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. #InternationalWomensDay
A THREAD!
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
Harriet Tubman, the woman who escaped slavery then fought and freed hundreds of slaves.
She reminded us that bravery and refusal to accept injustice can change history.
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
A statue of La Mûlatresse Solitude, who in 1802, helpled lead a slave revolt while EIGHT Months pregnant in Guadeloupe.
She became a martyr and symbol for all women and mothers who against all odds defended the ideals of freedom and equality.
Queen Nanny Of The Maroons: Ashanti Woman who Fought And Freed Over 1,000 Enslaved Africans In Jamaica.
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
Daisy Bates, civil rights activist and newspaper publisher. Through her newspaper, Bates documented the battle to end segregation in Arkansas
If you love my content, You can support my history page/project here through donations/tips to keep up on: ko-fi.com/africanarchives
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Did You Know that a Black enslaved man was Responsible for Saving America from a SmallPox Epidemic
Onesimus (potrait unavailable) introduced the idea of vaccination based upon the African practice of inoculation in Libya,to help mitigate spread of smallpox
💉THREAD💉
Onesimus was an enslaved African who introduced the concept of inoculation to America and helped save hundreds of Bostonians from smallpox in 1721. But his role has hardly been told.
It began in 1716. When asked by his owner, prominent Puritan minister Cotton Mather, about a scar on his forearm, Onesimus described the basics of smallpox inoculation - a practice that was common Africa (and Asia) but relatively unknown in the American colonies.
67 years ago today, Mack Parker was murdered by a white mob. It’s considered one of the last civil rights era lynchings.
THREAD
Mack Charles Parker was a 23-year-old truck driver who had returned to his hometown of Lumberton, Mississippi, after receiving a general discharge following two years in the Army.
On the morning of February 24, 1959, Parker was awakened by Marshal Ham Slade and several deputies, who alleged that he had raped a young white woman, June Walters, the night before.
Akua Njeri, born Deborah Johnson, was a Black Panther activist and Fred Hampton’s wife. On Dec 4, 1969, she survived the Chicago Police raid that killed her husband. 8 and a half months pregnant, her story of survival is unforgettable.
A THREAD
At 4 AM, Chicago Police broke into Akua and Fred’s apartment. Bullets hit their bed as they slept. Fred Hampton, Black Panther leader, age 21, was shot and killed beside her.
Akua, hands raised, walked through lines of cops. One mocked, “A pregnant broad.” Another grabbed her hair, pushed her to the kitchen. She saw Ron Satchel and Verlina Brewer wounded, bleeding on the floor.
In 1904, The Battle of Waterberg known as the Herero and Namaqua Genocide, occured between the Herero people and German imperialists in German Southwest Africa (present-day Namibia), following the Germans occupation to steal their land and resources.
A THREAD
The German colonization of South-West Africa began in 1883, two years before the official Partition of Africa.
When the German settlers arrived, they expropriated land, cattle, and water rights from local peoples, including the Herero and by 1903, the Herero had ceded over 50,000 square miles of land to the GermansSome resisted the settlers encroachment and engaged in periodic battles.
On this day in 1939, Billie Holiday recorded the first great protest song of the Civil Rights Movement, 'Strange Fruit’
The Chilling Story of Strange Fruit and Billie Holiday.
A THREAD!
"Strange Fruit" was originally a poem written by Jewish-American writer, teacher and songwriter Abel Meeropol, under his pseudonym Lewis Allan, as a protest against lynchings and later set it to music.
The song soon came to Billie Holiday's attention & after so many frequent requests of that song, she closed out EVERY performance with it. The waiters would stop serving ahead of time for complete silence, the room would darken, a spotlight would shine on Holiday's face…