History and Healing

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a brilliant man who tried to love America into living up to its creed and to its grand ideals.  A lot has been said and written about Dr. King, yet there is still so much to be said, because there are so many ways to look at what he did, what he said, and how he processed the world around him.  Today, we are fighting the same struggles with which he wrestled.  Here is one of my takes on Dr. King.

A Few Resources:

Beyond Vietnam—A Time to Break Silence speech at Riverside Church in New York, April 4, 1967 https://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm

Stanford University:  The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute (online) https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/ There is a treasure trove of information at this site, the repository for the King papers.

Where Do We Go From Here:  Chaos or Community, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1967)

In the Spirit of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Bessemer Workers Fight for Justice. https://www.workers.org/2021/03/55465/

When Muhammad Ali Refused to go to Vietnam:  Muhammad Ali and Vietnam. https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/06/muhammad-ali-vietnam/485717/

Short video on Muhammad Ali (“You my enemy.”  https://youtu.be/HeFMyrWlZ68)

FBI ’Honors’ Martin Luther King Jr., 50 Years After Plotting to ’Neutralize’ him.  https://www.alternet.org/2017/01/fbi-honors-martin-luther-king-jr-50-years-after-plotting-neutralize-him/

How the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike Expanded the Civil Rights Struggle:  https://www.history.com/news/sanitation-workers-strike-memphis

Judas and the Black Messiah has stimulated more interest in Illinois Deputy Chairman, Fred Hampton.  As a native of Fred's hometown of Maywood, Illinois, Dr. Sherrod adds additional "local color" to Fred's awe-inspiring background with the hope that more people will come to know the truth.  People who quest for liberty and justice all over the world revere Fred Hampton.  Love for the people, as we clearly see today, is in and of itself a revolutionary act.  Fred was a beautiful human being--loved by many across the racial spectrum.  If you don't know about him, by all means check out the movie, Judas and the Black Messiah, this podcast, and some of the many books written that contain information about this forever young real life Black Panther King.  (Shout out to Ryan Coogler, whose integrity and brilliance in filmmaking is unsurpassed, for being a producer of this film.)  

Long life the beautiful spirit of Chairman Fred Hampton.

Here are some resources about Fred and the Panthers:

The Essence of Fred Hampton: An Attempt to Capture the Spirit of a Young Man Who Influenced So Many and to Pass It On to Those Who Didn’t Have the Opportunity to Meet Him, edited by William Hampton.  This is a wonderful, but hard to find, collection of thoughts on Fred Hampton by people who knew him.  This booklet was lovingly compiled by Fred’s brother, the late William “Bill” Hampton.  (Years ago, I saw a copy of it at the Oak Park, Illinois library!)

The Assassination of Fred Hampton, by Jeffrey Haas (Jeff Haas was one of the attorneys who waged a years long legal battle in civil court on behalf of Fred's family, Panther Mark Clark's family, and others, after they were assassinated.  The case, after an 18 month trial and then an appeal, finally culminated in a settlement in 1983.)

Fred Hampton: 20th Commemoration by The December 4th Committee      http://peopleslawoffice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Hampton.-20th-Anniversary-Booklet-1989.pdf.   This is a very informative commemoration booklet about Fred Hampton that was produced 20 years after the assassination by people who knew him.

People's Law Office (This is the law office that represented Fred Hampton and, later, his family.)  The website contains a cornucopia of information on the Panthers and the legal work the Law Office did on behalf of Panther members.  https://peopleslawoffice.com/the-assassination-of-fred-hampton-a-short-peoples-history/

Black Against Empire by Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, Jr.  This is considered one of the most comprehensive works written about the Black Panthers by an outsider with a scholarly interest in the different chapters of the Party.

From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition in Chicago by Jakobi Williams.  This book was written by another Panther scholar—a professor who grew up in Chicago with an interest in, and, therefore, an emphasis on, the Chicago Chapter of the Party.

The Black Panthers Speak edited by Philip S. Foner. This is an early compilation of speeches by Panther Party members.

Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton.  This is an autobiography of Huey P. Newton, who, along with Bobby Seale, founded the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California in 1966.

A Taste of Power:  A Black Woman’s Story by Elaine Brown.  This is an absorbing memoir by the only woman to be Chairman of the national Party when Huey P. Newton left her in charge after he went into exile.

Did you know there were Black athletic superstars at Harvard at the turn of the century--that is from the 1800s to the 1900s?  Black athletic brilliance stretches back more than a century and reaches into the most exalted halls of recognized academic excellence. In fact, the first Black Assistant Attorney General of the United States, William Henry Lewis, was a superstar football player while he attended Harvard Law School!  (The eligibility rules were different then; a law student could play on the football team.)  Lewis was a mentee of Attorney John Mercer Langston—the same man the town of Langston, Oklahoma and Langston University are named after.

In this podcast episode, you will learn more about Lewis and another Harvard athlete who played for him, William Clarence Matthews.  Among other interesting things, Matthews went on to become an attorney for the inimitable Marcus Garvey.

As always, for more information, check out our website at www.survivinghealingandevolving.com

Also, here are some starting points on Lewis and Matthews:

William Henry Lewis:  https://harvardmagazine.com/2005/11/william-henry-lewis-html

William Clarence Matthews:  https://vtdigger.org/2020/06/14/then-again-breaking-the-color-barrier-in-baseball-in-vermont-in-1905/

This special Black History episode starts with a brief history of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the “Father of Black History,” and the founder of “Negro History Week,” which commenced in 1926, and is now Black History Month.  Dr. Woodson was the second Black person to earn a Ph.D. (Class of 1912; doctorate in history) at Harvard. Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, who earned his doctorate in 1895, was the first.  An intellect of the highest order, what Dr. Woodson did in founding and promoting Negro History Week, was, quite simply, necessary, profound, and forward thinking at a time when America simply did not want to acknowledge that Black people are the backbone of this society, culture, and economy.

The second part of episode three is devoted to a discussion of why we should study the extraordinary history of Black people.  More specifically, at this point, it is obvious that, like Dr. Woodson did, it is time to elevate again and deliver a more honest, accurate, and comprehensive curriculum to our students in public institutions—from kindergarten through graduate and professional school! There is not a single subject to be learned that Black people have not been at the center of—from literature and science, to math, architecture, engineering, art, music, and, of course, history.  We do, indeed, need discrete classes in Black literature, history, scientists, music, etcetera, but it is imperative that the whole public school curriculum is updated to be more accurate and inclusive.  

Ignorance is not bliss, and it is slowly eroding the advances we have made and killing our society—as anyone who is paying attention to what is unfolding in the country today can plainly see.  The truth is a necessary ingredient for the health of a great society; and, right now, society is far from healthy.

Resources:

**A few books by Dr. Carter G. Woodson

The Miseducation of the Negro (1933), The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 (1915), The Negro in our History (1922), African Heroes and Heroines (1939), The History of the Negro Church (1921), The Rural Negro (1930) The Negro Professional Man and the Community, with Special Emphasis on the Physician and the Lawyer (1934)

**The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) (www.asalh.com): 

—Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard, is the President. She is the author of Righteous Discontent:  The Women’s Movement in the Black Baptist Church 1880-1920 (1994) and several other publications.

—Dr. Lionel Kimble, Associate Professor of History at Chicago State University, is the Vice President.  His research interests are Black Chicago, US Labor and Working Class History, and World War II.  He is also the president of the Chicago chapter of ASALH.  He is the author of A New Deal for Bronzeville:  Housing, Employment, and Civil Rights in Black Chicago, 1935-1955 (2015).

**Other founders of the ASALH, along with Dr. Woodson, Dr. George Cleveland Hall, William B. Hartgrove, Alexander L. Jackson, and James E. Stamps.

For More Information pertaining to this Episode, please visit our website at www.survivinghealingandevolving.com

Just a minimal understanding of how white mobs have operated in the face of Black progress or advancement could have laid a foundation so that no one would have been surprised by the insurrectionist behavior of the white mob at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Listen in on a brief presentation about the ways just a few of the many, many, MANY white mobs have behaved in America. From 1866, just after the Civil War, to the 1898 Wilmington, NC coup d’etat, to a brief examination of attempts to integrate public schools, and communities in Chicago, this podcast conveys the tip of the iceberg when it comes to mob action that has been deployed to terrorize Black people/communities in this country.

Suggested for further edification:

Family Properties: How the Struggle Over Race and Real Estate Transformed Chicago and Urban America by Beryl Satters

Satters is a professor of history at Rutgers and the daughter of a Chicago civil rights attorney who grew up in Chicago, Evanston, and Skokie. Her book examines the racially discriminatory, legally sanctioned policies in the housing sector that led to Chicago becoming a model of racial segregation and racial inequality that continues to this day.

Making the Second Ghetto: Race & Housing in Chicago, 1940-1960 by Arnold Hirsch.

This book, rich in details and research, helps one understand the horrific, extraordinarily overpriced conditions Black people were forced to live in as the “Black Belt” section of Chicago, where most Blacks were contained, became more and more dangerously overcrowded. The book delivers deeply documented details about white mobs, violence, and policies that worked to restrict Black movement in Chicago.

The Autobiography of Black Chicago by Dempsey Travis.

Travis, a WWII veteran, realtor, activist, and Chicagoan presents an excellent mix of autobiography of himself and the Black community in the city. At the end of the book, he publishes a number of interviews of people who were high profile movers and shakers advocating for the Black community in different spheres of life in Chicago.

The Case for Reparations by Ta Nehisi Coates.

This seminal article makes a case for reparations to Black people by excavating some of the horrific inequities in the housing market in Chicago, as well as the inequities in federal housing policies that deeply injured Black people—financially, as well as socially, culturally, and politically—while reporting on some of the ways in which Black Chicagoans fought for homeownership at a time when getting a mortgage was out of the question for most, regardless of income. This was at a time when land installment contracts, on a take it or leave it basis, (adhesion contracts) were used as a mechanism for thwarting so many Black people’s dreams of purchasing a home—while making many white “sellers,” who preyed on Black people‘s desire for home ownership, extremely wealthy.

A Raisin in the Sun, the 1959 award-winning play by Lorraine Hansberry.

The play, which won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, was inspired by Hansberry’s family’s fight to leave the dangerously overcrowded “Black Belt” to move into a spacious home in the previously all white Woodlawn section of the city near the University of Chicago. The next day after the Hansberry’s moved in, the white female neighbor next door filed suit (Lee v. Hansberry, 1940) alleging that they could not occupy the home because of the racially restrictive covenant in the deed preventing Blacks from purchasing the home. (Racially restrictive covenants in deeds were prevalent in Chicago.)  Hansberry was 28-years-old when she won the Critics’ Award.  She died at 34. 

**********Visit our website at www.survivinghealingandevolving.com.  Click on the “History & Healing Podcast Page” tab at the top!

James Baldwin, the brilliant Black author and theoretician, said, “Your crown has been bought and paid for.  All you have to do is wear it.”  Dr. Rhonda Sherrod, a lawyer and psychologist whose work focuses on healing, says, “We want Black people to know that we have been nothing short of heroic, hardworking, creative, imaginative, innovative, and spectacular critical thinkers on this world stage.”  Welcome to the History and Healing podcast where we present our history more accurately and with an emphasis on healing.  “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” KJV

Haiti became the first independent, free Black nation in the Western Hemisphere on January 1, 1804.  The brilliant men who waged the Haitian Revolution deeply inspired enslaved American Blacks.  Learn how the Haitians, on the tiny little island of Hispaniola, defeated the heralded military leader, Napoleon, and his French Army, and how Haitians declared their freedom by ejecting that previously feared colonizing force.  Also, learn how Haiti has been punished ever since by Western powers.