The Black History Behind ‘Jumping The Broom'
Black History Year
PushBlack
4.6 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2023
⏱️ 3 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If you’ve ever attended a Black wedding, you likely witnessed the couple “jump the broom” towards the end of the ceremony. Many believe this practice dates back to slavery, while others argue it originated during the 1600s in the Ashanti kingdom in Ghana. Who’s right? Well, both of them.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In 1963, America's Georgia, 15 black girls joined a protest. |
| 0:05.4 | One for the matinee, please. |
| 0:07.6 | Negroes, even you little ones, hit your tickets in the back. |
| 0:12.8 | We just want tickets to see the show. |
| 0:14.7 | Then you stay right there, little girl. |
| 0:17.3 | Here comes a whole mess of tickets for each and every one of you. |
| 0:20.9 | Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. |
| 0:28.0 | For 45 days, the girls went missing without a trace. We searched all over and no signs of the girls. |
| 0:31.0 | Now is the time to get organized. |
| 0:34.0 | Right, L'O, we ain't got no more time to waste. |
| 0:39.0 | It's now or never, y'all. |
| 0:40.0 | Pop's is closing it. He's aiming at us. Carol, what should we do? |
| 0:47.0 | Based on the true story, Push Black presents The Stolen Girls of America's. |
| 0:54.0 | Listen and follow on the Odyssey ad, or wherever you find your podcast. If you've ever ever attended a black wedding, you likely witnessed the couple jump the broom towards the end of the ceremony. |
| 1:15.6 | Many believe this practice dates back to slavery, while others argue it originated during |
| 1:20.4 | the 1600s in the Ashanti kingdom in what is now called Ghana. |
| 1:25.0 | Who's right? Well, both of them actually. |
| 1:28.0 | This is two men in black history. |
| 1:30.0 | What you didn't learn in school. |
| 1:41.0 | Brooms apparently played a major role in Ashante culture, and during marriages a Broome was even symbolically waved over the couple's head, but it's not clear that jumping over one was a common practice. Enslaved Africans brought broom culture over during chattel slavery, and like many other things, it grew and transformed because of the specifics of enslaved people's circumstances. |
| 2:02.0 | During slavery, bows exchanged between enslaved black people were illegal |
| 2:07.5 | and did not constitute an official marriage. |
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