Every month for every newsletter we create a video, either from scratch or sampled from various sources, on our monthly theme. It can be "Homo For the Holidays" at Christmas or a multimedia meditation on Richard Bruce Nugent's "Smoke, Lilies and Jade" or a stop on the Queer Harlem Renaissance Walking Tour or anything at all ... anything that strikes our fancy. The focus may be narrow, but the ambition is large, and every Treat can be a revelation. “To see a World in a Grain of Sand/And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,/Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand/And Eternity in an hour."
The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill (1918) was first introduced by Representative Leonidas C. Dyer, a Republican from St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States House of Representatives in order “to protect citizens of the United States against lynching in default of protection by the States.” Due to vigorous lobbying by the NAACP, the bill actually passed in the House of Representatives on January 26, 1922, and there was real optimism that this stain on the national reputation would be removed. A silent protest in support of the bill was organized by African Americans on June 14, 1922 in Washington, D.C. Republican President Warren G. Harding also announced his backing of Dyer's bill during a speaking engagement in Birmingham, Alabama. A filibuster by Southern Democrats in the Senate killed it.
This same voting bloc stymied the subsequent 200 attempts to pass anti-lynching bills. It was not until 2018 that the Senate passed anti-lynching legislation, on which the House of Representatives took no action.
On February 26, 2020, the House got around to passing its own version, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, by a vote of 410–4. Finally shamed into lip-service support, the Senate agreed to pass the revised bill by unanimous consent until Republican Senator Paul Rand found a way to withhold his vote. (“Lynching” was too broadly defined.) It was reintroduced and passed in the 117th Congress with further revision. President Joe Biden signed it into law on March 29, 2022.
Ah well, what’s a century more or less?
The Rosewood Massacre 1923
The Modern Narcissists
Congo Weird subtitles
Rockland Palace
A Smokey Mashup
Body and Soul performed by Marcus Shelby Quartet
The First Black Best Seller Was Queer
Can Classical Music Be Black? Part 1
Can Classical Music Be Black? Part 2
Gaye Sings Gay Part 1
Centenary The Dyer Anti Lynching Bill
Jews In Blackface
Shuffle Along for Better or Worse
The Queer Harlem Renaissance - Two Intros
A Torch Song Mashup
The Queerness of Home to Harlem
The Real Ma Rainey
SHOGA FILMS is a 501(c) (3) non-profit production and education company. We create multimedia works around race and sexuality that are intended to raise awareness and foster critical discussion.
All Rights Reserved | Shoga Films
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