This Day In #History 31/07

July 31, 1896
The National Association of Colored Women (NACW) was established in Washington, D.C. Its two leading members were Josephine Ruffin and Mary Church Terrell. Founders also included some of the most renowned African-American women educators, community leaders, and civil-rights activists in America, including Harriet Tubman, Frances E.W. Harper, Margaret Murray Washington, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

The original intention of the organization was “to furnish evidence of the moral, mental and material progress made by people of colour through the efforts of our women.” However, over the next ten years the NACW became involved in campaigns favoring women’s suffrage and opposing lynching and Jim Crow laws. By the time the United States entered the First World War, membership had reached 300,000.

July 31, 1986
25,000 people rallied in Namibia for freedom from South African colonial rule. In June, 1971 the International Court of Justice had ruled the South African presence in Namibia to be illegal. Eventually, open elections for a 72-member Constituent Assembly were held under U.N. supervision in November, 1989. Three months later Namibia gained its independence, and maintains it today.

H/T Carl Bunin of PeaceButtons

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REMEMBERING NELSON MANDELA

Its Annual international day in honour of Nelson Mandela, celebrated each year on  the date of his birthday, July 18.

Nelson Mandela, (1918-2013) born on this day 1918, in Umtata, South Africa, in what is now Eastern Cape Province,was a South African activist, winner of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, and the first black president of South Africa in the country’s first multi-racial election (1994-1999). A Hero, Legend, Role-Model and Mentor to many.
As it is supposed to be his 96th birthday, I urge us to celebrate him by remembering his teachings.

Madiba’s Teachings and Quotes

We understand it still that there is no easy road to freedom. We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success. We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world.

Good and evil
Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.

Victory
I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb

Future

The  past is a rich resource on which we can draw in order to make decisions for the future, but it does not dictate our choices. We should look back at the past and select what is good, and leave behind what is bad.

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