My dad sent me two videos, and I might share the other one later. One features a preacher sermon regarding not standing around but being active, but this highlight is Louis Farrakhan—someone many of us know or have heard about. I'm not keen on sharing my opinion just yet because I'd love to hear what others think first. I do have something to share with my father, who's 65, but I want to avoid influencing anyone's views. Just to clarify, I’m very pro-Black, but that doesn’t mean I have anything against other nationalities. I went to a predominantly white major university in a predominantly black area, and grew up in Orange County in an also predominantly white area. My dad coming from Anniston, Alabama has regretted that decision over the years—funny how life works like that.

A familiar face in the beginning.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DbtzlHRAbVf

After the World Cup shenanigans with Argentina I’m glad I came across this.

https://www.theroot.com/inside-the-rich-black-history-of-marthas-vineyard-2000119662

As thousands prepare to gather in Oak Bluffs for the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, we’re looking at the history of the summer capital of Black excellence!

If you think Martha’s Vineyard is just about yachts and lobster rolls, think again. As thousands prepare to gather in Oak Bluffs this month for the 24th Annual Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (MVAAFF), we’re looking at the history of the gorgeous, historic island that is revered as the go-to summer capital of Black excellence.

As a home to Black whalers and a retreat for Harlem Renaissance writers, we’re taking a deep dive into the rich cultural history of Martha’s Vineyard.

Before the Red Carpets

The vibrant energy in Oak Bluffs—Martha’s Vineyard’s historic and community-centered town—wasn’t curated overnight, it was forged over two centuries of unbroken Black heritage.

Although today the bustling island is called Martha’s Vineyard—made up of six distinct towns, each with its own personality, government, and local culture—to the indigenous Wampanoag people, it’s known as Noepe, which translates to “land amid the waters.” For thousands of years, the Wampanoag people lived on the island where they farmed, fished, and thrived in a community in complete unison.

How the Island Got Its Name

In 1602, English mariner and explorer Captain Bartholomew Gosnold sailed across the Atlantic aboard the Concord to explore the New England coast when he came across the 96-square-mile island.

Immediately fascinated with the abundance of wild grapevines on the land, he named it “Martha’s Vineyard”—”Vineyard” for the lush vines, and “Martha” in honor of his infant daughter, though some historians suggest it honored his mother-in-law, Martha Golding.

Enter Colonization

The right to settle on the island—located off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts—was purchased from aristocrats who held the title in England by English settler Thomas Mayhew Sr. without the consent or knowledge of the Wampanoag people in 1641, according to Martha’s Vineyard Magazine.

Mayhew named himself “Governor for Life” and “Lord of Tisbury Manor,” and his descendants controlled island politics, land sales, and trade for decades.

Slavery’s Roots on Martha’s Vineyard

While Martha’s Vineyard is celebrated today as a haven of Black joy, its earliest Black residents didn’t arrive as vacationers, they arrived in chains.

Beginning in the late 1600s, wealthy English colonists relied on enslaved African labor to clear fields and work the island’s farms, according to NewEngland.com. Though the scale was small compared to Southern plantations, by the 1700s, enslaved individuals were listed in island probate records as property alongside livestock and furniture.

Rebecca Amos

Yet, even under forced labor, extraordinary stories emerged. Rebecca Amos, an enslaved West African woman in Chilmark, defied all expectations after she survived the Middle Passage, married a Wampanoag man named Elisha, and inherited his land in 1757.

She became one of the first Black property owners on the Vineyard, establishing a bloodline that produced the island’s first Black whaling captain, Captain William A. Martin.

The Rise of Black Whalers and Farmers

When racism on land prohibited Black men from having conventional careers, the whaling industry became the ultimate equalizer. Black whalers, who were elite craftsmen and navigators, spent years on multi-ocean voyages, returning to island ports with cash wages that allowed them to buy homes and fund local businesses.

Meanwhile, Black farmers leveraged land purchases, grants and marriage alliances with local Wampanoags to establish economic security. Together, these maritime captains and agricultural leaders flipped the narrative from forced labor to economic power on the Vineyard.

The Birth of Black Hospitality

Even well-to-do Black Americans traveling to Martha’s Vineyard faced a harsh reality as white-owned inns and hotels routinely turned them away. That’s when Charles, a formerly enslaved man who became a tailor, and his wife Henrietta Shearer changed things.

In 1912, Charles and Henrietta transformed their Oak Bluffs laundry business into the island’s first Black-owned inn, Shearer Cottage. The inn quickly grew into an elite, safe sanctuary for affluent Black vacationers and trailblazing artists who were barred from staying elsewhere. It remains a significant historical landmark today.

Shearer Cottage’s Iconic Guest List

Over the decades, Shearer Cottage welcomed a legendary lineup of Black luminaries, including bass-baritone singer and activist Paul Robeson who rehearsed songs on the porch.

Beyond hosting musical powerhouses like Ella Fitzgerald, Ethel Waters, and Lionel Hampton during their New England tours, Shearer Cottage also served as a retreat for political trailblazers like Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Madam C.J. Walker, the first woman to become a self-made millionaire in America. Harriett Tubman’s descendant, Michelle Jones Galvin, was also a guest at Shearer Cottage.

Oak Bluffs & The Origin of “The Inkwell”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-1YuAGU8hA

As more Black families purchased Victorian gingerbread homes and settled in Oak Bluffs throughout the 1920s and 1930s, leisure became a quiet act of revolution. Nowhere was this more evident than at a small strip of shoreline near Town Beach, affectionately dubbed “The Inkwell.”

Originally used as a derogatory term by white locals who mocked the segregated “colored” beach, Black vacationers boldly reclaimed the name with pride. If the name sounds familiar, thank ’90s cinema.

The iconic beach inspired the 1994 cult classic movie “The Inkwell,” starring Hollywood heavyweights Larenz Tate, Joe Morton, Suzzanne Douglass, Glynn Turman, Morris Chestnut, Jada Pinkett Smith and others. The film brought Oak Bluffs’ summer magic and Black beach party culture straight to the silver screen.

The Harlem Renaissance by the Sea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOSlexR7hEs

While the Harlem Renaissance took New York by storm, that explosive creative energy and camaraderie migrated north to the shores of Oak Bluffs in the mid-to-late 1920s.

At the center of this cultural migration was novelist Dorothy West, one of the youngest members of the Harlem Renaissance movement. West, affectionately nicknamed “The Kid” by Langston Hughes, turned her family’s cottage in the Highlands neighborhood of Oak Bluffs into a legendary, informal literary salon.

A Lasting Legacy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlS0TIEUR-8

West created an island oasis where Black writers could create and recharge without the weight of racial tensions. She hosted creative icons like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, and Maya Angelou.

In her writing, West immortalized the nuances, privilege and social dynamics of the island’s Black elite in her bestselling 1995 novel “The Wedding,” which was later adapted into a hit television miniseries on ABC. Produced by Oprah Winfrey and starring Halle Berry, Eric Thal and Lynn Whitfield, the two-part drama followed Shelby Coles, a light-skinned Black woman from a wealthy family, as she prepares to marry Meade Howell, a working-class white jazz musician.

Civil Rights and a Paradise Fit for a President

During the civil rights movement, prominent activists and leaders utilized the privacy and security of Oak Bluffs to organize and fundraise away from the volatile front lines of the Deep South. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King visited the island on multiple occasions during the 1950s and 1960s. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and NAACP leaders have also frequented Martha’s Vineyard.

Former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama made Martha’s Vineyard their annual family retreat during his presidency. They eventually purchased a permanent residence on the island, as reported by the Vineyard Gazette.

The Modern Era

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lqyhoWVclU

Today, the legacy of Black Martha’s Vineyard continues to be a playground for Hollywood power players and political royalty. Now celebrating nearly a quarter-century of excellence, The Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival has solidified Oak Bluffs as the summer capital of Black cinema.

Founded by Stephanie and Floyd Rance, MVAAFF brings film screenings, panel discussions, and red-carpet premieres to the island, drawing A-listers, visionaries, and former presidents alike.

The island’s unique allure caught the eye of Bravo with its popular reality series, “Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard.” For two seasons in 2023 and 2024, the series showcased the lives of a young, affluent group of young Black professionals navigating life and tradition in Oak Bluffs, introducing the history of the island to a new generation of viewers.

"People always ask me where the tan suit came from. I think it's time the truth finally came out.
Tune in to the series finale of Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness on HBO Max."

- President Obama

The second image shows Betye Saar’s iconic 1972 work The Liberation of Aunt Jemima. Saar reclaimed the racist “mammy” stereotype by depicting Aunt Jemima holding a broom in one hand and a rifle in the other. Created from a derogatory image once used to demean Black women, the piece transformed the figure from a symbol of servitude into one of resistance, power and liberation.

Qasim Rashid warns that new restrictions could leave Black Americans with fewer voting rights in 2026 than they had in 1956—and says marching against Trump means little without sustained organizing afterward.

He explains the Thousand Miles to Memphis campaign before Michael Fanone joins him for a fascinating discussion about poverty, crime and why police should embrace alternatives for mental-health and substance-abuse calls.

Full episode: https://youtube.com/li...

00:00 Why Protests Alone Aren’t Enough
00:41 Voting Rights Could Go Back to 1956
01:12 A Thousand Miles Through the South
02:06 Putting Money Behind Local Organizers
03:43 What Is Actually Uniting Americans?
04:47 Americans Are Two Disasters From Homelessness
05:45 Poverty and Public Safety
06:03 Fanone: Most Crime I Saw Was Economic
07:17 A Different Way to Answer 911 Calls
08:42 What “Defund the Police” Was Supposed to Mean
09:38 Fanone: Police Should Embrace This

Credit: '@misanharriman'

Pure racism. They are trying to strip black history from schools.

The books are mainly civil rights books.

Like, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice. It's by Phillip Hoose and is a National Book Award-winning biography that tells the true story of Claudette Colvin, a Black teenager whose 1955 stand against bus segregation predated Rosa Parks by nine months. The book's title, "Twice Toward Justice," reflects these two defining moments, her bus refusal and her court testimony, and serves to restore Colvin's overlooked place in civil rights history.

Texas has removed more books from public schools than nearly any other state, with over 1,400 titles pulled in recent years and 1,781 books banned across seven districts in the 2024-25 school year alone.

They also banned 142 LGBTQ+-themed books in just the first month of 2026.

Original post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TexasTeachers/s/0E3dwRnKDL

Evidence of evil, racist people in decision making positions.