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Oscarville...The city buried under Lake Lanier · Black Girl Interrupted Podcast

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Black. Y'all already know how y'all already know how? All right, what's
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up y'all? Hey, welcome back to another episode of Black Girl Interrupted.
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Babe, Happy Thursday to everybody. I know, I just saw y'all two
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days ago, but I still got to tell y'all happy, Happy Thursday.
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I still gotta check in on y'all, like I still got the love on
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y'all everything. So yes, your girl as back as we are closing out
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Black history? Mind, can y'all believe it? We are all? Can
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y'all believe tomorrow is marsh the first? It's almost like we were just telling
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each other everybody Happy New Year. We were just telling everybody Merry Christmas,
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like we were just doing the whole of that. And here we are,
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y'all almost three months into twenty twenty four. But let me say this,
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I hope twenty twenty four has been good to everybody. I hope everything that
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you said you were gonna do, I hope you guys have accomplished. I
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bless y'all. I love y'all, man. But anyway, welcome back again
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to another episode of Black Girl Interrupted. Y'all know who it is? Like
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I don't need to keep telling y'all who I am, because I think by
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now y'all already know. But tonight it's an amazing It's gonna be an amazing
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topic of great conversation and the way that I'm ending it like, y'all gonna
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love this, I promise, because not only are we talking about Lake Lanier,
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but I also want to highlight the top ten greatest moments in Black history.
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And I can't wait till y'all see what I choose for number one.
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Uh, y'all already know hasus There you go, Hey, Sissy, I
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love you. Happy Thursday. I hope you had a great day to day.
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I hope you got your workout in. Don't forget. If you want
2:29
to make me the probably insist you already know the address, you could go
2:31
ahead. It just make me like two three old dozens. I don't know,
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it doesn't matter. I don't care. You could just send mess some
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because I don't have any more problems left. I ate ever last one of
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them. But y'all already know what I do before I get started with any
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episode. Y'all know I have to do my mental health check in. Y'all
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know this today is Thursday. Yesterday, I did exactly what I said I
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was gonna do. I said I was gonna do some wellness Wednesday posts,
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and I did. And I hope that everyone enjoyed my posts from yesterday.
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I want you to know that whatever God has for you, man can't take
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away from you. We are not in competition with everybody because we want everyone
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to win. I promise you that's what we want. But I hope everyone
3:17
is taking care of theirselves, not only mentally but physically emotionally. I really
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hope y'all are taking care of yourselves. I love y'all so much. I
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pray for y'all. Sis, don't be shaking your head at me. Okay,
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I know i'msad dot com because I've eaten I ate three packs of Probably's
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in less than a week. Mind y'all business, Okay, mind your business.
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I've just teased it. But anyway, but y'all again, welcome back
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to another episode of Black Girl Interrupted. Y'all know, before I get started,
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I always have to do my mental health checking. Y'all know, I'm
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always playing something encouraging, inspiring, empowering, uplifting because I want you to
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know that I do care about your mental health. Some one else does just
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know your girl, does? I promise I do. So let's get through
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our mental health check it, not to rush through it, but dropping a
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comments. Let me know how y'all are feeling. Today's Thursday. We are
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one day away from the weekend. I know tomorrow is the first of the
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month. We got bills to pay, but guess what we get to wake
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up tomorrow. It's a lot of people not gonna make the wake up list
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tomorrow. Be blessed. I want you to stop and be thankful for what
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you have. If I could just give y'all, if y'all could just give
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me thirty seconds, I just want to send a prayer. I just want
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y'all to stop and give God all the praise, all the glory, because
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without Him we wouldn't be where we are today. So regardless of again,
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and I'm gonna keep saying this, I don't care what storm you're standing in
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the midst of. It's not gonna rain forever. I promise y'all, it's
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not gonna rain forever. I love you wholeheartedly. I pray I send an
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abundance of peace. Oh, I ask God to calm your weary, he
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hard, and to calm your anxious brain. I pray that whatever it is
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that you're going through, I pray you get through. I pray you grow
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through. Forgive, let go and keep going. Do you hear me?
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I don't care where you are in life. And I'm gonna say this every
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time, and I say this every episode. It's not how your start,
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it's how you finish. So I want to say that to each and every
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person out here. I love you, I pray with you, I walk
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with you. You're not alone in your journey. I promise you. I
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promise you that, and anybody that knows me, y'all know I stand on
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business when I say that. So let's go ahead, let's do our mental
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health check in because I'm excited about tonight's conversation. Like I'm like, when
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I tell you, I don't think y'all really understand how excited I am to
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talk about Lake Lanier in the history. I'm so sorry Oscarville. Let me
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correct that Oscarville and Lake Lanier is the city over Oscarville. I just I
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love it. And then the way I'm gonna end it is beautiful, imperative.
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I'm excited, so on that note. Let's go ahead, let's get
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into this emotional empowering of lifting up a video, and then we're jumping into
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tonight's conversations. So here we go. I love y'all, Happy Thursday.
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We made it, yall, And I want y'all to say, I love
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being black. Okay, I love it. I love it. I love
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it. I promise you we are the blueprint. Ladies and gentlemen, they
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won't us, but here we're going in. We jumping into Tonight's conversation.
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Here we go. Sometimes horrible things happen to good people. Life isn't fair,
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and it can be heart wrenching. And if you're having one of those
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dark days, it's okay. It's okay. It's okay to feel that darkness
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when challenges and issues come back to back to back to back, and it
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seems like something is after me, something is attacking me, something is attacking
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my journey. Look for the lesson in it. All. You will grow
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through what you go through. The question is are you willing to go through
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it? When those bad things happen? What are you going to do?
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Are you gonna let this horrible situation dictate the way you feel? And the
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way you handle it. Are you gonna fall over, fall down, fall
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part or are you going to face this issue with courage and with resolution?
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You know darkness, so embrace. Embrace that darkness, don't look away from
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it. Own it. Step up to the challenge no matter what you face,
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start walking. Take that step every day, no matter what you are
8:43
facing, get up and start walking, and never surrender. And remember that
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even in the most wretched times, when you face darkness yourself, no matter
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matter how bad things get, remember not to stop, remember not to pause,
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remember not to hesitate, Remember to put one foot in front of the
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other. Take that first step. Let's start walking and we will fight.
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And in fighting we will win. And if not the battle, and if
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not the war, we will win because our spirit, it will never surrender.
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And that is the ultimate victory. To hold your head high and even
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in the face of inescapable defeat, to stand and to fight that he is
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to win. Don't alloy yourself for a switch off. But I know there's
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always an answer, no matter how dark that place. Maybe it's always a
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way out. Just gota keep going. Hold on to that fundamental quality a
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faith. Have faith, and on the other side of your pain is something
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good. Oh, I think there was needed tonight. I think like there
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are because there are a lot of people that are in the dark right now.
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But I pray that you come out of the dark and you step into
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the light. I pray that you step into your purpose, because it's we
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go through a transition where we go from the darkened to the light. But
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I want to leave this with you. This is your winning season. I
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don't care what anybody has told you. I don't care what anybody continues to
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tell you. I don't care what they say. You're a winner in my
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eyes, and you keep doing. It's okay to pat yourself. It's okay
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to relax, but don't get lazy. I love y'all. Here we go,
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okay, all right, all right, so y'all drop in a comments,
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let me know how you're feeling. Again. I still do my mental
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health check ins throughout the show. But tonight we are still celebrating black history.
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Yes, I know it's leap here. Today is February twenty ninth,
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But for me, black history doesn't stop. So I think what I'm gonna
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start doing is, you know, throughout the months, each episode, just
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throw in a gem of a hidden figure something about black history. Because I
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don't want us to end black history at the end of February. I want
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us to still continue to learn our history. Read you know, stop depending
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on textbooks in the schools to teach your children their history. It's up to
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us as parents and the eldest to teach our children the real history and not
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that in the textbook. So shout out to everyone. Hey, we are
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so again. We are wrapping it up tonight celebrating Black History Month. But
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tonight I want to talk about Oscarville, and that's the city that's buried under
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Lake Lanier. A Yes, okay, Big Daddy says, I'm eighty five
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percent all across the board. Okay, well, thank you, sweetie.
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I love you. Hope you're having a good night at work. So Oscarville,
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y'all asked, what is that. Some of y'all know the story behind
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Oscarville and how it came to be Lake Lanier. Some of y'all don't know.
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And that's okay because I didn't know. I had heard about Lake Laanir,
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but I didn't know the history. So let's jump into it. So
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Oscarville, h Oscarville is a beautiful city that was in Forsyth County in Georgia,
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not too far from Coming, not too far from Flowery Branch. But
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in nineteen ten, the town of Oscarville had nearly eleven hundred African Americans and
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many of the families owned their own land or businesses. And not only did
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the community support churches and teachers, but they also supported businesses too. So
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we're gonna jump into the history of Oscarville, Man, the lost city.
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Here we go. Did you know that one of the deadliest lakes in America
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sits on top of the ruins of a black town. It's home to one
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of the wealthiest communities in the Atlanta area today, and it's almost entirely white.
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I'm going to tell you the history of this historic black community just outside
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of Metro Atlanta, but i also want you to imagine what it could have
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been. I'm Garrison Hayes and this is Town on Fire, a five part
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series about the history of lost Black economies across America and the lessons they can
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teach us today. Like most race massacres in the early twentieth century, what
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happened in Oscarville, a town in Forsyth County Georgia, started with false accusations
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against black residents with no evidence. In nineteen twelve, Oscarville was a thriving
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black community full of carpenters, blacksmiths, bricklayers, and farmers. According to
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census data, at least fifty eight black families were landowners in this town.
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But in late August of nineteen two twelve, things changed. Eighteen year old
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May Crow, a white resident, was found severely injured in the woods near
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her home on the outskirts of the all black Oscarville community. Crow was in
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a coma four weeks before tragically dying from her injuries. The night of her
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death marked the beginning of the end for Oscarville. Despite there being no witnesses,
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no testimony, and nothing pointing to a black perpetrator, multiple black residents,
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including a twenty four year old farm hand named Robert Edwards, were named
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as suspects and arrested for a crime they insisted they did not commit. A
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white mob would swiftly set fire to this town, destroying black churches, businesses,
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and homes. They'd kidnapped Robert Edwards from the jail, beat him to
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death, and hang him from a telephone pole. In the town square,
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an all white jeurry would quickly convict and hang two black teenage boys in front
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of a crowd of five thousand people. Their names were Ernest Knox and Oscar
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Daniel. In less than a decade, Forsyth County became so hostile that black
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people were forced to flee from the county entirely, grinding the black population in
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just a few years from well over one thousand to zero. Around thirty years
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later, Lake Lanier, named after the Confederate soldier Sidney Lanier, was born,
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built on top of the land that once belonged to Oscarville. The construction
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of this lake has long been seen by some as the final step in destroying
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the remnants of this black town. In fact, as bulldozers and excavators began
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their work, they uncovered the long buried remains of this storied black community.
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Homes, churches, and graves unearthed, revealing a deliberately erased part of history.
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Today, the Lake Lanier community boasts one of the highest median incomes in
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the metro Atlanta area. Over the years, hundreds of people have lost their
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lives here, making Lake Lanier one of the deadliest lakes in America, and
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though the lake draws tens of millions of visitors, earning the region an estimated
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five billion dollars annually, very few of the black land owners from Oscarville were
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compensated for their properties at the time, and none have received justice for the
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wrong they endured since. While the story of Oscarville is distressing, it isn't
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unique. Black communities faced land theft and terrorism exactly like this all throughout the
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twentieth century. The history of violence that black people in black communities have experienced
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wasn't random, It was systematic, It was targeted. It often resulted from
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envy. At the end of the Civil War, black people owned virtually no
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land. By nineteen ten, black people had accumulated over sixteen million acres of
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land. That was the peak of ownership of land for Black Americans. By
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nineteen ninety seven, over ninety percent of that land had been lost. My
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colleagues and I I estimate conservatively that that value of that land that was lost
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is about three hundred and twenty six billion dollars, which means you can't understand
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today's racial wealth gap or the economic state of the black community without understanding events
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exactly like this one, and unfortunately Oscarville isn't the only place this happened.
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This is Town on Fire, a five part series about the history of lost
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black economies and the lessons we can learn from them today. Ooh, three
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hundred and twenty six billion dollars. The fact that y'all are hmm, this
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is what I mean when I say we as black people mad. We are
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some amazing people. One town, eleven hundred African Americans taken away and just
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to kind of feeling a little bit of the gaps with regards to what happened.
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So yes, in nineteen ten, I'm gonna repeat this again, the
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town of Oscarville had nearly eleven hundred African Americans and many other families owned their
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own land or businesses. Let me repeat that part one more time. Eleven
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hundred African Americans and many of the families owned their own land or businesses,
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and the community supported numerous churches. You had teachers, you had blacksmiths,
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bricklayers. We were forced to be wrecking with and due to some false accusations,
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they destroyed a whole town. So in nineteen twelve, when the neighboring
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all white town and Forsyth County. It's separated by the Chattahoochie River ran them
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out, forcing the people of Oscarville to not only sat to sell their land
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for cheat or die. So they only had two options. You either sell
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your land or we're gonna kill you one of the two. And all of
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this started due to a white woman. Eighteen year old white woman by the
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name of Macro, who was brutalized and who eventually passed succumbed to her injuries,
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stated that she was attacked by four black men. Four black men were
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accutes almost like what we see in today's society. Okay, we see black
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men being accused of crimes that they didn't commit. We see black men that
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are sitting behind balls for crimes that they didn't commit. They have zero DNA
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evidence or any evidence for that matter, and you have innocent people that are
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sitting in jis. So what happened to may Crow again, she was found
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raped and murdered on the banks of the Chattahooche River, although she did not
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pass she passed later with little evidence. They arrested four black men, Ernest
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Knotts, Oscar Daniel, Jane Daniel, and Robert Edwards. Four again there
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was no evidence. There was no evidence that connected them and linked them to
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say that they had committed this crime. So they were arrested and basically with
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little evidence, the police arrested for African Americans and after Knocks allegedly confessed after
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being tortured, Edwards was lynched, so they tortured him to get a confession.
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Sounds familiar, right. That sounds like what goes on in today's society.
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Right, sounds like what happened to the young men in New York who
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were coerced into saying that they did the unthinkable to that woman when really,
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in actuality, they didn't. That sounds familiar, correct, That sounds familiar.
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Right. We see this every day with our black men who are accused
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of crimes that they didn't commit, but they still convict even though they had
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no evidence. We still see this again. Let me remind you, slavery
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only ended one hundred and sixty years ago. You heard me, one hundred
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and sixty years ago. So after they tortured Ernest Knos, he allegedly confessed
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and then they killed Robert EPARs. This is what we see. So we
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see history repeating itself. We see this over and over and over again.
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So javert Hey's sister, I love you. She says, we are absolutely
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amazing. She said, no matter what they try and take from us,
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we are still amazing. And she goes on to see, they try and
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make it hard for us now to own a piece of bread. Now look
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at what we owned over one hundred years ago. And that's what I and
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this is why I just got like, I just got chills, because this
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was one of the most amazing stories that I came across, you know,
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because not only am I a black women in America, but to know that
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someone that looked like me owned their own land, they had their own businesses
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in a town that was flourishing, a town that was flourishing. That they
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said, we can't know, we can't allow blacks to have this almost like
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present day right history repeating itself. So I want to us to get out
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of the mind frame of saying that we've never owned anything, and we have.
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We had a whole town, We had a lot of towns that we
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owned. And when I when I go back and I read our history,
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it makes me even more proud to be a black woman, because we are
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nothing short of amazing. Do you hear me, we are nothing short of
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amazing. Hey, Sissa, I love you. Happy Thursday. But they
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torture these men, and so to Edwards again, he was lunched by an
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angry mob before he could even make it to trial. They went to the
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prison and got it in front of five thousand people. So Knox and Daniel
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were both found guilty and they were hung over. Five thousand whites gathered to
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watch the hanging of Knox and Daniel. That goes back to when I just
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had the conversation about buck breaking and how they celebrated breaking the souls and the
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spirits of black men for their own personal gratifications. It's like you see this
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in today's society. And that's why I tell people history has just repeated itself,
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just a different time. These men were coerced into pleading guilty to a
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crime that they know they did not commit. There was no evidence that even
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linked them, okay, And this was the first of many accusations, because
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in nineteen ten there was another accusation of another white woman who said five black
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men broke into her house and raped her. So they had been planning,
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we're gonna take over because we can't allow black people to have this much power,
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this much control, we've gotta take it. And they succeeded. And
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ever since that happened, Lake Lanier has not been safe for people to go
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to because, baby, let me tell you something, the mancestors don't play.
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They keep telling you stay away, but you keep going. So the
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ancestors say, okay, we're gonna show you. They've told y'all stay away
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from Lake Lanier. I love you too, baby. What Oscarville that belonged
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to us, that was ours that they robbed? They violently took it away
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from us. They snatched it from us like what they do now in present
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day. And again, slavery only ended one hundred and sixty years ago,
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over one hundred years ago, was when this happened in Oscarville, over one
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hundred years And you know what they call that. They call that white Washington,
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white Washington. Hey, thus, I love you, baby, thank
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you for tuning in tonight. But they call that a cleansing, a whitewashing,
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that's what they call it. And I'm gonna show you. But I
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first, before I even jump into that, I just want to see we
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can own anything. We can own anything. It's up to us now to
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rewrite history, because although our history is painful, it's powerful. You understand
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what I'm saying, because our history shows us how resilient we are, and
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no matter how many times, oh Lord, no matter how many times you
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try to knock us down, we get up and we keep going, and
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we keep fighting. We keep fighting for what rightfully belongs to us, and
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we're doing it by any means necessary. That's the beautiful thing about our history.
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And I'm not talking about just the textbook. I'm not talking about just
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Martin Luther King and and Rolls a Parks, although they are very they're icons
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and our history. But I want us to give homage and pay tribute and
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love on the ones that paid the way for the Martin Luther Kings, for
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the Rolls of Parts, for the Bessie Coleman's, for the Alexa Cannadys,
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for the Henrietta Elects. I want us to pay homage to those, give
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tribute to the ones that laid the foundation for us. I want to give
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homuch to them. I want I want to give love to them. I
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told y'all this was I'm excited about this episode because that showed the strength that
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we have that the answers instilled in us. They taught us to never give
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up, to keep going, and to fight for what you know is right,
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regardless of how many times the white people try to take it from us.
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I love it. I love it. I am all goodness. I
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am grateful for our history. I'll never ever try to change, but I
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will try and rewrite my stock. I will try to rewrite history for us
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in this new generation. I want us to get back to owning businesses.
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I want us to buy land. I want us to leave legacies for our
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children so they can pass it on to their children, and we keep it
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going the way our ancestors did for us, the way they did for us
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in Oscarville. Because Oscarville was the footprint, that was the blueprint for us
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to say, you're gonna have to take us by force, not choice,
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hmm. But Iscaville. Thank you to the ancestors. Thank you to the
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men, the women, and the children that paved the way for us.
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Y'all, these are not sad tears. These are happy tears because Oscarville showed
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us what we could do. They had a town, y'all, not a
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They had a town eleven hundred people were everyone supported, and that was the
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important part, was the support. And they owned that was theirs, their
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land, their businesses, until the white people say we have to do a
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racial cleanse. Here we go a historical marker on the courthouse square and a
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coming will soon remind people of the nineteen twelve lynching of a black man.
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It was the beginning of a racial cleansing that resulted in the expulsion of more
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than one thousand black residents from Forsyth County. Brendan Key shows you how the
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richest county in Georgia is now facing its racist past. It is hidden in
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a narrow patch of forest between rows of half million dollar homes. Even looking
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straight down, nothing betrays the mystery of what lies beneath. These tombstones are
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all that's left of the old Black Baptist church at Stony Point. Look closely
33:55
at the dates. Why do they all end before nine teen twelve. This
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is not evidence of promises broken, but of loved ones kept away. Because
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the men, women and children buried here were the only black residents of Forsyth
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County, Georgia for nearly all of the twentieth century. All of the Negro
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people had to leave. There was knocking on the door and they were told
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to get out. Elan Osby heard the story directly from her own mother,
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Willie May Bagley just a two year old back in nineteen twelve when the night
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riders came to their home and so many others in Forsyth County. Can you
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imagine the fear that they would have felt. William and Ida Bagley paid taxes
34:45
on sixty acres they owned in nineteen twelve. We could find no record of
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any sale in the county courthouse, except those of white men later selling parcels
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of the Bagley's land to one another. The nineteen tens census showed the bag
35:00
LEAs among one thousand, ninety eight black residents of the county, a tenth
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of the total population. By nineteen twenty, nearly every last one of them
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was gone. There are these long stretches where a decade after decade, that
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black population side County is zero. Historical photos show only white faces after nineteen
35:19
twelve. So what happened that year? Thousands turned out to celebrate the public
35:24
hanging of two black teenagers convicted in a single day by an all white jury
35:30
of raping and murdering a white girl named May Crow. The other black suspect
35:35
had already been lynched right here on the Coming Courthouse Square. The lynching of
35:39
Rob Edwards involved a very large crowd gathering outside the jail, dragging him out
35:45
of the jail, beating him with crowbars, dragging his body around town behind
35:51
a wagon, and then eventually his corpse is poisted on a telegraph poll and
35:58
everyone in the crowd takes turn shooting into his body. Just across from the
36:01
spot where Rob Edwards was lynched, Lady Justice faces history wearing her blindfold,
36:07
but soil from the square has been collected in a jar, and the name
36:12
Rob Edwards will soon join the lynching memorial at the Equal Justice Initiative. The
36:16
Community of Remembrance Project of Forsite County really got this rolling and worked with the
36:21
Equal Justice Initiative. So they're going to put up a marker that will memorialize
36:25
Rob Edwards and tell the story of that lynching. And that's going to be
36:29
on the spot where he was lanched, which is something I never thought I
36:32
would live to see. This with the marker is a first step. There
36:37
are already several hidden markers to the black community that once thrived here now surrounded
36:44
by new neighborhoods that are increasingly diverse. Some of those new residents are buying
36:49
homes here on the land Elon's grandparents once owned the old Bagley Place is now
36:53
among the most valuable real estate in Metro Atlanta. Hmm, you know what,
37:07
Georgia, let me say this to y'all. Thank you, thank you,
37:15
thank you, Georgia. M We are some phenomenal people. We have
37:30
overcome so much and we still continue to fight to this day. But just
37:40
imagine being a two year old child and a mob of people are knocking at
37:45
your door, forcing you out of your home at two years old, you
37:52
and your family, and the way they did Robert Cummings sound familiar. Do
38:06
y'all remember the story in Jasper of James Bird where three white men caught him
38:13
walking home and they chained him to the back of their truck and drug him
38:17
until hm until there was no more left and his body parts were left in
38:31
the street. Sound familiar? History repeated itself. So for those that say
38:45
racism doesn't still exist, yes it does, and we see we see it
38:52
even in present time. We see how they're gentrifying black neighborhoods all across the
39:00
world. So history is not too far off from what they did in Oscarville.
39:09
We still live it. But now it's up to us to add our
39:16
stories. It's time for us to add to the history again. Although our
39:24
history painful, but yet beautiful. No matter how many times they try to
39:34
say black people, black people, they're nothing, they're they're that. Where
39:38
everything we had a whole town, the whole town that y'all snatched from us.
39:53
Land was owned. You had beautiful black business owners flourishing, but all
40:01
destroyed in one day, in one day, eleven hundred people to zero,
40:19
all based on false accusations. But as they call it, whitewashing, the
40:23
racial cleanse is what they called it. Familiar again, a painful past,
40:42
but we have a beautiful history. Beautiful, We were beautiful people were still
40:51
beautiful people, and don't let embody tell you differently about us. History may
41:00
not be our history, but we still continue to make history. And it's
41:06
up to us to get back and own the land. It's time for us
41:15
to build our own schools, grocery stores, churches, rebuild our own communities.
41:24
Let's relive and rebuild another Oscarville we deserve that, we earned that our
41:31
ancestors left us, that they instilled that in us because that's what they wanted,
41:39
that's what they wanted for us. We gotta get back to that again.
41:47
This story here is tragic, a beautiful beginning, but a very tragic,
42:00
devastating ending. And the fact that they're making small steps. Salute to
42:12
you, mister Cumming, thank you, thank you. I'm so sorry that
42:23
they had you on display as a sideshow freak and disrespected your body. The
42:36
fact that they convicted four men with no evidence. They tortured mister Knox until
42:47
they could get a confession out of him. That's what they do now.
42:52
We see it with law enforcement. They went to the jail and they beat
43:02
him, then drug his body, posted him up for display after and shot
43:15
him up, played target practice with his body. Sound familiar. We still
43:27
see this in present day again, and I'm gonna repeat that slavery only ended
43:31
one hundred and sixty years ago. Nineteen twelve is not that far away.
43:43
It's not that far away. What can we do now to add to that
43:51
history. We have to make our own. We have to build leave legacy
44:00
for our children, for the generations to come. Again a beautiful, tragic
44:08
story. The city of Oscarville Rip two, the eleven hundred people that lost
44:21
their lives. Hugs in love to the families of the descendants of Oscarville,
44:35
because they did talk. The relatives of the people that were killed in Oscarville,
44:43
they talked, they spoke, they shared their stories. Hmm, I
44:51
wonder what they had to say. Here we go story only with five point
44:55
thirty. We are taking a closer look at an all blockdown in Georgie,
45:00
you called Oscarville. Yeah, there's been a lot of talk about this on
45:02
social media for the last few years, and if you haven't heard of it,
45:06
it's probably because it no longer exists. It's buried under Lake Lanier eleven.
45:09
A lot of Natasha Gibbons has more. When we started working on this
45:14
story, we set out to track down descendants of Oscarville. Weeks later,
45:17
we found a family who could trace back their roots four generations. They shared
45:22
with us stories that were handed down about what the all black town was like,
45:25
including the night that led to its destruction. It was set on fire
45:30
by night riders after they say a white woman was raped. Then later it
45:34
was covered by the body of water we now know as Lake Lanier. May
45:44
Crow is buried here at this Gainesville cemetery, but the trail of destruction following
45:49
her death stretches into the land surrounding Foresight County, Buried beneath these waves of
45:53
Lake Lanier, where in nineteen twelve, nearly every black resident was forced out.
46:00
That includes people living in an old black town called Oscarville. The community
46:05
was formed in the late eighteen hundreds during the reconstruction era. There was a
46:09
very strong community feeling among the Blacks, about three hundred kids children that went
46:15
to some of the schools that were the black schools, and it was closely
46:21
connected to the churches. Georgia history teacher Lisa Crosby says Oscarville was a thriving
46:25
black community full of carpenters, blacksmiths, and bricklayers, but farming was the
46:30
top trade. So they really had kind of a miraculous farming growth here while
46:36
the rest of the state was really struggling. But then residents were abruptly forced
46:39
off their land. The flashpoint, I think is nineteen twelve. This takes
46:44
us back to the death of may Crow. The nineteen year old white woman
46:47
was found dead in the woods near Oscarville, presumably after being raped. Typically
46:52
the answer to white girls being raped was go to the black community and just
46:58
start blaming people. Fall terror began to rain over Oscarville. So from there
47:05
the rage and hatred in the community. Mobs got together and they were called
47:09
Knight Writers, and they were riding throughout Oscarville and driving out the black community.
47:17
And the night turned deadly. You know, they were waking up by
47:22
fires outside, firebombs thrown in the church. Filmmaker Bob Mackie recaptures those horrific
47:29
nights in an upcoming television series. Anytime anything happened gets where everyone would go
47:35
to the church. Well, they attacked the church. People were hung lynched.
47:40
Mackie series features stories of direct descendants, like George Rugger, who can
47:45
trace his family back for generations to Oscarville. He tells the story of his
47:51
great grandfather, Burt Oliver and the entire family being forced off their land.
47:55
Good Night Writers came through. They had to leave very and the main thing
48:00
they left was property, and my grandfather had one hundred eight Rutgers says.
48:05
Many relatives died as they tried to flee. So when they got to the
48:09
Chatahoochie River. From what I understand, they were told when the mob got
48:15
up on the bridge, they were told that they had to swim round.
48:20
Most of them didn't make it. My grandfather one of them that didn't make
48:24
it. He'd lost some brothers and sisters, he says. His relatives who
48:30
survived settled in Gainesville. From what my mother told me, buried all of
48:35
them. He would sit and tell her this story, and he would just
48:39
sit and cry. Crosby says whites in the area took over the remaining properties.
48:45
She says Oscarville farmers were specifically skilled in raising poultry, which set the
48:50
pace for Gainesville eventually becoming poultry capital of the world. We have a farm
48:54
already going, and you had free land, So Ruger says, his great
49:00
grandfather married his second wife, Beulah, and they built this school that still
49:06
stands in Gainesville today. By the late nineteen fifties, the Buford Dam was
49:09
built and Lake Lanier was formed, covering up Oscarville and swallowing most of its
49:15
history. Many believe Lake Lanier is haunted because of the high number of drownings.
49:20
We spoke to officials who tell us because there is an entire town that
49:23
includes structures and even forest areas with trees that are sixty feet tall and makes
49:29
it more difficult to navigate through and someone can easily become trapped in debris,
49:34
leading them to drowning. We have so much more on this story on our
49:37
website. Now, y'all know that's the ancestors, baby, because they're trying
49:45
to tell y'all stay all behind side of Lake Laneer. That's what's going on.
49:51
That's the ancestors, baby. That's the people telling y'all get out of
49:55
our town. What's our ancestors, y'all? That's them. And to listen
50:05
to him say his grand great grandfather owned a hundred acres. Y'all can't sit
50:14
up here and tell me that we can't get like that again. Y'all can't
50:16
sit up and tell me we can't purchase no land. We can't purchase that
50:22
we can't recreate Oscarville. Do y'all understand the power that we have within us
50:34
in our communities. Do y'all understand that y'all can't tell us that we can't
50:40
we cannot on a town. You can't tell us we can't if we were
50:49
to collectively come together as people, we can own so many things. I
50:59
just really will and this is my hope. As I bring this segment,
51:04
a black girl interrupted to a clothes and I go into the top ten greatest
51:08
moments in Black history. I wish we would get out of the crabs in
51:15
the bucket mentality. I really hate that for us. This is why I
51:23
stress the point and I say, I want us all to win. We
51:30
can do so many amazing things if we could just collectively come together, If
51:37
we could put the competition to the side and unite, it's strengthen numbers.
51:45
You know, so many beautiful things that we could do. So many beautiful
51:51
things that we could accomplish if only we learned how to work together, if
51:54
we learned how to stick together and stop being afraid of someone getting a little
52:01
more than what you had, Because see, Guard made a table big enough
52:07
for everybody to eat at. You get what I'm saying. God wants us
52:12
to like He's given. He's laid out the blueprint, he's laid out exactly
52:21
what he wants us to do, and we keep missing them all. If
52:28
I could go back and recreate Oscarville without the racist white people, I would
52:37
do it. But I can't do it alone. But I know for me,
52:43
I want to leave a legacy for my children. I want to be
52:45
able to say, you know what, I'm leaving my children ten acres each.
52:51
I want to own forty acres. Now, I mean I have to
52:53
have the mule, but I want my acres. I want to leave that
52:59
for my children, and I want my children to leave that for their children,
53:01
and so on and so forth. I want us to continue the legacy
53:06
that the ancestors have laid out for us. They gave us the blueprint.
53:12
We're just too stubborn to see and utilize the tools and the resources that are
53:17
available to us. And we do that because we're afraid to see someone get
53:24
a little more than what we got. I want us all the wind.
53:31
I want all of us to have us seat at the table. I want
53:35
all of us to be able to eat. That's what I want Before I
53:40
leave here, I'm gonna make my ancestors proud. Even if it's one person,
53:47
or ten people, or a hundred people, we could do this,
53:52
y'all. Oscarville, the city buried under Lake Lanier. God bless the citizens,
54:02
the ancestors, Thank y'all, Thank you, for giving us the blueprint.
54:15
Thank you for instilling the strength in us, giving us the tools that
54:25
we need to utilize to recreate what they had for us. Thank you to
54:36
the city I'm so sorry, to the state of Georgia. Thank y'all for
54:40
your beautiful history, although tragic, but beautiful. Thank you, Thank y'all
54:51
for allowing me to in Black history with such a beautiful yet devastating story.
55:00
And I hope when we walk away tonight, we'll go back and we'll look
55:05
at what Oscarville meant to us, even though we don't live in Georgia and
55:08
maybe never lived in Georgia, what Oscarville meant to us as people salute to
55:17
Oscarville, Georgia, I appreciate, all right. So, now as I
55:27
get ready to wrap up and bring this to a close, I wanted to
55:30
end with a beautiful spotlighting some of my top ten greatest moments in Black history.
55:43
I had to do this, and so let me say this. I
55:46
thought hard and struggled with some of the greatest things in Black history, huh,
55:54
and I found some great things. I'm pretty sure y'all are, like
55:59
I hope you enjoyed them. But here we go. So We're going to
56:00
start off with number ten. Number ten is Barack Obama being elected president,
56:08
the first black president in our history. Here's a little backdrop on it,
56:15
and we're going to keep celebrating some of the ten top greatest moments in Black
56:17
history. Here we go. BARACKO. Saint Obama was the forty fourth President
56:22
of the United States of America and the nation's first African American president. Born
56:25
in Honolulu, Hawaii, and raised in the Pacific, Obama first attended Ocidental
56:30
College and as a graduate of Columbia University at Harvard Law School, where he
56:35
was the first African American President of the Harvard Law Review in nineteen ninety one.
56:38
Obama Man Michelle Levon Robinson Well employed as a summer associate a Chicago law
56:45
firm of Sidley Austin. Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois,
56:47
Michelle is a graduate of Princeville University and Harvard Law School. Michelle will going
56:52
to be the Associate Dean of Students at the University of Chicago the Vice president
56:57
for Community and External Affairs of the University of Chicago Medical Center. They were
57:01
married on October third, nineteen ninety two, and have two daughters, Malia
57:06
Anne and Natasha Better Loan as SASA. Barack Obama accepted what was initially a
57:09
two year position as visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law
57:15
School, but went on to teach constitutional law there for more than twelve years.
57:20
In that time, he joined the firm specializing in civil rights litigation and
57:23
neighborhood economic development. Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate in nineteen ninety
57:29
six, re elected in nineteen ninety eight, and in two thousand two.
57:32
In two thousand four, he was elected in an unexpected landside to the US
57:37
Senate, rapidly increasing his stock and visibility in the National Democratic Party. On
57:42
February ten, two thousand seven, about my annalysis candidacy for President of the
57:45
United States in front of the Old State Capitol Building in Springfield, Illinois.
57:50
The rest, as they say, is history. Nine months after his first
57:52
inauguration, he was named the two thousand nine Nobile Peace Prize Laurier. Michelle
57:57
Obama, as First Lady, became a fashion icon, a role model for
58:00
women, and an advocate for poverty awareness, nutrition, physical activity, and
58:05
healthy eating. Michelle Obama Hold is the only two Ivy League degrees amongst first
58:09
ladies. My never's Mark Gwick. This is another black history moment. I
58:17
just want to say. I know a lot of people did not like Barack
58:22
Obama. I know a lot of people didn't respect what he stood for the
58:27
things that he did. But one of the things that Barack Obama did was
58:37
he showed every little black child that you can accomplish and dream and be anything
58:44
that you set your mind to, whether it's a president, whether it's an
58:49
astronaut, whether it's a trash man. Barack Obama showed us that a black
58:55
man can be anything he wants, even President. Salute to you, President
59:01
Obama. Huh. All right, So the next number nine the top greatest
59:10
moment in Black history, black culture, and sports. Here we go from
59:20
Alan Robinson's corn rolls in Muhammad Ali's mouth to Florence Griffin joiners nails and Michael
59:24
jordan sneakers. Black culture's influence on sports has been undeniable. Many have frowned
59:35
upon the idea that African American athletes have had a knack for breaking quote unquote
59:39
tradition. However, when the Burier, the entry to a vast majority of
59:44
sports was a wall held together by racism, segregation, and discrimination. Tradition
59:51
was defined through a lens that lack color. Some still hang on to those
59:53
traditional views of how sports are supposed to be played. But as black athletes
59:59
continue to have a how many presents in so many sports, it's only right
1:00:02
that our culture comes along with it. Alan Iverson introduced braids and tattoos to
1:00:07
the NBA, and they called them a thug hell. They even implemented a
1:00:10
dress code to put a stop on his cultural influence. Today, NBA players
1:00:15
from various backgrounds celebrate their ink and embrace unique hairstyles. They all owe something
1:00:22
to AI. In nineteen sixty five, Homer Jones was responsible for introducing the
1:00:27
world to the touchdown celebration. Over a half century later, and after years
1:00:31
of the NFL trying its best to be the no fun league, the celebration
1:00:35
is an integral part of the game. Ah the celebrations, those so called
1:00:39
unsportsmanlike celebrations Serena william Sewalk, the Icky Shuffle, Deon Sanders, high stepping,
1:00:47
Tiger Woods, fist pump. Shall we go on? In baseball,
1:00:52
Ken Griffy Jr. Epitomized cool in the nineties, and Tim Anderson has brought
1:00:55
that swagger in the two thousands, punctuated by his legend walk off home run.
1:01:00
Michigan's Fab Five were responsible for baggy Schwortz and black socks. Michael Jordan
1:01:07
made the bald head iconic and the sneakers forget about it. If your sport
1:01:13
is bland, rest assured that the black community will give it some much needed
1:01:16
seasoning. Gabby Douglas, Simon Biles, and UCLA gymnast Sophina DeJesus and Nia
1:01:22
Dennis spiced up their floor routines with the implementation of hip hop and R and
1:01:27
B, while the legendary Stewart Scott introduced hip hop catchphrases to the lexicon of
1:01:32
the sporting world. Oh yeah, simply put, black excellence is everywhere,
1:01:37
and if any of this upsets you, it shouldn't, because, whether you
1:01:43
like it or not, Black culture is, in fact American culture. You
1:02:00
heard what they said, baby, we add the flavor to sports. Stop
1:02:05
sleeping on us. I in sports, baby, all right? So number
1:02:10
eight, hold on, wait a minute, hey, content Library, thank
1:02:16
you for tuning in tonight. Good to see you. So let's keep going.
1:02:22
Like I said, these are my top ten greatest moments in Black history.
1:02:28
So I'm gonna move to number eight, and that is the Black Panthers
1:02:34
stop playing with us? Do you hear me when I tell you? Although
1:02:38
our history may not have been beautiful to y'all, but it's absolutely gorgeous to
1:02:45
me. And here we go, the Black Panthers. The Black Panther Party
1:02:52
for Self Defense was founded over fifty years ago in Oakland, California, by
1:02:57
Bobby Still and Hue Hue. The name of the party was chosen by its
1:03:00
founders because a black panther only attacked at the aggressive strikes. First, the
1:03:05
Black Panthers focused on working the inner cities and directed their efforts on self determination,
1:03:10
improving housing conditions, full deployment, education, and ending police brutality.
1:03:15
The party also started a free breakfast program for children, health clinics, and
1:03:20
food banks. In contrast to none violent protests in the Civil Rights movement,
1:03:24
the Black Panthers walked the streets of Oakland armed with guns, which was legal
1:03:30
in California as long as the gun was not cancaled. For the Panthers,
1:03:34
carrying guns was more about empowering the black community and less about violence because of
1:03:38
the police brutality running rampant in their community. The Black Panthers would staying armed
1:03:44
and observed police who pulled over black motorists. However, the guns were viewed
1:03:49
as a threat to law enforcement, leading to the belief that the Black Panthers
1:03:52
were a gain. According to Bobby Seal, the Black Panthers was a political
1:03:58
party concerned with issues and program is not a game. Due to the efforts
1:04:00
of the FBI to eradicate the Black Panther Party, as well as the internal
1:04:05
strife within the organization, the group ceased to exist in nineteen seventies. My
1:04:11
name is Kamar pu and this is your Black History moment. Thank you.
1:04:17
Power to the people, baby. Let me tell you something. See a
1:04:19
lot of people misconstrue the Black Panthers because it was not created for violence.
1:04:25
But they fed the public, they fed the neighborhoods, and they were gonna
1:04:31
do it by enemies necessary. So salute to the Black Panthers. Another great
1:04:39
moment in Black history. So now we move to number seven and I chose
1:04:45
for number seven Black Wall Street. Huh. When I tell y'all, we
1:04:53
can be anything and we can own everything. Okay, So stop letting people
1:04:58
say that we we never owned anything, when really we did. Thank your
1:05:03
Content Library for joining in tonight. I appreciate it. Yes, sir,
1:05:09
thank you, Yes, sir, yes, sir. The accent say he
1:05:12
liked. Thank you for hitting the like button. Thank you, thank you,
1:05:15
thank you. All right, So number seven I chose black Wall Street.
1:05:26
The Greenwood district of Tosa, Oklahoma, was a thriving neighborhood of black
1:05:30
owned grocery stores, theaters, nightclubs, churches, and schools. The schools
1:05:34
were superior to those in every other area of the state, and many of
1:05:39
the homes in Greenwood had indoor plumbing, which was rare for any home to
1:05:45
have in the nineteen twenties. For many formerly enslaved African Americans, all rich
1:05:50
Oklahoma, which became a state in nineteen oh seven, gave them a chance
1:05:56
to a better life and remove themselves from the brutal Southern States. The Frisco
1:06:01
Railroad tracks separated Greenwood, which was known as Little Africa, from the white
1:06:08
part of the town. There were laws that prevented blacks and whites from living
1:06:12
in areas that were seventy five percent of the other race. Allowed segregation to
1:06:16
become an automatic process. African Americans were not allowed to shop in predominantly white
1:06:23
areas, so Greenwood was able to keep money in their community. Greenwood had
1:06:28
two newspapers, the Oklahoma Sun and the Tostal Star, both covered state and
1:06:32
national news as well as politics. The community flourished greatly, but as it
1:06:40
did, so did the hatred as well. Jim Crow laws were being established
1:06:44
and reconstruction had felled. There was a thriving black middle class in Greenwood,
1:06:48
which grew during the oil boom of the nineteen tenths, but that all came
1:06:54
to a grinding halt on May thirty first through June first, n nineteen two,
1:07:00
after it was alleged that a white woman had been assaulted by a black
1:07:04
man. The male residents of Greenwood, many of the veteranies of World War
1:07:10
One, tried to protect their time from a mob of over two thousand white
1:07:14
men. Up to four hundred people were killed in eight hundred injury. In
1:07:17
about sixteen hours, all the businesses in Greenwood, including each hotel, hospital,
1:07:23
doctors' offices, and twelve hundred residencies spanning thirty five city blocks, were
1:07:29
burned to the ground. Businesses were eluded. Nine thousand people left homeless the
1:07:33
Greenwood Massacre, and today's dollars would be equal to thirty million damage. My
1:07:40
name is Carmanpool. In this today's Black History moment, a great Black History
1:07:45
moment. Unfortunately they took Black Wall Street from us. It's not too far
1:07:51
fetched that we can't rebuild and reduce Black Wall Street again. Another great moment
1:07:59
in Black Hi Right, So number six I selected black TV sitcoms. Ugh,
1:08:08
wasn't it a time to be alive with those beautiful black sitcoms? Here
1:08:14
we go for today's Black History moment. We wanted to talk about a favorite
1:08:18
black sitcom and if there's one television show that has been credited with inspiring millions
1:08:24
of African Americans, especially from my generation, to enroll in college, that
1:08:29
show would be A Different World. I attended high school from nineteen eighty nine
1:08:33
to nineteen ninety three. A Different World was on the air for six seasons
1:08:38
beginning September nineteen eighty seven to July nineteen ninety three. It was a spinoff
1:08:44
of one of the most successful television shows in history, The Cosby Show,
1:08:47
starring Lisa Bonet's character Denise Huxtable. Denise would choose to go to her family
1:08:54
alma mater, Hillman College, which was a fictional, historically black college in
1:09:00
Virginia. We were able to tune in and watch some of our favorite characters'
1:09:03
lives unfold as a dealt with campus life and everything that goes with it.
1:09:09
Fabulous Whitley Gilbert portrayed by Jasmine Guy, wanted to become an art buyer.
1:09:14
Dwayne Wayne played by Kadem Hardison, was going to be a computer engineer,
1:09:17
and Kimberly Reese portrayed by Schranell Brown, was studying to be a doctor.
1:09:23
A Different World covers such topics such as date rape, the Persian Gulf War,
1:09:28
race relations, sexism, and the aide epidemic. We were able to
1:09:32
watch this show and learn something new every week. I will personally be forever
1:09:38
grateful to this show. Now. I know that many of you were born
1:09:41
after nineteen ninety three, So if you want to do some binge watching,
1:09:45
all six seasons of a Different World are available on Hulu and Netflix, so
1:09:50
enjoy. My name is Deshauna Gamini and this has been today's Black history moment,
1:10:00
if I may say so myself. I had to agree with everything that
1:10:03
she said, because a different world did show us pregnancy, aids, domestic
1:10:13
violence. Another beautiful black TV moment in Black history. Oh goodness. Number
1:10:21
five the four Little Black Girls. Again, y'all, I am pointing out
1:10:29
some of the ten top greatest moments to meet in Black history. So for
1:10:35
number five I selected four little Black girls. Hmmm, here we go.
1:10:44
Annie mccollins, Cynthia Wesley, Carol Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair. September
1:10:53
fifteenth, nineteen sixty three saw four members of the terrorist organization Flat fifteen six
1:10:58
of dynamite under the steps of the sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama
1:11:02
at ten twenty two am. An anonymous man phoned the church and simply stated
1:11:08
three minutes. Less than one minute later, the bomb exploded as five children
1:11:12
were present in the basement, changing into their choir robs Addie mccollins, Sarah
1:11:16
Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carol Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair. Sarah Collins
1:11:23
Addi major Ander's sister, survived, left with twenty one pieces of glass embedded
1:11:28
in their face and blinded in one eye, along with twenty two others who
1:11:30
were wounded in and around the church, and the years leading up to the
1:11:34
bombing in Birmingham had earned her national reputation as a tense, violent, and
1:11:41
racially segregated city where even tentative racial integration of any form was met with violent
1:11:46
resistance. Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. Kind of Birmingham is probably the most
1:11:51
thoroughly segregated city in the US. Sixteenth Street Baptist was not the first bombing
1:11:57
Birmingham had seen. There were over twenty he won separate explosions at Black churches
1:12:01
and properties in the eight years preceding nineteen sixty three. The Sixteenth Street Baptist
1:12:06
Church bombing made its way into the annals of history due to the loss of
1:12:10
life by Attie May Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carol Robertson and Carol Denise McNair.
1:12:18
The church was a known meeting place for the SCLC, Doctor King Ralph
1:12:23
Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth and the like, making it an obvious target at that
1:12:28
time. History attributes to bombing with contributing to the support and eventual passage of
1:12:32
the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four. May We never forget Adiemy Collins,
1:12:40
Cynthia Wesley, Carol Robertson and Carol Denise l theair. This has been
1:12:46
another Black history moment. Thank you. Although tragedy and pain, that was
1:13:03
the turning point in black history. No, losing those four little beautiful let
1:13:11
me, let me, let me go back. Losing these four beautiful black
1:13:15
girls devastating their deaths became the catalysts for change in Birmingham, Alabama. Another
1:13:29
moment in Black history. Hmm Number four. Shakari Richardson aka the Next Blue
1:13:42
Joe. Here we go, They're away, first time Cam Shelly, I
1:13:48
praise the price deliver. She's got a good star. But what Sharika Jackson,
1:13:54
Sharika Jackson is she just going to do it on the their side,
1:13:59
right to me and they were getting ready from nowhere in lane nine. It's
1:14:04
an incredible performance from Shinkari Richardson. Richardson came through like a rocket in Lamee
1:14:12
nine, her first Global final, and she tastes gold. The iconic five
1:14:17
Types champion was stunned. Richardson needed a better start than she got in the
1:14:24
semis, and she came through in fine style and maybe just maybe being in
1:14:30
Laane nine was the best thing that could have happened to her for that final
1:14:35
ten sixty five, that is outstanding. Lyles took the men's title. Richardson
1:14:45
has Stormed, Stormed to the women's title. Kari Richardson, thank you,
1:15:01
thank you, thank you for showing that no matter how many times they try
1:15:08
to knock you down, you get back up and you keep swinging. And
1:15:12
when you came, you ended with a bang. Girl, another proud woman
1:15:16
in Black history. All right, number three again, y'all, welcome to
1:15:23
another episode of Black Girl interrupted. Right now. I am counting down some
1:15:28
of the ten greatest moments to me in black history. So for number three,
1:15:33
I chose the evolution of black representation in films. What's up? I
1:15:45
never hear that nice you'll get and see. I am not that representation matters,
1:15:55
yo, yo, We hear it all the times, but what does
1:16:00
it really mean or look like? In an ad campaign, Netflix says,
1:16:03
when it comes to black leading actors, directors, writers and producers, they
1:16:08
are representing and it's not a moment, it's a movement. Famous directors Ava
1:16:13
du Vernet and Spike Lee help introduce the streaming services initiative called strong black lead.
1:16:17
We're not a john because there's no one way to be black. It's
1:16:21
a promise to represent black audiences authentically, which hasn't always been Hollywood's priority.
1:16:28
Nanna his misscon you, David All, that's the kitchen I won't need to
1:16:31
buy. Oh, yes, and you is he was blondie, you'd have
1:16:35
a mothful of this. Early pictures of black people in entertainment included criminals,
1:16:41
slaves, nannies, servants, blackface, or just plain ignorance. Ya ye
1:16:51
gang ye. But from the mid nineteen tens to the nineteen thirties, Duke
1:16:57
University says, some film companies had a sort of revelation, if you will.
1:17:01
They dedicated themselves to creating productions with quote all colored casts. They promised
1:17:06
to write positive, diverse roles. After many black people moved from the South
1:17:12
to urban areas, Hollywood seemed to be adjusting to the country's changes. In
1:17:15
fact, what was called the race movie genre only displayed black people in a
1:17:20
positive light, but eventually the idea of black people in those roles was no
1:17:26
longer marketable. Duke says an all black production company failed because of the lack
1:17:30
of commercial appeal to broader aka white audiences. There are a lot of people
1:17:35
who live in your neighborhood who choose not to get on that bus. What
1:17:41
do they choose to do. They choose to go out and sell drugs,
1:17:43
They choose to go out and kill people. They choose to do a lot
1:17:45
of other things, but they choose not to get on that bus. Commercial
1:17:48
appeal, like the infamous White Savior complex teen Vogue defining it is movies that
1:17:54
promote colonialism in a sense because people of color need white people to save them.
1:18:00
They called it Oscar bait, which brings me to my next point.
1:18:02
But I think it sucks that if black people wants Academy awards, we can't
1:18:06
just make movies about anything but slavery. No no, no, no,
1:18:10
no no. We can make any movie we want. We just have to
1:18:13
trick white people into thinking the movie is about slavery. Cue the hashtag Oscar
1:18:18
so White. In twenty sixteen, for the second year in a row,
1:18:21
USA Today reported all twenty actors nominated for a lead or supporting acting Oscar.
1:18:29
Yeah, they were white, and black actors weren't having it. And we
1:18:31
no longer need to ask to be invited anywhere some boycotted the award show and
1:18:39
demand it change. The Academy promised to diversify and race and gender by twenty
1:18:44
twenty. We can't talk about representation without taking a trip to Wakanda. Black
1:18:53
Panther was proof diversity sells. Forbes said it made seven hundred million dollars nationally
1:18:59
more than a billion worldwide. It seems Black Hollywood is hopeful Netflix can represent
1:19:03
for black people, alongside other big dogs in the industry working to do the
1:19:08
same. So let's hope this trend can and will eventually turn into a way
1:19:13
of life. Note and suckers be wong that this is the outcome when you're
1:19:19
messed with full home. I'm all on board for us playing roles outside of
1:19:32
being pimps, drug dealers, and slaves. Ripeter Chadwick Boseman. Thank you
1:19:41
Ryan Coogler for giving us our black superhero again. Another moment in black history.
1:19:49
So now we wind down to the last two greatest moments in black history.
1:19:58
The last two that I selected are of recent times. Wonder what they
1:20:04
are. Number two, Cam Newton. I'm pretty sure everybody sold the video
1:20:12
where Cam was at the seven Old seven O seven and those men tried to
1:20:15
jump Cam Newton, and Cam Newton handled them by hisself. Another great moment
1:20:24
in black history. Here we go Triny this morning. The video appears to
1:20:29
show Cam Newton involved in a fight in Atlanta. Take a look the video
1:20:42
surface yesterday showing the former Panthers quarterback at a youth football tournament. The video
1:20:46
shows Newton being shoved by at least three people, police and security eventually breaking
1:20:51
up the altercation. The event all supposed to help train young athletes in his
1:20:55
hometown of Atlanta. So Newton last played briefly for the Panthers back in twenty
1:20:59
two. He won. He spent eleven seasons with the NFL, split between
1:21:02
Carolina and the New England Patriots. Fellow former quarterback Robert Griffin the third chiming
1:21:08
and saying he's used to being a one man army. So you're Delulu,
1:21:12
delusional if you thought some guy jumping in was gonna phase him. It's unclear
1:21:15
though, what started this altercation. So sad to see though, in a
1:21:19
youth football game. So things we learned, don't mess with Cam Newton.
1:21:23
And now I know what de Lulu. I can add that to the vocabulary.
1:21:29
Sixty five pounds. That's right, especially not at a youth football anyway.
1:21:35
Sold another story. It is, honey, when I see y'all,
1:21:41
when I saw that video, see y'all pick the right one, y'all beat
1:21:45
the wrong one on the right. Be another beautiful moment in blank. He's
1:21:50
the So now we come down to number one. What is the number one
1:21:58
greatest moment mint in Black history? Hmm, I can tell you which one
1:22:06
I picked, And let me tell you this will automatically go down as the
1:22:15
greatest day in Black history. Matter of fact, this needs to be the
1:22:20
new June team. So for number one, it is the Montgomery river boat
1:22:29
brawl. Honey, A lot of y'all remember that. And baby, I
1:22:34
believe the stock and folding chairs went up that day. For those that don't
1:22:42
remember, let me refresh your memory. Here we go. He's the teenager
1:22:47
being held a hero for swimming to the rescue in the midst of that ugly
1:22:51
riverfront brawl. The team leaps off a riverboat after seeing his coworker being beaten
1:23:00
on the docks. The sixteen year old is now being dubbed a real life
1:23:03
aquaman on social media. He is a sensation, the guy that jumped in
1:23:08
the water to help. They're now calling him Jamichael Phelps, Michael Bee.
1:23:13
Philp a family spokesperson, praises him as showcasing courage beyond his years. Video
1:23:18
of the riverfront rumble is being seen around the world, and we're learning more
1:23:23
today about how it all started and Wyatt erupted into a pitch battle with racial
1:23:28
overtones. Passengers on this riverboat we're getting ready to go ashore after an evening
1:23:32
cruise in Montgomery, Alabama. That's the first mate who's gone ashore to remove
1:23:36
a pontoon boat blocking the riverboat's dock. You hear the captain over the PA
1:23:42
system suddenly say, black pontoon boat, move your boat. Christa Owen shot
1:23:47
this video as the first mate tried to persuade a group of men to move
1:23:51
their boat. That's when one knucklehead attacks him and you can see him toss
1:23:57
his hat away as he gets ready to fight back, but within seconds he
1:24:01
is hopelessly outnumbered and is taking a brutal beating. What were you thinking when
1:24:09
all of a sudden you see the first punch being thrown. It was breaking
1:24:12
my heart and all of us of course, now we're like I can't believe
1:24:15
we have to watch this poor man, you know, b be and we
1:24:19
can't do anything about it. He's defenseless. He's defenseless. The riverboat captain
1:24:25
spoke to a local radio station. It was difficult for me sit there in
1:24:28
the wheelhouse watching him being attacked, and the whole time, I'm o the
1:24:30
ba stop stop. Yeah. When the riverboats finally dock, some passengers and
1:24:35
crew get involved and there's a free for all. This woman was thrown into
1:24:41
the water. Look at that guy hitting people over the head with the folding
1:24:45
chair again and again. Oh my god, he's going away until he's finally
1:24:50
overpowered by cops. The fight is angering Mayor Stephen Reid. This is not
1:24:57
indicative of our community at all. Let me tell y'all, I saved the
1:25:10
best for last, because that was absolutely a joy. The stock and fold
1:25:17
and chairs went up, and in that moment, we collectively came together and
1:25:24
saved thy brother. So shout out to the Montgomery Riverboat brawl. But being
1:25:30
number one in the top greatest history moment, in the top greatest moments in
1:25:35
Black history, Oh lord, y'all, we made it. We've made it
1:25:43
down to the end of the show. Now it's time for me to give
1:25:45
y'all my final thoughts and tell y'all what was to come next week for Black
1:25:49
Girl inter Rupted. Huh. I want to see first and foremost, I
1:26:00
love being black. I want to thank my ancestors for giving me the blueprint.
1:26:14
Although our history was not a beautiful one, I mean, I'm so
1:26:19
sorry, was a beautiful one, yet tragic. It's up to us to
1:26:26
keep rewriting history. Be proud of the things that we've done, the accomplishments
1:26:35
that we've made, and the fight that's still in front of us. I
1:26:44
pray that before we leave, that we leave legacies for our children, their
1:26:54
children, and the generations to follow after we're gone. Anything that they've done,
1:27:00
we can do. Whatever we put our mind to, we always follow
1:27:05
through. Never forget the beauty and being a black, a black man,
1:27:13
or a black woman. Never let them tell you your history didn't exist,
1:27:19
because we know it did. And for that, I salute all my ancestors
1:27:27
and the ones before that paved the way to make it possible for me to
1:27:31
sit here to date and share our beautiful history. On that note, Happy
1:27:41
Black History Month, I'd say we had a great month. I say we
1:27:49
did every day's history for us. Every day, it's time for us to
1:27:56
celebrate that. It's time for us to add on to our story. We
1:28:03
can do anything instead our minds to as long as we stick to it.
1:28:11
Thank y'all for tuning in. So what is to come for Black Girl Interrupted?
1:28:16
Well, for the month of March, I'll be discussing grief. How
1:28:24
do we deal with it? How do we deal with losing a mother?
1:28:29
How do we deal with losing a father, a brother or sister, a
1:28:32
child, a spouse. And then of course I'll be bringing updates for several
1:28:41
cases. But for the month of March, we'll be discussing grief. How
1:28:45
do we deal with that? We'll talk about that, we'll get into it.
1:28:51
But I just want to say thank y'all so much for tuning in to
1:28:54
another episode of Black Girl Interrupted. Muse, Thank y'all for allowing me to
1:29:01
tap in with y'all every week, bring in y'all beautiful stories. I appreciate
1:29:08
the continued love and the support that y'all show me each and every day that
1:29:12
I show up, and I'm gonna keep showing up regardless of how many people
1:29:16
show up for me. I'm gonna keep showing up for me. But on
1:29:20
that note, I want to say I love y'all. Happy Thursday. Don't
1:29:25
forget to like, share, subscribe to Black Girl Interrupted. I'm live every
1:29:31
Tuesday, Every Thursday, eight thirty pm Central Time, nine thirty Eastern time.
1:29:38
Huh. I stream live to Facebook as well as to YouTube, and
1:29:43
if you like the audio, you can check me out on all the streaming
1:29:46
platforms that are available. Don't forget to like, comments, share, and
1:29:49
subscribe. If you ever want to collab with Black Girl Interrupted, let me
1:29:55
post the email address. Please send me an email to a black Girl rupt
1:30:00
a podcast at gmail dot com. If you ever want to collaborate, if
1:30:02
there's ever a conversation or a topic that you want to see me discuss on
1:30:06
the show, sho'll be an email. Then we can get together. We
1:30:10
could talk about it, and we can bring your story to life right here
1:30:13
on Black Girl Interrupted. So on that note, again, Happy Thursday.
1:30:19
I hope everyone has a great, safe and beautiful weekend. I look forward
1:30:25
to seeing y'all next week. Again, next Tuesday, we're jumping into grief.
1:30:30
That's what we're gonna be discussing. So on that note, I love
1:30:34
y'all have a good weekend. See you later, Bo.