Primary Sources, Black History

Dr. Mary Frances Berry Speaking at the ASALH Annual Luncehon! Established on September 9, 1915 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, we are the Founders of Black History  Month and carry forth the work of our founder, the Father of Black History.  We continue his legacy  of speaking a fundamental truth to the world--that Africans and peoples of African descent are makers of  history and co-workers in what W. E. B. Du Bois called, "The Kingdom of Culture."  ASALH's mission is to  create and disseminate knowledge about Black History, to be, in short, the nexus between the Ivory Tower  and the global public.  We labor in the service of Blacks and all humanity

Oberlin College In 1835 became the first predominately white collegiate institution to admit African American male students and two years later it opened its doors to all women, becoming the first coeducational college in the country.   In 1862, Mary J Patterson earned a B.A. becoming the first African American woman to earn a degree from an American college. Other black women had graduated earlier but did not receive the collegiate degree (BA). As part of the Underground Railroad, Oberlin’s intricate network of back road routes and safe houses, the college and town provided refuge for fugitive slaves bound for Canada.  In 1858, students, faculty, and residents of Oberlin and nearby Wellington, Ohio rescued a runaway slave John Price from U.S. marshals, and transported him to freedom in Canada.   One year later three African American residents of the town of Oberlin, Shields Green, Lewis Sheridan Leary, and John Anthony Copeland, participated in John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry. Unfortunately recently, Cla

Mary, Free, Educated & A Spy! Disguise... Confederate White House Slave  Mary was the best as she was working right in The Confederate President's home.  She had a photographic mind. Everything Mary saw on the Rebel President’s desk she could repeat word for word.    “Ellen Bond” was neither dim-witted, illiterate, nor a slave. In reality she was a free, well educated African American woman by the name of Mary Elizabeth Bowser. And she was a Union spy working right under Confederate President Jefferson Davis’s nose. For months during the most crucial period of the Civil War, as General Ulysses S. Grant maneuvered to capture Richmond, the Confederate capital, Mary supplied critical military intelligence to the Union army. In recognition of her contributions to the Union war effort, she was inducted into the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Hall of Fame in 1995.   Elizabeth was able to arrange for a friend to take Mary with her as a servant to help at social functions held by Varina Davis in the

"Lincoln blames the Free Blacks for the war," Holzer explains. "[He] says, if it wasn't for your presence here this wouldn't be happening. Go where the ban is not upon you, he tells them. Go to the Caribbean, go to Africa." Watch the Video  On Aug. 14 1862, Abraham Lincoln hosted a “Deputation of Free Negroes” at the White House, led by the Rev. Joseph Mitchell, commissioner of emigration for the Interior Department. It was the first time African Americans had been invited to the White House on a policy matter. The five men were there to discuss a scheme that even a contemporary described as a “simply absurd” piece of “charlatanism”: resettling emancipated slaves on a 10,000-acre parcel of land in present-day Panama.   Edward M. Thomas, John F. Cook, Cornelius C. Clark, John T. Costin, and Benjamin McCoy—met with Lincoln in August 1862 to debate his proposal for a black colony in Central America Cook, Costin, and Clark were members of the Social Civil and Statistical Association, A black city-based organiza

Black Emigrationists~ Book Reading, Black Abolitionists by Benjamin Quarles! Black Emigrationists Newspaper

Black Abolitionists chp 9 Benjamin Quarles ~"Before the ship's owner could arrest them under the 1793 Fugitive Slave Law, a group of 6 black women rushed into the state Supreme Court . While the attorney for Morris was addressing the judge, Someone in the spectator's section shouted, "Go, go." Whereupon A colored woman "of great size," who scrubbed floors for a living, threw her arms around the neck of one officer, Immobilizing him while the other colored people rushed to the bench and bore Eliza and Polly Ann down the courthouse steps and shoved them into a waiting carriage. Eliza and Polly Ann were never recaptured, and their abettors went scot-free, although the Sheriff C.P. Sumner, father of Charles Sumner (movie Lincoln starring Tommie Lee Jones) was criticized for permitting such a breach of the peace. 

Maya Angelou on Quilts & Slavery- Sunday, March 10 ~ Harriet Tubman Day!  On July 15th the producer of The Gist of Freedom was blessed with the opportunity, by chance to call in and speak to Maya Angelou on The Rolonda Watts Blog Talk Radio Show.   Ten Days of Harriet Tubman Activities  Delaware Governor Markell officially proclaims March 10th as Harriet Tubman Day, the centennial of Harriet Tubman’s death!   This Scenic Byway features true stories and real sites associated with Harriet Tubman   The Inaugural Delaware Harriet Tubman Commemorative 2 mile walk, ride, run and race event 

Join The Gist of Freedom as we continue our reading -The Free Black Vote- Book Black Abolitionists, By Benjamin Quarles chapter 9. 

Click and Listen to Lezlie wells Harper, owner operator of  Niagara Bound Tours Company located in Canada- Tonight on The Gist of Freedom with host Preston Washington!   WWW.BlogTalkRadio.com/BLackHISTORY   NBT is an attraction tour company established in 2004 in the Niagara region that specializes in quality, customized, early Canadian Black history attraction tours (Underground Railroad era) known as “The Crossing Point Tour”.   Our goal is to provide our clients with a unique insight into the migration of Afro-Americans as they escaped slavery in the mid-19th century and settled in southern Ontario, Canada.   We create experiences that capture the essence of what was faced by those forced to flee the slave states, while also giving the historical perspective where local stories will also be told. The success of Niagara Bound Tours is based upon our exemplary knowledge of the period as it relates to this region, our customer service and our tour content.   Our customized tours include a step on guide who is

Join us in NYC at The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial & Educational Center  The Gist of Freedom is pleased to present in partnership with The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial & Educational Center and ILyasah Shabazz Enterprises: A Historic Film Screening "Slavery By Another Name" with Award Winning Filmmaker, Sam Pollard, Host, Ilyasah Al-Shabazz, Panelists Michael Coard, Dr.Walter Greason, Stephanie James Wilson and moderator Roy R. Paul!  Saturday February 16th, 7pm

Dating from its origin, the Negro press printed the names of black informants,Freedom's Journal listing those of Moses Smith, formerly of Baltimore, and Nathan Gooms of New York, in its issue of November 7, 1828. The mere appearance of these names in the columns of the weekly was a sufficient deterrent to die other informers whose identity the editors threatened to reveal. When Martin R, Delany was editor of The Black Underground  Dr. Martin R. Delaney, founder of the Pittsburgh Mystery in 1842 and later was co-editor of the North Star. In August 1858 two runaways were betrayed by John Brodie, who had promised to assist them in returning to Covington, Kentucky, to effect the liberation of relatives. Brodie's treachery nearly cost him his life.  He was seized by a group of Negroes, who proceeded to give him three hundred blows with a paddle, a stroke for each dollar he was supposed to have received from the slave-catchers. Only the presence of the influential Henry Highland Garnet saved Brodie from further p

Join The Gist of Freedom as we welcome Filmmaker Keith Beauchamp (The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till) returns to The ID Channel with– THE INJUSTICE FILES: HOOD OF SUSPICION  Premieres on Wednesday, February @ 8 PM   Keith Beauchamp, who has worked with us over the last three years on this deeply moving series. After exploring civil rights cold cases in 2011 and suspected modern “lynchings” in 2012, this year Keith returns with a thoughtful look at the continuing efforts of heroes who shockingly even today still need to fight for equal rights.” Modern day self-defense laws, such as Florida’s Stand Your Ground law which was invoked in the Trayvon Martin case, and the Castle Doctrine – which states that a person has no duty to retreat when their home is attacked – continue to perpetuate the pattern of discrimination against African Americans. THE INJUSTICE FILES: HOOD OF SUSPICION examines three such recent cases, including: ROBBIE TOLAN: Bellaire, TX, REKIA BOYD: Chicago, IL and John McNeil   

 International Anti-Slavery Movement-Book Black Abolitionist chapters 7& 8! when the idea suddenly flashed across my mind of shutting myself up in a box, and getting myself conveyed as dry goods to a free state. he did not think I could live in a box for so long a time as would be necessary to convey me to Philadelphia, where I was again placed with my head down, and in this dreadful position had to remain nearly an hour and a half, which, from the sufferings I had thus to endure, seemed like an age to me, but I was forgetting the battle of liberty, and I was resolved to conquer or die. I felt my eyes swelling as if they would burst from their sockets; and the veins on my temples were dreadfully distended with pressure of blood upon my head. In this position I attempted to lift my hand to my face but I had no power to move it; I felt a cold sweat coming over me which seemed to be a warning that death was about to terminate my earthly miseries, but as I feared even that, less than slavery, I resolved to

The Gist of Freedom welcomes Ida B. Wells: Warrior For Justice presented by Safiya Bandele!    "The Review of Reviews announced that Wells, “a talented and resolute young lady of colour”, was on a pilgrimage around the British Isles to campaign on the subject of Negro lynching; they also published these Sadistic Statistics, "in 1893, excluding Sundays, a Coloured man was lynched every day from January to December." I had bought a pistol the first thing after Tom Moss was lynched, because I expected some cowardly retaliation from the lynchers. I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap… I felt if I could take one lyncher with me, this would even up the score a little bit!    

The Gist of Freedom welcomes Neva Smith, retired Insurance executive! Church Benevolent Society's Angel Becomes the first black millionaire in the country    Prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, Free Blacks formed Mutual Aid, self help,Benevolent Societies to collect money as a means to ensure no one would become impoverished. They served as a primary weapon of  resistance. These societies  were the central mechanism for collecting and disbursing shared pool of wealth.    Unfortunately, In Georgia, laws were passed to mandate the level of reserves that all insurance companies had to maintain and this was a major problem for many of these black burial associations. A church benevolent society unable to meet the $5000 reserve  sought out Alonzo Herndon, a successful barber and a former slave, to buy them out.  Herndon  owned three very successful barber shops and he made a fortune from this trade which he invested heavily in real estate. His success in barbering was spectacular, he acquired more than 100

Join The Gist of Freedom as we present The Book Reading: Black Abolitionists By Benjamin Quarles~ Schools, Celebrations and International Emancipation Observed and Celebrated! Vicente Guerrero, Mexico’s first black president Texas President Sam Houston lamented that ". . . two valuable negro boys for which I had paid in cash $2100 previous to my visit to Nashville, ran away to Mexico. Just two and a half months after Mexico abolished slavery Mexican officials attempted to curb the number of newcomers. In 1830, foreigners could not cross the border without obtaining a passport issued by Mexican agents.(6) Texans did not respect the MEXICAN border in their pursuits of Freed Blacks. In 1855, Captain James Callahan of the Texas Rangers under the orders of Texan Governor Elisha Pease entered Mexico in an attempt to recapture slaves. Callahan insisted that the purpose of his excursion was to pursue Indians rather than recapture fugitive slaves. The Mexican government with the help of Native Americans, however,

Join The Gist of Freedom as we discuss Benjamin Quarles' Book Black Abolitionists: With Dr. Walter Greason and hosts, Preston Washington & Ty El-Gray! Chapter 5/6 Self Emancipations, Self Help, and Mutual Aid Societies: The Dorcas,  Sarah M. Douglass and Sarah Smith The Black Beauty “Black, I am, oh! daughters fair,” But my beauty is most rare; Black, indeed, appears my skin, Beauteous, comely, all within: Black, when by affliction press’d Beauteous, when in Christ I rest; Black, by sin’s defiling flood. Beauteous, wash’d in Jesus’ blood: Black, I am in mine own eyes, Beauteous, in my Lord’s I rise; Black I am to men ’tis true; Beauteous, in the angel’s view: Black, if Jesus frowns awhile, Beauteous, when I see him smile; Black, while in the tomb I lie, Beauteous, when I mount the sky! Written from Solomon’s Songs

Black Colleges- Phoenix American!

1846 – She began her amazing career as a writer by publishing her first book of poetry, Forest Leaves, at the age of 21. 1858 – She refused to give up her seat or ride in the “colored” section of a segregated trolley car in Philadelphia (100 years before Rosa Parks) and wrote one her most famous poems, “Bury Me In A Free Land,” when she got very sick while on a lecturing tour. Her short story “The Two Offers” became the first short story to be published by an African American. 1859 – A dedicated abolitionist, Harper was one of the few public figures who did not abandon John Brown after his failed effort at Harpers Ferry, instead writing to him and staying with his wife, Mary, at the home of Lucretia Mott (Philadelphia’s leading Quaker Abolitionist) for the two weeks preceding his hanging. 1865 – In the immediate post-Civil War years, Harper returned to the lecture circuit, focusing her attentions on education for the formerly enslaved, on the Equal Rights Movement and on the Temperance Movement. 1858

Examining the heightening of tensions in the 1850s in the lead up to the Civil War. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act with the Compromise of 1850 saw African American liberty reach an all-time low. Not only were all African Americans now vulnerable to slave catchers, but protecting them from kidnapping was deemed illegal. The Dred Scot v. Sandford Supreme Court decision in 1857 further reduced African American rights, as all slaves were deemed to be property, not people. Institutions such as the Committee of Thirteen, a group set up to oppose the Fugitive Slave Act; state conventions; and public meetings that sought to defend the rights of black New Yorkers to ride the streetcars. In a series of cases foreshadowing the Montgomery Bus Boycotts of the 20th century, Elizabeth Jennings, Sarah Adams, and Reverend J. W. C. Pennington refused to get down from segregated streetcars, eventually forcing the desegregation of the streetcars through a New York State Supreme Court case in 1858. However, the difficult