This February, Rachel Cargle is posting a daily prompt on her Instagram feed, a topic to research and reflect on. “Black history is American history. Do the work to learn and honor it.”
Day Eight Prompt
Compensated Emancipation Act
Brief Reflection
This should have been the legal, official start of making amends for the centuries of slavery that preceded. We botched it.
Resources
This February, Rachel Cargle is posting a daily prompt on her Instagram feed, a topic to research and reflect on. “Black history is American history. Do the work to learn and honor it.”
Day Seven Prompt
The Middle Passage
Brief Reflection
Jesus wept.
Resources
This February, Rachel Cargle is posting a daily prompt on her Instagram feed, a topic to research and reflect on. “Black history is American history. Do the work to learn and honor it.”
Day Six Prompt
Anarcha, Betsy, and Lucy
Brief Reflection
Anarcha, Betsy, and Lucy are forever owed the thanks of women across the globe. These three women were slaves who, via their pain, moved forward the science of gynecology, especially a specific surgery for vesicovaginal fistula. Seven more women who remained unnamed were also operated on by Dr. Sims, the man who performed these surgeries without administering anesthesia. Two takeaways: first, 150 years later, Dr. Sims still gets much of the solo credit for his research and second, there is still an assumption about black people not feeling pain the same way as other patients in the modern medical community.
Resources
This February, Rachel Cargle is posting a daily prompt on her Instagram feed, a topic to research and reflect on. “Black history is American history. Do the work to learn and honor it.”
Day Five Prompt
The Ten Point Program of the Black Panthers
Brief Reflection
I knew more about the Black Panthers than the four prompts before today. What I focused on is that these ten points are 50 years old and the news headlines I see each day lately would lead one to believe they were never drafted. Glacial pace of change for something that is so important.
Resources
This February, Rachel Cargle is posting a daily prompt on her Instagram feed, a topic to research and reflect on. “Black history is American history. Do the work to learn and honor it.”
Day Four Prompt
The Birmingham Children’s Crusade
Brief Reflection
It’s hard to imagine 600 children arrested. They were, after joining in the civil rights march with their parents and community. The upshot is that the images published by the media and public outcry that followed hastened passage of the Civil Rights Act.
Resources
