“Light parted from darkness – day from night /- earth from the primal waters – and the voice of Paul Robeson – was divided from the silence.” - Pablo Neruda's ode to Paul Robeson

Poster: https://rlmartstudio.com/product/nerudarobeson/

#LaborDay #tdih #MastoArt

@JohnAutry

On #tdih in 1960, over 200 white rioters armed with baseball bats and ax handles chased, beat, and threatened Black residents in Jacksonville, Florida.
#DomesticTerrorism #Jacksonsville #BlackHistoryIsUSHistory

https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/ax-handle-saturday-jacksonville/?fbclid=IwAR0StT0lJ9JPeFxohX8kcxLt127JAqur7LFXuG1-sz1bDHTJpfZQ0O-xEtI

Happy Birthday to diplomat & political scientist Dr. Ralph Johnson Bunche (born August 7, 1904), the first African American person awarded a Nobel Prize (Peace Prize, 1950). Impactful figure in U.S. civil rights movement and global decolonization movement in mid-20th century. 25 years on the United Nations, involved w/ both March on Washington & Selma to Montgomery marches.
#OTD #TDIH #BlackHistory

August 3, 1936 (87 years ago today): African American star athlete Jesse Owens won the 100m dash at the Berlin Olympics, his first of 4 gold medals at that Olympic Games. Descended from a sharecropper and an enslaved grandparent, Owens travelled to those Games via the SS Manhattan. Dominating the Games as an African American person, he made clear on the international stage the inherent invalidity of Nazi ideology.
#OTD #TDIH #BlackHistory
Image source: https://www.loc.gov/item/2004672056/

August 3, 1936 (87 years ago today): African American star athlete Jesse Owens won the 100m dash at the Berlin Olympics, his first of 4 gold medals at that Olympic Games. Descended from a sharecropper and an enslaved grandparent, Owens travelled to those Games via the SS Manhattan. Dominating the Games as an African American person, he made clear on the international stage the inherent invalidity of Nazi ideology.
#OTD #TDIH #BlackHistory
Image source: https://www.loc.gov/item/2004672056/

Happy Birthday to James Arthur Baldwin (b. August 2, 1924, 99 years ago today), one of the most phenomenal writers and thinkers.
Photo by Carl Van Vechten (1955): https://www.loc.gov/item/2004662552/
#OTD #TDIH #BlackHistory

This day 52 years ago, July 30, 1971: Apollo 15 was #NASA's 4th lunar landing and 9th crewed spaceflight of the Apollo program. It was the first of 3 to carry a Lunar Roving Vehicle which extended the range astronauts could travel around the landing site. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_15 #Moon #TDIH #space #history

It is Emmett Till's birthday (b. July 25, 1941), he could have been 82 today. Yesterday, it was announced that POTUS will dedicate a three-site national monument to Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/23/1189664409/emmett-till-national-monuments-biden
#OTD #TDIH #PublicHistory

On July 23, 1967 (56 years ago today), 5 years to the day after Jackie Robinson became the first African American inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Detroit Uprising began. Clashes between predominantly Black Detroit inner city residents, police, and National Guard led to at least 43 deaths, 7,200 arrests. Later that year, the Detroit Urban League surveyed African American residents on what caused the unrest (see below):
https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2070181/detroit1967.pdf
#OTD #TDIH #BlackHistory

July 18, 1966 (57 years ago today), Hough Uprising began in Cleveland, sparked by bar owner refusing to serve water to Black customer. 6 days of violence followed, 4 Black Clevelanders killed. Segregation & suburbanization had recently changed Hough from white to Black, gov/police neglected the community. Local citizen committee asserted city’s disregard for Black Hough residents “led to desperation that… finally burst forth in a destructive way.”
#OTD #TDIH
Image source: https://clevelandcivilrightstrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/p4014coll18_2090_full-scaled.jpg

Black Baltimorean superstar Billie Holiday passed away on July 17, 1959 (64 years ago today). May she continue to rest in peace. In her final interview, she said: “We’re all the same, but we’re different. What sings in you, sings different in me. It’s all part of that great crazy game called living. But when I leave this lump they call the world, I’m going to leave all my blues behind and walk off singing.”
#OTD #TDIH #Baltimore #BlackHistory
Image source: https://www.loc.gov/item/gottlieb.04231/

July 16, 1877 (136 years ago today): the #Baltimore Railroad Strike of 1877 began, as part of the national Great Railroad Strike of 1877. B&O Railroad announced 10% reduction of all wages, strike began on the day this was to go into effect (July 16). Federal troops called in, about 1,000 arrests & 100 deaths. Built momentum for national labor movement.
#OTD #TDIH #LaborHistory
Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Railroad_Strike_plaque,_Baltimore_01_%28cropped%29.jpg

On July 6th, 2013 -- ten years ago today -- 47 people were killed in the Quebec town of Lac-Mégantic by a runaway oil train. Today in the US 3 trains derail per day. This is a time bomb. #tdih #PeoplesHistory
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/track/oil-train

July 13, 1885 (138 years ago today), 15-year-old African American Maryland resident Howard Cooper was lynched after being found guilty of assault by 1-minute trial of an all-white jury in Baltimore City Criminal Court. His lawyers announced intention of federal appeal, white residents murdered Cooper to prevent this possibility. The next day the Baltimore Sun reported, “There was very general satisfaction in Baltimore county with the lynching of Howard Cooper.”
#OTD #TDIH
https://www.mdlynchingmemorial.org/

On July 11, 1853 (170 years ago today), this Missouri broadside announced an enslaved person named Ben was for sale. Ben was put up for sale by the estate administrator of his deceased enslaver Absalom Young. Structural synthesis of the domestic slave trade, capitalism, and human life sent Ben into the marketplace.
#OTD #TDIH
Image source: https://www.si.edu/object/broadside-sale-enslaved-boy-named-ben:nmaahc_2011.155.301

On July 11, 1914 (109 years ago today), 19-year-old Baltimorean Babe Ruth made his major league baseball debut, pitching for the Boston Red Sox. He pitched 7 innings, allowed 2 earned runs, went 0-2 batting & earned the win. Ruth’s grandparents emigrated from Germany to Maryland, both his parents were born in Maryland.
#OTD #TDIH #Baltimore #Baseball
Image source: https://www.loc.gov/item/2016827093/

Starfish Prime was an odd name. All Cold War nuclear tests had military code names. This had a story. As part of Operation Fishbowl high-altitude test series, the Starfish test had to be re-done when the rocket🚀 failed in flight. The repeat was Starfish Prime. #TDIH #history

61 years ago, July 9, 1962: "Starfish Prime" test was largest nuclear explosion in #space. Thor rocket launched from USAF base at Johnston Island at 1.4Mt. Lessons learned about electromagnetic pulse (EMP) with power knocked out in Hawaii. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime #TDIH #history

Happy Birthday to African American poet, activist, and educator June Jordan (born July 9, 1936, in Harlem, to Jamaican-born parents). An influential voice of liberation for civil rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, feminism, and antiwar causes, she published 28 books.
Image source: https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library/collections/june-jordan
#OTD #TDIH

Happy Birthday to two superstars from African American baseball history: Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe (b. July 7, 1902) and hall of famer Satchel Paige (b. July 7, 1906). Both a pitcher and a catcher, Radcliffe once caught Paige for the first game of a doubleheader then went out and pitched the second game himself (1932). Their team, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, won the first game 4-0 and the second 5-0.
#OTD #TDIH #BlackHistory #Baseball
Further reading: https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496223395/