It is Easter Sunday and these young boys are dressed in their Sunday best. The photograph was taken by Russell Lee in the South Side of Chicago in 1941.  A large percentage of African-Americans began to move north after the Civil War was over.  Many left the South hoping to find better opportunities in the North.  As a result, the number of African-Americans migrating to northern cities increased after 1900. In the city of Chicago alone, the black population increased from 44,000 around 1910, to approximately 234,000 by 1930.

Reference: “Miles to Go for Freedom: Segregation & Civil Rights in the Jim Crow Years”, by Linda Barrett Osborne

On May 4, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln is finally laid to rest in his hometown of Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln’s funeral procession passed through 180 cities and 7 towns, before he reached his final destination to Oak Ridge Cemetery, with his son Willie buried beside him.

Frederick Douglass-”The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass"

My term of actual service to Mr. Edward Covey ended on Christmas day, 1833. The days between Christmas and New Year’s day are allowed as holidays, and, accordingly, we were not required to perform any labor, more than to feed and take care of the stock.  This time we regarded as our own, by the grace of our masters; and we therefore used or abused it nearly as we pleased. 

Those of us who had families at a distance, were generally allowed to spend the whole six days in their society. This time, however, was spent in various ways. The staid, sober, thinking and industrious ones of our number would employ themselves in making corn-brooms, mats, horse-collars, and baskets; and another class of us would spend the time in hunting opossums, hares, and coons.  But by far the larger part engaged in such sports and merriments as playing ball, wrestling, running footraces, fiddling, dancing, and drinking whisky; and this latter mode of spending the time was by the far the most agreeable to the feelings of our masters. 

A slave who would work during the holidays was considered by our masters as scarcely deserving them. He was regarded as one who rejected the favor of his master. It was deemed a disgrace not to get drunk at Christmas; and he was regarding as lazy indeed, who had not provided himself with the necessary means, during the year, to get whisky enough to last him through Christmas.”

Frederick Douglass-”The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass"

My term of actual service to Mr. Edward Covey ended on Christmas day, 1833. The days between Christmas and New Year’s day are allowed as holidays, and, accordingly, we were not required to perform any labor, more than to feed and take care of the stock.  This time we regarded as our own, by the grace of our masters; and we therefore used or abused it nearly as we pleased. 

Those of us who had families at a distance, were generally allowed to spend the whole six days in their society. This time, however, was spent in various ways. The staid, sober, thinking and industrious ones of our number would employ themselves in making corn-brooms, mats, horse-collars, and baskets; and another class of us would spend the time in hunting opossums, hares, and coons.  But by far the larger part engaged in such sports and merriments as playing ball, wrestling, running footraces, fiddling, dancing, and drinking whisky; and this latter mode of spending the time was by the far the most agreeable to the feelings of our masters. 

A slave who would work during the holidays was considered by our masters as scarcely deserving them. He was regarded as one who rejected the favor of his master. It was deemed a disgrace not to get drunk at Christmas; and he was regarding as lazy indeed, who had not provided himself with the necessary means, during the year, to get whisky enough to last him through Christmas.”

Remembering 14-year-old Emmett Till, who was brutally murdered on this day, August 28, 1955, by white supremacists in Mississippi. Rest in peace, Emmett.

Remembering 14-year-old Emmett Till, who was brutally murdered on this day, August 28, 1955, by white supremacists in Mississippi. Rest in peace, Emmett.