Racist US military police attacked black US troops on British soil.
US military authorities demanded the town’s pubs impose a colour bar, the local landlords responded with signs that read “Black Troops Only” which pissed them off.
A THREAD
In 1943 Black American soldiers faced off with white American Military police during World War 2 on British soil. Black American soldiers had to fight their own white American soldiers, while in England, where they were fighting the world war.
Why? Because the town, Bamber Bridge in Lancashire wasnt segregated so they treated the black soldiers like all other races, BUT back in America segregation still existed so essentially the American army went to someone else’s country & demanded they adopt their racist practices
So when the American Military police found out that their own black soldiers were drinking at the same pubs as white people, they went in to arrest them. The people in the town got mad about that treatment and decided to then turn their pubs into “BLACKS ONLY DRINKING PUBS”
This pissed off the American military so guns went blazing & when word spread back at camp that black soldiers had been shot, scores of men formed a crowd, some carrying rifles and by midnight more American military police arrived with a machine gun-equipped vehicle.
The black soldiers also had no choice but to get rifles from British stores while others barricaded themselves back on base, so now it was American white soldiers verzuz American black soldiers
This lead to the death of 1 solider, injury of 7, and 32 convictions.
Back in America the battle was hushed up because they didn’t want the country to find out that they were fighting their own soldiers which would anger the black population and weaken the morale in the country.
you may read about the ill treatment of black American soldiers by their own army in the book FORGOTTEN.
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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…