OLE MISS RIOT (1962)

 CONTRIBUTED BY: MEGAN BRODSKY

On the evening of Sunday, September 30, 1962, Southern segregationistsrioted and fought state and federal forces on the campus of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in Oxford, Mississippi to prevent the enrollment of the first African American student to attend the university, James Meredith, a U.S. military veteran.

President John F. Kennedy had sent federal marshals to Oxford on Saturday, September 29, 1962 to prepare for protests he knew would arise from Meredith’s arrival and enrollment. While this occurred, Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett, a publicly avowed segregationist, spoke at an Ole Miss football game encouraging action on campus to block Meredith’s entry into the university. The next day, Meredith was escorted by Mississippi Highway Patrol as he made his way to the campus to move into his dorm room. He was greeted by 500 federal marshals assigned for his protection. Thousands of rioters from across the South gathered that evening at Ole Miss. The highway patrol tried to push back the crowd, but were dismissed by Mississippi Senator George Yarbrough at around 7:25 p.m. The crowd increased rapidly, and a full riot broke out at 7:30 p.m.

The crowd reached approximately three thousand rioters, led by former Army Major General Edwin Walker, who had recently been forced to retire when he was ordered to stop giving out racist hate literature to his troops but refused to do so. The crowd consisted of high school and college students, Ku Klux Klan members, Oxford residents, and people from outside the area.

By 9:00 p.m. the riot turned extremely violent. U.S. marshals who had been defending Meredith and university officials in the Lyceum building on campus, where Meredith registered, ran out of tear gas. Rioters threw rocks and bottles and began to shoot. President Kennedy then decided to bring in the Mississippi National Guard and Army troops from Memphis, Tennessee, during the middle of the night, led by Brigadier General Charles Billingslea.

Before their arrival, rioters learned of Meredith’s dorm hall, Baxter Hall, and began to attack it. When Billingslea and his men arrived, a white mob set his car on fire while he, the Deputy Commanding General John Corley, and aide Captain Harold Lyon were still inside. The three were able to escape but were forced to crawl 200 yards through gunfire from the mob to get to the Lyceum building. To try and keep control of the crowds, Billingslea created a sequence of secret code words to signal for first, when to issue ammunition to the platoons, second when to issue it to the squads, and finally when to load. None of these could occur without the codes given by Billingslea. This resulted in one third of the Marshals, totaling 166 men, were injured in the mass fight and 40 soldiers and National Guardsmen wounded.

Two men were murdered during the riot: French journalist Paul Guihard who was working for the Agence France-Presse, and 23-year-old Ray Gunter, a white jukebox repairman. In total, more than 300 people were injured. On October 1, 1962, the riot was suppressed with 3,000 soldiers stationed to occupy Oxford and the Ole Miss campus.  Meredith, escorted by U.S. Marshals, attended his first class at Ole Miss, an American history course.

CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY RIOTS (1969 AND 1971)

CONTRIBUTED BY: NICHOLAS IAROSLAVTSEV

The city of Camden, New Jersey was the setting for two deadly race-related riots on September 2nd, 1969, and August 20th, 1971. Both riots were in response to alleged police brutality or murder, the victims being an unidentified young black girl, who was beaten by a white police officer in 1969, and Rafael Rodriguez Gonzales, a Puerto Rican motorist who was beaten and killed by other white officers in 1971. Protestors called for the punishment of the officers responsible; however, in both instances, those responsible never faced full justice.

At the time of the riots, the city of Camden was facing economic depression and rapid de-industrialization. Fifty years earlier, in the early years of the 20th century, the exact opposite was occurring, where Camden underwent a great population boom in response to industrial growth and job availability. Many of the newcomers were Southern blacks.

While this growth stagnated in the 1930s due to the Great Depression, it skyrocketed in the 1940s after the United States entered World War II. At this time, Camden was home of the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, the largest shipyard in the world, as well as Campbell’s Soup and the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), all of which greatly contributed to the war effort.

After the city’s economic peak in the early 1950s, Camden’s economy began to decline, as did many other “Rust Belt” cities. With the country’s decreased need for steel, and jobs moving south, Camden’s employment rate sunk. As jobs moved out of Camden, so did its middle class, mostly white residents, as the city saw a record loss in population in the 1950s. The poor including many African Americans, stayed.  As targets of a long history of job and housing discrimination, they had little choice. Crime and violence rose, exacerbating preexisting racial tensions and leading to the two race riots in Camden.

The first riot started on September 2nd, 1969, in response to rumors of  a white police officer beating a black child. That night, approximately 300 enraged Camden residents gathered outside of Cooper University Hospital where a rally began. A sniper then shot into the crowd, killing 15-year-old Rose McDonald and officer Rand Chandler. The killer was never identified, and for the next week, the riot continued, causing greater destruction in the already declining redlined district of Camden.

After the initial riot, the city was at relative peace for two years until on July 30th, 1971, when white police officers Gary Miller and Warren Worrel beat and killed, Rafael Rodriguez Gonzales (who identified himself to the police as Horacio Jimenez), a citizen of Camden with a Puerto Rican background. The city’s Hispanic population called for immediate justice, and for the suspension of the two officers responsible. When the city’s mayor, Joseph M. Nardi, took no action against the officers, another riot erupted.

Starting on August 20th, angered Hispanics and other Camden residents took to the streets, demanding justice for the unprovoked murder. The riot produced 15 fires, 87 injuries, 300 arrests, and one death, prompting mayor Nardi to finally take action against the officers responsible. Initially the officers were only charged with battery, but after much public pressure, they were charged with murder. The jury responsible for their fate, however, acquitted the officers, charging them both with only manslaughter.

ASBURY PARK RACE RIOT (1970)

 CONTRIBUTED BY: MARITZA FERNANDEZ

Asbury Park, New Jersey’s West Side district—predominantly black and housing 40% of the town’s permanent population—was consumed by rioting from July 4 to July 10 in 1970. At the time of the riot, 30% of the population, 17,000 people approximately, were African American. The town’s huge tourist-resort industry brought the population to 80,000 annually and employed a large portion of African Americans. However, over time, jobs were increasingly given to white youth from surrounding areas instead of local black youth, creating an unemployment crisis similar to many other cities at the time. This plus few recreational opportunities and poor housing conditions sparked the violence in 1970.

On July 4, a group of black youth broke windows after a late dance at the West Side Community Center; minor damage and youthful boredom quickly turned to fire bombs and looting. Eventually 180 plus people, including 15 New Jersey state troopers, were injured and 46 people were admitted to the hospital with gun shot wounds by the afternoon of July 8. When asked why so many people were shot, State Police Spokesman Sergeant Joseph Kolbus said that officers had only fired their weapons warnings upwards and the source of so many wounds was unknown. One hundred sixty-seven arrests were made. The entire west side neighborhood, especially the shopping-business section, was destroyed at an estimated cost of $5,600,000.

Mayor Joseph F. Mattice, an Asbury lawyer, council member, and judge, ordered a curfew from 8:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. starting on July 6, declared a state of emergency, and summoned the New Jersey National Guard. None of these precautions managed to save the properties being destroyed or the people being hurt. By July 7, the damage was so extensive that city officials were ready to compromise, and on that day, a list of twenty demands including employment for black youth and appointment of black people on the Board of Education was sent to the city by African American representatives. On July 8, city officials, representatives from New Jersey’s Governor William Cahill, and local black leaders such as Ermon K. Jones, the local NAACP President, met in a conference. In order to cope with the destruction and displacement occurring during the rioting, the community created “Citizen Peace Patrols,” a group that would walk the streets encouraging people to observe the curfew.  They also took in the temporarily homeless.

On July 10, the riot ended. State troopers and National Guardsmen left the West Side, but remained in town. Another conference was called between the Mayor, his council and West Side leaders including Monmouth Community Action Program (MCAP) Executive Director Joseph E. Taylor and West side spokesman, William Hamm, both African American. After the meeting, Governor Cahill requested that President Nixon declare the West side a major disaster area but Nixon refused his request.

FERGUSON RIOT AND FERGUSON UNREST (2014-2015)

 CONTRIBUTED BY: AUSTIN HSU

The Ferguson Unrest and Ferguson Riots were a series of several riots and protest triggered by the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American, in the city of Ferguson, Missouri, U.S. by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, on August 9th, 2014.  Exact details on the incident remain uncertain and continue to be disputed. Some accounts report that Brown made no threatening movements towards the officers while others state that Brown charged at Wilson and attempted to take Wilson’s firearm. The police claimed that Brown was a suspect in a nearby store robbery and that the items had been spotted in his possession, prompting their action.  Some witnesses said that Brown put his hands up and others said that he ran for his life.  The conflicting accounts were the subject of much controversy in the following days.  Several peaceful protests occurred in addition to incidents of looting and violent unrest.  In anticipation of violence, a curfew was established in the area and riot squads were deployed.

Multiple investigations followed in the wake of the incident. St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch began a criminal investigation into whether or not the use of lethal force was justified.  U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr.investigated if Brown’s civil rights had been violated; Holder attempted to determine if Wilson apprehended Brown mainly due to his race.  Additionally, federal investigators delved into the records of the Ferguson Police Department in an effort to determine if there were recurring issues of excessive force, discrimination, and other such improper behavior.

A grand jury was convened to decide if Officer Wilson should be charged with any crimes based on the results of the investigations.  It took multiple months to reach a decision and during this time tensions in Ferguson continued to rise.  Multiple protests occurred with escalating levels of violence in police response.  Tears gas was used in combination with rubber bullets, smoke bombs, and flash grenades to disperse crowds of protesters.  Several media reporters on the scene at the time were similarly tear gassed and there are some reports of attempts by the police to take down their cameras and suppress coverage.

The unrest reached a breaking point when on November 24, 2014, the grand jury reached the decision to not indict Wilson on any criminal charges.  Many of those waiting outside the Ferguson Police Department grew violent and the situation intensified.  Multiple buildings were torched and protesters hurled rocks at parked police cars.  This continued into the following day when Missouri Governor Jay Nixon deployed the National Guard and reinforced law enforcement presence in the area, effectively bringing the protests to a stop.

Several more protests occurred in the following months and investigations continued into the Ferguson police department.  The Justice Department issued that Ferguson revamp its criminal justice system.  Shortly after, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson stepped down.

THE CREOLE CASE (1841)

 CONTRIBUTED BY: SAMUEL MOMODU

The Creole Case was the result of an American slave revolt in November 1841 on board the Creole, a ship involved in the United States coastwise slave trade. As a consequence of the revolt, 128 enslaved people won their freedom in the Bahamas, then a British possession. Because of the number of people eventually freed, the Creole mutiny was the most successful slave revolt in US history.

In the fall of 1841, the brig Creole, which was owned by the Johnson and Eperson Company of Richmond, Virginia, transported 135 slaves from Richmond for sale in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Creole had left Richmond with 103 slaves and picked up another 32 in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Most of the slaves were owned by Johnson and Eperson, but 26 were owned by Thomas McCargo, a slave trader who was one of the Creole passengers. The ship also carried tobacco; a crew of ten; the captain’s wife, daughter, and niece; four passengers, including slave traders; and eight slaves of the traders.

Madison Washington, an enslaved man who escaped to Canada in 1840 but was captured and sold when he returned to Virginia in search of his wife Susan, was among those being shipped to New Orleans. On November 7, 1841, Washington and eighteen other male slaves rebelled, overwhelming the crew and killing John R. Hewell, one of the slave traders.  The ship’s captain, Robert Ensor, along with several crew members, was wounded but survived. One of the slaves was badly wounded and later died.

The rebels took overseer William Merritt at his word that he would navigate for them. They first demanded that the ship be taken to Liberia. When Merritt told them that the voyage was impossible because of the shortage of food or water, another rebel, Ben Blacksmen, said they should be taken to the British West Indies, because he knew the slaves from the Hermosa had gained their freedom the previous year under a similar circumstance. On November 9, 1841, the Creole reached Nassau where it first was boarded by the harbor pilot and his crew, all local black Bahamians. They told the American slaves that under British law they were free and then advised them to go ashore at once.

As Captain Ensor was badly wounded, the Bahamian quarantine officer took First Mate Zephaniah Gifford to inform the American consul of the events. At the consul’s request, the British governor of the Bahamas ordered a guard to board the Creole to prevent the escape of the men implicated in Hewell’s death.

The British took Washington and eighteen conspirators into custody under charges of mutiny, while the rest of the enslaved were allowed to live as free people. Five people, which included three women, a girl, and a boy, decided to stay aboard the Creole and sailed with the ship to New Orleans, returning to slavery. On April 16, 1842, the Admiralty Court in Nassau ordered the surviving seventeen mutineers to be released and freed including Washington. In total, 128 enslaved people gained their freedom, which made the Creole mutiny the most successful slave revolt in US history.

LYNCHING OF JULIA AND FRAZIER BAKER (1898)

CONTRIBUTED BY: ERICKA BENEDICTO

Frazier Baker, a schoolteacher and married father of six, was appointed the first African American postmaster of Lake City, South Carolina, in July 1897 by President William McKinley. Baker and his wife Lavinia were born in Effingham, South Carolina, a mostly black area, where he had previously served as postmaster. To assume his latest federal assignment, Baker and his family relocated to Lake City, a predominantly white community.

From the outset Baker faced bitter opposition from Lake City whites. Residents filed several grievances against Baker sharply criticizing his administrative abilities and accusing him of being incompetent, ill-mannered, and lazy. Among their complaints was that Baker had reduced mail deliveries from three times to once a day. Baker however had curtailed deliveries to daily drops due to repeated threats on his life. Federal postal inspectors investigated the claims and determined that the accusations against Baker were unsubstantiated.

Baker also faced violence.  In one instance, Baker and an acquaintance faced gunfire as they left the post office; another time, the post office building was shot up; and about six months after Baker took the job, the post office was set afire and burned down. At the recommendation of authorities, the post office was relocated to the outskirts of Lake City in the hope of reducing racial hostility.

Even on the edges of town, racial violence dogged Baker and his family. On February 22, 1898, Lavinia awakened around 1:00 a.m. to discover that their home—which also functioned as the post office—had been set ablaze by a mob of whites. Lavinia quickly alerted Baker, who immediately tried to extinguish the fire. Lavinia then grabbed their youngest child, two-year-old Julia, into her arms and gathered the other five children.

Desperate to shepherd his family away from danger, Baker opened the front door but gunshots struck him in the head and body killing him as he fell backward into the blazing building.  Lavinia was also shot as she fled. She was struck in the forearm, which caused her to drop Julia.  The bullet that hit Lavinia also fatally shot Julia. Both Baker and his baby daughter Julia lay dead on the floor while flames consumed their bodies.

Lavinia and her surviving children escaped to a neighbor’s house.  There she saw the critical gunshot wounds of three of her children.  Remarkably, two of her children were physically unharmed.

In April 1899, federal prosecutors tried thirteen white men for conspiring against Baker. However, an all-white jury failed to convict the perpetrators. Following the trial, Lavinia moved her family to Boston, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, when a tuberculosis outbreak ravaged through a poor black community in Boston, Lavinia’s youngest child, William, died from the illness in 1908. Twelve years later, she lost three more children. Finally, in 1942, Lavinia’s last surviving child died from a heart attack.  Afterward, Lavinia returned to South Carolina where she resided until she died in 1947.

STONO REBELLION (1739)

CONTRIBUTED BY: CLAUDIA SUTHERLAND

On Sunday, September 9th, 1739 the British colony of South Carolina was shaken by a slave uprising that culminated with the death of sixty people. Led by an Angolan named Jemmy, a band of twenty slaves organized a rebellion on the banks of the Stono River. After breaking into Hutchinson’s store the band, now armed with guns, called for their liberty.  As they marched, overseers were killed and reluctant slaves were forced to join the company. The band reached the Edisto River where white colonists descended upon them, killing most of the rebels.  The survivors were sold off to the West Indies.

The immediate factors that sparked the uprising remain in doubt. A malaria epidemic in Charlestown, which caused general confusion throughout Carolina, may have influenced the timing of the Rebellion.  The recent (August 1739) passage of the Security Act by the South Carolina Colonial Assembly may also have played a role. The act required all white men to carry firearms to church on Sunday. Thus the enslaved leaders of the rebellion knew their best chance for success would be during the time of the church services when armed white males were away from the plantations.

After the Stono Rebellion South Carolina authorities moved to reduce provocations for rebellion.  Masters, for example, were penalized for imposing excessive work or brutal punishments of slaves and a school was started so that slaves could learn Christian doctrine.  In a colony that already had more blacks than whites, the Assembly also imposed a prohibitive duty on the importation of new slaves from Africa and the West Indies.  Authorities also tightened control over the enslaved.  The Assembly enacted a new law requiring a ratio of one white for every ten blacks on any plantation and passed the Negro Act of 1740 which prohibited enslaved people from growing their own food, assembling in groups, earning money they, rather than their owners, could retain or learning to read.

ELAINE, ARKANSAS RIOT (1919)

CONTRIBUTED BY: WESTON W. COOPER

One of the last of the major riots of the “Red Summer” of 1919, the so-called race riot in Elaine, Arkansas was in fact a racial massacre. Though exact numbers are unknown, it is estimated that over 200 African Americans were killed, along with five whites, during the white hysteria of a pending insurrection of black sharecroppers. The violence, terror, and concerted effort to drive African Americans out of Phillips County, Arkansas was so jarring that Ida B. Wells, a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) published a short book on the riot in 1920. It was also widely reported in African American newspapers like the Chicago Defender and generated several public campaigns to address the fallout.

On the night of September 30, 1919, approximately 100 African Americans, mostly sharecroppers on the plantations of white landowners, attended a meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America at a church in Hoop Spur, a small community in Phillips County, Arkansas. They hoped to organize to obtain better payments for their cotton crops. Aware of white fears of Communist influence on blacks, the union posted armed guards around the church to prevent disruption and infiltration.

During the meeting, three white men pulled up to the front of the church. One of the men asked the guards, “Going coon hunting, boys?” Gunfire erupted after the guards made no response. Though sharp debate exists as to who fired first, the guards killed W.A. Adkins, a security officer from the Missouri-Pacific Railroad, and injured Charles Pratt, the deputy sheriff.

The next morning, an all-white posse went to arrest the suspects. Though they encountered little opposition from the black community, the fact that blacks outnumbered whites ten to one in this area of Arkansas resulted in great fear of an “insurrection.” The concerned whites formed a mob numbering up to 1,000 armed men, many of whom came from the surrounding counties and as far away as Mississippi and Tennessee.  Upon reaching Elaine, the mob began killing blacks and ransacking their homes. As word of the attack spread throughout the African American community, some black residents fled while others armed themselves in defense. The mob then turned its attention to disarming those blacks who fought back.

Meanwhile, local white newspapers further inflamed tensions by reporting that there were planned black uprisings. By October 2, U.S. Army troops arrived in Elaine, and the white mobs began to disperse. Federal troops rounded up and placed several hundred blacks in temporary stockades, where there were reports of torture. The men were not released until their white employers vouched for them.  There was also considerable evidence that many of the soldiers sent to quell the violence engaged in the systematic killing of black residents.

In the end, 122 blacks but no whites were charged by the Phillips County grand jury for crimes related to the riots. Their court-appointed lawyers did little in their defense despite the investigation and involvement of the NAACP. The first 12 men tried for first-degree murder were convicted and sentenced to death. As a result, 65 others entered plea bargains and accepted up to 21 years for second-degree murder. Led by black attorney Scipio Africanus Jones, the NAACP and other civil rights groups worked towards retrials and release of the “Elaine Twelve.” Eventually they won their release, with the last of the twelve set free on January 14, 1925.

Tribute To Ermias " Nipsey 'Tha Great' Hussle" Asghedom

DETON BROOKS (1909-1975)

CONTRIBUTED BY: BRIAN KASTNER

Deton Brooks in India, CBI Roundup, ca. 1945

During World War II, thirty African-American correspondents risked their lives reporting news home from the front-lines of the war. Covering the war took two forms. First, they were reporters of the combat between the Allies and the Axis. Concurrently, they reported on the treatment of African American soldiers amid the segregation of American Army units. This is the dichotomy that African American correspondent Deton Brooks experienced as a reporter and advocate in his war coverage in Burma.

Deton Brooks was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 14, 1909 to parents Laura and Deton Brooks. Educated in the local public schools, he graduated from the University of Chicago in 1935 before becoming a school teacher and later, a journalist. Reporting on the war for the Chicago Defender, he arrived in India to cover the China-India-Burma theater in September of 1944. Soon after arriving, he drew the ire of U.S. military officers in India for attempting to submit a story on the segregation of a swimming pool at a military base he visited. When a military censor refused to transmit the story, Brooks threatened to notify his paper and demand an investigation. The Army relented and his story was quickly sent to the Chicago Defender. Following the story’s publication in the Defender, the pool was swiftly integrated.

Brooks next went to Burma to cover the construction of Ledo Road, which was to serve as a supply route between China and India for the Western Allies. Here he was joined by fellow African American correspondent Frank Bolden of the Norfolk Journal & Guide. Bolden and Brooks covered the road’s construction by eight American Army units, of which six were African American units.

When construction was completed on the road in January of 1945, a convoy was set to ride into China. As the convoy was being readied, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, the political leader of the Republic of China, pronounced that no black soldiers could enter China. Unaware of this proclamation Deton Brooks inquired why there were no African American drivers in the planned convoy. After hearing of the ban he immediately went back to headquarters and registered his protest. In response, the Army sent eleven African American soldiers to join the convoy.

When the first atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945, Deton Brooks was in Chongqing, China. Within days the Japanese surrendered and the Chinese delegation to the surrender ceremony agreed to take three Western journalists to represent the wire services. The thirty correspondents in China were told to elect three journalists to cover the surrender ceremony, and Brooks was selected by his fellow journalists. He was present at the signing of the Japanese surrender on the battleship U.S.S. Missouri.

Once the war ended Brooks returned to the United States and civilian life. He received his Master of Arts degree and Doctor of Education degree from Columbia University in 1958. He then worked in the Cook County Department of Public Aid starting in 1958 and was appointed the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Human Resources in 1969, becoming the first African American to head a city department.

Denton Brooks died in Chicago, Illinois on August 29, 1975. He was 66 years old at the time of his death.

THE THIBODAUX MASSACRE (NOVEMBER 23, 1887)

CONTRIBUTED BY: KC WASHINGTON

The Thibodaux Massacre took place in Thibodaux, Louisiana on November 23, 1887. Black sugar cane workers, determined to unionize for a living wage, chose to combine their minimal power during the crucial harvest season. Instead, their actions sparked a massacre.

With echoes of the bondage their ancestors had experienced during slavery, the cane workers protested the harsh working conditions, long hours, and starvation wages. They were fed subsistence meals and paid as little as 42 cents a day with scrip which could only be used in plantation stores.

The Knights of Labor, one of the few labor unions to organize blacks, encouraged the sugar cutters to demand better treatment and $1.25 a day in cash. The Knights had tried unsuccessfully to organize the workers in 1874, 1880, and again in 1883 but had been blocked all three times. But the cutters thought the results might be different in 1887, when the Knights urged them to wait until the rolling season was almost underway to propose making a stand. During the rolling season, there was a narrow window of time to harvest the cane and unlike with cotton growers, the planters were unable to attract enough strikebreakers from out of the area because of the low pay they offered. With this strategy in mind, Junius Bailey, a 29-year-old schoolteacher and the president of the Terrebonne chapter of the Knights of Labor, went directly to the growers with the sugar cutter’s demands.

When the growers refused to negotiate and fired the union members on November 22, the strike was called and for the next three weeks an estimated 10,000 workers (the largest such action in the farming industry) went on strike, affecting four parishes: Lafourche, Terrebonne, St. Mary, and Assumption.

Meanwhile, white vigilantes locked down Thibodaux and went door to door attempting to identify strikers and demanding passes from any blacks going in and out of town. As morning broke on November 23 shots rang out from a cornfield and two white guards were injured. At that point, the massacre began.

The planters persuaded Governor Samuel D. McEnery, a Democrat and former sugar planter, to unleash several units of the all-white state militia. Commanded by ex-Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, the militia brought a .45 caliber Gatling gun while the paramilitary groups set up outside of the Thibodaux courthouse. Both the militia and white vigilantes went door to door shooting suspected strikers and those unlucky enough to cross their path.

The indiscriminate killing left approximately 60 people dead. The bodies of many of the strikers were dumped in unmarked graves. Those who survived hid in the woods and swamps as the killings spread to other plantations.

Although the Thibodaux Massacre was one of the deadliest episodes in United States labor history, the Southern white press heralded the action of the militia and vigilantes. Sugar planter Andrew Price, who participated in the attacks, won a seat in Congress in 1888. Statues were erected and public areas named after many involved in the unlawful killings while the workers, including women and children, went anonymous, their murders marked only by their loved ones. Black farm workers wouldn’t attempt to unionize in earnest again until the 1930s.

UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (1948)

CONTRIBUTED BY: BLACKPAST

PREAMBLE

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
 
Article 1.
•    All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.
•    Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.
•    Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

•    No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.
•    No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6.
•    Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.
•    All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8.
•    Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9.
•    No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10.
•    Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11.
•    (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
•    (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12.
•    No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13.
•    (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
•    (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14.
•    (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
•    (2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15.
•    (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
•    (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16.
•    (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
•    (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
•    (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17.
•    (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
•    (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18.
•    Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.
•    Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20.
•    (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
•    (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21.
•    (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
•    (2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
•    (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22.
•    Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23.
•    (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
•    (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
•    (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
•    (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24.
•    Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25.
•    (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
•    (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.
•    (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
•    (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
•    (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27.
•    (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
•    (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28.
•    Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29.
•    (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
•    (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
•    (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30.
•    Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

BRITISH WEST INDIAN REGIMENT (BWIR), THE (1915-1918)

CONTRIBUTED BY: VIRGILLO HUNTER

British West Indies Regiment, Amiens Road near Albert, September 1916

Image courtesy Imperial War Museum (Q1201)

On August 4, 1914, Britain joined the Great War. The First World War, 1914-1918, is usually viewed as a predominantly white European conflict. In fact, many Africans, Asians, black Britons, and Caribbeans fought for the British Empire. At the beginning of the war, the British War Office, however, was reluctant to allow blacks to enlist in the British Army, fearing it would create racial tension in the ranks.

By early 1915, the British Colonial Office and War Office, despite their differences on allowing blacks into the British Army, agreed that Britain needed reinforcement from the colonies. With the support of King George V, in April 1915, a West Indian contingent was formed from colonial volunteers who had enlisted.

On October 26, 1915, the British West Indian Regiment (BWIR) was established and made official with Army Order Number Four in 1916. The BWIR was created as a separate unit within the British Army. The regiment mainly attracted men from the Caribbean, particularly from Jamaica. Men from the continent of Africa, from India, and black Britons, who were eager to support “the mother country“ but refused entry into white units of the British Army because of their race, also joined the BWIR. Although the BWIR had 12 battalions, all commanding officers in the regiment were required to be white, and blacks and other men of color did not rise above the rank of sergeant. Nonetheless, by November 1918, the BWIR had recruited over 15,000 men.

By the time the regiment was sent to the front lines in March 1916, the British Army was already engaged in war in Africa, Europe, and the Mediterranean.  Black soldiers were rarely given combat assignments, but when given the opportunity to fight, they performed as well as white soldiers. Many of their victories, however, were either downplayed or claimed by white commanding officers and soldiers.

Between 1916 and 1917, soldiers of the BWIR was stationed in France, Egypt, Belgium, West Africa, South Africa, and the Middle East. They spent most of their time during the war doing labor-intensive work such as digging trenches and laying telephone wires. Because of this, unarmed BWIR soldiers were consistently in the line of fire and suffered numerous casualties. The BWIR finally saw combat in Egypt and Palestine in 1917. In September 1918, the 1st and 2nd battalions were instrumental in defeating the Turkish position on the Bahr Ridge in the Jordan Valley.

When World War I ended with the Armistice of November 11, 1918, many demobilized BWIR soldiers returned to the Caribbean, where their presence was met with ambivalence unlike returning white soldiers in Britain. Demobbed BWIR soldiers, however, later led political and independence movements in Jamaica and other colonies.

Although most World War I BWIR service records were destroyed in an air raid during the Second World War, some BWIR soldiers were eventually recognized as war heroes and bestowed military medals.  Two were given the Member of the British Empire (MBE) medals. On June 22, 2017, the African and Caribbean War Memorial was unveiled on Windrush Square in the Brixton section of London to memorialize the African and Caribbean men who fought and the women who volunteered to defend the British Empire.

FREEDOM BANK OF FINANCE (1969-2000)

CONTRIBUTED BY: NATALIE MALLARD

In 1968, a group of businessmen in Portland, Oregon saw the recently founded Bank of Finance in Los Angeles, California as a model for their creating the first black-owned commercial bank in the Pacific Northwest.  The businessmen, with help from Los Angeles, founded the Freedom Bank of Finance, which opened in 1969.

The African American businessmen in Portland included Realtor Venerable F. Booker, restaurateur Roy Granville, grocery-store owner Silas Williams, and dentist Dr. Booker T. Lewis.  All of them felt that a black-owned commercial bank would serve the financial needs of the local black community including providing capital for emerging businesses in the Albina-North Portland district that was home to most of African Americans in the city.  Roy Granville, one of the bank’s founders persuaded Onie B. Granville, his cousin and the founder of the Bank of Finance in Los Angeles, to temporarily move to Portland to help establish the new bank.

The Portland-based Bank of Finance opened on August 4, 1969 after J.F.M. Slate, the Oregon Superintendent of Banks authorized its organization.  The Portland founders and other early investors raised $600,000.00 in stock to finance the new institution.  Onie B. Granville who at the time was still on the board of directors for the Los Angeles based Bank of Finance, agreed to serve temporarily as the first president of the new Portland bank.  Granville along with Booker, Lewis, Williams, and cousin Roy Granville, became the first board members.

The Freedom Bank of Finance was first located at 728 NE Killingsworth Street in Portland.  Shortly after its opening Onie B. Granville returned to Los Angeles and Venerable F. Booker became president of the bank.  The name was changed later that year to the Freedom Bank of Finance, and in 1971 it was relocated to 2737 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. In 1975 the bank was renamed again to American State Bank.

Although it had individual depositors, The Freedom Bank of Portland relied heavily on governmental agencies for much of its working capital. By 1971 the state of Oregon and Multnomah County (where Portland was located) each had $100,000 in interest bearing deposits. For much of the 1970s the bank had an average of $50,000 in Model Cities deposits from the U.S. Government.

By 1989, however, the bank began to experience difficulties. At the end of that year American reported $640,857 in problem loans, or 13.5 percent of its total loans. The average for most banks is 2% and anything over 3%, according to bank analysts, is considered dangerous.

Despite the problem loans, the bank had net profits of $110,448, up 18 percent from $93,666 in 1988. At the end of 1989, American had $1.8 million in equity capital, or 11.8 percent of its assets, a ratio that far exceeded the federal government’s capital requirements.

American State Bank’s success was generally attributed to its longtime president and principal stockholder, Venerable F. Booker who upon nearing his 80th birthday, sold it in 2000 to Albina Community Bank and retired.  Through his prudent fiscal leadership, American State Bank, which Booker called, “the bank that integration built,” survived much longer that similar black or non-black banks throughout the nation.