COMMUNITY
JOURNAL
OUR ANNUAL BLACK HISTORY EDITION VOL. XXXIX Number 31 February 25, 2015
The Milwaukee
www.communityjournal.net 25 Cents
W I S C O N S I N ’ S L A R G E S T A F R I C A N A M E R I C A N N E W S PA P E R
BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN PERMIT NO. 4668
Daddies and Daughters danced up a storm at the Daddy/Daughter Dance at North Division
Fathers and their daughters had a great time dancing the night away at the 12th annual Milwaukee Recreation Daddy/Daughter Dance held at North Division High School, 1011 W. Center St. Popular DJ Homer Blow provided the music. The host organizations for the event were Milwaukee Recreation, the Social Development Commission (SDC) and Molina Health Care, which provided its mascot for the occasion and handed out parting gifts. (Photos by Yvonne Kemp)
Vel Phillips celebrates her birthday with showing of documentary on her life and work as civil rights, political icon Story by Angela Simmons/ Photos by Yvonne Kemp
PULSE OF THE “Why is it important for COMMUNITY fathers to spend quality time
O
Photos and question by Yvonne Kemp
n Thursday, February 19, the Wisconsin Black Historical Society and Museum, in partnership with the Milwaukee Urban League and America’s Black Holocaust Museum, hosted a combination birthday celebration and screening event for civil rights icon and trailblazer Vel Phillips and the documentary on her life and career titled: Vel Phillips, Dream Big Dreams.
The documentary first aired on Wisconsin Public Television (WPT) Monday, February 16. Narrated by Emmy Award-winning actress S. Epatha Merkerson, the film outlined the life of civil rights pioneer Vel Phillips and her many firsts. The event opened with refreshments as community leaders, Milwaukee residents and friends of Phillips conversed and gathered for pictures. Minutes in, Phillips arrived and made her way to a seat in the front row, turning to address the crowd with reverence and excitement; met with applauds. As all in attendance took their seats, a framed letter signed by President Barack Obama and First Lady,
(continued on page 2)
with their daughters?”
KEN WILSON AND DAUGHTERS: “Quality time within a family builds stronger families. A strong connection between a father and a daughter will be a foundation for years. Hopefully (a) dad can push her to achieve her dreams.”
RUBEN HOPKINS AND DAUGHTERS: “If you want your daughters to grow into adulthood, as ladies and women worthy of respect, you must be constant in your effort to be in their lives and guide them properly.”
WILLIAM MUHAMMAD AND DAUGHTER: “Minister Louis Farrakhan teaches us that a nation can rise no higher than its women. We as fathers have a duty to protect the virtue of our girls. Our duty is to validate them, to cultivate their divine characteristics and to teach them their aim and purpose is God’s plan.”
A.J. TRAYLOR AND DAUGHTER: “Little girls need their father in their lives; especially to show them that they are not alone! A daddy’s love is very special for them! And they will always have their father’s love.”
The Milwaukee Community Journal February 25, 2015 Page 2
Civil Rights and political pioneer Vel Phillips receives a standing ovation after the viewing of the documentary on here life and career at the Wisconsin Black Historical Society/Museum. (Photo by Yvonne Kemp)
Vel Phillips celebrates her birthday with showing of documentary on her life as a local civil rights and political icon
(continued from page 1) Michelle Obama addressed to “This documentary Phillips was read in celebration of her 91st birthday, which occurred the brought out what an previous day. The letter eloquently wished Phillips many more and unbelievably remarkable thanked her for all she has accom- person she is … the plished to better the lives of others. The applause continued as histori- perseverance, the cal footage of Phillips speaking before the Common Council and endurance...“It [Phillips’ photos of Phillips and others tire- sacrifices] put such lessly marching for open housing in Milwaukee crossed the screen. Many humanity behind her in attendance who know Phillips, commented on the optimism and accomplishments.” conviction on Phillips’ face through--author Jerrianne Hayslett out the film. “This documentary brought out what an unbelievably remarkable person she is … the perseverance, the endurance,” said author Jerrianne Hayslett. “It [Phillips’ sacrifices] put such humanity behind her accomplishments.” At the close of the film, following a standing ovation, attendees enthusiastically formed a line and posed questions to Phillips, who sat on stage. WPT publicist, David Glisczinski, read comments from viewers who contacted the network after the documentary aired Monday night. One viewer recounted, “I was eleven years old, white and lived on the white side of the viaduct in Milwaukee during the marches … I asked my dad if I could walk with you, he said no. I have walked with you in spirit all these years. Bless you and your motivation for peaceful protests, for equal rights for all people.” Long-time friend, Roy Evans, believed the documentary displayed Phillips’ will. “I think there is something in her personality that we need to look at. There’s reasons that she was number one so many times,” said Evans. “We’re losing icons like this … my action figure was Vel Phillips.” Phillips remained seated on stage as a group of attendees listened to her stories in admiration. Phillips expressed excitement about the documentary. When asked what more she would have liked to see in the film, Phillips responded, “More about my family … I had a wonderful family.” Phillips mentioned her niece, Shaune Curry, who in the documentary equated her aunt to a Phoenix, who keeps rising. The full documentary is available online now at wpt.org/velphillips.
AS QUIET AS IT’S KEPT...
The Milwaukee Community Journal February 25, 2015 Page 3
YOUR Milwaukee Community Journal’s Black History Edition
“OurStory” that you rarely (if ever) hear us--or anyone else--talk about
“STRANGE FRUIT”...REVISITED
“Until the lion writes his own story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter!”--African Proverb
What to do if someone asks: “Why isn’t there a White History Month?”
By Blair L.M. Kelly-thegrio.com, reprinted from the Feb. 13, 2013 edtion of the Community Journal Every February 1st, it happens like clockwork. Folks complain. On Twitter and Facebook, in idle chatter before meetings and around the water cooler someone wonders aloud why there has to be a Black History Month. People write letters to editors decrying that they have to explain to their children why there is no White History Month.” Then they insist that if the idea of white history month is racist, then Black history month must be racist too. Many of these conversations do not end well. As a histoDr. Woodson rian of African “At its best, American history I could history get upset at should rethese com- quire us to ments. I could rethink the suggest that things we they survive the middle think we passage, en- know. Instead dure intergen- of plugging in e r a t i o n a l the names of slavery, fight great Black for emancipation, and start men and their own his- women, this tory organiza- history tion in the should midst of Jim challenge us. Crow segregaIt should tion. Theny they explore the can honor ways that their own his- ordinary tory makers people helped who were ignored by to shape their m a i n s t r e a m world. Good history books. history They can fol- reshapes low that up by assumptions. getting to work planning It forces us to annual confer- learn from ences to en- past failures, courge more reassess our research and achieveunearth new generations of ments, and re-imagine scholars. Then if they what is can keep that possible.” tradition alive for almost a hundred years they’ll be able to pick a month to celebrate that history to remember what’s been accomplished and reflect on what more needs to be done. But I don’t. When I’m asked about Black History Month, I usually tell them about its founder, Carter G. Woodson. Woodson, the second African American to graduate with a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University, be(continued on page 8)
New Report Compiles A Devastating Count of Nearly 4,000 Lynchings of Black People in the US, Showing This Form of White Terrorism Had Profound Impact on American History
“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...”
Article courtesy Nick Chiles of Atlanta Black Star.com
--Excerpt from Billie Holiday’s song, “Strange Fruit”
There were 3,959 Black people lynched in the United States between 1877 and 1950— a number that is 700 more than previously known—and Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana had more lynchings than any other state in the country.
These revelations are contained in an astounding new report by the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative that attempts to place this horrid form of American racial terrorism in its proper historical context as a tool of white supremacy that had a profound impact on the nation. The report, called “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror,” ties lynching to a broader picture of white social control, showing how lynchings affected AfricanAmerican migration patterns, effectively turning many Southern communities from predominantly Black to overwhelmingly white virtually overnight and sending millions of Black people to the cities of the North to escape this terrorism. It is a significantly more nuanced view of how whites used lynching to serve particular purposes—and how lynchings were a seldom-discussed driver of the Great Migration of Black people to the North. Provocatively, the report suggests that it was the imposition of capital punishment that brought a reduction in the number of lynchings in the South—basically the nation replaced this form of terrorism that government quietly sanctioned with a more official means of killing Black people. More than eight in 10 American lynchings between 1889 and 1918 occurred in the South, according to the report, and more than eight in 10 of the nearly 1,400 legal executions carried out in this country since 1976 have been in the South. “That the death penalty’s roots are sunk deep in the legacy of lynching is evidenced by the fact that public executions to mollify the mob continued after the practice was legally banned,” the report states. In addition to killing thousands, helping to marginalize Black people in the country’s political, economic, and social systems and fueling a massive migration out of the South, the EJI says “lynching—and other forms of racial terrorism—inflicted deep traumatic and psychological wounds on survivors, witnesses, family members, and the entire African-American community. Whites who participated in or witnessed gruesome lynchings and socialized their children in this culture of violence also were psychologically damaged. And state officials’ indifference to and complicity in lynchings created enduring national and institutional wounds that we have not yet confronted or begun to heal.” The EJI calls in the report for the establishment of monuments and memorials to commemorate lynching victims, which the group says “has the power to end the silence and inaction that have compounded this psycho-social trauma and to begin the process of recovery.” “The absence of a prominent public memorial acknowledging racial terrorism is a powerful statement about our failure to value the African Americans who were killed or gravely wounded in this brutal campaign of racial violence,” the report states. “National commemoration of the atrocities inflicted on African Americans during decades of racial terrorism would begin building trust between the survivors of racial terrorism and the governments and legal systems that failed to protect them.”
crime; (4) public spectacle lynchings; (5) lynchings that escalated into large-scale violence targeting the entire African-American community; and (6) lynchings of sharecroppers, ministers and community leaders who resisted mistreatment, which were most common between 1915 and 1940. The first category, lynchings based on usually spurious charges of sexual assault, was the most common. According to the EJI, nearly 25 percent of the lynchings of Black people in the South were based on charges of interracial sexual assault. “The mere accusation of rape, even without an identification by the alleged victim, could arouse a lynch mob,” the EJI writes. “The definition of Black-on-white ‘rape’ in the South required no allegation of force because white institutions, laws, and most white people rejected the idea that a white woman would willingly consent to sex with an African-American man.” As examples, the report describes what happened in 1889, in Aberdeen, Mississippi, when Keith Bowen allegedly tried to enter a room where three white women were sitting. No more serious transgression was alleged against him. That was it—he entered a room. Bowen was lynched by the “entire (white) neighborhood” for his “offense,” the report states. In the case of General Lee, he was lynched by a white mob in 1904 for merely knocking on the door of a white woman’s house in Reevesville, South Carolina. In 1912, Thomas Miles was lynched for allegedly inviting a white woman to have a cold drink with him. The descriptions of the public spectacle lynchings in the report are particularly disturbing. “Large crowds of white people, often numbering in the thousands and including elected officials and prominent citizens, gathered to witness pre-planned, heinous killings that featured prolonged torture, mutilation, dismemberment, and/or burning of the victim,” the report says. “White press justified and promoted these carnival-like events, with vendors selling food, printers producing postcards featuring photographs of the lynching and corpse, and the victim’s body parts collected as souvenirs. These killings were bold, public acts that implicated the entire community and sent a message that African-Americans
At its headquarters, 69 Fifth Avenue, New York City, the NAACP flew a flag to report lynchings, until, in 1938, the threat of losing its lease forced the association to discontinue the practice. --Source: Memory.loc.gov
The EJI defines lynchings as acts of terrorism “because these murders were carried out with impunity, sometimes in broad daylight, often ‘on the courthouse lawn,’” according to the report. “These lynchings were not ‘frontier justice,’ because they generally took place in communities where there was a functioning criminal justice system that was deemed too good for African Americans. Terror lynchings were horrific acts of violence whose perpetrators were never held accountable. Indeed, some ‘public spectacle lynchings’ were attended by the entire white community and conducted as celebratory acts of racial control and domination.” How likely was the Black community to get assistance from the federal government during this reign of terror? Not likely. This was President Theodore Roosevelt’s take on the subject: “The greatest existing cause of lynching is the perpetration, especially by Black men, of the hideous crime of rape,” Roosevelt said. Not only did the EJI find evidence of 700 more lynching than previously thought, but over a period of four years the EJI staff spent thousands of hours documenting where lynchings actually occurred in the 12 most active lynching states in America: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. The result is the most detailed accounting of this horrid system ever collected. (continued on page 8) In these 12 states, this is how the lynchings were broken down: Georgia 586 Mississippi 576 Louisiana 540 Arkansas 503 Texas 376 Florida 331 Alabama 326 Tennessee 225 South Carolina 164 Published twice weekly, Kentucky 154 Wednesday & Friday North Carolina 102 3612 North Martin Luther Virginia 76 King Drive, Milwaukee, WI 53212 Total 3959 The EJI even catalogued them by county. These Phone: 414-265-5300 (Advertising and Administration) • 414-265-6647 were the top 10 counties for lynching: (Editorial) • Website: communityjournal.net • Email: Editorial@communi1. Phillips, AR 243 tyjournal.net/Advertising@communityjournal.net 2. Caddo, LA 54 Colleen Newsom, MCJ STAFF: 3. Lafourche, LA 50 Classified Advertising Patricia O’Flynn -Pattillo 4. Tensas, LA 40 Jimmy V. Johnson, Sales Rep. Publisher, CEO 5. Ouachita, LA 35 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Robert J. Thomas 6. Orange, FL 34 Taki S. Raton, Richard G. Carter, Assoc. Publisher 7. Bossier, LA 32 Fr. Carl Diederichs, Rev. Joe Todd Thomas, Vice Pres. 8. Marion, FL 30 McLin Mikel Holt, Assoc. Publisher 9. Jefferson, AL 29 PHOTOGRAPHER: Yvonne Kemp Thomas E. Mitchell, Jr., Editor 10. Dallas, AL 25 Teretha Martin, Technical The EJI divided lynchings into six different Consultant/Webmaster Billing types: (1) lynchings that resulted from a wildly disDept./Publisher’s Admin. Assist. torted fear of interracial sex; (2) lynchings in reOpinion and comments expressed on the Perspectives page do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher or management of the MCJ. Letsponse to casual social transgressions; (3) ters and “other perspectives” are accepted but may be edited for content lynchings based on allegations of serious violent
THE MILWAUKEE COMMUNITY JOURNAL
The Milwaukee Community Journal February 25, 2015 Page 4
Antioch MBC holds annual Black History program w w w . c o m m u n i t y j o u r n a l . n e t
Members of the Dontre Hamilton family were among the honorees at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church’s annual Black History Program held Sunday at the church, located at 2033 W. Congress St. The keynote speaker was Bevan Baker, city of Milwaukee Health Commissioner. Above are the honorees and event coordinator Will Moore (standing far left). (Seated from left to right): Venora Young, the Hamilton family members Nate Hamilton, mother Maria Hamilton, and Dameion Perkins; Shernice Pierce. Standing next to Moore are honorees (left to right): Nebritt Herring, Bevan Baker, Gen. Robert Cocoroft, and Jennifer Beamon. Missing from the photo is Racine Police Chief Art Howell, that city’s first Black chief of police. Rev. Steven Harris is pastor at Antioch, which was founded by Rev. Dr. Louis S. Beauchamp.(Photo by Yvonne Kemp)
Ald. Coggs hosts Black History Month Read-In
In honor of Black History Month, and in recognition of the 26th National African American Read-In, Ald. Milele Coggs sponsored a ReadIn at Martin Luther King Library, 310 W. Locust St. The goal of the event was to make the celebration of African American literacy a traditional part of Black History Month activities, and parents were encouraged to attend with their children. Coggs (third from left) was joined by community leaders and city officials (from left to right): Tracey Dent, Jafar Banda, Coggs, Milwaukee City Treasurer Spencer Coggs, Orlando Owens, and Bria Grant. The alderman and guest readers read children’s books by and about African Americans. (Photo by Yvonne Kemp)
In Loving Memory
Ernestine O’Bee, Founder
Quality Service... a tenured tradition sincere concern at your time of need.
Offering pre-need, at need and after-care services to families in Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha and other communities throughout our state.
Anthony, Bettye V. Age 75 yrs. February 23, 2015. Beloved mother of Alexis (Alvin)McKinney and Audra(Tyrone)Hilliard. Also survived by 2 grandchildren and a host of other loving relatives and friends. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, March 7 at 11AM at Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church 2479 N. Sherman Blvd. Instate Saturday 10AM at the CHURCH until time of services. Visitation Friday 3-7PM(Family will receive guest from 6-7PM) at: Northwest Funeral Chapel O'Bee, Ford & Frazier 6630 W. Hampton Ave. (414)462-6020 Banks, Adell Age 85 yrs. February 19, 2015. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, February 25 at 11AM at Greater Galilee Baptist Church 2432 N. Teutonia Ave. Visitation Wednesday 10AM at the CHURCH until time of services. The family is served by: Northwest Funeral Chapel O'Bee, Ford & Frazier 6630 W. Hampton Ave. (414)462-6020
J.C. Frazier, Funeral Director
Canada, Maxine Age 77 yrs. February 20, 2015. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, February 28 at 11AM at Holy Temple Baptist Church 4245 N. 60th St. Visitation Saturday 10AM at the CHURCH until time of services. The family is served by: Northwest Funeral Chapel O'Bee, Ford & Frazier 6630 W. Hampton Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53218
Barr, Clemistine Age 60 yrs. February 21, 2015. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, February 28 at 11AM at Northside COG 4858 N. 19th St. Visitation Saturday 9AM at the CHURCH until time of services. The family is served by: Northwest Funeral Chapel O'Bee, Ford & Frazier 6630 W. Hampton Ave. (414)462-6020
Families served by:
Northwest Funeral Chapel O’Bee, Ford & Frazier
Milwaukee 6630 W. Hampton Avenue Milwaukee, WI 53218 Telephone: (414) 462-6020 Fax: (414) 462-9937
Racine 800 Barker St. Racine, WI 53402 Telephone: (262) 637-6400 Fax: (262) 637-6416
The Milwaukee Community Journal February 25, 2015 Page 5
“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.�
--Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the father of Black history month
Standing Up for Students
SPECIAL Y&E COMMENTARY
The Milwaukee Community Journal February 25, 2015 Page 6
By Michael Bonds-MPS Board President
In just a few weeks, the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau will unveil its view of the financial impact of Governor Scott Walker’s proposed biennial budget. Educators around Wisconsin already have a clear idea of the impact the Governor’s budget will have on education, and it’s devastating. The Governor’s proposed budget cuts $150 of per pupil aid in the first year of his budget for a total reduction of $127 million to school districts in the state. In addition to this straight cut, school districts also will not receive any inflationary increase to help manage increasing costs. For Milwaukee Public Schools, the per pupil cut decreases funding by $12.1 million and the lack of inflationary increases amounts to another $11 million for a total reduction of $23.1 million in funding from the current school year. This week the Milwaukee Board of School Directors will consider an important statement on behalf of the children of Milwaukee. MPS Board member Larry Miller, who represents Board District 5, is sponsoring a resolution to make sure Governor Walker and the Wisconsin Legislator know about the concerns the Milwaukee Board of School Directors has about the Governor’s proposed budget.
Director Miller’s resolution points out how MPS will be harmed by the Governor’s plan and the dollars that would be lost at a critical time when MPS is making progress improving student achievement. The resolution also makes an important observation, one that other districts are also making – Governor Walker never mentioned the cut to public schools during his budget address, which was televised across the state of Wisconsin. Governor Walker did note the state will allocate $319 in schoollevy credits and increased general aid. But because there is no corresponding increase in the revenue limit, these dollars won’t be available for schools to meet increasing educational costs. The dollars will help to lower property taxes about $5 a year for the average homeowner, but this slight reduction comes at the expense of maintaining and building quality educational systems for Wisconsin’s future. In Director Miller’s resolution, which I will support, the Board will join with other school districts and strongly encourage the Governor and the Wisconsin State Legislature to increase funding for public education. This would mean restoring the cuts the Governor has proposed and providing for inflationary revenue increases in both years of the biennial budget. Other school districts around the state are also drafting similar resolutions expressing their concern and calling on legislators to restore adequate funding to public schools. Already some legislators, including Republican members of the Governor’s own party, have balked at these cuts to public education. We would ask these representatives to do more than be concerned. We need these legislators to listen to the voice of board members, parents and students around Wisconsin and act to restore adequate funding to public schools.
FROM THE BLACK
By Tony Courtney
On Friday, February 20th the Nation of Islam held its Savior’s Day Banquet honoring the Milwaukee Pioneers that started and maintained Mosque #3. Many people did not know that after Detroit and Chicago that the third Mosque representing the Nation of Islam was established in Milwaukee. I want to give a shout out to some of the brothers that I have continuously interacted with over the years in the
community: Muhsim Abdullah, Basim Abdullah, and Mustapha Hameed. I want to give a special shout out to Mr. Brady Mc Kinley who supported my efforts when I first came to Milwaukee and worked for the Milwaukee Community Journal Newspaper. Mr. McKinley just recently celebrated his 80th Birthday. On Saturday, February 21st The Daddy/Daughter Dance was held at
The Milwaukee Community Journal February 25, 2015 Page 7
From the Black columnist Tony Courtney “cuts a rug” with his daughter at the annual Daddy/Daughter Dance held at North Division High School.
North Division High School. My sons Jabari Courtney and Akinyomi Courtney took their daughters Naima Courtney 4 yrs. old and Madison Courtney
SISTA SPEAK...SPEAK LORD!
LOVE IS...
The Small Stuff
Bees making honey Daddy playing hop-scotch Spoon-feeding grandma soup Kiss on the cheek when she is sleeping Candy left on the pillow Mother nursing her baby Showing up when you don’t want to attend Serving breakfast in bed Celebrating his accomplishments Compromising when you want the victory Seeking faith through failure Listening when you want to speak Providing a shoulder when you want to lean Accepting her differences Being the bigger person Zelda Corona “Vision Represents Faith”
Scripture Says… The three most prolific religions in the world are Christianity,
Islam and Judaism. Although each is diverse in their own way and rightly so, they share one common thread: What God says about the greatest human emotion, the greatest human act, the greatest gift we give to others and to ourselves: LOVE. Love is not haste, never envious, never boastful nor does it keep records of wrong doing. Corinthians 13 Those that keep their faith and act right, verily Allah loves those who act right. Quran 3:76 You are not to take vengeance or retain anger against another, but be loving instead. Torah 19:16-18 We need to wake up everybody and stop the segregation among faiths…Love is what we all have in common. God is God regardless. Right? Sonya Marie Bowman “It Is What It Is”
Essence of Love Grandma BB Grandma Pulley Ma Pulley Sister June
Aunt Rosie Aunt Martha Aunt Phyllis The above listed women are the Rhythm and Blues of my Life. I am the woman I am because of the them. No one is perfect nor do we profess to be...We Love each other through the ups and downs of life. We are the Essence of Love...Who is your Essence of Love???? Tara R. Pulley “Always Keeping It Real”
spoke in front of a standing room only crowd at the Webster Renaissance Universal Academy. I am giving a special shout out goes to Sister Chery Blue for hosting this event. The Men of African Descent Men’s Circle will be holding its weekly meeting on Monday, March 2nd at the Body and Soul Healing Center 3617 N. 48th St. The topic of discussion will be” Boxed In: Male Stereotypes: (exposing those stereotypes that we identify with and those imposed). The meeting goes from 7pm to 9pm and is hosted by Demetrius Brown. The deadline for Black men to par-
7yrs old to the dance. I accompanied my daughter Aziza Courtney 26 years old that that drove me to the dance. The dance was a huge success and was sold out. A special shout goes to Percy Eddie and Homer Blow for making this event a great success. Black Men and Black women this is our time to stand up and take charge of our community by participating and creating events that are going to help turn our community around and bring us closer together as men and women of African descent. On Tuesday, February 24th True Blue Productions brought to Milwaukee Dr. Umar Johnson, a noted national speaker who is a participant on the documentaries Hidden Colors 1,2 and 3. Dr. Johnson
ticipate on the page “Dedicated to Black Women That Have Black Men’s Backs, have been extended to Monday, March 10th, to allow for more brothers to participate. Brothers take the time to recognize your Grandmother, Mothers, Wives, Fiancées, Sisters, Cousins, Aunts, Business Partner, Organizational Heads, Employer, Employee, etc. The cost of sponsoring each Black woman is $25.00. Contact Tony Courtney at 374-2364 or come to Coffee Makes You Black Restaurant 2803 N. Teutonia Ave from Tuesday thru Saturday from 10am-3pm to sign up. Call first to see if I am there.
Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce to hold month long series of luncheons
Join the discussion Saturday, March 7, 2015 at noon as the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce premiers dynamic women from Milwaukee who are involved Nation Building during the 3000 Black Business Challenge Luncheon. view our upcoming TV commercial and discuss our media campaign, as well as how this challenge will change the State of Wisconsin when it comes to black owned business. We will be joined by many of the business owners who will participate in supporting the challenge. We have been challenged to register 3,000 business per year for the next four years, and we have accepted the challenge. It starts with you! If you are already in business or plan to start a new business, log on the www.twbcc.com today and register your business. Have your fellow business associates do the same. Once you have registered we will follow up with you and work with you on the next steps. (Note: Registration for membership in the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce, Inc. is free of charge.) Lunch registration is $10.
What to do if someone asks: “Why isn’t there a White History Month?” The Milwaukee Community Journal February 25, 2015 Page 8
(continued from page 3) lieved that African Americans had to understand their own history in order ti effectively contest segregation and disenfranchisement. Inspired by the semi-centennial celebration of the general emancipation, Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History) in 1915. Woodson’s organization hosts annual conferences where researchers can share their new findings. In order to share historical discoveries with the public at large, Woodson began to promote the celebration of Negro History Week in 1926. Choosing February to coincide with the celebration of the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, Negro History Week was Woodson’s attempt to make sure that Black Americans knew about the range of important figures, movements, and events that has shaped African American’s march toward freedom. Popular response to the celebration was immediate. Negro History Week allowed Black schools, organiztions, and churches a chance to expand their knowledge about Black activists, writers, artists, and the movements that defined their history. Over time, these celebrations grew to be a month-long affairs in many communities, officially becoming Black History Month in 1976. And I sometimes wonder what Woodson would think about the commercialization of the celebration today. For some Black History Month is just one long game of Trivial Pursuit or a chance to sell history themed Tshirts and calendars. The trivia version of Black History Month allows you to purchase posters and shirts that feature images of Sojourner Truth alongside a picture of Michael Jordan, but it doesn’t require you to really know anything about either of them. At its best, history should require us to rethink the things we think we
know. Instead of plugging in the names of great Black men and women, this history should challenge us. It should explore the ways that ordinary people helped to shape their world. Good history reshapes assumptions. It forces us to learn from past failures, reassess our achievements, and re-imagine what is possible. Critical engagement with history helps unflatten all the “great” figures of our past, and helps us understand more about the journey of the nation. Like Woodson, I believe that a broad understanding of Black history can help to create a broad understanding of American history cna help to create a broad understanding of American history as a whole. So to all those who might complain about the celebrations this February, I would remind them that Black History Month is not a requirement.
They can just opt out of thinking about history at all this month. But for me it’s an honor to stand on the shoulders of those who accomplished
so much. Their work has enriched us all. And if anyone wants to create a history celebration of their own, its fine. I’m happy anytime history
(continued from page 3)
spectators. “Both victims were tied to a tree and forced to hold out their hands while members of the mob methodically chopped off their fingers and distributed them as souvenirs,” the report says. “Next, their ears were cut off. Mr. Holbert was then beaten so severely that his skull was fractured and one of his eyes was left hanging from its socket. Members of the mob used a large corkscrew to bore holes into the victims’ bodies and pull out large chunks of ‘quivering flesh,’
REVISITED “STRANGE FRUIT”...
were sub-human, their subjugation was to be achieved through any means necessary, and whites who carried out lynchings would face no legal repercussions.” One of the examples cited tells the story of Luther Holbert, who in 1904 was accused of killing a local white landowner. A white mob captured Holbert and a Black woman believed to be his wife and they were taken to Doddsville, Mississippi, to be lynched before hundreds of white
breaks into the national conversation. But in the spirit of Woodson please be sure not to complain, jsut get to work. after which both victims were thrown onto a raging fire and burned. The white men, women, and children present watched the horrific murders while enjoying deviled eggs, lemonade, and whiskey in a picnic-like atmosphere.” As the EJI notes, lynchings didn’t
Blair L.M. Kelley is an associate professor at North Carolina State University.
only harm the victims of the terror— they harmed white people too. “The psychological harm inflicted by the era of terror lynching extends to the millions of white men, women, and children who instigated, attended, celebrated, and internalized these horrific spectacles of collective
(continued on page 12)
“We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice.”
--Dr. Carter G. Woodson, 1926
—
d
d e
)
The Milwaukee Community Journal February 25, 2015 Page 9
The Milwaukee Community Journal February 25, 2015 Page 10
The Milwaukee Community Journal February 25, 2015 Page 11
“STRANGE FRUIT”...REVISITED
The Milwaukee Community Journal February 25, 2015 Page 12
(continued from page 8) violence,” the report states. “Participation in collective violence leaves perpetrators with their own dangerous and persistent damage, including harmful defense mechanisms such as ‘diminish[ed] empathy for victims’ that can lead to intensified violent behaviors that target victims outside the original group. Lynching was a civic duty of white Southern men that brought them praise. Southern white children were taught to embrace traumatic violence and the racist narratives underlying it.” Demonstrating how purposeful these acts of terror were, the EJI notes that just eight years after a 1912 lynching in Forsyth County, Georgia—after white vigilantes distributed leaflets demanding that all Black people leave the county or suffer deadly consequences—by 1920, the county’s Black population had plunged from 1,100 to just 30. As all of these incredibly brutal acts were occurring, American government was silent. Congress never passed an anti-lynching bill, instead capitulating to Southern politicians who argued that such bills were racial “favoritism” and a violation of states’ rights. Southern states even passed their own antilynching laws to show the federal government that federal legislation was unnecessary—but these states refused to enforce them. In fact, during this prolonged period, not a single white person was convicted of murder for
NY Times White-Washed Coverage of Lynching Report Demonstrates How Uncomfortable Mainstream Media Is In Confronting History of White Terrorism
lynching a Black person in America and just 1 percent resulted in a lyncher being convicted of a criminal offense. But African-Americans didn’t just stand idly by and take it without fighting back. There were courageous efforts to combat the lynchings through grassroots activism. “Black people targeted members of white lynch mobs for economic retaliation by boycotting their businesses, refusing to work for them, and setting fire to their property,” the EJI notes. “To thwart lynching attempts, black people risked serious harm to hide fugitives, organized sentinels to guard prisoners against lynch mobs, and engaged in armed self-defense.” The NAACP was actually created in response to racial attacks in Springfield, Illinois, in 1908 that shocked Northerners and demonstrated that lynching was not only a Southern phenomenon. ABOUT NICK CHILES Nick Chiles, Editor-in-Chief of Atlanta BlackStar, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author. He has written or co-written 13 books and won over a dozen major journalism awards during a journalism career that brought him to the Dallas Morning News, the StarLedger of New Jersey and New York Newsday, in addition to serving as Editor-in-Chief of Odyssey Couleur travel magazine.
Article by Nick Chiles, BlackStar.com
In the aftermath of a devastating report on the long ugly history of lynchings in America, the New York Times is being blasted on social media for a suspiciously dubious “achievement”: the so-called “Paper of Record” managed to write a lengthy piece on the history of lynchings without ever saying who was doing the lynching. As many users pointed out on Twitter, the piece written by Campbell Robertson only mentioned the word “white” on two occasions—when she described the alleged victims of likely fabricated indiscretions by Black men who were subsequently lynched. In the first case, it was a three-year-old white girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted in Dallas that led “a group of men” to rush into the courthouse in 1910 and throw a rope around him while “a mob” yanked him from the window. In the second case, three Black men were accused of killing a white woman and “were castrated, stabbed, beaten, tied to a plow and set afire in the spring of 1922,” all under the “gaze of hundreds of soda-drinking spectators.” Not once did Robertson bother to tell the reader that the “group of men,” that the “mob,” that the “soda-drinking spectators” were white. It’s almost as if the always cautious Times was not completely sure of who committed the lynchings and was waiting for officials to come along from 1910 and 1922 and confirm their racial identity.
In addition, though the incredibly detailed report by the Montgomery, Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative used the words “white terrorism” over and over to describe the effect of the lynchings on America and the Black community, the Times went out of its way to avoid that language, instead calling them “racial terror lynchings.” The word “white” was used so many times in the report by the EJI that the Times had to avoid using any passages from the report in order to achieve the dubious distinction. The white-washed nature of the Times coverage is a perfect illustration of the discomfort the American mainstream media has in honestly confronting the nation’s ugly racial history. For instance, when media commentators went after President Obama for pointing out how Christianity has been used to justify some ugly acts throughout history, such as the Crusades, slavery and Jim Crow, they all jumped on his use of the Crusades while leaving slavery and Jim Crow untouched. In its chilling report, called “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror,” the EJI certainly doesn’t avoid assigning the title of terrorist to the white mobs that committed unspeakable acts against Black people
through the early 20th century. The EJI defines lynchings as acts of terrorism “because these murders were carried out with impunity, sometimes in broad daylight, often ‘on the courthouse lawn,’” according to the report. “These lynchings were not ‘frontier justice,’ because they generally took place in communities where there was a functioning criminal justice system that was deemed too good for African Americans. Terror lynchings were horrific acts of violence whose perpetrators were never held accountable. Indeed, some ‘public spectacle lynchings’ were attended by the entire white community and conducted as celebratory acts of racial control and domination.” The EJI said there were 3,959 Black people lynched in the United States between 1877 and 1950—a number that is 700 more than previously known—and Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana had more lynchings than any other state in the country. The report ties lynching to a broader picture of white social control, showing how lynchings affected AfricanAmerican migration patterns, effectively turning many Southern communities from predominantly Black to overwhelmingly white virtually overnight and sending millions of Black people to the cities of the North to escape this terrorism. It is a significantly more nuanced view of how whites used lynching to serve particular purposes—and how lynchings were a seldom-discussed driver of the Great Migration of Black people to the North. “Lynching—and other forms of racial terrorism—inflicted deep traumatic and psychological wounds on survivors, witnesses, family members, and the entire African-American community,” the report said. “Whites who participated in or witnessed gruesome lynchings and socialized their children in this culture of violence also were psychologically damaged. And state officials’ indifference to and complicity in lynchings created enduring national and institutional wounds that we have not yet confronted or begun to heal.”
Trinity Village holds annual Black History observance
Trinity Village Senior Residents facility held its Black History Month program. The theme of the event was: “A Century of Black Life, History, and Culture. There were performances by the Trinity Choir, a fashion show, and quilt, poster and book displays. Black history makers were also honored. Shown above are those awardees: Clifford Hayes (second from left), Effie McGhee (center), and Beverly Wilson (second from right). With the award recipients are (far left) Alicetine Ansley and Catherine Cavalier (far right), both of Trinity Village. (Photo by Yvonne Kemp)
The Milwaukee Community Journal February 25, 2015 Page 13
Black History Breakfast at Peace Luthern Church
Ekistics, Inc. is holding a fundraising breakfast to celebrate the last day of Black History Month. The event will be held Feb. 28 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Peace Lutheran Church, 5229 N. 51st Blvd. Donations are $6.50
The Milwaukee Community Journal February 25, 2015 Page 14