Category: Black History
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Age Is Not A Condom
The number of babies born at Yale-New Haven Hospital with HIV has been effectively zero since 1996. But now a new group is battling the disease: people 50 and older.
Nationally known HIV/AIDS advocate Michelle Lopez brought that message to the Betsy Ross Magnet Hall on Kimberly Avenue Thursday evening or the third
Elsie Cofield Woman & Girls HIV/AIDS awards event. The event is put on each year by the Infectious Diseases Division of the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center.The awards event honors people in the Greater New Haven area who have continued to be strong advocates for those with HIV/AIDS even as treatments have gotten better and rates of transmission have been holding steady, particularly among African-American women and girls.
Source: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/age_is_not_a_condom/
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Don’t Call Me Brother-Stage Play S.C.
“Don’t Call Me Brother” Stage Play S.C. premiere
Thursday, March 15 – 31, 2018, ‘Times May Vary’ at WOW Performing Art Center (PAC) 5816 Shakespeare Rd a, Columbia, SC 29223
In light of events occurring within the past several years, it seems that tragedy has struck the black community back-to-back in the form of police brutality, harassment, and hate crimes. Such tribulations are not foreign to Black Americans, however, the buildup of broken black bodies and false accusations has left them distressed and gasping for air in the congested minefield of civil injustice.
Cries for respect and human decency from police have exponentially evolved into a sonic boom for all the world to hear. One may wonder, where does the black police officer stand on these matters? Which side should they choose– the black or the blue side? Stuck in the cross-hairs of their blackness and profession, the double consciousness of the black police officer is examined in the award-winning play “Don’t Call Me Brother” which has its SC premiere at the WOW Performing Arts CenterMarch 15-31st. On Sunday, March 18th the show will include a post-show panel with Richland County Sherrif’s Department. Buy Tickets Now..
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#Perfidiousness Candace Owens
Sellout according to Oxford’s Dictionary definition – a betrayal of one’s principles for reasons of expedience. Furthermore it states:
a betrayal of one’s principles for reasons of expedience.“one of the biggest political sellouts in decades”Candace Owens is the definition of Perfidiousness in her candid (pun intended) talk with Fox NewsIf crime has risen among Black Folk and Single Motherhood it was not because of a few democratic white men and women! That’s like saying school shootings have risen because Candace Owens is a Sellout.
Source: The Black Star Project
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Daily Prompt: Captivating
An excerpt from the writer known as Rhacky8
As I read the last paragraph the writer’s post – I was captivated…
…More than ten years past, with an ailing economy, a jobless youth that would rather commit crime than work, an abusive police force that that rewards hooliganism and kidnaps children for the crimes of their parents, and a legislature dominated by greedy individuals representing themselves in parliament and the government still celebrates to the victories of the early 2000s, it is then safe to ask what independence are we celebrating?
While thinking about the past and recent articles about police brutality and shooting of unarmed men I decided to do a quick search on “abusive police force” and here is an excerpt of what I found to be captivating reading:
Self-efficacy is an important aspect of social learning. If a person believes that they are capable of carrying out the behaviour which they have observed and that they are likely to achieve the desired result, then the aggressive act is more likely to be imitated. This helps to explain individual differences in behaviour. It also explains why an individual will behaviour aggressively in one situation where they feel confident of success and not in another where the chances of success are less likely.
When viewing the video clips on social media of police officers beating and beating and beating a man while he’s on the ground screaming in terror, I often think to myself, what does it look and sound like to the police officer – what are the other officers who are not engaged in the beating thinking or feeling? What does it mean to be subdued – (when did the definition change), what is their definition of “enough is enough” does the screaming of the [victim] matter (apparently not), does crowd influence the officer to either keep striking or surrender his baton? Do you remember the Rodney King beating!
Albeit Bandura’s piece speaks specifically to children
however, I would bet the farm that the police officers who have and will in the future display aggression towards another individual in the manner they displayed with Rodney King were once children too – that thought is most assuredly – Captivating!You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.
Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
Source: Bandura, Albert. “Social learning theory of aggression.” Journal of communication 28.3 (1978): 12-29.
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Final Celebration of #BlackHistory 2018
The Case of General Motors and 5 Black Women
In DeGraffenreid, five Black women brought suit against General Motors, alleging that the employer’s seniority system perpetuated the effects of past discrimination against Black women. Evidence adduced at trial revealed that General Motors simply did not hire Black women prior to 1964 and that all of the Black women hired after 1970 lost their jobs in a seniority-based layoff during a subsequent recession. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendant, rejecting the plaintiffs’ attempt to bring a suit not on behalf of Blacks or women, but specifically on behalf of Black women.
The court stated:
[P]laintiffs have failed’ to cite any decisions which have stated that Black women are a special class to be protected from discrimination. The Court’s own research has failed to disclose such a decision. The plaintiffs are clearly entitled to a remedy if they have been discriminated against. However, they should not be allowed to combine statutory remedies to create a new ‘super-remedy’ which would give them relief beyond what the drafters of the relevant statutes intended. Thus, this lawsuit must be examined to see if it states a cause of action for race discrimination, sex discrimination, or alternatively either, but not a combination of both.’
Although General Motors did not hire Black women prior to 1964, the court noted that “General Motors has hired … female employees for a number of years prior to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”‘ Because General Motors did hire women-albeit white women-during the period that no Black women were hired, there was, in the court’s view, no sex discrimination that the seniority system could conceivably have perpetuated.
In Brittany Cooper’s book – Beyond Respectability – The Intellectual Thought of Race Women the historical process of elimination black woman has and is prevalent right before our very eyes. She contends that black women’s participation in black liberation and feminist struggles has been either erased or framed around their roles as activists, rarely affording them the title of public intellectual despite their formidable theoretical outputs. Incorporating the lives of
Fannie Barrier Williams – Fannie Barrier Williams was an educator, political activist, and women’s rights advocate who worked for advancement opportunities of African Americans. She called especially for social and educational reforms to improve the plight of black women in the Southern States of the U.S.
Mary Church Terrell – Mary Church Terrell, a writer, educator, and activist, co-founded the National Association of Colored Women and served as the organization’s first president. Known as “Mollie” to her family, Church who was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1863, lived a life of privilege due to the economic success of her parents, both former slaves.
Pauli Murray – In 1963 she became one of the first to criticize the sexism of the civil rights movement, in her speech “The Negro Woman and the Quest for Equality”.
Toni Cade Bambara – Originally named Miltona Mirkin Cade at birth, Toni Cade Bambara was a civil rights activist, writer, teacher, and filmmaker. She was born in 1939 in Harlem, New York. At the age of six, she changed her name to Toni, and in 1970 she added the surname Bambara after finding it among her great-grandmother’s belongings.Bambara earned her BA in theater arts/English at Queens College in 1959, the same year she published “Sweet Town,” her first short story. She was a social investigator from 1959 to 1961, and then worked in the psychiatry department of New York City’s Metropolitan Hospital. During that time she studied in Florence as well as Paris, and earned an MA degree from City College of New York in 1964. In 1965, she was hired to teach English at the City University of New York’s fledgling SEEK program for economically-disadvantaged students. While there, she published short stories and became interested in film production. From 1969 to 1974 she was an associate professor of English at Livingston College.Source: Beyond Respectability The Intellectual Thought Of Race Women, Black Past.org
Crenshaw, Kimberle () “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 1989: Iss. 1, Article 8.
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80 #Relocated After Apartments Condemned Not the #Whole Story
Here’s what I’m #Concerned about – this building did not just get into this condition. I passed by it for over 20 years. What would cause Mendy Katz to force folk to move in 45 minutes in the rain from their condemned home and when did the residents first make a call to the Brooklyn-based realtor Ernest Schemitsch?
Eighty New Haveners had 45 minutes to pack up their belongings and flee their homes Thursday night when officials temporarily condemned a 41-unit apartment complex on Norton Street because of…
Source: 80 Relocated After Apartments Condemned
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#BillyGraham and #AfroAmerican #History
As the nation mourned the death of “America’s pastor,” one aspect of the Rev. Billy Graham‘s life especially worth highlighting is his connection to the historic civil rights movement. The Christian evangelist evolved from a farmer’s son in the segregated South into an unlikely proponent of racial equality, intersecting with the lives of two of the most iconic Black…
via Billy Graham’s Relationship With Black America, Explained — News One
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Margaret E. Morton – The Woman Who Would Not Step Aside
In these days of analyzing confusing elections and examining consequential figures in our past, people who cleared a path for our future stand out. Margaret E. Morton had an extraordinary career in Connecticut politics that was sparked by her role in a Bridgeport neighborhood issue. In the early 1970’s, she and other East End residents had asked the city to install a stop sign at the site of frequent accidents. Their request was rejected by the city, symptomatic of a growing chasm between white city leaders and East End’s black residents.The East Enders struck back, organizing to support black candidates for elected office. Margaret Morton ran as the Democratic Party’s candidate for a vacant seat in the state House of Representatives in 1972. Her victory catapulted Morton into Connecticut history: she was the first African-American woman elected to the General Assembly.
In 1980, Margaret Morton decided to run for the state Senate after the incumbent, a well-known attorney, told her he wouldn’t seek re-election. Margaret Morton later learned that the attorney intended to run and the Democratic Party machinery wanted her to withdraw her name for consideration. “I was told, not asked, to step aside,” she said.
In her interpersonal dealings, Margaret Morton’s soft-spoken and gracious demeanor was in stark contrast to the wise-cracking, cigar chomping political operatives in Bridgeport. Margaret Morton’s rivals may have underestimated her tenacity and organizational skills. Among her supporters: newly deputized registrars of voters that enlisted people to register as voters affiliated with the Democratic Party.[1] The voter registration drive paid off. Margaret Morton beat the attorney by eight votes in a primary election, clearing the way for her to become the first African-American woman in Connecticut’s state Senate. She subsequently rose to the rank of Deputy President Pro Tempore, a leadership role she held until she retired from the General Assembly in 1992.[2]
During her tenure, Margaret Morton championed causes to help impoverished people in the state’s urban areas. She supported the adoption of a state income tax, for instance. “People continue to talk about cutting spending. When you cut spending in the government you’re cutting people, which in return are services to people,” she said.[3] In the Assembly, Morton chaired the committee on Human Rights and Opportunities and rose to the rank of Assistant House Majority Leader. She oversaw the appointment of two African American judges during her years in office. In total, she served four terms as a State Representative and six terms as a State Senator.
Margaret Morton was born in 1924 in Pocahontas, Virginia, to Aaron and Leona (Hurt) Woods. She was raised in Bluefield, West Virginia and graduated from high school summa cum laude. [4] After marrying James Morton in 1941, the couple moved to Bridgeport, then a vibrant manufacturing center.
The Mortons, who had four children, established and ran Morton’s Mortuary funeral home in Bridgeport’s East End. All throughout her political career, she never forgot her roots. Upon being named Deputy President Pro Tempore, Morton made the following Statement: My grandfather was the child of the master in the slaves and he yearned for education, he longed for education. He went as far as he could go in school and he taught. One thing he instilled in his children and he sent them all to normal school in those days which allowed them to become whatever they wanted to become and some were teachers and others entered into other professions. But I think that man is happy today, looking down to see his granddaughter in this position. And my mother is happy and all of you know my mother and you know all about my mother. I know she is happy today. And you know what else? I think she believes all the nice things these nice guys said about me. Because she really believed in me. [5] Margaret Morton died March 10, 2012. Fulfilling her grandfather’s dream, Margaret Morton had become a role model for future generations. On the day that she would have turned 88, Bridgeport City Hall’s annex was renamed in her honor at a ceremony befitting a trailblazer.
[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/06/24/flip-side-of-voter-drives-can-be-polarized-parties/bb514a93-8dbc-4856-8429-5e307f06ebff/
[2] http://www.ct.gov/sots/lib/sots/registermanual/2012dedicationweb.pdf
[3] “Weicker Gets His Income Tax, But Citizens Fight It,” The Christian Science Monitor, 08 Oct 1991.
[4] http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ctpost/obituary.aspx?pid=156477743
[5] Senate Session Transcript 02/14/90 [http://search.cga.state.ct.us/dtsearch.asp?cmd=getdoc&DocId=7395&Index=I%3A%5Czindex%5C1990&HitCount=0&hits=&hc=0&req=&Item=425]
Source: By Mary Witkowski – Bridgeport Public Library
