Inside #TheVault: Kwame Ture

When we scream "Black Power," we are evoking the passionate and progressive vision of Pan-African activist, author, and educator Kwame Ture. Ture is responsible for several of the most popular Black revolutionary struggle events in the United States History. From SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), to Black Panthers, to Pan-Africanism, his words ring into the spirits of many young protesters today.

Kwame Ture was born in the Port of Spain, Trinidad on June 29, 1941 and reunited with his parents in Harlem, New York City, New York at age 11. Ture enrolled in the historic Howard University and studied under the legendary Black intellectuals Toni Morrison and Sterling Brown. During his time at Howard, he became acquainted with Bayard Rustin and facilitated hundreds of Freedom Rides --a name given to the coordinating actions of traveling, mostly college-aged, Civil Rights protestors. When he graduated in 1964 with his degree of philosophy, Ture was offered a full scholarship to Harvard University but turned it down to become a full time Civil Rights Activist. Throughout the 1965 Freedom Summer (a titled given to the voter registration movement led by the Missisippi Freedom Party and spread to tens of cities across the United States), Fannie Lou Hamer mentored a young Ture. SNCC organizer Joann Gavin wrote that Hamer and Carmichael "understood one another as perhaps no one else could.

In May 1965, Ture was elected to succeed John Lewis, who had recently been elected to U.S. Congress, as Chairman for SNCC and immediately changed the rhetoric of the organization. It was during a 1966 march in Selma, Alabama that Ture would first proclaim “Black Power.” The slogan inspired many of the Black Revolutionary movements we see today such as Black is Beautiful Movement, I'm Black and I'm Proud Movement, Black Panthers Movement, Black Feminism Movement, New Black Panthers Movement, Black Lives Matter Movement and more. He changed his name to Kwame Ture in 1968, in honor of his friends and political allies, Pan-African leaders Sekou Touré and Kwame Nkrumah.

Ture spent the last decades of his life traveling across West Africa; denouncing U.S. racism and imperialism; and all while working to build the All African Peoples Revolutionary Party. In 1969, Ture settled permanently in Conakry, Guinea where he died of prostate cancer in 1998. 

Today we honor and celebrate our ancestor Kwame Ture's life in remembrance of his day of birth.

Inside #TheVault: Katherine Dunham

Today we celebrate the life + spirit of the legendary #KatherineDunham. Born this day in Chicago, she transformed the technique and creative talents of young, Black dancers across the West Indies, United States, and Africa. While at the University of Chicago, Mama Dunham was one of the first Black women to attend and graduate with a Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate degree in Anthropology.

Simultaneously, Mama Dunham trained in #Moscow, performed ‘A Negro Rhapsody’ at the Chicago Beaux Arts Theater🎫, danced with the Chicago Opera Company, and accepted an invitation to appear before Rosenwald Foundation which tremendously supported her dance career. Mama Dunham returned her gifts to her community by revolutionizing American modern dance. ✨

Her fusion of traditional African movements into anthropological dance showed the world that African heritage is beautiful. More importantly, Mama Dunham is recognized for bringing Caribbean and African influences to a European-dominated dance realm. In the 1950s, the "Matriarch of Black Dance", Mama Dunham founded the Katherine Dunham Company to formally teach a groundbreaking sequence that combines the innovative interpretations of Caribbean dances, traditional ballet, African rituals, and African American rhythm to create the Dunham Technique.

"Throughout her distinguished career, Katherine Dunham earned numerous honorary doctorates, awards and honors. Among the list are: the Presidential Medal of Arts, The Kennedy Center Honors with Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, Elia Kazan and Virgil Thompson, the plaque d'Honneur Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce Award, French Legion of Honor, Southern Cross of Brazil, Grand Cross of Haiti, NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award, The Albert Schweitzer Music Award at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Academy Laureate, and the Urban Leagues’ Lifetime Achievement Award. Miss Dunham’s recognitions also include a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame, inclusion in the book I Have a Dream, and the Women's International Center’s Living Legacy Award. In her final years, she received an Honorary Degree in Fine Arts from Harvard and Jacobs Pillow gave a special Tribute to Katherine Dunham for her 93rd birthday. In 2000 Katherine Dunham was named America’s irreplaceable Dance Treasure." (SOURCE)

Read more on Mama Katherine Dunham. Share, Like, and Comment on the post below, I would love to hear your thoughts! 💓 

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