BAVUAL The African Heritage Magazine

PREVIEW ISSUE FALL 2021 $14.99

Living While Black The Centuries-Long Quest for Respect—and Survival

Black Athletes and the Olympics A Long, Strange Love/Hate Affair

Haiti Anatomy of a Nation in Perpetual Crisis

ISSN 2769-9110

9 772769 911002

Student Loan Solutions

Imagine

YOUR AD

in this space For advertising information email eab@bavual.com or call 212-419-5831

CONTENTS

16 Black Athletes and the Olympics A Long, Strange Love/Hate Affair

27 So You Think You Know Black History?

Take the BAVUAL Quiz!

6 MY TAKE Echoes of my past; The Drift

8 FAMOUS AUTUMNS

Remembering Little Rock, 1957 10 SUMMER 2021 MEMORIES

T he Good, The Bad and the Ugly 11 THE TIMES

W hat is Critical Race Theory? And why is it driving Americans apart?

42 DESTINATIONS

Haiti, from dawn to today 49 EDUCATE YOURSELF

T he gun epidemic in black neighborhoods 54 THE CULTURE Black players dominate the game of football;

32 Living While Black

The Centuries-Long Quest for Respect

60 “BAVUAL MEETS” Episode 1: The White Lion, 1619 62 AFROCENTRIC ART

Our collection of artists and their work for sale

64 THE HUSTLE T he late Reginald Lewis and his fellow billionaires

66 ROLL OF HONOR 15 men and women who have scaled the heights

69 JUST THE FACTS T he black population on Earth, circa 2021 70 BENEDICTION Nkiru Adisa explains why she is proudly black

soccer

Bavual.com

3

Editor and Publisher Earl A. Birkett

Editorial Muses Bavual Adisa, Nkiru Adisa

Associate Editor Rick D. Bowers Features Editor Steve Woodhouse

Contributing Editor Kristen Jones

Editorial Advisors Myeshia C. Babers, Ph.D.

Taiwo O. Ehineni, Ph.D. Stephen G. Hall, Ph.D .

Art Director June Padgett

Illustrator Debasish Sarma

Advertising Accounts Multitrends International LLC, 212-419-5831

Circulation and Media Multitrends International LLC, 212-419-5831

Editorial Office 42 Broadway, Suite 12-278, New York, NY 10004 +1-212-419-5831 | eab@bavual.com BAVUAL is published quarterly (4 issues per year) by Vantage Point Planet, LLC President/CEO: Earl A. Birkett

Annual Subscription: $59.99

Advertising: Contact us for advertising rates and placement, 212-419-5831 Contents copyrighted ©2021 by Vantage Point Planet LLC, a division of Birkett Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.Bavual.com Follow us on https://www.patreon.com/bavualmagazine Special thanks to:

Debasish Sarma, Illustrator

June Padgett, Art Director

On the Cover: Meet Bavual Adisa

“I am the past, present and future of black history.” Bavual is 25 years old. He was born on Juneteenth (June 19th) 1996. His heritage is from Tanzania, Africa, but his residence is the world. He is American, British, French, Indonesian, Algerian, Cuban, South African, Argentinian, and a resident of anywhere people of African descent live. His lineage dates to 68,000 B.C. Bavual’s first name is Swahili for “powerful, strong, forceful.” His last name in Yoruba means “one who is clear, or lucid.” He is the name of the magazine and the symbol of its spirit and purpose: to document the African experience from the beginning of recorded history to today.

BAVUAL hopes you will join us as we tell Bavual’s story in each quarterly issue.

Cover illustration by Debasish Sarma

Bold and Brilliant Diamonds to Enhance Your Style

Imagine

YOUR AD

in this space For advertising information email eab@bavual.com or call 212-419-5831

MY TAKE From the Editor and Publisher

An Echo of My Past

Reflections on my childhood on Long Island in the 1960s It was my seventh birthday, February 18, 1967. My parents threw me an elaborate party at our home on Long Island (photo facing page). They owned a beautiful, then-modern split-level house in a suburban community called Lakeview. The times were frankly not good racially. Lakeview had been a largely white community when my parents became homeowners in 1958. When they and other black families moved in, white families moved away; it was called “white flight.” Before some of them left, they even posted rather disgusting signs on their lawns to discourage us from being around them, like in the photo below.

Welcome to our Preview Issue

Courtesy Malverne Historical & Preservation Society

We hope you will find much to enlighten and entertain you in BAVUAL.

6

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

The editor and his parents on the occasion of his seventh birthday

The Drift The local school district, Malverne District 12, had a particular problem with racism and discrimination. Three communities shared the district: Lakeview, which was in the midst of becoming nearly all-black; Malverne, a largely Irish and Jewish village; and Lynbrook, which was mostly Italian and blue-collar. My eldest sister Gloria, who was one of a handful of black students to graduate from Malverne High School (photo facing page, bottom) in 1962, was one of the first to integrate the high school. We wouldn’t be truly accepted until 1966, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the district to be desegregated. As a result, I spent the next four years being bussed to Davison Avenue School in Lynbrook.

None of the white kids in my first-grade class at Davison attended my birthday party—except for Kelly O’Toole, who had a crush on me at the time. The parents wouldn’t allow it; race relations were that bad. Thankfully, as I grew older, tensions eased, and I had many white friends by the time I reached Malverne High in 1974.

People complain that we have sunk back into our dark past and that things are getting worse.

I think back to that time in my childhood and see how far we have come, because many people of both races cared. That’s what continues to give me hope.

America is clearly balkanizing. It is a nation of red states and blue states, not just in politics but in every way conceivable, from sports to music to art and even to public health. The Southern, Midwestern and Western states are essentially battling the rest of the country just to see who’s more macho, even at the risk of death.

How long will this sad condition last? How can it last? The plain truth is that it won’t; the 2022 and 2024 elections will do much to determine if the USA continues as a democracy or recedes into an unpleasant dictatorship reminiscent of the worst ones of the 20th century. To a large extent, it is already an oligarchy of the few haves separating themselves from the have-nots to the point of shooting themselves into space—in quest of what, I don’t know.

There has never been a more urgent time to speak up and speak out.

Thank you.

Comments on our articles are always welcome. Please be polite.

Address all comments to eab@bavual.com.

Bavual.com

7

FAMOUS AUTUMNS Three Months That Changed History

Remembering Little Rock, 1957

By Kristen Jones In September 1957, a group of teens known as the “Little Rock Nine”—Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Pattillo Beals, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Minnijean Brown Trickey, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Terrence Roberts and Jefferson Thomas—challenged racial segregation in the public school system in Little Rock, Arkansas.

They went on to become the face of the struggle among black students in the South to attend school with white students. The mere attendance of the Nine at the school sparked intense debate worldwide about racial equality, desegregation, and the lack of basic human and civil rights for black Americans.

The summer before the school year kicked off, the black teens enrolled at Little Rock Central High School, which had previously been an all-white school. The enrollment caused much controversy although it was backed up by the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case.

Many in the South were angered by the thought that white students would be in the same classrooms with black students.

They refused to see this happen.

Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas, was one of these whites. The night before the black students were to begin classes, he ordered the National Guard to block the entrance as they tried to enter the school the next day on September 3.

8

Although an order from a federal judge allowed the teens to begin school immediately, on September 4 they were met by an angry mob that included the National Guard sent to block their entrance to the school. The white protesters were yelling and shouting, and some even spat on the black students. The students weren’t able to enter the school that day or for another few weeks.

National attention from the situation gained the sympathy of President Dwight Eisenhower. He ordered the National Guard troops to stand down, and on September 23, escorted by the police, the Nine entered the school through a mob of white protesters. Because of the rioting mob, the Nine attended only about three hours of learning before being snuck out of the school and taken home.

On September 24, President Eisenhower sent more than a thousand soldiers from the U.S.

BAVUAL:

TOP Arkansas National Guard blocks entrance of black students to Little Rock’s Central High School, September 1957.

Photo credit: Francis Miller/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

BOTTOM Elizabeth Eckford (glasses) faces a white racist mob, September 4, 1957.

Photo credit: Bellmann/Getty Images

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

What Happened to the Nine?

The remaining high school years were turbulent for each student. Whether they were bullied constantly or called names, they continued to strive for excellence and did not let anything stop them from attending school.

Ernest Green, the only senior to integrate the school, was the first African American graduate of Little Rock’s Central High School, graduating on May 25, 1958. Martin Luther King Jr. attended the event, which was an important accomplishment. Green attended Michigan State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1962 and a master’s degree in sociology in 1964.

Melba Pattillo Beals

White racism, 2021 Photo credit: Todd Wetherington/Sun Journal

Army’s 101st Airborne Division to get the situation under control.

On September 25, with an escort of troops, the Little Rock Nine attended classes for their first full day.

Of the nine students involved in this controversial episode in history, eight remain to remember what it was like to be the “most hated” teens in the country. Merely desiring an education turned out to be the catalyst for years of abuse and fighting. Although we are almost 64 years from this disgraceful incident, students today, including at Little Rock, continue to face unequal and often-degrading treatment. What happened to the fight for education and the idea of equality among students regardless of their race? Nowadays, black students are often shuffled to schools far away from their neighborhood to receive an education otherwise not possible. Either that or they are subjected to a school in their neighborhood that is lacking in essential tools and supplies to properly teach them. It seems that many of the hardships endured by these nine students continue to be the plight of black youth today.

Bavual.com

moved to Santa Rosa, Calif., where she attended high school her senior year. She earned a bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University and a doctorate from the University of San Francisco. She also earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. She is a mother of three.

Minnijean Brown Trickey was suspended for dumping chili on a group of white boys who wouldn’t let her pass by at lunch and was later expelled following another incident involving white female students. She went on to live with a family in New York where she graduated from New Lincoln High School. After graduating Southern Illinois University with a degree in journalism, Trickey moved to Canada and received a master’s in social work from Carleton University in Ontario. She later worked for President Bill Clinton as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Workforce Diversity at the Department of the Interior. She is a mother of six.

Carlotta Walls LaNier, who was the youngest of the teens, graduated in 1960 and was the first African American female to graduate from the school. Even though her home was bombed on February 9, 1960, while she was at home, she said it did not stop her from wanting to continue her education. She attended Michigan State University for two years before graduating from Colorado State College.

She then went on to discover a love for real estate and has been running her real estate company for decades.

Gloria Ray Karlmark graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s in chemistry and mathematics. She worked for a while as a teacher, then moved to Sweden where she became a systems analyst, technical writer and patent agent. She worked for IBM and founded the journal Computers in Industry, serving as editor-in-chief from 1976-1991.

Thelma Mothershed graduated from Central High School through correspondence courses. She graduated from Southern Illinois University in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in home economics and then earned a master’s degree in guidance and counseling in 1970 and an administrative certificate in education in 1972. She taught home economics and retired as a teacher after 28 years. She has one son.

Elizabeth Eckford (pictured being yelled and spat at) spent one year at Central High School and struggled afterwards. She received her bachelor’s degree in history from Central State University, then later joined the military and served five years.

Her son was killed by the police in 2003, and she has been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In 2019, Eckford traveled to New Zealand to teach civil rights history to thousands of students.

Terrence Roberts moved to California after the closing of Little Rock’s high schools during 1958-1959. He graduated from Los Angeles High School and then earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from California State University, Los Angeles, in 1967. He received his master’s degree in social welfare from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), School of Social Welfare in 1970 and his Ph.D. in psychology from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, in 1976.

Roberts published his first memoir in 2009 and released his second book in 2010.

Despite being harassed, the now-deceased Jefferson Thomas (d. 2010), went on to graduate from Central High School in 1960 and then went on to attend Wayne State University before moving to California. He served as treasurer of the NAACP Youth Council. He also attended Los Angeles State University where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in business administration. During the Vietnam War, Thomas served in the Army as an infantryman.

In 1999, President Clinton presented the members of the Little Rock Nine with Congressional Gold Medals, Congress’ highest award for civilians.

9

Summer 2021 Memories THE GOOD

Finally, a farewell to Robert E. Lee and the Civil War in Richmond, Va., seat of the Confederacy Photo credit: Steve Helber, Associated Press

THE BAD

THE UGLY The unexpected passing of a modern pop culture icon, actor Michael K. Williams (1966-2021) Photo credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/Associated Press

10

Migrants fleeing poverty and despair in Haiti for the American Dream whipped at the Tex-Mex border Photo credit: Paul Ratje/AFP via Getty Images

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

THE TIMES What’s New in the News

“Everything you have always wanted to know about Critical Race Theory* *But were afraid to ask”

A Q&A PRIMER

By Stephen G. Hall

A seemingly innocuous three-word phrase, invented some 40 years ago and intended only to be heard and discussed by law school students, has in 2021 ignited one of the most sustained and vocal discussions of the meanings of race in American life and triggered the biggest racial divide since the 1960s. Developed by legal scholars to critique the nature of structural racism and its systemic impact on all aspects of American life, Critical Race Theory, or CRT, has assumed a second life. Today, CRT is often presented as the bogeyman of public discourse. The question is: Why? The answer lies in the context and politics of our contemporary moment. Over the past year, the nation has been convulsed by a twin pandemic: COVID-19 and heightened police brutality and the murders of black citizens. This situation led to sustained protest and calls for reform. This moment has also prompted an intellectual critique of the nation’s origins and institutions. It shapes how CRT is perceived, misperceived, taken out of context, misinterpreted and deployed by conservative lawmakers and school boards to undermine anti-racist agendas.

Bavual.com

11

Slavery: America’s Original Sin It boils down to nine key questions:

1. So, What Is “Critical Race Theory,” Anyway?

CRT built on the work of historical and contemporary theorists including Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois and Antonio Gramsci as well as the contemporary Black Power, Chicano, Native American and radical and black feminist movements from the 1970s up through the 1990s. CRT views racism as embedded in the social, cultural, political, legal and economic structures in American life causing racist and discriminatory outcomes. In legal studies, scholars have argued that laws that appear to be colorblind can actually prove to be discriminatory. Intersectionality, another important component of CRT, describes the ways in which race intersects with class, gender and sexuality and produces power and privilege advantages.

2. Who Developed CRT?

Photo credit: David Shankbone

CRT’s principal founders include Derrick Bell and Kimberlé Crenshaw.

Bell was the first African American tenured faculty member at Harvard Law School. The product of a working-class family in Pittsburgh, he attended Duquesne University and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. After a brief stint in the Air Force, Bell worked as a staff attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. He later joined the NAACP as an assistant counsel for the Legal Defense Fund from 1960 to 1966. While there, he worked on more than 300 cases on desegregation in schools and restaurants. He subsequently served as deputy director of the Office of Civil Rights in the

12

U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1966. He also served as executive director of the Western Center on Law & Poverty at the USC Law School (1968). Bell was also a prolific scholarly and popular writer. He is best known for his legal textbook, Race, Racism and American Law, which is now in its sixth edition. Bell’s other books include And We Are Not Saved: The Elusive Quest for Racial Justice (1989), Faces at the Bottom of the Well (1992), and Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform (2004).

Kimberlé Crenshaw is a professor of law at Columbia Law School and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her work focuses on civil rights, critical race theory, black feminist legal theory, race, racism and the law. She coined the term intersectionality, which describes the double bind of simultaneous racial and gender prejudice.

She is co-author of Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected (2015). She is also the co-editor of Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement (1996).

3. Why and How Was This Theory Developed?

The protracted effort to desegregate schools and embed equality in American society fostered CRT. CRT emerged in the decades following the successful overthrow of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which legalized “separate but equal” in the law. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) dethroned Plessy but did not eradicate racism or ensure desegregation.

Legislation spearheaded by President Lyndon B. Johnson, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, did much to level the playing field between the races, but LBJ’s Great Society failed to alleviate the Great Divide in education and wealth that has plagued race relations ever since.

4. Why Has CRT Become So Divisive?

Not surprisingly, much of the opposition to CRT has emerged after a year of sustained critique of structural racism in America life. The horrifying black and brown body count due to the ravages of the pandemic was compounded by the mostly alleged civilian and police killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd (actual police conviction), Rayshard Brooks, Daniel Prude and Daunte Wright. Calls for reform of the public healthcare system and law enforcement reached fever pitch. Activists called for changes in funding and increased accountability. Efforts to defund the police gained steam in Portland, Ore., and Minneapolis, Minn., coupled with calls to increase the use of body-worn cameras by police officers.

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

LBJ’s Great Society brought sweeping change to American race relations.

Photo credit: Warren K. Leffler

These calls for reform were not limited to healthcare and law enforcement; they also found their way into the nation’s halls of learning. One of the most-visible examples is The 1619 Project, The New York Times-commissioned study produced by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, which reenvisioned the country’s founding narratives.

Hannah-Jones’ formulation presents 1619 as the nation’s founding moment, as opposed to the Declaration of Independence (1776) or the adoption of the U.S. Constitution (1787). 1619 marks the arrival of 20 or so Africans at Hampton, Va., who were sold to the Jamestown settlers. These Africans were the first in the British colonies that would become the United States. Their presence set in motion the institution of chattel slavery. While these first arrivals were indentured servants, Virginia, by the mid-17th century, established the principle of slavery (durante vita, or for life).

Centralizing the experiences of black Americans in the nation’s founding and subsequent development has drawn the ire of many, especially conservative scholars, leading to charges of political correctness.

These charges, however, are often based on the immediacy of the moment and political motivations. They have little to do with what CRT actually represents.

5. Why Are Some Whites So Upset About It? Much of the anger expressed by whites is rooted in a mixture of fear and guilt brought on by centuries of privilege at the expense of exploiting nonwhites, from enslaved Africans to virtually every non-Anglo-Saxon Protestant ethnic and religious group. As the U.S. within the next 20 or so years is predicted to become a country where the various minority groups become the majority and whites become the minority, the fear is only increased, often to the level of desperation and violence.

Bavual.com

Where CRT Is Taught: Law School Classrooms

Where CRT Is Not Taught: Elementary and Secondary Classrooms, Most Undergraduate and Graduate Schools

6. How Do Black People Feel About It? Surprisingly, the reaction among African Americans to CRT is mixed. While most blacks feel that a discussion of racial disparity in America is long overdue, still others, mainly black conservatives, feel that any such discussion will brand them as anti-white (and therefore anti-American) and impede their upward mobility in a white majority/ supremacist society, when the exact opposite is the case.

13

7. Where Is Critical Race Theory Taught?

CRT is a widely recognized academic course of study that is taught almost solely in American law schools. It is neither mandated nor taught in elementary and secondary schools and most undergraduate schools. It is confused with the basic study of African American history, a subdivision of American history, that is only cursorily reviewed in most schools and textbooks.

Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, former law students who have taken the course and understand its purpose, have nevertheless chosen to demagogue CRT to their less-informed political base, to great effect.

8. What Have States Done to Crush CRT? And Will It Work?

When one actually understands what CRT is and its basic principles, it seems pretty benign. But in the explosive debates in K-12 school systems across the United States, CRT is barely recognizable. Parents and school boards have gone on witch hunts to root out administrators and teachers who support the concept.

One of the most recent CRT controversies involves James Whitfield, principal of Colleyville Heritage High School in Colleyville, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth. Whitfield is the first African American to serve as the school’s administrator.

Currently on administrative leave, Whitfield attempted to defend himself against spurious charges of promoting CRT at a public school board meeting on July 26. At the meeting, several audience members called out the principal and demanded his immediate termination. Five days after the meeting, Whitfield posted a response on Facebook to defend himself. In the post, he characterized the comments at the school board meeting as products of “hate, intolerance, racism and bigotry.” In the post, he discussed at least four underlying issues impacting the board’s decision to suspend him: 1) a presentation on difference after being selected to serve as principal of Heritage Middle School in 2019; 2) membership in AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination), which is an

14

organization devoted to closing the opportunity gap in schools; 3) an open letter sent to the school community after the murder of George Floyd; and 4) a letter from educators in another district who wanted him to BANNED address anti-racism IN THE PROCESS in the schools in which a reference to Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” was made.

While Whitfield waits to see what will become of his suspension, his is just the latest case in a long line of controversies over CRT. In Tennessee, a teacher was fired after using Ta-Nehesi Coates’ essay “The First White President” and showing a video titled White Privilege.

Currently, six states—Idaho, Montana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida—have banned the teaching of CRT in classrooms, while another 11 states—New Hampshire, Rhode Island, West Virginia, North Carolina, Louisiana, Iowa, Missouri, Texas, South Dakota, Utah and Arizona—have legislation pending. However, with the existence of many more platforms for knowledge about CRT (and black history in general), including the Internet and independent media (such as BAVUAL), the odds of censorship taking hold are tenuous at best.

States Banning Critical Race Theory

9. Is There Common Ground? What’s Next?

One thing is clear: The backlash against CRT is based less on its intended purpose, which is to create a more equalitarian society through the promotion of anti-racist institutions, and more on a perceived threat to American institutions and traditional values, especially whiteness. CRT is forcing the nation to determine if the way forward in the 21st century will be toward racial equity or greater division and disharmony.

BAVUAL:

Stephen G. Hall, Ph.D. in African and African American history, is editor-in-chief of HistorianSpeaks.org and an editorial advisor to BAVUAL.

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

make every day

special

Imagine

YOUR AD

in this space For advertising information email eab@bavual.com or call 212-419-5831

Bavual.com

15

Black Athletes A Long, Strange Love/Hate Affair

By Steve Woodhouse

Perhaps the most memorable thing about the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is that the competitions took place in 2021. Nevertheless, black athletes carried on a strong tradition of providing memorable—as well as controversial—moments that will go down in history.

From Simone Biles, the world’s greatest gymnast competing today, sparking outrage among some for choosing to sit out the team final and the all-around competition for mental health reasons to Gwen Berry turning her back on the American flag to Tamyra Mensah-Stock becoming the first black woman to win gold for the U.S. in wrestling, black athletes were front and center of the nightly news cycle during the games.

One note that seemed largely ignored in American media was the fact that Mensah-Stock’s opponent in the 68 kilogram final, in which she earned the gold, was Blessing Oborududu— the first Nigerian athlete to medal in wrestling. Mensah-Stock’s journey to the gold included defeating Japan’s Sara Dosho, the 2017 world champion, and China’s Feng Zhou, who had previously beaten Mensah-Stock in 2020. Both of these opponents went down 10-0 to the black American standout. Her match for the gold against Oborududu was a 4-1 victory.

Whether Mensah-Stock will go on to be as synonymous with her sport as many other past Olympians have remains to be seen. If she does, she owes a debt to the many who came before her to break barriers and leave their mark on world history.

16

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

And The Olympics

Black Athletes Disprove Aryan Supremacy in 1936 The United States was considering a boycott of the 1936 Berlin Olympics because of Germany’s exclusion of Jewish athletes. Non-Aryans could not train for the games.

In a twist of irony the Germans likely did not realize, a message from the founder of the modern Olympics, Baron de Coubertin, was read at the opening ceremonies. It included the line, “The important thing at the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not to conquer, but to struggle well.”

Germany may have sacrificed an opportunity for even more success at the ’36 Games when wrestler Jim Wango was blacklisted from the sport in his hometown of Nuremberg—simply for being a black man who enjoyed success against numerous white opponents.

Nazi publisher Julius Streicher made an unexpected appearance at one of Wango’s matches and interrupted with a speech. It included the lines, “It is not in the spirit of the inhabitants of Nuremberg to let white men be subdued by a black man. Anyone who applauds when a black man throws a white man of our blood to the ground is no Nuremberger.”

Wango could not find work after that. White Germans were so scared of drawing the ire of the burgeoning Nazi power that he struggled to get food or medical attention and was dead within a year. Some believe he was murdered.

Germany enjoyed the highest medal count at their home games in 1936, edging out the United States, but the grand façade of the Nazi utopia Adolf Hitler tried to display was not the lead story coming out of them.

Simone Biles, one of the most decorated gymnasts in Olympic history. Rio, 2016 Photo credit: Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil

Bavual.com

17

Jesse Owens, the 22-year-old track sensation from the U.S., captured the imagination of the 100,000 white spectators every time he was on the track. He was often cheered by them, until they began to grow weary of a black athlete consistently outshining their own competitors and other white athletes from around the world.

Owens was the most famous athlete coming out of these games, but he was not the only black track star, as he was joined by fellow star Ralph Metcalfe.

Owens captivated the crowd with his effortless ability to get yards ahead of his competitors early in a race. When he won the 100-meter final to earn his first gold, his finish time was an amazing 10.3 seconds. Metcalfe won the silver.

As Owens ascended the stairs to receive his medal, he followed German hammer champion Karl Hein.

Hitler was watching from his private box, which could be viewed by around 1,000 journalists from around the world seated in their designated area. Hein saluted Hitler and was joined by the crowd.

When Owens was crowned, he bowed to Hitler. Der Fuhrer acknowledged the gesture, but then turned his back to the track champion.

Owens was not invited to Hitler’s box, as other gold medalists had been. He was not asked to pose with Hitler—even to the chagrin of Hitler’s own men—because the man who would murder millions did not want to “demean” himself by shaking hands with a “Negro.”

TOP LEFT: Wilma Rudolph wins big at 1960 Olympics TOP RIGHT: Jesse Owens became a U.S. and worldwide hero at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

CENTER: Owens with Ralph Metcalfe Photo credit: Associated Press

BOTTOM: Rafer Johnson, Legendary 1960 Olympian

18

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

No black or Jewish athletes were reported to have been blatantly mistreated or insulted on racial grounds at the games. This is most likely due to the Germans’ desire to keep up the false exterior they worked so hard to put on for the world stage.

In passive-aggressive fashion, American Glenn Morris was officially the outstanding athlete of the games, even though many in attendance thought Owens truly earned the distinction. In 14 appearances at the games, Owens had broken Olympic records 11 times and won four gold medals.

TOP LEFT: Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) wins gold at 1960 Olympics, turns pro Photo credit: Getty Images

TOP CENTER: Jim Wango, German wrestler who was denied a spot at the 1936 Olympics because he was black TOP RIGHT: Abebe Bikila RIGHT: Black Power symbol at 1968 Olympics, Mexico City Photo credit: Angelo Cozzi (Mondadori Publishers)

Bavual.com

19

Jamaican bobsled team at 1988 Olympics Photo credit: Dean Bicknell/Calgary Herald

Problems Remained for Black Athletes at Home Things did not get much easier for black athletes when they got home, regardless of where it was.

Racism existed around the world, and for a while, the idea was floated to have a separate Olympiad specifically for black athletes due to a perception that they held an unfair physical superiority.

By 1960, things had not improved that much. The United States was caught in a cultural war in which racial equality was one of the key battlegrounds.

The American Olympic team took a step forward by allowing Rafer Johnson to lead the U.S. delegation into the 1960 Games in Rome. Johnson, a decathlete who went on to fight his way through to a gold medal over a dear Taiwanese friend of his, carried the American flag as the delegation entered the stadium.

20

Johnson was joined by several outstanding black American athletes, including the Tigerbelle 400-meter relay team of Wilma Rudolph, Lucinda Williams, Barbara Jones and Martha Hudson with Coach Ed Temple, as well as the outspoken young boxer Cassius Clay.

Of course, America did not send the only black athletes to the 1960 Games. In the wake of the Cold War, 14 new African nations had come into being and sent delegations. Marathon runner Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia became the first athlete from subSaharan Africa to win gold.

Meanwhile, the Tigerbelles scored a gold in the 400, while Rudolph would earn two more gold medals on her own in the 100 and the 200. As for Clay, he took the light heavyweight title after exploding in the third round against Pole Zbigniew Pietrzykowski to ensure that scorers could not reasonably award the bout to the fighter with the lighter skin. Of course, immediately after this, Clay announced it was his last amateur bout. He was

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

turning pro. He was not the first, nor the last, to parlay a successful Olympic performance into a professional boxing career.

Other black athletes including Floyd Patterson and George Foreman did the same.

There is so much to the 1960 Olympics and the role black athletes played that it cannot possibly be covered adequately in this article. I recommend reading my source for the information about these games, Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World, by David Maraniss.

The fight for equal rights took center stage in Mexico City in 1968, when Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in support of Black Power on the medal stand. Smith, the gold medalist, and Carlos, the bronze medalist, had agreed to do so before the ceremony.

Jamaicans Chill Out in ’88 In the spirit of being part of the Olympics and representing one’s country, Jamaica took a big chance in 1988.

Long before Usain Bolt would blow the world’s collective mind by rewriting the men’s track history book, the Jamaican bobsleigh team took its shot at participating in the Winter Games. Dudley Stokes, Devon Harris and Michael White, with Chris Stokes as a last-minute replacement, represented the TOP LEFT: Florence Griffith-Joyner—“Flo-Jo” Photo credit: Tony Duffy/Allsport/Getty Images

TOP RIGHT: Jackie Joyner-Kersee Photo credit: Suzy Gorman

BOTTOM: Jamaican Usain Bolt Photo credit: Fernando Frazão

Bavual.com

21

first team in the games. Though the team did not finish, due to a crash, they left their mark on the sporting world and pop culture. Their story inspired the 1993 motion picture Cool Runnings.

Dudley Stokes and his brother Chris later went on to compete in three more Olympic Games.

Chris’ daughter, NaTalia Stokes, revived the team in 2014 and put together a women’s team for the PyeongChang Games in 2018.

Flo-Jo and the First Lady of Track and Field Two American women grabbed the world’s attention in 1988 on the track. Florence GriffithJoyner and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who would become related through marriage, put together stellar track careers that intersected at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Flo-Jo had earned the silver in the 200 in the 1984 L.A. Games but exploded in ’88 with three gold medal performances and one more silver. The media seemed to struggle with her level of success and improvement in her performance over the previous games and worked to tarnish her victories by making claims of doping. Though she was accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs, Flo-Jo took 11 drug tests in 1988 alone and passed every one. She retired after the ’88 Games and sadly passed away in 1998 from a seizure.

22

Joyner-Kersee is one of the most decorated U.S. athletes in Olympic history, earning three gold, one silver and two bronze medals across four Olympic Games.

She took the golds in Seoul in the heptathlon and long jump. The East St. Louis native then grabbed a second gold in the heptathlon in Barcelona in 1992.

Like several other successful Olympic athletes, Joyner-Kersee used her star power for the greater good and continues with her foundation to help the disadvantaged in her hometown. The foundation also partners with Comcast to provide laptops and 40 hours of monthly high-speed Internet access to children around the country.

Joyner-Kersee received two Jesse Owens Awards from USA Track & Field for her contributions. In 2013, the award presented to the female recipient was renamed after her. She has also been dubbed the Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century.

The Dream Team and Beyond Professional athletes, still active in their respective sports, were first allowed to take part in the

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

Olympics in 1992. America took full advantage of this when it came to basketball.

The first-ever “Dream Team” was made up of players who still do not require a full moniker.

Black stars Magic, Michael, Barkley, Pippen, Malone, Ewing, Drexler and The Admiral led the team alongside Mullin, Bird, Stockton and Laettner to dominate the games all the way to the gold. No other USA Basketball team since has been able to match their charm or success at the Olympics.

One of the few athletes who inspired so many is the aforementioned Bolt. His Olympic accolades alone include earning three gold medals at three consecutive Olympics. In 2008, 2012 and 2016, Bolt dominated in the 100, 200 and 4x100.

The Tokyo Games have also given us Allyson Felix, who is now the most decorated U.S. Olympian in track and field. She earned her eleventh Olympic medal, breaking Carl Lewis’ record, when she and her teammates won the gold in the women’s 4x400 relay.

Bavual.com

Challenges will always be presented to black athletes, but much like in life away from competition, they will continue to participate, struggle well and find success more often than not.

Here’s to what 2022 will bring us.

LEFT: 1992 Olympic Dream Team Photo credit: Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images

CENTER: USA’S Allyson Felix Photo credit: Tab59 from Düsseldorf, Allemagne

TOP RIGHT: Tamyra Mensah-Stock’s wrestling breakthrough at the 2020 Olympics Photo credit: Juan Carlos Guzmán Negrini

BOTTOM RIGHT: Mensah-Stock (red) battling opponent Blessing Oborududu, the first Nigerian to medal in wrestling Photo credit: Jack Guez/Getty Images

23

Famous Olympics Hits—and Misses Mike Tyson Mike Tyson’s Olympic dreams were shattered before the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

Tyson had won gold in the 1981 and 1982 Junior Olympics, but when given two opportunities to qualify for the ’84 Olympic team, he lost twice to Henry Tillman. Tillman went on to win the gold at the Games.

Though he fell short here, Tyson went on to have a professional career mark of 50-6, with 44 knockouts. The later years of Tyson’s career were marred by allegations of domestic abuse, financial struggles, a rape conviction and the infamous earbiting incident against former friend and fellow ’84 prospect Evander Holyfield. Thankfully, Tyson has since gotten his life under control.

Derrick Adkins Photo credit: Getty Images

Mike Tyson Photo credit: Mark Gregory

Derrick Adkins Derrick Adkins was a six-time All-American at Georgia Tech before he went on to earn two national championships in the 400-meter hurdles.

In the 1996 Atlanta Games, Adkins took home the gold with a time of 47.54. For that, the street on which he grew up in Lakeview, N.Y. (also the hometown of BAVUAL’s founder, Earl A. Birkett), was renamed after him.

After retiring from active competition in 2000, he focused on coaching and bringing more track and field events to New York. Despite his battles with alcoholism, Adkins mentored young athletes.

His demons caught up with him when he was arrested for suspicion of driving while intoxicated in 2009. Four years later, he was the target of false allegations of obstructing governmental operations.

He was cleared and the Long Beach, N.Y., Police Department was admonished for creating the lie.

24

Wilt Chamberlain

Wilt Chamberlain

Wilt Chamberlain is considered by many to be one of the greatest athletes of all time. His talent shone through in track and field first before the sport for which he became most famous—basketball.

Chamberlain missed playing on an Olympic team for two reasons. He was considered too young for the 1956 Melbourne Games and by 1960, he had already gone pro. Chamberlain’s NBA career is legendary, including his 100-point game against the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962. His total may have been higher for that game, had the Knicks not fouled players in later quarters to keep the ball out of his hands.

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

Bathing Capgate and Other Indignities

By Steve Woodhouse

Sha’Carri Richardson Photo credit: Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Pundits had many opportunities to pounce on black Olympians for the 2021 Tokyo Games. Far too many took full advantage.

Sha’Carri Richardson had been as close to a lock as an Olympian could be to bring home the gold in the 100-meter dash for the United States.

However, while training for the Games in Oregon, she received news that her birth mother had died.

Though she was raised by her grandmother, news of the death still hit the 21-year-old hard. The fact that she learned about it from a journalist during an interview likely did not help. She turned to marijuana, which appeared on a drug test by the Anti-Doping Agency, and was suspended from competition for a month. The suspension expired in time for her to possibly run at the Olympics, but ultimately, she did not.

Black swimmers appeared to be targeted for discrimination when the International Swimming Federation (FINA) chose to ban the Soul Cap during competitions. The Soul Cap was invented in 2017, specifically to accommodate black swimmers’ hair.

FINA’s reason for banning the cap was that it did not follow the natural form of the head, according to a BBC report. International outrage and backlash followed, but FINA has not shown an intention of changing its stance.

Simone Biles is one of the most decorated gymnasts in Olympic history, which brings with it unbelievable pressure. She chose to back out of the team final and the all-around final “for medical reasons.” She clarified that it was a mental issue, not physical.

Eventually, she specified that she had “the twisties,” a feeling experienced by gymnasts in

Bavual.com

Soul Cap Photo credit: Soul Cap

Simone Biles Photo credit: Susie Butler

which they do not confidently have full control over their bodies. This is especially dangerous in a sport known for athletes leaping high in the air. She could have faced paralysis or even death if she was unable to execute her routine properly.

But that didn’t stop an initial media outrage that questioned Biles’ competitive spirit and dedication to her country, team and sponsors. Many were angry at her for backing out of an opportunity for which she—SHE, not them—worked incredibly hard to earn.

There were those who understood that an athlete, like anyone else, needs to take care of his or her mind and body above all else. But the critics seemed to have the bigger megaphone.

Steve Woodhouse is the features editor of BAVUAL. He was editor of his own weekly newspaper, the Knoxville (IA) JournalExpress, for 12 years.

25

AI Software at your fingertips

Imagine

YOUR AD

in this space For advertising information email eab@bavual.com or call 212-419-5831

26

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

So You Think You Know

Black History?

Take Our Quiz!

By Earl A. Birkett

Like many Americans, my knowledge of the heritage of my African ancestors and fellow African Americans while growing up was spotty and full of inaccuracies.

The suburban public schools on Long Island that I attended in the 1960s and ’70s by and large did not teach black history in any definable sense. It was not yet a thing. Yes, we knew who Martin Luther King Jr. was, and we knew of Nichelle Nichols, Bill Cosby, Greg Morris (my favorite), Sammy Davis Jr. and several others from watching TV. For everything else, we had to rely on Black History Month at my local church, Ebony and Jet magazines, or hanging at the local library (no Google yet).

Bavual.com

When I got to college in the late ’70s, I had the freedom to indulge my academic interest in history through my major. Later on as a high school teacher of social studies, I had a chance to put it into practice.

Since then, the study of black history has exploded. Today it is taught virtually everywhere, in class and in media such as BAVUAL, much to the alarm of some people who are afraid of its implications for them.

So now you are a black scholar—or are you? There's an easy way to find out; just take our brief quiz on a few of the people, places and events that make up Afrocentric history. You may surprise yourself!

27

PEOPLE 1. W hat key clause was excised from Thomas Jefferson’s rough draft of the Declaration of Independence?

2. W hat was the name of the first black newspaper in America, what year was it founded, and what were the names of the two founders?

3. Were the the original two stars of the popular 1940s-50s radio and TV show Amos ‘n’ Andy black or white?

4. W hat scientific discovery is Dr. Kizzmekia “Kizzy” Corbett known for?

5. O f the nine men who have served as UN Secretary-General since 1946, how many have been black or African?

6. W ho was the inspiration for Martin Luther King’s iconic quote, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”?

28

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

PLACES 1. T he world-famous Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture is located in what city?

2. W hat is the name and location of the first black college founded in America?

3. In what African country was the world’s oldest known tool discovered? How old is it considered to be?

4. W here is the presumed African nation of “Nambia” located? Bonus: What African nation is the fictional Wakanda in the film Black Panther said to be loosely patterned after?

5. In what African region was the first African language said to have originated? Why is it particularly relevant to women?

6. In what state are most of the top 10 richest black communities in the U.S. located?

Bavual.com

29

EVENTS 1. W hich participants in which U.S. war originated the commemoration of Memorial Day? 2. W hich mid-20th century event led to the formation of the paramilitary police unit Special Weapons and Tactics (S.W.A.T.)?

3. W hat major African war was fought in 1879, who were the combatants, and what territory did they fight over?

4. T he murder of what black American led immediately to the formation of the Black Lives Matter Movement?

5. Of the 2,726 official deaths at the World Trade Center attack in New York City on September 11, 2001, how many were non-Hispanic blacks?

6. W hich state was the first to observe an official holiday celebrating Juneteenth (the day that Southern enslaved blacks were notified of their freedom, June 19, 1865)?

Answers online at Bavual.com

30

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

“ Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

— George Santayana

ACT NOW

to receive a 1-year digital subscription for $24.99 or access to print + digital for $29.99

50% SAVINGS from the cover price!

BAVUAL: The African Heritage Magazine’s mission is to explore the Afrocentric experience in world history, from the beginning of recorded time to the present.

BAVUAL will publish features and regular departments on the key people, places and events that shaped black people and, as a consequence, all peoples. It is for anyone who is interested in understanding cause and effect in history from the perspective of a key race of people.

To subscribe: www.bavual.com or call 844-580-3278

Greensboro, N.C., protest, 1960: A black man with one view, a white man with quite another

32

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

Breonna Taylor’s EMT uniform could not save her.

Nat Turner scared white slaveowners.

Photo credit: Christopher 2X

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signs voter suppression bill in front of a plantation painting.

Photo credit: Reuters

Living While Black The Centuries-Long Quest for Respect—and Survival

By Earl A. Birkett

It starts in small ways. Comedians may tell unflattering, even offensive, jokes at their expense. It is apparent, however, that the white audience is laughing at their targets, not with them. The jokes soon become a media narrative, then popular belief. The targets are painted as strange, undesirable, even evil. They are portrayed as ugly, with big noses and ape-like features; they are smelly and unkempt, their language vulgar. Everything about them is unattractive, from their unhealthy food, to their blighted homes and neighborhoods, to their so-called music and art (graffiti!). They are not very bright (not their fault, just genetics, “experts” say). They do poorly in school and drop out; they are lazy and always looking for a quick scheme rather than honest work. They are wasteful, think only about sex and bling, and breed like rabbits. Many of them live better than the rest of us because of all the government programs, such as welfare, in their favor. You cannot trust them; they are born thieves and criminals, disrespectful to everyone, even their own kind, and they are violent and dangerous. They are a menace to society. Either they should go back to where they came from, or we should get rid of them.

Colin Kaepernick taking a knee Photo credit: Michael Zagaris/Getty Images

Bavual.com

33

This type of derogatory picture could apply to any maligned race of people. It was the pretext for the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany in the 1920s and the sublevel treatment of “non-traditional” inhabitants and the foreign-born in virtually every country, such as Latinos and Muslims in the U.S. In this instance, it is the attitude of white Americans toward their fellow Americans of African descent, an attitude held since the first Africans arrived on the shores of colonial America in 1619. Today we call it racism, a concept invented by the dominant white group in society— dominant in political and military power, not just in numbers—to maintain its control over blacks and other groups without such power. Unlike the experience of other groups, the dehumanization of blacks was codified in law from the beginning, originally for economic profit.

Ultimately, their dehumanization was simply accepted as the natural order of things. Just like other groups that have outlived their financial usefulness, these people may be disrespected, then marginalized, and finally “ethnically cleansed,” another phrase for genocide. More on that later.

White people have always been afraid of black people, especially black men. We are seen as bigger and stronger than them. (You are not afraid of someone who looks weak.) Whites saw Africans as a race driven by their passions, not their intellect, which makes them beasts. Like all beasts, they must be restrained, even tamed; hence the need to transport them to America by chains and whip them into submission once here.

The first Europeans that settled America in the early 1600s—the English Puritans—may have come here for religious freedom, but like the Spanish before them and, subsequently, the Dutch, they discovered a virtual gold mine in the New World. The land was fertile and plentiful, the possibilities endless. In a time of kings, an

34

economic empire could be built here, perhaps the biggest in history. As all empires are built on labor, especially cheap labor, it became necessary to find exploitable workers. The native populations of the Americas, the ones that crossed the Bering Strait in modern-day Alaska approximately 10,000 years earlier, were prone to control by the Spanish conquistadors in the Southern Hemisphere, less so in the Northern Hemisphere, where there was already a sophisticated tribal nation in place, the Iroquois Confederacy—an inspiration for our U.S. Constitution. Their tribes were proud and unbreakable. It would become necessary to cut deals with them and eventually to fight them for dominance rather than enslave them. Slave labor would need to come from elsewhere.

Africa and Europe are historically two different cultures, and those differences were never more so than in the early 17th century. At that time, Europe was the more advanced culture for reasons that are too complex to dwell on in this article. Africans were also divided, given their numerous tribal wars, and were therefore easily exploited. Traders from Holland would sell defeated tribe members to the English monarchy, which would use them as slave labor to work the land in their new, highly prosperous Southern colonies in America. Before this system could be implemented effectively, it became necessary for white colonists to make three adjustments.

First and foremost, they had to deal with the problem that slavery was wrong in a moral and biblical sense and impractical in a historic sense.

Old Testament stories of the Jews in bondage in Egypt and their fight for freedom there and later at Masada and Spartacus’ slave revolt in the early Roman Empire were well-known to early English settlers. They needed to alter Christianity to justify enslaving their fellow man, so the solution was

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

FACING PAGE, LEFT: Over 20 kidnapped Africans auctioned off for food at Jamestown, Va., Aug. 25, 1619.

Painting by Sydney King

FACING PAGE, CENTER: Al Jolson FACING PAGE,RIGHT: Cotton gin prosperity changes the game. Mural by George Beattie, 1956 TOP: White Southern segregationists, Civil Rights era CENTER: Black Union soldiers. Men determined to be free. National Archives BOTTOM: Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad to freedom simply to distort the Good Book and lie. They leaned on two misinterpreted texts from the King James Version of the Bible, one from Genesis (9:18-27), wherein Noah condemned his son Canaan to perpetual servitude as punishment for an infraction, and the other from the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians (6:5-7), which basically tells servants to be obedient to the nth degree to their masters because in so doing they are honoring Christ himself.

Continued on page 38

Bavual.com

35

Ne p tu n e

S t r e am i ng T V

Imagine

YOUR AD

in this space For advertising information email eab@bavual.com or call 212-419-5831

But twisting religion was not enough. The best way to enslave someone is to dehumanize him, to treat him literally as property. All traces of being human—language, cultural heritage, family ties, selfrespect—must be eliminated and replaced with obedience only to the whim of the master. There is no better way to do this than with force and violent re-education.

Africans were also taught to hate themselves and each other by introducing false concepts of class status and degrees of skin color.

“You are better than the field slaves because you work in the Big House” and “The lighter your skin the better,” they were told.

Third and finally, it became necessary to invent an entirely new way of categorizing human beings, where darker-skinned people are inferior to lighterskinned people in every way: less intelligent than whites due to their smaller craniums and genetically lazy, brutish, and animalistic—descended from Cain or even Satan himself. Individual blacks who did not fit this mold were considered misfits, the exception that proved the rule.

The European race, by virtue of its superiority and inventiveness (and development of the gun) had an obligation to dominate and Christianize this lesser African race because it was natural, noble and “Christian” to do so; it was for their own good. It was Darwinism centuries before Darwin, and it came to be known as Racism.

For any racist program to work, it takes the cooperation of the recipient—and lack of guilt by the inflictor. Despite the many lies they told themselves, the colonists knew slavery was wrong. It was, however, also extremely beneficial and profitable.

No one wants to relinquish a cash cow that takes little effort (at first) to keep. As the colonists declared their independence from England in 1776, they realized that granting that same freedom to enslaved Africans—by now Americans in their own right, the colonies having been their homeland for more than a century and a half—was bad for business and would expose their entire way of life

38

ABOVE: American apartheid FACING PAGE, TOP: White and black teammates take a knee in 2017, angering Vice President Mike Pence in the crowd.

Photo credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

FACING PAGE, BOTTOM: Trayvon Martin, symbol of a new movement Photo credit: Jerome Horton

as a huge lie. Generations of white colonists were already hugely invested in racism, economically and philosophically, so they simply kept slavery going in the new United States of America for another 89 years. But those who enjoyed the unprecedented riches that slavery brought, especially after Eli Whitney’s cotton gin was invented in 1793, also

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

had to live with their guilt over human bondage, in spite of their phony rationalizations.

A breakdown was bound to happen.

A persecuted and exploited person at some point is bound to tire of being exploited and rise up. Smart masters always needed to look over their shoulder and snuff out possible rebellions before they started. Were the slaves plotting against them for their freedom? Sometimes. Nat Turner’s rebellion in Virginia in 1831, where between 55 and 65 people were killed, including at least 51 whites, gave proof that it was not just paranoia; it was reality, one that exists right up to 2021. The rebellion failed against superior manpower, but the point was made: Blacks do not like being slaves, nor do they like being second-class citizens.

They do not like slave shacks, working in the field or the Big

Bavual.com

39

House, family separation, personal indignity, separate but equal (often inferior) facilities, unfair treatment, low wages, stolen property, neglected neighborhoods, redlining, job discrimination, stereotyped images of them, and negative attitudes toward them. Native Africans showed their dislike by escaping to the North via the Underground Railroad, by taking up arms against the Confederacy in the Civil War, and by fighting for 156 years against laws that denied them equal access to public facilities, neighborhoods, schools, restaurants, stores, farms, government offices, banks, corporations, unions, museums, libraries, theaters, golf clubs, and voting booths.

You would think that 402 years of mistreatment would make a people bitter and hopeless. To the contrary, African-Americans have proven their loyalty and patriotism through the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Jim Crow period, the turbulence of the 1960s, and “benign neglect” ever since. With virtually nothing to shield us, we have survived times of crippling depression, of Ku Klux Klan night riders and lynchings, of our leaders beaten and murdered, of being called a nigger like Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn while doing our job and serving our country, and of being unable to take a simple drink from a water fountain because our skin was too dark. Why? Because for every Dylann Roof, Derek Chauvin, Mitch McConnell and “Karen” pulling us to our dark past, there are the rest of us—certain politicians, the young and all people of goodwill in public and in our own lives—pointing us to a brighter future.

We also know the ominous warning that history has given us. When you deprive a person of his right to be human, just to preserve a monstrous lie, you make it easy to deprive him of his freedom and eventually his life.

You pave the way for genocide.

We’ve seen it happen before. It must not happen again.

TOP: Derek Chauvin taking another type of knee Photo credit: Darnella Frazier BOTTOM: White support, 2021 Photo credit: Alan Poizner for The Tennessean

40

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

“Shocking. Sad. Shameful. Inevitable.”

Confederate flag appears inside the U.S. Capitol for the first time in history.

Photo credit: Saul Loeb/AFP Via Getty Images

“Shocking. Sad. Shameful. Inevitable.” Those where words used by Mary Schmich, columnist for the Chicago Tribune, to describe the events in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, the day the 234-year-old government of the United States of America, the world’s oldest republic, was nearly toppled in an instant. The complete facts are still being determined. What is known is that many thousands of rabid, nearly all-white devotees of President Donald J. Trump, traumatized that their beloved candidate had been rejected by the voters in the November election, stormed the Capitol building with their Trump and Confederate flags in tow, beat police (one died, four committed suicide), vandalized public property, and by their own words sought to publicly hang Vice President Mike Pence and murder Democratic and Republican elected officials who refused to ignore the will of the people and re-install Trump by mob rule rather than the rule of law. Five people died, including Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick. Brave Capitol cops, including Police Officer Harry Dunn, an African American, were humiliated by a disturbed Republican right wing. We also know that the mob was egged on—incited, some would say—by Trump himself, certain family members, close associates, prominent Republicans throughout the country, and members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, who were inside certifying the Electoral College votes won by President-elect Joe Biden. That these renegade Republican Trumpists came close

Bavual.com

to stopping certification and throwing the nation into a Constitutional crisis is bad enough; they also destroyed America’s hard-earned reputation as the world’s most stable and admired government, turned us into a banana republic-like laughingstock and left us wondering what will happen next.

The insurrection also revealed that white America’s twisted love affair with racism is far from over. It is a man-made disease carried down from four centuries and is stronger than ever in many quarters, with a very large section of the population that includes many high government officials, mainly Republicans, still clinging to it.

The immediate aftermath included 389 bills in 48 states and some adopted or nearly adopted in Texas, Georgia and Arizona as of May 2021 to suppress the votes of black Americans, something that U.S. law had previously settled with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. These new efforts to suppress voting were made possible because a 2013 Supreme Court ruling struck down a key part of the law that had required nine Southern states with a history of racial discrimination to obtain federal approval before changing their voting laws. Currently, mostly progressive Democrats in Congress are seeking to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, a watereddown version of their original H.R. 1, also known as the For the People Act. They face stiff opposition from Republicans and two conservative Democrats, Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.).

41

DESTINATIONS Historic Locales

From Great Promise to Utter Despair

By Steve Woodhouse

42

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

For a land of mountainous beauty, breathtaking beaches, and an array of ecological diversity, Haiti’s population can be divided into two simple categories: the haves and the have-nots.

One could easily see it as a cautionary tale of what greed and indifference to your fellow man can breed, as the top 1 percent of the country controls 90-95 percent of the wealth and everyone else starves—either figuratively or literally. Those with the money and the power hold on to it through force and influence.

Even those at the top are not immune to the chaos and turmoil.

When President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated on July 7, for example, he was just the latest in a line of slain government figures. One struggles to refer to anyone who has held political office in the country as a “leader,” given the never-ending cycle of successive governments that fail to lift their people.

Moïse’s death has exacerbated issues plaguing the country.

From gang violence, to disease, to struggles to recover from devastating earthquakes in 2010 and on August 14, the people of Haiti have much to overcome.

Bavual.com

43

Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital

Indifference to the Nation’s Problems Unfortunately, many are oblivious to the politics surrounding them or choose not to get involved and instead focus on their own lives.

Those who have visited Haiti say that the hearts of the people are strong, largely because those who are suffering in our eyes are unaware that life can be better. The smallest trinkets given to them by visitors become treasured possessions. An old Panera Bread uniform t-shirt can easily become a young lady’s Sunday best.

European colonizers brought with them the Catholic religion, and while it may be the dominant religion among Haitians today, it is not the only one.

Voodoo—a legacy of their African past—is also an officially recognized religion.

Catholicism’s influence may have an adverse effect on the nation’s economic situation since those who practice the faith do not support the use of any form of birth control. This belief, coupled with a lack of ways to pass the time, has led families who cannot support the children they already have to have more.

The scarcity of food within these families has even led some to resort to salting a type of edible clay, adding a little water and oil, and then baking the batter in the sun to make mud cookies, which provide a little sustenance and alleviate hunger pangs.

Their places of worship are not unlike any other structures in poor neighborhoods. They may be open air with just a roof. Still, the participants sing, dance and praise God as if they were living in palatial homes.

Most occupy homes with dirt floors, and, when elders outlive their perceived usefulness, they may be kicked out into the streets. It’s not an act of hostility or disrespect in their eyes; they just can’t afford the extra mouth. In addition, hundreds of thousands of children are offered to others as unpaid domestic servants because their families are too poor to support them; in some cases, these children are abused. Because of this extreme poverty, travelers who have made multiple trips to

44

Dominican Republic

Haiti A Tale of Two Countries: Impoverished Haiti, Prosperous Dominican Republic Haiti have learned to carry dollar bills with them for when they are approached by the poor. When one is handed a dollar, he or she celebrates as if it were a million-dollar lottery ticket.

Poverty is perpetuated in some areas because those with the ability to leave poor villages do so. The richest Haitians, who enjoy the spoils of the multimillion dollar agricultural and tourism industries, have literally walled themselves off from their brethren. Resources, including utilities, are controlled by only a handful of families.

Those with the ingenuity and ability to improve the poor’s existence are recruited for the moneymaking endeavors, either by choice, need or force. This leaves areas of the country without the devices or knowledge to recover when something goes awry.

When the earthquake hit in 2010, the death toll measured between 230,000-300,000, depending on who you ask. Infrastructure that was there to help these neighborhoods was destroyed. It was never cleared of debris or even bodies—let alone rebuilt.

Missionaries from all over the world have tried to improve Haiti, but as soon as they get back on

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

Shanty town on the edge of Port-au-Prince the plane (if not sooner), the work seems to be undone through corruption or an inability of the locals to repair damage. According to some accounts, the natives simply shrug their shoulders and go on without being bothered. While they live in conditions that most of the world would deem horrendous, when one has known nothing else, even a bad situation may seem comfortable.

Visitors have found the average people of Haiti to be content, if not happy.

Those in power have long tried to keep the peace by encouraging ignorance among the masses. This is not unique to Haiti in any way.

Gangs have taken control of parts of Port-auPrince, the Haitian capital. People join the gangs because they realize life CAN be better and are willing to do what is necessary to improve their own situations, as well as those of their friends and family.

Early Dreams of Freedom and a Better Life So, how did all this poverty and despair come to this beautiful land?

To a large extent, it began with slavery.

After taking over the land that would later become Haiti from the earlier Spanish colonizers in the late 1600s, the French used it to become the world’s largest producer of sugarcane. For growing and processing sugar, as well as large amounts of coffee, they depended on more than half a million slaves. Exploiting the land to grow enough sugarcane and coffee to maximize their profits, the colonists also ruined much of the forest and soil.

The French colonizers’ brutality to the slaves it brought to, and bred in, the colony also led to massive death, disease and suffering. In time, the slaves’ anger would build until a revolt against their masters became inevitable.

Bavual.com

The first slave revolt in the West began in this colony in 1791, and it was later led by Haitian hero Toussaint L’Ouverture, who was born enslaved but was later freed. By 1804, after about 13 years of struggle against France and other European colonizers, the revolution succeeded, the new nation of Haiti was established, and slavery was abolished. This made Haiti the first country in the Western Hemisphere to end slavery and the world’s first independent black republic. Unfortunately, its long history of colonization, slavery, land exploitation and brutality left many huge problems for the young nation to contend with—problems that would last for centuries.

Disasters That Followed Freedom General Jean-Jacques Dessalines was named the leader of the new nation, and one of his first items of business was to massacre around 3,000-5,000 white people. This single act of brutality by the new government would arguably lead directly or indirectly to many of the nation’s woes even up to today. The massacre proved to be an unpopular move with the United States, especially among

Bad “Barbecue” People can often be seen clinging to the fences around Port-au-Prince, either trying to escape the violence of the gangs or trying to get in. Parts of the city are now fully under the control of the gangs and one specific gang leader, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier.

Cherizier sees himself as a man of the people, someone who wants to bring all of Haiti and its resources under his control for more equitable wealth distribution. His methods, to this point, have been violent by the accounts available. He has been accused of murder, rape and allegedly earned his nickname by burning his opposition alive.

He has reportedly already amassed a small army of young men willing to do his bidding. Many young Haitians are abandoned, like the elderly, when their families can no longer afford to care for them.

Choices for purpose and a sense of belonging are limited.

This desperation has led Cherizier to believe his own hype. His popularity, in his mind, is so strong that he could be elected to office if he tried because “everyone loves (him).”

Tales of Cherizier’s brutality and exploitation of those around him fit well the general pattern of many of Haiti’s past leaders.

45

those states that relied heavily on slavery and feared potential slave revolts of their own. As a result, Congress did not recognize Haiti as an independent republic until 1862.

France was also not keen on recognizing Haitian independence, and, in 1825, King Charles X sent a fleet to try to reclaim the former colony.

Unfortunately, under threat of French warships and continued isolation, the Haitian president agreed to pay France 150 million gold francs in reparations for its losses as a result of the revolution, putting Haiti on the path of ongoing and devastating financial struggles for more than a century.

Haiti did not have that level of wealth and was forced to borrow exorbitant amounts of money from other countries at extremely high interest rates to make its payments. By the turn of the century, over 80 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product was tied to repaying its massive debt, which would not be paid off until 1947.

Another problem for the nation is that it has continuously been ruled by an iron fist. Between the time of Dessalines and 1915, there were over 70 different dictators in control. Throughout the 1900s, power continued to shift from one dictator to another with the people subdued by force.

U.S. Occupation of Haiti

TOP: The Duvaliers, “Papa Doc” and his son “Baby Doc,” ruled Haiti with an iron fist.

CENTER LEFT: Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown twice by military coups.

CENTER RIGHT: Jovenel Moïse, former president of Haiti, was assassinated on July 7, 2021 Photo credit: The Canadian Press/AP

BOTTOM LEFT: Toussaint L’Ouverture, Haiti’s hero, led the slave revolt in 1791.

Courtesy: John Carter Brown Library

BOTTOM RIGHT: Musician Wyclef Jean is an international star and Haitian icon.

Photo credit: Harry Wad

46

The United States also shares some culpability for Haiti’s struggles since it occupied the country from 1915-1934. After Haiti’s new president, Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, was lynched in response to his execution of his political opponents, the U.S. feared that an anti-U.S. president would take his place. Since the U.S. also feared that Haiti might default on its loans and that German influence was growing in the nation, President Woodrow Wilson ordered troops into the country to protect American interests.

During the American occupation, much of Haiti’s infrastructure was centralized to Port-au-Prince.

Haiti’s cash crops began to bring more prosperity to the region, but at the same time, at least a few thousand Haitians were killed.

After U.S. Marines left, natural disasters and conflicts with neighboring Dominicans continued to hamper Haiti’s progress.

More Violence, More Dictators Haiti struggled to avoid a revolution every few years, with those in power often overthrown by the masses or the military.

One of the longest stretches of continuous leadership was the Duvalier dynasty between 195786. Dr. François “Papa Doc” Duvalier was the first,

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

Voodoo plays a prominent role in Haitian culture.

Photo credit: AP/Dieu Nalio Chery

Haiti’s people succeeded after his death by his son Jean-Claude, or “Baby Doc.” Unfortunately, both were cruel and corrupt dictators who used intimidation and violence to maintain power. They may have killed around 60,000 Haitians in 29 years. When JeanClaude fled the country in 1986, it is believed that he stole $900 million of the nation’s funds.

Haiti’s first democratically elected leader was Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Trained as a priest, Aristide received 67 percent of the vote in the 1990-91 election. Overthrown by a military coup in 1991, Aristide fled the nation and survived. The coup regime failed by 1994, however, and Aristide was reinstated the same year. He served between 199496, then again from 2001-04. In 2004, Aristide was again forced from office, and he believed the United States was partially to blame.

Given Haiti’s history, it seems natural that many Haitians would seek asylum in another country or at least the opportunity to begin a new life. The number of refugees fleeing Haiti grew so much that the U.S. needed to act. Various presidents have tried to find a solution, including holding the refugees at Guantanamo Bay before it became widely known as a prison for terrorists. The Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act, in 1999, allowed Haitians who had resided in the United States since—or prior to—December 31, 1995, to file an application for lawful permanent resident status.

Cruelty, Corruption and Poverty Stability continues to elude Haiti. Hurricanes, earthquakes, mudslides, cholera, HIV/AIDS, the lack of medicine, an unstructured educational system and much more have continued to present challenges for Haitians to improve their country.

The struggles Haiti continues to face have been shared often by Haiti’s Wyclef Jean. Jean rose to prominence as a member of the R&B group The Fugees and has used his wealth and influence to raise awareness of Haiti’s plight. Yet with all this effort, it still has not inspired overwhelming change.

Reparations were sought from European countries for past wrongdoings and exploitation of

Bavual.com

the country and its people, but the request landed on deaf ears. In addition, promises made by the United States and other countries to provide aid— especially following the 2010 earthquake—have not been fulfilled.

Only a fraction of aid promised has been delivered. Countries are becoming more reluctant to provide aid when corrupted officials prevent the money from being used for its intended purposes.

Unfortunately, Haiti has been consistently ranked as the most corrupt country in the world.

Missionaries who come to improve wells, churches, schools and other things cannot travel alone for fear of being kidnapped or killed. Armed guards watch over them at night.

Elections have taken place in Haiti, but rarely without dispute or outside influence. If gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier (page 45) ultimately finds himself as the supreme leader of Haiti through violent means, it will be nothing new. The true revolution will be if Cherizier, should he be sincere in his intentions to serve his people, avoids assassination or a military coup long enough to do so.

Threats to anyone who is empowered in Haiti come from internal rivals, as well as challenges from the outside. Haiti is no longer openly warring with its Dominican co-inhabitants on Hispaniola, but rather working as trading partners, but the two sides still harbor resentment toward each other.

Trade partners, or other countries with an interest in Haiti’s resources, all seemingly have more power and means than the Haitians to truly allow the natives to control their own destiny.

While some would debate the many causes of Haiti’s devastating problems, the long-term effects of colonization and slavery must be near the top. At the same time, the lust for greed and power by its leaders and the brutality they are willing to show to their fellow Haitians cannot be ignored.

Until that changes, the cycle of cruelty and poverty seems destined to continue.

47

Wood fired

Taste the Difference

Imagine

YOUR AD

in this space For advertising information email eab@bavual.com or call 212-419-5831

48

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

EDUCATE YOURSELF Knowledge Is Power

GUNS AND THE BLACK MALE A Decades-Long Tragedy

By Steve Woodhouse

When you think of Chicago, that Windy City off of Lake Michigan, America’s third largest at 2.7 million residents, Mrs. O’Leary’s cow and Marshall Field’s may come immediately to mind. Still others may remember that Chi-Town was the epicenter of gang violence married to political and law enforcement corruption in the 1920s. The Thompson submachine gun, aka the Tommy gun or “Chicago typewriter,” perfected in the trenches of World War I, ruled the streets and racked up a Prohibition-era body count so awesome that it inspired the U.S. Treasury Department to form a special unit, led by a young Eliot Ness, to battle “Scarface” Al Capone and his hoods. These Untouchables, as the local press came to call them (for their alleged refusal to take bribes), had a mission that can best be summed up by Sean Connery, one of the stars in the 1987 film of the same name:

“ You wanna get Capone? Here’s how you get him. He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! That’s the Chicago way, and that’s how you get Capone!”

TOP LEFT: Black Chicago youth brandish their guns.

TOP RIGHT: Black Chicagoans protest to stop youth gun violence in their neighborhoods.

Bavual.com

CENTER RIGHT:“Scarface” Al Capone, prototype of the modern gangster BOTTOM RIGHT: John Gotti, a thug-life idol

49

Connery’s sober advice was carried out with often brutal efficiency by the law, but the price was expensive, and the lesson extended far beyond Chicago and the Mob­­­—especially to African American teens in every city. Much like the old syndicate of Capone’s time, mostly urban black teens have felt it necessary to arm themselves with cheap handguns and automatic weapons— the dreaded TEC-9s—in their own street gangs, killing each other off over turf and machismo, much like their real-life heroes, Capone and John Gotti, and fictional ones, such as Tony Montana from the movie Scarface. An entire culture, called thug life, immortalized since the 1980s in Gangsta Rap, portrays a grim world where young black men, cut off from the means of advancement in American society through racism, choose crime and self-annihilation as the route to the American Dream—like the fictional Corleones in The Godfather.

They see unarmed black teens such as Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Oscar Grant gunned down by police and private citizens who face no consequences and find even more reason to arm themselves. Rapper Freddie Gibbs said it succinctly:

“ Everything I do is going to be gangsta rap, street based, street oriented... I’m from Gary, Indiana, and everybody’s damn near at the poverty level.”

Gibbs’ reaction to white racism is not new. In times of slavery, black lives most certainly did not matter—at least not to an extent beyond that of anything else considered to be livestock. There was little to no accounting for the number of black lives lost.

Early freedom fighters recognized a need for black people to be armed. Harriet Tubman was never without her firearm when organizing and passing through the Underground Railroad.

Frederick Douglass is famously quoted as saying that “a man’s rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.”

Douglass believed in the Constitution, which clearly states in the Second Amendment, “A wellregulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

But that didn’t apply to blacks, as only white men were able to be part of said militia. That notion was upheld again in the 1857 Supreme Court Dred Scott decision, when the justices determined that blacks were not “citizens.”

50

An array of popular street handguns INSET: Chicago police-seized semiautomatic—a popular weapon for drive-by shootings Even after the Civil War, states worked to pass laws to restrict black gun ownership. This came at a time when lynching was becoming the norm in the South and blacks grew more aware of the need to defend themselves.

Nearly 100 years later, in 1966, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Black Panthers patrolled the streets, while exercising their right to bear arms in full view of everyone in black communities, to help keep those who may have intended to bring harm— including police—at bay.

The riots of the 1960s and the rise of street gangs, such as the Crips and Bloods on the West Coast, morphed into quite a different problem.

Young blacks were turning their guns away from self-protection from “The Man” and toward each other, goaded on by depictions of the “good life” in pop culture and the intense desire for bling. Street crime—holding up liquor stores and such—was the quickest way to easy cash in their mind, until the advent of crack cocaine in the 1980s, which turned nickel-and-dime street thugs into multimillionaires.

Like their Prohibition-era counterparts, their greed for money turned into violence and the settling of scores. Gangs adopted a long-forgotten tactic of the 1920s—the dreaded drive-by shooting, where enemy and civilian alike were gunned down. The urban body count was jaw-dropping: While lynching took 4,384 black lives in about 75 years, it is a far cry from the 93,262 shot dead in just 14 years (1999-2013).

Another 918 black lives were ended with guns between 2017-20. In the first six months of 2021, 104 more were added. Though black Americans are two-and-a-half times more likely than whites to

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

be shot by police, too many are taking their own lives. Between 1991-2017, suicide attempts among black youth increased by 73 percent.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has become the symbol of political ineffectiveness in the face of the gun epidemic nationwide but especially afflicting her city.

Through mid-June 2021, the city has recorded more than a 30 percent increase in murders and a nearly 60 percent jump in shootings compared to 2019, according to data released by the Chicago Police Department. The homicide rate for black Chicagoans is nine times higher than for any other racial demographic, according to data released by the city’s Department of Public Health.

The solutions to quell the violence are unclear at best and inflammatory at worst. They range from community policing, where police are encouraged to form a bond with the black neighborhoods they patrol; gun buybacks, which have been partially effective; and racial profiling, the most controversial, where black citizens, mostly men, are randomly stopped, frisked and questioned by the cops—a huge insult to their dignity. Still others advocate programs like midnight basketball to fill their idle time.

There are opposing approaches to stemming the level of gun violence encountered by black Americans. Organizations such as the Brady

Bavual.com

Center to Prevent Gun Violence push for stricter gun laws and less access to weapons. Meanwhile, the National African American Gun Association (NAAGA) encourages black Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights. NAAGA has seen growth in its membership, as well as an increase in the number of black Americans who choose to own a gun. This organization promotes gun safety, training and home defense.

The question remains: Which approach, among many others, will be more successful in protecting the lives of black males?

TOP LEFT: Random gang-suspected killings of civilians, such as Serenity Broughton, 7, in Chicago have attracted national headlines and political propaganda from the Left and the Right.

TOP RIGHT: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is waging a valiant fight in her city, which was plagued by America’s highest number of gun murders in 2020.

51

Where Are the Guns Coming From?

It appears to be easy to get a gun in America. The numbers are inexact due to varying regulations, but the number of guns owned in the U.S. is probably between 200 and 350 million. Black teens gain access to these guns in two major ways. The first way is by using guns owned by their parents— the chief means of teen suicide, by the way. A locked and stored gun is usually no impediment, as bright teens know how to pick the lock.

The second way is to get a gun “off the street.”

A lot of school kids know the difference between a “clean” gun, essentially one that has never been used, and a “dirty” gun, or one that was used in the commission of a crime, including murder, and they know the quality and price range of each weapon.

They “know a guy,” usually a gang member who sells guns out of his car trunk. He in turn gets his guns from straw purchasers and gun dealers in states such as Indiana for Chicago and Virginia for

the East Coast—states with plenty of purchasing loopholes. Although teens can purchase a revolver for around $50 or a semiautomatic for $100, they are often acquired for free through friends, family or a gang. A group of teens interviewed by the Chicago Police Department claimed that a gun is needed for protection and respect, so that you don’t look weak. Such logic has inevitably turned into an arms race. Said one teen:

“ Most everybody in [the neighborhood] got guns.

Most of the whole [neighborhood] got guns.”

Indiana gun shops and gun shows are a prime source of street guns in Chicago.

52

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

IT’S CLASSIFIED

GET NOTICED!

Place Your Classified Ads With Us Contact Us for Rates. To Place an Ad Call (212) 419-5831 or Email: eab@bavual.com

SECTIONS Business/Finance Careers Dating Education Bavual.com Entertainment

Miscellaneous Products/Offerings Public Real Estate Services

53

THE CULTURE Entertainment, Media and Sports Legacy

The Great Football Blitz

By Kristen Jones What started out as just a dream Lillard and Ray Kemp. Neither lasted has turned into a profitable area past the end of the season. In 1933, of business for many African NFL owners began implementing Americans—a business that turns a type of unofficial racial ban that billion-dollar profits yearly and is would last for about 13 years until loved by the masses regardless of 1946, probably to please racists—both their race. This is the business of fans and those involved in the sport. sports, which can’t be discussed That year, George Preston without mention of the alwaysMarshall, owner of the Boston controversial National Football Braves franchise, stepped on the League (NFL). scene blasting hateful comments Charles “The Black Cyclone” Follis toward African Americans and is often considered the first African ultimately causing a blackout among American to play professional the players by refusing to let them football, playing for the Shelby play on many teams. The Great Steamfitters or Shelby Blues from Depression increased the national 1902 to 1906. hatred for these men and not much The American Professional sympathy was felt.

Football Association, the forerunner The sight of a successful African of the NFL, was started in 1920, American football player would not but few African Americans were be experienced again for quite some Frederick Douglass “Fritz” Pollard, one of two time. While other minorities were included among the rosters. In fact, first black players in the NFL, 1920 only a few players hit the field for being introduced to the NFL and its teams in the early years, with J. Mayo fans, the black players of the past Williams and Paul Robeson in that small number. either worked in a different profession or joined Fritz Pollard and Bobby Marshall were the first teams not affiliated with the blatantly racist NFL. African Americans to be a part of what is now After they were rejected by the NFL, blacks known as the National Football League. Pollard formed black teams of their own, which played recalled that fans at away games sometimes against semipro white teams. threw rocks at him and even fans of his own team The NFL would not sign another African sometimes booed him. Pollard also became the first American player until after World War II. All this African American coach and quarterback in the NFL would change in 1946, however. That year, a black in the early 1920s. player from UCLA named Kenny Washington In 1926, after several teams were booted from took America’s attention and broke the new NFL the league, many of the remaining teams switched color barrier when he was called on to join the out eligible African American players for the more NFL following the Rams’ move to Los Angeles, popular white players.

Calif. When the commission was asked to sign Occasionally, over the next few years, a black Washington to the Los Angeles Rams, it caused an player would join a team and play for a short time, expected ruckus in the sports community. Woody but that was it. In 1928, Harold Bradley Sr. played Strode then became the second African American only one season with the Chicago Cardinals, and in player to be signed by the team in May 1946, and the 1931 and 1932, David Myers played for two different team entered the season with two standout black New York teams. players on its roster.

1933 saw the last attempt to integrate African No other NFL team chose to select African Americans into the game with the entrance of Joe American players until 1948 when the Detroit Lions

54

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

signed Mel Groomes and Bob Mann. Only three of the 10 NFL teams had signed players before 1950. These teams—the Lions, the Rams and the Giants— would be joined by the Packers in 1950 when they also signed an African American player. The majority of the league didn’t follow suit until 1952, and even then, Marshall was against signing any to his Redskins team. The team was threatened with eviction from D.C. Stadium in 1961 due to not having an African American player. As a result, in 1962, Marshall went on to sign Ernie Davis, who refused to play with Marshall at the helm and was traded to the Cleveland Browns. Three other players were signed that year in his place, including Bobby Mitchell.

Still, well-known quotas were put into place limiting the number of African American players per team as well as the positions they played. Most of these men played the same position causing them to be in competition with one another or forcing the cancellation of one player over the next.

All the controversy proved to be too much for Walt Frazier, a high-school senior who received numerous scholarships to play football but instead chose to play basketball, stating he didn’t believe he would be successful as an African American quarterback in the NFL. He went on to have a knockout NBA career worthy of Hall of Fame status, but was his fear a valid one? Racial profiling is said to exist in the League causing many African American players to exclusively play cornerback positions and allowing 23 of the 32 starting quarterback positions to be held by white players in 2013. The tides appear to be turning, however, as the 2020 football season saw 10 African American starting quarterbacks—the most ever.

Today, 70 percent of all NFL players are African American, but the struggle remains to put them in more significant leadership roles. Black players continue to be seen as more of the “muscle” of a team, rather than the brains. Though there is a growing legacy of outstanding black quarterbacks, from Doug Williams to Randall Cunningham to Donovan McNabb to today’s potential billion-dollar man Patrick Mahomes, most of the black players have remained resigned to the line or racing each other as receivers versus corners.

Black representation has also been limited on the sidelines and in the front office. While Art Shell became the first black head coach in the modern NFL just over 30 years ago, when the 2021 season opened, there were only three among 32 NFL teams: Pittsburgh stalwart Mike Tomlin, Houston’s David Culley and Miami’s Brian Flores. There are only a handful of general managers and no black NFL team owners. The only minority owners in the league are Pakistani and Asian.

With the sports industry at an estimated worth of $620 billion today, it’s no wonder it didn’t take long before African Americans demanded their piece of the pie. Calvin Hill, a running back for the Dallas Cowboys, was able to secure the first endorsement deal of that time when he began appearing in Dr. Pepper commercials in 1969. The list went on to include O.J. Simpson, Photo credit: Grindstone Media former football player for the Buffalo Bills and the San Francisco 49ers.

Group/Shutterstock.com Consumers flooded the market and African American athletes started looking more profitable to White America. Russell Wilson, the highly paid, Super Bowl-winning quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks, is just one of the many players using their football skills to launch profitable careers through advertising. Like their white counterparts, African American football players are subjected to wage issues, possible health complications, fear of longevity, and likability to the masses. Unlike their counterparts, however, the underlying hate for these players still appears to be present. Only time will tell how long until the shift is made and the differences cease to exist—when these amazing men and women are recognized for their hard work and celebrated for their accomplishments.

Bavual.com

55

Rulers of the Game—Past and Present Lamar Jackson Jackson burst on to the NFL scene as a premier quarterback with the Baltimore Ravens. After earning several collegiate honors while at Louisville, including the Heisman Trophy, Jackson’s rookie year as a pro saw him earn the MVP award while leading the Ravens to a 14-2 regular season record. In two years, Jackson has already thrown for 7,085 yards and 68 touchdowns, to just 18 interceptions.

Lamar Jackson, quarterback, Baltimore Ravens Photo credit: All-Pro Reels

Stefon Diggs After progressively improving his stats over five years with the Minnesota Vikings, Diggs signed with the Buffalo Bills for the 2020 season and delivered the best year of his career. Diggs, a wide receiver, earned his second trip to the Pro Bowl as he finished with 1,535 yards and eight touchdowns. He led the NFL in receptions and yards.

Bobby Wagner

Stefon Diggs, leading wide receiver, Buffalo Bills Photo credit: Keith Allison

Bobby Wagner, linebacker, Seattle Seahawks Photo credit: Keith Allison

It was clear Wagner was going to be someone special as far back as high school. Utah State took notice and offered him a scholarship. While at USU, Wagner had 445 tackles and utterly dominated when he was invited to the Senior Bowl. Today, he is the highest paid middle linebacker in the NFL and is coming off a 138-tackle season. The Seahawks lost in the playoffs to the Rams, but in that game, Wagner had 16 tackles.

Colin Kaepernick Kaepernick was a mildly successful quarterback who led the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl. His non-playing actions on the field are what he is most known for today, after he famously kneeled during the national anthem. Many were outraged across the country as they saw the kneel as an act of disrespect to veterans and our freedom, while many others applauded his protest to raise awareness of the inequality blacks continue to face. He has seemingly become persona non grata in the NFL, as no teams have signed him to a contract since the conclusion of his contract with San Francisco.

Jim Brown Brown is the greatest NFL running back of all-time, hands down. A hardnosed player known for charging at defenders rather than attempting to elude them, Brown ran for 12,312 yards and 106 touchdowns in nine seasons. His star had shone bright long before he made the pros and the accolades for his on-the-field performances are numerous. Toward the end of his football career, Brown tried his hand at acting, which parlayed into a strong second career. He maintained his connection to football as an analyst. Brown has been involved in legal trouble after his football retirement, with most charges and allegations being dismissed. Since serving less than four months of a six-month sentence in jail in 2002 for ignoring the terms of a sentence tied to bashing his wife’s windshield in with a shovel, Brown has had no further issues.

Colin Kaepernick Photo credit: Stephen Lam/Reuters

56

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

Lawrence Taylor

Jim Brown, Cleveland Browns running back and NFL legend Photo credit: Neil Leifer/Sports lllustrated

Taylor was one of the scariest linebackers to ever don an NFL jersey. In a 13-year career with the New York Giants, Taylor played in 184 games and had 132.5 sacks. His career-ending hit on quarterback Joe Theismann in 1985, during which Taylor broke both bones in his opponent’s leg, forever altered management’s approach to fielding a team. Offensive linemen became more prominent, at least in the eyes of the moneymen looking to protect their multimillion-dollar quarterback investments. Taylor told Theismann after the injury that he never does anything halfway. Postfootball, Taylor has faced legal troubles, battled substance abuse and turned to acting.

Sean Combs

“Sir Lawrence” Taylor, New York Giants linebacker Photo credit: Neil Leifer/Sports lllustrated

Combs attempted to purchase the Carolina Panthers in 2018 before losing out to David Tepper. Combs truly defines the word “mogul” with his hands in several industries and had visions of being the first black NFL team owner. In the wake of the Kaepernick controversy, Combs has stated that he has lost interest in owning a team due to league policies against kneeling for the anthem or staying in the locker room. He would prefer to be a voice for broader change, similar to the actions of Muhammad Ali or Jim Brown.

Chris Grier

Sean “P. Diddy” Combs’ play to own the Carolina Panthers fumbled in 2018.

In 2016, Chris Grier became the first black general manager in the NFL. He was later promoted to the head of all football operations. Grier’s front office moves have allowed the Dolphins many prominent draft picks.

Football is a game of distance, and Grier appears to be playing the long game by building a contender for years to come with youth. The 2020 season saw the Dolphins win 10 games for only the second time in a decade. Their defense also led the NFL in takeaways. The 2021 draft gave the Dolphins two first-round and two second-round draft picks, with two more second-round picks available in 2023.

Mike Tomlin

Chris Grier of the Miami Dolphins, the first black general manager.

Photo credit: Miami Herald

Mike Tomlin has the distinction of being the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl, with a victory over the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII. Tomlin was hired to take over as Pittsburgh’s head coach after the retirement of Bill Cowher in 2007. He was the 10th black head coach in history and only the third to lead a team to the Super Bowl, following Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy. Today, Tomlin is one of three active NFL head coaches and has the longest tenure of any current head coach. His head coaching record stands at 153-86-1, or a .650 winning percentage.

The Steelers have not had a losing season under his guidance. They have either won the division or placed second in all but two seasons. Tomlin’s treatment by the league has been questionable, as he was accused of interfering in a play during a Thanksgiving game against the rival Ravens in which his team was behind. He was fined $100,000 for the alleged infraction, the second-highest penalty levied against a head coach at the time. (The other involved a coach scalping tickets.) He was fined an additional $100,000 in 2020 for not wearing a mask.

Mike Tomlin, head coach, Pittsburgh Steelers—one of three in the NFL Photo credit: Joe Sargent/Getty Images

Bavual.com

57

Soccer: The Other Football The game of soccer came to life in the late 1800s for Andrew Watson, Robert Walker and Arthur Wharton when they broke the color barrier and became a part of history.

Watson, who was born in Guyana, is considered the first black soccer player to play at an international level.

Beginning his career in Scotland, he was selected to play with premier clubs such as Maxwell FC and Queen’s Park FC. He flourished as wingback and led the Scotland team as captain. With a career spanning over 20 years, he was a well-respected player and is regarded as one of the greatest soccer players in British history. Robert Walker played alongside Watson, and, born in Scotland, he was featured in the 1876 Scottish Cup Final. Arthur Wharton was the first black player to sign a professional contract for soccer when he was discovered by Darlington. He went on to play for them until 1888 and is known as a gifted athlete who mastered at least three other sports. He retired in1902.

In 1922, Leonard H. Raney played on Kearny High School’s first varsity soccer team. At the time, it was rare for an African American to play soccer. While today little players are celebrated in this profession, Raney was a pioneer.

If you named the list of players who made the nation pay attention to soccer, you would have to name Gil Heron. The Jamaican-born athlete was similar to Jackie Robinson in that he debuted in 1946 for the Detroit Wolverines. He quickly became a fan favorite and rose in popularity. A 1947 article in Ebony magazine hailed Heron as the “Babe Ruth of soccer,” At the time, he was the only black professional player in the country.

Also among the most influential African American players were Freddy Adu, Sydney Leroux, Cobi Jones, Briana Scurry and Eddie Pope. These players had remarkable abilities and played hard, solidifying their place in sports records. They went against the norm of shying away from the difficulties involving racism and instead showed the world they had the capacity to excel.

They focused on being team players, some even leaders of their team, and had the world watching while they did so.

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, and the people of the United States may be the only ones who do not immediately think of it when we hear the word “football.” The sport is gaining ground in the U.S., however, with Major League Soccer’s popularity seeing a 27 percent increase since 2012, according to Nielsen Sports Sponsorlink.

NFL standout Russell Wilson recently became a minority owner of the Seattle Sounders of the MLS. The Sounders won the MLS championship cup in 2019, and Wilson has gone on record as saying he would one day like to own the NFL Seahawks.

Wilson’s ownership may add more eyes to MLS, but few have had the impact on American soccer as Pele.

Pele, born Edson Arantes do Nascimento in Brazil, came to the New York Cosmos in 1975 after retiring from the Brazilian national team in 1974.

Upon his arrival to the North American Soccer League team, he was greeted as a conquering hero. Everyone had heard of him and wanted to shake his hand.

On his way to leading the Cosmos to a league title, Pele drew record crowds to Giants Stadium for the playoffs.

This included a 3-0 win in front of 62,394 in which Pele scored every goal.

58

Soccer legend Pele

Senegal’s Teranga Lions Photo credit: Issouf Sanogo/AFP Long before he made his way to United States soccer, Pele was a participant in the World Cup, which rivals the Olympics in international competition. Although the event has been held every four years since 1930 (except 1942 and 1946), the United States has yet to win a title and hosted the tournament once, in 1994. The closest the U.S. came to a title was a third-place finish in the inaugural event in 1930, which hosted only 13 teams. The most recent games hosted 32.

Teams from Europe and South America dominate FIFA’s rankings, but African countries are working their way up. Nearly every country on the continent has at least one team vying for dominance.

The Teranga Lions, the national team of Senegal, have made two appearances in the quarterfinals of the World Cup, in 2002 and 2018. As of BAVUAL’s deadline, the Lions are ranked 21st by FIFA. Black players will likely be key to many teams attempting to qualify for the 2022 World Cup.

BAVUAL:

Kristen Jones, a freelance writer, is also contributing editor of BAVUAL.

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

Quench Your Thirst

Imagine

YOUR AD

in this space For advertising information email eab@bavual.com or call 212-419-5831

Bavual.com

59

Bavual Meets an English Kidnapper in Summer 1619 Illustrated by Debasish Sarma Written by Earl Birkett G.B.F. Agent Bavual Adisa’s mission: travel back in time to change history for the better Good Morning, Mr. Earl.

What’s the mission?

Good Morning, Bavual. I am sending you back to 1619 to stop the sale of the first Africans to Virginia settlers.

Sounds very dangerous.

What if I don’t come back?

Then I’ll have payroll cancel your paycheck

Tech wiz “XYZ” gives Bavual a souped-up Lamborghini BX-10, the “Lambo”—and he breaks the time barrier!

60

Arrival date: July 30, 1619 Location: somewhere at sea in the North Atlantic

BAVUAL:

sigh

The English privateer White Lion has captured a Portuguese ship and is transporting 20-odd kidnapped Africans to Virginia to be sold as slaves to Jamestown settlers. The first Africans in America.

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

The Lambo hovers over the ship in its invisible cloak, while Bavual, disguised below deck as a kidnapped African, awaits his chance to confront the White Lion’s captain, John Colyn Jope.

Finally, Bavual is brought before Captain Jope. captain, it’s urgent that you not go to virginia!

Bavual is subdued by the pirates. captain, you must take your ship north, to a place called plymouth rock where the native tribe will care for the africans.

They will be free!

Seize him!

Jope, you are making a big mistake.

History depends on you!

What do I care about history?

I’ll be dead, but rich!

You speak the king’s english! who are you?

The mission FAILED. Bavual and the other slaves are off-loaded at Jamestown, Virginia, August 25, 1619. i’ve got to get to my lambo, but how?

to be continued

Bavual.com

61

AFROCENTRIC ART Our Collection of Great Art

Paintings of Egyptian Life Bring Big Money in 2010

By Rick Bowers Two paintings by Egyptian artist Mahmoud Said (1897-1964) sold for millions at auction in 2010, more than four decades after the artist’s death.

His 1934 painting Les Chadoufs sold for more than $2.4 million, and his 1929 painting The Whirling Dervishes sold for more than $2.5 million.

Although Said is now considered the founder of modern Egyptian painting, he pursued another career for most of his life before becoming a full-time artist. While he showed artistic interest and ability at a young age, because of his family’s high social status, he was expected to pursue a high-status occupation and ultimately became a judge. While working as a judge, he pursued painting as a hobby and trained in art at his own expense, even traveling to Paris to study at the famed Académie Julian. After retiring from his professional position in his 50s, he pursued his artistic path for the rest of his life.

Said largely painted the land and people of Egypt.

Although he was of Turkish ancestry himself, his Egyptian homeland has one of the richest histories in Africa and is a land of blacks, Arabs, Turks, and a mixture of those and other ethnic groups.

While Said’s earlier works often depicted people of Arab and Turkish descent, many of his later works attempted to capture the more-authentic Egypt and its African identity. The $2.4 million Les Chadoufs depicts such a scene with a rural landscape and two men drawing water as a veiled woman and a small donkey stand nearby. Other paintings that depict this more-authentic African heritage include an untitled painting of a black Egyptian man with sailboats and

62

a town in the background and Woman With a Pearl Earring—a painting of a black Egyptian woman that is likely patterned after Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer’s well-known painting Girl With a Pearl Earring.

Rather than being known for a particular style or subject matter in his 400-plus paintings, Said is more recognized for his dreamlike use of color and lighting.

“What I’m looking for is radiance rather than light,” Said noted in a 1927 letter.

“What I want is internal light, not surface light.” The artist beautifully achieved this goal in his paintings of the Egyptian landscape and its people of African descent. His paintings Les Chadoufs and Le Bain des Chevaux à Rosette, for example, contain this quality of radiance, which contributes heavily to an otherworldly aura of timelessness, transcendence and mystical beauty in much of his work.

For More Information www.wikiart.org/en/mahmoud-saiid Editor’s Note: Said’s name is variously spelled as Said, Sa’id, Saiid and Saïd.

BAVUAL:

Rick Bowers has a master's degree in communications and has been a writer, editor and communications manager for more than 30 years. As the associate editor of BAVUAL, he is thrilled to have the opportunity to merge his love of history and art with his passion for journalism.

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

FACING PAGE: Woman With a Pearl Earring TOP: Le Bain des Chevaux à Rosette BOTTOM LEFT: Self-Portrait BOTTOM RIGHT: Les Chadoufs

Bavual.com

63

THE HUSTLE How to Succeed in Business by Really Trying

Reginald Lewis, 1942-1993: The First Black Billionaire

HIGH FINANCE

COMMODITIES

THEY FOLLOWED IN HIS FOOTSTEPS

TECH/MEDIA

By Earl A. Birkett

The Roaring Eighties. Dallas and Dynasty ruled the TV ratings, TV viewers swooned over Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, the MBA was the degree of choice, and everywhere one looked, the future was so bright you had to wear shades. The risk arbitrageur was the glamour job. In short, he was a pirate who bought huge stakes in big corporations, threatening to buy them outright and throw out management in exchange for “greenmail,” a ransom to buy him off. The more scrupulous ones actually did buy the company, looking to save it or expand it into an empire.

One such person was Reginald F. Lewis (19421993). Wall Street was considered a rich white man’s game when the Baltimore native, Harvard Law grad and corporate dealmaker penetrated the elite club by forming his own private equity firm, TLC Group L.P., in 1983. Within a decade, before his death from brain cancer, Lewis had reshuffled the game for black entrepreneurs, buying up two legacy companies: McCall Pattern Company, known for its sewing patterns, for $22.5 million, and, in 1987,

64

Beatrice International Foods, the food and beverage conglomerate, for $985 million. These purchases were financed in part with junk bonds, a popular source of capital in that decade. Lewis turned both companies around and made his firm, TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc., the largest black-owned business, with annual revenue of $1.4 billion.

Lewis’ ownership of the company made him the first black person to achieve billionaire status. He used his enormous fortune to fund philanthropic causes, from HBCUs (he was a Virginia State University graduate) to what became the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, a pet project.

Since Lewis, many other self-made black moguls have followed in his wake, all benefiting from the explosion in wealth generated from the tech/media boom (cable TV, the Internet), rising commodities prices (oil, gold, crops, building materials) and the bull market in stocks. Unfamiliar names like the leader, Aliko Dangote (net worth $11.5 billion from cement/ sugar), and fellow African Mike Adenuga ($6.1 billion,

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

telecom/oil) join more familiar American names, such as Robert F. Smith ($5.2 billion, private equity), Oprah Winfrey ($2.6 billion, TV), Michael Jordan ($1.6 billion, sports), Kanye West ($1.3 billion, music/ sneakers), JAY-Z ($1 billion, music+) and Tyler Perry ($1 billion, film/TV). Many others are sure to follow

Bavual.com

as the Dow continues its rise and new ideas flourish.

Blacks of African descent have come a long way in business since the days of Madam C.J. Walker’s hair care products more than a century ago. Lewis himself put it best in the title of his unfinished autobiography: Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?

65

ROLL OF HONOR The Great, Near-Great and Fallen Get Their Due

Legends of Autumn

By Earl A. Birkett

James Meredith (b. 1933)

Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) (19421946) This World War II U.S. Navy

American civil rights symbol, writer and political advisor.

Meredith was the first black student admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississippi, in 1962. An Air Force veteran, he remained a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement after graduation, especially in the area of voter registration, and at times at great risk to his life. He was a domestic advisor to Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) from 1989 to 1991.

branch offered one of the rare opportunities for participation

by African American women during the war. In 1944, Harriet Ida Pickens (l.) and Frances Wills (r.) were commissioned as the first black female officers in the WAVES.

Ralph Bunche (1903-1971) American diplomat. Bunch helped found the United Nations and was instrumental in the decolonization of Africanpopulated countries after World War II. In 1950, he became the first African American and person of African descent to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Israel.

Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. (19201978) American war hero and military officer. James was the first black to reach the rank of four-star general in the U.S. Air Force, in command of U.S. and Canadian strategic aerospace and defense. A native Floridian, he trained black pilots at Tuskegee Institute for the 99th Pursuit Squadron, the famed Tuskegee Airmen. James himself flew combat missions over Korea and Vietnam and has been decorated many times.

Colin Luther Powell (b. 1937) American statesman and military leader. Powell served as the first black chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993 and the first black U.S. Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. He was instrumental in conducting wartime operations in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Carter Godwin Woodson (18751950) American historian, writer and journalist. Woodson was the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Called the “father of black history,” he was one of the first scholars to study the African diaspora. Woodson helped found The Journal of Negro History in 1916 and in February 1926 launched the celebration of what he called Negro History Week, the forerunner of Black History Month.

66

Earl Birkett (1922-2014) American engineer and businessman.

Birkett was a pioneer in the nascent field of automation in the 1950s. A native of Harlem in New York City and the son of immigrants from Barbados, West Indies, Birkett was trained as a tool-and-die maker. In 1955, he invented the first machine to automate the assembly of ballpoint pens, thus revolutionizing the

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

pen industry. The holder of several patents for his inventions, he formed one of the first black-owned manufacturers, Birkett Automation Industries Ltd. He helped integrate the village of Lakeview on New York’s Long Island in the late 1950s. Birkett is the father of Earl A. Birkett, editor and publisher of BAVUAL.

Granville Tailer Woods (1856-1910) American engineer. Woods was the first black mechanical and electrical engineer after the Civil War. Self-taught, he held more than 60 U.S. patents, mainly for his work on trains and streetcars.

He invented a telegraph system for relaying messages between train stations and moving trains.

John Harold Johnson Jr. (19182005) American publisher and businessman. Johnson founded Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines, and Fashion Fair Cosmetics. He broke the Madison Avenue color bar to advertising in minority media and using minority talent.

Frederick Drew Gregory (b. 1941) American astronaut. Gregory became the first African American to command a space flight when space shuttle Orbiter Discovery was launched in 1989. The veteran Air Force pilot and engineer later served NASA in key posts, including deputy administrator and acting administrator.

Robert Parris Moses (1935-2021) American civil and human rights activist and educator. Few people today remember that the act of protesting for the rights of African Americans was once a dangerous activity. Beatings across the South were common. White supremacists resorted to murder when that didn’t work. Often at the forefront was Bob Moses, Harlemite and Harvard Ph.D., whose groundbreaking work on voter registration in Mississippi helped lead to adoption of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He organized Freedom Summer in the state in 1964; three of his recruits were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, which led to a massive FBI manhunt. Drafted

Bavual.com

during the Vietnam War, the anti-war Moses fled the U.S. until his pardon by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. He later won a coveted MacArthur Fellowship and developed the Algebra Project, which promoted math literacy for minority students.

Lloyd Lionel Gaines (1911-disappeared March 19, 1939) American civil rights icon.

Gaines was the plaintiff in Gaines v. Canada (1938). He filed suit against the University of Missouri Law School after being denied admission on racial grounds. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his favor, a key blow to the separate but equal doctrine.

Doris “Dorie” Miller (1919-1943) American sailor and war hero.

Miller served as a Navy cook aboard the battleship West Virginia, which was sunk at Pearl Harbor. He manned a tail gun and shot down several Japanese planes.

Awarded the Navy Cross, the Navy’s second-highest medal after the Medal of Honor, Miller died in combat during World War II.

Francis Gregory Alan “Greg” Morris (1933-1996) American television actor. Morris was one of the first black performers to co-star in a TV network primetime series, as electronics genius Barney Collier on the CBS spy series Mission: Impossible (1966-1973).

Nichelle Nichols (b. 1932) American television and film actress.

Nichols gained lasting icon status when she was selected as a cast member on Star Trek (1966-1969), the NBC futuristic space travel series that has since become a pop-culture phenomenon.

Nichols, a native Illinoisan, portrayed Lt. Nyota Uhura, African-born telecommunications officer aboard the USS Enterprise, a starship on a five-year voyage of intergalactic discovery. One of her biggest fans was Martin Luther King Jr., who persuaded her not to leave the series in its second season. A 1968 episode, “Plato’s Stepchildren,” featured the first interracial kiss on scripted TV and sparked viewer outrage in several Southern states.

67

PREMIERE ISSUE WINTER 2022 $14.99

THE SWORD And THE SHIELD

Malcolm X and MLK’s Contrasting Dreams— Is There a Way to Combine the Two?

eek P ak e Sn

R E E I Issue M E r Ou PR Coming December

2021

10 best ways to celebrate black history month Reparations Pros and cons Who Gets Them, and How? Photo credit: Marion S. Trikosko, U.S. News & World Report

JUST THE FACTS Figures You Should Know

Black People on Earth

By Earl A. Birkett

Chart credit: ChartsBin.com

Earth (“The Blue Planet”)

Hemispheres:

Earliest African Civilization:

The 3rd planet from the Sun, it is the only one known to be habitable.

4—Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western

3300 B.C., Egypt

Age:

Population:

195

7,900,000,000

4,540,000,000 Years

Makeup: 29% Land, 71% Water

Continents and Oceans: 7 Continents, 4 Oceans

Population of African Ancestry: 1,400,000,000 (17.7%)

Estimated by 2050: 1 in 4 Earthlings Out of Africa Theory: Modern humans originated in Africa, approximately 68,000 B.C., and migrated to other parts of the world.

Bavual.com

Number of Countries: Eleven Countries With the Largest Black Population Outside Africa: Brazil, USA, Colombia, Haiti, Dominican Republic, France, Jamaica, Venezuela, UK, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago

Median Household Income, Worldwide (2013): $9,733

69

BENEDICTION Guest Opinion

I Am Proudly Black

By Nkiru Adisa

Like my brother Bavual, I was born on June 19, 1996— that’s right, Juneteenth—in Dodoma, the capital city of Tanzania. My tough woollike mane hangs over my shoulders, and I often adorn myself with jewels and gold as my people have done for some time now. My unoffending demeanor only masks the pain passed along to me from my ancestors.

While my brother and I originated from a specific place, we are now and forever connected worldwide and live in every country.

I represent a long line of hard-working Africans whose hands helped build the new world and whose blood has been spilled over its streets and fields, without a second thought from their oppressors. We come from a proud race with African lineage dating back to 68,000 B.C. that has suffered and overcome many adversities. In fact, my own golden-brown eyes have witnessed many atrocities against my people.

As diverse as they come, our men and women may look different, but we all share the common sense to seek better lives. Not to be taken lightly, my people have been inventors, artists and leaders in a vast array of fields. I follow in the footsteps of Mansa Musa, Harriet Tubman, Nelson Mandela, Nanny of the Maroons, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Lewis Latimer and Maya Angelou, just to name a few. Regardless of the area of our dwelling, our survival has strengthened us as a people, and our knowledge has developed years ahead of our time.

70

Our experiences throughout civilization have included successes and failures, and we’ve had our share of triumphs and tragedies.

Although not perfect or free of human errors, I have learned and become more aware of my own strengths and weaknesses. I have become more human in each instance, forever growing, forever gaining knowledge. As an African-born woman, I often face even more obstacles than my brother Bavual since my gender often determines how I relate and advance in a male-dominated society. I have still managed to survive and thrive and am motivated by my people’s opportunity to be seen and heard for who they truly are. My ancestors that have given their lives in hope of a better world are constantly on my mind. They have fought for their humanity and human rights against many who would deny them. I know that they are watching over me, and I intend to make them proud. I am a perfectly designed example of strength. I am proudly black because I know who I am and who I come from. I am proudly black because I know I am a warrior, a woman willing to fight, one who will not be denied.

Nkiru is the fictional twin sister of Bavual Adisa (who is also fictional), the editorial co-inspiration for BAVUAL. The opinion was written courtesy of Kristen Jones, contributing editor.

BAVUAL:

The African Heritage Magazine

| Fall 2021

Visit Africa The Continent of Your Dreams

Imagine

Bavual.com

YOUR AD

AFRICA TOURS LTD.

in this space

TourAfrica.com

For advertising information email eab@bavual.com or call 212-419-5831

71

SPECIAL 15% Discount

for 2 or More Gift Subscriptions.

Use code BAV21 when ordering online or by phone* *offer expires Dec. 31, 2021

To subscribe: www.bavual.com or call 844-580-3278 While you are at it, get one for yourself!