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Black History Month 2025

Oct November Dec

Wilmington Massacre of 1898



Wilmington, North Carolina - Thousands of white males murdered and overthrew the elected, Black American government of Wilmington.

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Malcolm X Movie Released



New York, New York - Spike Lee released the film of the life of Malcolm X. It began with his youth as Malcolm Little. The movie showed his change into Detroit Red, and time in jail. Lastly, it covered his life as Malcolm X with the Nation of Islam, until his death, in 1965.

Denzel Washington played the lead role, as Malcolm X.

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Song of the South Movie Premiered



Atlanta, Georgia - Walt Disney, with RKO Pictures, showed Song of the South at the Fox Theater. It was a fictional story that combined live action with animation, in a musical format. All of the Black American actors (live and animated) spoke in broken English. All the white actors spoke clearly and with confidence.

The setting was a slave plantation. The main character, was Uncle Remus, a slave. He told stories to the child of the white slaveowners family. All the Black American actors played slave roles in the movie. They played as happy, docile, obedient, and submissive. And, they were ready with a smile for their white enslavers.

On its release, many Black Americans denounced the movie as an insult to the true history of chattel slavery. Walt Disney ignored the advice of many Black Americans who tried to present a better image of Black Americans. Disney chose to embrace base racial stereotypes that were common, for the time.

Racist stereotypes included the Mammy, the Magic Negro, the 'happy slave' among many others. These are parts of the Lost Cause Myth.

The movie was a commercial success, in its first release. It was released again in 1972, and was the most profitable animation re-release, up to that time.

Source:

Song of the South Background

Song Of The South Full Movie 1972 Re-release

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The Only Supreme Court Trial in United States History



Washington, D. C. - The only trial in United States Supreme Court history ended. The verdict was guilty for all tried. Sheriff Shipp, Luther Williams, and Nick Nolan were sentenced to ninety days in jail for the lynching (death) of Ed Johnson, a Black American man. They were jailed in Washington, D. C.

After they served their sentence, the three (3) white males were greeted with a mob of 10-15,000 fans, in Tennessee.

Source:

Only Supreme Court Trial

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First Use of 'Crack' in Media



New York, New York - 'Crack' first appeared in newspaper print, in the New York Times. This was the beginning of the 'crack cocaine' hysteria, that lasted for decades.

Source:

First Use of Crack in Media

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Joe Biden Promoted Crime Bill



Washington, D. C. - Future President, Joe Biden, made comments for what became the 1994 Crime Bill. This was the last new bill of the Mass Incarceration era.

Biden called Americans 'predators' and wanted them in jail. He called them criminals and single mothers and disadvantaged. He used all the racial code words of the Reagan and Nixon eras. Biden made it clear the police and sheriffs wanted this bill. Black Americans, the targets of the bill, were not asked about it, before it was written.

This Crime Bill sent hundreds of thousands of Black American men to jail, for non-violent drug crimes. It exploded jail and prison numbers. The cost, in public funds, was hundreds of billions of dollars.

Source:

Joe Biden Crime Bill

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Jonestown Massacre



Barima-Waini (Jonestown), Guyana - (909 dead) Jonestown was a camp for the religious cult-leader, Jim Jones. His cult was known as the Peoples Temple. It began in 1956, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Jones preyed on Black Americans. He focused on Black American women. He was a known womanizer. Jones regularly slept with female members. While the Temple was mostly Black American, the leadership was almost all white. Local whites were upset that the Temple had Black American members. Jones made plans to move the Temple.

In 1966, Jones left Indiana for California. First he went to Redwood Valley. Later, he went to San Francisco. There, Jones became well-known in politics. Yet, there were those who felt he abused his followers. It convinced Jones to leave the country.

In 1974, Jones decided on Guyana. He leased land (3,800 acres) from the Guyana government. The land was in the middle of the jungle. Over time, Jones moved hundreds of his followers to the area. He had a compound built, and called it Jonestown.

On Tuesday, November 14th, Congressman Leo Ryan, Jr. came to Jonestown. He heard reports of abuse and that members were forced to stay. Ryan went with a group that included journalists and aides. They toured the camp and talked to people in Jonestown.

On Saturday, November 18th, at 4:45 p.m. Ryan's group were to leave, from the Kaituma airstrip. It was the first part of their trip back to the United States. As they waited for their flight, Jones followers opened fire.

Ryan, three (3) journalists, and one (1) former Jones member were killed. Ryan was shot twenty (20) times. He was on the runway, to board the plane, to leave. He was the only person, in Congress, to die in the line-of-duty.

Later, that same day, Jones told his followers to drink poisoned (cyanide) Kool-AId. This is where 'drinking the Kool-Aid' started.

Most did not drink the poison, as told by survivors. Many were shot to death by Jones' bodyguards. Others, were intentionally injected with poison. Others were forced at gunpoint. Hundreds of men, women, and children were mass-murdered, on the word of Jim Jones.

The Jonestown Massacre was the largest peacetime loss of American non-military life in United States history, until 9/11. Jim Jones did not escape Jonestown. He was killed, the same night. It was a single gunshot to his head. It was never proved if it was suicide, or murder.

Some suspect Jones was a CIA asset. His death was on orders from the CIA. The reason was the end of the Jonestown project.

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Slave Play Opened



Manhattan, New York - Slave Play began on Broadway. The play showed couples with sex issues. It used chattel slavery as a means to address these conflicts. The couples were homosexual, lesbian, and mixed-race.

The show was written as a sexual comedy. The play was very sexually explicit. The whites were big fans of the show. They enjoyed joining sex and slavery, into a show, for laughs.

Slave Play got twelve (12) nominations at the 74th Tony Awards. At the time, it was record-breaking. It got nominations for the Lucille Lortel Awards and Drama Desk Awards.

The writer and director were both homosexuals. Jeremy O. Harris wrote the play. Robert O'Hara directed it. The show closed January 19th, 2020.

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Akai Gurley Killed By Police



Brooklyn, New York - Peter Liang killed Akai Gurley. Liang was a police worker with the New York Police Department. He shot and killed Akai Gurley, a Black Caribbean man, in a stairwell, near the 8th floor. It was in The Pink Houses, a high-rise residence.

Gurley had visited his girlfriend in the building. He was there to have his hair braided, before Thanksgiving. Liang was in the building on patrol. As he saw Gurley, Liang pulled his weapon and fired a shot at him. Gurley died in the stairwell.

On February 11, 2016, Liang was convicted of manslaughter and official misconduct. He faced 15 years in prison.

Chinese rallied in New York City and across the United States to defend Liang. This included WeChat, Facebook, Twitter, and email.

On April 19, 2016, Justice Chun reduced the conviction to criminally negligent homicide. Liang was given five years probation and 800 hours of community service.

Source:

Akai Gurley Story

Peter Liang Chinese American Opinion

Peter Liang Outcry

Chinese Rally For Peter Liang

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Tamir Rice Killed By Police



Cleveland, Ohio - Tamir Rice was killed by Timothy Loehmann (pictured left), a Cleveland police worker. Tamir Rice was a 12 year-old Black American boy. Loehmann was a 26 year-old, white male.

Saturday, November 22nd, 2014, a 911 call was made about a boy that pointed a pistol at random people. The caller was at a city park at a nearby gazebo. The caller said the gun was probably fake.

The 911 dispatcher asked the caller three times, if Rice was Black American or white. The caller described what Rice wore. The dispatcher refused to send police until the caller gave Tamir's race.

The caller left the gazebo. Later, Rice sat on a bench, under the gazebo, alone.

Around 3:30 p.m., Rice left the bench and began to leave the gazebo. The Cleveland police, Loehmann and Frank Garmback drove on the grass at Rice.

As the police car stopped, Loehmann got out of the car and shot Rice twice. The entire encounter took less than two (2) seconds. Rice collapsed to the ground immediately.

Two minutes later, the police arrested Rice's 14 year-od sister as she ran toward her fallen brother. As Rice laid on the ground, and suffered from the gunshot wounds, the Cleveland police gave no aid.

Later that day, Cleveland Deputy Chief Tomba said 'the child did not threaten the officer verbally or physically.'

On November 26th, Rice died at MetroHealth Medical Center. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest, with major internal damage.

Loehmann was not charged with the murder of Rice. In 2017, Loehmann was fired from the Cleveland Police Department.

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Black Codes Began



Jackson, Mississippi - The state government passed 'An Act to regulate the relation of master and apprentice, as relates to freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes..'

Among other limits, the law sent Black American children to whites for unpaid work. It was slavery, under the guise of child welfare.

Source:

Mississippi Black Codes

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The Thibodaux Massacre



Thibodaux, Louisiana - Whites murdered 60 Black American farm workers. They tried to unionize for better pay from whites. In response, whites shot to death the leaders, allies, and other Black Americans just for being there.

Source:

Thibodaux Massacre

Violence Against Black Workers

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All Whites Convicted in Arbery Killing



Brunswick, Georgia - The trial of two (2) white males who chased down and killed Ahmaud Arbery, and of the white male who filmed it, ended in convictions. Greg McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and a neighbor, William 'Roddie' Bryan were found guilty of his murder.

Arbery was passing through an area where the three (3) white males lived. When they saw Arbery, they grabbed guns and chased Arbery in a pickup truck. Bryan followed in his own truck. When Travis shot Arbery, Bryan recorded it on his cellphone.

The jury was almost all white, with one Black American juror. This followed the recent controversial jury trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse was cleared of all charges when he killed 2 white males, and injured a third. It was at a rally for the shooting of an unarmed Black American man, Jacob Blake, by a white police worker.

Source:

Arbery Killers Convicted

Verdicts of Ahmaud Arbery's Killers

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