A New Mexico Black History Remix
James Beckwourth
meets
Mekhi Majedi
1798 - 1867
James Pierson Beckwourth, born James Beckwith and generally known as Jim Beckwourth was an American mountain man, fur trader, and explorer. Beckwourth was also famously known as "Bloody Arm" because of his skill as a fighter. He was mixed-race and born into slavery in Virginia. He was freed by his white father (and master), and apprenticed to a blacksmith so that he could learn a trade. As a young man, Beckwourth moved to the American West, first making connections with fur traders in St. Louis, Missouri. As a fur trapper, he lived with the Crow Nation for years. He is credited with the discovery of Beckwourth Pass, through the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) Mountains, between present-day Reno, Nevada, and Portola, California, during the California Gold Rush years. He improved the Beckwourth Trail, which thousands of settlers followed to central California. In 1844, Beckwourth traded on the Old Spanish Trail between the Arkansas River and California, then controlled by Mexico. When the Mexican–American War began in 1846, Beckwourth returned to the United States. He brought along nearly 1,800 stolen Mexican horses as spoils of war. In the war, he served as a courier with the US Army and helped suppress the Taos Revolt. His former employer, Charles Bent, then interim governor of New Mexico, was slain in that revolt.
Mekhi Majedi is a young Afro-Iranian man born and raised in the state of New Mexico. He is a student at UNM majoring in Computer Science and hopes to enter the field of Software Engineering upon completion of his degree. He includes himself in community projects at any moment possible and believes whole-heartedly in the improvement of his hometown. His interests include Automotives, Software, and Basketball, but has proven to always be open to pursuing new ventures.
WATCH: James Beckwourth #DIGNM
WATCH: James Beckwourth Student Response
John Lewis
meets
LaNiah Bolden
1920 - 2001
John Lewis was born in La Grange, Illinois, and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and began learning classical music and piano at the age of seven. His family was musical and had a family band that allowed him to play frequently and he also played in a Boy Scout music group. Even though he learned piano by playing the classics, he was exposed to jazz from an early age because his aunt loved to dance and he would listen to the music she played. He attended the University of New Mexico, where he led a small dance band that he formed and double majored in Anthropology and Music. Eventually, he decided not to pursue Anthropology because he was advised that careers from degrees in Anthropology did not pay well. In 1942, Lewis entered the army and played piano alongside Kenny Clarke, who influenced him to move to New York once their service was over. Lewis moved to New York in 1945 to pursue his musical studies at the Manhattan School of Music and eventually graduated with a master's degree in music in 1953. Although his move to New York turned his musical attention more towards jazz, he still frequently played and listened to classical works and composers such as Chopin, Bach and Beethoven. Clarke was instrumental in inducting Lewis into the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band as pianist and arranger in 1946 and also helped recruit Lewis for Miles Davis' 1949 Capitol recording dates. Along with Milt Jackson and Percy Heath, Lewis and Clarke founded the Modern Jazz Quartet.
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LaNiah Bolden is a 14 year old. honor roll student. LaNiah runs track and plays saxaphonist and clarinet in her school's jazz and intermediate bands. She says, "I love my friends and family and enjoy going to band class and Most of all I am a child of God!"
WATCH: John Aaron Lewis #DIGNM
LISTEN: John Aaron Lewis Student Response
Madah Manning
meets
LJ Bolden
1938
In 1938, Albuquerque resident Madah Manning the New Mexico Supreme Court upheld her lawsuit against the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (AT&SF) Railway Company for wrongfully ejecting her from a train car in Belen, New Mexico under the auspices that she fit the description of suspect in a recent theft. Madah was heading to El Paso by train at the same time a man in Albuquerque filed a complaint that two negro women has stolen $50.00 from his pocket. It was later reported that two negro women were seen boarding a train in Albuquerque headed for El Paso. A Jane Doe warrant was issued and the night captain of the Albuquerque Police Department communicated with the AT&SF special officer in Belen. He gave a description of the women and requested that the pickpockets, if found on the train, be detained. Instead of the pickpockets, Madah (a resident of Albuquerque for 14 years and recent high school graduate) and her sister, “respectable colored women of good reputation” in now way connected with the alleged offense were taken off the train. Madah successfully sued for $350.00 in damages on multiple grounds including the following:
A railroad conductor’s ejectment of a negress from a train when informed by the railroad company’s special officer that he had a message from city police department to take woman off train, without other inquiry as to identity or description of woman wanted than that she was a negress bound for a city to which ejected passenger was going was wrongful trespass on latter’s rights and breach of the company’s contract to transport her safely and protect her against its employees’ misconduct, so as to render it liable to her for damages.
Lionel Bolden is 12 years old and goes by the name "LJ". An honor roll student, LJ play's basketball, and is a percussionist in the school's band. LJ enjoys playing video games and telling jokes, but most importantly LJ is "a child of God!"
WATCH: Madah Manning #DIGNM
LISTEN: Madah Manning Student Response
1912
Jack Johnson
meets
Benjamin Watson IV
Jack Johnson fought Fireman Jim Flynn on July 4, 1912 in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Johnson stopped Flynn in the 9th round to successfully defend his World Heavyweight Title. "Flynn displayed no ability throughout the fight." Flynn was cut about the face and by the sixth round, he was deliberately trying to butt the champion's chin with his head. Time after time, as Johnson held him powerless in the clinches, Flynn jerked his head upward. The referee warned him repeatedly, but it did no good. Flynn told the referee, "He's hold me, he's holding me!" In the seventh round, he began leaping upward every time he could work his head under Johnson's chin. The fight was stopped in the ninth round by the state police, who declared it a brutal exhibition. The referee then announced that Johnson had won and the fight was over.
Benjamin Watson IV is
14 years old and was born in
Okinawa, Japan. He is a proud to be in the incoming freshman class at Albuquerque High School and even more proud to represent the Class of 2024.
WATCH: Jack Johnson #DIGNM
LISTEN: Jack Johnson Student Response
Mikayla Maple
meets
Anita Scott Coleman
1890 - 1960
Anita Scott Coleman was a prodigious writer and contributor to the Harlem Renaissance who lived from 1890 to 1960. Born in Guaymas, Mexico and raised on a ranch near Silver City, New Mexico, she wrote award-winning essays, stories, and poems for national magazines about issues impacting Black women including racism, employment discrimination, White supremacist violence, and segregation. Despite her distinguished role in the Harlem Renaissance, and a long list of publications, her original words are hard to locate online to this day. This obscurity highlights the need to bring these powerful, underrepresented stories of women in our state to the forefront in an effort to make visible their profound contributions to the evolution of equity and social justice in NM. Anita won many prizes for her short stories and was named as one of the best writers by The Messenger, one of the most steadfast Harlem Renaissance journals. She published works in the Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life, The Messenger, The Crisis, The Half-Century Magazine, The Competitor, The Pittsburgh Courier and more. Her novel, Unfinished Masterpiece, can be found in libraries throughout the state. Much of Coleman’s writing focused on the Southwest. In “The Little Grey House,” Coleman describes the availability of home ownership for southwestern African Americans. The story “El Tisico” suggests Coleman’s Afro-Latino cultural heritage and her knowledge of the Southwest and of Mexico. The lead character in “Bambino Grimke” is a jazz band manager in Los Angeles. Her essay “Arizona and New Mexico-the Land of Esperanza,” solicited for the series, “These ‘Colored’ United States” by The Messenger magazine, shows her respect for the history and élan of the Southwest.
Mikayla Maple is a 2020 graduate of Albuquerque High School. They will be attending UNM in the fall as a theatre major and hopes to complete their EMT certification at CNM.
WATCH: Anita Scott Coleman #DIGNM
WATCH: Anita Scott Coleman Poet Rendition
Kayla Jenae
meets
Isabel de Olvera
Late 1500s - Early 1600s
The words of Isabel de Olvera In a deposition made before the governor of her home, Querétaro, Mexico before journeying north to modern day New Mexico in the expedition of Juan Guerra de Resa:
“As I am going on the expedition to New Mexico and have some reason to believe that I may be annoyed by some individual since I am a mulatto, and as it is proper to protect my rights in such an eventuality by an affidavit showing that I am a free woman, unmarried, and the legitimate daughter of Hernando, a negro, and an Indian named Magdalena, I therefore request your grace to accept this affidavit, which shows that I am free and not bound by marriage or slavery. I request that a properly certified and signed copy be given to me in order to protect my rights, and that it carry full legal authority. I demand justice.”
Little is known about Olvera, except for an extraordinary deposition she filed with the Querétaro alcalde (mayor), don Pedro Lorenzo de Castilla. In front of three witnesses (a free black man, a mestiza woman, and a black slave woman).
Kayla Jenae is a 20 year-old spoken word artist, slam poet and poetry coach. She instructs poetry workshops for Albuquerque Public Schools. Kayla competed in the Brave New Voices International Youth Slam competition in 2019, and will be co-coaching the youth team in 2020.