Speakers and Musicians at the March on Washington
Of all speakers, none was more memorable than Martin Luther King, Jr., who delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech during the program (transcript here).The still photo at the top is from the National Archives, ARC Identifier: 542068.Part of a week-long series of gifs from The March, the James Blue documentary about the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, restored in 2013 by The National Archives. You can view it online here.
These side-by-side images show the striking similarities between Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic 1963 March on Washington and the 2020 March on Washington led by his son and Rev. Al Sharpton on Friday.
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Let us march on ballot boxes, march on ballot boxes until race-baiters disappear from the political arena.
Let us march on ballot boxes until the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs will be transformed into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens.
Let us march on ballot boxes until the Wallaces of our nation tremble away in silence.
Let us march on ballot boxes until we send to our city councils state legislatures, and the United States Congress, men who will not fear to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God.
Let us march on ballot boxes until brotherhood becomes more than a meaningless word in an opening prayer, but the order of the day on every legislative agenda.
Let us march on ballot boxes until all over Alabama God’s children will be able to walk the earth in decency and honor.
These words come from the speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the conclusion of the 1965 march to Montgomery, Alabama. The march brought national attention to the issue of racial discrimination in voting. The Voting Rights Act, a landmark piece of Civil Rights legislation, became law just five months later.
Photographs, broadsides, and other materials related to Dr. King’s legacy are now on view in the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library reading room.
Bob Adelman. Martin Luther King Jr. marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama alongside Ralph Abernathy, James Forman, Jesse Douglas, and John Lewis. March 1965. New-York Historical Society.
Stephen Somerstein. Martin Luther King, Jr. seen from rear, speaking to crowd of 25,000 in Montgomery, Alabama. March 1965. New-York Historical Society.
Septima Poinsette Clark was a civil rights and education activist. Originally barred from teaching in Charleston, SC schools because she was Black, Clark petitioned for that right in 1920. She won. And she did it while teaching children during the day and adults at night in a nearby town. MLK Jr. refers to her as “The Mother of the Movement”.
Mae C. Jemison was not only the first Black woman in space, she was the first Black female astronaut for NASA ever. She launched in the Endeavor in 1992, just 25 years ago.
Above is Anna Maria Weems, a woman who escaped slavery by posing as a male. With a $500 reward for her capture, Weems spent over two months on the road until she found freedom in Canada. This art comes courtesy of the Smithsonian Libraries’ (@smithsonianlibraries) yearly celebration of BHM, which includes stories, art, personal histories, and lots more from their massive collection.
There are more in the search results, of course. More Black women in STEM, in music, in sports, standing up for their rights, and have you read up on the Motorcycle Queen of Miami? One thing to note: some of these posts aren’t just highlighting women from 10, 20, 30, 100 years ago. They’re also highlighting Black women today, because Black women are still making history.
Tumblr! Black History Month is here, and we have some stuff in store to celebrate and honor the achievements of the Black community past and present. There are Answer Times to celebrate Black voices in entertainment and modern civil rights, weekly themed round-up posts to showcase Black excellence found everywhere, video interviews with celebrities and activists, a special Black History Month explore page updated daily with the best BHM posts from all of you, and custom stickers based on the top tags surrounding Black culture on Tumblr in 2016. Take a peek:
We’ll be rolling this stuff out all over the place on Tumblr, but the Black History Month explore page is live right now. It’s filled with stuff made by all of you, and it’s already pretty great on day one. Happy Black History Month, Tumblr.
Hey Tumblr! You’ve been making beautiful posts for Black History Month, and we’ve collected some the finest right over here in a special Black History Month Explore page. We’ll be adding to it every day, so if you’ve got a black history post in your heart, make it, tag it #black history month, and we’ll be on the lookout.
Admire, revel, learn, teach, and radiate some serious joy. Happy Black History Month, Tumblr.
A little music to cap off your Black History Month. Enjoy.
Black Women in Rock (blackwomeninrock)
In classic rock, in modern rock, in genre-defying rock, in devastatingly gorgeous proto-rock. See Sister Rosetta Tharpe, above. Unreal.
Today in Hip Hop History (todayinhiphophistory)
“Mama Said Knock You Out” turned 24 yesterday. How you react to that will determine whether this blog is either your daily history lesson, or your daily wave of crushing nostalgia.
’70s Best Black Albums (70sbestblackalbums)
Still the most premium of decades.
Delta Blues, Folk, Gospel and More (deltabluesfolkgospelandmore)
Take a dip in these, the richest veins of American music. Track after track after track.
fyeahblackrockmusic (blackrockandrollmusic)
The nowest of this batch. Mostly videos. Completely vital.
Bonus:
Jagged Grain: Blues Archive (jaggedgrain)
This blog isn’t really kept up any more, but it’s still an incredible archive. You’re gonna see the best family jam session in history on the same page as Mance Lipscomb’s false teeth.
Just watch. This drummer:
Black History Month!
My favorite parts of history (as might be obvious from my choice of subject matter when making books) are the ones that fall into easily-categorized genres, genres with associated visual iconographies. This is the sort of stuff I loved as a kid: pirates, knights, cowboys, explorers, romans and Egyptians and flying aces. Stuff you could find featured in a bag of toys or a generic costume.
For Black History Month, I thought I might visit some of these adventure-leaning periods and pick a few historic black people from those eras to draw, just for fun. If you’re doing a project or report in school this month, you could do worse than to tackle one of these toughies. Feel free to share some of these with youngsters that you know. And call them youngsters, they LOVE that.
So good. And all of their stories are in the click-through. So click through.
More from Philly: Creatr Brian Butler (@showdrawn) sends these sketches from Day 2 of the Democratic National Convention. From the top:
Tumblr Tuesday: Civil Rights
Black Children’s Books & Authors (blackchildrensbooksandauthors)
Black characters in children’s books, and the black authors who tell their stories. A crucial showcase for the under-showcased.
Rich in Color (richincolor)
Continuing on the books tip: Looking for YA novels written by or starring people of color? Here’s your source for reviews, discussions, and infectious enthusiasm.
A Good Cartoon (agoodcartoon)
On a normal day, A Good Cartoon takes racist and otherwise hateful editorial cartoons and gleefully twists their message toward progressive ends. On MLK day, A Good Cartoon just shows a great cartoon.
Black Out for Human Rights (blackoutforhumanrights)
A hub for civil rights news, activism, art gallery openings, and incredible photographs of all the above.
POC Creators (poc-creators)
Highlighting a range of creative works from the printed to the culinary.
Cartoon by Signe Wilkinson via agoodcartoon
It’s Lesbian Visibility Week, an excellent time to be celebrating women who love women. Give it up for the sapphics, their muses, and the gorgeous art that honors them.
