Video. Good morning. Thank you for joining us what promises to be a promising round table discussion. Looking back on the 50th anniversary on the struggle to elect kenneth a. Gibson. Elected in june of 1970, it marked a turning buoyant for the black Freedom Movement that was part of a National Wave of black political organizing that couple nated in the election of black m mayors in cities like cleveland, gary, atlanta, and detroit from 1967 to 1974. The histories feel particularly vital now as blackled struggles against Police Violence and attempted murder of jacob black have sounded the clarity call for black liberation while raising familiar questions about the rules of electoral clicks in black freedom struggles. 50 years ago, gibsons landmark election came on the heels of the 1967 rebellion when the Police Beating of an unarmed black man named john smith marked an uprising. Smiths beating recalled countless Police Killing of black men in the city that had gone unpunished over the y
Conference. They also provided the video. We have three panelists today. I think i have this order right. Dr. Danielle mcguire who is a great friend from grad school and colleague. She is an author and historian and an independent scholar now and the author of tat the dark end of the street. We also have i have lost track of who is going. I think its kalonji is going next. Dr. Kalonji walton who is the director of global black studies at western carolina. And our third panelist is dr. David goldberg who is an associate professor at Wayne State University. The chair and commenter today is jamon jordan who is a the detroit president of the detroit chapter of asalh and a tour leader and historian of all things africanamerican detroit. Really an Incredible Community scholar out of detroit. A wonderful set of folks, going to help us think about politics in detroit and michigan and how to make sense of that. Im going to throw it over to the panel now. Again, thank you all for being here. All
Years ago. It was then that Irena Webster and Barbara Spencer dunn joined with the woman who became my first boss at the aspca. They had the vision to get right to support the works the Parks Service was doing to protect the africanamerican experience. Sadly, irena passed away at the start of this year, and i wanted to take a moment to talk about the preservation of the history to achieve black Voting Rights to remember my boss, my friend, and the true pioneer in the long and ongoing process to make conservation and preservation organizations like npca more inclusive. For our panel today, people will understand that it is wideranging, multifaceted and current. Its still going on. What we want to do with this panel of experts and people who are my friends, folks that i admire, is to get their insights on this issue, but maybe in more specific and direct ways. We have one person, Josephine Bolling mccall, who actually lived through the struggle for Voting Rights. Well hear from josephine
Black political organizing that culminated in the election of course black mayors like cleveland, atlanta and detroit from 1967 to 1974. They feel particularly vital right now as blackled struggles in the wake of Police Murders of george floyd in minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in louisville, and kenosha have sounded the call for black liberation while raising questions about the role of electoral politics and black freedom struggles. 50 years ago gibsons landmark election came on the heels was 1967 rebellion in newark when the Police Beating of an unarmed black man, john smith, had whit supremacy and its enforcers in blue in the jim crow north. Amid heightened racist renewal projects and educational injustice, it recalled countless Police Killings that had gone unpublished into the years and brought thousands into the streets that july. State police and National Guardsmen were brought into the city to violently suppress the uprising, claiming two dozen lives in the process including ed ed
A very complicated thing. Yes, just two quick questions. I was wondering if the panel was familiar with the work of the late dr. Reuben westin. He passed, i think, last year. He was the author of racism and u. S. Imperialism. He taught at central state. He was a chairman of the History Department at one point. We talked about how the u. S. Government squashed the revolts of antonio meseo in cuba. The second part is i had an uncle named richard kidd who fought in world war i and came back, quote, unquote, shell shocked, and he spent some time in a hospital in danville, illinois, and i dont know could you speak to how black soldiers were treated upon their return to the United States . I know going to a bad Army Hospital was not the worst thing that could happen to you, but i dont know if these hospitals were segregated or theres because having a crazy uncle somewhere in your house is a trope in fiction from that period of time. The crazy uncle probably also had a child with a french nam