Black History

In honor of the centennial anniversary, a celebratory gala was held at the National Press Club on Feb. 3. A ballroom full of past and present Hilltop journalists and supporters gathered to commemorate 100 years of The Hilltop newspaper.

More than 100 descendants of civil rights trailblazers gathered Feb. 13 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.

It is one of the most disturbing chapters in Black history - the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. And at age 109, Viola Ford Fletcher wants to make sure the terror is not forgotten. She has written a book - "Don't Let Them Bury My Story."

The annual influx of Black History Month programming yields an out-of-this-world documentary in “The Space Race,” which recognizes pioneers in integrating the space program, the resistance they faced and even the Soviet Union preceding America in sending a person of color into orbit.

For many years, school curricula have limited their scope to the same Black figures throughout history. While lectures on the legacies of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman are all important, some educators (and their students) are eager to learn more about underrepresented trailblazers like Lewis Latimer, Marsha P. Johnson, and Max Robinson.

In the mid-1800’s, William Lloyd Garrison was perhaps the most vocal and militant white anti-slavery activist in the nation. His activities resulted in him spending time in jail, having a $5,000 bounty placed on his head and having some abolitionists shun him because he was so radical.

Whitney Moore Young, Jr. was a pioneering social worker who redefined the role of that profession, and its importance to the civil rights cause.

With no money and no benefactor, Marcus Garvey still set out on a mission to build the largest black mass movement in the history of the Western hemisphere. Amazingly, he succeeded.

After the Civil War ended, Sojourner Truth worked tirelessly to aid the newly-freed southern slaves, and she even attempted to petition congress to give the ex-slaves land in the “new West."

It is my pleasure to introduce/re-introduce a man who played a pivotal part in the historical development of Seattle. My great grandfather, Mr. Powell S. Barnett.