George Washington Carver Exhibit Opens at Pink Palace Museum March 12, 2011

Museum Volunteers Wanted for the Upcoming

George Washington Carver Exhibit in Memphis

Volunteers who participate in the “George Washington Carver” Exhibit that will run March 12, 2011 - July 4, 2011 at the Pink Palace Museum in Memphis, Tennessee can share information on the life and work of an extraordinary man. Born into slavery, George Washington Carver used his gifts to become a groundbreaking scientist, educator and humanitarian. Volunteers will talk to students and visitors about crop rotation, organic farming, plant-based fuels, medicines and everyday products. They will broaden their own knowledge and be a part of making history, science and nature come alive for our visitors and the wide variety of students that come to the Museum.

Those wanting to make a difference supporting educational opportunities with children and families in the Mid-South are only required to volunteer two 3 ½ hour shifts each month during the George Washington Carver exhibit run, March 12 - July 4, 2011. We offer weekday or weekend volunteer opportunities. Volunteers can train on either Thursday, March 10 or Saturday, March 12 from 9 a.m. – 12 noon. To sign up as a volunteer, please email diane.mckinna@memphistn.gov or call 320-6438 by March 1, 2011. To obtain a volunteer application or get further information go to our website: http://www.memphismuseums.org/.

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Patrice Lumumba: First Prime Minister of the Congo

Photo of Patrice Émery Lumumba

(July 2, 1925– January 17, 1961)

Patrice Émery Lumumba (aka Patrice Hemery Lumumba) was born July 2, 1925 in Onalua, Katakokombe, Kasai Province in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. One of four sons, Lumumba was a member of the Tetela tribal group. His education included missionary school training. After completing his education, he passed the postal clerk exam and began to work in Kinshasa (then Léopoldville). In 1951, Lumumba married Pauline Opangu and they would go on to have five children: François, Patrice Junior, Julienne, Roland and Guy-Patrice Lumumba.

Photo of a youthful Patrice Lumumba in the Belgian-Congo

By 1955, Lumumba began to enter political life. He became a regional leader for the Cercles of Stanleyville and joined the Liberal Party of Belgium where he served as editor and distributor of information. While traveling in Belgium that same year, Lumumba was arrested by the colonial government police and charged with embezzling post office funds. In July 1956, Lumumba was released after serving 12 months of a two-year sentence.

By 1958, Lumumba had re-entered political life and began to organize for Mouvement National Congolais (MNC). In December 1958, he represented the MNC as president at the All-African Peoples' Conference held in Accra, Ghana, hosted by Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah.

Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and the Republic of the Congo

By October 1959, Lumumba was again arrested by the Belgian colonial government on charges of inciting anti-colonial riots in Stanleyville. He was sentenced to six months in prison for his anti-colonial activism. While in Lumumba was in prison, the MNC participated as a political party in the Belgian-Congo elections held in December of 1959. Lumumba was released before the MNC won the May 1960 election.

Lumumba, age 34 years old, was announced as the Belgian Congo's first prime minister. Joseph Kasa-Vubu was named president. On June 30, 1960, the country’s new leadership declared independence from the Belgian colonial rule. In an Independence Day ceremony for the newly named Republic of the Congo, King Baudouin spoke first, urging the Congolese to remain under the leadership of Belgium. Lumumba responded, in part, in his speech as follows:

"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." 

Unrest in the New Republic

Photo of Patrice Lumumba

Lumumba's speech became a media sensation in the West. Dissent within the army arose soon after Reports arose about military unrest, looting and European flight. By July 11, 1960, Moïse Tshombe declared himself the regional premier of the Katanga province. Tshombe was supported by the Belgian government and European mining firms with interest in rubber, copper and other minerals.

UN troops arrived, but did not move to suppress the Katanga rebellion. Lumumba soon sought Soviet military aid. President Kasa-Vubu, however, wanted a more moderate political approach and sought to remove Lumumba as prime minister. Lumumba declared the Presidential act illegal and sought Senate and Parliament action to declare President Kasa-Vubu‘s removal. The country was torn over the warring Kasa-Vubu and Lumumba political faction.

  

Joseph Mobutu’s Rise to Power and the Murder of Lumumba

Photo: A young Joseph Désiré Mobutu rolls up his sleeves

during a speech in December 1965 in Leopoldville, Congo

On September 14, 1960, Lieutenant General Joseph Désiré Mobutu (later known as Mobutu Sese Seko) organized a coup that deposed the divided nation. Lumumba was placed under house arrest, but he soon stole away to Stanleyville, organizing among his Haut-Congo supporters. On December 1, 1960, Lumumba was captured in Port Francqui by Mobutu’s troops and flown to Kinshasa (then Leopoldville).

The Soviet Union demanded his release and called upon the U.N. Security Council to act. U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld called for due process of law; on December 14, 1960, however, in a 8-2 vote, the Soviet Union's resolution was defeated. Lumumba was transferred to the Katanga Province under Mobutu‘s leadership.

On January 17, 1961, Lumumba was restrained and flown to Lubumbashi (then Elizabethville). That same day, Patrice Lumumba, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito were reportedly lined before a firing squad, according to Belgian reports. No due process was afforded those executed. While various accounts are reported, the true nature and facilitators of his murder, however, have never been definitively explained.

Photo of Congo leader Mobutu Sese Seko conversing with U.S. President Richard Nixon

In February 2002, the Belgian government released an official apology to the Congolese people. In a thousand page report, the government admitted to failure of a "moral responsibility" and "an irrefutable portion of responsibility in the events that led to the death of Lumumba." 

Lumumba’s Murder Leads to International Protests in Europe 

After Patrice Lumumba's assassination, protestors clashed with Belgian embassies and local police in Belgrade, Yugoslavia and at Trafalgar Square in London, UK. Prior to Lumumba's imprisonment, he had arranged for his wife, Pauline, and their children to move to Egypt.

“ We must move forward, striking out tirelessly against imperialism," said Che Guevara in 1964, reflecting on the life of Lumumba. "From all over the world we have to learn lessons which events afford. Lumumba’s murder should be a lesson for all of us.”

That same year, Malcolm X declared Patrice Lumumba "the greatest black man who ever walked the African continent."

African Freedom Fighter and Pan Africanist 

The heroism of Patrice Lumumba is embraced as a symbol of African independence efforts. In the 2006 election, a number of the running parties affiliated themselves with Lumumba's political philosophy. This includes the Unified Lumumbist Party (Parti Lumumbiste Unifié (PALU)), Mouvement Lumumbiste (MLP) and Mouvement National Congolais-Lumumba (MNC-L). The MNC-L is lead by Lumumba's eldest son, François Lumumba, who obtained a doctorate in political economics in Hungary before returning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1992 to oppose Mobutu Sese Seko‘s rule of the country then known as Zaire.

In Kampala, Uganda, "Lumumba Hall" of Residence at Makerere University continues to carry the name of Patrice Lumumba.

Did You Know? The various formal official country names

for the Democratic Republic of the Congo

• Congo Free State (État indépendant du Congo): 1885 to 1908. Belgian King Leopold II claimed personal ownership over the land
• Belgian Congo (Congo Belge): 1908 - 1960. King Leopold II's formal transfer of property ownership to the state of Belgium
• Republic of the Congo or Congo-Léopoldville: 1960 - 1964. Distinguish from its western neighbor in the Republic of the Congo, formerly French Congo
• Republic of the Congo or Congo-Kinshasa (1964-1971)
• Zaire (Zaïre): 1971-1997
• Democratic Republic of the Congo: 1997 to Present

Books for further reading:

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African American Artist: Charles W. White, Jr.

Charles Wilbert White, Jr. (born April 2, 1918 – died October 3, 1979)

Charles White, Jr. was born on April 2, 1918 to Ethel Gary and Charles White Sr. on the South Side of Chicago. He discovered at an early age that he could draw. Often described as a Social Realist artist, White’s works is largely devoted to monumental prints and mural eloquently documenting the universality of humanity through the portrayal of Black America.  

Coming home from school one day, White discovered students from The Art Institute of Chicago painting in a nearby park. One student explained how to mix paint and turpentine and stretch canvas. She also advised him that the class would be working there for a week. The next day after school, White raced there with an oil set his mother had previously bought him. Using a window blind as his canvas, he painted a landscape. Although initially angered by his destruction of the blind, his mother treasured this painting until her death in 1977.

Harvest Talk, Charles White. Charcoal, pencil and graphite, with stamping and erasing on ivory wood-pulp laminate body (1953)

Frustrated by the education system’s omission of Black contributions to American society, White, out of this frustration, began to skip school. At age 14, he worked as a sign letterer for the Regal Theater, where he began meeting other Black artists. He worked with George E. Neal, a Black artist, who while supporting himself by lettering and illustrating small Black publications, studied at the Art Institute. White’s drawings won a competition, permitting him to attend a Saturday “honors” class at the Art Institute. Artists Charles Sebree and Margaret Burroughs also attended this class.

“He was a particularly inspiring teacher,” said White, referring to Neal. “We used to have classes in his home. Elzier Cortor, Charles Sebree, and Frank Neal, who wasn’t related to him, as well as me, were all influenced by George. He made us conscious of the craft aspect of painting technique. He made us conscious of the beauty of those beat-up old shacks. He made us conscious of the beauty of Black people.”

Image of Awaken from the Unknowing, Charles White. Ink and Wolff crayon on paper (1961)

When he was 16-years-old, White attended a Saturday night party at the studio of Katherine Dunham, then a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Chicago and developing her dance career. There he met poet Gwendolyn Brooks, author Margaret Walker, Richard Wright and Willard Motley; sociologist Horace Cayton; and many other artists and intellectuals gathering on Chicago’s South Side. He was exposed to many new ideas. They could be described as Alain Locke’s “New Negro,” a philosophy that would have a great impact on White.

White won a scholarship to study at the Art Institute full-time. He also began to work as a Works in Progress (WPA) artist and became a member of the Arts and Crafts Guilds. At the Art Institute, White was introduced to the Mexican muralists who used art to educate the masses. This concept greatly excited White, as it would excite the artist Elizabeth Catlett, whom he would later marry. He wanted his art to speak to Black people, instilling and reaffirming confidence and pride.

Frederick Douglass Lives Again (The Ghost of Frederick Douglass), Charles White. Pen and ink drawing (1949)

White met and married talented sculptor Elizabeth Catlett, who then taught at Dillard University in New Orleans and was taking the summer to study at the Art Institute. He had won two scholarships, one to the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the Frederic Mizes Academy of Arts, both of which were withdrawn upon the discovery that White was actually Black.

White would later win a Julius Rosenwald Foundation study grant to do research in the South. In the South, White began to understand the beauty of the “Negro” speech, folklore and poetry, dance and music. The music especially moved him -- the spirituals, blues, ballads, the work songs. This music had a very profound meaning for White and his work.

Two racially motivated events, to occur later, would also have profound effect on White. First, he was severely beaten for entering a restaurant in New Orleans. Secondly, in Hampton, Virginia, a conductor forced White to the rear of a streetcar at gunpoint. Over the course of 15 years, he would learn of the lynching of three uncles and two cousins. White developed an anger against injustice that deepened.

Charles White participated in the civil rights movement through his art, creating strong, expressive figures depicting the plight of African Americans. Sounds of Silence 11, Charles White. Lithograph ( 1971)

White and Catlett would eventually moved to New York, where the painter Ernest Crichlow introduced them to Black artists and intellectuals. Catlett began studies with the Cubist-influenced sculpture Ossip Zadkine. White studied with Harry Sternberg, a leading instructor of etching and lithography at the Art Student League.
White and Catlett would leave New York to teach at Hampton Institute in Virginia until White was drafted in 1943. Soon after, White developed tuberculosis. He spent three years in a Veterans hospital in Beacon, New York. White did not paint during this time. He devised his own therapy. He reread all that he had read during his adolescence. 


Upon recovery, he returned to New York and created. He had a one man show at the American Contemporary Artists (ACA) Gallery in September 1947. That fall, White and Catlett went to Mexico at the invitation of the famous muralist David Siquerios. They studied and worked at Mexico’s famous graphic workshop Taller de Grafica Popular for nearly a year.

“I saw artists working to create an art about and for the people,” said White of his Mexican experience. “This has been the strongest influence in my whole approach. It clarified the direction in which I wanted to move.”

His marriage to Catlett ended soon after his travels to Mexico. His health began to deteriorate again. He was hospitalized for a year in New York where he was to undergo lung surgery. White’s art began to gradually shift from historical figures to ordinary common Black folks, always maintaining the same dignity. His work became more rhythmic and fluid, realistic and humanistic.

Image of Untitled, Charles White, ink and graphite on paper (1950)

In 1950, White married Frances Barrett. They honeymooned in Europe and were delighted to find that White’s lithographs received high recognition. Portfolios of his work could be found throughout Europe. Upon returning to the U.S., White’s failing health prompted the newlyweds to move to California for the weather. In California, he gradually regained his health.

White’s works were being discovered by the Black Consciousness movement of the 1960s. Black colleges anxiously sought his exhibitions. The socially conscious artists of the 1930s were finding new eyes in the 1960s.

Charles White, Jr. died in 1980. It was he who best articulated his art. “I use Negro subject matter because Negroes are closest to me. But I am trying to express a universal feeling through them, a meaning for all men… All my life, I’ve been painting a simple painting. This does not mean that I am a man without anger -- I’ve had my work in museum’s where I wasn’t allowed to see it. But what I pour into my work is the challenge of how beautiful life can be.”

Adapted from article originally published by Vanessa Cross in Afrique, June 1996: Charles White: The Art of a Chicago Son Beautifies Experiences of Common Black Folk.

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Cairo Museum's Ancient Egyptian Artifacts Victim of Egypt's State of Mass Protest

The Wall Street Journal reported today that when Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, came to work at the Egyptian Museum on Saturday, January 29, 2011, he discovered that looters had "broken in and beheaded two mummies—possibly Tutankhamun's grandparents—and looted the ticket booth."

The Egyptian tourism police, military and citizens soon secured the museum after the discovery. It is reported that other antiquity museums, archaeological sites and storehouses have also seen looted. These disturbing developments place the rich history of some of Africa's oldest remaining antiquities at the crossfire of unrest of the modern-day state of Egypt.

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National Association of Black Journalists

The NABJ rolled out its red carpet on January 27, 2011 at Washington D.C.'s Newseum, inducting five legendary journalists into the 2011 Hall of Fame and presenting the Ida B. Wells Award Recipient.

NABJ Hall of Fame Inductees 

& Ida B. Wells Award Recipient 

Ed Bradley – CBS News ‘60 Minutes’

Before his passing in 2006, Bradley spent nearly his entire 39-year career with CBS News. At CBS, the man once described as "the coolest guy in the business” rose to the pinnacle of journalistic achievement.

Merri Dee – WGN-TV Chicago

Dee’s 30-year career in Chicago broadcasting and her charitable efforts on behalf of children and victims’ rights make her a standout honoree.

JC Hayward – WUSA-TV Washington

Hayward, reporter and anchor of 39 years at Washington, D.C.'s WUSA-TV holds the national record for a woman anchoring the same evening newscast at the same station.

Eugene Robinson – The Washington Post

Robinson is a columnist and former assistant managing editor at The Washington Post who won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2009. He won for a selection of columns on the 2008 presidential campaign, and also serves as political analyst for MSNBC.

Ray Taliaferro – KGO Newstalk 810, San Francisco

Ray was the first black talk show host on a major market radio station in the country. Taliaferro has literally owned the Bay Area's overnight radio listening audience since 1986 when his talk show moved to the 1 to 5 a.m. time slot. 


IDA B. WELLS AWARD RECIPIENT: 

Walterene Swanston – National Public Radio (NPR)

The annual Ida B. Wells Award honor highlights the achievement of a media executive who has demonstrated a commitment to diversifying the nation's newsrooms and improving the coverage of people and communities of color. Walterene Swanston is the NABJ's 2011 Ida B. Wells Award Recipient. Swanston is a diversity consultant and a retired director of diversity management for National Public Radio. Swanston has a decades-long professional track record as a champion of media diversity. For more than 25 years, she has worked with newspapers, television and radio stations to recruit, promote, train and retain people of color and women.

Information source: Nabj.org

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February's Black History Month in the United States

Photo: Black History Heroes Jack Johnson T-Shirt Design

As Black History Month in the United States gets underway, expect more frequent posts during the month of February. We will highlight the life and times of some of our favorite public heroes like Toussaint L'Ouverture, Marie Da Silva, Julius Kmbarage Nyerere and Sojourner Truth. Become a subscribers to the BHH blog and receive free notices of new blog posts during February. For teachers, use theses blogs for ideas to help you develop engaging Black history school projects and programs.

 

 

The blog recently underwent some major design changes to increase its readibility and navigational ease. Hope that you find the changes refreshing. Also, we have partnered with Zazzle.com to bring you quality Black History Heroes t-shirt designs. Check out the first BHH t-shirt design which features Jack Johnson. T-shirt designs are available in both men and women styles. Order one today! 

 

Happy Black History Month 2011!

 

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