1369 light bulbs. james hampton the throne of the third heaven of the nations' millennium...
TRANSCRIPT
1369 Light Bulbs
James HamptonThe Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly
http://www.geocities.com/ctesibos/hampton/writing.html
Jennifer Toth, The Mole People
Margaret Morton, The Tunnel
PROLOGUE1 Battle Royal2 Trueblood
3 The Golden Day 4 On Campus
5 Homer Barbee6 He called me that…
7 Crenshaw: Be your own father. In New York. Ras.8 Trying to make an impression
9 Emerson10 Liberty Paints
11 The Factory Hospital12 Mary Rambo
13 I AM WHAT I YAM THE CENTER 14 At the Chthonian15 Leaving Mary’s
16 “MORE HUMAN”17 Fighting with Ras
18 Do not go too fast…19 “Rape me”20 Tod’s death
21 Funeral Speech22 Personal Responsibility
23 Rinehart24 Sybil
25 Burning the tenementEPILOGUE
PROLOGUE1 Battle Royal2 Trueblood
3 The Golden Day 4 On Campus
5 Homer Barbee6 He called me that…
7 Crenshaw: Be your own father. In New York. Ras.8 Trying to make an impression
9 Emerson10 Liberty Paints
11 The Factory Hospital12 Mary Rambo
13 I AM WHAT I YAM THE CENTER 14 At the Chthonian15 Leaving Mary’s
16 “MORE HUMAN”17 Fighting with Ras
18 Do not go too fast…19 “Rape me”20 Tod’s death
21 Funeral Speech22 Personal Responsibility
23 Rinehart24 Sybil
25 Burning the tenementEPILOGUE
“Rapist” “Mule” “Thief” “Liar” “Uncle Tom”
RIDICULE OF/ ASSAULT UPON
VIRILITY PHYSICAL COMPETENCE
PLACE IN THE AMERICAN DREAM
INTELLIGENCE FUTURECAPACITY TO LEADDETERMINE ONE’S
OWN DESTINY
BOOMERANG/CONTRADICTION
LOOK/DON’T LOOK FIGHT/ BE A HELPLESS BUFFOON
GET RICH/ACT LIKE A BEGGAR
BE SMART/DON’T BE “SMART”
BE A LEADER/ BE A COLLABORATOR
“OPPONENT”AS DEFINED BY RACIST WORLD
HIS OWN BODY FIGHTING OTHER BLACK MEN
COMPETING AGAINST OTHER
BLACK MEN
KEEPING OTHER BLACK MEN “IN THEIR PLACE”
KEEPING HIMSELF IN HIS PLACE
IMAGERY OF BLINDNESS
NUDITY/BOXING TRUNKS
BLINDFOLDS MONEY IS “COUNTERFEIT”
NOT LOOKED AT BRIEFCASE WITH SCHOLARSHIP
UNWITTING REBELLION
LOOKS PEEKS UNDER BLINDFOLD
TRIES TO UNSEAT ONE OF THE TOWN
LEADERS“CONTAINS
ELECTRICITY”
“SOCIAL EQUALITY”
DREAMS OF HIS GRANDFATHER (BE A TRAITOR)
CONCLUSION HAVEN’T BEGUN TO FIGHT
KNOCKED OUT (PERHAPS WILL STAND ON THE
RUG)
“PAID OFF,” SHOWN THE DOOR, AND
CALLED BACK
SPEECH INTERRUPTED AND
IGNORED
RUNS FROM STAGE. KEEPS
RUNNING
STRUCTURAL PATTERNS IN INVISIBLE MAN, CHAPTER 1The Racist Eye
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Directors and Citizens: One-third of the population of the South is of the Negro race. No enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of this section can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest success. I but convey to you, Mr. President and Directors, the sentiment of the masses of my race when I say that in no way have the value and manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly and generously recognized than by the managers of this magnificent Exposition at every stage of its progress. It is a recognition that will do more to cement the friendship of the two races than any occurrence since the dawn of our freedom. Not only this, but the opportunity here afforded will awaken among us a new era of industrial progress. Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top instead of at the bottom; that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill; that the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions than starting a dairy farm or truck garden. A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal,“Water, water; we die of thirst!” The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A second time the signal, “Water, water; send us water!” ran up from the distressed vessel, and was answered, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” And a third and fourth signal for water was answered, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say: “Cast down your bucket where you are”— cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded. Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions. And in this connection it is well to bear in mind that whatever other sins the South may be called to bear, when it comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the Negro is given a man’s chance in the commercial world, and in nothing is this Exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance. Our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labour, and put brains and skill into the common occupations of life; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful. No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities. To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted I would repeat what I say to my own race,“Cast down your bucket where you are.” Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have tested in days when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your firesides. Cast down your bucket among these people who have, without strikes and labour wars, tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads and cities, and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, and helped make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the South. Casting down your bucket among my people, helping and encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds, and to education of head, hand, and heart, you will find that they will buy your surplus land, make blossom the waste places in your fields, and run your factories. While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as in the past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, law-abiding, and unresentful people that the world has seen. As we have proved our loyalty to you in the past, in nursing your children, watching by the sick-bed of your mothers and fathers, and often following them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, so in the future, in our humble way, we shall stand by you with a devotion that no foreigner can approach, ready to lay down our lives, if need be, in defense of yours, interlacing our industrial, commercial, civil, and religious life with yours in a way that shall make the interests of both races one. In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress. There is no defense or security for any of us except in the highest intelligence and development of all. If anywhere there are efforts tending to curtail the fullest growth of the Negro, let these efforts be turned into stimulating, encouraging, and making him the most useful and intelligent citizen. Effort or means so invested will pay a thousand per cent interest. These efforts will be twice blessed—blessing him that gives and him that takes. There is no escape through law of man or God from the inevitable …Source: Louis R. Harlan, ed., The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol. 3, (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1974), 583–587.
http://peace.saumag.edu/HistoryDocs/AfAmSharecroppers.gif Sharecroppers, circa 1912
Image Number: 00di0876 CD8151-876
Ben Shahn Sharecropper shack, Arkansas.
newdeal.feri.org/ library/r83.htm
INSTITUTION STATE COLLEGE TRUEBLOOD’S HOME THE GOLDEN DAY
HISTORY AS SETTINGTRIP TO THE PAST
VINE-COVERED BUILDINGS AND WINDING ROADSIN THE CAR
A LOG CABIN OF ANTIQUARIAN INTERESTTRUEBLOOD’S DREAM
CHURCH, BANK, RESTAURANT, GAMBLING HOUSE, JAILHOUSEWORLD WAR I
BLACK “AUTHORITY”
FOUNDER/BLEDSOEPROFESSORS
TRUEBLOOD AS PATRIARCH DOCTORS, LAWYERS, TEACHERS, CIVIL SERVICE WORKKERS, COOKS, POLITICIAN, PREACHER, ARTIST, PSYCHIATRIST
REPRESENTATIVES OF WHITE POWER-STRUCTURE
NORTON/TRUSTEES
WHITE PATRONS FROM TOWN SUPERCARGO (A TRUSTEE)
SYMBOL BRONZE STATUE OF THE FOUNDER
NEW BLUE OVERALLS AND TAN SHOES SUPERCARGO, GIANT OF A MAN DRESSED IN WHITE SHORTS, USUALLY A STARCHED WHITE UNIFORM
REALITY NORTON’S VISION TRUEBLOOD’S DREAM INSANITY
WHERE ARE YOU GOING?
YOUR PEOPLE DID NOT KNOW IN WHAT DIRECTION TO TURN
SHALL I CONTINUE IN THIS DIRECTION, SIR?
I STEPPED ON THE GAS, WONDERING WHERE…
WOMEN NORTON’S DAUGHTER
TRUEBLOOD’S DAUGHTERWHITE LADY COMES OUT OF THE CLOCK.
HOUSE OF ILL-REPUTEWOMAN OFFERS HERSELF TO NORTON
LANGUAGE NORTON’S SPEECH TRUEBLOOD’S STORY SURGEON’S ADVICE
NORTON AS: AS TRUSTEE AS $100 CASH GENERAL PERSHING, THOMAS JEFFERSON, JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER
THREE INSTITUTIONS: INVISIBLE MAN, CHAPTERS 2 AND 3
Members of the 369th Infantry. About 380,000 African Americans were in the service during WWI, and about 200,000 served in Europe.
Chapter 3: From WWI to the Golden Day
www.silktwist.com/hr_video/ images/jukejoint.gif
The Juke Joint
http://www.accessatlanta.com/local/alt/postcards/image/Southern_Scenes/fullsize/juke.jpg
www.usda.gov/oc/ photo/b01d1434.jpg
Image Number: 00di0974 CD8151-974
Chapter 9
Peetie Wheatstraw Emerson, Jr.
Blueprints Map of the world
The Devil’s Son-in-Law These people are the kings of the earth
Blues and Jack the Rabbit Artifacts
The Blues Freud
The dog, daddy-o Bledsoe’s letter
“She’s got feet like a monkey” Club Calamus
LAST WEEK BLUES by Peetie Wheatstraw
Last Sunday I had the blues, last Monday night I had the jinx Last Sunday I had the blues, last Monday night I had the jinx Because my woman she had left me, ooh well, brown, and I don't have no place to stay.
Last Sunday she stayed out, now, with her other man Last Sunday she stayed out, now, with her other man But then she been gone away from home, ooh well, she been going from hand to hand.
Last Wednesday she begin to cry. Last Wednesday morning, ooh well, she begin to cry. She said, "Daddy, daddy, when I come home now, I'm coming home to die."
Last Sunday she went out to the camps, that was no man's land. I said, last Sunday she went out to the camps and that was known as no man's land. And all the women that was out there, ooh well, brown, they was goin' from man to man.
Last Friday morning she come back to her own neighborhood Last Friday morning she come back to her own neighborhood And now you know she found out, ooh well, brown, that she couldn't do her own self no good.
Last Saturday night, she begin to have them blues. Last Saturday night, she began to feel so blue. Well, well, now, you know, she said, "Daddy, daddy," ooh well, brown, "Please let me come back home to you."
TRANSCRIBED BY: Bob Groom. // In: Blues world. - No 33 (1970), p. 21
DEVIL’S SON-IN-LAW
I wonder where would you be now, little mamaBaby, now you made my life a wreckAnd now where would you be-be, umMama, now you made my life a wreckMama, now I'd rather have a rattle snakeHoney now, wrapped a-round my neck
When you used to love me, now little mamaMama, go clear down to my toesWhen you used to love me, babyHave it go clear down to my toesWell-well, the other way that I love you, mamaHoney, now don't nobody know
Now I've got eleven women, ummAnd I got one little indian squawI say I got eleven womenAnd I got one little indian squawWell-well, now that they come to see meI'm liable to be the Devil's-Son-In-Law
'Play it for me one time, pick it now won't cha?' (piano & guitar)Now, an if you take my little womanYou can't keep her longWell now, if you take my little womanWell now you can't keep her longWell-well now, she will come running homeCryin, 'Daddy, now I done wrong'
Baby, you will never catch special deliveries, mamaHoney, directed to my chestTell you now you will never get(special deliveries mama, honey, directed to my chest)Now, when I leave you now, little mamaYou will never see me back here, again.
Peetie Wheatstraw, "The Devil's Son-in-Law" and the "High Sheriff of Hell.“William Bunch, 1902-1941
Now this is Peetie Wheatstraw, rememberPeople wanna know where do I prowlThis is Peetie WheatstrawPeople wanna know where do I prowlSometimes I prowl a far distant landSometimes I prowl on the rising clouds
An now I once was a good boyMama, I was good all over townI say, I once was a good boyBabe, I was good all over townWell-well, nar' I don't see whyPeople tried to slam me down
When I first met you, little babyBaby, this is the lie you toldI know when I first met you, babyThis is the lie you toldYou said now you could get my money, babyAnd then I will be made of silver and gold
(instrumental)
'What you gonna do, CharlieYou gonna play for me or just for money?'
'Money!'
Now what are you gon' do little baby, um-mm-mmWhen your road gets dogged like mine?Now what are you gon' do, babyNow when your road gets dogged like mine?Honey, now you would be worriedMama now an bothered all the time
Now if anybody ask you baby, hmmHoney, now who compose this song?Well-well-well, now if anybody asks youMama, who compose this song?Now-now, will you please tell 'em this is, Peetie WheatstrawWell now he have been here and gone.
SHACK BOOGIE STOMP
I used to play slowBut now I play it fastI used to play slowBut now I play fastJust to see the womenShake their yas, yas, yas
(piano & guitar)
Now I am a man that ev'rybody knowI am a man an that ev'rybody knowsAn you can see a crowdEv'rywhere he goes
(piano & guitar)
'Play it fast, boy'
Ramble an I ramble'Till about the break of dayRamble an I ramble'Till about the break of dayI think it's time nowTo stop my ramblin' ways
(piano & guitar)
My name is PeetieI'm on the line you betYoo-hoo-well, I'm on the line you betI got somethin' newThat I ain't never told you yet
(piano rag)
'Now get down there for a change'
(piano boogie)
I was workin' on the projectBeggin' for relief for shoesI was workin' on the projectBeggin' for relief for shoesBecause the rock an concreteHoo-well-well, now they giving my feet the blues
Workin' on the projectWith holes all in my clothesWorkin' on the projectWith holes all in my clothesTryin' to make me a dimeTo keep the rent man from puttin me outdo's
I am workin' on the projectTryin' to make both ends meetI am workin' on the projectTryin' to make ends meetBut the payday is so longWoo-well-well, until the grocery man won't let me eat
Workin' on the projectMy gal spending all my doughWorkin' on the projectMy gal spending all my doughNow I have waked up on herOoh-well-well, and I won't be that weak no mo'
Workin' on the projectWith payday three or four weeks awayWorkin' on the projectWith payday three or four weeks awayNow, how can you make they meetOoo-well-well-well, when you can't get no pay?
Chapter 10
Liberty Paints
Mixing Paint Kimbro
3 levels down Brockway
Union Meeting
“I’ll Kill You Brockway
Center of the novelHISTORY/IDENTITY/SPEECH/CHANGE
CHAPTER11 12 13 14 15
SETTING Factory Hospital
Mary Rambo’s I YAM WHAT I YAMThe Eviction
At the Chthonian Leaving Mary’s
CONTRADICTION “Curing” MARY’S HOUSE/ MEN’S HOUSE
LAW BREAKING/ABIDING
GUEST/ PERFORMER
CAN’T GET RID OF THE “TRASH”
SPEECH Interrogated
Mary: “It’s you young folks what’s going to make the changes.
Invisible Man’s speech.We are a law-abiding
people.
The Harlem representative.
Ideology
Steam Pipes
RELICS OF THE PAST
Brer Rabbit Characters at the Men’s house
Knocking bones Minstrelry/Singing a spriritual
The bank
IDENTITY Erased ANONYMOUS. “You take it easy, I’ll take care of you like I done a heap of others.”
Free papers of Primus Provo
A new Name and Identity
Sneaks offPerceived as hustler.
Chapter 11Cleaning the Slate
Still from Shock Corridor, 1963
f3wm.free.fr/ sciences/holo.html
www.lobotomy.info/ chapter13.html
Dr. Walter Freeman, performing lobotomies, circa 1950.(Patient on right is Howard Dully.)
Figure 75. Case 123. Three years after lobotomy found no difficulty in expressing his sentiments.
www.lobotomy.info/ chapter13.html
CENTER
THE EVICTION SCENE.
Chapter 13“Bad Luck”
“At the entrance I bumped into a woman who called me a filthy name.” 261“Brashly painted images of Mary and Jesus.” 262
“I yam what I yam”. 266 Yam’s and World Geography. The Past.The last Yam is frostbitten.
The old woman’s sobbing was having a strange effect upon me…” 270
The woman’s Bible. 269Primus Provo, Freed 1859. 272
Primus Provo is 87 years old. “We’re a law abiding people.”
“What is to be done?”“You mean those ofays?” 282
Cheesecake with Jack. The Old Folks don’t matter. 291History in your brain. 291.
Jack/The Brotherhood will give Invisible Man a new name.
http://www.moo-oink.com/images/Chitlns2GoPrmo.jpg
Muddy Waters, Hoochie Coochie Man
I got a black cat bone, i got a mojo too,I got the John the Conqueroo, i'm gonna mess with you,I'm gonna make you girls, lead me by my hand,Then the world will know, the Hoochie coochie Man.
A Pavilion at the St. Louis World’s Fair, 1906
Back Water Blues
Well it rained five days and the sky was dark as night Yes, it rained five days and the sky was dark as night There's trouble in the lowlands tonight.
I got up one morning, I couldn't even get out of my door (2x) There was enough trouble to make a poor boy wonder where to go.
I went and stood up on a high old lonesome hill (2x) I did all I could to look down on the house where I used to live.
It thundered and lighteninged and the wind began to blow (2x) There were thousands of poor people didn't have no place to go.
Recorded by Bessie Smith
Jazz Riffs in Chapter 14: PARTY AT THE CHTHONIAN
MarySinging Back Water Blues
Cabbage fumes “We rushed into the dark little apartment that smelled of stale cabbage” (Chapter 13, 281)
Flashing through Central Park
The Chthonian The smoker Underground world of preface
Emma Woman on subway The vet’s prediction (315) The stripper
“her exotic perfume fill[ed] the foyer”
“She doesn’t think I’m black enough.”
“how would you like to be the new Booker T. Washington?”
I watched her reach into the bosom of herTaffeta hostess gown and remove a white envelope (309) letters from Bledsoe Document in briefcase (32)
“This is your new identity.” (309) “What is your name?” (Chapater 11, 239)
“How about a spiritual, Brother? Or one Of those real good ole Negro work songs?” … Come on, Brother, git hot!” (312) “Get hot, boy! Get hot! (Chapter 11, 237)
“Three sheets in the wind,” I laughed, Getting my breath now, and discovering The silent tension of the others was ebbingInto a ripple of laughter… (313) “Social Responsibility”
Paid $300, plus $60 a week, wonders If he should leave money in envelope For Mary Trueblood Scholarship
Chapter 16No More Dispossessing of the Dispossessed
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/PRINT/newdeal/images/hooverville.jpg
http://history.grand-forks.k12.nd.us/ndhistory/LessonImages/Sources/Pictures/hooverville%201.jpg
Sam LangfordThe Boston Terror
1883-1956
Montage:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TTCPz0nBeY
Cox's Corner Profileshttp://coxscorner.tripod.com/langford.html
In trying to determine when and how Sam went blind one can venture a guess that he suffered from a detached retina which is the most common way for blindness to occur from injury for a fighter. One may recall that Sugar Ray Leonard had surgery for a detached retina in 1982. Unfortunately for Sam the medical science of the early 20th century held little hope for him. According to the Nov. 22, 1935 Digby Weekly Courier, "Langford has been virtually blind since he fought Fred Fulton in 1917." This is when the first eye injury occured. The June 20, 1917 Boston Globe reported that Sam quit due to injury failing to come out for the seventh round and noted that "When Sam quit his eye was closed tightly." It was Sam's left eye that was injured first. This is astonishing, since he would have trouble seeing right hands ever after.
On June 5, 1922, at age 39, he fought future Middleweight champion Tiger Flowers. In this fight Sam was blinded in his remaining good right eye. He looked for Flowers but couldn't see him. Everything before him was blurred. The ring floor, the referee and his opponent weren't there! "There was something the matter for the moment with my eyes." Sam kept cool "I'll let Flowers come and get me." Flowers obliged and when in close, Sam put all he had behind one punch. He heard a gasp and then a thud, Flowers was flat on his back! (Boston Terror Website). The Atlanta Constitution Jun. 6, 1922, reported, "The fatal clout was a right chop that travelled something more than six inches." It was a second round knockout victory for the blind fighter. The doctors warned Sam that the optic nerve had been severely injured that one eye was blind and the other so badly damaged that If he didn't stop fighting he would lose the sight of that one, also. But Langford was broke and continued fighting.
"I went down to Mexico in 1922 with this here left eye completely gone and the right just seeing shadows. It was a cataract. They matched me up with Kid Savage for the title. I was bluffing through that I could see but I gave myself away. They bet awful heavy on the kid when the word got round. I just felt my way around and then, wham, I got home. He forgot to duck and so I was heavy weight champion of Mexico." (Weymouth Courier, Friday May 3, 1935). Sam's left eye injury and cataract in his right eye left him almost completely blind the last years of his fighting career.
Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, 1938
Paul Robeson, 1898,1976
Emperor Jones, 1933
Porgy and Bess
Junior at Rutgers
Invisible Man’s career in the Brotherhood seemsmodeled at leas in part on that of Paul Robeson.
Also Blinded in the Ring…
Pete Sanstol (1920’s)
Jimmy Cagney, City For Conquest (1940)
Rocky Marciano/Jersey Joe Walcott, Sept 22, 1952(Marciano temporarily blinded by “dynamite” used to close a cut)
Chapter 17
I. El Toro BarThat Hambro, I thought is he a fantastic teacher! … (357)
a summery beer ad (358)“Tomorrow you are to become chief spokesman of the Harlem District…” (359)
II. The District Offices“…located in a converted church structure, the main floor of which was occupied by a pawnshop.” (360)
Brother Tarp“…a huge map of the world inscribed with ancient nautical signs and a heroic figure of Columbus…” (361)
Tod Clifton“Afro-Anglo-Saxon contour of his cheek” (363)
Discussion of Ras (365)
III. Encountering Ras“It was confusing in the dark…”
a red CHECKS CASHED HERE sign” 369“I suppose sometimes a man has to plunge outside history…” (377)
EpilogueSon, you know who that is?”
“Why, yes, I said, “it’s Frederick Douglass.”
Marcus Garvey as commander in chief of the Universal African Legion
Black Star Line office
Negro World masthead and headline
http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/mgpp/
UNIA (Garveyite) parade, 1924
Chapter 18
BetrayalA note of warning: Do not go too fast. Poster: “After the Struggle: The Rainbow of America’s Future” (385)Tarp: 19 years on a chain-gang. “I said no to a man who wanted to take something from me…” “I said not.. I said hell, no! And I kept saying no until a broke the chain and left.” (387)The chain link: “it’s got a heap of signifying wrapped up in it…” (388) Don’t come early in the morning Neither in the heat of the day But come in the sweet cool of the Evening and wash my sins away…Brother WrestumAsked for an interview
2 Weeks later: Article has appeared. IM is an “opportunist.” (400)IM will “lecture downtown on the Woman’s question” (406)
northbysouth.kenyon.edu/. ../JPEG/field2.JPG
Chain Gangs
http://www.jessedeane-freeman.com/zchaingang00416r.jpg
www.digitaljournalist.org/.../ images/Clark12.JPG
Chapter 19The Woman Question
http://www.luciennebloch.com/portfolio4/scottsboro_boys.htm
New York, 1935The demonstrators’ placards underscore the convergence of political issues during the great depression
Jack (John Arthur) Johnson (1878-1946)
Jack Johnson and his fourth wife, the former Irene Pineau, at the 1931 opening of his Los Angeles nightclub. The couple married in 1925. Bettmann/Corbis © 2005
www.law.umkc.edu/.../ scottsboro/SB_imag.html
CHAPTER 20
HARLEM Barrelhouse’s Jolly Dollar“What community? … I hear he got the white fever and left…” (425)Brother Tarp goneFrederick Douglass goneTodd Clifton goneHurries downtown to meeting (429)
FIFTH AVENUE, new pair of shoes (430)Clifton peddling sambo dolls.: Shake it up! Shake it up! (431-433)“At first I thought it was a cop and a shoeshine boy…” (435)Clifton, “suddenly crumpling.” (436) “He don’t need no help, Junior. Get across that street.” (437)
RETURN TO HARLEMIn the subway. “Why should a man deliberately plunge outside of history…” (438)HISTORY“You’re like one of those African sculptures, distorted in the interest of a design.” (440)Nuns, song from the Golden Day: Bread and Wine/ Bread and Wine (442)Comes out at 125th St. (443)Boys stealing candy (443)“I’d been so fascinated by the motion that I’d forgotten to measure what it was bringing forth.” (444)
Chapter 21
Eulogy
Chapter 23Rinehart
While in Harlem, where he saw the greatest opportunity to address the population about which he cared, Powell established a social and religious education program. Because of his personal determination to addressing the needs of his community by the mid-1930s, Abyssinian boasted 14,000 members and had one of the largest Protestant congregations in America.
xroads.virginia.edu/.../ collage/powell.html
After 29 years, Powell, Sr. retired in1937, on his third attempt, being succeeded by his son Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. who in 1945 became New York's first Black congressman.
"Mr. Civil Rights."
"You Can't Trust 'Em."
"I'm the first bad Negro they've had in Congress.”
"I believe only in the teaching of Jesus,"
"Don't Buy Where You Can't Work"
"It's in your hand, just like little David had those smooth stones and killed big Goliath with them. Use what you have right in your hand. That dollar...that ten cents. Use your vote. The Negro race has enough power right in our hands to accomplish anything we want to."
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (1908-1972)
www.sayville.8k.com/ FatherDevine.jpg
http://www.libertynet.org/fdipmm/
Harlem, New York, March 19, 1935: Riot: Rioting broke out in the Harlem section of New York City on March 19, 1935 after an African-American youth was alleged to have stolen a knife from a store on 125th Street. The young suspect was not apprehended but rumors spread in the black community that he had been beaten and killed by police. These rumors coupled with charges of police brutality and merchant employment discrimination triggered rioting by African Americans in Harlem. At least 600 store windows were shattered and looting was rampant. The riot resulted in the deaths of three blacks and caused over $200,000,000 worth of property damage. Police arrested 75 people, mostly blacks, and nearly 60 citizens were seriously injured. The riot reflected the deep resentment felt by black New Yorkers during the depression. They were far more unemployed than whites, lived in horrible housing, experienced higher mortality rates and sickness than whites, and had few public or private services available to them. Most blacks believed that police brutality towards blacks was an accepted practice among the white police force, and felt helpless to stop it.
Harlem, New York, August 1943: Riot: In August 1943, rioting broke out in the Harlem section of New York City after a black soldier was shot and wounded by a white policeman. The soldier had objected to the language used by the white officer toward a black woman he was arguing with. The soldier knocked the policeman down and the officer shot him. When the woman who had been arguing with the law officer began shouting that the soldier had been killed, this rumor spread throughout the black community. Rumors of the soldier's demise sparked rioting and looking. It required a force of 6,600, composed of city police, military police and civil patrolmen, as well as 8,000 State Guardsmen and 1,500 civilian volunteers to end the violence. Hundreds of white owned businesses were destroyed and looted with the property damage approaching $225,000. The riot resulted in six deaths and 185 injured. Five hundred blacks were arrested in connection with the riot, 100 of these black women. There were no arrests of whites. Like other riots during the war in Mobile, Alabama, Beaumont, Texas, Los Angeles, California, and elsewhere, the Harlem riot reflected the tensions of race conflict over job discrimination, impoverished living conditions, and embittered police-community relations. It was also noteworthy as one of the new so-called commodity riots in that much of the destruction of property involved white-owned business in the black community.
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/scripts/jimcrow/map.cgi?city=harlem&state=new%20york
Oswald Garrison Villard, Slumbering Fires in Harlmem. The Nation, January 22, 1936
LLOYD HOBBS, sixteen, and his brother Russell, both colored, were New York high-school students of excellent standing and character. On the evening of March 19, 1935, these boys came out of a moving picture house and noticed a small crowd standing before a shop near the comer of 128th Street and Seventh Avenue. Eager to see what was happening they joined the crowd, only to behold an amazing spectacle. The windows of the shop had been broken, and colored people inside were passing out to others the contents of the store. Soon afterward a police car drove up to the curb, and one of its two occupants alighted, brandishing a pistol. At once everybody ran. Patrolman John F. McInerny picked out Lloyd Hobbs as his quarry. He swears that he called on Lloyd to halt; other witnesses swear that he did not. Without stopping to fire a shot in the air, this guardian of the peace brought down Lloyd as he was running across 128th Street by a bullet which passed through his body and into his wrist. Lloyd died in the Harlem Hospital a few days later. McInerny has neither been indicted nor tried by the Police Department.
This was in many ways the most tragic and certainly the most unnecessary event of the riots which kept the center of Harlem in turmoil for the entire evening and night of March 19-20. The deaths were few, the injuries and arrests numerous; the damage to plate glass alone ran up to $150,000. It was a passionate but an undirected outbreak. It was not engineered by Communists or anti-Semites, nor was it a racial riot in the sense of white and colored being aligned against each other. The stores that were raided were owned by Jews, white Gentiles, and Negroes. The affair had its origin in a wholly unfounded rumor that a boy caught stealing a pen-knife in Kresge's store on 125th Street had been beaten and murdered by employees in the store basement.
http://newdeal.feri.org/nation/na3699.htm
http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/Fatherd.html
Central to the beliefs of the Peace Mission Movement is that members believe Father Divine "fulfills the scriptural promise of the Second Coming of Christ," and that he "is the personification of God in a bodily form 25 ." A sociologist who visited the Sayville base of the movement in 1937 noticed such signs on the walls as "Father Divine is God," and one plaque that read: "Father Divine is the Living Tree of Life, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We may take the Words of Father Divine, eat and drink and live forever" 26 . The members of the Peace Mission Movement also believe that, despite leaving his human form, Father Divine's spirit is "still as operative as it ever was," and for this reason many often come to the shrine at Woodmont where he is buried 27 . Also, they believe that all things that were done by God or Jesus were done by Father Divine, "since he was, and continued to be, Christ" 28 . "God as Father and Mother are personified in Father and Mother Divine and constitute humanity as one brotherhood. Woodmont is the Mount of the House of the Lord (Michah 4:1-2, Isiah 2:2-3) from which the law shall go to all nations. The Mission views itself as the fulfillment of specific Biblical prophecies and the essence of all religion: faith in the one God. It accepts both the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount" 29 . The belief that Father Divine is God naturally leads his followers to accept all his teachings as truth. One of the most important of these is the equality of all people. Father Divine maintained that race is a social construction, and that people should instead realize that there is a "unified descent of all peoples from God" 30 .
Scott Burton Lynching. Springfield, 1908
East Madison St., Springfield IL, after riot
Badlands area, Springfield IL, after riot
Race Riots
Wilmington, 1898Atlanta, 1906Springfield IL 1908East St. Louis, 1917
The “Red Summer” of 1919Chicago, Elaine AR, Charleston SC, Knoxville, Nashville, Lonview TX, Omaha
Tulsa OK 1921Detroit, 1943
Joseph Boskin, author of Urban Racial Violence observed that there were certain general patterns in the major twentieth century race riots:17 1. In each of the race riots, with few exceptions, it was white people that sparked the incident by attacking Black people. 2. In the majority of the riots, some extraordinary social condition prevailed at the time of the riot: prewar social changes, wartime mobility, post-war adjustment, or economic depression. 3. The majority of the riots occurred during the hot summer months. 4. Rumor played an extremely important role in causing many riots. Rumors of some criminal activity by Blacks against whites perpetuated the actions of white mobs. 5. The police force, more than any other institution, was invariably involved as a precipitating cause or perpetuating factor in the riots. In almost every one of the riots, the police sided with the attackers, either by actually participating in, or by failing to quell the attack. 6. In almost every instance, the fighting occurred within the Black community.
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1979/2/79.02.04.x.html#c
If we must die, let it not be like hogsHunted and penned in an inglorious spot,While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,Making their mock at our accursed lot.If we must die, O let us nobly die,So that our precious blood may not be shedIn vain; then even the monsters we defyShall be constrained to honor us though dead!O kinsmen we must meet the common foe!Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!What though before us lies the open grave?Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
Claude McKay, If We must Die, 1919
On July 28, 1917, in New York City, a silent parade was staged in protest of the East St. Louis, Illinois, massacre of July 2, 1917, as well as the recent lynchings in Waco, Texas, and Memphis, Tennessee.
Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?
The Harlem 1958 jazz portrait is used with the generous permission of the Art Kane Archives.
www.jailmuseum.com/ ga1.jpg