Vision from the past

[richardmurray]

 

 

 

 

[Pioneer1]

There's something about old photographs of Black folks from the 1800s and early 1900s that stirs me up and inspires me to greatness.

 

I wonder what they're thinking.
What's going on in their heads.

Are they really as successful as they look or are they just dressing up for the camera shoot only to change into some overalls and work out in the fields?

Handsome dudes.....if I may say so as a straight brutha....lol.
Funny how over 100 years ago Black folks managed to stay smooth, neat, clean, and sharp without the modern appliances and grooming material we have today.

[richardmurray]

@Pioneer1

The answer to your question

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Are they really as successful as they look or are they just dressing up for the camera shoot only to change into some overalls and work out in the fields?
 

is yes. They are that financially successful . Black wealth isn't new in the usa, but it isn't common in the black community in the usa. It is far far from common. We black people know why.  If over 95% of wealth is inherited in the usa, then how the hell can black people make huge gains. Our forebears didn't have money, they were enslaved and  burned alive and sharecropped and imprisoned and cheated by white institutions, which includes the USA. 

All black people know this but since the usa was founded the black community, internally, in the usa has never figured out how to have one side that is pro usa and one side that is anti-usa. 

[Cynique]

 

A distinction should be made between urban blacks and rural blacks. My father, pictured below. pretty much typified black men who made up the first  wave of the Great Migration north.  Arriving in Chicago in 1914, he found work as a waiter in one of Chicago's exclusive hotels, so his work clothes were a tuxedo and bow tie, not the overalls of rural blacks.

 

His lifestyle as far as attire and grooming went, wasn't drastically different from todays regimen. Away from his job when he was out and about socializing, he dressed in the style of the day whether he was wealthy or not. Later, when he was employed as a railroad Pullman porter, his work garb was a  neatly tailoredly uniform, and he was just a common laborer.  Our black experiences vary

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                                                                                         circa 1916

 

                                                                                 

[Pioneer1]

Cynique

Interesting photograph of your father!