In the 100 years between 1700 and the end of the legal slave trade in 1808, Rhode Island monopolized the western Atlantic slave trade. Ships departing from Rhode Island departed on nearly 1,000 voyages to Africa and returned with at least 100,000 slaves. Rum and slaves formed an unholy alliance in Rhode Island, making Rhode…
Slavery could not have become institutionalized in the South without the active participation of northerners in the United States. As the authors argue, the state of Connecticut, and the entire nation, were complicit. This “complicity” took many forms – ownership of slaves, promotion and funding of the slave trade and active involvement in it, support…
African-American women in military service also did not receive proper recognition for their service. Reflecting that apartheid custom, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion was the only African-American WAC unit to serve overseas in WWII. This unit was responsible for redirecting the mail to the GIs on the battlefield, a Sisyphean feat, considering that troops…
Red Tails and Black Aces: As a result of the “Tuskegee Experiment” being a proven success and used as a basis to demonstrate that Blacks could perform with excellence and in air combat and leadership roles, President Harry Truman, in 1948, signed the executive order to integrate the entire military. The mere decision to go…
Criticism of the 99th’s overseas combat record was instantaneous and virulent. After only a few months in combat, the Commander of the 12th Air Support Command assailed the performance of the Black pilots. “Officers of all professions,” he said, felt that “the Negro type has not the proper reflexes to make a first-class fighter pilot.”…
The Tuskegee Airmen — “America’s Black Air Force” in WWII The pilots of America’s WWII armed forces were highly skilled flyers who became the stars of war stories and the ingredients of legends. These Black pilots were and are the first line of defense, the protectors of our fleets and the rulers of the skies…
The Tuskegee Airmen — Part 3 – Jim Crow’s Graveyard. Shooting down German airplanes, rather than effectively carrying out the assigned duties of close ground support and bomber escort, emerged as the criterion for the judgment of combat performance for the 99th. Ironically, at the height of the controversy stateside, the 99th received a reassignment…
Frederick Douglass, the renowned orator, statesman and abolitionist and a prominent leader in a colony of England, now known as the United States of America, moved our new nation, led by so-called “white” people who legally, albeit, not morally, forced the false doctrine of apartheid, the slavery of dark-skinned Africans, lock, stock and barrel, literally…
“The hunt for ancestral talent or character that might explain the birth of a genius is usually futile. In the case of Benjamin Banneker, however, it has intriguing aspects that refuse to be ignored,” writes Charles A. Cerami in “Benjamin Banneker: Surveyor, Astronomer, Publisher, Patriot.” Banneker’s maternal grandmother, Molly Welsh, was originally identified as a…
Doug Williams was the first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, but before Doug Williams there was Sandy Stephens. Stephens, a second-round pick in the 1962 draft had the opportunity to play in the NFL – just not as a quarterback. “Sandy Stephens was a pioneer,” Tony Dungy said. “Sandy quarterbacked at a time…
