GirlTREK

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

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

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

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

People will tell you she doesn’t make the cut.  She wasn’t a true supermodel. Too androgynous. Too loud. Not pretty enough. Her own boyfriend said she had a grotesque beauty. Boy bye.  Yet, Grace Jones somehow made it from the pews of a holiness church in Jamaica to bearing her gorgeous body on the cover of magazines and being a muse to musicians, painters, and culture makers for decades.  So, when we found a picture of Grace Jones laughing with Iman and Beverly Johnson, we knew we had to celebrate their crew of Black models.  Join us for the juice.Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts reference or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:Pull Up To The Bumper| Grace Jones:https://open.spotify.com/track/653Fi3bqMxQQQmjw72ur6G?si=e5a260c64b4142a8I Wanna Be Your Lover | Prince:https://open.spotify.com/track/2XLAzm8bMDSI7MhbRW8nVj?si=ddee1f97710d4ea2

“In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky — her grand old woods — her fertile fields — her beautiful rivers — her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is soon checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning. When I remember that all is cursed with the infernal actions of slaveholding, robbery and wrong, — when I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, and that her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged sisters, I am filled with unutterable loathing.” - Frederick Douglas Miriam Webster defines a patriot as a person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors.  But what happens when the country you serve doesn’t serve you back?  And what if the enemy isn’t an enemy at all?  This is the history of America’s expansion west. And of the soldiers who led the way.  It is a complicated story. But the relationship that Black people have had to the government and the military has always been so. There are no victors or villains in this retelling. Just great feats that were achieved by proud men, and profound defeats that were suffered by our Indigenous brothers and sisters.   This is the story of The Buffalo Soldiers. Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts reference or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:Buffalo Soldier | Bob Marley & The Wailers:https://open.spotify.com/track/7BfW1eoDh27W69nxsmRicb?si=4596f6853e7442acKiss an Angel Good Mornin' | Charley Pride:https://open.spotify.com/track/37GWhu8R61gTStMvVQfDuE?si=143088b5f54d4760

“I'm no longer accepting the things I cannot change...I'm changing the things I cannot accept.”  - Angela Davis  In a memo to her boss at Random House Publishing, where Toni Morrison worked as an Editor, she wrote of Angela Davis, “she is the fiercest woman I know. And I come from a long line of fierce women.”  This memo was in defense of the young activist, whom Toni herself had contacted and persuaded to write an autobiography at 26.  Toni’s boss had complained that Angela did not show any “humanness,” and seemed too disciplined to be real.  Toni wrote to him with a clap-back for the ages. “Angela is not here to meet your needs.” Angela is not here to perform your fantasy. “Your cry for more humanness,” she wrote, “is constant but I am suspicious of the word. It’s the word white people use when they want to alter a “fearless” or “uppity nigger.”  This memo sits in the archives of Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Toni’s boss’s response is not included, but the record reflects that Toni won the battle and remained editor of the book, and that Angela crafted the story she wanted for herself and the movement.  This...our dear friends, is what it looks like to have your crews back. To take a risk for the people you love and believe in, and to be willing to go the distance for what you know is right.  This is a Black girl love story involving two of the most influential Black women of any generation. It’s a story full of lessons on how to make moves on behalf of those that matter to us.  Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts reference or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:Womanifesto | Jill Scott:https://open.spotify.com/track/3AzkEYjNuaOUpyqvoWErmz?si=f98a7ec4b2524ba4GirlTrek's #DaughtersOf Conversation with Angela Davis and Nikki Giovanni:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esPHDvx_aZcToni Morrison: The Pieces I Am - Exclusive Clip | Angela Davis:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHbjbwNuu-QCount on Me | Whitney Houston:https://open.spotify.com/track/7mVV7fepIMUAE4FDyihupV?si=83de7ebc80514656

A different kind of click.  More powerful than a gun.  He pointed and shot.  In his crosshairs - the lies told by the American media about Black men, women, and children. Lies that we were savage, dangerous, ugly.  Photographer Gordon Parks bodied that plot with a portfolio for the people. Thousands of crystal clear images of perfect Blackness.  Telling the truth.  Shining a light on humanity.  From his iconic camera came cover photos. He documented a broken-hearted city after Dr. King’s assassination. He attended the funeral of Medgar Evers and showed the world the stoicism of his beautiful wife.  Gordon Parks and his editorial crew placed these powerful images on the cover of Life magazine.  He set out to offer perspective and clarity on historic moments AND the ordinary lives of extraordinary people.  Like Red Jackson, the benevolent drug dealer in Harlem. Or the Fontonelle family, who could not survive the destitution of urban poverty. Or the women in Malcolm X’s mosque.  Our collective image of Black history was rendered in his dark room.  Today, we shine a light and raise a glass to truth in journalism. And to all the storytellers of the movement. Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or speech excepts reference or played during this broadcast. You can find original content that was referenced or played here:Across 110th Street | Bobby Womack:https://open.spotify.com/track/2zyTP97uGsIc1C4KNNEkyn?si=363cc85ec8c34670The Ghetto | Donny Hathaway:https://open.spotify.com/track/1yeIxOEFmpQ3qlOb2R3g2m?si=656073f483e14536