AFRICAN & BLACK HISTORY Profile picture
Aug 22, 2021 8 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Black women are routinely erased from public memory and historical narratives of resistance.

Black women powered the civil rights movement, but rarely became its stars. Women like Fannie Lou Hamer, Diane Nash, Myrlie Evers played a critical role.

A THREAD
By the early 70s, women made up the majority of members in the US Black Panther Party
Mae Mallory was an activist during the Civil Rights Movement and a leader in the Black Power movement. Mallory was most-known as an advocate of following desegregation and Black armed self-defense.
Claudia Jones; Journalist and activist. Author of the seminal piece 'Ending the Neglect of Black Women' and original founder of Notting Hill Carnival. Founder of Britain's first major newsletter, the West Indian Gazette.
Sojourner Truth was an evangelist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist and author who was born into slavery before escaping to freedom in 1826. After gaining her freedom, Truth preached about abolitionism and equal rights for all
Daisy Bates, civil rights activist and newspaper publisher. Through her newspaper, Bates documented the battle to end segregation in Arkansas.
Aunt Polly Jackson, was an escaped slave who worked as an agent on the Underground Railroad helping others escape.

She was known for fighting off slave catchers with a butcher knife and a kettle of boiling water.
Althea Jones-Lecointe, scientist, one of the leaders of the British Black Panther movement and advocate for black women and girls. She was referred to as the heart of The Movement.

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More from @AfricanArchives

Jun 16
On this day in 1944, George Stinney, 14, became the youngest person executed in the US in the 20th century. He was so small they had to stack books on the electric chair.

Due to no evidence, his conviction was posthumously vacated 70 years after his execution!

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George was accused of killing two white missing girls, 11-Year-old Betty and 7-year-old Mary, their bodies were found near the house where he lived with his parents in Alcolu, South Carolina march 1944.
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Jun 13
Job Maseko, a WW2 hero, sank a NAZI ship with a bomb made from a tin can with condensed milk. He was denied the highest military decoration, due to his race.

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Jun 6
On this day in 1790, Jean Baptist Pointe Desable founded the city of Chicago.

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Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable was born in Saint-Domingue, Haiti (French colony at the time) during the Haitian Revolution. At some point he settled in the part of North America that is now known as the city of Chicago and was described in historical documents as "a handsome negro" Image
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Read 15 tweets
May 31
On this day in 1921, The Tulsa Race Massacre happened in the affluent black community of Greenwood in Tulsa (Black Wall Street)

White supremacists killed more than 300 Black Americans and looted & burned to ground homes & businesses.

History of Tulsa before the riot

A THREAD Image
Ottawa W. Gurley created the Black Wall Street, the affluent black community in Greenwood in Tulsa. Image
Ottowa Gurley was born in 1868 to freed slaves in Huntsville, Alabama, Gurley grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He was self-educated and eventually married his childhood sweetheart, Emma. After a brief time as a teacher, he worked at U.S. Postal Service.
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May 29
In 1969, the Black Panthers launched free breakfast programs across the US, feeding thousands of kids before school. The FBI called it a threat. In some cities, police raided kitchens, smashed food, and urinated on supplies to shut them down.

A THREAD Image
In January 1969, the Black Panther Party launched their Free Breakfast for Children Program, their first and most notable community effort, to feed kids who went to school hungry due to poverty. It was radical care in action. But the FBI called it a threat. Image
The Black Panthers, founded in 1966, built programs to tackle systemic issues like poverty and hunger. The Free Breakfast Program was a direct response to families unable to feed their kids before school. It aimed to nourish bodies and minds for learning. Image
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May 26
Founded in 1964, The Deacons for Defense & Justice was an armed Black self defense group who stood up against the KKK & discriminatory treatment by police in the Jim Crow South

Though they supported the values of MLK, they didn’t subscribe to his nonviolent philosophy

A THREAD Image
On July 10, 1964, a group of black men in Jonesboro, Louisiana led by Earnest “Chilly Willy” Thomas and Frederick Douglas Kirkpatrick founded the group known as The Deacons for Defense and Justice. Image
As the black leaders began to rise to the occasion in the Deep South, conflict was sure to come knocking. The deacons provided security for black leaders all over the south. They worked closes with king though he preached non violence. Image
Read 10 tweets

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