By Aswad Walker
Our story, Black/Pan-African history, never takes a month, week, day or minute off. In fact, every second Black history is being made.
As James Baldwin said, “History is not the past. History is the present. We carry our history with us. To think otherwise is criminal.”
So, let’s do right by the laws of Blackness and take a moment to celebrate the history we made in the past so that it inspires us to make some history of our own today.
Alain Locke Born
Sept. 13, 1886, Alain Locke, one of the oft-forgotten and under-appreciated “founders” of the Harlem Renaissance, was born (Sept. 13, 1886). Locke held the position that the arts were more important than politics or protests to helping Black people secure their freedom and full citizenship. He was also an old school brother who advocated for Blackfolk, making way for the young generation. In one of his more famous quotes, Locke said, “The Younger Generation comes, bringing its gifts. They are the first fruits of the Negro Renaissance. Youth speaks, and the voice of the New Negro is heard.”
Mary Church Terrell Born
Sept. 15, 1897: Immediately after Emancipation, Black women created community organizations that served as the social media of their day, communicating critical information to help communities and movements organize. Those scattered organizations were brought together in large part by Mary Church Terrell. In Terrell’s first presidential address to the National Association of Colored Women delivered on Sept. 15, 1897, she called sisters to “unity, activism and race pride.” Additionally, Terrell was born on Sept. 23, 1863, in Memphis. It should be noted that without Terrell and the National Black Women’s Organizations movement, there may never have been a successful New Negro Movement (Harlem Renaissance) or Civil Rights Movement.
National Urban League Founded
Sept. 29, 1910, the National Urban League was founded by none other than Booker T. Washington. When it was founded, the NUL’s purpose was to assist African Americans migrating to urban areas by promoting economic self-sufficiency, providing social and community services like job training and housing and combating racial discrimination and injustice. The organization sought to help new urban residents adapt to city life, secure employment and improve their overall social and economic conditions in the North and West
Camp Logan Soldiers Lynched
Sept. 3, 1918: Five Black soldiers were hanged for their alleged participation in what historians erroneously call the Camp Logan Riot, which took place in Houston on August 23, 1917. These men were hung without due process, which was just one of the many injustices endured by the five who had their lives taken from them on Sept. 3, 1918 and all the other brave brothers of the all-Black 24th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army who were connected to the Camp Logan injustice – brothers who merely refused to allow their people to be mistreated and disrespected any more, and chose to stand up and fight for Black people.
16th Street Baptist Church Bombed
On Sept. 15, 1963, four Black girls were killed during the white domestic terrorist bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church. This happened just weeks after Blackfolk nationally were celebrating the “victory” of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (Aug. 28). Addie Mae Collins (14), Denise McNair (11), Carole Robertson (14) and Cynthia Wesley (14) were killed in that racist attack. And, mostly forgotten, two teen Black boys were killed that same day by white racist violence, as well: Johnny Robinson (16), killed, shot in the back by a white police officer (Jack Parker)… and Virgil Ware (13), killed, shot in the face and chest by a white teenager.
Steve Biko Murdered
On Sept. 12, 1977, Steve Biko, founder of South Africa’s Black Consciousness Movement, was killed. Though grossly overlooked, Biko was central to the anti-apartheid movement’s success. What Blackfolk in the US called waking people up or making them “conscious” of our history and struggles, Biko and our sisters and brothers in Azania (original name of South Africa) called “Conscientizing.” Everyone knows the name Nelson Mandela. Very few know the name Steve Biko. But you tell me which one the racist Apartheid South African powers that be viewed as more dangerous. Mandela focused his work on “Conscientizing” Blackfolk in South Africa to the injustices inflicted upon them by the whites in South Africa (the Afrikaners). Biko, however, focused on “Conscientizing” his own people to their own worth, value and strength. They imprisoned Mandela. They murdered Biko.