Black People...20th Century by Dr. Leroy Vaughn, MD, MBA Historian

BLACK PEOPLE AND THEIR PLACE IN WORLD HISTORY

by DR. LEROY VAUGHN, MD, MBA, HISTORIAN is available on amazon.com.

20^th CENTURY

BLACK SCIENTIST
THE BLACK (NEGRO) WALL STREET
MARCUS MOSIAH GARVEY
ARTHUR ALFONSO SCHOMBURG
DR. CARTER GOODWIN WOODSON
BLACKS IN THE MILITARY
WORLD WAR II ATROCITIES
BLACK NATIONALISM

BLACK SCIENTISTS

In a review of historical literature, one is appalled by the absence of serious attention given to Black scientists by American historians. Yet, the collective contribution of Black Americans to science is so extensive that it is not possible to live a full day in any part of the United States or the world for that matter, without sharing in the benefits of their contributions in such fields as: biology, chemistry, physics, space and nuclear science.

The first scientific book ever written by an African American is believed to be the “Astronomical Almanac” published by Benjamin Banneker in 1792; and he continued to publish this almanac for the next ten years. Banneker's almanac sold very well among White farmers and was extremely accurate in predicting: eclipses, high and low tides, positions of planets, times for sunrise and sunset, and many other useful items of information. Thomas Jefferson was so impressed by this self-taught mathematical genius that he sent a copy of Banneker's almanac to the Academy of Sciences in Paris to prove that the color of a person's skin had nothing to do with intelligence. Jefferson also had Benjamin Banneker appointed to the Federal Commission which planned and laid out Washington, D.C. When the head of the commission, Pierre L'Enfant, angrily quit and took all the plans back to France, Banneker was the only one able to reproduce the entire map and layout from memory; thus allowing our nation's capital to be completed.

The first national monument ever erected in honor of an African American was erected for George Washington Carver. A postage stamp was also issued in his honor. George Washington Carver, a former slave, was among the most outstanding agricultural scientists in the world. When the boll weevil completely destroyed the southern cotton industry, Carver saved the southern economy from financial ruin by convincing the farmers to grow peanuts instead. Moreover, his scientific research was able to create more than 300 products from the peanut and its shell. George Washington Carver was also an expert in detecting and treating plant diseases and was a collaborator for the U.S. Bureau of Plant Industry. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford both offered Carver large sums of money to work for them, but he never left his teaching position at Tuskegee Institute.

Percy Lavon Julian was one of America's premier chemists. His scientific work ranged from developing new substances that snuffed out gasoline and oil fires to synthesizing the drug Cortisone, which eases the pain of people with rheumatoid arthritis. Julian received 105 U.S. patents for chemical products and processes including two patents for his synthesis of male and female sex hormones called testosterone and progesterone. After working 17 years as Director of Research at the Glidden Chemical Company of Chicago, Illinois, he founded the Julian Laboratories Incorporated in 1954, with plants in Chicago, Illinois and Guatemala, Mexico. His plants became immensely successful and in 1961, Julian sold the Guatemala plant to the Upjohn Company, and the Chicago plant to Smith, Kline and French Company. Percy Julian succeeded as a major contributor to science despite the extreme hardships he endured because of his race, including the fact that he had to obtain his Ph.D. from the University of Vienna in Austria because American universities would not accept him.

Other famous African American scientists include Charles R. Drew who made possible the availability of stored blood plasma for blood transfusions. Dr. William Hinton devoted 30 years to research on syphilis. In 1935, the "Hinton Test" for syphilis was adopted by the entire state of Massachusetts, and in 1936 Hinton's book "Syphilis And Its Treatment" became the first medical textbook written by an African American ever published.

Famous Black physicists include Dr. Lloyd Quarterman who helped develop the atomic bomb and the first nuclear reactor for atomic powered submarines. Christine Darden was the leading NASA researcher in supersonic aircraft with expertise in the area of reducing sonic boom.

Despite the fact that only about three percent of American scientists have been Black, they have made tremendous contributions for the benefit and betterment of mankind. It is truly a crime that the genius and imagination of the African American scientist is generally unknown to most Americans, both Black and White.

 

BLACK SCIENTISTS BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adams, R. (1969) Great Negroes Past and Present. Chicago: Afro Am Publishing Co.
Bendini, S. (1972) The Life of Benjamin Banneker. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Digs, I. (1975) Black Innovations, Chicago: Institute of Positive Education.
Haber, L. (1970) Black Pioneers of Science and Invention. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World Inc.
Hayden, R. (1992) 11 African American Doctors, Frederick Maryland: Twenty-First Century Books
Hayden, R. (1992) 7 African American Scientists. Frederick, Maryland: Twenty-first Century Books.
Holt, R. (1942) George Washington Carver: An American Biography. New York: Doubleday & Co.
Jay, J. (1971) Negroes in Science: Natural Science doctorates 187601969. Detroit: Balamp Publishing Co.
Klein, A. (1971) The Hidden Contributions: Black Scientists and Inventors in America. NY: Doubleday &; Co.
Lewis, C. (1970) Benjamin Banneker: The Man Who Saved Washington. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Van Sertima, I. (1983) Blacks in Science Ancient and Modern. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.
Winslow, E. (ed.) (1974) Black Americans in Science and Engineering….Chicago: African American Images.

THE BLACK (NEGRO) WALL STREET

he “Black (Negro) Wall Street” was the name given to Greenwood Avenue of North Tulsa, Oklahoma during the early 1900’s. Because of strict segregation, Blacks were only allowed to shop, spend, and live in a 35 square block area called the Greenwood District. The “circulation of Black dollars” only in the Black community produced a tremendously prosperous Black business district that was admired and envied by the whole country.

Oklahoma’s first African American settlers were Indian slaves of the so-called “Five Civilized Tribes”: Chickasaws, Choctaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles. These tribes were forced to leave the southeastern United States and resettle in Oklahoma in mid-winter over the infamous “Trail of Tears.” After the Civil War, U.S.-Indian treaties provided for slave liberation and land allotments ranging from 40-100 acres, which helps explain why over 6,000 African-Americans lived in the Oklahoma territory by 1870. Oklahoma boasted of more all-Black towns and communities than any other state in the land, and these communities opened their arms to freed slaves from all across the country. Remarkably, at one time, there were over 30 African American newspapers in Oklahoma.

Tulsa began as an outpost of the Creek Indians and as late as 1910, Walter White of the NAACP, described Tulsa as “the dead and hopeless home of 18,182 souls.” Suddenly, oil was discovered and Tulsa rapidly grew into a thriving, bustling, enormously wealthy town of 73,000 by 1920 with bank deposits totaling over $65 million. However, Tulsa was a “tale of two cities isolated and insular,” one Black and one White. Tulsa was so racist and segregated that it was the only city in America that boasted of segregated telephone booths.

Since African Americans could neither live among Whites as equals nor patronize White businesses in Tulsa, Blacks had to develop a completely separate business district and community, which soon became prosperous and legendary. Black dollars invested in the Black community also produced self-pride, self-sufficiency, and self-determination. The business district, beginning at the intersection of Greenwood Avenue and Archer Street, became so successful and vibrant that Booker T. Washington during his visit bestowed the moniker: “Negro Wall Street.” By 1921, Tulsa’s African American population of 11,000 had its own bus line, two high schools, one hospital, two newspapers, two theaters, three drug stores, four hotels, a public library, and thirteen churches. In addition, there were over 150 two and three story brick commercial buildings that housed clothing and grocery stores, cafes, rooming houses, nightclubs, and a large number of professional offices including doctors, lawyers, and dentists. Tulsa’s progressive African American community boasted some of the city’s most elegant brick homes, well furnished with china, fine linens, beautiful furniture, and grand pianos. Mary Elizabeth Parrish from Rochester, New York wrote: “In the residential section there were homes of beauty and splendor which would please the most critical eye.” Well known African American personalities often visited the Greenwood district including: educators Mary McCloud Bethune and W. E. B. DuBois, scientist George Washington Carver, opera singer Marian Anderson, blues singer Dinah Washington, and noted Chicago chemist Percy Julian.

T. P. Scott wrote in “Negro City Directory”: “Early African American business leaders in Tulsa patterned the development of Tulsa’s thriving Greenwood district after the successful African American entrepreneurial activity in Durham, North Carolina.” After the Civil War, former slaves moved to Durham from the neighboring farmlands and found employment in tobacco processing plants. By 1900, a large Black middle class had developed which began businesses that soon grew into phenomenally successful corporations, especially North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. Charles Clinton Spaulding was so successful with the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company that he was able to create a real estate company, a textile and hosiery mill, and the “Durham Negro Observer” newspaper. Durham Blacks also created a hospital, Mechanics and Farmers Bank (1908), North Carolina Training College (1910), Banker’s Fire Insurance Company (1920), and the National Negro Finance Company (1922). However, living conditions in Durham were so substandard and working conditions so poor that the 1920 mortality rate among Blacks in Durham was three times higher than the White rate. As of 1926, 64% of all African Americans in Durham died before the age of 40. These perilous working and living conditions were not present in Tulsa.

On May 31, 1921, the successful Black Greenwood district was completely destroyed by one of the worse race riots in U.S. history. A 19 year old Black male accidentally stumbled on a jerky elevator and bumped the 17-year-old White elevator operator who screamed. The frightened young fellow was seen running from the elevator by a group of Whites and by late afternoon the “Tulsa Tribune” reported that the girl had been raped. Despite the girl’s denial of any wrongdoing, the boy was arrested and a large mob of 2,000 White men came to the jail to lynch the prisoner. About seventy five armed African Americans came to the jail to offer assistance to the sheriff to protect the prisoner. The sheriff not only refused the assistance but also deputized the White mob to disarm the Blacks. With a defenseless Black community before them, the White mob advanced to the Greenwood district where they first looted and then burned all Black businesses, homes, and churches.

Any Black resisters were shot and thrown into the fires. When the National Guard arrived, they assisted the others by arresting all Black men, women, and children, and herding them into detention centers at the Baseball Park and Convention Hall. As many as 4,000 Blacks were held under armed guard in detention. Dr. Arthur C. Jackson, a nationally renowned surgeon and called by the Mayo brothers (of Mayo Clinic fame) “the most able Negro surgeon in America,” was shot at the Convention Hall and allowed to bleed to death. The “Chicago Tribute” Newspaper reported that Whites also used private airplanes to drop kerosene and dynamite on Black homes. By the next morning the entire Greenwood district was reduced to ashes and not one White was even accused of any wrongdoing, much less arrested.

The race riot of Tulsa, Oklahoma was not an isolated event in American history. On May 28, 1917, a White mob of over 3,000 in East St. Louis, Illinois ravaged African American stores, homes, and churches.  Eyewitnesses reported that over one hundred Blacks were gunned down as they left their burning homes including a small Black child who was shot and thrown back into the burning building to die. Seven White police officers charged with murder by the Illinois Attorney General were collectively fined $150. During the “Red Summer” of 1919, over twenty-five race riots, where White mobs attacked Black neighborhoods. were recorded. In the 1919 race riot at Elaine, Arkansas, White mobs killed over 200 African Americans and burned their homes and businesses. Federal troops arrested hundreds of Blacks trying to protect their possessions and forcibly held them in basements of the city’s public schools. Twelve Blacks were indicted (no Whites) and convicted of inciting violence and sentenced to die. The NAACP persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court for the first time in history to reverse a racially biased Southern court.

Director John Singleton exposed the horror of the Rosewood, Florida massacre of 1922 in his film entitled “Rosewood.” A White mob burned down the entire town and tried to kill all of its Black inhabitants. In April 1994, the Florida legislature passed the “Rosewood Bill,” which awarded $150,000 to each of the riot’s nine eligible Black survivors.

After the Tulsa riot, the White inhabitants tried to buy the Black property and force Black people out of town. No Tulsa bank or lending institution would make loans in the riot-marred Greenwood district, and the city refused all outside assistance. However, racial pride and self-determination would not permit the Greenwood owners to sell, and they doggedly spend the entire winter in tents donated by the American Red Cross.

Rebuilding was a testament to the courage and stamina of Tulsa’s pioneers in their struggle for freedom. Most of the buildings along the first block of Greenwood Avenue were rebuilt within one year. Henry Whitlow wrote: “A little over a decade after the riot, everything was more prosperous than before.” In 1926, W. E. B. DuBois visited Tulsa and wrote: “Black Tulsa is a happy city. It has new clothes. It is young and gay and strong. Five little years ago, fire and blood and robbery leveled it to the ground. Scars are there, but the city is impudent and noisy. It believes in itself. Thank God for the grit of Black Tulsa.” Like Black Tulsa, African Americans can continue to survive by self-pride, self-help, and self-determination.

BLACK (NEGRO) WALL STREET BIBLIOGRAPHY


Brown, R. (1975) Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence. NY: Oxford Univ. Press.
Butler, W. (1974) Tulsa 75: A History of Tulsa. Tulsa: Metropolitan Tulsa Chamber of Commerce.
Debo, A. (1982) Tulsa: From Creek Town to Oil Capital. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Ellsworth, S. (1943) Death in a Promised Land: Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. Baton Rouge: LA St. Univ. Press.
Franklin, J. (1974) From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans. New York: Alfred Knopf.
Franklin, J. (1980) The Blacks in Oklahoma. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Gates, E. (1997) They Came Searching - How Blacks Sought the Promised Land.. Austin, TX: Eakin Press.
Johnson, H. (1998) Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic., Texas: Eakin Press.
Teall, K. (1971) Black History in Oklahoma: A Resource Book. Oklahoma City: Oklahoma City Public Schools.
Waskow, A. (1967) From Race Riot to Sit-In. 1919 and the 1960’s.. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
Williams, L. (1972) Anatomy of 4 Race Riots - Racial Conflict in Knoxville, Elaine.. Univ.& Col. Pr. of MS.

MARCUS MOSIAH GARVEY

Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887-1940) arrived in the United States from Jamaica almost penniless in 1916, but within six years he boasted of an organization with branches worldwide that had over six million registered members. He was almost worshipped by the Black masses throughout the world for his vision to organize the Black race through race pride, education, self-reliance, economic development, and the desire to build a strong African motherland controlled by Africans. Garvey wrote: “I read Booker T. Washington’s ‘Up From Slavery’ and then my doom - if I may so call it - of being a race leader dawned upon me. I asked, Where is the Black man’s government? Where is his king and kingdom? Where is his president, his country, his ambassadors, his army, his navy, and his men of big affairs? I could not find them. I decided, I will help to make them.”

Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Harlem in 1918. By 1924, there were over 700 branches in 38 states and over 200 branches throughout the world, as far away as South Africa at a time when there was no email, television, or even radio to advertise. Those who could not hear Garvey directly received his views through his newspaper called the “Negro World,” which boasted a circulation as high as 200,000 by 1924. The most recent speeches of Marcus Garvey were published in addition to articles on race pride, self-reliance, and anti-colonialism. In 1919, the UNIA and “Negro World” were blamed for the numerous violent colonial uprisings in Jamaica, Grenada, Belize, Trinidad, and Tobago.  British and French authorities deported all UNIA organizers and banned the “Negro World” from all their colonies, but seamen continued to smuggle the paper throughout the world. In 1921, the U.S. Marines invaded a UNIA meeting in the Dominican Republic and arrested every man, woman, and child in attendance. In Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), in 1927, an African was given life imprisonment for smuggling in only three copies of the newspaper. Although the “Negro World” was banned in Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of independent Kenya, told how “someone who could understand English would read Garvey’s ‘Negro World’ message to a group of Africans until they were able to memorize it. They would then spread the message far and wide throughout the countryside.”

“Race First” was the first major theme of Garvey in his attempt to restore race pride and to destroy the inferiority complex of Black people. Garvey demanded that Black people have Black heroes: “Take down the pictures of White men and women from your walls and elevate your own men and women to that place of honor. Mothers! Give your children dolls that look like them to play with and cuddle.” He demanded that his followers abandon skin lighteners and hair straighteners. Garvey said: “God made no mistake when he made us Black with kinky hair…take the kinks out of your minds instead of your hair.” In religion, Garvey insisted that Black people should worship images of God and angels that look like them. Marcus Garvey also thought history was extremely important and told his audiences: “We have a beautiful history, and we shall create another one in the future. When savages, heathens, and pagans inhabited Europe, Africa was peopled with a race of cultured Black men, who were masters in art, science, and literature. Whatsoever a Black man has done, a Black man can do.”

“Self-reliance and economic development” was Garvey’s second major theme. He founded the “Negro Factories Corporation” in 1919, with the ultimate objective of “manufacturing every marketable commodity” and establishing factories throughout the world, which could also employ and train thousands of Black workers. Garvey was proud that his corporate stock was only available to Black people. Yet, he still raised enough money in New York City alone to operate three grocery stores, two restaurants, a printing plant, a steam laundry, and a men’s and women’s manufacturing department that made uniforms, hats, and shirts for such groups as his Black Cross Nurses. Similar enterprises occurred throughout the United States, Central America, and the West Indies. In order to distribute these products worldwide, Marcus Garvey’s organization raised enough money within one year (1919) in $5 stock certificates to purchase three ships, which he called the “Black Star Line.” Hugh Mulzac, a Black ship’s officer, said that hundreds of thousands of people throughout the Western Hemisphere welcomed them as conquering heroes wherever they docked. He wrote: “Thousands of peasants came down from the hills on horses, donkeys, and in makeshift carts, showering us with flowers, fruits, and gifts…we had the first ship they had ever seen entirely owned and operated by Colored men.”

“Africa for Africans at home and abroad” was another very strong message from Marcus Garvey. He believed that if Black people could not develop a strong country in Africa as a protective base, then White people would eventually destroy all Blacks especially African Americans; just as they had done to the Tasmanians, Native Australians, and Native Americans. Garvey partitioned the League of Nations, after World War I, to give the African colonies of Germany back to native Africans and to allow the UNIA to serve as custodian. He also negotiated with Liberia for land that could serve as a beachhead for trained African Americans to spread modern technology and scientific skills throughout Africa. Garvey sent thousands of dollars of equipment to Liberia in preparation of transferring his headquarters to Monrovia, but was blocked at the last minute by extreme pressure from the neighboring British and French colonies. Garvey never gave up his dream of an independent African continent and even created the red, black, and green flag in addition to a national anthem for his future African Republic.

The UNIA held a total of eight international conventions but none was more spectacular than the first, which was held from August 1-31, 1920. Over 25,000 Black delegates from around the world packed Madison Square Garden, and the surrounding New York streets. Delegates reported to the convention on the problems of their native country and many of their grievances were contained in the “Declaration of Rights of the Negro People of the World.” The major demands included: “All persons of African descent anywhere in the world should be accepted as free citizens of Africa; Africans must set out to win justice by whatsoever means possible; Blacks must not be tried by all-White judges and juries; Use of the word ‘nigger’ must cease; Black history must be taught to Black children; and there must be no taxation without representation.”

Black intellectuals, especially W. E. B. DuBois, joined the NAACP and other Garvey haters and demanded that the U.S. Attorney General have Garvey arrested and deported back to Jamaica. They were exceptionally jealous of Garvey’s ability to amass millions of Black supporters and raise millions of dollars while refusing to accept any money from Whites. In 1922, Garvey was arrested and charged with mail fraud while promoting stock for the Black Star Line. The trial was a complete mockery of justice. Even the judge, Julian Mack, was a member of the NAACP, which instigated Garvey’s deportation. Garvey was given the maximum five-year prison sentence, but worldwide protests forced President Calvin Coolidge to commute his sentence after two years and have him deported. Marcus Garvey moved from Jamaica to London in 1935 and died of a stroke on June 10, 1940.

Upon his death, the man who had led the largest, most widespread, most powerful, and most influential movement among people of African descent in world history was completely ignored by our textbooks. Fortunately, his spirit lives through the millions of people he has uplifted. For example, Elijah Muhammad was a former UNIA member and while creating the “Nation of Islam,” he adopted many of Garvey’s ideas like race first, self-reliance, and a separate Black nation. Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam in his youth was a seaman and once spent several months in New York regularly attending UNIA meetings. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, attended many UNIA meetings as a student in New York and so admired Garvey that he named Ghana’s shipping company the “Black Star Line” after Garvey’s line. Tony Martin says: “No power could prevent the influence which Marcus Garvey has continued to exert on organizations and individuals since his death. As he himself was so fond of saying, ‘Truth crushed to earth shall rise again’ and ‘Up you mighty race you can accomplish what you will.’”

MARCUS GARVEY BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adams, R. (1969) Great Negroes Past and Present. Chicago: Afro-Am Publishing Co.
Bennett, L. (1988) Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America. New York: Penguin Books
Clarke, J. (1974) Marcus Garvey and the Vision of Africa. New York: Vintage.
Franklin, J. & Meier, A. (eds.) (1982) Black Leaders of the 20th Century. Chicago: University of IL Press.
Garvey, A. (1970) Garvey and Garveyism. New York: Collier Books.
Garvey, A. (ed.) (1967) Philosophy & Opinions of Marcus Garvey or Africa.. London: Frank Cass.
Lewis, R. (1988) Marcus Garvey: Anti-Colonial Champion. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press Inc.
Martin, T. (1978) Race First: Ideological & Org. Struggles of Marcus.. Westport, CT. Greenwood Pr.
Martin, T. (1988) Marcus Garvey, Hero: A First Biography. Dover, Massachusetts: The Majority Press.
Nembhard, L. (1978) Trials and Triumphs of Marcus Garvey. Millwood, NY: Kraus Reprint Co.
Rogers, J. (1972) World’s Great Men of Color, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.
Salley, C. (1993) The Black 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential African Americans, Past and Present. NY: Carol Pub.

ARTHUR ALFONSO SCHOMBURG

When Arthur Schomburg was a child, his peers frequently teased him about having no history. White classmates told him that Black people had never accomplished anything of note and never would. The young Schomburg asked his teacher where he might find books on Black history and was told there is no such thing. As an extended rebuttal to this teacher, he dedicated his entire life to collecting everything he possibly could that was written by people of African descent. Today the “Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture” located at 135^th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem (New York City) has over 150,000 volumes of Black history and nearly five million artifacts, photographs, magazines, and manuscripts from throughout the world and has become the Mecca for anyone needing to document or research Black history.

Arthur Alfonso Schomburg (1874-1938) has been called the “Sherlock Holmes of Negro History” because of his uncanny ability to locate extremely rare or “presumed lost” material written by people of African decent. Russell L. Adams states that “ at the Schomburg Center, a reader may see copies of the 1792-93 almanacs of Benjamin Banneker; ‘Clotel’, the first novel published by an African American; early editions of the poems of Phyllis Wheatley; the addresses and broadsides of free men of color in their conventions of protest; and many other extremely rare Black publications, such as sermons on slavery by ex-slaves.” John W. Cromwell, while president of the American Negro Academy, wrote Schomburg on June 17, 1928 highly praising and complimenting him: “You possess some magnetic influence drawing you to these treasures that elude the eager quest of others. How can I adequately express to you my indebtedness for your rescue of Banneker from the seclusion in which he has been for 120 years and the many other valuable manuscripts you have located.”

Unlike most of his American bibliophile colleagues, Schomburg wanted to collect material from all great men of color worldwide. At his own expense, he often took extended vacations to Europe, Africa, and South America in search of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and etchings. In Seville, Spain, he dug into the original records of the West Indies, which were loosely collected there since Western slavery had originated on the Iberian Peninsula. While in Spain, he also definitely established the fact that two of Spain’s noted painters, Juan Pareja and Sebastian Gomez, were men of color. Similarly important discoveries were made in France, Germany, and England. In Africa, he found such things as Zulu nursery rhymes printed in the Bantu language, and books on anthropology, folklore, sociology, and customs of the Congo, Guinea, and Ashanti.

In 1925, Schomburg wrote an essay which was published in “The New Negro” by Alain Locke explaining why he made such tremendous personal sacrifices in time and money: “History must restore what slavery took away…History must become less a matter of argument and more a matter of record. There is the definite desire and determination to have a history: well documented, widely known (at least within race circles), and administered as a stimulating and inspiring tradition for the coming generations.”

The “coming generations” to significantly benefit from Schomburg’s repository of information include such leaders as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, and Tom Mboya of Kenya which indicates the importance of Schomburg’s collection in the African decolonization process that began in the 1950’s. In the United States the collection was a prominent anchor for the Black intellectual and cultural ferment of the 1960’s. John Henrik Clarke, one of our foremost historians, says he provided Malcolm X with research material from the Schomburg collection in his numerous televised debates with Ivy League professors. Dr. Clarke also says he met Schomburg at the age of 18 and credits him with providing the written material that enabled his self-education. More recently, Kareem Abdul Jabbar says it took months of research at the Schomburg Center to permit him to complete his recently published book entitled “Black Profiles in Courage.”

Arthur Alfonso Schomburg was born on January 24, 1874 in San Juan, Puerto Rico to a Black mother and White father, who abandoned the household. Schomburg was primarily self-taught but attended public school in Puerto Rico and attended St. Thomas College in the Virgin Islands. He arrived in New York in April 1891 as a Black militant fighting for the independence of Cuba and Puerto Rico, but never stopped collecting books and other materials on African history. In 1911, Schomburg and John Bruce founded the influential “Negro Society for Historical Research” and in 1922 he was elected president of the “American Negro Academy”, the first major organization of the Black intelligentsia. J. A. Rogers says, “Schomburg was a walking encyclopedia. Ask him almost any fact about the Negro, and he would be almost sure to know something about it offhand.” In 1926 he received the “Harmon Award” for his work on Negro education.

Schomburg also wrote extensively for magazines and newspapers. His most popular articles include “The Collected Poems of Phyllis Wheatley”; “The Life of Placido”; “Racial Identity -Help to the Study of Negro History”; “Spanish Painters of the School of Seville”; and “Notes on Panama.” He was also one of the writers included in an anthology of Negro literature by V. F. Calverton in 1929.

By 1926 Schomburg had collected over 5,000 items including books, documents, and manuscripts which were purchased for $10,000 by the Carnegie Corporation and donated to the public library in Harlem that was renamed the “Department of Negro Literature and History.” In 1932, the Carnegie Corporation provided a grant to the New York Public Library to hire Schomburg as curator of the materials he had collected. He remained curator until his death on June 10, 1938.

The collection of Arthur Schomburg is now housed in the “Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture” which serves as a monument to his influence on the Black experience in America and throughout the world. Schomburg’s obsession with making Black history “less a matter of argument and more a matter of record” and to “restore what slavery took away” makes this self-taught lonely visionary of indomitable spirit one whom the world of Black scholarship will forever be immensely indebted.

ARTHUR ALFONSO SCHOMBURG BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adams, R. (1969) Great Negroes Past and Present. Chicago: Afro-Am Publishing Co.
Bontemps, A. (1972) Harlem Renaissance Remembered. New York: Dodd Mead.
Brown, W., (ed.) (2001), Clotel. Modern Library
Cannon, C. (1941) American Book Collectors and Collecting from Colonial Times.. NY: H. W. Wilson Co.
Clarke, J. (ed.) Harlem: A Community in Transition. New York: Citadel Press.
Colon, J. (1961) A Puerto Rican in New York. New York: Mainstream Publishers.
Gubert, B. (1982) Early Black Bibliographies, 1863-1918. New York: R.R. Garland Publishing.
Huggins, N. (1971) Harlem Renaissance. New York: Oxford University Press.
Jabbar, K. A. (1996) Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African Am. Achievement. William Morrow
Josey, E. (ed.) (1970) The Black Librarian in America. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
Rogers, J. (1972) World’s Great Men of Color. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.
Salley, C. (1993) The Black 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential African-Americans Past and Present - NY Carol Pub. Gr.
Sanchez, K. (1983) From Colonial to Community: The History of Puerto Ricans In NYC, 1917-1948. Westport, CT.: Greenwood Press.
Sinnette, E. (1989) Arthur Alfonso Schomburg: Black Bibliophile & Collector. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Smith, J. (1977) Black Academic Libraries and Research Collections …. Westport, CT.: Greenwood Press.
Thorpe, E. (1971) Black Historians: A Critique. New York: William Morrow.

DR. CARTER GOODWIN WOODSON

Carter Goodwin Woodson (1875-1950) wrote: “If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.” Woodson saw the educational system of his generation as solely dedicated to the glorification of Europeans and their achievements. Consequently, he dedicated his entire life to informing the masses, both Black and White, about the magnificent history and “worthwhile traditions” of people of African descent.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson has been called the “Father of Negro History” because of his pioneering efforts to systematically and continuously have the accomplishments of Black people taught in our school systems. In 1915, he organized the “Association for the Study of Negro Life and History” and in 1916 started the “Journal of Negro History.” In 1926, he initiated the observance of “Negro History Week” which was later expanded to “Black History Month”. Dr. Woodson felt that any African American only exposed to the White educational system without any exposure to positive Black achievements was “mis-educated and completely useless to his race.”

The founding of the “Association for the Study of Negro Life and History” in 1915 was one of Woodson’s most important accomplishments. Centered in Washington D.C., this association gathered as many books on Black history and achievements as possible and many of these books were later used as textbooks in all grades of schools from elementary to the university. Dr. Woodson also published voluminously to help fill the initial textbook void. His most popular books include: “A Century of Negro Education,” “History of the Negro Church,” “The Rural Negro,” “Education of the Negro Prior to 1861,” “Mis-Education of the Negro,” “African Backgrounds Outlined,” “African Heroes and Heroines,” and “The Negro in Our History.” Dr. Woodson also collected vast quantities of original documents by people of African descent, which might otherwise have been lost.

Dr. Woodson’s “Journal of Negro History” soon became established as one of the most scholarly and authoritative journals in America. The journal received contributions from some of America’s foremost scholars, both Black and White, with many of its articles widely quoted in the leading educational centers of Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the United States. Woodson hoped that articles from his journal would help Black students develop a more self-respecting view of themselves. J. A. Rogers says: “Woodson’s outspokenness at the manner in which Negroes were being taught to despise themselves by their teachers brought him several powerful enemies among leading Negro educators; but undaunted, he attacked them fearlessly until they were forced to his point of view.”

“Negro History Week” was initiated in 1926 with Carter G. Woodson as the principal founder. “Negro History Week” forced both Black and White schools and colleges throughout the nation to gather and present information on “Negro” history and achievements, which they had never done before. Woodson once said at the annual meeting of the Georgia Teachers’ and Educational Association: “I lament the teachers’ ignorance of their rich heritage…Few of our college presidents could make more than 10% on an examination in Negro history.”

Dr. Woodson was extremely critical of the so-called “highly educated”; that is, “the Negroes who have put on the finishing touches of our best colleges.” He wrote: “The same educational process which inspires and stimulates the oppressor with the thought that he is everything and has accomplished everything worthwhile, depresses and crushes at the same time the spark of genius in the Negro by making him feel that his race does not amount to much and never will measure up to the standards of other peoples. The Negro thus educated is a hopeless liability of the race.” Woodson frequently told his audiences that it took him over 20 years to “get over” his Harvard education. He felt “modern education” meant bringing a person’s mind under the control of his oppressor. He wrote that once a Black person’s mind is controlled, you won’t have to tell him to go to the back door because he will already know his “proper place.” He continued: “ In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one out for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.”

Dr. Woodson had even less respect for the Black professional class, believing it to be more culturally backward and less race conscious than the masses. In 1930, he analyzed 25,000 Black professionals including doctors, dentists, and lawyers and concluded that they were more interested in making money than contributing to the advancement of their professions or to their race. He wrote that Black professionals were less likely than their White counterparts to keep up with the professional literature in their fields and that Black professional associations tended to emphasize social rather than professional advancement. Although Black professionals were dependent upon the Black working class to earn a living, Woodson saw the Black professional as “just as much class prejudice against the poor Negro as his White professional counterpart” and the least socially responsible among all Black people. Woodson viewed the Black physician as the worst. He wrote that Black physicians, when attending meetings of the National Medical Association were more interested in discussing the merits or demerits of the latest Cadillac than discussing the proper treatment for tuberculosis or typhoid fever.” He said that most successful Black physicians “frittered away much of their energy in quest of material things like fine cars, fine homes, and a fine time.” Woodson once told a group of professionals: “You spend millions yearly to straighten your hair and bleach your skin and some of you go so far as to have your noses lifted in the hope of looking like the White man. Well, monkeys too have straight hair and thin lips.”

Dr. Carter Goodwin Woodson was born on December 19, 1875 in New Canton, Virginia to parents who were former slaves. Woodson was the eldest of nine children and was forced to work in the coal mines of West Virginia at an early age to help his parents make ends meet. This precluded his attending school until he was twenty years old. However, his love of knowledge was so great that despite the hard work he studied by himself at night and was especially fond of Greek and Latin classics. When he finally was able to go to school, he scored so high on the high school entrance examination that he was given an advanced standing and thus earned a diploma in only 18 months. Woodson then went on to obtain his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree at the University of Chicago. He completed studies for his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1912, and then went to Sorbonne, Paris where he was one of the most brilliant students in “French languages and literature” for that year. After teaching several years in West Virginia, he went to the Philippines as a teacher and five months later was promoted to “Supervisor of Education” where he served for three years. He subsequently returned to the United States to become Dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Howard University and later, Dean of the West Virginia Collegiate Institute.

Carter Goodwin Woodson would be proud to know that Black history is now a well-established, legitimate, and respected subject of study, and that historians are finally acknowledging his pioneering contributions. Dr. Woodson was tremendously effective in helping to improve the self-respect of Black people and giving them a brighter, more optimistic outlook. As he so eloquently said: “If you read the history of Africa, the history of your ancestors - people of whom you should feel proud - you will realize that they have a history that is worthwhile. They have traditions that have value of which you can boast and upon which you can base a claim for the right to share in the blessings of democracy.”

DR. CARTER WOODSON BIBLIOGRAPHY


Adams, R. (1969) Great Negroes: Past and Present. Chicago: Afro-Am Publishing Co. Inc.
Al-Mansour, K. (1993) Betrayal by Any Other Name. San Francisco: The First African Arabian Press.
Appiah, K. & Gates, H. (eds.) (1999) Africana. New York: Basis Civitas Books.
Aptheker, H. (1951) A Documentary History of the Negro People in the US. New York: Citadel Press.
Aptheker, H. (1968) To Be Free. New York: International Publishers.
Bennett, L. (1975) The Shaping of Black America. Chicago: Johnson Publishing Co.
Bennett, L. (1988) Before the Mayflower. New York: Penguin Books.
Franklin, J. (1988) From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Litwack, L. & Meier, A. (1988) Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Low, A. & Clift, V. (eds.) (1983) Encyclopedia of Black America. New York: Neil Schuman Publishers.
McIntyre, C. (1992) Criminalizing a Race: Free Blacks During Slavery. Queens, NY: Kayode Publications
Sally C. (1993) The Black 100. New York: Carol Publishing Group.
Wiltse, C (ed.) (1965) David Walker’s Appeal. New York: Hill & Wang.
Zinn, H. (1980) A People’s History of the United States. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

BLACKS IN THE MILITARY

MEDAL OF HONOR MEN

THE UNITED STATES ARMY AND NAVY

Portraits of 15 African American soldiers and sailors

including Sgt. John Lawson, Milton M. Holland,

Robert A. Pinn, Sgt. Brent Woods, Powhatan Beaty,

Corporal Isaiah Mays, Sgt. John Denny, James H. Harris,

Dennis Bell, Thomas R. Hawkins, Sgt. William Carney,

Christian Fleetwood, Pvt. James Daniel Gardner,

Sgt. Alexander Kelly, and Sgt. Thomas Shaw

Television images of General Colin Powell in specific, and Black, well trained, energetic soldiers in general, are a great source of pride for most African Americans. These television images represent the fruits of over two hundred years of struggle by African Americans for equality, integration, and respect in the military service. There is probably no irony in American history more pointed than the American Black soldier fighting and dying for basic American democracy and freedom, while being denied most of those same freedoms at home and in the military since the founding of this country.

Until recently African Americans begged for the privilege to fight and die for this country in hopes that a more equitable society would await them at the end of the war. However, Black soldiers and sailors were strictly prohibited from participation in virtually every American war until a severe manpower shortage made this country desperate. In 1792, laws were passed by Congress to exclude Blacks from the Army and Marines. The Marine Corp did not accept an African American for its first 150 years of existence, up to and including World War II, when White politicians and generals finally became desperate enough to encourage Black military participation. Black soldiers were frequently poorly trained, unequally paid and equipped, and forced to participate in all Black regiments with White southern officers in charge.

When Blacks were allowed to participate in American wars, they invariably performed exceptionally well. Over 5,000 African Americans, both slave and free, served in the army during the Revolutionary War, and almost all of them received their freedom in appreciation after the war. In fact, most northern states abolished slavery because of their contribution. The outstanding contributions of over 200,000 African American soldiers and sailors during the Civil War led to the 13^th Amendment freeing all slaves.

Between 1869 and 1890 Black soldiers in the West, nicknamed the Buffalo Soldiers, won 14 Congressional Metals of Honor, 9 Certificates of Merit and 29 Orders of Honorable Mention while fighting Native Americans. President Theodore Roosevelt credits these same Buffalo Soldiers for saving his famous "Rough Riders" from extermination in Cuba during the Spanish American War of 1898.

About 160,000 of the 200,000 African Americans sent to Europe during World War I were forced to work as laborers in unloading ships and building roads. The remaining soldiers were not even allowed to fight along side White American soldiers but rather were assigned by General Pershing to French Divisions. These Black soldiers had to fight in French uniforms with French weapons and French leadership until the end of World War I. Over 3,000 casualties were sustained by these Black soldiers, who subsequently were awarded over 540 medals by the French government including the Legion of Honor - for gallantry in action.

The plight of Blacks in the military did not improve significantly until President Franklin Roosevelt and President Harry Truman made concessions to Black leaders in exchange for Black votes. On October 15, 1940, Roosevelt announced that Blacks would be trained as pilots, that Black reserve officers would be called to active duty, and that Colonel Benjamin Davis would be named the first Black Brigadier General.

In 1948, Truman was even more desperate for Black votes and issued Executive Order 9981, ending military segregation and demanding "equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the Armed Services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin." After two hundred years of struggle, African Americans can now look upon Black military men and officers with a great since of pride and accomplishment.

BLACKS IN THE MILITARY BIBLIOGRAPHY

Donaldson, G. (1991) The History of African-Americans in the Military. Malabar, FL: Krieger Pub. Co.
Foner, J. (1974) Blacks and the Military in American History. New York: A New Perspective Pub. Co.
Greene, R. (1974) Black Defenders of America: 1775-1973. Chicago: Johnson Publishing.
Langley, H. (1967) Social Reforms in the United States Navy: 1798-1862. Urbana, IL: University of IL Press.
Lanning, M. (1997) African-American Soldier: From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell. Secaucus, NJ: Carol Pub. Gr.
Moebs. T. (1994) Black Soldiers - Black Sailors - Black Ink. Chesapeake Bay, MD: Moebs Publishing Co.
Mullen, R. (1973) Blacks in America’s Wars. New York: Pathfinder.
Nalty, B. (1986) Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military. NY: Free Press.
Rogers, J. (1989) Africa’s Gift to America. St. Petersburg, FL: Helga Rogers Publishing.
Wilson, J. (1977) The Black Phalanx: A History of the Negro Soldier.. New York Arno Press.
Zinn, H. (1980) A People’s History of the United States. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

WORLD WAR II ATROCITIES AND BLACK SERVICEMEN

Most Americans would never believe that the United States government was involved in atrocities. After all, doesn’t the U.S. currency have “IN GOD WE TRUST” written all over it? Moreover, most Americans still don't believe that the U.S. government funded a “NO TREATMENT” syphilis study in Tuskegee, Alabama for 40 years or that hundreds of Vietnamese were massacred at "My Lai." Authors Carroll Case, "The Slaughter," and Robert Allen, "The Port Chicago Mutiny," have written even less believable stories about the U.S. Military’s treatment towards Blacks.

Black servicemen found life exceptionally difficult during World War II. Racism was rampant, segregation made everything separate and extremely unequal, and opportunities for advancement for Blacks were non-existent. In fact, Black servicemen were considered "inferior and ill qualified" according to an Army War College committee study in 1940, which also concluded that Blacks were "far below the Whites in capacity to absorb instruction." Initially, the Army assigned Black soldiers to labor and support units, and the Navy made Black sailors either messmen (waiting tables) or ammunition loaders. African American servicemen were not allowed into combat until manpower shortages became severe. In fact, General Patton vehemently refused to allow any Blacks to serve under his command under any circumstances. Despite legendary acts of heroism which often cost their lives, not a single Black person received the Medal of Honor during World War II and Lieutenant General (retired) William McCaffrey says the reason was simple: “Everyone in the Army then was a racist.” Fifty years later the Department of Defense decided that seven Black soldiers deserved the Medal of Honor. On January 13, 1997, President Clinton presented the Metal of Honor to the only survivor, Vernon Baker, and to the families of the others stating: “They were denied their nation’s highest honor, but their deeds could not be denied.”

African American servicemen were severely punished for military and civil crimes and rarely received a fair trial under military justice. All but three of the twenty one American soldiers executed for capital crimes during World War II were Black. The Army hung six African Americans after a hastily conducted military police investigation accused them of raping a White nurse in New Guinea. The soldiers went to their deaths proclaiming their innocence. Brigadier General Benjamin Davis made an inspection tour of army camps throughout the United States in 1943 and concluded: “There is still great dissatisfaction on the part of the Colored soldier. The War Department offers him nothing but humiliation and mistreatment and has even introduced Jim Crow practices in areas, both at home and abroad, where they have not hitherto been practiced.” African American anger and frustration with lack of opportunity and discrimination resulted in numerous work stoppages and riots. For example, in 1944 Black sailors rioted after racial harassment from White Marines on the island of Guam turned violent, and Black soldiers of the 364^th infantry also rioted in Phoenix, Arizona for alleged mistreatment. In March 1945, members of a Black construction battalion at Port Hueneme, California protested nonviolently against their White commander’s racism by refusing to eat for two days.

Carroll Case in “The Slaughter” claims the worse military atrocity occurred at Camp Van Dorn in southern Mississippi in 1943, where over 1,200 Black soldiers of the 364^th infantry were murdered with machine guns by White military police. Although the Army has no record of this incident, Case says he has thousands of sworn affidavits from eyewitnesses including one of the military police involved in the shooting. The fate of the 364^th was sealed after racial violence erupted in Phoenix, Arizona on Thanksgiving night in 1942 according to Carroll Case. Approximately one hundred men took part in a shootout with a detachment of White military police resulting in fifteen casualties. Inspector General Peterson labeled this incident as “having all the earmarks of a mutiny.” Sixteen men of the 364^th were tried by general court martial and sentenced to fifty years hard labor. As punishment, the remaining members of the 364^th were sent to an extremely racist base called Fort Van Dorn near Centerville, Mississippi.

Even the sidewalks were segregated in Centerville, Mississippi and the “uppity” 364^th outraged the citizens by demanding equal treatment. On Sunday May 30, 1944, an MP stopped a soldier and ordered him back to base because a button on his uniform was missing. When the soldier objected, the local sheriff shot and killed the soldier and asked the MP if “any other Nigger needed killing.” After word of the soldier’s death reached the base, riots ensued which resulted in the death of twenty five additional Black soldiers. There is no official documentation of either incident according to Case, but several soldiers wrote letters detailing the events.  Another major disturbance occurred one month later involving three thousand soldiers and the 99^th Infantry Division had to be called to stop the violence. Carroll Case says the Army then ordered the 364^th quarantined to their barracks where later that night, they were slaughtered by White MPs with machine guns. The bodies were loaded in boxcars and taken to the south gate of the base where they were dumped into a large bulldozed trench. Case says all records after this blood bath were destroyed but that he has even interviewed men in the laundry room who remembered receiving the blood soaked linen from the barracks.

Port Chicago was a naval ammunition base located about 30 miles from San Francisco on the Sacramento River. The ammunition depot at Port Chicago was one of the main sources of supply for the Pacific fleet because the dock facilities could handle the largest ammunition carriers in the Navy. All the men who actually handled the ammunition and bombs were Black, and all commissioned officers were White. Explosives were transferred from boxcars to ship holds 24 hours a day, and the work was hard and dangerous. Some ships received over 8,500 tons of ammunition and bombs.

Black sailors complained that neither they nor their officers had received any training in handling the explosives. They felt the explosives were dangerous and needed better supervision. When the Coast Guard inspected the port and complained about unsafe practices, they were asked to leave. The naval officers told the Black sailors that the bombs could never explode because the firing pins and fuses had been removed. On July 17, 1944, a gigantic explosion estimated equivalent to a five-kiloton atomic bomb, instantly killed 202 Black ammunition loaders and destroyed two cargo ships. The small town of Port Chicago and the base itself, both over a mile away, were severely damaged. This was by far the worst home-front disaster of World War II. A subsequent naval investigation held the Black sailors 100% responsible for the explosion citing rough ammunition handling.

When Port Chicago was rebuilt, fifty sailors refused to return to ammunition loading, because of inadequate training and a lack of safety provisions for hazardous duty. The fifty sailors were convicted of mutiny and sentenced to hard labor for fifteen years with dishonorable discharges. Not until after the war, January 1946, was future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall able to appeal the verdict and influence the Navy to return the men to active duty. However, the mutiny convictions were never removed from their records. In May 1998, several Black Congressmen made a written appeal to President Clinton to reverse the mutiny convictions and clear the names of these courageous men.

Even more intriguing is the current belief that the Port Chicago explosion was not an accident at all. Many claim to have irrefutable evidence that the U.S. military used Port Chicago to evaluate the damage of an atomic bomb delivered by ship and concluded that air explosions would produce far more destruction. The atomic bombs under consideration were called Mark I (Little Boy), Mark II, and Mark III (Fat Boy). Mark II was allegedly tested on the hapless souls at Port Chicago and abandoned because the damage radius was inadequate. Subsequently, the two atomic bombs destined for Japan (Mark I and Mark III) were delivered to an island near Port Chicago and loaded onto B-29 bombers for aerial delivery.

In 1948, President Truman needed the Black vote and consequently decided to “do the right thing” and conclude his presidency in an “honorable way.” On July 26, 1948, Truman issued executive order 9981 which declared: “…there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.” Perhaps the American government should also “do the right thing” and acknowledge and apologize for the numerous atrocities during World War II involving Black servicemen.

WWII ATROCITIES BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allen, R. (1993) The Port Chicago Mutiny. New York: Amistad Press Inc.
Buchanan, A. (1972) Black Americans in World War II. Santa Barbara, CA.
Case, C. (1998) The Slaughter: An American Atrocity. Mississippi: FBC Inc.
Donaldson, G. (1991) The History of African-Americans in the Military. Malabar, FL: Krieger Pub. Co.
Foner, J. (1974) Blacks and the Military in American History. New York: A New Perspective Pub. Co.
Lanning, M. (1997) The African-American Soldier: From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell. Secaucus, NJ: Carol Pub. Gr.
Moebs, T. (1994) Black Soldiers - Black Sailors - Black Ink….Chesapeake Bay, MD: Moebs Publishing Co.
Mullen, R. (1973) Blacks in America’s Wars. New York: Pathfinder.
Nalty, B (1986) Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military. New York: Free Press
Pearson, R. (1964) No Share of Glory. Pacific Palisades, CA.
Zinn, H. (1980) A People’s History of the United States, New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

BLACK NATIONALISM

Black Nationalism is defined as “a complex set of beliefs emphasizing the need for the cultural, political, and economic separation of African Americans from White society.” The philosophy of Black Nationalism is a direct response to racial discrimination and the overt hostility of White society toward anyone of African descent. Black Nationalist beliefs were strongest during slavery and again with Marcus Garvey at the beginning of the 20^th century. Since most Black Nationalists believed that White society would never treat African Americans fairly, they demanded a territorial base either in Africa or in America, completely governed by Black men.

As the philosophy of Black Nationalism expanded, Black pride, solidarity, and self-reliance became issues just as important as the demand for a territorial base. For example, in the 18^th century, Boston’s free Blacks demanded that Crispus Attucks, the first to die in the American Revolution, become a symbol of African American contributions to the Revolutionary War. Crispus Attucks Day (March 5th) was celebrated for decades before it was replaced by July 4t^h. During the 19^th century, Paul Cuffee, the richest Black man in America, employed only African Americans to demonstrate their ability to the skeptical White world. In the 1920’s, Marcus Garvey demanded distinctly Black standards of beauty and refused any advertisements in his newspaper “The Negro World” for hair straighteners or skin whiteners. He insisted on highlighting the accomplishments of Blacks throughout the world and that Black people chose Black heroes. He even demanded that Black churches depict all religious figures as Black, including Jesus Christ.

During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, many young Blacks became impatient with its slow progress and passive non-violent philosophy and again embraced Black Nationalism. Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) soon had most Black youths proclaiming the slogans “Black is Beautiful” and “Black Power.” Bobby Seale and Huey Newton founded the “Black Panther Party” in 1966 and advocated militant self defense in addition to Black Nationalism. Elijah Muhammad (a former Garveyite) and Malcolm X emphasized religious justification for racially separate enterprises, especially in business.

When the young Black leaders of the Civil Rights Movement looked for the “Father of Black Nationalism,” they chose a name that history had almost forgotten: Martin Robison Delany.

Martin Robinson Delany (1812-1885) was a highly intelligent, well-educated Black Nationalist with an immense and outspoken love for his people. Delany strenuously rejected the notion of Black inferiority and proposed emigration rather than the continuous submission to racial humiliation by White society. Although his father, Samuel Delany, was a slave, Martin was born free because his mother, Pati Peace Delany, was free.  The Delany children mastered reading and education so quickly that West Virginian Whites became threatened and forced them to move to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1822. In 1831, Martin completed the Reverend Lewis Woodson School for Negroes and later completed enough medical study in the offices of abolitionist medical doctors to make a comfortable living as a medical practitioner. In 1850 he became the first Black admitted to Harvard Medical School but was asked to leave after one year because Dean Oliver Holmes considered him a “distraction to education.”

Martin Delany hated slavery and while still practicing medicine, he published the “Mystery,” the first Black-owned newspaper “West of the Alleghenies.” He published his abolitionist newspaper from 1843-47 and when finances forced him to close, he joined Frederick Douglass as coeditor of the newly founded “North Star.” Delany demanded liberty for Blacks as a human right. He also exhorted Blacks to elevate themselves by becoming skilled workers and landowning farmers. Martin Delany emphasized Black self-reliance through education, independent thought, and self respect. He felt that Blacks would only gain “the world’s applause” by obtaining wealth through successful businesses.

When Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, Delany gave up all hope that this country would ever ameliorate the condition of his people. He moved his family to Canada and became a full time advocate for emigration to Africa. Delany organized three emigration conventions (in 1854, 1856, and 1858). In July 1859, Martin Delany sailed to western Africa and on December 27, 1859, he signed a treaty with the king of Abeokuta (Nigeria). The treaty “permitted African Americans associated with Delany to settle in unused tribal lands in exchange for sharing their skills and education with the Yoruba people.” Happy with his African treaty, Delany then sailed for Britain to obtain financial support.

In London, Martin Delany was able to convince cotton dealers and philanthropists that Christian colonies in Africa could easily compete with slave cotton from the South. Delany helped found the “African Aid Society,” which agreed to lend two thirds of the money needed by the first group of settlers who were expected to leave the U.S. in June 1861. Unfortunately, before the first settlers could leave, the Civil War began, and Delany decided to cancel the first group’s departure.

After four years of bloodshed, Martin Delany was able to convince President Lincoln to allow him to recruit an all Black army with Black officers, which would terrorize the South by arming all slaves and encouraging them to fight for their own emancipation. Delany was commissioned as a Major in the Union Army, the first Black field officer, but the war ended before he could implement his plan to arm all slaves. After the war, Delany was labeled as a “race agitator” for telling freed slaves to “trust only Blacks” and “to break the peace of society and force their way by insurrection to a position he is ambitious they should attain to.”

African Methodist Episcopal Church (A. M. E.) Bishop Daniel Payne wrote that “Delany was too intensely African to be popular…had his love for humanity been as great as his love for his race, his influence might have equaled that of Fredrick Douglass.” Martin Delany’s emphasis on race pride and self-reliance and his stressing of the importance of “elevating the race” clearly makes him the “Father of Black Nationalism.”

BLACK NATIONALISM

Adams, R. (1969) Great Negroes: Past and Present. Chicago: Afro-Am Publishing Co. Inc.
Appiah, K. & Gates, H. (eds.) (1999) Africana. New York: Basis Civitas Books.
Asante, M. & Mattson, M. (1991) Historical and Cultural Atlas of African Americans NY: Macmillan Pub. Co.
Bennett, L. (1975) The Shaping of Black America. Chicago: Johnson Publishing Co.
Bennett. L. (1988) Before the Mayflower. New York: Penguin Books.
Delany, M. R. (ed.) (1996) The Condition, Elevation, Emigration.. Black Classic Press; Reprint edition
Franklin, J. & Meier, A. (ed.) (1982) Black Leaders of the 20th Century. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Franklin, J. (1988) From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans, New York: Alfred A Knopf.
Griffith, C. (1975) The African Dream: Martin R. Delany and the Emergence of Pan-African Thought.
University Park: Pennsylvania State University.
Litwack, L. & Meier, A. (1988) Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century. Chicago: Univ. of IL Press.
Low, A. & Clift, V. (eds.) (1983) Encyclopedia of Black America. New York: Neal Schuman Publishers.
Moses, W. (1988) The Golden Age of Black Nationalism, 1850-1925. New York: Oxford University Press.
Moses. W. (ed.) (1996) Classical Black Nationalism: From Am. Rev. to Mar. Garvey. NY: NY Univ. Press.
Sally, C. (1993) The Black 100, New York: Carol Publishing Group.

Black People... After 1865 by Dr. Leroy Vaughn, MD, MBA, Historian After 1865

BLACK PEOPLE
AND THEIR PLACE IN WORLD HISTORY

by DR. LEROY VAUGHN, MD, MBA, HISTORIAN is now available on amazon.com.

AFTER 1865

BLACK COWBOYS

THE BLACK STATUE OF LIBERTY

LYNCHING

FIVE BLACK PRESIDENTS

BLACK INVENTORS

WEST POINT ACADEMY AND BLACK CADETS

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS AND BLACK SOLDIERS

BLACK COWBOYS

The deaths of Roy Rogers and Gene Autry saddened us all because many of us grew up watching these fictional cowboys help tame the old west. However, what’s even sadder is that virtually none of us can name a single Black cowboy either real or fictional. The very word “cowboy” was initially only applied to Black men who took care of cows. Similarly, Black men who worked in the house were called “house boys.” Nevertheless, once cowboys became the heroes of western novels and later television, Black people totally disappeared from the Old West.
Joseph G. McCoy created the need for “cowboys” when he established a market and railroad-shipping center at Abilene, Kansas. Before McCoy was able to convince the Union Pacific Railroad to extend its tracks into Abilene, ranchers in Texas had no way to get their cattle to beef hungry Eastern and Midwestern markets. Most of the cattle were merely slaughtered for their hides. It was estimated that over four million cattle grazed in Texas at the end of the Civil War. Once the marketplace for buyers and sellers of cattle was created, cattlemen had only to get their herds from Texas into the Abilene, Kansas cattle trains. The best known trail for delivering these cattle was called the Chisholm Trail. Its main stem ran from the Rio Grand through Austin, Waco, and Fort Worth, Texas before entering Oklahoma and finally Kansas.
A cattle crew of eleven men, the trail boss, eight cowboys, a wrangler and a cook, usually managed an average herd of 2,500 cattle. Approximately two to four Black cowboys were present on most cattle drives because among them were many of the best riders and ropers in the Midwest. Ironically enough, all cowhands - whether White or Black - soon became known as cowboys which White Texans strongly resented. The eight cowboys usually rode in pairs with two in the front and rear and two on each side of the herd. Moreover, the cook was usually a retired Black cowboy and the wrangler was frequently a Black teenager who took care of the horses.
Ab Blocker, one of the most famous of the trail bosses, said he intentionally hired large numbers of Black cowboys because of their outstanding performances during the two to three month long arduous and dangerous trail drives. One Black cowboy actually saved his life. All the real cowboys - Black, Brown, Red, and White - shared the same jobs and dangers. They ate the same food and slept in the same area. Cowboys had to be willing to work almost day and night to the point of exhaustion and under the most strenuous conditions. They continuously risked death through drowning (at river crossings) and attacks from wild animals including wolves and snakes. They also faced illness produced by high winds and freezing thunderstorms.
This constant threat of danger developed an extreme comradery among cowboys on the trail. In fact, when a Black cowboy became the first person imprisoned in the new Abilene jail, his Black and White cowboy crew immediately broke him out and ran the sheriff out of town. At the end of their long cattle drives, a few Black cowboys remained on northern ranges to become horse breakers, ranch hands and even sheriffs or outlaws, but most of them drew their pay and rode back to Texas for yet another cattle drive.
Despite the legendary performances of great lawmen like Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson, Black soldiers, known as the Buffalo Soldiers, were primarily responsible for keeping law and order in the Old West. Their peace keeping missions between cattlemen and farmers (who fought to keep cattle off of their crops) was primarily responsible for making expansion of the cattle empire possible. The Buffalo Soldiers were also the primary force that helped stop Indian attacks on cattlemen moving up the Chisholm Trail. The Congressional Act of July 28, 1866 established two Black infantry regiments and two Calvary regiments. All four saw continuous service in the West during the three decades following the Civil War. The Black Calvary fought in almost every part of the West from Mexico to Montana. Both General Miles and General Merritt praised their Black troops as “courageous, skilled, intelligent, and brave in battle.”
It should not be surprising that Black men were among the best horse riders in the Old West because they were traditionally responsible for the care and maintenance of horses while working as stable boys, trainers, and jockeys. In fact, thirteen of the fourteen jockeys who participated in the first running of the Kentucky Derby were Black. Moreover, from 1875 until 1902 Black jockeys won eleven Kentucky Derby titles. Isaac Murphy, who won the Kentucky Derby in 1884, 1890, and 1891, was recognized as America’s finest rider during the last two decades of the 19th century. Forty years passed before Earl Sande tied his record of three Kentucky Derby titles. Black jockeys continued their outstanding performances until racism barred them from the racetracks and replaced them with White jockeys.
In July 1876, the booming new town of Deadwood, South Dakota, decided to have a roping contest to settle once and for all who was the best roping cowboy. Contestants came from miles around to win the $200 prize. A Black cowboy named Nat Love, who subsequently wrote his autobiography, was several minutes faster than his nearest competition. With the roping contest completed, a dispute soon arose over who was the best marksman. Nat Love also won the subsequent shooting contest by placing all fourteen of his rifle shots in the bull’s eye target at 150 yards. In addition to the prize money, Nat Love was given the title “Deadwood Dick” which he carried with “honor” ever after.
Bill Pickett is credited with having originated the sport of “bulldogging.” Bulldogging is defined as “throwing a steer by seizing the horns and twisting the neck.” According to Bill Pickett’s boss, Zack Miller who owned the 101 Ranch, “Bill Pickett was the greatest sweat and dirt cowhand that ever lived - bar none.” The Miller Brothers’ 101 Ranch later became famous for putting on one of the finest rodeos in the world and played in such places as Chicago, New York, London, and Mexico City. One of their greatest attractions was Bill Pickett who would actually bring down steers with only his teeth.
As the agricultural frontier moved west, the open range was transformed into farms with barbed-wire boundaries, which significantly reduced the public domain for cattle trails. The long cattle drives also gradually declined as the railroads built branch lines into large Texas cities. By 1890, the legendary era of the cowboy was over, except in fictional novels where Black cowboys completely vanished from their role as self-reliant and masterful heroes of the Old West.

BLACK COWBOYS BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abbott, E. & Smith, H. (1939) We Pointed Them North: Recs. of a Cowpuncher. NY: Farrar & Rienhart.
Adams, A. (1931) The Log of a Cowboy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Adams, R. (ed.) (1957) The Best of the American Cowboy. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Atherton, L. (1961) The Cattle Kings. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.
Bard, F. (1960) Horse Wrangler: Sixty Years in the Saddle in WY and MT. Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press.
Billington, M. & Hardaway, R. (eds.)(1998) Afr. Ams. on the West. Frontier. Niwot, CO. Univ. Pr. of CO.
Branch, E. (1961) The Cowboy and His Interpreters. New York: Cooper Square Publishers
Bronson, E. (1910) Cowboy Life on the West. Plains. Reminiscences of a Ranchman. NY: Geo. H. Doran Co.
Durham, P. & Jones, E. (1965) The Negro Cowboys. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Katz, W. (1992) Black People Who Made the Old West. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press
Leckie, W. (1967) The Buffalo Soldiers. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Pelz, R. (1989) Black Heroes of the Wild West. Seattle: Open Hand Publishers.
Ravage, J. (1997) Black Pioneers: Images of the Black Experience.. Salt Lake City: Univ. of Utah Press.
Savage, W. (1976) Blacks in the West. Westport: Greenwood Press.

THE BLACK STATUE OF LIBERTY

In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte stated that history was only “a lie agreed upon.” Nothing could be more illustrative than the history of the Statue of Liberty originally called “Liberty Enlightening the World.” The liberation of African American slaves was the only inspiration for the creation of a Statue of Liberation for Edouard Rene LeFebvre DeLaboulaye. He recruited a young sculptor, Frederick Auguste Bartholdi, to create a Black female slave statue holding a broken chain in her left hand and with broken chains of slavery at her feet.
The official web site of the Statue of Liberty states that the statue was given to the people of the United States by the people of France as an expression of friendship and to commemorate the centennial of American Independence (1776). The Encyclopedia Britannica states Bartholdi designed the Statue of Liberty as a monument to the Franco-American alliance of 1778. These are absolute and total lies! Edouard Rene LeFebvre DeLaboulaye, an internationally renowned lawyer and author of a three-volume history of the United States, first discussed the idea of a symbol to represent the end of U.S. slavery at a dinner party in 1865, at his country home near Versailles, France. In attendance at the dinner party were many abolitionists including Victor Hugo and Frederick Auguste Bartholdi, who had initially been retained to create a sculptured bust of Mr. DeLaboulaye.
Victor Hugo and Edouard DeLaboulaye were leaders of the French abolitionist movement. They hated slavery and were in strong support of John Brown when he attempted to arm slaves in West Virginia for rebellion by raiding the armory at Harpers Ferry in 1859. After John Brown failed and was hanged, Hugo and DeLaboulaye took up a collection among the French people and presented a gold metal to John Brown’s widow.
After Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States in 1861, the French liberals and abolitionists including Hugo, Bartholdi, and DeLaboulaye urged Lincoln to free the slaves even if civil war resulted. Lincoln was told: “You would become the first country in history to have fought a war against itself to free the internal slave and you would go down in history as a truly great country and a beacon of light to all freedom loving people.” The French abolitionists saw the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 as a worthless piece of paper since it only freed slaves in the Confederate controlled states where Lincoln had no jurisdiction and not in Union controlled states where Lincoln was still in authority. When the war ended in 1865, French abolitionists were extremely happy and in addition to again urging Lincoln to free all slaves, DeLaboulaye and Bartholdi requested permission to build and dedicate a monument or colossal statuary to that freeing of all slaves in America. When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, DeLaboulaye again headed the abolitionists’ committee that presented a gold metal to Mrs. Lincoln, just as he had done for the widow of John Brown.
In addition to a staunch abolitionist, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904) was an outstanding French sculptor. Bartholdi trained to be an architect in Alsace and Paris and then studied painting with Ary Scheffer and sculpture with J. F. Sioux. Bartholdi’s life and ideas changed dramatically after 1855 when he toured Egypt and witnessed the magnificent colossal monuments and statues created by the ancient Black Egyptians. Bartholdi’s creation of a giant Black ex-slave female with broken chains at her feet and left hand was readily accepted in France. Although liberals, freemasons, and businessmen with American interests were the most enthusiastic supporters of the project, by 1881 some 100,000 people and 181 towns throughout France had contributed money.
In 1871, Frederic Bartholdi at the urging of DeLaboulaye undertook a voyage to America to sell his idea of a colossal statue clearly symbolizing the end of chattel slavery in the United States. He was armed with a large terracotta statue and numerous drawings to clearly illustrate his proposed Statue of Liberty. The original African face of the Statue of Liberty was published in The New York Post dated June 17, 1986 as part of the centennial celebration. Bartholdi found little American support for his African slave model. In 1878, as the African head of Miss. Liberty first went on display at the Universal Exposition in Paris, France, rampant reaction raged throughout the American South.
Bartholdi finally had to abandon his original ideas and changed the Statue of Liberty to the features we are now familiar with. The African face was re-sculptured into the face of his mother Madame Bartholdi. A tablet of law tucked into her folded arm that bears the date July 4, 1776, replaced the broken chains in the slave’s left hand. Ironically, the chains were left at the feet but the meaning changed from broken American slavery to broken English tyranny.
On May 18, 1986 during the centennial celebration, The New York Times joined The New York Post in describing the original Statue of Liberty and the intention of DeLaboulaye and Bartholdi in presenting this statue to America. It’s unconscionable that the Encyclopedia Britannica and the official Statue of Liberty literature can still lie and say that this is a monument celebrating American Independence of 1776 and/or the Franco-American alliance of 1778. Dr. Jack Felder sums it up clearly: “Once in place, Miss. Liberty received a new meaning. She was hailed as the ‘Mother of White Exiles,’ greeting European immigrants seeking freedom in America. Nothing in the original conceptions of Bartholdi or DeLaboulaye envisioned this role for their stature.”

BLACK STATUE OF LIBERTY BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bohlen, C. “Does She Say the Same Things in her Native Tongue?” New York Times, May 18, 1986
Felder, J. (1992) From the Statue of Liberty to the Statue of Bigotry. New York: Jack Felder.
Felder, J. “Black Origins and Lady Liberty.” Daily Challenge. July 16, 1990
Felder, J. “This Miss. Liberty Was Modeled on Racism.” Black American, July 3, 1986.
Robinson, C. & Battle, R. (1987) The Journey of the Songhai People. Philadelphia: Farmer Press
Sinclair, T. Was Original Statue a Tribute to Blacks? New York Voice, July 5, 1986
The New York Post, “Statue of Liberty” June 17, 1986.

LYNCHING

Lynching is defined as mob execution, usually by hanging, without the benefit of trial and often accompanied with torture and body mutilation. The usual scenario included a mob of up to 5,000 White men attacking a single, defenseless Black man and executing him for a crime he was never convicted of or even charged with in most cases. Lynching is considered one of the most horrific chapters in African American history and is only exceeded by slavery in cruelty and savagery toward another human being.
Ironically, the term “lynch” is derived from the name of Charles Lynch, a Virginia planter and patriot during the American Revolution, who directed violence toward White British loyalists. After the Civil War and emancipation, lynching became almost synonymous with hanging and torturing African American males. Between 1882 and 1930 more than 3,300 Black male victims were hanged, burned alive, castrated, and mutilated by mostly southern White mobs who have never faced any charges for these criminal acts. Coroners and law officials typically attributed the murders to “parties unknown.” Most historians and sociologists agree that mob executions were really about social control and to maintain the status quo of White superiority and had little to due with crime control.
Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) could easily be called the mother of the anti-lynching movement. She was the first of eight children born to slave parents in Holly Springs, Mississippi. After emancipation, she attended several schools run by northern Methodist missionaries including Rust College. In 1879, after the yellow fever epidemic claimed the lives of both her parents, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee with the younger children and accepted a teaching position. Because of her great concern for racial injustice, Wells was invited to write for a local church paper. As her fame increased, she was asked to contribute to several Baptist newspapers. She eventually became editor and partner of the “Free Speech and Headlight” Baptist newspaper.
In 1892, the brutal lynching of three close friends in Memphis started Ida B. Wells on a militant, uncompromising, single-minded crusade against lynching from which she would never retreat. Her three friends committed the crime of opening a grocery store, which successfully competed with a White grocer directly across the street. For the crime of becoming too “uppity”, a large White mob took the three proprietors from their grocery store, tortured and killed them. Ms. Wells wrote angry editorials in her newspaper encouraging Blacks to leave Memphis if possible and to boycott White businesses, which left several White companies including the newly opened streetcar line on the verge of bankruptcy.
Ida B. Wells decided to launch her anti-lynching movement on several fronts. She first wanted to explode the myth that lynching was primarily to protect White women from rape by Black men. She published detailed statistics on lynching, which demonstrated that less than one-fifth of the victims of lynch mobs were even accused of rape by their killers. She said that racist southern White mobs “cry rape” to brand their victims as “moral monsters” and to place them “beyond the pale of human sympathy.” She wrote that while Southern White men raped Black women and children with impunity, they considered any liaison between a Black man and a White woman as involuntary by definition. She pointed out that children produced by White-Black relationships were called “mulatto” from the Spanish word for mule because racist Whites believed that mixed-race children, like the offspring of donkeys and horses, were an inferior breed that could not reproduce. When Ms. Wells suggested in print that White women were often willing participants with Black men, a large White mob destroyed the presses of her newspaper and would have killed her had she not been visiting friends in New York. Thomas Fortune invited her to stay in New York and write for the “New York Age.” She was also allowed to exchange the circulation list of the “Free Speech” for a one fourth interest in the “Age” and immediately began to write a series on lynching.
The second approach of Ida B. Wells in her anti-lynching movement was to appeal to the Christian conscience of powerful non-southern Whites. She published two pamphlets (“Southern Horror” in 1892 and “A Red Book” in 1895) in hopes that extensive statistical analyses of lynching would clearly point out that the southern rape fantasy was merely “an excuse to get rid of Negroes who were acquiring wealth and property.” She pointed out that the same lynch mob that killed a Nashville Black man accused of visiting a White woman left unharmed a White man convicted of raping an eight year old girl. Since Ms. Well’s viewed lynching as primarily an economic issue, she hoped that economic pressure from the “ruling-class Whites” could produce southern social change. She began a lecture tour in the Northeast in 1892 and in 1894 she lectured in England where she helped organize the British Anti-Lynching Society. Ms. Wells was able to effect a curtailment of British investment in the South by suggesting that this could influence American sentiment. In 1895, Ida B. Wells toured the northern and western states organizing American anti-lynching societies.
Ida B. Wells told African Americans that her analysis of mob violence suggested that it abated whenever Blacks exercised “manly self-defense.” In “Southern Horrors” she suggested, “a Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every Black home.” She also told Blacks that they must retaliate with their economic power. She urged Blacks to boycott White businesses or to migrate to Oklahoma since Black labor was the industrial strength of the South. She said: “The more the Afro-American yields and cringes and begs, the more he has to do so, the more he is insulted, outraged, and lynched.”
Since Southern courts would not punish lynching participants, Ms. Wells lobbied for legislation that would make lynching a federal crime. In 1901, Ida B. Wells met with President William McKinley and pressed for his support with anti-lynching legislation. However, she could not get McKinley or Theodore Roosevelt to support an anti-lynching bill that was introduced in Congress in 1902. As one of the founding members of the NAACP in 1909, she made her anti-lynching campaign including anti-lynching legislation among the NAACP’s highest priorities. The NAACP investigated specific incidents and published national statistics on lynching in an attempt to sway public support to put a stop to lynching. In 1918, the NAACP was able to get Republican Congressman Leonidas Dyer to introduce a bill that subjected lynch mobs to a charge of capital murder for their actions. The Dyer Bill passed in the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate because southern Democrats never allowed the bill out of committee. Congressman Dyer re-introduced the bill each year for the next ten years, but it never again passed either house.
As a result of the life-long crusade of Ida B. Wells against lynching, she became the inspiration for organizations throughout the country that opposed lynching. For example, The American Civil Liberties Union, The Commission on Interracial Cooperation, and
The Communist Party of the United States all played a role in the anti-lynching campaign. Ironically, White middle class Southern women for whom lynching was suppose to protect, formed the Jessie Daniel Ames Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching in 1930. In honor of her legacy, a low-income housing project in Chicago was named after Ida B. Wells in 1941; and in 1990, the U.S. Postal Service issued an Ida B. Wells commemorative stamp. The “militant,” “uncompromising,” “outspoken,” and “fearless” Ida B. Wells can surely look back upon her life as a genuine success in helping to end one of the most horrific chapters in African American history.
Strange Fruit
By Billie Holiday

Southern trees bear a strange fruit

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root

Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze

Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene

of the gallant South

The bulgin' eyes

and the twisted mouth

Scent of magnolias

sweet and fresh

Then the sudden smell

of burnin' flesh

Here is a fruit

for the crows to pluck

For the rain to gather

For the wind to suck

For the sun to rot

For the tree to drop

Here is a strange

and bitter crop

LYNCHING BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adams. R. (1969) Great Negroes: Past and Present. Chicago: Afro-Am Publishing Co., Inc.
Appiah, K. & Gates, H. (eds.) (1999) Africana. New York: Basis Civitas Books.
Aptheker, B. (ed.) (1977) Lynching and Rape: An Exchange of Views. American Institute for Marxist Studies.
Aptheker, H. (1951) A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States. NY: Citadel Press
Bennett, L. (1975) The Shaping of Black America. Chicago: Johnson Publishing Co.
Bennett, L. (1988) Before the Mayflower. New York: Penguin Books.
Davis, M. (1982) Contributions of Black Women to America. Columbia, South Carolina; Kenday Press.
Duster, A. (1970) Crusade for Justice: Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
Franklin, J. & Meier, A. (eds.) (1982) Black Leaders of the 20th Century. Chicago: Univ. of Illinois Press
Franklin, J. (1988) From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Lerner, G. (ed.) (1973) Black Women in White America. A Documentary History. NY: Vintage Books.
Low, A. & Glift, V. (eds.) (1983) Encyclopedia of Black America. New York: Neal Schuman Publishers.
Sally, C. (1993) The Black 100. New York: Carol Publishing Group.

FIVE BLACK PRESIDENTS

Joel A. Rogers and Dr. Auset Bakhufu have both written books documenting that at least five former presidents of the United States had Black people among their ancestors. If one considers the fact that European men far outnumbered European women during the founding of this country, and that the rape and impregnation of an African female slave was not considered a crime, it is even more surprising that these two authors could not document Black ancestors among an ever larger number of former presidents. The presidents they name include Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Warren Harding, and Calvin Coolidge.
The best case for Black ancestry is against Warren G. Harding, our 29th president from 1921 until 1923. Harding himself never denied his ancestry. When Republican leaders called on Harding to deny the "Negro" history, he said, "How should I know whether or not one of my ancestors might have jumped the fence." William Chancellor, a White professor of economics and politics at Wooster College in Ohio, wrote a book on the Harding family genealogy and identified Black ancestors among both parents of President Harding. Justice Department agents allegedly bought and destroyed all copies of this book. Chancellor also said that Harding's only academic credentials included education at Iberia College, which was founded in order to educate fugitive slaves.
Andrew Jackson was our 7th president from 1829 to 1837. The Virginia Magazine of History, Volume 29, says that Jackson was the son of a White woman from Ireland who had intermarried with a Negro. The magazine also said that his eldest brother had been sold as a slave in Carolina. Joel Rogers says that Andrew Jackson Sr. died long before President Andrew Jackson Jr. was born. He says the president's mother then went to live on the Crawford farm where there were Negro slaves and that one of these men was Andrew Jr.'s father. Another account of the "brother sold into slavery” story can be found in David Coyle's book entitled "Ordeal of the Presidency" (1960).
Thomas Jefferson was our 3^rd president from 1801 to 1809. The chief attack on Jefferson was in a book written by Thomas Hazard in 1867 called "The Johnny Cake Papers." Hazard interviewed Paris Gardiner, who said he was present during the 1796 presidential campaign, when one speaker states that Thomas Jefferson was “a mean-spirited son of a half-breed Indian squaw and a Virginia mulatto father.” In his book entitled "The Slave Children of Thomas Jefferson," Samuel Sloan wrote that Jefferson destroyed all of the papers, portraits, and personal effects of his mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson, when she died on March 31, 1776. He even wrote letters to every person who had ever received a letter from his mother, asking them to return that letter. Sloan says, "There is something strange and even psychopathic about the lengths to which Thomas Jefferson went to destroy all remembrances of his mother, while saving over 18,000 copies of his own letters and other documents for posterity." One must ask, "What is it he was trying to hide?"
Abraham Lincoln was our 16th president from 1861 to 1865. J. A. Rogers quotes Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks, as saying that Abraham Lincoln was the illegitimate son of an African man. William Herndon, Lincoln's law partner, said that Lincoln had very dark skin and coarse hair and that his mother was from an Ethiopian tribe. In Herndon's book entitled "The Hidden Lincoln" he says that Thomas Lincoln could not have been Abraham Lincoln's father because he was sterile from childhood mumps and was later castrated. Lincoln's presidential opponents made cartoon drawings depicting him as a Negro and nicknamed him “Abraham Africanus the First."
Calvin Coolidge was our 30th president, and he succeeded Warren Harding. He proudly admitted that his mother was dark because of mixed Indian ancestry. However, Dr. Bakhufu says that by 1800 the New England Indian was hardly any longer pure Indian, because they had mixed so often with Blacks. Calvin Coolidge's mother's maiden name was "Moor." In Europe the name "Moor" was given to all Black people just as the name Negro was used in America.
All of the presidents mentioned were able to pass for White and never acknowledged their Black ancestry. Millions of other children who were descendants of former slaves have also been able to pass for White. American society has had so much interracial mixing that books such as “The Bell Curve”, discussing IQ evaluations based solely on race, are totally unrealistic.

FIVE BLACK PRESIDENTS BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adler, D. (1987) Thomas Jefferson: Father of our Democracy. New York: Holiday House.
Bakhufu, A. (1993) The Six Black Presidents, Washington, D.C.: PIK2 Publications.
Bennett, L. (1988) Before the Mayflower. New Penguin Books.
Brodie, F. (1974) Thomas Jefferson, An Intimate History. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Curtis, J. (1982) Return to These Hills: VT Yrs. of C. Coolidge. Woodstock, VT: Curtis-Lieberman Books.
Dennis, R. (1970) The Black People of America. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.
Erickson, E. (1974) Dimensions of a New Identity: Jefferson Lectures. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Kane, J. (1981) Facts About the Presidents: From Geo. Washington to Ron. Reagan. NY: H. W. Wilson Co.
Mapp, A. (1987) Thomas Jefferson: A Strange Case of Mistaken Identity. New York: Madison Books.
Morrow, E. (1963) Black Man in the White House. New York: Coward-McCann Inc.
Remini, R. (1966) Andrew Jackson. New York: Harper & Row
Reuter, E. (1969) The Mulatto in the United States. Haskell House.
Rogers, J. (1965) Sex and Race. St. Petersburg, FL: Helga Rogers Publishing
Rogers, J. (1965) The Five Negro Presidents. St. Petersburg, FL: Helga Rogers Publishing.
Sullivan, M. (1991) Presidential Passions: Love Affairs of Am’s Pres. Wash. Johnson. NY: Shapolsky Pub.
Whitney, T. (1975) The Descendants of the Presidents. Charlotte, NC: Delmar Printing Co.

BLACK INVENTORS

When the famous anthropologist Dr. Richard Leakey discovered bones in Africa in 1956, which were millions of years old, his accomplishment was belittled by people who regularly asked the question, "but what has Africa contributed to world progress?" He could not understand why people were so poorly informed, since he knew that the collective contributions of Black people to civilization, science, and invention are so extensive that it is not possible to live a full day in the United States, or any other part of the world without sharing in the benefits of those contributions. Still the genius of the Black imagination that has influenced every aspect of life in the United States and elsewhere is virtually unknown to most people.
Very few homes in America have as many as two books, which discuss the achievements of the Black race, either past or present. During the slave trade, many of the slaves from the former Songhay Empire were highly educated and were credited with teaching Caribbean and American farmers successful agricultural techniques. They also invented various tools and equipment to lessen the burden of their daily work. Most slave inventors were nameless, such as the slave owned by the Confederate President Jefferson Davis who designed the ship propeller used by the entire Confederate Navy.
Following the Civil War, the growth of industry in this country was tremendous and much of this was made possible with inventions by ethnic minorities. By 1913 over 1,000 inventions were patented by Black Americans. Among the most notable inventors were Jan Matzeliger, who developed the first machine to mass-produce shoes, and Elijah McCoy, who invented automatic lubrication devices for steam engines. Granville Woods had 35 patents to improve electric railway systems including the first system to allow moving trains to communicate. He even sued Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison for stealing his patents and won both cases. Garrett Morgan developed the first automatic traffic signal and gas mask, and Norbert Rillieux who created the technique for converting sugar cane juice into white sugar crystals. Moreover, Rillieux was so brilliant that in 1854 he left Louisiana and went to France where he spent ten years working with the Champollions deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics from the Rosetta Stone. Lewis Latimer created an inexpensive cotton-thread filament, which made electric light bulbs practical because Edison's original light bulb only burned for a few minutes. More recent inventors include McKinley Jones, who invented the movable refrigeration unit for food transport in trucks and trains and Lloyd Quarterman who with six other Black scientists, worked on the creation of the atomic bomb along (code named the Manhattan Project.) Quarterman also helped develop the first nuclear reactor, which was used in the atomically powered submarine called the Nautilus.
Lets conclude with two current contributors. It should not be surprising that we don't know about the wonderful contributions of Blacks in the past because we are not even made aware of the startling scientific achievements during our own lifetime. For example, Otis Bodkin invented an electrical device used in all guided missiles and all IBM computers, and Colonel Frederick Gregory, who was not only the first Black astronaut pilot but the person who also redesigned the cockpits for the last three space shuttles. Gregory was also on the team that pioneered the microwave instrumentation landing system. In 2000, Bendix Aircraft Company began a worldwide promotion of this microwave instrumentation landing system that can land planes without a pilot.

Dr. Mark Dean—Inventor of the Personal Computer

Biography Published On IBM’s Website

 

Dr. Mark E. Dean is an IBM Fellow and vice president of the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. He oversees more than 400 scientists and engineers doing exploratory and applied research in various hardware, software and services areas, including nanotechnology, materials science, storage systems, data management, web technologies, workplace practices and user interfaces. An engineer by training, Dr. Dean has more than 25 years experience in the IT industry -- all with IBM -- where he has been central to the design of a wide range of IBM computers. 

Dr. Dean has held various positions in several different cities and IBM divisions. Prior to assuming leadership of the Almaden lab in 2004, Dr. Dean was vice president for hardware and systems architecture in IBM's Systems and Technology Group (STG) in Tucson, Arizona. While there, he significantly enhanced STG's hardware and systems strategy and architectures to support continued market share growth and industry leadership in IBM's server and storage systems business. Before STG, Dr. Dean was a vice president in IBM's Storage Technology Group, focused on the company's storage systems strategy and technology roadmap.
Prior to his time in Tucson, Dr. Dean was the vice president for Systems Research at IBM's Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, where he was responsible for the research and application of systems technologies spanning circuits to operating environments. Key technologies from his research team include petaflop supercomputer systems structures (BlueGene), digital visualization, design automation tools, Linux optimizations for servers and embedded systems, algorithms for computational science, memory compression, S/390 & PowerPC processors, embedded systems research, formal verification methods and high-speed low-power circuits.
In 1997, Dean was named to be both director of the Austin Research Laboratory and director of Advanced Technology Development for the IBM Enterprise Server Group. Achievements there included testing of the first gigahertz CMOS microprocessor, design of a high-speed DRAM and development of the "cellular" server architecture, which is optimized for managing, storing, searching, distributing and mining complex data (such as video, audio and high-resolution images).
Before this, Dr. Dean held several engineering positions at IBM in the area of computer system hardware architecture and design in Boca Raton, Florida, and Austin. He has developed all types of computer systems, from embedded systems to supercomputers. He was also chief engineer for the development of the IBM PC/AT, ISA systems bus, PS/2 Model 70 & 80, the Color Graphics Adapter in the original IBM PC and numerous other subsystems. One invention -- the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) "bus," which permitted add-on devices like the keyboard, disk drives and printers to be connected to the motherboard -- would earn election to the National Inventors Hall of Fame for Dean and colleague Dennis Moeller.
Dr. Dean received a BSEE degree from the University of Tennessee in 1979, an MSEE degree from Florida Atlantic University in 1982, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1992. He has papers published in the IEEE Computer Society Press, MIT Press, and IBM Research Journal.
Dr. Dean's most recent awards include: member of the American Academy of Arts and Science and National Academy of Engineering, IEEE Fellow, the CCG Black Engineer of the Year, the NSBE Distinguished
Engineer award, the University of Tennessee COE Dougherty Award, induction into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame, and recipient of the Ronald H. Brown American Innovators Award. Dr. Dean was appointed to IBM Fellow in 1995, IBM's highest technical honor. He is a member of the IBM Academy of Technology. He has received several academic and IBM awards, including thirteen Invention Achievement Awards and six Corporate Awards. Dr. Dean has more than 40 patents or patents pending.

BLACK INVENTORS BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adams, R. (1969) Great Negroes Past and Present. Chicago: Afro-Am Publishing Co.
Burt, M. (1989) Black Inventors of America. Portland: National Book Co.
Diggs, L. (1975) Black Innovations. Chicago: Institute of Positive Education.
Haber, L. (1970) Black Pioneers of Science and Invention. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc.
Harris, M. (1964) Black Inventors: the Revolutionary Period. New York: Negro History Associates
Harris, M. (1964) Early American Inventors, 18th and 19th Centuries. New York: Negro History Assocs.
Harris, M. (1974) Granville T. Woods Memorial: Collector’s Edition. New York: Negro History Assocs.
Hayden, R. (1992) 9 African American Inventors. Frederick, Maryland: Twenty-first Century Books.
Klein, A. (1971) Hidden Contributions: Black Scientists & Inventors in Am. NY: Doubleday and Co.
Latimer, L. (1890) Incandescent Electric Lighting: A Practical Description of the Edison System NY: D. Van Norstrand Co.
Rogers, J. (1989) Africa’s Gift to America. St. Petersburg, FL: Helga Rogers Publishing.
Van Sertima, I. (1983) Blacks in Science Ancient and Modern. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.

WEST POINT ACADEMY AND BLACK CADETS

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point (West Point), New York was initially established as a corps of engineers by President Thomas Jefferson under an 1802 Act of Congress. General Sylvanus Thayer was appointed superintendent in 1814 and became known as the “Father of West Point” because of his academic expansion. Since members of Congress had to nominate West Point cadets, no African Americans were nominated until the Reconstruction period when Black voters elected Black Congressmen. The 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th constitutional amendments made Black Congressmen possible. Emancipation was accomplished by the 13^th amendment (1865); citizenship through the 14^th amendment (1868); and the 15^th amendment granted suffrage to Black males (1870).
African American Congressmen nominated 27 Blacks to West Point between 1870 and 1887. Only 12 members of the group passed the academic and physical examinations for admission. Academically, they were examined in mathematics (including fractions and decimals) in addition to the rules of correct grammar. Candidates also had to demonstrate knowledge of “U.S. and world geography, by discussing various historical periods, wars, and U.S. administrations.” The physical examination required the absence of infectious and chronic disease. During the four-year program, the cadets studied French, Spanish, chemistry, engineering, philosophy, law, mathematics (including calculus), mineralogy, and geology. Despite the many nominations, only three African Americans graduated from West Point during its first 130 years of existence.
The first African American nominated to West Point was James Webster Smith who attended from 1870 until January 1874. James Smith was described as “a hot headed activist, bent on righting the wrongs of racial inequality.” Smith was forced to repeat his first year at West Point because of an alleged lie in response to a charge of inattention in the ranks. After his fourth year, Smith wrote his patron, David Clark of Connecticut, complaining about the academy’s mistreatment of Black cadets. His letters sparked a congressional board of inquiry, which eventually recommended the court martial of several White cadets. However, since one of the White cadets was the nephew of William Belknap, Secretary of War, the punishment was reduced to a mere reprimand. Smith’s personal and public need to eradicate social injustice at West Point resulted in extreme classmate hatred and the eventual dismissal of Smith from the academy for fighting after a court martial and three-week imprisonment.
Johnson Chesnut Whittaker was chosen to fill the vacancy created by James Smith’s dismissal. Contrary to Smith, Whittaker was described as a quiet, shy, cowardly student who sought solace in the Bible. After completing four years and just prior to his final examinations, Whittaker was found on the floor of his room, “bleeding and insensible, bound hand and foot to his bedstead. His head was partly shaved, and his feet and hands slashed.” Whittaker claimed that three masked men were responsible, and this created such uproar in the press that Congress initiated another investigation. A court of inquiry accused Whittaker of self-mutilation to avoid his final examinations.
He received a court martial and was sentenced to a dishonorable discharge from the military and one year hard labor in prison. President Chester Arthur reversed the entire proceedings but did
not allow him to finish the Academy.
Henry Ossian Flipper, a former slave, was a roommate of both James Smith and Johnson Whittaker and was determined to finish at all costs. Henry received his appointment to West Point upon the recommendation of Congressman James Freeman, who needed the Black vote for re-election. Despite threats, bribes as high as $5,000, and refusal of any cadets to speak to him for four years, Flipper became the first Black West Point graduate on June 14, 1877. Prominent Blacks throughout the nation were proud of Flipper’s accomplishment and Charles Douglass, son of Frederick Douglass, sponsored a New York City reception in his honor.
On January 2, 1878 Flipper received his commission as second lieutenant and was assigned to the all Black 10^th U.S. Calvary (called the Buffalo Soldiers) at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Henry Flipper performed exceptionally well during his first four years and was well liked by everyone. He served admirably in a number of combat assignments on the frontier and also worked brilliantly as an engineer. He designed and perfected a drainage system that eliminated diseased stagnant rainwater (and subsequent malaria) that was plaguing the fort. Still known as “Flipper’s Ditch”, it became a national landmark in 1977. Unfortunately, he was transferred to Fort Davis, Texas in 1881 commanded by the racist Colonel William Shafter. Shafter disliked Blacks in general and the Buffalo Soldiers in particular. Shortly after Lieutenant Flipper’s arrival, he was accused of stealing commissary funds. Flipper stated at his court martial that he hid the funds in his personal trunk because there was no secure place to keep the commissary funds and that Colonel Shafter was fully aware of this. Despite the fact that Colonel Shafter had Lucy Smith, Flipper’s White housekeeper, laundress, and cook, searched and that $2,800 in commissary checks were found in her blouse, this fact was never mentioned at the trial. Moreover, the local town merchants, who highly admired Flipper, took up a collection and replaced all the missing funds. The court martial panel could not convict Flipper of embezzlement but were able to convict him of “conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman.” Although the Army’s Judge Advocate General concluded that the conviction was racially motivated, President Chester Arthur refused to reverse his conviction, and Flipper was dishonorably discharged.
Henry Flipper used his outstanding education at West Point to carve out a distinguished career as a civil and mining engineer, especially in and around Mexico, since he had learned fluent Spanish. He initially worked for an American mining company surveying land in Mexico. When Texas and Arizona joined the United States, Flipper translated Spanish land deeds and titles for the Land Grant Court and investigated their authenticity in Mexico City records. Flipper later joined the Justice Department and Senate Foreign Relations Committee as an expert on Mexican political developments. Subsequently, Secretary of Interior, Albert Fall, a close friend of Henry Flipper, chose him as chief civil engineer in determining the course for the Alaskan railroad lines.
Flipper unsuccessfully devoted his entire life to clearing his name. Four bills were introduced in Congress between 1903 and 1908 to clear Flipper, but racist southern politicians allowed the bills to die in committee. Despite all of his accomplishments, he died at age 84 (1940) bitterly disappointed. The redemption of Flipper’s name was rekindled by a schoolteacher from Valdosta, Georgia named Ray MacColl who learned about Flipper while taking a Black history course and embarked on a tireless campaign to right what he regarded as a major injustice. Through MacColl’s efforts, the Army’s Board for the Correction of Military Records reviewed the circumstances of Flipper’s discharge and changed his discharge from dishonorable to honorable in 1976. Moreover in 1977, exactly 100 years after his graduation, the Henry O. Flipper Memorial Award was established at West Point and is given annually to the cadet who best demonstrates leadership, self discipline, and perseverance. On February 11, 1978, his remains were reburied with full military honors in his hometown of Thomasville, Georgia (from an unmarked grave in Atlanta).
On February 19, 1999, President Clinton granted Henry Flipper the first posthumous pardon in American history, calling the pardon “an event that is 117 years overdue.” Retired General Colin Powell, who attended the pardon ceremony, kept a picture of Flipper on the wall of his office at the Pentagon when he was Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff. Powell wrote in his autobiography: “We knew that the path through the underbrush of prejudice and discrimination had been cleared by the sacrifices of nameless Blacks who had gone before us, the Henry Flippers…and to them we owed everything.”
Henry Flipper is now a revered figure at West Point where a memorial bust is dedicated to him in the cadet library. Eighty Black cadets graduated in West Point Academy’s class of 2000, and they should never forget that African Americans “stand tall because we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.” Pioneers are those with “arrows in their backs,” and we must never stop honoring our pioneers.
FIRST BLACK WEST POINT COMMANDER

Lt. Emily Perez

The first Black woman to serve as Corps Commander Sergeant Major at West Point.
Perez graduated in the top 10 percent of her class, out-ran many men, directed a gospel choir and read the Bible every day. She also headed a weekly convoy as it rolled down treacherous roads, pocked with bombs and bullets near Najaf, Iraq.
As platoon leader, she insisted on leading her troops from the front. Shortly before shipping out to Iraq with the 204^th Support Battalion, 2^nd Brigade, 4^th Infantry Division, she flew cross-country to be a bone marrow donor for a stranger who was a match.
At 23, she was the 64^th woman from the U.S. military killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. September, 2006

BLACK CADETS BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ambrose, S. (1966) Duty, Honor, Country: A History of West Point. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press.
Black, L. & S. (1985) An Officer and a Gentleman: Milit. Car. of Henry O. Flipper. Dayton, OH: Lora Co.
Donaldson, G. (1991) The History of African-Americans in the Military. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Co.
Eppinga, J. (1996) Henry Ossian Flipper. Plano, Texas: Republic of Texas Press.
Flipper, H. (1878) Colored Cadet at W. Point. Autobio. of Lieut. Henry O. Flipper. NY: Homer Lee & Co.
Foner, J. (1974) Blacks and the Military in American History. New York: A New Perspective Publishing Co.
Glass, E. (1921) History of the Tenth Cavalry. Tucson: Acme Printing Co.
Greene, R. (1974) Black Defenders of America: 1775-1973. Chicago: Johnson Publishing.
Harris, T. (ed.) (1963) Negro Frontiersman: Western Memoirs of H. O. Flipper. El Paso, TX West. Col. Pr.
Lanning, M. (1997) Afr.-Am. Soldier From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell. Secaucus, NJ: Carol Pub. Gr.
Mullen, R. (1973) Blacks in America’s Wars. New York: Pathfinder.
Nalty, B. (1986) Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military. NY: Free Press.

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS AND BLACK SOLDIERS

Despite stellar performances through five previous wars, Black servicemen in the early 1900’s were hated by the South and despised and unappreciated by the North. Southerners hated Blacks in uniform because radical Republicans in Congress had used Black soldiers to police the South during Reconstruction and as added humiliation after their Civil War defeat. After Reconstruction, Black soldiers were sent to the Western frontier to fight “hostile Indians,” but found the environment of White racism tremendously more hostile than the Native Americans. Nothing more typified American racial hatred for the Black soldier than the “Brownsville Affair.”
During the summer of 1906 the First Battalion of the 25^th Infantry Regiment was transferred from Fort Niobrara in Nebraska to Fort Brown, a post near Brownsville, Texas at the mouth of the Rio Grande River, to protect against Mexican revolutionaries. These 167 men had outstanding credentials for service, loyalty, discipline, and bravery during battles fought in Cuba and the Philippines. Six of these Black soldiers held the Medal of Honor and thirteen had been awarded citations for bravery in the Spanish-American War. More than half of the soldiers had been in uniform for more than five years; twenty five had served in active duty for more than ten years; and one had accrued more that twenty seven years. The citizens of Brownsville were appalled and wrote William Howard Taft, the Secretary of War, requesting that he keep the White 26^th Infantry at Fort Brown instead. The War Department refused to repeal the order and responded to the Brownsville citizens: “The fact is that a certain amount of race prejudice between Whites and Blacks seems to have become almost universal throughout the country, and no matter where Colored troops are sent there are always some who make objections to their coming.”
The Brownsville citizens immediately posted new signs announcing “NO NIGGERS OR DOGS ALLOWED” on saloons, restaurants, and all public and recreational facilities. However, since Brownsville is located near the Mexican border, most of the town’s inhabitants were low paid Mexican workers, and these Hispanics welcomed the soldiers at their establishments. Consequently, Whites became very concerned that the assertive Black infantrymen might inspire Mexicans to challenge the status quo of White dominance and to resist local Jim Crow practices. As much as the White citizens of Brownsville hated Black soldiers, they saw an interracial alliance as an even greater threat to their town and felt compelled to eliminate the Black military presence by whatever means necessary.
Shortly after midnight on August 14, 1906 a group of men across the road from Fort Brown and dressed in army uniforms began firing shots randomly into buildings and at streetlights for about ten minutes. The random bullets killed a bartender, and seriously wounded a police lieutenant. Military rifle cartridges and clips from Springfield rifles recently issued to the 25^th Regiment were found at the scene. Several Brownsville citizens immediately claimed that they saw Blacks shooting. Major Penrose said it could not have been Black soldiers because all the battalion’s soldiers were accounted for by company commanders at the 10:00 PM curfew check and again immediately after the shooting. The rifles were also checked and none had been recently fired. The Major stated that anyone could wear an army uniform because old uniforms were routinely discarded outside the fort and that ammunition and rifles were known to have been sold to the citizens of Brownsville by the White 26^th Regiment that occupied the fort before the Black soldiers. Brownsville Mayor, Fred Come, organized an investigating committee of local citizens who found witnesses who professed to have heard voices that sounded Black. Five witnesses said they saw Black soldiers but could not identify anyone, and they were not under oath. The committee prefaced their questions by stating: “We know that this outrage was committed by Negro soldiers. We want any information that will lead to a discovery of who did it.” The committee did not call a single soldier to the inquiry.
After one day of testimony the committee sent a telegram to President Theodore Roosevelt stating: “Our women and children are terrified and our men practically under constant alarm and watchfulness. No community can stand this strain…we ask you to have the troops at once removed from Fort Brown and replaced by White soldiers.” President Roosevelt ordered two investigations, one by Major August Blocksom and a second by General Ernest Garlington, a racist native of South Carolina. They took as evidence the testimony of White citizens and spent military cartridges and concurred that Black soldiers had committed the crime. They completely ignored the testimony of a civilian employee of the fort who swore that after the shooting he had seen four Brownsville citizens dressed in uniforms and carrying rifles. The officers concluded that the Black soldiers’ denial of the shooting was proof of “collusion” and a “conspiracy-of-silence” and since no soldier would confess, they recommended dismissing the entire battalion. General Garlington added: “The secretive nature of the race, where crimes charged to members of their color are made, is well known.”
President Theodore Roosevelt delayed his decision until after his re-election so as not to loose much needed Black support. Subsequently, on November 28, 1906, he ordered the discharge of all 167 soldiers of the First Battalion without honor, and he denied the soldiers all back pay and pension benefits. The soldiers never received a formal trial or the benefit of legal counsel, and this remains the only example of mass punishment without the benefit of trial in U.S. military history. White people across the country celebrated Roosevelt’s decision. The “New Orleans Picayune” reported: “Whatever may be the value of the Negro troops in time of war, the fact remains they are a curse to the country in time of peace.” In December 1906 during the first congressional session after the Brownsville incident, Congressman John Garner of Texas, whose district included Brownsville, introduced a bill that “called for elimination of all Blacks currently in the military and barring Black enlistment.” Although his bill was defeated, he re-introduced similar bills in each of the next three sessions. Franklin Roosevelt rewarded Garner’s racial hatred by selecting him as his Vice President in 1932 and 1936.
Senator Joseph Foraker of Ohio tried to rally support without success for the Black soldiers and even proposed a bill providing the men an opportunity to reenlist. Foraker’s defense of the Brownsville soldiers and criticism of the White House “so infuriated Theodore Roosevelt that the President proceeded to “hound the Senator from public life.” However, 66 years later (March 1971) Black California Congressman Augustus Hawkins introduced legislation to amend the records of the 25^th Regiment to “honorable discharge.” On December 6, 1972, President Nixon signed a bill authorizing a one-time pension payment of $25,000 to 86 year old Dorsie Willis, the only survivor among those discharged, and thus partially corrected one of the greatest injustices in military history.

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS BIBLIOGRAPHY

Donaldson, G. (1991) The History of African-Americans in the Military. Malabar, FL: Krieger Pub. Co.
Foner, J. (1974) Blacks and the Military in American History. New York: A New Perspective Pub. Co.
Greene, R. (1974) Black Defenders of America: 1775-1973. Chicago: Johnson Publishing.
Lane, A. (1971) Brownsvile Affair: National Crisis and Black Reaction. Port Washington, NY: Nat. Univ. Pubs. Kennikat Press.
Lanning, M. (1997) African-American Soldier from Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell. Secaucus, NJ: Carol Publishing. Gr.
Moebs, T. (1994) Black Soldiers - Black Sailors - Black Ink: Chesapeake Bay, MD: Moebs Publishing Co.
Mullen, R. (1973) Blacks in America’s Wars. New York; Pathfinder.
Naulty, B. (1986) Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military. New York: Free Press.
Weaver, J. (1970) The Brownsville Raid. New York: W.W. Norton.

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