Black Education Advisory Council

First BEA Advisory committee meeting on 12/04/2021- is NOT LISTed ON BEA website

New Mexico PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT NEWS

Anti-racism training for educators, a culturally inclusive curriculum, and a hotline for reporting school-based incidents of racial bias are among the strategies to be implemented in the coming school year to meet requirements of the New Mexico Black Education Act, which takes effect July 1.

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New Mexico PED BEA Publicity

The New Mexico Legislature is considering a bill that would support African American education

New culturally inclusive strategies will be implemented in New Mexico schools

PED Establishes Black Education Advisory Council

HB43-924 Jan 26, 2021 Legislative Session

IMPORTANT NOTE: Our organization has been forced to infer about the continual lack of inclusion, misuse, and infringement of Dr. Nelson’s work. The Taos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque “Black” community have not been transparent or willing to have an open discussion about the matter nor has there been willingness to openly critique his work. *Dr. Nelson has tried to collaborate with Vickie Bannerman, Hakim Bellamy, Rita Powdrell, Nikesha Breeze and Gregory Waits. In 2019, he asked Rita, Nikesha, and Gregory to join his 2020 Western History Conference Panel. Rita Powdrell declined, Nikesha claims she never got the 2-3 emails, and Gregory Waits canceled yet he had Austin Miller included Gregory’s in his presentation.

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Nikesha Breeze contacted Dr. Nelson via Facebook messenger Thursday prior to dancing on Blackdom land: he asked her contact me, Marissa Roybal, his business partner to coordinate a scheduled call - that never happened. The NMSU Art Museum exhibit, website mis-used Dr. Nelson’s work; cited him incorrectly, Dr. Nelson’s website was connected to Nikesha’s website without permission (see above statement) to NMSU Art Museum website (nothing said publicly). NMSU’s Marisa Sage allowed Nikesha and her cohort to contextualize and use his work inadequately and without his knowledge (funded by National Endowment for Humanties). The negligence was much worse on social media. The map image above with his Raxia watermarked logo above) was used by Earthseed Black Arts Alliance on social media and NMSU Art Museum proceeded to share - none of these entities credited or acknowledged him or tagged him on social which would have been an opportunity to lift Dr. Nelson and his work. Nikesha spoke about Blackdom Oil on the NMSU opening night, again didn’t credit Dr. Nelson. The Blackdom Panel that included Gregory Waits, Rita Powdrell and others was an opportunity to invite Dr. Nelson to the table. Nikesha states she is grateful for his contribution (2nd photo above), however, she never asked permission, never invited him to the conversation. She and Gregory have initiated a concerted effort going back to the SW Contemporary Article published 2019 prior to Dr. Nelson’s CCA event.

We contacted NMSU to address the issues, they made some corrections; NMSU had Nikesha deleted this website from hers which was connected to theirs, fixed Dr. Nelson’s name, there were two Instragram posts they agreed to credit Dr. Nelson, they chose to delete instead; the map above, and the use of “Black Kingdom” which Dr. Nelson was quoted in the Jan. 2020 SFNM article by Robert Nnott which was referenced as if their own. During an Instagram LIVE event of Nikesha spoke about Blackdom Oil (one of Dr. Nelson’s contributions to the history) and she chose again NOT to credit or acknowledge him. A Taos artist called us to point out the disturbing signifier in the photo above: Nikesha is wearing the Blackdom Illuminated T-shirt we gifted her in 2019 (photo above) or she’s wearing one that looks like it.

The Taos Center for the Arts interview with Dr. Nelson that was tabled. We suspect the recording was shared with Nikesha to prepare for the January 21, 2022 NMSU Art Museum opening. (See this link: Taos Center for the Arts Tabled Interview with Dr. Nelson). #UnintendedConsequences #DialogueSickness

Albuquerque Museum exhibit 2022: Hakim Bellamy and Rita Powdrell never attempted to contact Dr. Nelson to offer a seat at the table for either of these installations. It is our understanding Bellamy was the project manager for both of these installations. Hakim Bellamy (BEA Council member), chose not to acknowledge Dr. Nelson’s contributions to New Mexico Black Homestead history, however, they decided to acknowledge Austin Miller’s master’s thesis [Dr. Nelson cited].

To address the issue Andrew Connors at Albuquerque Museum offered an event once Dr. Nelson’s book publishes by Texas Tech University Press Spring or Summer 2023. We reached out Summer of 2023, we emailed him Fall 2023, have not heard back from his as of yet.

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BEA Advisory Council Members that have been in our circles of influence: Timothy Nelson, Los Alamos; Hakim Bellamy, Albuquerque; Nancy Lopez, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque; Patricia Trujillo, deputy cabinet Secretary, NM Higher Education Department; Vernon Oliver, Rio Rancho; Arlen Nelson, Kimberly York, Las Cruces; Nicole Bedford, Albuquerque; Sheryl F. Means, Albuquerque.

by Christina Stock

Friday, February 27, 2021

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“An online seminar hosted by the New Mexico Humanities Council (NMHC) on the historical township Blackdom on Feb. 23 attracted 87 participants. The audience was able to learn about the latest research and insights into the cultural and historical significance of the township of Blackdom, founded in 1903, 18 miles south of Roswell and 8 miles west of Dexter. By the mid-1920s, most residents had left, turning Blackdom into a ghost town."

Bethany Tabor, NMHC program officer, served as the moderator. She introduced the speakers, which included Janice Dunnahoo of the Historical Society for Southeast New Mexico (HSSNM) Archives in Roswell. Dunnahoo is a contributing author for the West Texas Historical Association, Wild West Journal, True West Magazine, Texas-New Mexico Border Archives Journal, and a weekly contributor to the Roswell Daily Record.”

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Clarence Fielder especially enjoyed sharing the early history of the African-American community of Las Cruces, which centered around his own experiences as well as those of his parents and grandparents. Mr. Fielder was also instrumental in restoring the Phillips Chapel CME Church, founded by his grandparents Ollie and Daniel Hibler, which served as a school during segregation and was named to the National Register of Historic Places as the oldest existing African-American church in New Mexico.

The 12-minute story profiles Mr. Clarence Fielder, a beloved and dedicated teacher who grew up in Las Cruces and taught for many years in the public schools and in the Department of History at NMSU.

06:48 Executive Producer, Nan Rubin interviews Dr. Timothy E. Nelson who was one of Mr. Fielder’s students at New Mexico State University.

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KAYLA LAWRENCE
October 19, 2020

University of Northern Iowa's History Club Invites Alum Dr. Nelson to present his research of the Afro-Frontier in American history

August 30, 2021 - NARA Focuses on Expanding Access to Digital Records

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Dr. Richard Edwards haD been diligently working on this matter since 2008. See the link for his article below.

Richard Edwards is a primary leader in the “Homestead Records Project,” a consortium formed to digitize, preserve and make accessible approximately two million original homestead land-entry files.

This unfortunate decision would leave the important homesteading states of Colorado, Montana, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, New Mexico, Washington, and California back in the hard-to-access and costly-to-access paper records regime. I believe NARA’s decision is mistaken, and that it should be a HIGH priority to finish digitizing these records. Richard Edwards, Director, Center for Great Plains Studies, Professor of Economics, August 31, 2018

“They called it Blackdom for a reason. This was a Black Kingdom where sovereigns lived.”

—Timothy E. Nelson

Click to see Santa Fe New Mexican Article by Robert Nott

Some 60-plus years before African Americans marched and fought for equal treatment in the nation’s civil rights movement, Blackdom stood as a symbol that African Americans could be masters of their own destiny.

“Blackdom proved black people could thrive, not just survive,” said African American historian and author Timothy Nelson, who wrote a 200-page dissertation on the rise and fall of Blackdom in 2015 for the University of Texas at El Paso.

“They called it Blackdom for a reason. This was a Black Kingdom where sovereigns lived,” he said.

And yet, some 30 years after its founding in the early 1900s, Blackdom was all but abandoned, a victim of drought, nature and an oil boom gone bust because of the Great Depression.

Today, a plaque commemorating the history of Blackdom and a few stone ruins are all that remain of the original community, located about eight miles west of Dexter and 20 miles south of Roswell.

Blackdom’s fight for a self-sustaining life came decades before King urged African Americans to take to the streets to demand equality with such phrases as, “If you can’t fly then run if you can’t run then walk if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”