Pittsburgh Celebrates Black History Month

February is Black History Month. It originated from Carter Godwin Woodson, (1875-1950) a noted Black scholar, historian and son of former slaves. Neither his mother nor father could read or write. Mr. Woodson had to work to earn money for the family and did not start school until later than most children. But his motto was it is "never to late to learn." He became a high school teacher and was sad to discover that none of the schools taught the history of Black Americans. He founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915, which was later renamed the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). He initiated Black History Week, February 12, 1926. For many years, the second week of February (chosen so as to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln) was celebrated by Black people in the United States. In 1976, as part of the nation's Bicentennial, it was expanded and became established as Black History Month, and is now celebrated all over North America.

The following segments are a few of the ways Pittsburgh celebrated Black History Month this past February.

The Art Space in Homestead celebrated by putting together a diverse collection of events including African story telling, poetry readings, events for children, thought-provoking art installations and a closing event highlighting the Black Church Choirs of Homestead. An Organizational Recruitment event to raise awareness and social consciousness featured South African Activist/Poet and Professor Dennis Brutus, KaKa Bruce of Nile Valley History, Civil Rights Activist and retired Pittsburgh Police Officer Harvey Adams, and a variety of local organizations such as the Black Radical Congress, the Thomas Merton Center, People Against Police Violence, Mothers of African American Males, the NAACP, the Uncompromising Free Mumia Abu Jamal Group, Community Unity, Sankofa and Save Our Sons and Daughters.

Art Space event organizer Dessie Bey believes that creativity can be a segue into consciousness-raising and is committed to using it as a vehicle on a local level. "I think art is definitely a culture shock which allows the introduction to truth. After the introduction, of course, is the acceptance of truth. I was raised in and around the Homestead area and lived here the majority of my days and unfortunately this is the first time that I can remember that the people of Homestead have been openly exposed to African American Culture. Of course in the 70's there was a run on African American History but that is just what that became. Our plan is to continue to openly expose diverse cultures through art to unveil the stereotypical mindset of this community."

Every Monday in February, the Art Space hosted a series for children that began with African story telling with Azizi and an interactive presentation of adapted West African folktales, passing on the tradition of oral story telling in African culture. Danielle Crumrine is coordinator of the children’s component, LitARTure, which instills positive values through reading and art. This past month, the readings focused on books by or about African Americans and other people of color. She picks stories that put forth messages of equality, respect and inner strength. For example, the children read a story about Frida Kahlo, Mexican surrealist, and learned some common words in Spanish as well as other important lessons – that even though Frida was crippled and hurting, she found an outlet that helped her direct her energy in a positive way and rise above her physical challenges. The final week’s reading was "Flossie and the Fox," the rural south’s version of Little Red Riding Hood, followed by a watercolor activity. Crumrine explains that the messages are communicated through language written for children that are then reinforced through hands-on experience. About 20 kids gathered each week for the readings and theme-related art projects.

Children in LitARTure hold up their works of art
(Photo by Marie Skoczylas)

On Saturday, February 14^th, an African Fashion Show took place with garments provided by Blemadoo’s Market Place of Homestead. Coordinator Yvonne Foy is the newest member of the Art Space. "The children can learn about and absorb African culture by being in the traditional clothes," she said.

Throughout February, the Art Space exhibited photography, sculptures, paintings, collages, jewelry and more commemorating Black History Month. "It’s the best time of year to show my art," said Biko, one of the featured artists. "This month is to observe and study the history of Black people. My art deals with history and the black experience."

Seven years ago Biko got the idea of collecting Black memorabilia for a museum that ran without government funds. At a museum in Nebraska, he saw a print of an advertisement with a group of Black babies under the title "Alligator Bait." The collector had bought it at a gas station in 1976. "I collect to let people know what went on," he said "so that the children will know the true American history…There are [racist groups] out there that deny that the Holocaust ever happened. If they say it enough, people start to believe it." He’s determined to not let that happen with the struggles that Black people have overcome.

One of Biko’s installations, "Biko’s Believe It or Not," asks the viewer to ponder, ‘who were the cotton pickers?’ Schwin Bicycle Incorporated came out with a series of 1967 "Stingray" bikes. They boasted special high-performance for kids with dual handbrakes, 5-speed stick shift and front drum air brakes. Their names were, "Apple Crate," "Orange Crate," "Lemon Peeler," and "Cotton Picker." This was 2 years after Malcolm X was assassinated, 3 years after a bomb went off in a southern church killing four young girls, and one year before Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. "This came out right in the middle of the Civil Rights movement," said Biko. "It was a slap in the face."

Biko also uses art to tell the stories of the struggles that still lie ahead. In his "Crack Chair" installation, skeleton arms hold a crack pipe in one hand and a lighter (with a dollar bill wrapping) in the other. "This is not a lifestyle…it is a deathstyle" is scrawled across one section. Along the sides of the chair is a "gangsta" culture media collage - glossy magazine clippings of diamond rings, gold teeth caps, men striking thug poses and scantily clad women. Newspaper headlines adorn the base of the chair, "Crack, Cocaine, CIA," "Man faces 2 inquests," "3 shot on the north side"…In the center of the seat, one clipping goes more in-depth into the issue: "Addicted mother charged with homicide in death of her starved, beaten 2-year-old." "Look, Read, Think," pleads a message at the bottom.

- Marie Skoczylas

Artist Biko with "Crack Chair" (left) and "Biko's Believe It or Not" (right)
(Photos by Marie Skoczylas)


"Why I Sing Da Blues" by Biko honors heroes such as MLK, WEB DuBois and Nelson Mandala. Accompanying placard asks, "What could they have accomplished if the life and energy put forth into fighting racism could have been used in some other field?"

The Pittsburgh Muslim Community Celebrates Black History Month

The Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, The Muslim Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, The Universal Academy of Pittsburgh, Masjid Al-Mu’min and the Muslim Students’ Association offered Pittsburgh community members of all faiths the opportunity to enrich their senses and expand their knowledge with two free events that went through an audio-visual look at Muslim American History.

At the first event, "Muslims in America: Seven Centuries of History (1312-2000)," Amir Mohamed of CSAM (Collections & Stories of American Muslims), a non-profit organization founded in 1996 that created an Islamic museum, traveling exhibition and archives in the US, gave a lecture on the long history of Muslims in North America to a crowd of about fifty on February 9th. Visitors were able to view an extensive Gallery of Photographic Panels depicting the many Muslims whose contributions throughout history helped build the United States. Each panel gave a vivid look into the lives of these Muslims and also shares a story explaining their many contributions. See sidebar for a more detailed report on the history.

Islam was the dominant religion of many Africans during the 7th century in North Africa, the 11th century in West Africa, and the 15th century in West Africa. Ten to thirty percent of slaves brought from Western Africa to the Americas were Muslim, and many of them practiced their religion upon arrival. Having carried Islam to Europe from Africa, many Muslims had to flee the Spanish Inquisition from Spain, Portugal and France during the 1400s, and later lived among Native Americans in North America.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus stated in his writings that while his ship was sailing near Gibara on the northeast coast of Cuba, he saw a Mosque on the top of a mountain. Ruins of mosques and minarets with inscriptions of Quaranic verses have been discovered in Cuba, Mexico, Texas and Nevada.

From 1566 to 1587, the Spanish Inquisition forced the Moriscos Muslims in Spain to convert to Catholicism, which lead to another wave of Portuguese Moriscos to leave Spain to the ‘new world.’ These immigrants settled in North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia.

When Europeans came to North America, they prosecuted Muslims that resided in the Delaware area during the 1600s. In 1654, English explorers from Jamestown reported finding a colony of people they referred to as "Moors" wearing European clothing, living in cabins, engaging in mining, smelting silver and praying many times daily in what is now the mountains of North Carolina.

During the 1700s, many Muslims fought in the Revolutionary War and founded permanent communities. They also fought in the War of 1812 and the Civil War during the 1800s. In 1869, a number of Muslims from Yemen arrived in the United States after the opening of the Suez Canal. Many lived in New York, Detroit and Buffalo. Some also settled on the West Coast.

In 1873, the town of Mecca, Indiana was founded from the Wabash Township; locals state that Arabians settled the town. Throughout the 1800s, many Muslims subsequently owned land and held office in the military, some after gaining freedom from slave masters.

During the early 1900s, many Moorish Muslim communities formed in the U.S., beginning with a large influx of Muslim immigrants from Lebanon, Syria, East Europe, Asia and other countries across the Ottoman Empire. In 1931, Wali Farad Muhammad formed the Nation of Islam in Detroit and called for economic and social improvement for Muslims. Elijah Muhammad assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam in 1934 and Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little), who began preaching at Temple 11 in Boston, then became the Nation of Islam’s principal spokesperson in 1952.

Since 1960s, the third substantial wave of immigrants from many parts of the Islamic world and a growing number of American converts have made Islam the fastest growing religion in the world and in the U.S., where 8 million Muslim Americans contribute to many areas of society.

- Toni Bartone

In room 2M56, above the din of University of Pittsburgh’s Posvar Hall, an attentive crowd listened and responded to Robyn Spencer’s presentation, "The Black Panther Party and Revolutionary Black Womanhood," on Feb. 12.

A Postdoctoral Fellow of the History Department at Carnegie Mellon University, Robyn Spencer’s research includes African American social protest movements, South African history and the lives of African American women. Formerly, Spencer was an assistant professor of African and African American Studies and History at Penn State University.

"Women embraced womanhood while defying femininity," Spencer said. "Women in the organization claimed strength and defined themselves in the process."

Women members of the Black Panther Party also resisted narrow definitions, especially those of the white women’s liberation movement, whose protests often left out militant struggle, Spencer said.

In 1966, the Black Panther Party became notorious for their use of armed self-defense tactics. The organization began in Oakland, CA., a city that hadn’t experienced the same Civil Rights movement of the South, but had its own economic and race-based struggles at the time.

The organization expanded nationwide while facing a strong campaign of government repression that began in the late 1960s. The party often defined by gendered militant images, such as that of co-founder Huey P. Newton seated in a throne-like chair holding a rifle in one hand and a spear in the other.

Armed self-defense was perceived as black men’s duty, though Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale sought universal appeal, bringing weapons knowledge from hunting during youth and time served in the military. Their call resonated with many African American women, as it was an alternative to the Nation of Islam and other groups calling for black power that were less receptive to women’s struggles. Though Seale and Newton organized in gendered spaces such as bars and pool halls less accessible to women, many sought out the party, often quitting work and school to join.

Female members demanded that the organization live up to its egalitarian rhetoric, and challenge sexism and patriarchy both within the group and outside of it. Roles that many women played within the group, such as typists, were assigned by skill, which replicated the gender roles of the rest of the world. Yet, women often had full schedules and were full time members of the party. Women in the Black Panther Party armed themselves with both political education and firearms, Spencer said.

Women of the Black Panther Party as "Pantherettes" existed for a short while as a separate group within the organization, but were soon integrated and became central to the workings of the organization, and often to the revolutionary graphics used in the Panthers’ publications. Women as guerillas were present in many national liberation movements in Africa, connecting the panthers to these struggles.

Women such as Kathleen Cleaver, helped create a movement to release Huey Newton after his arrest and ascended within the group to positions of power. Cleaver was known for her image and political quickness, running for office in 1968 and using the slogan ‘ballot or the bullet.’

The Black Panther Party acknowledged that children were also victims of violence and as such, also part of the movement against it. Women were invited to pass down the self-defense skills they had gained to children. In the images on posters and graphics in the organization’s newspaper, women were often depicted wearing African garb, presented as mothers, one holding a child that carries a rifle that reads ‘hope.’

In 1968, sexism and ageism were still daunting issues within the organization. Many women suffered harassment and assault, but the organization put women in a position to deal with these abuses and defend themselves, ushering the organization through an ongoing process of cleansing its members of patriarchal upbringings.

COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program), the FBI-led harassment, disinformation, and assassination campaign against anti-war and civil rights organizations during the late 1960s, weakened the Panthers considerably, and their membership dropped during the 1970s. Many members relocated to Oakland, the base of the organization’s operations. The Black Panther Party went from a social movement down to a collective.

1970s gender politics affected the organization greatly as Elaine Brown became its leader in 1974. Communal living was seen as the best way for the party to focus its efforts and energies, and caused the organization to address sexual freedom, birth control, reproductive rights and housework.

"[Women] didn’t ever define men as the enemy - they saw themselves as struggling alongside men," Spencer said.

Sexual freedom was understood in gendered ways, based on assumptions, Spencer said. Men were allowed greater freedom and expected sexual favors, women’s bodies were still perceived as rewards for male political behaviors. The informal policy that men could date outside of the group and women could only date within operated, as men were perceived as bringing women into the party and women’s partners were perceived as people who would remove women from the party.

Birth control was advocated, as pregnancy meant a reduction in staff. Women encouraged men to also be responsible for contraception, and an intercommunal youth institute was created. Collective parenting, a carryover from African culture, was put into place and allowed for greater political involvement in the group.

Spencer pointed out that the history of the Black Panther Party is often recounted in a top-down style, often without attention to the history of its rank-and-file members. As a result, the organization’s former leaders have remained more successful and prominent while other members’ experiences have varied and remain difficult to uncover.

Black women’s experiences in black power organizations, such as the Black Panther Party, have been perceived as one-dimensional, but Spencer’s work and that of other scholars has proved otherwise.

"There’s really a little more operating room for scholars of black power," Spencer said, mentioning the newfound academic interest in studying women who were part of the Black Panther Party.

- Toni Bartone