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THE BLACK HISTORY ISSUE
www.beutifulmagazine.com
u u honoring black history First of all, welcome to our FIRST mini-mag! Black History Month has inspired us so. This was the first year that Beutiful decided to do a special and we really dug in. We busied
ourselves with documentaries, looking up the bios and quotes of
the most awe-inspiring leaders and created artwork in tribute. The
Black Power Movement was so important to our history and although racism unfortunately still exists, we’ve become a much more unified nation because of those who fought for equality. They demanded
more of our society. Their brilliance is the reason why our world today is so diverse and beautiful.
I sincerely hope you enjoy this issue!
Questions / Comments? Feel free to email us at info@beutifulmagazine.com! P.S. The images in this issue are not our own unless otherwise specified.
the chics behind beutiful PATRICIA
From New York, living in Philadelphia. Educational background in graphic design. Passionate about making a difference.
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LAUREN
Resides on Long Island, New York. Bachelor degree in graphic design. Loves being a part of the Beutiful movement.
WHAT’S IN THIS ISSUE? The top 10 most influential black american leaders Films you should see Things worth reading and watching Our image tribute Info about Beutiful / Advertising / How you can get involved
“Unless man is committed to the belief that all mankind are his brothers, then he labors in vain and hypocritically in the vineyards of equality.� - Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
check out our top 20!
the top 10
MOST INFLUENTIAL BLACK AMERICAN LEADERS 10. ella baker
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Ella, a civil rights and human rights activist beginning in the 1930s, spanned her career over five decades. She worked alongside some of the most famous civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King, Jr. She also mentored such civil rights stalwarts as Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, Rosa Parks and Bob Moses. Ella advocated for widespread, local action as a means of change. Her emphasis on a grass roots approach to the struggle for equal rights influenced the success of the modern Civil Rights Movement.
9. ida b. wells-barnett
8. rosa parks
Ida was a journalist, newspaper editor and, with her husband, newspaper owner Ferdinand L. Barnett, an early leader in the civil rights movement. She documented lynching in the United States, showing how it was often a way to control or CLICK FOR MORE punish blacks who competed with whites. She was active in the women’s rights and the women’s suffrage movement, establishing several notable women’s organizations.
Rosa was a civil rights activist. On December 1, 1955, Parks refused to obey a bus driver’s order to give up her seat to a white passenger. She was arrested for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws. CLICK FOR MORE Parks’ act of defiance and the Montgomery Bus Boycott became important symbols of the modern Civil Rights Movement. She became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation.
7. harriet tubman
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Harriet was an abolitionist, humanitarian and Union spy during the American Civil War. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made more than thirteen missions to rescue over 70 slaves using a network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She later helped John Brown recruit men for his raid on Harpers Ferry, and in the post-war era struggled for women’s suffrage. When the American Civil War began, Tubman worked for the Union Army, first as a cook and nurse, and then as an armed scout and spy. The first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, she guided the Combahee River Raid, liberating more than 700 slaves in South Carolina. SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA
THE TOP 10 MOST INFLUENTIAL BLACK AMERICAN LEADERS
6. frederick douglass
5. malcolm x
Frederick was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing. He stood CLICK FOR MORE as a living counter-example to slaveholders’ arguments that slaves did not have the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens.
Born Malcolm Little, Malcolm X was a Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. CLICK FOR MORE Detractors accused him of preaching racism, black supremacy, and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.
4. thurgood marshall
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Thurgood was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the Court’s 96th justice and its first African American justice. Before becoming a judge, Marshall was a lawyer who was best known for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v. Board of Education. He served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit after being appointed by President John F. Kennedy and then served as the Solicitor General after being appointed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. President Johnson nominated him to the United States Supreme Court in 1967.
3. w.e.b. du bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was a sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author and editor. He was the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard, and became a professor at Atlanta University. Du Bois CLICK FOR MORE was one of the cofounders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.
2. barack obama Barack is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. In May 2012, he became the first sitting U.S. President to publicly support allowing same-sex couples to legally marry. CLICK FOR MORE
1. martin luther king, jr.
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Martin Luther King, Jr. was a clergyman, activist, and leader in the African American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience. King has become a national icon in the history of American progressivism. On October 14, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence. In 1965, he and the SCLC helped to organize the Selma to Montgomery marches and the following year, he took the movement north to Chicago. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. His death was followed by riots in many U.S. cities. SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA
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Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SPEECH
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ARTWORK CREATED BY LAUREN JOHNSON: WWW.LAURENJOHNSONDESIGNS.COM
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“If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life.� - Marcus Garvey
“No greater injury can be done to any youth than to let him feel that because he belongs to this or that race he will be advanced in life regardless of his own merits or efforts.” - Booker T. Washington “A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess.” - A. Philip Randolph
“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.” - Rosa Parks
FILMS YOU SHOULD SEE the black power mixtape 1967-1975
national geographic: the human family tree
The Black Power Mixtape, directed by Gรถran Hugo Olsson is an amazing film made possible by the discovery of 16mm footage that was collecting dust in the cellar of production company Swedish Television for 30 years. The Black Power Mixtape examines the CLICK FOR MORE evolution of the Black Power Movement in the black community from 1967 to 1975 and includes contemporary audio interviews from leading African American artists, activists, musicians and scholars. At its heart, The Black Power Mixtape is a story about empowerment. It is a story of defiance and pride, but also a tale of defeat, frustration and terrible destruction, taking the audience on a journey through the pressing issues of concern then (failing public schools, drug addiction, record levels of incarceration, extreme poverty, lack of government accountability and the pervasiveness of structural racism) while at the same time organically provoking deep questions about where Americans find themselves and the country today.
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This 90-minute National Geographic film starts on a single day in Queens, NY - one of the most diverse corners of the world. With the DNA of just a couple of hundred random people, the National Geographic Channel sets out to trace the ancestral footsteps of all humanity as part of its five year long Genographic Project (2005-2010).
The DNA samples are used to demonstrate how these New Yorkers share common ancestries despite their assorted heritages: Puerto Rican, Irish, Turkish, African, Indian, Thai, Korean and so on. Narrated by Kevin Bacon, The Human Family Tree demonstrates how we all share common ancestors who embarked on very different journeys. The findings show that regardless of race, nationality or religion, all of us can trace our ancient origin back to the cradle of humanity, East Africa. This claim is supported by the research of Spencer Wells and his colleagues, and the DNA of over 350,000 people.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” - Martin Luther King, Jr. “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” - James A. Baldwin
“It’s better to get smart than to get mad. I try not to get so insulted that I will not take advantage of an opportunity to persuade people to change their minds.” - John H. Johnson
“I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.” - Harriet Tubman
“I think the importance of doing activist work is precisely because it allows you to give back and to consider yourself not as a single individual who may have achieved whatever but to be a part of an ongoing historical movement.” - Angela Davis
“The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.” - W.E.B. Du Bois
A black man rides a bus restricted to whites only in an act of resistance to South Africa’s apartheid policies in Durban, South Africa 1986.
THINGS WORTH READING 28 common racist attitudes and behaviors CLICK TO DOWNLOAD
St. Cloud State University’s Office of Equity and Affirmative Action created a 28 Common Racist Attitudes and Behaviors Guide in 2005 - and it’s still so relevant! Here are a few great points taken from the guide. Many of the points on this list are phrases and attitudes we hear and use every day without even realizing that they are racist!
earliest african american writer poem discovered by student CLICK FOR MORE
Firsthand accounts of American slavery are certainly a limited treasure. Any opportunity to read a description of what being subjected to the institution was like is not only hard to come by, but also a gem of African American history. That’s why a University of Texas at Arlington student was so delighted when she discovered one of the earliest poems (1786) by Jupiter Hammon, the country’s first published black writer.
why i, an asian man, fight anti-black racism CLICK FOR MORE
Scot Nakagawa talks about why he is so passionate about anti-black racism. “There is something like a binary in that white people exist on one side of these dynamics - the side with force and intention. The way they mostly assert that force and intention is through the fulcrum of anti-black racism. There’s no hierarchy of oppressions where race is concerned, but anti-black racism is the fulcrum of white supremacy.”
anti-racism ads draw mixed reactions
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“Racism: Ignore it…and it won’t go away.” That’s the headline of The Unfair Campaign’s website, a campaign beginning in Duluth, Minnesota that was developed to look at racism and to encourage a community dialogue about the causes and solutions. The town is 85% Caucasian and the campaign’s mission is to raise awareness about white privilege in the community, provide resources for understanding and action, and facilitate dialogue and partnership that result in a fundamental, systemic change towards racial justice.
AND WATCHING CLICK TO WATCH!
CLICK TO WATCH!
anti-racism ad
how hair matters
A controversial United Nations advertisement addressing racism.
Melissa Harris-Perry features a roundtable discussion about the politics of African American hair.
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Interviewer: How are we going to stop racism? Morgan Freeman: Stop talking about it.
morgan freeman on how to stop racism
WORTH DISCUSSING: What do you think about Morgan Freeman’s statement? Do you think not acknowledging racism is the way to end racism? Let us know!
“A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.� - Malcolm X
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ARTWORK CREATED BY LAUREN JOHNSON: WWW.LAURENJOHNSONDESIGNS.COM
The 1968 Olympics Black Power salute was a protest made by the African American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos during their medal ceremony at the 1968 Olympic Games in the Olympic Stadium, Mexico City, Mexico. On the morning of October 16th, U.S. athlete Tommie Smith won the 200 metre race with a world-record time of 19.83 seconds. Australia’s Peter Norman finished second with a time of 20.06 seconds, and the U.S.A’s John Carlos won third place with a time of 20.10 seconds. After the race was completed, the three went to the podium for their medals to be presented. The two U.S. athletes received their medals shoeless, but wearing black socks, to represent black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride, Carlos had his tracksuit top unzipped to show solidarity with all blue collar workers in the U.S. and wore a necklace of beads which he described “were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed and that no one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage.” All three athletes wore Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) badges after Norman, a critic of Australia’s White Australia Policy, expressed empathy with their ideals. When “The Star-Spangled Banner” played, Smith and Carlos delivered the salute with heads bowed, a gesture which became front page news around the world. As they left the podium they were booed by the crowd. Smith later said, “If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight.” SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA
OUR IMAGE TRIBUTE use the “+” to share the image on facebook!
All artwork was created by Lauren Johnson (www.laurenjohnsondesigns.com) and Patricia Colli.
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ARTWORK CREATED BY LAUREN JOHNSON: WWW.LAURENJOHNSONDESIGNS.COM
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African-Brazilian soccer player PelĂŠ and British captain Bobby Moore trade jerseys in 1970 as a sign of mutual respect during a World Cup that had been marred by racism.
“I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.” - Booker T. Washington
“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.” - Frederick Douglass
“There is one thing you have got to learn about our movement. Three people are better than no people.” - Fannie Lou Hamer
“Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy, sweat will get you change.” - Jesse Jackson
Stokely Carmichael, a black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement
“Now we maintain that we cannot afford to be concerned about 6% of the children in this country, black children, who you allow to come in to white schools. We have 94% who still live in shacks. We are going to be concerned about those 94%.” - Stokely Carmichael
“I knew that I could vote and that that wasn’t a privilege, it was my right. Every time I tried I was shot, killed or jailed, beaten or economically deprived.” - Stokely Carmichael
“No one can possibly know what is about to happen: It is happening, each time, for the first time, for the only time.” - James A. Baldwin who we are It’s time to undefine ourselves. Time to embrace the unique, individual beauty of being a raw, evolving human unwilling to “fit” into a society-imposed box.
Come out of hiding. Stop trying to collect material items, airbrush reality away, and hide behind a mask. Open up to limitless equality, acceptance, peace and vitality
by learning to appreciate who you are and the life you live. Our goal is to help you forget what perfection looks like…until you can just Be U.
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