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#1920EditionPartII

Quote | #CoLearning Recap | #1920Edition | Opportunities to Listen |  Ujima Time Bank | How to Invest in Ujima | Appreciations | Neighborhood Econ. Study Group | Ujima is Hiring | Membership Renewal | Jobs | Upcoming Meetings 

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

#UjimaWednesdays: Member Team Peer Learning Session 2

Our next Ujima Open Meeting is TONIGHT on Zoom 
Wednesday, January 20th, from 6:00pm-8:30pm.

Time: Wednesday, January 20th, 6:00PM | Location: Zoom Only

  • 6:00-7:15pm #Co-Learn: This Wednesday we're engaging in reflection and discussion with our second Member Team Peer Learning Session. Representatives from the Podcast, Anchor Institution and Investor Outreach Member Teams will give us insight into their 2020 wins, challenges, and lessons. We'll have space for questions about cooperative work and processes afterward.
  • 7:15-8:30pm #CoCreation: Arts and Cultural Organizing and Podcast Member Teams

PLEASE RSVP. Thank you!

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Co-Learning Recap: Peer Learning Sessions I

Last Wednesday we're engaged in reflection and discussion with our first Member Team Peer Learning Session featuring UNESG and Timebank Member Teams. Click here to watch the full archived video.

#1920Edition Part II

Last month we debuted #1920sEdition, a two part series which examines Black culture and political life in a decade much like our own. Click here to read Part I.

 ◎◎◎

The post-war economy boomed throughout the United States in the 1920s. The devastation of the First World War gave way to a production vacuum due to great levels of destruction in Europe, with some countries on the brink of economic collapse. 

America’s wealth between 1920 and 1929 doubled, with most of the resources funneled into the pockets of the most prosperous— a wealth gap much like the one which persists today. Digital History writes: “During the 1920s, there was a pronounced shift in wealth and income toward the very rich. Between 1919 and 1929, the share of income received by the wealthiest one percent of Americans rose from 12 percent to 19 percent, while the share received by the richest five percent jumped from 24 percent to 34 percent. Over the same period, the poorest 93 percent of the non-farm population actually saw its disposable income fall.”

The Roaring Twenties only existed for a select few. For most people of color, particularly Black people, the 1920s were the 1910s were the 1890s, and so on. On the whole, their political and economic stations did not change much. Though the 1920s are seen as a great era for Black popular music, people also developed institutions which provided opportunities for political and cultural organizing. 

“By the early summer of 1920, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and its chief executive, James Weldon Johnson, identified [Warren G.] Harding as a [presidential] candidate who would listen to the organization’s interests.” Bret Hall writes in an Interzine essay, “With many Black Americans registered as Republican and the potential for having a Republican majority in Congress, Harding was their best chance of advancing their agenda.”

President Warren G. Harding ran on a campaign of “normalcy.” The Ohioan politician was sworn into office in 1921 by, “rejecting the activism of Theodore Roosevelt and the idealism of Woodrow Wilson. Voters responded to his genial nature, impressive stature, and bland message; he won by a landslide.” He declared: "America's present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration...not surgery but serenity."

Just five months after he entered Office, Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood went up in flames. “What is America going to do after such a horrible carnage—one that for sheer brutality and murderous anarchy cannot be surpassed by any of the crimes now being charged to the Bolsheviki in Russia? How much longer will America allow these pogroms to continue unchecked?” wrote an NAACP investigator, Walter White, who was assigned to report on the case.

In response, Harding accepted an invitation to give a commencement speech at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, an HBCU. “Despite the demagogues, the idea of our oneness as Americans has risen superior to every appeal to mere class and group,” Harding declared on June 6th, 1921. “And so, I wish it might be in this matter of our national problem of races.” His condemnation of the bombing and hate crimes continued, and were met with mixed reviews from both the audience and press. Though he never called for desegregation, it was the first time a U.S. President had delivered a speech on the matter. Politico reports, “Harding voiced support for anti-lynching bills pending in Congress. [...] Although the Republican-controlled House approved the bill in 1922, a phalanx of Southern Democrats mounted a successful filibuster against it in the Senate.” 

In the aftermath of the Tulsa massacre most white Tulsans chose to forget, collective amnesia settled over the United States, and the intense polarization of the nation persisted. But some fought for to remember.

For scholars of African descent invested in social change, recovering a Black past was essential in the movement towards sustained progress for their people. In The Question of Recovery, Laura Helton et al. expound on the ways Black intellectuals sought to “preserve and narrate” Black histories:

In the wake of efforts to forge black internationalism in the 1920s and 1930s, C. L. R. James, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Eric Williams emphasized the world-historical significance of slave revolts, black politics under slavery and freedom, and the centrality of black labor to the development of capitalism.

Recovering the histories of Africans in the Americas originally emerged as an abolitionist tool in the nineteenth century and would remain inextricable from black freedom struggles well into the twentieth century.

This endeavor sought to prove that black people deserved social and political equality; it tethered intellectual investigations into the black past to political struggles for black futures. In 1925 Afro-Puerto Rican biblio-phile Arturo Schomburg captured this sentiment when he declared, “The American Negro must remake his past in order to make his future”—a statement that indexed a growing tradition of black memory work invested in archive building as a foundation of liberation.”

Arturo Alphonso Schomberg was a scholar, activist, and an avid collector Black artifacts. Through his global travels, Schomberg amassed a massive collection of rare literature and artworks. After immigrating from Puerto Rico to the U.S. in 1891, he established friendship with some of the most influential Black thinkers and political leaders like W.E.B. DuBois and Alain Locke. The archivist devoted much of his life to the preservation of Black art and political thought, and dreamed of writing a book about the influence of Black culture across mainland Spain and its colonies.

Writer Sabia McCoy Torres reports, “From early on, Schomburg demonstrated a commitment to causes thought of as Latino. His work dealt with Latin American solidarity. Despite this, Schomburg couldn’t ignore the racism he faced as an Afro-Boricua while living in Puerto Rico, after migration to the mainland US, and within Latin American revolutionary movements. So he dedicated his life to archiving Afro-descendant contributions in Latin America and countries worldwide, including the US and 14th century Spain. 

He documented the work of painters, photographers, and composers, as well as the contributions of Afro-descendants to the literary arts, religion, economics, politics, popular culture, and more. The Black intellectual community of the Harlem Renaissance quickly embraced him. In 1926, the New York Public Library bought Schomburg’s collection – one of the largest in the world – and named him founder and curator of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.”

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture remains a preeminent cultural institution and repository of Black memory.

 ◎◎◎

As we move through the next decade, we have a great opportunity to examine and engage the past. Though trends, technologies and culture may change, many of the socio-political forces which shaped everyday lives remain. The so-called culture wars, prohibition and unchecked white supremacy remain part of our present condition. Nevertheless, marginalized people created new possibilities, fought to create a truer democracy, and ruptured time with beautiful experimentation and open rebellion. While we invest our energies in forging new paths, we might find peace in thinking of those at the periphery as the center of the world.

 

More Resources:

Opportunities to Listen

Join the Ujima Time Bank!

Speaking of alternative currency... The Ujima Time Bank is another way to save money and create community connections while creating a new economy in Boston!

What is a time bank?

A Timebank is a system of exchange where the unit of value is person-hours. When a member of a timebank performs one hour of service for another member, they are awarded one hour of credit in the Timebank, which can then be redeemed for one hour of service from another member. For example: Samantha can fix Jess’s blinds, and then Jess can teach Freddie Spanish, then Freddie later gives Samantha a ride, and the Timebank keeps track so it’s fair.

There are over 600 talents available for you to tap into, or join, in the Ujima Time Bank! This week's featured talent is Community Activities. There are 30 people available to give you assistance with community service!

Join the time bank to respond and see more! Anyone who lives in Boston can join the Time Bank at www.ujimaboston.com/timebank!

How to Become a Co-Investor in the Ujima Fund

Another Boston Is Happening. Now You Can Invest in It.

www.ujimaboston.com/invest

  1. Read Ujima's Offering Memorandum. This document describes the risks, regulations, and background of the fund. The Offering Memorandum should be read in it's entirety, with careful attention to the Risk Factors (page 11), Description of Notes (39), and Subordination Agreement (77).
  2. Consult the personal finance worksheet if you are unsure of how much to invest.
  3. Invest online (multiple payment options available):
    1. Choose the option next to the type of investment you are making.
    2. Complete and sign all forms via Docusign (Investment Agreement, W-9, and Demographic Information).
    3. After submitting, select your payment option. (You will see instructions on how to send a check if that is your preferred payment.)
  4. OR: Invest via mail:
    1. Choose the option next to the type of investment you are making.
    2. Select the print option on Docusign.
    3. Complete and sign all forms manually (Investment Agreement, W-9, and Demographic Information).
    4. Write a check, payable to the Fund, for the amount you wish to invest in the applicable Notes.
    5. Send the Investment Agreement and your check to the Fund [PO BOX 180310 Boston MA 02118].
  5. Email invest@ujimaboston.com or call 617-446-3863 with any questions

Please contact invest@ujimaboston.com with any questions or issues that arise!

Ujima Appreciations

Thank you to...

  • Tina Bell Jenkins for her interest in, and coverage of, Boston Ujima Project on Shareable.net.
  • City Life/Vida Urbana's former Executive Director, Lisa Owens, for her years of partnership and stewardship! We wish her well as she moves on to lead the Hymes Foundation.
  • Johnny Charles, Somala Diby, Alexander Shaw, and Cierra Peters for the hardwork in creating the Ujima Fund's 2020 Investor Report!
  • Lor Holmes and Micha Josephy for sharing their time and reflections with us for the Ujima Fund's 2020 Investor Report.
  • Segun Idowu, Lisa Owens, and Imari Paris Jeffries for sharing their reflections of Ujima's role in the ecosystem for the 2020 Investor Report.
  • All of our new members who have joined Ujima!
    • Betty
    • Tali
    • Tracy
    • Sarah
    • Ora
    • Linda
  • All of the members who have renewed their Ujima memberships!
    • Christlene
    • Timothy
    • Marjorie
    • Paul
    • Megan
  • To Peers, Partners, and Community Members who are doing their part to keep us informed, safe, and loved during this time. 

Ujima Neighborhood Economic Study Group

We are excited that the Ujima Neighborhood Economics Study Group is underway, continuing to explore the feasibility of projects that address our community-wide needs. The group meets the second Wednesday of the month, and the next meeting is Wednesday, February 10. This study group is co-coordinated by Ujima members and staff. Some participants will focus on a specific area of study and some writ-large. The group will build on the learnings from the exploration that Ujima members have already done, and will carry this research forward to get even closer to implementation and investment in projects that meet our needs.

The topics include:

  • Community Land Trust
  • Community Owned Internet
  • Community Owned Energy
  • Urban Farming
  • Creative Economic Placemaking (Black Market)
  • Community Space
  • Arts/Cultural Organizing Space
  • Childcare

There is also space for members to coordinate study groups on additional topics of interest. Please email lynchcasey2@gmail.com if you are interested in getting involved or want more information!

Internship Opportunities

We need your help to find great interns to grow our team. Ujima is offering these internship opportunities on an ongoing basis. Please share widely!

To apply, email intern@ujimaboston.com to express interest and get further information. 

Ujima Membership

Help us reach our goal of growing our membership to 750! Renew your membership with Ujima today and help spread the word about our network and activities!

Jobs in the Ujima Network

The Ujima Jobs Board has moved! Click here to access all of the job listings in our network.

If you are hiring and would like to be included on our biweekly newsletter, send your listing to comms@ujimaboston.com!

Upcoming Ujima Meetings

We hold Open Meetings every Wednesday at 6pm, on Zoom! Check out our January Calendar below!

6:00-7:15 - Community Building + Financial and Political Education.
7:15-8:30 - Member Team Meetings (Based on rotating schedule; See calendar above)

www.ujimaboston.com

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