Celebrating 97 years of Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s demand for Black History
In the context of what Dr. Woodson described as the week (later month) set aside for the purpose of emphasizing what has already been learned about Afrikan people during the year, and given the current struggles to control what students are taught, I offer this:
Why Africana History? By Dr. John Henrik Clarke (selected excerpts)
Africa and its people are the most written about and the least understood of all of the world's people. This condition started in the 15th and the 16th centuries with the beginning of the slave trade system. The Europeans not only colonized most of the world, they began to colonize information about the world and its people. In order to do this, they had to forget, or pretend to forget, all they had previously known about the Africans. They were not meeting them for the first time; there had been another meeting during Greek and Roman times. At that time they complemented each other.
When the early Europeans first met Africans, at the crossroads of history, it was a respectful meeting and the Africans were not slaves. Their nations were old before Europe was born.
The Greek traveler, Herodotus, was in Africa about 450 B.C. His eyewitness account is still a revelation. He witnessed African civilization in decline and partly in ruins, after many invasions. However, he could still see the indications of the greatness that it had been. In this period in history, the Nile Valley civilization of Africa had already brought forth two "Golden Ages" of achievement and had left its mark for all the world to see.
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The cry from High Point College Republicans (HPCR) was compelling.
The university had cancelled their scheduled big movie event. They were allegedly receiving threats of violence from classmates because of it.
The HPCR say they just wanted to contribute to a peaceful atmosphere of dialogue and discussion on campus by sponsoring the film.
On the face of it, one would naturally feel sorry for these college students….that is until you dig deeper, and discover that their cancelled movie event was a film by black conservative firebrand Candace Owens titled “The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM (Black Lives Matter).”
The school reportedly cancelled the screening because the HPCR allegedly did not have the proper permission to publicly show it. It just came out last October.
The fact that conservative students at High Point University thought it would be fine to promote a controversial film that has the words “greatest lie,” “George Floyd” and “BLM” in its title, understandably upset and provoked some Black students on campus, thus the threats.
But that’s just indicative of some of the political attacks that continue to be made on the Black community by conservative politicians and opinion-makers seeking to gin up their base as we head towards the 2024 elections.
Indeed, what happened in 2020-21 is also instructive.
Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones was initially denied a tenured position in the UNC Hussman Journalism School
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SALISBURY – A member of the Biden Administration whose work is dedicated to bridging racial gaps in healthcare and within the COVID-19 crisis will visit Livingstone College next week.
Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, appointed by President Biden to chair the Presidential COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, will visit the historic black college on Feb. 8. There will be a brief program at the college’s new F. George Shipman Science Annex, where STEM students will participate in scientific demonstrations during her tour of the facility.
Livingstone’s science program will also unveil a new instrument at the program that no other HBCU in North Carolina its size can boast.
Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith
“It is an honor to have one of the nation’s leading public health experts on the campus of Livingstone College, especially during the month that we celebrate the contributions of African Americans,” said Livingstone President Dr. Anthony J. Davis. “Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith is among those highly regarded in her field, coupling her passion for medicine with her commitment to social equity. Consistent with the population we serve, Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith’s insight will significantly impact our students and the greater Rowan Salisbury
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JoynerIn the recent words of one North Carolina civil rights attorney, “The carnage at the NC Supreme Court has begun!!!”
The 5-2 Republican majority state Supreme Court began hearing arguments last week, and according to observers, there are strong indications that the High Court is prepared to erase several of the important decisions made by the Democrat 4-3 majority court last term.
In his recent analysis of the new Republican court majority, Irving Joyner, professor of law at North Carolina Central University School of Law in Durham said, “We can expect this newly minted North Carolina Supreme Court to reverse the recent voting rights and voter protection opinions which were recently decided by that Court. These political motivated reversals will be unprecedented in North Carolina law and cement the present Supreme.”
Court, which will be in power for the next eight years, as a tool of right-wing conservative forces.
On Friday, against established precedent, the new GOP majority court voted to rehear two important voting rights cases already decided just a few months prior because Republican legislative leaders petitioned the court to do so.
The first to be reheard will be Holmes v. Moore, where the Democrat-led High Court on Dec. 16th decided to strike down the 2018 voter I.D. law passed by the Republican-led NC General Assembly because it was ruled racially discriminatory and thus, unconstitutional.
Observers say after rehearing arguments next month, expect the new state Supreme Court to rule that the 2018 voter ID is not racially discriminatory primarily because Republican legislative leaders say it isn’t.
Expect the same predicted outcome by the High Court after rehearing Harper v. Hall in March, where on Dec. 16th, the Democrat-led court agreed with plaintiffs that the second version of a 2020 congressional redistricting map, in addition to the state Senate voting map, “…violates the state’s constitutional guarantees of free, fair and
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