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.

In 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.

On this day in 1923, a lie by a white woman that she’d been sexually assaulted by a black man, led to the destruction of the predominantly African American town of Rosewood, Florida, thus the Rosewood Massacre.

A THREAD Rosewood was a quiet, self-sufficient town in Florida. By 1900 the population in Rosewood had become predominantly African-American. Some people farmed or worked in local businesses, including a sawmill in nearby predominantly white town.

History of the New Year’s Watch Night Service.

The Watch Night Services in Black communities can be traced back to gatherings on December 31, 1862, also known as “Freedom’s Eve.”

THREAD On that night, black people came together in churches and private homes all across the nation, anxiously awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation actually had become law.

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.

Did you know Singer, dancer and activist Josephine Baker 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 Baptist War: The Christmas Rebellion.

On this day in 1831, Over 60,000 enslaved Jamaicans, led by one man, Baptist preacher, Samuel Sharpe, went on to carry out one of the largest Slave Rebellions in West Indian history.

A THREAD

So who was the Baptist preacher, Samuel Sharpe?

He was a baptist deacon and the leader of the native Baptists in Montego Bay. Also he was an avid follower of the growing abolitionist movement in London.

The Banyole of the ancient kingdom Of Uganda practiced and perfected C-Section long before the Europeans.

While Europeans mainly concentrated on saving the baby, the ugandans were performing the operation successfully saving both.

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.

In 1781, over 100 enslaved Africans were thrown overboard and drowned so that the slavers could cash in on the insurance of those enslaved.

The Zong Massacre,

THREAD On September 6, 1781, the slave ship Zong sailed from Africa with around 442 enslaved Africans. Back then, slaves were a valuable ‘commodity’ so they often captured more than the ship could handle to maximize profits.

On this day in 1865, the 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery.

This picture is 25 years after the end of slavery.

How Slavery continued after the 13th amendment ‘abolished slavery’

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

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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Did you know that James Hemings, is the reason macaroni and cheese made it to America.  

The Chef de cuisine was the first American to train as a chef in France. He was enslaved by Thomas Jefferson at 8.

A THREAD! James Hemings was born in 1765 into slavery and lived much of his life enslaved. He was among the many enslaved people who came into Thomas Jefferson's possession through his wife's inheritance.

It’s International Men’s Day!

One in every four cowboys was believed to be a Black man released from slavery despite the stories told in popular books and movies although the most famous cowboys of the old west were white.

THREAD Many of the enslaved african men were familiar with cattle herding from Africa.

a highlight of some famous black cowboys:

141 years ago today, the Berlin Conference opened.

It was a conference where European nations established the 'legal' claim that all of Africa could be occupied by whomever could take it.

They set out murdering africans and taking their wealth to make Europe wealthier.

THREAD
After slavery, Berlin conference was the second declaration of war against Africa.
At the Berlin Conference, Congo was handed to a charity run by King Leopold under the pretext of “stopping slavery” and he named it the “Congo Free State.”

We need to speak up about what is happening in SUDAN, it’s a GENOCIDE that has led to the World's largest displacement crisis.

So Whats Happening in Sudan and How is UAE (Emirates) supporting the genocide? #FreeSudan

THREAD On April 15, 2023, a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo known as Hemedti, launched a war against the Sudanese Army in Khartoum. That led to displacement of millions of Sudanese people.

Most people have heard or used the term UNCLE TOM when we refer to a sell-out, but did you know that the inference is totally wrong.

The real Uncle Tom was a hero, Josiah Henson, was an abolitionist who helped slaves escape among other great things.

A THREAD Uncle Tom was a man:
—who refused to beat black women.
—who refused to tell on other slaves.
—who would put cotton in other slaves’ bags at night, so that they wouldn’t get beat!
—who helped 100 slaves get free long before the underground railroad.

In 1862, congress allowed the enlistment of African Americans into the U.S. military. 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.

On this day in 1969, the Historic ‘Wyoming Black 14’ Protests Began.

14 black football players at the University of Wyoming were kicked off the team for trying to protest against Brigham Young University because of the Mormon Church ban on Black men in the priesthood

THREAD! The players protested playing a game with Brigham Young University (BYU) because of the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS ban on black men holding the priesthood in the church, and other racial restrictions. Mormons believe black people are cursed with the mark of Cain.

When the Zulu People of South Africa 🇿🇦 defeated the British 🇬🇧

—A THREAD—

In 1879, the British army invaded the independent & previously friendly Zulu kingdom, which had been founded by the formidable Nguni warrior Shaka Zulu in 1818. Shaka had been the first proper king in South Africa, in that he managed to unite almost 800 Eastern Nguni–Bantu clans under his rule, displacing the rest.

In Louisiana, black women were put in cells with male prisoners and some became pregnant

All children born in the penitentiary became property of the state

At 10 years they would be auctioned off. The proceeds were used to fund schools for white kids
THREAD Before the Civil War, most prisoners in the South were white. The punishment of enslaved African Americans was generally left up to their owners. Louisiana, however, did imprison enslaved people for "serious" crimes, generally involving acts of rebellion against the slave system.

Africa is portrayed as a continent without history before slavery and colonialism. African History isn't known by many people compared to the history of Europe, Americas, and Asia.

Some of the world's great civilisations such as Mali flourished in Africa.

A THREAD! In the early periods(1500s), Africans participated in extensive international trading networks and intrans-oceanic travel.

"Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter" (African Proverb)