Office of Institutional Safety & Equity (OISE) |
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In the United States, the month of February marks the annual recognition and celebration of the achievements and contributions of African Americans. Black History Month (BHM) also serves to recognize the central role of African Americans in US History, to educate our community (and larger society) about the untold stories from our collective archives, and to bring the breadth of the Black experience to bear on our reflective present moment.
As a DEIB professional, heritage months present a unique challenge as practitioners, public programmers, and advocates attempt to strike the right cord between impact and caricature. There are frequent reminders from activists and scholars cautioning that if we only highlight Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. (i.e., mainstream Black figures) during Black History Month, our observance remains hollow. This undoubtedly begs the question as to how we adequately teach Black history - to children and adults, in classrooms, workplaces, and in communities -- in a way that is not overtly white-facing, shallow, or monolithic. As we continue to spotlight moments in the collective Black experience, do we present historicized figures and events or shed a more difficult light on current racist and racially discriminatory practices that affect living African Americans today? Do we continue to only share stories of triumph or tease out the grittier nuances that are vital to how we presently think about Black life and accomplishment? Can we do it all in 28 days?
The short answer is no. An endeavor of this magnitude would require a long-term commitment to racial justice and anti-racist transformation. It would require micro-dosing these efforts and incorporating these commitments into our everyday verbal, nonverbal, social, environmental habits and practices. In other words, it would require that we practice social justice, everyday.
During our MLK event we presented our first Social Justice, Everyday activity. We asked attendees to share the social justice issues they care about and the local social justice projects they are a part of. It was exciting to hear about the community based initiatives and organizations our PAFA community are connected with, and even more encouraging to hear that they align with the three social justice issues we have selected to focus on this year. Throughout 2022 we will be planning programming and projects around the following three issues:
- LGBTQ2IA+ Rights
- Food Insecurity/Justice
- Environmental Justice
We plan to share more about these initiatives in the coming months and look forward to finding new ways to continue to engage our internal PAFA community around these three impact areas.
As we begin to turn our work towards our external community and dedicate this Black History Month to the history and legacy of social justice activism, we take this opportunity to spotlight the contributions from homegrown civil rights activists in the greater Philadelphia area.
Did you know…that Bayard Rustin, a civil rights activist and close advisor to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in West Chester, PA? In an effort to end racial discrimination in employment, Rustin worked with A. Phillip Randolph to design the March on Washington Movement in 1941 and is referred to as the most influential and effective civil rights organizer in history.
Did you know…the Lest We Forget Slavery Museum in Germantown, PA, is the only museum of its kind in Philadelphia that exhibits authentic slavery artifacts from the Trans-Atlantic slave trade? Created by husband and wife collectors, J. Justin and Gwen Ragsdale in 2002, the museum showcases objects and materials from their personal collection acquired over 50 years. The museum also provides year round traveling exhibits which the Ragsdales were able to continue through the pandemic.
Throughout the month of February (and beyond) we hope that you find more opportunities to engage with a range of diverse perspectives, programming, and events focused on the legacy of Black excellence and ongoing contributions to the intellectual and aesthetic lifeblood of Blackness, while amplifying the social and civic activism that keeps the articulation of Black history, reality, and futurity relevant in this contemporary era.
-- Dr. Rónké Òké
The Office of Institutional Safety and Equity (OISE)
oise-hr.pafa.org
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Black History Month Spotlight
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Unsung African American Heroes of Philadelphia
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OCTAVIUS CATTO
Civil Rights Activist
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Octavius Catto was the greatest civil rights leader in post-Civil War Philly.
A statue honoring Catto on the southwest apron of City Hall was unveiled by Mayor Jim Kenney in the spring of 2017. It is Philadelphia’s first public statue honoring a solo African American. Catto was an educator, athlete and major in the Pennsylvania National Guard. He was married to noted teacher and civil rights activist Caroline LeCount. He recruited African Americans to serve in the military and led a successful protest to integrate Philadelphia’s horse-drawn streetcars. He was assassinated on Election Day in 1871, as blacks fought for the right to vote. “All that [the colored man] asks is that there shall be no unmanly quibbles about entrusting to him any position of honor or profit for which his attainments may fit him,” Catto said.
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CAROLINE LECOUNT
Teacher / Civil Rights Activist
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A teacher in Frankford, Caroline LeCount was Philly’s Rosa Parks 100 years before the Montgomery bus boycott, defiantly riding street cars and filing petitions to have a law against black riders repealed. She kept up the fight even after the law was changed: When a conductor refused to stop for her, LeCount—just 21 at the time—filed a complaint with the police, eventually forcing the driver to pay a $100 fine. She also pushed for the rights of African-American teachers and students, standing up to the school board of the Wilmot Colored School to insist a black colleague become principal because “colored children should be taught by their own,” reports noted. She herself later became only the second African-American female principal of a public school.
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DR. REBECCA J. COLE
Doctor
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A staunch advocate for the poor and for women, Dr. Rebecca J. Cole was the second female African-American doctor in the United States, who practiced in South Carolina, North Carolina, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. In 1873, she created Women’s Directory Center, which specialized in legal and medical services for poor women and children, often in their own homes. Cole’s firsthand view of poverty informed her public argument with sociologist W.E.B. DuBois, who argued in his landmark 1899 study, The Philadelphia Negro, that African Americans were dying of consumption because they were ignorant of proper hygiene. Cole accused DuBois of collecting erroneous data from slumlords, and instead argued that high African-American mortality rates were the fault of white doctors, who refused to collect complete medical histories of their black patients. She also argued her own case, when needed. When working as a representative for the Ladies’ Centennial Committee of Philadelphia, helping to plan the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, she was asked to form a separate Colored Ladies Sub-committee. Cole refused, arguing that black women should be able to work alongside the rest of the committee, not in a separate group. She won.
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JULIEN FRANCIS ABELE
Architect
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Julian Francis Abele was the first black graduate of Penn’s architecture school in 1902 and spent most of his career as chief architect of the famed firm of Horace Trumbauer. He is said to have designed over 400 buildings, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Land Title Building, Harvard University’s Widener Memorial Library and much of Duke University’s campus. Still, true to the times he lived in, Abele was not credited for most of his work until after his death. He was not allowed in Penn’s dorms or cafeterias as a student; and he was not admitted into the American Institute of Architects until 1942. According to his family, Abele refused to visit the buildings he designed at Duke because “he did not wish to experience the harsh segregated ‘Jim Crow’ laws of the South.”
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CECIL B. MOORE
Civil Rights Activists
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An activist, lawyer, council-member and sergeant, Cecil B. Moore lived a never-ending fight—one often for social justice and civil rights. Most famously, he led a group of protesters at Girard College in 1965 to push for the school’s integration. In May of 1963, Moore organized a several weeklong picket line at the Municipal Services Building to fight for desegregated trade unions. Soon after, he picketed against the Trailways Bus Terminal, demanding that they hire black workers. Meanwhile, he advocated for more civic engagement from African Americans and held his own voter-registration drives. Though sometimes controversial for his unrelenting style, Moore was a force for change in civil society. |
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JESSIE REDMON FAUSET
Writer
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Known as “the midwife” of the Harlem Renaissance, Jessie Redmon Fauset was an acclaimed writer/editor who used her pen and others’—including Langston Hughes’—to further the African-American voice in public discourse. She was the only African American in her graduating class at Philadelphia High School for Girls. Years later, she was an editor for The Crisis, the NAACP magazine started by W.E.B. Dubois. The most published novelist of the Harlem Renaissance, she wrote four novels, each with a focus on black culture and the challenges that confronted it.
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ALAIN L. LOCKE
Writer / "Dean" of the Harlem Renaissance
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A writer and philosopher, Alain Leroy Locke is considered the philosophical architect of the Harlem Renaissance, a less widely known—but no less important—figure than stars Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes.
The first African American Rhodes
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Scholar (and last to be selected until 1960), Locke graduated from Central High School and then Harvard University. Despite his talents, even in England Locke faced adversity. Gay and black, he was rejected from many schools once he arrived at Oxford University because of his race, and had trouble finding work once he returned home.
But he triumphed, teaching and leading at Howard University for 42 years.
Sixty years after his death, in 2013, his ashes were buried in the Congressional Cemetery, where his tombstone reads: “1885–1954 Herald of the Harlem Renaissance Exponent of Cultural Pluralism”.
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Marian Anderson: A Voice That Shattered Barriers
Her powerful singing changed the world, and it all started downtown. Marian Anderson had a special affinity for D-flat because the note was so flattering to her voice. "D-flat made me think of velvet," she said. She was not alone. Many listeners...
Read more
www.phillymag.com
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Throughout the Month of February |
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Wellness Wednesdays
with Kay Walker of Three Queens Yoga
(for students only)
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~IN PERSON YOGA INSTRUCTION (beginners)~
Learn basic yoga postures with Three Queens Yoga instructor Kay Walker (she/they) to nurture a sense of embodied calm + focus
WEDNESDAYS
Jan 26, Feb 2, Feb 9,
Feb16, Feb 23
4:30pm-5:30pm
SNACKS INCLUDED
Location
PAFA's NEW Contemplative Practices Space
Hamilton, Room 314
Mats, water, snacks provided. Wear comfortable clothing
Limited to 12 students/ class
Show up to any class-those who sign up ahead get a spot. Walk-ins welcome if space is available!
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Support Black Businesses!
Together, we can create a great future for Black people everywhere.
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"#BuyBlackMovement is "a way to build wealth in the black community by encouraging people to spend their money with Black entrepreneurs and businesses. The #BuyBlack Movement was encouraged by leaders such as Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey. Garvey believed economic success was the quickest and most effective way to independence."
-- Kelley D. Evans, The Undefeated
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This month OISE encourages you to support and purchase products from Philly based Black-owned businesses. We Buy Black is the largest marketplace of Black-owned businesses.
"When you support a Black business owner, you support Black jobs, Black causes and Black wealth building. You also help circulate the Black dollar and help combat zero-dollar net worth for Black people."
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You can use the tracker below to keep track of how much you've invested in the Black community. |
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Read More. Learn More.
Here are the books we are reading this month:
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[Image Source: Johannesburg Review of Books] |
Breathe: Letters to My Sons
by Imani Perry
Emotionally raw and deeply reflective, Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity. She admits fear and frustration for her African American sons in a society that is increasingly racist and at times seems irredeemable. However, as a mother, feminist, writer, and intellectual, Perry offers an unfettered expression of love—finding beauty and possibility in life—and she exhorts her children and their peers to find the courage to chart their own paths and find steady footing and inspiration in Black tradition.
Perry draws upon the ideas of figures such as James Baldwin, W. E. B. DuBois, Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ida B. Wells. She shares vulnerabilities and insight from her own life and from encounters in places as varied as the West Side of Chicago; Birmingham, Alabama; and New England prep schools.
With original art for the cover by Ekua Holmes, Breathe offers a broader meditation on race, gender, and the meaning of a life well lived and is also an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and resilience.
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Read More. Learn More.
Here are the books we are reading this month:
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[Image Source: Penguin Random House] |
Between the World and Me
by Ta-nehesi Coates
In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden. Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son.
Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.
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Black History Month Student Art Work |
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Henry Ossawa Tanner; His Boyhood Dream Comes True
by Faith Ringgold
Serigraph, 2/100
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We challenge you to check PAFA’s Diversity Awareness Calendar monthly and attend monthly OISE sponsored events. OISE will send out an email with more information about the calendar.
Being an ally for a S.A.F.E. Community at PAFA
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