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neeksmith's profile
Nicka Sewell-Smith
Nicka Sewell-Smith
Nicka Sewell-Smith
@neeksmith

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Nicka Sewell-Smith

@neeksmith

Pro genealogist. Lover of bacon, golden era hip hop. She/Her. 7th gen. who-rider. Citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Opinions = mine. 💕💚

Tennessee, USA
whoisnickasmith.com
Joined December 2009

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    Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

    THREAD: I found more than 200 references to the words darky, nigg**, pickaninny, etc. in yearbooks from across the U.S. From high schools, both public and religious, to colleges. From after the Civil War to when folks should have “known better.”#ResistanceGenealogy #BlackProGen

    9:26 PM - 7 Feb 2019
    • 373 Retweets
    • 868 Likes
    • Bob Stargel Andrea Catrina Smith Karen Lynn Jaszewski 🇨🇦 Julienne 📖🖋🇨🇦 Lindsay Dee OmO Valorie #BlackLivesMatter #NoJusticeNoPeace
    33 replies 373 retweets 868 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        From time periods spanning well after the Civil War to those where we claim folks should have “known better.” Nationally, we want to talk about yearbooks and to out people who did inappropriate things. We want them to own it, apologize, resign, and atone, right?

        1 reply 13 retweets 74 likes
        Show this thread
      3. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        But what if our expectations will bring down a system so large, that we may not be able to truly deal with it and that’s why we haven’t really dealt with it to begin with?

        1 reply 17 retweets 106 likes
        Show this thread
      4. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        What if our expectations entrap our own family and community members – folks we have access to more regularly than politicians – and they expose a nasty sore that is uniquely American in nature?

        3 replies 10 retweets 82 likes
        Show this thread
      5. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        Too many senior sections to count featured the nickname “nigg**” for seniors such as “Hey Nigg** Bennet” (Dexter High School, Dexter, Maine, 1962) or “Nigg** Bob” (Galena Park High School, Galena Park, Texas, 1956). Others mentioned the word darky.pic.twitter.com/bghumyx4WM

        5 replies 18 retweets 58 likes
        Show this thread
      6. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        Athletics pages also had the epithet. Have a particularly “strong” or “brutish” player? Use the nickname of “nigg**” for a basketball player, like at at Helena High School in Helena, Montana (1947) or even a football player like at Lubbock High School in Lubbock Texas, 1939.pic.twitter.com/wbOTevkrkI

        1 reply 13 retweets 42 likes
        Show this thread
      7. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        Oh, it gets worse. I even found an insinuation of promiscuity, perhaps with Black men, where a female student was issued the nickname “Nigg** Merritt.” The same student’s favorite pastime was allegedly “Men.” (Cocoa High School, Cocoa, Florida, 1950).pic.twitter.com/JEtZZamEp8

        1 reply 11 retweets 41 likes
        Show this thread
      8. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        “Nigg** Doll,” the name of a character for a play called “The Toys That Had to Wait” for grades 1-6 (Walbridge High School, Walbridge, Ohio, 1936)pic.twitter.com/w0m5uuKn5M

        1 reply 10 retweets 34 likes
        Show this thread
      9. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        A Halloween carnival where “the boys…had much fun at their ‘Nigg** Baby Ball Throwing Booth;” (Lucerne High School, Lucerne, Indiana, 1937). Yes, an actual booth where balls were hurled at African American children. Common as per the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia.pic.twitter.com/nr3tou5Kdy

        1 reply 22 retweets 40 likes
        Show this thread
      10. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        What about colors? Yes even that. A shade of pink known as “Nigg** pink” was an official club color for the “I Love Me Club” (South Texas State Teachers College, Kingsville, Texas, 1929). One can only wonder who in the world these teachers ended up teaching.pic.twitter.com/EncHLbY1eF

        1 reply 7 retweets 38 likes
        Show this thread
      11. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        Even one of our esteemed military institutions, West Point, had a cadet who was originally from Idaho who was given the nickname “Jack Nigg** Jack” (United States Military Academy West Point, 1921).pic.twitter.com/FiPWLTUFBA

        2 replies 7 retweets 34 likes
        Show this thread
      12. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        While we’re at it, we can’t leave out the prom. Horrid plantation themes like the one for a prom held for Nixon High School in Nixon, Texas in 1960 had people in blackface, including children in makeshift blackface masks, acting as “mammies” and pickaninnies” to set the mood.pic.twitter.com/LLtVOYl2bb

        2 replies 16 retweets 43 likes
        Show this thread
      13. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        A dance performance, “Sleepy Time Down South,” with filled with tap and “character dances” of the Deep South (Pekin Community School, Pekin, Illinois, 1949).pic.twitter.com/Xr62BrJkGW

        4 replies 12 retweets 32 likes
        Show this thread
      14. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        Sororities and fraternities were also in on things. The same year as the March on Washington (1963), Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority at Saint John’s College in Winfield, Kansas held a rush party where sorority members were “Darkies” who “entertained.”pic.twitter.com/uMdSIxrSGu

        1 reply 14 retweets 31 likes
        Show this thread
      15. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        Kappa Alpha Order at Wesleyan College (Buckhannon, West Virginia) sponsored an “Old South Week-end” including a mock “Klu Klux Klan convention” the same year Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated (1968).pic.twitter.com/XG1Ypfhuht

        3 replies 9 retweets 34 likes
        Show this thread
      16. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        There was a pledge “costume party” at the University of Southern California where a couple of attendees dressed up as members of the Klu Klux Klan the same year as the Freedom Rides (1961).pic.twitter.com/CmSIdxKzbN

        2 replies 15 retweets 35 likes
        Show this thread
      17. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        Delta Sigma Epsilon at Southwest Missouri State College in Springfield, Missouri held “The Delta Darky Minstrel” in 1952.pic.twitter.com/KUKL8e17CL

        1 reply 12 retweets 25 likes
        Show this thread
      18. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        A teacher allowed students to don white hoods like the KKK during a lesson in American History (Fort Madison High School, Fort Madison, Iowa, 1976)pic.twitter.com/Vopuub420t

        2 replies 10 retweets 32 likes
        Show this thread
      19. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        Southwest High School in Kansas City, Missouri had a “Blackface Dance Line” in 1958pic.twitter.com/TzOKpZzTCC

        2 replies 17 retweets 32 likes
        Show this thread
      20. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        Masontown High School in Masontown, Pennsylvania had a “Blackface Dancers” group in 1960pic.twitter.com/6NMqcaLMVX

        1 reply 8 retweets 30 likes
        Show this thread
      21. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        A Junior Class Minstrel show, “The Blackface Bombshells” took place in 1951 at Christiansburg High School in Christiansburg, Virginiapic.twitter.com/6cIynpPOAX

        1 reply 8 retweets 25 likes
        Show this thread
      22. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        Washougal High School in Washougal, Washington allowed students to dress in blackface during a school play in 1967pic.twitter.com/uZXQW9uYiC

        1 reply 10 retweets 29 likes
        Show this thread
      23. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        Mount Carmel High School, in what’s supposed to be liberal Los Angeles, California had “The Hawthorne Darkies doing the can-can” with names such as “Fechit, Charoal, Eggnog, and Poke” in 1951pic.twitter.com/n3yt1OFsld

        2 replies 14 retweets 35 likes
        Show this thread
      24. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        Minstrel groups were all the rage and were in full effect like at Manual Training High School, Peoria, Illinois (1932) and Winthrow High School, Cincinnati, Ohio (1933).pic.twitter.com/L49Pf7dEv7

        2 replies 12 retweets 34 likes
        Show this thread
      25. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        A sophomore class play, Hobgoglin House by Jay Tobias, featured “The Darky Gardner” and “The Darky Cook” as roles at Gideon High School, in Gideon, Missouri (1952)pic.twitter.com/WTiYfvWD75

        1 reply 12 retweets 27 likes
        Show this thread
      26. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        Cathedral Latin School, in Cleveland, Ohio, noted “Our Melody and Minstrel Men” in a almost unfathomable spread in 1942.pic.twitter.com/TmFJnCi1BC

        1 reply 8 retweets 24 likes
        Show this thread
      27. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        Valley City, North Dakota’s Saint Catherine´s High School, a Catholic school, featured a Junior Sophomore Assembly with “Ol’ Black Joe” and “Darkies’ Crazy Rhythm” in 1954.pic.twitter.com/NbkphCTJqS

        2 replies 9 retweets 24 likes
        Show this thread
      28. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        Folks are looking for public figures to own their shameful past, but that’s shortsighted. If we’re addressing this truly and deeply we should be having conversations with parents, grandparents, and community members that supported and participated in the behavior I’ve outlined.

        3 replies 45 retweets 157 likes
        Show this thread
      29. Nicka Sewell-Smith‏ @neeksmith 7 Feb 2019

        We can attribute some of this to what was going on at the time, but with a lot of these examples I’ve shared, they took place as the Civil Rights Movement was happening. If politicians in Virginia have to own it, we have to do that nationally, whether a photo or video exists.

        5 replies 33 retweets 150 likes
        Show this thread
      30. End of conversation

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