Today in Labor History September 18, 1919: Frederick Douglass “Fritz” Pollard became the first African American to play professional football for a major team, the Akron Pros. This was nearly 30 years before Jackie Robinson broke the color line in Major League Baseball. In 1921, he became the first African-American head coach in the NFL, over 50 years before Frank Robinson became the fist black head coach of a MLB team.

Today in Labor History September 4, 1949: The Peekskill riots at a Paul Robeson concert in Peekskill, New York. A mob of locals attacked concert-goers with baseball bats and rocks. Police arrived hours later and did little to intervene. Thirteen people were seriously injured. Robeson was lynched in effigy and a cross was burned on the hillside. Robeson was well known for his strong pro-trade union stance, civil rights activism, communist affiliations and anti-colonialism. He also had been increasingly vocal against the Ku Klux Klan and other forces of white supremacy. The concert was a benefit for the Civil Rights Congress. Just prior to the riots, Robeson had spoken at Soviet-sponsored World Peace Conference in Paris, where he said the following:

“We in America do not forget that it was on the backs of white workers from Europe and on the backs of millions of blacks that the wealth of America was built. And we are resolved to share it equally. We reject any hysterical raving that urges us to make war on anyone. Our will to fight for peace is strong.... We shall support peace and friendship among all nations, with Soviet Russia and the People's Republics.”

Today in Labor History September 3, 1838: Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland to freedom in the north, where he became a leader of the abolitionist movement. During his lifetime, he wrote 3 autobiographies and became a best-selling author. He also fought for women’s suffrage and was the first black man nominated to run for vice president. Douglass opposed colonialism and segregated schools. He was the most photographed American of the 19th century, never smiling once for the camera so as to not play into the racist myth of the happy slave.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #slavery #Abolition #frederickdouglass #feminism #segregation #education #colonialism #author #writer #biography #books #BlackMastadon @bookstadon

the BLACK & BLOODY kickstarter closes Sept 11, and Black Indie Comix Club is about $900 away from their goal!!! come support the 29 illustrators, artists, and storytellers who've contributed to this incredible anthology!!!

Today in Labor History August 30, 1948: Fred Hampton revolutionary activist and chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party was born. He founded the antiracist, anti-capitalist, working-class Rainbow Coalition, a prominent multicultural political organization that included Black Panthers, Young Patriots (which organized poor whites), and the Young Lords (which organized Hispanics), and an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them end infighting and work for social change. In December 1969, the Chicago police & FBI drugged Hampton, shot him and killed him in his bed during a predawn raid. They sprayed more than 90 gunshots throughout his apartment. They also killed Black Panther Mark Clark and wounded several others. In January 1970, a jury concluded that Hampton's and Clark's deaths were justifiable homicides.

Stephen King refers to Hampton in his novel “11/22/63” (2012). In that book, a character suggests that if you could travel back in time to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination, it could have a ripple effect that also prevented Hampton's assassination.

For a really great history of the Young Patriots movement and organizing and solidarity among poor white radicals, you should read “Hillbilly Nationalists” by Amy Sonnie and James Tracy.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #blackpanthers #FredHampton #chicago #police #policemurder #policebrutality #fbi #racism #stephenking #fiction #books #novel #writer #author #BlackMastadon @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 30, 1800: Gabriel Prosser postponed his planned slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia. The authorities still arrested and executed him, along with 20 others. While the revolt never occurred, it was the one event that most directly confronted the founding fathers with the enormous gulf between their ideal of liberty and their sleazy accommodations to slavery. It led to a rash of new legislation curtailing the rights of free African Americans, as well as laws prohibiting the education and hiring out of enslaved black people. Richmond, at the time of the planned revolt, was a black-majority town, with 39% of its residents being enslaved. There was a community whipping post, where people were brutalized publicly. There was also a growing number of free black people in Richmond, due in part to the influence of abolitionist Quakers and Methodists, as well as numerous refugees from the Haitian Revolution, a few years prior. The goal of the uprising was to completely end slavery in Virginia by holding Virginia's Governor, James Monroe, hostage to negotiate for their freedom. In 2007, Governor Tim Kaine informally pardoned Gabriel.

Arna Bontemps, a member of the Harlem Rennaisance, wrote Black Thunder (1936), a historical novel based on Gabriel's Rebellion. Alex Haley mentions it in his book, Roots. Barbara Chase-Riboud writes about it in her 1979 novel, Sally Hemings. And "Gabriel, the Musical" was produced in Richmond Virginia in 2022, with libretto by Jerold Solomon, Foster Solomon and Ron Klipp, and Music & Lyrics by Ron Klipp.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #slavery #abolition #rebellion #uprising #GabrielProsser #Revolution #haiti #BlackMastadon #books #fiction #novel #author #writer @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 28, 1955: Teenager Emmett Till was brutally murdered on this day in Money, Mississippi, for speaking "inappropriately" to a white woman. The brutality of the murder and the lack of justice for his family helped to mobilize opposition to segregation in America. An all-white jury acquitted Till’s killers, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J. W. Milam. The next year, both men publicly admitted in an interview with Look magazine that they had tortured and murdered the boy. The magazine paid them selling $4,000 (equivalent to $43,000 in 2022) for the story. Between 1876 and 1930, over 500 African Americans were lynched in Mississippi, alone, and over 3,000 across the South. A memorial marker for Emmett Till, erected in 2006, was defaced with "KKK", and then completely covered with black paint. 8 more markers were erected at sites associated with Till's lynching in 2007. Some of these were vandalized, too. One of the signs received over 100 bullet holes. In 2018, three University of Mississippi students were suspended from their fraternity after posting to Instagram a photo of them posing in front of the bullet-riddled marker, with guns.

I definitely aspire to reach this level of acceptance and love.

Uhh, do yourself a favour and check out Ismatu's work.

#BlackMastadon #BlackFedi #Anarchism
https://youtu.be/fp7cTavTTps

Today in Labor History August 23, 1917: The Camp Logan Mutiny. After months of harassment by the all-white Houston police against the local African-American community and soldiers stationed nearby, including ongoing arrests and beatings, 156 black soldiers mutinied. They opened fire in Houston, killing 5 cops and 11 white civilians. 4 mutineers also died in the gun battle. The military tried 64 of the soldiers for murder and mutiny—the largest murder trial in U.S. history. They executed 19 and sentenced 41 to life imprisonment. Latino author and lawyer Jaime Salazar wrote an account of the mutiny and courts martial in his book “Mutiny of Rage.” In 2023, the army reversed its ruling, acknowledging that the men hadn’t received a fair trial, and gave them all honorable discharges.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #racism #mutiny #houston #prison #deathpenalty #worldwarone #books #author #writer #BlackMastadon @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 22, 1791: Encouraged by the French and American revolutions, Toussaint Louverture led over 100,000 Haitian slaves in a revolt against the French. They were ultimately successful, making Haiti the first black republic in the world. The US refused recognition of Haiti until 1865, as a result of pressure from Southern slaveholders. The French demanded $21 billion In today’s dollars) in reparations for the losses to the former slaveholders, in exchange for peace and recognition of Haiti as an independent nation. The debt was financed through French banks and the U.S. bank, Citibank. The Haitians finally paid it off in 1947. However, the huge interest payments for their independence debt, and the debt incurred through the corruption of the Duvalier dynasty, have made Haiti one of the poorest nations in the western hemisphere. Prior to independence, Haiti was the richest and most productive of all of Europe’s colonies.

The best book I’ve read on the Haitian Revolution is “The Black Jacobins,” by Trinidadian socialist C.L.R. James. Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier explores the revolution in his novel, “The Kingdom of This World” (1949). You can read more about Toussaint Louverture and the slave uprising in Madison Smartt Bell’s trilogy called “All Souls' Rising” (1995) and Isabel Allende’s 2010 novel, “Island Beneath the Sea.”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #haiti #Revolution #jacobins #toussaintlouverture #slavery #colonialism #books #CLRJames #novel #fiction #author #writer #isabelallende #BlackMastadon @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 21, 1831: Nat Turner launched a 2-day slave revolt in Virginia. They killed over 50 whites. In response, scores of African-Americans were lynched, including many who did not participate in the revolt. Turner survived in hiding for more than two months. Mobs & militias killed around 120 enslaved and free African Americans. In the aftermath, state legislatures passed new laws prohibiting education of free and enslaved black people and restricted the civil liberties for free blacks.

The rebellion is referenced in “Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown.” Thomas R. Gray wrote an 1831 pamphlet, “The Confessions of Nat Turner,” based on his jailhouse interview with Turner. Harriet Beecher Stowe referenced Turner's Confessions in her 1855 novel “Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp.” Harriet Jacobs, an escaped slave, refers to the pogrom against blacks following Turner's rebellion in her 1861 classic, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” In the 1990s, Tupac Shakur honored Turner with a cross tattoo on his back "EXODUS 1831."

#workingclass #LaborHistory #slavery #revolt #rebellion #uprising #natturner #civilliberties #books #novel #fiction #author #writer #tupac #BlackMastadon @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 18, 1823: Enslaved people in Demerara (Guyana) used their license to travel on an official rest day to launch an uprising of that included more than 30,000 enslaved people. The rebellion was largely nonviolent, but the authorities still brutally crushed it. They slaughtered hundreds of slaves and executed dozens more after the fighting ended.

Today in History August 18, 1977: Steve Biko was arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No. 83 in King William's Town, South Africa. He later died from injuries received during this arrest. Biko was a socialist and an anti-apartheid activist. He was 31 at the time of his assassination. He was influenced by the teachings of Martinican philosopher Frantz Fanon and the American Black Power Movement. His death brought international attention to South Africa's apartheid policies and helped launch the modern anti-apartheid movement. Biko was a leading figure in the creation of the South African Students' Organisation (SASO) in 1968, which was formed to give people of color the leading voice in the anti-apartheid movement which, until then, was dominated by white liberals. SASO was one of the first South African anti-apartheid groups that was open only to people of color (he used the term “blacks” to refer to Bantu-speaking people, as well as “coloureds” and Indians, who were also persecuted under Apartheid).

“Hillbilly Nationalists,” by Amy Sonnie and James Tracy, talks about a similar dynamic in the U.S. Civil Rights movement of the sixties. In the U.S., this conflict helped to spur the organization of white radical working-class groups, like the Young Patriots, who worked in solidarity with groups like the Young Lords, and the Black Panthers, who, in turn, influenced Biko’s politics.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #stevenbiko #Biko #southafrica #apartheid #racism #police #terrorism #policebrutality #policemurder #socialism #blackpanthers #younglords #YoungPatriots #books #nonfiction #hillbillynationalists #BlackMastadon @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 16, 2012: South African police fatally shot 34 miners and wounded 78 in the Marikana massacre, during a 6-week wildcat strike at the Lonmin platinum mine in North West province. It was the most lethal attack by South African security forces against civilians since the 1976 Soweto uprising, and it has been compared to the 1960 Sharpeville massacre.

Today in Labor History August 15, 1906: W.E.B. DuBois demanded equal citizenship rights for African-Americans during the second meeting of the Niagara Movement, saying, "We will not be satisfied to take one jot or little less than our full manhood." Founders of the movement named it for the “mighty current” of change they hoped to achieve. DuBois made his famous statement at Harper’s Ferry, sight of the failed insurrection led by John Brown, in 1859. For a wonderful speculative fiction story based on the premise that John Brown had succeeded in his raid, with the help of Harriet Tubman, read Terry Bisson’s “Fire on the Mountain” (1988).

In addition to cofounding the Niagara Movement, DuBois also cofounded the NAACP. He devoted his life to fighting racism, segregation, Jim Crow and lynchings. DuBois opposed capitalism and blamed it for much of the racism in America. He was also a prolific writer, an anti-nuclear and peace activist, and a proponent of Pan-Africanism. And he was an early proponent of Eugenics which, in the U.S., would go on to forced sterilizations of African-American women.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #naacp #niagara #webdubois #racism #panafricanism #antinuke #antiwar #BlackMastadon #anticapitalist #harpersferry #johnbrown #writer #author #books #fiction #SpeculativeFiction @bookstadon

Today in Labor History August 14, 1791: Dutty Boukman led a Vodou ceremony with enslaved people from Saint Domingue plantations that led to the start of the Haitian Revolution, the largest slave uprising since the Spartacist revolt against the Roman empire. Boukman was born in Senegambia. His name, Boukman, came from the English “Book Man,” because he not only knew how to read, but taught other enslaved people how to read. He, and priestess Cécile Fatiman, had led a series of meetings with enslaved people prior to August 14 to organized and plan for the uprising. Boukman was killed by French troops a few months into the revolution. Trinidadian Marxist writer C. L. R. James wrote the best book on the Haitian Revolution: “The Black Jacobins,” (1938). Also, be sure to check out the wonderful music of the Haitian pop group, Boukman Eksperyans, named for the Haitian revolutionary, Dutty Boukman. A fictionalized version of Boukman plays the title character in Guy Endore's novel “Babouk,” an anti-capitalist parable about the Haitian Revolution.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #boukman #haiti #Revolution #uprising #revolt #slavery #reading #books #fiction #novel #nonfiction #writer #author #BlackMastadon @bookstadon

My sister found this gem in Dad’s papers. Dad was a trailblazer #BlacksInSTEM #BlackMastadon #BlacksInScience #BlacksInMath

Today in Labor History August 12, 1936: The First International Brigades arrived in Spain to fight against Franco. Organized by the Communist International, between 40,000 and 60,000 men and women from around the world fought on the Republican side against the fascists. 10,000 of them died. Thousands more international activists joined anti-Stalinist forces, like the socialist POUM, or anarchist groups, like the FAI, CNT and the Durruti Column. Americans defied federal law to participate in the International Brigade, as members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Famous Lincoln participants included Avant Garde composer Conlon Nancarrow, labor organizer Delmer Berg, scifi author Theodore Cogswell, novelist William Herrick. The Tom Mooney Company, named for San Francisco labor organizer, Tom Mooney, who was wrongly imprisoned for the WWI Preparedness Day bombing, was commanded by African American labor organizer Oliver Law, the first African-American to command an integrated American military unit. Many African-Americans joined the anti-franco forces. Langston Hughes, who was writing for the Baltimore Afro-American, said: "Give Franco a hood, and he would be a member of the Ku Klux Klan." There was also a George Washington Battlian, and a John Brown battery. Once the U.S. entered World War II, the FBI recommended that none of the veterans of the Spanish war against fascism be given any promotions within the U.S. military, to prevent the “rise of communists” in their ranks. The House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) blacklisted all American veterans of the Spanish war.

You can read my complete article on Tom Mooney here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/05/19/tom-mooney-and-warren-billings/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #lincolnbrigades #spain #fascism #antifa #antifascism #anarchism #communism #socialism #stalin #fai #cnt #durruti #tommooney #oliverlaw #union #books #author #writer #composer #Blackmastadon @bookstadon

Today in Labor History July 30, 1866: Police shot into a group of recently freed black workers outside the Mechanics Institute in New Orleans, in the wake of the Civil War. This was the site of a reconvened Louisiana Constitutional Convention. A crowd of whites then stormed the hall. By the time federal troops restored order, 38 were dead and 136 wounded — almost all of them black. The mob was made up of recently defeated Confederate soldiers. National outrage at the New Orleans Massacre, and the Memphis Riots in May, helped the Radical Republicans win a majority in both houses of Congress and catalyzed support for passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as the Reconstruction Act, authorizing military occupation of the South.