Our forebears survived woes comparable to those of the Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace, and Daniel in the lion's den, so frequently celebrated on Sunday mornings.
And that survival was after they'd come up from slavery; after they'd saved this country from dissolution; after they'd protected and provided for Ole Missus on abandoned plantations; after they had given back land that was rightfully theirs with growing crops, they had worked for years for free; after the rights guaranteed to them were ignored willfully by the courts, and by their racist oppressors; after they had won the Spanish-American War and after they had defeated and subdued the recalcitrant plains Indians in the southwest and Mexico; and after they had saved the allies' bacon in World War I. One may search sacred text or secular history all that one likes, but nowhere, nowhere, will be found any people like us, as resilient as us, as tough as us! A black minority within a hateful, exploitative, and murderous white majority, that were able to exploit the whites' internal differences in order to effect their own freedom, consistent with that nation's alleged Christian creed of love, and consistent with its constitution's alleged credo of justice for all, only to be betrayed again and again; lied to repeatedly; vilified as inferior savages in politics, in religion,in academia, and in popular culture: schools, books, film, television,while being repressed unmercifully! Surely we are part of a new human canon, surely our history is a new theology, and our triumph new science to inspire and enthrall the future of man and our own present, if we would read!
THE ROSEWOOD MASSACRE
A Documented History Of the Massacre which occurred at Rosewood, Florida, in January 1923. "Racial unrest and violence against African Americans permeated domestic developments in the United States during the post-World War I era. From individual lynchings to massive violence against entire black communities, whites in both the North and the South lashed out against black Americans with a rage that knew few bounds. From Chicago to Tulsa, to Omaha, East St. Louis, and many communities in between, and finally to Rosewood, white mobs pursued what can only be described as a reign of terror against African Americans during the period from 1917 to 1923. In Chicago, Illinois, for example, law and order was suspended for 13 days in July 1919 as white mobs made foray after foray into black neighborhoods, killings and wounding 365 black residents and leaving another 1,000 homeless. In June 1921, the black section of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was almost burned out and thousands were left homeless following racial violence by white residents.
(1) What had happened to the public's commitment to make the "World Safe for Democracy" that had become the national by-words during World War I? And why had white citizens turned against black Americans with such fury, after many had participated directly in the war effort and others had patriotically supported it? And finally how did Rosewood and Florida fit into these racial developments?
During the second decade of the twentieth century, African Americans began to leave the South in record numbers to escape the oppression of segregation and the economic havoc created by the boll weevil's devastation of the cotton crop. They were also drawn to the North by the promise of economic opportunity and greater freedom. Over 40,000 black Floridians joined 283,000 African Americans from other southern states in the migration to Chicago and other midwestern and northeastern cities where a shortage of labor had created great demand for black workers. Labor agents from northern industries and railroads descended on the South in search of black workers. The Pennsylvania Railroad, for example, brought 12,000 to work in its yards and on its tracks, all but 2,000 of whom came from Florida and Georgia.
(2) In a recent study, two historians argue that, while all these issues were important, African Americans went north principally because of the mounting racial violence in the South. With the number of lynchings averaging over 40 per year, the threat of lynching and mob violence had become a serious threat to the average black citizen. As one older study of the black migration noted, both whites and blacks believed that lynching were "one of the most important causes" and that the fear of the mob had greatly accelerated the exodus...."
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
OUR FOREBEARS MIRACULOUS SURVIVAL IN LIVING HELL
Our forebears survived woes comparable to those of the Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace, and Daniel in the lion's den, so frequently celebrated on Sunday mornings.
And that survival was after they'd come up from slavery; after they'd saved this country from dissolution; after they'd protected and provided for Ole Missus on abandoned plantations; after they had given back land that was rightfully theirs with growing crops, they had worked for years for free; after the rights guaranteed to them were ignored willfully by the courts, and by their racist oppressors; after they had won the Spanish-American War and after they had defeated and subdued the recalcitrant plains Indians in the southwest and Mexico; and after they had saved the allies' bacon in World War I. One may search sacred text or secular history all that one likes, but nowhere, nowhere, will be found any people like us, as resilient as us, as tough as us! A black minority within a hateful, exploitative, and murderous white majority, that were able to exploit the whites' internal differences in order to effect their own freedom, consistent with that nation's alleged Christian creed of love, and consistent with its constitution's alleged credo of justice for all, only to be betrayed again and again; lied to repeatedly; vilified as inferior savages in politics, in religion,in academia, and in popular culture: schools, books, film, television,while being repressed unmercifully! Surely we are part of a new human canon, surely our history is a new theology, and our triumph new science to inspire and enthrall the future of man and our own present, if we would read!
THE ROSEWOOD MASSACRE
A Documented History Of the Massacre which occurred at Rosewood, Florida, in January 1923. "Racial unrest and violence against African Americans permeated domestic developments in the United States during the post-World War I era. From individual lynchings to massive violence against entire black communities, whites in both the North and the South lashed out against black Americans with a rage that knew few bounds. From Chicago to Tulsa, to Omaha, East St. Louis, and many communities in between, and finally to Rosewood, white mobs pursued what can only be described as a reign of terror against African Americans during the period from 1917 to 1923. In Chicago, Illinois, for example, law and order was suspended for 13 days in July 1919 as white mobs made foray after foray into black neighborhoods, killings and wounding 365 black residents and leaving another 1,000 homeless. In June 1921, the black section of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was almost burned out and thousands were left homeless following racial violence by white residents.
(1) What had happened to the public's commitment to make the "World Safe for Democracy" that had become the national by-words during World War I? And why had white citizens turned against black Americans with such fury, after many had participated directly in the war effort and others had patriotically supported it? And finally how did Rosewood and Florida fit into these racial developments?
During the second decade of the twentieth century, African Americans began to leave the South in record numbers to escape the oppression of segregation and the economic havoc created by the boll weevil's devastation of the cotton crop. They were also drawn to the North by the promise of economic opportunity and greater freedom. Over 40,000 black Floridians joined 283,000 African Americans from other southern states in the migration to Chicago and other midwestern and northeastern cities where a shortage of labor had created great demand for black workers. Labor agents from northern industries and railroads descended on the South in search of black workers. The Pennsylvania Railroad, for example, brought 12,000 to work in its yards and on its tracks, all but 2,000 of whom came from Florida and Georgia.
(2) In a recent study, two historians argue that, while all these issues were important, African Americans went north principally because of the mounting racial violence in the South. With the number of lynchings averaging over 40 per year, the threat of lynching and mob violence had become a serious threat to the average black citizen. As one older study of the black migration noted, both whites and blacks believed that lynching were "one of the most important causes" and that the fear of the mob had greatly accelerated the exodus...."