Friday, January 25, 2019

COMMUNITY CREATOR


SUSIE BAKER KING TAYLOR (1848-1912) was born a slave at a plantation in Liberty County, Georgia as Susan Ann Baker. In 1855, as a 7 year old child in Savannah, Georgia, where there were strict laws against formal education of Black people, Baker attended two secret schools taught by Black women. By 1860 she had been taught everything these two educators could offer. She soon became a skilled reader and writer.

In 1862 at the age of 14, living with her uncle's family and other Blacks on Union-occupied St. Simon's Island, word of her knowledge and intelligence spread among the Army officers on the island. Five days after her arrival she was offered books and school supplies by Commodore Louis Goldsborough if she agreed to organize a school for the children on St. Simon's Island. Baker accepted the offer and became the first Black woman teacher to openly instruct former slaves in Georgia. She taught children during the day and adults at night.

Baker was also the first Black woman to publish a memoir of her wartime experience. It was privately published as a book in 1902, Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops, later published in 1999 as ["A Black Woman's Civil War Civil Memoirs"]






Friday, January 18, 2019

BLACK HISTORY QUIZ - the answer

Toussaint L'Ouverture (1743-1803) - Liberator of Haiti. His successful rebellion against French rule was the only completely victorious land-based slave revolt in history.

Friday, January 11, 2019

BLACK HISTORY QUIZ - the answer


Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784),the prodigy, was the first Black female published poet. She journeyed to slavery and then to fame as a poet while still a child. Her book, Poems on Various subjects, Religious and Moral was published in 1773 in London. After seeing only one poem, the Countess of Huntington became Wheatley's patron and financed the publication of her work.

SUN'S GOING DOWN

Clouds dissipating
Floating through the evening sky
Night starting to call
Descending darkness ruling
Because daylight is ending




Friday, January 4, 2019

ONCE UPON A REVOLUTION



Once upon a revolution
I knew Mao Tse-Tung
Fidel Castro
Che Guevara and Malcolm X
Just to name a few
I knew all those revolutions
Because once upon a time
I was a revolution too


Friday, March 31, 2017

CELEBRATE THE BLACK WOMAN

                                       BESSIE SMITH-1894-1937-SINGER
                                             EMPRESS OF THE BLUES

Thursday, March 30, 2017

CELEBRATE THE BLACK WOMAN

ODETTA HOLMES-1930-2008-SNGER-SONGWRITER-MUSICIAN-ACTRESS-CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST