Anderson@Large

March on Washington: 60 Years Later

Thousands gathered in the nation’s capitol to mark the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Organizers said the march was “not a commemoration, but a continuation” of the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The march was convened by Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network and Martin Luther King III, board chairman of the Drum Major Institute. Co-Chairs include the NAACP, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and the National Urban League.

To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture has on display the original three-page “I Have a Dream” speech that Dr. King delivered on August 28, 1963. NMAAHC Director Kevin Young said:

The words of all its speakers resonate six decades later, and we serve as witnesses to the bravery and dedication of its organizers. To be able to show visitors the copy of the “I Have a Dream” speech King read and improvised from while at the podium is an honor and privilege.

Dr. King’s speech will be on display until September 18, 2023 in NMAAHC’s Defending Freedom, Defining Freedom: The Era of Segregation 1876–1968 Gallery.

Slavery Did Not Benefit Black People

The arrival of the “White Lion” at Point Comfort (Hampton), Virginia on August 20, 1619 marks the beginning of 250 years of chattel slavery in America. The slave ship carried “20 and odd” Africans who were traded to the English colonists for food.

Hungry for attention, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through new Black history standards that instruct students that enslaved Africans developed skills that, “in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” DeSantis offered to debate Vice President Kamala Harris on whether slavery benefited Black people. Harris told DeSantis to take a seat.

The erasure of Black history is American history. The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently acquired a 19th century portrait from which an enslaved child had been erased. The New York Times reports:

For many years, a 19th century painting of three white children in a Louisiana landscape held a secret. Beneath a layer of overpaint meant to look like the sky: the figure of an enslaved youth. Covered up for reasons that remain unspecified, the image of the young man of African descent was erased from the work around the turn of the last century, and languished for decades in attics and a museum basement.

Through conservation and historical research, the children and their enslaved caretaker have been identified.

“Bélizaire and the Frey Children” will be on view at The Met in the fall.

Nina Simone at 1966 Newport Jazz Festival

The 2023 festival is history but if I could go back in time, it would be to the 1966 Newport Jazz Festival. The lineup included Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmy Rushing, Esther Phillips and Joe Williams. Verve Records has issued a newly discovered recording of Nina Simone’s set on July 2, 1966, packaged as the album, “You’ve Got to Learn.”

From All About Jazz:

The release of this magnificent album, recorded live at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1966, is headline news for fans of Nina Simone. None of the material, all of it high grade, has been made available before. Newport promoter George Wein donated the tapes of Simone’s performance to the US Library of Congress, where they lay forgotten until, following Wein’s passing in 2021, Simone historian Nadine Cohodas unearthed them. Simone is in peak form, accompanied by guitarist Rudy Stevenson, bassist Lisle Atkinson and drummer Bobby Hamilton, and audio quality is very good. The album is killer.

The tracklist includes “You’ve Got to Learn,” “I Loves You, Porgy,” “Blues For Mama,” “Be My Husband” and “Mississippi Goddam.”

To order or listen to “You’ve Got to Learn,” go here.

Vote for Harriet Tubman Statue Design

The Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy (OACCE) has unveiled the proposed designs for the statue honoring Harriet Tubman. As I told the Philadelphia Inquirer, it was a needlessly bumpy process to get to this point, but I think Philadelphia can be proud of the visions presented by the five semi-finalists, Vinnie Bagwell, Richard Blake, Tanda Francis, Alvin Pettit and Basil Watson. Their designs reflect the lived experience of being Black in America and the continuing struggle for racial justice.

More than 100 people attended the virtual public design presentation but it’s not too late to have your voice heard. The public is invited to view, rank and comment on the proposed designs. OACCE will share the comments and rankings with the artists who will have an opportunity to revise their design prior to final review by the Advisory Committee.

I won’t rank the designs but I want to comment on the design that captured my imagination, Tanda Francis’ “Together in Freedom.” I was struck by the monumental scale of Harriet Tubman’s face and the potential of the polished panels.

Harriet did not arrive in Philadelphia fully formed. The panels of “Together in Freedom” could breathe life into the places and people who together helped transform Harriet from a thankful self-emancipated woman to the “Moses of Her People.”

Harriet’s Philadelphia story could be told by incorporating historic documents such as William Still’s journal which includes an entry about Harriet’s family, showing places where she lived and worked, and highlighting financiers and agents of the Underground Railroad, including Robert Purvis, Sarah Buchanan and Henrietta Duterte.

The Public Input Survey is open until September 1, 2023 at 11:59pm EST. Click here to view the designs and take the survey.