400 Years of Africans In America

Today is the 400th anniversary of the arrival of captive Africans at Old Point Comfort in what would later become Fort Monroe in Hampton, VA.

They were part of an original group of 60 Africans captured in in the kingdom of Ndongo in present day Angola.   With the Transatlantic Slave Trade well underway in the Caribbean and Latin America, the captured Africans were placed on a Spanish ship named the San Juan Bautista to transport them on an unwanted boat ride to Mexico.

The San Juan Bautista was attacked by two pirate ships, the White Lion and the Treasurer, who forced the Spanish ship to surrender its cargo of captive Africans.   Those ships got split up during a storm, and the White Lion ended up at Old Point Comfort.

I also need to emphatically point out these early Africans weren't slaves.   Slavery was not legal in Virginia at that time and wouldn't become so until 1661, so those 20 plus Africans from Angola were traded for food and supplies and treated as indentured servants. 

At the time of the Africans arrival, the colony at Old Point Comfort was failing.   The colonists were resorting to cannibalism to survive, and now you had these Africans who arrived just in time with farming and artisan skills that were spread out amongst the nearby Virginia area homes and plantations

Those African farmers also had the skills to cultivate rice, sugar and cotton, crops that were perfect for this climate, but didn't have the seven year contracts like the white indentured servants from England.  That meant the Africans were at the mercy of their plantation owners

Many of those Africans worked 15-20 years before they were granted their freedom.   Once that freedom occurred, the freed Africans started their own homesteads, married other white and Native Americans, purchased the freedom of other family members, owned land, and enjoyed their freedom during that 40 year period before slavery stained what would later become the United States for the next 200 plus years



One of the other things that happened with those first African arrivals was the first African descended child born in North America.   Isabella and Antony were part of that group of 20 Africans that ended up living at Capt William Tucker's home, the commander of Point Comfort

His home was in present day Hampton. and Antony and Isabella eventually got married and had a son named William Tucker. The Tucker family was documented in the 1625 Virginia census, and William was baptized on January 4, 1624.  William is considered to be the first documented African descended child born in English North America.

The occasion of the arrival of Africans in America will be marked by a series of events in Hampton during the August 23-25 weekend. 

In light of the fact we have ignorant MAGAts shouting 'go back to Africa' to us, this 400th anniversary celebration of the arrival of Africans in America is a timely one.

It drives home the point that we have not only been here in North America for 400 years and predate the founding of the United States, but despite all the ongoing challenges of being Black in this country, we have managed to persevere, and thrive.

Congrats Sheriff-Elect Zena Stephens!

One of the other positive things that happened on Election Night was that the first ever African-American female sheriff in Texas was elected in Jefferson County

That's the county 90 miles east of Houston along I-10 in which Beaumont and Port Arthur are the primary cities in.

She's Zena Stephens, and at the time she was elected on November 8 she was serving as the current chief of the Prairie View A&M University Police Department.

She served for 16 years in the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, leaving as a chief deputy to take the chief's job at PVAMU in 2013 after serving in the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department as a field officer, in administration and in public relations.

Stephens when she accepted the PVAMU PD job became the first female chief in that department's history.

As you probably expected for a trailblazer, it wasn't an easy road to make that history.  She had to win three elections to do so.  In two of them, she faced off against better funded candidates.

Texas Black history moment.  The first Black female deputy sheriff in Texas was Barbara Hayes Foreman.  She was appointed in 1977 and served in Travis County (Austin).

But back to talking about our latest Black history maker.

In the March Democratic primary, Stephens knocked off Rod Carroll, the top deputy of retiring Jefferson County sheriff Mitch Woods, who is retiring after 20 years of service as Jefferson County sheriff.     Carroll had the overwhelming support of Jefferson County law enforcement and the funding, but finished third in the primary.  

If Stephens name is familiar to you, it's probably because of an incident that garnered national news coverage.

During that March primary campaign, a gunshot was fired through a glass door at her campaign headquarters the night before the election by 19 year old Vidor resident (why am I not surprised?) Adam Carver who was allegedly uttering racial slurs as he did so.  

Vidor is an odious Klan infested sundown town along I-10 in neighboring Orange County which has a long racist reputation in southeast Texas and with Black Texans across the state.

Carver was using his 2nd Amendment rights to express some of those Klan family values they preach and teach in Vidor.  He was arrested, indicted and charged with deadly conduct, and is facing a court hearing on November 28.

Stephens topped the field in the March Democratic primary, but didn't get over 50% of the vote to win the nomination outright, so she was forced into a May runoff election for the Democratic nomination against former constable Joe 'QB' Stevenson.  

In addition to the Democratic nomination, history was on the ballot in that Democratic runoff election battle.  The winner would become the first ever African-American sheriff in Jefferson County, and Stephens prevailed

That win over Stevenson propelled her to the general election against the Republican nominee in former Beaumont PD Lt, Ray Beck, who raised six times more cash than Stephens for this race.

But as I've pointed out more than a few times, just because you have more money than your opponent doesn't mean you're guaranteed political victory.

Stephens won by 2,431 votes in a race that saw 86,701 total ballots cast.   It was voters in Beaumont's northern and southern precincts along with Port Arthur voters that helped her seize the lead and hold on to win with 51.4% of the vote for the win despite a strong challenge from Beck. .

Sheriff-elect Stephens commented after her win about the historic nature of it.

"I think it is important, because I never saw anybody who looked like me in this role, or as a police chief, when I was growing up," said Stephens. "And so the idea, not just for girls but for any minority, that you can obtain these jobs at this level, I think that's important. And it's important for these jobs in law enforcement and any job to reflect the community they serve."

Congrats to Sheriff-elect Stephens for this hard fought accomplishment in a male dominated field. And at a time when confidence and respect for police forces is at a low ebb in Black communities across the nation, it''s an important accomplishment as well.

Naw Conservafools, Clarence Thomas Doesn't Belong In The NMAAHC

The newly opened National Museum of African American History and Culture has over 350,000 square feet of exhibit space in the beautifully designed building that resembles an Egyptian pyramid that is ten stories tall, five of them below ground.

It has a collection of over 33,000 objects, with 3,500 of them on display in the museum including the Parliament-Funkadelic Mothership.  Tickets to enter the NMAAHC are sold out for the remainder of the year and through March 2017.

But one of the things that is pissing conservatives off is there is no mention of Supreme Court (in)Justice Clarence Thomas except for his contentious SCOTUS confirmation hearing.

They want Thomas included in the NMAAHC, and have launched a petition campaign to make that happen.

Aww, poor conservababies. It's amusingly ironic they are pissed off about Thomas not being included in a national African American history museum they fought tooth and nail for decades to ensure would never open.

I say not only no, but hell no to Uncle Thomas' inclusion in the NMAAHC.

Selling out your people has a cost, and one of those is being considered a pariah amongst your people and going down in Black history as the man who was the antithesis of the towering legal legacy of Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Thomas was on the wrong side of far too many cases that involved or negatively affected our people including being the deciding vote in the Shelby case that eviscerated Section 4 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Citizens United, Voter ID laws and voting rights, and affirmative action just to name a few.

And no amount of whining from you conservatives or attempts to sanitize that odious anti-Black legacy will change the decades of disgust we African-Americans feel and have for him whenever we hear Clarence Thomas' name mentioned.

So nope, the only way Clarence Thomas should get into the NMAAHC is to buy a ticket.

Congratulations On Making History Again, Fran!

It's been a history making 2016 already for attorney and human rights advocate Fran Watson, who is the current president of the Houston LGBT Political Caucus among the other things she's a part of in H-town.

Fran not only became the first African-American woman to hold the position back in January, the native Houstonian was also honored this year with a proclamation by Mayor Sylvester Turner declaring January 27 as Fran Watson Day!

Last night Fran made some more local LGBT history by becoming the first African-American woman in 23 years elected to be a Houston Pride Parade Female Grand Marshal and only the second ever..

The Rev. Carolyn Mobley was the first African-American female Houston Pride Grand Marshal, and she accomplished that feat back in 1993.

In the 2016 Female Grand Marshal race there were two additional outstanding candidates in Lynette Ross and Melissa Vivanco, so it was a tough choice for peeps voting this year..  

That was also the case in the Male Grand Marshal race in which Lou Weaver was vying to become the first ever trans masculine Grand Marshal, and Brad Pritchett and Paul Guillory were also running for it.  .

We've had two trans feminine ones in Phyllis Frye and Jenifer Rene Pool.

Brad Odom was elected 2016 Grand Marshal Male and in another tough choice race for 2016 Grand Marshal Ally, Dena Gray was elected over another deserving nominee in former HISD school board trustee Juliet. Stipeche.

Houston Pride Week will be June 19-26, with the Pride Festival and parade for the second consecutive year in Downtown Houston.


TransGriot Note:  photo of Fran by Eric Edward Schell

It's Now Mayor Sylvester Turner!

While the public inauguration won't happen until Monday, the Houston City Charter mandates that all elected offices start their terms on January 2.

So that means that our new mayor, controller and city council members were at a small City Hall ceremony today to take the oaths of office and officially be sworn in.

Sylvester Turner, after resigning from the state legislative seat yesterday he has held since 1988, took the oath of office to become our 62nd mayor.  

The public inauguration will take place at Jones Hall starting at 9:30 AM, and will be televised.  It's free, and the Jones Hall box office opens at 8:15 to pass out tickets for the historic ceremony.

I say historic because Mayor Turner, while being the second African-American elected to the Houston mayor's chair, is the first African-American native Houstonian to be elected mayor.  It also puts Houston on a small list of cities that has elected more than one African-American mayor

It was a long time coming for Mayor Turner and is well deserved.  It also keeps the streak alive of Houston mayor's chair being occupied by a Democrat for the last 30 years, which is why the Tea Klux Klan was meddling in our mayoral election business.

Once again, thank you to the Fort Bend County portion of Houston for ensuring their plan failed and we got this man sitting in the horseshoe.

And oh yeah, looking forward to watching the inauguration to see if Ben Hall's transphobic behind will show up..

Malcolm X-The Ballot Or The Bullet Speech

This April 4, 1964 speech delivered by Malcolm X at Cleveland's Cory Methodist Church is ranked (number 7) as one of the 100 Greatest Speeches in American history. 

It is sadly, in the wake of what's happening in Ferguson, MO still relevant 50 years later..

Brava, Tona!

History was made last night as Tona Brown stepped on the Weill Recital Hall stage at New York's Carnegie Hall for her show entitled 'From Stonewall to Carnegie Hall'

The show featured the works of African-American composers and in addition to our mezzo soprano violin playing sister, featured Tammy Peay, Nathan James, and Charlie Gilmer.

While I was bummed I couldn't be there, I am hearing through my sources that my Black trans family was in the house, showed up and showed out to support our trailblazing sister.

Speaking of support, the Gofundme campaign is still in effect to help Tona with expenses incurred in putting on this event. Performing at Carnegie Hall isn't cheap, and she did so without corporate financing or support.

Brava, Tona!    Congratulations on making your lifelong dream of performing at Carnegie Hall a phenomenal success. 

50th Anniversary Of The Freedom Summer Murders

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the start of Freedom Summer, which was a ten week coordinated civil rights campaign organized by the four Mississippi branches of CORE, SNCC, SCLC and the NAACP under the Council of Federated Organization coalition banner. 

The Freedom Summer campaign was designed to register African-American voters in Mississippi, which at the time had only 6.7% of its Black population registered because of the measures put in place to suppress it such as poll taxes, subjective literacy tests, onerous voter registration forms and grandfather clauses.

It also set up Freedom Houses, Freedom Schools and community centers to support the African-American population in many Mississippi small towns.   

Over 1000 out of state volunteers came to Mississippi to help the local Blacks participating in the Freedom Summer Project.   Two of them were New Yorkers Michael Schwerner, who was a CORE organizer and his summer volunteer Andrew Goodman.   They were paired with local CORE organizer James Chaney.

Of course, Freedom Summer was met by violent resistance by the Klan, the White Citizens Councils and other white segregationists in the state.  Black churches were bombed and burned along with Black businesses, Freedom Summer volunteers were beaten or arrested.

On June 21, 1964 Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were sent to Longdale, MS to investigate the June 16 burning of the Mt Zion Baptist Church in which they had intended to set up a Freedom School to aid the voter registration drive in Neshoba County.    

After their investigation, the civil rights workers were enroute back to COFO headquarters in Meridian when they were falsely arrested in Philadelphia, MS, detained until after nightfall, and released into a Klan ambush.  

Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were killed and their bodies buried in an earthen dam under construction.   They were found weeks later after an intensive search.

The perps were eventually convicted in 1967.  Edgar Ray Killen's original trial deadlocked, and he wasn't convicted until 2005.

The murders of the civil rights workers and the national outrage behind it helped galvanized support for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Right Act of 1965. 

 

March 6, 1857-A Date That Will Live In SCOTUS Infamy

"beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."
--Chief Justice Roger B. Taney

It would give to persons of the negro race, ...the right to enter every other State whenever they pleased, ...to sojourn there as long as they pleased, to go where they pleased ...the full liberty of speech in public and in private upon all subjects upon which its own citizens might speak; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went.
--Chief Justice Roger B. Taney

There are days I read those words and feel that elements of the white community in 21st century America still believe that.

Moving on to talking about this sad anniversary.  

Today is the day that Dred Scott v Sandford, one of the worst Supreme Court decisions ever, was handed down on March 6, 1857.   Slavery supporting Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote the majority opinion for the Court..  

It not only ruled 7-2 the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional, but held that African-Americans whether slave or free, were not citizens of the United States and had no standing to sue in court. 

Interesting to note the birthers tried to use Dred Scott v Sandford in their attacks of President Obama that has long since been overturned by the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. 

But far from settling the question of slavery as Taney hoped, the Dred Scott Decision poured gasoline on a simmering fire, exacerbated tensions between the slaveholding South and the abolitionist North, caused the Panic of 1857, split the Democratic Party, helped solidify a nascent Republican Party, encouraged the secessionist politicians in the South to make even bolder demands in support of slavery, helped grease the skids for the American Civil War that broke out three years later and laid the ground .

While Dred Scott didn't receive justice from the SCOTUS that day, his and his wife's freedom that he sued for was purchased by the sons of Peter Blow, his first owner in May 1857.   But Scott unfortunately didn't get to enjoy that freedom for long.   He contracted tuberculosis and died 18 months later on November 7, 1858.   His wife Harriet passed away June 17, 1876.

And Taney's reputation was forever tarnished by that unjust decision.  

Taney was correct on one aspect of that horrid decision.   Today I and other African Americans are not only recognized as citizens of this country (the level is still debatable) we are born in, we run for and hold public office, have those political meetings, speak truth to power, travel and live wherever we please inside the borders of this nation, vote (when the Repugs aren't trying to suppress it) and some of us even carry arms.  

But for those of us who have those freedoms, its anniversary days like this in which we need to take a step back and realize that a little over 150 years ago we didn't.    We owe our freedoms to people like Dred Scoot and countless others as Africans in America, and we have to fight tooth and nail to ensure that they are never rolled back.   

Four Little Girls-50 Years Later

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Klan terrorist bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL  that killed 4 teenage girls and wounded 22 other people when it exploded at 10:22 AM.

Addie Mae Collins (aged 14), Denise McNair (aged 11), Carole Robertson (aged 14), and Cynthia Wesley (aged 14), were killed in the attack.  One of the people wounded in it was Collins sister Sarah.

The girls who died that day were posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal this week.

The 50th anniversary of that heinous attack was observed today in a church filled with a multiracial group of attendees being taught by the Rev. Arthur Price the same Sunday School lesson that was heard 50 years ago on this date.

The title of that lesson?  'A Love That Forgives'.

A 50th anniversary commemoration service with Atty General Eric Holder as one of the speakers scheduled to attend it will take place later today.


50 years later we mourn the four little girls whose lives were tragically ended on that day and consider the fact that if the bombers intent was to weaken the resolve of the civil rights warriors of that time to cease and desist in their pursuit of full human rights for African-Americans and ending Jim Crow segregation, they utterly failed.
The bombing mere weeks after the March on Washington upped the human rights stakes, brought additional international attention to the African-American civil rights struggle and helped prod Congress to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

But we still have work to do    The Forces of Intolerance are on the march and rolling out Jim Crow 2.0 in their desperate attempt to roll back our hard won human rights progress paid for with the blood of our civil rights martyrs and foot soldiers aided and abetted by five robed conservative members of the Supreme Court.

We've come too far as a nation and a people to let them roll that progress back without a fight, and this event reminds us of what it cost us to make that progress.  

 

The 50th Anniversary Of The March On Washington And The Trans Community

Today is the actual 50th Anniversary of the March On Washington which was capped by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's speech for the ages. 

I spent most of last Saturday afternoon glued to the couch watching the  commemoration march that happened Saturday and seeing friends like Donna Payne and Aisha Moodie-Mills either speaking during the event or getting to comment on it afterward. 

While I'm happy the gay and lesbain segment of the African-American community got to participate last Saturday, it still bothered me that there was no T and B representation at the event.

Now that I've gotten the obvious point of contention out of the way, time to use this anniversary date to ponder where the African-American trans community is as of August 28, 2013.

We are now sixty years past the February date in which Christine Jorgensen stepped off the plane from Denmark to the glare of the world's media in New York.  The Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit-In and Protest we would jump off in Philly happened two years after the March On Washington.

Just as it was pointed out by of African-American cis brothers and cis sisters, while the African-American trans community has made some fantastic progress since 1953, in many ways it has still been the same old same old dynamic. 

And yes, as I continue to point out, Black transgender issues are black community issues.   Like our cisgender counterparts we face Stop and Frisk policing.   The voter suppression issues affect us too.  And yes, while I may have morphed into a different body shape, I still because of my Black skin and heritage face the same bigotry and old racism like every other African American    

Being transgender didn't change that, just the way I experience it.

Speaking of the transgender community,  we're still invisible when it comes to the leadership ranks of this community.   We still face crushing unemployment-underemployment, and yes, we're taking along with our Latina transsisters the brunt of the casualties as last week's deaths of Islan nettles and Domonique Newburn painfully pointed out.

And we have to deal with the scourge of transphobia inside the African-American community that is fueling some of the anti-trans hate and violence we are suffering. 

But at the same time there are encouraging signs that we're making progress.  In this decade we have more out and proud African descended trans role models than ever before.   We have TPOCC, the NBJC and a host of local organizations fighting for our human rights.   The NAACP is recognizing that their membership base contains Black trans people.   BTMI and BTWI in just three short years has inspired our transbrothers to not only step up their leadership game inside and outside our community but reclaim their history.  We have Black trans people doing some amazing things and as more of us walk off college campuses with degrees in hand I expect to see more groundbreaking and amazing leadership and things to come from my younger transsisters and transbrothers 

Yes, we've made some amazing progress, but we African descended transpeople still have like our cis African-American counterparts a long way to go and problems to solve. 





     

It's Juneteenth, 2013 Edition!

Today is June 19 or Juneteenth as we call it in the Lone Star State and the 42 other states that recognize it

It commemorates the 1865 day that Union Major General Gordon Granger stood on the balcony at Ashton Villa in Galveston, TX and read General Order Number 3 that proclaimed that all Texas slaves were henceforth freed.

I wrote a post last year framing Juneteenth in the context of what the African-American trans community in my home state needed to do.  I called for African-American trans Texans to embark on a trans Juneteenth in which we step off the mental plantation of shame, guilt and fear and stride boldly toward a future of us owning our power.  

What I didn't know at the time was that the seeds for what I was calling for were already being planted at the inaugural Black Transmen, Inc conference in Dallas and started to grow this past March.  A few weeks later I finally got a chance while I was in Charlotte for the TransFaith in Color Conference to meet in the flesh two Texas based transwomen I'd corresponded with online for several years in Dallas' Rev. Carmarion Anderson and Houston video blogger Diamond Stylz

At the BTMI conference in March I finally got to meet Carter Brown of Dallas and the men of BTMI who are all about being the change you wish to see in the world.   A month later it was emerging Houston transmasculine leader Tye West.

And yes, there are cis African-American allies and our trans family in Texas, around the nation and the world who stand ready to help us put into practice what I visualized last year.

We've stepped off the mental plantation of shame, fear and guilt and are taking those bold steps into being proud trans masculine and trans feminine Texans involved with and ensconced in the communities we intersect and interact with.  How that continues to evolve will be the source of constant communication. effort and sometimes 'The Texas Trans Revolution Will Not Be Televised' consultation, but I'm happy to see it's finally happening in my birth state.   

I'm also aware that the struggle for trans Texans human rights continues inside and outside of the African-American community.   We have to throw off the shackles of fourth class citizenship and plant trans civil rights trees here in our state as we fight off the oppressors who seek to chop those trees down.  We must nurture their growth even though we realize that as they grow tall enough to shelter transpeople from the blazing sun of anti-trans discrimination and bigotry, we may not live long enough to sit under them and drink strawberry soda or strawberry Kool-Aid in their human rights shade.

That shouldn't deter us from doing the hard solid thinking and work that must be done to build community amongst African-American trans Texans, our cis and trans allies here, across the US and around the world and all people of good will interested in helping us sit at our place at the family table. 

As I said in last year's post and it still applies 365 days later, we African descended Texas transpeople can no longer afford to muddle around for another wasted decade isolated, invisible to the world at large, ignorant about what's going on around us, and feeling impotent socially, emotionally, politically and economically. 

It is time for us to step up our leadership games and be the proud Black trans men and trans women we are, own our power and write our own proud chapter in Black Texas history in the process.

And I'm pleased and proud to see that we are finally on the road to doing all of the above.

50th Anniversary Of Medgar Evers Assassination

It didn't take long for reaction to come from the Southern segregationists and Klan terrorists to come in reaction to President Kennedy's civil rights speech the previous night

50 years ago today civil rights leader and NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers was shot and killed in the driveway of his Jackson, MS home by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith as he returned from a meeting with NAACP lawyers in the early morning hours of June 12, 1963.

After his funeral in Jackson, the Army veteran was buried with full military honors June 19 in Arlington National Cemetery as President Kennedy and other leaders of the time condemned the murder.

De La Beckwith was arrested for murder within weeks of Evers’ shooting but his first trial in 1964 ended with a hung all-white male jury. When a second all-white male jury also failed to reach a decision, De La Beckwith was set free. 

With the persistence of his widow Myrlie Evers-Williams, who later became the chair of the NAACP herself in 1995, pressure was applied three decades later by the Evers family and civil rights leaders to force the state of Mississippi to reopen the case based on new evidence.   

Evers body was exhumed from his grave for autopsy during the trial and on February 5, 1994 a racially mixed jury convicted the then 73 year old unrepentant white supremacist De La Beckwith for the 1963 assassination of Evers and sentenced him to life in prison, where he died in January 2001 at age 80.
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Jackie Robinson Breaking The Baseball Color Line Anniversary

Some historians consider the second most important day in the history of the African-American Civil Rights movement to be the April 15, 1947 day that  Jackie Robinson broke the major league baseball color line.

I wrote about it during the 60th anniversary of that date in 2007.

In that first season he endured racial epithets, flying cleats, pitchers throwing at his head and legs, catchers spitting on his shoes, hate mail and death threats but let his on the field play speak for him. He won over his teammates and his opponents with his unselfish team play and was named Rookie of the Year. Two years later he was the National League MVP. He compiled a lifetime batting average of .311 and was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

A new movie '42', was released over the weekend retelling the story to join with tthe others already made. 

Jackie Robinson was such an iconic figure at that time Count Basie wrote a song entitled 'Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball' to extoll his baseball prowess and the pride Black America had for him..




Today every current baseball player in the majors wore the retired number 42 in honor of him and this landmark event on the road to human rights coverage for all African-Americans.

45th Anniversary of Dr. MLK, Jr's Assassination

It's now 45 years since that awful April 4, 1968 day that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated in Memphis, TN at 6:01 PM CDT.  

I was four weeks from celebrating my sixth birthday at the time and because of that assassin's bullet Dr King unfortunately would not live to celebrate his 40th.

2013 finds us in the interesting and ironic convergence of this year that we mark the somber 45th anniversary of his assassination also being the 50th anniversaries of Dr King writing the famous Letter From Birmingham City Jail, the Birmingham Campaign, the March on Washington and the 'I Have A Dream' Speech, and the bombing of Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.

And yes, we still have an African-American president and his family living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

There are times I wonder where this country would be if the Drum Major For Justice had been able to live through the 70's and 80's.  We know his stance on the Vietnam War and he was increasingly focused on economic issues..  What would he have commented on in terms of the issues of the 1970's and 1980's?

Renee of Womanist Musings and I discussed that during his birthday weekend.

He definitely would have praised the Nixon Administration for ending the American involvement in the Vietnam War but called them out over Watergate.  He would have decried the Yom Kippur War, the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and probably criticized Ronald Reagan for his Evil Empire rhetoric that dangerously increased Cold War tensions between the US and USSR to the point that as we now know World War III almost got jumped off.   

And what would Dr. King have said about Stonewall and the LGBT rights movement?  The ERA and the rise of a conservative movement that disingenuously hid behind the Bible to roll back human rights?.

There's not too many things I agree with Tavis Smiley about these days, but there is one statement I'm in lock step agreement with him on in terms of him stating that Dr. King was the greatest American our people have ever produced.

And the memorial to him in Washington DC is an exclamation point to that..

More Black Trans History Links

It's almost halfway through Black History month 2013 an I realized I haven't done any Black trans history posts yet.

My bad, TransGriot readers.

Buried in the over 6400 posts I've written since January 1, 2006 are many that deal with Black trans history makers. 

In addition to the now three Black trans history quizzes,  I do have posts about various events personalities and compilation posts of the TransGriot Ten Questions Interviews I've done so far.

And yes, people.  I heard your voices speak in terms of you wanting more of those Ten Questions Interviews and will strive to do a better job of bringing those to you in 2013.


Black Trans History-Lucy Hicks Anderson

Black Trans History-Althea Garrison 

Black Trans History-Ajita Wilson

TransGriot Ten Questions Interview-Isis King

TransGriot Ten Questions Interview-Tracie Jada O'Brien

TransGriot Ten Questions Interview- Diamond Stylz

The Interesting Story of Gerald Trenton

The Story of Carlett Brown

Who Was The First African-American Transperson?

The Story of Georgia Black

Black Trans History-Jim McHarris

Jowelle De Souza-Trini Trans Pioneer

The 3rd Annual African-American Trans History Quiz-The Answers

Well, did y'all have fun trying to answer the 3rd annual incarnation of the TransGriot African-American Trans History Quiz?    It was an open Internet test and I gave you the hint that some of the answer to these 25 questions were buried in previous TransGriot posts.

As promised the quiz answers, but gave y'all etra time and posted them at noon Central time Thursday..

***


1.  Kylar Broadus and Dr Marisa Richmond were two of the 13 delegates to this event that took place in Charlotte last summer.   Name the event.

The Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC

2. This Chicago activist wrote a one act play, organized a trans pride event and considers herself an 'artivist'  Who is she?

Kokumo Kinetic

3. This IFGE Trinity Award winner was appointed to this position in Washington DC.  Name the position.
Earline Budd,  human rights commissioner

4. True or False.  Janet Mock was invited to attend an LGBT reception at the Vice President's residence.

True

5.  The TransGriot was one of the participants in a historic event at last year's Netroots Nation.  What was it?

The first ever panel on trans issues 

6.  At  last year's NBJC OUT on the Hill their first ever trans town hall was conducted.  Who were the four participants in the town hall and who was the moderator of it?

Minister Carmarion Anderson, Danielle King, Valerie Spencer, the TransGriot and Laverne Cox was Moderator.

7. Rapper Katey Red made a cameo appearance on this HBO television show.  Name it.
Treme

8. According to a 1966 Sepia magazine article, who is considered the 'First Negro Sex Change"?

A. Avon Wilson                                C. Delisa Newton
B. Carlett Brown                              D. Carole Small

9. True or False.  Valerie Spencer was part of the first all trans production of The Vagina Monologues in 2004. 
True

10. Dee Dee Chamblee runs an organization called LaGender in this southern US city.   Name it.
It's in Atlanta

11. True or False.  Pioneering transman Alexander John Goodrum is from San Francisco.
False    He was from Chicago.   Moved to San Francisco and then Tuscon.  

12. Which one of these companies did Tracy Africa Norman NOT have a modeling campaign contract with during her heyday?

A. Clairol                                           C.  Ultra Sheen
B. Avon Cosmetics                             D.  Newport cigarettes

13.  True or False  Kortney Ryan Ziegler produced a 2008 film called 'Still Black: A Portrait Of Black Transmen'

True

14. Trans woman Georgia Black, whose story was chronicled in a 1951 EBONY article, lived in which Florida town?

A Sanford                                            C. Quincy
B Kissimmee                                        D. Tallahassee

15. Who said this in a 1954 EBONY magazine article?.  "I ain't done nothing wrong and I ain't beaking no laws"

Jim McHarris

16. In what year did Althea Garrison win her race for the Massachusetts state legislature?
1992

17. KK Logan took what Indiana city's school board to court for barring her from attending her 2006 high school prom in femme attire?

A. Ft Wayne                                         C. Indianapolis
B. Gary                                                 D. Evansville

18. True or False. The police investigation into the death of Stonewall veteran Marsha P. Johnson was reopened.
True

19. This trans woman is the author of the novels The Other Women: A Story Of Three Transsexuals, The Lie, Sex And the Single Transsexual, and Shattered Dreams: An African American Family Story.   Name her. 

Pamela Hayes

20.  T Desiree Hines is someone we just lost to cancer.  What instrument did this talented musician play?
the organ

21. Titica is a girl like us who is a rising music star in her nation's fusion of techno and rap called kuduro.   What nation is she from?
Angola

22. What transperson said this line?  'We transwomen aren't taking any crap anymore from cis people who seem to think we exist to be a punchline for a joke or to bully to make themselves feel more secure in their own gender identities and sexual orientation.'
The TransGriot

23   True or False: FTM International has had an African-American trans man run it.
True.  His name is Zion Johnson

24.  Trans actress Ajita Wilson accomplished this feat in August 1981?  What was it? 
Appeared in the August 24, 1981 issue as a JET Beauty of the Week

25.  An African-American trans woman and transman were two of the people photographed for a groundbreaking anti-trans discrimination poster campaign in this city.   Name the city.
Washington DC.


To those of you who actually tried to answer the questions, thanks.  For those of you who waited until Thursday to get the answers, shame on you...

But hope you enjoyed it and learned a little something about Black trans history.   The point I wanted to make that trans history is not just our past or the exploits of our heroes and sheroes, but is also being made in the present time as well.


We will be doing this again in 2014


 

It's Rosa's 100th Birthday

Today would have been the 100th birthday of iconic civil rights leader Rosa Parks, who was born on this date in Tuskegee, AL in 1913.

She is known for being the catalyst of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but she'd been active in the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP since December 1943 and was a member of the Voter's League among her other civil rights work.






The 'Mother of the Civil Rights Movement' when she passed away in October 2005 becaue the first woman and only the second non-politican to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda

She also has a statue in the Capitol building's National Statuary Hall in addition to being a recipient of the NAACP's Spingarn medal in 1979,  the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.  
And because she was tired of enduring injustice, she sat down and allowed herself and our people to stand up and fight for our human rights.

Happy birthday, Rosa.  

Historic Day For African-American US Senate Representation

With the confirmation of Sen John F. Kerry to become the next Secretary of State, his now empty Senate seat had to be filled by an appointment until the state of Massachusetts can elect his replacement.

After considering former Rep. Barney Frank for it, Gov Deval Patrick (D) appointed his former chief of staff  William 'Mo' Cowan to hold the seat until the election is held June 25

"Mo Cowan has been a trusted adviser, and professional colleague and friend for a very long time," Patrick said at a press conference at the Statehouse Wednesday. He lauded Cowan's law background and experience in the administration, in which Cowan has served since 2009.

Cowan unfortunately will not be a candidate in the special election to succeed Kerry, but reassured his new constituents that he will head to Washington "ever mindful of what matters to the people of Massachusetts." He noted jobs, education and affordable health care as top priorities for state voters.

By selecting him, Cowan made a little congressional and Black history.    He is the not only the second African-American US senator from Massachusetts after Republican Edward Brooke who served from 1967-1979, he is the first Democratic senator who hails from a state other than Illinois.

All three previous Democratic senators, Carol Moseley-Braun, Barack Obama, and Roland Burris all were residents of the Land of Lincoln.  .

Interestingly enough, with this appointment following South Carolina Gov Nikki Haley's (R) appointment of Tim Scott (R) to fill the remaining term of the resigned Jim DeMint, this is the first time ever in US history that we have had more than one African-American senator serving in the US senate during the same congress. 

Just wish Sen. Cowan was serving longer than June 25..    

Break Out The Oreos, We Have A Cookie-Chomping US Senator

To no ones surprise, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (R) chose Rep Tim Scott (R-SC) yesterday to fill resigning Senator Jim DeMint's remaining term in the US Senate.  

The 47 year old Scott is a Tea Klux Klan favorite who was elected to the House in 2010 from a district that includes north Charleston and Myrtle Beach, SC.  He beat the son of notorious segregationist Strom Thurmond in the GOP primary that year on his way to election..

Scott will be the first Black* senator from South Carolina, the seventh in US history and the first from the  South since Hiram Revels (1870) and Blanche K Bruce (1875-1881) represented Mississippi during Reconstruction. 

In addition to Revels and Bruce, the other Republican senator was Edward Brooke from Massachusetts.

He was the first African-American elected to the US senate by popular vote and represented the state from (1967-1979)  Brooke was a moderate Republican who championed mass transit, low-income housing and a higher minimum wage.  

The Democratic African-American senators all come from Illinois and includes the only Black female US senator in Carol Moseley Braun. She served from 1993-1999, was a prosecutor before winning political office and called for more restrictive gun laws during her tenure. Unfortunately she was defeated in her first re-election bid and was later appointed as the US ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa.

We know about the second US senator from Illinois because he now lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  But before he became the 44th president of the United States in 2008,  in November 2004 Barack Obama was elected to the Senate in a landslide over his GOP opponent Alan Keyes.

When President Obama left the Senate, Roland W. Burris was appointed to Obama's seat on December. 31, 2008.  He served two years and was reprimanded by the Senate Ethics Committee for being misleading about his controversial appointment to the seat by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Now that I've discussed the history of African-Americans in the US Senate,  back to the conservanegro about to replace Jim DeMint.   Scott achieved a 92 percent score on the Club for Growth’s legislative scorecard, which meant that he was more conservative than all but 30 members of the House.  

He will have to run for the seat in 2014, so South Carolina Democrats, you have time to get a candidate to take him on.

So yeah, the Republicans can point to Scott's nomination to the US Senate and claim until they're red in the face it's an example of how diverse their party is. 

Knee-grow sycophants mouthing the same failed conservative policies as their white brethern not only will not get our votes, but it's an insult to our intelligence if you think the only reason we vote for candidates is based on the color of their skin. 

But then again, that's a play you vanillacentric privileged conservafools have perfected. 

It's even more of an insult when you nominate a guy who earned an F on the NAACP Congressional Report card and supports policies hostile to African-Americans.

Let me count the ways. Scott called for the impeachment of President Obama if he raised the debt ceiling, is virulently anti-gay, opposes a woman's right to choose, the labor movement, opposes the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." 

And oh yeah, he's the first one along with Angela McGlowan and CL Bryant the Tea Klux Klan trot out when they need a knee-grow human shield to deflect attention from their racism. 

The conservafools are hailing Scott's Senate appointment, but many African-Americans aren't.   He's just another cookie-chomping knee-grow sellout to us. 

Break out the Oreos.