"The only one thing you've got going: Your ONE VOTE" - Shirley Chisholm Early voting ends on Friday, February 28, 2020 2726 S. Beckley Ave • Dallas, Texas 75224 ISSN # 0746-7303 P.O. Box 570769 Dallas, Texas 75357 - 0769 50¢ Serving Dallas More Than 70 Years — Tel. 214 946-7678 - Fax 214 946-7636 — Web Site: www.dallasposttrib.com — E-mail: [email protected] SERVING THE BLACK COMMUNITY WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOR SINCE 1947 VOLUME 72 NUMBER 24 February 27 - March 4, 2020 What everyone should know about Reconstruction 150 years after the 15th Amendment’s ratification (Final Part) By Tiffany Mitchell Patterson Assistant Professor of Secondary Social Studies, West Virginia University Higher education Before the Civil War, many states made teaching enslaved individuals to read a crime. Education quick- ly became a top priority for black Americans once slav- ery ended. While northern, largely white philanthropist and mis- sionary groups and the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, better known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, did help create new educational opportunities, the African American public schools established after the Civil War ended were largely built and staffed by the black community. Many new institutions of higher education, now called Historically Black Colleges and Universities or HBCUs, began to operate during Reconstruction. Morehouse graduates from the class of 2013 celebrated in the rain when President Obama delivered their commencement address. These schools trained black people to become teach- lynching; and in systemic ways through Jim Crow ers and ministers, doctors and nurses. They also pre- laws. African Americans continued to assert their civil pared African Americans for careers in industrial and An incomplete transition and constitutional rights as activists, politicians, busi- agricultural fields. As the renowned black scholar W.E.B DuBois ness owners, teachers and farmers in the midst of Public and private HBCUs founded during observed, racist laws and violent tactics in many states white supremacist backlash. Reconstruction and still operating today include actively limited black freedom. With the latest voter suppression efforts restricting Howard University in Washington, D.C., Hampton “The slave went free; stood for a brief moment in the access to the ballot box for voters of color and the University in Virginia, Alabama State University, sun; then moved back again toward slavery,” he resurgence of racist violence and vitriol today, Morehouse College in Georgia and Morgan State explained. DuBois’ words sound eerily familiar. At the same time, University in Maryland. These colleges and universities This was by no means voluntary. Intimidated and it’s reassuring to recall how quickly formerly enslaved train a disproportionate share of black doctors and other threatened by black enfranchisement and excellence in African Americans made their way to schoolhouses professionals even today. the era of Reconstruction, white supremacists attempt- and public offices. ed to enforce subordination through violence, such as The Conversation Pioneering black NASA mathematician Broadway Bound: Former Charles Rice Katherine Johnson dies Learning Center student By BEN FINLEY cast in “The Tina (AP) - Katherine Johnson, a math- ematician who calculated rocket tra- Turner Musical” jectories and earth orbits for NASA’s early space missions and was later portrayed in the 2016 hit film “Hidden Figures,” about pio- neering black female aerospace workers, has died. She was 101. Johnson died Monday of natural causes at a retirement community in Newport News, Virginia, family attorney Donyale Y. H. Reavis told The Associated Press. By The Hub (Dallas ISD) Johnson was one of the “comput- ers” who solved equations by hand File - In this Nov. 24, 2015 photo, Willie Mays, right, looks on as President Barack When “TINA: The Tina Turner Musical” opened on during NASA’s early years and Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to NASA mathematician Katherine Broadway in November, 2019 a familiar Dallas ISD those of its precursor organization, Johnson during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, in Washington. face was on stage performing as a young version of the the National Advisory Committee (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) musical legend. for Aeronautics. After earning second-place honors at the MLK Jr. analysis for Alan Shepard’s immediately at her desk, growing Johnson and other black women Oratory Competition, Turner went viral with her Freedom 7 Mission, the first to carry phone-book-thick stacks of data initially worked in a racially segre- response to a question from former Mayor Mike an American into space. The next sheets a number at a time, blocking gated computing unit in Hampton, Rawlings at a Summer Reading Challenge kickoff. She year, she manually verified the cal- out everything except the labyrinth Virginia, that wasn’t officially dis- then appeared on the joined the Dallas Symphony culations of a nascent NASA com- of trajectory equations,” Margot Lee solved until NACA became NASA Orchestra for a homegrown duet and helped kick off the puter, an IBM 7090, which plotted Shetterly wrote in her 2016 book in 1958. Signs had dictated which John Glenn’s orbits around the plan- “Hidden Figures,” on which the film Dallas ISD 2018 State of the District. bathrooms the women could use. et. is based. In 1961, Johnson did trajectory “Katherine organized herself Continues on Page 7 Continues on Page 7 Recognizing #BLACK EXCELLENCE for 72 years February 27 - March 4, 2020 The Dallas Post Tribune Page 2 Yorkers, The New York Times recalled. Martha just got there first.” Essence magazine described it as the In the same interview, Gasby said, B. Smith, model place “where the who’s who of black “Martha is perfection and Barbara is Manhattan meet, greet and eat regular- passion.” ly.” Smith began suffering from memory turned lifestyle guru, Smith wrote three cookbooks, founded problems years before her diagnosis. three successful restaurants and She once froze for several seconds while launched a nationally syndicated televi- being interviewed on the “Today Show,” dead at 70 sion show and a magazine. Her success- prompting a doctor’s visit that led to her ful home products line was the first from diagnosis. A few months later, she was a black woman to be sold at a nation- missing in New York City for a day. wide retailer when it debuted in 2001 at In 2018, Gasby revealed that he was in Bed Bath & Beyond. a relationship with another woman In 1976, she became the second black while caring for his ailing wife, leading model to be on the cover of to harsh criticism from some of her fans. Mademoiselle magazine, after Jolie He fired back at critics with a Facebook Jones in 1969. post about the pain of living with “You epitomized class, true beauty Alzheimer’s in the family. “I love my and dignity. Rest well Queen,” actress wife but I can’t let her take away my Viola Davis wrote on Twitter. life,” he wrote. Smith was diagnosed with early onset The couple co-authored a book, Alzheimer’s disease in 2013. She and “Before I Forget: Love, Hope, Help, and Gasby raised awareness of the disease, Acceptance in Our fight Against and particularly its impacts on the Alzheimer’s,” and have partnered with African-American community, follow- the Brain Health Registry. ing her diagnosis. Smith, a native of Pennsylvania, began Some described Smith as a “black her career as a fashion model in Martha Stewart,” a comparison she said Pittsburgh and went on to serve as a she didn’t mind though she believed the spokeswoman for Verizon, Colgate, two lifestyle mavens were quite differ- Palmolive Oxy and McCormick’s NEW YORK (AP) — Barbara “B.” media that she died Saturday evening. ent. Lawry seasonings. She hosted the Smith, one of the nation’s top black “Heaven is shining even brighter now “Martha Stewart has presented herself nationally syndicated television show models who went on to open restaurants, that it is graced with B.’s dazzling and doing the things domestics and African “B. Smith with Style” for nearly a launch a successful home products line unforgettable smile,” Smith’s husband Americans have done for years,” she decade, which aired on NBC stations. and write cookbooks, has died at her Dan Gasby said on Facebook. said in a 1997 interview with New York Smith is survived by Gasby, whom she Long Island home at age 70 after bat- Smith’s eponymous Manhattan restau- magazine. “We were always expected to married in 1992, and her stepdaughter tling early onset Alzheimer’s disease. rant opened in 1986 and attracted a fol- redo the chairs and use everything in the Dana Gasby. Smith’s family announced on social lowing among affluent black New garden. This is the legacy that I was left. “Someone struggled for your right to vote. Use it.” – Susan B. Anthony February 27 - March 4, 2020 The Dallas Post Tribune Page 3 EDITORIAL PAGE The Dallas Post Tribune is pub‐ BOARD OF DIRECTORS lished weekly by the Tribune Dr. Mary E. Beck, Publishing Incorporated, 2726 S. Beckley, Chairperson Dallas, Texas, 75224, Bulk Rate Dallas Campaign Headquarters Now Open Dr. Theronica Bond [1345]. Postage is paid to the Dallas Postmaster. Send address Atty. Theodora Lee, Co‐ changes to The Dallas Post Tribune, P.O. Box 570769, Dallas, for Presidential Candidate Tom Steyer Chair Texas, 75357‐0769. THE DALLAS POST TRIBUNE is not responsible Atty. Gary Bond for unsolicited materials. Address Mrs. Mollie Belt all correspondence to EDITOR, The Democratic president who is honest Dallas Post Tribune, P.O. Box 763939, Dallas, Texas 75376‐3939 Presidential Candidate and has integrity. That or e‐mail production@dallaspost‐ STAFF trib.net. All articles should be Tom Steyer’s campaign man is Tom Steyer,” said Dr.