
#1 KKK Cusser: When the Klan showed up to try to scare blues singer Bessie Smith’s crowd in Concord, North Carolina, they had another thing coming. The singer called them everything except children of God until they ran off into the night, leaving the Black crowd in peace.
#2 Ride Or Die Resistor: When Charles Person was 18, he joined the Freedom Riders. These activists rode buses north to south, challenging Jim Crow laws. Even when MLK asked riders to reconsider, Person refused — risking his life instead.
#3 Blackness Reinforcer: In the 1960s, a series of Black fashion shows created the slogan “Black is Beautiful.” The Grandassa models, a group of everyday Black women who embraced their natural hair and bodies, stomped the stage and reminded us that our Blackness is gorgeous just the way it is.
Whether we are joking at the ridiculousness of racism or appreciating our history one thing is true: our job is to act in the best interests of our liberation and of course, to love our amazing selves.