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