Blowback: King Leopold and Genocide in the Congo

King Leopold II: Hidden Holocaust in the Congo

As reported by the UK Guardian, "The hidden holocaust: Was Belgium's King Leopold II a mass murderer on a par with Hitler or a greedy despot who turned a blind eye to a few excesses? A new book has ignited a furious row in a country coming to grips with its colonial legacy," Stephen Bates reports on 12 May 1999 -- As the sun sank slowly over Brussels, its fading rays glinted off the glass domes and towers of the magnificent Victorian greenhouses in the grounds of the royal palace at Laeken. Built to celebrate King Leopold II's acquisition of the Congo a century ago, the greenhouses stretch for more than half a mile and are among the most visible and grandiose remaining symbols of a once enormous African empire, 60 times the size of Belgium. The colony was the largest private estate ever acquired by a single man - and one he never saw.

It is said that when he showed his nephew the greenhouses, the youth gasped that they were like a little Versailles. 'Little?' snorted the king.

Leopold always did think big. But the row over the king's notorious stewardship of his African territories still has the ability to evoke raw emotions in a country trying to come to terms with a brutal colonial past.

The question is: was the spade-bearded old reprobate a mass-murderer, the first genocidalist of modern times, responsible for the death of more Africans than the Nazis killed Jews? Was his equatorial empire, the setting for Conrad's Heart of Darkness and the terrible Kurtz with the human heads dangling round his garden, the scene of a largely forgotten holocaust? The old wounds have been re-opened by the publication of a book called King Leopold's Ghost, by the American author Adam Hochschild, which has brought howls of rage from Belgium's ageing colonials and some professional historians even as it has climbed the country's best-seller lists.

 

Alice Seeley Harris, Manacled members of a chain gang at Bauliri. A common punishment for not paying taxes, Congo Free State, c. 1904. Courtesy Anti-Slavery International / Autograph ABP

The debate over Belgium's colonial legacy could not be more timely. In the realm beyond the palace walls where Leopold's great grandson Albert II is now king, the openly racist extreme rightwing Vlaams Blok, which blames much of the country's ills on coloured immigrants from Africa, is bidding to become one of the biggest parties in next month's elections.

And the planes which soar over the greenhouses as they depart Brussels sometimes carry human cargo - black asylum seekers being unceremoniously deported, occasionally naked and still bleeding, back to Africa. Last September, the Belgian immigration service succeeded in suffocating one of them, a Nigerian woman called Semira Adamu, 20, on board the plane that was to take her home, by shoving her head under a pillow. The police videoed themselves chatting and laughing while they pushed her head down. It took them 20 minutes to kill her.

The history of Leopold's rule over the Congo has long been known. It was first exposed by American and British writers and campaigners at the turn of the century - publicity which eventually forced the king to hand the country which had been his private fiefdom over to Belgium.

But Hochschild's book has hit a raw nerve for a new generation with its vividly drawn picture of a voracious king anxious to maximise his earnings from the proceeds of rubber and ivory.

It is clear that many of Leopold's officials in the depots up the Congo river terrorised the local inhabitants, forcing them to work under the threat of having their hands and feet - or those of their children - cut off. Women were raped, men were executed and villages were burned in pursuit of profit for the king.

But what has stuck in the gut of Belgian historians is Hochschild's claim that 10 million people may have died in a forgotten holocaust. In outrage, the now ageing Belgian officials who worked in the Congo in later years have taken to the internet with a 10-page message claiming that maybe only half a dozen people had their hands chopped off, and that even that was done by native troops.

They argue that American and British writers have highlighted the Congo to distract attention from the contemporary massacre of the North American Indians and the Boer War.

Under the headline 'a scandalous book', members of the Royal Belgian Union for Overseas Territories claim: 'There is nothing that could compare with the horrors of Hitler and Stalin, or the deliberate massacres of the Indian, Tasmanian and Aboriginal populations. A black legend has been created by polemicists and British and American journalists feeding off the imaginations of novelists and the re-writers of history.' Professor Jean Stengers, a leading historian of the period, says: 'Terrible things happened, but Hochschild is exaggerating. It is absurd to say so many millions died. I don't attach so much significance to his book. In two or three years' time, it will be forgotten.' Leopold's British biographer, Barbara Emerson, agrees: 'I think it is a very shoddy piece of work. Leopold did not start genocide. He was greedy for money and chose not to interest himself when things got out of control. Part of Belgian society is still very defensive. People with Congo connections say we were not so awful as that, we reformed the Congo and had a decent administration there.' Stengers acknowledges that the population of the Congo shrank dramatically in the 30 years after Leopold took over, though exact figures are hard to establish since no one knows how many inhabited the vast jungles in the 1880s.

It is true too that some of those reporting scandals had their own knives to grind. Some were Protestant missionaries who were rivals to Belgian Catholics in the region.

Yet Leopold certainly emerges as an unattractive figure, described as a young man by his cousin Queen Victoria as an 'unfit, idle and unpromising an heir apparent as ever was known' and by Disraeli as having 'such a nose as a young prince has in a fairy tale, who has been banned by a malignant fairy.' As king, he did not bother to deny charges in a London court that he had sex with child prostitutes. When the bishop of Ostend told him that people were saying he had a mistress, he is reputed to have replied benignly: 'People tell me the same about you, your Grace. But of course I choose not to believe them.' His wiliness in convincing the world that he had only humanitarian motives in annexing the Congo, in persuading the Belgian government essentially to pay for his purchase and in buying up journalists, including the great explorer Henry Morton Stanley, to promote his cause show both cunning and skill.

 

Henry Morton Stanley

Emerson claims Leopold was appalled to hear about the atrocities in his domain, but dug his heels in when he was attacked in the foreign press. He did indeed apparently write to his secretary of state: 'These horrors must end or I will retire from the Congo. I will not be splattered with blood and mud: it is essential that any abuses cease.' But the man who (as Queen Victoria said) had the habit of saying 'disagreeable things to people' was also reputed to have snorted: 'Cut off hands - that's idiotic. I'd cut off all the rest of them, but not hands. That's the one thing I need in the Congo.' Although few now defend him, strange things happen even today when the Congo record is challenged. Currently circulating on the internet is an anguished claim by a student in Brussels called Joseph Mbeka alleging he his thesis marked a failure when he cited Hochschild's book: 'My director turned his back on me.' Daniel Vangroenweghe, a Belgian anthropologist who also published a critical book about the period 15 years ago, says: 'Senior people tried to get me sacked at the time. Questions were asked in parliament and my work was subjected to an official inspection.' At a large chateau outside Brussels in Tervuren is the Musee Royal de l'Afrique, which Leopold was eventually shamed into setting up to prove his philanthropic credentials. It contains the largest African ethnographic collection in the world, rooms full of stuffed animals and artefacts including shields, spears, deities, drums and masks, a 60ft-long war canoe, even Stanley's leather suitcase.

There is one small watercolour of a native being flogged, but a visitor would be hard-pressed to spot any other reference to the dark side of Leopold's regime. Dust hangs over the place. A curator has said changes are under consideration 'but absolutely not because of the recent disreputable book by an American'.

The real legacy of Leopold and of the Belgians who ran the country until they were bloodily booted out in 1960 has been the chaos in the region ever since and a rapacity among rulers such as Mobutu Sese Seko which outstripped even the king's. Leopold made £3m in 10 years between 1896 and 1906, Mobutu filched at least £3bn. When the Belgians left there were only three Africans in managerial positions in the Congo's administration and fewer than 30 graduates in the entire country.

Vangroenweghe says: 'Talk of whether Leopold killed 10 million people or five million is beside the point, it was still too many.' I asked Belgium's prime minister, Jean-Luc Dehaene, about the Congo legacy this week. 'The colonial past is completely past,' he said. 'There is really no strong emotional link any more. It does not move the people. It's part of the past. It's history.' (source: The UK Guardian)

Humanitarian disaster

Mutilation

Congolese children and wives whose fathers failed to meet rubber collection quotas were often punished by having their hands cut off.

Nsala, of the district of Wala, looking at the severed hand and foot of his five-year old daughter, Boali, who was killed and allegedly cannibalized by the members of Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company (A.B.I.R.) militia. Source: E. D Morel, King Leopold's rule in Africa, between pages 144 and 145

Failure to meet the rubber collection quotas was punishable by death. Meanwhile, the Force Publique were required to provide a hand of their victims as proof when they had shot and killed someone, as it was believed that they would otherwise use the munitions (imported from Europe at considerable cost) for hunting.^[13] As a consequence, the rubber quotas were in part paid off in chopped-off hands. Sometimes the hands were collected by the soldiers of the Force Publique, sometimes by the villages themselves. There were even small wars where villages attacked neighbouring villages to gather hands, since their rubber quotas were too unrealistic to fill. A Catholic priest quotes a man, Tswambe, speaking of the hated state official Léon Fiévez, who ran a district along the river three hundred miles north of Stanley Pool:

All blacks saw this man as the devil of the Equator...From all the bodies killed in the field, you had to cut off the hands. He wanted to see the number of hands cut off by each soldier, who had to bring them in baskets...A village which refused to provide rubber would be completely swept clean. As a young man, I saw [Fiévez's] soldier Molili, then guarding the village of Boyeka, take a net, put ten arrested natives in it, attach big stones to the net, and make it tumble into the river...Rubber causes these torments; that's why we no longer want to hear its name spoken. Soldiers made young men kill or rape their own mothers and sisters.^[14]

One junior European officer described a raid to punish a village that had protested. The European officer in command 'ordered us to cut off the heads of the men and hang them on the village palisades ... and to hang the women and the children on the palisade in the form of a cross.'^[15] After seeing a Congolese person killed for the first time, a Danish missionary wrote: 'The soldier said "Don't take this to heart so much. They kill us if we don't bring the rubber. The Commissioner has promised us if we have plenty of hands he will shorten our service."'^[16] In Forbath's words:

The baskets of severed hands, set down at the feet of the European post commanders, became the symbol of the Congo Free State. ... The collection of hands became an end in itself. Force Publique soldiers brought them to the stations in place of rubber; they even went out to harvest them instead of rubber... They became a sort of currency. They came to be used to make up for shortfalls in rubber quotas, to replace... the people who were demanded for the forced labour gangs; and the Force Publique soldiers were paid their bonuses on the basis of how many hands they collected.

In theory, each right hand proved a killing. In practice, soldiers sometimes "cheated" by simply cutting off the hand and leaving the victim to live or die. More than a few survivors later said that they had lived through a massacre by acting dead, not moving even when their hands were severed, and waiting till the soldiers left before seeking help. In some instances a soldier could shorten his service term by bringing more hands than the other soldiers, which led to widespread mutilations and dismemberment.

Death toll

A reduction of the population of the Congo is noted by all who have compared the country at the beginning of Leopold's control with the beginning of Belgian state rule in 1908, but estimates of the deaths toll vary considerably. Estimates of contemporary observers suggest that the population decreased by half during this period and these are supported by some modern scholars such as Jan Vansina.^[17] Others dispute this. Scholars at the Royal Museum for Central Africa argue that a decrease of 15% over the first forty years of colonial rule (up to the census of 1924).^{[citation needed]}
According to British diplomat Roger Casement, this depopulation had four main causes: "indiscriminate war", starvation, reduction of births and diseases.^[18] Sleeping sickness was also a major cause of fatality at the time. Opponents of Leopold's rule stated, however, that the administration itself was to be considered responsible for the spreading of the epidemic.^[19]
In the absence of a census providing even an initial idea of the size of population of the region at the inception of the Congo Free State (the first was taken in 1924),^[20] it is impossible to quantify population changes in the period. Despite this, Forbath claimed the loss was at least 5 million;^[21] Adam Hochschild, and Isidore Ndaywel è Nziem, 10 million;^[22][23] However no verifiable records exist. Louis and Stengers state that population figures at the start of Leopold's control are only "wild guesses", while calling E.D. Morel's attempt and others at coming to a figure for population losses as "but figments of the imagination".^[24] To put these population changes in context sourced references state that in 1900, Africa as a whole had between 90 million^[25] and 133 million people.^[26]

Photo of Black Party Party members in front of the Alameda County Court House

The Black Arts Movement District may extend to the Alameda County Courthouse, site of the Huey Newton trial and the trial of those who assassinated Post Newspaper Editor Chancey Bailey.
photo Kamau Amen Ra

Val Serrant at BAM Celebration

Van Serrant has performed with Marvin X for decades. We are honored to have him in the BAM Poet's Choir and Arkestra at Laney College.

John Santos in the Black Arts Movement Poet's Choir & Arkestra at Laney College, Feb. 7, 2015

We are honored the great John Santos has agreed to participate in the 50th anniversary celebration of the Black Arts Movement. He will perform with the BAM Arkestra & Poet's Choir--Marvin X

 

 John Santos: Keeper of the Culture

 

The Black Arts Movement Arkestra and Poet's Choir performs at 8pm in the Laney College Theatre

photo collage Adam Turner

Fantastic Negrito at Laney College Black Arts Movement Festival

“We are Soldiers in the same tribe, because we carry this Flag of Musical Truth. Fantastic Negrito is a deity contained in a human capsule. When he sings, he can’t quite be contained and the only way to know I’m telling the Truth... is to see him live.”

-Tre Hardson, Artist and Producer of The Pharcyde

Fantastic Negrito is a man’s truth told through black roots music. Each song tells a story about this musician from Oakland who struggled to “make it,” who “got it,” and who lost it all. It’s the story of a man who experienced the highs of a million dollar record deal and the lows of a near fatal car accident that put him in a coma. It’s the story about a life after destruction, a reawakening and rebirth. Negrito’s music emphasizes rawness and space. Slide guitar, drums and piano ­all brought together to create soulful beats. Fantastic Negrito leaves the original sounds of Lead Belly and Skip James intact and builds bridges to modernity by looping and sampling his own live instruments. For anyone who ever felt like it was over yet hoped it wasn’t, this is your music; blues harnessed, forged in realness.

Night Has Turned to Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B4FSeeXUaE

--

Blackball Universe
230 Madison, 2H
Oakland, CA  94607
(510) 433-0933

"We produce what we believe in and nothing else"

   

Black Arts/Black Power Babies 2.0: Muhammida El Muhajir

 Muhammida El Muhajir, producer of Black Arts/Black Power Babies Discussion; filmmaker: Hip Hop--the New World Order

From producing major events in both the US and internationally, filming a world-wide hip-hop documentary, and working on marketing for major brands, Muhammida has a vast and diverse portfolio of work.  Her ability to juggle it all along with motherhood makes it all the more inspiring. Always looking forward to the next project and her ability to remain ahead of the tide in her projects, is what makes her a hip, modern, and motivated individual.

 Mother Nisa Ra, Muhammida, father Marvin X (El Muhajir)

Muhammida’s parents were entrepreneurs so she innately had a business mind, since about 5 or 6 years of age.  Although she attended Howard University to study Microbiology, with the intent on going to medical school, she always had an interest in entertainment, even minoring in Radio, TV and Film.  After taking a year off before the MCAT’s, she worked on some film projects and found herself in NYC.  Her first real industry job was at the William Morris Agency, which was a great opportunity to learn about the business of entertainment- learning names, faces, and how to deal with celebrities.  Meeting great contacts and learning the importance of creating a network and being consistent with staying in contact, whether it’s through a note or a short phone call, is something else that would hold true through the rest of her career.  Later going on to have her own music video casting company, and doing talent management representing models and actors all happened because of the networks previously created.

 An international event planner, Muhammida produced Keyshia Cole Day in Oakland. She hired her father to open with a poem for Keyshia.

Using a notebook to jot down ideas that sometimes seemed far-fetched ended up manifesting into Muhammida producing a documentary about hip hop all over the world.  Just a girl with a vision, Muhammida ended up travelling to Japan, London, Paris, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Johannesburg, and Rio de Janeiro, using her network of sometimes one person to tap into the who’s who of the underground rap world in these cities.  This goes to show that everything you do really plays a role and paves a path for your future.  One of the funnier stories that El Muhajir recounts while travelling is her “fashionista filmmaker story”.  Being so exhausted from carrying a heavy suitcase full of shoes on the Euro rail, she only had enough energy to make a visit to the Gucci store in Milan and not do any interviews, so there is no Italian section in the film.  The things we women do for fashion!

As funny as she is, El-Muhajir is serious about her commitment to service.  She has done pro bono work with the GEMS organization and spent time teaching the girls film and reading.  Additionally, Muhammida regularly mentors young people as well as does motivational/public speaking at high schools, universities, and community organizations.   She feels that doing public service is essential to success.  When you give (time energy resources), it always comes back double, if not more.
This is great advice for women at any stage in life and all the more reason why Muhammida El Muhajir is a true hip, modern and motivated woman.

Parable of the A Students

Muhammida El Muhajir and Samantha Akwei in Ghana, West Africa. Muhammida is the daughter of Nisa Ra and Marvin X. Samantha met Marvin X at his Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. She works in Oakland but when she told Marvin X, aka, the Chancellor, she would be visiting relatives in Ghana for the holidays, the Chancellor told her to connect with Muhammida. Muhammida is a graduate of Howard University working in Ghana ; Samantha is a Spelman graduate.

Parable of the A Students

Parable of the A Students

There was a group of students who were good in school. They did everything their teacher told them, attended classed without fail, did homework to the T, went on field trips to the various hot spots in town, even stayed out late to make sure they learn all the subject matter at the spot.

When the teacher told them to do bad things, they followed instructions to a T. They especially liked to do the opposite when the teacher told them good things. He told them this was called reverse psychology, so they loved to practice reverse psychology. If he told them to love, they hated. If he told them to appreciate life, they tried all in their power to self-destruct. If he told them to strive to be successful, they prayed to fail, or shoot themselves in the foot.

They truly enjoyed turning positive into negative, and they mastered the game of failure rather than success. The teacher couldn't pay them to succeed. If he told them to practice safe sex or even to restrain from sex for awhile, they did the opposite. They would have sex without a condom and would get infected with various STDs, including HIV/AIDS. And some of the girls who did the opposite of what the teacher said got pregnant.

Again, the teacher was using reverse psychology because he intended for them to fail. He had his plans for them to be failures. He was only following instructions from his boss so the youth would end up destroyed, and especially the boys who were programmed for the department of corrections so they could help the guards and other prison industry workers live the good life, buy nice homes, cars, boats, go on ship cruises, put their children through college. The teachers and other workers prayed together at church that the children would be A students in doing the opposite of what they taught them, and the children were true to the game played on them. Yes, they were A students. They failed at school, failed to discover their life mission, failed at having positive relationships with their boyfriends and girlfriends, and later their marriage partners, failed at raising their children. Yes, this group of students were a failure, and yet they carried the teacher's program out to a T. They got A's on their report cards.

--Marvin X

from The Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables/fables by Marvin X, Black Bird Press, Berkeley.

The Black Arts Movement attends City of Oakland's Inauguration Ceremony

Black Arts Movement Wellness Director, Empress Diamond, Oakland Mayor Libby Shaaf and BAM co-founder Marvin X, aka the Chancellor

 West Oakland Councilwoman, Lynette Gibson McElhaney, Empress Diamond, Marvin X

Empress Diamond, East Oakland Councilwoman Desley Brooks, Marvin X

While attending the City of Oakland's Inauguration Ceremony at the elegant Paramount Theatre, Marvin X whispered to BAM Wellness Director, Empress Diamond, "As a poet, can't get too close to politicians, but since they have reached out to touch me, I can return the favor." Indeed, Oakland's new Mayor, Libby Shaaf and Councilwomen Brooks and McElhaney have endorsed the Black Arts Movement's 50th Anniversary Celebration, scheduled for Laney College, February 7, as well as the declaration of 14th Street, downtown Oakland, as the Black Arts Movement District. The BAM District is historic and puts Oakland on the map in recognizing the importance of the Black Arts Movement as the most radical artistic and literary movement in American history. Marvin X envisions the BAM District as a renaissance of West Oakland's 7th Street, Harlem of the West. "If we put certain buildings under a land trust, we can ensure a Black cultural district will have a long life, not subject to gentrification or "Negro removal," as happened in West Oakland and throughout America. Marvin attended the Lower Bottom Playaz production of August Wilson's Jitney this past weekend that dealt with urban renewal in the 1970s. Downtown Oakland has 1st Fridays, so why not Last Fridays or Black Fridays along the 14th Street corridor that will extend from 14th and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way to Alice Street. Councilwoman Lynette McElhaney will introduce legislation to make the BAM District a reality. For information about the Laney College BAM celebration, Feb. 7, email Marvin X at jmarvinx@yahoo.com or call 510-200-4164.

Sponsors: Laney College, Post News Group, Black Caucus of California Community Colleges, YMCA, HP/Bayview; Black Think Tank, Black Bird Press, KPOO Radio, Davey D and Greg Bridges of KPFA Radio, lajones associates, BWOPA/TILE, It's About Time (the Black Panther Party Archives Project).


If you are willing to donate $100 --$500 or  any amount, please call Marvin X, 510-200-4164. BAM must be a community supported project. The original Black Arts Repertory Theatre failed in Harlem when grant funds were cut off. BAM must be independent although we will accept funds but will not compromise our revolutionary values and goals, the freedom of our people.

Here’s an update for you from the ‘Black Arts Movement 27 City National Tour’ team:

1 new Announcement:

If you are willing to donate any amount, please call Marvin X, 510-200-4164. BAM must be a community supported project. The original Black Arts Repertory Theatre failed in Harlem when grant funds were cut off. We need funds for food at the Laney College gala; we need money for artists and speakers, sound equipment, transportation,book give away,  costumes, speaker fees. Thanking you in advance for your support.

Sincerely,

Marvin X, Project Director

BAM 27 City Tour

Visit the ‘Black Arts Movement 27 City National Tour’ campaign.

Comment on or view this announcement here.

Respond directly to the campaign owner here.

Help spread the word about the campaign!

Note: To stop receiving updates from Black Arts Movement 27 City National Tour, click here.

You can also unsubscribe from all recurring Indiegogo emails in your account settings.

Sincerely,
The Indiegogo Team

The Black Arts Movement needs 100 People to donate $100.00 to $500.00 so we can make the BAM Celebration happen at Laney College, Feb. 7, 2015

BAM Poet Nikki Giovanni is sending a donation to help the Black Arts Movement Celebration at Oakland's Laney College, February 7, 2015. Marvin X wants to produce a concert at the Paramount Theatre featuring Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure, Danny Glover, Marvin X and the Last Poets. It will be a benefit for the Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour. Nikki says her first published poem appeared in the West Coast Bible of BAM, The Journal of Black Poetry, published by Jose Goncalves. Other key BAM journals were published in the Bay Area: Black Dialogue, Soulbook and the Black Scholar Magazine.

Paul Cobb has donated $100.00 for the BAM Fest. He suggests 100 people donate between $100.00 and $500.00 for BAM so we can do for self. He will put the pic of all who donate in the Oakland Post. We are looking for 99 people of good will who believe in BAM. FYI, Paul Cobb is a Garveyite, his father and grandfather were Garveyites. I am a Garveyite! As they say in Houston, TX, "You better ax somebody!"
Marvin X

Laney College President, Dr. Elnora T. Webb donated $100.00 and made Laney facilities available for the BAM Celebration.

If you are willing to donate any amount, please call Marvin X, 510-200-4164. BAM must be a community supported project. The original Black Arts Repertory Theatre failed in Harlem when grant funds were cut off. BAM must be independent although we will accept funds but will not compromise our revolutionary values and goals, the freedom of our people.

Here’s an update for you from the ‘Black Arts Movement 27 City National Tour’ team: 1 new Announcement: If you are willing to donate any amount, please call Marvin X, 510-200-4164. BAM must be a community supported project. The original Black Arts Repertory Theatre failed in Harlem when grant funds were cut off. We need funds for food at the Laney College gala; we need money for artists, sound equipment, transportation,book give away,  costumes, speaker fees. Thanking you in advance for your support. Sincerely, Marvin X, Project Director BAM 27 City Tour Visit the ‘Black Arts Movement 27 City National Tour’ campaign. Comment on or view this announcement here. Respond directly to the campaign owner here. Help spread the word about the campaign! Note: To stop receiving updates from Black Arts Movement 27 City National Tour, click here. You can also unsubscribe from all recurring Indiegogo emails in your account settings. Sincerely, The Indiegogo Team

 Black Arts Movement chief architect LeRoi Jones, aka Amiri Baraka, on the set of his play The Toilet

Amiri and Maya, RIP

The Black Arts Movement Arkestra and Poet's Choir will perform at Laney College, Feb. 7, 2015

photo Adam Turner

Marvin X and Empress Diamond attend 90th Birthday Celebration for Bay Area Media Diva Jerri Lange

 Marvin X and Empress Diamond show their love for Queen Mother Jerri Lange

I want to be like Jerri

live to 90

proud strong

dancing at my b day party

champagne glass in hand

with my children around me

showing much love and respect

I want to be like Jerri

healthy and wealthy with love

speaking my mind straight no chaser

We love you Jerri

wise woman in our midst.

--Marvin X

1/5/15

Long before Oprah, Jerri Lange was the first African American to host a nationally syndicated talk show, broadcast to 148 markets throughout the country. Today she celebrated her 90th birthday with son Michael, actor, writer and producer to my right who turns 66. Seated with his wife Mary, is Ted Lange Jerri's other son who played Isaac the bartender in the long running series "The Love Boat."

Marvin X and Empress Diamond, BAM Wellness Director, attended the 90th Birthday Celebration of Bay Area Media Diva, Jerri Lange, mother of Love Boat's Ted Lange, actor/director Michael Lange and James Lange.
photo Johnnie Burrell

 

 photographer Johnnie Burrell with Media Diva Jerri Lange

Historian John Hope Franklin--From Slavery to Freedom

Ons

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Hope Franklin, Historian and Author, was born in Rentiesville, Oklahoma January 2, 1915.
John H. Franklin earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Fisk University in 1935 and his Master of Arts degree and Ph. D. in History from Harvard University in 1936 and 1941, respectively.

In the early 1950s, he served on the NAACP Legal Defense Fund team that helped develop the sociological case for Brown v. Board of Education.

John H. Franklin’s teaching career began at Fisk University. From 1947 to 1956, he taught at Howard University and from 1956 to 1964 served as chair of the history department at Brooklyn College, the first person of color to head a major history department. From 1964 to 1968, Franklin was a Professor of History at the University of Chicago and chair of the department from 1967 to 1970. In 1983, he was appointed the James B. Duke Professor of History at Duke University.

John H. Franklin published his autobiography, “Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin,” in 2005. In it he said “My challenge was to weave into the fabric of American history enough of the presence of Blacks so that the story of the United States could be told adequately and fairly.”

John H. Franklin authored numerous other books, including “The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790-1860” (1943) and “Racial Equality in America” (1976). In 1976, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Franklin for the Jefferson Lecture, the federal government’s highest honor for achievement in the humanities.

On September 29, 1995, Franklin was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President William Clinton.

Other honors and awards include the Charles Frankel Prize in 1993, the NAACP Spingarn Medal in 1995, and the John W. Kluge Prize in 2006 for lifetime achievement in the study of humanity.
John Hope Franklin began his transition March 25, 2009.
Source:
The Wright Museum Blog
http://thewright.org/…/…/entry/today-in-black-history-122014
(Accessed on 01/02/2015)
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Black Bird Press News & Review: Letter from Assata Shakur, Black Liberation Army Warrior Woman

Black Bird Press News & Review: Letter from Assata Shakur, Black Liberation Army Warrior Woman