Every Month Should be Black History Month

audiodopexx:

blackmanonthemoon:

I asked why i post pictures like this and it’s simple….I refuse to allow myself to forget for one second the history of this countries treatment of my People. This is something i had to research for myself since my “History” classes were very brief on the part of AMERICAN History. Never forget that freedom for Blacks did’t happen in 1865

i just learned how they would take souvenirs and practice necrophilia.

I’m deeply saddened…I’m pretty sure I left my Black Firsts book in Florida…or on a plane…I can’t find it!!! SO I guess I’ll just start working from the second volume of it!!

Spread Knowledge…Fight Ignorance

-Trayc D.

ohmija:

Colonel Carmens Amelia Robles, Afro Mexican Woman Leader in the Mexican Revolution

todaysdocument:

Eleanor Roosevelt and Marian Anderson in Japan, May 22, 1953

(Fourteen years after then-First Lady Roosevelt’s historic resignation letter in support of Anderson.)

The Civil Rights Act of 1968 (also known as the Fair Housing Act) is signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on April 11. The act made discrimination in the sale or rental of housing illegal.

          Ellis Haizlip was born in Washington, D.C. on September 21, 1929. After graduating from Howard University in 1954, he did his post graduate studies at Brandeis and was accepted into the prestigious School of Drama at Yale. Haizlip began his career in New York in the early ’50’s, producing an extraordinary array of dramatic, theatrical and musical shows.

          In 1968, amidst the turbulent aftermath of the Harlem riots and under the watchful eye of the Kerner Commission, the director of New York City’s public television station, WNET/ Channel 13 decided to produce an all-black variety show. The Emmy award-winning series SOUL! was the brainchild of Ellis Haizlip. SOUL!, which ran from 1968 to 1973, was described as, “a meeting place for black ideas and black talent with undertones of New York’s Apollo Theater.” SOUL! featured classic live performances by up-and-coming funk, jazz, soul and world musicians, juxtaposed with in-depth interviews with actors, literary figures, prominent politicians and intellectuals. Haizlip championed early acts such as Ashford and Simpson, Roberta Flack, Al Green, Billy Taylor, Patti LaBelle and Stevie Wonder, pairing them alongside James Baldwin, Sidney Poitier, Toni Morrison, Anna Maria Horsford, Louis Farrakhan, Cicely Tyson, The Last Poets, Nikki Giovanni, LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka,) Jesse Jackson, and James Earl Jones. 

           Haizlip became affectionately known as “Mr. Soul,” as he continued to promote the world of African American culture and art throughout his lifetime. In 1972 and 1973, at the height of the show’s success, Lincoln Center invited Haizlip to produce Soul at the Center, a critically acclaimed, twelve-day black arts festival at Lincoln Center. After a very public battle to keep SOUL! on the air despite a shifting political landscape, the show ended in 1973. Haizlip remained at WNET through 1981, producing Watch Your Mouth, an educational series geared towards inner city teens. His work awarded him many prestigious honors over the years, including an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Malcolm X College in Chicago and the Israel Festival Silver Medal for The Amen Corner. December 6, 1988 was proclaimed Ellis Haizlip Day by the President of the Borough of Manhattan, an honor Haizlip highly cherished.

          SOUL! was a seminal moment in American broadcast history, a turning point and a transition in an era of immense struggle. It marked the emergence and widespread acceptance of black culture and entertainment on television. Haizlip, who died of lung cancer on January 25, 1991, left behind both a legacy and a show, which, to this day, remains unequalled in cultural relevance and significance.

*To learn more about Ellis Haizlip and SOUL! be sure to click on the link under the picture*

In 1939, Ethel Waters became the first black singer to appear on television and the first black America to star to appear in her own television show, The Ethel Waters Show. This was an experimental, one-night event for the new medium of television. She returned to television eleven years later as the star of Beulah.

In 1999, Sylvia Stanfield became the first black woman ambassador to Brunei. She also became one of the highest-ranking blacks in the diplomatic service. Stanfield is one of the country’s few Chinese language specialists. She graduated from Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, and studied at the University of Hawaii and the University of Hong Kong

Source: Black First: Groundbreaking Events in African American History

In 1993, Alexis M. Herman became the first black woman to direct a White House liaison program. From 1993-1997 Herman was director of the White House Office of Public Liaison as well as assistant to President Bill Clinton.

Source: Black First: Groundbreaking events in African American History