This is Stanley Tookie Williams III, best known as the founder of The Crips. Williams and his mother moved to Los Angeles, California in 1959. Williams spent his early-middle adolescence wandering the streets fighting, and ended up making a name for himself doing just that. He did not attend school and instead engaged in petty theft and occasional robbery. Eventually meeting Raymond Washington who had a similar lifestyle, the teenagers started the crips. It eventually evolved into one of the largest street gangs in California.
Black History 365 | # 92 Carter G. Woodson
We’ve reached the end of Black History Month! Did you know this is the person responsible for Black History Month? In February 1926, Carter G Woodson sent out a press release announcing the first Negro History Week. As early as the 1940s, efforts began to expand the week of public celebration of African American heritage and achievements into a longer event. With the rise of the civil rights and Black Power movements in the 1960s, black students on college campuses were becoming increasingly conscious of the historic dimension of their experience. Since then, every U.S. president has issued a proclamation honoring the spirit of Black History Month. From Gerald Ford to Obama. Reagan even said “Understanding the history of Black Americans is a key to understanding the strength of our nation.” Your existence is revolutionary. And everyday is a chance to make our ancestors proud. Keep making history.
Black History 365 | # 101 Fannie Lou Hamer
Did you know In 1961 Hamer was given a hysterectomy without her consent and was made sterile and was not able to give birth? This was the catalyst that set her on the path to the forefront of the Mississippi Civil Rights movement. Up until 1963 while demonstrating a sit-in at a whites only lunch counter she and several others were arrested and beaten. Hamer’s eyes, legs, and kidneys received damage that affected her for the rest of her life. In the following months she increased her public profile. She was slowly becoming known as one of the most powerful speakers in the civil rights era. I’m 1964 she spoke at the public congress which broadcasted her powerful testimony. She spent the remainder of the 1960s balancing national activism with her local work in Mississippi. In 1977 she died from complications associated with heart disease and cancer. Respect to her life and her legacy.
Black History 365 | # 100 Billie Holiday
This is Billie Holiday. Aside from being an amazing singer did you know in March 1939 at 23 years old she sang a cover of the song “Strange Fruit” to an unenthused crowd at West 4th’s Cafe Society? She became determined to sing that song for the next 20 years of her career until her life came to an early end at age 44. While on her hospital bed suffering from heart and lung problems and cirrhosis of the liver from years of drug and alcohol abuse, a Federal Bureau of Narcotics commissioner Harry Anslinger had his men handcuff her to her bed. While she showed signs of recovery his men denied doctors of treating her. She died within days. No good deed goes unpunished. Respect to her legacy and using your gift to speak the truth about what was happening to black bodies in America so frequently.
Black History 365 | # 99 Queen Nzinga Mbande
This is Queen Nzinga Mbande, the Southwest African ruler who served as queen of the Ambundu Kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba. In 1624, when she inherited the rule of Ndongo the kingdom was under attack from both Portuguese and neighboring African aggressors. She established a lucrative slave trade with the Dutch, who purchased as many as 13,000 slaves per year from Nzingha’s kingdom. In Portugal she gained an ally to help fight off those previously mentioned African aggressors. By 1626, however, Portugal had betrayed Ndongo, and Nzinga was forced to flee with her people further west beyond the Portuguese reach. She died in 1663 and became a historical figure in Angola. In fact the movie The Woman King is a fictionalized story based on her Kingdom.