BlackAthena
30.3K posts

BlackAthena
@humanbeingawk
A digital collection dedicated to preserving the rich legacy of Foundational Black American heritage through its hidden history ⚘ BA in History ⚘ Georgia Peach
America Katılım Mayıs 2022
22 Takip Edilen13.5K Takipçiler

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@humanbeingawk I recognize these famous people. Harry Belafonte an Dorothy Dandrige
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@humanbeingawk Remarkable life's journey considering his circumstances
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🕯️The Audacity of Robert Smalls
In the dead of night, May 13, 1862, while the city of Charleston slept under a Confederate flag, a man named Robert Smalls made his decision. He pulled the captain's hat over his head and stepped up to the helm of the CSS Planter, a Confederate vessel he knew better than its own officers. He had weighed the odds and he knew the cruel fate that awaited him and his family if he failed.
Robert Smalls was enslaved. He was also the most skilled steamship pilot in Charleston Harbor. From years of navigating these waters, he knew the coded signals used to identify friendly vessels to the guards. He sounded them as he glided past Confederate held Castle Pinckney, Fort Ripley, and Fort Johnson. Finally he approached the most perilous passage of all, flanked on either side by Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie. Both in direct firing range. Robert Smalls blew the signals and held the course, mimicking the captain's mannerisms so convincingly that not a single alarm was raised.
By dawn, he neared the Union Navy blockade, where he replaced the Confederate flag with a white flag of surrender his wife Hannah had sewn from a bedsheet. He delivered not just one of the Confederacy’s own vessels, its codebooks, and secrets, but also several enslaved families, including his own, to freedom.
A year later Smalls was piloting the Planter near Secessionville when heavy fire caused the Captain to abandon his post and hide in a coal bunker. Smalls took command and navigated the ship to safety. For his bravery, he was promoted to Captain, making him the first Black man to command a United States vessel. He remained Captain of the Planter until it was decommissioned in 1866.
Following the war, Congress awarded him prize money for the vessel’s capture. He used it to buy the Beaufort home of his former master, Henry McKee. He had been born in the small slave cabin behind the house. When McKee’s widow Jane was left destitute, Smalls took her in and cared for her until she died.
During Reconstruction he served in the South Carolina legislature and then as a U.S. Congressman. He championed the 14th and 15th Amendments and free universal access to education.
photo of Robert Smalls

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@humanbeingawk Sweet, strong Ruby Bridges.
I love this photo.
💙💙💙
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Today Ruby Bridges is a civil rights activist, author, and speaker. Through the Ruby Bridges Foundation (established in 1999) she advocates for educational opportunities.
She also speaks nationally on combating racism and the erasure of history. Ruby Bridges has published several children's books, including Dear Ruby, Hear Our Hearts (2024) and Ruby Bridges: A Talk with My Teacher (2025). Annually, she hosts a "Ruby's Walk to School Day."
photo of Ruby Bridges

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@tape_philosophy Abolitionists were devout believers in the liberal humanism myth, so this wouldn’t be the first instance.
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@humanbeingawk I'm more referring to the appeal to liberal humanism that this image constitutes.
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Abolitionists used this image of enslaved mixed race white passing children from Louisiana to draw shock and sympathy from Northerners and motivate them to support abolition and the education of enslaved people.
Paxson, photographer, New York. 1864.
loc.gov/item/201064785…

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@SexyBoyAvenue Many people of African descent have emphasized that they are not Black. It’s caused some confusion. They may have been referencing that.
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@humanbeingawk I am a Black person from Europe and I was told earlier by one of your FBA buddies that I am not Black because I wasn’t born in America. But mixed people still count as long as they are American?
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This brings up a larger question:
At what point is a mixed race person considered non Black? Has the Foundational Black American community reached a consensus on this?
BlackAthena@humanbeingawk
Abolitionists used this image of enslaved mixed race white passing children from Louisiana to draw shock and sympathy from Northerners and motivate them to support abolition and the education of enslaved people. Paxson, photographer, New York. 1864. loc.gov/item/201064785…
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