Speaker 1: And now.
Speaker 2: Go my my back. You're like that.
Speaker 3: Strike waters from headquarters behind him.
Speaker 4: And if you're just tuning into Civic Cipher, I'm your host,
Speaker 4: Ramsis joh I am your other host, and I go
Speaker 4: by her name q Ward indeed, and we got a
Speaker 4: lot left for you to stick around for, so please do.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna be talking about unfair prison sentence thing
Speaker 1: that's been making some headlines lately, and we need to
Speaker 1: take a moment or two to readdress that. I'm sure
Speaker 1: we've talked about it before on the show, but we're
Speaker 1: gonna peel back a few layers there. And we're also
Speaker 1: going to talk about how Black History Month came about.
Speaker 1: You know, we're staring down Black History Month here and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it started as Negro History Week, so we
Speaker 1: want to get into the details of that for our
Speaker 1: way Black History fact. So, like I said, a lot
Speaker 1: to stick around for. But first we are going to
Speaker 1: discuss how to become a better ally do it. So
Speaker 1: this week we're gonna talk about Jack Harlow, which is
Speaker 1: someone we should all know. But if you don't know
Speaker 1: Jack Harlow, he's a rapper and he's white, and he's
Speaker 1: a really good rapper, makes really good music.
Speaker 5: He's he's a really good rapper by the way. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: I like him, and I like him even more now.
Speaker 5: So this story comes from TMZ. We don't get to use.
Speaker 1: A lot of TMZ stories on here, so I'm excited
Speaker 1: about this one anyway. It says Jack Harlow is gunning
Speaker 1: for a cop who put his hands on the neck
Speaker 1: of a woman who wanted to see Jack's show.
Speaker 6: And I've seen this video.
Speaker 2: She was out.
Speaker 1: The video is her standing on the corner, and she's like,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to see Jack Harlow, blah blah on
Speaker 1: the officer that grabs her by the neck. So goes
Speaker 1: on to say Jack saw the video and was outraged, saying, quote,
Speaker 1: I was disgusted by that cop, and all I want
Speaker 1: to do is make something good happen for this girl. Immediately,
Speaker 1: I told the world to help me identify her so
Speaker 1: I could find a way to give her a hug
Speaker 1: and give her as many tickets to as many shows
Speaker 1: as she wants. But that's not enough, and it's not
Speaker 1: a solution to a systemic issue that people who don't
Speaker 1: look like me have to face. The next step is
Speaker 1: identifying this police officer and getting him unemployed as fast
Speaker 1: as we can. Assaulting a young woman and putting his
Speaker 1: hands on her neck is sickening. And she didn't do anything.
Speaker 1: She was upset, of course, but she didn't threaten him.
Speaker 1: It was just two officers and a lady standing on
Speaker 1: the street and then he reached out and he interacted
Speaker 1: with her being she did not do that with him.
Speaker 1: So if you see the video, he's exactly what he's
Speaker 1: talking about. To be fair and to preserve our journalistic integrity, here,
Speaker 1: a spokesperson for the police department says, quote, the Cobb
Speaker 1: County Police Department takes any and all allegations of officer
Speaker 1: misconduct very seriously. We are aware of the video snippet
Speaker 1: posted to Instagram involving our officer and the young woman
Speaker 1: outside the Coca Cola roxy. The incident is going through
Speaker 1: an internal review to get a full understanding of the
Speaker 1: entire incident before any potential action is taken. But to
Speaker 1: be fair, he shared his stage and he shared his voice,
Speaker 1: and we always want to highlight that and you can
Speaker 1: take that lesson into your own life and learn from
Speaker 1: him how to become a better ally. So shout out
Speaker 1: to Jack Harlow. Now shout out to Jack Harlow. Unfair
Speaker 1: prison sentencing. Got a lot to go through here. But
Speaker 1: real quick, I want to share something briefly. Have an
Speaker 1: older brother. He goes by Jay, and I've shared the
Speaker 1: story on the show before. But for those who haven't
Speaker 1: heard it, my brother is a lot like me. Brilliant, mind,
Speaker 1: you know, very He's a man around town or a
Speaker 1: man about town. I'm not sure how the saying goes
Speaker 1: upwardly mobile. He's a good looking person, very charismatic, you know,
Speaker 1: all these things. He's not a criminal, none of these
Speaker 1: sorts of things. It's just not him. That doesn't run
Speaker 1: in my family, right because I have to say that
Speaker 1: because I know a lot of people think when I
Speaker 1: tell this story, like, well, obviously something had to go on,
Speaker 1: but nope.
Speaker 6: My brother.
Speaker 1: Lives and lived at the time in California, and when
Speaker 1: the new escalade truck came out many years ago, probably
Speaker 1: thirteen years ago something like that, a new escalade came
Speaker 1: out and he went and bought a new escalade right now,
Speaker 1: For those who don't know, California is a place where
Speaker 1: carjackings happen, and my brother worked in the entertainment industry,
Speaker 1: and so sometimes that puts you in parts of town
Speaker 1: that you might be.
Speaker 6: Susceptible to those sorts of things.
Speaker 1: So he kept protection in the car with him, right,
Speaker 1: had a handgun in the.
Speaker 6: Car with him.
Speaker 1: Again, I'm not a gun person, but I don't tell
Speaker 1: anyone else how to live their life, right.
Speaker 2: You, yeah? Correct?
Speaker 1: So uh, Anyway, the story goes, my brother was taking
Speaker 1: his girlfriend at the time now his wife, taking her
Speaker 1: home and dropping her off to her apartment. She gets
Speaker 1: out of the car, goes into the apartment, or goes
Speaker 1: toward her apartment, I guess, and she gets approached by
Speaker 1: some guys that were just kind of hanging out there,
Speaker 1: and they started sort of harassing her. Right, So my
Speaker 1: brother responds, because that's his girlfriend, he has to protect her,
Speaker 1: gets out, takes his gun with him, and he shoots
Speaker 1: the gun in the air to scare the guys off. Now,
Speaker 1: the good news is that this was on video, him
Speaker 1: shooting the gun in the air. Guy's running away, right.
Speaker 1: The bad news is that when he was pulled over, arrested,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. The way the story ended up getting
Speaker 1: back to whoever it was that he attempted to murder
Speaker 1: these people. Therefore, he was charged with attempted murder even
Speaker 1: though it's on video, and the way the court worked
Speaker 1: is they weren't allowed to submit the video as evidence. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm not as familiar with the trial. This was many
Speaker 1: years ago, and you know, I didn't.
Speaker 6: I don't.
Speaker 1: I'll be honest, I don't know much about court stuff
Speaker 1: and police stuff because I don't really interact with those guys,
Speaker 1: at least not on purpose. But I do know that
Speaker 1: the one thing that could have showed that he was
Speaker 1: protecting this woman, they weren't able to submit that as
Speaker 1: evidence to the court, and so he was just basically testimony,
Speaker 1: you know, And attempted murder is a very difficult thing
Speaker 1: to not to prove innocence from when you literally have
Speaker 1: to say something.
Speaker 2: It's hard to disprove something that's what I'm trying to say,
Speaker 2: or prove something that didn't happen.
Speaker 1: Sure, but when you literally have the smoking gun, you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of tough to you know, it's registered to you,
Speaker 1: it's in your car, you know, like that whole thing.
Speaker 1: And so, long story short, he ended up taking a
Speaker 1: plea deal for I believe it was twelve years or
Speaker 1: twelve to fourteen years something like that, instead of taking
Speaker 1: a deal that did No, it was longer than fourteen years. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I think it was sixteen years. So he took a
Speaker 1: plea deal instead of doing twenty two years, which was
Speaker 1: the maximum sentence they were going to seek for this.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Anyway, my brother had to go to prison like a
Speaker 1: bad person because and my sister said, this is because
Speaker 1: he's a black man, and they were able to do this,
Speaker 1: and so they just took him off the street even
Speaker 1: though he's not a you know, a nuisance, never been
Speaker 1: in trouble with the police before, never is not in
Speaker 1: a gang, nothing crazy like that. But they took that
Speaker 1: huge part of my brother's life. So we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about unfair prison sentencing here.
Speaker 6: First story.
Speaker 1: Uh, I got this from CNN. Now, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you heard about this, que but there's a judge
Speaker 1: in Lafayette, Louisiana who had to resign recently over a
Speaker 1: video of that surfaced of her talking about I believe
Speaker 1: it was a black man that attempted to burglarize her house, right,
Speaker 1: so what happened? Absolutely No I heard about this, Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: So well, yeah, of course because we shared in the
Speaker 1: group chat. But so basically what happens is this judge
Speaker 1: is watching the playback of the video of her housemates.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's her husband or kids or whatever,
Speaker 1: but these guys jumped on the burglar right And as
Speaker 1: she's watching the video, you hear the commentary, you hear
Speaker 1: what she's saying, and she's like, actually, I have it
Speaker 1: right here. As the unseen spectators watch the video, they
Speaker 1: comment on the footage while repeatedly using the N word,
Speaker 1: CNN has reported in the video from her name is
Speaker 1: Michelle Odinett. In the video from Odinette's home, which circulated online,
Speaker 1: people appear to be watching the footage of the incident
Speaker 1: on a TV. A male voice is heard saying, mom's
Speaker 1: yelling in word. A female voice then says, while laughing,
Speaker 1: it's an in word, like a roach. And what she
Speaker 1: says is I take full responsibility for the hurtful words
Speaker 1: I use to describe the individual who burglarized the vehicles
Speaker 1: at my home, Odinett wrote in her resignation letter to
Speaker 1: to Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice John Weimer.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: She said she had taken a sedative and that's why
Speaker 1: she was racist. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you watch the commercial for it, that's one
Speaker 2: of the side effects. Yeah, you become drowsy and extreme
Speaker 2: and extremely racist. That's that's it's on there, if it's
Speaker 2: on the bottle, on the back and a very very
Speaker 2: small print. Now you know what.
Speaker 6: Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: The N word, as we all know, is a word
Speaker 1: that is meant or that it is used to put
Speaker 1: down specifically black people. Had this been a white burglar
Speaker 1: at her how she would not have used that word.
Speaker 1: The point I'm illustrating here is that when that word
Speaker 1: comes into question, not whether or not she should have
Speaker 1: been angry, not whether or not this guy was right
Speaker 1: or wrong, because obviously he was wrong. He was stealing
Speaker 1: from them. You have a right to protect your family.
Speaker 1: You have a right to be angry about someone breaking
Speaker 1: into your car, absolutely, but be angry once you include race,
Speaker 1: and she was talking about roaches. There's no way around that.
Speaker 6: This is not anger. This is racism.
Speaker 1: I need to say that before I say the next thing. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: the New Orleans District Attorney is going back and re
Speaker 1: examining her cases where people have been sentenced to prison
Speaker 1: time because of her judgment right, and we're talking about
Speaker 1: unfair sentencing. Here another story, this one comes from the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Black Star. Lawrence Stevens, aged thirty eight, thought he
Speaker 1: was going to spend the rest of his life in
Speaker 1: prison after a Virginia judge sentenced him to one thousand,
Speaker 1: eight hundred and twenty three years in prison for a
Speaker 1: two thousand and one home invasion in robbery. Stevens received
Speaker 1: the lifeline of a lifetime when Hampton Virginia civil rights
Speaker 1: activists caught wind of his case on November thirteenth, two
Speaker 1: thousand and one. A then eighteen year old Stevens was homeless,
Speaker 1: working two jobs with a baby on the way. According
Speaker 1: to Rebecca when the Hampton Virginia NAACP Legal Redress and
Speaker 1: Criminal Justice chairperson, She says, while working at his restaurant
Speaker 1: job at the time, Stevens and another black employee were
Speaker 1: talked into breaking into a house and committing a robbery.
Speaker 1: An older white co worker masterminded the robbery but never
Speaker 1: went inside the home. There were five co defendants in all,
Speaker 1: but the white participants in the robbery received standard sentences
Speaker 1: averaging ten to thirteen years, as the black code defendants
Speaker 1: received harsher sentences. Darnelle Nolan, who was seventeen years old
Speaker 1: at the time, received a thirty five year prison sentence
Speaker 1: and Stevens received one eight hund twenty three years. The
Speaker 1: two black teenagers, their sentencing greatly exceeds that of the
Speaker 1: sentencing guy lines and that of their white code defendants.
Speaker 1: When said of the lopsided prison sentences, when says sentencing
Speaker 1: guidelines are put in place to reduce bias, but Judge
Speaker 1: Prentice Smiley Junior had a long track record of delivering
Speaker 1: harsher sentences to black men. When would not go as
Speaker 1: far as to say Judge Smiley was racist, but she said,
Speaker 1: the history speaks for itself.
Speaker 2: Man, we are always trying to make sure we don't
Speaker 2: hurt the feelings of racist people. It makes me sick.
Speaker 6: Hang on, young, I got another one. I got another.
Speaker 2: One thousand, eight hundred and thirty two years, and its
Speaker 2: white co defendant got ten ten to thirteen. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: we want to tread softly in made hat. I don't
Speaker 2: want to say he's racist. Well, let me contend one man.
Speaker 6: So I got another story from Democracynow dot Org. This
Speaker 6: is one we've talked about on the show.
Speaker 1: But In Colorado, Governor Jared Polus reduced a one and
Speaker 1: ten year sentence of truck driver Rohel Aguilera Mideeros to
Speaker 1: ten years, calling the initial lengthy sentence unjust. The case
Speaker 1: of Aguilera meant Mederos, a twenty six year old truck
Speaker 1: driver from Guba, triggered widespread condemnation, including a boycott of
Speaker 1: Colorado led by other truck drivers in protest. Aguilera Mederos
Speaker 1: has said the breaks on his semi trailer failed when
Speaker 1: driving downhill, leading to a multi vehicle pile up that
Speaker 1: killed four people in twenty nineteen, and many are calling
Speaker 1: on the trucking company to be held liable for the crash.
Speaker 1: So had it not been for the outcry and the
Speaker 1: support of his fellow truck drivers and you know, the public.
Speaker 1: You know, there's lots of cases, lots of cases that
Speaker 1: don't make the news, and we have data, but these
Speaker 1: data is actually human beings, lives. These are families that
Speaker 1: are losing people. We're going to get to the data
Speaker 1: in just a second, but this one made its way
Speaker 1: to the news. One hundred and ten year sentence for
Speaker 1: an accident, you know, even.
Speaker 2: The tenure sentence is harsh. Sure, I think I considered.
Speaker 2: I understand that people died here, but.
Speaker 1: Yeah, someone needs to be held accountable. But as they said,
Speaker 1: there are people calling on the trucking company to be
Speaker 1: held liable, and you know, punishing this man doesn't bring
Speaker 1: those people any comfort. Maybe suing the trucking company and
Speaker 1: holding them civilly liable for it might bring some something.
Speaker 2: But you remember to point out Rams, this was not
Speaker 2: alcohol or drug. He wasn't drunk, he wasn't under the influence.
Speaker 2: This was purely an accident. Okay, So what do we
Speaker 2: do now? We go to the government statistics, right, because
Speaker 2: unfair prison sentencing exists, right, and we see that it's
Speaker 2: there are judge judges who are racists.
Speaker 1: There's a whole criminal justice system that's really set up
Speaker 1: to put black people in cages and exploit them for
Speaker 1: their labor. For those that know about the thirteenth Amendment,
Speaker 1: who've seen the documentary, that know that sorts of thing.
Speaker 6: This is big business.
Speaker 1: It's small enough to where most people aren't overtly outraged
Speaker 1: by it. It's not like one hundred percent of black
Speaker 1: people are in the criminal justice system like what it
Speaker 1: was when they're slavery. But there's enough people for it
Speaker 1: to make sense, but not enough for large public outcry.
Speaker 1: You want to say something, talk to me, I just don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's number spaced. I don't think it's not.
Speaker 1: I don't think the lack of outrage is because there's
Speaker 1: a small number. I think it's just been going on
Speaker 1: for so long that we're used to it, not just
Speaker 1: used to it, but completely unaware. Right, it's like slavery, Okay,
Speaker 1: no more slavery, except if you do something wrong, we
Speaker 1: can make your slave cool, and then we abolish slavery.
Speaker 1: And then we start doing this and then there was
Speaker 1: there was kind of like there was no break in
Speaker 1: there where they just introduced this new thing. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it's like it's not like they came out okay one day.
Speaker 1: I know slavery ended forty years ago, but we got
Speaker 1: this new thing. You guys are gonna love it. Like
Speaker 1: it wasn't like that.
Speaker 2: It happened so kind of coverten over it at the
Speaker 2: same time and has been going on every since. I
Speaker 2: think that lack of outrage comes from some a lack
Speaker 2: of knowledge, but others not really having a chance to
Speaker 2: be outraged by something that has been going on long
Speaker 2: before they were born.
Speaker 1: You know Michael Stevenson, who's someone that I look up to.
Speaker 1: He's the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, basically a
Speaker 1: lawyer that seeks to overturn wrongful convictions. He said something
Speaker 1: that really stayed with me. He said, you know, if
Speaker 1: the nation state of Germany was disproportionately was executing people
Speaker 1: and they were disproportionately Jewish, I couldn't bear it. It
Speaker 1: would be unconscionable. But yet in this country there's a
Speaker 1: stunning silence. And he quotes the numbers I'm about to
Speaker 1: read to you right now. Now, remember these stats come.
Speaker 1: This actual text comes from USSC dot gov. That's the
Speaker 1: United States Sentencing Commission, and that's a dot gov.
Speaker 6: You can look it up yourself. I've just copied and pasted. Okay.
Speaker 1: The first point, black mail offenders continued to receive longer
Speaker 1: sentences than similarly situated white male offenders. Blackmail offenders receive
Speaker 1: sentences on average nineteen point one percent longer than similarly
Speaker 1: situated white mail offenders during the post report period fiscal
Speaker 1: years of twenty twelve to twenty sixteen, as they had
Speaker 1: for the prior four period studied. The differences in sentence
Speaker 1: length remain relatively unchanged compared to the post gall period.
Speaker 1: Two non government sponsored departures and variances appear to contribute
Speaker 1: significantly to the difference in sentence length between black mail
Speaker 1: and white mail offenders. Black Mail offenders were twenty one
Speaker 1: point two percent less likely than white male offenders to
Speaker 1: receive a non government sponsored downward departure or variance during
Speaker 1: the post report period. Furthermore, when blackmail offenders did receive
Speaker 1: a non government sponsor departure of variance, they received sentences
Speaker 1: sixteen point eight percent longer than white male offenders who
Speaker 1: received a non government sponsor departure or variance. In contrast,
Speaker 1: it was a seven point nine percent difference in the
Speaker 1: sentence length between a blackmail and white male offenders who
Speaker 1: received sentences within the applicable sentencing guidelines range, and there
Speaker 1: was no statistically significant difference in sentence link between blackmail
Speaker 1: and white mal offenders who received a substantial assistance departure.
Speaker 6: And the third.
Speaker 1: Point, violence in an offender's criminal history does not appear
Speaker 1: to account for any of the Democrat demographic differences in sentencing.
Speaker 1: Blackmail offenders received sentences on average twenty point four percent
Speaker 1: longer than similarly situated white male offenders. Accounting for violence
Speaker 1: in an offender's past in fiscal year twenty sixteen, the
Speaker 1: only year.
Speaker 6: For which such data is available, this figure.
Speaker 1: Is almost the same as a twenty point seven percent
Speaker 1: difference without accounting for past violence. Thus, violence and an
Speaker 1: offender's criminal history does not appear to contribute to the
Speaker 1: sentence imposed to any extent beyond its contribution to the
Speaker 1: offender's criminal history score determined under the sentencing guidelines. Now,
Speaker 1: let's talk about Kyle Rittenhouse. Now, let's talk about everything.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about privilege. Let's talk because you know, we
Speaker 1: talked about this before. Privilege is not a gift. It's
Speaker 1: not a three million dollars when you're born. Privilege is
Speaker 1: not having to overcome the same hurdles. And when we're
Speaker 1: talking about a criminal justice system, imagine being born in
Speaker 1: a society where there are no real opportunities outside of
Speaker 1: playing basketball and rapping. You know, everyone around you is poor,
Speaker 1: there's no upward mobility. You know, you can study hard,
Speaker 1: and you can you know, all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: But a lot of people know that studying hard is
Speaker 1: not the answer for everyone. Studying hard only gets you
Speaker 1: a good job. It doesn't get you wealthy, It doesn't
Speaker 1: even improve your immediate circumstances. Who wants to study when
Speaker 1: you're hungry. I'm not saying everyone's hungry.
Speaker 7: I'm not saying that just gets you a job, not
Speaker 7: necessarily a good job, sure, depending on what. But listen,
Speaker 7: I do want to say this because a lot of folks,
Speaker 7: you know, they have their arguments. I've been kind of
Speaker 7: reading what a lot of right wing people believe. I
Speaker 7: will admit that some people are just bad people. You know,
Speaker 7: societies are complex, right, and you get lots of good people,
Speaker 7: some bad people, right, But we have a system that
Speaker 7: treats everyone like they're bad. Now, the story I started
Speaker 7: this off with, I have an older brother who's black.
Speaker 7: It doesn't matter how good looking is that, what smart
Speaker 7: he is.
Speaker 1: He's black, you know, and he has a gun in
Speaker 1: a black suv in Los Angeles, California. In everyone's mind,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. You can be the least
Speaker 1: racist person with the least amount of prejudices and the
Speaker 1: least you know, indoctrination. But you know, if you've grown
Speaker 1: up in America, that recipe has to trigger something in
Speaker 1: your mind. Otherwise you haven't been paying attention, and the
Speaker 1: fact that it triggers something in your mind. Listening to
Speaker 1: my voice right now illustrates what privilege is because there's
Speaker 1: if you take away black, this is a guy with
Speaker 1: who believes in the Second Amendment. You know, it's it's
Speaker 1: a you know, you can carry it, you know if
Speaker 1: you need whatever, you know, But black and gun is
Speaker 1: automatically criminal, especially in a nice Cadillac. Okay, obviously he's
Speaker 1: a drug. You know, there's so many things that come
Speaker 1: to people's minds when you put this thing together. My
Speaker 1: brother has always been able to do well for himself.
Speaker 1: He's brilliant. I wish you could meet him, but we
Speaker 1: have about a minute left. I'm sorry I talked to
Speaker 1: this stuff, but we had a lot of notes to cover.
Speaker 1: I do want to get your thoughts on this too. Q.
Speaker 2: No, those notes were those notes were important, and these
Speaker 2: are things that these are things that unfortunately we already knew. Sure,
Speaker 2: you know, So having this conversation with our audience is
Speaker 2: what we have to remember that we're doing. Because having
Speaker 2: this conversation with each other, it's like, yeah, duh, well.
Speaker 1: We call it a we call it a black show
Speaker 1: for non black people, so you know.
Speaker 2: Correct, you're right, yeah, but just you know, just understand
Speaker 2: that so many people that are hearing this either have
Speaker 2: never heard it or hear it and immediately and instinctively
Speaker 2: pushed back on it, right, And that's because that implicit
Speaker 2: bias exists. Yeah right, Black and gun for a lot
Speaker 2: of people does mean criminal sadly, you know, but you
Speaker 2: look at the gross variance and gross lopsidedness of the
Speaker 2: sentencing differences based strictly on just whether the person is
Speaker 2: black or white, and it's so obvious, right, But well,
Speaker 2: a lot of times pointing out the racism in our
Speaker 2: country makes people feel personally attacked, so they push back
Speaker 2: on that very hard because you're not talking about a system,
Speaker 2: You're talking about them, because they believe so systemically and
Speaker 2: so passionately in that system.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you, as always, brilliant, well said and spot on.
Speaker 1: Moving on, it's time for the way Black History fact.
Speaker 1: So again, a lot of texture. I apologize in advance,
Speaker 1: but I do believe that you'll like to know this
Speaker 1: because I didn't know this, and rarely do we come
Speaker 1: across something black that I don't know, So I will read.
Speaker 6: This.
Speaker 1: This is how Negro History Week became Black History Month.
Speaker 1: And this comes from The New York Times in the
Speaker 1: years after reconstruction, campaigning for the importance of black history,
Speaker 1: and during the scholarly work of creating the canon was
Speaker 1: a cornerstone of the civil of civil rights work for
Speaker 1: leaders like Carter G. Woodson, Martha Jones, Professor of History
Speaker 1: at Johns Hopkins University, and the Society of Black Alumni
Speaker 1: presidential professor. These men who are trained formally and credentialed
Speaker 1: in the ways that all intellectuals and thought leaders in
Speaker 1: the earliest twenty century were trained at Harvard and places
Speaker 1: like that. But in order to make the argument, in
Speaker 1: order to make the claim about black genius, about black excellence,
Speaker 1: you have to build a space in which to do that.
Speaker 1: There is no room. This is how end quote. And
Speaker 1: this is how they built.
Speaker 2: The room, all right.
Speaker 1: On February twentieth, Frederick Douglas, the most powerful civil rights
Speaker 1: advocate of his era, died Washington, d c. These schools
Speaker 1: began to celebrate what became known as Douglas Day. On
Speaker 1: January twelfth, eighteen ninety seven, Mary Church Tenell, an educator
Speaker 1: and community activists posed proposed the idea of a school
Speaker 1: holiday to celebrate Frederick Douglas's life at a school board
Speaker 1: meeting in the for the Washington area, and.
Speaker 6: It was for colored schools.
Speaker 1: The school board agreed to set aside the afternoon of
Speaker 1: February fourteenth, eighteen ninety seven, the date Douglas celebrated as
Speaker 1: his birthday. He remember he was born a slave, so
Speaker 1: he didn't know his exact date birth, But they took
Speaker 1: February fourteenth, which was the day he used, and the
Speaker 1: students would learn about his life and would write speeches
Speaker 1: about Frederick Douglas. So Douglas Day February fourteenth, eighteen ninety seven.
Speaker 6: All Right Carter G.
Speaker 1: Woodson, the scholar now known as the father of Black History,
Speaker 1: was inspired to take his work nationwide. He was born
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy five, the son of a form enslaved
Speaker 1: person or former enslaved people. He worked as a coal
Speaker 1: miner before receiving his masters at the University of Chicago.
Speaker 1: He was the second African American to receive a PhD
Speaker 1: from Harvard, after W. E. B.
Speaker 6: Du Bois.
Speaker 1: In the summer of nineteen fifteen, doctor Woodson attended Lincoln
Speaker 1: Jubilee commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Emancipation in Chicago, featuring
Speaker 1: exhibitions that highlighted African Americans' recent accomplishments, and after seeing
Speaker 1: the thousands of people who attended from across the country,
Speaker 1: doctor Woodson was inspired to do more in the spirit
Speaker 1: of honoring Black history and heritage.
Speaker 6: So we're going to hear a lot about this guy,
Speaker 6: doctor Woodson.
Speaker 1: So on September ninth, nineteen fifteen, doctor Woodson formed the
Speaker 1: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, an
Speaker 1: organization to provide the scientific study of Black life and
Speaker 1: history and for those that care. Today, the organization is
Speaker 1: known as the Association for the State Body of African
Speaker 1: American Life and History, or.
Speaker 6: Asl sorry asalh all Right.
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixteen, the Association established the Journal of Negro History,
Speaker 1: the first scholarly journal that published researchers findings on the
Speaker 1: historical achievements of black individuals. Doctor Woodson believed that quote
Speaker 1: if a race has no history, if it has no
Speaker 1: worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought
Speaker 1: of the world end quote. To that end, he asked
Speaker 1: his Omega Pside Fraternity brothers to join him in the
Speaker 1: work of spreading the importance of black history. The Omega
Speaker 1: Side Fraternity created Negro History and Literature Week in nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty four, but doctor Woodson had aspirations for Negro history
Speaker 1: to become a significant part of the culture across the country.
Speaker 1: He announced the first Negro History Week in February of
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty six, almost done.
Speaker 6: Here, bear with me.
Speaker 1: He chose February because it was the month in which
Speaker 1: both Lincoln and Douglas were born. After Lincoln's assassination, his
Speaker 1: birthday on February twelve had been celebrated by Black Americans
Speaker 1: and Republicans. Douglas Day, which was observed on February fourteenth,
Speaker 1: had grown in popularity since popularity since Mary Church Terrell
Speaker 1: had started it in Washington in eighteen ninety seven. Doctor
Speaker 1: Woodson saw Negro History Week as a way to expand
Speaker 1: the celebration of these two men and encourage Americans to
Speaker 1: study the little known history of an entire people. Doctor
Speaker 1: Woodson and his colleagues set an ambitious agenda for Negro
Speaker 1: History Week. They provided a K through twelve teaching curriculum
Speaker 1: with photos lesson plans and posters with important dates and
Speaker 1: biographical information. Real quick, I want to shout out doctor
Speaker 1: Camilla Westenburgh one more time, and I'm gonna do it
Speaker 1: every time she crosses my mind because she took the
Speaker 1: time to teach me. And shout out my dad, doctor
Speaker 1: Rudolph Wayne Taylor, rest in peace, who took the time
Speaker 1: to teach me. In an article published in nineteen thirty
Speaker 1: two titled Negro History Week, the sixty Year, Doctor Woodson
Speaker 1: noted that some white schools were participating in the Negro
Speaker 1: History Week curriculums and that this had improved race relations.
Speaker 1: You know, shout out to white people in the early
Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds who were celebrating Negro History Week. They're probably
Speaker 1: all gone or whatever, but those are the people to
Speaker 1: help get us to where we are, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, So shout out to them too. Almost done.
Speaker 1: In the nineteen sixties, growing political consciousness among black college
Speaker 1: students led to a push for more opportunities to study
Speaker 1: black history. In February nineteen sixty nine, students and educators
Speaker 1: at Kent State University proposed the first Black History Month
Speaker 1: and celebrated it in February of nineteen seventy, President Gerald
Speaker 1: Ford supported Black History Month as an important element in
Speaker 1: the nation's bi centennial celebrations. In October of nineteen seventy four,
Speaker 1: four I Ord met with civil rights leaders including Vernon Jordan,
Speaker 1: Baynard Rustin, Dorothy Hyde, and Jesse Jackson. As The New
Speaker 1: York Times reported, the leaders were looking for the president
Speaker 1: to make a ringing reaffirmation of the nation's commitment to
Speaker 1: racial justice and moral leadership, and finally, less than two
Speaker 1: years later, in February of nineteen seventy six, S four
Speaker 1: did just that. Drawing on the patriotic significance of the
Speaker 1: bi centennial, he issued a statement on the importance of
Speaker 1: Black History Month to all Americans. He said, quote in
Speaker 1: celebrating Black History Month, we can take satisfaction from this
Speaker 1: recent progress in their realization of the ideal envisioned by
Speaker 1: our founding fathers. But even more than this, we can
Speaker 1: seize the opportunity to honor the too often neglected accomplishments
Speaker 1: of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.
Speaker 1: Real quick, I do want to add that every single
Speaker 1: president since him has made some mention or a commitment
Speaker 1: to Black History Month, and so since nineteen seventy six.
Speaker 1: I believe which a lot of us, you know, perhaps
Speaker 1: listening to this station were born right around that time
Speaker 1: or after, and so we might not know that, you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't always the case. And so yeah, to go
Speaker 1: from Negro History Week to Black History Month, I.
Speaker 2: Believe, to go from Frederick Douglas Day.
Speaker 6: Yeah, there you go. Let's talk about it for real. Anyway,
Speaker 6: that's it. That's our show. We don't have really be
Speaker 6: trying to react to it. But I don't think that
Speaker 6: we really.
Speaker 2: Doctor Woodson's fraternity Omega sci Fi?
Speaker 6: Omega sci Fi? Did I say wrong? All right? Well
Speaker 6: shout out.
Speaker 2: Mega left the piece of it out, but shot still
Speaker 2: o Mega sci Fi Fraternity Incorporated one time for the Ques.
Speaker 6: Yes, indeed, so that's gonna do it for us once again.
Speaker 1: I mean host Ramsey's job.
Speaker 2: My name is Quentin Ward, but my friends call me
Speaker 2: q Ward.
Speaker 6: Be sure to check the website civiccipher dot com.
Speaker 1: Download this in all previous episodes and it's topics.
Speaker 6: You can make a donation as well. The show's gone
Speaker 6: with your.
Speaker 1: Support and follow all social media at Civic Cipher and
Speaker 1: until next week y'all.
Speaker 3: Peace y'all yo, we had the li these brothers, a
Speaker 3: fabulous our lady showing you where Ron traveled the world.
Speaker 3: Spick tune from sunlight to move, busting on stage like
Speaker 3: the fights and rove my mic back. You're like that
Speaker 3: Journal listen, Journal list too. We can strike back RB
Speaker 3: borders with orders from headquarters behind in the bline side
Speaker 3: set up and the borders the press pass.
Speaker 2: We bring it to you as it habits the streets.
Speaker 3: Love mocked them from music and Rapping Street pro played
Speaker 3: this last week Expando