Black Media Mine

Ernie Chambers, The Man Who Sued God, Still Militant - Nebraska

2012-03-01T11:42:00.004-05:00

Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers

I included this video to get your attention, which obviously was the reason for the law suit in the first place. Now that we have your attention, if you don't already know something about State Senator Chambers, now is a good time to find out.

I'm tempted to include Nebraska State Senator Chambers' bio but I think I'll just present what I have here and hope that you'll be inspired to do more research on this incredibly dynamic individual. If you have the time be sure not to miss any of the material that I am including and do share it with those whom you think will benefit from it.

Ernie, Still Militant

Ernie Chambers in the sixties was no less dynamic.

See the following video documentary to see what he had to say back then.

"A Time for Burning" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 2005.

"A Time for Burning" is a 1966 American documentary film which explores the attempts of the minister of Augustana Lutheran Church in Omaha, Nebraska, to persuade his all-white congregation to reach out to "negro" Lutherans in the city's north side. The film was directed by San Francisco filmmaker William C. Jersey, was nominated as Best Documentary Feature in the 1967 Academy Awards, and introduced America to a young Ernie Chambers. The film was commissioned by the Lutheran Church.

The Black Media Archive has made "A Time for Burning" available on line I'll link you to it.

A Time for Burning Pt 1

A Time for Burning Pt 2

Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

2012-02-29T10:10:00.000-05:00

Strange Fruit Indeed

see the African American Halocaust site, warning it's graphic.

The Tuskegee Institute has recorded 3,446 blacks and 1,297 whites were lynched between 1882 and 1968. I'm not sure if this includes those murdered in the race riots or the ones that just disappeared while in police custody.

A Fugitive Slave by William Wells Brown

2012-02-28T09:35:00.000-05:00

Excerpt from:

NARRATIVE

WILLIAM W. BROWN,

FUGITIVE SLAVE.

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

I was born in Lexington, Ky. The man who stole me as soon as I was born, recorded the births of all the infants which he claimed to be born his property, in a book which he kept for that purpose.

Soon after we left St. Charles, the young child grew very cross, and kept up a noise during the greater part of the day. Mr. Walker complained of its crying several times, and told the mother to stop the child's d——d noise, or he would. The woman tried to keep the child from crying, but could not. We put up at night with an acquaintance of Mr. Walker, and in the morning, just as we were about to start, the child again commenced crying. Walker stepped up to her, and told her to give the child to him. The mother tremblingly obeyed. He took the child by one arm, as you would a cat by the leg, walked into the house, and said to the lady,

"Madam, I will make you a present of this little nigger; it keeps such a noise that I can't bear it."

"Thank you, sir," said the lady.

The mother, as soon as she saw that her child was to be left, ran up to Mr. Walker, and falling upon her knees begged him to let her have her child; she clung around his legs, and cried, "Oh, my child! my child! master, do let me have my child! oh, do, do, do. I will stop its crying, if you will only let me have it again." When I saw this woman crying for her child so piteously, a shudder,—a feeling akin to horror, shot through my frame. I have often since in imagination heard her crying for her child:—

O, master, let me stay to catch

My baby's sobbing breath,

His little glassy eye to watch,

And smooth his limbs in death,

And cover him with grass and leaf,

Beneath the large oak tree:

It is not sullenness, but grief,—

O, master, pity me!

The morn was chill—I spoke no word,

But feared my babe might die,

And heard all day, or thought I heard,

My little baby cry.

At noon, oh, how I ran and took

My baby to my breast!

I lingered—and the long lash broke

My sleeping infant's rest.

I worked till night—till darkest night,

In torture and disgrace;

Went home and watched till morning light,

To see my baby's face.

Then give me but one little hour—

O! do not lash me so!

One little hour—one little hour—

And gratefully I'll go."

Mr. Walker commanded her to return into the ranks with the other slaves. Women who had children were not chained, but those that had none were. As soon as her child was disposed of, she was chained in the gang.

The following song I have often heard the slaves sing, when about to be carried to the far south. It is said to have been composed by a slave.

"See these poor souls from Africa

Transported to America;

We are stolen, and sold to Georgia,

Will you go along with me?

We are stolen, and sold to Georgia,

Come sound the jubilee!

See wives and husbands sold apart,

Their children's screams will break my heart;—

There's a better day a coming,

Will you go along with me?

There's a better day a coming,

Go sound the jubilee!

O, gracious Lord! when shall it be,

That we poor souls shall all be free;

Lord, break them slavery powers—

Will you go along with me?

Lord break them slavery powers,

Go sound the jubilee!

Dear Lord, dear Lord, when slavery'll cease,

Then we poor souls will have our peace;—

There's a better day a coming,

Will you go along with me?

There's a better day a coming,

Go sound the jubilee!"

Click here to read or download for free, the complete work from:

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Narrative of William W. Brown, a

Fugitive Slave, by William Wells Brown

THREE NEGRO POETS - from the 19th Century

2012-02-27T15:21:00.000-05:00

This paper was read at the biennial meeting of the Association held in Washington, D. C., on August 29, 1917.

THREE NEGRO POETS: HORTON, MRS. HARPER, AND WHITMAN

With the exception of a few noteworthy individuals, conscious literary effort on the part of the Negro in America is, of course, a matter of comparatively recent years. Decades before Emancipation, however, there were those who yearned toward poetry as a means of artistic expression, and sought in this form to give vent to their groping, their striving, and their sorrow. Handicapped as they were, scores of these black bards must forever remain un- known. Even after the Civil War those who had gifts were frequently held back by insufficient education or the lack of other advantages of culture. At least three persons, how- ever, in the long period between Phillis Wheatley and Paul Dunbar, deserve not wholly to pass unnoticed. These were George Moses Horton, Mrs. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Albery A. Whitman. Each one of these poets had faults and even severe limitations as an artist. Each one had also, however, a spark of the divine fire that occasion- ally even kindled a flame.

George Moses Horton

George M. Horton was born a slave in Chatham County, North Carolina, in 1797. Later he became the property of one Hall Horton, son of James, who, from all accounts, was a very hard master. George, however, was permitted to hire his time out at Chapel Hill, the seat of the Uni- versity of North Carolina, where by some accounts he re- ceived twenty-five cents a day for his labor, by others fifty cents. He was very ambitious. He was fond of the melo- dies and hymns sung at campmeetings, and learned to read largely by matching the words he knew in the hymnal to those in a spelling-book. Many people of distinction became interested in his abilities; several legends exist as to his instructors; and Dr. Caldwell, president of the Univer- sity, was for some years a special patron. George's earliest poetical compositions, however, had to be written down for him by other people. His work was infused with his desire for freedom, and much of it was suggested by the common evangelical hymns, as were the following lines:

Alas! and am I born for this,
To wear this slavish chain?
Deprived of all created bliss,
Through hardship, toil, and pain?

How long have I in bondage lain,
And languished to be free!
Alas! and must I still complain,
Deprived of liberty?

Come, Liberty,thou cheerful sound,
Roll through my ravished ears;
Come, let my grief in joys be drowned,
And drive away my fears.

Some of Horton's friends undertook to help him publish a volume of his poems so that from the sale of these he might purchase his freedom and go to the new colony of Liberia. The young man now became fired with ambition and inspira- tion. Thrilled by the new hope he wrote

'Twas like the salutation of the dove,
Borne on the zephyr through some lonesome grove,
When spring returns, and winter's chill is past,
And vegetation smiles above the blast.

Horton's master, however, demanded for him an exorbitant price, and when the booklet, The Hope of Liberty, appeared in 1829 it had nothing of the sale that was hoped for. He lived for years as a janitor at the University, executed small commissions for verse from the students, who treated him kindly, and in later years even went to Philadelphia; but his old dreams had faded. Several reprintings of his poems were made, however, and one of these was bound with the 1838 edition of Phillis Wheatley's poems. He died in 1880 (by other accounts 1883). A scholarly article about him was written for the Southern Workman of October, 1914, by Mr. Stephen B. Weeks, who in turn owed much to the researches of Prof. George S. Wills.
Horton's work showed readily the influence of his models. He used especially the meter of the common evangelical hymns, and cultivated the vague personification of the poets of the eighteenth century. He himself, however, was essentially a romantic poet, as was evinced by his fondness for Byron and Marlowe. His common style is represented by the following lines from his poem entitled On the Evening and Morning

When Evening bids the Sun to rest retire,
Unwearied Ether sets her lamps on fire;
Lit by one torch, each is supplied in turn,
Till all the candles in the concave burn.
At length the silver queen begins to rise,
And spread her glowing mantle in the skies,
And from the smiling chambers of the east,
Invites the eye to her resplendent feast.

The passion in the heart of this man, his undoubted gifts as a poet, and the bitter disappointment of his yearnings have all but added one more to the long list of those who died with their ambitions blasted and their most ardent hopes defeated.

In 1854 appeared the first edition of Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects, by Frances Ellen Watkins, commonly known as Mrs. Frances E. W. Harper, who was for many years before the public and who is even now remembered by many friends. Mrs. Harper was a woman of strong personality and could read her poems to advantage. Her verse was very popular, not less than ten thousand copies of her booklets being sold. It was decidedly lacking in tech- nique, however, and much in the style of Mrs. Hemans. The Death of the Old Sea King, for instance, is in the ballad style cultivated by this poet and Longfellow; but it is not a well-sustained effort. Mrs. Harper was best when most simple, as when in writing of children she said:

I almost think the angels
Who tend life's garden fair,
Drop down the sweet white blossoms
That bloom around us here.

The secret of her popularity is to be seen in such lines as the following from Bury me in a Free Land:

Make me a grave where'er you will,
In a lowly plain or a lofty hill;
Make it among earth's humblest graves,
But not in a land where men are slaves.

I could not rest if around my grave
I heard the steps of a trembling slave:
His shadow above my silent tomb
Would make it a place of fearful gloom.

I ask no monument, proud and high,
To arrest the gaze of the passers-by;
All that my yearning spirit craves
Is bury me not in a land of slaves.

Of the Emancipation Proclamation she wrote

It shall flash through coming ages,
It shall light the distant years;
And eyes now dim with sorrow
Shall be brighter through their tears.

Albery A. Whitman

While Mrs. Harper was still prominently before the public appeared Albery A. Whitman, a Methodist minister, whose important collection, Not a Man and Yet a Man, ap- peared in 1877, and whose long and ambitious poem, Twasinta's Seminoles, or The Rape of Florida (the latter title being the one most used), was issued in 1884. This writer had great love for his work. In the preface to his second volume he wrote of poetry as follows: "I do not believe poetry is on the decline. I do not believe that human advancement extinguishes the torch of sentiment. I can not think that money-getting is the whole business of man. Rather am I convinced that the world is appioach- ing a poetical revolution. The subtle evolution of thought must yet be expressed in song. Poetry is the language of universal sentiment. Torch of the unresting mind, she kindles in advance of all progress. Her waitings are on the threshold of the infinite, where, beckoning man to listen, she interprets the leaves of immortality. Her voice is the voice of Eternity dwelling in all great souls. Her aims are the inducements of heaven, and her triumphs the survival of the Beautiful, the True, and the Good. In her language there is no mistaking of that liberal thought which is the health of mind. A secret interpreter, she waits not for data, phenomena, and manifestations, but anticipates and spells the wishes of Heaven.')
The work of Whitman himself is exceedingly baffling. It is to his credit that something about his work at once commands judgment by the highest standards. If we con- sider it on this basis, we find that it is diffuse, exhibits many lapses in taste, is faulty metrically, as if done in haste, and shows imitation on every hand. It imitates Whittier, Long- fellow and Tennyson; Scott, Byron and Moore. The Old Sac Village and Nanawawa's Suitors are very evidently Hiawatha over again, and Custer's Last Ride is simply an- other version of The Charge of the Light Brigade. And yet, whenever one has about decided that Whitman is not worthy of consideration, the poet insists on a revision of judgment; and he certainly could not have imitated so many writers so readily, if he had not had some solid basis in appreciation. The fact is that he shows a decided faculty for brisk, though not sustained, narration. This may be seen in The House of the Aylors. He has, moreover, a ro- mantic lavishness of description that in spite of all tech- nical faults still has some degree of merit. The following quotations, taken respectively from The Mowers and The Flight of Leeona, with all their extravagance, will exemplify both his weakness and his strength in description:

The tall forests swim in a crimson sea,
Out of whose bright depths rising silently,
Great golden spires shoot into the skies,
Among the isles of cloudland high, that rise,
Float, scatter, burst, drift off, and slowly fade,
Deep in the twilight, shade succeeding shade.

And now she turns upon a mossy seat,
Where sings a fern-bound stream beneath her feet,
And breathes the orange in the swooning air;
Where in her queenly pride the rose blooms fair,
And sweet geranium waves her scented hair;
There, gazing in the bright face of the stream,
Her thoughts swim onward in a gentle dream

In A Dream of Glory occur the lines:

The fairest blooms are born of humble weeds,
That faint and perish in the pathless wood;
And out of bitter life grow noble deeds
To pass unnoticed in the multitude

The Bards of England discusses many poets. The following is the passage on Byron:

To Missolonghi's chief of singers too,
Unhappy Byron, is a tribute due-
A wounded spirit, mournful and yet mad,
A genius proud, defiant, gentle, sad;
'Twas he whose Harold won his Nation's heart,
And whose Reviewers made her fair cheeks smart;
Whose uncurbed Juan hung her head for shame,
And whose Mazeppa won unrivaled fame.
Earth had no bound for him. Where'er he strode
His restless genius found no fit abode.

Whitman's shortcomings become readily apparent when he attempts sustained work. The Rape of Florida is the longest poem yet written by a Negro in America, and also the only attempt by a member of the race to use the elabo- rate Spenserian stanza throughout a long piece of work. The story is concerned with the capture of the Seminoles in Florida through perfidy and the taking of them away to their new home in the West. It centers around three characters, Palmecho, an old chief, Ewald, his daughter, and Atlassa, a young Seminole who is Ewald's lover. The poem is decidedly diffuse; there is too much subjective description, too little strong characterization. Palmecho, instead of being a stout warrior, is a "chief of peace and kindly deeds." Stanzas of merit, however, occasionally strike the eye. The boat-song forces recognition as genuine poetry:

"Come now, my love, the moon is on the lake;
Upon the waters is my light canoe;
Come with me, love, and gladsome oars shall make
A music on the parting wave for you,-
Come o'er the waters deep and dark and blue;
Come where the lilies in the marge have sprung,
Come with me, love, for Oh, my love is true!"
This is the song that on the lake was sung,
The boatman sang it over when his heart was young.

It is important to note in a consideration of Whitman's method that while he is writing a story about Indians he frequently leaves this to tell how he feels as a Negro. The following stanzas, however, are pertinent to present-day dis- cussion:

'Tis hard to judge if hatred of one's race,
By those who deem themselves superior-born,
Be worse than that quiescence in disgrace,
Which only merits-and should only--scorn!
Oh! let me see the Negro, night and morn,
Pressing and fighting in, for place and power!
If he a proud escutcheon would adorn,
All earth is place-all time th' auspicious hour,
While heaven leans forth to see, oh! can he quail or cower?

Ah! I abhor his protest and complaint!
His pious looks and patience I despise!
He can't evade the test, disguised as saint,
The manly voice of freedom bids him rise,
And shake himself before Philistine eyes!
And, like a lion roused, no sooner than
A foe dare come, play all his energies,
And court the fray with fury if he can!
For hell itself respects a fearless manly man.

   In 1890 Whitman brought out an edition of Not a Man and Yet a Man and The Rape of Florida, adding to these a collection of miscellaneous poems, Drifted Leaves, and in 1901 he published An Idyl of the South, an epic poem in two parts. It is to be regretted that he did not have the training that comes from the best university education. He had the taste and the talent to benefit from such culture in the greatest degree.
   This brief review of the work of three earnest members of the race prompts a few reflections on the whole art of poetry as this is cultivated by the Negro in America. If we may make any reasonable deduction from the work of the poets studied, if we may arrive at any conclusion from the work of Paul Laurence Dunbar and the younger writers of the day, we should say that the genius of the race is sub- jective and romantic rather than objective and classic. In poetry, least of all arts, does the Negro conceal his indi- viduality. This is his great gift, but also in another way the spur to further achievement. The race should in course of time produce many brilliant lyric poets. Dunbar was a lyric poet; so was Pushkin. The drama and the epic ob- viously call for more extended information, a more objec- tive point of view, and a broader basis in general culture than many members of the race have so far had the time or the talent or the inclination to give to them.
Again, has one ever asked himself why it is that so much of the poetry of the Negro fails to reach the ultimate stand- ards of art? It certainly is not because of lack of imagina- tion, for God has been generous in the imagery with which he has endowed the race. First of all, last of all, is it not the matter of technique? Many booklets of verse that have been issued show that the writers had not mastered even the ordinary fundamentals of English grammar. For one to think of rivalling Tennyson with his classical tradition when he can not make a clearcut English sentence is out of the question. Further, and this is the most important point, the work of those in question almost never exhibits imagina- tion expressed in intense, condensed, vivid, and suggestive phrase-such phrasing, for instance, as one will find in "The Eve of St. Agnes," which I am not alone in consid- ering the most lavishly brilliant and successful brief effort in poetry in the language. To all of this might be added a refining of taste, something all too frequently lacking and something that can come only from the most arduous and diligent culture. When we further secure such things as these the race may indeed possess not only a Horton, a Harper, or a Whitman, but a Tennyson, a Keats, and even a Shakespeare.

                                                                                        BENJAMIN BRAWLEY

Article Courtesy of JSTOR

I found this great presentation of Horton's poem A Slave's Complaint do check it out.

George Moses Horton's A Slave's Complaint

CANADIAN NEGROES AND THE REBELLION OF 1837

2012-02-25T23:42:00.000-05:00

CANADIAN NEGROES AND THE REBELLION OF 1837

There are a number of interesting references in the literature of the times to the part played by Negro refugees in defending the frontier of Canada during the troubles of 1838. The outbreaks in both Upper and Lower Canada in 1837 were followed by a series of petty attacks along the border in which American sympathizers participated. Sandwich, on the Detroit River, was one of the objectives of the attacking parties and there were also threats on the Niagara River frontier. One of the parties of "rebels" had taken possession of Navy Island, in the Niagara River, and a small ship, the Caroline, was used for conveying supplies. A Canadian party under command of Colonel MacNab crossed the river, seized the ship and after setting it afire al- lowed it to drift over the falls. This gave rise to an inter- national issue and was the occasion of much bluster on both sides of the line that happily ended as bluster. All along the border on the American side there were "Hunter's Lodges" 1 organized during 1838 and this movement, joined with the widespread political disaffection, made the times unhappy for the Canadian provinces. Sir Francis Bond Head, who was Governor of Upper Canada when the troubles of 1837 began and whose conduct did not tend materially to quelling the unrest, wrote his ''apologia'' a couple of years later and in it he speaks of the loyalty of the colored people, almost all of whom were refugees from slavery. He says: "When our colored population were informed that American citizens, sympathizing with their sufferings, had taken violent possession of Navy Island, for the double object of liberating them

1 A convention of Hunter 's Lodges of Ohio and Michigan, held at Oleveland, September 16-22, 1838, was attended by seventy delegates. 377

from the domination of British rule, and of imparting to them the blessings of republican institutions, based upon the principle that all men are born equal, did our colored brethren hail their ap- proach? No, on the contrary, they hastened as volunteers in wagon-loads to the Niagara frontier to beg from me permission that, in the intended attack upon Navy Island, they might be permitted to form the forlorn hope-in short they supplicated that they might be allowed to be foremost to defend the glorious institutions of Great Britain. " 2 Rev. J. W. Loguen, in the narrative of his life, says that he was urgently solicited by the Canadian government to a-ccept the captaincy of a company of black troops who had been enrolled during the troubles. As the affair was then about all over by the joint effort of the Canadian and United States governments, he did not accept the offer but he makes this interesting comment: "The colored population of Canada at that time was small compared to what it now is; nevertheless, it was sufficiently large to attract the attention of the government. They were almost to a man fugitives from the States. They could not, therefore, be pas- sive when the success of the invaders would break the only arm interposed for their security, and destroy the only asylum for African freedom in North America. The promptness with which several companies of blacks were organized and equipped, and the desperate valor they displayed in this brief conflict, are an earnest of what may be expected from the swelling thousands of colored fugitives collecting there, in the event of a war between the two countries." 3 Josiah Henson, founder of the Dawn colony in Upper Canada and famous as the reputed "origi:nal" of Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom, says in his narrative that he was captain of the second company of Essex colored volunteers and that he and his men assisted in the defence of Fort Malden (Amherstburg) from Christmas 1837 to May of 1838. He

2 Head, Sir, P. B., A Narrative (London, 1839), page 392. 3Loguen, J. W., The Bev. J. W. Loguen as a Slave and as a Freeman (Syracuse, 1859), pp. 343-345.

Henson and other former African American slaves helped repulse the invaders three times that winter. In one supreme example of bravery and sheer will power, they waded chest-deep through icy January water to attack a rebel schooner that went aground. They swarmed the ship, and captured her provisions, her crew, and her rebel captain—Brigadier General Edward Theller.

says further that he assisted in the capture of the schooner Anne, an affair which took place on January 9, 1838.4 John MacMullen, in his History of Canada, says that among the troops on the border during 1838 "were two hun- dred Indians from Delaware, and a body of colored men, settlers in the western part of the province, the poor hunted fugitive's from American slavery, who had at length found liberty and security under the British flag. " I A rather interesting aftermath of the rebellion is con- tained in an item appearing in the Amherstburg Courier of March 10, 1849, reporting a meeting of Negroes in Sand- wich township to protest against the Rebellion Losses Bill.' Colonel Prince was thanked for his opposition to the measure.7 Eighty years after the rebellion the Negro men of Can- ada were again called upon to fight, this time in another land and in a conflict that was destined to affect every race and every land. The service that was rendered in the Cana- dian army by the colored companies of pioneers will some day receive due recognition at the hands of an historian. In the meantime, it is not forgotten by the people of Canada.

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY

FRED LANDON LONDON, ONTARIO

4 An autobiography of the Rev. Josiah Henson, " Uncle Tom," from 1789 to 1881 (London, Ont., 1881), page 177. A sketch of Josiah Henson appeared in THE JOURNAL oF NEGRO HISTORY for January, 1918 (Vol. III, no. 1, pp. 1-21). This is condensed from his autobiography which appeared in several editions. 5 MacMullen, John, History of Canada from its first Discovery to the Present Times (Brockville, Ont., 1868), pp. 459-460. He gives as his authority Radelift 's despatch, " 10th January, 1838. " 6 The Rebellion Losses Bill proposed compensation for those who had sustained losses in Lower Canada (Quebec) during the troubles of 1837. It was fiercely opposed in Upper Canada (Ontario) by the element that regarded the French as " aliens " and " rebels. " When Lord Elgin, the Governor, gave his assent to the bill in 1849 there were riots in Montreal in which the Parliament Buildings were burned. 7 Col. Prince was one of the leaders in the defense of the Canadian frontier along the Detroit River during 1838, afterwards a member of the Canadian Parliament. During the troubles of 1838 he ordered the shooting of four prisoners without the form of a trial. The act was condemned by Lord Brougham and others with great severity and is one dark spot on the records of the Canadian forces during the trying period.

Story courtesy of JSTOR

Lost Black History Found, Canada

2012-02-25T05:33:00.000-05:00

Speakers for the Dead

The compelling story of how Black original settlers of Priceville, Ontario were driven off their land and erased from memory in spite of the fact that they had cleared and domesticated the land. The story comes to a head over the restoration of the cemetery belonging to the original settlers.

This documentary reveals some of the hidden history of Blacks in Canada. In the 1930s in rural Ontario, a farmer buried the tombstones of a Black cemetery to make way for a potato patch. In the 1980s, descendants of the original settlers, Black and White, came together to restore the cemetery, but there were hidden truths no one wanted to discuss. Deep racial wounds were opened. Scenes of the cemetery excavation, interviews with residents and re-enactments--including one of a baseball game where a broken headstone is used for home plate--add to the film's emotional intensity.

2012-02-23T13:42:00.000-05:00

Music of the Freedom Movement

(Click headline to listen to program)

The March on Washington

The second of three programs on music as an instrument of social activism, this episode pays particular attention to material in the Folkways collection which documents and reflects the civil rights struggle, especially through the ten year period between 1955 and 1965. The program draws on such Folkways albums as "Voices of the Civil Rights Movement (Black American Freedom Songs, 1960-1966) and an audio-verite recording of the 1963 civil rights march on Washington entitled "We Shall Overcome." Original interviews with Bernice Johnson Reagon of the SNCC Freedom Singers and one-time Black Panther activist Angela Davis blend with archival interviews from Smithsonian Folkways to recapture the spirit of the struggle and to provide contemporary context to its meaning.

Folksingers Roger Johnson (left), and Pete Seeger (right) singing "We Shall Overcome at the Palmer's Crossing Community Center. 1964.

"Civil Rights Workers Singing." Selma, Dallas County, summer 1966.

Odetta, Sang the Soundtrack for the Civil Rights Movement

Here's a song that everyone knew and sang I don't know how many times.

While looking for photos for this post I came on an interesting site called Civil Rights Movement Veterans which is where I found most of these images. Be sure to visit it, there anr many more photos os the period and a whole lot of very interesting info on the people involved in The Movement

The 369th Infantry - AKA The Harlem Hellfighters - World War I

2012-02-21T13:59:00.000-05:00

The Harlem Hellfighters

The 369th may have been seconded to the French army, but it was up to the French how they would be used. And their need was for combat troops.
The 369th was in combat longer than any US unit in WW1. They liberated towns. They were the first Allied soldiers to reach the Rhine. They won 171 decorations. Two Harlem Hellfighters were especially honored for fighting off an attack on their tiny outpost by 24 Germans.
And that nickname, the Hellfighters? The Germans gave them that.

Photographs of the 369th Infantry and African Americans during World War I

Pullman Porters union and the Civil Rights Movement

2012-02-20T07:12:00.000-05:00

Rising from the Rails: How A. Philip Randolph and the Pullman Porters Helped Pave the Way for the Civil Rights Movement

See also Vanguard of the Black Middle Class

Africa - The Elders Speak

2012-02-19T20:28:00.001-05:00

Some of The Elders appointed by Nelson Mandela were interviewed during The World Cup.

What is The Elders?Toggle Content

Chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, The Elders is an independent group of global leaders who work together for peace and human rights. They were brought together in 2007 by Nelson Mandela, who is not an active member of the group but remains an Honorary Elder. The Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is also an Honorary Elder.

Swann Galleries African-American Fine Art Auction Part 1

2012-02-19T14:53:00.000-05:00

Voxunion - Mixtapes for the Masses

2012-02-19T14:00:00.000-05:00

Those of you that are interested in the activist arena of the Hip Hop Nation I have to point you to Voxunion. You can expect to find;

Emancipatory (Mixtape) Journalism

Dynamic interviews, stimulating music and much more is what you can expect here.

Did I mention Hip Hop like it was meant to be. The voice of our people.

THANKS VOXUNION

Above you see a review from a couple of years ago the site has changed.

Still dynamic and stimulating Voxunion has been evolving over the years. The information above is from
January 2008 so it's time for an update. Prof. Jared ball has not been gathering any moss. One very interesting development is his affiliation with journalist Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report. This is, in my opinion, a propitious union if there ever was one. I hope to see more from these two protagonists of African American media. ---------- Keep up the good work my brothers.

D.J. Professor Jared Ball

As for the Voxunion site they have brought it up to standards that reflect the evolution of the tools available on (web 2.0) as well as offering more in depth content, news, opinions and inspirational ideas for those of us who wish to avail ourselves of this media.

Check it out for yourself. VOXUNION

Paul Laurence Dunbar's - Ode to Ethiopia

2012-02-19T07:00:00.000-05:00

Ode to Ethiopia
O MOTHER Race! to thee I bring This pledge of faith unwavering, This tribute to thy glory. I know the pangs which thou didst feel, When Slavery crushed thee with its heel, With thy dear blood all gory. Sad days were those--ah, sad indeed! But through the land the fruitful seed Of better times was growing. The plant of freedom upward sprung, And spread its leaves so fresh and young-- Its blossoms now are blowing. On every hand in this fair land, Proud Ethiope's swarthy children stand Beside their fairer neighbor; The forests flee before their stroke, Their hammers ring, their forges smoke,-- They stir in honest labour. They tread the fields where honour calls; Their voices sound through senate halls In majesty and power. To right they cling; the hymns they sing Up to the skies in beauty ring, And bolder grow each hour. Be proud, my Race, in mind and soul; Thy name is writ on Glory's scroll In characters of fire. High 'mid the clouds of Fame's bright sky Thy banner's blazoned folds now fly, And truth shall lift them higher. Thou hast the right to noble pride, Whose spotless robes were purified By blood's severe baptism. Upon thy brow the cross was laid, And labour's painful sweat-beads made A consecrating chrism. No other race, or white or black, When bound as thou wert, to the rack, So seldom stooped to grieving; No other race, when free again, Forgot the past and proved them men So noble in forgiving. Go on and up! Our souls and eyes Shall follow thy continuous rise; Our ears shall list thy story From bards who from thy root shall spring, And proudly tune their lyres to sing Of Ethiopia's glory.

Ode to Ethiopia

O MOTHER Race! to thee I bring
This pledge of faith unwavering,
This tribute to thy glory.
I know the pangs which thou didst feel,
When Slavery crushed thee with its heel,
With thy dear blood all gory.
Sad days were those--ah, sad indeed!
But through the land the fruitful seed
Of better times was growing.
The plant of freedom upward sprung,
And spread its leaves so fresh and young--
Its blossoms now are blowing.
On every hand in this fair land,
Proud Ethiope's swarthy children stand
Beside their fairer neighbor;
The forests flee before their stroke,
Their hammers ring, their forges smoke,--
They stir in honest labour.
They tread the fields where honour calls;
Their voices sound through senate halls
In majesty and power.
To right they cling; the hymns they sing
Up to the skies in beauty ring,
And bolder grow each hour.
Be proud, my Race, in mind and soul;
Thy name is writ on Glory's scroll
In characters of fire.
High 'mid the clouds of Fame's bright sky
Thy banner's blazoned folds now fly,
And truth shall lift them higher.
Thou hast the right to noble pride,
Whose spotless robes were purified
By blood's severe baptism.
Upon thy brow the cross was laid,
And labour's painful sweat-beads made
A consecrating chrism.
No other race, or white or black,
When bound as thou wert, to the rack,
So seldom stooped to grieving;
No other race, when free again,
Forgot the past and proved them men
So noble in forgiving.
Go on and up! Our souls and eyes
Shall follow thy continuous rise;
Our ears shall list thy story
From bards who from thy root shall spring,
And proudly tune their lyres to sing
Of Ethiopia's glory.

Black Children Getting High!

2012-02-18T14:49:00.000-05:00

High on Education and Selfsufficiency and Community Involvement that is.

START A CDF FREEDOM SCHOOLS®PROGRAM

Philliber Research Associates Evaluation of the Kansas City CDF Freedom Schools Initiative

See also (Marion Wright Edelman Started the Childrens Defense Fund in the early 1970's )

The USS Mason - A WWII Destroyer Escort with an African American Crew

2012-02-18T06:20:00.000-05:00

USS Mason, a WWII warship manned by a predominantly black crew that served as a role model for the integration of U.S. Navy ships

USS Mason (DE-529) Evarts-class destroyer escort USS Mason (DE-529)

Launched November 17, 1943 at Boston Navy Yard's Pier 6. The ship wasn't commissioned until March, 1944.

"Negro sailors of the U.S.S. Mason (DE 529) commissioned at Boston Navy Yard on 20 Mar. 1944 proudly look over their ship which is the first to have a predominately Negro crew." March 20, 1944. 80-G-218861.

This photograph depicts three African American sailors standing in front of the U. S. S. Mason, on which all the enlisted personnel were African American, at the Boston Navy Yard.

During World War II, racial restriction and segregation were facts of life in the U.S. military. Nevertheless, an overwhelming majority of African Americans participated wholeheartedly in the fight against the Axis powers. Their participation aimed at victory over fascism abroad and also over racism at home.

USS Mason (DE-529), 1944-1947

USS Mason (DE-529), an Evarts-class destroyer escort, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named Mason, though DE-529 was the only one specifically named for Ensign Newton Henry Mason. The USS Mason was one of two US Navy ships with largely African-American crews in World War II. The other was the USS PC-1264, a submarine chaser.[1] These two ships were manned with African Americans as the result of a letter sent to President Roosevelt by the NAACP in mid-December 1941.

The USS Mason was commanded by Carlton Skinner. Her keel was laid down in the Boston Navy Yard, on 14 October 1943. She was launched on 17 November 1943, sponsored by Mrs. David Mason, the mother of Ensign Mason, and commissioned on 20 March 1944, with Lt. Commander William M. Blackford, USNR, in command.

Following a shakedown cruise off Bermuda, the Mason departed from Charleston, South Carolina, on 14 June, escorting a convoy bound for Europe, arriving at Horta Harbor, Azores, on 6 July. She got underway from Belfast, Northern Ireland, headed for the East Coast on 26 July, arriving at Boston Harbor on 2 August for convoy duty off the harbor through August.

On 2 September, she arrived at New York City to steam on 19 September in the screen for convoy NY.119. The Mason reached Falmouth, Cornwall, with part of the convoy 18 October, and she returned to New York from Plymouth, England, and the Azores on 22 November.

On October 18th, Mason supported Convoy NY-119 in a severe North Atlantic storm. [2] The ship suffered and self-repaired critical structural damage and still rescued ships from the convoy. The crew of Mason was not awarded a letter of commendation until 1994 for meritorious service during this action. [3][4]

Mason joined TF 64 at Norfolk, Virginia, on 17 December. Two days later she sailed in convoy for Europe, passing by Gibraltar on 4 January 1945 to be relieved of escort duties. Continuing to Algeria, she entered Oran on 5 January for the formation of TG 60.11.

The escort ship cleared Oran 7 January. Four days later the Mason made radar contact with a surface target. She rang up full speed with all battle stations manned to attack the presumptive submarine, rammed, and dropped depth charges. Unable to regain contact, the ship returned to the contact point, where searchlight revealed the target—a wooden derelict about 100 by 50 feet. The Mason then steamed to Bermuda for repairs, entering St. George's Harbor on 19 January. Five days later she reached the New York Navy Yard.

On 12 February Mason departed Norfolk in convoy for the Mediterranean Sea, arriving off Gibraltar on 28 February. She cleared Oran 8 March to guard a convoy to Bermuda and Chesapeake Bay before returning to New York 24 March. After sonar exercises off New London, Connecticut, and fighter-director training with naval aircraft from Quonset Point, Rhode Island, she steamed from Norfolk 10 April with another convoy to Europe, leaving the convoy at Gibraltar 28 April. The Mason was two days out of Oran en route to the East Coast when the end of World War II in Europe was announced on the eighth of May.

The Mason arrived at New York on 23 May for operations along the East Coast into July. From 28 July to 18 August she served as a school ship for the Naval Training Center, Miami, Florida. On 20 August she arrived at New London to be outfitted for long-range underwater signal testing in the Bermuda area into September. The Mason departed from Bermuda on 8 September for Charleston, S.C., arriving there two days later.

The Mason was decommissioned on 12 October, was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 November 1945, and was sold and delivered to New Jersey, on 18 March 1947 for scrapping.

The USS Mason (DDG-87) was named in honor of the African Americans on DE-529's crew, and the 2004 film Proud dramatizes their story.

Atlantic City Free Public Library Black History Month exhibit opening Fe...

2012-02-17T16:35:00.000-05:00

Scientific Racism: The Eugenics of Social Darwinism

2012-02-17T15:11:00.000-05:00

Ahmed Baba - Scholar of Timbuctu

2012-02-17T14:37:00.000-05:00

Aminatta Forna tells the story of legendary Timbuktu and its long hidden legacy of hundreds of thousands of ancient manuscripts.

Cradle to Prison Pipeline Campaign

2012-02-17T10:24:00.000-05:00

This is an issue that wants addressing urgently!

Cradle to Prison Pipeline Campaign

It's time to give our roots lots of TLC - BHM 2012

2012-02-16T23:19:00.000-05:00

The author expresses the need of Brazilian Black people to win back their memory of Africa. Then goes on to say that the same goes for people of African descent on the continent and throughout the Americas. Indeed we have our work cut out for us. This article is just one of many that accentuates the need for Africans on the continent and throughout the diaspora to to get in touch with our African roots and stop wandering around the world as if we haven't got a history that is every bit as consequential as any other. The fact is we must take possession of our own legacy and relate our story from the point of view and the facts surrounding the lives of our ancestors. The first step on the road to this happening will be for us as Africans to fully embrace and acknowledge our ancestry. Whatever admixtures we may have by race or by place we are still Africans and nothing is going to change that. The very strength of our DNA insures that we shall not be mistaken for anything else.

Contrary to what's been drummed into far too many of us - that's a good thing.
Once we get beyond such obstacles we can begin the work of exploring our past with the same healthy curiosity that all offspring have about their forebearers, while simultaneously creating systems to ensure that our own progeny can keep and build on our efforts. We don't have to start from scratch either because those kindred souls named at the end of this following excerpt have already begun to dig, as well as organize systems for the study of and the preservation of our history. We do have to keep up the effort though and we must get the full attention of our youth, at this point in time I'd say their lives depend on it. Our young people need to see us extoll the exploits of our heroes and mentors as well as our kings and conquerors of which there have actually been many, in recent and ancient history. if they never hear about them then it's easy to assume that they never existed. Our situation of living in eurocentric cultures or euro-colonialized cultures has placed us in a position where African history and culture is a subject, that not only has not been taught but even worse has been treated as a source of shame, something to be shunned. As Malcolm X so eloquently pointed out if you hate the root then you gotta hate the tree. It's time for our roots to have lots of TLC. Web Prospector

The following is an excerpt from an article in

The Journal of Black Studies
edited by
ABDIAS DO NASCIMENTO State University of New York.

QUILOMBISMO
An Afro-Brazilian
Political Alternative

MEMORY:THE ANTIQUITY OF
BLACK AFRICAN KNOWLEDGE

"I want to begin this text emphasizing the urgent need of the Brazilian Black people to win back their memory, which has been systematically assaulted by Brazilian Western-inspired structures of domination for almost 500 years. A similar pro- cess holds true with the history of Africans on the Continent and their descendants scattered through all the Americas. The memory of Afro-Brazilians, very much to the contrary of what is said by conventional historians of limited vision and superficial understanding, does not begin with the slave traffic or the dawn of chattel slavery of Africans in the fifteenth century. In my country, the ruling class always, and particu- larly after the so-called abolition of slavery (1888), has developed and refined myriad techniques of preventing Black

Brazilians from being able to identify and actively assume their ethnic, historical and cultural roots, thus cutting them off from the trunk of their African family tree. Except in terms of recent expansionist interests of the industrial elite, Brazil as a traditional norm has always ignored the African continent. It turned its back on Africa as soon as the slaver elite found itself no longer able to scorn the prohibition of commerce in African flesh imposed by Britain around 1850. A massive immigration of Europeans occurred a few years later, and the ruling elite emphasized its intentions and its actions in the sense of wrenching out of the mind and heart of slaves' descendants any image of Africa as a positive memory of nation, of motherland, of native home. Never in our educational system was there taught a discipline revealing any appreciation or respect for the cultures, arts, languages, political or economic systems, or religions of Africa. And physical contact of Afro-Brazilians with their brothers in the continent and the diaspora was always prevented or made difficult, among other methods, by the denial of economic means permitting Black people to move and travel outside the country. But none of these hindrances had the power of obliterating completely, from our spirit and memory, the living presence of Mother Africa. And even in the existential hell we are subjected to now, this rejection of Africa on the part of tle domindnt classes has functioned as a notably positive factor, helping to maintain the Black nation as a community above and beyond difficulties in time and space.

Diversified as are the strategies and devices arrayed against Black people's memory, they have recently undergone serious erosion and irreparable discrediting. This is due largely to the dedication and competence of a few Africans preoccupied with the secular destitution the Black race has suffered at the hands of European and Euro-American' capitalist civilization. This group of Africans, simultaneously scholars, scientists, philosophers, and creators of literature and art, includes persons from the African continent and diaspora. To mention only a few of their names: Cheikh Anta Diop, of Senegal; Chancellor Williams, Shawna Maglangbayan Moore, Haki Madhubuti, Molefi K. Asante and Maulana Ron Karenga of the United States; George G. M. James and Ivan Van Sertima of Guyana; Yosef Ben-Jochannan of Ethiopia; Theophile Obenga, of Congo Brazzaville; Wole Soyinka Ola Balogun and Wande Abimbola of Nigeria; these figure among the many who are actively producing works fundamental to the contemporary and coming development of Africa. In different fields, with diverse perspectives, the energies of these eminent Africans channel themselves toward the exorcism of the falsities, distortions and negations that Europeans for so long have been weaving around Africa, with the purpose of obscuring or erasing our memory of the wisdom, scientific and philosoph- ical knowledge and realizations of the peoples of Black African origin. Black Brazilian memory is only a part and particle in this gigantic project of reconstruction of a larger past to which all Afro-Brazilians are connected. To redeem this past is to have a consequent responsibility in the destinies and futures of the Black African nation worldwide, still preserving our quality as edifiers and genuine citizens of Brazil."

Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964 - klan Murders

2012-02-16T15:54:00.001-05:00

Schwerner Chaney Goodman Sacificed their lives.

May 2, 1964 · Meadville, Mississippi
Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore were killed by Klansmen who believed the two were part of a plot to arm blacks in the area. (There was no such plot.) Their bodies were found during a massive search for the missing civil rights workers Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner.

I Wish I Knew How It Feels To Be Free (Live) - Nina Simone

2012-02-16T15:00:00.000-05:00

"I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free" composed by jazz pianist and educator Dr. Billy Taylor. Although penned in 1954, the piece did not enjoy popularity until the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1950s and throughout the decade of the 1960s. The title expresses one of the fundamental themes of the Movement: the wish to live free in America with dignity. A vocal rendition sung by Nina Simone brought attention to the piece, during her 1967 RCA Records album release of Silk and Soul.

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (History, Facts, Bad Blood, Bad Science) — Infoplease.com

2012-02-15T08:22:00.000-05:00

People might think that this can't happen today but one should remember that this outrage was just halted 40 years ago. One can only wonder how long it would have continued if reporter Jean Heller had not brought it to light or if it would have finally been covered up to this day. This begs the question, what else should we know? It's a sad state of affairs when it is so difficult to have confidence in what is supposed to be our own democratic government.

The Tuskegee Institute, located in Macon County Alabama, was opened in 1881 by Booker T. Washington. It was founded as the Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers and became America’s leading Black agricultural and industrial school.
Between the years 1932 and 1972, the United States Public Health Service, working with the Tuskegee Institute, conducted a study on the effects syphilis has on the human body. The study was meant to determine the different ways that the disease effected blacks as opposed to whites. It was thought that syphilis did more damage to the white race’s neurological system while mainly affecting the cardiovascular system of the black race. The plan was to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in poor, rural black men. The team of doctors and researchers recruited 600 poor and uneducated black men from the Macon County area. Three hundred and ninety nine of these men already had syphilis, and the other two hundred and one did not.
To entice the men into participating in their study, the researchers offered them free medical care, hot meals, and free burial insurance. The doctors withheld from the men the fact that they were suffering from syphilis and instead told them that they were being treated for “bad blood.” The term “bad blood” was a local term used to describe several illnesses. The Surgeon General of the United States also participated in enticing the men to continue in the study by sending them certificates of appreciation.
The real reason for the study had to be kept from the patients to ensure their cooperation. Since the men were mostly uneducated sharecroppers, they were easy to manipulate. The true nature of the experiment had nothing to do with treating or curing the disease. The Public Health Service doctors sent letters out to the men saying, “Last Chance for Special Free Treatment.” This was to coax the men into coming in for painful spinal taps.

Watch this interview on Democracry Now
The Dark History of Medical Experimentation from the Nazis to Tuskegee to Puerto Rico

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (History, Facts, Bad Blood, Bad Science) — Infoplease.com

Black History Month 2012

Big Boy - The Jackson 5

2012-02-14T13:21:00.000-05:00

Some recent Black Histoy. Enjoy--

'Get The Hell Out' Of The U.S. - Rep. West Grilled For Comments

2012-02-13T07:20:00.000-05:00

Black Media Mine

Ernie Chambers, The Man Who Sued God, Still Militant - Nebraska

Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

A Fugitive Slave by William Wells Brown

THREE NEGRO POETS - from the 19th Century

CANADIAN NEGROES AND THE REBELLION OF 1837

Lost Black History Found, Canada

The 369th Infantry - AKA The Harlem Hellfighters - World War I

Pullman Porters union and the Civil Rights Movement

Africa - The Elders Speak

What is The Elders?Toggle Content

Swann Galleries African-American Fine Art Auction Part 1

Voxunion - Mixtapes for the Masses

Emancipatory (Mixtape) Journalism

Paul Laurence Dunbar's - Ode to Ethiopia

Ode to Ethiopia

Ode to Ethiopia

Black Children Getting High!

The USS Mason - A WWII Destroyer Escort with an African American Crew

USS Mason (DE-529), 1944-1947

Atlantic City Free Public Library Black History Month exhibit opening Fe...

Scientific Racism: The Eugenics of Social Darwinism

Ahmed Baba - Scholar of Timbuctu

Cradle to Prison Pipeline Campaign

It's time to give our roots lots of TLC - BHM 2012

Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964 - klan Murders

I Wish I Knew How It Feels To Be Free (Live) - Nina Simone

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (History, Facts, Bad Blood, Bad Science) — Infoplease.com

Big Boy - The Jackson 5

'Get The Hell Out' Of The U.S. - Rep. West Grilled For Comments