— The origin of Memorial Day—

The origin of Memorial Day trace back to 1865 when freed slaves started a tradition to honor fallen Union soldiers and to celebrate emancipation and commemorate those who died for that cause.

A THREAD In 1865, black people in Charleston, South Carolina, held a series of memorials & rituals to honor unnamed fallen Union soldiers and celebrate the struggle against slavery. One of the largest memorial took place on May 1st 1865.

On this day in 1920, The Elaine Race Massacre inquiry began, addressing the killing of 200+ Black sharecroppers. A blood-thirsty gang of white soldiers led the deadliest massacre in U.S. history in 1919.

-The Elaine Massacre-

A THREAD On September 30, 1919, Black sharecroppers gathered at a church in Hoop Spur, near Elaine, led by Robert L. Hill of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union. They sought better cotton payments from white plantation owners who dominated during the Jim Crow era.

On this day in 1863, Black Americans began fighting for the U.S. Army after the creation of Bureau of Colored Troops. Those who served and loved the country that did not love them back.

Military History of African Americans.

A THREAD Black Americans participated in every American war from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the Civil War, the Spanish–American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War.

One of the last survivors of the transatlantic slave trade, Cudjo Kazoola Lewis (1931). He was among 110 enslaved Africans aboard the Clotilda.

A THREAD!
Cudjo Lewis ( 1841-1935) was a founder of Africatown, established by a group of people who were brought to Mobile, Alabama aboard the Clotilda, the last slave ship to the United States.

(I’ve inscribed the AfricaTown board on the Last slide Incase the words are too small)

In May 1922, British South African troops killed 100+ Khoikhoi (indigenous group of people in southern Africa) for resisting taxes. They were rejecting steep tax and land grabbing, 95% of their territory was occupied.

The Bondelswarts Rebellion

A THREAD The Bondelswarts in Namibia faced a brutal tax hike in 1921, plus pass laws and forced labor. Leader Abraham Morris rallied them at Guruchas to protect their dwindling land. But with just 15 rifles, they stood no chance against British South Africans machine guns and war planes

On this day in 1896, the U.S Supreme Court delivered its decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, establishing the “separate but equal” doctrine and authorizing discrimination by states.

This marked the formal beginning of Jim Crow Laws.

THREAD In 1866, a year after the amendment that ‘abolished slavery’ was ratified, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina began to lease out convicts for labor.

On this day in 1875, Oliver Lewis won the 1st ever Kentucky Derby.

He and his horse, Aristides, won by a reported two lengths, setting a new American record time for a mile-and-a-half race.

BLACK JOCKEYS THREAD in 1892, Alonzo Lonnie Clayton became the youngest jockey to ever win the Kentucky Derby.

He won the race at the age of 15 & still holds the record as the youngest winning rider

Reckless Eyeballing—The Mack Ingram Case:

During Jim Crow segregation, a black person could be accused of “reckless eyeballing”, which was a perceived improper look at a white person, presumed to have sexual intent. Mack was convicted of this.

A THREAD! In Yanceyville, North Carolina, Mack Ingram, a black tenant farmer, was among the last convicted under this framework in 1951.

A 17 year old white woma, Willa Jean Boswell, testified that she was scared when her neighbor Ingram looked at her from an approximate distance of 65ft.

On this day in 1985, Philadelphia Police Department dropped a bomb onto a residential home occupied by the MOVE Organization.

The Fire Department let the fire burn out of control, destroying 61 homes over two city blocks. 11 people died including 6 children

THREAD MOVE short for “The Movement,” and it’s largely unclear when it began; however, some people have reported remembering the group as far back as 1968.

Enslaved Black people are mostly depicted as very docile and didn't fight back. However, this was not the case and there were numerous slaves rebellion.

A THREAD! The Stono Rebellion, the largest slave rebellion in South Carolina, on September, 1739.

In July of 1963, 15 black girls were arrested for protesting segregation laws at the Martin theatre. Aged 12-15, they were locked in an old, abandoned stockade for 45 days without their parents knowledge. They came to be known as The Leesburg Stockade Girls,

A THREAD The girls marched from Friendship Baptist Church to the Martin Theater, attempting to buy tickets at the front entrance, defying segregation laws. Police attacked with batons and arrested them, transporting them to a Civil War-era stockade in Leesburg, Georgia, 15 miles away.

Did you know Sesame Street was originally created for black and brown inner city kids?

A THREAD Children usually spend a lot of time watching a lot tv and technically it was sort of a babysitter. It was even worse for inner city children whose parents spent endless hours at work, thus their kids were usually exposed to long hours of mindless programs.

Did you know that the Oompa-Loompas In Roald Dahl's 1964 Charlie and the Chocolate were originally Black pygmies from "deepest, darkest part of the African jungle where no white man had been before" but was Revised in 1973 after the NAACP complained?

A THREAD Dahl described Oompa-Loompas as a tribe of 3,000 "amiable Black pygmies" starving on green caterpillars in Africa. Wonka lured them with cocoa beans, smuggled them in crates, and housed them in his factory. The text framed them as enslaved.

66 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.

More than 8000 black women in Mississippi and S. Carolina were given involuntary hysterectomies (removal of uterus) between 1920s and 80s when they went to see white doctors for other complaints.

These came to be known as ‘MISSISSIPPI APPENDECTOMIES’

—A THREAD— In 1961, Fannie Lou Hamer, a Black sharecropper and civil rights activist, entered a Mississippi hospital to remove a benign uterine fibroid tumor. She returned to her family’s shack on the Marlow plantation to recover, unaware of the life-altering procedure she endured.

In 1780, Paul Cuffee, his brother & 5 other Black men petitioned the Massachusetts legislature demanding the right to vote.

He won free black men the right to vote in Massachusetts on the basis of "No Taxation Without Representation."

THREAD
Paul Cuffee was born Paul Slocum on Jan. 17, 1759, Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts, to Kofi Slocum, a farmer & freed slave, and Ruth Moses, a native American of the Wampanog nation.

In 19th century Europe, C-sections were performed only in direst need and maternal mortality was very high. At the same time in Africa, indigenous people were performing the operation successfully saving both while Europeans mainly concentrated on saving the baby.

A THREAD Caesarean section was considered a life-threatening procedure in England that was only to be undertaken in the direst of circumstances and facing the decision on whether to save the life of the mother or baby.

113 years ago today, Joseph Phillipe Lemercier Laroche died when the RMS Titanic sank. Laroche and his children were the only black passengers.

A THREAD Joseph Phillipe Lemercier Laroche was the son of a white French army captain and a Haitian woman who was a descendant of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the first ruler of independent Haiti.

On this day in 1975, Singer, dancer and activist Josephine Baker passed away. Did you know she was also a spy in World War 2 for the French Air Force!

She found fame and freedom after fleeing racism in America and led a double life informing on the Nazis.

A THREAD A talented dancer and singer, in 1927, Baker caused a sensation by performing at the Folies Bergère in Paris in a skirt made from bananas.

The sad and racist history behind the Aunt Jemima Brand.

A THREAD

Aunt Jemima was a brand of pancake mix, syrup & other breakfast foods owned by the Quaker Oats Company. It was one of the earliest products to be marketed through personal appearances and advertisements. Aunt Jemima was first introduced as a character in a minstrel show – a show that consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performed by white people in blackface for the purpose of playing the roles of black people.
loc.gov/collections/so…

William O'Neal, an FBI informant, infiltrated the Black Panthers and set up Fred Hampton for $300.

The Chicago police and the FBI assasinated Hampton at just 21 years old and William committed suicide.

A Thread In Illinois, Fred Hampton's hometown, the police constantly harassed black Americans. Access to social goods too was made difficult, if not restricted, in areas with heavy black populations.