005
713-639-7300
713-639-7390 (TDD/TTY)
http://www.mfah.org/current-exhibitions.html
BLACK HISTORY MONTH RECOMMENDED READING
The Black Cowboys (African-American Achievers) by Gina De Angelis (Chelsea House Publishing)
Fifty Black Women Who Changed America by Amy Alexandra (Citadel Press)
(Fifty Black Women... includes Phillis Weatley, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Odetta, Bessie Smith, Angela Davis and Alice Walker.)
Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey: A Journey to Music's Heart and Soul by Bill Wyman (DK Publishing)
In Our Own Image: Treasured African-American Traditions by Patrik Henry Bass and Karen Pugh (Running Press)
One Time One Place: Mississippi in the Depression (A Snapshot Album) by Eudora Welty (University Press of Mississippi)
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