{"source_url": "https://www.theguardian.com", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/31/republican-wisconsin-lawmaker-black-history-month", "title": "Black History Month: outrage greets Republican's call to honor white people", "top_image": "https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/050810ec8b9d83d1beeb4e965c3796a7514c4d35/0_0_2362_1417/master/2362.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=7e776c83401d7593d756cf4133712e14", "meta_img": "https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/050810ec8b9d83d1beeb4e965c3796a7514c4d35/0_0_2362_1417/master/2362.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=7e776c83401d7593d756cf4133712e14", "images": ["https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/050810ec8b9d83d1beeb4e965c3796a7514c4d35/0_0_2362_1417/master/2362.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=7e776c83401d7593d756cf4133712e14", "https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/050810ec8b9d83d1beeb4e965c3796a7514c4d35/0_0_2362_1417/master/2362.jpg?width=445&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=969d9945e594d8db4431cf9baa4513f5"], "movies": [], "text": "Wisconsin lawmakers are locked in a dispute over who qualifies to be honored during February\u2019s Black History Month after a senior Republican suggested a list where the majority of named picks were white.\n\nRepublican state senator Scott Allen circulated a resolution recognizing 10 historical figures for celebration. But six of those who\u2019d been active in Wisconsin\u2019s Underground Railroad, helping southern slaves escape to freedom turned out to be white, according to the State Journal.\n\nThe choice provoked a backlash from local black lawmakers, who said Allen circumvented the state\u2019s legislature\u2019s black caucus from choosing how to honor the contributions of black Americans.\n\n\u201cIf this was intended to be without controversy, you failed,\u201d state senator Lena Taylor wrote to Allen in response. \u201cThank you Massa Allen for pickin\u2019 whose we should honuh suh. We sho ain\u2019t capable of thinkin\u2019 for ourselves, suh.\u201d\n\nTaylor, a black Milwaukee Democrat, asked why a white politician would be leading the selection, which includes six white abolitionists, four black slaves and unnamed members of the Stockbridge-Munsee band of Mohican Indians.\n\n\u201cThe fact that this even needs to be discussed is a reflection of where we are as a society,\u201d she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. \u201cI wake up every day as a black woman. I\u2019m not exactly sure what it is that Scott Allen believes he knows better than me.\u201d\n\nBut Allen told the newspaper that the white people named in his resolution \u201cexhibited tremendous courage to fight for just causes\u201d and that his aim is to draw more white people into Black History Month celebrations.\n\nIn a memo to lawmakers he wrote that it is important to view African American history \u201cin a way that raises the prominence of that part of our mutual history so that it is the center of our attention\u201d and to \u201cdemonstrate our unity by highlighting an aspect of American history\u201d.\n\n\u201cWhen we say that it has nothing to do with us, as European Americans, and that we should not be involved in Black History Month and the celebration of Black History Month, we\u2019re missing the larger point,\u201d he told the newspaper.\n\n\ufeffThis is the third year in succession that Republican state lawmakers have collided with accusations of cultural appropriation over the celebrations.\n\nEarlier this year, they blocked the black caucus\u2019s list of honorees until Democrats agreed to drop Milwaukee-born former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Republican party leaders argued that Kaepernick was too controversial.\n\nIn 2018, Allen complained that David Clarke, the controversial, Trump-supporting black Milwaukee sheriff, who once compared the Black Lives Matter movement to the Ku Klux Klan, had been left off the list.\ufeff", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": [""], "tags": [], "authors": ["Https", "Www.Theguardian.Com Profile Edwardhelmore", "Edward Helmore"], "publish_date": "Tue Dec 31 00:00:00 2019", "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "Black%20History%20Month%3A%20outrage%20greets%20Republican%27s%20call%20to%20honor%20white%20people%20%7C%20Republicans%20%7C%20The%20Guardian", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "https://static.guim.co.uk/images/favicon-32x32.ico", "meta_data": {"description": "Black%20History%20Month%3A%20outrage%20greets%20Republican%27s%20call%20to%20honor%20white%20people%20%7C%20Republicans%20%7C%20The%20Guardian", "viewport": "width=device-width,minimum-scale=1,initial-scale=1", "og": {"url": "http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/31/republican-wisconsin-lawmaker-black-history-month", "image": "https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/050810ec8b9d83d1beeb4e965c3796a7514c4d35/0_0_2362_1417/master/2362.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=7e776c83401d7593d756cf4133712e14", "description": "Backlash after Wisconsin lawmaker Scott Allen suggested white people who helped slaves escape be recognized for contribution", "type": "article", "title": "Black History Month: outrage greets Republican's call to honor white people", "site_name": "the Guardian"}, "article": {"author": "https://www.theguardian.com/profile/edwardhelmore", "publisher": "https://www.facebook.com/theguardian", "section": "US news", "published_time": "2019-12-31T20:49:38.000Z", "tag": "Republicans,US news,Wisconsin,World news", "modified_time": "2019-12-31T20:51:46.000Z"}, "al": {"ios": {"url": "gnmguardian://us-news/2019/dec/31/republican-wisconsin-lawmaker-black-history-month?contenttype=Article&source=applinks", "app_store_id": 409128287, "app_name": "The Guardian"}}, "fb": {"app_id": 180444840287}, "twitter": {"app": {"id": {"iphone": 409128287, "ipad": 409128287, "googleplay": "com.guardian"}, "name": {"googleplay": "The Guardian", "ipad": "The Guardian", "iphone": "The Guardian"}, "url": {"ipad": "gnmguardian://us-news/2019/dec/31/republican-wisconsin-lawmaker-black-history-month?contenttype=Article&source=twitter", "googleplay": "guardian://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/31/republican-wisconsin-lawmaker-black-history-month", "iphone": "gnmguardian://us-news/2019/dec/31/republican-wisconsin-lawmaker-black-history-month?contenttype=Article&source=twitter"}}, "image": "https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/050810ec8b9d83d1beeb4e965c3796a7514c4d35/0_0_2362_1417/master/2362.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&s=602dde538bbd57b1e6c30558004ec441", "site": "@guardian", "card": "summary_large_image"}}, "canonical_link": ""}