The celebrations of Black August are nearing an end, but there are still several calendar highlights that should be commemorated, including the birth of Illinois Black Panther Party chair Fred Hampton on August 30.
Last weekend, I was in Chicago, where Hampton was brutally killed by the police in 1969, to participate in the Chicago Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) History Project, curated by Benedictine University history professor Fannie Rushing. When I told one of the student interns about the significance of Black August, a month set aside to honor Black revolutionaries and activists, she said she wasn’t aware of it.
Ironically, the opening day of the event, held at the Catholic Theological Union, was on August 21, and I told her that was the date in 1831 when Nat Turner launched his rebellion and in 1971 when the revolutionary George Jackson was killed in prison as he sacrificed his life for the other inmates. Once more, she shook her head, not knowing anything about these events in the struggle for Black liberation.
She jotted down a few notes in her list of questions she had prepared to ask me during my presentation. Rushing has been a tireless teacher and advocate of Black studies, and the interns she has tutored were thoroughly briefed and ready for the occasion.
Much to my surprise was an hourlong documentary about the history of the Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) program at CUNY, which was founded in 1965, and currently operates with a prefix in tribute to entrepreneur (and former AmNews co-owner) Percy Sutton.
It provided a perfect segue to the connection between Chicago and New York, and the earlier presence at the event by Jacqui Lazú, author of a book about the Young Lords amplified that bridge.
Also in attendance was noted filmmaker Catherine Murphy. During my exchange with her, she discussed her two films about Cuba and the extraordinary Paulo Freire and his revolutionary pedagogy.
All in all, it was an assembly that produced some relevant substance to Black August. When Rushing beckoned the closing music by Bob Marley, his classic “Get Up, Stand Up,” the audience obeyed with a resounding chorus.
In effect, it was a powerful response to Donald Trump and his plan to make everything Black bleak.
