Abraham Lincoln and the Negro

1862 – President Lincoln receives the first group of African Americans to confer with a U.S. president on a matter of public policy. He urges African Americans to emigrate to Africa or Central America and is bitterly criticized by northern African Americans.

I wondered when I ran across the above statement how true it was.  But, when you think about it, could there had been a white president elected by the people in 1861 who felt equal to a Black man. Answer is no, I don’t believe President Lincoln was an abolitionist at heart.  As an African born in America, I can tell you I believe even the abolitionist felt superior to Black folks.  White privilege may have been exercised daily in the south but how much better was the north?

…..

This group of African Americans that Lincoln met were not slaves or former slaves but Washington Black elite.  Yes, even then in 1862 there were the bougie Black class. We hear about the field negro and the house negro but what about the free negro before the end of slavery?  We don’t hear must them or those who would be considedered “good enough” to met with the president.

Lincoln wanted Blacks to colonize in what is known as Panama.  Yes he wanted Blacks to leave the country for Africa or Panama. Lincoln told the Black delegation of 5 Washington elite “you and we are different races” and it was “better for us both . . . to be separated.”  Men like Robert Purvis (bi-racial and rich) and Frederick Douglass denounced it, charging Lincoln with racism and insisting that Blacks should demand rights and equality in the nation of their birth.

 

And the struggle continues …

 

 

August 12th in Black History

*		    Today in Black History - August 12           *

1890 - The Mississippi Constitutional Convention begins systematic 
	exclusion of African Americans from political life of the
	South, August 12-November 1.  The Mississippi Plan 
	(Literacy and "understanding tests") is later adopted with
	embellishments by other states: South Carolina (1895), 
	Louisiana (1898), North Carolina (1900), Alabama (1901), 
	Virginia (1901), Georgia (1908), Oklahoma (1910).  
	Southern states will later use "white primaries" and other
	devices to exclude African American voters.

1891 - Annie Wilson Lillian Evans (later Tibbs) is born in Washington, 
	DC.  As Damme Lillian Evanti (a contraction of her maiden name 
	and that of her husband, Roy W. Tibbs), she will become a 
	world-famous opera star who debuts in France with the Paris 
	Opera and performs in the United States and 11 countries on 
	three continents. She will also become one of the founders of 
	the National Negro Opera Company. She will join the ancestors 
	on December 6, 1967.

1922 - Frederick Douglass' home in Washington, DC is dedicated as
	a National Historic Site. The effort is led by Nannie 
	Burroughs, Hallie Q. Brown, and other members of the 
	National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. 

1923 - Emma Ophelia DeVore (later Mitchell) is born in Edgefield, 
	South Carolina. She will be a pioneering force in opening the 
	modeling field to African Americans through her founding
	of the Grace Del Marco Model Agency and the Ophelia 
	DeVore School of Self-Development and Modeling. In 1989, she 
	will be featured in Brian Lanker's "I Dream a World," a 
	collection of portraits and biographies of black women who 
	helped change America. In 2004, she will be honored by the 
	Fashion Institute of Technology and the Fashion Arts Xchange, 
	Inc. for her contributions to fashion and entertainment. She 
	will also be the CEO and publisher of The Columbus Times 
	Newspaper in Columbus, Georgia. She will join the ancestors
	on February 28, 2014.

1933 - Camille Billops is born in Los Angeles, California. She 
	will become a painter, archivist, sculptor, ceramist, and
	filmmaker and have solo exhibitions in the United States,
	Russia, Europe, Africa, and the Far East. Her primary medium 
	will be sculpture and later will turn her eye to filmmaking. 
	She will direct and produce "Suzanne, Suzanne, " "Older 
	Women and Love," "Finding Christa" and "The KKK Boutique 
	Ain't Just Rednecks." Her awards will include: a Fellowship 
	from The Huntington Hartford Foundation in 1963, a MacDowell 
	Colony Fellowship in 1975, The International Women's Year 
	Award for 1975-6, and The James Van Der Zee Award, 
	Brandywine Graphic Workshop, in 1994. Her works will be in 
	the permanent collections of the Studio Museum of Harlem, 
	Photographers Gallery, London, and The Museum of Drawers, 
	Bern, Switzerland. She will exhibit in one-woman and group 
	exhibitions worldwide since 1965 including: Gallerie 
	Akhenaton, Cairo, Egypt, Hamburg, Germany; Kaohsiung, Taiwan; 
	Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer Gallery and The New Museum of 
	Contemporary Art, N.Y.; and El Museo de Arte Moderno La 
	Tertulia, Cali, Columbia. She and her husband James Hatch, 
	Professor of English at CCNY, will co-found the Hatch-Billops 
	Archives of Black American Cultural History. The archives, 
	housed in New York City, is a collection of visual materials, 
	oral histories, and thousands of books chronicling black 
	artists in the visual and performing arts.

1960 - Ralph Boston of the United States, sets the long jump 
	record at 26' 11". 

1964 - A racially motivated disturbance occurs in Elizabeth, New
	Jersey and lasts for two days. 

1965 - A racially motivated disturbance occurs on the west side 
	of Chicago, Illinois and will last three days. 

1965 - Jonathan M. Daniels, a white Episcopal seminary student 
	from Massachusetts, is killed and Richard F. Morrisroe, a
	white Roman Catholic priest from Chicago, is seriously 
	wounded by shotgun blasts fired by white special deputy 
	sheriffs in Hayneville, Alabama.  They were participating
	in civil rights demonstrations in Lowndes County, 
	Alabama.

1977 - Stephen Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness Movement 
	in South Africa, is arrested.  He will join the ancestors
	after succumbing to injuries from beatings after his 
	arrest in police custody.

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           Munirah Chronicle is edited by Mr. Rene' A. Perry
              "The TRUTH shall make you free"

Whitney Houston – Happy Birthday (R.I.P.)

Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born on August 9, 1963 In Newark, New Jersey to Cissy Houston.