You already know that Black History is a 24/7/365 thing.
And in case you forgot, history isn’t just about the past. As the great James Baldwin once said, “History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us.”
So, in that spirit, please read the five Black History moments from the past, and reflect on how you can honor them in your life today.
White domestic terrorism ends Tulsa’s Black Wall Street… temporarily
Since the 2019 HBO series “Watchmen,” the white domestic terrorism event that has for decades been erroneously labeled a “race riot,” destroyed the Greenwood section of Tulsa. That community, known to locals as Little Africa (and also Black Wall Street), became common knowledge.
What was not immediately known by most in the aftermath of that important Regina King-led history lesson was that there were multiple self-reliant, self-sufficient, self-determining Black communities across these yet-to-be United States also called Black Wall Street. There were also other such communities: Seneca Village in New York, Rosewood, Florida and many others.
But Baldwin’s words come to life big time when remembering the terrible Tulsa tragedy that began on June 1, 1921. Why? Because, as we enter June 2025, the smoke from never-ceasing white domestic terrorism attacks continues to darken skies and spirits, seeking to choke the life out of us.
But they better “ax” somebody because we still rise. And what many don’t know is that Blackfolk in Tulsa rebuilt their Black Wall Street bigger and better than the original.
The first Juneteenth was born
Even though the Emancipation Proclamation technically freed “all” enslaved persons in 1863 (in states where slavery was legal), it was not until June 19, 1865 when U.S. General Gordon Granger read General Orders No. 3 in Galveston, saying, “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free,” that “freedom” came.
On paper, at least, this decree freed more than 250,000 enslaved Black people. However, as internationally lauded historian and University of Houston professor, Dr. Gerald Horne, shares in his book “The Counter Revolution of 1836: Texas Slavery & Jim Crow and the Roots of American Fascism,” it was the oft-ignored “war” Granger’s roughly 2,000 predominantly Black troops waged against enslavers who refused to acknowledge the new law of the land that made freedom possible.
Horne reveals that Black troops engaged in numerous bloody battles with white enslavers and their armed forces, defeating them on the battlefield we call America, and thus making Juneteenth quite literally a Black Liberation holiday.
The second Juneteenth was born
But wait, the story gets even Blacker!
These same Black troops again saved the nation two years later, on June 19, 1867, when they helped put down an insurrection led by ex-Confederate soldiers working with the French, who moved their base of operations to Mexico with plans of re-taking Texas for the confederacy as step one in restarting the Civil War.
Horne writes: “It’s not only June 19, 1865, that we should mark, but also June 19, 1867, because that’s when the French leader Maximillian was killed, which marks the end of the attempt to continue our enslavement in Mexico.”
So, in the words of Outkast’s Big Boi, Black soldiers boldly told the forces of the myth of white supremacy, “Take that MF, take that!”
Ali shakes up the social justice world
On June 20, 1967, World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Muhammad Ali was convicted in a Houston federal court of violating the Selective Service Act by refusing to be inducted into the armed services.
Ali was fined $10,000 and given five years in prison, even though he took the legal position of being a “religious objector” to the Vietnam War. Ali stated plainly he was no draft dodger, hiding in a foreign land. Rather, he stood his ground, saying he would willingly accept any punishment rather than betray his principles. The SCOTUS later overturned the conviction, but not after Ali lost 3 ½ prime boxing years.
When asked why he refused to go to Vietnam, Ali often said, “No Vietnamese ever called me N**ger” and that “I’m not gonna help somebody get something that Negroes don’t have. If I’m going to die, I’ll die now right here fighting you. You’re (white people) my enemy… You’re my opposer when I want freedom. You’re my opposer when I want justice. You’re my opposer when I want equality. You won’t even stand up for me in America for my religious beliefs, and you want me to go somewhere and fight, but you won’t even stand up for me here at home.”
It was this stance against global white imperialism, (neo) colonialism and militarism, coupled with his boxing accomplishments, that cemented Ali in the minds of the world’s majority that he was, without a doubt, the greatest of all time.
Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner
On June 21, 1964, three civil rights workers (James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner) disappeared near Philadelphia, Miss., and were later found murdered.
Seven Ku Klux Klan members, opposed to a Black voting rights campaign, were indicted for the killings, but none served more than six years in prison. The incident became one of the major sparks of the then-young Civil Rights Movement. Justice for the three was finally completed in June 2005 when the leader of the group of klansmen — Edgar Ray “The Preacher” Killen — was convicted of their murders, ironically, on June 21, 2005 — 41 years to the day that Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were murdered.
