Celebrating Black History Month
February 5, 2025 Kaylee Tokumi
February is Black History Month. Let’s take a moment to commemorate the history and many contributions of black individuals in Hawaiʻi.
The early history of black immigration to the Hawaiian Kingdom is sparsely documented. Many immigrants were former slaves looking for new opportunities or crew members aboard whaling ships. “Black Jack,” or Keakaʻeleʻele to the Kānaka Maoli community, was the first named black individual in known records. He was thought to have arrived on Oʻahu in 1796 as a trader and was even reported to have helped Queen Kaʻahumanu build a brick house in Lāhainā, Maui. Later in the early 19th century, black laborers were recruited from the American South to work on the plantations. Today, African Americans make up about 3% of Hawaiʻi’s population.
Now that we have learned a little about black history, let’s take a brief look at some more noteworthy figures with ties to the Hawaiian Islands, including a few who have worked at UH.
Thomas McCants Stewart, 1853-1923
Thomas M. Stewart was a bold civil rights leader, clergyman, and lawyer of the 19th and early 20th century. He received his BA and LLC from the University of South Carolina, then became an instructor, traveling across the United States and parts of Africa. Stewart moved to Hawai’i in 1898 where he was hired by Hui Kālaiʻāina to protect Native Hawaiian interests in the legislature following the illegal annexation of the Hawaiian Kingdom. He contributed to the Organic Acts and the Honolulu City Charter. Additionally, he worked to defend kuleana land rights and challenge the Chinese Exclusion Act. After leaving Hawaiʻi, he moved to London then Liberia to continue his career.
Selected Works About Stewart:
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- “A New Attorney” by the Pacific Commercial Advertiser (newspaper)
- African-American Odyssey: The Stewarts, 1853-1963 by Albert S. Broussard (book; request through ISL)
- Thomas McCants Stewart and the failure of the mission of the Talented Tenth in Black America, 1880-1923 by Swan, Robert Joseph (dissertation)
Dr. Miles Jackson, 1929 –
Dr. Miles Jackson is an emeritus professor and dean of the Library and Information Science Master’s Program at UH Mānoa. Before working at UH, Jackson was employed at various libraries, including the Free Library of Philadelphia, the State University of New York, and libraries in American Samoa. Additionally, he is an educator, and author who has published many scholarly books on topics related to African Americans across the country with emphasis on Hawai’i. His work was a great resource when writing this blog post.
He was awarded the NAACP Martin Luther King, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, and the Marquis Who’s Who Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.
Selected Works:
Dr. Kathryn Waddell Takara, 1943 –
Dr. Kathryn Waddell Takara is a retired UH Manoa Assistant Professor from Tuskegee, Alabama. She has taught in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program and pioneered courses on African American and African politics, history, literature, and culture.
Takara is also an accomplished poet whose work is fueled by the segregation and racial tensions she experienced in the South. She has been awarded the American Book Award for her poetry book, Book of Ravens: Hawaiʻi Poems. Her work has been recognized by the NAACP, and she earned a Lifetime Achievement Award in Education and African American history and culture in Hawaiʻi in 2016.
Selected Works:
Dr. Akiemi Glenn, 1982 –
Dr. Akiemi Glenn is a non-profit leader with a passion for language and culture. While pursuing her PhD in Linguistics at UHM, Glenn became interested in the Tokelauan language and how it has helped the Tokelauan people maintain their sense of culture while living in Hawai’i. She has since worked closely with the non-profit Te Lumanaki o Tokelau i Amelika in Mililani to support Tokelauan language revitalization efforts. Glenn would eventually establish her own non-profit, the Pōpolo Project. The Pōpolo Project’s mission is to redefine the black experience in Hawaiʻi through community-based events, outreach, and advocacy.
Selected Works:
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- Wayfinding in Pacific Linguascapes: Negotiating Tokelau linguistic identities in Hawaii (dissertation)
- The Blue Hawaiʻi Podcast, Election Recap Part 1 and #BlackAugust with Dr. Akiemi Glenn (podcast)
About the Pōpolo Project:
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- Flux Magazine: The Lineage of Language by Kelsie Pualoa (magazine)
Image Credits in Order of Appearance:
Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. (n.d.). Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p1056-1057
American Library Association Archives. (1968). Miles M. Jackson, Jr [Photograph]. Champaign, Illinois. https://archon.library.illinois.edu/ala/?p=digitallibrary/digitalcontent&id=4300
Hawaiʻi Womenʻs Suffrage. (n.d.). [Photograph of Dr. Kathryn Waddell Takara]. Retrieved February 4, 2025. https://wscc.historichawaii.org/event/dowsettkahukulibrary-2/
Akiemiglenn.net. (n.d.). [Photograph of Dr. Akiemi Glenn]. Retrieved from February 4, 2025. https://akiemiglenn.net/
Further Reading:
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- Hawaiʻi is My Haven: Race and Indigeneity in the Black Pacific by Nitasha Tamar Sharma (book)
- African Americans in Hawai’i by Molentia D. Guttman (book)
- Beyond Ethnicity: New Politics of Race in Hawaiʻi edited by Camilla Fojas, Rudy P. Gueverra Jr., and Nitasha Tamar Sharma (book)
- The Intersection of Hawaiian and Black Histories (article)
