In an act of mass resistance against slavery, a group of slaves revolted, took control of the slave ship grounded it on an island & rather than submit to slavery, proceeded to march into water & drown. #BlackHistoryMonth
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Igbo Landing is the location of a mass suicide of Igbo slaves that occurred in 1803 on St. Simons Island, GA.
A group of Igbo slaves revolted & rather than submit to slavery, marched into the water while singing in Igbo, drowning themselves in. The slaves had been chained and put aboard a small ship to be transported to their destinations.
During this voyage, they took control of the ship and grounded it, drowning their captors in the process. The sequence of actual events is unclear as most of the historical incidence was passed down by oral tradition.
A common version is that once ashore, walked into the creek in unison, singing & chanting in Igbo under the direction of someone who seemed to be like a high priest among them. This mutiny has been referred to in some quarters as the first major freedom march in America's history
Ghanaian artist Kwame Atoko-Bamfo created several sculptures in a lake to remember our ancestors who drowned as they were transported through the Atlantic Sea during slavery.
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Did you know The real Betty Boop was inspired by a Black Harlem jazz singer named Esther Jones. Ever heard of “Baby Esther”?
She later sued the cartoonist but the court threw out the case and she was never compensated!
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Esther Jones took Harlem’s Cotton Club by storm in the 1920s with her unique “baby” scat style. Her “boop-oop-a-doop” sounds were fresh, bold, and totally her own, making her a jazz sensation of the time.
In 1930, cartoonist Max Fleischer introduced Betty Boop, a flapper character who became animation’s first sex symbol. That playful “boop” in her voice? It was a direct echo of Esther’s lively performances on stage.
She refused to move to the back of a bus 9 months before Rosa Parks, the NAACP did not want to use her to represent them because she was 15 & pregnant.
Other women who refused to give up their seats before Rosa Parks
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A century before Rosa Parks, there was Elizabeth Jennings
In 1854, she refused to get off of a streetcar that only allowed white passengers.
She was arrested. She sued (and won), and her case led to the eventual desegregation of NYC's public transit.
In 1944, Irene Morgan refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Greyhound bus in Gloucester County, VA. She was charged with violating Virginia Jim Crow laws. In 1946, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in her favor, striking down Virginia’s law in Morgan v. Virginia case.
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.
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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.
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.
Did you know Cornrows were used to help enslaved people escape slavery? They used cornrows to create maps to leave plantations. It’s most documented in Colombia where Benkos Bioho, came up with the idea to have women create maps & deliver messages through cornrows.
A THREAD.
Cornrows are ancient art. Found in 3000 B.C. Sahara paintings & on Ethiopian warriors like Tewodros II, braids showed community, age & status in African societies. In the Caribbean, “cane rows” linked to slaves planting sugar cane, tying style to survival.
During the slave trade, captors shaved enslaved Africans’ hair to strip identity. But many defied this by braiding cornrows tightly to stay neat & preserve culture. These braids became secret tools, hiding maps to escape plantations across South America.
62 years ago today, The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C.
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The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C.
Martin Luther King, Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech advocating racial harmony during the march.