Stay ConnectedBlack History is American History, yet it often isn’t treated that way. Join me in discussions about this misunderstood and ignored history with experts and friends. If you believe that America cannot address its present and move forward without understanding its history and Black people’s role in it, you’ve found the right podcast!
New episodes every 15th (and sometimes) 30th!
Website: https://wetheblackpeople.captivate.fm/
Copyright: © Copyright 2021 Brooklyn J-Flow
We've talked about how important Haiti and Liberia were as symbols for Black Americans whether or not they ever went to either of the two Black countries. This episode is about those who went to Ghana - some by choice and some on the run.
Ghanaian independence was a huge moment of Pan-African hope for a free Africa, and many Black Americans were fascinated by that prospect. Professor Kevin Gaines, author of American Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and the Civil Rights Era, is here to talk about the small group of Black Americans who visited or migrated to Ghana - figures like Maya Angelou, Pauli Murray, Julian Mayfield, and Malcolm X.
And, similar to Liberia, the legacy of that era is a continued open invitation from Ghana to Black America.
I'm doing Black oral history work now, y'all. I got into a program that is training oral historians to collect community stories and it's super exciting.
I want to share some of this exciting journey with you. So, I talked with my instructor Alissa Rae Funderburk (an oral historian at the Margaret Walker Center of Jackson State University) about how to get started collecting family oral history.
She definitely makes me feel more equipped to do the work. And this won't be the last you hear about my oral history journey.
Music Credit
PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)
It's a pretty short one this time around. Black Americans didn't write a lot of recipes and cookbooks in the 19th and 20th centuries, but what they did write tells a lot about Black identity.
Professor Rafia Zafar gets into some of the interesting things she discovered while writing Recipes for Respect: African American Meals and Meaning.
Music Credit
PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)
We're spending this May Day episode with Black women in St. Louis from the 1930s to the 1960s. Their fight for economic justice was about more than hours or wages, it was about dignity and quality of life overall. And they were marginalized in the workplace and in their communities. Maybe, they have something to teach us today. Professor Keona Ervin, author of Gateway to Equality: Black Women and the Struggle for Economic Justice in St. Louis, thinks so.
Music Credit
PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)
This episode, we're going to discuss who and what makes hip-hop authentic with Professor Jeffrey Ogbar, author of Hip-hop Revolution. It's not an easy answer as hip-hop has evolved a lot in its short lifetime and has fans with strong, clashing opinions.
Music Credit
PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)
We talk about religion and Christianity a lot in studying Black history. It's almost assumed that God and religion are at the center of all Black stories. Not only have Black people held a variety of religious beliefs in America, many leaders questioned or even rejected God and religion altogether. This episode is some of their stories. Tune in as we unpack the assumption of Black religiosity and the stories of several Black skeptics. My guest is Dr. Christopher Cameron, author of Black Freethinkers: A History of African American Secularism.
Music Credit
PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)
For a man that historians know very little about, Crispus Attucks gets a lot of attention. In this episode, instead of just rehashing the life of Crispus Attucks, we're going to follow his memory. Some remember him as a hero, others as a troublemaker, and some ignore him altogether, and these conflicting narratives of Attuck's place in American history tell us a lot about Black people's place (and hopes to carve a place) in the American story.
My guest is Professor Mitch Kachun, author of First Martyr of Liberty: Crispus Attucks in American Memory.
Music Credit
PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)
Throughout the 20th century, Black people across the country took on the experiment of pooling their resources together to provide for each other. These experiments were called cooperatives. They remain, often, understudied and discussed because they were not one, long, sustained movement. Yet, when you focus on how much each one was able to accomplish in its time, they are incredible. Discussing two of those cooperatives with me is Professor Irvin Hunt, author of Dreaming the Present: Time, Aesthetics, and the Black Cooperative Movement.
The first cooperative we discuss is Fannie Lou Hamer's Freedom Farm and its pluripresence (it's a new word for me too, don't worry, Dr. Hunt defines it).
Then, we discuss Ella Baker, George Schulyer, the Young Negroes’ Cooperative League, and the idea of it being a planned failure rather than a failure to plan.
In a time where mutual aid is growing in popularity when the state cannot provide, 20th-century Black cooperatives have a lot to teach us.
Music Credit
PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)
Before the era of the episode, Black Vaudeville Performers Wore Blackface?, Black entertainers were often found on stage singing spirituals or in minstrel shows. In both cases, white people paid to see 'authentic' depictions of Black life, which, for them, had to trace back to slavery. This episode's guest is Professor Sandra Jean Graham, author of Spirituals and the Birth of a Black Entertainment Industry.
The legacy of spirituals on stage and even their minstrel parodies is that spirituals are still a part of American culture. They may not look or sound the same as folk spirituals during slavery, but they are what have lasted through 3 centuries.
Music Credit
PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)
Celebrating two years of We the (Black) People, I bought a set of custom stickers that I want to share with y'all. Email me at wetheblackpeoplepod@gmail.com with 3 things you've learned from this show by 11/30 for a chance to win one.
Music Credit
PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)
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