“Only the Beginning”

The Black WallStreet The name "The Black Wall Street" is adopted from the historical Black community of Tulsa Oklahoma. The date was June 1, 1921, when "Black Wall street," the name fittingly given to one of the most affluent all-black communities in America, was bombed from the air and burned to the ground. In a period spanning fewer than 12 hours, a once thriving 36-black business district in northern Tulsa lay smoldering. A model community destroyed, and a major Black economic movement resoundingly defused.

Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), also known as El-Hajj –Malik, El-Shabazz was an American Black Muslim minister and a spokesman for the Nation of Islam. After leaving the Nation of Islam in 1964, he made the pilgrimage, the Hajj, to Mecca and became a Sunni Muslim. He also founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Less than a year later, he was assassinated in Washington Heights on the first day of National Brotherhood Week. In the summer before becoming Governor of New York, and while still the Lieutenant Governor, David Paterson said, "Malcolm X, who lived in our time but offered us a steadfast disciplined criticism and honesty about the America there was for whites and the America there was for the so-called thirty million Negroes of his time." Historian Robin D.G. Kelley wrote, "Malcolm X has been called many things: Pan-Africanist, father of Black Power, religious fanatic, closet conservative, incipient socialist, and a menace to society. The meaning of his public life — his politics and ideology — is contested in part because his entire body of work consists of a few dozen speeches and a collaborative autobiography whose veracity is challenged. Malcolm has become a sort of tabula rasa, or blank slate, on which people of different positions can write their own interpretations of his politics and legacy. Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas can both declare Malcolm X their hero."

EYE WITNESSES TO ASSASSINATION OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968), was one of the pivotal leaders of the American civil rights movement. King was a Baptist minister, one of the few leadership roles available to black men at the time. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in Martin Luther King Day was established as a national holiday in the United States in In 2004, King was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.

Most historians date the beginning of the modern civil rights movement in the United States to December 1, That was the day when an unknown seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. This brave woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested and fined for violating a city ordinance, but her lonely act of defiance began a movement that ended legal segregation in America, and made her an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere.

 Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)  Decreed a slave was his master's property and African Americans were not citizens; struck down the Missouri Compromise as unconstitutional.  Civil Rights Cases (1883)  A number of cases are addressed under this Supreme Court decision. Decided that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 (the last federal civil rights legislation until the Civil Rights Act of 1957) was unconstitutional. Allowed private sector segregation.  Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)  The Court stated that segregation was legal and constitutional as long as "facilities were equal"—the famous "separate but equal" segregation policy.  Powell v. Alabama (1932)  The Supreme Court overturned the "Scottsboro Boys'" convictions and guaranteed counsel in state and federal courts.  Shelley v. Kraemer (1948)  The justices ruled that a court may not constitutionally enforce a "restrictive covenant" which prevents people of certain race from owning or occupying property.  Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)  Reversed Plessy v. Ferguson "separate but equal" ruling. "[S]egregation [in public education] is a denial of the equal protection of the laws.“  Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States (1964)  This case challenged the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of The court ruled that the motel had no right "to select its guests as it sees fit, free from governmental regulation."  Loving v. Virginia (1967)  This decision ruled that the prohibition on interracial marriage was unconstitutional. Sixteen states that still banned interracial marriage at the time were forced to revise their laws.  Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)  The decision stated that affirmative action was unfair if it lead to reverse discrimination.  Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)  The decision upheld affirmative action's constitutionality in education, as long it employed a "highly individualized, holistic review of each applicant's file" and did not consider race as a factor in a "mechanical way."

David Richmond (from left), Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., and Joseph McNeil leave the Woolworth in Greensboro, N.C., where they initiated a lunch-counter sit-in to protest segregation, Feb. 1, (No photographers were allowed into the store on the first day of protest.) Joseph McNeil (from left), Franklin McCain, Billy Smith and Clarence Henderson sit in protest at the whites-only lunch counter at Woolworth during the second day of peaceful protest, Feb. 2, 1960.

On Feb. 1, 1960, four students from all-black North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College walked into a Woolworth five-and-dime with the intention of ordering lunch. But the manager of the Greensboro Woolworth had intentions of his own — to maintain the lunch counter's strict whites-only policy. Franklin McCain was one of the four young men who shoved history forward by refusing to budge. McCain remembers the anxiety he felt when he went to the store that Monday afternoon, the plan he and his friends had devised to launch their protest and how he felt when he sat down on that stool. "Fifteen seconds after … I had the most wonderful feeling. I had a feeling of liberation, restored manhood. I had a natural high. And I truly felt almost invincible. Mind you, [I was] just sitting on a dumb stool and not having asked for service yet," McCain says. "It's a feeling that I don't think that I'll ever be able to have again. It's the kind of thing that people pray for … and wish for all their lives and never experience it. And I felt as though I wouldn't have been cheated out of life had that been the end of my life at that second or that moment." McCain shares his recollection of the exchanges the four African-American men had with the lunch-counter staff, the store manager and a policeman who arrived on the scene — and also a lesson he learned that day. An older white woman sat at the lunch counter a few stools down from McCain and his friends. "And if you think Greensboro, N.C., 1960, a little old white lady who eyes you with that suspicious look … she's not having very good thoughts about you nor what you're doing," McCain says. Eventually, she finished her doughnut and coffee. And she walked behind McNeil and McCain — and put her hands on their shoulders. "She said in a very calm voice, 'Boys, I am so proud of you. I only regret that you didn't do this 10 years ago.'" McCain recalls. "What I learned from that little incident was … don't you ever, ever stereotype anybody in this life until you at least experience them and have the opportunity to talk to them. I'm even more cognizant of that today — situations like that — and I'm always open to people who speak differently, who look differently, and who come from different places," he says. On that first day, Feb. 1, the four men stayed at the lunch counter until closing. The next day, they came back with 15 other students. By the third day, 300 joined in; later, 1,000. The sit-ins spread to lunch counters across the country — and changed history. WoolWorth Sit-in

Little Rock Nine  The Little Rock Nine were a group of African-American students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in The ensuing Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, and then attended after the intervention of President Dwight Eisenhower, is considered to be one of the most important events in the African- American Civil Rights Movement.

History of African Americans in the Civil War "Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pockets, and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States." - - Frederick Douglass These words spoken by Frederick Douglass moved many African Americans to enlist in the Union Army and fight for their freedom. With President Abraham Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the Civil War became a war to save the union and to abolish slavery.

African American Military History African Americans have served as underappreciated heroes in every war and countless 'unofficial' skirmishes and conflicts throughout the history of our nation -- and even in colonial days. There has scarcely been a battle when America has not been served by the valor and sacrifice of what poets have called "the darker brother." Like the Kipling poems of England's Victorian "empire" period, America also has a story of forgotten heroes, and a public that seems barely aware of the courage and honor of, in some cases, gallantry almost beyond words. Kipling wrote of the unappreciated 'Tommy Atkins' - despised or held scarcely above outright contempt - UNTIL the nation needed him. Then he was the hero, the savior, the man who stood in the gap, who came to his nation's rescue in its hour of need. Another Kipling poem describes the despised 'Gunga Din' the brave dark fighters who shed their blood, gave their lives, on behalf of an empire that owed them better. And for Kipling, the white professional soldiers could only say in awe, "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din." But in America's case, its Black warriors were not foreign, they were home born and every bit as American as their brother warriors of lighter hue. At long last, America is waking to the glory of "the darker brother" on the field of battle. Just as has been shown in other fields of achievement, perhaps beginning with America's unique homegrown religious heritage, the black contribution has been profound. The original core of this document was begun by Professor Cunnea as a homework aid for his classes. A note to researchers of "Buffalo Soldiers" -- the Buffalo Soldiers were African-Americans used in the U.S. war to protect settlers not only against brigands but also (primarily) against certain Native Americans. The web has numerous sites on the Buffalo Soldiers but please be aware, while the Buffalo Soldiers spoke American English, and tended to think somewhat similar to the "white" Americans, history reveals that they also shared the prejudices against so called marauding "red men." You should be aware of this. The first Buffalo Soldiers were the 9th and 10th Cavalries, formed by the U.S. Army in 1866 and mostly composed of freed slaves and Civil War vets. The patrolled the Mexican border, participated in the Spanish-American War, and in the U.S. expedition to the Philippines. While it is regrettable that black Americans should have participated in military actions adversely affecting native peoples, students should remember that not all the reprisals and measures taken by the government were unprovoked, nor were all of them carried out with the ruthlessness we sometimes hear of. Buffalo soldiers and black cowboys were merely one factor in the opening of the West, and a certain toughness went with the territory. It was a job somebody had to do, and the oppressive aspects, while not excusable whatsoever, were indeed one part of that history. The Buffalo Soldiers were disbanded in the 1950's when President Harry Truman integrated the armed forces. A television movie called "Buffalo Soldiers" starring Danny Glover was made in 1997 and may be available to students on video. It aired on TNT. Set in New Mexico Territory in 1880, it is a fictionalized account of the conflicts between the Buffalo Soldiers and the Native Americans then `plaguing` the pioneers westward.

Ella Baker was born to Georgianna and Blake Baker on December 13, 1903 in Norfolk, Virginia. After graduating from high school, Baker left home for Shaw University in North Carolina. She earned her degree in 1927, and moved to Harlem where the lively black community furthered her interest in social justice. She quickly settled into her new home. She took a position as the executive director of the Young Negroes Cooperative League, and was instrumental in combating the effects of the depression through the creation of consumer cooperatives.

Baker Joins the Civil Rights Movement As the depression came to an end, Baker moved her attention to civil rights. In 1941, she joined the NAACP and began work as a field secretary. Two years later, she secured a position as the Director of Branches. Even though the NAACP was one of the few organizations at the time to fight for civil rights, Baker was disheartened with the group’s primary focus on legal avenues as opposed to grass roots organizing. Baker resigned in 1946, but remained with the organization for several years. At the time, New York was a haven for black activists. Among these forward looking protestors was Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph. New York was also the home of Martin Luther King Jr.’s closest advisor, Stanley Levison. In 1956, while the Montgomery bus boycott was underway, Baker, Levison, and Rustin teamed up to form the group In Friendship. The purpose of the organization was to provide funding for civil rights endeavors. Through donations from wealthy patrons, the group was able to contribute a substantial sum to the boycott. When the boycott ended, Baker was part of the discussions with Levison and Rustin about expanding the civil rights movement beyond the bus boycott. After King accepted the proposal, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was formed in In 1958, King requested that Baker take charge of the floundering Crusade for Citizenship, which was the SCLC campaign to promote voter registration. One year later, Baker was appointed temporary director of the SCLC until a permanent one was found. By this time, although Baker was veteran organizer, the man centered leadership of the civil rights movement eliminated her chance for becoming the permanent director. Her fill-in position lasted for just one year. In February 1960, Baker found that her talents were more accepted by the students who had just begun the sit- in movement. She was instrumental in helping them establish the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) as a medium to organize student demonstrations.

A. Philip Randolph Born and raised in Crescent City, Florida, A. Philip Randolph was the son of a minister. Four years after Randolph graduated as class valedictorian from Cookman Institute, he decided to move to New York City in At first he attempted to launch an acting career, but he found more success in his academic endeavors at City College. As Randolph developed intellectually, he began to believe that the black working class was crucial to black progress. With this goal in mind, Randolph joined the Socialist party. Among the other socialist that Randolph began associating with was Columbia University student Chandler Owen. Randolph and Owen quickly became close friends. In 1917, Randolph and Owen founded the magazine The Messenger. In it, they covered such issues as calling for more opportunities for blacks in the military and it was also used as a forum to criticize the ideas of President Woodrow Wilson, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Randolph Finds Solace in Socialism Randolph Fights for Black Porters Randolph Challenges Discrimination Condoned by the Federal Government

Randolph eventually saw the need for organizing black workers. Because many affiliates of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) barred blacks from membership, in 1925, Randolph founded and served as President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. The organization represented black porters who worked for the Pullman Company. Through the group, Randolph was able to secure a railroad contract with the Pullman Company in After the successful negotiation with the Pullman Company, one year later, Randolph put pressure on President Franklin D. Roosevelt to end employment discrimination against blacks in the federal government. Randolph began organizing blacks to march on Washington in protest. On June 25, 1941, President Roosevelt responded by issuing Executive Order 8802, which barred discrimination in defense industries and established the Fair Employment Act. Next, Randolph turned his attention to discrimination in the military. Randolph was successful again after he pushed for the banning of segregation in the military through his organization the League for Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Against Military Segregation. This time Executive Order 9981 was issued by President Harry Truman on July 26, 1948.

Beyond labor concerns and governmental discrimination, Randolph was passionate about equality for blacks. When Martin Luther King Jr. took the lead in the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, Randolph immersed himself in the civil rights effort. Randolph’s most notable achievement during the movement was the organization of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The idea for the march, which originated from Randolph’s 1941 idea to march in protest against employment discrimination practices by the federal government, encompassed Randolph’s two passions—labor concerns and civil rights. In 1968, Randolph’s health began to deteriorate, and he became less active. He died on May 16, Bayard Rustin, most noted for his behind-the-scenes work with Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement, was more than an activist for racial equality. He was committed to economic justice, labor rights, and by the end of his life, he had taken on humanitarian causes.

March 17, 1912 to August 24, 1987

Bayard Rustin was born on March 17, 1912 in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Rustin had a rocky start in life. His mother, an unmarried woman, left him in the care of his grandparents. Rustin’s grandparents had a positive influence on his life and were instrumental in his future. Rustin looked on as his grandmother, a member of the NAACP, invited well known activists to stay in their home. Overnight visitors included W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, and Mary McLeod Bethune. Rustin’s grandmother nurtured the activist spirit in him through the use of Quaker teachings. The Quakers believed that all people, regardless of race, were equal. Thus, for the Quakers, segregation laws were immoral. When Rustin matured, it was the Quaker stance on equality, and not his race that led to his participation in the civil rights movement. Rustin Works with the Communists In 1932, after Rustin graduated from high school, he moved to Ohio to attend Wilberforce University. As a tenor, he established himself as an asset to the Wilberforce Quartet, but after two years at the university, he decided to move on. He eventually landed in New York City in He attended City College of New York and worked as a backup singer. Rustin’s passion for equality, however, led him to the Young Communist League. It was a brief membership that ended when he discovered that the group’s commitment to the end of discrimination was overrode by other causes. Bayard Rustin Embraces Pacifism Rustin’s 1941 departure led him on a new path. He worked briefly with labor leader A. Philip Randolph at the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, but decided instead to put his effort into the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), a peace organization. It was during this time that he became a pacifist. His study of Gandhi and his close working relationship with the organization’s leader, A.J. Muste, influenced his refusal to comply with the draft act. As a result, Rustin was sentenced to three years in federal prison. Shortly after Rustin’s release from prison, he participated in the FOR and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sponsored freedom rides in The rides were designed to test the Supreme Court ruling desegregating interstate buses. Rustin’s participation resulted in his arrest and conviction. He was sentenced to thirty days on a chain gang.

Rustin Joins the Civil Rights Movement In 1953, Rustin broke off with FOR after his well publicized arrest for homosexual lewd conduct threatened to harm the reputation of the organization. Two years later, when Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as the leader of the Montgomery bus boycott, Rustin began his mentorship of King on nonviolent resistance. Once the boycott ended, Rustin urged King to form an organization dedicated to civil rights; with the help of Rustin, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was created in Rustin’s contribution to the civil rights movement was instrumental to its success. He was an adept organizer who was most noted for his management of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. His homosexual orientation, however, was at times a barrier. He was often forced to work behind-the-scenes with King and the SCLC. Bayard Rustin Moves beyond Civil Rights In 1965, Rustin decided to move away from civil rights. By this time, he believed that economic equality had become more important than civil rights. In 1968, Rustin and Randolph founded the A. Philip Randolph Institute, an organization dedicated to labor rights. Rustin became the executive director of the group. In the 1970s, Rustin began working for humanitarian causes. He served as the vice chairman of the refugee aid organization, the International Rescue Committee, and he worked with the group, Project South Africa. Rustin’s commitment to humanitarian causes came to an end on August 24, 1987, when he died of a perforated appendix in New York City.

This is a story of a little boy named Alex. He woke up one morning and asked his mother, "Mom, what if there were no black people in the world?" His mother thought about what he said for a moment and replied, "Son follow me today and let's see what it would be like if there were no black people in the world." Mom said, "We will get dressed so we can start our day." Alex ran to his room to put on his clothes and shoes. A few moments later his mother asked, "Alex, where are your shoes? And your clothes are wrinkled so we have to iron them." She reached for the ironing board but it was not there. Alex asked why and his mother replied, "Alex, Sarah Boone, a black woman invented the ironing board and Jan E. Mazelinger, a black man invented the shoe lasting machine. Alex sighed and proceeded to comb his hair. To his amazement, the comb and brush were not where they should have been. He asked his mother where the comb and brush were and she replied, "We don't have a comb and brush since the comb was invented by a black man named Walter Sammons and the brush was invented by a black woman named Lydia O. Newman." Alex looked at his mother's hair and said, "Mom your hair care products must have been invented by a black person also because your hair is not done." His mom said, "yes, Madam C. J. Walker invented hair care products for blacks.

Where Would We Be Without Black People? Alex was beginning to understand when his mother said it was time to eat breakfast. Alex and his mother went into the kitchen for breakfast and discovered the refrigerator was missing because it was invented by a black man named, John Standard, the range oven was missing because it was invented by a black man named, Thomas Carrington and the kitchen table was missing since it was invented by H. A. Jackson. At this point, Alex yelled, "Mom we aren't having much luck today.“ Mom said, "Alex its time to start our chores around the house and take a trip to the grocery store." Mom told Alex his chores for the day were to sweep the floor and cut the lawn. When Alex finished sweeping he looked for the dust pan and to his surprise it was not there. His mom told him it was invented by Lloyd P. Ray, a black man. Since he did not know what to do with the trash that he swept, he swept it into a corner and went outside to cut the lawn but the lawn mower was not there. Thinking it had been stolen, he told his mother it wasn't there and she told him it was because it was invented by J. A. Burr. While Alex was trying to figure out how he was going to cut the lawn, his mother washed clothes. When the clothes were finished, she asked Alex to put them in the clothes dryer but it was not there since it was invented by a black man name, George T. Samon. By now Alex was feeling helpless and disappointed that he could not complete his chores.

Mom asked Alex to go get a pencil and paper so they could make a grocery list. Of course he was in for more disappointment because the pencil led was broken and he couldn't sharpen it since the pencil sharpener was invented by a black man named John Love. Mom reached for a fountain pen but did not see one since it was invented by William Purvis another black man. They were both at a standstill since there was no typewriter since it was also invented by a black, Lee Burridge. The only thing left for them to do was to go grocery shopping. The got into the car but it would not run since Richard Spikes, a black man, invented the automatic gearshift and Joseph Gammel was responsible for the super-charge system for the internal combustion engines. By now, most of the day was gone and it was getting cold outside. Alex asked his mother why she didn't use the heating furnace. She replied, she couldn't since it was invented by Alice Parker. Alex said, "let me guess, she was also black". Alex's father walked in as he was talking to his mother. He was carrying a hand full of mail and Alex asked why. His mother told him, he had no choice since the letter drop mailbox was invented by a black named Philip Downing as well the postmarking and canceling machines were invented by William Barry who was also black. With the wondering mind that Alex had, he started thinking, if he ever need blood there would be no way for him to get it since Charles R. Drew, a black scientist created the world's first blood bank or if anyone in his life needed heart surgery they would not be able to get it since Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, a black physician performed the first open heart surgery.

For the first time Alex understood what the world would be like without black people since he and his mother were having the final conversation of the night in a dark room. You see, the filament within the light bulb was also invented by someone black named, Lewis Howard Latimer. If you ever wonder, like Alex, what the world would be like without black people, just think what it would be like to eat in the dark on the floor, walk everywhere you have to go, wear wrinkled clothes, not be able to write with a pen or pencil, not comb or brush your hair and let's not forget, reading this on the computer would be impossible since the keyboard used to type it originated from the typewriter, get the picture.....?. Author Unknown (Edited)

This is Only the Beginning  There is more to come, for we will continue to make history for our people in this great land and here on Gods Earth