Forty-five years ago yesterday, four girls were murdered when a bomb went off at Birmingham's 16th St Baptist Church, a base of operations for the SCLC. Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins died when the bomb went off as they were heading to the church basement for final prayers. The first suspect wasn't convicted until 1978 — the last two were sentenced in 2002.

[H/T JJP]

On my first day at Stereohyped, I was asked by some readers what qualified me to work here (ie "What's your race?"). I was taken aback by the query and upset by its inherent assumptions. My boss thinks I'm qualified, I wanted to scream at the firing line, do you sign my checks? That said, I'm willing to admit that part of my anger stemmed from this fact: I didn't know that I was qualified. Full disclosure: I'm not even half black. My mother is of German descent and my father is part black and part American Indian, an ethnic pairing appearing in my lineage thanks to a ribald ancestor who had a stint as a Buffalo Soldier. I am an amalgam, an alloy part, and at the time I didn't feel comfortable saying that to people who seemed to be hungry for a, yes, black or white answer. My skin tone and indecision were one taupe mass.

To better pick my way through this existential dilemma, I started jotting down the incidents in my life that have made me feel truly, unshakably African American. Soon, I had composed what I hope you will indulge me enough to read, a very general glimpse into what I believe to be my "blackness," the credentials that explain my employment at a site devoted to black culture.

I hate lessons, but if I learned anything from this particular creative process, it's that though I am not by birth an archetypal African American, I have been presumed to be and treated as such, for better or worse, many, many times over the course of my history. I learned that my black experience can't be spoken of in terms of black and white. It's red like anger, green like envy, an energetic yellow and, far too often, a deep, dark blue.

I hope that no matter what color you are you'll be able to relate to at least some of the following, especially the bad parts. As I've come to know, the worst of times are almost always the most enlightening.

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The Selma marches of March 1965 are considered the highlight of the Civil Rights movement, when the bloody fight for voting rights ended with legislation in support of the cause. The Selma Marches were preceded by a long struggle by black residents of Dallas County, Alabama, where Selma is located, to get rid of Jim Crow voting laws and overcome intimidation from the Klu Klux Klan. They were thwarted at every turn. The movement in Dallas County, eventually led by John Lewis, who is now a all-powerful superdelegate Congressman from Georgia, attracted celebrity supporters, including Dick Gregory and James Baldwin. It was after voting-rights demonstrator Jimmie Lee Jackson* was shot and killed by a state trooper during a protest that the leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr., and the SCLC, planned the marches.

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Last month, I realized with a sense of doom that Black History Month was rapidly approaching. I knew that I had to address the month on Stereohyped, but I had no idea how to do it in a way that wouldn't be completely trite. That's where the doom came in. I figured it I was going to participate in a month-long affair whose purpose many people — myself included, sometimes — question, I should at least learn something in the process. So I decided to write a daily post that highlighted a figure in black history (usually Black American history) that got glazed over when historians decided who would and wouldn't become bold names in our text books, and crossed my fingers that it wouldn't come across as totally cheesy, uncharacteristically earnest, and boring. Well, it was often cheesy and uncharacteristically earnest, but the reception from you all, not to mention other bloggers, has been overwhelmingly positive. And I swear I wouldn't have gotten through the month if it weren't for your helpful suggestions.

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]• A man is riding a horse across country, visiting HBCUs to raise awareness about the "black experience." Poor horse — in a variety of ways, that's a lot of ground to cover. [WBKO]

• This study is about black people and social networking, but I couldn't really get past the term "African American-fluentials." [BW]

• Connecticut plans to "crack down" on nooses. How? By requiring background checks before people can purchase rope? [AP]

• If at first you don't succeed, then try, try a forum. [CP