Tim Lumas: Good morning, everyone. My name is Tim Lumas and
I am an adjunct professor at Moorpark community
College and I'm also the Basic Needs Specialist
for Raider Central. We're going to give everybody
about a minute to get in and then we're going to
start our Black History Month Kick Off today.
Jazz music, drums, piano, saxophone, guitar, Welcome to The Saint James Club by The Rippingtons
Good morning, everyone. My name is Tim Lumas and
I will be your host today for the Black History
Month Kickoff. I'd like to get a couple of things
cleared up. Number one, our Zoom manager is Michael
Ashton. As you can see from the screen, our
schedule today, we'll have a welcome by Dr.
Sokenu and Dr. Gebru. We'll also have a video
presentation by Dina Pielaet with some of our students
and faculty. And then Professor Ranford Hopkins
will do a presentation on the history of Black
History Month. We'll also announce that we have
a special guest coming to Moorpark College on
February 26. And at the end of this, we will have
some closing remarks by myself, Professor
Hopkins, and any questions or answer you may have.
At this time I'd like to introduce the Interim
President of our college, Dr. Julius Sokenu. Thank
you, Julius.
Dr. Julius Sokenu: Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for
joining us this morning to celebrate Black History
Month. It is a, it's an honor and a pleasure to be
here today to confirm for all of us not only why
it is that we celebrate Black History Month, but
that Black History Month should be every day. I
mean, that's, the new message that we should
send out, is that all our histories, all our
experiences matter and that we need to value the
contribution of people of African descent in this
country every single day, not just in the
month of February. Why is that important to us?
Well, for many of us who are in this
webinar and in this celebration and we'll go
through the celebration this month, we know
there's a wealth of of history and a wealth of
contributions and music, and entertainment, and
in sports, and in science, and in business, and in
all walks of life. And that those individuals,
those individual stories are yet to be told. And
so Black History Month is a way in which we remind
ourselves and we bring out more stories, to share
more stories to affirm, to build into the
structure that we call our education system, and the
structure that we call a social narrative of who
we are and what it means to be America. I
appreciate the opportunity to be here with you
today, but I value the work that everyone of this
Black History Month Committee has put together.
You have a dynamic, inspiring, you have a really
thought provoking program scheduled a program for
this month of February. And it is in deep
gratitude to the Black History Month Committee and
particularly to our students and their advisors
who put this program together. Black History Month
is celebrated in Moorpark College as a way for us
to not only acknowledge the contributions of our
African and African-American brothers and sisters,
but it is a way for us to make sure that we keep
telling the stories of what our present brothers
and sisters, what our present community does to
keep this country, to keep this state, to keep this
county vibrant and relevant. I thank you so much
and appreciate the work that you all do. And I
wish you a very, very happy Black History Month.
Tim: Thank you very much, Dr. Sokenu. I'd also
like to give a shout out to Banea Sumpter for taking the
lead on the Black History Month celebration. She
did a fantastic job. And without her and Michael
Ashton this event could not have taken form. Dr.
Gebru? Could you give us a welcome, please?
Dr. Amanuel Gebru: Thank you, Tim Lumas, for including me. And also
thank you, Julius, Dr. Sokenu, for the warm
welcome. Just excited to be a part, excited
that our campus community and our college is
putting on Black History Month. There's so much to
recognize. There's so much technology in terms of
history that our students can learn from our
community. So just excited to be a part of this.
But my role today is I really just want to thank
the people that really make this happen, because
without the staff, without the committee, without
the faculty involved to celebrate the importance
of Black History Month it's critical and I just
want to take the time to say thank you to a few
people who are really making this happen for our
college and our community. So starting off with
Banea Sumpter, who is one of our lead people
really helping, coordinating and planning all
these efforts. Tim Lumas, as you can see, who is
emceeing this event and helping put this event
together. Gerald Richardson and one of our
students, Ka Ren Mac Calla also, Analisa Jugan, Ranford
Hopkins. Professor Ranford Hopkins, who
teaches History. Dina Pielaet, who helps with our
marketing efforts. Micaiah Satterwhite. Trinity
Hooper. Tamarra Coleman our English faculty. Cynthia
Barnett, our Sociology faculty. Lauren Snowden,
another one of our faculty members, and Pauline
Nassar. And I'm sure there's other folks that it
may not have listed, but just our huge gratitude
from our executive team and everyone in our
community for you putting on a wonderful agenda
for our faculty, our staff, and our students to
benefit from this week. And also, I know there's a
special announcement that Tim and other folks will
let us know about towards the end of this,
presentation that I'm also excited about to bring
to our campus and to bring a scholar who will
really bring attention to the importance of Black
History Month, but also to the importance of
social justice and equity that we truly believe in.
So, once again, thank you so much for all that you
do and keep fighting the fight in regards to
equity and social justice. And we are here to
support you and also celebrate this month with you.
Tim: Dr. Gebru, thank you very much for your warm
welcome. We'd like to start off this with a video
presentation done by Dina Pielaet, and it's a
presentation where she interviewed faculty, staff,
and our students about the significance of Black
History Month and a tribute to Black history.
Analisa Jugan: I think we can all agree that just as people and
as a campus, as a nation, we have a lot of work to
do when it comes to plenty of social issues. And I
think Black History Month is a great opportunity
to reflect on that and the initiatives that we
want to have to cultivate a society, especially
here at Moorpark College.
Ka Ren Mac Calla: I think it's important
for everyone to be educated about history in
general and Black history, more importantly,
because it's a topic that can sometimes be
considered taboo. There's not a light shined on it
directly.
Trinity Hooper: Black history is about owning up to who
you are. It's about expressing yourself in the
most creative way to being positively you.
Tamarra Coleman: I think learning about Black history and learning
about Black people and culture is critical. I
think it's important. And I also think it's
important to learn about all of the different
people that are here on our campus, in our
community, in our country, in the world. Right? I
think the more we learn about who we are, where
we've come from, I think what we will learn is
that we are one in many ways, right?
Dr. Sokenu: In our men and
women of color, the more we're able to support our
students and our colleagues in their striving for
success, the more we're able to bring the vision
and the dreams, and even in some instances dreams
that they could not have imagined the more we're able
to make that real. And that, to me, I think, is
the, the message that we carry as we celebrate
Black History Month.
The moral obligation that we have as we live
in the world to do every day, not just in February,
but every single day, that we are living Black
History Month and that we are helping others up
and helping others out, and that we are calling out
when it needs to, but we're also calling in when it is
necessary.
Tamarra: I mean, it's laughable that we take a
history class at any level K through 12 or even in
higher ed here in the U.S., and there's a section
in the American history book on black history, as
if those people just popped up out of nowhere and
then disappeared, and then we moved on to the next
chapter, as if there's not an integrated history
with the slave master and the slave, or whoever or
whatever point in history we were in. It's really
silly, actually. Right? So until we get to that
point where it's integrated in the culture and if
we're talking about the antebellum South that
we're talking about those really clear,
problematic relationships between Black and White
people that existed on a daily basis in every
aspect of society. So Black History Month is
important because we don't even fully know one
side of that history yet, right?
Ka Ren: In high school,
when you're taught about in history classes, you
only get a few pages of it and you don't even get
the entire story of what happens. You know, you're
not really educated on what's going on. So not
being educated on certain topics might cause a
certain individual to just say things that they
don't mean.
Trinity: Diversity and our actual
accomplishments that we've done in the past, and
even as of now, I think it's important that they
update our textbooks and actually showcase what we
really are about besides slavery. You know.
Analisa: I
remember in my eighth grade class for U.S. History
seeing that the Black experience was limited to
two pages and these two textbook pages only
discussed slavery. And I was confounded, you know,
by the fact that when you really reflect on
history, we have been doctors, we have been
engineers, teachers, you know, just looking at
this past month, you know, we can be the Vice
President, we can be presidents and we can be the
youngest inaugural poet. I think Black History
Month is an amazing opportunity to reflect not
only on, you know, the fact that we do have a
painful history, but that we can learn from. But
all of the potential that we have.
Dr. Sokenu: Those
individuals who struggled, set the ground for our
successes today, and it's incumbent upon us
to now do the same for those who will come after
us. And that's why I do think that, you know, the
work that we do at the college to make sure that
we have diverse faculty, and staff, and
administrators available to our students and the
students see the individuals who are like them, and
they are able to connect with those individuals,
but at the same time that we work with allies
from other communities so that they are better
able to do the work of supporting us, you know, in
our journeys They're able to understand and value
our experiences, so that those experiences are
integrated into the instruction, into the
curriculum, and integrated into the ways in which
people deliver information and deliver knowledge,
and share knowledge.
Tamarra: Normally I teach primarily
writers of color, or women, or folks who identify as
LGBT, QI,
And we were reading Fences set in the 1950s about
a Black family. Main character was a really good
baseball player, but was not able to be a part of
the major leagues because of segregation, right?
So before we got into the text, I said to my class,
here at Moorpark, "Tell me what's going on in the
1950s. Give me just a background of the history
generally what's happening in the 1950s in America."
And inevitably every semester the students would
say to me, so they knew there is a racial issue
they just didn't know what they would say, "Slavery."
And I would say to myself, "The 1950s?" but
it was clear to me that there was a disconnect in
knowledge base that the students had coming out of
our feeder schools in our district, and I suspect
it's probably true outside of this area as well
about the history, just American history in
general, but in particular about Black people.
What they knew about Black people was slavery.
That's it. They were slaves at some point. We
don't know the details, what that meant, but we
know the bad thing that happened to Black people,
right, was slavery. And I just thought we've got a
lot of work to do.
Ka Ren: I don't know. Growing up in
L.A., I never looked at anyone with race or with
color. I was just kind of like, "Oh, there's the
person." And then moving out of that and seeing
other people who just made the distinction between
me and their friends kind of making me feel like,
"Oh, I'm noticing my color," when I just think that it's
not all about color and race.
Trinity: When it comes to
family, usually people think it's only skin deep,
but it's about relating on a different type of
level, making lifelong friendships, having a safe
space that you probably wouldn't get if you're
just alone or by yourself.
Dr. Sokenu: Our work is that we're
moving towards justice. Our work is that we're
moving towards equity. Our work and our lives, I
would say is that we're moving towards celebrating
and investing in one another's humanity.
Tamarra: The
moments in which I feel most useful on the planet
is really that moment, whether it's in the
classroom or it's in the community, organizing
people, women, folks of color around issues, when
I see that my voice, my willingness to be
vulnerable and share my story actually impacts
other people.
Analisa: My ideal is that we have Black
history awareness. And, you know, ideally we
wouldn't have particular months where, you know,
we've had to shine a light. At the end of the day,
I think we all want a time where we feel all of
our history is shared and we reflect on all of
that history.
Dr. Sokenu: I hope that in my own work and in
the work that we do at this college, we model for
our students, all students, but in particular for
our students who are from minority communities,
that their voice matters, that we model for them,
that the potential within them is infinite.
Trinity: Two years ago, when I didn't feel comfortable in
my own skin or people made me feel as if I wasn't
good enough, but you have to step out of your shell
and just showcase who you really are.
Ka Ren: No matter
what anyone else tells you, as long as you put
your mind to it, you can do it, you can
carry it out, you can succeed and you can go
beyond what anyone is telling you that
you can do. There is no limitation except the
limitations that you put on yourself and the
situation that you are in now, whether you can
control it or you can't control it and it's
out of reach, this is not forever, this is just
a temporary moment, and in due time, you will be
able to make that the steps that you need to take
to where you want.
Dr. Sokenu: This is particularly important
to our young people and it's particularly important to our
students because you will get voices and messages
that might say you're less than and some of those
voices might come from within yourself and they
might come from outside. What is so important is
to have that grounding, that belief and that
understanding of the history and of the
accomplishments, so that the negativity, so that
the doubt...
is wiped away. We will have those moments of
doubt, but that those moments of doubt are erased
because we know...
that we are worthy. Because we know that we make and have
made this civilization what it is.
Ka Ren: Making a change
starts with you.
Trinity: Owning up to who you are and owning
just everything about yourself, and what you can
put into the world is important.
Analisa: The beauty, the pain,
the suffering. We can reflect on who we want to
become and not just as the Black community, but as
our whole entire community.
Tamarra: We all are sort of
looking for the same things in terms of our lives,
our purpose, our meaning, our gifts, being valued
for whatever they are, right? So in many ways, I
think diversity is, it is, right? It's not, "Do
we like it or not?" It is... diversity is. The question
is, are we going to value that, right, in one
another and help build upon that?
Dr. Sokenu: I ask you to
live Black History Month every day. Let Black
History Month be the lens through which you live
your life.
On screen text: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." By Martin Luther King Jr.
On screen text: Black History Month Committee: Banea Sumpter, Timothy Lumas, Gerald Richardson the Third, Ka Ren Mac Calla, Analisa Jugan, Ranford Hopkins, Dina Pielaet, Micaiah Satterwhite, Trinity Hooper, Tamarra Coleman, Cynthia Barnett, Lauren Snowden, Pauline Nassar. Special thanks to Dr. Sokenu, Members of the Black Student Union.
On screen text: Moorpark College Presents A Tribute to Black History
Tim: Thank you very much Dina that was wonderful.
At this point, I'd like to introduce the feature
presentation, the future keynote speaker
today, and that is Professor Ranford
Hopkins, who will be talking to us about Why Black
History Month, Professor Hopkins?
You're muted.
Ranford Hopkins: You think I'd know by now, right? Before I go any
further, I've got to say that was an exceptional
tribute to to black history and to Black History
Month. Hats off to all the contributors. The
truth, the passion you shared, you so inspiring. I
appreciate that. Tim, I'm sure, you know, when
you described me as emeritus, you mean that I'm old
and retired. To all attendees thanks for your time
and joining the webinar. Thanks to the Black
Student Union and other entities for the invite.
This talk on Black History Month, or as I like to
say, Black History Month and historical context
has three parts. Part one, I'd like to look at the
pejorative perspective of black history on Black
people before Carter G. Woodson. Carter G. Woodson
is considered the father of Black History Month.
Secondly, Carter G. Woodson's efforts to change
the pejorative view of Black people and their
history, and then finally, just a quick case study
of the radical origins of Black History Month.
Next slide, please?
I like to start my history classes with this
concept, "In history, there is no beginning, only
the event that preceded in question." If we can
say that you can't understand the present without
the past, then, for example, if we were to start
next slide, please? If we were to start with the
movement for civil rights, it's difficult to
understand the Civil Rights Movement without
understanding the Jim Crow Era. It's difficult to
understand the Jim Crow Era without understanding
why there was reconstruction. Why was there a
civil war?
What about antebellum slavery? And then finally,
William Tucker. We'll get to know William Tucker
in just a moment. And of course, if we were to
continue backwards and looking backwards in
history, eventually we'd wind up and Olduvai Gorge
in Tanzania with the beginning of Homo Sapiens.
Next slide? But we don't want to do that, right?
So let's start with this gentleman. His name is
Urlich B. Phillips, professor of History, out of
the University of Michigan. In the, at the turn of
the century and through the early 30s and 40s, he
wrote a very impactful work that was called
American Negro Slavery. To his credit, Phillips
did, in fact, write a history about Black people.
To his discredit, he offered a very pejorative
view of African-American people, especially slaves.
in general. Next slide, please?
So Philips' thesis was that slavery benefited the
Negro. As far as he was concerned slaves were
innately docile, submissive, ignorant and
unstable. He believed that Black people were
predisposed to be slaves, that in order for Blacks
to be successful in America, they needed to be
slaves, to be acculturated to the culture. And
finally, he believed that Black people needed
protection because they could not compete in a
competitive world. Next slide?
Major themes.
Of course...we would ask Phillips, "Did you consider
the forces that were oppressing Blacks?" Lack of
meaningful economic opportunity, voting rights
circumvented in the North and non-existent in the
South. Victims of violence or threat of violence
within which seldom legal recourse. Most lacked
quality educational opportunities. And I want to
concentrate just a moment on this last one,
victimized by demeaning stereotypes. So for the next, I have
three slides I'd like you to see and I'd like you
to think and reflect upon each one. Next slide?
In the vein of stereotypes. This one is entitled
How Ink Is Made.
This is a postcard. Postcards like these were
thousands and can spread throughout the country
year after year.
Next slide?
This placard it's called Not Particular. If you
aren't able to read it because the print is so
small, allow me. "I know you're not particular to a
fault, though I'm not sure you'll never be sued
for assault. You're so fond of women that even a
wench attracts your gross fancy despite her stench."
Finally, the next slide?
From this world renowned novelist...and major
contributor to short stories is Agatha Christie.
She wrote a book called Ten Little n-words, and
she wrote another one called Ten Little Indians.
Unfortunately, the story ends with all ten of these
people being killed.
Next slide?
Now in building this look at stereotypes, I want
you to imagine if you're a little Black boy,
scratch that a little White boy or little White
girl growing up anywhere in the country, but let's
say the Midwest and you've never seen or don't
know Black people, and if you're constantly
visited with these kinds of images, the ones we've
just seen and what you're going to see, and what
we'll talk about here in a minute in Birth of A
Nation, you can imagine how that might impact your
view of the whole population of people. So The
Birth of A Nation is the granddaddy of all
stereotypes about Black people. First of all, the
film is largely based on the lost cause ideology
of the South. For those of you who don't know,
with a lost cause of the ideology of the South was
one perspective is to look at it is that the
Confederacy was just and the Confederacy was
heroic. The things they stood for, states rights,
Blacks as subservient was one. Secondly, the film
and the whole notion of this lost cause ideology
is the notion that freedom, equality would ruin
Black people. Black people need to be subjugated
and taken care of.
Also, this freedom and equal opportunity will ruin
the nation. The nation will spend too much time
and energy trying to help Black people. And
finally, one of the most coveted pieces in white
supremacy is protection of white womanhood. So The
Birth of A Nation film repeatedly makes clear
that black equality would undermine the security
of White women. Black men should not touch, speak, or
provide even the slightest suggestion of sexual
interest in White women. Many of you may remember
the case of Emmett Till back in 1955.
This is a perfect example of recent times,
and there have been I mean, the history is replete
with this kind of activity, but Emmett Till was a
14 year old boy from Chicago who had come to Money,
Mississippi. He met his two cousins. They go into
a little country store. And one of the things
that Emmett had told his friends is that I have a
girlfriend in Chicago who is white and they
couldn't believe it. So then they dared him to go
into that store and just say something to that
White woman. Well they got their candy and were on
the way out and and Emmett turned 14 year old boy,
turned to this grown woman and said, "Bye, baby."
Well, next, we find that Emmett Till was shot in
the head, body, mutilated and tied to a cotton gin
fan. So these are the kind of activities that can
occur with this concept of the lost cause of the
Confederacy. And we're beginning to see some
activity like that. We've seen activity like that
throughout history, and it seems to be escalating
here in the last, shall I say, eight years. Next
slide, please?
Here is just a picture of Lillian Gish. She is the
kind of person that, if this lost cause, is trying
to protect and to generate the most emotional
feeling. Next slide?
Now, contrary to the thinking of the lost cause
and to the thinking of Professor Phillips is
Carter G. Woodson. Carter G. Woodson, an American
historian, journalist, author, founder of Negro
History Week. He becomes the precursor for Black
History Month. To my mind mindset, Woodson set the
platform for the beginning of African-American
studies in this country in a serious way. Little
wonder he is called the father of African-American
history.
Next slide?
So Woodson had a dream, he had goals, and his
goal was through the study of African American
history, not too dissimilar for many of the things
that were shared in the tributes. The tributes
nailed that was shown earlier. The
tributes nailed many of the goals that Carter G.
Woodson hope to accomplish. To create racial
harmony, to reduce prominence of racial
stereotypes, and to inspire African-American youth
to achieve. He believe that if Black kids knew
what their ancestors had done, they would feel
pride and a sense of accomplishment and
achievement for their own future. Okay, next slide,
please?
Next slide, please?
Woodson's view. I'm sorry, can we go back? No,
that's right. You don't have to. His solution was,
okay, I'm sorry, Michael, yeah, you could go back. I
didn't know how easy it was to go back. All right.
So Woodson's solution was to found an organization
that would coordinate, develop, and promote the
study of African-American history. This
organization was called the Study of Negro,
The Association for the Study of Negro Life and
History. Then he also created in 1916 a scholarly
journal, The Journal of Negro History, which is
still published today under a different name. The
Journal of African-American History,
to help bring scholarship and scholarship could be
contributed from any group of people Whites,
Blacks, no matter what your stripe, you were
welcome to contribute to the scholarship. And of
course, all populations did. Next slide?
Woodson wrote a book, a very famous book called The
Miseducation of the Negro, and one of his lines
that I like best was his view of why history is
important. He said, "If a race has no history, it
has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a
negligible factor in the thought of the world and
it stands in danger of being exterminated." From
his work and the work of the association, we have
the beginnings of Negro History Week in February
of 1926. Carter G. Woodson admired Lincoln,
loved Frederick Douglass and their birthdays were
respectfully, respectfully on the 12th and the
14th of February, and that's why Negro History
Week and Black History Month remain to this day in
February. Next?
Now, Woodson did not work alone. What you see on the
screen is the so-called Divine Nine. These are the
original nine fraternities and sororities, the
original nine black fraternities and sororities
and each one of these groups in their own way,
even before Woodson's were those that were
established before 1926, each one
of them celebrated the black experience, if not in
a formal history week or history month. Those
divine nine included, first of all, the Alpha,
Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, which was the first
Greek organization, the AKA's, the Alpha Kappa
Alpha sorority, first black sorority, the nation's
VP, as you well know, is a member of the esteemed
Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Kamala Harris makes
that clear often when she is speaking. Next slide?
And then there's the Omega Psi Phi. Woodson was a
member of the Omega Psi Phi and this organization
held annually, celebrated literary achievements of
the race before 1926. So there
already is we can see folks working and trying to
save the history of Black people. Next slide?
This person we don't often hear but George
Washington Williams wrote the first truly
scholarly History of The Negro Race in America.
His work predated that of Professor Phillips out
of Michigan and was much more accurate and well
researched than Phillips was. Next slide? And of
course, no mention of African-American history or
African-American studies or culture can leave out
the work of W.E.B. DuBois. DuBois, sociologist,
historian, writer, civil rights and eventually a
Pan-Africanist, his doctoral dissertation out of
Harvard. And by the way, he was the first Ph.D.
out of Harvard was The Suppression of The African
Slave Trade to the United States of America. This
was the first scholarly work on the slave trade,
then The Philadelphia Negro, a sociological study,
The first sociological study on an urban community,
certainly the first sociological study of the
Black community. And then his famous book, I urge
everyone to read this book, The Souls of Black
Folk. It says so much. But one of the major themes we
all take away from it and we still quote and talk
about this to this day, he wrote the book in
1903. How prophetic was the notion
that the 20th century brought the problem of the
20th century is the problem of the color line?
Next slide, please?
So all of the authors that I've talked about
before, including the fraternities and sororities,
were busy in their own way, recording, writing,
African-American history. None more than the
various names you see some of the great scholars
of the 1940s, 50s, and into the
60s, from DuBois to Buckmaster, to Hofstadter,
to Aptheker, to Benjamin Quarrels, both Black and
White historians and none more than the dean of
African-American history. We call him John
Franklin, the historian. All of these people
contributed to trying to piece together this
history that was 180 degrees
opposite of the themes and the thesis that Dr.
Phillips put forward.
Now, a major paradigm shift occurs in the writing
of American of African-American history through this
book that you see in the center between Kenneth
Stampp, University of California at Berkeley, and
Franklin. The book is entitled The Peculiar
Institution. Stampp aggressively refuted Phillips'
conclusions about enslaved African-Americans. His
research, unlike Phillips' was based on data, was
based on the actual words and testimony of slaves,
so he knew more accurately...
how the enslaved felt about their
conditions and much more research, of course, have
been done since his work. But Stampp argued that
African-Americans found slavery, found subtle ways
and not so subtle means to fight...slavery.
African-American found ways to maintain various
aspects of their African heritage and to
develop new traditions based on their experiences
and under unspeakable oppression.
African-Americans found ways to maintain family
systems or more commonly they found ways to
create new ones based on the rigid and demeaning
system under which they were forced to exist.
The seeds that Woodson had planted are now
beginning to bloom. Next slide, please?
Of course, Woodson believed proper education
would fix any social societal ills with education,
could change the hearts and minds. If people knew
the contributions of Black people to the nation
and knew the contributions of those to the world
than stereotypes and ignorance would perhaps
wither. I'd like you to meet some friends I
brought with me to the presentation. These are the
kinds of people that Woodson believed would change
preconceptions and would change attitudes about
Black people. These folks are personalities from
the 17th through the 19th century. Many of us,
when we talk about African-American history, we
rightly talk about people like Martin Luther King,
or Jackie Robinson, or Ida Wells Barnett, or Aretha
Franklin, but there is so much more to
African-American history in these early period. So
what I'd like to share with you a few of the folks
that Carter Woodson would point to and say, "See,
look what we've done, look what we've accomplished,"
and they're from all aspects of life. So next, I'm
sorry, let me stay there with William Tucker. So
William Tucker has the distinction of being the
first person of African descent, born in the
United States. His parents, along with 18 other
Black people, were brought from Africa to America
in 1619. But they did not come as slaves. They
came as indentured servants. And when they arrived,
by the time they had served their terms as
indentured servants from five to seven years, most
of them went on to acquire the property that was
due them, and especially Isabell and Antoney. Next
slide?
Paul Cuffee, have you heard of Paul Cuffee before?
Wealthy businessman, shipbuilder, merchant, he
aided the American Revolution. He's the first
Black person to sue for the right to vote. Sued
the state of Massachusetts for the right to vote.
He sought to establish a colony of free
African-Americans in Sierra Leone. Unfortunately,
that effort was really designed to colonize the
populations living in Sierra Leone, believing that
Western culture, American culture would help them
to achieve more than their own culture. Next?
David Walker. David Walker, first freedom fighter,
as far as I'm concerned, he predated the stances
taken later by Malcolm or the Black Panther Party.
He wrote a famous book, you may have heard of it,
called Walker's Appeal. The full title of that
book was Walker's Appeal to the Colored Citizens
of the World, but in particular and very expressly
to those of the United States of America. This is
the first sustained written assault upon slavery
and racism to come out by a Black man. One of the
points that we should know about this book, if you
don't remember anything else about it, remember
that his audience was not the black elite, not
those Blacks who found a way to scratch a decent
living either in the north or the south and not to
the white liberals are the anti slavers. His book
was written to the masses of Blacks to try to help
to teach them that they do not need to take this
system and try to survive in it. They need to
find other ways. Okay, next slide?
Harriet Tubman, we all know Harriet Tubman,
you cannot talk about sacrifice, you cannot talk
about the drive for American freedom without
mentioning Harriet Tubman. Prolific conductor of
the Underground Railroad. She was successful in
commandeering some two hundred, as she called
charges out of slavery. Two hundred Black men,
women and children out of slavery. And she wasn't on
a horse most of the time and she wasn't in a wagon,
they literally walked from various states,
especially in the southeast there up to north to
to freedom or even as far as Canada where they
were taken. She was a Union army spy, a scout, a
nurse, and one of her most ardent friends and
someone she trusted with her life as he trusted
with her life was John Brown. John Brown, of
course, was the man who led to famous or infamous
raid on Harpers Ferry. She helped to finance him
in that episode in Harpers Ferry.
Unfortunately for him and maybe for all of us,
it didn't work. Next?
Then as William Lloyd Garrison. William Lloyd
Garrison...
says it all with this quote about himself. He
wrote this, the most popular and the most infamous
antislavery newspaper called The Liberator, and he
also founded a regional organization called the
New England Anti Slavery Society. And then it went
national. It was the American Antislavery Society.
And they did good work in trying to help liberate
the slaves. They often helped and financed the
Underground Railroad. But to understand Garrison
and what he stood for, let me read a quote that he
had given just before he launched the Liberator
newspaper. "A few white victims must be sacrificed
to open the eyes of this nation and show the
tyranny of our laws. I expect and I am willing to
be persecuted in prison and bound for advocating
African rights. And I deserve to be a slave myself
if I shrunk from that duty or danger."
People like Garrison have always existed in
American history. Garrison was trying to help
people that didn't look like him because it was
the right thing to do. We've had people throughout
history of all stripes, black, yellow, brown.
The epitome of that whole notion is embodied in
one of our dear colleagues that we recently lost
last month, Kathryn Adams of the English
Department. Kathryn would give her life to help
others. And so I just want to pay tribute to her.
Let's move on to the next slide.
This is Mary Ellen Pleasant, another one of these
African-American women who were millionaires in
their lifetime. She was called the Harriet Tubman
of the West because she worked so hard not to end slavery,
but to raise up those Blacks who were injured or
who had difficulty surviving. And she brought a
number of legal suits in San Francisco against
discrimination and unfair treatment, next. Oh,
also, one other thing I'd like to remember about
her, she is said to have given close to five
hundred thousand dollars to John Brown also in
his pursuit to the activity he did down in
Harpers Ferry in Virginia. Okay next slide?
Now, I've become an avid golfer, so I took a
little liberty here, but this liberty is important
to understand. Many, many people sometimes
categorize sports or activities based on a race.
So White people search, White people ride skateboards,
but that's not for Black people. That's no longer
true in 2021. But for much of our
history, there are certain things Black people did
and certain things White people do. One of the
things Black people don't do is play golf. That's
a White man's sport. Well, let me tell you this.
The first time that an American played in the
United States Open Golf Tournament was this man on
the left, John Shippen, he becomes the first
African-American golfer to play, but he wasn't
only the first African-American golfer to play,
but he was the first American golfer to play in
the US Open. His friend, a Shinnecock Native
American by the name of Oscar Bunn also played. So
the first Americans to play in the U.S. Open were
both people of color. You might say, "Well, what do
you mean? Who else was playing if they if these
were the only people?" Well, there were no
Americans. The people who brought golf to America
were Scottish people, or English, or the Irish they
played. But at the first term in 1895
and then this tournament that these
gentlemen first participated in 1896,
and
Shippen becomes the first American golfer to win
prize money in the U.S. Open. Shippen
unfortunately, also becomes the last golfer
allowed to play in the U.S. Open until the
1940s. Next slide?
Real quick, I know our time is short and I don't
want to go over, but this dentist, George Franklin
Grant receives all kinds of platitudes and
respect as a dentist. His specialty was cleft
palate patients, and he created and patented a
prosthetics that would help cleft palate patients
to eat well. He was also the first
African-American faculty member at Harvard. We
have Woodson, who was the second Ph.D., we have
DuBois who is the first Ph.D., but the first
African-American faculty member at Harvard was,
was George Grant, and he invented the first
golf tee, the first modern golf tee. There have
been many iterations of it, but he is the one that
received a patent for the golf tee in 1899.
Unfortunately, he didn't profit from this tee, not
that he was particularly interested in it, in that
anyways. Next slide?
Finally, of those that have contributed, I'm going
to skip into and delve into the 20th century
with this man, John James Weldon Johnson, I think
we've all heard of him. And if you haven't heard
of him, you've heard of his song, Lift Every Voice
and Sing. James supplied the lyrics, his brother
Jay or John Rosamond Johnson, he supplied the music
and by 1905, Lift Your Voice and Sing
became very quickly the Black National Anthem. And
to this day, most African-Americans recognizes as
the Black National Anthem along with the American
Anthem.
Of late, there's been more than just talk that
Lift Every Voice and Sing will become the American
national hymn. Don't get me wrong on this, not the
new American National Anthem, but the new American
national hymn. Next slide, please?
So I want to end this talk very briefly with just
a quick case study of what I call the radical
path to Black History Month, but radicalism is in
the eyes of the beholder, right? Little background.
The 1940s, the 50s and the 60s
witnessed the uneven expansion of Black History
Week in the study of black history in general. So
all the work that had been done is beginning to
grow throughout the country. But let's take a much
too brief chronology of one of the paths that
Black History Month took. By the mid 1960s in
places like San Francisco, in Oakland, throughout
the Bay Area, in Chicago, and yes, Virginia. Even
in Kent State University in the Midwest, college
students were leading the activism against
political, social, economic, and racial injustices.
Not to mention the exploding anti-war sentiment
that was blossoming and of course, the freedom to
smoke a little dope. In November of 1967,
a group of men came to Kent State on the
invitation of some of these activists Black
students, this group was called the Deacons for
Self-defense. They were founded or established in
Louisiana to protect Black people who wanted to
vote, who wanted to just live a normal life, to
keep from being hung, from getting murdered. They
were armed and they were dangerous to anyone that
tried to encroach upon black rights. By the winter
of 1968, they spoke in the fall of
1967, they were on the quarter system at
Kent State. They spoke in the fall of 1967 and
then by the winter of 1968 Black
students organized themselves into a student club.
This student club was called the Black United
Students and it remains that name today. Most
black organized clubs are called the Black
Student Union. We have obviously a Black Student
Union at Moorpark College, and many of you have
attended universities where you've always heard
BSU, with this group then and even now, called
themselves the Black United Students. With a death
in '68 with key national figures. Our beloved
Martin Luther King in April of '68 and the equally
beloved Bobby Kennedy in June of '68, students here
and elsewhere throughout the country began to
anticipate what Obama would later phrase, and, "We
are the change we seek." So students begin to
develop solidarity with the Black Panther Party at
Kent State, and the reason for that is that the
Black Panther Party was calling attention to in
California to that the most racist, and the most
violent, and the most brutal police force that they
know of are the police are the police from
Oakland, California. And as far as they were
concerned, they needed to be stopped. Well, to add
insult to injury to the time, Kent State
University allowed officers or recruiters from the
Oakland Police Department to come to Kent State
and recruit
students to become police officers in Oakland.
When these recruiters came to campus, both Black,
White and other students of color began to protest.
Many students led by the B, by the B-U-S, they
decided to take over the campus center and then
once they were expelled from the campus center,
they then walked from the campus twenty four miles
away, or some of them drove to to Akron, where
they set up what they called a university in exile.
And while they were in exile, they began to talk
about and to address racial, how to end racial
discrimination, how to promote social injustice,
and to promote a respect for black history, for
black history and culture. Next slide?
During these meetings at this at this exile
university, the question kept coming up, germane to
what we're talking about. "Why is it that only one
week is given to the study of black history and
51 weeks are given to white history?" The
better solution, of course, as we all know, as
Tammy mentioned earlier, is to have it all
integrated, and when you read history, you would
read about everyone black, brown, yellow. The
university sanctioned, finally, after much
haggling and protest, they finally sanctioned the
celebration of Black History Month. And so Kent
State becomes one of the first, if not the first
that's in dispute. Kent State becomes
the first university to offer Black History Month
every month from February to 1970. Last point here
is that the Kuumba house that you see to the left
with the brothers standing on top of the roof was
founded in 1968 during these
years of protest. They fought for and got this
center. The center becomes the college is the
university's first Black Student's Cultural Center.
And then in time it will become the African
American Studies Center or today, the Pan African
Cultural Center. Next slide. Finally, do the work
of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People and other lobbyist and promoters,
Gerald Ford signed into law a decree, I'm sorry he didn't
a law he signed a decree and essentially he said
we can seize the opportunity to
honor the two often neglected accomplishments of
Black Americans in every area throughout our
history. Thank you, folks. I think I ran over just
a bit, but thank you so much for the opportunity
to share some thoughts on Black History Month.
Tim: Professor Hopkins, thank you very much for your
presentation, it was wonderful. Next slide, please?
We've been able to ask you to save the date
because on February 26, there will be a
conversation lecture with Dr. Cornel West, who is
a philosopher and a published practice professor
at Harvard University and Professor Emeritus at
Princeton University. He will be here on the
26th. The exact time is to be determined,
but this is one of those ventures where there will
probably be some sort of webinar followed by
probably something on YouTube. But we just want to
make sure you save that date. There are also a series of
other events that are occurring throughout Black
History Month that are being hosted by faculty,
staff, and our students as well. Next slide, please?
I'd also like to take this time introduce you to
the Black family of Moorpark College who are here on
this particular slide and every aspect of the
college, from the administration to staff, to
faculty to admin. Also, we will be offering
soon an African-American Studies course at
Moorpark College, and we look forward to that. Dr.
Hopkins, or excuse me Professor Hopkins is there anything else
you'd like to add before we close out? [Ranford]: No, not at
this time, I know we have a couple other things to
do before we do. I'm fine. Thank you so much. Okay Tim. Next
slide, please? So we're going to end this today
and like everything else in my class. Please
have fun today. Enjoy yourselves, take care of
your families. Welcome to Black History Month at Moorpark
College and above all else, continue to be the
positive difference in the lives you touch each
day. And we're going to leave you with the Black
National Anthem. Have a nice day.
(Acapella sounds, ooh... do... dah) Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring Ring with the harmonies of Liberty
Let our rejoicing rise High as the listening skies Let it resound loud as the rolling sea
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun Let us march on till victory is won
Stony the road we trod Bitter the chastening rod Felt in the days when hope unborn had died
Yet with a steady beat Have not our weary feet Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered
Out from the gloomy past Till now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast
(Acapella sounds, ooh...doo...aah...dah...)
God of our weary years God of our silent tears Thou who has brought us thus far on the way
Thou who has by Thy might led us into the light Keep us forever in the path, we pray
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee Lest, our hearts drunk of the wine of the world, we forget Thee
Shadowed beneath Thy hand May we forever stand True to our God True to our God True to our God...
True to our native land True to our native land
Tim: Thank you very much, everyone. Enjoy your day and
welcome to Black History Month.