Speaker 1: And now.
Speaker 2: Go my mic back.
Speaker 1: You're like that.
Speaker 3: Strike water from headquarters behind him.
Speaker 1: And if you are just tuning in Pacific cipher, I'm
Speaker 1: your host, ramsays Jack, and ramses Jack calls me Q
Speaker 1: ward that I do and left to discuss. On the show,
Speaker 1: we are going to be talking about Black Church, something
Speaker 1: Q and I both know a lot about. And then
Speaker 1: for our way black history fact, we're going to discuss
Speaker 1: a very inspirational woman by the name of Bessie Coleman,
Speaker 1: who was the first African American woman pilot, known for
Speaker 1: flying tricks and uh, we'll get into that in just
Speaker 1: a little bit, but first we are going to discuss
Speaker 1: how to become a better ally. And this one is
Speaker 1: going to be a fun one. This week, I'm going
Speaker 1: to play a video from TikTok and all you gotta
Speaker 1: do is listen.
Speaker 4: I saw this video the other day and it was
Speaker 4: this white kid who went to a black barber for
Speaker 4: the first time, and he was talking about how it
Speaker 4: changed his life because it was the first time he
Speaker 4: got like a real fading lineup and I had a
Speaker 4: similar experience, but for me, it wasn't the first time
Speaker 4: I went to a black barber. It was the first
Speaker 4: time I went to a black church.
Speaker 3: Bro.
Speaker 4: We were in Florida and I grew up in a
Speaker 4: Baptist church. We googled a church nearby and there as
Speaker 4: one as like Mountain Zion Baptist Church.
Speaker 2: So we're like, oh, we'll go there.
Speaker 4: But we pull up right and first thing I noticed
Speaker 4: is I'm like, oh, there's so many colorful suits here.
Speaker 4: Didn't even realize they made like purple and orange suits.
Speaker 2: Get out.
Speaker 4: I walk through the door right, and everyone's just like,
Speaker 4: oh hello. I was like hello, and I kind of
Speaker 4: look around. I'm like, oh, I'm the only white person here.
Speaker 4: I was like, oh, dude, I think this is a
Speaker 4: black church. Like I've heard about these, but I live
Speaker 4: in a small town in southern Ontario, so obviously I'd
Speaker 4: never been to one. So everyone comes up to me,
Speaker 4: most friendly group of people I've ever met. All these
Speaker 4: old black women are just giving me the best hugs. Dude,
Speaker 4: felt so loved. Right, So I sit in my service
Speaker 4: is starting choir walks out from the back. Right.
Speaker 2: Okay, they all have matching robes on him, like nice, bro.
Speaker 4: They started singing let me tell you something, black people
Speaker 4: singing gospel music.
Speaker 2: Nothing like it.
Speaker 4: I had goosebumps, dude, and they're singing right, and they're
Speaker 4: they're just getting better and better. Midway through the worship, dude,
Speaker 4: they're running up and down the aisles of the church,
Speaker 4: but the congregation is shouting and waving freaking hanky. All
Speaker 4: these old ladies had these like fans that spread out
Speaker 4: and were just fanning themselves and shouting.
Speaker 2: It was like, let's go. I was fire. I was jazzed, dude.
Speaker 4: It's just like clapping my hands off feet because I
Speaker 4: have no rhythm.
Speaker 2: One old lady just stopped. She's like no. I was like, yes, ma'am. Okay.
Speaker 4: So then the pastor gets up right breaking snake skin
Speaker 4: dress shoes like a purple zut suit.
Speaker 2: Are like, okay, sir, you have my attention.
Speaker 4: Bro. He started speaking okay, no notes, no bullet points.
Speaker 4: I don't know if he was just making it up.
Speaker 2: On the spot. The Holy Spirit was feeding them lines.
Speaker 4: And then part way through was sermon, the organ started
Speaker 4: playing while he was speaking. Is he's dripping sweat, just yelling, dude,
Speaker 4: Oregon's going.
Speaker 2: People are shouting and running up and down there. I
Speaker 2: was like, this isn't credit all feel like I was getting.
Speaker 4: Like a halftime speech before I go out and finish
Speaker 4: the second half of the Super Bowl. Bro, I don't
Speaker 4: care who was in that service. If Charles Darwin was
Speaker 4: in that service and experienced that, you would be like, Oh,
Speaker 4: there is a God.
Speaker 2: There is God. I've been wrong, I've been mistaken.
Speaker 4: You couldn't help but feel the Holy Spirit. Baby. Oh man,
Speaker 4: I wish someone would come to Saint Thomas, Ontario and
Speaker 4: start a black church.
Speaker 2: That's a problem. Any church I go to now around
Speaker 2: here just feel so boring and dull.
Speaker 4: I've grown up in church my whole life, but that
Speaker 4: was the first that I'd ever truly gone to church.
Speaker 1: Dude, I love that. I love that, And so to
Speaker 1: become a better ally, we're going to ask that you
Speaker 1: go to a black church. Doesn't matter if you're a
Speaker 1: church person or not, just go and get some of
Speaker 1: the culture. So heymen, with that said, I thought that
Speaker 1: would be an excellent segue to talk about church, or rather,
Speaker 1: is church racist? H So we're going to start here
Speaker 1: with a direct quote from doctor Martin Luther King Junior,
Speaker 1: where he says eleven o'clock on Sunday is the most
Speaker 1: segregated hour of the week, and that is something that
Speaker 1: I have largely found to be true throughout most of
Speaker 1: my life, and more recently there have been a lot
Speaker 1: more in the way of exceptions. But today we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about that, that and the exceptions as well,
Speaker 1: because we do want to highlight the good things. But que,
Speaker 1: tell me a little bit about your background with respect
Speaker 1: to church. Is this something you're qualified to discuss?
Speaker 5: My friend, the late Minister Doctor John H. Reese, Minister
Speaker 5: of Music, my godfather, Reverend Doctor William H. Reverley Junior,
Speaker 5: my godfather, and pastor Reverend Estella Seacrest, one of the
Speaker 5: first black female or Dane ministers by the National Progressive
Speaker 5: Baptist Convention, is my mother.
Speaker 1: So a little bit, a little bit, And before I
Speaker 1: cite my qualifications, I do want to shout out the
Speaker 1: originator of the TikTok video that we played earlier that
Speaker 1: came from TikTok account called Canadian chest Hair. Just want
Speaker 1: to make sure I give credit words to you. I
Speaker 1: love that guy man. When I first saw that video,
Speaker 1: it brought a tear to my eye because he was
Speaker 1: so excited. And I do want to talk about some
Speaker 1: experiences that we've had in church. But me, I am
Speaker 1: also the child of a minister. My father, doctor Rudolph
Speaker 1: Wayne Taylor, was a minister for the Church of God
Speaker 1: in Christ his whole life. And his father was a
Speaker 1: minister for the Church of God in Christ as well,
Speaker 1: in fact a bishop. And so all those fancy churches
Speaker 1: and all the fancy outfits and that sort of stuff
Speaker 1: that my friend Canadian chest here was talking about. I
Speaker 1: grew up in that, like in the thick part, like
Speaker 1: right in the middle. A lot of folks go to
Speaker 1: church on Sunday. I went to church every day. I
Speaker 1: was there a lot of the times. Yeah, oh no,
Speaker 1: I know, I know. So this is why this is
Speaker 1: so strange that there.
Speaker 6: Is Baptist training unit, Bible studyhear choir rehearsal service, and
Speaker 6: more choir rehearsal usher board meeting like all of it.
Speaker 5: Man met junior meeting, junior trustee meeting, another choir rehearsal
Speaker 5: teachers meeting.
Speaker 1: Man. Look, I'm knowing, I'm knowing, And that's the way,
Speaker 1: uh Black church is now. I do recognize that, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of folks do not listen to They didn't
Speaker 1: come here to listen to gospel. Or anything like that.
Speaker 1: That's not what today's episode is about. We are here
Speaker 1: to talk about really the cultural importance of black church
Speaker 1: and how divided church is. And this is a place where,
Speaker 1: at least for black folks were able to share a lot.
Speaker 1: This has its legacy in the slave fields because the
Speaker 1: only time when you weren't working or sleeping, you know,
Speaker 1: you were in church because a lot of the slave
Speaker 1: masters allowed their slaves to hold service, and they had
Speaker 1: black ministers, and they were able to dance and play
Speaker 1: music and you know, enjoy themselves a little bit. It
Speaker 1: was like a break from you know, the work on
Speaker 1: the Sabbath. They rested, right.
Speaker 5: As long as you parrot their spiritual beliefs.
Speaker 1: Sure, sure, but you know, if we're being honest now,
Speaker 1: those are largely our spiritual beliefs. Black folks love them, yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: love us and Jesus now, and.
Speaker 5: I want to be truth about the genesis of that though.
Speaker 5: These absolutely players were allowed to pray and worship was
Speaker 5: the way they worship to the God of their masters.
Speaker 1: Right absolutely. And I don't and I don't want to
Speaker 1: ignore our Muslim brothers and sisters, because there's a good
Speaker 1: amount of the population who black black population who are Muslim,
Speaker 1: and we do share this space with our Muslim brothers
Speaker 1: and sisters and well as well. In fact, when you
Speaker 1: Najaha was up here, we had a little bit of
Speaker 1: a conversation about that. And I will say this every
Speaker 1: chance I get. I've been all over the world. Muslim
Speaker 1: people have treated me the most kind out of everyone
Speaker 1: that I've ever set at a table with and broken
Speaker 1: bread with. So now one of the things that we
Speaker 1: need to discuss is the morality of folks who are Christians. Right.
Speaker 1: The thing is, with Christian people, you get a really
Speaker 1: good sense of who they are morally because they have
Speaker 1: literally a textbook that tells them how to behave, tells
Speaker 1: them how to govern themselves, tells them how to conduct themselves.
Speaker 1: And you know, it gives them a sort of a
Speaker 1: moral compass or a moral guidepost. If you will, if
Speaker 1: I'm doing this, if you will, Yeah, there you go,
Speaker 1: Thank you. I think they call it the Bible Basic
Speaker 1: Instructions before leaving Earth, right, I like it. So for Christians,
Speaker 1: you would think that they would behave a certain way
Speaker 1: most all the time. You know, people are people and
Speaker 1: make mistakes, but for the most part, you have a
Speaker 1: general idea, and what you find is that that is
Speaker 1: not often the case when it comes to them suffering
Speaker 1: some sort of loss, be it perceived or otherwise. You know.
Speaker 1: And the strange thing is that I believe largely conservative
Speaker 1: folks have been able to hijack the idea of Christianity,
Speaker 1: and really folks call them evangelicals, but there's a lot
Speaker 1: of folks who feel like a vote for a Republican
Speaker 1: candidate is a vote for Jesus and just across the world,
Speaker 1: and they just believe that that, there's no two ways
Speaker 1: about it. But the crazy thing is, you know, we
Speaker 1: discuss a lot about the white moderates, right these are
Speaker 1: the folks who are the biggest threat to our progress.
Speaker 1: These are the folks that are like, hey, man, that's
Speaker 1: y'all's problem. I got my own problems, so you know,
Speaker 1: good luck. I'm not gonna work against you, but I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna work for you. But they're in the best
Speaker 1: position to help us make the world a little bit
Speaker 1: more equitable and you know, a little bit more fair.
Speaker 1: You know, we're constantly reaching out to other radio stations
Speaker 1: and you know, so forth and trying to have these
Speaker 1: conversations with folks, a lot of whom are white, moderate males,
Speaker 1: you know who. And then every so often we hear
Speaker 1: that sort of pushback, like, hey, you know what, I
Speaker 1: like what you're doing. It sounds great. I don't think
Speaker 1: it'll work here, and we know it'll work there, you know,
Speaker 1: works everywhere. But one of the things that you know,
Speaker 1: in doing the research for this segment that I found
Speaker 1: out was that the legacy of the divisiveness in church,
Speaker 1: or not divisiveness, really the segregation in church goes back
Speaker 1: to the Civil rights movements, or rather it was it
Speaker 1: was well documented in the Civil Rights movement, but it
Speaker 1: also goes back to those those sleigh fields. So during
Speaker 1: the Civil Rights movement, the question was posed, why didn't
Speaker 1: white Christians show up? And and why are they so
Speaker 1: aligned with with right politics? And I forget who. His
Speaker 1: name is not really important, you know, because why would
Speaker 1: we mention the name of someone who was so nasty?
Speaker 1: But you know, I didn't put him in my notes,
Speaker 1: but I remember the story and I feel like I
Speaker 1: should share this. There's a white pastor during that time
Speaker 1: who said, you know, basically he was trying to say that,
Speaker 1: you know, bluebirds hang out with bluebirds bluebirds date or
Speaker 1: mate with other bluebirds. You know, that's what happens there,
Speaker 1: and that's the way God intended. Bluebirds don't, you know,
Speaker 1: share time and space with like monkeys or sharks or
Speaker 1: you know, insects or anything like that. They hang out
Speaker 1: with other bluebirds, and that's the natural order of things,
Speaker 1: and this is the way that God intended, right. So similarly,
Speaker 1: black folks need to be with black folks on Sundays,
Speaker 1: white folks need to be with white folks on Sundays.
Speaker 1: And we both have our own relationships with God, but
Speaker 1: we don't need to mix in church. Right. I'm so
Speaker 1: glad I don't remember this guy's name because I want to.
Speaker 1: The journalist in me wants to remember his name, but
Speaker 1: he doesn't deserve any credit. I don't believe. But you
Speaker 1: could see how for a person who's a white moderate,
Speaker 1: a person who really doesn't want to be bothered, that's
Speaker 1: a very comforting thought. They can be Christian and then
Speaker 1: they have this little thin slice of flawed logic that
Speaker 1: helps them make sense of the world as it is
Speaker 1: because they want to keep it that way, because they
Speaker 1: don't want to be bothered with the ugly reality of
Speaker 1: the situation that other human beings just like them are
Speaker 1: enduring some stuff just because they were born slightly different.
Speaker 1: Right now, we know you and IQ, hopefully our listeners know,
Speaker 1: and if not, hopefully we'll be able to educate them.
Speaker 1: We know that human beings aren't bluebirds. We're human beings.
Speaker 1: And where we are able to share more, we do.
Speaker 1: If we share language, then we can share more, if
Speaker 1: we share certain customs and certain ideas. Is it the
Speaker 1: same God? Is it the same religion? Do we go
Speaker 1: to the same place at approximately the same time and
Speaker 1: offer the same relationship or cultivation of relationship with our
Speaker 1: higher power? You know, you know, what they're trying to
Speaker 1: do is look at what's different. What we're trying to
Speaker 1: do is look at what's same. And if you look
Speaker 1: at what's the same, there's like ninety nine percent the same.
Speaker 1: This little little tiny little bit that's different. You know, Well,
Speaker 1: they're they're black and we're white, and that's the way
Speaker 1: it is in nature. So that's you know, they hold
Speaker 1: on to that one little thing and try to make
Speaker 1: it their whole world. And that type of split in
Speaker 1: the during the Civil rights movement when there were the
Speaker 1: freedom writers and you know, these church folks were coming
Speaker 1: out and holding up their babies to scratch at, you know,
Speaker 1: the protesters, and they were like, you know, throwing bottles
Speaker 1: and throwing rocks at these folks. You know, this is
Speaker 1: prior to MLK taking center stage. You know, it was
Speaker 1: church people. You know, in the South, especially most of
Speaker 1: those people go to church, right, and what you see
Speaker 1: is Christians out there behaving like devils because they have
Speaker 1: this little bit of truth that makes them feel like
Speaker 1: they have some sort of superiority or something like that. Now,
Speaker 1: we know the Civil rights movement is a long time
Speaker 1: ago and we're dealing with a world today, but that
Speaker 1: racial divide still is present, largely in a lot of
Speaker 1: churches in a lot of communities. I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: newer churches whose sole purpose is to like I want
Speaker 1: the pastor to be a woman, and I want the
Speaker 1: assistant pastor to be a black person. You know, like,
Speaker 1: not talking about those churches, because those churches understand that
Speaker 1: you can do a lot more together than you can
Speaker 1: having the same old, boring type of church, right, and
Speaker 1: you can take some of the cultural nuances from different
Speaker 1: types of worshiping and make a more enjoyable experience. You know,
Speaker 1: the Bible says, if I'm not mistaken, make a joyful
Speaker 1: noise unto the Lord, right, And like like our brother
Speaker 1: Canadian Chestair mentioned in his TikTok video, I think that's
Speaker 1: one element that black folks definitely got down. If you
Speaker 1: go to a black church, you know, it's a very
Speaker 1: happy place. You know, folks is happy to be there.
Speaker 1: They run, they jump, they shout, have the time of
Speaker 1: their life, right, look forward to it. But then there's
Speaker 1: some other places where that is not the case at all.
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, politics and ideas about how we should interact
Speaker 1: with each other, how we should treat each other, is
Speaker 1: very much ingrained in that place. Now, I know a
Speaker 1: lot of us listening to this, we're not church folks, right,
Speaker 1: but we know church folks, so we have to know
Speaker 1: how to deal with church folks. Black folks have to
Speaker 1: say this got it, honestly, because again, when you're in
Speaker 1: those slave fields, you know where your only social hour
Speaker 1: of the week is when you're at church or just
Speaker 1: before or just after. That's where you're able to share
Speaker 1: a huge part of your humanity because you're confined and
Speaker 1: relegated to just that working or sleep right as a
Speaker 1: slave with no freedom. So you share ideas, not just religion,
Speaker 1: you share jokes, not just religion, you share stories, not
Speaker 1: just religion. You share, you know, a lot of things.
Speaker 1: And so that's why in black churches, it's a huge
Speaker 1: pillar in the Black community, because the legacy of slavery
Speaker 1: ensured that church would really be the great watering hole,
Speaker 1: if you will. And the same could be said, perhaps
Speaker 1: not as intensely, but the same could be said about,
Speaker 1: you know, white churches as well. And again there's a
Speaker 1: lot of politics, a lot of ideas, a lot of
Speaker 1: beliefs that's wrapped up into those those buildings and those fellowships,
Speaker 1: you know. And I think that that there's really something
Speaker 1: to be said about going and visiting with some people
Speaker 1: who don't pray the exact same way that you pray, right,
Speaker 1: But there is something further to be said about going
Speaker 1: to a place where people do pray this exact same
Speaker 1: way that you pray, but perhaps don't look exactly like you.
Speaker 1: And that's what I wanted to talk about today. So
Speaker 1: before we go any further, Q your thoughts, your reaction.
Speaker 5: You know, it's really difficult to not digest the very
Speaker 5: blatant hypocrisy with some of our very very forward outward
Speaker 5: religious folks. You said earlier about casting your vote for
Speaker 5: the evangelical even though you know that this real life
Speaker 5: practices don't match the campaign speech that you know he's
Speaker 5: just saying so you can all feel better about the
Speaker 5: fact that you voted for him for reasons that have
Speaker 5: nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Across racial lines. However,
Speaker 5: the hypocrisy exists. You know, people who are most critical judge, judge,
Speaker 5: the harshest, uh look down upon, cast out are the
Speaker 5: people who were, you know, at the people who, at
Speaker 5: the same time are worrying what what Jesus do bracelet
Speaker 5: on their wrist, you know, preaching about forgiveness and a
Speaker 5: lack of pride, and you know, there's a there's a
Speaker 5: great conflict with the way that you and I grew
Speaker 5: up because everyone we worship did look like us. Yeah,
Speaker 5: they did respond in the same way to that organ
Speaker 5: plane while the preacher was.
Speaker 1: Speaking, Yeah, man, that's normal. That's how it's supposed to good.
Speaker 1: That means good.
Speaker 5: However, prior to this conversation, like once we started having it,
Speaker 5: it's like, wow, that's so incredible and so incredibly and
Speaker 5: obviously true. But I haven't spent one day thinking about
Speaker 5: just how segregated our religious experience was, just how very
Speaker 5: very black our religious experience was. And that's every black
Speaker 5: church everywhere, no matter how not black. The city is,
Speaker 5: that sanctuary and that temple will look like Compton, will
Speaker 5: look like Detroit, will look like Oakland, will look like Newark, will.
Speaker 7: Look like Brooklyn, no matter where it is, And ever
Speaker 7: had I even traced it back to that being intentional
Speaker 7: as a form of separation.
Speaker 5: You know, the same Bible, those same scriptures we used
Speaker 5: to justify the subjugation, the enslavement, the segregation, the humanizing
Speaker 5: of people that looked like you and I, which is
Speaker 5: why I touched on the point earlier. The only reason
Speaker 5: we were even allowed to sing and shout and make
Speaker 5: a joyful noise is because we picked up the book.
Speaker 5: They told us to pick up their God, their religion,
Speaker 5: their worship. Uh, we adopted it. It became ours. But
Speaker 5: you know, initially we didn't have a say.
Speaker 6: So.
Speaker 1: You want to hear something funny, cue I. This was
Speaker 1: years ago. I think I was still in doctor Westernberg's class.
Speaker 1: But I took an African American literature class that she taught,
Speaker 1: and part of the curriculum was to read some of
Speaker 1: the sermons that the slave preachers would preach, and a
Speaker 1: lot of those sermons were about freedom, the children of Israel,
Speaker 1: God leading people to you know, the promised land and
Speaker 1: out of their chains and out of their bondage. So
Speaker 1: it's just interesting that that same Bible that was used
Speaker 1: to justify slavery, and that ended up ultimately not the Bible,
Speaker 1: but the slavery and the practice and so forth, and
Speaker 1: how cultures come together and are shared, ended up, you know,
Speaker 1: creating a world where we're so segregated. That was the
Speaker 1: same Bible that these folks preach from in hopes of
Speaker 1: one day being free from the bondage they were in.
Speaker 1: But you know, that's just kind of how it is.
Speaker 1: So I maintain if you can go to hang out
Speaker 1: with some folks on Sunday, and who knows, you might
Speaker 1: even enjoy yourself.
Speaker 5: So and if you need some recommendations, reach out to us.
Speaker 1: No matter what we're at Civic Cipher. Man, we know
Speaker 1: black folks, Church folks always know some other church folks
Speaker 1: and some other city. So you know, I want I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna say, I know all the church folks, but
Speaker 1: I definitely know some black folks and they are church folks.
Speaker 1: Shout out to my unt Angie one time.
Speaker 8: Anyway, it's time for the way Black History Facts.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited about this one.
Speaker 5: Actually we were.
Speaker 1: I wanted to do this one a few weeks ago,
Speaker 1: but I just there was some other pressing things and
Speaker 1: I had to move some stuff around. But today we're
Speaker 1: gonna uh discuss a woman named Bessie Coleman. This article
Speaker 1: I'm gonna read comes from Women's History dot Org was
Speaker 1: written by Carrie Lee Alexander. Uh, and I'll just kind
Speaker 1: of burn through it real quick. It's not too long. Uh.
Speaker 1: Bessie Coleman sort across the sky as the first African
Speaker 1: American and first Native American woman pilot, known for performing
Speaker 1: flying tricks. Coleman's nicknames were Brave Bessie, Queen Bess and
Speaker 1: the only race Avia tricks in the world. Her goal
Speaker 1: was to encourage women and African Americans to reach their dreams. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: her career ended with a tragic plane crash, but her
Speaker 1: life continues to inspire people around the world. Born in Atlanta, Texas,
Speaker 1: on January twenty sixth eighteen ninety two. Bessie Coleman had
Speaker 1: twelve brothers and sisters. Her mother, Susan Coleman, was an
Speaker 1: African American maid, and her father, George Coleman, was a
Speaker 1: sharecropper of mixed Native American and African American descent. In
Speaker 1: nineteen oh one, her father decided to move back to
Speaker 1: Oapland to try to escape discrimination. Bessie's mother decided not
Speaker 1: to go with him. Instead, the rest of the family
Speaker 1: stayed and Waxahachie, Texas. Hopefully I got that right. Bessie
Speaker 1: grew up helping her mother pick cotton and watched laundry
Speaker 1: to earn extra money. By the time she was eighteen,
Speaker 1: save she saved enough money to attend the Colored Agricultural
Speaker 1: and Normal University, which is now Lengthston out out to
Speaker 1: Langston one Time. Langston is an HBCU for our brothers
Speaker 1: and sisters who may not be Black or otherwise may
Speaker 1: not be familiar with Langston University. HBCU stands for Historically
Speaker 1: Black College and University. Earlier in the show, I mentioned
Speaker 1: the house Morehouse University that is also a historically Black
Speaker 1: college and university. She dropped out of College after only
Speaker 1: one semester because she could not afford to attend. At
Speaker 1: age twenty three, Coleman went to live with the brothers
Speaker 1: in Chicago. She went to the Burnham School of Beauty
Speaker 1: Culture in nineteen fifteen and became a manicurist in a
Speaker 1: local barbershop. Meanwhile, her brothers served in the military during
Speaker 1: World War One and came home with stories from their
Speaker 1: time in France. Brother John teased her because French women
Speaker 1: were allowed to learn how to fly airplanes and Bessie
Speaker 1: could not. This made Bessie want to become a pilot.
Speaker 1: She applied to many flight schools across the country, but
Speaker 1: no school would take her because she was both African
Speaker 1: American and a woman. Famous African American news paper publisher
Speaker 1: Robert Abbott told her to move to France, where she
Speaker 1: could learn how to fly. She began taking French classes
Speaker 1: at night because her application to flight schools needed to
Speaker 1: be written in French. Oh this gets fo yeah. Finally,
Speaker 1: Coleman was accepted at the Caudron Brothers School of Aviation
Speaker 1: in La Crottoi, France. She received her international pilot's license
Speaker 1: on June fifteenth, nineteen twenty one from the Federation eron
Speaker 1: Ntique into Nacion Nale. Dang I was like three different
Speaker 1: accents there, but bear with me. Joe sounded a little
Speaker 1: Italian at the end. Coleman's dream was to own a
Speaker 1: plane and to open up her own flight school. She
Speaker 1: gave speeches and showed films of her air tricks in churches, theaters,
Speaker 1: and schools to etain money. She refused to speak anywhere
Speaker 1: that was segregated or discriminated against African Americans. In nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty two, she performed the first public flight by an
Speaker 1: African American woman. She was famous for doing loop the
Speaker 1: loops and making the shape of an eight in an airplane.
Speaker 1: People were fascinated by her performances and she became more
Speaker 1: popular both in the United States and in Europe. She
Speaker 1: toured the country given flight lessons, performing in flight shows,
Speaker 1: and she encouraged African Americans and women to learn to fly.
Speaker 1: All right, we're almost done. Only two years into her
Speaker 1: flight career, Coleman survived her first major airplane accident in
Speaker 1: February nineteen twenty three. Her airplane engine suddenly stopped working
Speaker 1: and she crashed. She was badly hurt, and the accident
Speaker 1: and suffered a broken leg, few crack ribs, and cuts
Speaker 1: on her face. Thankfully, Coleman was able to fully heal
Speaker 1: from her injuries. This accident did not stop her from flying.
Speaker 1: She went back to performing dangerous air tricks in nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty five. Her hard work helped her save enough money
Speaker 1: to purchase her own plane, a Jenny in Jay and
Speaker 1: Dash four. Soon she returned to her hometown in Texas
Speaker 1: to perform for a large crowd. Because Texas was still
Speaker 1: segregated the manager's plan to create two separate entrances for
Speaker 1: African Americans and white people to get into the stadium,
Speaker 1: Coleman refused to perform on Life Us there was only
Speaker 1: one gate for everyone to use. I love that part.
Speaker 1: After many meetings, the managers agreed to have one gate,
Speaker 1: but people would still have to sit in segregated sections
Speaker 1: of the stadium. She agreed to perform and became famous
Speaker 1: for standing up for her beliefs, and she had a
Speaker 1: plane crash. I'll get that part. Her death was heartbreaking
Speaker 1: for thousands of people. Famous activist id B. Wells performed
Speaker 1: at the funeral to honor Coleman in Chicago in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty one. The Challenger Pilots. The Association of Chicago started
Speaker 1: a tradition of flying over Coleman's grave every year. By
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, African American women pilots formed the Bessie
Speaker 1: Coleman Aviators Club. In nineteen ninety five, the Bessie Coleman
Speaker 1: stamp was made to remember all of her accomplishments. I
Speaker 1: wanted to read that all because there's something very familiar
Speaker 1: about being the first people to do something, you know,
Speaker 1: at least to me, you know, and to you obviously,
Speaker 1: because folks that don't know. And I'll tell the story
Speaker 1: in brief. We worked at a radio station in Phoenix
Speaker 1: and we wanted to create this show. Basically, we didn't
Speaker 1: have a name for it at the time, but we
Speaker 1: had an idea and long story short, we had to
Speaker 1: work very, very hard and overcome a lot of adversity
Speaker 1: in order for you to hear our voices right now.
Speaker 1: I like the way you put that, yeah, And I
Speaker 1: think at the end of when everything's said and done,
Speaker 1: our contribution. You know, we're not pilots, so our contribution
Speaker 1: won't be that we were the first pilots to do anything,
Speaker 1: but maybe we'll be the first, you know, people to
Speaker 1: create a show, a black show that it's largely tailored
Speaker 1: to non black people about you know, helping them to
Speaker 1: become better allies and to give them a glimpse into
Speaker 1: what it's like to process events black events, and you know,
Speaker 1: have a little bit more empathy in the dialogue and
Speaker 1: hopefully grow together as brothers and sisters. It's really what
Speaker 1: we wanted to do. And you know, there have been
Speaker 1: some challenges along the way, and I'm sure there will
Speaker 1: continue to be challenges, but there's a lot more optimism
Speaker 1: with our story and a lot more optimistic pathways that
Speaker 1: are continually presenting themselves to us, and we're very grateful
Speaker 1: for that. So yeah, in short, that's the story of
Speaker 1: Bessie Coleman and why I wanted to share that with everyone. Now,
Speaker 1: with that said, I do want to make sure that
Speaker 1: everyone knows that if you want to listen to this
Speaker 1: show and it's entirely let's say you got it halfway through,
Speaker 1: you can check out our website Civiccipher dot com. If
Speaker 1: you want to listen to it as a podcast anything
Speaker 1: like that. It's it's all up there. You can watch
Speaker 1: it on YouTube and so forth, and so on. We
Speaker 1: are in the process of working on a few deals
Speaker 1: with a few major media companies and radio stations and
Speaker 1: growing the footprint of the show. It's already a national show,
Speaker 1: but really some exciting things are in the works. A
Speaker 1: lot of those things cost money. So if donating is
Speaker 1: something that you're able to do, you're able to do
Speaker 1: that on the website as well, and then of course
Speaker 1: follow us on our social media because even that little
Speaker 1: bit helps too. We're at Civicsicker on all platforms, and
Speaker 1: I think that's what I do it for us this week,
Speaker 1: So once again I'm Rams' job and until next week, y'all.
Speaker 2: Yo, we had the label.
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Speaker 2: mic back.
Speaker 1: You're like that.
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