4 Black Facts You Probably Didn’t Know

Feb 7

Let’s get straight to the point! Our History textbooks did not teach us thorough Black American history; there are reasons for that, but that’s a different discussion. The information listed below are some of the facts that I learned 10 entire years after graduating from high school. Most of these facts were ones that I discovered through reading on my own since I’ve become a full time History student, but most were learned through lecture. Some of those classes included Black Women’s History, History of Africa, and the Civil Rights Movement. All of these facts further empowered me as a Black American Woman. I was able to understand more of how innovative and resistant Black Americans were to the cruel and unjust ways they were being treated. Imagine my face when I learned of #2! “Wait just one minute! What do you mean she wasn’t the first?” I assure you, #2 won’t be the only one you will be shocked by.

African men and women played a large role in the success of the slave trade. Africans being kidnapped from the coasts of Africa is only a small portion of how slaves got to what we now call America. I know, this is disheartening. But to put even a small sense of pride within you, Africans were smart and strategic since the start of time; the mythological narrative of African people being ignorant, is inaccurate. They had technological weapons, power, and intellect that demanded respect from the Europeans that were involved in the slave trade. They would be what we now consider entrepreneurs; very skilled at negotiating and marketing. Want to know more? Read: Where The Negroes Are Masters: An African Port in the Era of the Slave Trade by Randy Sparks.
The Female Slave Network is the foundation of the unitedness Black families have. Have you ever heard someone say “that’s my play cousin!” or “that’s my play mama.”? It’s a demonstration of the endearment that someone has to another person they are not related to by blood; it’s a common trend within many Black communities and it didn’t come from nowhere. Female slaves were separated from their families. That tactic was used by slaveholders in an attempt to break down people in bondage; it didn’t quite work. What slave women were able to do for themselves couldn’t compare to what groups of slave women did for each other; they created new family. With and through other women, they gained support, and love. Perhaps most notably, amongst each other they learned different techniques to be resistant to the injustice they were enduring.
There were two large waves of migration. You may be more familiar with the second wave that brought Black Southerners to the northeastern United States beginning in the 1920s, commonly referred to as the Great Migration. This wave was in large part due to the demand for workers within the industrial industry to support World War II. Big cities like Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Harlem attracted millions of Black Americans that were determined to build a better life for their family and escape violent racism; they left everything they knew. The sad part is, racism was something they never could really escape. One commonly known result of this was the Harlem Renaissance.
Who was the first person to refuse her seat on public transportation? You’re probably thinking of Rosa Parks, right? I hate to break it to you, but that’s not true. Actually, there were a few people before Rosa Parks. A prominent name you need to know though is Claudette Colvin. At the young age of 15, she refused her seat to a white woman on a public segregated bus. Rosa Parks refusing her seat was a strategic plan created by the NAACP and other local organizers and activists in Montgomery, AL. Mrs. Parks fit the respectability criteria that would make legitimate noise throughout the country and the world. Want to know more? Listen to the CSPAN Lectures in History: Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

You may or may not have been familiar with these facts. Either way, use this information as I did and allow it to encourage you. Apply this information to your everyday life. Will you continue to be innovative as the African ancestors did? Can you be a friend and/or someone another Woman can lean on for support? Will you step out on a leap of faith for a life you know you deserve? Will you be a better strategic planner to fulfill the end goal of something that will benefit masses of people?