The

Urban League

of

Essex County

Celebrates

Black

History

The Urban League of Essex County

Celebrates Black History

Willie Williams

2015

Design, Layout and unattributed Articles

by

Willie Williams

williewilliamsjr2013@gmail.com

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Whitney Moore Young Jr. (July 31, 1921 March 11, 1971) turned the National Urban League from a

r e l a t i v e l y p a s s i v e c i v i l

rights organization into one that ag-

gressively fought for equitable ac-

cess to socioeconomic opportunity

for the historically disenfranchised.

In 1961, at age 40, Young became

Executive Director of the National

Urban League. He was unanimously

selected by the National Urban

League's Board of Directors, suc-

ceeding Lester Granger on October

1, 1961. Within four years he ex-

panded the organization from 38 employees to 1,600 em-

ployees; and from an annual budget of $325,000 to one of

$6,100,000. Young served as President of the Urban

League until his death in 1971. The Urban League had

traditionally been a cautious and moderate organization

with many white members. During Young's ten-year ten-

ure at the League, he brought the organization to the fore-

front of the American Civil Rights Movement. He both

greatly expanded its mission and kept the support of influ-

ential white business and political leaders. As part of the

League's new mission, Young initiated programs like

"Street Academy", an alternative education system to pre-

pare high school dropouts for college, and "New Thrust",

an effort to help local black leaders identify and solve

community problems.

Young also pushed for federal aid to cities, proposing a

domestic "Marshall Plan". This plan, which called for

$145 billion in spending over 10 years, was partially in-

corporated into President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on

Poverty. Young described his proposals for integration,

social programs, and affirmative action in his two

books, To Be Equal (1964) and Beyond Racism (1969).

(Source: Wikipedia)

Whitney Young Jr.

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In the beginning God created the heaven

and earth. And the earth was without

form and void; and darkness was upon the

face of the deep. And the spirit of God

moved upon the face of the deep. Bible ,

Genesis 1:1-2

He created you from a single being, then

made its mate of the same (kind) . . . He cre-

ates you in the wombs of your mothers

creation after creation in triple darkness.

Holy Quran 39:6 (Maulana Muhammad Ali

translation)

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Introduction

While no writing can adequately cover the history of Black people, the Urban League of Essex County has the honor to present a brief compilation of our history.

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Fannie Lou Hamer; October 6, 1917 March 14, 1977) was a Black American voting rights activist and civil

rights leader. She was instrumental in organiz-

ing Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent

Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the Vice-

Chair of the Mississippi Freedom De-

mocratic Party attended the 1964

Democratic National Convention in

Atlantic City, New Jersey, in that

capacity. Her plain-spoken manner

a n d f e r v e n t b e l i e f i n

the Biblical righteousness of her

cause gained her a reputation as an

electrifying speaker and constant

activist of civil rights. (Source:

Wikipedia)

E l i j a h M u h a m -mad (born Elijah Robert Poole; October 7, 1897 February 25, 1 9 7 5 ) w a s a B l a c k -

American religious leader, who led

the Nation of Islam from 1934 until

his death in 1975. He introduced and

converted tens of thousands of

Black Americans to the religion of

Islam. His teachings stressed self

reliance, morality, the protection

and elevation of Black women, and

Black racial pride. While the Ortho-

dox, Arab world of Islam con-

demned his teachings and methods,

He was nonetheless allowed to make

the Hajj to Mecca, Arabia. Among

the masses that He taught and influ-

enced, Mr. Muhammad taught Mal-

colm X, Louis Farrakhan, Muhammad Ali, and his son Warith

Deen Mohammed.

The Honorable Mr. Elijah Muhammad

Fannie Lou Hamer

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Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., (August 17, 1887June 10, 1940), was a Jamaican political

leader, publisher, journalist, entre-

preneur, and great orator who was

a staunch proponent of the Black

n a t i o n a l i s m a n d P a n -

Africanism movements, to which

end he founded the Universal Ne-

gro Improvement Association and

A f r i c a n C o m m u n i t i e s

League (UNIA-ACL). He started

the Black Star Line, part of

the Back-to-Africa movement,

which promoted the return of

the African diaspora to their an-

cestral lands. (Source: Wikipedia)

Marcus Garvey

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was born into slavery (July 16,

1862March 25, 1931), and her life was dedicated to ending

horrible injustices against Black

-Americans. She traveled the

country speaking and writing

about civil rights issues, unfair

laws, and crimes against blacks.

As more and more civil rights

laws were ignored by society in

the late 1800s, she became in-

creasingly involved in politics

to stop the trend of social injus-

tice. She was instrumental in the

fight against lynching, proving

that these acts were essentially

murders of innocent black men,

women, and children, and boldly demanded that their white

murderers be held responsible for their crimes. (Source: Wikipe-

dia)

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett

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Narmer was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of

the Early Dynastic Pe-

riod (c. 31st century

B.C.). Some consider

him the unifier of Egypt

and founder of the First

Dynasty, and the first

pharaoh of unified

Egypt. The identity of

Narmer is the subject of

on going debate, al-

though mainstream

Egyptological consen-

sus identifies Narmer

with the First Dy-

nasty pharaoh Menes,

Menes is also credited with the unification of Egypt as the first

pharaoh. (Partial Source: Wikipedia)

Narmer

Imhotep was the visor (wazir) to the pharaoh Dojser of the 3d dynasty. Imhotep oversaw construction

of Egypt's first monumental stone pyra-

mid, at the beginning of the Third Dy-

nasty (ca. 2650-2600 B.C.). His ac-

complishments in science and archi-

tecture made such an impression on

the Egyptians that Imhotep was re-

membered and honored in later Egyp-

tian history. Beginning in the New

Kingdom, he was invoked as the pa-

tron of writing and wisdom, and by

the time this statue was made he had

achieved fully divine status with his

own mythology and cult. Imhotep was

also invoked for his intercession in

sickness and infertility, and he was

later equated by the Greeks with their

own god of medicine, Asklepios.

Imhotep

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Khufu

Khufu (Cheops) 4th dynasty pharaoh thought to

be the builder of the as-

tounding, great pyramid of

Giza.

The Great Pyramid of

Ahmose I (sometimes writ-ten Amosis I, Amenes, and

Aahmes) was a phar-

aoh of ancient Egypt, and the

founder of the celebrated 18th

d y n a s t y . H e w a s o f

the Theban royal house, the son

of pharaoh Seqenenre Tao and

brother of the last pharaoh of

t h e 1 7 t h d y n a s t y ,

King Kamose. After the Hyk-

sos (Asistic whites) conquered

Lower Egypt, the Black Egyptians retreated to holy city of

Thebes. While there, Ahmose became Pharaoh and raised an

army of Blacks Egyptians and Nubians and marched north to

the delta and expelled the Hyksos from Lower Egypt thereby

restoring Theban ruleBlack ruleover the whole of Egypt and successfully re-asserted Egyptian power in its former sub-

ject territories of Nubia and Canaan. Ahmose reigned about

1539-1514 B.C., and laid the foundation for the New Kingdom

and the glorious 18th Egyptian Dynasty under which Egyptian

power reached its peak. (Partial Source: Wikipedia)

Ahmose I

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Prince Hall (17351807) was a Black American noted as a tireless abolitionist,

for his leadership in the free

black community in Boston, and as the

founder of Prince Hall Masonry. It is

said that Hall received the charter to

form his Masonic Lodge from George

Washington himself after the Revolu-

tionary War. However, the Mother

Lodge of the Scottish Rite did not recog-

nize Prince Halls Lodge because he was Black. Hall sought a place for free and

enslaved blacks in Freemasonry, educa-

tion and the military, which were some

of the most crucial spheres of society in his

time. Hall is considered the founder of Black Freemasonry in the United States, known today as Prince Hall Freemasonry.

Hall formed the African Grand Lodge of North America. He

was unanimously elected its Grand Master and served until his

death in 1807. (Partial Source: Wikipedia)

Prince Hall

Harriet Tubman (Araminta Harriet Ross) (1820March 10, 1913) was a Black Ameri-

can abolitionist, humanitarian,

and Union spy during the American

Civil War. Born into slavery, Tub-

man escaped and subsequently made

more than nineteen missions to res-

cue over 300 slaves using the net-

work of antislavery activists and

safe houses known as the Under-

ground Railroad. She later

helped John Brown recruit men

for his raid on Harpers Ferry, and in

the post-war era, she struggled

for women's suffrage. (Source:

Wikipedia)

Harriet Tubman

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Toussaint L'Ouver-ture, the son of an edu-cated slave, was the leader

of the Haitian slave revolt

(August 1791). L'Ouver-

ture trained his followers

in tactics of guerrilla war-

fare, and he, along with his

lieutenants and Black,

slave army, not only beat

the French slavemasters,

but they also out fought

and defeated the French,

Emperor Napoleons European, well-trained professional army. As such, by

1795, Toussaint was widely renowned for ending slavery

on the island. (Partial Source: Wikipedia)

Toussaint L'Ouverture

Jean-Jacques Des-salines was born around 1758 in Africa and was en-

slaved in the French colony

of Saint-Domingue (Haiti).

He served as a lieutenant un-

der Toussaint L'Ouver-

ture after the 1791 slave re-

volt and later repelled incom-

ing French forces. Dessalines

renamed the colony Haiti in

1804 and declared himself

emperor. A severe, oftentimes

brutal leader, he was killed in

a mulatto revolt on October

17, 1806, in Pont Rouge, near

P o r t - au - P r in ce , Ha i t i .

(Source: Wikipedia)

Jacques Dessalines

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Queen Ah-m o s e -Nefertari, was born royal heiress

and became one of

Africa's most bril-

liant queens. After

the 25 year reign of

h e r h u s -

b a n d A h m o s e

I (Aahmes I), she

governed jointly with

her son Amenhotep I,

the 2nd King of Egypt's 18th Dynasty. Nefertari had seven

children; three sons, two died young; four daughters, three died

young. The only children that lived was her son Amenhotep I;

and daughter Aahhotep II. They married each other and had a

daughter named Aahmes. Aahmes married Tuthmosis I and

had a daughter named Hatshepsut. Ahmose Nefertari is Queen

Hatshepsut's great grand mother. (Source: Wikipedia)

Queen Ahmose-Nefertari

Queen Hatshepsut lived between 1508 and 1458 B.C., ruling Egypt for about two decades. As a part of the glorious,

Black 18th dynasty, whom defeated the Hyksos invaders, she is

renowned in history as the Female Pharoah,a Black woman. Hatshepsut was

the daughter of Thut-

mose I. She studied the

art of leadership under

her father, and among

her accomplishments

are making a pilgrim-

age to Punt, the land of

the Gods (present day

Somalia), and keeping

the rule of Egypt from

her half-brother and

nephew Thutmose III.

Hatshepsut

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Though he is regarded as

the greatest Egypt ian

pharaoh of them all,

Thutmose III, never-theless, had to wait until

the end of Hatshepsuts (his step-mother/aunt) rule

to reach the throne . He

ruled a united Upper and

Lower Egypt for 54 years,

from 1,483 to 1,429 B.C.,

and built a great navy that

reigned supreme in the

Mediterranean Sea. He

conquered Syria, Mesopo-

tamia, Arabia, Armenia,

Ethiopia, and the Sudan.

Thutmose III was also a

great builder, as his con-

st ruct ion projects are

countless, and one of his

greatest works was adding

on to the colossal temple

of Karnak. (There is some confusion if this bust is actu-

ally Amenhotep III, but I believe it to be Thutmose III).

(Partial Source: Wikipedia)

Thutmose III

Jesus son of Mary While we have no true pictures or statues of Jesus, it is clear that he was a Blackman! The Bible book of Reve-

lation 1:14-15 gives his description: His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes

were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as

if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of

many waters. This describes a Blackman! Even the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad says that Jesus was brown skinned

(See Sahih Al-Bukhari, Darusssalam Publishers 1997) Vol-

ume 4, page 408, hadith 3440). It must always be remem-

bered that Prophet Jesus was the last prophet sent to the

House of Israel.

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Hannibal is the Black, Carthaginian

military genius that

is still remembered

today for his aston-

ishing feat in 218

B.C., of taking his

African army of

50,000 men, 9,000

horses, and 37 fight-

ing elephants across the icy mountains of Southern

France into Northern Italy to wage war against the up-

start Roman Empire for the supremacy of the Mediterra-

nean Sea. While the Caucasian world has claimed Han-

nibal as their own because of the great military success,

this coin represents the true image of Hannibalnotice the elephant on the reverse side. (Source: Worlds Great Men of Color, by J.A. Rogers)

Hannibal

Prophet Muhammad (Abu al -Qasim Muhammad, ibn Abd Al lah,

ibn Abd al -Muttal ib , ibn Hashim) Prophet Muhammad was born into the important Semitic, Arabian tribe of Quraish from the family of Hashim on his fathers side. His grandfather Abd Mut-talib was apparently a dark skin, southern Arab who fa-thered 10 sons, and one of them was Abdullah. Abdul-lah married a Semitic, Arab woman named Aminah, and together they had Prophet Muhammad. At the age of 40 years old, Prophet Muhammad began to teach his Arab brothers in Makkah (Mecca), Arabia, to follow the old religion of Prophet Abraham, which they strayed from and became idol worshippers. He stressed that there was only One God whose proper name is Allah; the Kabah had to be purified of all idols; and that pilgrim-age had to be followed as Abraham and Ishmael taught it. Muhammad re-named the religion of Abraham: Is-lam. Prophet Muhammads teachings are embodied in the Holy Quran.