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.

Published

3 months ago

March 15, 2023

Oakland Post

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.

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

Up Next

LIVE! — 2023 NNPA Black Press Week: “The State of the Black Press”

Don't Miss

Marin City Market Owner Nita Hayden Vasquez, 80

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of May 31 = June 6, 2023

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 31 = June 6, 2023

Published

5 days ago

June 2, 2023

Oakland Post

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 31 = June 6, 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.

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of May 24 – 30, 2023

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 24 – 30, 2023

Published

2 weeks ago

May 26, 2023

Oakland Post

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 24 - 30, 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.

Activism

The Case Against SB357: Black, Vulnerable and Trafficked

on April 25, the committee approved Senate Bill 14 which would make human trafficking of minors a felony and strikable offense forcing exploiters to serve 80% of their sentence.

Published

3 weeks ago

May 20, 2023

Oakland Post

Nola Brantley is the co-founder of MISSSEY. Photo courtesy of Nola Brantley.

PART 8 – Come Back to Humanity

Although California Senate Bill 357 was intended to alleviate arrests of willing sex workers under anti-loitering laws, The Black, Vulnerable and Exploited series has established that passing SB 357 and other similar legislation harms Black communities, one of the most vulnerable and traumatized groups in America.

Over the past several weeks, overwhelming evidence against SB 357 has been presented showing why sex trafficking disproportionately impacts the Black community and how decriminalizing sex buying and exploitation will further harm vulnerable Black communities.

By Tanya Dennis and Vanessa Russell

One year and one day after Blair Williams had killed herself by walking into traffic on a busy freeway, her sister, Brianna Williams, testified before the California Senate Public Safety Committee on the horrors of sex-trafficking.

Soon after, on April 25, the committee approved Senate Bill 14 which would make human trafficking of minors a felony and strikable offense forcing exploiters to serve 80% of their sentence.

Passed with bi-partisan support in the committee, the bill means a lot to people who have been trafficked as it shows that the punishment for trafficking will be equal to the crime.

Currently, exploiters who receive 10 years for trafficking a minor may be able to get out in as little as two years. This practice of letting someone out after selling a child has created apathy among survivors who wonder if anyone understands the pain and torture they endure. The unanimous acceptance of this bill in committee is helping survivors to feel protected and valuable.

Led by Senator Aisha Wahab, the committee, which included senators Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, Steven Bradford, Senator Scott D. Wiener and Oakland’s Nancy Skinner, unanimously passed the bill written by Senator Shannon Grove.

At the hearing, Brianna Williams, a Black 28-year-old woman who was sex-trafficked in Oakland at the age of 13, shared the story of her sister Blair, who was terrorized, raped, and tortured by her exploiter.

Suffering a mental break, Blair walked onto a freeway where she was instantly killed on April 24, 2022.

Williams described Blair as a beautiful young lady, who was an avid reader and creative who loved to play with her niece and nephews and aspired to be an attorney. Blair died at the age of 23. Many senators teared up as they contemplated the torture Blair endured.

At the age of 17, Williams was able to exit with the help of nonprofits and churches who invested in her life, providing workforce development, education, mentoring, and legal help.

To address the harm that is being done to vulnerable people such as Black girls, anti-trafficking organizations are asking leaders and legislators and even proponents of full decriminalization for sex work to ‘come back to humanity’ and reconsider an ‘equity model’ that decriminalizes the exploited but maintains accountability for the buyers and exploiters.

The equity model would also provide funded exit services including mental health, housing, workforce development, and legal services for the exploited. These services would provide an opportunity for the trafficked to start again, an opportunity that 76% of women, men and transgendered people are asking for.

However, making buyers and exploiters accountable does not mean applying blanket life sentences.

Human trafficking cannot be ‘criminalized’ away, supporters of the new bill say, and instead they call for thoughtfulness and empathy regarding the intentions of those involved and ask tough questions.

Many exploiters have been abused and groomed into becoming exploiters in the same way the exploited are.

There are early intervention diversion programs that can help first-time sex buyers and exploiters take ownership for the harm they have caused, process the root of their behavior, and begin to heal and change.

Giving buyers and exploiters a platform to be accountable and make amends improves their lives, the lives of the families they are also harming, and hopefully bring some healing to the harmed.

Nola Brantley, a survivor, co-founder of Motivating, Inspiring Supporting and Serving Sexually Exploited Youth (MISSSEY), and CEO of Nola Brantley Speaks says, “As service providers, we must unite and support one another because this is very important and hard. We can’t do it alone. We need each other and the community needs us to be in solidarity!”

For more information, go to ResearchGate and Layout 1 (depaul.edu)

To get involved, join Violence Prevention Coalition for a City Wide Peace Summit on June 24^th from 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. at Laney College in Oakland. To register, go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/city-wide-peace-summit-tickets-622795647547

Tanya Dennis serves on the Board of Oakland Frontline Healers (OFH) and series co-author Vanessa Russell of “Love Never Fails Us” and member of OFH.