GirlTREK

Day 1 “A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.” - Malcolm X The Address: 3448 PINKNEY STREET OMAHA, NEBRASKA The Story: The historical marker is behind the building. You cannot see it from the parking lot. Near the historical marker lies a small structure that is supposed to resemble the original house. The original house was the brick-and-mortar dreams of Reverend Earl and Louise Little. The current building houses the Malcolm X Foundation. There are five sets of stairs inside to represent the five pillars of Islam. Outside the historical marker reads “El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was born Malcolm Little at University Hospital Omaha,” although neighborhood historian Bertha Calloway says he was actually born at home, right there at 3448 Pinkney Ave, attended to by doctor W.D. Lear and assisted by doctor A.S. Pinto. It was common practice back then for official birth certificates to conceal home births by listing a hospital name. Malcolm would live in this house on the north side of Omaha for less than a year before the Nebraska KKK, which at the time had a membership of more than 45,000, including a women’s branch, a kids club, an annual state convention, ran them out of town. Unfortunately, the family couldn’t run far enough, and on the corner of E. Michigan Ave and Detroit St. in Lansing, Michigan the terror caught up to them, killing Earl Little. A quick google image search reveals that there is a Chevy car dealership sitting at the corner now. No one there to tell the story of how that intersection helped birth the great Malcolm X. But during this episode we will tell that story, a story that starts at 3448 Pinkney Street. The story of Malcolm’s birth home is a story set amidst a red summer and a mob rising. It includes the story Louise Norton Langdon Little who was born in Saint Andrew Parish, Grenada to Ella Langdon who was the daughter of Jupiter and Mary Jane. We don’t know if their names were printed in a family bible, or if Earl would have had a chance to grab that bible before taking his family and fleeing. What we do know is that the story didn’t end there on that street and that that street birthed one of the greatest revolutionaries of anytime.

Our neighborhood stories are too important to be lost to creditors and big banks who take away our grandmother’s houses. Our neighborhood stories are too valuable to be left buried under the foundations of condo buildings that our families can’t afford to live in. Our neighborhood stories are our treasure troves. That's why we want EVERYONE to join us for our newest season of Black History Bootcamp, where not only will we tell the real stories of our neighborhoods - but we will raise up an army of foot soldiers to support them. This is our mission - and if you’re down to join us - then we want you to play tag like we did in the neighborhoods that we grew up in and tag in five friends to join you for Bootcamp. This one’s for the homies, for the hoods that birthed us, for the soldiers still on the block holding our communities down. May we rise with each step we take. Join the 21-Day Bootcamp at https://blackhistorybootcamp.com/#register

We did it! Today marks the end of our first official month of walking and organizing for the 2022 GirlTrek season. We hope you are inspired as we head into the weekend. If so, plan to join us live tomorrow for the last day of Black History Bootcamp, The Crew Edition! Tomorrow will be a celebration of the ultimate crew - YOU! Be Alive | Beyonce:https://open.spotify.com/track/1RI4YQVFh7onQD07QuL8ND?si=586000c4d45948bcCelebration | Kool & The Gang:https://open.spotify.com/track/3K7Q9PHUWPTaknlbFPThn2?si=30bde051635a4e07

It began in 1983 as a small picnic in a public park near the Atlanta University Center. It grew to become a cultural phenomenon, and the signature defining event for a generation of college students who were embracing freedom and challenging the status quo.  Freaknik. The notorious street party. The ultimate spring break. A meeting ground for Black people around the nation looking to turn up and turnout.  More than a festival, Freakink was a mass demonstration of Black culture and joy. An annual event that made the church ladies clutch their pearls. It had as many detractors as it had supporters, with the mayor of Atlanta calling the issue of Freaknik the most divisive issue he’d faced in public life.  So, how did a crew of young Black college students organize the most epic event in the country, and why was this event so polarizing? Find out on today’s walk as we take a stroll through the freak storm that was Freaknik while discussing race, class, youth, image, and the lasting legacy of this ultimate street party. Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts referenced or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:Tootsee Roll | 69 Boyz:https://open.spotify.com/track/0TZiZV8pQ6RBlo3Fmd5LX1?si=XoocAbhlSSyJRoAo68EluwMy Boo | Ghost Town DJs:https://open.spotify.com/track/1kfg4YF0vJPpuKV3KsBbvU?si=jYsyXh8kTH-v5vTEpiPPcQ

Sylvia Landry is adopted by Black sharecroppers. She is mixed-race. Her new parents love her as their own. Despite the rigors of sharecropping, they raise her well. Sylvia becomes a schoolteacher. She travels to Boston to raise money for a new school and on her trip, she is hit by a car. The white woman driving is overcome with guilt and writes a $50,000 check to support Sylvia’s school. Her father is wary of the charity and tired of the struggle. One day he has enough and confronts their white landlord over money. A fight ensues. The landlord is shot by another white man, but Sylvia's adoptive father is accused and lynched with her adoptive mother. In her despair, Sylvia is cornered and narrowly escapes attempted raped by the landowner's brother. She discovers that the attacker is her biological father.  This is the plot of a silent film by Oscar Micheaux in 1920.  It was a smash hit.  A brilliant Black family. Self-sufficient. Serving their community. Rejecting handouts. Fighting back. Loving hard. And suffering under the terror of white supremacy.   It was a brave answer to The Birth of a Nation, the first Hollywood blockbuster, which served as Klan propaganda and stoked fear of Black liberation.  Oscar Micheaux was unafraid. He made race films at the height of lynching in America.  He was an author… Director… Producer… …of 44 films.  The most successful Black filmmaker of the first half of the 20th century. Join us as we learn how he rallied the resources and crew to do it. Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts referenced or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:Maple Leaf Rag | Scott Joplin:https://open.spotify.com/track/4AE032Y0x1WPOi5CsmggnU?si=229d579a80b443d0Believe in Yourself | Diana Ross:https://open.spotify.com/track/1FPU4odGeC4Yi8VbeVJA6N?si=c85dfed7e8074550

The manifesto for the Sojourners for Truth and Justice starts with: “A Call To Negro Women! Negro women of every town and state arise, come to Washington DC September 29 - October 1, and demand of the President, the Justice Department, the State Department, and the Congress absolute, unconditional redress of grievances.”  The year was 1951, post World War II. A group of 132 Black women responded to the call and traveled from across the US to the nation's capital. Among them were some of the most progressive and inspired Black women activists, artists, and thinkers of the time, including Alice Childress, Shirley DuBois, Esther Cooper Jackson, Charlotta Bass, Louise Thompson Patterson, and Mary Church Terrell. Women whose stories we will discuss as part of today’s walk.   These women gathered, first at the home of Frederick Douglass, where 21-year old playwright  Lorraine Hansberry, addressed the crowd and read from the manifesto, “We can not, must not, and will no longer in sight of God or man sit by and watch our lives destroyed by an unreasonable and unreasoning hate that meets out to us every kind of death it is possible for a human being to die.”  With a clear agenda and unshakeable courage, the Sojourners for Truth and Justice took their fight directly to the White House, unapologetically focusing their message on the needs of Black women. Their work continued the legacy of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth and was a precursor to the March on Washington, and every Women’s March of the present day.  Lace-up and learn with us today! These are the heroes that our community needs to know about. Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts referenced or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:Stand By Me - Live | Tracy Chapman:https://open.spotify.com/track/2gs8HVC6KXOQe76XggzZH5?si=3f47498ce0aa48c7Beah Richards Speaks!:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJnpWUgOLHkYou Gotta Believe | Rose Royce and the Pointer Sisters:https://open.spotify.com/track/50mQ8Vef5jQDLmwytu4f6m?si=be9042240a984774

1863. The Emancipation Proclamation freed 4 million people from human bondage.  Southern whites would illegally hold hostage our family members for two more years.  Once defeated in the most un-Civil War, free Black men, women, and children would become their biggest threat.  With the 15th Amendment, our forefathers were guaranteed the vote, equal representation in government, and 40 acres and a mule.  Black “freedmen” were in a position to live and provide for their families.  That freedom was met with vicious violence and terrorism. The Freedmen’s Bureau was established by Abraham Lincoln as The Bureau for Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Its complex name hints at its complex history.  The Freedmen's Bureau issued land grants, negotiated labor contracts, reunited families, held legal hearings, collected historic records, provided healthcare, and built schools.  1000+ schools and universities became the Bureau's most powerful legacy.  Confronting that progress was Lincoln‘s assassination, Andrew Johnson’s painstaking racism, the birth of the Ku Klux Klan, Ulysses S. Grant’s liquor-soaked graft, and the malicious Black Codes that became Jim Crow.  …and on the front lines of these orchestrated attacks was a band of Black teachers.  Today, we honor them. Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts referenced or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:Wake Up Everybody | Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes:https://open.spotify.com/track/5kQ2ZEav7TgUoLSLrm7h8S?si=ed605844f01a4873Move On Up | Curtis Mayfield:https://open.spotify.com/track/0MHXrqn909p0LRTPsNsGEi?si=93aa405681b24b7b

It does not escape me that I am standing on the shoulders of giants, including the cooks and janitors and others who look like me and were first to enter corporate America. They created the space for me to have this opportunity. My hope is that corporate America realizes that talent is created equally but opportunity is not, and we all acknowledge that there's still more work to be done." - Thasunda Brown Duckett  Last year two Black women, Rosalind Brewer the CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance and Thasunda Brown Duckett, the CEO of TIAA made history as the first two Black women to make an appearance on the annual Fortune 500 CEO list.  The annual list ranks 500 of America’s largest companies, and despite the progress that’s been made in the business space, women still only make up 8.2% of Fortune 500 CEOs, with women of color making up just 1.2%.  So who are these trailblazing Black women who shattered the glass ceiling and are blazing the way for our daughters?  Today we discover the backstory of Rosalind and Thasunda, and break down the long history of Black boss women who paved the way for them to sit at the head of the table at two of the world's most successful companies. From Madam CJ Walker to Oprah Winfrey, to the names of women who we all should know but don’t. Let's get into it.Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts referenced or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:Woman of the Ghetto | Marlena Shaw:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_BeN75XgfQDiva | Beyonce:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNM5HW13_O8

You know what I’m talking about.  You’re at a birthday party.  You’re almost finished singing.  And on the very last line, for effect, your sister breaks into soprano and your mama hits that tenor - for something undeniable… Family Harmony “Haaaappy birthday to youuuu!” Poof. In a 3-part harmony, you are transported to childhood on a vocal carpet ride. It is the ohm in your bloodline - a vibration and evolutionary fine tuning.  There is nothing… And I mean nothing, more beautiful to the human ear as families singing together.  “It was the most mysterious thing I'd ever heard... I'd think about them even at my school desk...Mavis Staples looked to be about the same age as me in her picture on the cover.” Bob Dylan knew it. He used it. Black family spirit. He went on to be called the greatest songwriter in history. If only they gave royalties for magic.  Which brings us to today’s show.   The Royal Families of Gospel… We’ll focus on The Clark Sisters and The Winans, but we will celebrate so many others with fun name games, Twitter trivia, and praise dance choreography for the streets.Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts referenced or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:Is My Living in Vain/You Brought the Sunshine | The Clark Sisters:https://open.spotify.com/track/1D4IYk4ajd9ipJb8AccYy8?si=074ae8faa5ac43bcHold Up the Light | Bebe and Cece Winans, Whitney Houston:https://open.spotify.com/track/27M15Ml0kCvPLGQkWUN5w3?si=5575cc72b31b435c

Yeah! Today’s walk is dedicated to all the teachers that told us we’d never amount to nothin'. To all the people that lived above the buildings that we were hustlin' in front of. Called the police on us when we was just tryin' to make some money to feed our daughter. And all the n*** in the struggle. You know what we sayin'? It's all good, baby baby! If you read that in your BIGGIE voice then you already know what it is!  Today’s call is a celebration of Black excellence, and a look into the hustle and heart of a man that defined the sound, look, and experience of a generation.  What Sean Combs has built is masterful. An empire that includes the best dranks (shout out to Ciroc Watermelon), the most classic music, and one of the most successful business empires run by a Black man.  He’s endured many defeats but continues to triumph, and today we break it all down. The record deals, the beefs, the love affairs and more.  It’s going to be a festival on foot, and we can’t think of anything better than having the King himself join us for today’s call. That’s why we’re putting you all on assignment! Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts referenced or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:Juicy | Notorious BIG:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y8VPQcPHhYFix Your Energy | Diddy aka "Love":https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVFdReyDv5wI Wanna Be Your Lover | Diddy aka "Love":https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVFdReyDv5w&t=1083sSummer Rain | Carl Thomas:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvMkhX3FnZU