Category: General Topics

Every Black Leader Was Not a Civil Rights Activist

Photo by Gotta Be Worth It

I think it’s safe to add this to our world’s watering down of the black history category.

The history books went from eliminating key events in Black history to only talking about MLK and the Civil Rights Movement.

Now, everyone considered a leader in the struggle for Black freedom was a Civil Rights activist.

For example, when Malcolm X’s birthday passed this May, the blogs and tweets mentioned he was a Civil Rights Leader.

No. He. Was. Not.

The Civil Rights Movement, and the Black Power Movement are separate movements with different ideologies and methods of liberation for Black people.

Civil Rights activists like Dr. King followed the nonviolent philosophies of Mahatma Gandhi (who was racist toward Black people, by the way,*), and Malcolm X was a Muslim who identified more with Black independence and an “eye for an eye” philosophy. In other words, if you hit me, I am hitting you back.

*Gandhi said Black people were “troublesome, very dirty, and live like animals” when he was in South Africa in 1903. He also said that white people should be “the predominating race.” 

In fact, Malcolm was a major critic of the Civil Rights Movement:

“You don’t have a turn-the-other-cheek revolution. There’s no such thing as a nonviolent revolution. [The] only kind of revolution that’s nonviolent is the Negro revolution. The only revolution based on loving your enemy is the Negro revolution. The only revolution in which the goal is a desegregated lunch counter, a desegregated theater, a desegregated park, and a desegregated public toilet; you can sit down next to white folks on the toilet. That’s no revolution. Revolution is based on land. Land is the basis of all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality.”

– Malcolm X, December 10, 1963, Speech at a rally in Detroit, Michigan

Referring to all Black leaders as Civil Rights Activists implies that Black people were always willing to be nonviolent in our quest for equality (or that we all sought to be equal with those who oppressed us), and that’s not true.

Our children must know that there were several ways in which we went about acquiring freedom for ourselves beyond the Civil Rights Movement, from Marcus Garvey’s Pan-African Movement to Slave Revolts to the Black Power Movement.

I admire all of these movements and the people who led them, for they all impacted where we are today.

And this is why I do not believe in leaving any of them out.

Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey are just as important to the history of Black freedom as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but they’ll tell you they were crazy and eliminate their story so you think there weren’t any Black people who stood up and fought, just marched.

Historical Context is Important

I was away spending time with family when the now-viral Montgomery Riverboat brawl occurred.

When I finally logged into social media, I saw hilarious memes of folding chairs and pictures of Louis Farrakhan clamping his hands together proudly with the words: “Black people across America watching that video today…and ya’ll know what video I’m talking about.”

But I did not know what video they were talking about.

And then I saw it, but the fight video did not draw my attention as much as a specific viral meme.

This meme is inaccurate and should not be shared!

The meme identifies Nathaniel Alexander as the inventor of the folding chair, but the picture is of a different Black inventor.

The man in this picture is not Nathaniel Alexander. It is Lewis Howard Latimer who worked with Thomas Edison and helped make the light bulb possible.

Latimer is responsible for many of Edison’s patents because he worked as the original draftsman at Edison’s research laboratory.

Latimer also worked with Alexander Graham Bell on the telephone.

I cover more about Latimer in the upcoming book.

As for Alexander, he was not the first to patent the folding chair, which had already been used going as far back as ancient Egypt.

In the US, an early patent for a folding chair was by Jordan Cram in 1855.

Alexander’s invention improved the folding chair featuring a book rest which he patented in 1911.

“The purpose of my invention is to furnish a chair with a book rest or support that will be immediately placed in position when the seat of the chair is lowered…Another purpose of the invention is to provide a folding chair with a book holder and rest…”

https://www.truthorfiction.com/nathaniel-alexander-folding-chair-inventor/

Fredric Arnold also patented a folding chair in 1947.

The memes are funny, but historical context is important. A child somewhere now thinks Lewis Latimer is Nathaniel Alexander and that he invented the folding chair because it’s all over Google.

While both were Black inventors, the meme is decontextualized and could lead many astray.

Cause really, neither man invented the folding chair.

Let us do our part to ensure that we are not spreading disinformation. Black history is too rich and extensive for us to have to make anything up.

Lessons from Grace Part Two

Photo by GEORGE DESIPRIS

These are the lessons I am learning thus far on my journey to give myself more grace.

Take the Pressure Off

Story A.

I was never under any pressure to share the same stuff on all of my social media channels. I have never automated my posts to ensure that what I write to one also appears on the other, for this reason. Early on, I recognized that each medium had a slightly different audience. And I rarely received the same reaction when I attempted to post the same thing. At times, it works, but it’s not something I do often. Each platform, to me, is its own. Therefore, what I post to TikTok won’t necessarily make it to Instagram, and what I post to Instagram won’t necessarily make it to Facebook. (Hardly anything makes it to Facebook. It is my least favorite platform.)

Story B.

This weekend, I am excited to attend my family’s annual BBQ. That’s right. My Chi-town homies are coming down for us to meet in Augusta, GA, for some family time.

We were all to stay at the same hotel until my cousin called and said a group of them would stay at an Airbnb.

“Okay cool. Imma cancel our room then and find a cheaper hotel.”

I’m not staying at an overpriced hotel that everyone else is suddenly not staying at. (Cause how ya’ll just gonna leave.)

Nope. Imma find something else. (And I did at a little over $100 cheaper with the same quality.)

What’s my point of these two stories?

  • Take the pressure off yourself to do what everyone else is doing, appear polished and put together, or post eighty-six times a day.
  • Take the pressure off yourself to show up in spaces you are not comfortable with to make other people comfortable. This includes spending money you don’t want to spend.
  • Take the pressure off yourself to respond immediately to emails, text messages, and comments.
  • Take the pressure off yourself to agree with everything, overextend yourself, or do more work than is necessary.
  • Take the pressure off yourself to always go the extra mile, even when no one is going the extra mile for you.

Give yourself more grace by taking the pressure off.

Rest well this weekend guys!

The Habit of Rushing Time as We Age

Photo by Jeffrey Paa Kwesi Opare

A 28-year-old might say, “I’m almost thirty.”

A 38-year-old might say, “Wow, I am almost 40.”

A 48-year-old might say, “Sheesh. I am almost 50.”

Rarely do we appreciate where we are without becoming anxious about where we are going.

I wonder why this is and if it keeps us from being grateful for where we are. Sometimes I wonder if I fully appreciated my twenties when I was in it.

I guess that’s why they say hindsight is 20/20.

My twin sister and me talk about this often because we don’t like to rush our age. When we turned 36 this year, we didn’t say, “We are almost 40.” We said: “Yay, we are 36!”

This doesn’t mean we haven’t thought about approaching 40 (cause like, do it hurt?), but we don’t like to rush our age time.

I am not 37 until I am 37 and not forty until I am 40.

I hope to keep this outlook on life as I age into my 40s, 50s, 60s, or however long I have left.

Instead of saying how much older we are getting, perhaps we can enjoy every minute of where we are now.

My Viral Experience on TikTok (What I Learned)

I wouldn’t say going viral is fun. I find it overwhelming. However, it could be less stressful if you are prepared. Here’s what I am learning.

Proper Preparation

When I first joined TikTok, I made my account a business account. I didn’t wait until a bunch of people followed or anything like that because I knew I wanted to use it to increase awareness about my poetry and black history book. I added my website link, which I customized for TikTok like I did on IG.

SN: I stopped using Linktree years ago. While I love it, I wanted to brand my website, not Linktree so I created a specialized page on my website for my social media pages. For Instagram it looks like this, and for TikTok it looks like this.

This made it easier for people to sign up to my email list and visit my website to order books once my videos took off. Without this seemingly small act, I would have been stressed about where to direct all these people. Thankfully, I had somewhere for them to go if they wanted to learn more about me.

Don’t Worry About the Numbers, Just Post Your Content

I immediately noticed that once a video goes viral, people binge the rest of your content. This means that even if your posts aren’t doing well (regarding numbers), you should continue to post! This way, you are not frantic about what to post next after your viral moment.

I had tons of other black history videos, and poetry content people could watch while I worked on creating more videos.

Every post on my page averaged over a thousand views after that one viral video. I followed this up with a welcome video, directing people to my email list, and then I posted again today (7/19) a whole week later.

The viral video is on its way to a million views, and I have reached 15K followers, up from the 3K I had when I first posted.

SN. I have never used ads or paid anything to boost my videos on TikTok. All my growth is organic.

Changes to My Account

  • After 5K follows, you can no longer see who views your posts. I don’t like this change because I enjoyed being nosy. (lol) I like to see who is just watching versus who is taking action.

  • You now have the option to create a playlist to organize your posts. I like this because I can now separate my poetry videos from the Black history ones. Even though the black history is more popular, I still do poetry and I don’t want my audience confused. You will get black history but you gonna get these poems too.

  • You can now have people subscribe to your page instead of just following it, apply to TikTok’s creator fund to start making money and sign up for the TikTok shop.

That’s it so far!

Authors, Are You on TikTok? Do You like it or Nah?

Once Upon a Time in Alabama

Once upon a time in Alabama, there was a racist white man named Charles Agustus Lamar who was angry with Northern states and their desire to end slavery. He devised a plan to send a ship to Africa to buy Africans for $100 and sell them for $1,500. His ship, called the “Wanderer,” made national news in 1858 that it had successfully imported 370 people from Africa who would be enslaved.

However, the slave trade had been outlawed, and Lamar was arrested for illegal slaving.

That’s when another racist white man, steamboat captain Timothy Meaher, made a bet that he could do the same thing but not get caught.

Photo: Yecheilyah

On July 8, 1860, the ship (called the Clotilde / Clotilda) sailed into waters near Mobile Bay carrying 110 men, women, and children stolen from Africa under the cover of night.

They were bought from the Dahomey tribe at $100 each.

After dropping the people off, they burned the ship to hide the evidence, and it was thought to be gone forever.

Photo: Yecheilyah

However, 160 years later, wreckage from the Clotilda was discovered by an environmental journalist, filmmaker, and charter captain Ben Raines who wrote about it in a book The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning.

On Saturday, July 8, 2023, I and a group of others had the opportunity of a lifetime on the 163rd anniversary of Clotilda bringing our people into this land.

We met and talked with Raines about his journey and findings and sailed to the location of the wreckage, still buried underwater.

It was a humbling experience that filled my heart with much gratitude.

We saw the swamps our people had to walk through once they were let off the steamboat, and it made me truly not want to complain about anything ever again.

A festival was also taking place to celebrate the opening of the Africatown Heritage House.

It felt like 150 degrees out there and ya girl put this scarf on me. Imma let it slide cause she from Kenya, lol.

Once our people were freed, they built their own community and called it Africa Town, which was the original name because the founders ruled it according to the laws and customs of their African homeland. By the early 1900s, Africa Town (later spelled Africatown) was the fourth largest community in the nation governed by African Americans, attracting the attention of Booker T. Washington and Zora Neale Hurston.

Today, Africatown is on the brink of disappearing, though it is a huge part of why this story has been preserved, as the Clotilda prisoners passed it down to their descendants.

More on Africatown and the Clotilda will be covered in the book!

What’s Next?

On our way back from the site, we discussed hopes that there is more focus on preserving the community of Africatown and providing it with the resources needed to thrive. With the money pouring in from the Heritage House, the fear is people might want to come in and gentrify the area. The hope is there is money going into the community to help the people too.

We also hope they do not remove the Clotilda wreckage from the water. Not only will it cost millions of dollars just to remove it, but it might also decrease the value of the wreck and the area.

We propose that instead, a replica of the ship can be made. Again, this will bring resources to the community as everyone wants to see the actual ship. There could be tours conducted to view the replica, the Heritage House, and finally, a boat tour through the location (the same as the one we took this weekend). It can be an exciting three-day or full-day adventure with resources going toward rebuilding the Africatown community.

Photo: Yecheilyah

Africatown is the only known Black community that still exists today that was founded by Black people who had come straight from Africa.

My new book, Black History Facts You Didn’t Learn in School is coming in 2024. I am currently looking for beta readers willing to receive an ARC for advanced feedback. If you are interested, please see this post for details and email me.

Details on the cover reveal, preorder details, and official release date coming soon.

I can’t wait for ya’ll to see the cover!

Do More with Your Self-Published Book

High achieving authors (Indie, Trad, or otherwise) tend to fall into a few categories:

  • They publish high-quality books (well-edited, dope cover art, and well-formatted, to name a few).

  • They collaborate with other authors and business people. 

  • They use their book to create additional income streams through businesses and services.

Today, I want to focus on that last one, although all these are important.

No matter the route, book publishing is hard work, and most of the work happens after the book is written and published. Most of us find ourselves saying, “Dang, now what?”

Depending on what your book is about, there are so many creative things you can do to leverage your self-publishing career.

Here are a few things I do based on the kinds of books I write:

  • From writing black historical fiction, I lecture at schools.

and so on…

Some authors even have high-ticket courses based on the chapters in their books. Podcasts and workshops based on the book are also ways people leverage their books.

The key point is to look at the book not as the end but as the beginning. Let it (the book) stretch you to new heights!

Check out more Indie Author Basics articles here.