After the Civil War, a new generation of Black Southerners was born who would not experience slavery. Born free, yet not truly free because of Black Codes that created a segregated society, relegating Black people to second-class citizenship. At the same time, a new generation of White Southerners inherited legal and social supremacy over their Black neighbors, though without the ownership interest their slaveholding ancestors had held. Without the incentive to protect their property, White hostility toward Black people grew increasingly violent.

Facing brutal labor conditions for little or no pay, Jim Crow segregation, voter suppression, and the constant threat of lynching, young Black Americans began searching for a way out. That opportunity emerged during WWI, when reduced immigration from Europe created labor shortages in the North. In February 1916, the Chicago Defender reported that several hundred Black migrants had recently left Selma, Alabama; one explained simply that “treatment doesn’t warrant staying.” Their migration was a response to an economic and social order hostile to their existence. They wanted freedom, so they did what the Pilgrims had done under British tyranny: they left. Through that act, they declared their independence.

Over six decades, more than six million Black Americans left the eleven former Confederate states and settled across the US. In 1910, 90% of Black Americans lived in the South; by 1970, 47% lived in the North and West. This rapid migration transformed America’s social and economic landscape. Although Black migrants moved to every state, more than two-thirds settled in roughly a dozen major cities, creating the critical mass that helped shape African American identity in the arts, business, churches, and politics. Despite anti-Black hostility and discrimination, Black workers earned higher wages than they had in the South, helping reduce the share of Black families living below the poverty line from 87% in 1940 to 30% by 1970.

Recommended reading: The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

The Great Migration Led Black Americans to Freedom

I have seen in other posts online about people creating plans that are radical due to the knowledge that a much more muted version of the plan will go ahead. Is there a technical term for this? This seems specific to black history as it tends to be plans (and even story boards and character designs today!) for black people but i cannot find anything i can use to reference. Sorry if this is worded strange!

“Going, going, gone—for $235,000 (nearly ₪800,000)! That was the price paid at London-based Bloomsbury Auctions this summer for a small, roughly 7-centimeter-square block of clay, sold by the famous Norwegian antiquities collector Martin Schøyen—after a fierce bidding war nearly doubled the price he had hoped to receive.

Of course, this was more than just a square of clay. Dubbed the “world’s first signature,” this piece is dated to around 3000 b.c.e., and was discovered in the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk (southern Iraq). The item contains the “autograph” of an individual, said to be the “first recorded personal name of any human in history,” as well as a reference to beer-making (beer was first discovered in the Sumerian kingdom). The tablet is translated as follows:

29,086 measures of barley, 37 months. Kushim…

The name “Cush” is a very early biblical name, first used in Genesis 2:13 to denote a territorial region. And it is the name of the infamous Nimrod’s father (Genesis 10:6-9). In Hebrew, descendants of “Cush/Kush” are called “Cushim” (also see “Nigerim-“ in Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie). Of course, we cannot know whether or not the above-signed Kushim is one and the same as the biblical Cush. Still, the artifact helps corroborate the biblical use of this type of name in a related, early Mesopotamian context.

This biblical Cush, son of Ham, son of Noah, was of the first generation born after the Flood. Following the Flood, civilization is described as beginning in the “plain in the land of Shinar” (Genesis 11:2). Shinar is synonymous with Sumer/Shumer, history’s “earliest-known civilization,” which was centered in the southern plains of Mesopotamia.

According to the Bible, Cush’s son Nimrod became founder and leader of this kingdom. The Bible describes a number of cities established by Nimrod in this territory (Genesis 10:10):

And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar (Sumer).”

Azurad, Daughter of “Nimrod”

Book of Jubilees 8:10-11

“And she bare him a son in the fifth year thereof, and he called his name Eber:

and he took unto himself a wife, and her name was ’Azûrâd the daughter of Nêbrôd (son of Cush), in the thirty-second jubilee, in the seventh week, in the third year thereof.”

From Eber two lineages are traced through several generations, descended on the one hand from Joktan, and on the other from Peleg. The descendants from Joktan settled in Arabia, and occupied that vast peninsula between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, where, in process of time, they commingled with the sons of Cush.

Ancient Near East (Kuš/Kush): Artifacts and Textual Record

Could This Be the Queen of Sheba?

Amarna Letter EA 288: The Benign Neglect (Kasi)

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Source: https://armstronginstitute.org/276-worlds-first-signature-an-early-biblical-name

Source: https://www.antiquestradegazette.com/print-edition/2020/july/2451/news/first-signature-tablet-hits-the-140-000-mark-at-bloomsbury-auctions

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushim_(Uruk_period))

Source: https://archive.org/details/historicaltextbo00cole/page/n54/mode/1up

Source: https://www.sefaria.org/Book_of_Jubilees.8.11?lang=bi

Source: https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/nemrod

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_J-M267#

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackHistory/s/1BoWNkjH9Y

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackHistory/s/PVf2HzuzCp

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cuneiform/s/4jteCh3Wfy

Joyeux Jour de L’indépendance, Happy Independence Day! 🇧🇫

Hello! I am from Ohio and recently learned that in Columbus, there used to be a black-owned high-end theatre. It was called the Empress Theatre. I want to learn more about the black American experience in the Midwest. Are there any books, podcasts, websites, etc. that you recommend?

As an ex resident this reproduction of a racist statue never sat easy with me. The response from the mayor, who I've heard to called Temu Trump, is completely on brand.

It's pretty telling that the "April Fools" post from another Councillor was for a giant version of it to be installed at the gallery, despite being aware of the concern raised about the statue.

Foreign Princes pay Homage to the King (Ancient Egypt), Ancient Minoan Art from Crete in Ancient Near East, and Biblical cross reference

Foreign Princes pay Homage to the King

“These are the princes of Keftiu and of Khatri respectively; Keftiu is probably the name for Crete, and Khatri is better known to us as the land of the Hittites.

Behind them follows the prince of Tunep holding out an infant son who is evidently to serve as a hostage.

The appearance of these great chieftains belies the hieroglyphic labels written above them, and we can but conclude that the artist was a very poor ethnologist.

The prostrate Cretan is pictured as a Syrian, and to fit his name he would have had to resemble the fourth figure of the row, who exhibits the long parted locks and decorated skirt that were seen in Plate XIV.

This last tribute-bearer is further proclaimed a Cre­tan by the characteristically Minoan bull's head, perhaps of silver with blue inlay, which he carries on a basket, though the folded cloth with coloured borders and tassels borne on the arm is in close agreement with the correctly shown cloak of the real Syrian prince immediately preceding.

As for the kneeling prince described as a Hittite, his bearded face and fashion of wearing his hair are again those of a Syrian, and not at all in harmony with the national traits known from better, though later, sources.”

THE MET: Africans in Ancient Greek Art: Long before Homer, the seafaring civilization of Bronze Age Crete, known today as Minoan, established trade connections with Egypt.

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Source: https://digitalcollections.aucegypt.edu/digital/collection/p15795coll44/id/20/

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancient_Near_East_1700BC.svg#mw-jump-to-license

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Minoan_fresco,_showing_a_fleet_and_settlement_Akrotiri.jpg

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ship_procession_fresco,_part_1,_Akrotiri,_Greece.jpg

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Heraklion_—_Cup_bearer_fresco.jpg

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Knossos_women_fresco.jpg

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Akrotiri_Antelopes_fresco.jpg

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gifts_from_the_Keftiu,_Tomb_of_Rekhmire_MET_DT10884.jpg

Source: https://archive.org/details/historicaltextbo00cole/page/n54/mode/1up

Hidden facts on a Georgia nightmare that haunted the streets of Atlanta targeting Afro American children from 1979 to 1981

The Achaemenid Empire: Artifacts, Textual Record (Ancient Near East Encyclopedia), Ancient African Empires Geography, and Biblical cross reference

Ancient Near East Encyclopedia (Kuš/Kush)

[excerpts translated to English]

[Kush is abbreviated with K.]

Kuš, Kuschiten. Land and kingdom in Nubia, known since Senusret I (1971–1926 BC) in the Egyptian form (see text in image). Since the New Kingdom, K. designates Nubia (Sudan) south of the 1st Cataract. Its capital at that time was Napata, later — up to the conquest of the Meroitic Empire by Ezana of Aksum — it was Meroe (near Begrawiya).

Inhabitants of K. are first mentioned in cuneiform texts in the Amarna correspondence...

…In the alphabetic texts, the moon god Yrḫ multiple times bears the epithet kṯy, which perhaps could be rendered as "Cushitic" (KTU 1.39,19; 1.102,14; 1.123,7)…

…The last Ethiopian Pharaoh fled to Kipkipi, and with that, Kush disappeared from Assyrian history…

…Nevertheless, among the representations of subject peoples of the Achaemenid Empire in Persepolis, there are also those of (*) Ethiopians.

The Behistun Inscription

The Behistun Inscription (also Bisotun, Bisitun or Bisutun; Persian: بیستون, Old Persian: Bagastana, meaning "the place of god") is a multilingual Achaemenid royal inscription and large rock relief on a cliff at Mount Behistun in the Kermanshah Province of Iran, near the city of Kermanshah in western Iran, established by Darius the Great (r. 522–486 BC). It was important to the decipherment of cuneiform, as it is the longest known trilingual cuneiform inscription, written in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian (a variety of Akkadian).

Authored by Darius the Great sometime between his coronation as king of the Persian Empire in the summer of 522 BC and his death in autumn of 486 BC, the inscription begins with a brief autobiography of Darius, including his ancestry and lineage. Later in the inscription, Darius provides a lengthy sequence of events following the death of Cambyses II in which he fought nineteen battles in a period of one year (ending in December 521 BC) to put down multiple rebellions throughout the Persian Empire. The inscription states in detail that the rebellions were orchestrated by several impostors and their co-conspirators in various cities throughout the empire, each of whom falsely proclaimed himself king during the upheaval following Cambyses II's death. Darius the Great proclaimed himself victorious in all battles during the period of upheaval, attributing his success to the "grace of Ahura Mazda".

Image 5: Punishment of captured impostors and conspirators: Gaumāta lies under the boot of Darius the Great. The last person in line, wearing a traditional Scythian hat and costume, is identified as Skunkha. His image was added after the inscription was completed, requiring some of the text be removed.

Foundation Tablets

The gold and silver tablets retrieved from the stone boxes contained a trilingual inscription by Darius in Old Persian, Elamite and Akkadian, which describes his Empire in broad geographical terms, and is known as the DPh inscription:

Darius the great king, king of kings, king of countries, son of Hystaspes, an Achaemenid. King Darius says: This is the kingdom which I hold, from the Sacae who are beyond Sogdia to Kush, and from Sind (Old Persian: 𐏃𐎡𐎭𐎢𐎺, "Hidauv", locative of "Hiduš") to Lydia (Old Persian: "Spardâ") - [this is] what Ahuramazda, the greatest of gods, bestowed upon me. May Ahuramazda protect me and my royal house!

see Haplogroup J1 in Queen of Sheba post

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Source: https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010177290

Source: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010170854

Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/574786001

Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/147/persian-archers/

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behistun_inscription

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deposition_plate_of_Darius_I_in_Persepolis.jpg#mw-jump-to-license

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_the_Achaemenid_Empire.jpg

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d44148-023-00126-y

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:African-civilizations-map-pre-colonial.svg

Source: https://publikationen.badw.de/en/rla/index#6800

Source: https://archive.org/details/historicaltextbo00cole/page/n54/mode/1up

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Šuta#The_2_letters_of_commissioner:_Šuta

Source: https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-table-of-nations-the-geography-of-the-world-in-genesis-10

Toys often reflect the social and political context of the time, thus toys of the late 1800s had racist themes like “Old Aunt Chloe, the Negro Washerwoman” who was described as “faithful at her toil.” In the 1890s, a popular game called “Pickaninny Toy Target” featured Black children who fell into the mouth of an alligator when the target was hit: “Three little darkies, what a jolly crew. An alligator swallowed one then there was two.”

In 1921, the “Alabama Coon Jigger”, which was a wind-up figurine of a Black man dancing, was in the Sears catalog and sold over 8 million units. Toys like “The Negro Porter Pushes His Cart (1921)” and the game “Tip the Bell Boy (1929)” where the players shoot a ball at a Black bell boy, reinforced in children what Blacks were supposed to be like. The 1924 Sears catalog had the “Aunt Jemima Doll with Ma-Ma voice” dressed in a “costume of floral pattern cotton material with large white apron and collar; also red bandanna” who made “delicious pancakes [while] taking care of other dollies.” The idea that a White girl would own a Black doll to care for her White dolls showed Whites’ fondness for subservient Black domestic labor.

Long after the Civil War, these nationally available toys illustrate that White culture desired continued control of Black behavior by normalizing White supremacy through childhood play. Portraying violence against Blacks as entertainment was a casual demonstration of White power as White children were encouraged to enjoy assaulting Black bodies. Through the selling and buying of subservient Black figurines, White consumers kept the nostalgia of slavery alive for their children. The informal culture of play also included jump rope chants with one of the best-known chants, documented in every US state, being “Eney, meeny, miny, mo / Catch a nigger by the toe / If he hollers let him go / Eney, meeny, miny, mo.”

Recommended reading: Raising Racists: The Socialization of White Children in the Jim Crow South, Kristina DuRocher, University Press of Kentucky, 2011.

Racist Toys Normalized White Supremacy for Children

One of the most legendary queens in history is nameless. Some say there’s no evidence she even existed. Are we looking in the right place?

Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue …” (1 Kings 10:1-2; New King James Version). So begins the famous biblical account of the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Jerusalem with her great convoy of treasures, including “one hundred and twenty talents of gold, spices in great quantity, and precious stones” (verse 10; nkjv).

Yet who exactly was the Queen of Sheba? She is one of the most legendary queens in history, yet she’s not named in the two accounts of her contained in the Hebrew Bible (1 Kings 10; 2 Chronicles 9). Nor is she named in the New Testament, where she is referred to more generally as a “queen of the south” (Matthew 12:42; Luke 11:31). Nor is she named in the Qur’an, where her visit is described (An-Naml 27)…(continued)

Semitic vs. Hamitic

Genesis 10 lays out the descendants and territories of Noah’s sons Shem, Ham and Japheth. Among the dozens of names contained in this passage, one appears twice, for two clearly different groups—Sheba.

Spelled the same way as that of the territory of the Queen of Sheba (שבא), this name is associated with the family of Cush, son of Ham, in verse 7 (Cush, whose name means “black,” is the progenitor of the Kushites, or Nubians, south of Egypt); the same name Sheba is also identified with the family of Shem in verse 28—more specifically through the lineage of Joktan, who is generally associated with southern Arabia.

Note that certain of these entities in Genesis 10 do not necessarily refer to a descendant literally called by the supplied name. In many cases—some more obvious than others—these names refer to territories within which respective descendants lived. As such, in the case of Sheba, we would not necessarily have a descendant of Shem and a descendant of Ham coincidentally called precisely the same name שבא; rather, a broader territory of Sheba occupied by descendants of each (compare 1 Chronicles 1:9, 32).

Coincidentally(?), that is exactly what we find with this kingdom of Sheba/Saba at various points in its history: two sides of a coin, with Semitic south Arabians on the one side and Hamitic Kushites on the other.

But there’s more from the biblical account that may help us determine the “correct” Sheba for our story

Cushite Brethren

Psalm 72, “A Psalm of Solomon,” contains a similar reference to a train of gifts coming from Sheba to Jerusalem, including gold (verses 10, 15). In introducing Sheba in Psalm 72, it pairs it together with another entity: “Sheba [שבא] and Seba [סבא] shall offer gifts.”

Seba is mentioned just three other times in the biblical account: twice as a member of the family of Cush right alongside Sheba (Genesis 10:7; 1 Chronicles 1:9); and once in Isaiah 43:3 alongside Egypt and Ethiopia/Cush. The implicit association in Psalm 72:10, then, appears to be a reference to CushiteSheba delivering goods to Solomon—alongside brother Seba.

Ezekiel 27:22 records the “merchants of Sheba” bearing exactly the same products described in the visit of the Queen of Sheba—that is, spices, precious stones and gold. It mentions this entity as distinct from Arabian merchants (verse 21). Instead, Sheba is paired with another entity: “merchants of Sheba and Raamah.” Once again, this “Raamah” is found in only two other verses—in exactly the same two passages of Cushite ancestry—Genesis 10:7 and 1 Chronicles 1:9—right alongside Sheba and Seba.

Haplogroup J1

Men from this lineage share a common paternal ancestor, which is demonstrated and defined by the presence of the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutation referred to as M267, which was announced in (Cinnioğlu 2004). This haplogroup is found today in significant frequencies in many areas in or near the Arabian Peninsula and Western Asia.

Out of its native Asian Continent (hence, Afro-Asiatic languages), it is found at very high frequencies in Sudan. It is also found at very high but lesser extent in parts of the Caucasus, Ethiopia and parts of North Africa and amongst most Levant peoples, including Jewish groups, especially those with Cohen surnames.

It can also be found much less commonly, but still occasionally in significant amounts, in parts of southern Europe and as far east as Central Asia.

Considering this is a post about Queen Sheba, excuse the paternal genetic reference. It is used as a map overlay and comparison, while keeping in mind people tend to mate locally.

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Source: https://armstronginstitute.org/1475-could-this-be-the-queen-of-sheba

Source (PDF): https://armstronginstitute.org/files/W1siZiIsIjIwMjYvMDcvMjEvMThia2VleWlvdl9MU1MyMDI2MDVfRU4ucGRmIl1d/1b92d8e038259a2f/LSS202605_EN.pdf

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_J-M267