Godfather of Harlem - Historical Accuracy Thread (S01E07)
*Taken from Reddit*
This was the best episode of the season so far. I was on the edge of my seat and the ending had me speechless. This is an episode that features a lot of talk on the March on Washington so a lot of the facts will have to do with that. Anything pertaining to the Bonanno-Gigante war portrayed in the episode is fiction.
FACT
Esther James refers to Powells aide as Stepin Fetchit. Stepin Fetchit was an actor who portrayed stereotypes of Blacks as lazy and shiftless (he was billed as the laziest man in the world) or subservient. His career spanned from the 1920s to the 1950s. Although Stepin personally (real name Lincoln Perry) was quite the opposite of his characters, his name had become synonymous in the Black community with selling out.
The Big Six Negro leaders Malcolm was referring to was Martin Luther King Jr. of SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), John Lewis of SNCC (Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee), A. Phillip Randolph of The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters,
Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, James Farmer Jr. of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) and Whitney Young Jr. of the National Urban League.
.
Powell was organizing and fighting for civil rights since the Great Depression in the 1930s organizing rent strikes and boycotts of New York stores that wouldnt hire Blacks. King was born in 1929, so it wasnt a stretch to say Powell was organizing since King was in diapers.
Powell and King had a rather acrimonious relationship: In 1960, Powell, hearing of planned civil rights marches at the Democratic Convention, which could embarrass the party or candidate, threatened to accuse Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. of having a homosexual relationship with Bayard Rustin unless the marches were cancelled. Rustin, one of King's political advisers, was an openly gay man. King agreed to cancel the planned events and Rustin resigned from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Rustin is also referred to in the episode. Despite this, they were both involved in the Prayer for Pilgrimage at the Lincoln Memorial in 1957.
Malcolm X actually did call the March on Washington, the Farce on Washington. He believed that it didnt represent the anger that Blacks at that time were actually feeling in 1963. The killing of Medgar Evers, dogs and fire hoses in Birmingham being used to attack protestors and the killing of four Black girls in the church by the Klan had caused a lot of Blacks to grow impatient with both the method and how long it had taken for goals of the movement to actually be reached. This would explode in several riots the next year in 1964 which Malcolm foreshadows.
John F. Kennedy was partially elected in 1960 in a close election by promising to get rid of discrimination specifically in housing with a stroke of a pen but by his first year he was reluctant to because of the power Southern politicians had in the Democratic Party. Although he personally supported civil rights causes, he disagreed with civil rights leaders methods of direct action demonstrations as he believed that the matters should be settled in the courts and that demonstrations would both alienate Southern Democrats and embarrass the U.S. who were in the thick of a Cold War with Russia . By 1963, he was horrified by what he saw on television in Birmingham and embarrassed in the eyes of the world as a hypocrite trying to spread freedom and democracy to developing nations when his nation would not let Black citizens vote. He announced his support for a civil rights bill on television in June 1963, the same night Medgar Evers was killed.
Malcolm and Powell mention the March excluding speakers. In the March on Washington, James Baldwin was excluded from speaking because his speech was though to be too inflammatory. Women including civil rights leader Gloria Richardson and actress Lena Horne were also excluded from speaking.
FICTION
There is no record of a label called Royal Chord records, this was probably to represent the power the Mafia had in music at the time.
There was a Savage Skulls gang but it wasnt active in the 50s (formed in 1966) and was based in the Bronx with both Black and Puerto Rican members.
Malcolm speaks on a mic with WHZQ on it. WHZQ is a radio station from South Carolina.
The killing of the four little girls Powell references had not happened yet as it happened after the March on Washington. The march was August 28, the bombing happened on September 15.
Powell was never excluded from speaking at the March. There is no record of him even wanting to speak at the March and Malcolm didnt like the idea of it, so there would be no way Powell would get Malcolm to join him in Washington.
I personally dont think Kennedy thought King would come up with a half-decent speech as King had proven himself as a great orator on several occasions and was very charismatic.
UNSURE
Bumpy Johnson was shot in 1952 but there is no record of him being shot in 63. Johnson was shot in a fight in a Harlem nightclub in 1952 with a popular Harlem character named Robert Hawkins after Johnson made comments that Hawkins resented.
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