TheBlackTube

HOW THE BALL BOUNCES / Nothing but times has changed

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:12:34 +0000

The Black Tube is asking us to reunify, Haiti 🇭🇹needs to do the same

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 16:21:08 +0000

For Haiti to truly rise, the diaspora must return. This isn't just about people being pushed out; it's a re-migration guided by ancestral wisdom. It's a necessary evolution. #haiti #diaspora #ancestralwisdom #remigration #haitianpride

Captain Mac Ross — The Tuskegee Pioneer Who Helped Open America’s Skies

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 14:21:13 +0000

Captain Mac Ross — The Tuskegee Pioneer Who Helped Open America’s Skies
Before the legendary Red Tails entered combat, Captain Mac Ross was among the courageous Black aviators proving that the barriers surrounding America’s military skies could be broken.
Born in rural Dallas County near Selma, Alabama, in 1912, Ross grew up during an era of racial violence and legalized segregation. His family eventually relocated to Dayton, Ohio, partly because his father wanted his sons to escape the constant threat of lynching in the South.
Ross graduated from Roosevelt High School and earned a degree in mechanical arts from West Virginia State College in 1940. While attending the historically Black college, he participated in its Civilian Pilot Training Program, one of the programs that prepared Black students for aviation careers.
When the United States Army began its experimental training program for Black military pilots at Tuskegee, Ross was selected for the inaugural aviation-cadet class.
On March 7, 1942, Ross stood beside Benjamin O. Davis Jr., Charles DeBow, Lemuel R. Custis and George S. Roberts as they received their pilot wings. Together, these five men became the first Black pilots to complete the Army Air Corps program at Tuskegee. Their achievement directly challenged the racist claim that Black men lacked the intelligence, courage or ability to operate military aircraft. Tuskegee Airmen Inc.
Ross understood how much pressure rested upon them. During training, his P-40 caught fire in the air, forcing him to parachute to safety. He feared the accident would be blamed on him and used as supposed proof that Black men could not fly. Investigators determined that mechanical failure—not pilot error—caused the emergency.
Ross later became the first commanding officer of the 100th Fighter Squadron and served as operations officer for the 332nd Fighter Group. These were significant leadership responsibilities at a time when many white military officials still opposed allowing Black officers to command combat units.
During World War II, Ross served in the Mediterranean and European theaters and completed more than 50 combat missions. He was not merely participating in history—he was helping build the foundation upon which the Tuskegee Airmen’s celebrated combat record would stand.
Ross also found love at Tuskegee. In 1943, he married Lieutenant Abbie Voorhies, a Black Army nurse stationed at Tuskegee Army Air Field. Their marriage joined two people serving a country that continued to deny them full equality.
On July 10, 1944, Captain Mac Ross was killed when the P-51 Mustang he was flying crashed near Foggia, Italy. He was buried at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Italy. He was the only member of Tuskegee’s original five graduating pilots who did not return home from the war.
Captain Mac Ross helped prove that Black aviators belonged in America’s military cockpits and command positions. His leadership prepared the way for the pilots who followed, while his sacrifice reminds us that the Tuskegee Airmen fought two wars simultaneously: one against fascism overseas and another against racism within their own country.
Ross never lived to witness the desegregation of the United States Armed Forces in 1948. But his courage helped make it unavoidable.
We are the Descendants of the Taken Ones, and we remember Captain Mac Ross—not simply as one of the first Tuskegee Airmen, but as a commander, pioneer and American hero who helped open the skies for every Black aviator who followed.To support the channel, please click the like button and subscribe to receive new videos

The Queen of Sheba — The Queen Who Came Seeking Wisdom

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 14:07:02 +0000

The Queen of Sheba — The Queen Who Came Seeking Wisdom
The Queen of Sheba is one of the most powerful and mysterious women in ancient history. She appears in biblical, Qur’anic, Ethiopian, Arab, and Jewish traditions as a ruler of wealth, intelligence, diplomacy, and royal authority.
She is remembered as a queen who ruled a prosperous kingdom connected to trade, gold, spices, incense, and long-distance caravan routes. Her homeland is traditionally associated with Sheba, often linked to the region of southern Arabia, Ethiopia, or the wider Red Sea world where Africa and Arabia met through commerce, culture, and power.
Her most famous story is her journey to visit King Solomon. She did not come as a servant. She came as a sovereign. She came with questions, gifts, wisdom, and dignity. She tested Solomon’s wisdom, listened to his answers, and recognized greatness when she saw it. But her own greatness was already clear: only a powerful queen could travel with such wealth, confidence, and diplomatic purpose.
In Ethiopian tradition, the Queen of Sheba is known as Makeda. Her story becomes part of Ethiopia’s sacred royal memory. According to the Kebra Nagast, she and Solomon had a son named Menelik I, who became connected to the Solomonic line of Ethiopian kings. This tradition helped shape Ethiopia’s identity as an ancient kingdom blessed with divine wisdom, royal legitimacy, and deep spiritual history.
The Queen of Sheba’s legacy is not only about beauty or romance. It is about wisdom. It is about a woman ruler who understood diplomacy, wealth, faith, statecraft, and international power. She represents African and Red Sea sovereignty in a world where queens could command caravans, negotiate with kings, and leave a legacy across continents.
Her story has lasted for thousands of years because she stands as more than a legend. She stands as a symbol of Black womanhood, intelligence, leadership, and sacred royal memory.
The Queen of Sheba, known in Ethiopian tradition as Makeda, was a legendary ancient queen remembered for wisdom, wealth, diplomacy, and royal power. Her journey to King Solomon became one of history’s most enduring stories of sovereignty, spiritual inquiry, and a queen who stood before kings as an equal.
The Queen of Sheba / Makeda
Ancient Queen • Diplomat • Seeker of Wisdom
A Royal Symbol of Wealth, Sovereignty, and Sacred Memory
In Closing
She came from the South with riches, questions, and wisdom — and history still remembers her as a queen who stood in power.

Funny story about MJ for my GI folk

Mon, 14 Sep 2026 10:55:31 +0000

Joined a number of GI groups quick introduction and a funny story.

7 Levels of White Interruption

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 23:32:29 +0000

Racism isn’t random—it’s progressive, predictable, and escalating. In this comprehensive, in-depth documentary-style breakdown, we map out the 7 Levels of White Interruption, tracing how everyday behaviors can stack, escalate, overlap, and grow into something far more dangerous than most want to admit.

From minor micro-aggressions and uninvited space gatekeeping to systemic 911 calls, fabricated lies, vigilante aggression, and deadly execution, we decode the spectrum of how Black joy, peace, and presence are disrupted. This isn't just a list of isolated incidents; it's an examination of an interconnected system that has been running for generations. Once you see the pattern, you can't unsee it.

Join the Conversation:

Which level do you think shows up the most in everyday life? Which level have you seen up close, and which one gets ignored the most? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.

If this work resonates with you, make sure to support the channel, share this video with someone who needs to understand these patterns, and stay tuned for more in-depth breakdowns.

You’ve been watching Black Joy Interrupted, where chaos gets decoded and its blueprint always comes to light.

Note: Research, script composition, and social commentary are original works created exclusively by Black Joy Interrupted.

Redlining Didn’t Just Starve Black Communities. It Weakened the Entire Economy.

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 23:12:22 +0000

In this episode, we break down how the discriminatory practice of redlining did more than just starve Black communities of capital; it fundamentally stifled American economic growth. We analyze how suppressing entrepreneurship, home ownership, and community investment created a systemic ripple effect that hollowed out cities and limited the nation's total GDP. We explore the argument that structural racism isn't just morally wrong—it is economically reckless.

Black Joy Interrupted isn’t about gloom; it’s about truth. Here, we unpack all the ways Black joy is interrupted, envied, and denied from the news cycle to viral videos, from songs to everyday life. Through honest commentary, real stories, and sharp cultural analysis, we look at how joy, peace, and freedom are often challenged and how we can reclaim them anyway.

Whether it’s media bias, subtle disrespect, or blatant erasure, we’re calling it out. Because Black joy is not a trend. It’s resistance. It’s healing. And it’s ours.

🖤 Subscribe to join the conversation, stay informed, and learn how to protect your joy in a world that keeps trying to take it.

Editorial Note: Research, script composition, and social commentary are original works created exclusively for Black Joy Interrupted.

THE African-Mexican PRESIDENT WHO ABOLISHED SLAVERY

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 19:33:22 +0000

VICENTE GUERRERO, THE African-Mexican PRESIDENT WHO ABOLISHED SLAVERY
Long before the United States abolished slavery, a Mexican president of African and Indigenous ancestry issued a decree freeing enslaved people. His name was Vicente Guerrero. Vicente Ramón Guerrero Saldaña was born in Tixtla, Mexico, in 1782. He grew up in a working-class family and became an arriero—a mule driver who transported goods through the mountains of southern New Spain. This work taught him the roads, terrain, and communities that would later prove essential to his military success.
Guerrero descended from the racially mixed population that colonial authorities attempted to divide through the casta system. Historians describe him as African -Mexican, Indigenous, African-mestizo, or a man of mixed African and Indigenous ancestry. The precise details of his lineage vary by source, but his connection to Mexico’s African-descended population is widely recognized. When Mexico’s struggle for independence began in 1810, Guerrero joined the insurgent forces and fought under commanders including Hermenegildo Galeana and José María Morelos.
After Morelos was captured and executed in 1815, much of the independence movement collapsed. Guerrero refused to surrender. From the mountains of southern Mexico, he kept the revolution alive through years of warfare. Spanish authorities offered him a pardon, a position, and rewards if he abandoned the rebellion. According to Mexican tradition, even Guerrero’s father was sent to persuade him to surrender. Guerrero refused and declared:
“La patria es primero.” — “The homeland comes first.” The phrase became one of Mexico’s national mottos. By 1820, royalist commander Agustín de Iturbide had failed to defeat Guerrero. The former enemies eventually reached an agreement and united their forces under the Plan of Iguala and the Army of the Three Guarantees.
Their alliance helped end Spanish colonial rule in 1821. Guerrero later opposed Iturbide’s attempt to rule Mexico as emperor and supported creating a republic. In 1829, he became Mexico’s second president.
He is widely recognized as Mexico’s first president of African descent and is often described as North America’s first Black president. Prairie View A&M University
His presidency lasted only several months, but one decision gave it lasting importance.
On 16 September 1829, President Guerrero issued a decree abolishing slavery in Mexico.
His order came about 36 years before the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery throughout the United States. Resistance from slaveholding settlers led to an exemption for Texas later that year, limiting the decree’s immediate reach there. Still, Guerrero placed abolition at the center of Mexico’s national principles. Mexico’s opposition to slavery would later help make its territory a destination for freedom seekers fleeing south from the United States. Guerrero also supported racial equality, public education, economic opportunity, and the rights of Mexico’s poor and Indigenous populations. His popularity among working people threatened powerful political and economic interests.
In December 1829, Vice President Anastasio Bustamante led a revolt that removed Guerrero from office. Guerrero returned to southern Mexico and continued to resist. In 1831, the Genoese ship captain Francisco Picaluga betrayed him for payment. Guerrero was invited aboard the Colombo, captured, and delivered to government forces. After a military trial, he was executed by firing squad at Cuilápam, Oaxaca, on February 14, 1831. He was 48 years old. His enemies ended his life, but they could not erase his place in Mexican history. The state of Guerrero bears his name, and his declaration—La patria es primero—remains engraved in Mexico’s national memory. Yet popular accounts of Mexico’s past still often omit his African ancestry.
Vicente Guerrero was an independence fighter, military commander, republican leader, president, and abolitionist. His life proves that people of African descent were not on the margins of Mexican history. They helped liberate, govern, and define the nation. Remember Vicente Guerrero—the African -Mexican president who fought colonial rule, defended the marginalized, and used the power of his office to strike at slavery. We are DTOA—Descendants of the Taken Ones. We recover overlooked stories and return African descendants to the history they helped create. Thank you for your time. To support the channel. Please like, share, and subscribe, and pass this along to your family and friends. Remember: information kept to yourself is lost over time, but shared information becomes enduring knowledge.

TILO FREY THE BLACK WOMAN WHO MADE SWISS POLITICAL HISTORY

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 19:13:13 +0000

TILO FREY THE BLACK WOMAN WHO MADE SWISS POLITICAL HISTORY
DTOA — Descendants of the Taken Ones
In 1971, Swiss women finally gained the right to vote and stand for election at the federal level. That same year, a woman born in Cameroon helped change the face of Switzerland’s democracy.
Her name was Tilo Frey.
She became the first Black woman elected to Switzerland’s National Council, joining the first eleven women elected to that chamber. Her victory placed a woman of African heritage in a national institution that had long excluded women. Swiss Parliament
Born on May 2, 1923, in Maroua, Cameroon, Frey was the daughter of a Swiss father and a Cameroonian mother. She grew up in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and built a career in education, serving as a teacher and later as a school director.
Before entering national politics, she gained experience in local government. She served in Neuchâtel’s city legislature and then in its cantonal parliament, building a record of public service before her historic federal election. Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
Her work extended beyond being the first.
Representing the Free Democratic Party, Frey served in the National Council from 1971 to 1975. She advocated equal pay for women, the decriminalization of abortion, and stronger cooperation with countries in the Global South. Her priorities linked political representation to practical questions: Who receives fair pay? Who controls decisions that affect women’s lives? How should Switzerland relate to countries beyond Europe?
Decades later, her name became part of the Parliament Building itself. In 2023, an artwork titled “Tilo,” created by Renée Levi’s studio, was installed on the building’s north façade. Its 246 ceramic tiles—one for each parliamentary seat—honor Frey’s legacy. The Swiss Parliament’s tribute. Frey died on June 27, 2008, at age 85. Her life belongs in the histories of Switzerland, women’s political rights, and the African diaspora. Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
For DTOA, her story reminds us to look beyond familiar borders when we tell Black history. A daughter of Cameroon became an educator, a legislator, and a pioneer in European democracy.
Remember her name: Tilo Frey.
A woman of African heritage who helped reshape who could represent Switzerland.
We are DTOA—Descendants of the Taken Ones. We recover overlooked stories and honor the people who made them.

LINCOLN ALEXANDER THE MAN WHO BROKE THREE POLITICAL BARRIERS

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 18:54:19 +0000

LINCOLN ALEXANDER THE MAN WHO BROKE THREE POLITICAL BARRIERS
DTOA Descendants of the Taken Ones
Lincoln Alexander did more than enter Canadian politics. He opened doors that had never before been opened to Black Canadians.
He became Canada’s:
• First Black Member of Parliament
• First Black federal cabinet minister
• First Black lieutenant governor
Born in Toronto on January 21, 1922, Lincoln MacCauley Alexander was the son of Caribbean immigrants. His mother encouraged him to pursue education and never allow racial prejudice to determine the limits of his life.
During World War II, Alexander served as a corporal in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Black Canadians still faced open discrimination, even while wearing their country’s uniform. In 1945, Alexander was reportedly refused service at a Vancouver establishment because he was Black. The experience strengthened his resolve to challenge unequal treatment.
After the war, he attended McMaster University, earning a degree in history and political economy in 1949. He graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1953 and built a successful legal career in Hamilton, Ontario. McMaster University. Then he entered politics. In 1968, the voters of Hamilton West elected Alexander to the House of Commons. He became the first Black person elected to Canada’s Parliament.
He understood that his election carried a responsibility greater than personal success. In his first parliamentary speech, he made clear that he would speak for Canadians who faced discrimination because of their race, religion, or color. Alexander represented Hamilton West for twelve years. In 1979, Prime Minister Joe Clark appointed him Minister of Labour, making him Canada’s first Black federal cabinet minister. Senate of Canada
His trailblazing career continued.
In 1985, Alexander became Ontario’s 24th lieutenant governor. He was the first Black Canadian appointed to a viceregal office anywhere in the country. He served until 1991 and used the position to promote education, racial equality, community service, and opportunities for young people.
Alexander later served as chancellor of the University of Guelph for fifteen years. He received numerous honors, including appointment as a Companion of the Order of Canada and membership in the Order of Ontario. Lincoln Alexander died on October 19, 2012, at age 90. Canada honored him with a state funeral. His legacy endures through Lincoln Alexander Day, observed across Canada each January 21. Schools, awards, public buildings, and the Lincoln Alexander School of Law also bear his name.
His story shows what happens when preparation meets courage. He served his country in uniform, practiced law, represented his community in Parliament, served in the federal cabinet, and became the Crown’s representative in Ontario.
Each achievement challenged an institution that had historically excluded people who looked like him.
Lincoln Alexander did not simply occupy powerful positions. He changed who Canadians could imagine holding them.
We are DTOA, Descendants of the Taken Ones. We recover overlooked stories and honor the people who made them. For as the first Black Canadian to be a member of Parliament in the House of Commons, a federal Cabinet Minister, a Chair of the Workers' Compensation Board of Ontario, and the 24th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1985 to 1991
Thank you for your time. To support the channel. Please like, share, and subscribe, and pass this along to your family and friends. Remember: information kept to yourself is lost over time, but shared information becomes enduring knowledge.

VIOLA DESMOND — THE WOMAN WHO REFUSED TO MOVE

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 17:20:34 +0000

VIOLA DESMOND — THE WOMAN WHO REFUSED TO MOVE
DTOA — Descendants of the Taken Ones
Nine years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, Viola Desmond refused to leave her seat at a theater in Nova Scotia, Canada. Her story reveals a history too often overlooked: racial segregation also existed north of the United States border.
Born July 6, 1914, in Halifax, Desmond became a successful Black businesswoman. She established a beauty salon, developed beauty products, and opened a school that trained Black women for careers and for starting their own businesses. When discrimination restricted opportunity, she helped create it. The Canadian Encyclopedia
Then a broken-down car put her in the path of a confrontation that would become part of Canadian civil rights history.
On November 8, 1946, while traveling for business, Desmond stopped in New Glasgow for car repairs. To pass the time, she visited the Roseland Theatre.
She took a seat on the main floor, where she could see the screen more clearly. But the theater reserved that section for white patrons and directed Black customers to the balcony. When Desmond tried to buy a main-floor ticket, staff refused to sell her one.
She returned to her seat and refused to leave.
She was forcibly removed, arrested, and held overnight. The authorities prosecuted her over the one-cent difference in amusement tax between a balcony ticket and a main-floor ticket—even though the theater had refused her attempt to pay for the correct seat. She was fined $20 plus $6 in court costs. Canadian Museum of History
A tax charge gave racial discrimination the appearance of ordinary law enforcement.
With support from members of Nova Scotia’s Black community, Desmond challenged her conviction. Although her legal efforts failed, her resistance helped mobilize opposition to segregation.
She belonged to a longer tradition of Black Canadian resistance. In 1941, Carrie Best and her son had challenged segregation at the same theater. Remembering them together reveals a community’s ongoing struggle for dignity. Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Desmond died on February 7, 1965, at age 50, without seeing her name officially cleared. Her younger sister, Wanda Robson, later helped bring her story to a wider public.
In 2010, Nova Scotia granted Desmond a posthumous free pardon, recognizing that her conviction was a miscarriage of justice, and issued an apology. Bank of Canada
In 2018, her portrait appeared on Canada’s new $10 banknote—the first regularly circulating Canadian banknote to feature a Canadian woman. Canadian Museum for Human Rights The country whose justice system once punished her now carries her portrait in its currency. Viola Desmond was an entrepreneur, an educator, and a woman who defended her dignity when doing so carried a price. Her legacy asks us to remember both the courage of those who resist injustice and the communities that help carry their struggle forward.
We are DTOA—Descendants of the Taken Ones. We recover overlooked stories and honor the people who made them. VIOLA DESMOND FROM A JAIL CELL TO CANADA’S $10 BILL.” Thank you for your time. To support the channel. Please like, share, and subscribe, and pass this along to your family and friends. Remember: information kept to yourself is lost over time, but shared information becomes enduring knowledge.

Arturo Alfonso Schomburg The Man Who Built a Fortress for Black History

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 17:06:06 +0000

Arturo Alfonso Schomburg
The Man Who Built a Fortress for Black History
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was a Puerto Rican historian, writer, activist, and collector whose lifelong mission helped preserve the memory of African people worldwide. Born on January 24, 1874, in San Mateo de Cangrejos—now part of Santurce, Puerto Rico—Schomburg was the son of Mary Joseph, a free Black woman from St. Croix, and Carlos Federico Schomburg, a Puerto Rican of German ancestry. He later recalled that a teacher told him Black people had no important history. Whether intended to discourage him or to erase his ancestry, those words became fuel for his life’s mission.
Schomburg was determined to prove that African people had created civilizations, led revolutions, produced literature, and influenced every part of the modern world. In 1891, at age 17, he moved to New York City. He joined other Puerto Rican and Cuban activists opposing Spanish colonial rule and co-founded Las Dos Antillas, an organization advocating independence for Puerto Rico and Cuba. His early activism taught him that political freedom required something deeper: a people must know their history to understand their power. National Park Service
Schomburg began searching bookstores, private collections, and international catalogs for materials documenting the African world. He collected books, manuscripts, artwork, newspapers, letters, music, pamphlets, and accounts of resistance. His research connected African Americans with people of African descent across the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and Africa. He became an important intellectual figure during the Harlem Renaissance. Writers and scholars—including many associated with the New Negro movement—consulted the historical materials he had gathered. In his influential 1925 essay, “The Negro Digs Up His Past,” Schomburg argued that Black people needed to recover the history that slavery and colonialism had sought to destroy.
In 1926, the New York Public Library purchased more than 4,000 pieces from his collection with a $10,000 Carnegie Corporation grant. That archive became the foundation of what is now the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem—one of the world’s leading institutions devoted to African and African-diaspora history. New York Public Library Schomburg died in Brooklyn on June 10, 1938, but his work continues. Every book preserved, every forgotten figure rediscovered and every false claim about Black inferiority disproved carries forward his mission.
Arturo Schomburg understood something powerful: people who lose control of their history can be led to believe they never contributed anything. He countered that erasure by building an archive the world could no longer ignore. History must restore what slavery took away.
A true DTOA Descendants Of The Taken Ones, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg did not merely collect Black history; he protected the evidence of Black greatness for generations yet unborn. Thank you for your time. To support the channel, please like, share, and subscribe, and pass this along to your family and friends. Remember: information kept to yourself is lost over time, but shared information becomes enduring knowledge.

Gloria Daisy Wekker of the Netherlands The Scholar Who Challenged the Myth of “White Innocence”

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 16:54:07 +0000

Gloria Daisy Wekker of the Netherlands
The Scholar Who Challenged the Myth of “White Innocence”
Gloria Daisy Wekker is an African-Surinamese Dutch scholar, cultural anthropologist, writer, and activist whose work compelled Europe to confront the enduring power of colonialism. Born on June 13, 1950, in Paramaribo, Suriname, Wekker moved with her family to the Netherlands as a child. She studied cultural anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and earned her doctorate from UCLA. Her research centered the voices and experiences of African-Surinamese women—often ignored or misunderstood in traditional European scholarship.
In 2001, Wekker became a professor of Gender and Ethnicity at Utrecht University. Her scholarship connects race, gender, sexuality, colonialism, migration, and power. She demonstrated that the Netherlands’ colonial past did not simply disappear when formal colonial rule ended; it continued to influence institutions, education, traditions, and attitudes about race. Her groundbreaking 2006 book, The Politics of Passion: Women’s Sexual Culture in the African-Surinamese Diaspora, documented the lives, relationships, cultural knowledge, and independence of working-class Surinamese women. The book received the American Anthropological Association’s 2007 Ruth Benedict Prize.
Wekker gained wider international recognition for her 2016 book, White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race. She examined how Dutch society could celebrate itself as tolerant and racially innocent while minimizing colonial violence and denying ongoing racial discrimination. She argued that colonial ideas remained stored in a national “cultural archive”—appearing in customs, institutions, language, education, and popular culture. Duke University Press
Gloria Wekker’s legacy is her refusal to let colonial history be concealed behind claims of tolerance. She created intellectual space for African-descended women, Caribbean communities, migrants, and other marginalized people to define their identities and tell their stories.
She reminds us that history does not vanish simply because a nation refuses to discuss it. Truth must be studied, spoken, and carried forward.
DTOA Closing Gloria Daisy Wekker—scholar, truth-teller, and a powerful voice of the African diaspora. Thank you for your time. To support the channel. Please like, share, and subscribe, and pass this along to your family and friends. Remember: information kept to yourself is lost over time, but shared information becomes enduring knowledge.

The Return of the King (Allegedly Dave Bible Study)

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 00:13:11 +0000

The Most High promised that the sceptre of rulership will not depart from Judah, and that King David's throne will be everlasting, but the line of Davidic Kings was broken in 588 BC... How did the Most High overcome the contradiction? He gave the Prophet Jeremiah a secret mission.

This is the incredible story of the preservation and renewal of King David's throne, that starts in the Book of Samuel and spills into the books of history.

Dido Elizabeth Belle The Black Heiress Who Challenged an Empire’s Image

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 20:27:01 +0000

Dido Elizabeth Belle The Black Heiress Who Challenged an Empire’s Image
Dido Elizabeth Belle was born around 1761, the daughter of Maria Belle, an enslaved African woman, and Sir John Lindsay, a British naval officer. Her birth placed her inside the violent world of empire, slavery, and colonial power. But her life would become one of the most remarkable stories of Black presence in 18th-century Britain.
As a child, Dido was taken to England and raised at Kenwood House by her great-uncle, William Murray, Lord Mansfield, one of the most powerful judges in Britain. This made her life unusual for the time. She was a young woman of African descent living within an aristocratic household, receiving education, status, and inheritance in a society deeply connected to the slave trade.
Dido’s position was complicated. She was not treated exactly like a servant, but she was also not always treated as fully equal to the white members of the household. She lived in a world where race, class, gender, and power shaped every room she entered. Yet her presence inside Kenwood House disrupted the assumptions of British society. She showed that Black identity and aristocratic life were not separate worlds.
Her story became even more powerful because of Lord Mansfield’s legal role. Mansfield ruled in important cases connected to slavery, including the famous Somerset case of 1772, which weakened the legal standing of slavery in England. Historians still debate how much Dido influenced his thinking, but her presence in his household placed the reality of Black humanity directly before one of the most important legal minds of the British Empire.
Dido Elizabeth Belle is also remembered through the famous portrait showing her beside her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray. Unlike many images of Black people from that era, Dido is not hidden in the background. She is painted with elegance, movement, and individuality. The portrait became a visual challenge to a society that tried to place Black people beneath the powerful.
Dido later married John Davinier, a French-born gentleman’s steward, and had children. She died in 1804, but her legacy has continued to grow. Her life reminds us that Black history was not only on plantations, ships, and battlefields. It was also in courts, estates, portraits, inheritance records, and legal debates that the modern world was shaped.
Closing
Dido Elizabeth Belle stood at the crossroads of race, law, wealth, and empire — a Black woman whose very presence challenged the world that tried to deny her dignity.

Crispus Attucks – The First Martyr of American Independence

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 20:24:25 +0000

Crispus Attucks – The First Martyr of American Independence

Crispus Attucks (c. 1723–1770) is remembered as the first person killed in the struggle that led to the American Revolution. A man of African and Native American ancestry, Attucks died during the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, becoming a symbol of courage, sacrifice, and the fight for freedom.
Born into slavery in Massachusetts, Attucks is believed to have escaped bondage and spent much of his life as a sailor and dockworker. Like many Black men of his era, he lived in a society that denied him basic rights and freedoms, yet he refused to accept oppression.
On the evening of March 5, 1770, tensions between British soldiers and Boston colonists erupted into violence. Crispus Attucks stood among the crowd protesting British occupation when soldiers opened fire. He was struck by two musket balls and became the first of five colonists killed.
His death sent shockwaves throughout the colonies. Patriots used the Boston Massacre as evidence of British tyranny, and the event helped ignite the movement that would eventually lead to American independence.
For generations, Crispus Attucks's contributions were often overlooked, but history now recognizes him as one of the earliest heroes of the American Revolution. His sacrifice reminds us that people of African descent were present at the very beginning of America's fight for liberty and played a vital role in shaping the nation.
In closing
Crispus Attucks embodies courage in the face of injustice. His life and sacrifice remind us that the struggle for freedom has always encompassed the voices, labor, and blood of Black people. As Descendants of the Taken Ones, we honor Crispus Attucks not only as the first martyr of the American Revolution but also as a symbol of resilience, dignity, and the enduring pursuit of liberty.
"Freedom's first martyr was a man of African and Native ancestry whose sacrifice helped change the course of history."

Celebrating Black histories in Tudor Britain

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 20:21:38 +0000

Dr. Miranda Kaufmann
Historian of the Black Tudors
Dr. Miranda Kaufmann is a British historian, author, educator, and journalist whose research has helped restore Africans to the documented history of Tudor and early Stuart England.
She studied history at Christ Church, Oxford, and completed a doctoral thesis titled “Africans in Britain, 1500–1640.” Through archival records, parish registers, court documents, household accounts, and other primary sources, Kaufmann identified evidence of more than 360 Africans living in Renaissance Britain. (Black British History)
Her best-known book, Black Tudors: The Untold Story, was published in 2017. The book reconstructs the lives of Africans who lived and worked in sixteenth-century England, including musicians, sailors, craftspeople, servants, divers, and independent residents. It was shortlisted for both the Wolfson History Prize and the Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize. (MIRANDA KAUFMANN)
Among the historical figures examined in her work are:
• John Blanke, a Black trumpeter who served at the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII.
• Jacques Francis, an African salvage diver involved in recovering equipment from the wreck of the Mary Rose.
• Mary Fillis, a Moroccan-born woman who lived in Elizabethan London.
• Diego, an African sailor who accompanied Sir Francis Drake.
• Reasonable Blackman, a silk weaver who lived with his family in London.
Kaufmann’s scholarship challenges the widespread assumption that Black people were absent from Tudor England or that every African living there was enslaved. Her research shows that Africans were present in English communities, earned wages, joined churches, testified in courts, married, raised families, and participated in the economic and social life of the period. (MIRANDA KAUFMANN)
She has also worked with the BBC, the National Trust, English Heritage, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. Her educational projects have helped introduce Black Tudor history into classrooms and public-history programs. (MIRANDA KAUFMANN)
DTOA Legacy Statement
Dr. Miranda Kaufmann did not invent a Black presence in Tudor England.
She found the records that history had ignored.
Through disciplined archival research, she recovered the names and experiences of Africans who lived in Britain centuries before the modern era.
Her work reminds us that Black history is not separate from European history.
It is part of the historical record—documented, recoverable, and impossible to erase.

Female Buffalo Soldier The Enslaved Woman Who Became the Only one Cathay Williams

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 20:17:09 +0000

Female Buffalo Soldier The Enslaved Woman Who Became the Only one Cathay Williams
Cathay Williams was born into slavery near Independence, Missouri, around 1844. Her mother was enslaved, while her father was reportedly free. As a young girl, Cathay was forced to work on a plantation near Jefferson City. Her life changed during the Civil War—but freedom did not arrive as simply as history sometimes suggests. When Union forces occupied Jefferson City in 1861, enslaved people captured or liberated by the Army were classified as “contraband.” Cathay, still a teenager, was compelled to accompany the Union Army as a cook and laundress. She traveled with military forces across several states and reportedly served alongside troops under General Philip Sheridan. She experienced military life, witnessed wartime campaigns, and learned how the Army operated—but she had little control over her circumstances. After the Civil War and the formal end of slavery, Cathay faced another reality: freedom without financial security.
Employment opportunities for a newly freed Black woman were extremely limited. The Army offered regular wages, food, clothing, and a measure of independence—but women were prohibited from enlisting. Cathay refused to let that barrier decide her future. On November 15, 1866, she reversed her name and enlisted in the United States Regular Army as William Cathay. Wearing men’s clothing and presenting as a man, she passed the Army’s limited medical examination and signed a three-year enlistment.
She was assigned to Company A of the 38th United States Colored Infantry, one of the Black regiments associated with the soldiers known as the Buffalo Soldiers. Cathay was approximately five feet nine inches tall. She marched hundreds of miles with her regiment through Kansas and New Mexico, endured harsh weather and military discipline, and performed the same duties expected of the men around her. Only two people were reportedly aware of her identity—a cousin and a friend serving in the regiment. Her service exacted a tremendous physical toll. She contracted smallpox shortly after enlisting and suffered recurring health problems. Nevertheless, she returned to duty and continued marching with her unit.
In 1868, while Cathay was hospitalized at Fort Bayard in the New Mexico Territory, an Army surgeon discovered that Private William Cathay was a woman. Because women were forbidden from serving, Cathay was discharged on October 14, 1868. Her Army documents cited disability and repeated illness rather than publicly identifying Cathay as a woman. Cathay had successfully protected her identity for nearly two years. After leaving the Army, Cathay worked as a cook, laundress, and seamstress in New Mexico and Colorado. Cathay married briefly, but when her husband stole her money and horses, Cathay had him arrested and continued building her life independently.

In 1876, a journalist interviewed Cathay after hearing reports of a Black woman who had served disguised as a male soldier. Cathay explained her reason plainly: “I wanted to make my own living and not be dependent on relations or friends.” Her story should have earned recognition and security. Instead, the government she had served abandoned her. By the late 1880s or early 1890s, Cathay suffered from diabetes, neuralgia, deafness, and severe complications that reportedly led to the amputation of her toes. She walked with a crutch and applied for a military disability pension. Her claim was denied. The examining physician concluded that her disabilities did not qualify her for compensation—even though illness had repeatedly affected her during military service. White women who had disguised themselves as men in earlier American wars had received pensions, but Cathay Williams received nothing.
Her final years remain largely undocumented. She is believed to have died in Trinidad, Colorado, sometime in the 1890s. Her burial place is unknown, and no authenticated photograph of her is known to exist. Yet her legacy could not remain buried. Cathay Williams is recognized as the first documented African American woman to enlist in the United States Army and the only known woman to serve as a Buffalo Soldier. Her service occurred more than eight decades before the military was formally desegregated. Her story is also complicated. Buffalo Soldiers served a nation that continued to deny Black people equality, and some of their assignments supported westward expansion and campaigns against Indigenous nations. Cathay’s history should therefore be remembered honestly—not as a simple celebration of war, but as the story of a formerly enslaved Black woman pursuing survival, wages, independence, and control over her own life. She was born enslaved. She was forced to serve in the Army before she was free. She later returned to that Army of her own accord, concealed her identity, marched beside men who never knew her secret, and created an opportunity where America had offered her almost none. Cathay Williams did not wait for history to grant her permission. She claimed her place in it. The nation denied her pension. The Army ended her service. History nearly erased her name.
But the Descendants of the Taken Ones remember Private Cathay Williams the woman who crossed the boundaries of slavery, race, and gender to stand in uniform on her own terms.
Sources: National Park Service biography, Fort Union National Monument history, U.S. Army history

Teddy Roosevelt Destroyed the Careers of 167 Black Soldiers Without a Single Trial

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 20:14:28 +0000

Teddy Roosevelt Destroyed the Careers of 167 Black Soldiers Without a Single Trial
The Brownsville Affair — When America Condemned the Buffalo Soldiers Without Evidence
On the night of August 13, 1906, gunfire erupted in Brownsville, Texas. A white bartender, Frank Natus, was killed, and police lieutenant M. Y. Dominguez was wounded.
Before the smoke had cleared, Black soldiers stationed at nearby Fort Brown were blamed.
These men belonged to Companies B, C, and D of the United States Army’s 25th Infantry Regiment—one of the celebrated units known as the Buffalo Soldiers. They had served their country with discipline and distinction, but in segregated America, their uniforms could not protect them from racism.
White residents claimed that Black soldiers had entered the town and opened fire. The soldiers denied the accusation. Their officers reported that the men were inside the fort when the shooting occurred. No individual soldier was positively identified, and a local grand jury returned no indictments.
The physical evidence was also questionable. Spent Army rifle cartridges were reportedly discovered in suspicious groupings, raising the possibility that they had been planted to frame the soldiers.
But President Theodore Roosevelt did not require proof.
He demanded that the soldiers identify the alleged gunmen. The men maintained that they knew nothing about the attack. Roosevelt interpreted their refusal to accuse one another as a “conspiracy of silence.”
On November 5, 1906, Roosevelt ordered all 167 enlisted men discharged “without honor”—collective punishment imposed without a court-martial, individual hearing or trial.
Their military careers were erased with a presidential order.
Many of these soldiers had devoted years to the United States Army. Some were nearing retirement. The discharges stripped them of military benefits and pensions and prevented them from obtaining federal employment.
Their families also suffered the economic consequences.
Roosevelt punished 167 men for an offense the government could not prove any one of them had committed. He did not merely remove them from the Army—he branded them as dishonorable before the entire nation.
Booker T. Washington appealed to Roosevelt to reconsider. Black newspapers, civil-rights organizations and community leaders protested. Senator Joseph B. Foraker of Ohio became one of the soldiers’ strongest defenders, arguing that the evidence did not justify their punishment.
Roosevelt refused to reverse his decision.
The truth remained buried for more than six decades.
In 1972, after historian John D. Weaver’s research renewed public attention, the United States Army reopened the case. The investigation concluded that the accused soldiers were innocent. Their records were corrected to show honorable discharges.
But justice arrived far too late.
Nearly all the men had died. There was no general award of back pay or compensation to their families. The last surviving affected soldier, Private Dorsie Willis, eventually received $25,000 through an act of Congress.
The Brownsville Affair exposes a side of Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy that popular history frequently softens or ignores. The president celebrated military courage, yet denied 167 Black soldiers the basic protections owed to members of the United States Army.
They received no individual charges.
They faced no witnesses.
They were allowed no defense.
They were given no trial.
The Buffalo Soldiers survived hostile frontiers, overseas campaigns and the dangers of military service. What they could not escape was a government willing to place white accusations above Black testimony.
Their names were eventually cleared—but their careers, pensions, reputations and lost years could never be returned.
This was not simply a military mistake.
It was collective punishment enforced by presidential power—and one of the most devastating racial injustices in United States military history.
Their uniforms represented America. America failed to represent them.
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Sources: Texas State Historical Association, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Special Collections, New York State Military Museum

Archaeologists Just Unearthed Mysterious Paintings In a Nubian Pharaoh's Tomb Nobody Can Explai

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 03:08:14 +0000

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