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Black History

Hidden History Black Museum Opens in Los Angeles

Various actors and celebrities such as Vivica A. Fox, and hundreds of other people, were on hand to celebrate the last weekend of Black History Month. Founded by Tariq Nasheed, an award-winning documentary film producer and New York Times best-selling author, the Hidden History Museum highlights current and past historical Black figures from freedom fighters, to inventors, master teachers, to founding pioneers in Black California, as well as Hip-Hop culture on the West Coast.

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Actress Vivica A. Fox with Hidden History Museum Founder Tariq Nasheed. Photo courtesy of Hidden History Museum web site.
Actress Vivica A. Fox with Hidden History Museum Founder Tariq Nasheed. Photo courtesy of Hidden History Museum web site.

By Lee Hubbard

While the rain stormed down all day in the Jefferson Park area of Los Angeles, it could not damper the excitement of the grand opening of the Hidden History Museum of Black culture, this past weekend.

Various actors and celebrities such as Vivica A. Fox, and hundreds of other people, were on hand to celebrate the last weekend of Black History Month.   Founded by Tariq Nasheed, an award-winning documentary film producer and New York Times best-selling author, the Hidden History Museum highlights current and past historical Black figures from freedom fighters, to inventors, master teachers, to founding pioneers in Black California, as well as Hip-Hop culture on the West Coast.

One example of this is an exhibit that looks at the naming of the state California, which was named after Califa, a queen who was a Black Moor. The Spanish writer Garci Rodriguez wrote the novel in 1500, and although Califa was a fictional character, when Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, founded it in 1542, he named the area after the character in the novel.

“Stories like this are featured in the museum and it’s needed,” said Utopia Hammond, a San Francisco resident, who came to the grand opening. “People need to know our Black history and this museum features things and people that aren’t normally talked about and or featured in other museums.”

“I decided to start this museum after I was driving down Crenshaw Boulevard and saw that people were using the site where Nipsey Hussle got shot and killed as a tourist attraction,” said Nasheed. “On any given day, you can see crowds of people taking pictures in front of the mural that has Nipsey’s face on it.”

Hussle was a popular and emerging rap artist who was just coming into national acclaim when he was shot down in front of his clothing store March 31, 2019.  The makeshift Nipsey Hussle  memorial and daily scene behind it pushed Nasheed to create a place where people can see positive affirmations of black culture and tell the stories of black history that aren’t told.

“We need to create institutions that we as Black people and or Black groups own and control the narrative,” said Nasheed.

People came from all over the country for the grand opening. They also got to watch the premiere of Nasheed’s  new documentary film, “American Maroon,” which looks at the Black people who maintained hidden communities while fighting with slave-owning colonizers pre- Civil War.

Nasheed spent just under $2 million to build the Hidden History Museum. Half of the money was raised in a month by a Black grassroots crowdfunding effort Nasheed started using his YouTube channel Tariq Radio, and other social media platforms. This, along with some of his personal funds were used to buy the building that houses the museum.

“The Black grassroots supported my vision and this effort,” said Nasheed.  “We wanted to have the museum over in Leimert Park, a black district in LA, but when we tried to buy property there were several roadblocks, before we got to Jefferson Park.”

The Hidden History Museum is located at 2131 W Jefferson Blvd. in Los Angeles Ca.  For more information, go to www.hiddenhistorymuseum.com

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of March 29 – April 4, 2023

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 29 – April 4, 2023

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The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 29 - April 4, 2023

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

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Black History

UC Berkeley Professor Wins World-Renowned Prize for Research on Women and U.S. Slavery

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, UC Berkeley’s chancellor’s professor of history, recently won the prestigious Dan David Prize for her research that focuses on women and slavery. This global recognition for outstanding work in the study of the human past is given annually to up to nine recipients and recognizes emerging scholars whose work “illuminates the past in bold and creative ways.”

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UC Berkeley history professor Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers has researched the issues of gender and economics in American slavery for over 15 years and also won the 2020 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Photo by Lily Cummings.
UC Berkeley history professor Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers has researched the issues of gender and economics in American slavery for over 15 years and also won the 2020 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Photo by Lily Cummings.

By Ivan Natividad

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, UC Berkeley’s chancellor’s professor of history, recently won the prestigious Dan David Prize for her research that focuses on women and slavery.

This global recognition for outstanding work in the study of the human past is given annually to up to nine recipients and recognizes emerging scholars whose work “illuminates the past in bold and creative ways.”

“Our winners represent a new generation of historians,” said Ariel David, a Dan David Prize board member. “They are changing our understanding of the past by asking new questions, targeting under-researched topics and using innovative methods … they have already challenged how we think about history.”

Recognized for her 2019 book, “They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South,” Jones-Rogers has researched the issues of gender and economics in American slavery for more than 15 years and also won the 2020 Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers’ book, “They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South” was published in 2019.

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers’ book, “They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South” was published in 2019.

Each winner of the Dan David Prize receives $300,000 to support the scholar’s future endeavors. For Jones-Rogers, that funding will allow her to delve deeper into her new project, “Women of the Trade,” a book focused on European, West African and North American archives that depicts the British transatlantic slave trade through the eyes of women.

“This prize also means a great deal to me, personally,” Jones-Rogers said in an interview with Rutgers University, her alma mater. “I’m the descendant of enslaved people, the granddaughter of North Carolina sharecroppers, and the daughter of a single New Jersey mother. I’ve been very poor for most of my life. So, I never dreamed of being honored in this way. This prize is something my ancestors could never dream of. It feels wonderful.”

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Alameda County

Niagara Movement Democratic Club Celebrates 50th Anniversary

The Niagara Movement Democratic Club (NMDC) celebrated their 50th Anniversary at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle on Saturday, March 18. The event raised funds for the newly created non-bipartisan Niagara Movement Foundation co-founded by lobbyist-author Virtual T. Murrell the Honorable Elihu Harris, former Oakland mayor, and founding members Sandra Simpson Fontaine, the Honorable Leo Bazile, Anita Williams, Geoffrey Pete and Robert L. Harris.

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Lobbyist/Author Virtual T. Murrell, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, Black Panther Party legend, Bobby Seale, and Post News Group publisher Paul Cobb. Photo by Carla Thomas.
Lobbyist/Author Virtual T. Murrell, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, Black Panther Party legend, Bobby Seale, and Post News Group publisher Paul Cobb. Photo by Carla Thomas.

By Carla Thomas

The Niagara Movement Democratic Club (NMDC) celebrated their 50th Anniversary at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle on Saturday, March 18. The event raised funds for the newly created non-bipartisan Niagara Movement Foundation co-founded by lobbyist-author Virtual T. Murrell the Honorable Elihu Harris, former Oakland mayor, and founding members Sandra Simpson Fontaine, the Honorable Leo Bazile, Anita Williams, Geoffrey Pete and Robert L. Harris.

Bishop Grady L. Harris provided the invocation and the Honorable Donald R. White served as master of ceremonies. The Honorable Dezie Woods-Jones provided a posthumous tribute to Anita Williams, a founding member of the NMDC, whose memorial was held earlier in that day. Founding member of the NMDC Attorney Sandra Simpson-Fontaine also spoke of Anita Williams’ dedication and commitment. “She worked tirelessly to move our agenda forward,” said Simpson-Fontaine.

The event also celebrated the Honorable Willie L. Brown’s 89th birthday. Brown was unable to attend due to covid, but his daughter Susan Brown accepted an award for him. Brown’s daughter also led the audience in singing the Stevie Wonder version of “Happy Birthday.”

Celebrity guests included the legendary Black Panther Party leader, Bobby Seale and actor Richard Gant.

Mayor Sheng Thao congratulated Geoffrey Pete for his years of service as President of the Niagara Movement Democratic Club and as longtime business owner that deserves Oakland's support. Photo by jonathanfitnessjones.

Mayor Sheng Thao congratulated Geoffrey Pete for his years of service as President of the Niagara Movement Democratic Club and as longtime business owner that deserves Oakland’s support. Photo by jonathanfitnessjones.

Virtual Murrell, founder and founding president of the NMDC, provided the organization’s rich history of advocacy, comradery and being a training ground for over a dozen elected officials. Murrell explained how he, in 1973, along with his friends Leo Bazile, AC Taylor and Johnnie S. Harrison formed the organization in honor of W.E.B. DuBois and William Monroe Trotter’s “Niagara Movement” that began in 1905 to end racial discrimination, segregation and establish voting rights, and equal economic and educational opportunities for African Americans.

“You’re standing on the shoulders of those that came before you,” said Murrell, founder and founding president of the Niagara Movement Democratic Club. Murrell went on to explain that Black people were one-third of Oakland’s population, yet not one elected official of Oakland or Alameda County was Black. Murrell’s club made it their mission to encourage, support, and produce Black candidates to run for office. Their movement transformed the landscape of the city and county’s politics, resulting in the elected official representation of Black people in the region’s politics for the next 50 years. Out of the NMDC came political legends like Congresswoman Barbara Lee and the Honorable Elihu Harris, former mayor of Oakland. Harris joked that he trumped the Honorable Willie Brown by becoming a mayor first.

Historically, the NMDC was created at a time when political power and influence were wielded by conservative Republican William F. Knowland, publisher of the Oakland Tribune, and the former Senate Majority Leader. With the NMDC declaring political warfare on the status quo, the organization produced Oakland City Councilmembers; Wilson Riles Jr., Leo Bazile, and Dezie Woods-Jones, Elihu Harris, Mayor of Oakland and State Legislature, Alameda County Board of Supervisors; Mary King and Keith Carson, Alameda County Treasurer Don White, Oakland School Board representatives Sylvester Hodges, Alfreda Abbott, and Carol Tolbert, California Assemblymember Sandre Swanson, Judge Magistrate Geoffrey Carter, BART Board member, Margaret Pryor, and Peralta Community College Trustee William “Bill” Riley.

In addition to the founder and co-founders, founding members of the NMDC included Shirley Douglass, Edmund Atkins, Art Scott, Irene Scott-Murrell, Anita Wiliams, Al Roger’s, Wilson Riles Jr., Edna Tidwell, Esther Tidwell, Walter Edwards, Sandra Simpson Fontaine, Beverly Brown Spelman, Joyce Wilkerson, Barbara Lee, Michael Penn, William “Bill” Riley, Geoffrey Carter, and Elihu Harris.

Alameda County Board of Supervisors Chairman Nate Miley commended the NMDC with a resolution from the Board of Supervisors, and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao presented a “Niagara Day” Resolution.

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