The Black Watch (2024)

28/02/2024

Happy Black History Month!

On Day 28, we salute Oretha Castle Haley (1939-1987), prolific Civil Rights Pioneer.

Oretha Castle Haley was a vital leader of the civil rights movement in New Orleans—challenging segregated facilities and promoting voter registration in New Orleans and rural Louisiana, all while facing arrest and physical violence. Her civil rights activism began while she was a student at Southern University at New Orleans. During that time, she participated in a boycott and protests organized by the Consumers’ League of Greater New Orleans in response to the racially discriminatory employment practices of Dryades Street merchants.

In 1960 she became a founding member of the New Orleans chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and served as president of the chapter from 1961 through 1964. Throughout the early 1960s, she actively participated in sit-ins, protests, and demonstrations around the city. Her arrest, along with that of three other activists, for participation in a 1960 sit-in at a Canal Street lunch counter, was the basis of a case, Lombard v. Louisiana, that reached the US Supreme Court in 1963. The court overturned the arrests, in a major victory for the civil rights movement.

In 1964 Haley served as a CORE field secretary in Monroe, Louisiana, where, despite the threat of violence, she worked to register African American voters in rural communities. That year she also helped organize the court case that desegregated Charity Hospital in New Orleans, for which her grandmother Callie Castle served as a plaintiff.

In the 1980s, Haley served as an administrator at Charity Hospital, organized the New Orleans Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation, and worked on the political campaigns of African American politicians, including Dorothy Mae Taylor. In 1989 the commercial district of Dryades Street between Philip and Calliope Streets was renamed Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard.

Today, we honor Ms. Haley for your withstanding years of violence and opposition for the greater good.

#2024

23/02/2024

Happy Black History Month!

On Day 23, we honor business mogul and Black Wall Street pioneer, Mr. John “J.B” Stradford (1861-1935). J.B. Stradford arrived in Tulsa via railroad in 1898 with his wife, Augusta. J.B. was the son of a former Versailles, Kentucky slave, who had been named Caesar by his slave owner. During Caesar's time in slavery, his owner's daughter befriended him and taught him to read.

By 1863, Caesar was reading well. He read about the Emancipation Proclamation and petitioned his owner for his freedom. While on travel from Woodford County, Kentucky to Stratford, Ontario, the owner granted Caesar his freedom. Caesar gave himself the last name, Stradford, after the city in Ontario, changing the "t" in Stratford to a “d”. Caesar worked and saved his money.

J.B. Stradford, reinvested in his father's vision and name to become an Indiana University trained attorney. J.B"s interests ranged from social justice and racial solidarity to real estate development, which he applied to an influx of Black Americans streaming into the Indian Territory.

The J.B. Stradford Empire was comprised of real estate income from two dozen rental properties – worth nearly $2 million dollars.

The Stradford Hotel at 301 N. Greenwood was his crowned jewel. At the time, it was the largest back-owned, black-operated and black-guest-only hotel in America. The structure housed fifty-four "modern livings rooms," a gambling hall, dining room, saloon and pool hall. Jazz from the Stradford Hotel and the Commodore Cotton Club across the street filled Greenwood residents with the joy of the freedom to dance and play without repercussions.

Much of Tulsa's white community disapproved. They also disapproved of J.B. Stradford who litigated against the railroad for not providing proper Black accommodations. He stirred the pot regarding illegal segregation and publicly rallied against Oklahoma's Jim Crow Law.

By 1920 Stradford had become the richest black man in Tulsa, owning over fifteen rental properties and an apartment building, along with the hotel.

When the Tulsa Massacre began on June 1, 1921, where an estimated 300 blacks were killed by white rioters, Stradford stood in front of his hotel armed with a rifle until he was overwhelmed by the white mobs that had invaded the community. Eventually the entire black commercial district, all the buildings along a thirty-four-block area on and near Greenwood Avenue, were destroyed including the Stradford Hotel.

Despite many efforts to rebuild, Stradford’s wealth was never restored to its former glory. Thankfully through his offspring, the Stradford family continued to leave a lasting legacy.

Stradford’s son C. F Stradford, was a pioneering Civil Rights Attorney and co-founder of both the National Bar Association and the Cook County Bar Association.

His granddaughter Jewel would become the first female deputy solicitor general of the United States. Jewel would serve as an official in the George H. W. Bush administration and as an attorney in Chicago until her death in 1997.

Today, we salute Mr. Stradford for his bravery, determination, and business savvy amongst a host of other accomplishments.

17/02/2024

Happy Black History Month!

For Day 17, we honor Attorney Benjamin Crump (1969). I recently watch his documentary “Civil” on Netflix and it was really eye opening. The amount of hours he puts in for our civil rights should be applauded. Coming from a working class rural upbringing, Mr. Crump was able to defy the odds, getting a stellar education at Florida State University and passing the bar shortly after attaining his Juris Doctor in 1995.

Attorney Crump worked for years fighting on our behalf in monumental civil cases despite being able to make more money in other sectors of law, he chose us. The world was first introduced to Mr. Crump during the Trayvon Martin case in 2012. While his efforts were met with adversity, he continued to fight the good fight.

In 2020, Crump became the attorney for the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Jacob Blake. In 2021, he became the attorney for a passenger in the car with Winston Boogie Smith and for the family of Daunte Wright. Ongoing cases surrounding their killings or injuries led to protests against police brutality in America as well as internationally.

Due to his legal reputation, he has been referred to as "Black America's attorney general”.

In 2021, Crump was included on the Time 100, Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2023, St. Thomas University in Florida renamed their College of Law after Crump.

Outside of being a passionate attorney and head of his own successful law firm, Benjamin Crump has been happily married for over 13 years to Dr. Genae Angelique and is the father of a little girl whom he adores.

Today we salute the a man who has fought on our behalf and who continues to fight to establish true equality and equity for Black people in this country.

11/02/2024

Happy Black History Month!

For Day 11, we honor the incomparable Whitney Houston (1963-2012) who we lovingly referred to as “The Voice”. Whitney left this earth 12 years ago today and the music industry hasn’t been the same since.

With over 200 million combined album, singles and videos sold worldwide during her career with Arista Records, Whitney Houston has established a benchmark for superstardom that will quite simply never be eclipsed in the modern era. She is a singer’s singer who has influenced countless other vocalists female and male.

Music historians cite Whitney’s record-setting achievements: the only artist to chart seven consecutive #1 Billboard Hot 100 hits (“Saving All My Love For You,” “How Will I Know,” “Greatest Love Of All,” “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),” “Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” “So Emotional,” and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”); the first female artist to enter the Billboard 200 album chart at #1 (her second album, Whitney, 1987); and one of a select number of solo artists with eight consecutive multi-platinum albums (Whitney Houston, Whitney, I’m Your Baby Tonight, The Bodyguard, Waiting To Exhale, and The Preacher’s Wife soundtracks; My Love Is Your Love and Whitney: The Greatest Hits).

In fact, The Bodyguard soundtrack is one of the top 5 biggest-selling albums of all-time (at 18x-platinum in the U.S. alone), and Whitney’s career-defining version of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” is the biggest-selling single of all time by a female artist (at 10x-platinum, Diamond, for physical and digital in the U.S. alone).

Outside of Whitney’s extensive music and box office success, she was a wife, mother, and one of the most giving human beings the world had experienced. To this day, stories continue to surface about what a great human she was. That is the legacy I would think we would all want to leave. Continue to rest in peace, Queen.

09/02/2024

Happy Black History Month!

For Day 8, we honor Victor B. MacFarlane (1951-); real estate mogul who founded the nation’s leading minority-owned real estate investment management and development firm. As a real estate professional, I often look at success in my field from those who look like me first. Mr. MacFarlane is certainly a pioneer.

Victor began his real estate career in 1979 with Aetna Life & Casualty Company, where he helped acquire and manage more than $1 billion in real estate assets. He later developed and managed, for his own account, an award-winning apartment community in Denver.

MacFarlane Partners now has $2.2 billion in investor equity and $6 billion in properties completed and under management. The company has a very large presence in the bay area and has been a part of many monumental residential projects which has helped to fight the area’s ongoing affordable housing dilemmas.

02/02/2024

Happy Black History Month!

For Day 2, we honor Dr. Patrice A. Harris (1960); the 1st Black Woman elected president of the American Medical Association.

The West Virginia native launched her private practice in Adult, Child, Adolescent, and Forensic Psychiatry. In addition to her practice, Harris leveraged her expertise for public service and advocacy, also serving as an adjunct professor at Emory University in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

In 2005, she joined the Fulton County Department of Health Services, serving as the medical director of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, and from 2009 to 2015, she became the director of health services. In that role, she spearheaded efforts to integrate public health, behavioral health, and primary care services.

In June 2011, Harris was elected to the American Medical Association's board of trustees. In that capacity, she has been active on a number of task forces, including acting as chair of the AMA Opioid Task Force, which was launched in 2014 to identify best practices to combat the opioid epidemic.

Harris chaired the AMA Council on Legislation and co-chaired the Women Physicians Congress. In 2018, she was elected as president of the AMA, making her the first African-American woman to serve in the role

Today, Dr. Harris is the CEO and Co-Founder of eMed, a digital healthcare company.

Dr. Harris we salute you.

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