Motivational Monday, The People of our History

EUNICE HUNTON CARTER

Eunice Hunton Carter was a social worker and lawyer whose investigative work led to the downfall of mobster Charles “Lucky” Luciano. More importantly, Eunice was one of the first Black lawyers in New York, and actively participated in the Pan-African Congress, as well as in the United Nations committees.

Carter was the first Black woman in New York State to serve as an assistant district attorney, where she focused her energy on cases that dealt with injustice against women. Eunice exposed the brothels run by Luciano’s gang, and although her partner Thomas Dewey received credit for it, it was Carter who TRULY built the foundation of the case that later resulted in Luciano’s conviction. This case was the largest organized crime prosecution case in U.S. history at the time.

Eunice Hunton Carter was also the first Black woman to obtain a law degree from Fordham Law School, and in her activism, she fought against discrimination in the workplace, enforcing legal standards for public housing, and insurance for the unemployed. She worked relentlessly to monitor the conditions of communities in Harlem, where she lived with her husband and son. Carter made history in every step of her destiny

By @producedbyallah on February 15, 2021

DIANNE DURNHAM

In honor of Dianne Durham’s recent passing, today we honor her past and legacy. Dianne Durham was the first Black gymnast to win a USA National Gymnastics Championship.

At the time of her championship victories, Dianne was just 15 years old; she scored her triumphs in 1983, which is not such a long time ago. Her career was cut tragically short due to an ankle injury, and because of this, she lost the chance to compete in the Olympics.

Dianne unknowingly paved the way for many other talented young Black gymnasts and despite her injury, she went on to become a gymnastics coach. She passed away on February 4th, 2021 at the age of 52. Dianne Durham is #BlackHistory and we thank her for her existence and wish her a peaceful transition.

By @producedbyallah on February 8, 2021

WALTER RODNEY

Today we’re celebrating Walter Rodney, a Guyanese historian, scholar, and activist whose landmark book, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”, shook the world with its unflinching and meticulous illustration of the impact of colonialism and slavery on Africa’s development.

From a young age, Rodney was an exceptionally bright mind whose scholarship was galvanized by a mission to empower disenfranchised peoples to fight against their oppressors. He was born in Georgetown, Guyana on March 23rd, 1942 and introduced to politics as a child by his father. Throughout his student-years Rodney’s academics were inseparable from his activism, an ethos he acted upon so courageously he was killed for it. Throughout his life, Rodney immersed himself in the struggles of oppressed peoples and the power of social movements.

Rodney graduated first in his class from the top-most high school in Guyana and received his PhD, with honors, in African History from the University of the West Indes in Jamaica when he was only 24. While teaching there as a professor, Rodney began organizing for the rights of working people in Jamaica and became a central force of the Caribbean Black Power Movement. Upon returning from a trip to Montreal’s 1968 Black Writers’ Conference, Rodney was banned from re-entering Jamaica and forced to leave his home there behind.

When Rodney returned to Guyana, he joined the Working people’s Alliance and soon emerged as a leader of the resistance movement against Guyana’s increasingly authoritarian PNC regime. In Guyana, as in Jamaica, Rodney faced unrelenting persecution for his scholarship and activism. He was repeatedly arrested, denied permission to travel, and refused professorial positions at Guyana’s universities in spite of the university’s expressed want of appointing him. Rodney’s unshakable dedication to empowering community through education made him dangerous to anyone intent on preserving subjugation as the status quo. He was assassinated by a bomb in Guyana when he was only 38 years old.

Today we celebrate Rodney’s courage, compassion, and commitment to unearthing the truth of our collective history.

By Aya Abdelaziz @ayaazizart, on February 1, 2021

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

For today’s #MondayMotivation, it’s only right we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. There is much about Dr. King that’s been left out of our textbooks and curriculums — for example, did you know that he passed the Morehouse College Entrance exam at age 15? And only two years later, at age 17, Dr. King published a letter in the Atlanta Constitution Newspaper advocating equal rights for minorities. Martin Luther King Jr vocally opposed the U.S. military, American economic policies, and the blatant mistreatment of the Black community across the nation. He organized countless civil disobedience marches, such as the strike for support of Sanitation Workers in Memphis, Tennessee.

While there is a lot of praise for Dr. King’s work today, he certainly wasn’t as favored back in his day and in fact, 75% of the American people disliked him for his decries of the Vietnam War and capitalism. King endured countless acts of violence against him as a result of the activism he had organized; between being arrested, stabbed, having his home and church bombed multiple times, being hit in the face by a member of the American Nazi party, and his eventual murder on April 4, 1968, at the young age of 39, to say Dr. King was mistreated would be an understatement. The world did not protect him.

Martin Luther King Jr represented freedom and #BlackExcellence. Today we celebrate his life and legacy and thank him for what he has left us. Truthfully, 1968 wasn’t such a long time ago — as organizers and activists we are building upon what he left and learning from it everyday.

By @producedbyallah on January 18, 2021

MARY ELIZA MAHONEY

Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first Black nurse in American history. Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Mahoney was the oldest of two children, born to freed slaves from North Carolina. She went to one of the first integrated schools in Boston and quickly realized she wanted to become a nurse. However, the prevalent deep-set racism prevented Black women from even attempting their nurses’ training; many nursing institutions both in the South and in the North rejected applications from Black women.

Despite the fact that Mary worked at the New England Hospital for Women and Children from age 18 as a cook and maid, it wasn’t until 1878, when she was 33, before she was admitted into the nursing program. Mary was one of three women to receive a diploma from a class of 40 potential nurses.

By 1879, Mary Eliza Mahoney became the first Black woman to graduate with a Nursing degree in the United States. Not only did she become a private care nurse, but she also established many programs to support other Black women in their nursing endeavors, such as the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), and was the director of the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum in Long Island, New York, where she helped Black orphans and elderly people.

By @producedbyallah on January 11, 2021

MADONNA THUNDER HAWK

HAPPY INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S DAY! Today we honor Madonna Thunder Hawk, an Indigenous activist who leads the American Indian Movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Madonna was an early advocate of the Red Power movement, and participated in the Occupation of Alcatraz, which was a 19-month protest to take Alcatraz Island back into the hands of Native Americans. This action was also intended to persuade the federal government into adopting a policy of Indigenous self-determination, which, as we all know, should not be a negotiation in the first place.

Madonna also participated in two occupations of Mount Rushmore. In many of the actions Thunder Hawk was involved in, the objective was to protest the violations of the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, an agreement between the Sioux Nation and the U.S. Government, which was supposed to protect the Black Hills range as a reservation for Native folks. However, colonizers began to lead expeditions into Black Hills in search of gold, and created settlements to live in Black Hills — despite the treaty stating that Black Hills is strictly for Indigenous people.

She was also a director of the Wounded Knee Legal Defense Offense Committee and helped found the “We Will Remember Survival School”, which was a safe space for Native youth whose parents dropped out of school or were facing federal charges. In 1974, she helped found the Women of All Red Nations to discuss women’s issues within the community, against the domination of male Indigenous activists. Thunder Hawk was a spokesperson for the Black Hills Alliance to keep fighting for its preservation, and she also achieved a new water system for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. In 2004, Madonna helped the Romero Institute to form the Lakota People's Law Project to encourage more vigilant federal enforcement and reform of the Indian Child Welfare Act, which facilitated more Lakota children living with their families or on their ancestral homelands on the reservation. Then, in 2016, Madonna protested with many others at the Dakota Access Pipeline and continues to fight to this day.

We will always stand and fight with our Indigenous family. Happy Indigenous People’s Day!

By @producedbyallah on October 12, 2021