"Miss Black and Beautiful" and Raphael Albert's Photography

Raphael Albert (1935-2009) was born on the Caribbean island of Grenada where he struggled to make a living selling his artwork to tourists on the beach. He moved to London in 1953 with an old Kodak camera in his suitcase. There, Albert studied photography at college and worked part-time at Lyons cake factory. After graduating, he worked as a freelance photographer documenting the West Indian communities in London. In 1970, Albert launched the "Miss black and Beautiful" contest, followed by "Miss West Indies in Great Britain", "Miss Teenager of the West Indies in Great Britain", and "Miss Grenada". For thirty years, Albert documented the pageants photographically and commissioned other photographers to shoot them (via and via).

"Albert’s photographs offer a rare insight into an ambiguous cultural performance at a particular historical conjuncture. Most importantly, the photographs in the exhibition offer a rare insight into an ambivalent cultural performance of gendered and raced identities at a particular historical conjuncture. As such, they serve as testament to a profound moment of self-fashioning and collective celebration in London’s pan Afro-Caribbean communities. His images are imbued with an exquisite, revolutionary sensuality and a certain joie de vivre, which I find refreshing and illuminating at the same time. Many of the models in Albert’s photographs embody an aura of hedonistic confidence in a new generation of black women coming of age in Britain during the 1970s, fuelled by complex cultural politics of identity, difference and desire."
Renee Mussai

"One could argue that Albert’s photographs offer a counter narrative to dominant photographic moments of the time, such as images of protest with raised fists locked in revolt, and other signs of discrimination and racial turmoil as often seen in the work of black photographers contemporaneous to Albert, such as Neil Kenlock and Armet Francis. Refreshingly, there are no signs of displacement or marginality, nor a sense of alienation in Albert’s portraits–his pageant images offer a different, and perhaps lighter, form of cultural resistance.

But it is equally important to remember that Albert’s photographs of the late 1960s and early 1970s were taken at a time of “No dogs. No blacks. No Irish” in a country irrevocably tainted by Enoch Powell’s 1968 “Rivers of Blood” anti-immigration speech, delivered only three years after the introduction of the 1965 Race Relations Act, the first legislation passed in the UK to outlaw racial discrimination on the grounds of colour, race, or ethnic or national origins."
Renee Mussai

photographs by Raphael Albert via (1- Miss West Indies in GB contestant at Blythe Road, London, 1970s, 2- Beauty queen posing against alpine backdrop, London, 1970s, 3 - Crowned beauty queen with fellow contestants, London, 1970s, 4 - Beauty queen, London, 1970s) and via

Huey P. Newton: "sometimes our first instinct is to want to hit a homosexual in the mouth, and want a woman to be quiet."

"We want to hit a homosexual in the mouth because we are afraid that we might be homosexual; and we want to hit the woman or shut her up because we are afraid that she might castrate us, or take the nuts that we might not have." Here is the full speech held by Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panthers, at a Black Panther rally in New York City on 15th of August 1970.

During the past few years strong movements have developed among women and among homosexuals seeking their liberation. There has been some uncertainty about how to relate to these movements. 

Whatever your personal opinions and your insecurities about homosexuality and the various liberation movements among homosexuals and women (and I speak of the homosexuals and women as oppressed groups), we should try to unite with them in a revolutionary fashion. 

I say ”whatever your insecurities are” because as we very well know, sometimes our first instinct is to want to hit a homosexual in the mouth, and want a woman to be quiet. We want to hit a homosexual in the mouth because we are afraid that we might be homosexual; and we want to hit the women or shut her up because we are afraid that she might castrate us, or take the nuts that we might not have to start with. 

We must gain security in ourselves and therefore have respect and feelings for all oppressed people. We must not use the racist attitude that the white racists use against our people because they are Black and poor. Many times the poorest white person is the most racist because he is afraid that he might lose something, or discover something that he does not have. So you’re some kind of a threat to him. This kind of psychology is in operation when we view oppressed people and we are angry with them because of their particular kind of behavior, or their particular kind of deviation from the established norm. 

Remember, we have not established a revolutionary value system; we are only in the process of establishing it. I do not remember our ever constituting any value that said that a revolutionary must say offensive things towards homosexuals, or that a revolutionary should make sure that women do not speak out about their own particular kind of oppression. As a matter of fact, it is just the opposite: we say that we recognize the women’s right to be free. We have not said much about the homosexual at all, but we must relate to the homosexual movement because it is a real thing. And I know through reading, and through my life experience and observations that homosexuals are not given freedom and liberty by anyone in the society. They might be the most oppressed people in the society. 

And what made them homosexual? Perhaps it’s a phenomenon that I don’t understand entirely. Some people say that it is the decadence of capitalism. I don’t know if that is the case; I rather doubt it. But whatever the case is, we know that homosexuality is a fact that exists, and we must understand it in its purest form: that is, a person should have the freedom to use his body in whatever way he wants. 

That is not endorsing things in homosexuality that we wouldn’t view as revolutionary. But there is nothing to say that a homosexual cannot also be a revolutionary. And maybe I’m now injecting some of my prejudice by saying that “even a homosexual can be a revolutionary.” Quite the contrary, maybe a homosexual could be the most revolutionary. 

When we have revolutionary conferences, rallies, and demonstrations, there should be full participation of the gay liberation movement and the women’s liberation movement. Some groups might be more revolutionary than others. We should not use the actions of a few to say that they are all reactionary or counter-revolutionary, because they are not. 

We should deal with the factions just as we deal with any other group or party that claims to be revolutionary. We should try to judge, somehow, whether they are operating in a sincere revolutionary fashion and from a really oppressed situation. (And we will grant that if they are women they are probably oppressed.) If they do things that are unrevolutionary or counter-revolutionary, then criticize that action. 

If we feel that the group in spirit means to be revolutionary in practice, but they make mistakes in interpretation of the revolutionary philosophy, or they do not understand the dialectics of the social forces in operation, we should criticize that and not criticize them because they are women trying to be free. And the same is true for homosexuals. We should never say a whole movement is dishonest when in fact they are trying to be honest. They are just making honest mistakes. Friends are allowed to make mistakes. The enemy is not allowed to make mistakes because his whole existence is a mistake, and we suffer from it. But the women’s liberation front and gay liberation front are our friends, they are our potential allies, and we need as many allies as possible.  

We should be willing to discuss the insecurities that many people have about homosexuality. When I say “insecurities,” I mean the fear that they are some kind of threat to our manhood. I can understand this fear. Because of the long conditioning process which builds insecurity in the American male, homosexuality might produce certain hang-ups in us. I have hang-ups myself about male homosexuality. But on the other hand, I have no hang-up about female homosexuality. And that is a phenomenon in itself. I think it is probably because male homosexuality is a threat to me and female homosexuality is not. 

We should be careful about using those terms that might turn our friends off. The terms “faggot” and “punk” should be deleted from our vocabulary, and especially we should not attach names normally designed for homosexuals to men who are enemies of the people, such as [Richard] Nixon or [John] Mitchell. Homosexuals are not enemies of the people. 

We should try to form a working coalition with the gay liberation and women’s liberation groups. We must always handle social forces in the most appropriate manner. And this is really a significant part of the population, both women, and the growing number of homosexuals that we have to deal with. 

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panthers

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photographs via and via

I Am ... Somebody

In 1972, reverend Jesse Jackson shared the poem "I Am - Somebody" (originally written by pastor and civil rights activist William Homes Borders, Sr. in the 1950s) with children of Sesame Street.

I am ...[I am!] 
Somebody... [somebody!] 
I am ... [I am!] 
Somebody ... [somebody!] 
I may be poor ... [I may be poor!] 
But I am ... [but I am!] 
Somebody ... [somebody!] 
I may be on welfare ... [I may be on welfare!] 
But I am ... [but I am!] 
Somebody ... [somebody!] 
I may be unskilled ... [I may be unskilled!] 
But I am ... [But I am!] 
Somebody ... [somebody!] 
I am ... [I am!] 
Black ... [black!] 
Beautiful ... [beautiful!] 
Proud ... [proud!] 
And must be respected ... [and must be respected]! 
I must be protected ... [I must be protected!] 
I am God's child ... [I am God's child] (via)

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photograph via

Our Own Sense of Somebodyness

Jesse Jackson's speech held on 20 August 1972 at the benefit-concert organised to commemorate the community of Watts after the 1965 riots:

This is a beautiful day… It is a new day… it is a day of black awareness, it is a day of black people taking care of black people’s business… We are together, we are unified… and all in accord… Because when we are together we got power… and we can make decisions… 

Today on this program you will hear gospel, and rhythm and blues, and jazz. All those are just labels. We know that music is music… All of our people have got a soul, our experience determines the texture, the tastes and the sounds of our soul. We may say that we are may be in the slum but the slum is not in us. We may be in the prison, but the prison is not in us. In what we have shifted from, burn baby burn to learn baby learn. We have shifted from having a seizure about what the man got, to seizing what we need. We have shifted from bed bugs and dog ticks to community control and politics. 

That is why we've gathered today, to celebrate our homecoming and our own sense of somebodyness. That is why I challenge you now to stand together, raise your first together, and engage in our famous black litany. Do it with courage and determination... (via).

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photograph (Jesse Jackson and Bobby Seale, 1972; AP Photo/File) via

"Our skin tones have been weaponised against us." Joshua Kissi

When I first started photographing I found out there is a limitation to what our skin can look like based on the mechanics and tools of the camera. I began noticing, ‘oh, when I shoot Fujifilm black skin looks like this’, and ‘when I shoot on Sony it looks like this’. There’s all these different interpretations of how Black skin registers through the camera and it never felt like what I saw with my naked eye. So when I first started out I thought, ‘high contrast, low saturation’. That shows the richness of Black skin but in a way that’s more about how melanin registers...



...Over time, I recognised anti-Blackness’ main point of reference is our skin. That’s it. Our skin tones have been weaponised against us. So I wanted to start there to show the possibilities of what Black skin can look like in so many different ways – its richness, its intensity, its care. There’s so much nuance to Black skin that we’re not being granted. Frankly, this is the first time I’m talking about my work in this way – technical and ideological.



Frankly, I feel like without community I am nothing. All of this work is about us as a community. It’s about making us visible. But not even just being visible. Do you see me, but, also, do you also understand me and the work that I make? I know I’m getting a limited amount of emails and work opportunities right now because I only show and shoot Black and brown people. I own that and make it a part of my story. I’m in servitude of my community and am only the artist I am when I’m serving them. There is no me without community.
Joshua Kissi



photographs via

James Barnor: Capturing Stylish Ghana

Born in 1929 in Accra, James Barnor moved to London in 1959, at the time "a burgeoning multicultural city". When he returned to Ghana, he opened the first colour processing laboratory. But it was not his knowledge of the printing process alone rather the combination with his "eye for composition and content" that made him so important for Ghana. Barner's work, in fact, is said to have helped decolonise Ghana (via), document fashion while the country was making a transition to an independent one and put black women on the covers of British magazines (via).



"Throughout his career, Barnor was known to disrupt the norm and use his art to break down social barriers." (via)



"Most Ghanaians especially the youth were excited, and very much involved with the fight for Self Government and subsequently Independence from the British Government. As a newspaper photographer it was much more interesting since one was in the thick of it, all the time! 

There were people who hated me for working for a “White Press” which was not taken lightly during ‘the struggle’, and others who took it as progress. That was a very interesting time in my career. 

I got the opportunity of getting familiar with all the Members of the Legislative Assembly who later became Members of Parliament, after Independence in March 1957. I photographed every one of them."
James Barnor 

"When I had my studio in Ghana people thought we (Ghanaians) didn't dress up. But all my sitters, my freinds, were fashion conscious - women would often request full-length photos with shoes, a handbad and their accessories."

James Barnor

"Having served the Drum Magazine in Ghana, I was given assignments by the London Editor to photograph the Cover Girls in colour, plus black and white photos and personal stories for the inside pages. Some were professional models but I found some suitable girls who were not. There was a London Edition which became very popular with the Diaspora. It was the Drum that made Black Models come to light in the 1960s and 70s."
James Barnor



photographs via and via

There Is Black. And There Is Black.

"The lighter an African American actor or model is and the more Anglo-white her features, the greater her chances are of accessing certain societal rewards such as movie or other media exposure. (...) Darker African women are made into societal misfits who are targeted for more devaluing than their lighter counterparts by the white cultural artists."
Jean & Feagin, 2015: 87f



- Jean, Y. S. & Feagin, J. R. (2015). Double Burden. Black Women and Everyday Racism. London & New York: Routledge.
- photograph of Lena Horne (1917-2010) by Wayne Miller, 1947 via (copyright by owner)

My Black is Beautiful

"We know that bias is not just an African American issue. It’s an issue that takes on many shapes and forms, across gender, race, age, weight, sexual orientation, and more. Our goal with 'The Talk' is to help raise awareness about the impact of bias, we are also hopeful that we can make progress toward a less biased future by recognizing the power of people of all backgrounds and races showing up for one another."
Damon D. Jones, director of global company communications for Procter & Gamble



"My Black is Beautiful was created in 2007 by a group of visionary black women at P&G to spark a broader dialogue about black beauty. Our mission is to ignite and support a sustained national conversation by, for and about black women. Together, we can serve as the catalyst for a movement that effects positive change."
Procter & Gamble

The My Black is Beautiful Manifesto (via):

From the color of my skin,
to the texture of my hair,
to the length of my strands,
to the breadth of my smile,
to the stride of my gait,

to the span of my arms,
to the depth of my bosom,
to the curve of my hips,
to the glow of my skin,
My Black is Beautiful.

It cannot be denied.
It will not be contained,
And only I will define it.
For when I look in my mirror,
my very soul cries out,
My Black is Beautiful.

And so today,
I speak it out loud,
unabashedly,
I declare it anew,
My Black is Beautiful.

Whether celebrated,
imitated,
exploited or denigrated.
Whether natural from inside
or skillfully applied,
My Black is Beautiful.

To my daughters,
my sisters,
my nieces,
my cousins,
my colleagues and my friends,
I speak for us all when I say again,
My Black is Beautiful.

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More P&G commercials/diversity campaigns:

::: #WeSeeEqual: WATCH
::: #LikeAGirl: WATCH
::: Unstoppable: WATCH

Soul City

Floyd Bixler McKissick (1922-1991) was the first black student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Law School, a core leader of the Congress of Racial Equality and the founder of Soul City where he lived until his death (via).



Floyd McKissick's idea was to build a city for African Americans, steered by black interests and funded by the federal government (via); McKissick was the first black American to develop a new city with federal funding (via). He believed in "a strategy built squarely on capitalism to counter the entrenched racism that fueled urban neglect and the destitute conditions of black neighborhoods", a city in which black Americans would not be subjected to racism, where they could determine both economic and political destinies. After President Lyndon B. Johnson's lip service, Nixon, in fact, did finance McKissick's project ... McKissick had switched parties in the late 1960s to support Nixon (via).

“The roots of the urban crisis are in the migratory pattern of rural people seeking to leave areas of economic and racial oppression. … So in building a new city in a rural area, we help to solve this.”
Floyd McKissick

And so McKissick started developing a city in Warren County, North Carolina, in a region that at that time was growing poorer as residents were fleeing the South (via). McKissick installed Soul City in a county where more than 60% of the population were black Americans but virtually all elected officials were white, where the Ku Klux Klan was clearly present. Soul City managed to build the region's first real water system, a health clinic, new sewage infrastructure in one of the poorest counties in the state (median income in 1960: $1.958,- in Warren County vs $6.691,- nation's average) (via).

"Given the for blacks, by blacks mission of Soul City, the public investment served essentially as reparations, or at least a security deposit for reparations. The political landscape of the time—sullen from the assassinations of King and Robert F. Kennedy—was more sympathetic to racial causes and conducive to making amends." (via)

Soul City did not become the "spearhead of racial equality", no "new southern economic engine" once hoped and envisioned (via). In 1979 the city had a population of less than 150 instead of 2.000, big companies that had considered building operations centres in Soul City pulled out, controversy around the separatist approach, the oil and energy crisis, hard-right conservatives, and North Carolina's decision to dump tons of toxic soil waste in Warren County made it difficult for the city to develop. McKissick finally sold Soul City off to private interests; including the "Soul Tech I" business that is today the Warren Correctional Institution with 809 beds ... "housing far more people than McKissick was ever able to recruit to Soul City" (via).

"Facing a hostile political environment and hampered by a foreboding economic climate, Floyd McKissick’s bold attempt to sustain a free-standing new town based on African American activism seemed doomed from the start. The uneasy marriage between black capitalism and the federal bureaucracy sundered at Soul City, a part of the larger failure of the new towns movement to solve the urban crisis of the late twentieth century." Roger Biles

Despite everything, Warren County benefitted very much from the infrastructure funding McKissick had raised and the city became a "solid display of African-American driven urban planning" with some people still living there - people for whom Soul City was and is their everything, people who are proud to be part of it as a part of the city's legacy (via).

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photographs via and via and via

Albert Einstein on Minorities and Majorities

"As long as I have any choice in the matter, I shall live only in a country where civil liberty, tolerance and equality of all citizens before the law prevail."
Albert Einstein



In 1930, "father of social science" and editor-in-chief of The Crisis W.E.B. DuBois contacted Albert Einstein while he was living in Berlin and asked him for a contribution to the official journal of the NAACP.

Sir:
I am taking the liberty of sending you herewith some copies of THE CRISIS magazine. THE CRISIS is published by American Negroes and in defense of the citizenship rights of 12 million people descended from the former slaves of this country. We have just reached our 21st birthday. I am writing to ask if in the midst of your busy life you could find time to write us a word about the evil of race prejudice in the world. A short statement from you of 500 to 1,000 words on this subject would help us greatly in our continuing fight for freedom.
With regard to myself, you will find something about me in “Who’s Who in America.” I was formerly a student of Wagner and Schmoller in the University of Berlin.
I should greatly appreciate word from you.
Very sincerely yours,
W. E. B. Du Bois

Albert Einstein replied two weeks later:

My Dear Sir!
Please find enclosed a short contribution for your newspaper. Because of my excessive workload I could not send a longer explanation.
With Distinguished respect,
Albert Einstein

DuBois translated Einstein's short essay (original in German) and introduced the following "Note form the Editor":

The author, Albert Einstein, is a Jew of German nationality. He was born in Wurttemburg in 1879 and educated in Switzerland. He has been Professor of Physics at Zurich and Prague and is at present director of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Physical Institute at Berlin. He is a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Science and of the British Royal Society. He received the Nobel Prize in 1921 and the Copley Medal in 1925.

Einstein is a genius in higher physics and ranks with Copernicus, Newton and Kepler. His famous theory of Relativity, advanced first in 1905, is revolutionizing our explanation of physical phenomenon and our conception of Motion, Time and Space.

But Professor Einstein is not a mere mathematical mind. He is a living being, sympathetic with all human advance. He is a brilliant advocate of disarmament and world Peace and he hates race prejudice because as a Jew he knows what it is. At our request, he has sent this word to THE CRISIS with “Ausgezeichneter Hochachtung” (“Distinguished respect”).

It seems to be a universal fact that minorities, especially when their Individuals are recognizable because of physical differences, are treated by majorities among whom they live as an inferior class. The tragic part of such a fate, however, lies not only in the automatically realized disadvantage suffered by these minorities in economic and social relations, but also in the fact that those who meet such treatment themselves for the most part acquiesce in the prejudiced estimate because of the suggestive influence of the majority, and come to regard people like themselves as inferior. This second and more important aspect of the evil can be met through closer union and conscious educational enlightenment among the minority, and so emancipation of the soul of the minority can be attained.

The determined effort of the American Negroes in this direction deserves every recognition and assistance.

Albert Einstein

photographs by Philip Halsman (1947) via and via, information via

The -ism Series (26): Afrofuturism

"Afrofuturism is a literary and cultural aesthetic that combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, Afrocentricity, and magic realism with non-Western cosmologies in order to critique not only the present-day dilemmas of people of color, but also to revise, interrogate, and re-examine the historical events of the past." (via)



In 1992, Mark Dery coined the term "Afrofuturism" to describe a certain kind of passion for technology, innovation and mysticism in black culture, i.e. in art, film, music, and literature. Afrofuturism pioneers such as Sun Ra and Octavia Butler had not come into touch with the label (via).
According to Ytasha L. Womack, Afrofuturism is an intersectional, non-linear, fluid and feminist way of looking at alternate realities through a black cultural lens blending the future, the past and the present, exploring "race as a technology". It allows "black people to see our lives more fully than the present allows – emotionally, technologically, temporally and politically." (via)

"To me, a tenent of Afrofuturism deals with black people being told they must adhere to divisions which don’t exist, and only accept a limited number of stories about ourselves, such that we have an extremely limited concept of what material reality can be. Racism can give black Americans the impression that in the past we were only slaves who did not rebel; that in the present, we are a passive people beaten by police who cannot fight back; and that in the future, we simply do not exist." Steven W. Thrasher

A few minutes of "Space is the Place": WATCH



images of Sun Ra via and via

Born this day: William Edward Burghardt "W.E.B." DuBois

"(...) history cannot ignore W.E.B. DuBois because history has to reflect truth and Dr. DuBois was a tireless explorer and a gifted discoverer of social truths. His singular greatness lay in his quest for truth about his own people. There were very few scholars who concerned themselves with honest study of the black man and he sought to fill this immense void. The degree to which he succeeded disclosed the great dimensions of the man."
Martin Luther King

"An American, a Negro... two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."
W.E.B. DuBois



"In my own country for nearly a century I have been nothing but a NIGGER."
W.E.B. DuBois

"To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships."
W.E.B. DuBois

"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line."
W.E.B. DuBois

William Edward Burghardt DuBois (1886-1963) was born on 23 February 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, at a time the town with about 5.000 inhabitants had between 25 and 50 black people. At high school he showed concern for the development of black people and reflected upon their need to politicise themselves when he became the local correspondent for the New York globe at age fifteen. After graduating from high school, DuBois went to Fisk College (now University) in Nashville, Tennessee. In the south he "saw discrimination in ways he never dreamed of". He was even more determined to support the emancipation of his people as a writer, an editor, an impassioned orator.
After Fisk, DuBois entered Harvard via scholarships where he completed his master's degree and went to the University of Berlin for his doctor's degree. One semester before finishing his degree, however, he had to go back to Harvard because his education was regarded as "unsuitable for the type of work needed to help Negroes" and was hence no longer funded.
DuBois taught in Ohio for two years before accepting a fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania where he conducted a research project in the city's slums.

"It revealed the Negro group as a symptom, not a cause; as a striving, palpitating group, and not an inert, sick body of crime; as a long historic development and not a transient occurrence."

It was the first time social phenomena were studied with a scientific approach, DuBois became "the father of Social Science".

After completing the study, he went to Atlanta University for thirteen years where he continued studying blacks. DuBois was the editor-in-chief of the Crisis for about 25 years; a magazine distributing NAACP policy. All his life, he was a highly active civil rights activist.
W.E.B. DuBois moved to Africa and became a Ghanian citizen in the final months of his life. He passed away on 27 August 1963, on the eve of the March On Washington.

via/more W.E.B. DuBois Learning Center



In 1914, his daughter Yolande (1900-1961) left home to study at Bedales School in England. Soon after herr arrival, W.E.B. DuBois sent her this letter:

New York, October 29, 1914

Dear Little Daughter:

I have waited for you to get well settled before writing. By this time I hope some of the strangeness has worn off and that my little girl is working hard and regularly.

Of course, everything is new and unusual. You miss the newness and smartness of America. Gradually, however, you are going to sense the beauty of the old world: its calm and eternity and you will grow to love it.

Above all remember, dear, that you have a great opportunity. You are in one of the world’s best schools, in one of the world’s greatest modern empires. Millions of boys and girls all over this world would give almost anything they possess to be where you are. You are there by no desert or merit of yours, but only by lucky chance.

Deserve it, then. Study, do your work. Be honest, frank and fearless and get some grasp of the real values of life. You will meet, of course, curious little annoyances. People will wonder at your dear brown and the sweet crinkley hair. But that simply is of no importance and will soon be forgotten. Remember that most folk laugh at anything unusual, whether it is beautiful, fine or not. You, however, must not laugh at yourself. You must know that brown is as pretty as white or prettier and crinkley hair as straight even though it is harder to comb. The main thing is the YOU beneath the clothes and skin—the ability to do, the will to conquer, the determination to understand and know this great, wonderful, curious world. Don’t shrink from new experiences and custom. Take the cold bath bravely. Enter into the spirit of your big bed-room. Enjoy what is and not pine for what is not. Read some good, heavy, serious books just for discipline: Take yourself in hand and master yourself. Make yourself do unpleasant things, so as to gain the upper hand of your soul.

Above all remember: your father loves you and believes in you and expects you to be a wonderful woman.

I shall write each week and expect a weekly letter from you.

Lovingly yours,

Papa
(via Letters of Note)

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"The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression."
W.E.B. DuBois

photographs via and via

Roy DeCarava. Photographing Blackness.

"There were no black images of dignity, no images of beautiful black people. There was this big hole. I tried to fill it."
Roy DeCarava


Self Portrait, Reflection (1949)


Woman on Train (1961)


Bill & Son (1962)

“One of the things that got to me was that I felt that black people were not being portrayed in a serious and in an artistic way.”
Roy DeCarava (1982)

"Unlike many photographers of his day, Mr. DeCarava did not intend that his photos be viewed as visual documentation but rather as artistic expressions in their own right so that his images were, in his words, "serious," "artistic," and universally "human." Whether photographing the Scottish countryside or the heart of New York City, the deep connection he felt to the lives of people everywhere is evident in the integrity of his images. Among the many subjects his camera focused upon, he expressed an early desire to address the lack of artistic attention given to the lives of Black Americans, illuminating the aesthetic and human qualities of each individual life through the lens of his perceptions." (via)


Woman Resting, Subway Entrance, New York (1952)


Haynes, Jones, and Benjamin (1956)

"DeCarava took photographs of white people tenderly but seldom. Black life was his greater love and steadier commitment. With his camera he tried to think through the peculiar challenge of shooting black subjects at a time when black appearance, in both senses (the way black people looked and the very presence of black people), was under question." (via)



Roy DeCarava (1919-2009) was one of two black students at a high school for textile studies and one of a few at the Cooper Union of Art (with a scholarship to study art and architecture). Discouraged by the hostility of many white students there, he left and enrolled at Harlem Community Art Center after two years.
DeCarava trained to be a painter but soon turned to photography after using a camera to gather images for his printmaking. As a black painter, he would have faced limitations: "A black painter, to be an artist had to join the white world or not function - had to accept the values of white culture." He became "the founder of a school of African-American photography that broke with the social documentary traditions of his time."
DeCarava was an outspoken crusader for civil rights, a member of the Committee to End Discrimination Against Black Photographers (he once supported protest against Life magazine for having only one - Gordon Parks - black photographer on its staff). DeCarava felt that "his pictures would speak louder as a record of black life if they abandoned the overtly humanist aims". Roy DeCarava was an artist who treated photography as a fine art and turned Harlem into his canvas (via).


from the book "The Sweet Flypaper of Life"

“I want to photograph Harlem through the Negro people. Morning, noon, night, at work, going to work… talking, kidding… in the home, in the playground, in the schools… I do not want a documentary or sociological statement, I want a creative expression, the kind of penetrating insight and understanding of Negroes which I believe only a Negro photographer can interpret.”
Roy DeCarava (via, via)


Marchers talking (1963)


Mississippi Freedom Marcher, Washington, DC (1963)

On the photograph "Mississippi Freedom Marcher, 1963" (see above)
"In “Mississippi Freedom Marcher,” for example, even the whites of the shirts have been pulled down, into a range of soft, dreamy grays, so that the tonalities of the photograph agree with the young woman’s strong, quiet expression. This exploration of the possibilities of dark gray would be interesting in any photographer, but DeCarava did it time and again specifically as a photographer of black skin. Instead of trying to brighten blackness, he went against expectation and darkened it further. What is dark is neither blank nor empty. It is in fact full of wise light which, with patient seeing, can open out into glories." (via)


Five Men (1964)

On the photograph "Five Men, 1964" (see above)
“This moment occurred during a memorial service for the children killed in a church in Birmingham, Ala., in 1964. The photograph shows men coming out of the service at a church in Harlem.” The “men were coming out of the church with faces so serious and so intense that I responded, and the image was made.”
Roy DeCarava, 1990


Two Men Talking, Washington, DC (1963)


Picket, Downstate Demonstration (1963)

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photographs via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via

Tommie, John, Peter & 1968 Olympic Games

"If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight."
John Carlos



There have been a couple of scandals and controversies in the history of the Olympic Games. One of controversies was caused during the 1968 Olympics when the two black athletes Tommie Smith (gold medalist) and John Carlos (bronze medalist) raised their black-gloved fists on the podium while the US-American national anthem was played during the medal ceremony in Mexico City. Australian silver medalist Peter Norman (1942-2006) wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge in solidarity. Smith and Carlos received their medals shoeless wearing black socks to represent black poverty. Smith's black scarf was a symbol of black pride. Carlos had his tracksuit top unzipped to show solidarity with blue collar workers in the US; his necklace of beads was "for those individuals that were lynched, or killed and that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage". No matter if the salute was a "Black Power" salute or a "human rights salute", it surely was "one of the most overtly political statements in the history of the modern Olympic Games" which soon became front page news (via). Their salute became one of the most memorable events of the twentieth century in the history of sports (via).



When Smith and Carlos left the podium, they were booed by the crowd. Avery Brundage (1887-1975), president of the International Olympic Committee, ordered both suspended from the team and banned them from the Olympic Village. At first, the US Olympic Committee refused but later expelled them from the Games because Brundage threatened to ban the entire US track team. The same Brundage, by the way, had made no objections against Nazi salutes when he was president of the US Olympic Committee in 1936. Smith and Carlos were highly criticised, media coverage was negative and their families received death threats (via). Peter Norman was reprimanded by the Australian media and the Australian Olympic authorities. In 1972, he was not sent to the Summer Olympics in Munich despite his qualifying times. Neither was another male sprinter sent there (via).
Decades later, in 2008, Smith and Carlos received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award which is part of the "Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award" for their action (in 2015, the award was given to Caitlyn Jenner for showing "courage to embrace a truth that had been hidden for years" (via)). Today, Smith and Carlos are honoured with statues, exhibitions, airbrush murals, films and songs (via). In 2012, the Australian Parliament decided to officially apologise for doing wrong to Peter Norman (via).



The Australian Parliament's apology:
"The order of the day having been read for the resumption of the debate on the motion of Dr Leigh - That this House:

(1) recognises the extraordinary athletic achievements of the late Peter Norman, who won the silver medal in the 200 metres sprint running event at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, in a time of 20.06 seconds, which still stands as the Australian record;
(2) acknowledges the bravery of Peter Norman in donning an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge on the podium, in solidarity with African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who gave the ‘black power’ salute;
(3) apologises to Peter Norman for the wrong done by Australia in failing to send him to the 1972 Munich Olympics, despite repeatedly qualifying; and
(4) belatedly recognises the powerful role that Peter Norman played in furthering racial equality - Debate resumed by Dr Leigh who moved, by leave, as an amendment - Omit paragraph (3), substitute:
(3) apologises to Peter Norman for the treatment he received upon his return to Australia, and the failure to fully recognise his inspirational role before his untimely death in 2006; and Debate continued." (literally via)




"They asked Norman if he believed in human rights. He said he did. They asked him if he believed in God. Norman, who came from a Salvation Army background, said he believed strongly in God. We knew that what we were going to do was far greater than any athletic feat. He said, 'I'll stand with you'." Carlos said he expected to see fear in Norman's eyes. He didn't; "I saw love."
Martin Flanagan

"There's no-one in the nation of Australia that should be honoured, recognised, appreciated more than Peter Norman for his humanitarian concerns, his character, his strength and his willingness to be a sacrificial lamb for justice."
John Carlos

"He was a devout Christian, raised in the Salvation Army [and] believed passionately in equality for all, regardless of colour, creed or religion – the Olympic code".
Paul Byrnes about Peter Norman

"In terms of Peter Norman, he expressed verbally his idea of human rights. When he got on the victory stand he was wearing an Olympic Project for Human Rights button symbolizing his belief in human rights. Not symbolizing his belief in black rights in this country, but in human rights, which included the black rights. Tommie Smith and John Carlos had the same button on, therefore that tied him with the belief in human rights. Now, this man ran a great race. He ran a race of authority, especially the last six meters, to become a silver medalist. When he got back to his country, which also had problems with blackness, especially with the aborigine congregation, he was not received very well. I think he was vilified because he stood on the victory stand with a button on. There was nothing that he could do to make the country understand that he was not guilty."
Tommie Smith



"When I saw those two guys with their fists up on the victory stand, it made my heart jump. It was beautiful."
Margaret Bergmann-Lambert, German high jumper who was prevented from taking part in the 1936 Berlin Olympics because she was Jewish

"In that moment, Tommie Smith, Peter Norman, and John Carlos became the living embodiments of Olympic idealism. Ever since, they have been inspirations to generations of athletes like myself, who can only aspire to their example of putting principle before personal interest. It was their misfortune to be far greater human beings than the leaders of the IOC of the day."
Akaash Maharaj, member of the Canadian Olympic Committee

"A lot came to mind on the victory stand, in nanoseconds. From the time I got involved until that particular raising of the fist in solidarity. From getting no jobs, my belief in humanity, both civil and human, and I had to say something because, you know, I believed. You can run, but you cannot hide, and this was all part of my belief then and is still now. I have a responsibility. I was on a mission. It was a Tommie Smith mission to bring forth the need for America to change. To change its policies, in terms of equality, to change its policies in terms of equal rights, and the right of all people in a country which the constitution has promised to protect. Very simple."
Tommie Smith




“It (a protest) was in my head the whole year. We first tried to have a boycott (of the games) but not everyone was down with that plan. A lot of athletes thought that winning medals would supercede or protect them from racism. But even if you won the medal, it ain’t going to save your momma. It ain’t going to save your sister or children. It might give you fifteen minutes of fame, but what about the rest of your life? I’m not saying that they didn’t have the right to follow their dreams, but to me the medal was nothing but the carrot on a stick.”
John Carlos

“We wanted the world to know that in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, South Central Los Angeles, Chicago, that people were still walking back and forth in poverty without even the necessary clothes to live.The beads were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage. We were trying to wake the country up and wake the world up to.” 
John Carlos

"I had no idea the moment on the medal stand would be frozen for all time. I had no idea what we'd face. I didn't know or appreciate, at that precise moment, that the entire trajectory of our young lives had just irrevocably changed."
John Carlos



photographs (1-3) by Jeff Kroot via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via, copyrights by the respective owners