The Freedwomen's Bureau

we who believe in freedom cannot rest

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From the Swann Galleries catalogue for their recent "Printed and Manuscript African Americana" auction. (Estimated at $1,500-$2,500, the photo sold for $10K)

"A group photograph of the nine Scottsboro Boys with their attorneys Juanita E. Jackson, and Laura Kellum, sent by the NAACP to assure the boys that they would not be abandoned. Jackson was the first African-American woman to pass the bar in the state of Maryland. This photo was taken by a Crisis Magazine photographer and appeared in the pages of the January 1937 issue."

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Odetta, "Pastures of Plenty"

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Freedwoman Pamela Broom, steward of Sun Harvest Kitchen Garden in the Central City neighborhood of New Orleans and founder of the Women and Agriculture Network: “Feeding communities. Cultivating beauty. Nurturing lives”

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the book about how organized resistance to sexual terrorism led to the modern civil-rights movement is very high on my to-read list: check out this NPR interview about THE DARK END OF THE STREET: BLACK WOMEN, RAPE & RESISTANCE, A NEW HISTORY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT FROM ROSA PARKS TO BLACK POWER

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Arrested Development's "TENNESSEE": an anthem for the remigration. 

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we who believe in freedom (truly) cannot rest

the theaters of this war are multiple. today's news from the front: This billboard has been on display in NYC's SoHo, maligning any and everybody that came into the earth by way of a black woman's uterus. Thanks to the efforts of impassioned citizens, this hate speech will not stand.

Elsewhere, an issue we already know too much about was thrown into desperate relief by a startling analogy: The NYPD Stopped Enough Black Men Last Year to Populate Wyoming

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freedwoman, fiber artist and cultural activist Xenobia Bailey: "This is serious business, it may look like some kind of decorative or surface design or something, but I'm trying to break out."

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february 21, 1965

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Remembering Fred Hampton, assassinated while he slept in the wee hours of December 4, 1969, by a joint hit-squad comprised of the FBI, the Chicago police and officers of the State Attorney. 

I first learned of this story as a child, gathered with my family to watch all the episodes of "Eyes on the Prize". I watched the documentary "The Murder of Fred Hampton" in college. No matter how many times I read what happened, it always lands as a heavy wound upon the heart.

In response to events like these we often take the celebratory, sloganeering approach, declaring that "Fred Lives!" or aptly quoting his own words, "You can kill a revolutionary but you can't kill the revolution." True. But sometimes the death of a beautiful, brilliant, promising 21-year-old man isn't just an occasion to throw a defiant fist up in the air / blogosphere. Sometimes we just need to mourn.

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Election Day in Haiti...

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Wampanoag (Pokanoket) Great Leader Massasoit Metacomet (1640-76) -- called King Philip by the Puritan colonizers -- personified native resistance in southern New England during the 17th century. The rock is reportedly the site where Massasoit Metacomet planned strategy while fighting for the sovereignty of his people.

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REST IN POWER: Michael "Cetewayo" Tabor (pictured, foreground, with Huey P. Newton in 1970). Born in December 13, 1946 in Harlem, joined the ancestors October 17, 2010 Lusaka, Zambia. Became a Black Panther at the age of 19, fled to Algeria escaping what appears to have been a COINTELPRO-style trial for conspiracy to murder police and bomb various NYC locations:

"The prosecution’s case rested largely on the testimony of three undercover agents who said they had heard the defendants plan the bombings and killings and had attended classes where they were taught to shoot weapons and make bombs. In a verdict that came after two hours of deliberation, the jury foreman said, “Not guilty” 156 times." NYT

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'Breakaway': a 21st century remix of "follow the drinking gourd"? the week 9 single of Hanifah Walidah's 21 weeks project. Brilliant for the artwork alone...