African American History Profiles

1. African American History Profiles PART IV

2. Stokely Carmichael and the “Black Power” Doctrine Stokely Carmichael was once the President of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and he literally walked alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Selma to Montgomery March of 1965. However, even then Carmichael was beginning to articulate divergent viewpoints regarding the future of the Civil Rights Movement. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, he came to the United States as a youth and lived in Harlem. He attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., and became involved with two important Civil Rights organizations, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which organized the Freedom Rides, and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. Never one to back down in the face of confrontation, Stokely Carmichael was arrested over thirty times; he spent a summer in prison in Mississippi for his efforts to integrate commuter trains in the state. He also participated in sit-in movements and various marches organized by his organization or larger, more mainstream groups like SCLC. By 1967, however Carmichael had started to have his doubts bout the non-violent, passive resistance, and civil disobedience advocated by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and decided to articulate a view that advanced the merits of “direct action.”

3. Stokely Carmichael and “Black Power” “In order for non-violence to work, your opponent must have a conscience.” Carmichael was not convinced that the powers of the government or local authorities always did, and he made that clear in his speeches and philosophical publications. The “Black Power” Movement, which would be adopted and advocated by many militant and disciplined groups in the United States, considered non-violence folly, and emphasized self-defense, self-reliance, and preparedness. Many groups, like Oakland’s Black Panther Party, considered Carmichael their spiritual leader, and began to “take back” their neighborhoods – both from crime and drugs, and from the local police, who they often viewed as brutal adversaries.

4. Stokely Carmichael on “Black Power” Black Power is the coming together of black people to fight for their liberation by any means necessary. Now we want to talk about violence. Because I understand now that some of your so-called Negro leaders have been saying that we violent. I won't deny it. Yeah, I'm violent. Somebody touch me, I'll break their arm. But the problem isn't one of violence, see. The problem is one of hitting back white people when they hit you. That's the real problem 'cause we've never done that all our lives. They've been able to walk over us, bomb our churches, beat us up, shoot into our houses, lynch us, and do everything they wanted to do and we would just sit there and whisper about it behind closed doors. It's a new day today! It's a new day today! But what really upsets me is that these people who talk about violence are not concerned about black people. Because there is more violence in our neighborhood on Friday and Saturday night than there is anyplace else, anyplace else. Yeah! We cut and we shoot each other more then we touch anybody in the world, and don't nobody talk out against that violence—nobody talking about it! And the reason they don't do it is because they don't give a damn about us. They're only concerned about white folk.

5. Stokely Carmichael on “Black Power” But what really upsets me is that these people who talk about violence are not concerned about black people. Because there is more violence in our neighborhood on Friday and Saturday night than there is anyplace else, anyplace else. Yeah! We cut and we shoot each other more then we touch anybody in the world, and don't nobody talk out against that violence—nobody talking about it! And the reason they don't do it is because they don't give a damn about us. They're only concerned about white folk…. If they were against violence, they would be preaching nonviolence in the black community, 'cause that's where we need it most. We need it there. We need to learn to love and to respect each other and stop cutting and shooting each other. But they don't care about us! They don't care about us, no! The only time you hear these preachers talk about nonviolence is when a honky hits you and you gettin' ready to take care of business. That's the only time you hear them, yeah! Then you see 'em on television, the only role they have is to condemn their own people. "Oh, we don't believe in violence, those vagabonds throwing rocks and bottles... Oh, yes we believe in the war in Vietnam. We think our boys should go over there and shoot. But we don't believe in violence at all." What is that junk? They gonna put you in a uniform and send you 8,000 miles to shoot a man who ain't never called you a nigger? Get outta here! Yeah!

6. Stokely Carmichael on “Black Power” And you get cats like Lyndon Baines Johnson get up on TV and say, "My fellow Americans, every night before I go to sleep, I ask myself what have I done to preserve peace in this country." Yeah. And yet he talking about preserving peace and dropping bombs all over Hanoi. Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb. And then he gets up before national TV, and he says, "Violence never accomplishes anything." Well if the honky believes it, tell him to use nonviolence in Vietnam! What they're saying is violence is OK against everybody except the white man, that's what they're saying. And you ought not to get fooled by it. You ought to understand, that in the world there exists, especially in this country, a victim and executioner relationship. We are the victims, and white people are the executioners. And they have kept us down by force and by violence. And that if we are violent, it's just that we have learned well from our teachers. Thank you very much. They have bombed our churches, they have shot us in the streets, they have lynched us, they have cattle-prodded us, they have thrown lye over us, they've dragged our children out in the night. We have been the recipients of violence for 400 years. We've just learned well how to use it today. Don't you ever condemn people for using violence. And those black preachers get up, you tell them to get the guts to condemn white folk for the violence they've heaped on us. If they can't do that, if they can't condemn the white folks, tell them to keep their mouths shut!

7. Stokely Carmichael on “Black Power” So don't you get caught up in no discussion about violence. We just making it crystal clear to the honky today that if he try to shoot us, we gonna kill him 'fore God get the news. Period! Now if he doesn't want to get shot, tell him to stay home. Cause they leave their beds and their wives at three o'clock in the morning and come to our community and go work out their frustration by shooting into our community. If they got frustrations, tell'em, "Go see a psychiatrist."So you got to understand that one in your mind, and don't got carried away with that nonsense about riots. You ought to understand, you ought to be proud of your black brothers in Nashville. You ought to be proud, because what happened was on Friday night two honky policemen going to walk into the middle of the neighborhood and gonna start beating up on a black brother. And when the other brothers told them they didn't have to, they gonna turn on them. But they forgot: It's a new day! It's a new day! See they didn't recognize that this generation is saying if you wear a sheet at night, or a badge in the day, if you put your filthy white hands on our beautiful black skin, we gonna TCB, period! Period! Period! - Stokely Carmichael, April 19, 1967

8. L. Douglas Wilder Douglas Wilder became the first African-American governor ever elected in the state of Virginia in 1990, and he was the first African-American to hold any governor’s office since the Reconstruction Period. Wilder was a graduate of Virginia Union University, where he initially studied Chemistry. He joined the US Army during the Korean War, and volunteered for combat duty; at one point, he an a fellow soldier took 19 Chinese soldiers prisoner during the famed Battle of Pork Chop Hill. Upon returning from Korea, Wilder chose to pursue a law degree and then started a political career by winning a special election to the Virginia State Senate. He was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1986 with Democrat Gerald Baliles; the then narrowly won election as governor in 1990. As governor, Wilder cut off all business ties between the state of Virginia and the apartheid government of South Africa. He was strongly in favor of gun control laws, was pro-choice on the abortion issue, and a strong advocate for the death penalty. Fourteen Virginians were put to death during his four years in office. After leaving the Governor’s Office, Douglas Wilder remained extremely involved in Democratic politics in the state. In 2005, he was elected Mayor of Richmond, VA, and he was enormously influential during his four years in office. He was a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition. Wilder began a campaign for the Presidency briefly in 1992, and had a short lived attempt to run for the US Senate in 1994. L. Douglas Wilder, former Governor of Virginia and Mayor of Richmond, VA

9. Greekfest, 1989: A Race Riot in Virginia Beach, Virginia During my sophomore year at First Colonial High School, racial tensions were relatively high at First Colonial High School, due to a major riot which took place during the Labor Day weekend of 1989. In Virginia Beach, the riot is known as “Greekfest,” and you’ll not hear it advertised by the City Council anytime soon! But in 1989, it was national news, and one of the ugliest parts of our local history.

10. Greekfest, 1989 Traditionally, Greekfest was an end of the summer weekend party attended by mostly African-American fraternities and sororities all up and down the East Coast. Hundreds of thousands of visitors came to Virginia Beach every Labor Day weekend, which was just like every other weekend between July 4th and Labor Day in Virginia Beach, with one notable difference: three out of four visitors during Greekfest were young and African-American. The partying and revelry which went on with Greekfest caused some unique problems, but it many of the concerns were typical of a busy weekend in Virginia Beach in the 1980s and 1990s. Pedestrian traffic made the roads almost impossible to drive. Noise violations were common, and public intoxication or open container laws were being broken until well into the evening. As with any gathering of thousands and thousands of people, fights broke out. For the VBPD, managing the event, keeping lanes open for emergency vehicles, and maintaining order on the streets was taxing and difficult – and it cost the city.

11. Greekfest, 1989 During the Labor Day Weekend in 1988, there had been problems at the Oceanfront as well. Fights had broken out, and property had been damaged in some of the hotels and businesses at the beach. There was a widespread belief among business leaders that the party had simply gotten to large, and that it would have to be managed differently in order to maintain public safety and allow businesses to operate. In 1989, Virginia Beach Mayor MeyeraOberndorf decided to pro-actively prepare for the possibility of trouble in the city. She notified organizers of Greekfest that the party was not welcome in the city, called the Governor, and put the Virginia National Guard on standby in case beachgoers became rowdy. VBPD presence on the streets was noticeably ramped up on Friday and Saturday nights during the weekend, and many students were arrested for jaywalking, disorderly conduct, public intoxication and the like. Several fights broke out, and at times, the police were not able to manage the incidents quickly and efficiently. Accusations of excessive force and harassment were made against the VBPD. The disorder on the streets of Virginia Beach made national news coverage on Saturday. ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN all broadcast reports from the tops of local hotels, showing the crowds below.

12. “Why Virginia Beach Happened”Philadelphia Inquirer, September 10, 1989, by Roy H. Campbell All the elements for a racial disturbance were there.. Tensions were high between an overwhelmingly white police force and tens of thousands of black college students, alumni and others who had come to Virginia Beach, Va., for the end-of-the-summer fraternity party known as Greekfest. For two days, from last Friday through Saturday, the black students felt harassed: They were cited for jaywalking; they were made to show their hotel keys when they entered the lobbies of their hotels; only a few of them at a time were allowed in some beachfront stores, and it seemed as if all of the shopkeepers were worried about shoplifters. "It was like 1963 or something," said Rita Goms, 20, a Lincoln University student who went to Greekfest the year before. Then, early Sunday morning, as hundreds of college students partied on Atlantic Avenue, from a black van came "Fight the Power," the anti- establishment song by the rap group Public Enemy and the hit single from the soundtrack of Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee's movie about race relations: Bum rush this show, you got to go for what you know to make everybody see, in order to fight the power that be, What we got to say is power to the people, no delay make everybody see, in order to fight the power that be. The crowd, according to Goms and others who were there, grew frenzied, swept away by the pulsing rap beat and the words that called for them to strike out against the powers that be, to fight back against the white oppressors. The disturbance that followed raises again the question of the relationship between rap music and violence. And also, when Do the Right Thing came out, some said it would cause a riot. People who were at Virginia Beach agree that the song did not cause the riot; the situation did. The song, however, played a role just as rock music played a role in anti-Vietnam protests in the late 1960s. And, at Virginia Beach, "fight the power" became the byword of the Labor Day weekend. On Atlantic Avenue, more people poured into the streets. They waved their fists and cursed police, chanting, "fight the power.“ Someone tossed a brick through a storefront window. The brick seemed to be the match that touched off a firestorm that turned into a violent looting and vandalism spree.

13. Greekfest, 1989 By dawn, 100 beachfront businesses were damaged, two people were injured by gunfire, scores were arrested and state police and the National Guard were patrolling the streets. Violence broke out again Sunday night as riot-clad police clashed with black youths in the streets. Hundreds more were arrested. Last week, the U.S. Justice Department announced that it and the FBI had formally opened a criminal investigation into whether civil rights had been violated and whether police had used excessive force during the disturbance at Virginia Beach. How did a traditional beach party turn into a riot? And why was Virginia Beach being accused of racism? The 1989 Greekfest seemed headed for disaster from the start. City officials announced earlier this year that the event had grown too large to be handled safely. They rebuffed efforts of the Philadelphia area promoters to hold events at the beach or at the Pavilion Civic Center. And the city council passed new stringent ordinances against jaywalking, loud radios and other actions that are traditionally associated with youths on Spring Break. City officials acknowledged that the new rules were in response to Greekfest. When it became apparent - all the hotels were booked by July - that thousands of black college students and alumni were still going to come to Virginia Beach for Labor Day weekend, Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf announced that the event was not welcome in the city. In August, she asked the governor to put the National Guard on standby alert because of the possibility of rowdy students. Despite all of this, and with wild rumors of the Ku Klux Klan and the skinheads planning to disrupt the event in mind, thousands of black college students headed for Virginia Beach. However, James Spruill, 23, a West Philadelphia resident and a 1987 graduate of Penn State University, said, "I went because every time I go, I have a good time. The girls are all out there and there are parties and it is just a fun thing to do at the end of the summer.

14. Greekfest, 1989 The event began in 1985, when the Philadelphia area group Theoroc Promotions, which sponsors the annual Greek Picnic in Fairmount Park, staged the first Greekfest in Virginia Beach. Five hundred people attended. The event grew until last year, when 40,000 people poured into Virginia Beach. Hotel owners complained of minor vandalism, and one event at the city's Pavilion resulted in crowd-control problems. Organizers say Greekfest is not unlike the better-known Spring Breaks at Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. For a few days, the college students - whether at Virginia Beach or Florida - party and try to meet members of the opposite sex. This year in Virginia Beach, the annual weekend began as usual: "Everybody was on parade, everybody was strutting their stuff," said Nathan Townsend, a Philadelphia designer who chaperoned a church group that visited the beach on Saturday. "I was with a group of older people and there was nothing threatening, it was just amazing.“ But some people at Greekfest said they felt unwanted. In the words of Wayne Byrd, 23, of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, there was "an air of racism." "They seemed to be afraid of us because we were black individuals," said Byrd, a Richmond, Va., native. Goms, who drove down from Lincoln's Chester County campus with 11 other students, said they felt so discriminated against that "we started carrying signs saying, 'Don't spend your money in Virginia Beach because they don't want us here.' "And some enterprising person printed T-shirts with Malcolm X on the front and a rap poem on the back that said the Greekfest was unwanted because of the students' "pigmentation." The T-shirts sold like hotcakes. And "Fight the Power" became an anthem of sorts. "The song hyped everybody more, but they were already upset and tired of the police harassing them," said Lisa Jordan, 19, a Virginia State University student. It was about 7:30 p.m. when police formed a wedge and began a sweep to clear the streets. Witnesses said the police rushed the crowd, beating the people with batons if they did not move quickly enough. One handcuffed youth was kicked by state police as he lay on the ground while across the street a crowd jeered and cried police brutality. Among other incidents, police stormed a supermarket and pushed and threw the black patrons out of the store.

15. Greekfest, 1989 Among those arrested was Gerald Howard, 39, of Southwest Philadelphia. Howard drove down to videotape Greekfest. On Sunday night, as he was filming the police sweep, he said a police officer grabbed him, threw him to the ground and beat him before arresting him. "I was filming them grabbing people and dragging them," said Howard, who has filed a police brutality complaint with the Virginia Beach Police Department. Howard spent the night in police custody with 100 others who he said committed only one crime: "Many of the guys in the detention center were guilty of being black and on the street.“ Against charges of excessive police force, Oberndorf said the police had to use such tactics because looting had started again on Sunday night. Reporters, merchants and festival participants, however, say there was no disturbance or trouble until the police sweep began. In the aftermath of all this, black leaders - while not condoning the looting - say the city mishandled the event from the beginning. Jack Gravely, president of the state NAACP, said the city overreacted to the crowd because its members were black. The NAACP will investigate the police action and then hold a hearing. E. Stephens Collins, one of the partners in the group that staged previous Greekfests but pulled out this year when the city refused permission to use the convention center, said, "Black kids just weren't welcome at the beach." He pointed to Philadelphia's Greek Picnic as an example of how well things can go when there is cooperation from the city. "We never had a problem," he said. Ed Tenuto, spokesman for the Philadelphia Police Department, said 60,000 people attended the July event this year and there were no arrests and no problems. "Our presence is in a service capacity - to help with traffic or things like this because we view this as one big party," he said.

16. Labor Day Weekends In the years since the Greekfest Riots took place, the City of Virginia Beach has worked to bring other major events to the city, starting with the American Music Festival – which did not feature Public Enemy or any other musicians of the hip-hop variety – and later converting to the Rock N’ Roll half marathon. Greekfest parties have gone elsewhere, and the crowds which attend Labor Day weekend in Virginia Beach are very different. This, along with much more strict rules regarding traffic patterns and loitering on the Oceanfront from June to September, have changed our city’s main tourist attraction over the past 25 years.

17. Spike Lee: 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks

18. Spike Lee Joints Since graduating from NYU’s Film School in 1983, Spike Lee has been one of the most creative and prolific producers in the American film industry. By tackling themes that are often controversial and unsettling, he has taken a leading role in social commentary and been an informed critic regarding policies and social custom in the United States. Not only has Spike Lee achieved critical acclaim; but also, he has had commercial success in a variety of genres. In addition to feature films and documentaries, many of Lee’s better known works have been music videos and even commercial advertisements, like Nike’s famous Mars Blackmon: “It’s Gotta Be the Shoes!” • She’s Gotta Have It • Do The Right Thing • Mo’ Better Blues • Malcolm X • Crooklyn • Clockers • Get On The Bus • 4 Little Girls • He Got Game • When The Levees Broke • Red Hook Summer

19. Spike Lee Lee has acted in a host of his own films, almost all of which have received critical acclaim. He is known outside of his film making career as a die-hard sports fan and as a social commentator. He is often seen on the front row of Knicks games in MSG, and has more than once gotten into verbal spats with players – perhaps most notably with former Indiana Pacers guard Reggie Miller. He is also a huge New York Yankees fan. More importantly, however, Lee stays involved in social commentary…. sometimes, a little too involved. During the Trayvon Martin case in 2013 in Florida, he attempted to tweet out the address of George Zimmermann’s parents, provoking death threats against the family which live in the residence. He has also entered into feuds with the likes of Clint Eastwood over the need to include African-American characters in film, and for postulating conspiracy theories without ample evidence – for example, his half-hearted insistence that the US government wasn’t above allowing the Hurricane Katrina tragedy to persist just to move African-Americans out of the city of New Orleans.

20. Carlton Douglas Ridenhour Chuck D. Public Enemy Number One. The brains behind the influential rap group Public Enemy during the late 1980s and the 1990s, Chuck D was one of the most important lyricists and performers of the late 20th Century, and he continues to influence hip-hop today. Many of his songs became anthems of the late 1980s and 1990s, including “Fight the Power,” “911 is a Joke,” and the classics “Can’t Truss It” and “Bring the Noise.”

21. Chuck D of Public Enemy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dql_kKCq4Oo

22. Maya Angelou One of the most influential poets of the 20th Century – and the 21st Century as well, at this point – Maya Angelou was able to transcend the many obstacles of her early life, including racism and sexual abuse, to become one of the leading voices of her age. Among many other accomplishments, she was asked to read original poetry at the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton in 1993.

23. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings…” I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings: The free bird leap son the back of the windAnd floats downstream ill the current endsAnd dips his wings in the orange sun raysAnd dares to claim the sky.But a bird that stalks down his narrow cageCan seldom see through his bars of rageHis wings are clipped and his feet are tiedSo he opens his throat to sing.The caged bird sings with fearful trillOf the things unknown but longed for stillAnd his tune is heard on the distant hill, for The caged bird sings of freedom The free bird thinks of another breezeAnd the trade winds soft through the sighing treesAnd the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawnAnd he names the sky his own.But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreamsHis shadow shouts on a nightmare screamHis wings are clipped and his feet are tiedSo he opens his throat to singThe caged bird sings with a fearful trillOf things unknown but longed for stillAnd his tune is heard on the distant hillFor the caged bird sings of freedom. - by Maya Angelou

24. Author Toni Morrison Read as much as you can and try to find an American author that rivals Toni Morrison. Alongside Cormac McCarthy, Philip Roth, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Morrison is one of the greatest living authors. Her books include Sula, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Love, Beloved, and more recent works such as A Mercy and Home. Magical realism is one of the techniques Morrison applies consistently with great effect. More recently, her attention to detail in historical fiction has brought her to the attention of practicing historians. A Mercy, set in the Chesapeake region during the middle1600s, captures the emerging hierarchy of the free and the enslaved, and describes the ability of even the weakest members in that social hierarchy to find agency and purpose in their lives. Many of her other works bring the difficult realities of segregation and racism to light – while celebrating the independent, meaningful lives of African Americans across the United States – in both time and space.

25. Books By Toni Morrison

26. Henry Louis Gates Henry Louis Gates is a professor of history at Harvard University and a leading intellectual. He has authored several books, many of which argue that a Euro-centric version of American history is not an accurate portrayal of the past. Indeed, African-American perspectives – and the perspectives of women and other minority groups are essential to understanding history. Most recently, Henry Louis Gates created a documentary series entitled, “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross.” He may, however, be most famous for his ridiculous arrest by police officers in Cambridge, MA, as he attempted to enter his own house. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC3-Pjxksus