EPISODE 7 - Built By Hand

As America approaches its 250th birthday, I’ve found myself asking a simple question:

How did we get here?

Not just politically, but culturally, socially, economically, and personally.

To understand where we are, we have to understand how we got here.

And that requires curiosity. Not criticism.  Not assumptions.    Curiosity.

Because one thing I’ve learned is that people can live through the exact same moment in history and have completely different experiences. Same country.

Different moment in history. Different stories. Different perspectives. Different Americas.

Participation Matters

One of the greatest privileges we have is the ability to participate.

To learn.             

To engage.        

To vote.

To help shape what comes next.

It's a choice.

EPISODE 7 — "Built By Hand"

If the system won't hand you opportunity, what does it look like to build your own?

Two things can be true at once: Black soldiers fought heroically for a country that then treated them as second-class citizens — AND some of them found more equality serving someone else's country than their own. Both things are true.

The Harlem Hellfighters fought under French command because white American units wouldn't serve beside them — and came home to "Red Summer," 1919, when at least 83 Black men were lynched, eleven still in uniform.

In this episode we talk about Black women building financial independence with nothing but skill and nerve, and names you should know:

• Madam C.J. Walker, who went from laundress to America's first self-made female millionaire, and

• Annie Malone, the largely forgotten woman who taught her the business first.

Oh — and that fried chicken sold through train station windows in Gordonsville, Virginia? The frying technique traces to Scotland, the seasoning to West Africa — fused by enslaved and formerly enslaved cooks into the dish we know today.

Better, because of both. Just like our country.

Resources

🎬 Watch

•  Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker (2020, Netflix) — dramatized miniseries starring Octavia Spencer. Flag: takes real creative liberties, especially with the Annie Malone rivalry — good for the broad strokes, not for exact facts.

•  Search “Harlem Hellfighters documentary” for short and full-length options covering the 369th Infantry.

📚 Read

•  On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker by A'Lelia Bundles (Walker's own great-great-granddaughter) — the most thoroughly documented biography.

•  Search “Annie Malone Poro College” for her own, less-documented story.

💻 YouTube — quick and free

•  Search “Red Summer 1919 explained” and “Eugene Bullard first Black fighter pilot.”

•  Search “Gordonsville Virginia fried chicken waiter carriers.”

🔍 One Contributor Moment — “They Excelled In Spite Of”

Eugene Bullard — first Black American military pilot, flying for France in WWI after the U.S. barred Black pilots. Stayed in Paris after the war, ran a nightclub frequented by Josephine Baker and Ernest Hemingway, and later spied for the French Resistance in WWII.

🎬 Watch: Self Made (2020, Netflix) — dramatized, take liberties with fact; search "Harlem Hellfighters documentary"