Black-American History documentary night

[Brewman_Jax]

on History Channel and Discovery Channel Thursday night. Slave Catchers, Slave Resistors and Modern Marvels-George Washington Carver on History; With All Deliberate Speed and Civils Rights Martyrs on Discovery. Six hours of documentaries on some not-discussed historical events.

And it's not even February! :applause:

[Brewman_Jax]

1. I've watched Slave Catchers..

and it's an excellent article on the history of slave uprisings in US history and on the reasons for slavery. The most basic is greed. The great plantation owners (and associated enterprises) were making money faster than they could count. Because of that, they willingly risked slave sabotage, runaways, and revolts. Little known fact: After Nat Turner's revolt in 1831, the western part of Virginia (now W. VA) lobbied to have slavery abolished in the state rather than wait for the next major slave revolt.

[Brewman_Jax]

4. More of the article

in Slave Catchers, the article included the history of the Black Codes, that codified slavery and created the racial caste system that we suffer under today. Slavery was defined as only for Africans; later, they became chattel slaves (i.e. slaves as property) and that condition would become permanent AND hereditary. Whites were still indentured servants and expected to become free after the term of service expired.

The telling part of the article was that is showed the dehumanization of black people in order to make them permanent slaves. They were considered not smart enough to live on their own, and had to be enslaved for their own protection. Runaway slaves had a sickness that caused them to runaway. The treatment: whipping. The slaves were hardly the "smiling, happy negroes" of legend--but they made a lot of white men rich.

Slavery was an incredible money-making machine. Both ends of the colonies, north and south were getting rich. Free labor and production of raw materials made the southern plantation owners rich. Economic support of the slave trade, including, but not limited to, shipping, ship building, insurance, and trading houses, enriched the northern colonies.

Bacon's Rebellion of the 1670's was barely mentioned, but Bacon's rebels were both white and black. This likely hastened Virginia passing the Black Codes in the 1680's, and then the rest of the southern colonies. The article focused at lot on the South, esp. South Carolina, where, in some counties, the slaves outnumbered the whites. To maintain order, local militias were organized and charged with assisting slave owners in catching runaway slaves and watching for possible revolt. All white males were required to serve at some point in time. Poor whites, who had nothing in common with their rich counterparts, got the chance to be in their presence and considered a "gentleman," if only for the hours the militia was on patrol. For them, it was because they would always be considered better than anyone black.

Later, specialized slave catchers would appear in addition to the local militias. The article went to the post-Civil War timeframe where these would be the forerunners of the the KKK and such groups.

The article did not concentrate on the Abolitionist movements and Underground Railroad. They were talked about, but the large percentage of runaways went to find family members who were sold and moved.

This was also 2 hours well spent in learning the history that isn't in most school US history textbooks.

[Brewman_Jax]

2. I've watched With All Deliberate Speed

The article covers the beginnings of school desegregation, from the Briggs vs. Elliott case in SC (1951), which would be one of the lawsuits that was folded into the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954, and the Court's mandate of desegregation "with all deliberate speed" and after into the Civil Rights Movement.

The vitriol of the white people against desegregation from the old newsclips would make us cringe today. The black kids weren't in favor because they knew that they wouldn't be welcomed and respected. Hangings in effigy, physical threats to anyone in favor of desegregation, and Prince Edward Co., VA actually closed all of the public schools from 1959-1964 rather than have integrated schools. This is the timeframe when private and parochial schools rose and expanded greatly by white people who didn't want to integrate. The Supreme Court ordered the Prince Edward Co. School to re-open and integrate in 1964.

By then, the damage had been done. They interviewed the black adults, who were the affected children back then. The black children had to be sent to relatives out-of-town, and even foster families in order to continue their education. Families were broken up over this. From the interviews, "With all deliberate speed" didn't matter; it didn't matter what the Supreme Court said. Nothing was going to change. :(

Jumping to the present, they showed the SC county schools that are still fighting to get money to fix broken ceilings, out-of-date buildings, the same battles from 50 years past. (The S. Carolina court battle is 10 years old and continues to the present day.) The present day kids said that not much has changed, other than it's supposed to be the 21st Century. Sad to see the view of the black kids of 50 years ago are still accurate.

It's a very eye-opening article and well worth the 2 hours. It shows how much of the recent past effects us now. I'm not going to weaken the article's impact and say that there has been improvement, because that (IMO) is not the purpose--not to let too many people pat themselves on the back and say "How far we've come!" It says how far we HAVEN'T come, and it's supposed to be the 21st Century! It proves William Faulker's statement, "The past isn't dead, it's not even past."

[wildeyed]

3. The schools in my city are in the process of re-segregating.

Race based assignment was overturned by the courts, so no more busing. They moved a lot of the magnets out of poor schools and into the affluent areas. And now, surprise, we have a host of high poverty, low performing, segregated schools. The past few years have been like watching a train wreak in slow motion. The results of these policies were so predictably bad.

And, of course, most of the parents in the affluent areas are saying, "I got mine, who cares about you." or "I want more, and I will take it from you." A bunch of bond money was approved to fix the distressed city schools years ago. But now the suburban parents are trying to divert it to their schools to fix over crowding. :grr:

"The past isn't dead, it's not even past." That is so true.

Wish I had seen the show. I checked TIVO, and they aren't re-running it. :sigh: