On February 22, 1898, a white mob set fire onto the home of Frazier and Julia Baker while firing rounds into the house killing Frazier and their one year old daughter Julia
Lavinia and her five remaining children were able to escape
Background:
After the Civil War, many Black Americans were appointed postermaster often followed by a backlash by local whites
For example, Minnie Cox was the first Black American woman to be appointed postmaster in Mississippi in 1891 and was eventually forced to resign
Frazier Baker was a 40 year old schoolteacher, husband, and father of six when was appointed postermaster in Lake City, South Carolina, 1897
He immediately received complaints, was shot at twice, and white citizens would burn down their own post office to protest his appointment
The Baker's residence just outside Lake City was then converted into a post office
At 1:00 am February 22, 1898 the Baker family awoke to their home on fire surrounded by a white terrorist mob firing dozens of bullets into their home
Lavinia's recorded account of that night:
The lynching caused a national outrage that led to Ida Wells visiting McKinley's White House on March 22, 1898
She demanded the US punish the lynchers, pass anti-lynching legislation and give the family reparations citing how some Mexicans, Italians, and Chinese were compensated
McKinley and Congress never passed any anti-lynching legislation nor did the Baker's receive reparations
A trial was held in federal court but the all white jury was deadlocked 5-5 leading to a mistrial
The case was never retried and no one was ever punished
The Baker's moved to Boston in 1899
Sadly, all of Lavinia's surviving children would pass before her due to tuberculosis and one of a heart attack
In 1942, with all her kids gone, she returned to Florence County, South Carolina where she lived until her death in 1947
3 last things
1. Perhaps if the Baker's were compensated like those Italian cases ($25,000 in 1898 = over $700,000 today) they could have gone on to live more prosperous lives and maybe the children would have not all died early
2. This was not just a white supremacist terrorist attack on a Black American family but also a white supremacist terrorist attack against the U.S. itself
They killed a federal employee on federal property and yet their anti-black anti-American crimes went unpunished
3. There were many open white supremacist within the government that defended the lynching like the Senator from South Carolina Ben Tillman who said the "proud people" of Lake County refused to receive "their mail from a n****r" #EndWhiteSupremacy
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Laura Wheeler Waring came from an educated family and was a 6th generation college graduate who taught art for more than 30 years at Cheyney University and is best known for her portraits of Black Americans
A #BlackArt Appreciation š§µ
Anna Washington Derry, 1925
This paper covers online discourse around epigenetics and reparations for slavery and basically argues "individuals who are in favor of slavery reparations use science in
a narrow way" š š¤
A thread š§µ breaking down and countering some of their arguments
One of her key arguments is very familiar or 'but slavery was so long ago'
She lowkey praises Kuzawa and Sweet (2009) for not using "a long term historical reaching back to the slavery era" and tries to focus their study on short term transmissions "such as during pregnancy"
Although Kuzawa and Sweet do not "reach back" to slavery they do reference how PTSD from the Holocaust affected women later in life during pregnancy
For some reason referencing the Holocaust isn't considered "reaching back" š¤
š„ Healthcare thread on epigenetics and accelerated aging
Ronald Simons discusses how economic hardships, neighborhood conditions and childhood adversity effects accelerated aging
"We're controlling for things like diet and exercise"
Generally speaking black immigrants are less likely to suffer as much economic hardships as Black Americans, have much lower incarceration rates, and are more likely to live in "higher quality" neighborhoods and be married
In 1942, President Roosevelt sent the Army Corps of Engineers to build 1600 miles of highway through the most difficult terrain in North America; much of that work was done by Black Americans š§µ
Members of the 95th Engineer Regiment building Sikanni River Bridge in Alaska, 1942
After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, securing Alaska became a major priority
The Alaska Highway was built in only eight months and half of its eight regiments were all Black; the 93rd, the 95th, the 97th, and the 388th
The completion of the Alaska Highway was an American military and engineering achievement
However, the contributions by thousands of Black American soldiers have deliberately been ignored and erased by mainstream media
Pearl Fryar was born in 1939 to a sharecropper family. When he tried to purchase a home he was denied because white residents thought he would not maintain his property
He is now internationally recognized and celebrated for his topiary artistry and sculptures #BlackArt š§µ
Pearl Fryer is a self taught artist
After working 12 hour days as an engineer at a Coca-Cola factory in Bishopville, South Carolina, Pearl would sometimes work through the night using salvaged "throwaway" plants from friends and local nurseries #BlackArt
Pearl Fryar compliments his intricate plant designs with what he calls "junk art"
He uses recycled and scrapped materials to create striking sculptures and art pieces #BlackArt