For Those Before

This blog is dedicated to my grandparents who grew up in time where their images and stories were not widely celebrated or acknowledged. For Harold, Etta, Tommie, & Ella

Twins Jo and Joy Banners purchased the home where their ancestors were enslaved, which was also the location of Ameria’s largest slave revolt.

Growing up in Louisiana, in the bayous of the Mississippi River, identical twins Jocynita "Jo" Banner and Joyceia "Joy" Banner always heard stories from their grandmother Grace, who would tell them about their enslaved ancestors and their history of fighting back at the very plantation the two women now own.

"I know that she is really proud," Jo Banner said, referring to her grandmother. "She just served as this vessel to connect us to an energy that is informing and providing us the sustenance of what we need now for this fight."

The Banner twins are the founders of The Descendants Project, a nonprofit that fights for historic and cultural preservation for descendants of enslaved people. It was through their nonprofit that they bought Woodland Plantation, the birthplace of the 1811 slave revolt.

Raised on the West Bank of the Mississippi River, the twins were steeped in the tales of their grandmother, who recounted the harrowing events of the 1811 revolt known as the 1811 German Coast Uprising.

Often overshadowed in historical narratives, the rebellion saw the brave resistance of Charles Deslondes, two other leaders known as Kook and Quamana, along with approximately 25 others who sought freedom amidst the brutal oppression of slavery. They attacked on Epiphany Sunday. After injuring Manuel Andry and killing his son Gilbert, they armed themselves with more weapons and military uniforms.

The revolters walked through plantations on the east bank of the Mississippi River, along the River Road, and down the German Coast—through what is now St. John the Baptist, St. Charles, and Jefferson parishes— in an attempt to conquer the city of New Orleans, gathering as many as 500 more freedom seekers along the way. It became America’s largest “slave revolt”. By the end of the January 1811 rebellion, the white planters had brutally beheaded more than 100 enslaved men, put the rebels’ heads on spikes, and displayed them for 40 miles along River Road, from the center of New Orleans deep into plantation country. (Watch this video from CrashCourse with host Clint Smith III)

According to Britannica, “Even though the government and whites tried to minimize the uprising, surviving rebels and others passed down the stories, and Deslondes, Kook, and Quamana became legends among the enslaved people and their descendants.

Some 213 years later, Jo and Joy Banner became the newest owners -- and first Black owners -- of the historic Woodland Plantation site. It's the second plantation they've bought through the Descendants Project, the first being the Many Waters Plantation in Wallace, Louisiana.

The sisters said they purchase these lands to preserve their history -- they call it defensive buying. But they're also fighting for the freedom and protection of the historic homelands of their enslaved ancestors from industrial companies they claim are polluting the area, compromising the health of the land and the local population, a predominantly Black community.

"In addition to preserving that culture and aiming to get more recognition for that culture, we also do our best to protect the descendant communities, which are our descendant communities who are also fighting against a lot of environmental injustice, a lot of environmental racism," Jo Banner said.

Woodland Plantation is located on an 85-mile stretch of land along the Mississippi known as "Cancer Alley." Running from north of Baton Rouge to south of New Orleans, the area is surrounded by almost 200 industrial facilities releasing emissions linked to cancer in the region. Woodland itself is located in the most concentrated stretch, known as the "chemical corridor." Residents in this area have a 95% higher risk of cancer due to air pollution compared to the rest of the country, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA announced last month that it was calling for the plants in this area to reduce toxic emissions linked to cancer.

In January, the international non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch singled out the state of Louisiana and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, saying they had failed for decades to protect locals from industrial pollution and uphold federal safety standards, making the region the largest concentration of fossil fuel and petrochemical facilities in the western hemisphere.

About 20 minutes away from Woodland in Wallace, situated in St. John the Baptist Parish — and still in Cancer Alley — the Banner twins are also in a legal battle to stop a grain export facility from being built near their home and the Descendants Project headquarters. Read the full article here.

Source: ABC News, NOLA.com, The Drum Newspaper

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Open-air oyster carts used to be an integral part of New York City’s street food scene. Today, they are all but extinct. Benjamin “Moody” Harney created the Mothershuckers Oyster Cart in 2019 to change all of that.

Oyster Carts of New York City

Did you know that oysters were one of New York City's original street foods? Just imagine: standing at a street corner in Lower Manhattan on a crisp fall day slurping a dozen fresh, raw oysters from an oyster cart. Peddling oysters alongside hot buns and peanuts was a normal thing in New York City back in the late 1700s and 1800s. Today, it's a rarity. There is only one pushcart set up in all of Brooklyn: Benjamin "Moody" Harney's Mothershuckers Oyster Cart outside of Eugene & Co. on the corner of Tompkins Avenue and Jefferson Avenue. Inspired by the story of Thomas Downing, a.k.a. the Oyster King of New York, Moody started his business in the fall of 2019. Read the full article here.

You can now find The Real Mothershuckers at Pier 57, 25 11th Ave., New York, NY. Monday — Sunday, 11:00AM-8:00PM

Source: In a Half Shell, The Real Mothershuckers

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November 15, 1866: Cathay Williams became the first African American woman to serve in the U.S. Army, and the only woman to serve in the U.S. Army as a Buffalo Soldier.

Williams was born to an enslaved mother and a free father in Independence, Missouri in 1844. At 17 years old, Williams first served as an Army cook and a washerwoman. During this time, African Americans who had been captured were forced to serve in military support as contraband for Union forces. Williams enlisted in the U.S. Regular Army under the false name “William Cathay” on November 15, 1866. She was assigned to the 38th U.S. infantry Regiment, one of the all-black regiments recently established, that would become part of the renown Buffalo Soldiers. The Army did not require full medical exams at the time, so she was able to pass as a man.

When Williams began to feel the effects of smallpox and was hospitalized, it was discovered that she was actually a woman. Lewis was honorably discharged by her commanding officer, Captain Charles E. Clarke, on October 14, 1868. Following her discharge, Williams went to work as a cook at Fort Union, New Mexico, and later moved to Pueblo, Colorado. Around 1889 or 1890, Williams entered a hospital and applied for disability pension based on her medical service. Her request was denied. In 1893, a doctor’s examination revealed that Willaims suffered from neuralgia and diabetes. She had all her toes amputated and walked with a crutch. The doctor determined that she did not qualify for disability payments. While the exact date of her death is unknown, it is believed that Williams died shortly after she was denied.

Williams’ interview that was published in the St. Louis Daily Times on January 2, 1876:

"My Father a was a freeman, but my mother a slave, belonging to William Johnson, a wealthy farmer who lived at the time I was born near Independence, Jackson county, Missouri. While I was a small girl my master and family moved to Jefferson City. My master died there and when the war broke out and the United States soldiers came to Jefferson City they took me and other colored folks with them to Little Rock. Col. Benton of the 13th army corps was the officer that carried us off. I did not want to go. He wanted me to cook for the officers, but I had always been a house girl and did not know how to cook. I learned to cook after going to Little Rock and was with the army at The Battle of Pea Ridge. Afterwards the command moved over various portions of Arkansas and Louisiana. I saw the soldiers burn lots of cotton and was at Shreveport when the rebel gunboats were captured and burned on Red River. We afterwards went to New Orleans, then by way of the Gulf to Savannah Georgia, then to Macon and other places in the South. Finally I was sent to Washington City and at the time Gen. Sheridan made his raids in the Shenandoah valley I was cook and washwoman for his staff I was sent from Virginia to some place in Iowa and afterwards to Jefferson Barracks, where I remained some time. You will see by this paper that on the 15th day of November 1866 I enlisted in the United States army at St. Louis, in the Thirty-eighth United States Infantry Company A, Capt. Charles E. Clarke commanding. Captain Charles E. Clarke in the Civil War 6th Infantry at the Battle of Baton Rouge. "The regiment I joined wore the Zouave uniform and only two persons, a cousin and a particular friend, members of the regiment, knew that I was a woman. They never 'blowed' on me. They were partly the cause of my joining the army. Another reason was I wanted to make my own living and not be dependent on relations or friends. Soon after I joined the army, I was taken with the small-pox and was sick at a hospital across the river from St. Louis, but as soon as I got well I joined my company in New Mexico. I was as that paper says, I was never put in the guard house, no bayonet was ever put to my back. I carried my musket and did guard and other duties while in the army, but finally I got tired and wanted to get off. I played sick, complained of pains in my side, and rheumatism in my knees. The post surgeon found out I was a woman and I got my discharge. The men all wanted to get rid of me after they found out I was a woman. Some of them acted real bad to me. After leaving the army I went to Pueblo, Colorado, where I made money by cooking and washing. I got married while there, but my husband was no account. He stole my watch and chain, a hundred dollars in money and my team of horses and wagon. I had him arrested and put in jail, and then I came here. I like this town. I know all the good people here, and I expect to get rich yet. I have not got my land warrant. I thought I would wait till the railroad came and then take my land near the depot. Grant owns all this land around here, and it won't cost me anything. I shall never live in the states again. You see I've got a good sewing machine and I get washing to do and clothes to make. I want to get along and not be a burden to my friends or relatives."

Leticia Wright stars in the 2023 film Surrounded. Her character, Moses “Mo” Washington, was modeled after the Cathay Williams. I’m also seeing a bit of Stagecoach Mary in Wright’s character.

Source: Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture Facebook, National Park Service, YouTube

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In 1905 The Colored Orphanage and Old Folks Home was known as, "the only home for colored children in an area of seven states." The Lincoln Home was started by the Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs in the city of Pueblo and became the only known Black orphanage in Colorado. Built in 1906, the home moved in 1914 to two small red-brick houses that were built closely together on 2714 North Grand Avenue, where it remained until the city’s segregated orphanage system ended in 1963. In 1997 the Lincoln Home building on North Grand Avenue was listed on the State Register of Historic Properties, and in the early 2000s the building housed the Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Center. Currently the building serves as a museum which is open to the public and can be toured. Which was a huge honor for Pueblo, Colorado.

Pueblo’s Black community traces its roots to the diverse residents of El Pueblo, the early trading post that was built near the present city in the 1840s. According to the Colorado Encyclopedia, after the Colorado Gold Rush and the Civil War, new Black residents arrived from border states such as Kentucky and Missouri. Between 1870 and 1880 Pueblo County’s Black population grew from 27 to 141. The area’s Black population continued to grow over the next two decades. By the early 1900s, Pueblo’s Black community was developing its own institutions, including the city’s first black newspaper.

Ray Brown and Emily Wilson, Pueblo Heritage Museum Museum Curator and Executive Director, hope to find a home for artifacts from from the Lincoln Home that were collected by Pueblo civil rights icon and Brown’s mentor Ruth Steele. Read the detailed article on their efforts in The Gazette here.

Source: Pueblo Orphanages: Transformation, Pueblo County Historical Society Facebook, The Gazette

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I’ve previously posted about Henrietta Wood. Here are some other early women pioneers for reparations.

Belinda Sutton

Belinda (Royal) Sutton was born in 1712 in Ghana. She was abandoned by her enslaver, who had offered emancipation upon his death or her transfer to his daughter. If she chose freedom he provided 30 pounds for three years so she wouldn’t be a public charge. In 1783, at 63 years old, Sutton filed a petition to the Massachusetts General Court requesting a pension from the estate of her former enslaver. In her petition she recalled her life in Africa as a joyful one full of love prior to her captivity and enslavement. Sutton’s testimony describing the happy times with family in Africa contradicted the narrative that the enslaved were happy in their captivity. She won her claim and was awarded 15 pounds and 12 shillings annually. She had to fight continuously for that award to be honored and paid.

Belinda Sutton’s […] petition of 1783 is among the earliest narratives by an African American woman. […] It has been seen by some commentators as the first call for reparations for American slavery [and] opens a rare window onto the life on an enslaved woman in colonial North America.

To read the full text of Belinda Sutton’s first petition, click here. All of her petitions are available through the Antislavery Petitions Massachusetts Dataverse, maintained by Harvard University.

Callie House

Callie House was born enslaved in Rutherford County, Tennessee, in 1861. In 1897, at 36 years old, she founded the National Ex-Slave Mutual Bounty and Pension Association (MB&PA) to seek financial support for former slaves left without resources. With Isiah Dickerson she traveled to former slave states to encourage others to join the organization. The organization was eager to petition Congress for a bill that would grant payments (reparations) and mutual aid for burial expenses. Their grass-roots advocacy grew in membership to hundreds of thousands of formerly enslaved residents all over the country. The government used three agencies to try to stop this movement: the Federal Bureau of Pensions, the Department of Justice and the Post Office Department. On September 1899, the Post Office issued a fraud order, without evidence, against MB&PA, which made it illegal for them to send mail, cash or money orders. House resisted by invoking the 1st, 14th and 15th amendments and hiring an attorney.

Congress rejected the pensions petition, as if it was not to be taken seriously, and postponed it indefinitely.

In 1909, when Dickerson died, House became the leader of the MB&PA. In 1915, under House’s leadership, the class action lawsuit Johnson v McAdoo was filed in U.S. Federal Court requesting reparations for slavery in the amount of $68 million. This amount was cotton tax money collected from 1862 to 1868 and held by the U.S. Treasury Department. A former slave, H. N. Johnson, led the charge as the plaintiff against U.S. Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo. The U.S. Supreme Court denied the claim. This was the first documented litigation for reparations for American chattel slavery in a U.S. federal court.

The following year, House was arrested on charges of fraud from the Post Office, convicted by an all-white, all-male jury and sentenced to a year in jail, deliberately hampering the reparations movement.

Callie House died from cancer in Nashville, Tennessee on June 6, 1928, at the age of 67. Source: Greenbelt News Review, BlackPast.org, RoyallHouse.org

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Thomas Downing (1791–1866) was an American restaurateur and abolitionist active in New York City during the Victorian era who was nicknamed the "New York Oyster King". He was one of the wealthiest people in New York City at the time of his death, though he spent his life being prohibited from acquiring U.S. citizenship until the Civil Rights Act of 1866 was passed, the day before he died.

Thomas Downing was born in Chesapeake Bay on Chincoteague Island, Virginia. His parents were enslaved, and eventually freed, by Sea Captain John Downing after learning that owning slaves was not condoned by the Methodist Church. They adopted the name "Downing" as their own and began working as paid caretakers of Captain Downing's Methodist Meeting House. Eventually, they bought some property on the Island and the family began earning extra money by gathering and selling oysters, as well as other seafood, such as clams and fish. Thomas was raised alongside his wealthy neighbors and shared the same tutor as their children. One of his tutors was Henry A. Wise, who went on to become the Governor of Virginia (1861–1865).

Thomas Downing grew up on Virginia’s Chincoteague Island, where his family made their living from the sea by fishing, clamming, and raking oysters. The skills Downing acquired during his childhood carried him to Philadelphia—he’d followed the troops North after the War of 1812—where he spent seven years running an oyster bar.

In the 1820s, most registered oystermen were African American, and opportunity in the industry was abundant, especially for people like Downing, who came from oyster-rich states along the Chesapeake Bay like Virginia. But the world’s oyster capital was New York City, and Downing moved there, spending his days on a schooner harvesting oysters from the beds of the city’s waters and selling them to restaurants or on the streets.

At the end of the War of 1812, Thomas joined the United States Army and followed it to Philadelphia. There he met and married his wife, freeborn Rebecca West, and they had five children: George, Thomas, Henry, Jane, and Peter. Thomas worked as a valet, continued oystering, and, wanting more out of life than oyster digging, he eventually opened his first oyster bar. This allowed him to keep ties with his family's roots while establishing his new career as an esteemed businessman. Thomas used his knowledge of oystering to his advantage and used his connections to the fisherman to sell the best oysters around.

Source: Wikipedia, Fishers Island Oyster Farm, Atlas Obscura

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In 1878, Henrietta Wood, a formerly “illegally” enslaved Black woman, was awarded $2,500 in reparations by an all-white jury — the most significant sum of its kind that a U.S. court had granted.

Wood initially sought $20,000 for being kidnapped and illegally enslaved in an 1870 lawsuit, Business Insider reported. But was awarded a smaller amount. While it may not seem like a lot, the $2,500 total would equate to more than $75,000 today, the outlet noted.

Wood used her settlement to move with her son, aiding his education. The outlet noted that he became one of the first Black law graduates from what is now Northwestern University’s School of Law.

Born into slavery between 1818 and 1820 in Kentucky, Wood was sold multiple times before finally gaining freedom in 1848 from her owner’s wife, Jane Cirode, who wanted to avoid debt collectors. According to Business Insider, the wife of William Cirode — a French immigrant who had abandoned his family due to legal reasons — had rented Wood out as a domestic servant.

Wood was illegally recaptured just five years later by a deputy sheriff in Kentucky named Zebulon Ward, whom Cirode’s daughter and son-in-law hired. Following the Civil War, Wood sued Ward for damages and won the most significant reparations case the U.S. courts had awarded.

The battle Wood began sadly continues with reparations still being denied to most African Americans. Now, more than a century later, federal reparations remain a question despite unprecedented Congressional apologies for slavery. In 2008-2009. Rep. Steve Cohen wrote in a resolution that the nation must seek “reconciliation, justice, and harmony.”

While state efforts have emerged, national progress stalls. Rep. Cori Bush said in May 2023: “Black people … cannot wait any longer for our government to … address the harm it has caused,” Business Insider reported.

Source: Black Enterprise, Wikipedia, Library of Congress

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Equal Justice Initiative founder and CEO Bryan Stevenson speaks with NBC News’ Lester Holt about the new sculpture park created on the shores where the slave trade once flourished in Montgomery, Alabama. A new monument honors the lives of 10 million Black people who were enslaved in America. The park joins the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.

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For civil rights attorney and renowned social justice activist Bryan Stevenson, it’s not enough to know the history of slavery and the centuries-old struggles of Black people in America. He wants people to see it. Feel it. Touch it.

A new park in Montgomery, Alabama, was conceived to do just that, as visitors of the breathtaking Freedom Monument Sculpture Park will be treated to “an immersive experience” along 17 acres above the Alabama River, which was a primary route to transport enslaved Africans during the slave trade.

The park, opening next week, will be in close proximity to two other creations led by Stevenson: the awe-inspiring Memorial to Peace and Justice, an open-air site that features 800 columns suspended from above, evoking public square lynchings, and the Legacy Museum. A few miles away in downtown Montgomery, that site uses interactive elements to tell the story of the devastation of slavery, Jim Crow, violence and mass incarceration.

Located at 831 Walker Street, the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park will be part of the Equality Justice Institute’s Legacy Sites, which also include The Legacy Museum and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, both which opened in 2018. A $5 admission includes all three parks and a free shuttle runs between the sites. 

As the center of the Civil Rights Movement, Montgomery is also home to other Black heritage sites, like the Rosa Parks Museum, Civil Rights Memorial Center, Anarcha, Lucy, Betsey Monument, Dexter Avenue King Baptist Memorial Church, Freedom Rides Museum, and Dr. Richard Harris House.

Source: NBC News, Travel + Leisure

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Born in the heart of DeWalt, Texas, in 1933, Nancy Stephenson Woods' journey reflects a profound legacy. Stop my the Fort Bend Museum next month to join in celebrating the life of a remarkable woman.

The Fort Bend Museum is located in Richmond, Texas. Fort Bend Museum 410 S. Fifth Street Richmond, TX 77469 281-342-6478 [email protected]

Source: Fort Bend Museum

You can read a transcript of an interview Mrs. Woods did in 2008 by the Oral History Committee of the DeWalt Heritage Project here.

Pictured above: Left-right, Effie Blake, Nancy Stephenson Woods, with children Debra and George.

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Untold Stories of Black Life in Texas: Reframing Our Shared History, a presentation hosted by Fort Bend County Libraries. Journey through the impactful events that shaped early Black history in Texas.

Photograph of the regular monthly hands on the George Ranch. Five cowboys on horseback - four of them African-American cowboys - watch over a calf nestled in the grass in front of them. The rest of the herd of cattle can be seen in the background. The top of a windmill is visible near the center background. Bottom of photograph in border printed in black: "The Harper Leiper Company Photographers". Back of photograph written in black identifies cowboys: "Left to right Johnny Hudgins, Henry Klazer, Buster Jackson (Joe B. Forman), Frank Simpson - cook, Joe Bingum, Regular monthly hands". Also on back stamped in blue: "KE - 1293 The Harper Leiper Company Photographers (Photographers stamp) 1009 Isabella at Main Houston, Texas Refer to Neg. No 5734 [circled and written in blue ink] 3" Source: University of North Texas Libraries [Photograph of five cowboys on horseback - four of them African-American], photograph, [1940..1955]; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth7805/: accessed February 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting George Ranch Historical Park.

“Most cowboys in Fort Bend County were African American from the late 1800’s into the mid 1900’s. Buster was said to be the finest horseman anyone had ever seen.” Source: Rosenberg Today

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Text Book of the Madam C. J. Walker Schools of Beauty Culture

Scroll through the pages here.

Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Some people got a surprising result after taking an MIT dialect quiz. It was meant to guess what U.S. dialect the test taker spoke and the person's native language. As results started coming in, many Spanish speakers saw their English dialect had been marked as “U.S. Black Vernacular/Ebonics”

But what's the connection between speaking Spanish and U.S. Black Vernacular?

In the United States, dialects spoken by African Americans are sometimes referred to as Black English, African American Vernacular English, or even Ebonics. Though the terms have had different levels of popularity, having a specific name at all has given African Americans the ability to reclaim their language practices as a joyous part of their identity. 

But much less common are terms and discussions about Blackness and Black language beyond English. If Black English dialects exist, are there also Black forms of other languages due to colonization? For example, are there Black Spanishes and Black Portugueses, too? Read more here.

Source: Are there Black dialects of Spanish? by Aris M. Clemons

Dr. Charles Prudhomme, the first Black Vice President of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and artist, Mrs. Naida Willette Page, present a portrait of Solomon Carter Fuller, MD, the first Black member of APA, in 1971.

Dr. Prudhomme commissioned the portrait as a gift to the Association.

Charles Prudhomme, M.D. (1908–1988), an African-American physician and psychoanalyst, entered the field of psychiatry in the 1930s. He served as the vice president of the American Psychiatric Association in 1970-1971, the first African-American to gain elected office in the organization.[1]

Prudhomme was born in Opelousas, Louisiana. When Prudhomme was three years old, his father developed tuberculosis, and the family moved to Denver, Colorado. Along the way, the family stopped in Kansas City, Missouri where Prudhomme and his mother stayed while his father continued to Denver. Prudhomme received his schooling in Kansas City, became a baseball player, and graduated from high school second in his class.

Prudhomme entered the University of Kansas but remained for only a short time. Due to segregation laws…[Read more here]

Sources: Wikipedia, American Psychiatric Association Foundation, Jet magazine

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