Celebrating Black HIstory II

[EFerrari]

First February 2010 DU thread by Number23:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7657026

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Henry McNeal Turner



African Methodist Episcopal minister and later Bishop Henry McNeal Turner emerged immediately after the Civil War as one of the most ardent defenders of African Ameriacn rights. Turner was also among the first group of Reconstruction-era African American elected officials. In July 1868, Turner was among the two state senators and twenty-five black Republican state representatives elected to serve in the Georgia legislature. Less than two months later, Georgia Democrats, the majority of the legislature, boldly expelled all of the black members. On September 3, 1868, Turner stood before the assembled representatives and denounced the legislators who had refused to seat the African American senators and representatives. That speech appears below.

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Mr. Speaker: Before proceeding to argue this question upon its intrinsic merits, I wish the members of this House to understand the position that I take. I hold that I am a member of this body. Therefore, sir, I shall neither fawn nor cringe before any party, nor stoop to beg them for my rights. Some of my colored fellow members, in the course of their remarks, took occasion to appeal to the sympathies of members on the opposite side, and to eulogize their character for magnanimity. It reminds me very much, sir, of slaves begging under the lash. I am here to demand my rights and to hurl thunderbolts at the men who would dare to cross the threshold of my manhood. There is an old aphorism which says, "fight the devil with fire," and if I should observe the rule in this instance, I wish gentlemen to understand that it is but fighting them with their own weapon.

The scene presented in this House, today, is one unparalleled in the history of the world. From this day, back to the day when God breathed the breath of life into Adam, no analogy for it can be found. Never, in the history of the world, has a man been arraigned before a body clothed with legislative, judicial or executive functions, charged with the offense of being a darker hue than his fellow men. I know that questions have been before the courts of this country, and of other countries, involving topics not altogether dissimilar to that which is being discussed here today. But, sir, never in the history of the great nations of this world never before has a man been arraigned, charged with an offense committed by the God of Heaven Himself. Cases may be found where men have been deprived of their rights for crimes and misdemeanors; but it has remained for the state of Georgia, in the very heart of the nineteenth century, to call a man before the bar, and there charge him with an act for which he is no more responsible than for the head which he carries upon his shoulders. The Anglo Saxon race, sir, is a most surprising one. No man has ever been more deceived in that race than I have been for the last three weeks. I was not aware that there was in the character of that race so much cowardice or so much pusillanimity. The treachery which has been exhibited in it by gentlemen belonging to that race has shaken my confidence in it more than anything that has come under my observation from the day of my birth.

What is the question at issue? Why, sir, this Assembly, today, is discuss¬ing and deliberating on a judgment; there is not a Cherub that sits around God's eternal throne today that would not tremble even were an order is¬sued by the Supreme God Himself to come down here and sit in judgment on my manhood. Gentlemen may look at this question in whatever light they choose, and with just as much indifference as they may think proper to assume, but I tell you, sir, that this is a question which will not die today. This event shall be remembered by posterity for ages yet to come, and while the sun shall continue to climb the hills of heaven.

Whose legislature is this? Is it a white man's legislature, or is it a black man's legislature? Who voted for a constitutional convention, in obedience to the mandate of the Congress of the United States? Who first rallied around the standard of Reconstruction? Who set the ball of loyalty rolling in the state of Georgia? And whose voice was heard on the hills and in the valleys of this state? It was the voice of the brawny armed Negro, with the few humanitarian hearted white men who came to our assistance. I claim the honor, sir, of having been the instrument of convincing hundreds yea, thousands of white men, that to reconstruct under the measures of the United States Congress was the safest and the best course for the interest of the state.

Let us look at some facts in connection with this matter.
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=1868-reverend-henry-mcneal-turner-i-claim-rights-man


Danny Glover Reads Henry McNeal Turner:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7FPw-k0Qew







From The African Letters:







Steamship "Roquelle," October 24, 1891.

MR. EDITOR:

When I last night wrote to you, I was in the Session Hotel in Liverpool; now I am crossing the Irish Sea, inclining southward, bent upon Africa as my point of destination.

The ocean is quite calm and the hope is we may have a quiet sail, notwithstanding the gales which ships have encountered for the last three weeks. One African ship which left Liverpool some days ago, had to return, owing to the unusual winds and heavy billows.

I had some long interviews with the leading merchants of Liverpool, and with men who manage iron ships by the scores, and the Lord Bishop, as the writer was called, was heard with great eagerness. What may follow I dare not indicate at present, but the writer is offered more than he would think of accepting.

I am cabined with a regular African, and without doubt he is one of the most learned men I ever met. His name is Matthew Thomas, of Lagos, West Coast; black as ink, reads and talks English, French, German, Italian and Spanish; reads Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic, and virtually talks Latin. He took up the New Testament this afternoon, and found out I had been reading some Latin, and he read it awhile and quoted so much scripture in Latin and Greek that I had to go to nodding to get him to stop. Talk about the African being ignorant! Here is one who has no superior for book learning in our country, yet he is only 37 years of age. Everything involving book learning he seems to be the master of. If it were not for my knowledge of science and transcendentalisms, I would be afraid of him; but while he runs away from me in books, I can hold him a little in theories. But for the fact that he takes his today when he feels like it, I should urge that be invited to a chair of languages in some of our colleges. He however holds a commission in his pocket which might prevent him from accepting.

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SIXTH LETTER.

Freetown, Sierra Leone, Africa, November 12, 1891.

MR. EDITOR:

I arrived here a few days ago after a rather tedious jaunt from Liverpool. The ship could run fast enough, but the captain would not let it.

My reception here was indescribable. The ship came into port late at night, but I awoke early in the morning and looked out upon the city and saw a place much resembling Vicksburg, Miss., except that the mountains rose in the rear of the city much higher than the lofty bluffs of Vicksburg. Upon the inclinations or declivities of the receding elevations a city of 30,000 population stood in surprising majesty--surprising by reason of the wide streets and stately two, three and four-story buildings which stretch along the streets for a mile or two. I had looked for no such place. I thought it was a low, swampy, lagoony town with narrow, muddy streets, as filthy as a cess-pool; but cleanliness, pavements, sidewalks, rock sewers and decency everywhere met my eye. But when I pointed this and that fine building out, and was told that they all belonged to black men, I was surprised more than ever. Again, when I inquired about the great cathedral, with tower and clock, and other large churches, with spires, domes and steeples, and was told they were all black people's churches, I had to say, "Thank God for this sight!"

Shortly boats came to the ship in scores, and the ship was crowded with black men. All had clothes on and some were finely clad. Every officer was black, and some were haughty and dictatorial as lords; a few a little too much so, I thought; but when I discovered the downright villainy of some of these English officers, I saw the point.

However, while standing upon the ship, noting things as they transpired, a gentleman from the wharf walked up and said, "Are you the bishop of Mr. Frederick?" I replied, "I am Bishop Turner." He said, "Give me your card for him, as he has been looking for you

http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/turneral/turner.html

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Memorial to Dr Turner in Savannah





BISHOP HENRY MCNEAL TURNER

1834-1915

Henry McNeal Turner was the first Black Chaplain of the U.S. Army. He was appointed by President Lincoln in 1863.

In 1865, he was assigned an agent of the Freedmen’s Bureau in Georgia.

He served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1868-1870; and at one time was postmaster of Macon.

Turner served as pastor of St. Phillips A.M.E. Church in Savannah (now known at St. Philip Monumental A.M.E. Church) from 1870-1874. St. Philip Monumental, the “Mother Church of African Methodism in Georgia”, was organized on this site, June 16, 1865.

Turner was elected Bishop of Georgia in 1880. Bishop Turner was prominent in the back-to-Africa movement, leading two expeditions from the Port of Savannah in the 1890’s.

He was a pioneer in the establishment and expansion of missionary work in Africa.

http://www.kingtisdell.org/hmturner.htm

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[Number23]

2. Kicking and rec'ing for one of the COUNTLESS lions of the Black/Civil Rights Movement

He sounds like a fierce man indeed:

"Some of my colored fellow members, in the course of their remarks, took occasion to appeal to the sympathies of members on the opposite side, and to eulogize their character for magnanimity. It reminds me very much, sir, of slaves begging under the lash. I am here to demand my rights and to hurl thunderbolts at the men who would dare to cross the threshold of my manhood."

What I love about reading stories like this is the myriad of ways in which civil rights were fought for/won in this country. For every fiery black minister demanding his rights, there was another one much more willing to focus on negotiation and compromise. For every peacemaker, there was a hellraiser ready to burn the whole joint down in order to attain the civil rights they were owed as citizens of this country. History has proven that both tactics have had varying degrees of success.

Thanks for this. Happy to rec

[EFerrari]

3. Ha! A whole course given by the editor of the King papers on YouTube

Lecture 1 of Clay Carson's Introduction to African-American History Course (HIST 166) concentrating on the Modern Freedom Struggle (Fall 2007). Topics in this lecture include a course introduction...

About Clayborne Carson


Professor of History, Stanford University
Director, Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute

Dr. Clayborne Carson has devoted his professional life to the study of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the movements King inspired. Since receiving his doctorate from UCLA in 1975, Dr. Carson has taught at Stanford University, where he is now professor of history and founding director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. He is also Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Professor at Morehouse College in Atlanta and serves as Executive Director of that institution's Morehouse King Collection. Dr. Carson has been a visiting professor or visiting fellow at American University, the University of California, Berkeley, Emory University, Harvard University, and the Center for the Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford.
Read more

http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/claybornecarson/index.php


Lecture 1 | African-American History (Stanford)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPjfbStnWd8

[EFerrari]

4. Dr. Carter G. Woodson, father of Black History

During the dawning decades of the twentieth
century, it was commonly presumed that black
people had little history besides the subjugation
of slavery. Today, it is clear that blacks have
significantly impacted the development of the
social, political, and economic structures of the
United States and the world. Credit for the
evolving awareness of the true place of blacks in
history can, in large part, be bestowed on one
man, Carter G. Woodson. And, his brainchild
the Association for the Study of African American
Life and History, Inc. is continuing Woodson’s
tradition of disseminating information about black
life, history and culture to the global community

Known as the “Father of Black History,”
Woodson (1875-1950) was the son of former
slaves, and understood how important gaining a
proper education is when striving to secure and
make the most out of one’s divine right of
freedom. Although he did not begin his formal
education until he was 20 years old, his
dedication to study enabled him to earn a high
school diploma in West Virginia and bachelor
and master’s degrees from the University

Recognizing the dearth of information on the
accomplishments of blacks in 1915, Dr. Woodson founded
the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History,
now called the Association for the Study of African
American Life and History (ASALH).

Under Woodson’s pioneering leadership, the Association
created research and publication outlets for black scholars
with the establishment of the Journal of Negro History
(1916) and the Negro History Bulletin (1937), which
garners a popular public appeal.

In 1926, Dr. Woodson initiated the celebration of Negro
History Week, which corresponded with the birthdays of
Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, this
celebration was expanded to include the entire month of
February, and today Black History Month garners support
throughout the country as people of all ethnic and social
backgrounds discuss the black experience. ASALH views
the promotion of Black History Month as one of the most
important components of advancing Dr. Woodson’s legacy.

http://www.asalh.org/woodsonbiosketch.html



In honor of all the work that Dr. Carter G. Woodson has
done to promote the study of African American History, an
ornament of Woodson hangs on the White House's
Christmas tree each year.



The Carter G. Woodson Home at 1538 9th Street, NW in Washington, DC, was Dr. Woodson's home from 1922 until his death in 1950. He directed the operations of the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History and pursued his own studies of African-American history from there. After his death, the home continued to serve as the national headquarters of the Association until the early 1970s. It is now vacant, closed to the public, and in need of rehabilitation. The home was acquired by the National Park Service in 2005. You can find information about the development process here.

http://www.nps.gov/cawo/index.htm



THE GLOBAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY
HISTORY NOTES: DR. CARTER GODWIN WOODSON AND THE OBSERVANCE OF AFRICAN HISTORY

BY RUNOKO RASHIDI
DEDICATED TO DR. JACOB HUDSON CARRUTHERS

"Only when lions have historians will hunters cease being heroes."
--African Proverb

snip

Dr. Woodson was a member of the Niagara Movement and a regular columnist for Marcus Garvey's weekly publication--the Negro World. He was the founder, in Chicago in 1915, of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. In the same year he founded the Journal of Negro History--a publication still in existence. As a contributing writer for the the Journal of Negro History, Woodson wrote more than a hundred articles and 125 book reviews.

Carter Godwin Woodson was the founder of Associated publishers, founder and editor of theThe Mis_Ed... Negro History Bulletin, and the author of more than thirty books. Probably Woodson's best known book is The Mis-Education of the Negro, originally published in 1933 and still relevant today. In the Mis-Education of the Negro Dr. Woodson stated that:

"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his 'proper place' and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary."

snip
http://aalbc.com/authors/carterg.htm

[EFerrari]

5. Slaves arrived in Utah with Brigham Young -- find by arcadian

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7760813&mesg_id=7760813