Photos: Dr. Kathryn Barrett-Gaines\YouTube Screenshots

Governor Wes Moore and Maj. Gen. Janeen L. Birckhead, 31st Adjutant General of Maryland’s Army National Guard, came together this past Veteran’s Day at Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, to posthumously commission Harriet Tubman as a Brigadier General of the Maryland Army National Guard.

Tina Wyatt, Harriet Tubman’s great great great grandniece, accepted the honor on behalf of the family. 

Harriet Tubman’s Civil War work is vast. She served as a spy, scout, cook, nurse, and leader. In June 1863, Tubman became the first woman to lead a major military operation in the United States when she guided about 300 Union soldiers through the marshy and mine-filled waters on the Combahee River to fire on Confederate forces, raid, and burn plantations. Tubman raised her voice in song amongst the chaos as crowds of newly freed women, men, and children rushed Union boats, calming the crowds and leading them to evacuation. 

The post Harriet Tubman Is Making History Once Again–With Posthumous Naming As Brigadier General appeared first on Black Star News.

The 7PM special advance screening will be followed by a talk-back with director Stanley Nelson and Professor Natasha Lightfoot, Columbia University, Department of History. Using Frederick Douglass’ own words, this documentary film tells the story of how a man born and raised in slavery became one of the most prominent elder statesmen and powerful voices for freedom in America.

This ImageNation x FDBA program is co-presented with Firelight Films.

RSVP + TRAILER

About the film:

Becoming Frederick Douglass is the inspiring story of how a man born into slavery became one of the most prominent statesmen and influential voices for democracy in American history. Born in 1818 in Maryland, he escaped from slavery in 1838 and went on to become the most well-known leader of the abolitionist movement. A gifted writer and powerful, charismatic orator, it is estimated that more Americans heard Douglass speak than any other 19th-century figure — Black or white.

The documentary explores how Douglass controlled his own image and narrative, embracing photography as a tool for social justice, and the role he played in securing the right to freedom and complete equality for African Americans. Executive produced by Academy Award-nominated Stanley Nelson together with Lynne Robinson, the film features the voice of acclaimed actor Wendell Pierce as Douglass. Learn more at tubmandouglassfilms.org.

About the filmmaker:

Stanley Nelson is the foremost chronicler of the African American experience working in nonfiction film today. His documentary films, many of which have aired on PBS, combine compelling narratives with rich and deeply researched historical detail, shining new light on both familiar and under-explored aspects of the American past. A MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, Nelson was awarded a Peabody for his body of work in 2016. He has received numerous honors over the course of his career, including the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts Sciences. In 2013, President Barack Obama presented Nelson with the National Medal in the Humanities.

Nelson’s latest documentary Attica, for SHOWTIME Documentary Films, was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 94th Academy Awards® and earned him the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary. In 2021, Nelson also directed the feature film Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy for Netflix, which was a 2022 duPont-Columbia Awards Finalist, and Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre, with co-director Marco Williams, for the HISTORY Channel, which was nominated for three Primetime Emmy® Awards.

Nelson’s feature for American Masters, Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, a definitive look at the life and career of the iconic Miles Davis, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019, marking his tenth premiere at the prestigious festival – the most premieres of any documentary filmmaker. The film also won two Emmy® Awards at the 42nd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards and was nominated for Best Music Film at the 62nd Grammy Awards. Nelson’s film The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2016) is the first comprehensive, feature-length documentary portrait of that iconic organization, as well as a timely look at an earlier phase of Black activism around police violence in African American communities. The film won the 2016 NAACP Image Award.

Two of Nelson’s previous films, Freedom Riders (2010, three Primetime Emmy® Awards and included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress) and Freedom Summer (2014, Peabody Award), took a fresh look at multiracial efforts to register Black voters and desegregate public transportation facilities in the Jim Crow South, critical events in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Nelson’s 2003 film The Murder of Emmett Till, about the brutal killing of fourteen-year-old Till in Mississippi in 1955, uncovered new eyewitnesses to the crime and helped prompt the U.S. Department of Justice to reopen the case.

Other notable Nelson films include the Emmy nominated The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords (1999), a sweeping portrait of over a century of independent Black journalism; Two Dollars and a Dream (1989), a biography of Madame C.J. Walker, the first self-made African American woman millionaire; Jonestown: The Life and Death of People’s Temple (2006, Tribeca Film Festival Special Jury Prize), a riveting account of how cult leader Jim Jones led more than 900 followers to commit mass suicide in a remote corner of northwestern Guyana in 1978; Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind (2000, Sundance Premiere) a moving account of the life of the controversial early twentieth century Black nationalist; and A Place of Our Own (2004, Sundance Premiere), a remarkable and revealing portrait of the upper middle class African American resort community of Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, as well as a very personal portrait of Nelson’s sometimes difficult relationship with his father.

In 2000, Nelson, along with his wife, Marcia A. Smith, founded Firelight Media, a non-profit organization whose flagship Documentary Lab has helped to launch the careers of more than 100 nonfiction filmmakers of color, as well as Firelight Films, a production company that produces nonfiction films by and about communities of color.

The post Free NY Screening of ‘Becoming Frederick Douglass’ Sept. 10th appeared first on Black Star News.

Did George Floyd really try to pass a counterfeit $20 bill?

It has been nearly one month since George Floyd’s murder, on May 25. As reprehensible as that senseless killing was, the tragedy has galvanized people into action. 

All across America, protests, vigils and demonstrations have resulted in calls for police reform and an uprising over systemic racism in this country the likes of which I cannot ever recall.

And to think this all started over a counterfeit $20 bill.

For those who may have forgotten, or are not aware, of why police arrested Mr. Floyd in the first place, history will show that, just before 8 ‘o’clock that night, he attempted to purchase a pack of cigarettes with a $20 bill that a 17-year-old clerk at the Cup Foods grocery store, on Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, suspected was a fake. The clerk reportedly called the police at 8:01 p.m.

A woman named Angel Stately, a former employee of Cup Foods who was in the store at the same time the police arrived, told the New York Times the bill was an obvious fake. “The ink was still running,” she explained. 

Police, who were told by the store clerk that Mr. Floyd was allegedly drunk, reportedly tried to put him in their vehicle. Drunk or not, he resisted. I have also read in various accounts that one of the two people seated in Mr. Floyd’s car, Maurice Hall, was wanted by police on outstanding arrest warrants in Houston. Could that explain the actions of the cops?

At 8:19 p.m., former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin pulled Mr., Floyd out of the police car and, well, you know the rest.

But let me ask law enforcement officials this: have you remotely considered the possibility that Mr. Floyd wasn’t aware he was even passing along a bad $20 bill?

One of my Twitter followers, a Belleville civil liberties attorney named Eric Rhein, has over 35 years of experience practicing law in Southern Illinois. Mr. Rhein, who previously worked for the St. Clair County State’s Attorney’s Office where, as a prosecutor, he won every jury verdict he was involved with between 1989 and 2013, says that Chauvin and the other officers needed probable cause to believe that Floyd knew that the $20 bill he allegedly tried to pass was no good.

“That could have been accomplished by obtaining his confession or if the bill was an obvious phony,” Rhein recently told me in an email. “Reasonable officers I’ve dealt with for decades would have likely issued Mr. Floyd a misdemeanor ticket or notice to appear for attempted theft. 

“That would have meant no need to have taken him into custody,” continued Rhein. “No custody, no murder.” 

The national media, Rhein contends, has yet to pick up on this significant issue. 

Meanwhile, has anyone other than Ms. Staley, the Cup Foods clerk, the late Mr. Floyd or the cops actually seen the bill in question that ignited this incendiary situation? USA Today’s Nora Hertel recently wrote that, since the bill is a huge part of the ongoing investigation into Floyd’s murder – and presumably Chauvin’s trial – it is police evidence and, therefore, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension won’t discuss details of open and active investigations. 

I think we all have a right to know whether this supposed $20 bill was indeed a fake or not. Especially the Floyd family. Of course, I also think that the image of Harriet Tubman – the leader of the “Underground Railroad” whose picture, thanks to a proposal spearheaded by former President Barack Obama, was supposed to replace Andrew Jackson’s on a redesigned $20 bill – should be approved by United States Treasury Secretary Steve Mnunchin. 

Mnunchin last May eighty-sixed that idea. He reportedly said that it wouldn’t happen as long as President Donald Trump remained in office. > Let us hope we see the $20 bill that got Mr. Floyd killed way before that. 

DOUGLAS J. GLADSTONE is the author of two books and multiple newspaper, magazine and webzine articles. His website is at www.gladstonewriter.com.

The post Did George Floyd Really Try to Use a Counterfeit $20 Bill? appeared first on Black Star News.

[Women’s History Month]

Friday, U.S. Reps. Val Demings (D-Fla.) and Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) introduced legislation to welcome the statue of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune to the U.S. Capitol.

The statue will be the first statue of a Black American to represent a U.S. state in Statuary Hall.

“When Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune was a child, she picked up a book,” said Rep. Demings. “The other children, seeing that she was Black, told her ‘put that down, you can’t read.’ That moment started a lifelong commitment to education and civil rights and launched an unparalleled legacy that lives on today. In her last will and testament, she wrote that she leaves us with hope, love, faith, responsibility to our young people and thirst for education. Education: the key to success in America. Therefore, it is more than fitting that she should be here in the ‘People’s House.’

“Mary McLeod Bethune was the most powerful woman I can remember as a child. She has been an inspiration to me throughout my whole life. I am proud that she will be Florida’s new face in the U.S. Capitol, and know that that her life will continue to inspire all Americans for years to come.”

“Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune is one of our district’s and Florida’s most influential leaders,” said Rep. Waltz. “Bethune knew education is the key to equality and to a better life. Bethune was a servant leader who worked hard every day to provide opportunities to those in our community and our country who didn’t have a voice. Her example and legacy should make all Floridians proud. Florida’s Sixth District is honored to have one of its most notable figures celebrated in the U.S. Capitol – and I’m looking forward to thousands of visitors in Washington learning more about Dr. Bethune and her servant leadership to America.”

Background

The U.S. Capitol hosts two statues donated by each state. Last year, Florida requested a change to its representation, replacing a statue of General Edmund Kirby Smith (a Confederate general) with one of Dr. McLeod Bethune.

If passed, the resolution introduced by Reps. Demings and Waltz would authorize the use of the U.S. Capitol Rotunda for a welcome ceremony for the statue, where it would be displayed for six months. After this display period, the statue will join the National Statuary Hall Collection.

The statue is expected to be unveiled next year.

Rep. Demings received an Honorary Doctorate from Bethune-Cookman University in 2018.

Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune

Mary McLeod was the 15th child to slaves on a farm near Mayesville, South Carolina. Over the course of her extraordinary life, she would become one of America’s leading advocates for education, civil, and voting rights, the founder of one of America’s premier schools—Bethune-Cookman College—and an advisor to five U.S. presidents.

That story starts in a small missionary school, five miles from the farm where her family worked. She was the only member of her family to go to school. She walked each way, doing her schoolwork by candlelight. When no missionary opportunities were available, she turned to education, teaching for almost a decade and marrying fellow teacher Albertus Bethune. Then, in a decision that would change history, she purchased a small cottage in Florida, moving there with a dollar and fifty cents in her pocket, and teaching a first class of five students in a bare-bones room.

Her school, the Bethune Institute for Girls, would later merge with the Cookman Institute for Boys to form Bethune-Cookman.

From these humble beginnings, her impact swiftly grew. She expanded her school, founded the first Black hospital in Daytona, fought for civil rights, opened the first public library for Black Floridians, and faced down a KKK mob.

Word of her bravery and abilities spread. She served in leadership roles in Florida’s premier civil rights organizations, where she fought for educational opportunity, voting rights, child welfare, workers’ rights, and an end to lynchings.

She became an advisor to five U.S. presidents, including roles in housing and child health for Presidents Coolidge and Hoover. She became one of President Roosevelt’s closest advisors, and one of Eleanor Roosevelt’s closest friends. In 1936, he appointed her as director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration, where she worked to employ over 300,000 young people.

The remainder of her life was devoted to education and the fight for liberty. She worked with the National Council of Negro Women and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She went to the U.N. and accepted an appointment from President Truman. She continued to fight for her school.

Before she died, she wrote this:

“Sometimes as I sit communing in my study I feel that death is not far off. I am aware that it will overtake me before the greatest of my dreams – full equality for the Negro in our time – is realized. Yet, I face that reality without fear or regrets. I am resigned to death as all humans must be at the proper time. Death neither alarms nor frightens one who has had a long career of fruitful toil. The knowledge that my work has been helpful to many fills me with joy and great satisfaction.

“Since my retirement from an active role in educational work and from the affairs of the National Council of Negro Women, I have been living quietly and working at my desk at my home here in Florida. The years have directed a change of pace for me. I am now 78 years old and my activities are no longer so strenuous as they once were. I feel that I must conserve my strength to finish the work at hand.

“Already I have begun working on my autobiography which will record my life-journey in detail, together with the innumerable side trips which have carried me abroad, into every corner of our country, into homes both lowly and luxurious, and even into the White House to confer with Presidents. I have also deeded my home and its contents to the Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation, organized in March, 1953, for research, interracial activity and the sponsorship of wider educational opportunities.

“Sometimes I ask myself if I have any other legacy to leave. Truly, my worldly possessions are few. Yet, my experiences have been rich. From them, I have distilled principles and policies in which I believe firmly, for they represent the meaning of my life’s work. They are the products of much sweat and sorrow.

“Perhaps in them there is something of value. So, as my life draws to a close, I will pass them on to Negroes everywhere in the hope that an old woman’s philosophy may give them inspiration. Here, then is my legacy.

“I LEAVE YOU LOVE. Love builds. It is positive and helpful. It is more beneficial than hate. Injuries quickly forgotten quickly pass away. Personally and racially, our enemies must be forgiven. Our aim must be to create a world of fellowship and justice where no man’s skin, color or religion, is held against him. “Love thy neighbor” is a precept which could transform the world if it were universally practiced. It connotes brotherhood and, to me, brotherhood of man is the noblest concept in all human relations. Loving your neighbor means being interracial, interreligious and international.

“I LEAVE YOU HOPE. The Negro’s growth will be great in the years to come. Yesterday, our ancestors endured the degradation of slavery, yet they retained their dignity. Today, we direct our economic and political strength toward winning a more abundant and secure life. Tomorrow, a new Negro, unhindered by race taboos and shackles, will benefit from more than 330 years of ceaseless striving and struggle. Theirs will be a better world. This I believe with all my heart.

“I LEAVE YOU THE CHALLENGE OF DEVELOPING CONFIDENCE IN ONE ANOTHER. As long as Negroes are hemmed into racial blocks by prejudice and pressure, it will be necessary for them to band together for economic betterment. Negro banks, insurance companies and other businesses are examples of successful, racial economic enterprises. These institutions were made possible by vision and mutual aid. Confidence was vital in getting them started and keeping them going. Negroes have got to demonstrate still more confidence in each other in business. This kind of confidence will aid the economic rise of the race by bringing together the pennies and dollars of our people and ploughing them into useful channels. Economic separatism cannot be tolerated in this enlightened age, and it is not practicable. We must spread out as far and as fast as we can, but we must also help each other as we go.

“I LEAVE YOU A THIRST FOR EDUCATION. Knowledge is the prime need of the hour. More and more, Negroes are taking full advantage of hard-won opportunities for learning, and the educational level of the Negro population is at its highest point in history. We are making greater use of the privileges inherent in living in a democracy. If we continue in this trend, we will be able to rear increasing numbers of strong, purposeful men and women, equipped with vision, mental clarity, health and education.

“I LEAVE YOU RESPECT FOR THE USES OF POWER. We live in a world which respects power above all things. Power, intelligently directed, can lead to more freedom. Unwisely directed, it can be a dreadful, destructive force. During my lifetime I have seen the power of the Negro grow enormously. It has always been my first concern that this power should be placed on the side of human justice. Now that the barriers are crumbling everywhere, the Negro in America must be ever vigilant lest his forces be marshalled behind wrong causes and undemocratic movements. He must not lend his support to any group that seeks to subvert democracy. That is why we must select leaders who are wise, courageous, and of great moral stature and ability. We have great leaders among us today: Ralph Bunche, Channing Tobias, Mordecai Johnson, Walter White, and Mary Church Terrell. [The latter now deceased]. We have had other great men and women in the past: Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth. We must produce more qualified people like them, who will work not for themselves, but for others.

“I LEAVE YOU FAITH. Faith is the first factor in a life devoted to service. Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible. Faith in God is the greatest power, but great, too, is faith in oneself. In 50 years the faith of the American Negro in himself has grown immensely and is still increasing. The measure of our progress as a race is in precise relation to the depth of the faith in our people held by our leaders. Frederick Douglass, genius though he was, was spurred by a deep conviction that his people would heed his counsel and follow him to freedom. Our greatest Negro figures have been imbued with faith. Our forefathers struggled for liberty in conditions far more onerous than those we now face, but they never lost the faith. Their perseverance paid rich dividends. We must never forget their sufferings and their sacrifices, for they were the foundations of the progress of our people.

“I LEAVE YOU RACIAL DIGNITY. I want Negroes to maintain their human dignity at all costs. We, as Negroes, must recognize that we are the custodians as well as the heirs of a great civilization. We have given something to the world as a race and for this we are proud and fully conscious of our place in the total picture of mankind’s development. We must learn also to share and mix with all men. We must make and effort to be less race conscious and more conscious of individual and human values. I have never been sensitive about my complexion. My color has never destroyed my self-respect nor has it ever caused me to conduct myself in such a manner as to merit the disrespect of any person. I have not let my color handicap me. Despite many crushing burdens and handicaps, I have risen from the cotton fields of South Carolina to found a college, administer it during its years of growth, become a public servant in the government of our country and a leader of women. I would not exchange my color for all the wealth in the world, for had I been born white I might not have been able to do all that I have done or yet hope to do.

“I LEAVE YOU A DESIRE TO LIVE HARMONIOUSLY WITH YOUR FELLOW MEN. The problem of color is worldwide. It is found in Africa and Asia, Europe and South America. I appeal to American Negroes — North, South, East and West — to recognize their common problems and unite to solve them. I pray that we will learn to live harmoniously with the white race. So often, our difficulties have made us hypersensitive and truculent. I want to see my people conduct themselves naturally in all relationships — fully conscious of their manly responsibilities and deeply aware of their heritage. I want them to learn to understand whites and influence them for good, for it is advisable and sensible for us to do so. We are a minority of 15 million living side by side with a white majority. We must learn to deal with these people positively and on an individual basis.

“I LEAVE YOU FINALLY A RESPONSIBILITY TO OUR YOUNG PEOPLE. The world around us really belongs to youth for youth will take over its future management. Our children must never lose their zeal for building a better world. They must not be discouraged from aspiring toward greatness, for they are to be the leaders of tomorrow. Nor must they forget that the masses of our people are still underprivileged, ill-housed, impoverished and victimized by discrimination. We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends.

“Faith, courage, brotherhood, dignity, ambition, responsibility — these are needed today as never before. We must cultivate them and use them as tools for our task of completing the establishment of equality for the Negro. We must sharpen these tools in the struggle that faces us and find new ways of using them. The Freedom Gates are half-ajar. We must pry them fully open.

“If I have a legacy to leave my people, it is my philosophy of living and serving. As I face tomorrow, I am content, for I think I have spent my life well. I pray now that my philosophy may be helpful to those who share my vision of a world of Peace, Progress, Brotherhood, and Love.”

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Author Ishmael Reed’s new play “The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda” returns to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in October, after a sold-out run and coverage from the New York Times, New Yorker magazine, the Observer, the Paris Review and more.

After its world premiere at the Cafe this Spring, Ishmael Reed’s “The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda” returns for encore performances October 4-27th.

Like theater in the time of Bertolt Brecht or the WPA, Reed’s new work (under the direction of multiple AUDELCO winner Rome Neal) challenges the narrative of commercial theater and mainstream historical accounts.

According to historian Ron Chernow and Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alexander Hamilton was an abolitionist, even though the real Hamilton was involved in the slave trade in a variety of ways, and endorsed a policy of “extirpation” toward Native Americans. Reed’s play brings to the forefront those characters who are absent from “Hamilton, The Revolution”: slaves, Native Americans, indentured servants and Harriet Tubman.

Witness this David vs Goliath moment, as the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Reed and Neal speak truth to power via “The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda.”

Advance Tickets:$25

Door Tickets (If available): $30/$20 w/ Student ID

For more information logon to:https://www.nuyorican.org

The post ISHMAEL REED’S PLAY “THE HAUNTING OF LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA” RETURNS TO NUYORICAN POETS CAFE THIS MONTH appeared first on Black Star News.

Mnuchin halts unveiling of new Tubman $20 dollar-bill

Trump White House lackey Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has just prevented Underground Railroad freedom fighter Harriet Tubman from replacing President Andrew Jackson’s image on the $20-dollar bill next year.

Jackson, a racist, slave-owning, genocidal killer of Native-Americans, will stay on the bill till about 2026.

Here we see another example of the racist politics that permeates Trump’s polluted White House.

On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced to the House Financial Services Committee that the redesign of the $20-dollar bill will be postponed, till at earliest 2026. The new bill’s image will portray Harriet Tubman. The legendary Black former female slave—and Union Army spy—freed hundreds of African-American slaves, using the abolitionist network known as the Underground Railroad.

According to the New York Times, Mnuchin was reportedly worried Trump might cause a political crisis by scrapping the redesign altogether if it wasn’t delayed till after Trump left office.

It’s no secret Donald Trump is a big fan of President Andrew Jackson—a notorious slave-owning president, who was personally responsible for the massacres of untold numbers of Native-Americans. The fact that Trump likes Jackson—one of the most rabidly racist American presidents ever—isn’t a surprise, given Trump’s xenophobic nativism. Trump has already told us he’s a White nationalist. Moreover, during the 2016 Presidential campaign, Trump complained about the scheduled $20 dollar-bill redesign, that was an initiative proposed by the administration of President Barack Obama.

“Andrew Jackson had a great history, and I think it’s very rough when you take somebody off the bill,” Trump said then. Trump claimed the replacing of Jackson was “pure political correctness.” Clearly, Trump has a problem with this White racist slaveholder being replaced by a Black female freedom fighter. What could be more fitting that to erase Jackson’s loathsome persona from the $20 dollar-bill with someone who really fought for freedom like Harriet Tubman?

There is an important similarity between Andrew Jackson and Trump.

Jackson did everything in his power to eradicate Native-Americans—so Whites could control the land. Renowned historian Dr. Howard Zinn, in his classic work, “A People’s History of the United States,” called Andrew Jackson “the most aggressive enemy of the Indians in early American history.” Professor Zinn cites Jackson as a major figure in “Indian Removal,’ as it has been politely called.” Zinn says the stated intent was to clear “the land for White occupancy.”

Trump is now trying to make America White again by engaging in brutal immigration policies to remove non-White “others” from America. African-Americans, who think Trump is correct in his immigration stance, are fooling themselves if they think Trump wouldn’t do the same to them if he could. Remember when he talked about how nice it would be to deport Black football players who were protesting racist police violence? What about his complaint about immigrants coming from the “shithole countries” of Africa?

Trump repeatedly plays the race card for political advantage. The racist uptick, over the last few years, signals this.

The redesign plans for the Harriet Tubman $20 dollar-bill were announced by President Obama’s Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew. But after Trump took office, the plans for the redesign were scrubbed from the Treasury Department website. Not long after, Mnuchin told CNBC “People have been on the bills for a long period of time.”

Mnuchin is now using the lame excuse that the delay is because he is busy trying to stop counterfeiting, and that he is focusing first of the $10, and $50 dollar-bills. He alluded to a “security feature redesign” as another reason for the delay. This is surely a lie to coverup the real racist reason.

Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley, in the House Financial Services Committee hearing, asked Mnuchin if he believed “representation matters in American politics and imagery?” Mnuchin said yes. Pressley then proceeded to explain how the Tubman $20 dollar-bill came about.

“A few years ago, Secretary Lew put out a call to the American people soliciting feedback on ways to modernize our nation’s currency,” Pressley said. “In April 2016, following longtime organizing efforts from several grassroots organizations, he announced a currency redesign overhaul that would more accurately reflect the diversity of our society. The American people understood the importance of representation on the bank notes of the world’s most powerful economy. Representation that acknowledged our history, and all those who have contributed.”

Pressley then asked Mnuchin if he believed “people other than White men have greatly contributed to this country and its history?” He again answered yes.

Rep. Pressley then told Mnuchin “after ten months of soliciting and analyzing responses, Secretary Lew announced that Harriet Tubman would be featured on the front of the new $20 dollar-bill. As it stands currently our currency does not reflect the diversity of individuals that have contributed to our great American history. He followed the announcement by directing the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to accelerate plans for the redesign, so the final design concepts would be unveiled in 2020. The one-hundred-year anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Which we celebrated yesterday. As you know, 2020 is only one year away. And since Secretary Lew’s departure we have not heard anything regarding the status of the currency redesign.”

Pressley then asked Mnuchin “Will the redesign meet the 2020 deadline?

“So, let me comment that the primary reason that we’ve looked at redesigning the currency is for counterfeiting issues,” Mnuchin said. “Based upon this, the $20 bill will now not come out until 2028. The $10 bill and the $50 bill will come out with new features beforehand. So, the answer is it is my responsibility now to focus on what is the issue of counterfeiting and the security features. The ultimate decision on the redesign will most likely be another secretary down the road.”

Rep. Pressley pressed Mnuchin by asking him “Yes or no will you meet what was originally the 2020 redesign deadline?” Mnuchin declare “We will meet the security feature redesign in 2020. The imagery feature will not be an issue that comes up until most likely in 2026.

Then, in an example of duplicitous hairsplitting, Mnuchin said when he agreed diversity was important to imagery he was “not referring to currency” but to “lots of things.” When Pressley asked, “Do you support Harriet Tubman being on the $20 bill?” To this straightforward question, Mnuchin answered “I’ve made no decision as it relates to that.”

Mnuchin knows the Trump White doesn’t want the symbology of a Black female freedom fighter being placed on the American currency, on Trump’s watch. After all, Trump has too much invested in trying to make America White again. What would all the “very fine” White racists of America say? It would be bad enough to have a Black man replace Jackson, but a Black woman would be even worse for Trump—and the White racist misogynists in his base.

Andrew Jackson, America’s seventh President, was a wealthy slave-owner, who owned over one hundred slaves when he died at age 78, on June 8, 1845. Owning slaves doesn’t make Jackson unique from most Slavery-era American presidents. However, Jackson’s murderous exploits during the “Indian Removal” period, makes him more unfit for praise than most presidents. He is one of the most racist ruthless presidents America ever had.

Removing Jackson from the $20 dollar-bill will be controversial to those who support Trump’s xenophobic polices. Mnuchin obviously understands that as a White nationalist president Trump can’t have someone like Harriet Tubman replacing his hero Andrew Jackson, while he is president.

Having a Black female freedom fighter like Harriet Tubman on the $20 dollar-bill now would be just too much for Trump—and his bigoted base to bear.

The post Lackey Treasury Secretary Mnuchin Stops Harriet Tubman $20 Dollar-Bill From Replacing Slaveholder Jackson Till After Trump Leaves appeared first on Black Star News.

One eight year old freedom fighter was suspended from school

I wrote recently about a few of the brave children who helped change our nation during the Civil Rights Movement. There are many others whose examples should inspire us today.

Claudette Colvin – sometimes called the First Rosa Parks, was a 15-year-old Black girl who challenged bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama on March 2, 1955, nine months before Mrs. Parks.

Claudette boarded a Montgomery city bus and refused to give her seat to a White person when ordered by the driver to do so. Claudette had been studying the U.S. Constitution and the connection between constitutional rights and segregation in school, and insisted she had a constitutional right to her seat because she had paid the same fare.

She became the first of several women arrested for refusing to abide by the state’s segregation laws and one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the case that successfully overturned bus segregation laws in Montgomery and Alabama. Later, when Claudette described her decision to stay in her seat that day, she used a powerful image: “It felt like Sojourner Truth was on one side pushing me down, and Harriet Tubman was on the other side of me pushing me down. I couldn’t get up.”

Claudette was just one of many young people determined to prove in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education that they would no longer be confined to “separate but equal.” On August 27, 1956, 12 Black students desegregated Clinton High School in Clinton, Tennessee making it the first public high school in the South to desegregate. Two years later the school building was bombed; no one was arrested. But the Clinton Twelve were the leading edge of a change wave that could not be stopped. A year later, nine Black students who enrolled at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas despite White mob violence captured national headlines after Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to block their entry into the school. The students refused to give up requiring federal troops to be called in to escort the Little Rock Nine to class.

Other students fought for other freedoms. In January 1965, a group of students at the all-Black Henry Weathers High School in Issaquena County, Mississippi began wearing Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) freedom pins to class. A reprimand by school administrators sparked an outpouring of support from other students and community leaders causing 300 students to be suspended for wearing and distributing banned “freedom” buttons. The fearless Unita Blackwell, then a SNCC field officer and parent of one of the students, filed a lawsuit to allow suspended students to return and wear the pins and to demand that Issaquena County schools finally desegregate. She and other community leaders helped open an alternative Freedom School to educate those who boycotted the high school while the fight went on. Unita Blackwell would later become the first Black woman mayor in Mississippi.

Even the youngest children were determined to make a difference. Sheyann Webb, “The Smallest Freedom Fighter,” was eight years old. Her story is captured in the book and movie Selma, Lord, Selma. Sheyann was walking by a civil rights meeting at a local church and curious so went closer to see what was happening. She was immediately drawn in and, despite her parents’ concerns, started attending such meetings regularly on her own. Sheyann was the youngest to join the march from Selma to Montgomery on “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965. After the day’s violent events she went home and wrote plans for her own funeral, but returned for the final Selma march without her parents’ knowledge or consent. She was suspended from her elementary school for participating in the Selma march but kept fighting for freedom.

We should make sure children today know these and many other stories about courageous children from the past. We are at another inflection point where children’s voices are desperately needed to help create the nation they deserve. Let’s applaud those young people who have stepped forward to end epidemic gun violence in schools and churches and on streets they must walk; protest the separation of children from their parents; and seek to ensure the right to vote is exercised by all who have it. I hope they will continue to stand, march, and work together seeking freedom and justice for all. We adults should follow their examples.

Marian Wright Edelman is President of the Children’s Defense Fund whose Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. For more information go to www.childrensdefense.org

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Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew once said this of Harriet Tubman: “I have been particularly struck by the many comments and reactions from children for whom Harriet Tubman is not just a historical figure, but a role model for leadership and participation in our democracy. You shared your thoughts about her life and her works and how they changed our nation and represented our most cherished values.”

He added: “Her incredible story of courage and commitment to equality embodies the ideals of democracy that our nation celebrates, and we will continue to value her legacy by honoring her on our currency.”

As the nation has begun the process of removing public monuments to the Confederacy – traitors who waged war against the United States to preserve slavery – we have at last begun to focus on the difference between observing history and honoring heroes.

One way nations honor national heroes is by depicting them on currency. Around the world, currency depicts writers, artists, scientists, activists and others as a means of national tribute. Against the backdrop of the Confederate monument debate, a planned tribute to abolitionist and anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman would be a powerful gesture of racial reconciliation.

Now, however, that gesture of reconciliation is threatened. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchen – former CEO of a major bank that stands accused of racial discrimination – has backed away from plans to feature Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.

Abandoning this long-overdue tribute would be a grave mistake. At a time when the nation desperately seeks reconciliation, this gesture sends the callous message that white supremacy takes precedence over the history of enslavement of Africans and the unfathomable courage of those who fought to end it.

It is particularly apt that Harriet Tubman’s image was chosen to replace that of Andrew Jackson, a slaveholder whose chief achievement as President was the forced removal of 15,000 native Americans from their ancestral homes. More than 4,000 people died during the brutal upheaval known as the Trail of Tears.

Harriet Tubman not only escaped from bondage and rescued dozens of people from enslavement as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, she served the Union Army as a nurse, an armed scout and a spy. She risked her life, many times over, and gave all she had in service of others.

The debate over the $20 bill reflects a larger struggle happening right now in the United States. The nation grows more diverse, as women and people of color are taking their rightful places of leadership. There are many who meet this change with fear and resistance. The neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville earlier this summer chanted, “You will not replace us!” — a desperate cry of fear if ever there was one.

The demographic shift in the United States represents a broadening of perspectives, not a replacement. Our history is not solely the story of wealthy white men, though our choice of public tributes might reflect that. As my friend Mitch Landrieu, Mayor of New Orleans, said as he removed Confederate monuments from my beloved home city, “All we hold dear is created by throwing everything in the pot; creating, producing something better; everything a product of our historic diversity. We are proof that out of many we are one — and better for it!”

It’s time that our public institutions reflected that historic diversity. We are a nation of many colors, many creeds, and our history is rich with the contributions of men and women of every background and heritage. Honoring Harriet Tubman is a step forward in acknowledging our truth as a nation. Now is not the time to step backward.

Marc H. Morial
President and CEO
National Urban League

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President Donald Trump’s remarks today at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Thank you very much, everybody.  It’s a great honor to be here.  This was some beautiful morning and what a job they’ve done, like few others have been able to do. 

I am very, very proud of Lonnie Bunch.  [Founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture].

The work and the love that he has in his heart for what he’s done is — I always talk about you need enthusiasm, you need really love for anything you do to do it successfully.  And, Lonnie, you are where?  Come on.  Where’s Lonnie?  You should be up here, Lonnie.  Come on. 

And David — we have to get David up here, too.  David Skorton is tremendous and he was singing Lonnie’s praises all morning long.  So you two should at least be here.  So we appreciate it very much.  And David Rubenstein, who is here someplace, he is — come on, David, you have to get up here, David.  You certainly deserve it.  He’s a very, very successful guy who spends money doing great things, and he’s been a great help to so many different groups and this one in particular. 

Thank you.  It’s a privilege to be here today.  This museum is a beautiful tribute to so many American heroes — heroes like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Rosa Parks, the Greensboro students, and the African American Medal of Honor recipients, among so many other really incredible heroes.

It’s amazing to see.  I went to — we did a pretty comprehensive tour, but not comprehensive enough.  So, Lonnie, I’ll be back.  I told you that.  Because I could stay here for a lot longer, believe me.  It’s really incredible. I’m deeply proud that we now have a museum that honors the millions of African American men and women who built our national heritage, especially when it comes to faith, culture and the unbreakable American spirit.  My wife was here last week and took a tour, and it was something that she’s still talking about.  Ivanka is here right now.  Hi, Ivanka.  And it really is very, very special.  It’s something that, frankly, if you want to know the truth, it’s doing so well that everybody is talking about it.

I know President Obama was here for the museum’s opening last fall.  And I’m honored to be the second sitting President to visit this great museum.  Etched in the hall that we passed today is a quote from Spottswood Rice, a runaway slave who joined the Union Army.  He believed that his fellow African Americans always looked to the United States as the promised land of universal freedom.  Today and every day of my presidency, I pledge to do everything I can to continue that promise of freedom for African Americans and for every American.  So important.  Nothing more important.

This tour was a meaningful reminder of why we have to fight bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly forms.  The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centers are horrible and are painful, and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil. 

I want to thank a great friend of mine, Dr. Ben Carson, and his beautiful family — Candy and the whole family — for joining us today.  It was very special to accompany him and his family for the first time seeing the Carson exhibit.  First time.  I’m so proud of you.  I love this guy.  He’s a great guy.  Really a great guy.  And he can tell you better than me, but I’ll tell you what, we really started something with Ben.  We’re very, very proud of him.  Hopefully, next week he’ll get his approval, about three or four weeks late — and you’re doing better than most, right?  But the Democrats, they’ll come along.  I have no doubt they’ll come along.  But Ben is going to do a fantastic job at HUD.  I have absolutely no doubt he will be one of the great — ever — in that position.

He grew up in Detroit, and had very little.  He defied every statistic.  He graduated from Yale, and he went on to University of Michigan’s medical school.  He became a brilliant — totally brilliant — neurosurgeon, saved many lives, and helped many, many people.  We’re going to do great things in our African American communities together.  Ben is going to work with me very, very closely.  And HUD has a meaning far beyond housing.  If properly done, it’s a meaning that’s as big as anything there is, and Ben will be able to find that true meaning and the true meaning of HUD as its Secretary.  So I just look forward to that.  I look forward to watching that.  He’ll do things that nobody ever thought of. 

I also want to thank Senator Tim Scott for joining us today.  Friend of mine — a great, great senator from South Carolina.  I like the state of South Carolina.  I like all those states where I won by double, double, double digits.  You know, those states.  But South Carolina was one, and Tim has been fantastic how he represents the people.  And they love him.

I also want to profoundly thank Alveda King for being here, and as we saw her uncle’s wonderful exhibit, and he certainly deserves that.  Mrs. King — and by the way, Ms. King, I can tell you this personally because I watch her all the time, and she is a tremendous fighter for justice.  And so, Alveda, thank you very much.

MS. KING:  Thank you, sir.

THE PRESIDENT:  Come up here for a second.

MS. KING:  Yes, sir.  Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT:  I have been watching you for so long, and you are so incredible.  And I wanted to thank you for all the nice things you say about me.

MS. KING:  Thank you, sir.

THE PRESIDENT:  Not everybody says nice things, but she’s special.

MS. KING:  I love you and your family.  You’re the best.  You’re great.

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Come here. 

MS. KING:  Thank you.  Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, darling.  Appreciate it.

So with that, we’re going to just end this incredible beginning of a morning.  But engraved in the wall very nearby, a quote by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.  In 1955, he told the world, “We are determined…to work and fight until justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” 

And that’s what it’s going to be.  We’re going to bring this country together, maybe bring some of the world together, but we’re going to bring this country together.  We have a divided country.  It’s been divided for many, many years, but we’re going to bring it together.  I hope every day of my presidency we will be honoring the determination and work towards a very worthy goal. 

And for Lonnie, and David, and David, and Ben, and Alveda, and everybody, I just want to — I just have to say that what they’ve done here is something that can probably not be duplicated.  It was done with love and lots of money, right Lonnie?  Lots of money.  We can’t avoid that.  But it was done with tremendous love and passion, and that’s why it’s so great.

So thank you all very much for being here, I appreciate it.  And congratulations.  This is a truly great museum.  Thank you. 

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