“Fight Continues to Install Plaque Memorializing Madison County Lynchings - Black Press USA” plus 2 more

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• Fight Continues to Install Plaque Memorializing Madison County Lynchings - Black Press USA
• Hundreds of black Americans were killed during 'Red Summer.' A century later, still ignored - USA TODAY
• Black transgender woman shot to death was 3rd killed in SC since 2018, advocates say - Charlotte Observer

Fight Continues to Install Plaque Memorializing Madison County Lynchings - Black Press USA Posted: 23 Jul 2019 02:49 AM PDT By Malorie Paine JACKSON, TN — The Jackson Madison County Community Remembrance Project will continue trying to install a plaque that would memorialize three lynchings which took place in the late 1800s in Madison County.  The JMCCRP is a partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative that consists of Madison County and Jackson citizens. The coalition is focused currently on installing the plaque, despite the plaque having been voted down at a Madison County Commission meeting in June.  The plaque would provide information about the three known people and the events that took place on one side of the plaque, and on the other side, there would be information about lynchings that took place throughout America. Dr. Cindy Boyles, JMCCRP project manager, said the plaque is meant to draw attention to the events so that others may research the events. The lynchings took place without due process, and it's important to talk about that, Boyles said. Though lynchings no longer take place, today's society is still very much shaped by the historical inequalities that took place, she said. "It impacts us today," Boyles said. "In the United States, we've remained very silent about the impacts of slavery, the end of the Civil War, lynching and the Civil Rights Movement. Our silence really hasn't worked for us. We may not have lynchings today, but we can clearly see the impacts of the lack of due process through mass incarcerations that we have today." Talking and learning about the events are the first step in the healing process, Boyles said. "We tried to say if we don't talk about it and we don't look at it, and we put it under the rug, everything will get better, but everything has not gotten better," Boyles said. "We still see racial divides between people, we still see economic and racial disparities between whites and African Americans and other minorities. If keeping quiet had worked, we really shouldn't see any racial and economic disparity." The plaque would be funded through the EJI, Boyles said. This is part of a movement taking place across the South and other areas of the county, she said. Dr. Liz Mayo, another JMCCRP member, said she was disappointed but not surprised that the Madison County Commission had voted against the installation at the County Courthouse. However, she feels the plaque is an important step in moving forward. Mayo said she was born and raised in West Tennessee, but did not learn about the lynchings that had taken place in Madison County until she was in graduate school at The University of Memphis. "I'm a native West Tennessean, born and bred in this area, and this was not part of my K12 education," Mayo said. "I wondered why did I not learn this when I was growing up. Why did it take me until graduate school to find this out?" Mayo is an educator and says she makes it a point to talk about the history in her own classroom.  "Students still in the South are not learning about the true history of what happened with lynch mobs in this region," she said. The plaque is important not just for remembrance but as a sort of recompense of the past to make amends, Mayo said. "It's also really powerful to say to someone 'This happened to you, and I recognize it. We're not going to bury it anymore and pretend it didn't happen to your ancestors," Mayo said. Mayo believes it is her responsibility to acknowledge the past and work to change to future. She feels the historical plaque would be one way to begin that process. "There's a form of cultural gas lighting that occurs when we try to tell someone that racism is in the past and that it doesn't matter anymore," Mayo said. "Instead of doing that, if we own and say 'You know what, my ancestors were awful to your ancestors, and I'm sorry for that. Even if I didn't personally do it, I'm still benefitting from those things that occurred during those times and places that have kept underrepresented minorities down and have given me a leg up.'" Mayo wants to see all people work together to change the trajectory of the future and move towards a less racist society through acknowledging and dealing with the past.  The JMCCRP will work to determine other locations in Madison County that would also be appropriate for the historical plaque. This article originally appeared in The Tennessee Tribune.  Like this: Like Loading... Washington, DC – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer sent a new letter to the U.S. Department of Treasury Inspector General formally requesting an investigation into the Trump Administration's decision to delay release of the redesign of the twenty-dollar bill. More than three years ago, under President Obama, the Treasury Department announced the redesign of the $20 note featuring Harriet Tubman's portrait would be released in 2020, but the Trump administration recently announced that the redesign would be delayed until 2028. Leader Schumer is demanding answers to the official explanation by the Trump Administration about why the bill's release has been delayed. In the letter, Leader Schumer specifically requests that the Treasury Inspector General examine whether political considerations played a role in the decision to delay the release and why the Treasury Secretary suggested that it would take a decade or more to produce a new $20 bill. The request seeks a review of the involvement of the interagency process related to the redesign—including the Secret Service, Federal Reserve, and the White House – to ensure that political considerations did not taint the process to recognize Harriet Tubman's heroic legacy. Leader Schumer's letter also comes after he successfully secured the establishment the Harriet Tubman National Historic Park in Tubman's hometown, Auburn, NY– which was formally established in January 2017. Schumer fought for years to make Tubman Park a reality. He authored, introduced, and passed legislation authorizing the park and lobbied federal officials to secure the establishment of the park. Full text of Leader Schumer's letter is below and a PDF is here.  The Honorable Eric M. Thorson Inspector General U.S. Department of Treasury 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20220 Dear Inspector General Thorson: I write to request that your office investigate the circumstances surrounding the Department of Treasury's decision to delay redesign of the $20 note featuring the portrait of Harriet Tubman, including any involvement by the White House in this decision. More than three years ago, Secretary Jacob Lew announced that he had ordered the acceleration of redesigns of the $20, $10 and $5 notes, and that the "final concept design" of the $20 note, including Harriet Tubman's portrait, would be released in 2020. Shortly after the Trump Administration took office, however, all mentions of the Tubman $20 bill were deleted without explanation from the Treasury Department's website. Then we learned, according to recent testimony by Secretary Steven Mnuchin that a decision had been made to delay the release of the new $20 note until the year 2028. The Treasury Department subsequently refused to confirm that Harriet Tubman's image would ever appear on the new note – notwithstanding recent reports that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing has already completed extensive planning work on the redesign effort. We do not know the real reason for these decisions, but we do know that during his campaign, President Trump referred to efforts to replace President Jackson's likeness on the front of the $20 note as "pure political correctness." Secretary Mnuchin attempted to explain the delay as necessary to accommodate anti-counterfeiting measures, but it is simply not credible that with all the resources and expertise of the U.S. Treasury and Secret Service, a decade or more could be required to produce a new $20 bill. If the Empire State Building could be completed in 13 months almost 100 years ago, the 21st century Treasury Department ought to be able to get this job done in a reasonable period of time. Harriet Tubman was an extraordinary American and New Yorker whose story deserves to be shared with current and future generations. She deserves to be honored for her bravery, compassion, and service to the United States. There is no reason to reverse the original decision to recognize her heroic legacy on the $20 note. Any unnecessary delays, especially for political reasons, in redesigning the $20 note in her honor are improper and unacceptable. For these reasons, I ask that you conduct an investigation into decisions made at the Treasury since January of 2018 regarding the delay of the redesign of the $20 note. I also ask that you review the involvement of other participants in the interagency process related to the redesign – including the Secret Service, Federal Reserve, and the White House – to ensure that political considerations have not been allowed to infect the process for designing American currency. Thank you for your attention to this important matter. Sincerely, Charles E. Schumer Like this: Like Loading... By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor Prominent American civil rights activist and Washington, D.C. politician Sterling Tucker passed away on July 14, in Washington, D.C. Tucker was the first chair of the District of Columbia City Council and ran for mayor in 1978. He was defeated by Marion Barry by 1,500 votes. Tucker was an active part of the Poor People's Campaign and organized Solidarity Day, a 50,000 member protest in Washington D.C. on June 19, 1969. The Poor People's Campaign was started by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), in 1968. It would be continued under the direction of the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Dr. King's chief lieutenant, after King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. The Poor People's Campaign was focused on economic justice for poor people in America. Today that work is continued by Rev. William Barber II. Sterling Tucker worked alongside Reverend Abernathy and Coretta Scott King in what was the first formal activist effort to bring economic justice for African Americans. Tucker served on the first District of Columbia City Council from 1969 to 1974, as home rule was established and served one term. He was also chairman of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. During the early 80s he began a consulting firm called Sterling Tucker and Associates and in 1990 was chairman of the American Diabetes Association. "He was fundamental to the leadership of the city," former city council chairman Arrington Dixon told the Washington City Paper about Tucker. Dixon remembered Tucker as mild mannered but impactful. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter nominated Tucker to be Assistant Secretary for the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Sterling Tucker is survived by his two daughters, Michele Jeffery and Lauren Tucker; four grandchildren and many friends and colleagues. His body laid in repose in the John A. Wilson Building, where the D.C. City Council meets in Washington and funeral services took place at the McQuire Funeral Home on Georgia Avenue NW. The Tucker family asked that donations be made in his name to the American Diabetes Association, P.O. Box 15829, Arlington VA 22215 and Trinity Episcopal Church Outreach Ministry to the Homeless, 7005 Piney Branch Road N.W., Washington DC 20012. Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist and writer for NNPA as well as a political analyst and strategist as Principal of Win Digital Media LLC. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke Like this: Like Loading... 100-year old legendary African-American debate coach Dr. Thomas Freeman has been awarded the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Speech & Debate Association. Freeman's 70-plus year resume includes teaching Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during his time at Morehouse, former U.S. Reps. Leland and Jordan, Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, gospel superstar Yolanda Adams, and Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington, who sought out Freeman's expertise to coach the cast of the Golden Globe-nominated film "The Great Debaters." Freeman was the Texas Southern University debate coach for six decades before his retirement in 2013. Freeman recently celebrated his 100th birthday on June 27, 2019. "The National Speech & Debate Association is deeply honored to award Dr. Freeman with our 2019 lifetime achievement award," said J. Scott Wunn, Executive Director of the National Speech & Debate Association. "Our members, board members, coaches, and students hold Dr. Freemen with such high esteem – he's like a celebrity within our organization. Freeman is the epitome of who our members hope to become – someone who defies the odds and uses the power of words to propel change. His words of encouragement at our National Tournament in Dallas will always echo through our hearts." About the National Speech & Debate Association The National Speech & Debate Association is the largest interscholastic speech and debate organization serving middle school, high school, and collegiate students in the United States. The Association provides competitive speech and debate activities, high-quality resources, comprehensive training, scholarship opportunities, and advanced recognition to more than 150,000 students and coaches every year. For 90 years, the National Speech & Debate Association has empowered nearly two million members to become engaged citizens, skilled professionals, and honorable leaders in our society. For more information, visit www.speechanddebate.org.   Like this: Like Loading... By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor "I am here using my celebrity, using my voice, to put a face to this, because I also suffer from depression and anxiety. If you're a human living in today's world, I don't know how you're not suffering in any way." Award-winning actress and 'Empire' star Taraji P. Henson testified before members of Congress on mental health issues in the African American community. The Congressional Black Caucus launched a task force on mental health issues in April of this year. They have held hearings on mental health and the increasing number of suicides among black youth. The CBC Emergency Taskforce on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health is chaired by Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ). The members of the task force are Reps. Alma Adams (D-NC), Emanuel Cleaver II (D-MO), Danny Davis (D-IL), Alcee Hastings (D-FL), Jahana Hayes (D-CT), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Barbara Lee (D-CA), John Lewis (D-GA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Frederica Wilson (D-FL). "I'm here to appeal to you because this is a national crisis," Henson said. Henson founded The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation in 2018 to eradicate the stigma surrounding mental illness in the African American community with a specific emphasis on the suicide rate among Black youth. "I really don't know how to fix this problem, I just know that the suicide rate is rising," she said. "I just know that ages of the children that are committing suicide are getting younger and younger," the actress added. "It breaks my heart to know that 5-year-old children are contemplating life and death, I just…I'm sorry. That one is tough for me. So, I'm here to appeal to you, because this is a national crisis. When I hear of kids going into bathrooms, cutting themselves, you're supposed to feel safe in school," Henson told the members of Congress and those in the audience in a hearing room on Capitol Hill in Washington. Every year, 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. experience a mental illness, but a National Alliance on Mental Illness study discovered that black adults utilize mental health services at half the rate of white adults. Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist and writer for NNPA as well as a political analyst and strategist as Principal of Win Digital Media LLC. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke Like this: Like Loading... By Dianne Anderson From the far reaches of the antebellum south where Afro-Appalachian descendants fought through slavery, reconstruction and Jim Crowism to keep hundreds of acres of land in the family is the lore that legacies are made of. Over the weekend, Virniecia Green-Jordan celebrated her rich beginnings of "Zeketown," and well beyond its borders where everybody knows their name. "Part of it is genes, and attitude," said Green-Jordan. "I come from a family, especially the Coe's. The Coe Colonies, Coe Ridge –  that's half of my genes right there." Her "Fulfillment of a legacy" event celebrated some of the most influential people in her life. Her strength starts with great great great grandfather, Ezekiel, who bought over 300 acres of land after abolition, as well as her inspiration and friend, the late great Clarence Muse. She feels that he never really got his due. "Clarence did a lot. I knew him personally, and he was a lawyer. That's what they didn't like about him in Perris," she said. "The good ole' boys don't have that kind of background. They don't understand how [he could] withstand some things." Much of the event highlighted her own well-documented family journey that began in the Hills of southeast Kentucky through generations of fight, sometimes won by gun.  Keeping family together through the ravages of slavery was the motivation, and her great great great grandparents were determined to hang on to family land. "The fight was daily. What happened on the ridge [is that] my direct line were the leaders," she said. "They [whites] were definitely trying to get us to leave." To this day, she and the family still catch up at annual reunions. She knows their story holds special relevant lessons for this generation. "We just got two landmarks, our cemeteries are over 150 years old in Kentucky," she said. "We have people used to defending their property. I come from that background. I'm going to defend and develop my land. That's mamma's side." Over time, some land on her father's Mississippi side was bought by slaves, but lost mostly due to the color line. Her grandfather was an educator, a mathematician, and a preacher. Her mother and cousins could pass for white, but her grandfather was dark skinned, which also made him a target. "They did all they could against him because she died, and we lost the property in Mississippi over my cousins," she said. Through the years, she has returned time and again back to the old landmarks, both physically and emotionally, to strengthen her own local fight. Green-Jordan was the first African American elected in Perris in 1985, and is still seated on the Perris school board. To her knowledge, she is the longest-serving elected African American school board member in the Inland Empire. Coming in over three decades ago held its share of challenges. Riverside County has always been more conservative than San Bernardino County. As a child and teen, she lived through major civil rights era riots, including Detroit and Watts. Her family bought 2.5 acres in 1959 in Perris, where she came to live in 1968. But she and her brother faced local education discrimination on a few different fronts. Both were at the top of their class, and her brother was an exceptionally high achiever, yet Black students back then didn't have access to scholarships. He attended UCR as a physics major, and holds a master's degree in astrophysics. He also worked in the space sector, but at Perris High School, he received no accolades. "They were not very nice to us in high school when we moved out here. They gave us no scholarships," she said. "Scholarships and name recognition at Perris were only for white students." Despite the fight that continued all the way to Perris, there is a sense of pride in the bloodline that comes from being the great great great granddaughter of Ezekiel and Patsy Coe. On her mother's side, three books are written about the "infamous" Coe Family, whom she calls the "true feuders." Since her parents bought land in Perris, they also continued to make their local mark, having held an instrumental role in bringing lights, roads and electricity to the dark parts of town. "It's the fact that we don't get our history documented as a people. We have done a lot –  the streets, the lights and the roads, and Mead Valley. Those areas were done by African Americans," she said. For nearly three decades, she has also committed to honor the memory of Dr. Clarence Muse through arts programming offered with Perris Valley Arts & Activities Committee. The project was founded by Muse and wife Ena in 1963 under the auspices of the Perris Valley Chamber of Commerce. Muse was multi-talented, encompassing several areas of arts and entertainment, including songwriting, playwright, and as a Broadway show director. He was featured or performed in over 200 films starting in 1929, including Porgy and Bess, Buck and the Preacher, and Carwash. He died in Perris fifty years later, leaving behind an indelible impression for the local creative community to carry forward. "Our story has not been told. Clarence Muse when he lived, he would say that the stories Black people have are real drama. We had to live through that," she said. Over the years, Green-Jordan, who holds two masters degrees, is also the recipient of numerous awards and recognition for her work to strengthen the community. Green-Jordan founded, or has been involved in numerous community-based programs and projects, including UCR Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Corona-Norco Teachers Association Special Education Committee, Willie May Taylor National Council of Negro Women, Perris NAACP Chapter, and Perris Valley African American History Month Committee. Among many other commitments, she also served as Coalition of Black School Board Members Vice President and the Activities Committee, Executive Director. Much of what drives her passion for the future comes from the past. "That's why I called it 'Fulfillment of Legacy' because it goes back to slavery. It has been ingrained," she said. "I was raised to give back and to develop the community." For more information, see https://www.pvaac.com/ This article originally appeared in the Precinct Reporter Group News. Like this: Like Loading... By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia The NAACP plans to highlight 110 years of civil rights history, and the current fight for voting rights, criminal justice reform, economic opportunity and education quality during its 110th national convention now happening in Detroit. The five-day event which began on Saturday, July 20, will also include a session on the 2020 Census, a presidential roundtable, CEO Roundtable, and LGBTQ and legislative workshops. "We are excited to announce the 110th annual convention in Detroit, my hometown," said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson. "For me, it is a homecoming and I will also be excited to announce our theme for this year which is, 'When we Fight, We Win,'" Johnson said. Winning is what the NAACP was built on – winning battles for racism, freedom, justice and equality. The NAACP was formed in 1908 after a deadly race riot that featured anti-black violence and lynching erupted in Springfield, Illinois. According to the storied organization's website, a group of white liberals that included descendants of famous abolitionists Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard; William English Walling, and Dr. Henry Moscowitz, all issued a call for a meeting to discuss racial justice. About 60 people, seven of whom were African American, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell, answered the call, which was released on the centennial of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln. "Echoing the focus of Du Bois' Niagara Movement for civil rights, which began in 1905, the NAACP aimed to secure for all people the rights guaranteed in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution, which promised an end to slavery, the equal protection of the law, and universal adult male suffrage, respectively." Accordingly, the NAACP's mission remains to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of United States and eliminate race prejudice. "The NAACP seeks to remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes," Johnson said. The NAACP established its national office in New York City in 1910 and named a board of directors as well as a president, Moorfield Storey, a white constitutional lawyer and former president of the American Bar Association. Other early members included Joel and Arthur Spingarn, Josephine Ruffin, Mary Talbert, Inez Milholland, Jane Addams, Florence Kelley, Sophonisba Breckinridge, John Haynes Holmes, Mary McLeod Bethune, George Henry White, Charles Edward Russell, John Dewey, William Dean Howells, Lillian Wald, Charles Darrow, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, Fanny Garrison Villard, and Walter Sachs. Despite a foundational commitment to multiracial membership, Du Bois was the only African American among the organization's original executives. Du Bois was made director of publications and research, and in 1910 established the official journal of the NAACP, The Crisis. By 1913, with a strong emphasis on local organizing, the NAACP had established branch offices in such cities as Boston, Baltimore, Kansas City, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., and Detroit. NAACP membership grew rapidly, from around 9,000 in 1917 to around 90,000 in 1919, with more than 300 local branches. Joel Spingarn, a professor of literature and one of the NAACP founders formulated much of the strategy that fostered much of the organization's growth. He was elected board chairman of the NAACP in 1915 and served as president from 1929-1939. The NAACP would eventually fight battles against the Ku Klux Klan and other hate organizations. The organization also became renowned in American Justice with Thurgood Marshall helping to prevail in the 1954's Brown v. Board of Education, the decision that overturned Plessy. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, which was disproportionately disastrous for African Americans, the NAACP began to focus on economic justice. Because of the advocacy of the NAACP, President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed to open thousands of jobs to black workers when labor leader A. Philip Randolph, in collaboration with the NAACP, threatened a national March on Washington movement in 1941. President Roosevelt also set up a Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to ensure compliance. The NAACP's Washington, D.C., bureau, led by lobbyist Clarence M. Mitchell Jr., helped advance not only integration of the armed forces in 1948 but also passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1964, and 1968 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. NAACP Mississippi field secretary Medgar Evers and his wife Myrlie would become high-profile targets for pro-segregationist violence and terrorism. In 1962, their home was fire bombed, and later Medgar was assassinated by a sniper in front of their residence. Violence also met black children attempting to enter previously segregated schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, and other southern cities. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s echoed the NAACP's goals, but leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, felt that direct action was needed to obtain them. Although the NAACP was criticized for working too rigidly within the system, prioritizing legislative and judicial solutions, the Association did provide legal representation and aid to members of other protest groups over a sustained period of time. The NAACP even posted bail for hundreds of Freedom Riders in the '60s who had traveled to Mississippi to register black voters and challenge Jim Crow policies. Led by Roy Wilkins, who succeeded Walter White as secretary in 1955, the NAACP collaborated with A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and other national organizations to plan the historic 1963 March on Washington. The following year, the Association accomplished what seemed an insurmountable task: The Civil Rights Act of 1964. "Much has changed since the creation of the NAACP 110 years ago, and as we highlight these achievements during this year's convention, we cannot forget that we're still tirelessly fighting against the hatred and bigotry that face communities of color in this country," Johnson said. "With new threats emerging daily and attacks on our democracy, the NAACP must be more steadfast and immovable than ever before to help create a social political atmosphere that works for all," he said. The NAACP provided all historical information for this report. Like this: Like Loading...

Hundreds of black Americans were killed during 'Red Summer.' A century later, still ignored - USA TODAY Posted: 23 Jul 2019 04:35 AM PDT CLOSE Story Highlights 1919 was extremely violent for Black Americans, yet is largely overlooked Many icons of the civil rights movement survived what's called 'The Red Summer' Black journalists played a big role in telling this overlooked story In this 1919 photo provided by Chicago History Museum, a crowd of men and armed National Guard stand in front of the Ogden Cafe during race riots in Chicago.  (Photo: AP) America in the summer of 1919 ran red with blood from racial violence, and yet today, 100 years later, not many people know it even happened. It flowed in small towns like Elaine, Arkansas, in medium-size places such as Annapolis, Maryland, and Syracuse, New York, and in big cities like Washington and Chicago. Hundreds of African American men, women and children were burned alive, shot, lynched or beaten to death by white mobs. Thousands saw their homes and businesses burned to the ground and were driven out, many never to return. It was branded "Red Summer" because of the bloodshed and amounted to some of the worst white-on-black violence in U.S. history. Puerto Rico: Governor Ricardo Rosselló will not seek re-election, leaves his party Hong Kong: Police launch tear gas, protesters throw eggs as protest turns violent In this 1919 photo provided by the Chicago History Museum, a crowd gathers at a house that has been vandalized and looted during the race riots in Chicago.  (Photo: AP) Beyond the lives and family fortunes lost, it had far-reaching repercussions, contributing to generations of black distrust of white authority. But it also galvanized blacks to defend themselves and their neighborhoods with fists and guns; reinvigorated civil rights organizations like the NAACP and led to a new era of activism; gave rise to courageous reporting by black journalists; and influenced the generation of leaders who would take up the fight for racial equality decades later. "The people who were the icons of the civil rights movement were raised by the people who survived Red Summer," said Saje Mathieu, a history professor at the University of Minnesota. For all that, there are no national observances marking Red Summer. History textbooks ignore it, and most museums don't acknowledge it. The reason: Red Summer contradicts the post-World War I-era notion that America was making the world safe for democracy, historians say. "It doesn't fit into the neat stories we tell ourselves," said David Krugler, author of "1919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back." That could change. A monument has been proposed in Arkansas. Several authors have written about the bloody summer. A Brooklyn choral group performed Red Summer-theme songs like "And They Lynched Him on a Tree" in March to commemorate the centennial. At the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Mathieu and author Cameroon McWhirter plan to present some of their findings July 30. Peace prize: He pioneered a renaissance in Native American literature Opioids: Hospitals are putting Native American patients at risk for opioid abuse In this 1919 photo provided by the Chicago History Museum, a victim is stoned and bludgeoned under a corner of a house during the race riots in Chicago.  (Photo: AP) Researchers believe that in a span of 10 months, more than 250 African Americans were killed in at least 25 riots across the U.S. by white mobs that never faced punishment. Historian John Hope Franklin called it "the greatest period of interracial strife the nation has ever witnessed." The bloodshed was the product of a collision of social forces: Black men were returning from World War I expecting the same rights they had fought and bled for in Europe, and African Americans were moving north to escape the brutal Jim Crow laws of the South. Whites saw blacks as competition for jobs, homes and political power. "Ethnic cleansing was the goal of the white rioters," said William Tuttle, a retired professor of American studies at the University of Kansas and author of "Race Riot: Chicago in the Red Summer of 1919." ''They wanted to kill as many black people as possible and to terrorize the rest until they were willing to leave and live someplace else." The violence didn't start or end in 1919. Some count the era of Red Summer as beginning with the deaths of more than two dozen African Americans in East Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1917 and extending through the Rosewood Massacre of 1923, when a black town in Florida was destroyed. All told, at least 1,122 Americans were killed in racial violence over those six years, by Tuttle's count. In 1919 alone, violence erupted in such places as New York; Memphis, Tennessee; Philadelphia; Charleston, South Carolina; Baltimore; New Orleans; Wilmington, Delaware; Omaha, Nebraska; New London, Connecticut; Bisbee, Arizona; Longview, Texas; Knoxville, Tennessee; Norfolk, Virginia; and Putnam County, Georgia. In this July 13, 1919 image provided by the Library of Congress, Daniel Hoskins stands with guns deposited at Gregg County Courthouse, in Longview, Texas, following race riots during Red Summer.  (Photo: AP) In the nation's capital, white mobs — many made up of members of the military — rampaged over the weekend of July 19-22, beating any black they could find after false rumors of a white woman being assaulted by black men spread. "In front of the Riggs Bank the rioters beat a Negro with clubs and stones wrapped in handkerchiefs; the bleeding figure lay in the street for over twenty minutes before being taken to the hospital," Lloyd M. Abernethy wrote in the Maryland Historical Magazine in 1963. "Sensing the failure of the police, the mob became even more contemptuous of authority — two Negroes were attacked and beaten directly in front of the White House." Carter G. Woodson, the historian who founded Black History Month in 1926, saw the violence up close. "They had caught a Negro and deliberately held him as one would a beef for slaughter, and when they had conveniently adjusted him for lynching, they shot him," Woodson wrote. "I heard him groaning in his struggle as I hurried away as fast as I could without running, expecting every moment to be lynched myself." In Elaine, Arkansas, poor black sharecroppers who had dared to join a union were attacked, and at least 200 African Americans were killed. In this 1919 photo provided by the Chicago History Museum, a mob runs with bricks during the race riots in Chicago.  (Photo: Chicago History Museum, AP) Ida B. Wells, a pioneering black journalist and one of the few reporters to interview victims, noted a woman named Lula Black was dragged from her farm by a white mob after saying she would join the union. "They knocked her down, beat her over the head with their pistols, kicked her all over the body, almost killed her, then took her to jail," Wells wrote in her report "The Arkansas Race Riot." "The same mob went to Frank Hall's house and killed Frances Hall, a crazy old woman housekeeper, tied her clothes over her head, threw her body in the public road where it lay thus exposed till the soldiers came Thursday evening and took it up." Black journalists like Wells played an important role in getting the story out. "Black newspapers like the Chicago Defender were instrumental in providing an alternate voice that represented why African Americans deserved to be here, deserved equal rights and were, in some cases, justified in fighting," said Kevin Strait, a curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. In this 1919 photo provided by the Chicago History Museum, police look through a broken window of a house during the race riots in Chicago.  (Photo: AP) Red Summer also marked a new era of black resistance to white injustice, with African Americans standing up in unprecedented numbers and killing some of their tormentors. Returning black soldiers from World War I led the charge, using skills they refined in Europe. "The Germans weren't the enemy — the enemy was right here at home," said Harry Haywood in his autobiography, "A Black Communist in the Freedom Struggle: The Life of Harry Haywood." In Washington, Carrie Johnson, 17, became a hero for shooting at white invaders in her neighborhood. She fatally shot a white policeman who broke into her second-story bedroom. She claimed self-defense, and her manslaughter conviction was overturned. The NAACP gained about 100,000 members that year, said McWhirter, author of "Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America." Soon, blacks were "going to Congress, they're pressing congressmen and senators to pass anti-lynching legislation. At the same time, they're fighting back in the courts, they're filing lawsuits when people are being mistreated or railroaded." The lessons of Red Summer would reverberate after World War II. "You have a similar situation where African Americans had done their part to make the world safe for democracy, and black veterans came home, and many of them were alive or had heard the stories of what happened in 1919," Krugler said. "And they said, 'Never again.'" EDITOR'S NOTE: Hundreds of African Americans died at the hands of white mobs during "Red Summer," but little is known nationally about this summer of violence 100 years later. As part of AP's coverage plans for Red Summer, we will take a multiplatform look at those who were attacked and killed in cities and towns around the nation. Autoplay Show Thumbnails Show Captions Last SlideNext Slide Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/07/23/racial-violence-red-summer-1919-witnessed-white-black-murder/1802371001/

Black transgender woman shot to death was 3rd killed in SC since 2018, advocates say - Charlotte Observer Posted: 22 Jul 2019 11:30 AM PDT [unable to retrieve full-text content]Black transgender woman shot to death was 3rd killed in SC since 2018, advocates say  Charlotte Observer Denali Berries Stuckey, a transgender woman, was shot in North Charleston, South Carolina, police say. The killing is the third murder of a black transgender ...

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