This Week In Black History March 20-26, 2024

MARCH 20 1852—The leading Black nationalist of the 1800s Martin R. Delany publish­es his manifesto entitled “The Condi­tion, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States.” Delany, who fought in the Civil War to end slavery, became frustrated with American racism and argued that Blacks were “a nation within a nation” who should consider returning to their Africa homeland. Delany, who became a doctor, would later advance an ar­gument for reparations saying, “They [Whites] had been our oppressors and injurers. They obstructed our progress to the high positions of civilization. And now it is their bounden duty to make full amends for the injuries thus inflict­ed upon an unoffending people.” Del­aney died in Wilberforce, Ohio, in 1885. 1852—“Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published in Boston and becomes a national best­seller. The novel was based in part on a real life Maryland slave named Josiah Henson. Many considered Henson the arch type “Uncle Tom” who was over accommodating to Whites and accept­ing of his condition as a slave. Revi­sionist historians have treated Henson more kindly suggesting he was simply being pragmatic and actually helped other slaves. 1883—Jan Matzeliger receives a patent for...