The Biosphere - The Ill Community http://community.allhiphop.com/categories/the-biosphere/feed.rss Sat, 18 May 2013 09:38:18 +0000 The Biosphere - The Ill Community en-CA Saartjie" Sara" Baartma http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/23641/saartjie-sara-baartma Thu, 01 Apr 2010 22:07:51 +0000 The Biosphere Hyde Parke 23641@/discussions
She was born on the Gamtoos River in the Eastern Cape in 1789 of a Khoisan family in what is now South Africa. The Khoisans are among southern Africa’s oldest known inhabitants, people who made a major role in shaping South Africa’s past and present. But back in those days, bands of Dutch raiding parties went on horseback to the eastern and northern Cape frontiers to hunt down and exterminate these "bushmen" groups who were considered cattle thieves and a threat to settler society.

Canadian socio-linguist Nigel Crawhall, speaking of the Khoisan people, says this:

"These people moved across this land before any other human being. It was they who named the plants and the trees and the features of this land. . . . There [has been an] explosion of identity . . . [among] people who had spent their whole lives having to hide who they were. These people had been destroyed and now suddenly there [is] light and air."

There was never any light and air for Saartjie. In her late teens, she migrated to Cape Flats near Cape Town where she became a farmer’s slave and lived in a small shack until 1810. That year, she was sold in Cape Town in 1810 at the age of 20 to a British ship’s doctor, William Dunlop, who persuaded her that she could make a great deal of money by displaying her body to Europeans. Dunlop put her on a boat and she ended up in London.

There she was put on display in a building in Picadilly and paraded around naked in circuses, museums, bars and universities. She was most often obliged to walk, stand or sit as her keeper ordered, and told to show off her protruding posterior, an anatomical feature of her semi-nomadic people, and her large genitals, which varied in their appearance from those of Europeans.

Khoisan people anatomically have honey-colored skin and stock their body fats in the buttocks rather than in the thighs and belly. These are natural things for them, but Europeans found them to provide an excuse for stereotyping African blacks in grotesque ways. For example, the British described her genitals as like an apron, "skin that hangs from a turkey’s throat."

Contemporary descriptions of her shows at 225 Piccadilly, Bartholomew Fair and Haymarket in London say Baartman was made to parade naked along a "stage two feet high, along which she was led by her keeper and exhibited like a wild beast, being obliged to walk, stand or sit as he ordered".

There were protests in London for the way Baartman was being treated. The exhibitions took place at a time when the anti- slavery debate was raging in England and Baartman's plight attracted the attention of a young Jamaican, Robert Wedderburn, shown in this portrait, who founded the African Association to campaign against racism in England, and wrote of the horrors of slavery.

Wedderburn is himself an interesting black British radical. He was arrested twice in the early 1800s, once for Sedition for defending a slaves rights to rise up and kill his master, and then a second time for sending among the first revolutionary papers from England to the west Indies. For that, was found guilty of "Blasphemous libel" and served two years in Carlisle jail. He subsequently was released wrote and released his autobiography entitled, The Horrors of Slavery.

Under pressure from his group, the attorney general asked the government to put an end to the circus, saying Baartman was not a free participant.

A London court, however, found that Baartman had entered into a contract with Dunlop, although historian Percival Kirby, who has discovered records of the woman's life in exile, believes she never saw the document.

After four years in London, Sara was handed to a showman of wild animals in Paris, where she was displayed between 1814 and 1815 in a traveling circus, often handled by an animal trainer.

French Research Minister Roger-Gerard Schwartzenberg told the French Senate recently that she was also exhibited before "sages and painters," including George Cuvier, surgeon general to Napoleon Bonaparte, and seen by many as the founder of comparative anatomy in France.

Cuvier, shown here, described Baartman’s movements as having "something brusque and capricious about them that recalled those of monkeys." Cuvier used such descriptions to demonstrate the superiority of the European races. Several "scientific" papers were written about Baartman, using her as proof of the superiority of the white race.Jeremy

Nathan, a South African film producer who is making a feature film on the life of Baartman, says such women excited the attention of the Parisian intelligentsia at the time. Cuvier was at the center of an eminent school of social anthropologists who believed she was the missing link, the highest form of animal life and the lowest form of human life.


Her anatomy even inspired a comic opera in France. Called The Hottentot Venus or Hatred to French Women, the drama encapsulated the complex of racial prejudice and sexual fascination that occupied European perceptions of aboriginal people at the time

Sara Baartman died in Paris in 1816, an impoverished prostitute, a lonely woman, and an alcoholic. She had come to be known as the "Venus Hottentot," which was a derogatory term used to describe "bushmen" of southern Africa.

Instead of providing her a decent burial, Cuvier made a plaster cast of Baartman’s body, dissected her and conserved her organs, including her genitals and brain, in bottles of formaldehyde. Along with her skeleton, shown here, Sara Baartman’s brain and genitals were stored somewhere in a back room of the Musée de l’Homme in Paris Her remains including those in the jars were displayed there until 1976.]]> Jack Johnson (First Black World Heavyweight Champion Boxer) http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/8233/jack-johnson-first-black-world-heavyweight-champion-boxer Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:42:41 +0000 The Biosphere water ur seeds 8233@/discussions
Better known as Jack Johnson and nicknamed the “Galveston Giant”, was an American boxer, the best heavyweight of his generation and the first black world heavyweight boxing champion (1908–1915). In a documentary about his life, Ken Burns notes, "For more than thirteen years, Jack Johnson was the most famous and the most notorious African-American on Earth.


Early life

Johnson was born in Galveston, Texas, the third child and first son of Henry and Tina "Tiny" Johnson, former slaves who worked at blue-collar jobs to raise six children and taught them how to read and write. Jack Johnson had just five years of formal education.


Professional boxing career

Johnson's boxing style was very distinctive. He developed a more patient approach than was customary in that day: playing defensively, waiting for a mistake, and then capitalizing on it. Johnson always began a bout cautiously, slowly building up over the rounds into a more aggressive fighter. He often fought to punish his opponents rather than knock them out, endlessly avoiding their blows and striking with swift counters. He always gave the impression of having much more to offer and, if pushed, he could punch powerfully.
Johnson's style was very effective, but it was criticized in the press as being cowardly and devious. By contrast, World Heavyweight Champion "Gentleman" Jim Corbett, who was white, had used many of the same techniques a decade earlier, and was praised by the press as "the most clever man in boxing".

By 1902, Johnson had won at least 50 fights against both white and black opponents. Johnson won his first title on February 3, 1903, beating "Denver" Ed Martin over 20 rounds for the World Colored Heavyweight Championship. His efforts to win the full title were thwarted, as world heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries refused to face him then. Black and white boxers could meet in other competitions, but the world heavyweight championship was off limits to them. However, Johnson did fight former champion Bob Fitzsimmons in July 1907, and knocked him out in two rounds.

Johnson finally won the world heavyweight title on December 26, 1908, when he fought the Canadian world champion Tommy Burns in Sydney, after stalking Burns around the world for two years and taunting him in the press for a match. The fight lasted fourteen rounds before being stopped by the police in front of over 20,000 spectators. The title was awarded to Johnson on a referee's decision as a T.K.O, but he had clearly beaten the champion. Johnson constantly mocked both Burns and his ringside crew, while receiving every kind of racial and other slur from them and members of the crowd. Every time Burns was about to go down, Johnson would hold him up, beating an already helpless man.
After Johnson's victory over Burns, racial animosity among whites ran so deep that even a socialist like Jack London called out for a "Great White Hope" to take the title away from Johnson.[citation needed] As title holder, Johnson thus had to face a series of fighters billed by boxing promoters as "great white hopes", often in exhibition matches. In 1909, he beat Frank Moran, Tony Ross, Al Kaufman, and the middleweight champion Stanley Ketchel. The match with Ketchel was keenly fought by both men until the 12th and last round, when Ketchel threw a right to Johnson's head, knocking him down. Slowly regaining his feet, Johnson threw a straight to Ketchel's jaw, knocking him out, along with some of his teeth, several of which "supposedly" were embedded in Johnson's glove. His fight with Philadelphia Jack O'Brien was a disappointing one for Johnson: though weighing 205 pounds (93 kg) to O'Brien's 161 pounds (73 kg), he could only achieve a six-round draw with the great middleweight.



The "Fight of the Century"

In 1910, former undefeated heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries came out of retirement and said, "I am going into this fight for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a Negro". Jeffries had not fought in six years and had to lose weight to get back to his championship fighting weight.

The fight took place on July 4, 1910 in front of 22,000 people, at a ring built just for the occasion in downtown Reno, Nevada. Johnson proved stronger and more nimble than Jeffries. In the 15th round, after Jeffries had been knocked down twice for the first time in his career, his people called it quits to prevent Johnson from knocking him out.

The "Fight of the Century" earned Johnson $225,000 and silenced the critics, who had belittled Johnson's previous victory over Tommy Burns as "empty," claiming that Burns was a false champion since Jeffries had retired undefeated.



Riots and aftermath

The outcome of the fight triggered race riots that evening — the Fourth of July — all across the United States, from Texas and Colorado to New York and Washington, D.C. Johnson's victory over Jeffries had dashed white dreams of finding a "great white hope" to defeat him. Many whites felt humiliated by the defeat of Jeffries.
Blacks, on the other hand, were jubilant, and celebrated Johnson's great victory as a victory for their entire race. Black poet William Waring Cuney later highlighted the Black reaction to the fight in his poem "My Lord, What a Morning". Around the country, Blacks held spontaneous parades, gathered in prayer meetings, and purchased goods with winnings from backing Johnson at the bookmakers. These celebrations often drew a violent response from white men.
Some "riots" were simply Blacks celebrating in the streets. In certain cities, like Chicago, the police did not disturb the celebrations. But in other cities, the police and angry white citizens tried to subdue the celebrations. Police interrupted several attempted lynchings. In all, "riots" occurred in more than twenty-five states and fifty cities. About 23 blacks and two whites died in the riots, and hundreds more were injured.



Film of the bout

A number of leading American film companies joined forces to shoot footage of the Jeffries-Johnson fight and turn it into a feature-length documentary film, at the cost of $100,000. The film was distributed widely in the U.S. and was exhibited internationally as well. As a result, Congress banned prizefight films from 1912 until 1940. In 2005, the film of the Jeffries-Johnson "Fight of the Century" was entered into the United States National Film Registry as being worthy of preservation.



Loss of the title

On April 5, 1915, Johnson lost his title to Jess Willard, a working cowboy from Kansas who did not start boxing until he was almost thirty years old. With a crowd of 25,000 at the Vedado Racetrack in Havana, Cuba, Johnson was K.O.'d in the 26th round of the scheduled 45-round fight, which was co-promoted by Roderick James "Jess" McMahon and a partner. Johnson found that he could not knock out the giant Willard, who fought as a counterpuncher, making Johnson do all the leading. Johnson, aged 37, although having won almost every round, began to tire after the 20th round, and was visibly hurt by heavy body punches from Willard in rounds preceding the 26th round knockout. Johnson is said by many to have spread rumors that he took a dive, but Willard is widely regarded as having won the fight outright. Willard said, "If he was going to throw the fight, I wish he'd done it sooner. It was hotter than hell out there".
In a famous photo showing Johnson lying on the mat after being knocked down and during the ten count, he can be seen shielding his eyes from the glare of the tropical sun with his glove.



Prison sentence

On October 18, 1912, Johnson was arrested on the grounds that his relationship with Lucille Cameron violated the Mann Act against "transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes" due to her being a prostitute. Cameron, soon to become his second wife, refused to cooperate and the case fell apart. Less than a month later, Johnson was arrested again on similar charges. This time the woman, another prostitute named Belle Schreiber with whom he had been involved in 1909 and 1910, testified against him, and he was convicted by a jury in June 1913. The conviction was despite the fact that the incidents used to convict him took place prior to passage of the Mann Act[1]. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison.

Johnson skipped bail, and left the country, joining Lucille in Montreal on June 25, before fleeing to France. For the next seven years, they lived in exile in Europe, South America and Mexico. Johnson returned to the U.S. on 20 July 1920. He surrendered to Federal agents at the Mexican border and was sent to the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth to serve his sentence. He was released on July 9, 1921.
There have been recurring proposals to grant Johnson a posthumous presidential pardon. A bill requesting President George W. Bush to pardon Johnson in 2008, passed the House, but failed to pass in the Senate. In April 2009, McCain, along with Representative Peter King, filmmaker Ken Burns and Johnson's great niece, Linda Haywood, requested a presidential pardon for Johnson from President Barack Obama.On July 29, 2009, Congress passed a resolution calling on President Obama to issue a pardon.

While incarcerated, Johnson found need for a tool that would help tighten loosened fastening devices, and modified a wrench for the task. He patented his improvements on April 18, 1922, as US Patent 1,413,121.




HERE IS GREAT BOOK I READ

JACK JOHNSON - UNFORGIVABLE BLACKNESS: THE RISE AND FALL
http://www.amazon.com/Unforgivable-Blackness-Rise-Fall-Johnson/dp/0375415327]]> Chico REI http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/59049/chico-rei Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:09:17 +0000 The Biosphere Ladiesman 59049@/discussions
In about 1740, Galanga, a tribal leader from the Congo, was taken along with a large part of his tribe and sold as a slave. They were brought from Africa to Brazil in a slave ship and during this journey his authority amongst his compatriots was noticed by the Portuguese slave traders who nicknamed him "Chico Rei". In Brazil he was set to work in the gold mines of Minas Gerais. By hiding flakes of gold about his body and in his hair, he amassed sufficient funds to allow him, after 5 years or so, to buy his son's freedom and later his own. He was also able to acquire the Encardideira gold mine in Vila Rica (now Ouro Preto). Profits from the mine were used to help other slaves to buy their freedom and to build the church of Santa Efigênia, also in Vila Rica. The Encardideira mine has been disused since 1888 when slavery was abolished in Brazil and it is now open to the public.]]> King Zumbi http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/59044/king-zumbi Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:59:35 +0000 The Biosphere Ladiesman 59044@/discussions King Zumbi

Zumbi was a black freedom fighter in Brazil in the 1700s and was leader of Palmares a settlement for runaway slaves at it`s height it had 30,000 people and was run very much like a tribe in Africa.

Zumbi was born free in Palmares in 1655, believed to be descended from the Imbangala warriors of Angola.[1] He was captured by the Portuguese and given to a missionary, Father António Melo, when he was approximately 6 years old. Baptized Francisco, Zumbi was taught the sacraments, learned Portuguese and Latin, and helped with daily mass. Despite attempts to pacify him, Zumbi escaped in 1670 and, at the age of 15, returned to his birthplace. Zumbi became known for his physical prowess and cunning in battle and was a respected military strategist by the time he was in his early twenties.

By 1678, the governor of the captaincy of Pernambuco, Pedro Almeida, weary of the longstanding conflict with Palmares, approached its leader Ganga Zumba with an olive branch. Almeida offered freedom for all runaway slaves if Palmares would submit to Portuguese authority, a proposal which Ganga Zumba favored. But Zumbi was distrustful of the Portuguese. Further, he refused to accept freedom for the people of Palmares while other Africans remained enslaved. He rejected Almeida's overture and challenged Ganga Zumba's leadership. Vowing to continue the resistance to Portuguese oppression, Zumbi became the new leader of Palmares.

Fifteen years after Zumbi assumed leadership of Palmares, Portuguese military commanders Domingos Jorge Velho and Bernardo Vieira de Melo mounted an artillery assault on the quilombo. February 6, 1694, after 67 years of ceaseless conflict with the cafuzos, or Maroons, of Palmares, the Portuguese succeeded in destroying Cerca do Macaco, the republic's central settlement. Before the king Ganga Zumba was dead, Zumbi had taken it upon himself to fight for Palmares' independence. In doing so he became known as the commander-in-chief in 1675. Due to his heroic efforts it increased his prestige. Palmares' warriors were no match for the Portuguese artillery; the republic fell, and Zumbi was wounded in one leg.

Though he survived and managed to elude the Portuguese and continue the rebellion for almost two years, he was betrayed by a mulato who belonged to the quilombo and had been captured by the Paulistas, and, in return for his life, led them to Zumbi's hideout. Zumbi was captured and beheaded on the spot November 20, 1695. The Portuguese transported Zumbi's head to Recife, where it was displayed in the central praça as proof that, contrary to popular legend among African slaves, Zumbi was not immortal. This was also done as a warning of what would happen to others if they tried to be as brave as him. Remnants of quilombo dwellers continued to reside in the region for another hundred years.

Quilombos were fugitive slave settlements or slave refugee settlements. Quilombos represented slave resistance which occurred in three forms: slave settlements, attempts at seizing power, and armed insurrection. Members of quilombos often returned to plantations or towns to encourage their former fellow slaves to flee and join the quilombos. If necessary, they brought slaves by force and sabotaged plantations. Slaves who came to quilombos on their own were considered free, but those who were captured and brought by force were considered slaves and continued to be slaves in the settlement. They could be considered free if they were to bring another captive to the settlement.
Quilombo dos Palmares was a self-sustaining republic of Maroons escaped from the Portuguese settlements in Brazil, "a region perhaps the size of Portugal in the hinterland of Bahia" (Braudel 1984 p 390). At its height, Palmares had a population of over 30,000. Forced to defend against repeated attacks by Portuguese colonial power, the warriors of Palmares were expert in capoeira, a martial arts form that was brought to or created in Brazil by African slaves circa the 16th century.]]> Dread scott http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/16210/dread-scott Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:01:47 +0000 The Biosphere Hyde Parke 16210@/discussions
Dred Scott was born a slave in Southampton County, Va. in 1795. Industrious and intelligent, he was employed as a farmhand, stevedore, craftsman, and general handyman. In 1819 his original owner moved to Huntsville, Ala., and later to St. Louis, Mo. In 1832 he died, and Scott was sold for $500 to a surgeon in the U.S. Army who took Scott to the free state of Illinois in 1834 and on to Wisconsin Territory. Later the doctor returned with Scott to Missouri.

When the surgeon died, Scott passed to John Sanford. During these years he had married and had two daughters. Scott had tried unsuccessfully to escape from slavery and later to buy his freedom. In 1846 he filed suit in the Missouri state courts for his freedom on the grounds that residence in a free territory had liberated him.

Scott's suit finally came before the U.S. Supreme Court. On March 6, 1857, in Dred Scott v. John Sanford, after much debate the Supreme Court ruled against Scott 7 to 2, with Chief Justice Roger B. Taney giving the majority opinion. According to Taney, Scott could not sue Sanford because he was not a U.S. citizen. The justice argued that Scott was not a citizen because he was both a black man and a slave. Taney's remarks that black men "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect" came as a severe blow to abolitionists.

This crucial decision electrified the country, for Taney had ruled that African Americans were not citizens of the United States and that an act of Congress (the Missouri Compromise of 1820) was unconstitutional. He also had redefined the relationship between the states and the Federal government, making possible the expansion of slavery into the territories. Southerners rejoiced at the verdict; abolitionists denounced it and even went as far as discrediting the legitimacy of the Court itself.

A few months after the decision, on May 26, 1857, Scott's owner freed him. Scott continued to live in St. Louis until his death on Sept. 17, 1858. Although African Americans would not become citizens of the United States until the ratification of the 14th Amendment (1868), Scott's bid for freedom remained the most momentous judicial event of the century.

Further Reading

The best account of Scott and his case is Vincent C. Hopkin, Dred Scott's Case (1951). Alfred H. Kelly and Winfred A. Harbison, The American Constitution: Its Origins and Development (4th ed. 1970), is a useful text in examining the constitutional questions. Stanley I. Kutler, The Dred Scott Decision: Law or Politics? (1967), provides a critical assessment of the controversial issues and implications surrounding the case. Another invaluable aid in understanding the case and its ramifications is Loren Miller, The Petitioners: The Story of the Supreme Court of the United States and the Negro (1966). An excellent background study is John Hope Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of American Negroes (1947).]]> Nat Turner http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/16024/nat-turner Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:32:55 +0000 The Biosphere Hyde Parke 16024@/discussions
Black slave preacher Nat Turner felt that God had called on him to lead his people out of slavery. He was born on a small plantation in Virginia to an African-born slave mother who taught him to hate slavery. His master's son taught him to read, and over the years he became fanatically religious and served as preacher for the slaves in the area. Some of his devoted flock began to call him "the Prophet." A solar eclipse in 1831 was God's sign to Nat Turner that the time had come to strike the blow for freedom.

The biggest slave uprising in U.S. history began on the night of August 21, 1831, when Turner and seven fellow slaves murdered their master and his family while they slept, and then set out on a campaign of brutal murder that terrorized the countryside and killed 55 white people. Picking up slave recruits as they traveled from plantation to plantation, Turner and his followers moved through Southampton County toward the county seat of Jerusalem, where they planned to capture the armory. Some of the slaves were mounted so that they could chase down anyone trying to escape as they swept down on a plantation and bludgeoned to death all the white people they could find- children and women, young and old indiscriminately. For 48 hours, Turner and his undisciplined followers rampaged and killed until they, themselves, were killed, captured, or dispersed in a confrontation with armed citizens and the state militia outside Jerusalem. Nat managed to escape and hide out for six weeks before he was captured. He and 16 of his followers were hanged.

Nat Turner's rebellion set off a reign of terror for all blacks in the area as state and federal troops swept through, killing as many as 200 blacks. To avoid future uprisings, new slave codes were enacted outlawing the education of slaves and putting strict controls on their movements.

Fascinating Fact: A policy of not questioning the slave system was adopted in the South because it was felt that any discussion might encourage similar slave revolts.]]> Benjamin Banneker http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/16818/benjamin-banneker Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:39:52 +0000 The Biosphere Hyde Parke 16818@/discussions
In 1753, he built the first watch made in America, a wooden pocket watch. Twenty years later, Banneker made astronomical calculations that predicted a 1789 solar eclipse. His estimate was different than ones made by more well-known mathematicians and astronomers of the time. Banneker was right!

Banneker is best known for the six annual Farmer's Almanacs he published between 1792 and 1797. These almanacs included information on machines and medical treatment, and listed tides, astronomical information, and eclipses, all calculated by Banneker himself.

Banneker's mechanical and mathematical abilities impressed many, including Thomas Jefferson who met Banneker while he was working with the surveying team that laid out Washington D.C.]]> Rosewood http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/16212/rosewood Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:06:12 +0000 The Biosphere Hyde Parke 16212@/discussions In 1922 Rosewood, Florida, was a small, predominantly black town. During the winter of 1922, two events in the vicinity of Rosewood aggravated local race relations: the murder of a white schoolteacher in nearby Perry, which led to the murder of three blacks, and a Ku Klux Klan rally in Gainesville on New Year's Eve.

On New Year's Day of 1923, Fannie Taylor, a young white woman living in Sumner, claimed that a black man sexually assaulted her in her home. A small group of whites began searching for a recently escaped black convict named Jesse Hunter, whom they believed to be responsible. They incarcerated one suspected accomplice, Aaron Carrier, and lynched another, Sam Carter. The men then targeted Aaron's cousin Sylvester Carrier, a fur trapper and private music instructor, who was rumored to be harboring Jesse Hunter.A group of 20 to 30 white men went to Sylvester Carrier's house to confront him. They shot his dog, and when his mother, Sarah, stepped outside to talk with the men, they shot her.
Sylvester killed two men and wounded four in the shoot-out that ensued. After the men left, the women and children, who prior to this had gathered in Carrier's house for protection, fled to the swamp where the majority of Rosewood's residents had already sought refuge.


The white men returned to Carrier's house the following evening. After a brief shoot-out, they entered the house, found the bodies of Sarah Carrier and a black man whom they believed to be Sylvester Carrier, and set the residence on fire.
The men then proceeded to rampage through Rosewood, torching other buildings and slaughtering animals. They were joined by a mob of about 200 whites who converged on Rosewood after finding out that a black man had killed two whites.That night two local white train conductors, John and William Bryce, who knew all of Rosewood's residents, picked up the black women and children and took them to Gainesville. John Wright, a white general store owner who hid a number of black women and children in his home during the riot, planned and helped carry out this evacuation effort. The African Americans who escaped by foot headed for Gainesville or for other cities in the northern United States.

By the end of the weekend all of Rosewood was leveled except for the Wright house and the general store. Although the state of Florida claimed that only eight people died in the Rosewood riot—two whites and six blacks—testimonies by survivors suggest that more African Americans perished. No one was charged with the Rosewood murders. After the riot, the town was deserted and even blacks living in surrounding communities moved out of the area.

It is unclear what became of Jesse Hunter. Residents of nearby Cedar Key claimed that he was captured and killed after the massacre. The descendants of the Carrier family contend that Jesse Hunter was not the man who had attacked Taylor. Philomena Carrier, who had been working with her grandmother Sarah Carrier at Fannie Taylor's house at the time of the alleged sexual assault, claimed that the man responsible was a white railroad engineer. She says that the man had come to see Taylor the morning of January 1 after her husband left for work. After an argument erupted between Taylor and the man, Philomena witnessed the man exit the back door and jog down the road toward Rosewood.
The Carriers' descendants maintain that the man was a Mason and that he persuaded Aaron Carrier, a member of Rosewood's black Masonic lodge, to help him escape by appealing to the society's code requiring members to help one another regardless of race. Carrier in turn persuaded another black Mason, Sam Carter—one of the few men in Rosewood with a wagon—to pick up the white man at Carrier's house and drop him off in the swamp. From there the man disappeared without a trace.

Although the Rosewood riot received national coverage in the New York Times and the Washington Post as it unfolded, it was neglected by historians. Survivors of Rosewood did not come forward to tell their story because of the shame they felt for having been connected with the riot. They also kept silent out of fear of being persecuted or killed. In 1993 the Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducted an investigation into the case, and this led to the drafting of a bill to compensate the survivors of the massacre.

After an extended debate and several hearings, the Rosewood Bill, which awarded $150,000 to each of the riot's nine eligible black survivors, was passed in April 1994. In spite of the state's financial compensation, the survivors remained frightened. When asked if he would go back to Rosewood, survivor Wilson Hall said, "No, ... They still don't want me down there."

On Tuesday May 4, 2004 an historical marker was dedicated at the location of Rosewood. Only a single house survives to this day from a community of almost a thousand people with homes, stores and churches. Numerous attempts to remove the marker have been made by unknown individuals, but it remains to this day.]]> Easter & Good Friday Are Demonic Pagan Practices http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/463013/easter-good-friday-are-demonic-pagan-practices Sun, 08 Apr 2012 17:20:29 +0000 The Biosphere Mowriyah 463013@/discussions



Part 1
youtube.com/watch?v=FVmxofer5Q4&feature=relmfu

Part 2
youtube.com/watch?v=sawE50O3k7Q&feature=relmfu

Part 3
youtube.com/watch?v=VsxhQ3i_Jvs&feature=relmfu]]> Gaspar Yanga http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/59047/gaspar-yanga Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:06:27 +0000 The Biosphere Ladiesman 59047@/discussions
Led by the soldier Pedro González de Herrera, the Spanish troops which set out from Puebla in January 1609 numbered around 550, of which perhaps 100 were Spanish regulars and the rest conscripts and adventureres. The maroons facing them were an irregular force of 100 fighters with some type of firearm, and four hundred more with primitive weapons such as stones, machetes, bows and arrows, and the like. These maroon troops were led by Francisco de la Matosa, an Angolan. Yanga—who was quite old by this time—decided to employ his troops' superior knowledge of the terrain to resist the Spaniards, with the goal of causing them enough pain to draw them to the negotiating table.

Upon the approach of the Spanish troops, Yanga sent terms of peace via a captured Spaniard.[1] Essentially, Yanga asked for a treaty akin to those that had settled hostilities between Indians and Spaniards: an area of self-rule, in return for tribute and promises to support the Spanish if they were attacked. In addition, he suggested that this proposed district would return any slaves which might flee to it. This last concession was necessary to soothe the worries of the many slave owners in the region.

The Spaniards refused the terms, and a battle was fought, yielding heavy losses for both sides. The Spaniards advanced into the settlement and burned it. However, the people fled into the surrounding terrain, and the Spaniards could not achieve a conclusive victory. The resulting stalemate lasted years; finally, unable to win definitively, the Spanish agreed to parley. Yanga's terms were agreed to, with the additional provisos that only Franciscan priests would tend to the people, and that Yanga's family would be granted the right of rule.[3] In 1618 the treaty was signed and by 1630 the town of San Lorenzo de los Negros de Cerralvo was established.[1] This town, in today's Veracruz province, remains to this day under the name of Yanga

Five decades after Mexican independence Yanga was made a national hero of Mexico by the diligent work of Vicente Riva Palacio. The influential Riva Palacio was an historian, novelist, short story writer, military general and mayor of Mexico City during his long life. In the late 1860s he retrieved from dusty Inquisition archives accounts of Yanga and of the expedition against him. From his research, he brought the story to the public in an anthology in 1870, and as a separate pamphlet in 1873.[3] Reprints have followed, including a recent edition in 1997. Much of the subsequent writing about Yanga was influenced by the mythmaking of Riva Palacio, who developed the image of proud fugitives who would not be defeated.]]> The Black Wall Street Massacre http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/16214/the-black-wall-street-massacre Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:16:42 +0000 The Biosphere playmaker88 16214@/discussions
As published in my book Black People and Their Place in World History, available on amazon.com.
The "Black (Negro) Wall Street" was the name given to Greenwood Avenue of North Tulsa, Oklahoma during the early 1900's. Because of strict segregation, Blacks were only allowed to shop, spend, and live in a 35 square block area called the Greenwood District. The "circulation of Black dollars" only in the Black community produced a tremendously prosperous Black business district that was admired and envied by the whole country.
Oklahoma's first African American settlers were Indian slaves of the so-called "Five Civilized Tribes": Chickasaws, Choctaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles. These tribes were forced to leave the southeastern United States and resettle in Oklahoma in mid-winter over the infamous "Trail of Tears." After the Civil War, U.S.-Indian treaties provided for slave liberation and land allotments ranging from 40-100 acres, which helps explain why over 6,000 African-Americans lived in the Oklahoma territory by 1870. Oklahoma boasted of more all-Black towns and communities than any other state in the land, and these communities opened their arms to freed slaves from all across the country. Remarkably, at one time, there were over 30 African American newspapers in Oklahoma.


Tulsa began as an outpost of the Creek Indians and as late as 1910, Walter White of the NAACP, described Tulsa as "the dead and hopeless home of 18,182 souls." Suddenly, oil was discovered and Tulsa rapidly grew into a thriving, bustling, enormously wealthy town of 73,000 by 1920 with bank deposits totaling over $65 million. However, Tulsa was a "tale of two cities isolated and insular," one Black and one White. Tulsa was so racist and segregated that it was the only city in America that boasted of segregated telephone booths.
Since African Americans could neither live among Whites as equals nor patronize White businesses in Tulsa, Blacks had to develop a completely separate business district and community, which soon became prosperous and legendary. Black dollars invested in the Black community also produced self-pride, self-sufficiency, and self-determination. The business district, beginning at the intersection of Greenwood Avenue and Archer Street, became so successful and vibrant that Booker T. Washington during his visit bestowed the moniker: "Negro Wall Street." By 1921, Tulsa's African American population of 11,000 had its own bus line, two high schools, one hospital, two newspapers, two theaters, three drug stores, four hotels, a public library, and thirteen churches. In addition, there were over 150 two and three story brick commercial buildings that housed clothing and grocery stores, cafes, rooming houses, nightclubs, and a large number of professional offices including doctors, lawyers, and dentists. Tulsa's progressive African American community boasted some of the city's most elegant brick homes, well furnished with china, fine linens, beautiful furniture, and grand pianos. Mary Elizabeth Parrish from Rochester, New York wrote: "In the residential section there were homes of beauty and splendor which would please the most critical eye." Well known African American personalities often visited the Greenwood district including: educators Mary McCloud Bethune and W. E. B. DuBois, scientist George Washington Carver, opera singer Marian Anderson, blues singer Dinah Washington, and noted Chicago chemist Percy Julian.
T. P. Scott wrote in "Negro City Directory": "Early African American business leaders in Tulsa patterned the development of Tulsa's thriving Greenwood district after the successful African American entrepreneurial activity in Durham, North Carolina." After the Civil War, former slaves moved to Durham from the neighboring farmlands and found employment in tobacco processing plants. By 1900, a large Black middle class had developed which began businesses that soon grew into phenomenally successful corporations, especially North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. Charles Clinton Spaulding was so successful with the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company that he was able to create a real estate company, a textile and hosiery mill, and the "Durham Negro Observer" newspaper. Durham Blacks also created a hospital, Mechanics and Farmers Bank (1908), North Carolina Training College (1910), Banker's Fire Insurance Company (1920), and the National Negro Finance Company (1922). However, living conditions in Durham were so substandard and working conditions so poor that the 1920 mortality rate among Blacks in Durham was three times higher than the White rate. As of 1926, 64% of all African Americans in Durham died before the age of 40. These perilous working and living conditions were not present in Tulsa.
On May 31, 1921, the successful Black Greenwood district was completely destroyed by one of the worse race riots in U.S. history. A 19 year old Black male accidentally stumbled on a jerky elevator and bumped the 17-year-old White elevator operator who screamed. The frightened young fellow was seen running from the elevator by a group of Whites and by late afternoon the "Tulsa Tribune" reported that the girl had been raped. Despite the girl's denial of any wrongdoing, the boy was arrested and a large mob of 2,000 White men came to the jail to lynch the prisoner. About seventy five armed African Americans came to the jail to offer assistance to the sheriff to protect the prisoner. The sheriff not only refused the assistance but also deputized the White mob to disarm the Blacks. With a defenseless Black community before them, the White mob advanced to the Greenwood district where they first looted and then burned all Black businesses, homes, and churches.
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Any Black resisters were shot and thrown into the fires. When the National Guard arrived, they assisted the others by arresting all Black men, women, and children, and herding them into detention centers at the Baseball Park and Convention Hall. As many as 4,000 Blacks were held under armed guard in detention. Dr. Arthur C. Jackson, a nationally renowned surgeon and called by the Mayo brothers (of Mayo Clinic fame) "the most able Negro surgeon in America," was shot at the Convention Hall and allowed to bleed to death. The "Chicago Tribute" Newspaper reported that Whites also used private airplanes to drop kerosene and dynamite on Black homes. By the next morning the entire Greenwood district was reduced to ashes and not one White was even accused of any wrongdoing, much less arrested.
The race riot of Tulsa, Oklahoma was not an isolated event in American history. On May 28, 1917, a White mob of over 3,000 in East St. Louis, Illinois ravaged African American stores, homes, and churches. Eyewitnesses reported that over one hundred Blacks were gunned down as they left their burning homes including a small Black child who was shot and thrown back into the burning building to die. Seven White police officers charged with murder by the Illinois Attorney General were collectively fined $150. During the "Red Summer" of 1919, over twenty-five race riots, where White mobs attacked Black neighborhoods. were recorded. In the 1919 race riot at Elaine, Arkansas, White mobs killed over 200 African Americans and burned their homes and businesses. Federal troops arrested hundreds of Blacks trying to protect their possessions and forcibly held them in basements of the city's public schools. Twelve Blacks were indicted (no Whites) and convicted of inciting violence and sentenced to die. The NAACP persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court for the first time in history to reverse a racially biased Southern court.
Director John Singleton exposed the horror of the Rosewood, Florida massacre of 1922 in his film entitled "Rosewood." A White mob burned down the entire town and tried to kill all of its Black inhabitants. In April 1994, the Florida legislature passed the "Rosewood Bill," which awarded $150,000 to each of the riot's nine eligible Black survivors.
After the Tulsa riot, the White inhabitants tried to buy the Black property and force Black people out of town. No Tulsa bank or lending institution would make loans in the riot-marred Greenwood district, and the city refused all outside assistance. However, racial pride and self-determination would not permit the Greenwood owners to sell, and they doggedly spend the entire winter in tents donated by the American Red Cross.
Rebuilding was a testament to the courage and stamina of Tulsa's pioneers in their struggle for freedom. Most of the buildings along the first block of Greenwood Avenue were rebuilt within one year. Henry Whitlow wrote: "A little over a decade after the riot, everything was more prosperous than before." In 1926, W. E. B. DuBois visited Tulsa and wrote: "Black Tulsa is a happy city. It has new clothes. It is young and gay and strong. Five little years ago, fire and blood and robbery leveled it to the ground. Scars are there, but the city is impudent and noisy. It believes in itself. Thank God for the grit of Black Tulsa." Like Black Tulsa, African Americans can continue to survive by self-pride, self-help, and self-determination.

I would say we shall never forget.. But.. we dont know.]]> Cudjoe Lewis http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/23835/cudjoe-lewis Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:37:24 +0000 The Biosphere Hyde Parke 23835@/discussions From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis (ca. 1840 – 1935) is considered the last person born on African soil to have been enslaved in the US when slavery was legal in parts of it. He was captured with more than 100 other Africans and brought on the ship Clotilde to Mobile, Alabama in the United States in 1860 during an illegal slave-trading venture .
When the slaves were divided among the investors in the deal, Kazoola (his African name) and 31 other enslaved Africans were taken to the property owned by Timothy Meaher, shipbuilder and owner of the Clotilde. Due to a federal investigation, the Africans were at first left to fend for themselves. They quickly built shelters and started hunting game. While they could not legally be held as slaves, they were effectively controlled by Meaher as if they were. Five years later at the end of the American Civil War in 1865, slavery was abolished, and Lewis and his people were set free.
Lewis did not return to Africa, although he and his tribespeople requested repatriation. He and the other Africans established a community at Magazine Point near Mobile, Alabama which became called Africatown. They maintained their language and tribal customs for years and he was very much a community leader even meeting with prominent people such as Booker T Washington. The neighborhood was also called Plateau and was eventually incorporated within Prichard, a suburb of Mobile.
Cudjoe was the longest-lived survivor of all those who were brought aboard the Clotilde and died in 1934 aged 114. He was the last African American (via the transatlantic slave trade) who was born in Africa. Before he died, he gave several interviews on his experiences, including to the writer Zora Neale Hurston. During her interview in 1928, she also made a short film of Cudjoe, the only moving image that exists in the Western Hemisphere of an African transported through the Transatlantic Slave Trade.[1]]]> Americas Witchcraft -- NEGROS IN MASONRY WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES SAY http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/463377/americas-witchcraft-negros-in-masonry-what-do-the-scriptures-say Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:20:07 +0000 The Biosphere Mowriyah 463377@/discussions
image

FOR MORE VIDEOS ONLINE CLASS SCHEDULES AND MUCH MORE VISIT
israelunite.org/
originalroyalty.com/
thedaughtersofsarah.com/ttp:/


***THE 12 TRIBES OF ISRAEL***

*JUDAH- American Blacks
*BENJAMIN- West Indian Blacks
*LEVI- Haitians
*SIMEON- Dominicans
*ZEBULON- Black Indians Guatemala to Panama(Mayans)
*EPHRAIM- Puerto Ricans
*MANASSEH- Cubans
*GAD- Native-American Indians
*REUBEN- Seminole Indians
*ASHER- Columbia to Uruguay (Incas)
*ISSACHAR- Mexicans (Aztecs)
*NAPTHALI- Argentina/Chile

Shalom!!!]]> Father Divine http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/352272/father-divine Sun, 30 Oct 2011 11:06:22 +0000 The Biosphere _mud 352272@/discussions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Divine

* Edit - having just checked the primary debate on youtube between Farrakhan and Warith Deen Mohammed - it seems it's not there that (I'm fairly sure it's) Warith Deen Mohammed mentions the possible influence of Father Divine on his father (alongside either W.E.B Dubois or Booker T Washington as I recall),, sorry, my mistake - but will post the right link as soon as I find it. It seems just as logical Warith Deen Mohammed mention Prophet Noble Drew Ali actually, so,, well - sorry to be a clutz but I'll post the right link once found,, and the groundings regarding Father Divine's mention remain to my mind relevant anyway.]]> The Egyptian Protesters and their resistance http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/107340/the-egyptian-protesters-and-their-resistance Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:45:58 +0000 The Biosphere Darius 107340@/discussions

1240.jpg

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egypt_headgear_02.jpg

Egypt-protest-head-gear-buns.jpeg]]> The Ark Of The Covenant http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/248513/the-ark-of-the-covenant Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:43:06 +0000 The Biosphere Mowriyah 248513@/discussions Where Is the Ark of The Covenant Located?




***THE 12 TRIBES OF ISRAEL***

*JUDAH- American Blacks
*BENJAMIN- West Indian Blacks
*LEVI- Haitians
*SIMEON- Dominicans
*ZEBULON- Black Indians Guatemala to Panama(Mayans)
*EPHRAIM- Puerto Ricans
*MANASSEH- Cubans
*GAD- Native-American Indians
*REUBEN- Seminole Indians
*ASHER- Columbia to Uruguay (Incas)
*ISSACHAR- Mexicans (Aztecs)
*NAPTHALI- Argentina/Chile


For More Info
http://israelunite.org/
http://www.youtube.com/user/nathanyel7isback
http://www.youtube.com/user/israelunitedinchrist]]> George L Jackson http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/18427/george-l-jackson Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:39:57 +0000 The Biosphere Capital_X 18427@/discussions george-jackson-walking-shackled-web.jpg
George Lester Jackson (September 23, 1941 – August 21, 1971) was an American prisoner, who became a communist and a member of the Black Panther Party while in prison, where he spent the last 12 years of his life. He was one of the Soledad Brothers and achieved fame due to a book of published letters.
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Born in Chicago Illinois, Jackson spent time in the California Youth Authority Corrections facility in Paso Robles because of several convictions. He was convicted of armed robbery, a felony, for robbing a gas station at gunpoint and at age 18 was sentenced to serve one year to life in prison.

While at San Quentin State Prison in 1966, he founded the Black Guerrilla Family, a Marxist prison group with political objectives.

On 16 January 1970 along with Fleeta Drumgo and John Clutchette he was charged with murdering guard John V. Mills in retaliation for the shooting deaths of three black inmates by officer O.G. Miller from his guard tower; both the shooting and the retaliation took place inside Soledad Prison. Miller, however, was not convicted of any crime, a grand jury ruling his actions to be justifiable homicide in response to a fight that had broken out. Incarcerated in the maximum security cellblock at Soledad Prison, Jackson and the other two inmates became known as the "Soledad Brothers".

Isolated in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, Jackson studied political economy and radical theory and wrote two books, Blood in My Eye and Soledad Brother, which became bestsellers and brought him worldwide attention. Sol Stern, who covered the Panthers for Ramparts magazine, described the Panthers as "clever street thugs who used revolutionary slogans to avoid accountability for their crimes", quoting Jackson -- "Marxism is my hustle."

On 7 August 1970 George Jackson's 17-year-old brother Jonathan Jackson burst into a Marin County courtroom with an automatic weapon, freed three San Quentin prisoners, and took Judge Harold Haley, Deputy District Attorney Gary Thomas, and three jurors hostage to demand freedom for the "Soledad Brothers". The weapons had been bought by Angela Davis.

Judge Haley and prisoners William Christmas, James McClain, and Jonathan Jackson were killed as they attempted to drive away from the courthouse. Eyewitness testimony suggests Haley was hit by fire discharged from a sawed-off shotgun that had been fastened to his neck with adhesive tape by the abductors. Thomas, prisoner Ruchell Magee, and one of the jurors were wounded. The case made national headlines.

Ruchell Magee (born 1939), the sole survivor among the militants who attacked the court, was convicted for Haley's kidnapping and murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, which he is serving in Corcoran State Prison; he has lost numerous bids for parole.

On August 21, 1971, three days before he was to go on trial, 29 year old George Jackson was shot and killed at San Quentin prison.

According to the state of California, lawyer-activist Stephen Bingham had smuggled a pistol concealed in a tape recorder into the prison to Jackson, who was housed in San Quentin's Adjustment Center at the time awaiting trial for the murder of a prison guard. On August 21, 1971, Jackson, according to the state, used the pistol, an Astra 9-mm semi-automatic, to take over his tier in the Adjustment Center. Six people were killed, including prison guards Jere Graham, Frank DeLeon and Paul Krasnes, two white prisoners, and Jackson himself.

French intellectuals such as Michel Foucault and Jean Genet argued that Jackson's death was in fact a "political assassination."

Following the incident, Bingham fled the country, living in Europe for 13 years before surrendering in 1984 and returning to the United States to stand trial, where he was acquitted of all charges.
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Blood In My Eye captures the spirit of Geogre Jacksons legendary resistance to unbridled oppression and racism. His unique and incisively critical perpective becomes the unifying thread that ties this collection of letters and essays in which he presents his analysis of armed struggle, class war, facism, communism and a wide array of topics.

I own and have read both of George L Jackson's books. They are true eye openers. I don't think anyone can read these books and not get involved in the struggle that still continues till this day. The same prisoners rights Jackson fought and died for are being sought out today by prisoners across America. Texas death row prisoner Rob Will is one who has protested capital punishment and the treatment of prisoners in Jackson's honor at least once on the anniversary day of Jackson's assassination. George L Jackson, a true revolutionary in the fight against injustice.

Rob Will Protest Video http://www.freerobwill.org/#/aug-22-2006/4520712747]]> Mum Bett http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/92919/mum-bett Sun, 02 Jan 2011 15:11:46 +0000 The Biosphere ThaChozenWun 92919@/discussions
Mum Bett was born in 1748. Born a slave in Claverack, New York, she served Peter Hogebooma Dutchman until the age of 33. During the American Revolution in 1781 she was given to Dutchman's daughter and her husband, John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts. Ashley was a town patriot and judge.

Bett was a server at many of Ashley's political meetings. During these meetings she would hear how these patriotic men spoke so often about equality a freedom. Although these men were speaking about white males, Bett considered her possibilities as a black woman. . It was during this time that the Bill of Rights were discussed, as well as a new constitution of Massachusetts.

During the spring of 1871 Bett stopped into the office of Theodore Sedgwick while in town. Sedgwick was a lawyer and a regular at the political meetings in which she served. It would be here that Bett asked Sedgwick to sue for her freedom.

Bett not being able to read nor write, was asked by Sedgwick why she believed she could sue and receive her freedom. In a determined voice, Bett answered, "By keepin' still and mindin' things." She further went on to explain that she had heard that all people were born equal, and after thinking long and hard about this, she concluded that she should try "whether she did not come in among them."

Sedgwick and Ashley were friends, and in spite of the fact that Sedgwick had never argued a case for anyone besides Ashley, he decided to take Bett's case.

Sedgwick in the lawsuit based her rights on two factors. The first being that the State of Massachusetts had never established legal slavery, and the second being that even if it had, the new constitution had annulled it. Bett asked for and received a trial by jury, and after only 30 minutes of deliberation, she was given her freedom.

While Ashley did appeal the case, he dropped it a few months later after other slavery cases had been ruled in favor of slaves.

In 1785 Bett moved to Stockbridge Massachusetts where she changed her name to Freeman. She continued to work as a domestic only this time having her own house and receiving pay for her services.

The only black person to be buried in Stockbridge Cemetery, Bett died in Stockbridge in 1829 where she was buried in the family plot of her lawyer Mr. Theodore Sedgwick.]]> The Haitian Revolution http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/15708/the-haitian-revolution Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:37:32 +0000 The Biosphere Hyde Parke 15708@/discussions
On August 22, 1791, the Haitian war of independence began in flames under the leadership of a religious leader named Boukman; over one hundred thousand slaves rose up against the vastly outnumbered and infinitely hated French. Unlike the French Revolution and the American Revolution, the Haitian revolution was entirely driven by the passions of men and women who had been enslaved most if not all of their lives. They didn't simply desire liberty, they wanted vengeance. Over the next three weeks, the Haitian slaves burned every plantation throughout the fertile regions of Haiti and executed all Frenchmen they could find. The French fled to the seacoast towns and pleaded with France to help them out while the island burned.



Toussaint

The great hero of the Haitian Revolution and a man considered one of the great revolutionaries and generals in his own time throughout America and Europe, was François Dominique Toussaint L'Ouverture. This man, whom all his European contemporaries compared to George Washington and later to Napolean Bonaparte, was not even part of the original revolution. When the war of independence broke out in August, Toussaint was fifty years old. Having spent his life in slavery, he was entering old age as a carriage driver. Like so many other slaves, though, the revolution fired his passion and he discovered within himself a greatness that fired the imagination of both his contemporaries and distant Europeans.

He didn't participate in the burning of the plantations or the executions of the slaveowners, but he rose to his own when he realized that the revolution could not hold unless the slaves became militarily and politically organized to resist outside pressures. His first move when he joined the revolution was to train a small military group. He then realized that the Haitian slaves, who now occupied the eastern 2/3 of Haiti (what is now the Dominican Republic), were caught between three contending European forces, all of whom wanted Haiti for themselves. The French, of course, wanted Haiti back. The Spanish and English saw the revolution as an opportunity for seizing Haiti for themselves. Toussaint's great genius was to achieve what he wanted for the slaves by playing each of these powers off of each other, for they all realized that the slaves were the key to gaining Haiti. In the end, Toussaint allied his forces with the French, and Haiti remained part of France under the consulship of Toussaint.

Toussaint by all accounts was a brilliant and charismatic statesman and leader. Although Haiti was nominally under the contol of France, in reality the Haitian Consul ran the island as a military dictator. Despite the fiery vengeance that animated the beginning of the revolution, Toussaint managed to maintain a certain level of racial harmony&emdash;in fact, he was as well-loved by the French on Haiti as he was by the freed slaves. His reign, however, came to an end with the rise of Napolean Bonaparte in France. Aside from the fact that Bonaparte did not like sharing power, he was also a deep-seated racist who was full of contempt for blacks. Napolean sent General Victor Leclerc with over twenty thousand soldiers to unseat Toussaint, who then waged guerilla warfare against the French. Eventually he made peace with the French and retired from public life in 1802 on his own plantation. In 1803, the French tricked him into a meeting where he was arrested and sent to France. He died in prison in April of 1803.



Dessalines

With the death of Toussaint, the revolution was carried on by Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Unlike Toussaint, he was angry over his treatment as a slave and was determined not to allow its return. The war fought between Leclerc and Dessalines was, on both sides, one of the most horrifying struggles in history. Both resorted to atrocities. Leclerc was desperate, for his men were dying of yellow fever and the guerilla attacks took a surprising toll. So he decided to simply execute blacks whenever and wherever he found them. The slaughter that he perpetrated on non-combatants would not really be equalled until World War II; Leclerc's successor, Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau, simply continued this policy. Dessalines responded that every atrocity committed by the French would be revisited on the French. Such was how the war was waged. As the fighting wore on, Dessalines ordered the summary execution of all Europeans that opposed the new revolutionary government. During this time, Napolean's government did little to help the harried French troops.

Finally, on November 28, 1803, Rochambeau surrendered and Dessalines declared Haiti to be a republic. He took the French three-colored flag and removed the white from the flag to produce the bi-colored flag of Haiti, the second republic of the Western hemisphere.

The response in North America was immediate. The Haitian Revolution suddenly changed the equation that had been operating in the North. Believing themselves to be kind and paternal and the slaves to be child-like and grateful, white slaveowners suddenly became aware of the tinderbox that they were sitting on. Although slaveowners would publicly declare that slaves were, in fact, happy being slaves, in reality they knew otherwise. All throughout the southern United States, white slaveowners began to build "slave shelters" to hide in should the slaves revolt. Many of them regularly occupied these shelters whenever they feared a slave revolt. Guns became bedside companions and fear became the rule of the day.]]> Bloody Sunday http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/16987/bloody-sunday Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:11:23 +0000 The Biosphere Hyde Parke 16987@/discussions

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called for a march from Selma to Montgomery to ask then-Governor, George Wallace, to protect Black registrants. Wallace denounced the march as a threat to public safety and declared he would take all measures necessary to prevent it. In their first march, led by John Lewis and the Reverend Hosea Williams, they made it only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge, which was just six blocks away. State troopers and sheriffs from the county police department, some of who were mounted on horseback, awaited the protestors. In the presence of the news media, the police attacked the peaceful demonstrators with Billy clubs, tear gas and bull whips, and drove them back into Selma.


America Reacts


Brutal images of the attack were televised, and this presented people with horrifying visions of peaceful marchers left bloodied and severely injured thereby rousing support for the U.S. civil rights movement. Amelia Boynton Robinson was nearly beaten and gassed to death — her photo appeared on the front page of newspapers and news magazines around the world. Seventeen marchers were hospitalized, leading people to the name that day, "Bloody Sunday." Rosa Parks also marched with them that day.


Immediately after "Bloody Sunday," King, as leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, began organizing a second march to be held on Tuesday, March 9, 1965, calling for people across the country to join him. Hundreds of people, shocked by what they had seen on TV, responded to his call. About 2,500 people marched from Selma to Montgomery for the second time.


To prevent another violent outbreak or opposition from law enforcement, the marchers attempted to gain a court order that would prohibit the police from interfering. Instead of issuing the court order, Federal District Court Judge Frank Minis Johnson issued a restraining order, preventing the march from taking place until he could hold additional hearings later in the week. Rather than abiding by the court order, the SCLC decided to hold a partial, "ceremonial" march, since hundreds of marchers had gathered for the event. The group did not want to alienate one of the few southern judges who gave them the court order and who was often sympathetic to their cause.


Finally, a third march was organized and the protest was successful in demonstrating the problems with discrimination, segregation and racism.]]>