EMANCIPATION DAY IN CANADA ON AUGUST 1-2020

AUGUST 1-1834 EMANCIPATION DAY 

Murphy Browne © July 23-2020 

On August 1, 1834, enslaved Africans in Canada and other colonies in the British Empire were freed from chattel slavery through the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. While the enslaved Africans in Canada, Antigua and Barbuda were freed on August 1, 1834, enslaved Africans in other British colonized Caribbean islands, British Honduras in Central America and British Guiana in South America were slated to endure up to a further six years (domestic workers 4 years and field workers 6) of semi-slavery before they would finally be free. They were compelled to provide 40 hours a week of unpaid labour on the plantations and in the houses or businesses where they had been enslaved. Any work over 40 hours was supposed to be paid labour. The British government said it was an “apprenticeship system” during which the Africans were to be “trained” for a life of freedom. This “apprenticeship system” continued the abuse and exploitation of the Africans. The Africans were compelled to pay rent for the inadequate housing on the plantations plus feed and clothe themselves and their families from the pittance they were paid for work over 40 hours per week. The Africans resisted and eventually the six years apprenticeship for field workers was reduced to four years and all enslaved Africans were finally freed on August 1, 1838.  

In 1837, the British government passed a law to compensate the slaveholders for losing their human “property.” The enslaved Africans were not compensated for their coerced, unpaid labour that enriched the British (English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh) enslavers. In 2020, 182 years after all enslaved Africans in the British Empire were free, their descendants are determinedly demanding Reparations. As the Black Lives Matter movement advances internationally, voices are being raised to confront the historical legacies of anti-Black racism and colonialism. In European countries and across North America, there are calls to remove statues that represent or celebrate the white supremacist culture of the slave trade, the enslavement of Africans for 400 years and the imperialism of Europe. The many memorials, buildings, statues and street names that honour and celebrate white supremacy are being targeted for removal. 

In Europe statues of colonialists, slave holders and in the US, statues of Confederate leaders and slave holders have been pulled down. In Canada, the memorials, buildings, statues and street names that honour and celebrate white supremacy remain intact. In Toronto, Dundas Street is named in honour of Henry Dundas, a man who obstructed and delayed the abolition of slavery by several years. The Gladstone Hotel, Gladstone Avenue and the Bloor/Gladstone Library are named in honour of John Gladstone who owned 2,508 slaves in British Guiana and Jamaica and received £106,769 in 1837 (worth £10.2 million in 2020) through the Slave Compensation Act 1837. Gladstone owned "Success" plantation on the East Coast, Demerara where Quamina, the recognized leader of the August 18, 1823 “Demerara Slave Uprising” was enslaved. The uprising was brutally suppressed on August 19, 1823. The “ringleaders” including Quamina, were decapitated and their heads displayed along the East Coast Demerara Road as a warning to other enslaved Africans. Benjamin Vaughan, in whose honour Vaughn township is named, argued in the British Parliament in 1792, that freeing slaves in Jamaica would bring about the end of civilization. Russell Township is named to honour Peter Russell, who was a slaveholder in Toronto; Jarvis Street and Jarvis Collegiate are named to honour slaveholder William Jarvis. Sherbourne Street and Sherbourne Centre are named to honour Baron Sherbourne who owned 464 slaves in Jamaica and received £3,579 compensation for losing his human “property” in 1837 (worth £342,000 in 2020.) 

The Black Lives Matter movement began as a movement focusing on police brutality and has expanded its vision to include calls for Reparations and other issues that negatively affect Africans (continental and Diasporic.) White supremacy is woven into the fabric of this country. It is so ingrained that it is considered normal and any attempt to address white skin privilege is resisted and vilified. The recent international protests against anti-Black racism has led to various industries and organizations reflecting (or appearing to do so) on their history of white supremacy and suppression of racialized people. Coincidentally, the Black Lives Matter movement released a list of demands on August 1, 2016. The list includes: ending the war on Black people, economic justice, divest-invest, community control, political power and Reparations. This generation through Black Lives Matter has “come together with renewed energy and purpose to articulate a common vision and agenda.” As we celebrate Emancipation Day on August 1, 2020, we can also celebrate this generation’s achievement in moving us a step closer to gaining Reparations for the blood, sweat and tears shed for more than 400 years. 

Black Lives Matter! 

Murphy Browne © July 23-2020

HOTTER THAN JULY 2020

Murphy Browne © July 9, 2020

HOTTER THAN JULY 2020

In July 1919, African Jamaican poet, Claude McKay published his famous poem “If We Must Die.” McKay’s poem was a response to the racist beating and killing of African Americans by White people in America. “If We Must Die” was published during the “Red Summer” of 1919.

IF WE MUST DIE

By Claude McKay

If we must die, let it not be like hogs

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,

Making their mock at our accursèd lot.

If we must die, O let us nobly die,

So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain; then even the monsters we defy

Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!

O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!

Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,

And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!

What though before us lies the open grave?

Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,

Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

In 2020, many of the protesters seem to be willing to risk life and limb to “fight back” against police violence and other life-threatening issues including the coronavirus. In July 2020, 101 years after Claude McKay wrote “If We Must Die,” many seem to be willing to die. The protests continue amid the deadly virus and almost daily reports of African American protestors killed or injured by police. The protests which began with the killing of Ahmaud Arbery and intensified with the killing of George Floyd has convulsed cities across the USA. In some cases, the protests have become riotous and even though protestors of all races have contributed (some agent provocateurs) to the “riots,” African Americans are blamed and make up most casualties.

“Riots” have resulted from protests before July 2020, including the “Harlem Riots” of 1943 and 1964, both provoked by police brutality which resulted in the killing of African Americans. In the heyday of the 20^th century Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was considered the leader of the “non-violent” protests spoke about the “riots” of the day. In a September 27, 1966 interview, on CBS with Mike Wallace, Dr. King was questioned about the “increasingly vocal minority” who disagreed with his use of “non-violence” as a tactic to deal with police violence. Dr. King said: “I think that we’ve got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard. And, what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the economic plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. And I contend that the cry of ‘black power’ is, at bottom, a reaction to the reluctance of white power to make the kind of changes necessary to make justice a reality for the Negro.” In 1967 while delivering his “The Other America” speech at Stanford University, Dr. King said: "But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.” In July 2020, the words of Dr. King from the 1960s, remain relevant.

In May, 1992, what began as a peaceful protest organized by the Black Action Defense Committee (BADC) was hijacked by agent provocateurs and became riotous. On May 2, 1992, two days before the planned protest against the Rodney King verdict, where 4 White policemen had been acquitted in the brutal beating of African American Rodney King, a White police in Toronto, killed 22-year-old Raymond Constantine Lawrence. The killing of Lawrence was the 14^th in 14 years, making it one for every year. It was the 8^th police shooting of an African Canadian in 4 years. In July 2020, the conditions that lead to riots, including anti-Black racism, racial profiling and race-based poverty, continue to proliferate in Canada and the USA. Riots will continue to be the “language of the unheard” and as Claude McKay wrote in July 1919, when people are “Pressed to the wall, dying,” they will keep “fighting back” even against all odds because they have nothing to lose.

Murphy Browne © July 9, 2020

DR DANIEL HALE WILLIAMS JULY 9-1893

DR DANIEL HALE WILLIAMS JULY 9-1893

Murphy Browne © Thursday July 09, 2020

DR. DANIEL HALE WILLIAMS ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO

On Sunday, July 9, 1893, an African-American doctor made history by performing the first successful open heart surgery. The patient, James Cornish, was a young African-American man who lived for 50 years after the surgery. In her 2010 book, “Why Does My Heart Pump?: All about the Human Body,” White Australian author, Helen Bethune, wrote: “In 1893 a young African-American man named James Cornish was admitted to the hospital. He had been stabbed in the chest. Williams realized that the only way to save the man’s life was to open his chest and operate. The operation was a success, mainly because of Williams’ sterilization methods. James Cornish lived another 50 years.”

The surgical procedure that Williams performed on July 9, 1893 was considered so revolutionary that several newspapers carried the story in spite of the fact that Williams was African-American. In her 1954 book, “Doctor Dan: Pioneer in American Surgery,” White American writer, Helen Buckler stated: “The doctors who had watched Dr. Dan make history were not slow in telling other doctors about the daring venture and its great success. For weeks surgical conversation dwelt on little else. Dr. Dan soon found himself a respected man in Chicago’s topmost medical circles. The hospital staff, the Board, and friends of Provident, passed the exciting news around. Kohlsaat sent a reporter from the Inter Ocean, of which he was part owner, to interview the thirty-seven-year-old surgeon, ten years out of medical college, who had won this laurel.”

At that time (1893), surgery on internal organs was unheard of because any entrance into the chest or abdomen of a patient would almost surely result in infection and subsequently death. The earliest surgeries were crude at best and likely to have been performed out of desperation. According to some sources, it was not until the 1900s that the risk of dying after surgery was less than 50 per cent. Surgical procedures that are commonplace today, such as appendectomies, were uncommon. Until 1885, a person with appendicitis was expected to die of the infection that occurred once the appendix ruptured. Anesthesia was not routinely used during surgery until the late 1800s and early surgical techniques were rudimentary at best and barbaric at worst.

In the September 1996 newsletter of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Vol. 60, No. 9, surgery before anesthesia is described in part: “Elective surgery was performed very infrequently prior to the advent of effective anesthesia. From 1821 to 1846, the annual reports of the MGH recorded 333 surgeries, representing barely more than one case per month. Surgery was a last and desperate resort. Reminiscing in 1897 about pre-anesthesia surgery, one elderly Boston physician could only compare it to the Spanish Inquisition. He recalled ‘yells and screams, most horrible in my memory now, after an interval of so many years.’ Over the centuries, numerous techniques had been used to dull sensation for surgery. Soporifics (sleep-inducing and awareness-dulling agents) and narcotics were prepared from a wide range of plants, including marijuana, belladonna and jimsonweed. Healers attempted to induce a psychological state of anesthesia by mesmerism or hypnosis. Distraction could be provided by rubbing the patient with counterirritants such as stinging nettles. A direct but crude way of inducing a state of insensitivity was to knock the patient unconscious with a blow to the jaw. But by 1846, ‘opium and alcohol were the only agents which continued to be regarded as of practical value in diminishing the pain of operations.’ Unfortunately, the large doses of alcohol needed to produce stupefaction were likely to cause nausea, vomiting and death instead of sleep. Opium, while a strong analgesic, had significant side effects itself and was typically not powerful enough to completely blunt a surgical stimulus. The accounts and recollections of surgery before the days of effective anesthesia are gruesome.”

It was during this time when surgery was routinely risky and internal surgery almost unheard of that Williams risked his reputation to perform the heart surgery that eventually earned him fame. Today, the story of the African-American doctor who performed the first successful open-heart surgery can be found in a few books and on websites like www.encyclopedia.com: “A young Black man named James Cornish had been stabbed in a neighborhood scuffle. He was rushed to Provident Hospital with a one-inch knife wound in his chest near his heart. By the time Williams could administer aid, Cornish had collapsed from loss of blood and shock. Risking his surgical reputation, Williams decided to operate – at that time without benefit of x-rays, blood transfusions, or antibiotics to fight infections.”

The surgery on July 9, 1893 was not the first time that Daniel Hale Williams made history. In 1891, he was the founder of the first African-American owned hospital, which welcomed patients of any race. In “Why Does My Heart Pump?: All about the Human Body,” Helen Bethune acknowledges that: “The first open-heart surgery was performed by the African-American physician Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (1856-1931) in 1893. He founded and worked at the Provident Hospital and Training School, in Chicago, the first hospital to be run by African Americans in America. It became famous for its advanced sterilization and antiseptic methods.”

Williams was born on January 18, 1856 in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. He was the fifth of seven children born to Daniel and Sarah Williams, just nine years before slavery was abolished in the USA. After working as a shoemaker and a barber, he became an apprentice to a doctor for two years before entering Chicago Medical College, now Northwestern University Medical School, in 1880.

Graduating from medical school in 1883, he opened his medical practice in Chicago, Illinois. At that time, African-American doctors were not allowed to work in Chicago hospitals, neither were African-American patients admitted to the hospitals. Williams established the first integrated hospital, the Provident Hospital and Training School Association, on January 23, 1891. Housed in a three-story building, Provident Hospital provided a place for African-American doctors to practice and a training school for student nurses.

Following the successful open-heart surgery, from 1894 to 1898 Williams was the Surgeon-in-Chief at Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. He also founded the National Medical Association in 1895 because African-American doctors were denied membership in the American Medical Association. As a charter member of the American College of Surgeons in 1913, he was the first and only African-American member for many years.

Today, Provident Hospital, located at 500 E. 51st Street, Chicago, Illinois, is a public hospital and a member of the Cook County Health & Hospitals System (CCHHS.) The hospital earned “The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval for Hospital Accreditation by demonstrating continuous compliance with its health care performance.”

Provident is a Joint Commission-accredited hospital of 25 acute medical/surgical beds, 21 private and two semi-private rooms, and a “regional healthcare centre” offering same-day surgery, comprehensive diagnostic imaging services, cardiac diagnostics, laboratory services, and rehabilitative services/physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech pathology. Primary and specialty ambulatory clinic sessions in over 16 medical specialties are also provided. Provident Hospital is a teaching hospital associated with Loyola University’s Stritch School of Medicine. The Provident Foundation, located at 1525 East 53rd Street, Chicago, Illinois, is dedicated to preserving the Provident Hospital and Training School’s legacy. The mission of the Provident Foundation is to “preserve the living legacy of Provident Hospital and the contributions of Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, by promoting education for and providing scholarship opportunities to urban youth pursuing careers as doctors, nurses and health care professionals.”

The enduring legacy of Dr. Daniel Hale Williams who transitioned to the ancestral realm on August 4, 1931 continues in the 21^st century, one hundred and twenty- seven years after he performed the first documented successful open heart surgery.

Murphy Browne © Thursday July 09, 2020