Black History Month Character Ideas

It is a bit cold here, February is about to end, but today is scheduled to be a good day. I just need to make sure I stay warm.

I am still working through Dragon Pilot on Netflix, as well as Burn Notice on Hulu. Reading-wise, I have begun to realize that I should really get into the Cosmere novels by Sanderson.

Black History Month Character Ideas

It’s Black History Month! The past couple of weeks, I had been trying to come up with some idea for the Saturday Note that would celebrate it somehow. I couldn’t come up with something then, but now I think I’ve got something. And then I thought: hey, sometimes I come up with suggestions for story ideas in fiction. Well, why not do that? Why not talk about figures from black history that could inspire a lot of cool story ideas.

YASUKE 

Okay, yes, he has a role as a playable character in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. AND he has an anime. But the anime is kind of terrible. In this case, though, I’m not going to argue that he should star in more stories–though he absolutely should–because that’s too obvious a take.

I’m saying that there should be more black protagonists in the mold of Yasuke: a man (or woman, I suppose!) who suddenly finds himself in a foreign land, with customs that they don’t understand, and have to adapt to those circumstances, eventually thriving. And also having sword fights, because why not? That’s not an uncommon story in popular culture, but it isn’t very common for black protagonists–at least, not that I’ve seen.

PHILLIS WHEATLEY

I’m not talking about a fictional equivalent, here, mind you, I mean Phillis Wheatley. The first published African American poet? Yeah, her. I think it would be really cool to see more fiction about her, or featuring her. She’s an important figure in the development of American literature! She’s awesome!

And I understand that it’s probably a difficult pitch, because it’s not exactly like she was an action star in her time. She wasn’t. Wheatley was a poet. There’s not even a daring escape like with Harriet Tubman. There is, however, some travel–she went to London, as the Wheatleys thought she’d be more easily published there, and mingled with society. There’s a sign pointing out that she definitely studied in the library of the British Museum, for instance, and she almost had an audience with the king.

Also! You have famous scholars at the time like Thomas Jefferson (who today is often a punching bag, I think often in bad faith, though in this instance, he certainly deserves it) who did not believe that a black woman could be an accomplished poet. Because racism is made of Stupid. I feel like a story where Wheatley shows him up, along with wrecking other snooty racists with her poetry would be fantastic. 

…maybe that should be a musical.

MANSA MUSA

Really, there should just be more out there about historical Mali, because it is a fascinating historical setting. Most people think about it in the context of Mansa Musa, which is fair, because he’s kind of an amazing guy. For those not in the know: Mansa Musa was quite possibly the richest monarch to ever live, which he showed off on his hajj to Mecca (a pilgrimage that every faithful Muslim is expected to make at least once). The pop history goes that he broke the economy of the medieval world by doing so, though I don’t think that’s quite true.

So! Aside from telling more stories in which the man himself is featured, why aren’t there more fictional counterparts? There are plenty of kings in fantasy and science fiction molded off of European models, but not so many based on this guy. That’s a shame, because you can take that dubious claim of ‘crashing the economy’ and make it A Thing in your completely fictional setting if you want.

And while we’re at it, make it so that you have fictional counterparts to Mali: a country that was wealthy, powerful, had a massive store of knowledge, and had kings who funded exploration. They were also Muslim, though not enough for ibn Battuta. The religious element would be great for a fictional setting.

SAINT MONICA

Surprise! Saint Augustine and his mom were north African. Admittedly, we don’t know if they’d have been black by modern standards of race (which didn’t exist at the time of their earthly lives), and we don’t have art of them during their lives. So while it’s possible they were black, we don’t know for sure. For the purposes of this, we’ll say they were.

Saint Augustine gets a lot of attention, being one of the most important theologians who ever lived. His mother, Saint Monica? Less so. It’s a hard pitch for a story, too, given that she’s not the one who makes as many terrible life choices. Still! I think she has potential for dramatic narratives. She also, you know, had other children, besides Augustine, and managing them, along with Drama King Augustine, must have been absolutely wild.

And I would like a fictional take on Saint Monica: a mother of a brilliant child destined to do great things, but that child keeps making bone-headed choices, while she’s just doing her best. Motherhood is often under-appreciated in culture–we can fix that!

BASS REEVES

Alright, you’ve probably heard of this guy, the first African-American Deputy US Marshall, the lawman who made over four thousand arrests in his career, including ruthless criminals and his own son. He’s gotten more attention in pop culture recently, as he should, because he’s Awesome.

Again: I want some more fictional counterparts to him. Not as much fantasy features guns (though it should!), but can you imagine a sci-fi take on Bass Reeves? There’s quite a lot of science-fiction that takes inspiration from Westerns, as a genre, because space or alternate dimensions can be seen as frontiers that aren’t quite policed the way the ordinary world is. So you would need lawmen to patrol them, and catch people who break the laws.

Or heck, just make it fantasy. You can have guns in fantasy, or if you don’t feel like it, the essence of the character is still there: a skilled black lawman who has never been beaten, who defies expectations and does the right thing no matter what. That’s not too out there for a fantasy character, is it?

WILMA RUDOLPH

…alright, I don’t know much about athletics, but I did a project on Rudolph for Black History Month in grade school. Weirdly, I don’t see her brought up much except in conversations about Black History Month. I mean, c’mon! The Fastest Woman in the World! Was black! And American! How can we not be constantly celebrating this woman?

There should be more media about Wilma Rudolph! There are “inspiring athlete movies” about golf for goodness sake! If that’s the world we live in, we should at least have more out there about Rudolph!

Like I said, I don’t know much about athletes, so I don’t have as much to say here.

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Honorable Mentions that didn’t make entries because time constraints but are in my notes:

-Miguel Enriquez

-Saint Maurice

-Robert Smalls (you guys already know who he is, right?)

-Sister Thea Bowman

-Cato

-Chevalier Saint-Georges

Feel free to ask about them/suggest others in the comments!

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