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• 1 2019-03-12T23:56:45+00:00 December - Archived Posts 12 plain published 2019-10-15T00:21:12+00:00
  Click on date to view post:
  December 1, 1973: Pittsburgh Courier editors call on President Nixon to resign amidst Watergate scandal.

  December 2, 1933: World War I veteran Rufus Atwood featured in Baltimore Afro-American “Heroes of the World War” series.

  December 3, 1959: Los Angeles Sentinel columnist Stanley Robinson on “20th Century Slavery,” recruiting of black domestic workers to Los Angeles from South.  Guest post by Chase Miller, History MA student at Arizona State University.

  December 4, 1930: Ad for black vaudeville troupe the Whitman Sisters in the Philadelphia Tribune.

  December 5, 1942: New York Amsterdam News encourages readers to vote for Duke Ellington in Downbeat Magazine poll. Guest post by Todd Daily, History MA student at Arizona State University.

  December 6, 1969: Whitney Young critiques Vice President Spiro Agnew’s speech on television news in Chicago Defender. Guest post by Keisha Smith, History MA student at Arizona State University.

  December 7, 1958: Orange Blossom Classic football game pits Florida A&M against Prairie View for Black National Championship, ad in Atlanta Daily World.

  December 8, 1926: Urban League employment campaign reported in New York Amsterdam News.

  December 9, 1948: House of Records advertisement in Los Angeles Sentinel.

  December 10, 1927: Chicago Defender on Marcus Garvey’s deportation to Jamaica. Guest post by Avi Buckles, History MA student at Arizona State University.

  December 11, 1959: President of Bennett College’s Student Senate asks classmates “Where do you stand?” in Bennet Banner. Guest post by Deidre B. Flowers, PhD Candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University.

  December 12, 1935: Josephine Baker in Ziegfeld Follies, covered in Philadelphia Tribune.

  December 13, 1953: Atlanta Daily World awaits Brown v. Board ruling.  Guest post by Jeffrey Joynt, History MA student at Arizona State University.

  December 13, 1952: Philadelphia Tribune columnist Mamie Robinson on black Republican women. Guest post by Michael Embry, History MA student at Arizona State University.

  December 14, 1963: Pittsburgh Courier on Malcolm X and Nation of Islam. Guest post by Geoff Schumacher, History MA student at Arizona State University.

  December 15, 1923: Brown & Stevens Bank ad for “Christmas Club” savings accounts in Philadelphia Tribune.

  December 16, 1950: New York Amsterdam News praises life of Naval aviator Jesse L. Brown. Guest post by Stanley Bowling, Manager of Content Digitization at ProQuest and United States Navy veteran.

  December 16, 1971: Los Angeles Sentinel on the death of Dr. Ralph Bunche. Guest post by John Loll, History MA student at Arizona State University.

  December 17, 1955: Baltimore Afro-American on Rosa Parks, E.D. Nixon, and Montgomery Bus Boycott. Guest post by Adam Pinkerton, History MA student at Arizona State University.

  December 17, 1998: Los Angeles Sentinel columnist Larry Aubry on race and politics. Guest post by Tiffanie Butcher, History MA student at Arizona State University.

  December 18, 1986: Advertisement for Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland Call and Post.

  December 19, 1942: Racial barriers during WWII reported in Baltimore Afro-American. Guest post by Kristopher Boatman, History MA student at Arizona State University.

  December 20, 1930: Singer Alberta Hunter describes black performers being treated better in Europe than in United States, reported in Norfolk Journal and Guide.

  December 21, 1978: Origins and meaning of Kwanza discussed in Los Angeles Sentinel.

  December 22, 1978: Black Santa in the Pittsburgh Courier.

  December 23, 1934: Ex-Slave Association meeting reported in Atlanta Daily World.

  December 24, 1932: Chicago Defender on protests against Birth of a Nation.

  December 25, 1937: Harlem churches and civic organizations help needy families for Christmas, reported in New York Amsterdam News.

  December 26, 1957: Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Conference covered in Los Angeles Sentinel.

  December 27, 1958: Leroy Crayton’s Southern Sausage Company runs ad praising Christ’s love in Cleveland Call and Post.

  December 28, 1957: New York Amsterdam News on the “Year Negroes Fought Back.”

  December 29, 1962: Professional football teams draft several black players, covered in Cleveland Call and Post. Guest post by Caryn Tijsseling, History MA student at Arizona State University.

  December 30, 1916: Philadelphia Tribune obituary for soprano Sarah Sedgewick Bowers-Bell.

  December 31, 1969: Chicago Defender on call for civilian inquiry into police abuse. Guest post by Rubin McMillan, History MA student at Arizona State University.

  December 31, 1957: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. accepts award from Philadelphia Cotillion Society, reported in Philadelphia Tribune. Guest post by Stephen Huff, History MA student at Arizona State University.

  December 31, 1940: NAACP asks US Attorney General to investigate racial terror in Memphis, reported in Atlanta Daily World. Guest post by Candace F. Bryson, History MA student at Arizona State University.
• 1 2019-03-12T23:56:51+00:00 December 11, 1959 3 plain published 2019-08-20T16:24:56+00:00 Guest post by Deidre B. Flowers, doctoral candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University.
  
  In the December 1959 issue of the Bennett Banner, Roslyn Cheagle, president of Bennett College’s Student Senate, penned a challenge to her fellow Bennett Belles and Bennett’s faculty members, asking the college community directly, “Where Do You Stand?”
  
  Her article was published two months before North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State College (NCA&T) students were credited with launching the student-led sit-in movement. Today’s reader can speculate about whether the “stand” Cheagle inquires about, in the article’s title, was a reference to one of two southern Jim Crow laws that restricted the ability of black Americans to enjoy the freedoms of citizenship. The “stand” either referred to the denial of black citizens’ right to sit and eat at lunch counters, forcing black patrons to literally stand and eat, or leave the facility with their food and consume it elsewhere. Or Cheagle’s reference was to the requirement that black commuters stand and relinquish their seat in the rear of the bus, if all the “whites only” seats in the front section of the bus were full, to any white passenger boarding Greensboro’s buses. This was a requirement in most cities throughout the South.
  
  Reading her words, the intent of her inquiry becomes clear. She is asking Bennett College students and faculty—and by extension, Greensboro’s and North Carolina’s black citizens—where they stand on the issues of racial segregation and the fight for black Americans to have full access to their rights as citizens of the United States. She enumerates several personal liberty infringements that included: “crow’s nest” (balcony) seating at movie theatres; denial of the opportunity to try on clothing and shoes in department stores; denial of the use of lunch counters in department stores; denial of the use of main entry doors at public facilities; and limited career opportunities—all of which were based solely on one’s race. Essentially, she is asking if the black community in Greensboro was willing to continue to be complicit in their own oppression by not resisting Jim Crow laws. Her inquiry can also be interpreted as a call for action to Bennett’s black women students, as well as other college students in Greensboro, the state of North Carolina, and Bennett’s faculty members. Cheagle urges them to “think and act upon these questions while traveling home for the Christmas holiday.” Proposed options for the community to take action included: patronizing black-owned businesses, organizing to fight for their rights, development of race pride, and joining the local NAACP. She prompts readers to think about what steps they were individually willing to take to help end the oppressive system of racial segregation under which black American citizens were forced to live, in an effort to secure for themselves and future generations those rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution.
  
  Cheagle’s article calls on the Bennett College community, at this juncture in history, to continue its long tradition of protest and activism begun in the 1930s, and to demand that America live up to the ideals outlined in its founding documents. The role of Bennett’s women students in the initiation of the 1960 student-led sit-ins, and its history of protest and activism, have been overshadowed by the actions of NCA&T’s four male students who received credit for initiating the student-led sit-in movement. Despite the slight of history, this article confirms what many have said privately, but few have acknowledged publicly—that the idea, meeting planning space, and planning strategies were originated on the campus of Bennett College for Women. Just as Bennett had since its reorganization as a college for women in 1926, its students and faculty continued throughout the civil rights movement to be at the forefront of fighting for citizenship rights, improving the living conditions of local black citizens, and expanding the role, place, and voice of black women in American society.