Tag: Alabama

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.

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!

Black History Fun Fact Friday – Dr. Sonnie Wellington Hereford III

Its late but Friday is not over people! Well, not for some of us anyway so we’re going to squeeze this article on in.

Today, we have a special fun fact for you. My maiden name is Hereford and I have a mother, brother, and sisters who still carry this last name. In fact, I’ve met very few people with this name I was not related to. Unlike Johnson, Brown or Jackson (no shade to those with these last names), Hereford is not as common. So when I came across this man online, I was noticeably interested. My mother says that my grandfather, her father, is from Alabama and that Sonnie looks like her dad. This has prompted me to do more research on the man and to plan a visit to Alabama to discover more. It’s possible we had a Civil Rights Activist in the family and didn’t know it. In 1961, Hereford was one of the plaintiffs suing the Huntsville school system to end segregation, and in 1963, his son, Sonnie Hereford IV, was one of the first four black children to enroll in a previously all-white public school in Alabama. But, let’s start from the beginning.

herefords_then_and_now2

Dr. Sonnie Wellington Hereford III was born on January 7, 1931, in Huntsville, Alabama. The family had no running water or electricity and Sonnie had to walk seven miles to school. The school, next to a garbage dump, didn’t have a library or cafeteria, much like most black schools at the time. Hereford was a farmer but developed a love for education. Even though his school had no library, the teachers were invested in him as they were in all their students. Though lacking in resources, black schooling at the time was exceptional, involving a strong community spirit and discipline. Teachers took on more than just a role as a teacher but they were also mothers, fathers, and mentors. For this, Sonnie received a good education and decided he wanted to become a doctor.

Sonnie graduated first in his class and applied to the University of Alabama for their pre-med program. However, Sonnie’s application was denied because of his color so he enrolled at Alabama A&M University instead. Hereford graduated from A&M in 2 years and went on to receive his medical degree from Meharry Medical College. He began his career at Huntsville Hospital in Huntsville Alabama and went on to play important roles in the struggle for Civil Rights. Not only was he a doctor but he also helped to aid men and women attacked during the Selma to Montgomery march, welcomed Martin Luther King Jr., to the city in 1962 and helped to integrate the city at various establishments. In fact, school desegregation is what Sonnie became most known for.

Sonnie IV was among four children chosen to desegregate schooling in Alabama and on September 3, 1963, Hereford took his six-year-old son to school but they could not get in. Instead, a mob waited for them and none of the other children were admitted to the other schools either. Sonnie didn’t give up, he returned but the school was locked down and guarded every day with armed troops. Eventually, Hereford contacted the federal judge and over time an order was issued to desegregate the schools in Huntsville. On Monday, September 9, 1963, Hereford successfully enrolled his son at Fifth Avenue School making Sonnie Hereford IV the first African-American student admitted to a previously all-white public school in Alabama. That following week, Sunday, September 15, the church bombing occurred in Birmingham killing four little girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church.

Sonnie Hereford continued to go on to inspire change and even co-authored a book, Beside the Troubled Waters: A Black Doctor Remembers Life, Medicine, and Civil Rights in an Alabama Town.

Sonnie died at 85 years old, two weeks before the ribbon cutting ceremony at the Sonnie Hereford Elementary School in Huntsville Alabama, named for him by the Huntsville board of education. The school ranges from Pre-K to sixth grade.

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Learn more about Sonnie at the informative video below!

https://www.facebook.com/drsonniehereford/

Huntsville Revisited – Dr. Sonnie Wellington Hereford III

Hundreds attend funeral for Dr. Sonnie Hereford III, Huntsville civil rights pioneer

Huntsville City Schools breaks ground on new Sonnie Hereford Elementary