February 14, 2017

World Book continues its celebration of Black History Month with a look at Edmonia Lewis, the first professional African American and Native American sculptor. In the years after the American Civil War (1861-1865) and Reconstruction (1865-1877), Lewis overcame gender, racial, social, and economic barriers to become an internationally acclaimed artist. She worked in a Neoclassical style and was notable for incorporating themes relating to the black experience and Native American culture. Neoclassicists often use subjects from ancient history to make observations about contemporary events.

Edmonia Lewis, c.1870 Credit: Smithsonian Institution

Mary Edmonia Lewis was born in 1844 in Greenbush (now Rensselaer), near Albany, New York, to a free African American father and a Chippewa mother. Orphaned as a child, Mary Edmonia and her older half-brother Samuel were adopted by her mother’s sisters and raised in a nomadic Native American community on the New York-Canadian border. Mary Edmonia was given the Native American name Wildfire.

Samuel Lewis became a gold miner in California and financed Wildfire’s early schooling. In 1859, at a time when slavery was still legal, he also helped his 15-year-old sister to attend Oberlin College in Ohio. While there, she asked to be called M. Edmonia Lewis. At Oberlin, Lewis was falsely accused of poisoning two white roommates. Days later, she was captured and beaten by a white mob. Although the charges against her were dropped, she had to endure a highly publicized trial. She was later accused of stealing art supplies at the college. Again, the case was dismissed. However, Oberlin would not allow Lewis to finish her final term and graduate.

The Death of Cleopatra (1876) by Edmonia Lewis. Credit: Smithsonian American Art Museum

In 1863, with Samuel’s help, Edmonia traveled to Boston, where she befriended the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. She also met the sculptor Edward A. Brackett, who taught her sculpture and helped her set up her own studio. In 1864, Lewis created busts of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, a Civil War hero who had died leading the all-black 54th Massachusetts Regiment, and the abolitionist John Brown. With the money she earned from sales of the busts, she traveled to London, Paris, and Florence, before settling in Rome, where she continued her work as a sculptor.

One of Lewis’s most acclaimed works is Forever Free (1867). Commemorating the 1865 abolition of slavery in the United States, the sculpture depicts a black man and woman emerging from the bonds of slavery. Lewis embraced her Native American heritage with works inspired by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his epic poem The Song of Hiawatha (1855), about the great Native American leader Hiawatha.

Lewis also carved busts of American presidents, including Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln, as well as sculptures of mythic, Biblical, and historical scenes. In 1876, she created a sensation at the International Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia with The Death of Cleopatra (1876). Her two-ton marble sculpture depicts the Egyptian queen in the throes of death. Lewis was the only artist of color invited to exhibit at the exposition.

Lewis continued to exhibit her work until the 1890’s. Little is known about her later years. Some sources say she died in London in 1907; others say she was still living in Rome in 1911. However, in recent decades, Lewis’s life and work have been reexamined and lauded. Her sculptures are now part of the Howard University Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

February 8, 2017

In honor of Black History Month, today we look at the Montford Point Marines of World War II (1939-1945). “Montford Point Marines” was the nickname given to the first African American units to serve in the United States Marine Corps. The troops trained at Montford Point Camp in Jacksonville, North Carolina, from 1942 to 1949. Montford Point was a racially segregated facility within a larger Marine base, Camp Lejeune. Segregation is the separation of groups of people by custom, by law, or by executive order. More than 12,000 Montford Point Marines served overseas during World War II.

U.S. Marines take cover on the beach during the 1944 Battle of Peleliu, one of the bloodiest battles in Marine Corps history. Credit: National Archives

A few black volunteers served in the newly established Marines during the American Revolution (1775-1783). After that, however, the Marines did not accept African Americans. In June 1941, Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, the Fair Employment Act. The act barred “discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin.” In the summer of 1942, the Marines became the last branch of the U.S. military to accept African Americans.

U.S. Marines take a well-earned break on the sands of Iwo Jima in March 1945. The battle cost the lives of nearly 7,000 Marines. Credit: National Archives

Black recruits first entered Montford Point Camp in August 1942, nine months after the United States entered World War II. The Marine Corps did not allow the camp’s new members to serve in front-line infantry units. Instead, they served in defense, maintenance, supply, and transport battalions. These roles did not exclude the Montford Pointers from danger, however. Like other Marines, they joined assaults on a number of Japanese-held islands in the Pacific Ocean. They saw action in such bloody campaigns as Saipan, Peleliu, Iwo Jima (now Iwo To), and Okinawa. Thirteen Montford Point Marines were killed in combat during the war.

In July 1948, President Harry S. Truman, also a Democrat, signed Executive Order 9981, requiring the desegregation of the military. Montford Point Camp closed in September 1949, after having produced some 20,000 U.S. Marines. The Marine Corps became fully integrated during the Korean War (1950-1953).

In 1974, Montford Point was renamed Camp Gilbert H. Johnson. Gilbert Johnson, a World War II combat veteran, was one of the camp’s first black drill instructors. Today, Camp Johnson is home to the Marine Corps Combat Service Support School. There, Marines are trained in administration, supply, support, and other duties. The Montford Point Marines Museum opened at Camp Johnson in 2001.

In November 2011, the Montford Point Marines received the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of “their personal sacrifice and service to their country.” The Congressional Gold Medal is one of the highest civilian decorations awarded by the U.S. government.

The origins of Black History Month began in 1926 as an annual observance of the achievements and culture of African Americans. February was chosen to honor the birthdays of Frederick Douglass (the 14th) and Abraham Lincoln ( the 12th).

September 27, 2016

On Saturday, September 24, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) opened to the public in Washington, D.C. Located on the National Mall, the museum details the history of slavery, the period of Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, segregation, and civil rights. It also highlights African Americans’ achievements in the arts, entertainment, military, politics, sports, and other aspects of the wider culture. The NMAAHC is a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture stands on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Credit: © Alan Karchmer, National Museum of African American History and Culture

President Barack Obama, together with his family, helped dedicate the museum. “This national museum helps to tell a richer and fuller story of who we are,” he said. “Hopefully, this museum can help us to talk to each other. And more importantly, listen to each other. And most importantly, see each other. Black and white and Latino and Native American and Asian American—see how our stories are bound together.” In 2009, Obama made history as the first African American president of the United States. His speech on Saturday came amid racial tensions stirred by recent police shootings of black men in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The dedication ceremony of the National Museum of African American History and Culture took place on Sept. 24, 2016, in Washington, D.C. Credit: © National Museum of African American History and Culture

Former President George W. Bush, who authorized construction of the museum in 2003, joined President Obama at the NMAAHC dedication. “A great nation,” he said, “does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and it corrects them.”

Cultural material collected by the museum includes works of art, historical artifacts, photographs, moving images, archival documents, electronic data, audio recordings, books, and manuscripts. The museum’s notable collections include the Harriet Tubman Collection, featuring dozens of artifacts that belonged to the underground railroad leader; the Ernest C. Withers Photography Collection; and the Black Fashion Museum Collection. The $540-million museum was designed by Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye, who was inspired by Yoruban art from West Africa.

June 22, 2016

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party supporters demonstrate outside the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Some hold portraits of slain civil rights workers James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.
Credit: Library of Congress

On June 20, after an investigation that continued for more than half a century, federal and Mississippi authorities officially closed the books on one of the most heinous, racially motivated criminal cases in the history of the United States civil rights movement. Known as the “Freedom Summer” murder case or the “Mississippi Burning” murder case, it was notable as the first successful federal prosecution of a civil rights case in Mississippi. Outrage over the case helped gain passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In June 1964, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, two white civil rights volunteers from New York City, and James Chaney, a black volunteer from Meridian, Mississippi, were working together in Meridian as part of the “Freedom Summer” campaign to help African Americans register to vote. The campaign was organized primarily by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a civil rights organization. At that time, many Southern States had used various methods to deprive blacks of their voting rights. On June 21, the three men were on their way to investigate the burning of an African American church in Neshoba County when they were taken into custody for speeding by a sheriff deputy. After the men were released from county jail in Philadelphia, Mississippi, a Ku Klux Klan mob followed their car, forced it off the road, and shot the men to death. The volunteers’ station wagon was found three days later. Initially classified as a missing persons case, the men’s disappearance sparked national outrage and an investigation led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The FBI found the bodies of the three men 44 days later, buried in an earthen dam.

In 1967, 18 men were tried on federal civil rights charges in the case. An all-white jury convicted seven of them of violating the civil rights of the Freedom Summer volunteers. At the time, no federal murder statutes existed, and the state never brought charges. None of the convicted men served more than six years in prison. The plot leader, Edgar Ray Killen, a Baptist minister, avoided a trial due to a hung jury. Killen was finally convicted in a 2005 trial based on new evidence unveiled in 2000. He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 60 years in prison, where he remains today at age 91.

In 2010, federal authorities reopened the investigation in search of evidence to allow them to convict the remaining suspects. However, that investigation came to a halt 18 months ago after a witness backed out at the last minute after pledging to sign a sworn statement that would have implicated a suspect, according to Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood.

Monday’s decision means that no other suspects in the case will be prosecuted. “It has been a thorough and complete investigation,” Hood said. “I am convinced that during the last 52 years, investigators have done everything possible under the law to find those responsible and hold them accountable; however, we have determined that there is no likelihood of any additional convictions… Our state and our entire nation are a much better place because of the work of those three young men and others in 1964 who only wanted to ensure that the rights and freedoms promised in our Constitution were afforded to every single one of us in Mississippi.” In 2014, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner Presidential Medals of Freedom.

Other World Book articles

• Evers, Medgar
• Freedom riders
• Meredith, James

December 29, 2015

Today, Tuesday, December 29, 2015, marks the fourth day in the 49^th annual observation of Kwanzaa, a uniquely African American celebration. The celebration begins on December 26 and lasts for seven days. This year, millions of people in the United States will take part in Kwanzaa festivities and observe the seven principles upon which it is founded. As the fourth day of Kwanzaa, today is dedicated to Ujamaa (cooperative economics), and people are asked to support local small businesses in their community.

Kwanzaa is an African American holiday that begins on December 26 and lasts for seven days. The holiday centers on seven principles. Each evening, families exchange gifts, light one of the seven candles, and discuss the day’s principle. This child is shown lighting one of the seven candles. Credit: © Corbis

Kwanzaa centers on the Nguzo Saba, seven principles of black culture. On each day of the holiday, one of the principles is emphasized. Each evening, families light one of the seven candles in the kinara (a candleholder) and reflect on the day’s principle. The principles of Kwanzaa are Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity), and Imani (faith).

Kwanzaa festivities usually end with a joyous feast called karamu. Among families, karamu usually involves traditional African American foods, ceremonies honoring ancestors, and reflection on the old year and commitments for the new. Many cities across the United States hold public Kwanzaa observances. These often include performances, music, and dancing. The traditional colors of Kwanzaa are red, black, and green. These three colors have long represented Africa and are found on the flags of many African countries. Green represents the fertile land of Africa. Black represents the people of Africa, and red represents the blood that has been shed in the struggle for freedom for African nations.

Kwanzaa was developed in 1966 in the United States by Maulana Karenga, a black cultural leader and professor of Pan-African studies at California State University in Long Beach. The 1960’s, at the height of the civil rights movement, were a time of social upheaval and change for many African Americans. Karenga wanted to create a celebration that would honor the values of African cultures and inspire African Americans to strive for progress. Karenga based this celebration on harvest festivals common in many African societies at this time of year that had existed for thousands of years. He called the celebration Kwanzaa, sometimes spelled Kwanza, based on the phrase matunda ya kwanza, which means first fruits in Swahili (also called Kiswahili). He chose to use Swahili terms for the celebration because this language is widely used by various peoples in East Africa.

Other World Book articles: 

• Christmas
• December

December 1, 2015

Sixty years ago today, Rosa Parks decided she’d had enough. The African American seamstress, tired after a long day’s work, decided to break the law by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. A city law at the time required blacks to leave their seats in the next rows when all seats in the front rows were taken and other whites still wanted seats. Parks was arrested, triggering a boycott of the Montgomery bus system that lasted over a year. Her action helped bring about the civil rights movement in the United States.

Rosa Parks sits toward the front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, soon after the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that segregation on city buses was unconstitutional. Credit: © Underwood Archives/Getty Images

Rosa Louise McCauley was born on Feb. 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. She attended Alabama State Teachers College. In 1932, she married Raymond Parks, a barber. She held a variety of jobs and, in 1943, became one of the first women to join the Montgomery Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She served as the organization’s secretary from 1943 to 1956.

Parks lost her job as a seamstress as a result of the Montgomery boycott. She moved to Detroit in 1957. From 1967 to 1988, she worked on the Detroit staff of John Conyers, Jr., a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1979, she won the Spingarn Medal for her work in civil rights. In 1996, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1999, she was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal. Parks died on Oct. 24, 2005. A statue of Parks was dedicated at Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol in 2013.

Additional World Book articles:

• Colvin, Claudette
• Desmond, Viola
• Emmett Till case
• Million Man March
• Detroit (1994) - A Back in Time article

July 10, 2015

On Friday morning, July, 10, the Confederate battle flag (also known as the Flag of Dixie) was removed from the State House grounds in Columbia, South Carolina, where it had flown for more than half a century.

A crowd cheers as a South Carolina Highway Patrol honor guard lowers the Confederate battle flag from the State House grounds on July 10, 2015, in Columbia, South Carolina. Governor Nikki Haley presided over the event after signing the historic legislation the day before. Credit: © John Moore, Getty Images

The flag has long been a polarizing symbol in South Carolina, and many people demanded that it be taken down. In the years since the American Civil War (1861-1865), the flag had become a racist symbol of slavery to many African Americans and others. Later, in the early 1960′s, the flag became a symbol of opposition to the U.S. civil rights movement. However, many  Southerners have used the Confederate battle flag as an expression of Southern heritage and pride. Some believe the flag honors Confederate soldiers who fought in the Civil War.

The battle over the flag reignited last month after a white gunman allegedly killed nine African American worshippers at a historic black church in Charleston. Among the victims was the church’s pastor, South Carolina Senator Clementa Pinckney. Soon after the attack, photos surfaced of the suspect, Dylann Roof, 21, posing with the Confederate battle flag. Roof, who apparently considered the flag a symbol of white supremacy, confessed to the killings, saying he wanted to start a race war.

Early Thursday morning, the South Carolina House of Representatives voted 94-20 to take down the flag, giving final approval to a bill that passed the state senate earlier in the week. Republican South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley signed the bill into law Thursday afternoon. She used nine pens to sign the bill and said the pens would be given to the families of the nine victims of the Charleston church massacre. “It is a new day in South Carolina, a day we can all be proud of, a day that truly brings us all together as we continue to heal, as one people and one state,” Haley said. The legislation called for the flag to be taken down within 24 hours of Haley’s signing it into law and moved to the state’s Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum for display.

At around 10 a.m. Friday, crowds cheered and broke out into song as a South Carolina Highway Patrol honor guard slowly reeled the flag down and folded it. The flag was then handed to Department of Public Safety Director Leroy Smith, one of the state’s most prominent African American officials. Smith delivered the flag to the steps of the State House and handed it to a state archivist.

Other World Book articles:

• Flag
• Confederate States of America
• United States flag
• Human rights 1999 (a Back in Time article)
• State government 2000 (a Back in Time article)
• State government 2001 (a Back in Time article)

July 2, 2015

On Tuesday, June 30, Misty Copeland became the first African American woman to be named a principal dancer in the 75-year history of the American Ballet Theater (ABT) in New York City. In recent months, Copeland, 32, has quickly become the most famous ballerina in the United States. In April, she made the cover of Time magazine; in May, she was profiled on “60 Minutes.” Copeland has become a social media sensation.

In 2015, Misty Copeland became the first African American woman to be named a principal dancer in the 75-year history of the American Ballet Theater. Credit: © Kevin Mazur, WireImage/Getty Images

To many, Copeland represents the American dream. But she has faced a number of challenges as she pursued that dream. Copeland is an African American in a profession where there are few. Misty Danielle Copeland was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on Sept. 10, 1982, and grew up, poor, in San Pedro, California. She didn’t hear classical music until she was a teenager. Copeland was introduced to ballet at age 13 at a local Boys & Girls Club. Despite starting ballet at such a late age, she was considered a prodigy. She soon began training at the San Pedro Dance Center.  Soon after, Copeland moved in with her ballet teacher, who mentored the young dancer and waived her class fees. Within three months of study, Copeland began dancing on pointe (an advanced level of ballet dancing on the toes). At age 15, Copeland received a scholarship to attend the San Francisco Ballet’s summer intensive program. She then trained at the Lauridsen Ballet Center in Southern California.

Copeland has also faced criticism about her body type. In contrast to the ideal classical ballerina’s ultra-slender, delicate body, Copeland is 5 feet 2 inches (157 centimeters) tall, with a curvy and muscular body. Copeland’s fans, however celebrate her strong image. In 2010, Copeland was featured in a commercial for Under Armour sports apparel. Within a week of its release, the ad had more than 4 million views on YouTube. In the ad, Copeland dances as a voice-over reads a rejection letter detailing why “the candidate” is not a good fit for ballet.

In 2000, Copeland was offered a full scholarship to attend the ABT’s summer intensive program. In 2001, she joined the ABT’s corps de ballet (regular membership). Copeland has performed as a soloist since 2007. But until this week, the role of principal ballerina eluded her. “I had moments of doubting myself, and wanting to quit, because I didn’t know that there would be a future for an African American woman to make it to this level,” Copeland said at a news conference at the Metropolitan Opera House on Tuesday afternoon. “At the same time, it made me so hungry to push through, to carry the next generation. So it’s not me up here … it’s everyone that came before me that got me to this position.”

Copeland wrote about her life in the best-selling memoir, Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina (2014, with Charisse Jones). The book is currently being developed into a Hollywood movie.

A white gunman was arrested Thursday morning after allegedly killing nine African Americans at a Bible study at a historic black church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday evening.

Witnesses said the gunman spent an hour at the Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church before opening fire, saying he was there “to shoot black people.” Six females and three males were killed. Eight died at the scene; the ninth died at a hospital. Among the victims was the church’s pastor, South Carolina Senator Clementa Pinckney. There were 13 people inside the church when the shooting occurred.

The suspect, Dylann Roof, 21, of Lexington, South Carolina, was arrested in Shelby, North Carolina, about 245 miles (395 kilometers) from Charleston. Roof was taken into custody without incident during a traffic stop. Local police acted on a be-on-the-lookout notice that included a vehicle description, the license tag, and the suspect’s name. Roof confessed to the killings, saying he wanted to start a race war.

“The only reason someone would walk into a church and shoot people that were praying is hate,” Charleston Mayor Joe Riley said. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, choking back tears, said “the heart and soul of South Carolina was broken.… parents are having to explain to their kids how they can go to church and feel safe.” United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch, calling the shooting “barbaric,” announced that the U. S. Department of Justice had opened a hate-crime investigation into the shooting incident. President Barack Obama mourned the violence and the victims, saying, “Any death of this sort is a tragedy.…There is something particularly heartbreaking about death happening in a place in which we seek solace, we seek peace.”

Emanuel AME Church is the oldest AME church in the South. African American members of Charleston’s Methodist Episcopal Church formed their own congregation there in 1816. The church that stands at the site today was built in 1891. Known as “Mother Emanuel,” the church has been the headquarters for civil rights activity for decades.

Other World Book articles:

• 16th Street Baptist Church bombing
• Civil rights (1996 – a Back in Time article)
• Human rights (2001) – a Back in Time article)
• Human rights (2002 – a Back in Time article)
• United States, Government of the (1963 – a Back in Time article)

August 14, 2014

The Saint Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, was buffeted last night by a fifth night of protests amid growing anger over the shooting of an unarmed African-American teenager by a local police officer. Michael Brown was fatally shot on August 9 while walking home with a friend from a convenience store. According to the Ferguson chief of police, the officer who shot Michael Brown was assaulted by Brown, who had tried to grab the officer’s gun. The friend walking with Brown disputes that account, insisting that Brown’s hands were raised when he was shot multiple times.

Last night, scores of police officers in riot gear fired tear gas on the demonstrators after they ignored an order to disperse. The order came after four previous nights of sometimes violent protests and looting that resulted in dozens of arrests and the burning of a shop. Several people were arrested again last night, including two journalists covering the situation. They were arrested while writing on laptops seated inside a McDonald’s.

The journalists noted that Brown’s death laid bare long simmering tensions between the local African-American community and the police–tension rooted in the way the police treat blacks compared with how they treat Ferguson’s white residents. The town’s population of 21,000 is two-thirds African American, while only 3 of the 53-member police force are black.