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Fourteen Years Ago Today: Good Black News Was Founded
Every year on March 18, Good Black News celebrates the day of its founding. We continue that tradition today, fourteen years after GBN’s inception.
Even though the last two years have been challenging (details here), and changes in how people consume content (eg. TikTok, IG, IG Stories, Reels) have led to way fewer postings on the main goodblacknews.org site, we are still exceedingly proud of all…
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On Memorial Day 2022, we take a look at the African American origins of the federal holiday established to remember America’s fallen soldiers.
Although May 30, 1868 is cited as the first national commemoration of Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery, events lead by African Americans in Charleston, South Carolina to decorate the graves of fallen Civil War soldiers occurred on May 1, 1865, less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered.
Reports of this early version of Memorial Day or “Decoration Day” as it was called, were rediscovered in the Harvard University archives in the late 1990s by historian David Blight, author of the 2018 biography Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.
To quote from history.com:
When Charleston fell and Confederate troops evacuated the badly damaged city, those freed from enslavement remained. One of the first things those emancipated men and women did was to give the fallen Union prisoners a proper burial. They exhumed the mass grave and reinterred the bodies in a new cemetery with a tall, whitewashed fence inscribed with the words: “Martyrs of the Race Course.”
And then on May 1, 1865, something even more extraordinary happened. According to two reports that Blight found in The New York Tribune and The Charleston Courier, a crowd of 10,000 people, mostly freed slaves with some white missionaries, staged a parade around the race track.
Three thousand Black schoolchildren carried bouquets of flowers and sang “John Brown’s Body.” Members of the famed 54th Massachusetts and other Black Union regiments were in attendance and performed double-time marches. Black ministers recited verses from the Bible.
Despite the size of the gathering and newspaper coverage, the memory of this event was “suppressed by white Charlestonians in favor of their own version of the day,” Blight stated in the New York Times in 2011.
On May 31, 2010, near a reflecting pool at Hampton Park, the city of Charleston reclaimed this history by installing a plaque commemorating the site as the place where Blacks held the first Memorial Day on May 1, 1865.
During the dedication of the plaque, the city’s mayor at the time, Joe Riley, was present to celebrate the historic occasion which included a brass band and a reenactment of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment.
In 2017, the City of Charleston erected yet another sign reclaiming the history and commemorating the event:
“On May 1, 1865 a parade to honor the Union war dead took place here. The event marked the earliest celebration of what became known as “Memorial Day.” The crowd numbered in the thousands, with African American school children from newly formed Freedmen’s Schools leading the parade. They were followed by church leaders, Freedpeople, Unionists, and members of the 54th Massachusetts 34th and 104th U.S. Colored Infantries. The dead were later reinterred in Beaufort.”
To learn more about African Americans’ role in the creation of Memorial Day, check out the links to sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.
This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, written, produced and hosted by me, Lori Lakin Hutcherson.
For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
Sources:
https://www.history.com/news/memorial-day-civil-war-slavery-charleston
https://www.lx.com/black-legacy/dont-overlook-memorial-days-black-southern-roots/53453/
https://www.live5news.com/2020/02/18/charleston-claims-first-memorial-day-celebration-with-african-americans-playing-significant-role/
https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2022/05/28/freed-slaves-started-first-memorial-day-in-the-us/
https://aaregistry.org/story/the-first-american-memorial-day-is-commemorated/
https://www.harlemworldmagazine.com/memorial-day-african-americans-memorial-day-charleston-south-carolina-1865/
#How “Decoration Day” in May 1865#Held by African Americans in South Carolina Led to Memorial Day#freedmen#Black Families#reconstruction#Beaufort S.C.memorial day#memorial day
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That Time at College Graduation where I met Ella Fitzgerald, Lost My Natural Mind and Why (via A Remembrance of Jazz Legend Ella Fitzgerald on Her Birthday and Playlist (LISTEN))
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I had the honor of emailing back and forth with the founder of Good Black News Lori Lakin Hutcherson when I was an intern at the OC Weekly. I never got to interview her, as my editors shot it down, but I sure wish I had. I wrote the piece below for a class I had Cal State Long Beach (Pop Culture: Seeing Sex and Gender) and wanted to share it here, with you.
"Good Black News" is a website that reports on the positive impact that Black people have in the world, (which directly opposes the dominant ideology through oppositional discourse) by expanding and highlighting the myriad ways that Black people positively contribute to society. Good Black News challenges the dominant ideology by offering the opposite of the false narratives, tropes, and negative stereotyping that the mainstream media repeats about Black people, over and over and again.
I stumbled upon Good Black News after I read a post on Facebook entitled: “Got Privilege? What I Said When My White Friend Asked for My Black Opinion on White Privilege” (https://goodblacknews.org/2016/07/14/editorial-what-i-said-when-my-white-friend-asked-for-my-black-opinion-on-white-privilege/)
The founder of Good Black News, film producer, and Harvard graduate Lori Lakin Hutcherson, was asked by a white friend about what white privilege is on Facebook. Hutcherson wrote a letter in response to her friend as an editorial piece, and the response was immense. Hutcherson described her experiences about being a Black woman in academia, and other instances of racism in her life. She started Good Black News on Facebook to combat the systemic racism Black people face. She reports it all– Black people in medicine, music, the entertainment industry, medicine, academia, sports, philanthropy, and more.
#black lives matter#black women matter#black scholars matter#good black news#lori lakin hutcherson#white privilege#be an ally
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“Six years ago, I started a Facebook page that has grown into a website called Good Black News because I was shocked to find there were no sites dedicated solely to publishing the positive things black people do. (And let me explain here how biased the coverage of mainstream media is in case you don’t already have a clue—as I curate, I can’t tell you how often I have to swap out a story’s photo to make it as positive as the content. Photos published of black folks in mainstream media are very often sullen- or angry-looking. Even when it’s a positive story! I also have to alter headlines constantly to 1) include a person’s name and not have it just be “Black Man Wins Settlement” or “Carnegie Hall Gets 1st Black Board Member,” or 2) rephrase it from a subtle subjugator like “ABC taps Viola Davis as Series Lead” to “Viola Davis Lands Lead on ABC Show” as is done for, say, Jennifer Aniston or Steven Spielberg. I also receive a fair amount of highly offensive racist trolling. I don’t even respond. I block and delete ASAP.“
- Lori Lakin Hutcherson, https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2017/09/08/my-white-friend-asked-me-on-facebook-to-explain-white-privilege-i-decided-to-be-honest/?fbclid=IwAR2CVsmOxXsBpkvyEIgHfZ-TE237GKwegYT1-ifsRurWbQnSLV3jr8cx5sA
Black joy is a radical act
#Good Black News#Lori Lakin Hutcherson#Good#news#Black People#good news#African Americans#Black Lives Matter#Black Joy#Black Men Smile#joy#race#racism#anti-racism#antiracism
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Author Nancy Redd’s New Children’s Book “Bedtime Bonnet” Celebrates Black Nighttime Hair Rituals – Good Black News
Author Nancy Redd’s New Children’s Book “Bedtime Bonnet” Celebrates Black Nighttime Hair Rituals – Good Black News
by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)
Nancy Redd, author of Body Drama: Real Girls, Real Bodies, Real Issues, Real Answers, dedicated herself to boosting the self-esteem of much younger girls in her latest book, Bedtime Bonnet.
Written by Harvard graduate Redd and illustrated by TV animation character designer Nneka Myers, Bedtime Bonnet, published by Random House Kids, is the…
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#Author#Bedtime#Black#Black americal lifestyle#Bonnet#Book#Celebrates#childrens#Good#Hair#Lifestyle#Nancy#News#Nighttime#Redds#Rituals
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A Letter
EDITORIAL: A Letter to Friends Who Really Want to End Racism BY GOODBLACKNEWS ON MAY 28, 2020
by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)
Yesterday I posted a letter to friends on my personal Facebook page to help process my thoughts and feelings on what happened in Central Park with birder Christian Cooper and Amy Cooper and what happened to George Floyd, the hands of Minneapolis police, as…
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Systemic Racism Has Got to Stop
Systemic Racism Has Got to Stop
Okay folks. This isn’t an easy blog post to write. I’m going to be honest about my failings as a white woman in America when it comes to issues of bigotry and racism.
I was inspired to write in part by this awesome painting by my daughter, Anjanette. She created this a couple of days after the murder of George Floyd, and it has such a powerful statement.
When I saw the photo of the painting on…
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#blacklivesmatter#enoughisenough#commentary#Good Black News#LeRon L. Barton#Lori Lakin Hutcherson#maryann miller#racism#White Privilege#writing
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MUSIC MONDAY: "AfroZeppelin" - A Rhythm & Blues-Filled Led Zeppelin Collection (LISTEN)
by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)
Happy Labor Day, y’all! It is no toil for me to offer up another playlist on this holiday Monday.
After June’s AfroBowie collection, our editor-in-chief, Lori Lakin Hutcherson, suggested a few more in a series of collections of rock musicians inspired by and in collaboration with Black artists.
So here is…
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#AfroBowie#AfroZeppelin#Beastie Boys#Beyoncé#D12#David Bowie#Dr. Dre#Howlin&039; Wolf#Ice T#Jurassic 5#Labor Day#Led Zeppelin#Lizz Wright#Lori Lakin Hutcherson#Marlon West#Mary J. Blige#Muddy Waters#Music Monday#Robert Johnson#Robert Plant#Stanley Jordan#Traveling Riverside Blues”#Willie Dixon#“The Lemon Song”#“Whole Lotta Love”#“You Need Love”
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Some personal thoughts and facts about Julian Bond, an incredible American and leader, on what would have been his 79th birthday.
#julian bond#naacp#sncc#splc#morehouse#harvard#lori lakin hutcherson#martin luther king jr.#georgia house of representatives
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Happy 70th Birthday To Ya, Stevie Wonder! (LISTEN) by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson) It’s no secret how much the Good Black News team loves and reveres Stevie Wonder,…
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As to you “being part of the problem,” trust me, nobody is mad at you for being white. Nobody. Just like nobody should be mad at me for being black. Or female. Or whatever. But what IS being asked of you is to acknowledge that white privilege DOES exist and not only to treat people of races that differ from yours “with respect and humor,” but also to stand up for fair treatment and justice, not to let “jokes” or “off-color” comments by friends, co-workers, or family slide by without challenge, and to continually make an effort to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, so we may all cherish and respect our unique and special contributions to society as much as we do our common ground.
-Lori Lakin Hutcherson, “My White Friend Asked Me on Facebook to Explain White Privilege. I Decided to Be Honest”
(https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2017/09/08/my-white-friend-asked-me-on-facebook-to-explain-white-privilege-i-decided-to-be-honest/)
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Some Reading for Rowan
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/17/magazine/white-men-privilege.html
https://theundefeated.com/features/why-do-so-many-white-people-deny-the-existence-of-white-privilege/
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/09/oh-look-a-white-supremacist-has-been-writing-at-a-mainstream-conservative-magazine-so-shocking/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ellen-jacob_n_4647397
ESSAYS FOR ALLYS TO READ
"White Fragility: Why It's So Hard to Talk to White People about Racism" by Robin DiAngelo
"White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh
"Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person" by Gina Crosley-Corcoran
"Patriotism Is for Black People: Colin Kaepernick, Donald Trump, and the Selectivity of White Rage" by Tim Wise
‘’What Is Whiteness?" by Nell Irvin Painter
"Mourning for Whiteness" by Toni Morrison
"What I Said When My White Friend Asked for My Black Opinion on White Privilege" by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
"Why It's Not Racist When People of Color Point Out White Supremacy in White People's Actions" by Andrew Hernann
"The Hard Talk: White Parents Discussing Racism with White Children" by Danielle McDonald
"On Police Brutality in America" by Victor "Kool A.D." Vazquez
"Native Americans Get Shot by Cops at an Astonishing Rate" by AJ Vicens
"The Case for Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
‘Coming to America’ by Roger Daniels
‘The History of White People’ by Nell Irvin Painter
‘The New Jim Crow’ by Michelle Alexander
‘Invisible Man’ by Ralph Ellison
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