MEMBERS & VISITORS

Lesser Known People in Black History

Professor Matthew Delmont decided a few years ago that he wanted to change how he teaches African American history.

Delmont teaches at Dartmouth College in the state of New Hampshire.

At first, Delmont turned to Twitter. There, he shared stories of the everyday lives of African Americans he read about in black newspapers.

That project expanded in November to become the website Black Quotidian. There, readers will find life stories of hundreds of African Americans taken from black newspapers. The stories appeared in publications between the early 1900s and the 1980s.

The website contains copies of stories from more than 10 black newspapers, such as the Chicago Defender and the Pittsburgh Courier. It also has audio recordings, pictures and videos.

“l felt like my students were coming away from the class only thinking African American history was about these civil right(s) marches or about martyrs,” Delmont said.

“I felt like they spent so much time thinking about black death that they were losing sight of the broader complexity, really the beautiful aspects of African American history.”

The website shows African Americans who made their mark in sports, politics, the military and other areas. Among them are icons like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights activist Rosa Parks. But Delmont also aims to bring attention to lesser known people.

One of them is Juanita Blocker. She was the first black member of the Professional Women’s Bowling Association. She wrote about bowling in the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper for 20 years.

The website also tells about Claudette Colvin of Montgomery, Alabama. As a 15-year-old, she refused to give up her seat on a bus – nine months before Rosa Parks did the same.

Delmont said, “These iconic figures are important but we need to understand the everyday people doing important things in their community.” He added that he has observed a growing interest in rediscovering overlooked African Americans.

Delmont said he hopes the website brings attention to black newspapers. He said the publications were especially important for African American communities that had recently migrated north. The newspapers described people’s daily lives. They provided news of everything from politics to sports to weddings.

Ethan Michaeli worked for the Chicago Defender and wrote a book about the newspaper. He said Delmont’s website is offering a fresh look at the role these newspapers played in black communities. Many of the papers included on the website have closed or no longer print newspapers.

Michaeli said, “I’m very excited about it as kind of serving as the bridge between the past and the present in this way.”

To watch Invention School’s full library of movies visit Invention School’s Home Page.

INVENTION SCHOOL’S SIGNATURE SERIES

The technological progress of Africa and its diasporans was dramatically broken beginning with slavery and later through its colonization by European powers. With the arrival of the 21st century, a new era of an awakened Africa has dawned. In the graphic novel series “Invention School”, curious young African students explore their creative potential for solving everyday problems through a subset of engineering skills under the watchful and loving guidance of an expatriate African American engineering professor. Watch this uplifting graphic novel series. If you find the series and its content useful, please share widely.

GORGING YOUR LEARNING APPETITE

Powerful media giants continue feeding us steady diets of stories, games, music, and images of exploitation, mayhem, helplessness, victimization, sexism, murder, adultery, preposterous wealth, torture, drugs, deceit, vampires, zombies, thuggery, glorified gangsterism, demonic spirits, horror, war, despair, brutality, crime, vengeance, sex, addiction, psychic disorders, occultism, savagery, lust, hate, prejudicial beauty/virtue standards, and stale mind-numbing escapism. Never underestimate the power of the subliminal messaging in this media content to accustom your subconscious to your further takeover and control. The groundwork is being laid and we are being deliberately manipulated for easier subjugation. The “collusion” between Hollywood and complicit agencies like the CIA is clear. Hollywood has played a little known role as a propaganda machine for the US national security apparatus for many years. Carefully look at the proportion (you’ll be shocked) of currently available movie fare that embodies these themes rather than embodying themes that uplift, transform, and inspire. “Just coincidence”, you say? After a steady diet of this psychic fare (garbage in, garbage out), what normal person would ever be in a position or mindset to connect and collaboratively formulate creative solutions and healing to man-made problems that beset humanity, earth lifeforms, and Mother Earth herself? These incapacitating but profitable offerings by these media giants stifle any visions of progress and action we might otherwise take to deliver ourselves out of the quagmires our modern societies have created that affect the entire world. Why do these companies market and sell so much of this awful, depraved content?? Could it be: