[{"id":9104,"date":"2020-10-28T15:33:34","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T20:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/?p=9104"},"modified":"2020-10-28T15:33:34","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T20:33:34","slug":"a-new-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/2020\/10\/28\/a-new-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forgive me for borrowing the title of one of the most profitable films in history, \u201cStar Wars: A New Hope.\u201d I\u2019ve always been enamored by space. I\u2019m a child of the 1960s and I remember playing with my Major Matt Mason action figure (not a doll!) as my family and I watched Neil Armstrong step onto the moon and state \u201cone small step for man, one giant leap for mankind\u201d in 1969.<\/p>\n

I still enjoy space-themed movies. Maybe it’s the escapism I enjoy. But I’ve come to realize that there are limits to escapism as you can never really escape reality. Those who overindulge in drugs and alcohol can testify to that. No matter what you do or what you consume, the real world, and all its problems and challenges will be there waiting for your return.<\/p>\n

So I’ve been thinking about today’s reality: social injustices, political instability, and economic uncertainties. As chaotic as I believe today is, I think about the days my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents lived. They had social injustices, political instabilities, and economic uncertainties too. I can’t imagine living in a day when someone that looks like me couldn’t walk through the front door of a restaurant. That\u2019s unreal. But for my parents, that was their reality.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019ve found myself wondering how they made it through. Thank God for YouTube. I’ve created a playlist that includes Mahalia Jackson, the Georgia Mass Choir, and sprinkled in Walter Hawkins\u2019s \u201cLove Alive.\u201d These songs of hope kept my parents when this world seemed unbearable. These songs spoke of a place and time where there would be no sickness and suffering, where the sun shined every day, and every day was Sunday.<\/p>\n

As a child, I didn\u2019t understand why my grandmother would begin crying every time someone sang \u201cPrecious Lord\u201d at church. At the time, I remember thinking the musician playing the piano wasn\u2019t that great, and the choir didn\u2019t hit all those notes just right. I just didn\u2019t understand. Sometimes she looked at me through tear-dimmed eyes and with her soft quivering voice said, \u201cKeep on living.\u201d It\u2019s almost as if she knew what I was thinking. Her birthday was a few days ago and she would\u2019ve been 102. She left this world almost 30 years ago, but I\u2019ll always remember her words, \u201cKeep on living.\u201d<\/p>\n

These old gospel songs carried a generation through the darkest days of Jim Crow. If they provided hope and comfort then, certainly they can provide hope and comfort now. With COVID-19 on one side and Trump on the other, I need hope like never before. Don’t get me wrong, a little Jim Beam never hurt anyone. But I can’t lean on Beam, but I’m learning to lean more and more on Walter Hawkins’s “I’m going home.”<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what happened to my Major Matt Mason. While I still enjoy a good sci-fi movie, I can\u2019t seem to escape today\u2019s reality. So much fear, so much uncertainty, so much sickness and suffering. And that\u2019s just in my family alone. But my parents and grandparents endured so much more. My new hope is that if Mahalia brought them through their stormy days, I\u2019m going to trust her melodies will carry me as well. So if you see me, and my eyes are teary, and my voice is quivering, just know that I now understand.<\/p>\n

Happy birthday, grandmother, I love you.<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[2761,4119,2407,1014,314],"class_list":["post-9104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-goodwin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9104"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9095,"date":"2020-09-30T11:17:02","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T16:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/?p=9095"},"modified":"2020-09-30T11:17:02","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T16:17:02","slug":"tell-me-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/2020\/09\/30\/tell-me-the-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Tell me the truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democracy \u2013 a) government by the people, b) a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them, directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.<\/em><\/p>\n

Merriam-Webster Dictionary<\/em><\/p>\n

There were many things I learned from my father. He taught me how to change the oil in my car, paint a house, and even how to get the pretty girl at a party. Some of the things he taught me I’ve called “life lessons.” These lessons were often moral but they were meant to be guidelines for living a good and decent life. One of those lessons involved honesty. He was adamant that I did not lie to him. He would say, \u201cGrown men tell the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ok, I’m not going to “lie” and say I’ve never told a falsehood because I have many, many times. But every time I do, I hear my father’s words echoing in my soul.<\/p>\n

Our current political and social environments are in chaos. Instances of civil unrest are becoming commonplace, our politicians, who should be daily examples of character and integrity, have no moral compass, and even our religious leaders and institutions continue to fail us. Maybe we expect too much.<\/p>\n

We teach our children that this country was built on democracy. Our cherished Constitution begins with \u201cWe the People” indicating that our government involvement, our democracy, is what this country would be built upon. Over 230 years later, it’s time to hold a mirror to our Constitution and our democracy.<\/p>\n

As the definition by Merriam-Webster indicates, a democracy is a government where citizens influence policy for the benefit of all. Sadly, the only citizens in the early years of this Republic were white, property-owning males. All other groups (particularly women, blacks, Native Americans) in the country were excluded from participating in the government, thereby making them noncitizens. By the middle of the nineteenth century, migrants from Europe were welcomed into the brotherhood of democracy even as the question of slavery was intensifying.<\/p>\n

We must face the uncomfortable truth that this Republic was never meant to be a democracy, at least not in the general sense defined by Merriam-Webster. Our cherished Founding Fathers misled the masses before the American Revolution and certainly continuing into the development of our Constitutional era. That generation embraced classism, racism, and believed that women, like children, should be seen and not heard.<\/p>\n

It’s still difficult to criticize these individuals. They did risk it all in creating this country. The world in which they lived tolerated sexism and racism and created a system (capitalism) whereby poor whites, through hard work and luck, might reach the level of property-owner. Those are the ones that enjoy the economic and political benefits of this Republic.<\/p>\n

When we take an honest look in that mirror, the benefits of class are unmistakable: better education, housing, and health care, just to name a few. I doubt you’ll ever see a Whole Foods in low-income communities. So only those who drive BMWs deserve to have the option of eating fresh fruits and vegetables? The black community has known for decades that a positive correlation between poor diets and health exists.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest benefit of not being poor is political influence. The wealthy know how to manipulate our systems for their benefit. Behind closed doors, the wealthy talk about ways to hide their money from the IRS, which political platform benefits which businesses, and which stocks to buy and which stocks to sell. We saw a glimpse of these closed-door conversations in 2012 when then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney boldly claimed that almost half of all Americans felt the government owed them something. So he wasn’t going to worry about them. In other words, if Romney had become President in 2012 he was not going to address the needs of those individuals that looked to the government for guidance in good times and relief in bad times. Why? Because he believed this class of Americans are lazy and only want a hand-out from the government.<\/p>\n

It’s past time we tell the truth in this country. The Founding Fathers envisioned a country where only the white-male-property-owning class could participate and benefit from democracy. The system of capitalism was used as a carrot for those white males lucky enough to stumble into financial success, but generally excludes minorities and women (Native Americans still exist on the fringes of citizenship, and outside of those operating government-approved casinos continue to live in abject poverty).<\/p>\n

We are a few short months from the third decade in the twenty-first century, and many minorities and women are rich. Some might even be called the “filthy rich.\u201d But for every Oprah or LeBron, millions are living in the uncertainty of this era of COVID-19. For them, this democracy hasn’t been fair. Not because they’re lazy, but maybe it’s because they’re paying off a parent’s hospital bills, or maybe the restaurant where they washed dishes reduced its operating hours.<\/p>\n

My father was a stickler for integrity. I hope I\u2019ve been able to model that lesson to my sons and students. Contrary to what Romney believes, a majority of poor people and minorities do take responsibility for their lives and only seek an opportunity in this life, not a hand-out. Our democracy should benefit all Americans not only those that inherit millions from their father. It\u2019s time we accept the truth that our democracy primarily benefits the rich at the expense of the poor.<\/p>\n

Later.<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[5938,303,742,1985,3533,2842,1247,940,354,487,495,343],"class_list":["post-9095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-goodwin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9095\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9095"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9066,"date":"2020-09-09T18:17:42","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T23:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/?p=9066"},"modified":"2020-09-09T18:17:42","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T23:17:42","slug":"monday-morning-quarterback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/2020\/09\/09\/monday-morning-quarterback\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Morning Quarterback"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leadership \u2013 the action of leading a group of people or an organization.<\/em>
\nOxford Languages<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it. It\u2019s not easy being a \u201cleader.\u201d It requires a certain fearlessness to not be afraid of making difficult decisions and charisma to get others to support those decisions. Not everyone has the fearlessness and charisma to be considered a successful leader. Most in our society shy away from leadership positions, often for fear of failure.<\/p>\n

It seems people love to criticize our leaders for their decisions once the results of those decisions are known. Sports fans refer to the \u201cMonday Morning Quarterback\u201d as one who criticizes, often viciously, the decisions of the coach or quarterback of their favorite team after a loss. The decision not to punt on fourth and two or kicking a field goal instead of going for the touchdown are typical decisions routinely made in the course of a football game, but become easy targets for second-guessing and criticism, especially if the team loses.<\/p>\n

In many ways, historians are like Monday Morning Quarterbacks. We analyze and often criticize the actions of those in positions of leadership. We examine the decisions of everyone from military leaders, heads of state, and even the actions of those leading social movements. Sometimes the criticism is warranted, for example, George Custer\u2019s decision to engage a coalition of Native Americans ended poorly for the 7th Calvary. Still, when historians assess a decision from decades ago, or centuries ago, they have the benefit of information the decision-maker probably didn\u2019t have in real-time. Also, it is too easy to determine the effectiveness of a decision after the ramifications of those decisions are realized.<\/p>\n

It is with that lens, having the benefit of seeing the impact of decisions, that I hesitate in criticizing Abraham Lincoln for his mismanagement of the Confederacy. I\u2019m not referring to his actions as the commander in chief of the Union armies. Historians understand that Lincoln\u2019s main goal, especially at the onset of the conflict, was saving the Union. He considered secession illegal.<\/p>\n

But Southerners saw themselves as the founding fathers of a new nation. Like the Revolutionary generation, they believed the government of the US had become destructive of their personal freedoms. Especially the freedom to own slaves. It seems very oxymoronic to speak of \u201cfreedom\u201d and \u201cslavery\u201d in the same sentence.<\/p>\n

As the first state to leave the Union, officials from South Carolina tried to justify their actions. Just as Jefferson did 85 years earlier, South Carolinians thought their actions were noble and just. South Carolina\u2019s Declaration of the Causes of Secession was clearly written in the tone of the original Founding Fathers. However, whereas slavery was suspiciously absent from the final version of Jefferson\u2019s tome, it\u2019s clear that South Carolinians believed the right to own slaves was their right.<\/p>\n

John Wilkes Booth and his fellow conspirators failed in using assassination as a political tool. They did, however, end Lincoln\u2019s life and prevented him from seeing the restoration of the Union. Based on his plan of reconstruction, Lincoln was not going to punish the South, or its leadership, for committing treason. He had a choice, and he chose to ignore the obvious for what he believed to be the greater good.<\/p>\n

This is where the Monday Morning Quarterback steps in. The contentious racial environment we\u2019re experiencing in 2020 is because Lincoln and the Republican Party failed to punish the South and its leadership for treason. In their haste to move past the Civil War, they allowed the South to never admit they were wrong for 1) secession and 2) wanting to maintain slavery. As a result, the Lost Cause mythology appeared and took root in the revisionist history of the Civil War at the beginning of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n

Throughout the years of Jim Crow, white supremacists successfully wrapped themselves in Confederate symbols and monuments in plain sight of the Federal government. Even after the supposed eradication of Jim Crow with the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts, white supremacists continued to argue their right to embrace Confederate ideology. They used words as \u201cculture\u201d and \u201cConstitutional rights\u201d to justify their actions and beliefs. Again, all in plain sight.<\/p>\n

The Monday Morning Quarterback now blames the decisions of Lincoln and the Republican Party. In football parlance, they settled for the win instead of going for that last touchdown. That last touchdown would have proven to the world, and white supremacists, that racism has no place in this country, then, or now. Instead, they allowed the Confederacy\/white supremacists to believe that they could have won if just a few plays had gone their way.<\/p>\n

Therein lie the problem with historians. Second-guessing the decisions and actions of others makes for interesting conversations at Starbucks. We can play \u201cwhat if\u201d from now on. Only in Marvel comics do we explore the realities of an alternate universe. In this existence, Lincoln hoped the goodness of man would prevail over racism. Well\u2026<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that being a leader, at any level or capacity, is difficult. Maybe more so in a pandemic. Abraham Lincoln\u2019s leadership saved the continuity of this country. But in doing so he acquiesced the continued existence of racism that continues to inflame our society 155 years later. It\u2019s not fair to second-guess decisions, but that\u2019s what historians do. Most of our leaders, especially our political leaders, understand that they will be judged by history and historians for what they do today. That\u2019s probably not fair, but it\u2019s the price of leadership. You\u2019re either \u201cthe greatest of all time\u201d or the one who \u2018failed to live up to expectations.\u201d Sadly, it\u2019s the Monday Morning Quarterback that will write that story.<\/p>\n

Later.<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[7101,7102,460,2911,3533,7103,376,7097,7100,7096,7093,7094,7092,7095,2205,7098,641,2841,7099,485],"class_list":["post-9066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-goodwin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9066"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9048,"date":"2020-08-13T21:03:59","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T02:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/?p=9048"},"modified":"2023-06-06T14:46:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T19:46:00","slug":"tiphc-newsletter-aug-9-15-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/2020\/08\/13\/tiphc-newsletter-aug-9-15-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"TIPHC Newsletter, Aug. 9-15, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Houston<\/a>The TIPHC Newsletter is a weekly compendium of African American history topics relative to Texas, specifically, but nationally as well for Black history enthusiasts. However, if you’re teaching or studying black history, the newsletter is also a useful tool for research, classroom discussions and assignments, and references. We welcome your feedback and submissions for any section of the newsletter. For more information, please contact Michael Hurd, TIPHC Director, at mdhurd@pvamu.edu or (936) 261-9836.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To subscribe (it’s free!), click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Know your history, know yourself.”<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

Texas Black History Calendar Spotlight<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n

Aug. 11<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"otis<\/a>Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>\u00a0wide receiver\u00a0Otis Taylor<\/a>\u00a0was born on this day in 1942 in Houston. Taylor attended\u00a0E.E. Worthing HS<\/a>\u00a0where he starred in football and basketball. At\u00a0Prairie View A&M<\/a>, Taylor was a member of the Panthers\u2019 1963 and 1964 Black College National Championship teams. He was a fourth round draft pick of the Chiefs where Taylor would spend his entire\u00a0AFL<\/a>\/NFL<\/a>\u00a0career (1965-1974). He remains the Chiefs second-leading receiver in career touchdowns (57) and is No. 4 on their list for all-time receiving yards (7,306). He scored a dynamic catch-and-run touchdown in Kansas City\u2019s 23-7 upset win over the\u00a0Minnesota Vikings<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Super Bowl IV<\/a>. Taylor was twice named an All-Pro.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

Click here<\/a> for the complete newsletter<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n
\n<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2901,1],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[65,59,2566,2253,1552,118,1220,2397,7089,7091,199,99,640],"class_list":["post-9048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2020-spring","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9048"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9046,"date":"2020-08-12T19:01:11","date_gmt":"2020-08-13T00:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/?p=9046"},"modified":"2020-08-12T19:01:11","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T00:01:11","slug":"when-silence-is-deafening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/2020\/08\/12\/when-silence-is-deafening\/","title":{"rendered":"When silence is deafening"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a true confession, of sorts, I must make. In this time of health crises, I find myself becoming more and more fearful of being in crowds. Let me be more specific: a group of more than five. What is so sad is that I used to love being in groups, at church, the amusement park, restaurants. I enjoyed the energy from others enjoying similar activities. Well, those days seem to be gone. At least for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

Maybe what I miss the most is my church. Even though my church services have moved online, but it just isn\u2019t the same. Better than nothing, but still, not quite the same.<\/p>\n

This led me to consider the two most pressing issues facing this society today: the renewed effort to expose the racial injustices in this country and the COVID-19 induced health crises. One issue has deep roots and the other is so new this country\u2019s best minds are still trying to comprehend just what it is. Either way, I\u2019ve started noticing that the nation\u2019s clergy have been relatively silent on both.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m surprised that as a collective, religious leaders have not been vocal about this pandemic that is devastating entire communities across this nation. One would think clergy would exhort their parishioners to adhere to safe health practices in public and private. No one wants to be sequestered at home, but too often the recent alternative includes hospitalization, ventilators, and make-shift morgues.<\/p>\n

However, I\u2019m not surprised that, as a collective, religious leaders have said little about the racial unrest following the killing of George Floyd and others. Again, let me be more specific: I\u2019m referring to white clergy. This is the same group that Martin Luther King, Jr. assailed more than fifty years ago for ignoring their moral obligations when they criticized him for demonstrating for Black rights.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure these clergymen believe they are fulfilling God\u2019s purpose for their lives. But, as a group, these are the same men who often make excuses for Donald Trump\u2019s continued lack of morality. The idea of separation of church and state no longer exists. The church has definitely influenced this country\u2019s political landscape for generations. In 2016, for example, Ted Cruz announced his candidacy for the presidency at Liberty University in Virginia. Cruz is a US Senator from Texas, and he chose to make a monumental political announcement in Virginia? Not the University of Texas, Texas A&M, or even Rice. Nope.<\/p>\n

Cruz made this announcement at Liberty University. The institution of higher learning established by Jerry Falwell. The same Jerry Falwell credited with starting the Moral Majority, a political force of white Christian conservative evangelicals who, in the 1980s, supported the Republican Party\u2019s attacks on the Black community masquerading as the war on crime. A 2015 Washington Post article explained that Liberty University was the go-to place for Christian conservatives who now formed the basis for the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party (otherwise known as we-can\u2019t-have-a-black-man-as-president coalition).<\/p>\n

Even though Cruz attempted to show his Christian conservative credentials for political gain, this group eventually supported Trump. I hope Cruz was sincere in the profession of his Christian faith because in the end, his race may have been too much of an albatross to overcome. But I digress.<\/p>\n

Christian conservatives have merged church and state and feel comfortable supporting conservative political ideologies. These ideologies will never support Black folks demanding equity and equality in this society. Apparently, they feel as though Black folks have been \u201cgiven\u201d enough by liberals in government. So, publicly, I don\u2019t expect them to support this round of Black protests. So I hear their silence and its deafening in what\u2019s not being said. And this from professed believers in Christ. I guess they forgot he preached love and patience but didn\u2019t mind turning over a few tables to bring attention to those doing wrong.<\/p>\n

While I now feel uncomfortable in groups, my hearing is just fine. The hypocrisy and silence from the pulpit is upsetting. I\u2019m not expecting perfection, just love for one another.<\/p>\n

Later.<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2901,1,34],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[65,7086,7088,7084,7085,2051,7079,7081,7077,7087,347,5685,7080,7083,7078,5760,354,7082,7076,200],"class_list":["post-9046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2020-spring","category-history","category-goodwin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9046\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9046"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9022,"date":"2020-08-05T17:14:15","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T22:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/?p=9022"},"modified":"2023-04-26T14:47:21","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T19:47:21","slug":"tiphc-newsletter-aug-2-8-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/2020\/08\/05\/tiphc-newsletter-aug-2-8-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"TIPHC Newsletter, Aug. 2-8, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Black Suffragists Fought for the Right to Vote and a Modicum of Respect<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Hallie Quinn Brown and Other “Homespun Heroines”<\/em><\/p>\n

(neh.gov<\/em>) Hallie Quinn Brown knew the power of black women and urged anyone who heard her to let it flourish. Read her remarks from 1889 and you might believe she saw the future or at least had the capacity to call it into being: \u201cI believe there are as great possibilities in women as there are in men. . . . We are marching onward grandly. . . . We love to think of the great women of our race\u2014the mothers who have struggled through poverty to educate their children. . . . There are many wives who are now helping to educate their husbands at school, by taking in sewing and washin. . . I believe in equalizing the matter. Instead of going to school a whole year, he ought to stay at home one half, and send his wife the other six months. . . . I repeat, we want a grand and noble womanhood, scattered all over the land. There is a great vanguard of scholars and teachers of our sex who are at the head of institutions of learning all over the country. We need teachers, lecturers of force and character to help to teach this great nation of women.\u201d<\/p>\n

These remarks, delivered before a conference of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, marked a debut for Brown as an advocate of women\u2019s rights, including the right to vote. If finding the start of a suffragist\u2019s career in a church sanctuary surprises, it is only because the route to women\u2019s suffrage taken by black women is still too often relegated to the margins or obscured by misunderstanding. Consider how black women did not take part in the mythical 1848 women\u2019s meeting in Seneca Falls, New York. When we look for them in that year, we find that, instead, some of them were already at work demanding women\u2019s rights, but they were doing so in black churches rather than in women\u2019s conventions. And what about 1920 and ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment? The study of that hallmark moment reveals that, while some black women in the North and West had reason to celebrate, it was but a brief pause in their ongoing struggle for voting rights. Especially for black women in southern states, the struggle for the vote extended for decades more, to 1965, when the Voting Rights Act would finally topple barriers constructed by Jim Crow. (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>

How Phillis Wheatley Was Recovered Through History<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For decades, a white woman\u2019s memoir shaped our understanding of America\u2019s first Black poet. Does a new book change the story?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Phillis<\/a>(newyorker.com<\/em>) Though Phillis (Wheatley) left a rich paper trail of poems and letters, she never recorded her own account of her life, and, in her writings, which brim with her spiritual and political ideas, biographical details are sparse. For those, scholars have had to rely on a memoir published in 1834, fifty years after the poet\u2019s death, by Margaretta Matilda Odell, a white woman who claimed to be a \u201ccollateral descendant\u201d of Susanna Wheatley.<\/p>\n

Odell neglects to mention the horrors of Phillis\u2019s transatlantic journey, and she finds no fault with the Wheatleys\u2019 treatment of those they enslaved. (Phillis was separated from the rest of the family\u2019s slaves, and told not to associate with them.) And Odell\u2019s Phillis is distinctly lacking in agency. Odell\u2019s many errors were repeated for decades, shaping receptions of Phillis through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But a new book, \u201cThe Age of Phillis,\u201d by the poet and professor Honor\u00e9e Fanonne Jeffers, presents a different story. Jeffers suggests that Odell\u2019s memoir created a \u201cpesky \u2018House Negro\u2019 narrative\u201d that framed Phillis Wheatley as domestic, apolitical, and acquiescent. Frustrated that literary history entrusted the story of America\u2019s first Black poet to a white woman, Jeffers spent years hunting through Massachusetts archives. (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>

Shirley Chisholm blazed the way for every Black woman Biden is considering for VP<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"shirley<\/a>

Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.) presents her views in Washington on June 24, 1972, before the panel drafting the platform for the Democratic National Convention. (James Palmer\/AP)<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

(washingtonpost.com<\/em>) On Jan. 25, 1972, Rep. Shirley Chisholm of New York stood on a platform in a Baptist church in her congressional district in Brooklyn. Behind a dozen microphones, she waved to the crowd and took a leap into history as she declared her bid for the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States of America.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not the candidate for Black America, although I am Black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women\u2019s movement of this country, although I am a woman and I\u2019m equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or fat cats or special interests,\u201d Chisholm said in a clipped voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stand here now without endorsement from many big-name politicians or celebrities or any other kind of prop. I do not intend to offer you the tired and glib cliches that have too long been an accepted part of our political life. I am the candidate of the people of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first Black woman elected to Congress ran against Sen. George McGovern (S.D.), who would go on to win the Democratic nomination but lose in a dramatic landslide to Republican Richard Nixon.<\/p>\n

Chisholm\u2019s presidential bid would be remembered for the power of her speeches, her fortitude, and her brutal honesty about racism, sexism politics and the state of the country. Chisholm\u2019s defiant campaign, which inspired a number of women to run for public office, has received renewed attention, as Joe Biden considers a number of Black women as his running mate. (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>

TIPHC Bookshelf<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n

\"Make<\/a>Published scholarship on black history in Texas is growing and we\u2019d like to share with you some suggested readings, both current and past, from some of the preeminent history scholars in Texas and beyond. We invite you to take a look at our bookshelf page \u2013 including a featured selection \u2013 and check back as the list grows. A different selection will be featured each week. We welcome suggestions and reviews. This week, we offer, “Make Haste Slowly —\u00a0Moderates, Conservatives, and School Desegregation in Houston,” by William Henry Kellar.<\/p>\n

When faced by the Court-ordered \u201call deliberate speed\u201d time frame for school desegregation, a fearful Houston school board member urged the city to \u201cmake haste slowly,\u201d in order for the school system to receive decisions based on sound judgment and discretion.<\/p>\n

Houston, Texas, had what may have been the largest racially segregated \u201cJim Crow\u201d public school system in the United States when the Supreme Court declared the practice unconstitutional in 1954. Ultimately, helped by members of its business community, Houston did desegregate its public schools and did so peacefully, without making the city a battleground of racial violence.<\/p>\n

In Make Haste Slowly, William Henry Kellar provides the first extensive examination of the development of Houston\u2019s racially segregated public school system, the long fight for school desegregation, and the roles played by various community groups, including the HISD Board of Education, in one of the most significant stories of the civil rights era.<\/p>\n

Drawing on archival records, HISD School Board minutes, interviews with participants in the process, the oral history collection of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, and a variety of other sources, Kellar constructs a detailed account of the development of Houston\u2019s segregated public school system and the struggle of Houston\u2019s African American community against the\u00a0oppression of racial discrimination in the city.<\/p>\n

Kellar shows that, while Houston desegregated its public school system peacefully, the limited integration that originally occurred served only to delay equal access to HISD schools. Houstonians shifted from a strategy \u201cmassive resistance\u201d to one of \u201cmassive retreat.\u201d White flight and resegregation transformed both the community and its public schools.<\/p>\n

Kellar concludes that forty years after the Brown decision, many of the aspirations that landmark ruling inspired have proven elusive, but the impact of the ruling on Houston has changed the face of that city and the nature of its public education dramatically and in unanticipated ways.<\/p>\n

Make Haste Slowly fills a longtime void in the literature on the civil rights era in Texas. Those interested in Texas history and African American history will find this book essential to understanding one of the most reactionary periods in American history.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>

This Week in Texas Black History<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Aug. 2<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"William<\/div>\n

Legendary\u00a0Prairie View A&M<\/a>\u00a0football coach\u00a0William J. \u201cBilly\u201d Nicks<\/a>\u00a0was born on this day in 1905 in Griffin, Ga. He attended\u00a0Morris Brown College<\/a>\u00a0in Atlanta where he played football, basketball, baseball, and ran track. Nicks returned to his alma mater as head football coach on three different occasions \u2014 1930-35, 1937-39 and 1941-42. His 1941 team was named\u00a0black college national champion<\/a>. Nicks began coaching at Prairie View in 1945 and in 17 years compiled a 127-39-8 record and won eight\u00a0Southwestern Athletic Conference<\/a>\u00a0championships and five black college national championships. He had five undefeated seasons as Prairie View became a black college football power in the 1950s and 1960s. Nicks had a winning record against every SWAC school, including\u00a0Grambling State<\/a>\u00a0and legendary head coach\u00a0Eddie Robinson<\/a>. His overall record, for 28 years, was 193-61-21, a winning percentage of .763. Nicks is a member of numerous halls of fame, including the\u00a0College Football Hall of Fame<\/a>,\u00a0NAIA<\/a>, and the\u00a0SWAC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Aug. 2<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Jackie<\/div>\n

In 1944, 15 months before he would break\u00a0Major League Baseball<\/a>\u2018s color barrier, the\u00a0court martial of 2nd Lt. Jackie Robinson<\/a>\u00a0was held on this day at\u00a0Fort Hood<\/a>\u00a0in Killeen. On July 6, Robinson had refused to move to the \u201ccolored section\u201d in the back of a post bus. Among the several resulting charges against Robinson were conduct unbecoming an officer. The trial lasted four hours and after brief deliberations, a panel of nine officers (one of them black) found Robinson not guilty of all charges. Robinson had been morale officer for the all-black\u00a0761st Tank Battalion<\/a>\u00a0but, by the trial\u2019s end, the unit had departed for Europe where they would perform heroically with\u00a0Gen. Patton\u2019s Third Army<\/a>. Robinson was transferred to\u00a0Camp Breckinridge<\/a>, Kentucky, where he coached black athletic teams until his honorable discharge in November 1944. He played the 1945 season with the Negro League\u00a0Kansas City Monarchs\u00a0and in October of that year signed to play with the\u00a0Brooklyn Dodgers\u00a0and was sent to their top Minor League affiliate, the\u00a0Montreal Royals. Robinson\u2019s debut as MLB\u2019s first black player came on April 15, 1947, at age 28.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Aug. 4<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\"Matthew<\/div>\n

On this day in 1840, minister and Republican State Senator\u00a0Matthew Gaines<\/a> was born into slavery in Pineville, La. In 1863, he was sold to a planter in Fredericksburg, Texas where he worked as a blacksmith and a sheepherder. After emancipation, he relocated to Washington County where he became a leader of the black community and was elected as a state senator during Reconstruction<\/a>\u00a0to represent the Sixteenth District. He was a staunch proponent for education, prison reform, the protection of blacks at the polls, the election of blacks to public office, and tenant-farming reform.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Aug. 4<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"Judge<\/a>District Court Judge\u00a0Ben Connally<\/a>\u00a0labeled the\u00a0Houston school board<\/a>\u2018s desegregation plan a \u201cpalable sham and subterfuge\u201d on this day in 1960. Houston\u2019s 173 schools comprised the largest segregated school district in the U.S., and in 1957 Connally ordered the schools to be integrated \u201cwith all deliberate speed.\u201d However, in August, 1959, the board revealed in a 373-page report to the Court that it had no desegregation plan and requested additional time to prepare one. Connally ordered the board to submit a plan by June 1, 1960. It was that plan which enraged Connally. In it, the board sought to integrate only three schools, but stated that no child need attend the integrated schools. As a result, Connally ordered desegregation to commence in all first grades in September 1960 and to proceed at one grade per year thereafter. The board\u2019s attitude may have been typified by parliamentarian\u00a0Bertie Maughmer<\/a>\u00a0who had won election to the board in 1956 proudly declaring: \u201cI\u2019d rather go to jail than see my kids go to school with niggers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

Aug. 5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\"Gertrude<\/div>\n

On this day in 1880,\u00a0Gertrude E. Rush<\/a>, attorney and civil rights activist was born in Navasota. Rush was also an accomplished playwright and author. The daughter of a Baptist minister, her family moved to the Midwest and settled in Oskaloosa, Iowa, southeast of Des Moines. Rush studied law while working in the office of her attorney-husband James B. Rush and was admitted to the\u00a0Iowa State Bar<\/a>\u00a0in 1918 as the state\u2019s first Black female lawyer and only such lawyer in the state until 1950. In 1921, she was elected president of Iowa\u2019s Colored Bar Association, making her the first woman in the nation top lead a state bar association that included both male and female members. However, she was denied admission to the\u00a0American Bar Association<\/a>, and in 1925 Rush and four other black lawyers founded the\u00a0Negro Bar Association<\/a>\u00a0(later renamed the National Bar Association). Rush also wrote numerous plays, pageants, and hymns, such as the popular \u201cJesus Loves the Little Children<\/a>\u201d (1907).<\/p>\n<\/div>

Aug. 6<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Lyndon<\/div>\n

President\u00a0Lyndon Johnson<\/a>, on this day, signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965<\/a> abolishing\u00a0literacy tests<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0poll taxes<\/a> designed to disenfranchise African Americans and other minority and poor voters. Johnson signed the act in the President\u2019s Room\u00a0just off the\u00a0U. S. Senate<\/a> chamber floor, the same location, and on the same date when 104 years earlier\u00a0President Abraham Lincoln<\/a>\u00a0had signed the\u00a0Confiscation Act of 1861. That bill freed slaves being used by the\u00a0Confederate States<\/a>\u00a0in the war effort, an early move towards Lincoln signing the\u00a0Emancipation Proclamation<\/a>. In some Southern states, voting officials asked potential black voters to recite the entire\u00a0U.S. Constitution<\/a>\u00a0or explain complex provisions of state laws before they could cast their ballot. (As a means of discriminating against\u00a0Irish-Catholic immigrants, Connecticut adopted the nation\u2019s first literacy test for voting in 1855.) The Voting Rights Act vastly improved voter turnout among blacks and also gave them the legal means to challenge voting restrictions, which were not readily enforced in the South and often simply ignored. Texas never utilized literacy tests but did institute a poll tax in 1902 requiring eligible voters to pay between $1.50 and $1.75 to register to vote. The poll tax was finally abolished for national elections by the 24th Amendment<\/a>\u00a0in 1964 which was ratified by all but 12 states, including Texas, which\u00a0finally did<\/a>\u00a0on May 22, 2009.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>
\n

Blog: Ron Goodwin, Ph.D., author, PVAMU history professor<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ron Goodwin is an assistant professor of history at Prairie View A&M University. Even though he was a military \u201cbrat,\u201d he still considers San Antonio home. Like his father and brother, Ron joined the U.S. Air Force and while enlisted received his undergraduate degree from Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas. After his honorable discharge, he completed graduate degrees from Texas Southern University. Goodwin\u2019s book, Blacks in Houston, is a pictorial history of Houston\u2019s black community. His most recent book, Remembering the Days of Sorrow, examines the institution of slavery in Texas from the perspective of the New Deal\u2019s Slave Narratives.<\/p>\n

Recent Posts<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Protect and Serve (Control)<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The black community\u2019s relationship with law and order has been tenuous, at best, for generations. Sadly, I believe our society has lost sight of the original purpose of law enforcement and how that purpose has been altered in our current societal and global environments. What\u2019s even worse, if that\u2019s possible, is that some groups in our society still embrace the archaic and erroneous ideology that people of color are genetically inferior to those of\u2026 (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

More Uncomfortable Truths<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

In February 2020, I was asked to contribute an opinion piece for the PVAMU website. I submitted an essay describing what I called an Uncomfortable Truth of Black History Month. That \u201ctruth\u201d focused on the black community\u2019s continual efforts to prove it is worthy of recognition as contributors to American society. Even more so, I argued, it is time the black community finally acknowledges that the subliminal need for acceptance is based on the\u2026 (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

Submissions wanted<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Historians, scholars, students, lend us your\u2026writings. Help us produce the most comprehensive documentation ever undertaken for the African American experience in Texas. We encourage you to contribute items about people, places, events, issues, politics\/legislation, sports, entertainment, religion, etc., as general entries or essays. Our documentation is wide-ranging and diverse, and you may research and write about the subject of your interest or, to start, please consult our list of suggested biographical entries and see submission guidelines. However, all topics must be approved by TIPHC editors before beginning your research\/writing.<\/p>\n

We welcome your questions or comments. Please contact Michael Hurd, Director of TIPHC, at\u00a0mdhurd@pvamu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2108,"featured_media":9038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2901,1,18],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[7062,2232,65,439,409,232,7048,118,7045,174,7049,7041,2237,360,7043,7046,7042,99,1112,2233],"class_list":["post-9022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2020-spring","category-history","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9022"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":8987,"date":"2020-07-29T16:38:43","date_gmt":"2020-07-29T21:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/?p=8987"},"modified":"2023-04-27T10:44:05","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T15:44:05","slug":"tiphc-newsletter-july-26-aug-1-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/2020\/07\/29\/tiphc-newsletter-july-26-aug-1-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"TIPHC Newsletter, July 26-Aug. 1, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Alvin Ailey\u2019s \u2018Revelations\u2019 Has Helped Me Find My Way Back to Texas<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While quarantined and away from home, I keep coming back to the late Texan choreographer\u2019s works\u2014which are newly available to watch online.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo: Alvin Ailey dancers perform in the “Move, Members, Move” section of Revelations, in 2011. (Earl Gibson\/AP)<\/p>\n

(Texas Monthly) O<\/em>ne warm spring day in the late nineties, I walked hand in hand with my father as he led our family\u2014my mom, my three siblings, and me\u2014into Houston\u2019s Jones Hall for an Alvin Ailey performance. At eight years old, I was more excited to be wearing my new theater dress for all of Houston to see than I was for the show itself. But that excitement quickly evolved into wonder. I don\u2019t recall the name of the performance we saw, but I distinctly remember feeling admiration and reverence for what the dancers were doing in front of me.<\/p>\n

Before that day, I\u2019d never seen such a large group of professional Black dancers on stage. Experiencing this performance in my youth was significant; it told me that my people were everywhere, and capable of doing everything. Years later, in 2019, a close friend invited me to an Ailey performance at NYU\u2019s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Tracks, a dance set against a backdrop of brilliantly selected O\u2019Jays, Pharrell, and Snoop Dogg tracks, reminded me of seeing that first Ailey show in childhood, and of the incredible movement and possibility of the freed Black body. (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Related: Alvin Ailey\u2019s beautiful vision for dance, captured in thousands of photos<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>

Facing America’s History of Racism Requires Facing the Origins of ‘Race’ as a Concept<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"origins<\/a>

The statue of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart is removed from Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia.” (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly \/ AFP) (Photo by RYAN M. KELLY\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

(Time.com<\/em>) When we look back on 2020, the emblematic photos of the year will undoubtedly include images of crowds gathered around toppled, spray-painted statues. The indictment of these monuments has focused the country\u2019s attention on how the history of slavery in the United States casts a long shadow that stretches all the way from the Middle Passage and Jim Crow to the protracted record of police violence against African Americans that led to the Black Lives Matter movement in the first place.<\/p>\n

The histories of slavery and racism in the United States have never been more pertinent. This is also the case for the comparatively understudied history of race as a concept, without which it is impossible to understand how Europeans and their colonial \u201cdescendants\u201d in the United States engineered the most complete and enduring dehumanization of a people in history.\u00a0(more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>

Cracker Barrell National Battle of the Bands creates HBCUs Band Together Scholarship & Virtual Battle Series\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"band<\/a>(Harris County -Houston Sports Authority<\/em>) In an effort to continue its support of Historically Black Colleges and Universities during the global pandemic, the Cracker Barrel National Battle of the Bands is launching the HBCUs Band Together scholarship initiative and a new fall Virtual Battles Series.<\/p>\n

The initiative, announced by Webber Marketing & Consulting, LLC, and the Harris County -Houston Sports Authority, is designed to bring together those who wish to support HBCUs, HBCU marching bands and their band members during the COVID-19 crisis. The campaign will feature images, performance clips and virtual conversations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the impact of COVID-19 changing the landscape of sporting events and other major public gatherings where HBCU bands would be invited to perform and showcase their talents \u2013 HBCUs Band Together will focus on its immediate goals of raising aid for COVID-19 test kits for all HBCU students for Fall 2020 and creating another source of funding to assist HBCU bands with scholarship dollars for its students and programs,\u201d said Derek Webber, CEO of Webber Marketing & Consulting, LLC and Creator of the National Battle of the Bands.<\/p>\n

In the fall, the NBOTB team will roll out the Virtual Battles Series, which will feature matchups between HBCU marching bands. The pay-per-view format will allow alumni and fans to watch and interact with their favorite band\u2019s performance from their laptop, tablet or mobile device and will be hosted on www.NationalBattleoftheBands.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith everything going on, including many of the HBCU homecomings being canceled, we wanted to create a virtual atmosphere that generates the feelings of homecoming in the homes of those who love and support these bands and the talented band members,\u201d Webber said.<\/p>\n

The Sports Authority applauds the initiatives, which opens up more opportunities to help give back to the community and bring awareness to HBCUs during these difficult times.<\/p>\n

To make a donation to HBCU\u2019s Band Together, visit www.hbcusbandtogether.org<\/a>. (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>

TIPHC Bookshelf<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n

\"Houston<\/a>Published scholarship on black history in Texas is growing and we\u2019d like to share with you some suggested readings, both current and past, from some of the preeminent history scholars in Texas and beyond. We invite you to take a look at our bookshelf page \u2013 including a featured selection \u2013 and check back as the list grows. A different selection will be featured each week. We welcome suggestions and reviews. This week, we offer, “Houston Cougars in the 1960s — Death Threats, the Veer Offense, and the Game of the Century,” by Robert Jacobus.<\/p>\n

On January 20, 1968, the University of Houston Cougars upset the UCLA Bruins, ending a 47-game winning streak. Billed as the \u201cGame of the Century,\u201d the defeat of the UCLA hoopsters was witnessed by 52,693 fans and a national television audience\u2014the first-ever regular-season game broadcast nationally.<\/p>\n

But the game would never have happened if Houston coach Guy Lewis had not recruited two young black men from Louisiana in 1964: Don Chaney and Elvin Hayes. Despite facing hostility both at home and on the road, Chaney and Hayes led the Cougars basketball team to 32 straight victories.<\/p>\n

Similarly in Cougar football, coach Bill Yeoman recruited Warren McVea in 1964, and by 1967 McVea had helped the Houston gridiron program lead the nation in total offense.<\/p>\n

Houston Cougars in the 1960s features the first-person accounts of the players, the coaches, and others involved in the integration of collegiate athletics in Houston, telling the gripping story of the visionary coaches, the courageous athletes, and the committed supporters who blazed a trail not only for athletic success but also for racial equality in 1960s Houston.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>

This Week in Texas Black History<\/strong><\/h2>\n

July 28<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Curtis<\/div>\n

On this date in 2000,\u00a0Curtis John Guillory\u00a0was named Bishop of the\u00a0Catholic Diocese of Beaumont, becoming fifth bishop of the 34-year-old Roman Catholic Diocese of Beaumont and the first African American Catholic bishop in Texas. Guillory was born in Mallet, Louisiana on Sept. 1, 1943, as the oldest of 16 children. He attended Catholic school and entered the seminary of the Society of the Divine Word in Bay St. Louis, Miss., in 1960. He was ordained a priest of the Divine Word Dec. 16, 1972, and he was ordained as the 12th African American bishop in the United States Feb. 19, 1988.<\/p>\n<\/div>

July 28<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Joseph Edwin Wiley, Sr.<\/a>, thought to be the first Black lawyer in Dallas, was born in Albany, Ohio on this day in 1862. Wiley was also an urban industrialist, real estate investor, and general manager of the New Century Cotton Mill of Dallas. His parents, Israel and Susan Wiley, were farmers from Virginia who came to Ohio sometime between 1855 and 1857. Joseph, who was the fourth of eight children and the oldest surviving son, worked in the fields with his father before enrolling at Oberlin College in 1882. From Oberlin he went on to attend Union College of Law in Chicago, which is now Northwestern University School of Law. In 1885, Wiley graduated from Union College and moved to Dallas. For many years it was believed that Wiley was the first black lawyer in Dallas, but this honor should be reserved for S. H. Scott, who briefly practiced in the city in 1881. However, Wiley still holds the distinction of being the first formally-educated black lawyer in Texas.<\/p>\n<\/div>

July 30<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Warren<\/div>\n

On this day in 1946\u00a0Warren McVea<\/a>\u00a0was born in San Antonio. McVea was arguably the top high school running back in the country when he graduated from\u00a0Brackenridge High School<\/a>\u00a0in 1964. During his senior season, McVea scored 315 points and 46 touchdowns, which was a single-season record for the\u00a0University Interscholastic League<\/a>\u2019s largest school classification (4A). In college, \u201cWondrous Warren\u201d \u00a0was the first black player for the\u00a0University of Houston<\/a>\u00a0program and the first to receive a scholarship to a major previously all-white college in Texas. Professionally, he was a fourth-round pick by the\u00a0Cincinnati Bengals<\/a>\u00a0and was a member of the\u00a0Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>\u00a0when they won\u00a0Super Bowl IV<\/a>, defeating the\u00a0Minnesota Vikings<\/a>. He was inducted into the\u00a0San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame<\/a>\u00a0in 2003 and the\u00a0UH Hall of Honor<\/a>\u00a0in 2004.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Aug. 1<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Clifford<\/div>\n

On this day in 1948, football and track star\u00a0Clifford Branch<\/a>\u00a0was born in Houston. At\u00a0Evan E. Worthing High School<\/a>, Branch was All-District in football (1966), but was also the first schoolboy in Texas history to run the 100-yard dash in 9.3 seconds. He was the state champion in the 100-yard dash (1965) and the 220-yard dash (1966). He attended the\u00a0University of Colorado<\/a>\u00a0where he was an All-American wide receiver (1971) and the 1972 NCAA 100-meter champion with a record time of 10.0. Branch was selected in the fourth round of the\u00a0National Football League Draft\u00a0by the\u00a0Oakland Raiders<\/a>\u00a0and played his entire pro career (1972-85) with the team, including three Super Bowl titles. He was named first-team All-Pro three times and finished his career with 501 receptions for 8,685 yards and 67 touchdowns. He is a member of the\u00a0Prairie View Interscholastic League Hall of Fame<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Aug. 1<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\"Milton<\/a><\/div>\n

Milton M. Holland<\/a>, one of sixteen black soldiers to receive the\u00a0Congressional Medal of Honor<\/a>\u00a0during the Civil War, and the first African American recipient from Texas, was born probably in Austin, on this day in 1844. Holland was the slave and perhaps the son of\u00a0Bird Holland<\/a>, who later became Texas secretary of state. Bird Holland freed Milton and his two brothers, James and William H. Holland, and sent them to school in Ohio during the late 1850s. Holland attended the Albany Enterprise Academy, a school operated by free African Americans. Holland, too young to enlist into the United States Army at the start of the Civil War, worked as a shoemaker for the quartermaster department of the army until he was allowed to enlist. In June 1863 in Athens, Ohio, he joined the Fifth United States Colored Troops, commanded by Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. Holland rose to the rank of regimental sergeant major. During the battle of\u00a0Chaffin\u2019s Farm and New Market Heights, Virginia<\/a>, all of the white commanding officers either were killed or wounded during the engagements between September 28 and 30, 1864. Holland assumed command and led the black troops in battle, routing the enemy and leading his troops to victory. For leading the charge, during which he was wounded, he received the Congressional Medal of Honor on April 6, 1865, for his bravery. Holland was promoted to captain, but the War Department refused the commission on grounds of his race.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>
\n

Blog: Ron Goodwin, Ph.D., author, PVAMU history professor<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ron Goodwin is an assistant professor of history at Prairie View A&M University. Even though he was a military \u201cbrat,\u201d he still considers San Antonio home. Like his father and brother, Ron joined the U.S. Air Force and while enlisted received his undergraduate degree from Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas. After his honorable discharge, he completed graduate degrees from Texas Southern University. Goodwin\u2019s book, Blacks in Houston, is a pictorial history of Houston\u2019s black community. His most recent book, Remembering the Days of Sorrow, examines the institution of slavery in Texas from the perspective of the New Deal\u2019s Slave Narratives.<\/p>\n

Recent Posts<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Protect and Serve (Control)<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The black community\u2019s relationship with law and order has been tenuous, at best, for generations. Sadly, I believe our society has lost sight of the original purpose of law enforcement and how that purpose has been altered in our current societal and global environments. What\u2019s even worse, if that\u2019s possible, is that some groups in our society still embrace the archaic and erroneous ideology that people of color are genetically inferior to those of\u2026 (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

More Uncomfortable Truths<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

In February 2020, I was asked to contribute an opinion piece for the PVAMU website. I submitted an essay describing what I called an Uncomfortable Truth of Black History Month. That \u201ctruth\u201d focused on the black community\u2019s continual efforts to prove it is worthy of recognition as contributors to American society. Even more so, I argued, it is time the black community finally acknowledges that the subliminal need for acceptance is based on the\u2026 (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

Submissions wanted<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Historians, scholars, students, lend us your\u2026writings. Help us produce the most comprehensive documentation ever undertaken for the African American experience in Texas. We encourage you to contribute items about people, places, events, issues, politics\/legislation, sports, entertainment, religion, etc., as general entries or essays. Our documentation is wide-ranging and diverse, and you may research and write about the subject of your interest or, to start, please consult our list of suggested biographical entries and see submission guidelines. However, all topics must be approved by TIPHC editors before beginning your research\/writing.<\/p>\n

We welcome your questions or comments. Please contact Michael Hurd, Director of TIPHC, at\u00a0mdhurd@pvamu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2108,"featured_media":9008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2901,1,18],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[64,6896,6888,2330,65,6827,535,6885,6826,6869,6884,6881,6887,6883,534,6891,6882,6904,99,601],"class_list":["post-8987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2020-spring","category-history","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8987"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=8987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":8962,"date":"2020-07-22T18:58:04","date_gmt":"2020-07-22T23:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/?p=8962"},"modified":"2023-04-26T12:47:20","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T17:47:20","slug":"tiphc-newsletter-july-19-25-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/2020\/07\/22\/tiphc-newsletter-july-19-25-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"TIPHC Newsletter, July 19-25, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

A History of the Newly Resurgent ‘Black National Anthem’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Photo: Jon Batiste leads a protest March in Manhattan in June 2020, where he and his band performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” (Ira L. Black\/Corbis via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

(Time Magazine<\/em>) When the National Football League kicks off its season on Sept. 10, it will do so with a song that is unknown to some Americans and essential to others. \u201cLift Every Voice and Sing,\u201d otherwise known as the Black national anthem, was introduced to many by Beyonc\u00e9 when she sang it at Coachella two years ago. But the song has long been a pillar of Black culture and life, sung at church ceremonies, political protests, school graduations and family gatherings. \u201cFour generations of my family, at least, have lived with this anthem,\u201d Imani Perry wrote in May Forever We Stand, her book about the song. \u201cIt is our common thread.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the NFL\u2019s opening week, \u201cLift Every Voice and Sing\u201d will be performed before each game, ahead of \u201cThe Star Spangled Banner,\u201d as an effort to reinforce the league\u2019s professed newfound alignment with Black Lives Matter. But this decision\u2014which has been met with skepticism across the ideological spectrum\u2014is just the latest example of the song\u2019s reinvigoration in American public life. It\u2019s been performed at protests across the country following the police killing of George Floyd, slipped into national anthems at NASCAR races and even co-opted by Joe Biden for one of his campaign proposals, \u201cLift Every Voice: The Biden Plan For Black America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a history of the song, and an examination of how its influence has persisted over 120 years. (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>

Why Buffalo Soldiers Served Among the Nation’s First Park Rangers<\/strong><\/h2>\n

After fighting in the Civil War and later military engagements, the famous all-black regiments protected the National Parks.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>(History<\/em>.com<\/i>) Among the earliest stewards of the nation\u2019s national parks were soldiers from segregated black regiments. Starting in the 1890s, the Buffalo Soldiers, who had earned valor fighting in the Indian Wars and Spanish-American War, added park ranger to their titles and played a critical role in protecting and building the infrastructure of the country\u2019s vast public lands.<\/p>\n

The first step toward black soldiers\u2019 peacetime service began after the end of the Civil War in 1865. At this time, the army had discharged more than one million soldiers, reducing the military to 16,000 men. But with a war-torn nation in need of rebuilding and a growing desire to expand into the western frontier, Congress enacted legislation that changed the trajectory of black soldiers in the U.S. Army. (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>

The First Black-Owned Bookstore and the Fight for Freedom<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Black abolitionist David Ruggles opened the first Black-owned bookstore in 1834, pointing the way to freedom\u2014in more ways than one.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"david<\/a>

David Ruggles (center) with Isaac T. Hopper (left) and Barney Corse (right) via Wikimedia Commons<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

(Daily JSTOR<\/em>) The country\u2019s first Black-owned bookstore opened in New York City in 1834, the brainchild of David Ruggles. He was an abolitionist, founder and writer of the anti-slavery newspaper Mirror of Liberty, and one of the early organizers of a network that would become the Underground Railroad. Everything about his work, including his bookstore, was done to support and fight for Black lives.<\/p>\n

Born into a free Black family in Connecticut in 1810, Ruggles\u2019s early exposure to the abolitionist movement was through his parents and church. His own interest in the movement strengthened when he moved to New York in 1825, which biographer Graham Russell Gao Hodges notes in his book David Ruggles was generally \u201cunsafe for blacks\u2026. Public discrimination and insulting behavior toward blacks were rampant.\u201d\u00a0(more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>

TIPHC Bookshelf<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n

\"unforgivablePublished scholarship on black history in Texas is growing and we\u2019d like to share with you some suggested readings, both current and past, from some of the preeminent history scholars in Texas and beyond. We invite you to take a look at our bookshelf page \u2013 including a featured selection \u2013 and check back as the list grows. A different selection will be featured each week. We welcome suggestions and reviews. This week, we offer, “Unforgivable Blackness, The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson,” by Geoffrey C. Ward.<\/p>\n

In this vivid biography, Geoffrey C. Ward brings back to life the most celebrated \u2014 and the most reviled \u2014 African American of his age.<\/p>\n

Jack Johnson battled his way out of obscurity and poverty in the Jim Crow South to win the title of heavyweight champion of the world. At a time when whites ran everything in America, he took orders from no one and resolved to live as if color did not exist. While most blacks struggled simply to exist, he reveled in his riches and his fame, sleeping with whomever he pleased, to the consternation and anger of much of white America. Because he did so the federal government set out to destroy him, and he was forced to endure prison and seven years of exile. This definitive biography portrays Jack Johnson as he really was\u2013a battler against the bigotry of his era and the embodiment of American individualism.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>

This Week in Texas Black History<\/strong><\/h2>\n

July 20<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Jack<\/div>\n

On this day in 1920, Galveston native and former heavyweight champion of the world Jack Johnson<\/a> was arrested and jailed at Leavenworth Federal Prison in Kansas for violation of the Mann Act<\/a>, enacted in 1910 to stop human sex trafficking. However, the broad language of the act allowed for it to be used to prosecute men for premarital, extramarital and interracial relationships, even if consensual. The law made it a felony to transport across state lines \u201cany woman or girls for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.\u201d At the time, Johnson was heavyweight champion of the world, but was a target of law enforcement because of his flamboyant lifestyle, specifically his relationships with white women. The Justice Department subsequently brought a case against Johnson with the cooperation of a former girlfriend, Belle Schreiber<\/a>, and in May 1913 he was convicted by an all-white jury for violation of the Mann Act and sentenced to a year and a day in jail. However, while on bail and appealing the case, Johnson fled the country and fought overseas, including losing the title in a bout against\u00a0Jess Willard<\/a>\u00a0in Havana, Cuba in 1915. Johnson returned to the U.S. in 1920 and surrendered himself for imprisonment. He served nearly a year at Leavenworth.<\/p>\n<\/div>

July 22<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Robert<\/div>\n

On this day in 2014,\u00a0Dallas Cowboys<\/a>\u2018 great\u00a0Robert Newhouse<\/a>\u00a0passed away from heart disease. Newhouse suffered a stroke in 2010 and had been under treatment at the\u00a0Mayo Clinic<\/a>\u00a0in Rochester, Minn. where he passed away. Newhouse starred at Galilee High School in Hallsville, situated between Longview and Marshall. The\u00a0University of Houston<\/a>\u00a0was the only major school recruiting offer he received and with the Cougars, from 1969-1971, Newhouse set several rushing records and left the school as its all-time single-season rushing leader with 1,757 yards as a senior. That total, at the time, was the second most rushing yards in a season in NCAA history and earned Newhouse second team All-American honors. He was a second round draft pick by the Cowboys in 1972 and played all of his 12\u00a0NFL<\/a>\u00a0seasons with Dallas. Newhouse led the team in rushing with 930 yards in 1975.<\/p>\n<\/div>

July 22<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Lawrence<\/div>\n

On this day in 1944, Dr.\u00a0Lawrence Nixon<\/a>, an El Paso physician, voted in the Democratic primary, the first black voter in the state to do so. The\u00a0Texas legislature\u00a0had passed a law in 1923 forbidding blacks from voting in the primary. However, Nixon, working with the\u00a0NAACP<\/a>, challenged the law and attempted to vote on July 26, 1924 and was refused a ballot. Twice the\u00a0U.S. Supreme Court<\/a>\u00a0ruled in his favor, however, the state\u00a0Democratic Party<\/a>\u00a0found legal loopholes (including asserting the party was a private organization and could set restrictions on who could vote) to continue preventing blacks from voting in the primary. Finally, as a result of the Court\u2019s ruling in\u00a0Smith v. Allwright<\/a>\u00a0(where Lonnie Smith had brought a similar suit in Harris County), the all-white primary was ended on April 3, 1944 enabling blacks to vote in the primary. The Court ruled that a primary was an election and a political party was an agency of the state and thus could not discriminate by race.<\/p>\n<\/div>

July 25<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Willie<\/div>\n

Willie Mae \u201cBig Mama\u201d Thornton, blues singer, died of a heart attack at age 57 on this day in 1984 in a Los Angeles boarding house. Thornton grew up in Montgomery, Ala., but settled in Houston where she started her recording career after being discovered by singer and producer\u00a0Johnny Otis<\/a>\u00a0and working with Houston music mogul\u00a0Don Robey\u2019s Peacock Records<\/a>. By the time of Thornton\u2019s death, Otis had become a pastor and in that capacity officiated Thornton\u2019s funeral as many musical artists paid tribute. She was buried in\u00a0Inglewood Park Cemetery<\/a>\u00a0in Los Angeles. Later that year, she was inducted into the\u00a0Blues Foundation Hall of Fame<\/a>. Thornton\u2019s 1953 hit, \u201cHound Dog,\u201d was No. 1 for seven of its 14 weeks on\u00a0Billboard\u2019s R&B charts<\/a>.\u00a0Elvis Presley<\/a>\u00a0made it an even bigger hit, and\u00a0Janis Joplin<\/a>\u00a0popularized Thornton\u2019s \u201cBall and Chain<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>
\n

Blog: Ron Goodwin, Ph.D., author, PVAMU history professor<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ron Goodwin is an assistant professor of history at Prairie View A&M University. Even though he was a military \u201cbrat,\u201d he still considers San Antonio home. Like his father and brother, Ron joined the U.S. Air Force and while enlisted received his undergraduate degree from Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas. After his honorable discharge, he completed graduate degrees from Texas Southern University. Goodwin\u2019s book, Blacks in Houston, is a pictorial history of Houston\u2019s black community. His most recent book, Remembering the Days of Sorrow, examines the institution of slavery in Texas from the perspective of the New Deal\u2019s Slave Narratives.<\/p>\n

Recent Posts<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Protect and Serve (Control)<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The black community\u2019s relationship with law and order has been tenuous, at best, for generations. Sadly, I believe our society has lost sight of the original purpose of law enforcement and how that purpose has been altered in our current societal and global environments. What\u2019s even worse, if that\u2019s possible, is that some groups in our society still embrace the archaic and erroneous ideology that people of color are genetically inferior to those of\u2026 (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

More Uncomfortable Truths<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

In February 2020, I was asked to contribute an opinion piece for the PVAMU website. I submitted an essay describing what I called an Uncomfortable Truth of Black History Month. That \u201ctruth\u201d focused on the black community\u2019s continual efforts to prove it is worthy of recognition as contributors to American society. Even more so, I argued, it is time the black community finally acknowledges that the subliminal need for acceptance is based on the\u2026 (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

Submissions wanted<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Historians, scholars, students, lend us your\u2026writings. Help us produce the most comprehensive documentation ever undertaken for the African American experience in Texas. We encourage you to contribute items about people, places, events, issues, politics\/legislation, sports, entertainment, religion, etc., as general entries or essays. Our documentation is wide-ranging and diverse, and you may research and write about the subject of your interest or, to start, please consult our list of suggested biographical entries and see submission guidelines. However, all topics must be approved by TIPHC editors before beginning your research\/writing.<\/p>\n

We welcome your questions or comments. Please contact Michael Hurd, Director of TIPHC, at\u00a0mdhurd@pvamu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2108,"featured_media":8971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2901,1,18],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[65,59,6769,6748,6747,6768,6733,6767,6766,2688,4305,118,2675,2150,2149,6749,99,6646,2154,2142],"class_list":["post-8962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2020-spring","category-history","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8962"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=8962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":8929,"date":"2020-07-15T17:37:06","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T22:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/?p=8929"},"modified":"2023-03-15T12:45:13","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T17:45:13","slug":"tiphc-newsletter-july-12-18-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/2020\/07\/15\/tiphc-newsletter-july-12-18-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"TIPHC Newsletter, July 12-18, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

How a century-old recording revealed the lost world of African-American cantors<\/strong><\/h2>\n

(Henry Sapoznik<\/em>) The first few decades of the 20th century saw the rise of African-American synagogues simultaneously drawing inspiration from Jewish tradition and a Black worldview. What accounts for this rise is manyfold: Jim Crow laws which supplanted Reconstruction in the south drove a northern migration, a demographic shift which, in New York, brought African-Americans to the already established Jewish community in Harlem (by World War One, Harlem boasted the second largest Jewish community in the country.) Blacks were now encountering Jews as neighbors, employers, inspirations, customers and rivals.<\/p>\n

Simultaneously, Black national aspirations grew, and drew inspiration from Zionism — itself a “back to Africa movement” \u2014 as a model.<\/p>\n

Unaffiliated and unaccepted by the Jewish religious establishment, the congregations were for the most part small and poor, meeting in a storefront or a house — what similarly sized Orthodox congregations would call a shtibl , a little house — they constructed a crazy quilt of traditional Jewish practices (life cycle events, modesty of dress, kashrus\/dietary laws, separate seating, etc) plus rituals which reflect the unique African-American worldview. Services were for the most part in Hebrew with some congregations conversant\/fluent in Yiddish. (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"biggers_the<\/a>

John Biggers, The Stream Crosses the Path, 1961, oil and tempera on panel, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur J. Mandell. \u00a9 2020 John T. Biggers Estate \/ Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, Estate Represented by Michael Rosenfeld Gallery<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is the final venue to present Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, featuring work by more than 60 Black artists that was created over two revolutionary decades in American history.<\/p>\n

The exhibition, organized by Tate Modern in London, was slated to open at the MFAH in April, but it was delayed because of the pandemic lockdown at the previous venue in San Francisco, the de Young Museum. Soul of a Nation is on view in Houston from June 27 through August 30 as the final presentation of the three-year tour.<\/p>\n

Soul of a Nation explores what it meant to be a Black artist in America during two revolutionary decades, from the 1960s and the Civil Rights movement to the early 1980s and the emergence of identity politics. The story unfolds in thematic sections, with a special emphasis on aligned groups in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and another focus on the work of artist Betye Saar. Among the many other artists featured are Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Roy DeCarava, David Hammons, Lorraine O\u2019Grady, and Faith Ringgold. (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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How Lead Belly Sang His Way out of the Hellhole on the Brazos<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Famed bluesman Huddie \u201cLead Belly\u201d Ledbetter\u2019s song \u201cMidnight Special\u201d sheds light on the horrible conditions at the Imperial State Prison Farm in Sugar Land.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Leadbelly\"<\/a>(Houstonian Magazine<\/em>) The graves were there all along, as Reginald Moore had maintained for years. He was proven right last April, when construction workers found the remains of nearly 100 people, most likely former slaves and black prisoners who, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, were forced to work in Texas\u2019s brutal convict-leasing program, then buried and forgotten at the Imperial State Prison Farm in Sugar Land.<\/p>\n

But before that heartbreaking discovery, anybody who listened to famed bluesman Huddie \u201cLead Belly\u201d Ledbetter\u2019s 1934 recording of \u201cMidnight Special\u201d could have gathered just how bad things were at the prison. It\u2019s all right there in the music, a folk song Ledbetter picked up while serving time at Imperial and doing everything he could to find a way out.\u00a0(more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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How a Black Fireman Brought a Pole Into the Firehouse<\/strong><\/h2>\n

More than a century ago, David Kenyon, a firefighter in Chicago, discovered the fastest way to the ground floor<\/em><\/p>\n

\"firehouse<\/a>

Poles like these at a Boston fire station are no longer used universally, but they remain emblematic of the profession. (Alex Potter)<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

(Smithsonian Magazine<\/em>) In the 19th century, American firefighters had two ways of descending from their sleeping quarters to their horse-and-buggy conveyances on the ground floor: either by spiral staircase\u2014installed to keep wayward horses from wandering upstairs\u2014or through a tube chute, similar to the enclosed slides you see at playgrounds today. The stairs were cumbersome and the slides were slow, and in the 1870s, David Kenyon of Company 21, an all-African-American firehouse in Chicago, had an epiphany.<\/p>\n

One day, Kenyon and a colleague got a call about a fire, and his fellow firefighter reached the ground by sliding down a wooden pole normally used to bale hay for horses. (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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TIPHC Bookshelf<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n

\"Playing<\/a>Published scholarship on black history in Texas is growing and we\u2019d like to share with you some suggested readings, both current and past, from some of the preeminent history scholars in Texas and beyond. We invite you to take a look at our bookshelf page \u2013 including a featured selection \u2013 and check back as the list grows. A different selection will be featured each week. We welcome suggestions and reviews. This week, we offer, “Playing in Shadows: Texas and Negro League Baseball,” (Texas Tech University Press), by Rob Fink.<\/p>\n

While baseball may have long been considered an all-American sport in which a melting pot could celebrate ethnic heroes like Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Hank Greenberg, Connie Mack, and Stan Musial, racial segregation excluded blacks from an otherwise democratic picture. Such was certainly the case in Texas, where, in the state\u2019s first professional matchup soon after the Civil War, the R. E. Lees faced the Stonewalls\u2015and African Americans, not surprisingly, played no part. Drawing upon oral histories and mining such rare sources as rosters and box scores from black newspapers, Rob Fink situates the semiprofessional West Texas Colored League against the rise and decline of professional Negro Leagues. From the 1880s Galveston Flyaways through Dallas shortstop Ernie Banks\u2019s signing with the Chicago Cubs in 1953, “Playing in Shadows” brings to light an important but little-studied inning in American sport.<\/p>\n

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This Week in Texas Black History<\/strong><\/h2>\n

July 12<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Barbara<\/div>\n

Texas Congresswoman, Barbara Jordan<\/a>, became the first African-American to give the keynote address at a major national political convention by giving a keynote address at the\u00a0Democratic National Convention<\/a>\u00a0on this date in 1976 in New York City. In opening her remarks, Jordan noted the significance of her appearance: \u201c\u2026my presence here is one additional bit of evidence that the American dream need not ever be deferred.\u201d Jordan was a Houston native and graduate of\u00a0Phillis Wheatley High School<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Texas Southern University<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>

July 15<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Forest<\/div>\n

Forest Whitaker<\/a>, actor, producer, and director, was born on this day in 1961 in Longview. At age four, he moved with his family to Los Angeles. Whitaker was a star tackle at\u00a0Palisades High School<\/a>\u00a0and received college football scholarship offers, however, after suffering a back injury he began to study opera and acting. \u00a0In 1982, he made his film debut in the comedy\u00a0Fast Times at Ridgemont High<\/a>, but his breakout role came in 1988 portraying jazz legend\u00a0Charlie Parker<\/a>, in the\u00a0Clint Eastwood<\/a>\u00a0film,\u00a0Bird<\/a>, for which Whitaker earned the\u00a0Cannes Film Festival<\/a>\u00a0award for Best Actor and a\u00a0Golden Globe<\/a>\u00a0nomination. His first directing effort was the film\u00a0Waiting to Exhale<\/a>\u00a0in 1995, and in 2006 was widely lauded for his role as Ugandan dictator\u00a0Idi Amin<\/a>\u00a0in the movie\u00a0The Last King of Scotland<\/a>. For that, Whitaker earned the 2007\u00a0Academy Award<\/a>\u00a0for Best Actor in a Leading Role, making him the fourth African-American actor to do so, joining\u00a0Sidney Poitier<\/a>,\u00a0Denzel Washington<\/a>, and\u00a0Jamie Foxx<\/a>. That same year, Whitaker played Dr.\u00a0James Farmer Sr.<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0The Great Debaters<\/a>, the movie about the acclaimed\u00a0Wiley College<\/a>\u00a0debate team of the 1930s and its coach,\u00a0Melvin Tolson.<\/p>\n<\/div>

July 16<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
\"Wilhelmina<\/div>\n

On this date in 1929,\u00a0Wilhelmina Delco<\/a>\u00a0was born in Chicago. Delco received a degree in sociology from\u00a0Fisk University<\/a>\u00a0in Nashville in 1950 and seven years later relocated with her husband to Austin. Delco was elected to the\u00a0Austin Independent School District<\/a>\u00a0Board of Trustees in 1968, making her the first African American elected to public office in Austin. In 1974, she won a seat in the\u00a0Texas House of Representatives, making her the first African American official elected at-large in\u00a0Travis County<\/a>. Delco served 10 terms in the Legislature. In 1991, she was appointed Speaker Pro Tempore, becoming the first woman and the second African American to hold the second highest position in the Texas Houseof Representatives. She retired from the Legislature in 1995.<\/p>\n

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Blog: Ron Goodwin, Ph.D., author, PVAMU history professor<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ron Goodwin is an assistant professor of history at Prairie View A&M University. Even though he was a military \u201cbrat,\u201d he still considers San Antonio home. Like his father and brother, Ron joined the U.S. Air Force and while enlisted received his undergraduate degree from Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas. After his honorable discharge, he completed graduate degrees from Texas Southern University. Goodwin\u2019s book, Blacks in Houston, is a pictorial history of Houston\u2019s black community. His most recent book, Remembering the Days of Sorrow, examines the institution of slavery in Texas from the perspective of the New Deal\u2019s Slave Narratives.<\/p>\n

Recent Posts<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Protect and Serve (Control)<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The black community\u2019s relationship with law and order has been tenuous, at best, for generations. Sadly, I believe our society has lost sight of the original purpose of law enforcement and how that purpose has been altered in our current societal and global environments. What\u2019s even worse, if that\u2019s possible, is that some groups in our society still embrace the archaic and erroneous ideology that people of color are genetically inferior to those of… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

More Uncomfortable Truths<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

In February 2020, I was asked to contribute an opinion piece for the PVAMU website. I submitted an essay describing what I called an Uncomfortable Truth of Black History Month. That \u201ctruth\u201d focused on the black community\u2019s continual efforts to prove it is worthy of recognition as contributors to American society. Even more so, I argued, it is time the black community finally acknowledges that the subliminal need for acceptance is based on the\u2026 (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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Submissions wanted<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Historians, scholars, students, lend us your\u2026writings. Help us produce the most comprehensive documentation ever undertaken for the African American experience in Texas. We encourage you to contribute items about people, places, events, issues, politics\/legislation, sports, entertainment, religion, etc., as general entries or essays. Our documentation is wide-ranging and diverse, and you may research and write about the subject of your interest or, to start, please consult our list of suggested biographical entries and see submission guidelines. However, all topics must be approved by TIPHC editors before beginning your research\/writing.<\/p>\n

We welcome your questions or comments. Please contact Michael Hurd, Director of TIPHC, at\u00a0mdhurd@pvamu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2108,"featured_media":8953,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2901,1,18],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[6627,6610,6605,6609,6604,6601,6608,6629,6611,6612,6606,6628,6623,6626,6607,6603,6624,6625,6613,6602],"class_list":["post-8929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2020-spring","category-history","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8929"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=8929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":8932,"date":"2020-07-15T12:37:58","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T17:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/?p=8932"},"modified":"2020-07-15T12:37:58","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T17:37:58","slug":"protect-and-serve-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/2020\/07\/15\/protect-and-serve-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Protect and Serve (Control)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The black community\u2019s relationship with law and order has been tenuous, at best, for generations. Sadly, I believe our society has lost sight of the original purpose of law enforcement and how that purpose has been altered in our current societal and global environments. What\u2019s even worse, if that\u2019s possible, is that some groups in our society still embrace the archaic and erroneous ideology that people of color are genetically inferior to those of European descent.<\/p>\n

Every society is fundamentally the same. Whether that society just discovered the wheel or one that sends men to the moon, there will be 1) some kind of political structure that identifies how group leaders are chosen, 2) religious institution(s) that reinforces standards of moral behavior, and 3) a structure that determines how individuals contribute to the overall success of the group. Without the successful application of these, the result will often be some form of anarchy, or lawlessness, or rampant immorality, or all of the above.<\/p>\n

So, whether it\u2019s a farming community or one that can travel at the speed of sound, the role of law enforcement is virtually the same: maintain accepted forms of social behavior and morality and separate those individuals who pose a threat to the welfare of the group. This obviously works when the group is homogenous where variations from the group norms seldom occur. Such is not the case in this Republic.<\/p>\n

So, our society leaders determine acceptable behaviors, often without input from the greater populace. I find it interesting that the very people who now say they should have the right to not wear face-coverings are the very ones who would deny a woman to decide to have an abortion or not. Ok, I know this may be comparing apples to grapefruits, but at the essence of both is the right to choose a course of action for ones\u2019 life. But, I digress<\/p>\n

After the 1960s Civil Rights movement, the neoconservatives of the 1970s and 1980s asserted the government had given the black community enough. After all, slavery was over and Jim Crow was now illegal. What else could they want?<\/p>\n

The so-called war on drugs seemed like a mantra all could support. Society\u2019s leaders constantly preached that drug use was counter to our social morals, so we should punish and separate those who act outside those morals. In the 1970s and 1980s, everyone, black and white, could support this. News reports documented the disastrous effects of illegal drug use: uncontrolled addictions, prostitution, and crime. Law enforcement throughout this Republic was suddenly sent into communities like storm troopers to root out this scourge of evil. Everyone applauded.<\/p>\n

Fifty years later, we now understand that law enforcement disproportionately targeted communities of color. That\u2019s not to imply that drugs were not present in the Vanilla Suburbs, because they were. But law enforcement targeted the Chocolate Cities with a result sociologists decades later are still trying to comprehend. The devastation caused to the black family from the systematic removal of the black male is nearly incomprehensible. While black women did their best to raise children alone, it is still obvious when there\u2019s not a male in the household.<\/p>\n

Allow me to take an important digression. I\u2019ve found myself in heated conversations with some black females about the absence of black males from the home. In many instances black females find themselves raising children alone. My contention places me in the direct line of ire is that a woman cannot raise a male child to be a man. I\u2019m sorry, but you simply cannot replicate that which you are not. It would be the same as my instructing a young lady on childbirth. No matter how many books I read or documentaries I watch, I will never know the emotional or physical experiences of another life inside me.<\/p>\n

As I said, I\u2019m not trying to deride women for having to step into roles God did not intend for them. In fact, it’s just the opposite. I applaud black women for doing whatever is necessary to ensure the continuity of the family. Whether it was the eighteenth-century slave owner or twenty-first-century law enforcement, the result is the same.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s black community needs to understand and accept that during the war on drugs the white elite used law enforcement as a means of social control. Like antebellum slave patrols, their never-spoken-in-public mission was to ensure public spaces were safe from the perceived threats of the black community, particularly black males.<\/p>\n

As a young Thundercat in San Antonio, my father constantly reinforced certain rules of public behavior to ensure I never had a negative encounter with the police. Sadly, I found myself repeating similar rules of conduct to my sons. So, in fifty years little has changed with respect to law enforcement and black males. So forgive me if I\u2019m a little cautious that things will change now.<\/p>\n

Another thing the black community needs to understand today is that the white elite has transformed nearly every police department into a quasi-military unit. Its almost been twenty years since the world changed for American society. When those planes descended into the Pentagon and destroyed the buildings of the World Trade Center the white elite initiated a new era of government control under the guise of national defense.<\/p>\n

The phrase \u201cfirst responders\u201d became commonplace and those individuals became revered. Those individuals assigned to various fire and police units around this country should be revered for placing their lives in jeopardy every day. They\u2019ve been tasked with being the first to arrive and assess every catastrophic event that occurs, or could potentially occur. So their training extends far beyond that of the previous generation. When responding to an act of terrorism it makes sense. When responding to a drunk driver in a fast-food drive-through, it does not.<\/p>\n

Protests will have some influence on the white elite and cause some white supremacists to feel shame. But those influences will have limits. In nature, we understand that a rainbow appears after every rainstorm. Likewise, the black community understands that a white backlash follows every effort to advance social equity.<\/p>\n

Surely, the black community\u2019s relationship with law and order has been tenuous. It\u2019s a holdover from the slave patrols\u2019 antebellum efforts to maintain control and reinforce white supremacy. Nonetheless, it\u2019s time the elites in this Republic either reconsiders the role of law enforcement or make it clear to the populace what that role is.<\/p>\n

Later.<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,34],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[6535,65,375,6530,6526,2442,409,6539,6538,6528,6537,1797,6533,6525,6532,6527,6534,6529,6536,6531],"class_list":["post-8932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-goodwin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8932"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/tiphc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=8932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}]