The video above is an excerpt from an interview with Dean Woods, a descendant of a “decorated hero” of the Colfax Massacreof1873in Colfax, Louisiana.
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Louisiana has produced many talented and influential people, and if not for the Great Migration, some of those people’s pathways to greatness may have been blocked.
The Great Migration refers to the period between 1910 and 1970, when an estimated six million African Americans left the rural South and headed to the North, Midwest, and West Coast in search of opportunity and freedom from racial oppression, which was standard operating procedure in the South.
Lynchings, beatings, bombings, and destruction of homes and property were common threats to Black citizens. However, racial violence was not the only threat to Black survival. The South had been cultivated for agricultural purposes, and after slavery was abolished, many formerly enslaved people were persuaded to remain on the land and work as sharecroppers. A system that, in most cases, was maximum work for minimum reward, if any. Many others built businesses and acquired land. Those who migrated north did so in search of opportunities in manufacturing, entertainment, academia, and also liberation.
Four lives that were forever changed by their family’s decision to leave the South in search of something better: Paul Mooney, Richard Williams, and Huey P. Newton.
Funny man Mooney
Born Paul Gladney in Shreveport, Louisiana, on August 4, 1941, he moved with his family to Oakland, California, when he was seven years old. Mooney’s career took off once he started writing comedy. He became the head writer on the Richard Pryor show, which helped him catapult the careers of other Black comedy writers. Mooney’s name became a regular fixture in Black sitcoms during the 70s, writing for Sanford and Son and Good Times. Mooney also appeared in an episode of Good Times and was the inspiration for Damon Wayans’ Homey D. Clown character…