Primary Sources, Black History

Join The Gist of Freedom on www.blackhistoryDocumentaries.com, (Black History Documentaries) as we welcome Floyd Rance, founder of Martha's VIneyard African American Film Festival.

One of The winners of the festiva, which is  produced by Run and Shoot was The Contradiction of Fair Hope.

 

The Contradictions of Fair Hope” Narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, chronicles the little-known story of the Fair Hope Benevolent Society in Alabama, one of the nation’s last surviving benevolent societies. They were groups formed after emancipation by newly freed slaves throughout the South to build schools, care for the sick, feed the hungry, and bury the dead. slide-show

Merkerson co-produced and co-directed the film with Rockell Metcalf, who came to the story through a conversation with his 99-year-old grandmother, the oldest surviving member of the Fair Hope Benevolent Society. This organization was created by six uneducated men 124 years ago,” said Merkerson in a telephone interview. “The film gives a full picture of how Fair Hope evolved and the complexities involved in its continued existence.

Join The Gist of Freedom Host, Preston Washington and historian Bradley Skelcher for an inspiring examination of Black History...www.blogTalkRadio.com/BlackHISTORYBenjamin "Pap" Sing

leton (1809 – 1892) was an American activist and businessman best known for his role in establishing African-American settlements in Kansas. A former slave from Tennessee who escaped to freedom in 1846, he became a noted abolitionist, community leader, and spokesman for African American civil rights. He returned to Tennessee during the Union occupation in 1862, but soon concluded that blacks would never achieve economic equality in the white-dominated South. After the end of Reconstruction, Singleton organized the movement of thousands of black colonists, known as Exodusters, to found settlements in Kansas. A prominent voice for early black nationalism, he became involved in promoting and coordinating black-owned businesses in Kansas and developed an interest in the Back-to-Africa movement. (Black History Pages)

The Gist of Freedom Presents Slavery By Another Name, screening with Filmmaker Sam Pollard and Constitutional Law Professor Gloria Browne-Marshall. Sponsored by New Jersey Amistad Commission, Director Stephanie Wilson hosted by Montclair University. 

"AS AMERICANS WE are taught that slavery was abolished after the Civil War. A close reading of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution reveals, however, that this was not exactly the case. Although this amendment did outlaw slavery for the majority of American citizens, anyone convicted of a crime could still, quite legally, be kept in a state of bondage without claims on civil liberties and without remuneration for their forced labor.Following the passage of the 13th Amendment former slave-owners in the Deep South, designed laws to entrap and convict newly freed blacks and return them to servitude. 

Pollard and Blackmon reveal a dirty secret. Much of the South was built on forced Black labor after slavery was declared unconstitutional in 1863. Blacks who were wrongly convicted of crimes, no matter how insignificant- vagrancy or the theft of a pig worth more than $1 were often given long sentences .

There are thousands of those letters in the National Archives in Washington D.C. that tell of horrors endured by men and women found guilty of insignificant offenses."

The Gist of Freedom Live on location ~ Screening, The Contradictions of Fair Hope, with Producer, Filmmaker & Director: S. Epatha Merkerson at Martha's Vineyard August 10, 2012

The Contradictions of Fair Hope” Narrated by Whoopi Goldberg and featuring the music of jazz musician Christian McBride,  chronicles the little-known story of the Fair Hope Benevolent Society in Alabama, one of the nation’s last surviving benevolent societies. They were groups formed after emancipation by newly freed slaves throughout the South to help care for the sick, feed the hungry, and bury the dead.

Merkerson co-produced and co-directed the film with Rockell Metcalf, who came to the story through a conversation with his 99-year-old grandmother, the oldest surviving member of the Fair Hope Benevolent Society. This organization was created by six uneducated men 124 years ago,” said Merkerson in a telephone interview. “The film gives a full picture of how Fair Hope evolved and the complexities involved in its continued existence.”

The descendants of the emancipated African Americans of Gerrit Smith, the abolitionist, Celebrate Emancipation Day, in "Smith Land" Peterboro, N.Y.  Timbuktu/Timbuctoo project was a direct response to the state requirement that "only" those (Black and White) with $250 worth of land could vote. This contribution has been buried for more than a century, but today its being  retold. In 1846, abolitionist Gerrit Smith gave away 120 k acres to  3,000 African American.

What is Pan-Africanism? W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey?

A debate arose after a picture was posted of W.E.B DuBois with his Niagara Movement members. A few scholars attempted to explain the different ideaologies of the various movements in the 20th century.

 

Tonight join The Gist of Freedom and host, Attorney Activist, Michael Coard as he  ask  Dr. Shabazz,  an Assistant Professor in the  African and African American Studies at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina to explain the definition of Pan-Africanism and it's role in African American history.

Join The Gist of Freedom host, Preston Washington and author Dwight Zimmerman. 

In The Hammer and the Anvil, the award-winning author Dwight Jon Zimmerman vividly depict the tumultuous time through the lives of two men who defined it: Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.

The Hammer and the Anvil reveals that its protagonists each wrestled with the question of slavery from a young age. Douglass, a slave who was spared no brutality, once fought an especially cruel master and eventually escaped north to freedom. Lincoln, who was hired out by his father to do manual labor on neighbors’ farms, found this harsh life intolerable. As a senator, Lincoln sought ways to end the westward spread of slavery, believing that adding free states to the Union would diminish poverty and the power of Southern states. Douglass was less patient. He had become a skilled orator and an influential editor of Northern abolitionist journals, and called on white Americans to honor their nation’s founding commitment to liberty.

 

When the Civil War erupted in April 1861, Douglass hoped that the conflict would mean the end of slavery. But Lincoln delayed emancipation, and Douglass despaired—until he met the president face-to-face and recognized that their causes were one and the same. Featuring evocative and dramatic scenes of this seminal time, The Hammer and the Anvil will engage both Civil War buffs and young people new to the study of American history.

The Gist of Freedom host Preston Washington, welcomes Filmmaker & Underground Railroad Historian/Preservationist,  Gary Jenkins!

 

Freedom Seekers: Stories From the Western Underground Railroad is a 75 minute documentary film that tells the unknown stories of Missouri Freedom Seekers escaping into Kansas and the long dangerous journey to safety in Canada.

Tonight at 8pm ~Click and listen to Manhattan Underground Railroad Preservationists Fern Luskin and Julie M. Finch!  have successfully resisted the destruction of an Underground Railroad safe haven in Manhattan.  “It’s just come to this desperate situation,” said Fern Luskin, an architectural historian who lives on the block and has taken up the cause of protecting the historic integrity of the building, a Greek Revival house at 339 West 29th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues. “   WWW.BlogTalkRadio.com/BlackHISTORY   The original owners The Gibbonses, were abolitionists before the Civil War. They used the house as a meeting place, where they helped escaping slaves en route to Canada. “They were like the Schindler of their day, taking such a chance, harboring slaves that were running for their lives,” said Ms. Luskin, referring to Oskar Schindler, who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.   In a letter cited by the landmarks commission in its designation report, Joseph Choate, a friend of the Gibbonses, wrote that he had dined with them along with William Lloyd Garrison, the abolitionist, and a black man “on his way to freedom.”

Log on and Join The Gist of Freedom's guest host Gary Jenkins as he welcomes Preston Washington to a lively discussion about Cherokee genealogy. 

Tonight at 8pm ET www.blogTALKradio.com/BLACKhistory

Preston is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and the Missouri State Genealogical Association. He is the president of the Midwest Afro-American Genealogy Interest Coalition (M.A.G.I.C.).