First off, a truly blessed birthday to a very close friend of mine. I wish her a beautiful new year and many more! I trust that her family and friends have shown her the day of her life.
So my reasoning for writing about the 28th. It’s a truly powerful day for POC. I’d like to delve into the numerology, but I know where my skills lack, so I’ll stick to ourstorical data.
Let’s do this.
August 28th, 1833 – Slavery Abolition Act
In British history, act of Parliament that abolished slavery in most British colonies, freeing more than 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa as well as a small number in Canada. It received Royal Assent on August 28, 1833.
Although it had no affect on the chattel system here in the U.S., the Act made Canada a free territory for enslaved American blacks who could escape to its border.
August 28th, 1955 – The Murder Of Emmett Till
14 year old Emmet Till from Chicago, was visiting family in the Mississippi Delta. He was accused of flirting with or whistling at 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the white married proprietor of a small grocery store there. Years later, Bryant disclosed that she had fabricated testimony that Till made verbal or physical advances towards her. Till’s reported behavior, perhaps unwittingly, violated the strictures of conduct for an African American male interacting with a white woman in the Jim Crow-era South. Several nights after the store incident, Bryant’s husband Roy and his half-brother J. W. Milam went armed to Till’s great-uncle’s house and abducted the boy. They took him away and beat and mutilated him before shooting him in the head and sinking his body in the Tallahatchie River. Three days later, Till’s body was discovered and retrieved from the river.
In September 1955, Bryant and Milam were acquitted by an all-white jury of Till’s kidnapping and murder. Protected against double jeopardy, the two men publicly admitted in a 1956 interview that they had killed Till. His mother insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket in order reveal the true horror of the existing racism of the time.
August 28th, 1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King Speech
“I Have a Dream”
Publicly delivered during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in which he calls for an end to racism in the United States and called for civil and economic rights. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the speech was a defining moment of the Civil Rights Movement.
August 28th, 2005 – Hurricane Katrina
Katrina Upgraded To Category 5
By the time Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans early in the morning on Monday, August 29, it had already been raining heavily for hours. When the storm surge (as high as 9 meters in some places) arrived, it overwhelmed many of the city’s unstable levees and drainage canals. Water seeped through the soil underneath some levees and swept others away altogether. By 9 a.m., low-lying places like St. Bernard Parish and the Ninth Ward were under so much water that people had to scramble to attics and rooftops for safety.
Katrina killed 14 people in Florida before sweeping through the Gulf of Mexico and slamming into southeastern Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005. The storm was eventually blamed for deaths in seven states, including as far north as Ohio. New Orleans took the biggest hit; wind, rain and the rising Gulf waters breached structurally flawed levees in Lake Pontchartrain, submerging 80 percent of the city by Aug. 31. The reason they don’t know how many people died as a result of Katrina is almost entirely because they don’t know how many people died in Louisiana.
August 28th, 2008 – Senator Obama Accepts Nomination
Illinois Senator, Barack Obama officially becomes the Democratic Party’s first African-American presidential nominee in Denver, Colorado. Obama handily won the primary race, beating far more experienced politicians, including New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, whom he later chose as his first-term secretary of state, and Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, his vice presidential nominee.
The rest is OURstory.
August 28th, 2016 – Colin Kaepernick Refuses To Stand
49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat while the national anthem played at a pre-season San Francisco 49ers game, motivated by what he viewed as the oppression of people of color in the U.S., which quickly raised controversy.
On August 28th, during an interview he expressed his reasons for his choice. “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick said of his decision. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way.” The quarterback’s team released a statement supporting his right to free expression, while the NFL said, “Players are encouraged but not required to stand during the playing of the national anthem.”
San Francisco 49ers safety Eric Reid (35) and quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) kneel during the national anthem before an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams in Santa Clara, Calif., Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) ORG XMIT: FXN
August 28: A Day In The Life Of A People, is a short film written and directed by Ava DuVernay (Selma) for the National Museum Of African American History And Culture for its first year. I saw it and I’m officially obsessed with August 28th, inspiring me to write this piece.
If you’re a man of color ( otherwise known as a notorious MOC ), then you’ve undoubtedly donned this title from time to time. And it’s always at those moments that are lacking a valid reason behind it. Usually stemming from a sense of uneasiness on the part of “someone” else. You know, in that one second of the day you’ve decided that you just don’t feel like sharing your happy moment on the outside?…but shouldn’t that be okay? Sharing this ball of confusion we live on and having these personal moments almost seem criminal. At least, that’s what the world would have you think. And I expect that behavior. As I began to understand mystory (another phrase you will here on this blog), it almost works hand in hand with cognitive actions to reaction. So it never really fazed me until a POC said something to me.
I was bartending one night and a group of my happy hour regulars came in, introducing me to a friend they were entertaining in town for the weekend. The crowd was picking up, so my focus become less chat, more, “What can I get ya?…”Now a lot of my customers know that if you’re in search of that pre-programmed, teeth shinin’ hospitality act, it ain’t gonna happen. But you’ll never suffer from the “dry throat”. Plus I sling a cocktail to live for.
As the ending of our 2-for-1 set in, the crowding around the bar began to lighten, and I was able to return to my earlier engagement with the regulars.
“You don’t smile much.”, the lovely little newbie to the bar decided to blurt out in front of the crew.
“Beg your pardon?”
“Smile. You need to smile more.”
“Is there something wrong with the drink?”, I asked.
“They’re okay. But you work in the service industry. You’re supposed to smile more.”
The crew around her went completely silent. And my stoic ass wound up bursting into laughter at this person, who has known me all of an hour, deciding she could put me in my place.
I went in.
“You do know where that comes from, right?”
We wound up going through the usual banter that follows this statement. Uncle Tom, Jim Crow, up to not too long ago a MOC was pulled over for looking at cop while driving by. Yep. Eyeballing while black.
Of course I’m angry. James Baldwin said it best. If you are truly conscience, you get that. But I don’t walk around with my fists balled up waiting for someone to set it off. I keep it to myself and plan my next 3 moves ahead. I am a person of passion and persistence. But to turn that into anger is some cognitive BS. And to read pieces online by fellow POC calling out their/own in this format is not helping. It’s feeding the narrative.
