Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 was the last major uprising of enslaved blacks and white indentured servants in Colonial Virginia. One consequence of the failed rebellion was the intensification of African slavery and the social separation of blacks and whites in Virginia. Continue reading Profile: BACON’S REBELLION (1676)
The Cicero Riot of 1951 occurred from July 11-12, 1951, when a mob of approximately 4,000 whites attacked an apartment building an African American family had recently moved into in Cicero, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. The events leading up to the riot began in June 1951 when Mrs. Camille DeRose, owner of the building at 6139-43 W. 19th Street in Cicero, rented an apartment to Henry E. Clark Jr, an African American World War II veteran and graduate of Fisk University, his wife, Johnetta Clark, and their two children in an all-white neighborhood. Continue reading Revisit: THE CICERO RIOT OF 1951
Congressman John Conyers, a Black Democratic U.S. representative from Michigan, introduced the first legislation to establish the holiday on April 8, 1968, four days after Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. However, the bill honoring the life and work of the civil and human rights activist and Nobel laureate fell five votes short of the number needed for Congress to move forward. Congressional conservatives argued that it was unheard of to celebrate a private person who had never held public office with such an honor. Others argued that the federal government could not afford another annual paid holiday for federal employees, and a few suggested that King was not worthy of such a national honor because of his affiliation with communist individuals and organizations. Continue reading Revisit: ESTABLISHING MLK HOLIDAY (1983)
By the end of the Civil War, African Americans made up nearly half of the population of Florida. As in other Southern states, most Blacks in Florida before the Civil War were enslaved people and none had the right to vote. The passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870 theoretically extended the right to vote to all citizens regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. A closer evaluation of the 15th Amendment indicates that it states the right to vote cannot be denied because of race. Continue reading Revisit: THE FLORIDA POLL TAX (1889-1941)
Black Art Story 