Rather than tear down statues, some argue that the past should not be obliterated, but remembered and explained. By Norimitsu Onishi, The New York Times — BORDEAUX, France — At a bend in the river, a succession of stately stone buildings, each more imposing than the last, stretches along the left bank. Their elegant 18th-century facades had helped Bordeaux, already famous for its wineries, become a UNESCO World Heritage site.…
Keeping the Tulsa Massacre on the National Agenda. New York, June 25, 2020 — Dr. Ron Daniels, Convener of the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC), announced today that Rev. Dr. Robert Turner, Pastor of the Historic Vernon AME Church in the Greenwood/Black Wall Street Community of Tulsa, has been appointed to the Commission. Vernon AME Church was a proud beacon of hope in the community that came to be…
By Gregory B. Fairchild — My family sat down to watch the first episode of HBO’s “Watchmen” last October. Stephen Williams, the director, included quick cuts of gunshots, explosions, citizens fleeing roaming mobs, and even a plane dropping bombs. We’ve come to anticipate these elements in superhero films. As the sepia-toned footage spooled across the screen, the words “Tulsa 1921” were superimposed over the mayhem. My throat tightened. I knew…
Here’s the History Behind Their Fight. By Olivia B. Waxman, Times — When President Donald Trump announced last week that he would hold a campaign rally in Tulsa on June 19, the backlash was swift. The speech was to take place near the site of a 1921 race massacre, and June 19 is celebrated each year as Juneteenth, in honor of the day in 1865 when enslaved men and women in…
By Bashir Muhammad Akinyele — “The making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged.” (American dictionary on…
Changing the Date Does Not Matter Vantage Point Articles & Essays By Dr. Ron Daniels — “Their Blood Cries Out:” The Tulsa Massacre and the Destruction of Black Wall Street…
Vantage Point Radio June 15, 2020 — On this edition of Vantage Point, host Dr. Ron Daniels aka The Professor talks with guests Junius Williams, Esq. and Rev. Robert Turner….
By Ishan Tharoor with Ruby Mellen, Washington Post — Edward Colston was a 17th-century English merchant who rose to the position of deputy governor of the Royal African Co. His family became fabulously wealthy as a result, profiting from the company’s role in the British trade of African slaves to the New World. Under Colston’s watch, about 84,000 Africans were shipped to lives of bondage and misery. An estimated 19,000 of them perished during the…
By Peniel E. Joseph, The Washington Post — The police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the subsequent protests, which featured law enforcement tear-gassing demonstrators, highlight the urgent need to transform America’s criminal justice system. Floyd, 46, managed to outrun the coronavirus pandemic that has taken too many black lives, only to be ensnared by that quintessentially American and dangerously malignant virus of white supremacy. In a video capture eerily reminiscent…
But When Cortés’s Soldiers Arrived Carrying a Novel Virus, the Empire First Succumbed to Smallpox and Then Fell to Spain. By David Bowles, Zocalo Public Square — Every civilization eventually faces a crisis that forces it to adapt or be destroyed. Few adapt. On July 10, 1520, Aztec forces vanquished the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and his men, driving them from Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec empire. The Spanish soldiers…
Dr. Julianne Malveaux — Exactly one hundred and thirty-six years to the day after Ida B. Wells was thrown off a Chesapeake and Ohio railroad train, she was awarded a…
By Equal Justice Initiative — The Pulitzer Prizes announced on Monday, May 4, 2020 that a special citation has been awarded to anti-lynching crusader and pioneering journalist Ida B. Wells “[f]or…