Better'n Black History Month?

Just a reminder:

February, 2011 is "America STILL Has a Black President" Month.

(paraphrasing Kris Broughton who said this a ways back, but it bears repeating.)

Shirley Chisholm: Acknowledge

Suspending curmudgeonly comments for a moment, Nov. 30 was Shirley Chisholm's birthday. Here are two items I saw in the past 24 hours that resonated:

(1) Avoice (one word) is a site about African Americans in Congress. Here is the Shirley Chisholm page at Avoice. Short but sweet.

(2) The Daily Kos has a nice multimedia tribute to Shirley Chisholm on Black Kos (Tuesday's Chile).

Enjoy!

Frederick Douglass, 4th of July speech all over the place

A tip o' th' doiby to rrp for the reminder about Douglass, as I've been sidetracked.

As most of us know, on July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass spoke on “The Meaning of the Fourth of July to the Negro.” (“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”) This year I'm going to attend one traditional “patriotic” event and one patriotism-neutral event over the 4th of July weekend. Neither is likely to be heavily populated with POC. As with any large crowd on a holiday, some attendees will be irony-impaired, even if they are of liberal mindset, while others will be quite aware and a joy to talk to. So the Douglass speech, originally given to a white audience, may be appropriate to have freshly in mind and in context.

There are many readings of the Douglas speech online. I like Morgan Freeman's at History.com. YouTube has others, including James Earl Jones and Danny Glover (if you're not mad at him this week for ever having associated with Mel Gibson). For the readers amongst you, the original text is readily available as well.

Jones:

Glover:

Event-wise, Massachusetts has quite an interesting and supportive way of acknowledging the speech this year (mileage in your home state--yeah, lookin' at you, Arizona--may vary):

Springfield to celebrate Frederick Douglass' 1852 Fourth of July speech

Published: Tuesday, June 29, 2010, 12:45 PM

SPRINGFIELD - A communal reading of Frederick Douglass' fiery 1852 speech, “The Meaning of the Fourth of July to the Negro” will take place Wednesday at noon in Court Square....

The event is part of a state-wide series of readings that is partially funded by a We the People grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Local collaborating organizations are the Springfield Museums, the City of Springfield, Mass Humanities, the Springfield Cultural Council and Art for the Soul Gallery.

Additional sponsors are The Brethren, Olive Tree Books and Voices, PAHMUSA, Springfield NAACP, and the Teaching American History Program of the Springfield Public Schools.

Good News Department, updated

Back on April 12, I posted a link about Katie Washington, the first Black valedictorian at Notre Dame. Here's her speech at commencement, and a PR story about her achievin' life. (h/t to JJP for both of these)

Valedictorian speech:


Video from Notre Dame's Office of Public Affairs:

A gentle reminder for our gentle readers of what month it is

For a host of reasons I forgot to post this yesterday, but there's still plenty of May 2010 left. You may recall Kris Broughton's recent post over at Brown Man Thinking Hard. It was written in response to neo-Confederate shenanigans (too many to list here) from Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, and was titled "America Has a Black President Month" Comes Every 30 Days. It said, in part:

This is "America Has A Black President" month.

The next celebration will begin May 1st. The one after that will be June 1st. The one after that...

Keep smiling.

Hope, Audacity, Youth

I posted the links below elsewhere, during a somewhat angst-y discussion about Kevin Powell's Open Letter to Black America. But on second look they are worth keeping in mind and referring to as we wonder about our collective future. Over the long term, I am interested in how we can view these isolated success stories as NOT SO ISOLATED.

First black valedictorian at Notre Dame:
http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/15161/

Homeless student is going to West Point:

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7376157

12-year-old does TED talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/adora_svitak.html

My feet were on my desk when I posted this

If you're not sure why this photo is here, read the story about it at snopes.com:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/photos/desk.asp

Sane Men Love Gwen Ifill

This weekend I got the rare opportunity to spend an hour and a half with commentator Gwen Ifill, who is neither common nor a 'tater. This was not in person, of course-- don't be silly.

Many Friday evenings I ensconce myself at home (those days y'all were just thinking of are mostly past, thanks). I while away the hours not conferrin' with the flowers, but kicked back in the company of three intelligent women: Rachel Maddow (her eponymous show), Belva Davis (This Week in California), and Gwen Ifill (Washington Week). Friday the 13th was such an evening.

The extra hour with Gwen happened Saturday morning because she had a live appearance on BookTV (C-SPAN2) which was at the Miami Book Fair. Usually the Miami Book Fair gives us more than our RDA of Carl Hiaasen, and nothing against Carl personally-- his shtick is entertaining and all-- but it was nice to see Gwen holding court with the appreciative Miami crowd, and actually taking questions from people of color. (If you think I'm incorrectly implying something about that particular book fair, I won't argue. I don't watch every minute of it.)

Since this was a book tour appearance for The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama (just released in paperback, new afterword, blah blah) Gwen did not have to maintain her journalistic game face. This allowed her fine sense of humor and some decent mid-level snark to come through. As a bit of a curmudgeon myself, I appreciate the well-placed one-liner or clever aside, and she came through.

Gwen was also as courteous as possible, but no more so, to a woman who tried to hijack the Q&A portion to preach about a personal crusade against child labor. This was quite the professional save as Gwen let her know that a question was required if you were going to hog the mike. She disengaged the woman from the stand by accepting a brochure, and went to the next person in line, just like that. No fair security required. Well done.

The final question asked about an online project that was new to me, and would have been worth the hour even if Gwen hadn't been fascinating and snarky enough. The question gave her an opening to discuss her involvement with The HistoryMakers, which has been compiling African-American video oral histories for some years. Gwen has done a few of these interviews and you can access them directly here.