2024: 1930 Chronology: Appendix 41: The Nigerian Civil War and The Battle of Ore

 

 Appendix 41 

The Nigerian Civil War 

and

The Battle of Ore

The Nigerian Civil War (also known as the Biafran War and the Nigerian-Biafran War) was a civil war in Nigeria fought between the government of Nigeria and the secessionist state of Biafra from July 6, 1967 to 15 January 15, 1970. Biafra represented nationalist aspirations of the Igbo people, whose leadership felt they could no longer coexist with the Northern-dominated federal government. The conflict resulted from political, economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions which preceded Britain's formal decolonization of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963. Immediate causes of the war in 1966 included ethno-religious riots in Northern Nigeria, a military coup, a countercoup and persecution of Igbo living in Northern Nigeria. Control over the lucrative oil production in the Niger Delta played a vital strategic role.

Within a year, the Federal Government troops surrounded Biafra, capturing coastal oil facilities and the city of Port Harcourt. The blockade imposed during the ensuing stalemate led to mass starvation. During the two and half years of the war, there were about 100,000 overall military casualties, while between 500,000 and 2 million Biafran civilians died of starvation.

In mid-1968, images of malnourished and starving Biafran children saturated the mass media of Western countries. The plight of the starving Biafrans became a cause celebre in foreign countries, enabling a significant rise in the funding and prominence of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union were the main supporters of the Nigerian government, while France, Israel, and some other countries supported Biafra.

*****

The Battle of Ore was the key battle in the Midwest Invasion of 1967. The Midwest Invasion of 1967 (August 9 – September 20, 1967) codenamed Operation Torch. was a military operation between Nigerian and Biafran military forces during the Nigerian Civil War. The invasion began on August 9 when 3,000 Biafran soldiers led by Colonel Victor Banjo crossed the River Niger Bridge into Asaba.  Upon reaching Agbor, the Biafrans split up. With the 12th Battalion moving west capturing the cities of Benin and Ore.  The 18th Battalion swung south, taking Warri, Sapele and Ughelli.  While the 13th Battalion headed north for Auchi, Agenebode and Okene.  Simultaneously, a plot to capture Mid-Western Governor David Ejoor Mid-Western Governor at his home in Benin failed. Nevertheless, the Biafrans, meeting virtually no resistance, had seized the entire Mid-Western Region in less than 12 hours.

Plans were drawn for the 12th Battalion to continue its advance towards Lagos and Ibadan. However, it was devastatingly delayed due to arguments between  Nigerian President Odumegwu Ojukwu and Victor Banjo on whom to appoint as governor of the Mid-West. Giving enough time for Nigeria's Head of State Yakubu Gowon to assemble a defensive line in the west. Also, during the occupation there was widespread hostility between native Urhobo-Isoko, Ijoid and Itsekiri people against the occupying Igbo soldiers. Igbo and native militia groups launched hit and run and reprisal raids against each other. In a last ditch attempt to ease this inter-tribal tension, Ojukwu proclaimed the Republic of Benin under governor Albert Okonkwo on September 19, 1967, only for Nigerian troops to enter Benin the next day on the 20th, ending the new republic's 24 hour span.

The Biafran situation rapidly deteriorated following a Nigerian attack by Murtala Muhammad's 2nd Division at Ore, forcing the Biafrans to immediately retreat. In a large pincer movement, another Nigerian force headed south from Auchi towards Benin, as Benjamin Adekunle's 3rd Marine Commando division landed at Warri and promptly took Ughelli and Sapele. Benin was liberated in a three pronged attack from North, West and South which met little resistance. Biafran troops that were able to retreat fled across the Niger River Bridge into Biafra, destroying it afterwards. Those that were cut off abandoned their weaponry and uniforms and blended into the civilian population until it was safe to return east.

The Biafran retreat from Ore is considered the turning point of the Nigerian Civil War. However, it did not end the hostilities. For two more years, the war lingered on with a blockade of Biafra resulting in the deaths of millions due to starvation.

2024: 1930 Chronology: Appendix 40: "Big Ed" Sanders, The First African American Olympic Heavyweight Boxing Gold Medalist

Appendix 40

"Big Ed" Sanders,

 The First African American Olympic Heavyweight Boxing Gold Medalist 

Hayes Edward "Big Ed" Sanders (b. March 24, 1930, Watts, Los Angeles, California – d. December 12, 1954, Boston, Massachusetts) was an American heavyweight boxer who won an Olympic gold medal in 1952.

Born in Watts, Los Angeles, California, Sanders was the oldest male child in his family. His older sister, Winifred, died in a Scarlet Fever epidemic, in 1939. As a child, Sanders was very large for his age and physically strong. At age 12, he was recollected to be the size of a normal 18 year old. Sanders and his younger brother, Donald, collected coffee cans, filled them with cement and connected two of them with a steel bar to make a weight set for exercising. As "Big Ed" grew bigger, faster and stronger, Sanders excelled in football and in track and field at Jordan High School.

After graduating from Jordan High School, Sanders attended Compton College, where he again excelled in football and a new sport, boxing. In 1950, at the National Junior College Boxing Championships in Ogden, Utah, the six-foot four-inch, 220 pound Sanders attracted the attention of Idaho State College boxing coach Dubby Holt and football coach Babe Caccia. "He had a good left hand, and for the big man that he was, he was a real orthodox, skilled boxer," Holt recalled. Shortly thereafter, Sanders was awarded an athletic scholarship to Idaho State College (now Idaho State University) in Pocatello, Idaho, where he boxed and played football.

Sanders flourished at the nearly all-white Idaho State. In his first collegiate bout, Sanders knocked out the Pacific Coast Heavyweight Champion. Sanders also set a record by never losing a bout in a collegiate dual meet. While attending Idaho State, Sanders fell in love with Pocatellan Mary LaRue, who was then a secretary at Idaho State's athletic department. She later became his wife.

In 1951, Sanders was drafted into the United States Army to fight in the Korean War, but was convinced to join the Navy by his coaches. He then continued his boxing career as part of the United States Navy Boxing Team under G. E. “Moose” Detty. Sanders scored a string of major victories when he defeated the Navy Heavyweight Champion, Kirby Seals, in San Diego, California, and won both the Los Angeles Golden Gloves and the Chicago Golden Gloves Tournaments. He subsequently toured Europe, winning the Golden Gloves Tournament in Berlin, Germany, which enhanced his reputation as a dominant heavyweight. Upon his return to the United States, Sanders trained at the Naval facilities in Maryland in pursuit of his dream — the Olympics.

The Olympics, once a faraway dream, were suddenly within Sanders’ grasp, but the Olympic trials loomed as a major test, as stiff competition from around the country vied for the few coveted United States Team spots. In the Mid-West Regional in Omaha, Nebraska, Sanders was defeated by Army Corporal Lloyd Willis, but still advanced to the finals because of his prior victory over Navy Champion Seals. Sanders and Willis met again in a bout in Kansas City, Missouri that decided the last spot on the Olympic boxing team. With a broken hand, Sanders knocked out Willis, dropping him with a smashing left hook in only one minute.

The 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki turned out not to be much of a challenge for Sanders, as he knocked out his first three opponents and reached the final against Swede Ingemar Johansson, the future heavyweight champion of the world.  Their match was unremarkable. For the entire first round, Johansson avoided Sanders by circling along the edges of the ring. The crowd, growing impatient, called for Johansson to fight. In the second round, Johansson continued the same strategy. Finally, in the third minute of the second round, Johansson was disqualified for failure to fight by the referee. Johansson was ushered from the ring between policemen, and was subsequently refused the silver medal. Sanders later stood atop the prize dais with the place for the silver medalist vacant and a Swedish flag in its unfurled knot. Johansson maintained he was not fleeing Sanders, but rather was trying to tire his huge opponent for a planned third round onslaught but he was not awarded his silver medal for another 30 years.

Sanders, the first African American Olympic Heavyweight Champion and the first American to win gold in the division since 1904, returned to the United States a national hero. The combination of his tenacious fighting style, deep sense of assurance and humble demeanor attracted constant media attention. The City of Los Angeles named a day in his honor, and he was inundated with requests for his attendance at athletic, social and religious events.

After the Olympics, Sanders’ amateur status became a burden on his ability to provide for his wife and young son, Russell, who was born in 1953. Sanders’ Naval commitments took him to San Diego, where he trained with mentor and close friend Moose Detty. Sanders was transferred subsequently to Maryland and then to Boston, where he rented a flat with his wife and son.

As a Navy man, Sanders was prevented from boxing professionally, so he continued to box in the amateur ranks.

Sanders re-entered the 1953 Gold Gloves Tournament and fought future World Heavyweight Champion Sonny Liston in the 1953 Chicago Golden Gloves Championship fight. Sanders entered the fight with a broken thumb, which hampered what was still considered a good performance. Liston emerged victorious, though witnesses at the fight accused Liston of clutching Sanders illegally, and still others in the audience felt Sanders won the fight. Sanders was invited again to the Intercity Golden Gloves Tournament but turned down the opportunity due to the thumb injury.

Sanders ended his amateur career with a record of 43 wins and only 4 losses.

After the Olympic victory, Sanders’ pro career became an intriguing prospect, but Sanders was still in the Navy, which did not allow active duty personnel to box professionally. Additionally, Sanders, now living near a Naval base in Boston, lacked a consistent trainer and heavyweight sparring partners. Sanders set out to become Heavyweight Champion.

Sanders turned to many people for advice, including his Navy Captain. Sanders primary confidante was Detty, who in letters cautioned against turning pro. Though Sanders was an Olympic champion, he had only been boxing for 4 years and needed more seasoning before turning pro.

Nevertheless, Sanders, famous and holding a prized Olympic gold medal, faced immense pressure to turn pro from the boxing world and media. Sanders also needed to provide financially for his wife, Mary, and infant son, Russell. Sanders tried desperately but failed to obtain a discharge from the Navy, which considered him committed until at least 1955. 

Sanders turned pro in February 1953, acting as his own manager to satisfy Naval requirements. Sanders’ IBC advisors, Truman Gibson, Nuno Cam, Sam Silverman, Frankie Carbo and Johnny Dundee, were all allegedly connected to the boxing underworld - strange bedfellows for a man like Sanders, but perhaps unavoidable for success in boxing in Boston 1953–54.

Sanders’ first pro fight took place on March 8, 1954 against Sonny Nichols, with Sanders winning in a first-round TKO. Sanders won his next two fights by knockout before being stunned in a five-round decision loss to Willie Wilson. In private correspondence to Detty, a shocked and saddened Sanders confided that he felt he lacked adequate training and sparring partners other than the highly regarded local heavyweight Willie James. Sanders also complained about intense shoulder pain, and mentioned in letters that it had been x-rayed.

Sanders won a May 22, 1954 bout against Jack Flood and then avenged his earlier loss to Willie Wilson later that summer in August 1954, winning an eight-round decision. On October 5, 1954, Sanders fought to a draw with Bert Whitehurst.  Sanders and Whitehurst fought a rematch only three weeks later on October 26, 1954, with Sanders winning a ten-round unanimous decision. Concluding a turbulent year, Sanders had fought eight professional fights within only nine months, winning six and losing two fights in close decisions.

On Saturday, December 11, 1954, Sanders fought his sparring partner Willie James, the New England Heavyweight Champion at Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The fight was his last. James was a highly regarded heavyweight who in February 1954 had performed well in sparring matches against Sanders. Sanders, who had complained previously of headaches and had his shoulder X-rayed just a few weeks prior, was uncharacteristically listless in the opinion of some observers. James and Sanders traded heavy blows for ten rounds. In the eleventh round, Sanders appeared "tired", in James’ estimation, and was felled by a simple punch combination. Sanders dropped to the canvas and lost consciousness immediately, breathing laboriously while lying on his side. Ring personnel carried him out of the ring by stretcher.

Sanders never regained consciousness. He died 18 hours later, on December 12, after a long surgery to relieve pressure on the brain. The coroner concluded that Sanders likely aggravated a previous injury. Doctors and trainers concluded Sanders probably suffered a prior injury that was aggravated in the James fight. Sanders was laid to rest at Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, California, after a 21-gun military salute.

Outside of the ring, Sanders was known as affable, gentlemanly and highly intelligent.

On May 26, 2012, Sanders' son Russell presided over his posthumous induction into the Compton Community College Athletics Hall of Fame, under the category of boxing. He also was inducted into the Idaho State University Athletic Hall of Fame.

2024: 1930 Chronology: Appendix 39: Caribbean Racial Categories and Composition

 

In a 2014 population survey of the people of the Dominican Republic, 70.4% self-identified as mixed (mestizo/indio 58%, mulatto 12.4%), 15.8% as black, 13.5% as white, and 0.3% as "other". A different survey in 2006 reported 67.6% mulatto and indio, 18.3% black, and 13.6% white.  However, according to the electoral roll completed in 1996, 82.5% of the adult population were indio, 7.55% white, 4.13% black, and 2.3% mulatto. Historically there has been a reluctance to expressly identify African ancestry, with most identifying or being identified as mestizo or indio rather than mulatto or black.

*****

Mulatto (French: mulâtre, Haitian Creole: milat) is a term in Haiti that is historically linked to Haitians who are born to one white parent and one black parent, or to two mulatto parents. Contemporary usage of the term in Haiti is also applied to the bourgeoisie, pertaining to high social and economic stature.

People of mulatto and white descent constitute a minority of five percent (5%) of the Haitian population.

*****

In the colonial period of Haiti, the French imposed a three-tiered social structure similar to the casta system in colonial Hispanic America.  At the top of the social and political ladder was the white elite (grands blancs). At the bottom of the social structure were the enslaved blacks (noirs), most of whom had been born in Africa. Between the white elite and the slaves arose a third group, the freedmen (affranchis), most of whom were descended from unions of slave owners and slaves umder an arrangement known as placage. Some Mulatto freedmen inherited land from their white fathers, became relatively wealthy and owned slaves (perhaps as many as one-fourth of all slaves in Saint-Domingue belonged to affranchi owners). Nevertheless, racial codes kept the affranchis socially and politically inferior to the whites in the racial hierarchy. Also between the white elite and the slaves were the poor whites (petits blancs), who considered themselves socially superior to the Mulattoes, even if they sometimes found themselves economically inferior to them.

Of a population of 519,000 in 1791, 87 percent were slaves, 8 percent were whites, and 5 percent were freedmen. Because of harsh living and working conditions, the mortality rate among the enslaved blacks was extremely high, so new slaves were continuously imported to replace the ones who died. Thus, at the time of the slave rebellion of 1791, most slaves had been born in Africa rather than in Saint-Domingue.

The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) changed the country's social structure. The colonial ruling class, and much of the white population, was killed or expelled, and the plantation economy was largely destroyed. The earliest black and mulatto leaders attempted to restore a plantation system that relied on an essentially free labor force, through strict military control, but the system collapsed during the tenure of Alexandre Petion (1806–18). The Haitian Revolution broke up plantations and distributed land among the former slaves. Through this process, the new Haitian upper class lost control over agricultural land and labor, which had been the economic basis of colonial control. To maintain their superior economic and social position, the new Haitian upper class turned away from agricultural pursuits in favor of more urban-based activities, particularly government.

The nineteenth-century Haitian ruling class consisted of two groups: the urban elite and the military leadership. The urban elite were primarily a closed group of educated, comparatively wealthy, and French-speaking Mulattoes. Birth determined an individual's social position, and shared values and intermarriage reinforced class solidarity. The military, however, was a means of advancement for disadvantaged black Haitians. In a shifting, and often uneasy, alliance with the military, the urban elite ruled the country and kept the peasantry isolated from national affairs. The urban elite promoted French norms and models as a means of separating themselves from the peasantry. Thus, French language and manners, orthodox Roman Catholicism, and light skin were important criteria of high social position. The elite disdained manual labor, industry, and commerce in favor of the more genteel professions, such as law and medicine.

*****

A casta is a term which has been interpreted by certain historians during the 20th century to describe mixed-race individuals in Spanish America, resulting from unions of Spaniards (españoles), Amerindians (Indios), and Africans (Negros). Basic mixed-race categories that appeared in official colonial documentation include Mestizo, generally offspring of a Spaniard and an India; Castizo, offspring of a Spaniard and a Mestiza; Mulatto, offspring of a Spaniard and a Negra; and Morisco was the offspring of a Spaniard and a Mulatta. There were a plethora of terms for mixed-race persons of indigenous and African ancestry, some of which appear in official documentation, but many do not.

Racial category labels had legal and social consequences, since racial status was a key organizing principle of Spanish colonial rule. Often called the sistema de castas or the sociedad de castas, there was, in fact, no fixed system of classification for individuals. There was considerable fluidity in society, with individuals being identified by different categories simultaneously or over time. Individuals self-identified by particular terms, often to shift their status from one category to another to their advantage. For example, Mestizos were exempt from tribute obligations, but were subject to the Inquisition, unlike Indios, who paid tribute and were exempt from the Inquisition. A Mestizo might try to "pass" as an Indio to escape the Inquisition. An Indio might try to pass as a Mestizo to escape tribute obligations.

*****

Affranchi is a former French legal term denoting a freedman or emancxipated slave, but was a term used to refer pejoratively to mulattoes. It is used in the English language to describe the social class of freedmen in Saint-Domingue, and other slave-holding French territories, who held legal rights intermediate between those of free whites and enslaved Africans. In Saint-Domingue, roughly half of the affranchis were gens de couleur libres (free people of color; Mulatto) and the other half African slaves.

The term is derived from the French word for emancipation — affranchissement, or enfranchisement in terms of political rights. But, the affranchis were barred from the franchise (voting) prior to a 1791 court case, which followed the French Revolution. The decision in their favor prompted a backlash from the French white planter class on Saint-Domingue, who also exerted power in France. These elements contributed to the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution.

The affranchis had legal and social advantages over enslaved Africans. They became a distinct class in the society between whites and slaves. They could get some education, were able to own land, and could attend some French colonial entertainments. Planters who took slave women or free women of color as concubines, often sent their sons to France for education. In some cases these sons entered the French military. The parents were more likely to settle property on them as well. Because of such property and class issues, some free men of color considered themselves to have status above that of the petits blancs, shopkeepers and workers. Nonetheless, the latter had more political rights in the colony until after the Revolution.

The colonists passed so many restrictions that the affranchis were limited as a separate caste. The affranchis could not vote or hold colonial administrative posts, or work in professional careers as doctors or lawyers. There were sumptuary laws: the free people of color were forbidden to wear the style of clothes favored by the wealthy white colonists. In spite of the disadvantages, many educated affranchis identified culturally with France rather than with the enslaved population. A social class in between, the free people of color sometimes had tensions with both whites and enslaved Africans.

Ambitious mulattoes worked to gain acceptance from the white colonists who held power in that society. As they advanced in society, affranchis often also held land and slaves. Some acted as creditors for planters. One of the affranchi leaders in the late 18th century, Julien Raimond, an indigo planter, claimed that affranchis owned a third of all the slaves in the colony at that time. In the early years of the French Revolution and Haitian Revolution, many gens de couleur were committed to maintaining the institution of slavery. They wanted political equality based on class - that is, extended to men of property, regardless of skin color.

*****

Plaçage was a recognized extralegal system in French and Spanish slave colonies of North America (including the Caribbean) by which ethnic European men entered into civil unions with non-Europeans of African, Native American and mixed-race descent. The term comes from the French placer meaning "to place with". The women were not legally recognized as wives but were known as placées; their relationships were recognized among the free people of color (gens de couleur libres) as mariages de la main gauche or left-handed marriages. They became institutionalized with contracts or negotiations that settled property on the woman and her children, and in some cases gave them freedom if they were enslaved. The system flourished throughout the French and Spanish colonial periods, reaching its zenith during the latter, between 1769 and 1803.

Placage was widely practiced in New Orleans, where planter society had created enough wealth to support the system. It also took place in the Latin-influenced cities of Natchez and Biloxi, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; Saint Augustine and Pensacola, Florida; as well as Saint-Domingue (now the Republic of Haiti).  Placage became associated with New Orleans as part of its cosmopolitan society.

2024: 1930 Chronology: Appendix 38: The Green Pastures

 The Green Pastures is a play written by Marc Connelly adapted from Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun (1928), a collection of stories written by Roark Bradford. The play was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930. The Green Pastures had the first Broadway play to have an all-black cast.  The play and the film adaptation were generally well received and hailed by white drama and film critics. African-American intellectuals and cultural critics were more critical of Connelly's claim to be presenting an authentic view of black religious thought.

The play portrays episodes from the Old Testament as seen through the eyes of a young African-American child in the Depression-era South, who interprets The Bible in terms familiar to her. Following Bradford's lead, Connelly (a white man) set the biblical stories in New Orleans and in an all-black context. He diverged from Bradford's work, however, in enlarging the role of the character "De Lawd" (God), played on stage by Richard B. Harrison (1864–1935). The Green Pastures also featured numerous African American spirituals arranged by Hall Johnson and performed by The Hall Johnson Choir. The cast also included singer Mabel Ridley. The chorus included torch singer Eva Sylvester and members of the Sylvester family as cherubs.

Connolly later collaborated with William Keighley in directing a Hollywood film adaptation of the play, which was made in 1936, starring Rex Ingram as "De Lawd". At the time, the film caused some controversy. It was banned in Australia, Finland, and Hungary on the grounds that it was "blasphemous" to portray Biblical characters in this way.

The play was adapted for television and presented twice during the days of live TV on the Hallmark Hall of Fame in 1957 and 1959. Both productions starred William Warfield as "De Lawd", in the largest dramatic acting role he ever had on television.

In the United Kingdom, a radio adaption by Roy Lockwood was produced from New York in October 1945. A United Kingdom television version was broadcast by BBC Television in the BBC Sunday-Night Theatre series on September 14, 1958, produced by Eric Fawcett and starring William Marshall as De Lawd.

2024: 1930 Chronology: Appendix 37: Archibald Grimke, The 1919 Spingarn Medal Recipient

Appendix 37

Archibald Grimke

The 1919 Spingarn Medal Recipient

Archibald Henry Grimke (b. August 17, 1849, Charleston, South Carolina - d. February 25, 1930, Washington, D. C.) was an American lawyer, intellectual, journalist, diplomat and community leader in the 19th and early 20th centuries.  A graduate of freedmen's schools, Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), and Harvard Law School, Grimke later served as American Consul to the Dominican Republic from 1894 to 1898.  Working principally in Boston and Washington, D. C., Grimke was an activist for rights for African Americans.  He was a national vice-president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (the NAACP), as well as president of its Washington, D. C. branch.

Grimké was born into slavery near Charleston, South Carolina, in 1849. He was the eldest of three sons of Nancy Weston, who was also born into slavery as the daughter of an enslaved African or African American female and her white owner, and her owner Henry W. Grimké, a widower. Henry recognized his sons, but he did not manumit (free) them, nor did he make the rest of his family aware of their existence. Archibald's brothers were Francis and John. Archibald's father, Henry was a member of a prominent, large slaveholding family in Charleston. His father and his white relatives on his father's side were planters and active in political and social circles.

Henry Grimke, Archibald's father, actually had two families. After becoming a widower, Henry began a relationship with Weston. It appeared to be a caring one. He moved with her out of the city to his plantation where they and their family would have more privacy. She was his official domestic partner in the house and with Nancy, he fathered three sons. Henry taught Nancy how to read, a skill that she would pass on to their sons.  

In 1852, as he was dying, Henry tried to protect his second family by willing Nancy, who was pregnant with their third child, and their two sons Archibald and Francis to his legal (white) son and heir Montague Grimké, whose mother was Henry's deceased wife. He directed that they "be treated as members of the family," but Montague never provided well for them.

Henry's sister Eliza, executor of his will, brought the family to Charleston and allowed them to live as if they were free, but she did not aid them financially. Nancy Weston took in laundry and did other work. When the boys were old enough, they attended a public school with free blacks. In 1860 Montague "claimed them as slaves," bringing the boys into his home as servants. Later he hired out both Archibald and Francis. 

 During the American Civil War, Francis ran off and became a valet for a Confederate Army Officer stationed at Castle Pinckney, a jail for Union soldiers. Francis was found and jailed for a time before being returned to Montague Grimké, who sold him to another Confederate officer.  Archibald ran away and hid for two years with relatives until after the end of the Civil War.

After the Civil War ended, the three Grimké boys attended freedmen's schools, where their talents were recognized by the teachers. They gained support to send Archibald and Francis to the North. They studied at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, a college established for the education of blacks.

Francis and his brother went through many hardships afterward, as their father had not provided for them financially. After the Civil War, which disrupted family fortunes further, Archibald, Francis and John were enrolled at Morris Street school, part of the Charleston public schools, a segregated system set up for the first time during the Reconstruction Era by a Republican-dominated, biracial legislature. At the Morris Street School, the talents of three brothers were recognized by the teachers.  The two older Grimke brothers gained support to send Archibald and Francis to the North. 

 John, the youngest son, did not take so well with education. .It appears that he also went North for college but he dropped out.  He chose to return to South Carolina to care for their mother, Nancy.  Later, there appears to have been a rift between John, the one left behind, and his older brothers.  For whatever reasons, John cut himself off from the rest of the family.  Later, it was reported that he moved to Florida.  He died in 1918, the youngest brother dying first.

After the Morris Street School, the brothers, Archibald and Francis, were then sponsored by Mrs. Pillsbury, sister-in-law of Parker Pillsbury, for higher education at Lincoln University. It was a historically black college founded in Pennsylvania for the education of blacks. Archibald and Francis received tuition from a church committee, but had no money for books and clothing.

Nevertheless, despite the hardships, the two brothers manage to excel at Lincoln University and financial assistance would soon come from an unlikely source.

Unbeknownst to the brothers, by the time their father Henry Grimke began his relationship with their mother Nancy Weston, Henry's two youngest sisters, Sarah and Angelina, had been gone from Charleston for years. Unwilling to live in a slave society, they left the South and their family and became noted abolitionists and feminists, drawing on their first-hand knowledge of slavery's horrors. Together known as the Grimke sisters, they were active as writers and speakers in Northern abolitionist circles, having joined the Quakers and the American Anti-Slavery Society. After Angelina married Theodore Weld, the three lived and worked for years in New Jersey. They operated a school together. In 1864, they moved to Hyde Park, Massachusetts, a new community outside Boston.

In February 1868 Angelina Grimké Weld read an article in The Anti-Slavery Standard in which Edwin Bower, a professor at Lincoln University near Philadelphia, compared Lincoln's all-black student body favorably with any class I have ever had, with special praise for a student after a speech of his was reported. Because of the unusual name, she wrote to learn whether he was related to her family. After learning that he was their nephew and about his brothers, Angelina and Sarah officially acknowledged the three mixed-race boys as family. The sisters supported the three boys while they were in college and opened their home to them. 

Angelina and Sarah tried to provide Archibald and Francis with better opportunities. They paid for their nephews' education.  Both Archibald and Francis graduated from Lincoln University in 1870. Archibald and Francis then attended Harvard University and Howard University, respectively, for law. Francis shifted to Princeton Theological Seminary and became a minister. The Grimké sisters also introduced the young men to their abolitionist circles. 

Archibald graduated from Harvard Law School in 1874.  After getting established with his law practice in Boston, Massachusettws, Archibald Grimké met and married Sarah Stanley, a white woman from the Midwest. Archibald and Sarah had a daughter, Angelina Weld Grimke (named for her great aunt Angelina Grimke Weld), who was born in 1880. Archibald and Sarah separated while their daughter was young, and Stanley returned with Angelina to the Midwest when the girl was three. When Angelina was seven, Stanley started working. She brought Angelina back to her father in Boston. The couple never reconciled, and Stanley never saw her daughter again. Sarah Stanley committed suicide by poison in 1898.

In 1894, Grimké was appointed as consul to the Dominican Republic. While he was in Central America, his daughter Angelina lived for years with his brother Francis and his wife Charlotte in Washington, DC, where Francis was minister of the 15th Street Presbyterian Church.

After graduating from school, Angelina became a teacher and writer. Her essays and poetry were published by The Crisis, the major publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).  In 1916, Angelina wrote the play, Rachel, which addressed lynching, in response to a call by the NAACP for works to protest the controversial film, Birth of a Nation.  Angelina's play is one of the first plays by an African American considered to be part of the Harlem Renaissance.  In addition, Angelina wrote poetry, some of which is now considered the first literary works by an African American lesbian.

Archibald Grimké lived and worked in the Boston area most of his career. Beginning in the 1880s, he began to get active in politics and began speaking out about the rise of white supremacy following the end of Reconstruction in the South. In 1884, Archibald was appointed editor of the Hub, a Republican newspaper that tried to attract black readers. Grimké supported equal rights for blacks, both in the paper and in public lectures, which were popular the nineteenth century. He became increasingly active in politics and was chosen for the Republican Party's state convention in 1884. That year he was also appointed to the board of a state hospital for the insane. Grimké became involved in the women's rights movement, which his aunts had supported, and addressed it in the Hub.

 
Archibald was elected as president of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. Believing that the Republicans were not doing enough, he left the party in 1886. In 1889, he joined the staff of the Boston Herald as a special writer.  Shortly after 1890, Grimke removed himself from politics and focused on scholarship.  He wrote major biographies of William Lloyd Garrison and Charles Sumner.

In the interim, in the South, the situation for blacks was deteriorating, prompting Archibald Grimké to resume the struggle against racism, allying at times with other major leaders of the day. He became involved in Frederick Douglass' National Council of Colored People, a predecessor of the NAACP.  The National Council of Colored People grappled with issues of education for blacks, especially in the South. Grimké disagreed with Booker T. Washington about emphasizing industrial and agricultural education for freedmen (the South still had a primarily agricultural economy). He believed there needed to be opportunities for scholarly higher education such as he had.

In 1894, Grimké was appointed as consul to the Dominican Republic. He would hold this position until 1898.  While Archibald was in the Caribbean, his daughter Angelina lived with his brother Francis and his wife Charlotte in Washington, D. C., where Francis was minister of the 15th Street Presbyterian Church.

After graduating from school, Angelina became a teacher and writer. Her essays and poetry were published by The Crisis, the major publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).  In 1916, Angelina wrote the play, Rachel, which addressed lynching, in response to a call by the NAACP for works to protest the controversial film, Birth of a Nation.  Angelina's play is one of the first plays by an African American considered to be part of the Harlem Renaissance.  In addition, Angelina wrote poetry, some of which is now considered the first literary works by an African American lesbian.

In 1901, with several other men, Archibald Grimke started The Guardian, a newspaper in which they could express their views. The trustees of The Guardian selected William Monroe Trotter as editor. Together Grimké and Trotter also organized the Boston Literary and Historical Association, which at the time was a gathering of men opposed to Washington's views. For a time, he was allied with W. E. B. Du Bois, but Grimké continued to make his own way between the two groups.

Despite earlier conflict with Washington and his followers, in 1905, Grimké started writing for The Age, published in New York and the leading black paper.  The Age was allied with Washington. He wrote about national issues from his own point of view, for instance, urging more activism and criticizing President Theodore Roosevelt for failing to adequately support black troops in Brownsville, Texas, where they were accused of starting a riot.

Continuing his interest in intellectual work, Archibald Grimke served as president of the American Negro Academy, from 1903 to 1919, which supported African American scholars and promoted higher education for blacks. He published several papers with them, dealing with issues of the day, such as his analysis in "Modern Industrialism and the Negroes of the United States" (1908). He believed that capitalism as practiced in the United States could help freedmen who left agriculture to achieve independence and true freedom.

In 1907, Grimke became involved with the Niagara Movement, started by Du Bois, and later with the NAACP.  Grimke and Du Bois continued to struggle to find the best way to deal with racism and advance equal rights, at a time when the lynching of black men in the South continued.

Grimké became increasingly active as a leader in the NAACP, which was founded in 1909. First, he was active in Boston, for instance, writing letters in protest of proposed legislation in Washington, D. C. to prohibit interracial marriages. (The legislation was not passed.) In 1913, he was recruited by national leaders to become the president of the Washington, D. C. branch and moved to the capital with his daughter Angelina. The move reunited Archibald and Angelina with Archibald's brother Francis and his wife Charlotte who still lived in Washington D. C.

Grimké led the public protest in Washington, D.C., against the segregation of federal offices under President Woodrow Wilson, who acceded to wishes of other Southerners on his cabinet. Grimké testified before Congress against it in 1914 but did not succeed in gaining changes. About this time, he also became a national vice-president of the NAACP. The organization supported the United States in World War I, but Grimké highlighted the racial discrimination against blacks in the military and worked to change it.

Archibald fell ill in 1928. At the time, he and Angelina were living with his brother Francis, who by then was a widower. Archibald's daughter and brother cared for him until his death in 1930.

Archibald Grimke's greatest legacy was undoubtedly his stewardship of the District of Columbia branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.  The District of Columbia branch was the organization's largest and came to represent the NAACP on all issues involving federal legislation and policy.  As branch president, Grimke led the efforts of the NAACP into the 1920s, lobbying Congress and federal agencies to inhibit the segregationist policies of Woodrow Wilson's administration, while fighting against discrimination in the Washington community itself.  In 1919, in recognition of these efforts and of his lifetime of service defending the rights of African Americans, Archibald Henry Grimke received the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's highest honor.

2024: 1930 Chronology: Appendix 36: Female Genital Mutilation

Appendix 36

Female Genital Mutilation

Female genital mutilation (FGM) (also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision) is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the vulva. The practice is found in some countries of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and within their respective diasporas. As of 2023, the United Nations Internation Children's Education Fund (UNICEF) estimates that "at least 200 million girls... in 31 countries"—including Indonesia, Iraq, Yemen, and 27 African countries including Egypt — had been subjected to one or more types of FGM.

Typically carried out by a traditional circumciser using a blade, FGM is conducted from days after birth to puberty and beyond. In half of the countries for which national statistics are available, most girls are cut before the age of five. Procedures differ according to the country or ethnic group. They include removal of the clitoral hood and clitoral glans; removal of the inner labia; and removal of the inner and outer labia, and closure of the vulva. In this last procedure, known as infibulation, a small hole is left for the passage of urine and menstrual fluid; the vagina is opened for intercourse and opened further for childbirth. The practice is rooted in gender inequality, attempts to control women's sexuality, and ideas about purity, modesty, and beauty. It is usually initiated and carried out by women, who see it as a badge of honor, and who fear that failing to have their daughters and granddaughters cut will expose the girls to social exclusion. Adverse health effects depend on the type of procedure. They can include recurrent infections, difficulty urinating and passing menstrual flow, chronic pain, the development of cysts, an inability to get pregnant, complications during childbirth, and fatal bleeding. There are no known health benefits.

There have been international efforts since the 1970s to persuade practitioners to abandon FGM, and it has been outlawed or restricted in most of the countries in which it occurs, although the laws are often poorly enforced. Since 2010, the United Nations has called upon healthcare providers to stop performing all forms of the procedure, including reinfibulation after childbirth and symbolic "nicking" of the clitoral hood. The opposition to the practice is not without its critics, particularly among anthropologists, who have raised questions about cultural relativism and the universality of human rights. According to the UNICEF, international FGM rates have risen significantly in recent years, from an estimated 200 million in 2016 to 230 million in 2024, with progress towards its abandonment stalling or reversing in many countries.

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Female genital cutting (FGC) is a ritual surgical procedure that is traditional in some societies. FGC has been practiced by a wide variety of cultures and as a result includes a number of related procedures and social meanings.

The term female genital cutting refers to a wide continuum of procedures that range from a symbolic nick to the removal of a great deal of tissue from the genital area. The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined four categories of FGC:

1. Clitoridectomy. Type 1 FGC involves the partial or total removal of the clitoris. In some cases, the prepuce (clitoral hood) is also removed.

2. Excision. Type 2 FGC involves the partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora. It can also include the removal of the labia majora.

3. Infibulation (also called Pharoanic circumcision). The vaginal opening is reduced by removing all or parts of the external genitalia (the clitoris, labia minora, and labia majora) and sewing, pinning, or otherwise causing the remaining tissue to fuse together during the healing process.

4. Those procedures that cause genital trauma but do not fit Types 1–3. Type 4 FGC may involve nicking, piercing, scraping, or cauterizing the genitalia, placing caustic substances in the vagina, or other practices.  The physiological repercussions of FGC generally increase with the amount of cutting.  Girls subject to Type 3 FGC experience larger numbers of, and more-serious, consequences than do girls subject to less-invasive procedures. Short-term consequences can include severe bleeding, tetanus and other infections, debilitating pain, and death. Long-term consequences can include difficulty expelling urine and menstrual blood, painful sexual intercourse, urethral scarring or closure, and long delays during childbirth that can lead to the death of the mother or the child. In some groups that practice infibulation, notably those in Sudan, women are reinfibulated after the birth of each child. In other groups, such as those from Somalia, postpartum reinfibulation is not common.

In anthropological terms FGC is “polythetic,” a phenomenon that carries multiple, sometimes conflicting, meanings within a culture and when viewed in cross-cultural comparison. Because many cases of forcible FGC were recorded during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the practice became the focus of international debates about the relative value of individual rights versus cultural traditionalism. Responses to this debate have been equivocal; even within a given culture, some people may see FGC as an empowering procedure that makes “silly girls” into “real women,” and others may see it as a brutal method of control.

Cultural analyses of the phenomenon are complicated by the variability of the procedure and by the characteristics of the informants (their age, sex, religion, marital status, and the like). Such studies are also susceptible to research bias, especially when background factors predispose the investigator to view FGC outside its cultural context (a circumstance referred to colloquially as the “ick factor”).

At one end of the spectrum of meaning, the procedure is viewed as one of several steps undertaken by young women, typically in their teens but sometimes in their 20s or 30s, on a journey that also includes marriage, motherhood, and recognition as fully competent persons (usually, but not always, in that order). Under these circumstances the age and voluntary participation of the young women may render the surgery as a positive undertaking.  Indeed, in cultures that imbue FGC with these meanings, young women who have been denied the procedure have been known to attempt to perform it on themselves.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, FGC is viewed as a method of control through which elders guard a girl’s virginity, reduce her sexual desire, and permanently mark her as a second-class citizen. In such cases the procedure is most often performed in infancy or childhood. Under these circumstances the age and forced participation of the girl can render the surgery a terrifying experience. In such cultures, it is increasingly common for girls or some of their relatives to resist or delay the surgery, even to the point of requesting political asylum. 

A 2008 interagency statement issued by WHO and several other United Nations agencies called for an end to FGC. The statement noted 39 countries in which it was reportedly practiced. However, FGC was actually more widespread than this, as the list excluded countries where migrant communities engaged in FGC but in which it was not widely accepted. In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously passed a nonbinding resolution that exhorted member countries to ban FGC.

A WHO report (2000) attempting to enumerate the extent of FGC had estimated that between 100 million and 140 million women and girls had undergone some form of the procedure, more than 90 million of them living in Africa. On that continent, the procedure was thought to be performed on approximately 3 million girls each year. The report also estimated that approximately 90 percent of all FGC procedures worldwide were of Types 1, 2, or 4. Infibulation was common mainly in Sudan, Somalia, and Nigeria. Most of the remaining FGC loci were in the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia.