BLACK HISTORY SPOTLIGHT : EMMETT TILL!
BY: LEON KWASI KUNTUO-ASARE
Emmett Louis Till was born on July 25, 1941 in Chicago, Illinois, he was the son of Mamie Carthan and Louis Till. In the late summer of 1955, while visiting family in Money, Mississippi, he allegedly made the unfortunate mistake of being an African-American male and flirting with a 21 year old white woman (Carolyn Bryant ) while on vacation in the segregated south.
ROY ON THE LEFT, J.W. ON THE RIGHT.
A few nights later, Bryant’s husband Roy and his half-brother J.W. Milam broke into the house of Till’s uncle and kidnapped the teenage boy.
A few days later Till’s body was recovered from the Tallahatchie river, shot and mutilated.
Till’s body was returned to Chicago, where his mother insisted on giving him a public funeral and an open casket to show the brutality of his lynching.
On September 1955, both Bryant and Milan were acquitted of the kidnapping and death of Emmett Till.
Bryant and Milam would publicly admit to the kidnapping and brutal murder of Till in Look Magazine, but because of the double Jeopardy law, they could not be recharged for the crime.
HIS LEGACY :
MYRLIE EVERS, the widow of civil rights activist Medgar Evers stated:
“Somehow [Till’s death and trial] struck a spark of indignation that ignited protests around the world… It was the murder of this 14-year-old out-of-state visitor that touched off a world-wide clamor and cast the glare of a world spotlight on Mississippi’s racism.”
WATCH SHORT BIOGRAPHY FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION :
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION USE LINK BELOW :
“Black Wall Street • Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1921 Full Documentary “We will NEVER FORGET””
“Ancient Africa – A History Denied (Documentary)”
BLACK HISTORY SPOTLIGHT : NELSON MANDELA !
BY: LEON KWASI KUNTUO-ASARE
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18, 1918 in
Mvezo, Cape Province, Union of South Africa.
Mandela was a Xhosa born into the Thembu royal family.
Mandela would attend a Methodist Missionary school near the Thembu royal palace, he would then further his education at Clarkebury Methodist High School Engcobo, it was the largest and most prestigious European-style school for black Africans in Thembuland. Eventually Mandela would attend Fort Hare University and the University of Witwatersrand, where he would study law.
While living in Johannesburg he would join the African National Congress (ANC) and get involved in anti-colonial politics, in 1948 after the white Afrikaner minority government of the National Party created the racially segregated apartheid system he would take part in the ANC’s anti-apartheid campaign.
While working as an attorney, Mandela would be arrested with fellow ANC members for seditious activities.
After the peaceful protesting of the ANC, only resulted in getting their members thrown in prison and barred from appearing in public by the racist South African government, Mandela would co-found “Umkhonto We Sizwe” in 1961, the groups role was to lead a sabotage campaign against the brutal South African government.
In 1962 Mandela would be arrested and convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the state of South Africa, he would serve 27 years in prison.
Amid increasing civil unrest, mounting international pressure and to avoid a possible civil war, Mandela was released from prison in 1990, after his release, Mandela would have negotiations with South African president F.W. De Klerk on how to abolish the apartheid system.
Multiracial elections would be held for the first time in 1994, Mandela would become South Africa’s first black president.
After deciding not to run for a second presidential term, Mandela would focus his attention on charity work through his Nelson Mandela Foundation.
Mandela would die on December 5, 2013, at the age of 95.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WATCH THIS SHORT BIOGRAPHY :
REMEMBERING NELSON MANDELA :
RANDALL ROBINSON ON NELSON MANDELA, U.S. BACKING OF APARTHEID REGIME & SUCCESS OF SANCTIONS MOVEMENT :
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION USE LINK BELOW :
“Racist Sororities at the University of Alabama”
BLACK HISTORY SPOTLIGHT : PATRICE LUMUMBA !
BY: LEON KWASI KUNTUO-ASARE
Patrice Lumumba was born to father Francois Tolenga Otetshima and mother Julienne Wamato Lomendja, in Onalua in the Katakokombe region of the Kasai province of the Belgium Congo.
He was raised in a Catholic family, but was educated at a protestant primary school and a Catholic missionary school, and eventually the government’s post office training school. Lumumba spoke five languages, which included French, Swahili, Lingala, Tetela and Tshiluba.
Lumumba would work as postal clerk and traveling beer salesman in Leopoldville and Stanleyville now (Kinshasa and Kisangani).
In 1955, Lumumba would go on to become regional head of the Cercles of Stanleyville and joined the Liberal Party of Belgium.
He would be arrested on embezzlement charges, during a three week study tour in Belgium. His two-year sentence was commuted to one year, after it was confirmed by a Belgian lawyer, that Lumumba had returned the funds.
After his release, Lumumba would help fund the political party, Mouvement National Congolais (MNC) in 1958.
On October 1959, as leader of the organization, Lumumba would be arrested, charged with inciting an anti-colonial riot in Stanleyville, (thirty people were killed in the riot).
He was sentenced to 69 months in prison. The start of the trial on January 18, 1960 was the first day of the round-table conference in Brussels to finalize the future of the Congo.
The MNC won a majority in the December local elections in the Congo, despite Lumumba being in prison.
As a result of pressure from delegates, who were upset over Lumumba’s trial, he was released and allowed to attend the Brussels Conference.
The Conference would culminate on the 27th of January, with declaration of Congolese independence set for june 30, 1960. National elections would be held from may 11-25 1960. Lumumba and the MNC won the election and right to form a government.
Patrice Lumumba’s Congo Independence speech on June 30th 1960:
“For this independence of the Congo, even as it is celebrated today with Belgium, a friendly country with whom we deal as equal to equal, no Congolese worthy of the name will ever be able to forget that it was by fighting that it has been won, a day-to-day fight, an ardent and idealistic fight, a fight in which we were spared neither privation nor suffering, and for which we gave our strength and our blood. We are proud of this struggle, of tears, of fire, and of blood, to the depths of our being, for it was a noble and just struggle, and indispensable to put an end to the humiliating slavery which was imposed upon us by force.”
In September the president dismissed Prime minister Lumumba from government.
In retaliation Lumumba declared the newly appointed Prime Minister deposed and he won a vote of confidence from the Congolese senate.
On September 14 a coup d’etat organized by Colonial Joseph Mobutu deposed Lumumba.
Lumumba would be placed under house arrest at the Prime Minister’s residence, with United Nations troops positioned outside the house. Nonetheless he was able to be smuggled out of the Prime Minister’s residence, where he escaped to Stanleyville, where he planned to set up his new government and army.
On December 1, 1960 Lumumba would be captured in Port Francqui, by troops loyal to Mobutu. Mobutu claimed Lumumba would be tried for inciting the army to rebellion and other crimes.
The United Nations secretary General Dag Hammarskjold made an appeal to the Congo government, asking for Lumumba to be given his due process.
The Soviet Union denounced Hammarskjold and western powers as being responsible for the coup d’etat that deposed Lumumba and his eventually arrest.
On January 17, 1961 Lumumba was forcibly restrained on a flight to Elizabethville, now (Lubumbashi) , once he arrived at Elizabethville, Lumumba would be brutally beaten, tortured and eventually executed by a firing squad.
WATCH THIS SHORT NEWS VIDEO FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THE U.S BACKED ASSASSINATION OF PATRICE LUMUMBA :
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION USE LINK BELOW :
PICTURES OF THE 300+ YEAR OLD ASANTE KINGDOM OF GHANA! ( FORMERLY THE ASANTE EMPIRE )
“Black People Stop Marching and Protesting And START PRACTING GROUP ECONOMICS, ACCORDING TO Dr. Claud Anderson”
BLACK HISTORY SPOTLIGHT : IDA B. WELLS!
BY : LEON KWASI KUNTUO-ASARE
Ida Bells Wells-Barnett, more famously known as Ida B. Wells was born during the time of the American Civil War on July 16, 1862, in Holly Springs Mississippi. Wells would go from being born into the system of slavery, to becoming a school teacher in the post civil war America . Wells would eventually go on to become an editor of her own news paper, which she would use to crusade for many causes, including women’s rights and Civil rights for the African-American community, which would include speaking out against the lynching and murder of African-American men by racist white mobs.
Growing in her activist role, In 1896, Wells would found two civil rights organizations, the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, and the National Afro-American Council, which she co-founded.
Sadly on March 25, 1931, at the age of 68, Wells would die, due to kidney failure.
HER LEGACY:
Ida B.Wells was a woman ahead of her time, she was courageous, strong-minded, outspoken , and very assertive . She put her life in grave danger crusading against illegal lynching of blacks and the injustice of segregation.
THE EARLY LIFE OF IDA B. WELLS:
IDA B. WELLS : PIONEERING JOURNALIST.
IDA B. WELLS : WOMEN’S RIGHTS.
IDA B. WELLS : ANTI-LYNCHING CRUSADER.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION USE LINK :
“Chris Sacca ( SILICON VALLEY VENTURE INVESTOR) speaks to Young African Leaders in Reno Nevada August 2015”
WE ALL HAVE CHOICES, USE THEM WISELY!
THE RACIST GANDHI FEW KNEW!
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION USE LINK BELOW :
BLACK HISTORY SPOTLIGHT : MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
BY: LEON KWASI KUNTUO-ASARE
Martin Luther King Jr. Was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia to mother Alberta Williams King and Father Martin Luther King, sr.
He would attend Booker T. Washington High School, and after graduating early, he would attend Morehouse University, earning a B.A degree in sociology. After completing his studies at Morehouse University, King would continue his education, earning a Bachelor’s of Divinity, from Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania in 1951.
A couple years later , King would marry the beautiful and intelligent Coretta Scott, on June 18, 1953, they would have four children together, Yolanda King, Martin Luther king the 3rd, Dexter Scott King and Bernice King.
In 1955 King would begin to get involved in political and civil rights activism, when he led the Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the (SCLC) Southern Christian Leadership Conference, in 1957 , King served as the organization’s first president.
In 1963 King would help organize nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama and would help organize the march on Washington, where he gave his famous “I have a dream” speech.
On October 14, 1964, because of his nonviolent activism against racism and inequality, he would receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1965 King would help organize the “Selma to Montgomery Marches”, and the next year King would take the SCLC to Chicago to work on ending segregated housing practices.
In the last few years of his life, King would focus his attention to ending poverty in America and he would speak out against the Vietnam war.
In 1968, While King was Organizing a National Occupation on Washington, D.C, to be called the “Poor People’s Campaign”, King would be assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.
King would posthumously be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.
James Earl Ray would ultimately be charged and convicted of the murder of king, even though many people including King’s family believed he was only a scapegoat.
In 1999, the King family won a civil suit against the federal government, proving the took part in the conspiracy to kill King.
Read The New York Times article for more details :
FOR ADDITIONAL HISTORY ON MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. USE LINK BELOW :
MOTHER’S DEED, FATHER’S SEED! (POEM)
MOTHER’S GREATEST DEED TO MY BROTHER AND ME WAS THE GIFT OF OUR FATHER’S WEST AFRICAN SEED
THAT ONE DEED GAVE US A RICH HISTORY
MORE VALUABLE THAN OIL AND GOLD
SHE DID THIS BECAUSE BY EVIL PALE MEN, HER HISTORY WAS SOLD TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER
LEAVING A BITTER TASTE IN HER AND MOST BLACK AMERICANS MOUTH OF CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL SELF-DOUBT!
-LEON KWASI KUNTUO-ASARE
AMERICA: DIVIDED WE STAND ?!
VOLUME 2: POETRY OF THE FORGOTTEN PEOPLE!
NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON KINDLE AND SCRIBD:
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