Hidden Gems - Volume IV: The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

As a young student being educated in the Chicago suburbs, the only Black historical figures I remember learning about in school were Fredrick Douglas, George Washington Carver, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. At home, my parents and sisters introduced me to some of the influential Black leaders and figures that my school failed to mention - Malcolm X, Stokley Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, Medger Evers and Angela Davis to name a few.

Every February, during Black History Month, I still hear school kids say the same watered down stories of how "Rosa Parks was too tired to move to the back of the bus" or how "Harriet Tubman was a tour guide on the Underground Railroad". These historic events have been altered like a game of "telephone". They start out as events that impact an entire way of life, but as they are retold in history class, they are merely regulated to bulletin board blurbs framed in Kinte Cloth posted for 28 days a year.

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Watch Night Services

You may already know the historical significance of Watch Night Services, but it's good info and a good Black History fact.

The History: At the stroke of midnight on December 31, 1862, the New Year was ushered in ... and at 12:01 AM, on January 1, 1863, all slaves in the confederate states were declared legally free.

Those who live or grew up in Black communities in the United States have probably heard of "Watch Night Services," the gathering of the faithful in churches on New Year's Eve. But are you aware of its history?

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