400 Year Anniversary

400 Year Anniversary of Negroes in America

ARRIVAL OF 20 AND ODD ENSLAVED AFRICANS IN 1619 IS THE BEGINNING OF U.S. SLAVERY. 

The journey started with an estimated 350 Africans on the San Juan Bautista. This journey, as many historians with integrity have stated, was a journey of devastation, brutality, starvation, isolation, and ultimately death for those that did not make it or chose to jump off the boat in resistance and rebellion to being captured. On this trip, they encountered pirates who were able to seize some of the slaves and promote them to positions within their crews. 

When the San Juan Bautista docked near what is now Veracruz, Mexico, on Aug. 30, 1619, there were 147 Africans on board. Fifty had been taken by pirates aboard two ships, the White Lion and the Treasurer. it was said the captain's goal was to get basic necessities like food, water, and comfort for the slaves. Think about it, he viewed the people as a simple trading commodity, to be used for all manner of basic necessities. 

“Few ships, before or since, have unloaded a more momentous cargo,” historian and journalist Lerone Bennett wrote in his 1962 book, "Before the Mayflower: A History of the Negro in America." (The subtitle was changed in later editions to "The History of Black America.")

From there 20  Negroes would make it to Point Comfort in 1619, in the English settlement that would become Virginia.

H.R. 1242: 400 Years of African American History Commission Act

This bill H.R.1242 establishes the 400 Years of African-American History Commission to develop and carry out activities throughout the United States to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Africans in the English colonies at Point Comfort, Virginia, in 1619. 

The commission must:

• plan programs to acknowledge the impact that slavery and laws that enforced racial discrimination had on the United States;
• encourage civic, patriotic, historical, educational, artistic, religious, and economic organizations to organize and participate in anniversary activities;
• assist states, localities, and nonprofit organizations to further the commemoration; 
• coordinate for the public scholarly research on the arrival of Africans in the United States and their contributions to this country.

Sec. 5) The commission may provide: (1) grants to communities and nonprofit organizations for the development of programs; (2) grants to research and scholarly organizations to research, publish, or distribute information relating to the arrival of Africans in the United States; and (3) technical assistance to states, localities, and nonprofit organizations to further the commemoration.

• (Sec. 7) The commission must prepare a strategic plan and submit a final report to Congress that contains a summary of its activities, an accounting of its received and expended funds, and its recommendations.
• (Sec. 8) The commission shall terminate on July 1, 2020.
• (Sec. 9) All expenditures of the commission shall be made solely from donated funds.

400 Years of Slavery

In summary, the United States of America as a country and corporation must acknowledge the true impact of slavery. Not only the horrible atrocities, actions, parties involved and history but the systemic pattern of racism that followed. I'm not a historian, I am an artist and athlete, but I've summarized findings from my own research below.

400 Year Anniversary Celebration List

Slavery comes to North America, 1619 

Why We Celebrate and Why We Are 400 Years Stronger

I celebrate because I now carry the baton of those that came before me. Those who overcame, fought, struggled, persevered. I am inspired, as we all should be! Let us do everything with excellence, choose to get up from every failure and run this race of life to win. 

• Slavery comes to North America, 1619
• Rise of America Begins as slavery goes into the full-on industry, 1700 - forward
• The rise of the cotton industry, 1793
• Nat Turner’s Revolt, August 1831
• Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad, 1831
• Dred Scott case, March 6, 1857
• Civil War and Emancipation, 1861
• BLACK CODES - Laws written to restrict the freedoms of the so-called African American and compelling them to work in a low-wage or debt-based labor system
• Rise of the KKK (Klu Klux Klan) - This secret society group composed of white high ranking government officials, police officers, business owners, and other members of white society fought to disenfranchise and criminalize blacks for their attempts to educate themselves and participate in American life. Over the years, they grew wiser in their methods of control, as even their own racial group began to feel that the blatant level of brutality and control made them all look bad. Their methods evolved into more covert methods, focusing their efforts within high levels of government and local policing organizations. 
• Plessy v. Ferguson “Separate But Equal”, 1896
• JIM CROW LAWS - most southern states had laws requiring separate schools, restrooms, restaurants, and other services for blacks 
• Washington, Carver & Du Bois, 1900 - s the 19th century came to an end and segregation took ever–stronger hold in the South, many African Americans saw self–improvement, especially through education and personal outlook. Washington urged blacks to acquire the kind of industrial or vocational training (such as farming, mechanics and domestic service) that would give them the necessary skills to carve out a niche for themselves in the U.S. economy
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) founded, 1909
• Margaret Sanger Launches Eugenics Strategy through Planned Parenthood - Develops a coordinated agenda to destroy Negro communities through depopulation and mass media disinformation - 1916
• Marcus Garvey and the UNIA, 1916 - Born in Jamaica, the black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey founded his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) there in 1914; two years later, he brought it to the United States. Garvey appealed to the racial pride of African Americans, exalting blackness as strong and beautiful. As racial prejudice was so ingrained in white civilization, Garvey claimed, it was futile for blacks to appeal to whites’ sense of justice and democratic principles. Their only hope, according to him, was to flee America and return to Africa to build a country of their own
• Harlem Renaissance - 1920
• Deep Racism still exists in the South result in hundreds of thousands of blacks moving West 1920 - 1950
• Jesse Owens dominates Olympics. Turns out most Germans actually respected Owens, yet it was America that still hated the man that represented their country so well - 1936
• African–Americans in WWII, 1941 - Many served and fought valiantly, only to come home and be treated horribly
• Jackie Robinson, 1947 - Jackie was chosen to be the first, but there were other greats before him like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, John Henry "Pop" Lloyd, Buck Leonard, Turkey Stearnes, Ray Dandridge
• Brown v. Board Of Education, May 17, 1954
• Emmett Till, August 1955 - This was devastating to the Negro community. A true example of American injustice and refusal to acknowledge a wrong. In 2017 Carolyn Bryant, the woman who accused him of "cat calling" her, admitted that she lied, saying, "Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him."
• Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, December 1955
• Central High School integrated, September 1957
• Introduction of Covert Programs (COINTEL Pro and other social programs)
• 1960 - Lyndon Johnson Great Society Programs. He was quoted as saying “those black folk is getting too uppity!” The Great Society programs, or welfare, is the crutch that still keeps many people down in 2019.
• Birmingham church bombed, 1963
• Martin Luther King's famous “I Have a Dream” Speech, 1963
• Freedom Summer and the “Mississippi Burning” murders, June 1964
• Voting Rights Act of 1965, August 1965
• Martin Luther King assassinated, April 4, 1968
• Malcolm X shot to death, February 1965
• Vietnam War - 1968 - 1970s - A formal draft that takes black men from their communities to fight a war without purpose and vision. Many did not make home and others came back hooked on drugs
• 1980 - Introduction of ADD into the public education system, diagnosing young black and brown boys with ADD & reclassifying them into "special needs" substandard education classes
• 1980 - Nancy Reagan's "War on Drugs"
• 1984 - Gangster rap promoted heavily by the music industry, gradually taking over hip hop culture and replacing positive/conscious hip hop artists - forward
• 1987 - Addition of ADHD, which again attacked black boys and all of masculinity by calling energy "Hyperactive behavior." Along with ADD, and the reclassification into substandard classes was a direct pipeline to the prison industrial complex
• 1980's - forward - Rise of the private prison industrial complex, where businesses can pay anywhere from $10-60K per bed annually to imprison an inmate
• 1990-2000 Promotion of gangsterism in pop culture
• Los Angeles Watts Riots, 1992
• 1994 - Three Strikes Law targeting drug offenses and other crimes typically targeting so-called African-American populations
• Million Man March 1995
• 1996 - 2001 - Pop culture (music, TV, movies, etc) becomes more and more driven by the negative influences in hip hop culture
• 2001 - Systemic, economic and racism begins its rise to current astronomical levels 

Celebrate a triumphant journey, celebrate for those that came before you ... celebrate because you now have the baton to run this race of life to win. You have a cloud of witnesses cheering you on.