Recently in History Category

Hattie Hart was a solo performer back in the twenties who also did lead vocals for the Memphis Jug Band. Will Shade on harp, Tee Wee Blackman on guitar, Ben Ramey on kazoo, and Ham Lewis on the jug along with Hattie made up the band. They made this song about cocaine, and I didn't even know people used cocaine back then, and was SHOCKED to hear this song.

According to a MemphisHistory.com site her songs were provacatively risque and she wrote songs about love, sex, cocaine, and voodoo. MemphisHistory.com says her voice was considered "one of the best, employeeing a high vibrato and a range of emotions." She had a brief recording career after traveling to Chicago during the Depression, and disappeared into obscurity. Well, if she wrote and sang songs about cocaine, one could only imagine how life wound up for her. Here is their song, Listen to Cocaine Habit Blues .

There must have been a lot of hatred and self hatred. Check out this next title by the folk band: A Black Woman Is Like A Black Snake. It is true, we must know our past to understand the present.

Here are the lyrics:

A Black Woman Is Like A Black Snake

A black woman's like a black snake, she will strike and run,
A black woman's like a black snake, she will strike and run
...

...

I wouldn't marry a black woman, I'll tell you the reason why,
I wouldn't marry a black woman, I'll tell you the reason why,
She's so black and evil she won't look in your eye

...

Oh fish are swimming, they come into the net,
Oh fish are swimming, they come into the net,
... try to do the best they can, they do the best they can

Follow the jump to get the Cocaine Habit Blues Lyrics

Tonight American Masters profiles writer and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston on PBS. Don't miss it. READ MORE...

Note: This documentary was excellent. If you can catch a rerun, it will be worth your time. I especially enjoyed seeing the historical footage of Florida and the people. Florida holds a special place in my heart.

Reference:
PBS.org

Photo Credit: Institute for Intercultural Studies /Library of Congress

To a large segment of our population, marriage doesn't seem to matter any more, and I am not totally sure why this is so. Here is a marriage certificate from two former slaves who were determined to make their union legal. Their children are also listed on the certificate. I'll bet they saved and scraped to come up with marriage fees, if they were applicable back then, and today, we have so many excuses for not getting married. Yes, I know, I know, marriage isn't for everyone.

Benjamin Manson and Sarah White marriage certificate dated April 19, 1866. READ MORE...

Reference:

Freedmen's Bureau Marriage Records

Young ladies from a Seattle Spring Formal Dance. Simply beautiful and wholesome looking. When was the last time you wore stockings with a dress? While I am on the subject, do people still follow the stockings in church rule?

When I was growing up, you would never come to church without stockings on with a dress. Mini skirts and sleeveless tops were an understood no, no, and this was in the 70's and 80s. I saw a movement from this and changes in the 90s.

Photo Credit:
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

The Today Show Matt Lauer speaks with Dan Klores on his 2 part documentary "Black Magic" on the history of race and college basketball. It airs this Sunday. Here is Klores with Matt.

“Marshall Walter Taylor around his 20th birthday, 1898, when he shocked the cycling world with his record speed trials in Philadelphia. (INDIANA STATE MUSEUM AND HISTORIC SITES)”—Boston Globe

His top cycling rival Floyd McFarland, was a racist and used to be in collusion with other cyclists to keep him behind the crowd in back or crowd around him to keep him from winning.

The book is called “Major: A Black Athlete, a White Era, and the Fight to Be the World's Fastest Human Being,” by Todd Balf.

Related article:

Boston Globe: Vicious Cycle

Uncle Tom's Bungalow- Racist Merrie Melodie

Uncle Tom's Cabana

Did our grandparents, great & great-great grandfathers and mothers watch these cartoons?

President Bush addressed the displaying of nooses this past Thursday at the White House in an event, which celebrated African American History Month. He is the first sitting President to address the noose.

Here is an excerpt from the transcript of that speech:

Our nation has come a long way toward building a perfect union. Yet as past injustices have become distant memories, there is a risk that our society may lose sight of the real suffering that took place. One symbol of that suffering is the noose. Recently, there have been a number of media reports about nooses being displayed. These disturbing reports have resulted in heightened racial tensions in many communities. They have revealed that some Americans do not understand why the sight of a noose causes such a visceral reaction among so many people.