To commemorate and celebrate the contributions to our nation made by people of African descent, American historian Carter G. Woodson established Black History Week. The first celebration occurred on Feb. 12, 1926. For many years, the second week of February was set aside for this celebration to coincide with the birthdays of abolitionist/editor Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, as part of the nation’s bicentennial, the week was expanded to a month. Since then, U.S. presidents have proclaimed February as National African-American History Month.
In the fall of 1870, a handful of students made their way through the northwest quadrant of the nation’s capital, and through the doors of D.C.’s “Preparatory High School for Colored Youth,” the country’s first public high school for African American children. The students and teachers who graced its hallways would be heard through the years in the halls of Congress, in the highest ranks of the United States military, at the heart of our civil rights movement, and in the upper echelons of medical and scientific study.
One such voice was that of Carter G. Woodson; a journalist, author, historian, and co-founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). It was through his work with the ASNLH that Woodson spearheaded the celebration of “Negro History Week” in America, which served as the precursor to Black History Month, which was officially recognized by President Gerald Ford in 1976. Woodson taught us that, “those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.”
Modern slavery is hidden in plain sight and is deeply intertwined with life in every corner of the world.
Each day, people are tricked, coerced, or forced into exploitative situations that they cannot refuse or leave. Each day, we buy the products or use the services they have been forced to make or offer without realising the hidden human cost.
An estimated 50 million people were living in modern slavery on any given day in 2021, an increase of 10 million people since 2016.
Walk Free’s flagship report, the Global Slavery Index (GSI) provides national estimates of modern slavery for 160 countries. Our estimates draw on thousands of interviews with survivors collected through nationally representative household surveys across 75 countries and our assessment of national-level vulnerability.
With the exception of contributions from external authors, the Global Slavery Index is produced by Walk Free. We are solely responsible for the contents of this report.
Each day, people are tricked, coerced, or forced into exploitative situations that they cannot refuse or leave. Each day, we buy the products or use the services they have been forced to make or offer without realising the hidden human cost.
An estimated 50 million people were living in modern slavery on any given day in 2021, an increase of 10 million people since 2016.
Walk Free’s flagship report, the Global Slavery Index (GSI) provides national estimates of modern slavery for 160 countries. Our estimates draw on thousands of interviews with survivors collected through nationally representative household surveys across 75 countries and our assessment of national-level vulnerability.
With the exception of contributions from external authors, the Global Slavery Index is produced by Walk Free. We are solely responsible for the contents of this report.
At least 12 Black chemists and physicists worked as primary researchers on the team that developed the technology behind the atomic bomb.
ZURI SWIMMER/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
During the height of World War II between 1942 and 1945, the U.S. government’s top-secret program to build an atomic bomb, code-named the Manhattan Project, cumulatively employed some 600,000 people, including scientists, technicians, janitors, engineers, chemists, maids, and day laborers.
While rarely acknowledged, African American men and women were among them—their ranks bolstered by greater wartime employment opportunities and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802 of 1941 outlawing racial discrimination in the defense industries.
At the project’s rural production sites in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Hanford, Washington, Black workers were relegated to mostly menial jobs like janitors, cooks, and laborers, regardless of education or experience. But in the project’s urban research centers—the Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory and at Columbia University in New York—several Black scientists were able to play key roles in the development of the two atomic bombs that were released on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, effectively ending the war.
Trayvon Martin, an African-American teenager, was shot dead by a “neighborhood watch” member as Trayvon was walking home from a convenience store. Trayvon was armed with nothing but a bottle of iced tea and a bag of Skittles. A few days ago, Alan Grayson was invited on national TV to discuss the tragedy. This is what he said:
I am joined by Alan Grayson, former Florida Congressman, who is from the Orlando area. Congressman, good to have you with us tonight. You have been at these rallies for Trayvon all week, and have been paying close attention to the case.
What are your impressions of this police house videotape that was obtained tonight?
ALAN GRAYSON: Well, I think it blows apart the Zimmerman argument that he was acting out of fear rather than out of hatred. But I’ll tell you, I sometimes wonder why people think that’s some kind of good defense. I don’t believe it in his case. I think if you call someone an “F’ing coon,” then you’re animated by nothing but hatred.
But still he seems to be operating under the illusion that if he simply says that he feared, then somehow that excuses the death of a young boy. It doesn’t. It just doesn’t. The boy is dead. If you do the crime, you’re going to have to do the time.
SCHULTZ: Do you believe that this videotape is inconsistent with the police report?
GRAYSON: Yes, I’ve read the police report. I saw the tape. And I think there is an inconsistency.
SCHULTZ: And what would you be thinking right now if you were representing the Martin family in this case?
GRAYSON: I think that this tape proves their point. Zimmerman should, under no circumstances, be allowed to have a gun. It should have been taken from him a long time ago. And he should have been arrested a long time ago.
He should be tried. And it looks to me like he’ll be convicted.
SCHULTZ: Alan, what do you make of the police report and the listing of the deceased as a John Doe? The timing of the report, when it was put together and then released? There are many more questions here than answers, are there not?
GRAYSON: I think so. But, honestly, I don’t find much fault in what the police did, except for the fact that [Zimmerman] hasn’t been arrested yet. Zimmerman should have been arrested. That’s the main fly in the ointment at this point. Nobody who does anything like that should be allowed to walk the streets.
SCHULTZ: Are you bothered by the casualness of this videotape and how one of the officers seems to be searching the pockets of George Zimmerman?
GRAYSON: It bothers me to see Zimmerman acting as if nothing had happened. He killed a 17-year-old boy. He stalked and killed a 17-year-old boy. And it’s appalling to me to see the kind of casualness that that video displays.
SCHULTZ: Do you know the state’s attorney, Wolfinger, who recommended that they not press charges and told the lead investigator at the time not to go down that road?
GRAYSON: No. It’s a terrible mistake. And the law really does not give them the excuse to do that. They’re referring to what’s known as the “Hold Your Ground” or “Stand Your Ground” law, which I often refer to as the “Shoot To Kill” law. That’s a law that led to a tripling – a tripling – in so-called “justifiable homicides” in Florida from the year that it was enacted all the way to the present.
It’s a bad law, but it does not apply to this situation. It does not apply to chasing after someone and shooting him in the chest.
SCHULTZ: Would that be hard to prove with the Stand Your Ground law as maybe something the Zimmerman team would use as a defense?
GRAYSON: Listen, juries figure out that sort of thing, and things way more complicated than that sort of thing, all the time. There’s no way that Zimmerman can possibly argue that he was simply standing his ground. That law was meant to apply to people who are in their homes, maybe people in their cars, not people who are literally chasing someone around the neighborhood and then killing him.
SCHULTZ: And what do you make of the right-wing smear campaign that has been fostered by some on the right that, you know, this kid was suspended from school and he was somewhat troublesome, in defense of the actions of George Zimmerman?
GRAYSON: I think it shows that many on the right wing have a taste of blood in their mouths. They kind of like the idea of vigilantism, and this is perfect case for them.
SCHULTZ: And the Stand Your Ground law, it went into effect in 2005. There have been 93 cases, 65 deaths. Do you sense that this is a turning point in this country that maybe these kinds of laws will be repealed? Or do you see more of them coming? Because we all know that ALEC, it’s well-reported that ALEC and also the NRA have been pushing these laws on legislative sessions around this country.
GRAYSON: I think it’s a turning point that’s far more profound than that. I think we have to stop hating each other. And we have to start cherishing our differences.
The very notion that you would feel fear or hatred towards a boy who you never met in your entire life simply because he’s black is appalling. I thought that we had moved past that. It was almost 50 years ago that Martin Luther King said that he hoped his children would be judged [by the content of their character], not by the color of their skin. And we’re still waiting for that time to come.
SCHULTZ: Alan Grayson, thank you for your time tonight here on THE ED SHOW. I appreciate it.
Be a Seed for Change 
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