Posts

March 31 -- $25 million buys the USVI

March 31, 1917… Before this date, what is NOW called the US Virgin Islands was known as the Danish West Indies. The cost of the purchase was 25 million dollars, which I REALLY hope you might have gathered from the title of this post. “but Phlip, what in the blue hell does this have to do with black history?” you ask? If you know anything about the West Indies, you know that is where the slaves were transported to (or through) when the US was making attempts to deter slave owners from importing them (link from my own archive, that). With that in mind, a great many of the black folks settled on the French (Haiti), Dutch (what we’re talking about now, among others) and mostly Spanish-controlled Caribbean nations. With that said, the white folks went to where they could own slaves or back home and the black folks became the majorities. With that in mind, the US Virgin Islands being a US Territory inhabited by brown people, this becomes a black history fact. Now, I look at the de

March 30 -- The best rapper EVAR!!!

March 30, 1962 marks the date of birth of one Stanley Kirk Burrell, a rapper who could be heralded using the right language as the best rapper ever invented… How, you ask? Well, if Jay-Z, and then Lil Wayne laid claims to being the “best rapper alive” based upon their popularity and sales figures, BOTH would be served a cold hard lesson when it is explained that NEITHER had an album remain #1 for 21 solid weeks or had an album go diamond – even approaching DOUBLE diamond with over 18 million sold to date. Yes, the album marked the beginning of the end the first time hip hop started to die on us, what with the heavyhanded sample usages and poppy simple lyrics and dancing and shit, all of which made way for a certain Robert Van Winkle to step in and play Elvis to Hammer’s Chuck Berry. [ Phlip note – yeah, I said it!] Any old ways…. Today marks the date that Hammer was born into the world, and you can take that how you want – positive or otherwise. While you can chide him for t

March 29 -- Walt "Clyde" Frazier

On today’s date, in 1955 – 24 years, 3 months and 3 days prior to allowing myself and my twin to escape from her uterus – my mother was born. I thank my grandparents for that. Unfortunately, however, in the greater interest of continued black history, my mom is not famous, so I could only offer to put her BEFORE today’s topic of conversation… Today is the balding dude who wears the crazy suits on NBA TV and TNT for Knicks games, NBA Hall-of-Famer and wearer of #10 way back when the Knickerbockers were still a credible threat to win anything of substance… Walter “Clyde” Frazier was a 6’4” point guard with shooting guard tendencies as a scorer. While Willis Reed is heralded for inspiration in his limping back onto the court in game 7 of the 1970 NBA finals, the hero of the day was Frazier with his 36 points and 19 assists. His jersey hangs in the rafters of Madison Square Garden, evidence of why the current Knicks have so few available jersey numbers to choose f

March 28 -- Not all George Bushes Hate Black People

^^^ Let the record show that I do not know that to be true, for the record... Anyway… On today’s date in 1990, President George Bush (Bush41, not Bush43) granted Olympic sprinter and pack-a-day smoker Jesse Owens a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal, which is synonymous with the Presidential Medal of Freedom as the highest civilian honor one can receive in the United States. Slightly off the point here is that, while the President ANNOUNCES and gives the Congressional Medal of Freedom, the actual granting of it is born of acts of congress, and both houses are required to put it through. With that said, George H. W. Bush might have delivered the medal – to Owens’ FAMILY, I might infer – he was just the messenger in such. The Congressional Gold Medal is given for outstanding accomplishment in the name of the US, and I am willing to bet that Owens’ showing up Hitler at the Berlin Olympics despite the irony of being a sprinter who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 35 years wa

March 27 -- Charleston Ride-in protests

This one will be short and sweet… On today’s date in 1861, black demonstrators in Charleston staged ride-ins on streetcars… As with any other”…-in,” this was born of their not being allowed service on the railway, and carried out in a nonviolent demand for equal servicing. It would be a little over one month following, on May 1, that the Charleston City Railway company would relent and allow everyone equal rights to ride in their streetcars. Don’t blame me for coming late in the day with a short post, there was simply very little to post on when I went into this.

March 26 -- Thomas J Marshal's big deed

Next time you go to work and see the sprinkler system, you should stop a moment and thank Thomas J Marshal. Yes, I know that a great many of the two of you have never heard of the guy… What He did on today’s date in 1872 was to get the patent for the fire extinguishing system that put together a system of pipes, valves and all that goodness to bring the water from the storage to delivery in the prevention/stoppage of your ass burning to death. That Patent # was 125,063. I wish I was able to find any more on the guy, but the fact remains that information on black inventors from the 19 th century will be scarce as can be, even on the 2011 internets. That said, not much more I can do but thank the dude for laying the groundwork for the systems that keep me safe indoors in industrial buildings.

March 25 -- March from Selma to Montgomery completed

I know this one will feel like a bit of a cop-out, but the fact remains that we all know I like to stick to things to completion. [ Phlip note – hence how I missed a day and went back the next and filled the gap instead of going on as if...] Well, y’all surely remember my March 7th post about Bloody Sunday, where the first attempt to march from Selma to Montgomery was quashed by police, fire hoses, German Shepherds, billy clubs, Uncle Ruckus, seething racial hatred, Sarah Palin and a passive-aggressive President… [ Phlip note – most of that observed, the rest understood] Well on today’s date, ironically the same number of days later then as it has been between the posts now, the 8,000ish people had initially assembled and completed what had been 4-day trek. The beauty of this is that not all were black and that not all were Christian either, the power of what was right stepped across lines out of sheer necessity. As the group approached Montgomery county, more marchers joined. The l

March 24 -- "make me feel feel good"

Look, we've all seen it... It has been argued since it happened. Today was the day that, in 2002, Halle Berry won the Academy Award as best actress. This is black history because she was the first black woman to win it. The argument/discussion is because she had to get done by a white dude while screaming one of the most awkward "while being fucked" quotes I have heard before or since. Take what you will from it, I was going to post a vid of the scene, but decided against it.

March 23 -- Moses Malone

Fellow basketball fans out there these days know PRECISELY who I speak of when they read the title of this one… Since Moses Malone, the closest we will have gotten to him in the current league as far as a 2-way player is my as-mentioned most improved player Kevin Love. Except for the fact that Kevin Love gets his on 100% effort in a league where such things are not exactly common. Moses Malone had to come up in a league where one needed to know how to take a punch and deliver one as well. Today marks the date that Moses was born, about 2ish hours up I-85 from me in Petersburg VA. A veteran of the old ABA and then in the NBA post-merger, Moses Malone retired after 19 professional seasons as the LAST holdover from the pre-merger ABA days. 1 – time NBA champion in 1983 1 – time NBA finals MVP (same year) 13 – time NBA All-Star 3 – time NBA MVP 2001 Naismith Hall-of-Fame inductee 2 nd all-time in free throws attempted and made … and the one that impresses me most,

March 22 -- Laws prohibit the equipping of boats for slave transit

Look, I know it sometimes feels like I am harping on this whole slave trade thing in these posts… I also know that I seem to find something completely new in my searches for things to use from day to day… March 22, 1794; Congress passed the Slave Trade Act of 1794, which made it illegal to build and equip a boat with the then-necessary tooling to transport slaves. The first person tried and convicted under the Act would not be for over 3 years, in which John Brown of Rhode Island lost his boat. In 1798, Congress went a step further to place a PER slave fine of a then-astronomical $300 on people convicted. Personally, as I read these, I find it quite odd that there was so much legislation, attention and general opposition to slavery in general for the whole of the time of its institution, yet it was allowed to last for so long in spite of. The act would be modified several times over the course of its effectiveness, receiving even an upgrade even