Black History Month

The following is from the biography prepared by the Nobel Foundation on the occasion of Nelson Mandela receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. A more extensive biography is available on the Nelson Mandela Foundation site. 

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa, on July 18, 1918. His father was Hendry Mphakanyiswa of the Tembu Tribe. Mandela himself was educated at University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand, where he studied law. He joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party’s apartheid policies after 1948. He went on trial for treason in 1956-1961 and was acquitted in 1961.

After the banning of the ANC in 1960, Mandela argued for the setting up of a military wing within the ANC. In June 1961, the ANC executive considered his proposal on the use of violent tactics and agreed that those members who wished to involve themselves in Mandela’s campaign would not be stopped from doing so by the ANC. This led to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mandela was arrested in 1962 and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment with hard labor. 

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In 1963, when many fellow leaders of the ANC and the Umkhonto we Sizwe were arrested, Mandela was brought to stand trial with them for plotting to overthrow the government by violence. His statement from the dock received considerable international publicity. On June 12, 1964, eight of the accused, including Mandela, were sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1964 to 1982, he was incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, off Cape Town; thereafter, he was at Pollsmoor Prison, nearby on the mainland.

During his years in prison, Mandela’s reputation grew steadily. He was widely accepted as the most significant Black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom.

Mandela was released on February 11, 1990. After his release, he plunged himself wholeheartedly into his life’s work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after the organization had been banned in 1960, Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organization’s National Chairperson.

Mandela died on December 5, 2013.

See more Black History content at schoolcraft.edu/BHM

The Black Panther Party

Black Panther Party founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale met in 1961 while students at Merritt College in Oakland, California.

They both protested the college’s “Pioneer Day” celebration, which honored the pioneers who came to California in the 1800s, but omitted the role of African Americans in settling the American West. Seale and Newton formed the Negro History Fact Group, which called on the school to offer classes in Black history.

They founded the Black Panthers in the wake of the assassination of Black nationalist Malcolm X and after police in San Francisco shot and killed an unarmed Black teen named Matthew Johnson.

Originally dubbed the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, the organization was founded in October 1966. The Black Panthers’ early activities primarily involved monitoring police activities in Black communities in Oakland and other cities.

As they instituted a number of social programs and engaged in political activities, their popularity grew. The Black Panthers drew widespread support from urban centers with large minority communities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. By 1968, the Black Panthers had roughly 2,000 members across the country.

Political Activities And Social Programs

Newton and Seale drew on Marxist ideology for the party platform. They outlined the organization’s philosophical views and political objectives in a Ten-Point Program. The Ten-Point Program called for an immediate end to police brutality, employment for African Americans, and land, housing and justice for all.

The Black Panthers were part of the larger Black Power movement, which emphasized Black pride, community control and unification for civil rights.

While the Black Panthers were often portrayed as a gang, their leadership saw the organization as a political party whose goal was getting more African Americans elected to political office. They were unsuccessful on this front. By the early 1970s, FBI counterintelligence efforts, criminal activities and an internal rift between group members weakened the party as a political force.

The Black Panthers did, however, start a number of popular community social programs, including free breakfast programs for school children and free health clinics in 13 African American communities across the United States.

The FBI And COINTELPRO

The Black Panthers’ socialist message and Black nationalist focus made them the target of a secret FBI counterintelligence program called COINTELPRO.

In 1969, the FBI declared the Black Panthers a communist organization and an enemy of the United States government. The first FBI’s first director, J. Edgar Hoover, in 1968 called the Black Panthers, “One of the greatest threats to the nation’s internal security.”

The FBI worked to weaken the Panthers by exploited existing rivalries between Black nationalist groups. They also worked to undermine and dismantle the Free Breakfast for Children Program and other community social programs instituted by the Black Panthers.

Fred Hampton

Before Breonna Taylor and Amir Locke were the victims of police “No Knock Warrants,” it was Fred Hampton. However, in his case the FBI planned the execution.

Hampton was an honors student from the Chicago suburbs who, as a youth leader with the NAACP, successfully campaigned to have a non-segregated swimming pool built in his hometown. When he joined the Illinois Black Panther Party in 1968, he quickly gained a reputation as a powerful speaker and a coalition builder across racial lines to fight police brutality and address poverty in Chicago’s most neglected neighborhoods. Hampton served as an outstanding leader of five different breakfast programs on the West Side, helped create a free medical center, and initiated a door to door program of health services which test for sickle cell anemia, and encourage blood drives for the Cook County Hospital.

Hampton used his talent as a communicator to create what he termed a “Rainbow Coalition,” an alliance of the Panthers with other groups organized around racial, ethnic, or ideological affiliation. Bringing together groups that otherwise would have had almost no positive contact—including the Puerto Rican Young Lords Association, the Poor White Young Patriots Organization, and the Blackstone Rangers street gang—the Rainbow Coalition provided aid to low-income citizens by combining the member groups’ varied resources. 

Early in the predawn hours of December 4, 1969, a Peoples Gas truck pulled up in front of an apartment occupied by leaders of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party. Fourteen plainclothes Chicago Police officers quietly filed out of the undercover truck, armed with pistols, a shotgun, a machine gun, and a detailed map (provided by the FBI, courtesy of the informant William O’Neal, who positioned himself as Hampton’s security chief). The map clearly identified the bedroom of Fred Hampton, the 21-year-old “chairman” of the Chicago Black Panthers, who was asleep (from being drugged by O’Neal) beside his eight-month-pregnant fiancée. At 4:30 a.m., the police kicked down the front door and started shooting. Ballistics reports later showed that they fired more than 90 times, including machine gun rounds through exterior walls and windows.

When the volley of bullets finally stopped, four of the young Black Panthers inside the apartment lay shot and critically wounded, and two had been killed. The first was Mark Clark, who reached for his own shotgun before taking a bullet through the heart. The second was Fred Hampton, gunned down in his bed. To the FBI, Hampton was another potential “messiah” rising up through the ranks of the Black Panther Party and being groomed for national leadership.

In 1971, a group of antiwar activists broke into an FBI office in the suburbs of Philadelphia looking for evidence that the FBI was spying on leaders of the antiwar movement. What they accidentally uncovered was documented proof of the existence of a secret FBI scheme called COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program) with orders to “disrupt, misdirect and otherwise neutralize” Black power movements.

It was under the auspices of COINTELPRO that the FBI spied on and harassed civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcom X. It was all part of Hoover’s efforts to prevent, in his words, the “rise of a messiah that would unify and electrify the militant nationalist movement.”

By the beginning of the 1980s, attacks on the party and internal degradation and divisions caused the party to fall apart. The leadership of the party had been absolutely dismantled, with its rank and file constantly terrorized by the police, killed, imprisoned by false accusations (i.e. Mumia Abu-Jamal, Sundiata Acoli, Mutulu Shakur), or forced to flee the United States (Assata Shakur, and others). Other notable members were Afeni Shakur, mother of Tupac Shakur; Dr. Angela Davis; Kathleen Cleaver; Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael); and Elmer “Geronimo Ji Jaga” Pratt. 

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Sources: 

• Black Panthers
• The 1969 Raid That Killed Black Panther Leader Fred Hampton: Details around the 1969 police shooting of Hampton and other Black Panther members took decades to come to light.

More information:

• How the Black Panthers’ Breakfast Program Both Inspired and Threatened the Government: The Panthers’ popular breakfast programs put pressure on political leaders to feed children before school.
• Elmer Pratt: Other California Cases with Mistaken Witness Identifications
• Huey P. Newton
• Bobby Seale
• How the Black Power Movement Influenced the Civil Rights Movement
• The Rank and File Women of the Black Panther Party and Their Powerful Influence
• 50 years later, who are the heirs of the Black Panthers?

See more Black History content at schoolcraft.edu/BHM

Brynne Barnes, English Professor

Brynne Barnes has taught in the English Department at Schoolcraft College since 2014 and has written two books for younger readers – Books Do Not Have Wings and Colors Of Me – with a third to be published this summer. She holds a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from Eastern Michigan University (summa cum laude).

To help celebrate Black History Month, we’re pleased to share “My Story, My Voice,” a series of essays written by Schoolcraft College students, faculty, staff and alumni. Please go to schoolcraft.edu/BHM to read the complete collection.

By Brynne Barnes, English Professor

As a child, I still remember when I first started learning about slavery. I was appalled to learn that slaves were not allowed to read or write, that many children of African descent, even after slavery ended, had little to no access to elementary education – much less anything beyond that. I had always loved school before, but this sparked something in me. It made me want to read and write as often as I could. I sensed there was something special in those books, something powerful about putting pen to paper – a secret, a magic that any oppressor would want to keep hidden. So I made sure that I knew what it was.

When I became an English Professor, I never dreamt that I would stand and teach in the very classrooms that some of my own grandparents, who grew up in the deep South, were never allowed to attend. I never dreamed that I would be an author, let alone win awards. I never even imagined that the very things my ancestors were denied would not only put food on my table, but free me to touch the lives of so many people. These gifts are not mine, but theirs – the ones they were not allowed to share.

What I most want my community to know is that the Black diaspora is not just one thing, one person, or even one experience. In reference to Maya Angelou’s words, I stand as 10,000. This is the notion of what my latest book, Black Girl Rising (Chronicle Books, June 2022), honors – the journey of many through the journey of one. Black history is not something that we study; it is not in a book or one month out of the year. It is something that we live – and create – every single day.

Today’s entry examines the legacies of African Kings from two of the world’s most powerful and influential empires

Pharaoh Ramses II

Adapted from Ancient Egypt Online

Ramses II (aka Ramesses II, Rameses II or Sese) was the third pharaoh of the 19th dynasty. He was one of the most powerful and influential pharaohs of ancient Egypt, taking the throne of Egypt in his early 20s (around 1279 B.C.) and ruling for 66 years.

Architectural Accomplishments

Perhaps the best-known achievements of Ramses II are his architectural endeavors, most notable the Ramesseum and the temples of Abu Simbel. Ramses II’s interest in architecture resulted in the creation of more monuments than any of the other ancient Egyptian pharaohs. A significant number of architectural tributes attributed to Ramses II still dominate the landscape of Egypt today.

The Ramesseum is a memorial temple complex situated close to Luxor (even closer to Qurna). Although it is in ruins now, it is still recognizable for the large Pylon of Ramesses inside, which is useful as a historical document.

Pylon is the Greek word for the entrance of an Egyptian temple. The pylon is inscribed with images showing Ramesses victories over the Hittites in war, and the subsequent peace treaty that ensued. This pylon, along with other inscriptions and temples created during Ramses II’s reign, shows that this pharaoh wanted to be remembered for his influence on military, political, and religious life.

Also at the Ramesseum are the remains of a gigantic Ramses II statue. It used to be 56ft high, but now only parts of the torso and base remain. 

The Abu Simbel temples, two massive twin rock temples, were also built by Ramses II. They are situated in Nubia (South Egypt), close to Lake Nasser, and were meant to commemorate his reign, and that of his queen, Nefertari.

Another ancient city, Abydos (known for its mythological inscriptions), was used by Ramses II to record the history of his reign and that of his ancestors, providing a wealth of knowledge for future generations on the accomplishments of these pharaohs.

The well-known Ramses II statue unearthed at Memphis was thought to have been commissioned by Ramses II himself. It has shown people today how large of an impact he had on the artwork of his day. Other sites have yielded similar large Ramses II statues.

Ramses II: Military Impact

The reign of Ramses II was marked by numerous military battles, and he became one of the famous Egyptian pharaohs known for his military strength. Much of his reign was occupied with taking back territories that were lost to Egypt during the rule of other ancient Egyptian pharaohs (most notably Akhenaten). Ramses II’s army was 100,000men strong, enormous for that period in time.

Ramses II’s most famous battle is the Battle of Kadesh, which took place at the city of Kadesh (situated in present day Syria). Fought in 1274 B.C. against the Hittites, it was the largest chariot battle ever. Ramesses made a tactical error in that fight by dividing his forces, causing one of his divisions to be swept away. Eventually none of the parties gained victory and Ramesses had to retreat because of logistic difficulties.

The military genius of Ramses II helped to secure Egypt’s borders from foreign invaders and pirates along the Mediterranean and in Libya. He managed to fend off invasions from the Hittites and Nubians.

In addition, his campaigns restored land to Egypt that had been previously lost to these empires. By forming peace treaties with these empires after warring with them, Ramses II helped to solidify Egypt’s borders on all sides, allowing for increased internal stability. Many of these campaigns were completed in the first 20 years of Ramses II’s reign.

Ramses II’s Religious Impact

The religious impact that Ramses II had on Egypt is not to be overlooked, either. After reigning for 30 years, Ramses II celebrated the Sed festival, in which the king was turned into a God.

Because the people of Egypt worshiped Ramses II as a god, it also helped to ensure that his son, who at that point commanded the army, would rise to power following his death, without anyone trying to seize the throne.

Ramses and Moses

A much-debated issue of religion and history alike is the Exodus. Known as the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, this event is considered to have happened under the reign of Ramses II. Whether or not it did happen as the story tells us, scientists found evidence for the existence of the notorious 10 plagues of Egypt (or at least the first nine of them). The events do show a link to the capital city of Pi-Ramses and the grueling period Egypt crossed under the rule of Ramses II.

Ramses II’s Mummy

Ramses II was buried in the Valley of Kings, but had to be replaced because of looting. After a detour, his mummy was moved to tomb DB320, located near Deir el-Bahri, where it would be safe from tomb robbers. In 1881 his body was discovered there and moved to Cairo’s Egyptian Museum.

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Mansa Musa

Adapted from National Geographic

Mansa Musa (Musa I of Mali) was the ruler of the kingdom of Mali from 1312 to 1337. During his reign, Mali was one of the richest kingdoms of Africa, and Mansa Musa was among the richest individuals in the world. The ancient kingdom of Mali spread across parts of modern-day Mali, Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Mauritania, and Burkina Faso. 

Mansa Musa developed cities like Timbuktu and Gao into important cultural centers. He also brought architects from the Middle East and across Africa to design new buildings for his cities. Mansa Musa turned the kingdom of Mali into a sophisticated center of learning in the Islamic world. 

Mansa Musa came to power in 1312 after the previous king, Abu Bakr II, disappeared at sea. Mansa Abu Bakr II had departed on a large fleet of ships to explore the Atlantic Ocean, and never returned. Mansa Musa inherited a kingdom that was already wealthy, but his work in expanding trade made Mali the wealthiest kingdom in Africa. His riches came from mining significant salt and gold deposits in the Mali kingdom. Elephant ivory was another major source of wealth.

When Mansa Musa went on a pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca in 1324, his journey through Egypt caused quite a stir. The kingdom of Mali was relatively unknown outside of West Africa until this event. Arab writers from the time said that he travelled with an entourage of tens of thousands of people and dozens of camels, each carrying 300 pounds of gold. 

While in Cairo, Mansa Musa met with the Sultan of Egypt, and his caravan spent and gave away so much gold that the overall value of gold decreased in Egypt for the next 12 years. Stories of his fabulous wealth even reached Europe. The Catalan Atlas, created in 1375 by Spanish cartographers, shows West Africa dominated by a depiction of Mansa Musa sitting on a throne, holding a nugget of gold in one hand and a golden staff in the other. After the publication of this atlas, Mansa Musa became cemented in the global imagination as a figure of stupendous wealth.

After his return from Mecca, Mansa Musa began to revitalize cities in his kingdom. He built mosques and large public buildings in cities like Gao and, most famously, Timbuktu. Timbuktu became a major Islamic university center during the 14th century due to Mansa Musa’s developments. Mansa Musa brought architects and scholars from across the Islamic world into his kingdom, and the reputation of the Mali kingdom grew. The kingdom of Mali reached its greatest extent around the same time, a bustling, wealthy kingdom thanks to Mansa Musa’s expansion and administration.

See more Black History content at schoolcraft.edu/BHM