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.
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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.

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,

A 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.

41 years ago today, singer, songwriter and Motown legend, Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father, a day before his birthday.

A THREAD!
On April 1, 1984, Marvin was fatally shot by his father in their Los Angeles home. On the day of the murder, Marvin and Marvin Senior were arguing about a misplaced insurance policy document.

Patrice Lumumba was the first legally elected prime minister of D.R Congo.

He was assassinated in 1961 following a military coup supported by U.S.A & Belgian imperialism which was admitted by the State Dept in 2013 authorized by president Eisenhower.

A THREAD For 126 years, the US and Belgium have played key roles in shaping Congo's destiny. In April 1884, seven months before the Berlin Congress, the US became the first country in the world to recognise the claims of King Leopold II of the Belgians to the territories of the Congo.

The British almost eliminated the entire Tasmanian Population of Australia in the 1800s by kidnapping, enslaving, torturing and murdering them.  

A THREAD! Tasmania is an island located about 200 miles off the southeast coast of Australia. Archaeologists estimate that Black indigenous people crossed into the island on an ancient bridge which connected Tasmania to the continent of Australia.

In 1969, when Black Americans were prevented from swimming alongside whites, Mr. Rogers decided to invite officer Clemmons to join him and cool his feet in a pool, breaking a well known color barrier.
Breaking Color Barriers.

A THREAD! Bill Robinson aka Bojangles wasn't allowed to hold Shirley Temple's hand while filming the stair scene in the movie, "The Little Colonel." She insisted anyway and grabbed his hand during the act becoming the first time where an integrated couple was filmed dancing together.

65 years ago, jazz musician and singer-songwriter, Billie Holiday died. Rest in Power!

The tragic story of Billie Holiday and events leading up to her death.

A THREAD 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.