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ChickenBones: A Journal for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes |
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Contact -- Mission -- Nathaniel Turner -- Marcus Bruce Christian -- Guest Poets -- -- Special Topics -- Rudy's Place -- The Old South -- Black Labor -- Film Review -- Books N Review -- Education & History -- Religion & Politics -- Literature & Arts -- Work, Labor & Business -- Music & Musicians |
Home ChickenBones Store (Books, DVDs, Music, and more)
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Or Send contributions to: ChickenBones: A Journal / 2005 Arabian Drive / Finksburg, MD 21048 Help Save ChickenBones |
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Mission of the Black Church (James Cone) / Black Liberation Theology (Defined by James Cone)
Political Action Forum Index Global News:Politics—Literature & the Arts / Bill Moyers and James Cone (Interview) / Noah's Curse Stephen R Haynes |
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Send contributions to: ChickenBones: A Journal / 2005 Arabian Drive / Finksburg, MD 21048 -- I became aware of Rudy Lewis’ labor of love a few short months ago during a visit to Kalamu ya Salaam’s e-drum listserv. As soon as I saw the title of the journal I knew it was about Black folks, and the power of the written word. A quick click took me into a journal that’s long on creativity, highlighting well-known, little known, and a little known writers, and commitment to the empowerment of Black folks. I contacted Rudy to ask if he’d consider publishing some of my work. His response was immediate, and a couple of days after I’d forwarded some poems to him—they were part of ChickenBones. What I didn’t know was that this journal has been surviving for the last five years with very little outside financial support. . . If we want journals like this to “thrive” we need to support them with more than our website hits, praise, and submissions for publication consideration. —Peace, Mary E. Weems (January 2007) |
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In-Dependence from Bondage / The ABCs of Class Struggle / Southern Needs / Race Struggle is Class Struggle / Obama in Berlin (Grossman) |
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The Remarkable Journey of the Civil Rights Generation By Andrew B. Lewis With deep admiration and rigorous scholarship, historian Lewis (Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table) revisits the ragtag band of young men and women who formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Impatient with what they considered the overly cautious and accommodating pace of the NAACP and Martin Luther King Jr., the black college students and their white allies, inspired by Gandhi's principles of nonviolence and moral integrity, risked their lives to challenge a deeply entrenched system. Fanning out over the Jim Crow South, SNCC organized sit-ins, voter registration drives, Freedom Schools and protest marches. Despite early successes, the movement disintegrated in the late 1960s, succeeded by the militant Black Power movement. The highly readable history follows the later careers of the principal leaders. Some, like Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown, became bitter and disillusioned. Others, including Marion Barry, Julian Bond and John Lewis, tempered their idealism and moved from protest to politics, assuming positions of leadership within the very institutions they had challenged. According to the author, No organization contributed more to the civil rights movement than SNCC, and with his eloquent book, he offers a deserved tribute.— Publishers Weekly |
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Basil Davidson's "Africa Series": Different But Equal / Mastering A Continent / Caravans of Gold / The King and the City / The Bible and The Gun |
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M.P. Parameswaran: Thoughts about a Fourth World /Fourth World: Marxist, Gandhian, Environmentalist / Fourth World Programme / Neo-Liberalism Dictatorship of the Markete |
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The Word of the Lord Is Upon Me The Righteous Performance of Martin Luther King, Jr. “You don’t know me,” Martin Luther King, Jr., once declared to those who criticized his denunciation of the Vietnam War, who wanted to confine him to the ghetto of “black” issues. Now, forty years after being felled by an assassin’s bullet, it is still difficult to take the measure of the man: apostle of peace or angry prophet; sublime exponent of a beloved community or fiery Moses leading his people up from bondage; black preacher or translator of blackness to the white world? This book explores the extraordinary performances through which King played with all of these possibilities, and others too, blending and gliding in and out of idioms and identities. Taking us deep into King’s backstage discussions with colleagues, his preaching to black congregations, his exhortations in mass meetings, and his crossover addresses to whites, Jonathan Rieder tells a powerful story about the tangle of race, talk, and identity in the life of one of America’s greatest moral and political leaders. A brilliant interpretive endeavor grounded in the sociology of culture, The Word of the Lord Is Upon Me delves into the intricacies of King’s sermons, speeches, storytelling, exhortations, jokes, jeremiads, taunts, repartee, eulogies, confessions, lamentation, and gallows humor, as well as the author’s interviews with members of King’s inner circle. The King who emerges is a distinctively modern figure who, in straddling the boundaries of diverse traditions, ultimately transcended them all.
Beyond Vietnam /
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Articles On Haiti |
Maxine Waters on Haiti Letter to Colin Powell on Thugs and Killers / Statement from Prison of Sò Anne Haitian folksinger and champion of the poor Anne Auguste (Sò No) Demand Immediate Release of Anne Auguste / John Maxwell Table The Black Joan of Arc |
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Taj Mahal—Stagger Lee / The Neo-African Americans / Judge Mathis Weighs in on the execution of Troy Davis / Fatoumata Diawara—Bissa / Origins of the Moonwalk |
Banishing Cain and Triple Nines (Lewis) |
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Pharoah Sanders—The Gathering / Pharoah Sanders:—Heart (Love) is a Melody of Time / The President's House: Freedom and Slavery / Kenyan Somalis facing Xenophobia |
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By Simon Sebag Montefiore Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the prize of empires, the site of Judgment Day and the battlefield of today’s clash of civilizations. From King David to Barack Obama, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict, this is the epic history of three thousand years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism and coexistence. How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the “center of the world” and now the key to peace in the Middle East? In a gripping narrative, Simon Sebag Montefiore reveals this ever-changing city in its many incarnations, bringing every epoch and character blazingly to life. Jerusalem’s biography is told through the wars, love affairs and revelations of the men and women—kings, empresses, prophets, poets, saints, conquerors and whores—who created, destroyed, chronicled and believed in Jerusalem. As well as the many ordinary Jerusalemites who have left their mark on the city, its cast varies from Solomon, Saladin and Suleiman the Magnificent to Cleopatra, Caligula and Churchill; from Abraham to Jesus and Muhammad; from the ancient world of Jezebel, Nebuchadnezzar, Herod and Nero to the modern times of the Kaiser, Disraeli, Mark Twain, Lincoln, Rasputin, Lawrence of Arabia and Moshe Dayan. Drawing on new archives, current scholarship, his own family papers and a lifetime’s study, Montefiore illuminates the essence of sanctity and mysticism, identity and empire in a unique chronicle of the city that many believe will be the setting for the Apocalypse. This is how Jerusalem became Jerusalem, and the only city that exists twice—in heaven and on earth. |
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Martin Luther King Jr. on Malcolm X / NGOs, an extension of US foreign policy / Baby Doc Duvalier returns to Haiti / After Midnight—Coleman Hawkins |
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Presidents on Black Unemployment Reagan Carter Obama—By Trymaine Lee—24 August 2011—President Obama has taken a lot of heat for not being more aggressive in addressing the country's double-digit unemployment rate among African Americans. Many have questioned why he has not come out with more strongly worded public pronouncements or a jobs agenda specifically to address the issue in the black community.Others have said that while black unemployment is indeed dire and in need of drastic action, Obama risks coming off as "tribal" (in the words of talkshow host Tavis Smiley) if he were to make such an overture. The president has largely shied away from specific rhetoric as it relates to the black workforce, maintaining instead that "a rising tide lifts all boats" and that as the economy rebounds, all Americans will benefit. The Huffington Post decided to take a . . . look at the public statements of President Obama and compare them to what recent past presidents have said about black unemployment, in their statements that most directly targeted the community during times of high black unemployment.—HuffingtonPost / President Obama's Black Jobs Dilemma (Hutchinson) |
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Obama and Black America Unconditional, unrequited love?—By Kevin Alexander Gray—2 September 2011—For all Americans, the average life expectancy is 78 years and two months according to the Centers for Disease Control. But for black Americans life expectancy is 74 years and three months—for black women it’s 76.8 years, and black men 70.2 years. If Commission members had their way the retirement age for full benefits would be raised to 69 from 67 by 2075. Obviously, black males would be the biggest losers in such a setup, literally working till death. At the moment, one in five blacks has no health insurance, compared to 12 percent of whites. And insurance companies routinely reject covering former inmates with the claim that they come from an “at-risk population.” One in seven African Americans is out of work—the highest in nearly a quarter century. More than two out of ten African Americans—and three out of ten black children— live in poverty. For every dollar of wealth owned by the typical white family, the typical family of color owns only sixteen cents, according to a study published last March by the Insight Center for Community Economic Development entitled ”Lifting As We Climb: Women of Color, Wealth and America’s Future.” Nearly half of all single black and Hispanic women have zero or negative wealth, meaning their debts exceed all their assets. The median wealth for single black women is only $100, for single Hispanic women, $120. This compares to just over $41,000 for single white women. About a third of single Hispanic women and one-fourth of single black women have no checking or savings account. Overall, blacks continue to earn far less than whites. The median annual income for a black household in 2009, the most recent year statistics were available, was $33,463 while for whites it was $54,671.—TheNewLiberator |
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Libya set up by NATO—Fake Libyan Rebels exposed / Russia criticizes France over arming Libyan rebels / British brains, brawn and bombs bolster Libyan rebels |
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Barack Obama: The corporate masters’ 21st century ‘House Negro’ / A Day in the Life—Marvin X and Discussion / A Day in the Life— 2 / A Day in the Life—Marvin X and Discussion 3 |
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Martin Luther King, Jr.: Last speech / Prophetic Last speech / Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam / On War / I'm Sorry Sir You Don't Know Me |
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Journal of Pan African Studies is Online (Edited by Marvin X) |
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Martin Luther King: A Time to Break Silence / Proud to be maladjusted! / Afghanistan (HerStory) / 1968 King Assassination Report (CBS News) |
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Hegel and the Third World
By Teshale Tibebu "This is a remarkable book. . . . a powerful cri de coeur that is based on a serious reading of Hegel. It may open up the debate because, unlike so many anti- Eurocentric presentations, it does not fall prey to a simple upside down reading of either modern philosophy or world history.—Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University Hegel, more than any other modern Western philosopher, produced the most systematic case for the superiority of Western white Protestant bourgeois modernity. He established a racially structured ladder of gradation of the peoples of the world, putting Germanic people at the top of the racial pyramid, people of Asia in the middle, and Africans and indigenous peoples of the Americas and Pacific Islands at the bottom. In Hegel and the Third World, Tibebu guides the reader through Hegel’s presentation on universalism and argues that such a classification flows in part from Hegel’s philosophy of the development of human consciousness. Hegel classified Africans as people arrested at the lowest and most immediate stage of consciousness, that of the senses; Asians as people with divided consciousness, that of the understanding; and Europeans as people of reason. Tibebu demonstrates that Hegel’s views were not his alone but reflected the fundamental beliefs of other major figures of Western thought at the time.—Syracuse University Press, 2011 |
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A Letter to Warren on the "Contours of Racial Identity" from Dr. Joyce E. King Humility does not mean you think less of yourself—it means you think of yourself less. We are not here to earn God's love, we're here to spend it! The world is my country; to do good is my religion. No one shows a child the Supreme Being. Change how you see things, and the things you see will change.—Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu I |
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Valerie Hunter, the wife of Internal Revenue Service employee Vernon Hunter, filed a lawsuit in Travis County District Court accusing the wife of Andrew Joseph “Joe” Stack III of negligence. Hunter claims that Sheryl Stack knew that her husband planned to harm others but did not report it to authorities. Widow-of-South Carolina Man Killed-in-Austin-crash-sues-pilots-wife/
Joe Stack Hailed as Hero in American 'Patriot' Resurgence—Joe Stack is no hero for flying plane into IRS office—Ken Hunter said. "My dad, Vernon, did tours of duty in Vietnam. My dad's a hero." He's right. Yet in the cockeyed view of some people, suicide pilot Joseph Stack is being hailed for striking a "courageous blow against the tyranny of the U.S. tax code." |
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Governor says everyone must leave New Orleans / Eighteen Months After Katrina (Bill Quigley) / Ending Poverty As We Know It: Guaranteeing a Right |
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Libya Getting It Right (Gerald A. Perreira) / Gaddafi: A System of His Own (Hakeem Babalola)
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Speeches & Sermons: -- The American Dream is Under Siege at Home (Bill Clinton) / Time to Take Back the Country We Love (Hillary Clinton) The America George Bush Has Left Us (Joe Biden) / We Must Listen and Lead by Example (John Kerry) / Seize this Opportunity for Change (Al Gore) |
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Commodores: Brick House / Jesus Is Love / Nightshift / Sail On / Easy / Three times a lady / Machine Gun / Slippery When Wet |
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Sharpton and Jackson Endorse War on Terror—A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford—Jesse Jackson said that the killing of bin Laden was a “huge psychological victory.” By this he clearly meant a psychological victory for Barack Obama, who put the hit out on bin Laden,just as he has placed American citizens on assassination lists with no recourse to due process. President Obama badly needed that psychological victory, since unemployment went up last month and now looms as the rock on which his presidency might shatter. . . . Jackson either needs to hand in his anti-war credentials right now, or find a good mouth doctor that will stop him from encouraging those who would increase the $1.2 trillion national security budget that is pushing human needs programs into the Valley of Death. Does Rev. Jackson think Obama deserves a “huge psychological boost” for having killed almost one thousand innocent civilian men, women and children in Pakistan last year with his drones, and is guaranteed to kill even more this year? Rev. Al Sharpton shows that he is as crude and vulgar as his mentor Don King. Sharpton compliments Obama for being “cool under fire”—as if the world is attacking the White House, rather than the other way around. Obama, says Sharpton, “can see the bigger picture.” It does not bother Sharpton that Obama’s bigger picture means bigger wars. Which is alright with Sharpton, as long as he gets a bigger check.—BlackAgendaReport |
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Jeannette Drake Poems: Reparations Check / Cakewalk and Welcome to the New World / E-book: Promise: Inspirational Fantasies /// James Loewen on Confederates / I Am A Man: Memphis Sanitation Strike |
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Forged: Writing in the Name of God Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are By Bart D. Ehrman The evocative title tells it all and hints at the tone of sensationalism that pervades this book. Those familiar with the earlier work of Ehrman, a distinguished professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and author of more than 20 books including Misquoting Jesus, will not be surprised at the content of this one. Written in a manner accessible to nonspecialists, Ehrman argues that many books of the New Testament are not simply written by people other than the ones to whom they are attributed, but that they are deliberate forgeries. The word itself connotes scandal and crime, and it appears on nearly every page. Indeed, this book takes on an idea widely accepted by biblical scholars: that writing in someone else's name was common practice and perfectly okay in ancient times. Ehrman argues that it was not even then considered acceptable—hence, a forgery. While many readers may wish for more evidence of the charge, Ehrman's introduction to the arguments and debates among different religious communities during the first few centuries and among the early Christians themselves, though not the book's main point, is especially valuable.—Publishers Weekly / Forged Bart Ehrman’s New Salvo (Witherington) |
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Suheir Hammad: Poems of war, peace, women, power / YolanDa Brown performing Story Live / Christian Davenport—Rethinking Rwanda, 1994 |
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Black Intellectuals Have Abandoned the Ideals of the Civil Rights Era Reviewing Houston A. Baker's Betrayal of Black Intellectuals African Fundamentalism (The Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey) Middle Passage ( Robert Hayden) The Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804 Dessalines' Dream for Haiti (Ezili Dantò) Jayne Cortez: Artist on the Cutting Edge Internet Copyright Settlement Alive (Louis Reyes Rivera)
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Weldon Irvine on YouTube: Morning Sunrise / We gettin down / I love you / Music is the key / Nursery Rhyme Song / Gloria / Here's Where I Came In / |
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Miles Davis—In A Silent Way, New Blues / New Orleans Jazz Funeral for tuba player Kerwin James / They danced atop his casket Jaran 'Julio' Green |
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Rev. Peter J. Gomes Harvard Minister Dies at 68—By Robert D. McFadden—Then, in 1991, he appeared before an angry crowd of students, faculty members and administrators protesting homophobic articles in a conservative campus magazine whose distribution had led to a spate of harassment and slurs against gay men and lesbians on campus. Mr. Gomes, putting his reputation and career on the line, announced that he was “a Christian who happens as well to be gay.” . . . “I now have an unambiguous vocation—a mission—to address the religious causes and roots of homophobia,” he told The Washington Post months later. “I will devote the rest of my life to addressing the ‘religious case’ against gays.” He was true to his word. His sermons and lectures, always well-attended, were packed in Cambridge and around the country as he embarked on a campaign to rebut literal and fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible. He also wrote extensively on intolerance. “Religious fundamentalism is dangerous because it cannot accept ambiguity and diversity and is therefore inherently intolerant,” he declared in an Op-Ed article for The New York Times in 1992. “Such intolerance, in the name of virtue, is ruthless and uses political power to destroy what it cannot convert.” In his 1996 best-seller, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart, Mr. Gomes urged believers to grasp the spirit, not the letter, of scriptural passages that he said had been misused to defend racism, anti-Semitism and sexism and to attack homosexuality and abortion. He offered interpretations that he said transcended the narrow context of modern prejudices.—NYTimes / Black Christians and Homosexuality / Skip Gates on Peter Gomes |
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Dr. King Said It: I'm Black and I'm Proud! /Reparations, Queen Mother Moore / Stokely Carmichael—We Ain't Goin' |
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Tracy Chapman: Baby Can I Hold You Tonight / Talkin bout a revolution / Give me one reason / Crossroad / New Beginning |
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The Untold Story of America’s Largest Slave Revolt By Daniel Rasmussen In January 1811, a group of around 500 enslaved men, dressed in military uniforms and armed with guns, cane knives, and axes, rose up from the slave plantations around New Orleans and set out to conquer the city. They decided that they would die before they would work another day of back—breaking labor in the hot Louisiana sun. Ethnically diverse, politically astute, and highly organized, this slave army challenged not only the economic system of plantation agriculture but also American expansion. Their march represented the largest act of armed resistance against slavery in the history of the United States—and one of the defining moments in the history of New Orleans and the nation. |
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Carrie Mae Weems—Art: 21 / Carrie Mae Weems Talks/ Rev Curtis Watson—Come Out of the Wilderness / Louis Armstrong—Mack the Knife 1959 |
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Keenan Norris Of Obama and Oakland / Coal, Charcoal, and Chocolate Comedy / fresno gone / Freedom Vision / 27 Days |
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Colonization After Emancipation Lincoln and the Movement for Black Resettlement By Phillip W. Magness and Sebastian N. Page History has long acknowledged that President Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, had considered other approaches to rectifying the problem of slavery during his administration. Prior to Emancipation, Lincoln was a proponent of colonization: the idea of sending African American slaves to another land to live as free people. Lincoln supported resettlement schemes in Panama and Haiti early in his presidency and openly advocated the idea through the fall of 1862. But the bigoted, flawed concept of colonization never became a permanent fixture of U.S. policy, and by the time Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, the word “colonization” had disappeared from his public lexicon. As such, history remembers Lincoln as having abandoned his support of colonization when he signed the proclamation. Documents exist, however, that tell another story.
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Scholars Phillip W. Magness and Sebastian N. Page combed through extensive archival materials, finding evidence, particularly within British Colonial and Foreign Office documents, which exposes what history has neglected to reveal—that Lincoln continued to pursue colonization for close to a year after emancipation. Their research even shows that Lincoln may have been attempting to revive this policy at the time of his assassination.
Using
long-forgotten records scattered across
three continents—many of them untouched
since the Civil War—the authors show
that Lincoln continued his search for a
freedmen’s colony much longer than
previously thought.
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Scott Sisters Released From Prison Jan 08, 2011 Gladys and Jamie Scott were released from prison Friday morning after serving 16 years behind bars. They have maintained their innocence but it was a grassroots movement that helped them gain their freedom. Free the Scott Sisters!!! Author of The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander Applauds the Work of Gray-Haired Witnesses |
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Minstrelsy and White Expectations Reviewing WP Columnist Eugene Robinson
Editorial by Rudolph Lewis /
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Jimmy Carter's White House Diary An Interview and Book Review by Kam Williams |
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Larry Neal Speaks / The Negro as Author / I Tried to Be a Communist / César Vallejo / C K Williams / Clarence Major |
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Sam Chatmon—Legends of Country Blues Guitar / Sam Chatmon—Pretty Mama / Sam Chatmon—Who's Lovin ' You Tonight (1978) |
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Professor Charles Ogletree on Profiling to Beergate to the Obamas (Kam Williams Interview) |
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Kirk Franklin—Stomp /Why we Sing by Kirk Franklin / Kirk Franklin—Melodies from Heaven / Kirk Franklin Conqueros /Aretha Franklin—Don't Play That Song |
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Tea Party Nationalism: A Critical Examination of the Tea Party Movement and the Size, Scope, and Focus of Its National Factions By Devin Burghart, Leonard Zeskind, and Charles Tanner Jr. |
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Shirley Sherrod—Fox News Destroying an Innocent Woman to Attack Obama / Rachel Maddow: Black People Are Coming To Get You Part 1 / Part 2 |
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W.E.B. Du Bois's Papers to Be Digitized for Viewing Online / Afrolatinos—The Untaught Story Documentary / Bob Marley feat. Erykah Badu |
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K'NAAN—T.I.A. (This Is Africa) / Hugh Masekela—Coal Train Live / Unomathemba / Soweto Freedom Song / Eric Dolphy—God Bless the Child |
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Parable of Jazz / Lumumba A Biography Independence Day Speech Letter to Pauline |
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They’re Counting on Your Silence, on Amnesia (Speech by President Barack Obama Bowie State University / Bowie, Maryland The History of White People ( Nell Irvin Painter) / President Obama Announces Vote 2010 . Responses to Post-Midterm Elections |
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The Omni-Americans / An Unmistakable Shade of Red & The Obama Chronicles / Our Women Keep Our Skies From Falling / Black Fire: An Anthology |
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Smoke and Horrors—By Charles M. Blow—October 22, 2010—The war on drugs in this country has become a war focused on marijuana, one being waged primarily against minorities. . . . This wave of [marijuana] arrests is partially financed, either directly or indirectly, by federal programs like the Byrne Formula Grant Program, which was established by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 to rev up the war on drugs. Surprisingly, this program has become the pet project of Democrats, not Republicans. . . . Even candidate Obama promised that he would restore funding to the program. The 2009 stimulus package presented these Democrats with the opportunity, and they seized it. The legislation, designed by Democrats and signed by President Obama, included $2 billion for Byrne Grants to be awarded by the end of September 2010. That was nearly a 12-fold increase in financing. Whatever the merits of these programs, they are outweighed by the damage being done. Financing prevention is fine. Financing a race-based arrest epidemic is not.—NYTimes / Marijuna Policy Report Threat Response |
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Dominica/ Africa: Junot Diaz on Writing Dictators / Sierra Leone/ Nigeria: New Writing / Black Men’s Jail Time / Black Mens Jail Time Hits Entire Communities |
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I Studied My Own Self / Black History Is American History / Monkeys and Stimulus Bills / Isi-Ewu: The Anatomy Of A National Delicacy |
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Africa and Afro-American Identity Problems and Possibilities By Everett E. Goodwin The 10 Biggest Myths About Black History The Black Experience in America is Unique Folk Life in Black and White |
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What Is Life: Reclaiming the Black Blues Self (Kalamu ya Salaam) |
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Macy Gray—I Try / Macy Gray—She Ain't Right For You / Macy Gray—When I See You / Macy Gray—Sweet Baby |
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Women’s Role in Holocaust May Exceed Old Notions—In an anomalous twist on Christopher R. Browning’s groundbreaking 1992 book, Ordinary Men, it appears that thousands of German women went to the eastern territories to help Germanize them, and to provide services to the local ethnic German populations there. They included nurses, teachers and welfare workers. Women ran the storehouses of belongings taken from Jews. Local Germans were recruited to work as interpreters. Then there were the wives of regional officials, and their secretaries, some from their staffs back home. For women from working-class families or farms in Germany, the occupied zones offered an attractive opportunity to advance themselves, Ms. Lower said. There were up to 5,000 female guards in the concentration camps, making up about 10 percent of the personnel. Ms. Grese was hanged at the age of 21 for war crimes committed in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen; Ms. Koch was convicted of participating in murders at Buchenwald. NYTimes |
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W.E.B. Du Bois
More Man Than Meets the
Eye
(Kalamu ya
Salaam) /
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Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye -- Will Obasanjo Explode Yar'Adua's Anti-Graft Balloon? Who Cares If Kenya Bleeds To Death? Obasanjo's Probe: Mr. Ribadu’s Redeeming Job / In Nigeria, Yar’Adua Reigns, Obasanjo Rules / Dinner From A Lagos Dustbin Global News: Politics |
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A Remarkably-Revealing, Evocative, Fully Humanizing Opus Kam Williams Interviews Condi and Reviews Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family By Condoleezza Rice |
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The Top Seven Suppliers of Oil to the US—8 July 2010—The top seven countries on the following list account for more than $140 billion worth of oil every year—1. Canada 2. Mexico 3. Saudi Arabia 4. Venezuela 5. Nigeria 6. Angola 7. Iraq—Truth-Out |
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Dr Asa Hilliard III speaks: Attack On Africans Writing Their Own History Part 1 of 7 / Part 2 of 7 / Part 3 of 7 / Part 4 of 7 / Part 5 of 7 / Part 6 of 7 / Part 7 of 7 |
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Bill Moyers and James Cone (Interview) / A Conversation with James Cone Mission of the Black Church (James Cone) / Black Liberation Theology (Defined by James Cone)
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Unedited video supports Sherrod’s claim she wasn't racist—The full, uncut video of a federal agricultural official's NAACP speech purporting racial scheming, told a different story than the barely-three-minute snippet that cost her her job. Despite admitting in the edited version of the taping that she once withheld help to the couple on the basis of race, Shirley Sherrod was defended Tuesday by the wife of a white Georgia farmer. Sherrod, "kept us out of bankruptcy," said Eloise Spooner, 82, of Iron City in southwest Georgia. Spooner, in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, added she considers Sherrod a "friend for life." She and her husband, Roger Spooner, approached Sherrod for help in 1986 when Sherrod worked for a nonprofit that assisted farmers. Sherrod, who is African-American, was asked to resign Monday night by a USDA official after videotaped comments she made in March at a local NAACP banquet surfaced on the Web Atlanta Journal / NAACP / Politico / Politico 2 / The Real Story of Racism at the USDA |
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Shirley Sherrod—Fox News Destroying an Innocent Woman to Attack Obama / Rachel Maddow: Black People Are Coming To Get You Part 1 / Part 2 |
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k'naan song call (My God) Live at BB King feat Mos Def / Austin City Limits K'Naan / Mos Def / Austin City Limits Allen Toussaint / Michael S. Harper |
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Alexander's . . . survey of black leadership is excellent, her sensitivity to local black politics is admirable, and her tracing of the varied black investment in emigrations is ... correct and adds to our understanding of antebellum reform and nationalism."—American Historical Review African or American? breaks new ground in its sustained attention to principal but little-known black community organizations and leaders in New York City. The comprehensive, in-depth treatment of the Five Points district, Seneca Village's relationship to Central Park, the Negro's burial ground, and more make this book exceptional. It is the best discussion to date of being an American in relation to antebellum blacks that I have read."—Sterling Stuckey, author of Going through the Storm: The Influence of African American Art in History |
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Stephen Wiltshire: The Human Camera / Aaron Neville & Daniel Lanois—With God on Our Side / Operation Small Axe theatrical trailer |
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The Autobiography of Medgar Evers A Hero's Life and Legacy Revealed Through His Writings, Letters, and Speeches 2006 By Myrlie Evers-Williams and Manning Marable In an era filled with charismatic leaders, Evers (1925–1963) came to national attention primarily as the victim of "the first political assassination of a major leader of the modern Black Freedom Movement." As NAACP field secretary in Mississippi, Evers recruited NAACP members, desegregated schools, registered voters and organized boycotts. The work was usually undramatic, but always perilous. Evers's widow and historian Marable seek to redress Evers's relative absence from the historical record. But more than half of these 89 documents (from the years 1954–1963) are mundane monthly reports to or business correspondence with the NAACP. Ten Evers speeches are included along with eight newspaper articles, four press releases, a telegram to Eisenhower and one to Kennedy, an NAACP newsletter, a "text fragment," a posthumous Life interview. There's no clue to the principle of selection. With the exception of two very brief notes to his family, there is no personal correspondence. This monument is a tomb ready for excavation by historians of the Civil Rights movement, but it's not for the ordinary reader looking for an autobiography of Medgar Evers. It reveals the quotidian work rather than the indomitable man. Publisher's Weekly |
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Electric Purgatory: History of Black Rock / Hugh Masekla, Don't Go Lose It Baby / Philip Freelon, Black Enterprise Business Report Interview |
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Kiini Ibura Salaam: The Dance of Love / There's No Racism Here? / Reflections on Fiji / Kiini Ibura Salaam Tells All from Mexico |
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Of St. Augustine, the African Restless Heart, and Search for Peace: St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.) – Feast Day - August 28 Dr. Rose Ure Mezu / Preface to Chinua Achebe: The Man and His Works (Rose Ure Mezu) / Chinua Achebe: The Man and His Works |
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Isaiah 6.1-13, 1 Corinthians 15.1-11, Psalm 138, Luke 5.1-11 A birthday sermon by Ralph Clingan An Annual Clingan Christmas Letter Against Cheap Grace A Lively Living Word |
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Miles Davis: Miles Ahead / Milestones / Kind of Blue / Freddie Freeloader / All Blues / Walkin' / Miles Davis et John Coltrane - So what |
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Delivering Good News to the Oppressed A Service of Repentance By The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori Presiding Bishop and Primate / The Episcopal Church |
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I AND I BOB MARLEY Book Trailer / I AND I BOB MARLEY.(children's book) / South Africa: This Revolution Will Be Embedded / Count Basie Swingin' the Blues |
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The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II By Douglas A. Blackmun Wall Street Journal bureau chief Blackmon gives a groundbreaking and disturbing account of a sordid chapter in American history—the lease (essentially the sale) of convicts to commercial interests between the end of the 19th century and well into the 20th. Usually, the criminal offense was loosely defined vagrancy or even changing employers without permission. The initial sentence was brutal enough; the actual penalty, reserved almost exclusively for black men, was a form of slavery in one of hundreds of forced labor camps operated by state and county governments, large corporations, small time entrepreneurs and provincial farmers. Into this history, Blackmon weaves the story of Green Cottenham, who was charged with riding a freight train without a ticket, in 1908 and was sentenced to three months of hard labor for Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel. Cottenham's sentence was extended an additional three months and six days because he was unable to pay fines then leveraged on criminals. Blackmon's book reveals in devastating detail the legal and commercial forces that created this neoslavery along with deeply moving and totally appalling personal testimonies of survivors |
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My Holy Bible for African-American Children King James Version. by Cheryl and Wade Hudson Book Review by Kam Williams |
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Dr. King Said It: I'm Black and I'm Proud! /Reparations, Queen Mother Moore / Stokely Carmichael—We Ain't Goin' |
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Louis Armstrong—Solitude / Billie Holiday & Louis Armstrong—Farewell to Storyville / Cree Summer—Savior Self / Edwidge Danticat Speaks at York College |
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Gook: John McCain’s Racism and Why It Matters White Privilege ,White Entitlement Raising McCain (Lloyd Williams) The Cost of Lies -- America With Its Pants Down |
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Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters the Horror in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel by Alice Walker Following visits to Rwanda in 2006 on behalf of Women for Women International, Walker was nearly overcome with the aftermath of the genocidal violence, particularly aimed at women and children. On behalf of the antiwar group Code Pink, she traveled to the Gaza Strip in 2009 to witness the suffering caused by the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. In this slim volume, she tells the stories of women and children brutalized by war. She recalls visiting villages reduced to rubble, listening to women mourn the death of their children, sharing modest meals, and sharing stories of her own struggles growing up in the South, the U.S. civil rights movement, and learning the importance of connections to friends and family. She links modern-day atrocities to older cruelties, including the Holocaust and the Trail of Tears. Finding resilience in the midst of atrocities, Walker uses her own voice, as poet and activist, to speak out against injustices in the world’s trouble spots |
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The Autobiography of Medgar Evers A Hero's Life and Legacy Revealed Through His Writings, Letters, and Speeches 2006 By Myrlie Evers-Williams and Manning Marable In an era filled with charismatic leaders, Evers (1925–1963) came to national attention primarily as the victim of "the first political assassination of a major leader of the modern Black Freedom Movement." As NAACP field secretary in Mississippi, Evers recruited NAACP members, desegregated schools, registered voters and organized boycotts. The work was usually undramatic, but always perilous. Evers's widow and historian Marable seek to redress Evers's relative absence from the historical record. But more than half of these 89 documents (from the years 1954–1963) are mundane monthly reports to or business correspondence with the NAACP. Ten Evers speeches are included along with eight newspaper articles, four press releases, a telegram to Eisenhower and one to Kennedy, an NAACP newsletter, a "text fragment," a posthumous Life interview. There's no clue to the principle of selection. With the exception of two very brief notes to his family, there is no personal correspondence. This monument is a tomb ready for excavation by historians of the Civil Rights movement, but it's not for the ordinary reader looking for an autobiography of Medgar Evers. It reveals the quotidian work rather than the indomitable man. Publisher's Weekly |
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Single Payer Health Care and the Auto Industry By Bruce Dixon |
If the Auto Industry is Dead What does that Mean for Workers? By Mark Brenner and Jane Slaughter |
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Black Votes, the Senate, and Voter Suppression Vote NO on Hans von Spakovsky's Confirmation By The Color Of Change Team |
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Towards a Black Aesthetic By Hoyt W. Fuller, Author of Journey to Africa |
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By Harold R. Isaacs The White Masters of the World from The World and Africa, 1965 W. E. B. Du Bois’ Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization (Fletcher) Africa and Afro-American Identity (Everett E. Goodwin)
The 10 Biggest Myths About Black History The Black Experience in America is Unique / Folk Life in Black and White |
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The Tavis Smiley Presidential Forum Pass the Mic Tour Responses to Pass the Mic Al Sharpton and Barack Obama Reverend Al Sharpton (interview) The State of the Black Union 2009 Kam Williams Interviews Reverend Sharpton |
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In Defense of Our Democracy A Discussion |
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So we say—we always say in the Black Panther Party that they can do anything they want to to us. We might not be back. I might be in jail. I might be anywhere. But when I leave, you’ll remember I said, with the last words on my lips, that I am a revolutionary. And you’re going to have to keep on saying that. You’re going to have to say that I am a proletariat, I am the people. A lot of people don’t understand the Black Panthers Party’s relationship with white mother country radicals. A lot of people don’t even understand the words that Eldridge uses a lot. But what we’re saying is that there are white people in the mother country that are for the same types of things that we are for stimulating revolution in the mother country. And we say that we will work with anybody and form a coalition with anybody that has revolution on their mind. We’re not a racist organization, because we understand that racism is an excuse used for capitalism, and we know that racism is just—it’s a byproduct of capitalism. Everything would be alright if everything was put back in the hands of the people, and we’re going to have to put it back in the hands of the people. Fred Hampton |
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Race and Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915-1972 (1995) By Adam Fairclough Hailed as one of the best treatments of the civil rights movement, Race and Democracy is also one of the most comprehensive and detailed studies of the movement at the state level. This far-reaching and dramatic narrative ranges in time from the founding of the New Orleans branch of the NAACP in 1915 to the beginning of Edwin Edwards's first term as governor in 1972. In his new preface Adam Fairclough brings the narrative up to date, demonstrating the persistence of racial inequalities and the continuing importance of race as a factor in politics. When Hurricane Katrina exposed the race issue in a new context, Fairclough argues, political leaders mishandled the disaster. A deep-seated culture of corruption, he concludes, compromises the ability of public officials to tackle intransigent problems of urban poverty and inadequate schools. |
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Film Review of American Violet by Kam Williams Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez (Jean Damu) Blame A-Rod, Spoil the Child (William Broussard) Etta James: The Caged Bird Sings (Amin Sharif) Is There a Need for a Black Agenda? (Ron Daniels) The More Perfect Union or Reconstruction Blues? Responses by E. Ethelbert Miller and Wilson J. Moses |
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Stand Up Against Police Brutality--In the city of Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania from May 2008 until April 2009 there have been 36 unarmed African American men killed by the Philadelphia Police Department. The racist Fraternal Order of Police has also gone after a strong and courageous African American judge, Judge Craig Washington. The reason for this vicious attack is because he refuses to turn his courtroom into a tool of propaganda for the Philadelphia Police Department.Bro. Robert - African American Freedom and Reconstruction League; Sister Debbie Moore and Bro. Harold Fisher, Attorney Leon A. Williams -- more information 215-474-3677 215-732-0180 |
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The Black Religious Crisis A Theology of Obligation & Liberation Howard Thurman
Sermon on the Mount
The
Second Time Around
The
Black Religious Crisis Howard Thurman The Spiritual and the Blues Pan-Africanism and the Black Church |
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Devastating Earthquake in Haiti Hundreds of thousands expected killed The Caribbean nation of nine million is the poorest country in the Americas with an annual per-capita income of $560. It ranks 146th out of 177 countries on the UNDP Human Development Index. More than half the population lives on less than $1 a day and 78 per cent on less than $2. There is a high infant mortality rate and the prevalence of HIV among those between ages 15 and 49 is 2.2 per cent. Haiti's infrastructure is close to total collapse and severe deforestation has left only two per cent of forest cover. About 9,000 UN police and troops are stationed in the country to maintain order Latest updates on the Haiti earthquake / Why the Haiti earthquake was so devastating / Video: Haiti beset by natural disasters |
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Basil Davidson's "Africa Series": Different But Equal / Mastering A Continent / Caravans of Gold / The King and the City / The Bible and The Gun |
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Michael Baptiste: Try A Little Tendernes / Baby Can I Change My Mind / A Woman's Got To Have It / I Wanna Know Your Name |
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A structured guide and introduction to Kingian nonviolence The philosophy and methodology By Bernard LaFayette Jr. and David C. Jehnsen This manual and its associated training give the behind-the-scenes essence of Dr. King's philosophy of living and of social action, which he called his philosophy of Nonviolence. Many folks think his work was primarily about public demonstrations and civil disobedience, but these projects were just the public component of his work; there were five other steps in his process for change of which the general public remains unaware. Many folks complain that he was not tough enough on racism, but perhaps the real question is: How effective was he as a single individual, as a team member, as a leader, in conquering racism? The Civil Rights Act, The Voting Rights Act, two Supreme Court Decisions, and the inspiration of ordinary folks of all colors and backgrounds to work together in a patriotic effort to refine the American Dream, . . . at these efforts his highly refined philosophy did succeed and has made a real difference for real people. The question today is: Is his philosophy still relevant for the problems of today? Only you can answer that question. This training manual makes the most sense when combined with the training associated with it. The training is available through the University of Rhode Island's summer program |
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Africa and Afro-American Identity Problems and Possibilities By Everett E. Goodwin The 10 Biggest Myths About Black History The Black Experience in America is Unique Folk Life in Black and White |
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Black Prayer 1 Black Prayer 2 Black Prayer 3 A Prayer by Martin Luther King Baltimore Page Annual Founders Kwanzaa Message 1966—40th Anniversary—2006 Nguzo Saba: The Principles and Practice of Bringing Good into the World |
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By Nell Irvin Painter |
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Latin America: Still a Long Way to Go, for Black Women At the age of 17, Meybelin Bernárdez is clear about the future: "When I finish my studies, I'll return to help my community get on its feet," the young Garifuna woman from Honduras, who is studying medicine in Cuba, says without hesitation. With her head held high, she adds: "I want to be an example for future generations of women. The conditions we live in are really bad, we have a lot to do for our people."Her mother, whose skin is as dark as hers, taught her that the most important thing in life is to study. "But a poor black girl like me couldn't even dream of being a doctor without this scholarship," she tells IPS. Bernárdez belongs to the Garifuna ethnic group, descendants of African slaves who survived the sinking of two Spanish galleons off the coast of the Caribbean island of St. Vincent in 1635, where they intermarried with members of the local Carib tribe. The Garifuna are estimated to number around 600,000 in Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico and the United States today. Bernárdez's words summed up the reality faced by the large majority of black women and girls in Latin America - although there are more and more who are actively rebelling against the role of victim of racial discrimination. IPSNews |
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The Employee Free Choice Act—If we want to propel this economy forward [and] have a sound expansion, it has to be an expansion whose benefits are more broadly shared . . . [it] goes to the question of having a healthy and well-functioning trade union movement. . . . It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the way in which our labor laws have functioned, and have been enforced and been acted on over many years, have not been constructive from the point of view of having a healthy trade union movement. And an attempt to redress that balance seems to me something that is appropriate at such a time.—Lawrence H. Summers, the National Economic Council director, Brookings Institution, 13 March 2009 WashingtonPost |
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The Assassination of Fred Hampton How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther By Jeffrey Haas It’s around 7:00 A.M. on December 4, 1969, and attorney Jeff Haas is in a police lockup in Chicago, interviewing Fred Hampton’s fiancée. She is describing how the police pulled her from the room as Fred lay unconscious on their bed. She heard one officer say, “He’s still alive.” She then heard two shots. A second officer said, “He’s good and dead now.” She looks at Jeff and asks, “What can you do?” The Assassination of Fred Hampton is Haas’s personal account of how he and People’s Law Office partner Flint Taylor pursued Hampton’s assassins, ultimately prevailing over unlimited government resources and FBI conspiracy. Not only a story of justice delivered, the book puts Hampton in a new light as a dynamic community leader and an inspiration in the fight against injustice. / Also Toward Freedom |
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Tavis Smiley Questions Minister Louis Farrakhan on President Barack Obama: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / "The Black Agenda is the America Agenda." |
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Black Studies in the Age of Obama
By
Dr. Muhammad Ahmad |
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What credibility is there in Geneva's all-white boycott?—What do the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Italy and Israel have in common? They are all either European or European-settler states. And they all decided to boycott this week's UN conference against racism in Geneva – even before Monday's incendiary speech by the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad which triggered a further white-flight walkout by representatives of another 23 European states. In international forums, it's almost unprecedented to have such an undiluted racial divide of whites-versus-the-rest. And for that to happen in a global meeting called to combat racial hatred doesn't exactly augur well for future international understanding at a time when the worst economic crisis since the war is ramping up racism and xenophobia across the world. . . .The dispute was mainly about Israel and western fears that the conference would be used, like its torrid predecessor in Durban at the height of the Palestinian intifada in 2001, to denounce the Jewish state and attack the west over colonialism and the slave trade. Guardian |
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Remembering Malcolm X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) by Junious Ricardo Stanton "I might point out here that colonialism or imperialism, as the slave system of the West is called, is not something that is just confined to England or France or the United States. The interests in this country are in cahoots with the interests in France and the interests in Britain. It's one huge complex or combine, and it creates what's known not as the American power structure or the French power structure, but an international power structure. This [racist western] international power structure is used to suppress the masses of dark-skinned people all over the world and exploit them of their natural resources."—Malcolm X |
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Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918 By Jeffrey B. Perry This first full-length biography of Harrison offers a portrait of a man ahead of his time in synthesizing race and class struggles in the U.S. and a leading influence on better known activists from Marcus Garvey to A. Philip Randolph. Harrison emigrated from St. Croix in 1883 and went on to become a foremost organizer for the Socialist Party in New York, the editor of the Negro World, and founder and leader of the World War I–era New Negro movement. Harrison’s enormous political and intellectual appetites were channeled into his work as an orator, writer, political activist, and critic. He was an avid bibliophile, reportedly the first regular black book reviewer, who helped to develop the public library in Harlem into an international center for research on black culture. But Harrison was a freelancer so candid in his criticism of the establishment—black and white—that he had few allies or people interested in protecting his legacy. Historian Perry’s detailed research brings to life a transformative figure who has been little recognized for his contributions to progressive race and class politics.—Vanessa Bush |
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"High Noon: Geithner vs. the American Oligarchs"? (Simon Johnson interview) / The Quiet Coup by Simon Johnson The Obamas and Washington DC Statehood (Jean Damu) An Open Letter to President Obama (Lewis) |
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Yale Slavery and Abolition Portal This site is designed to help researchers and Yale students find primary sources related to slavery, abolition, and resistance within the university's many libraries and galleries. Across the top of the website, you will find the chance to view relevant collections in each Yale institution. You can view items across the different institutions by entering a keyword or phrase on the search page. You can also sort items according to a particular period, place, or topic by selecting a category from the tag cloud. Under links, you will find a collection of electronic databases that provide access to digital resources with significant relevant content. Yale My Archival Experience |
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The Importance of Civil Disobedience in Post-Katrina New Orleans By Elizabeth Cook Katrina New Orleans Flood Index |
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Professor Celia Chazelle Advocates Christian Social Activism in Keynote Speech Delivered at Medieval Studies Conference By Kam Williams |
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Commentary on ChickenBones—I want to say that you have given a wonderful gift to humankind by establishing and maintaining ChickenBones. In the history of African American journals of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, I rank your magazine with Negro Digest/Black World, which was "blessed" to have the financial backing of Johnson Publications. It is required reading for people who wish to be informed about the trajectories of thought in the contemporary world. It is a dynamic, growing textbook that ought to be used in courses on African American literature and culture. I am using it as an external link for the course I teach this semester on the Foundations of African American Literature. My students need to know that academic journals do not tell us everything. So, thank you Rudy for your gift to black folks and everybody else. Peace and brotherhood, Jerry Ward, Jr. (24 August 2008)
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I Studied My Own Self Obama's Dreams from My Father Review by Rudolph Lewis |
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Big Little White Lies / Luqman Dawood Translation / Religion and Society Contents |
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A Black Imam Breaks Ground in Mecca—Two years ago, Sheik Adil Kalbani dreamed that he had become an imam at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. Waking up, he dismissed the dream as a temptation to vanity. Although he is known for his fine voice, Sheik Adil is black, and the son of a poor immigrant from the Persian Gulf. Leading prayers at the Grand Mosque is an extraordinary honor, usually reserved for pure-blooded Arabs from the Saudi heartland. So he was taken aback when the phone rang last September and a voice told him that King Abdullah had chosen him as the first black man to lead prayers in Mecca. Days later Sheik Adil’s unmistakably African features and his deep baritone voice, echoing musically through the Grand Mosque, were broadcast by satellite TV to hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world. NYTimes Amin Sharif |
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Muslim Imam Warithdin Muhammad Makes Transition (Marvin X )
Tributes Obituaries
Remembrances |
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Defining Religion: Religion is a
search for meaning when you don't have it in this world. So,
while they might have controlled the black people physically and
politically and economically, they did not control their spirit.
That's why the black churches are very powerful forces in the
African American community and always has been. Because religion
has been that one place where you have an imagination that no
one can control. And so, as long as you know that you are a
human being and nobody can take that away from you, then God is
that reality in your life that enables you to know that. . . . :
Even though you're living under the shadow of the lynching tree.
Because religion is a spirit that is not defined by what people
can do to your body. They can kill your body, but they can't
kill your soul. We were always told that. There is a spirit deep
in you that nobody can take away from you because it's a
creation that God gave to you. Now, if you know you have a
humanity that nobody can take away from you, they may lock you
up. They may lynch you. But, they don't win.
James Cone
Bill Moyers Journal
By Ralph Garlin Clingan |
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The Osu Caste Discrimination in Igboland (Victor Dike) / World Empire and the Balance of Power (James Burnham) |
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The Ancestral Spirits Are Watching (Jeannette Drake) America's Crisis of Values / Clinton and Obama Legislative Records Plato on Obama Drama (Marvin X) The Cost of Lies -- America With Its Pants Down Locked Up in Land of the Free |
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Trouble don' set like rain: Economic Crises in Jamaica John Maxwell Why South Sudan Want Obama to Lose White House Bid (Mulumba) / Obama and the Israeli Lobby (Uri Avnery) |
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New York Times Attempts to Define and Dictate Black Politics (Glen Ford) Is Obama the End of Black Politics? Lord, No (Mel Reeves) Forward Is Where We Have to Go (Amiri Baraka) |
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Philip Dray. Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen. Houghton Mifflin Company 2008 -- Philip Foner Review In this grand and compelling new history of Reconstruction, Pulitzer Prize finalist Philip Dray shines a light on a little known group of men: the nation's first black members of Congress. These men played a critical role in pushing for much-needed reforms in the wake of a traumatic civil war, including public education for all children, equal rights, and protection from Klan violence. But they have been either neglected or maligned by most historians -- their "glorious failure" chalked up to corruption and "ill-preparedness." In this beautifully written, magnificently researched book, Dray overturns that thinking. He draws on archival documents, newspaper coverage, and congressional records to show that men like P.B.S. Pinchback of Louisiana (who started out as a riverboat gambler), South Carolina's Robert Smalls (who hijacked a Confederate steamer and delivered it to Union troops), and Robert Brown Elliott (who bested the former vice president of the Confederacy in a stormy debate on the House floor) were eloquent, creative, and often quite effective -- they were simply overwhelmed by the brutal forces of reaction. Covering the fraught period between the Emancipation Proclamation and Jim Crow, Dray reclaims the reputations of men who, though flawed, led a valiant struggle for social justice.—Publisher's note |
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Presidential Violence!—Obama is clearly continuing the Clinton and Bush policies of militarizing Africa. This is obvious in the expansion of US military “interventions.” For example, US support to the Nigerian ruling elites efforts to eliminate the resistance movements in the Niger Delta. Consider also the expansion of the US International Military Education and Training (IMET) program as well as the increased US arms sales to African countries. . . . A “Black” US president is a deadly thing because dead and dying African (black) bodies are the grounds on which white power stands. White power in black-face also stands on those same dead African and other racialized peoples bodies. . . . But of what value is hope predicated on African death and dying? To the extent that his achievements requires that we valorize capitalist imperialism, male supremacy, militarism, and white supremacy . . . we must question the value of a “Black” US president. BlackAgendaReport |
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The Challenge of the Changing Face of America— • The highest rates of poverty are among children, especially children of color. The poverty rate for white children is 10 percent, while it is 28 percent for Latino children, 27 percent for Native-American children, and 33 percent for African-American children. • African Americans, Latino Americans, and Native Americans are about three times as likely to live in poverty as are whites. While the poverty rate for non-Hispanic whites is 8 percent, the rate for African Americans is 24.1 percent, for Hispanics, 21.8 percent, and for Native Americans, 23.2 percent. • The most extreme poverty in the United States is concentrated in specific geographical areas such as the urban cores of major cities and Native American reservations. These areas of concentrated poverty are the result of decades of policies that confined the impoverished to these economically isolated areas. • Finally, we also noted the stark racial disparity in the distribution of wealth in the United States. White families not only have on average 10 times the net worth of families of color, but also between 1998 and 2001, their wealth grew by 20 percent, while the net worth of African American households actually declined during that same period. CatholicCharitiesUSA |
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A national mood swing—˜We can end a war.—We can save the planet.—We can change the world.'—All of a sudden, Democrats are on the offensive. 'Change' isn't just this year's most ubiquitous campaign slogan, it seems to be something that's already happening out there in the real world, in small towns, on college campuses and yes, even at Super Bowl parties. Who knows just what caused the shift in mood? Iraq? Katrina? Global warming? Rising income inequality? Disgust with Bush and Cheney? Whatever the causes, Americans seem eager to reclaim a spirit of idealism that many thought ended with the 1960s, to embrace a heritage that acknowledges conflict and struggle but also hope and progress. Obama's Super Bowl ad represented a gamble: a bet that the symbolism of past social movements is now more likely to give Americans a thrill than a chill. And the matter-of-factness with which his ad was greeted - and Obama's electoral success so far - suggest that his campaign correctly read the national mood. LATimes |
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Shirley Sherrod—Fox News Destroying an Innocent Woman to Attack Obama / Rachel Maddow: Black People Are Coming To Get You Part 1 / Part 2 |
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K'NAAN—T.I.A. (This Is Africa) / Hugh Masekela—Coal Train Live / Unomathemba / Soweto Freedom Song / Eric Dolphy—God Bless the Child |
"And while Austin and folks from her generation rush to condemn Jackson and call him a "Grandpa" who is "off his meds," they also owe him and others who fought the good fight against racist discrimination a little bit of gratitude." |
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American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America—The f-word crops up in the most respectable quarters these days. Yet if the provocative title of this exposé by Hedges (War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning)—sounds an alarm, the former New York Times foreign correspondent takes care to employ his terms precisely and decisively. As a Harvard Divinity School graduate, his investigation of the Christian Right agenda is even more alarming given its lucidity. Citing the psychology and sociology of fascism and cults, including the work of German historian Fritz Stern, Hedges draws striking parallels between 20th-century totalitarian movements and the highly organized, well-funded "dominionist movement," an influential theocratic sect within the country's huge evangelical population. Rooted in a radical Calvinism, and wrapping its apocalyptic, vehemently militant, sexist and homophobic vision in patriotic and religious rhetoric, dominionism seeks absolute power in a Christian state. Hedges's reportage profiles both former members and true believers, evoking the particular characteristics of this American variant of fascism. His argument against what he sees as a democratic society's suicidal tolerance for intolerant movements has its own paradoxes. But this urgent book forcefully illuminates what many across the political spectrum will recognize as a serious and growing threat to the very concept and practice of an open society.—Publishers Weekly |
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Gook: John McCain’s Racism and Why It Matters By Irwin A. Tang Book Review by Kam Williams Jesse Jackson on Obama and the Paulson Plan Kam Williams Interviews Reverend Sharpton Murder in Black and White (New Television Show) Premiering Sunday, October 5th 17 Poets Reading Series (October 2008 Schedule)
Spike Lee and Miracle at St. Anna New Film Interview by Kam Williams |
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Voting is not enough—If voting was that effective, to quote the activist Philip Berrigan, it would be illegal. And voting in an age when elections are stolen by rigged ballot machines and a stacked Supreme Court willing to overturn all legal precedent to make George Bush president, will not work. I am not saying do not vote. We should all vote. But that has to be the starting point if we want to reclaim America. We must lobby, organize, and advocate for the dissolution of the World Trade Organization and NAFTA. The WTO and NAFTA have handcuffed workers and consumers and stymied our efforts to create clean environments. These agreements are beyond the control of our courts and have crippled our weakened regulatory agencies. . . . If these pension funds, worth trillions of dollars, were in the hands of workers, the working class would own a third of the New York Stock Exchange. America's Democratic Collapse
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Letter from Reverend Jeremiah Wright Obama 2008 Table / Interview with Jeremiah Wright / Jeremiah Wright with Bill Moyers |
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Speeches & Sermons: -- The American Dream is Under Siege at Home (Bill Clinton) / Time to Take Back the Country We Love (Hillary Clinton) The America George Bush Has Left Us (Joe Biden) / We Must Listen and Lead by Example (John Kerry) / Seize this Opportunity for Change (Al Gore) |
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Snapshots of life in Baghdad— Dutch photographer Geert van Kesteren, who collected 388 pages of photographs for his book Baghdad Calling, wanted to catalogue the tragedy of the tens of thousands of Iraqis who are the largely ignored victims of our demented 2003 invasion and occupation. . . . The refugee statistics are so appalling that they have become almost mundane. Four million of Iraq's 23 million people have fled their homes—until recently, at the rate of 60,000 a month—allegedly more than 1.2 million to Syria (a figure now challenged by at least one prominent NGO), 500,000 to Jordan, 200,000 to the Gulf, 70,000 to Egypt, 57,000 to Iran, up to 40,000 to Lebanon, 10,000 to Turkey. Sweden has accepted 9,000, Germany fewer – where an outrageous political debate has suggested that Christian refugees should have preference over Muslim Iraqis. With its usual magnanimity – especially for a country that set off this hell-disaster by its illegal invasion – George Bush's America has, of course, accepted slightly more than 500. Independent News |
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With the Lost Boys in Southern Sudan Nuba-Darfur-South Sudan Table Obama 2008 Table It's too little and too late to overcome the bursting housing bubble—Research has estimated that the next recession could increase unemployment by 3.2 million to 5.8 million people, and poverty by 4.7 million to 10.4 million, with at least 4.2 million also losing health insurance. . . . Hard times ahead highlight the need for structural changes such as universal health care and labor law reform. These and a bigger, "green" fiscal stimulus that would reduce carbon emissions should be pushed to the top of the political agenda.—Charlotte Observer Hallmark of a totalitarian state—Before they seize power and establish a world according to their doctrines, totalitarian movements conjure up a lying world of consistency which is more adequate to the needs of the human mind than reality itself; in which, through sheer imagination, uprooted masses can feel at home and are spared the never-ending shocks which real life and real experiences deal to human beings and their expectations. The force possessed by totalitarian propaganda—before the movements have the power to drop iron curtains to prevent anyone's disturbing, by the slightest reality, the gruesome quiet of an entirely imaginary world—lies in its ability to shut the masses off from the real world—Hannah Arendt |
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History in the Making Barack Obama's Speech at First AME Church of Los Angeles (Tananarive Due)
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Our Sad State of Democracy A Portrait of Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm By Scott Kurashige |
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Mildred Loving of Loving vs Virginia Dies (1939-2008) |
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U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to tear down more than 4,600 public housing units in four complexes across the city -- while replacing them with private, mixed-income developments that will set aside only 744 apartments for low-income people. The decision to demolish these public complexes, which suffered only relatively minor damage during Hurricane Katrina, comes as rents across the city have doubled since the storm -- as has the homeless population. The activists are asking concerned citizens across the country to join the actions in New Orleans or to take action at home. According to a statement from Kali Akuno, director of the Stop the Demolition Coalition: What is at stake with the demolition of public housing in New Orleans is more than just the loss of housing units: it destroys any possibility for affordable housing in New Orleans for the foreseeable future. Without access to affordable housing, thousands of working class New Orleanians will be denied their human right to return.— Southern Studies / Bill Moyers and James Cone (Interview) |
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Grades Plummet on War, "Terror" and Trade Bills By Leutisha Stills, CBC Monitor Cancer in the Congressional Black Caucus / When NOT to Vote Black (at least in Memphis ( Glen Ford ) / Reverend Yearwood on YouTube |
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The Wages of Peace—There is no longer any doubt that the Iraq War is a moral and strategic disaster for the United States. But what has not yet been fully recognized is that it has also been an economic disaster. To date, the government has spent more than $522 billion on the war, with another $70 billion already allocated for 2008. With just the amount of the Iraq budget of 2007, $138 billion, the government could instead have provided Medicaid-level health insurance for all 45 million Americans who are uninsured. What's more, we could have added 30,000 elementary and secondary schoolteachers and built 400 schools in which they could teach. And we could have provided basic home weatherization for about 1.6 million existing homes, reducing energy consumption in these homes by 30 percent. But the economic consequences of Iraq run even deeper than the squandered opportunities for vital public investments. Spending on Iraq is also a job killer. Every $1 billion spent on a combination of education, healthcare, energy conservation and infrastructure investments creates between 50 and 100 percent more jobs than the same money going to Iraq. Taking the 2007 Iraq budget of $138 billion, this means that upward of 1 million jobs were lost because the Bush Administration chose the Iraq sinkhole over public investment. The Nation |
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Gambia Government's position on the tragedy in Cote D'Ivoire or Ivory Coast The events in Ivory Coast have vindicated us on our earlier assertion that Western neo- colonialist sponsored agents in Africa that owe allegiance only to themselves and their Western masters are ready to walk on thousands of dead bodies to the Presidency. This is what is happening in Ivory Coast. Africans should not only wake up, but should stand up to the new attempts to re-colonise Africa through so called elections that are organized just to fool the people since the true verdict of the people would not be respected if it does not go in favour of the Western Backed Candidates as has happened in Cote D'Ivoire and elsewhere in Africa. What is really sinister and dangerous about the neo colonialist threat is that they are ready to use brute force, or carry out outrageous massacres to neutralize any form of resistance to the Western selected President as has happened in Cote D'Ivoire. In Ivory Coast, we know the role played by the former Colonial power who, outside of the UN Mandate, first Bombarded the Presidential Palace for Days and eventually stormed it through a tunnel that links the Presidential Palace to one of the residences of their diplomatic representative. . . .Yahya Jammeh |
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King Archive at Morehouse—After years at the Sotheby's auction house in New York, a collection of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s papers has come home to Atlanta. The papers had been scheduled for sale last year when an anonymous group ponied up a reported $32 million to buy the roughly 10,000 documents and books. The documents have been entrusted to the library at King's alma mater, Morehouse College. . . The collection features 7,000 papers written by King, including drafts of his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech and his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance address. They also include a 1946 college examination on the Bible, his earliest surviving theological writing, and papers he was working on just before he was killed in 1968. CNN MLK Papers |
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Obama Wins Super Tuesday: Wins Most States, Wins Most Delegates—Obama won majority of delegates (908 to 884, Time Delegate Count) and majority of states (Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, North Dakota, and Utah), and tied in New Mexico.— "It's a choice between going into this election with Republicans and independents already united against us, or going against their nominee with a campaign that has united Americans of all parties, from all backgrounds, from all races, from all religions, around a common purpose," he said. "It's a choice between having a debate with the other party about who has the most experience in Washington, or having one about who is most likely to change Washington, because that's a debate that we can win." WashingtonPost |
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Barack Obama Speaks at Dr. King's Church Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: The Great Need of the Hour Atlanta, GA | January 20, 2008 The Fierce Urgency of Now Martin Luther King Birthday Celebration 2008 (Grace Lee Boggs) |
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Luis
Alvarez.
The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and
Resistance during World War II. (2008).
-- Flamboyant zoot
suit culture, with its ties to fashion, jazz and
swing music, jitterbug and Lindy Hop dancing,
unique patterns of speech, and even risqué
experimentation with gender and sexuality,
captivated the country's youth in the 1940s. The
Power of the Zoot is the first book to give
national consideration to this famous
phenomenon. Providing a new history of youth
culture based on rare, in-depth interviews with
former zoot-suiters, Luis Alvarez explores race,
region, and the politics of culture in urban
America during World War II. He argues that
Mexican American and African American youths,
along with many nisei and white youths, used
popular culture to oppose accepted modes of
youthful behavior, the dominance of white
middle-class norms, and expectations from within
their own communities. |
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Obama Defeats Clinton in 3-State Sweep—Senator Barack Obama won the primary in Louisiana (53 % to 39 %) and the caucuses in Nebraska (68% to 32%) and Washington (68% to 31%) on Saturday, defeating his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, as the two scrambled for delegates in their fiercely contested battle for the Democratic nomination.— "We won in Louisiana, we won in Nebraska, we won in Washington State," he said. "We won north, we won south, we won in between, and I believe we can win Virginia on Tuesday if you're ready to stand for change." Before today, Clinton held a slight edge over Obama in the delegate count—1,055 to 998—with 2,025 delegates needed to claim the Democratic nomination. . . . Obama stood to pick up as many as 170 delegates tonight. Washington Post |
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The Big End of the American Economy? By Richard Lawson Mortgage Crisis Lesson: Ostentatious Display Ain't Black Power |
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Obama Close Second in New Hampshire—With 91 percent of the electoral precincts reporting, Mrs. Clinton had 39 percent of the vote, Mr. Obama 36 percent, and John Edwards 17 percent. On the Republican side, Mr. McCain had 37 percent, Mr. Romney 32 percent and Mike Huckabee 11 percent. NYTimes |
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President Robert G. Mugabe's UN Speech 62nd Session New York, 26 September, 2007 |
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| Defining Religion: Religion is a search for meaning when you don't have it in this world. So, while they might have controlled the black people physically and politically and economically, they did not control their spirit. That's why the black churches are very powerful forces in the African American community and always has been. Because religion has been that one place where you have an imagination that no one can control. And so, as long as you know that you are a human being and nobody can take that away from you, then God is that reality in your life that enables you to know that. . . . : Even though you're living under the shadow of the lynching tree. Because religion is a spirit that is not defined by what people can do to your body. They can kill your body, but they can't kill your soul. We were always told that. There is a spirit deep in you that nobody can take away from you because it's a creation that God gave to you. Now, if you know you have a humanity that nobody can take away from you, they may lock you up. They may lynch you. But, they don't win. James Cone Bill Moyers Journal |
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Immigrants of African Descent Should Remember the Shoulders We Stand On Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement |
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| Grace Boggs: Crime Among Our People Conversation about Religion Give Detroit Schools a Fresh Start Organizing Comes Before Mobilizing |
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Jesse Helms, White Racist –In 1984, when Helms faced his toughest opponent in Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt, the late Bill Peterson, one of the most evenhanded reporters I have ever known, summed up what "some said was the meanest Senate campaign in history." "Racial epithets and standing in school doors are no longer fashionable," Peterson wrote, "but 1984 proved that the ugly politics of race are alive and well. Helms is their master." A year before the election, when public polls showed Helms trailing by 20 points, he launched a Senate filibuster against the bill making the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. a national holiday. Thurmond and the Senate majority were on the other side, but the next poll showed Helms had halved his deficit. All year, Peterson reported, "Helms campaign literature sounded a drumbeat of warnings about black voter-registration drives. . . . On election eve, he accused Hunt of being supported by 'homosexuals, the labor union bosses and the crooks' and said he feared a large 'bloc vote.' What did he mean? 'The black vote,' Helms said." He won, 52 percent to 48 percent. In 1990, locked in a tight race with an African American Democrat, former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt, Helms aired a final-week TV ad that showed a pair of white hands crumpling a rejection letter, while an announcer said, "You needed that job and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota." Once again, he pulled through. That is not a history to be sanitized. WashingtonPost |
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The Dropout Challenge Food Future Past Organizing Comes Before Mobilizing Boggs Center: Going Beyond Black and White / |
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Protesters Pepper Sprayed, Tasered, Arrested New Orleans Resisting Demolition By Carl Dix Destroying Homes for the Holidays in New Orleans New Orleans City Council Shuts Down Public Housing Debate (video) The TRUTH About Christmas (video) Bill Quigley: The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa (12/26 to 1/1) (The Nguzo Saba) Umoja (Unity) / Kujichagulia (Self Determination) / Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) / Ujamma (Cooperative Economics) / Nia (Purpose) Kuumba (Creativity) / Imani (Faith) |
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Obama Wins Iowa --A record outpouring of Democratic voters gave Obama a victory last night with 38 percent support, while John Edwards, with 29.8 percent, barely edged out Clinton, who finished third at 29.5 percent. Obama's Iowa Win Bolsters Bid for New Hampshire |
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DAILY CONGRESSIONAL
QUARTERLY 2008 ELECTION MAP CQ
Politics |
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Harold Washington Remembered—When Harold Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor, died on Nov. 25, 1987, many of us understood that his death marked the passing of a great man. But while we lamented the negative impact of his loss, few of us had any inkling of the vast political vacuum he would leave behind. As time passes, the vacuum expands. Back then, it seemed likely that Washington’s powerful presence could propel the formation of progressive alliances across the country. However, as we grope around in the political darkness he once illuminated, it seems clear that his unique personality was a major reason for his success. . . . Washington’s initial election occurred in 1983, when progressive forces were mired in the gloom of the Reagan administration. He found mayoral success using a formula that was part campaign and part crusade. But Washington was no political neophyte, full of naïve idealism. He had already served many years as a state legislator and a member of Congress, and was well versed in the nuts and bolts of pragmatic politics. Salim Muwakkil |
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Appeal to African Heads of State
Malcolm X Videos
Another
Look at Israel
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Books by W.E.B. Du Bois WEB Du Bois Table The Suppression of the African Slave Trade (1896) / The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899)
The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches (1903) / John Brown (1909) / The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911)
Darkwater: Voices Within the Veil (1920) Gift of Black Folk: The Negroes in the Making of America (1924)
Dark Princess: A Romance (1928) / Black Reconstruction in America (1935) / Black Folk, Then and Now (1939) Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace (1945) / The World and Africa: An Inquiry (1947) / In Battle for Peace (1952)
A Trilogy: The Ordeal of Monsart (1957) Monsart Builds a School (1959) nd Worlds of Color (1961)
An ABC of Color: Selections (1963) / The Autobiography of W.E.B. Du Bois:(1968) |
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The whole truth about Barack Obama—Barack Obama has repeatedly made it crystal clear that he is pro Zionist, pro the interests of big business corporations over common people, pro widening the US military/industrial complex through increasing the US military and its budget, and last but certainly not least—he is not opposed to using unilateral US military force to insure what he refers to as "US interests" in other parts of the world. . . . Barack Obama's being biologically an African American is absolutely no legitimate reason to discard honest and in-depth coverage of where he really stands and has stood on life and death economic and military matters affecting this nation and the entire world. Blindly supporting the candidacy of Barack Obama is in fact inverse white racism, and there is nothing in the least bit progressive about that. Barack Obama and those who support him need to be asked the hard and tough questions, not "coddled". . . . Putting a biologically Black face on imperialism and empire as if that changes or ameliorates its horrible affects is entirely unacceptable. As a member of the human family, a Black person, and a US citizen, I am deeply disappointed with Democracy Now, but sadly, not surprised.—Larry Pinkney |
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Congressman John Lewis Stands Up Against Iraq War "I cannot in good conscience vote for another dollar or another dime to support this war." |
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The Black Presence in the Bible: A Selected Bibliography Compiled by Runoko Rashidi
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Maryland Group Looks to Bolster Black Support of Gay Marriage— Maryland Black Family Alliance, an organization unveiled today at Morgan State University in Baltimore that consists primarily of heterosexual African-American leaders who are pledging their support for marriage for same-sex couples. . . . [Elbridge] James, a former political action chairman for the Maryland National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told the Baltimore Examiner in another interview, “We are here to say, ‘No, the black community is not homophobic. Civil rights belong to everyone. We are saying no to those who want to bigot us, divide us.” The group’s organizers hope not only to change the minds of African-Americans in general, but African-American elected officials in particular. "Our voice is very important to this movement,” founding member Lea Gilmore told the Baltimore Sun. “African-Americans, perhaps more than another other group in the U.S., understand discrimination. So we are natural allies in this movement." James said he understands it will be a tough pill for some politicians to swallow at first. GayWired |
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In Defence of Humanity—we take a stand against the unrestrained and undemocratic power, which the mainstream media wield with total impunity, as they try to impose their viewpoints and values. These oligopolies only serve to defend the political and economic interests of shareholders, financiers and advertisers. . . . In the words of President Hugo Chávez, we are not fighting against freedom of the press, rather we are re-establishing it. In Defence of Humanity, as a network of networks, underscores the right to information and communication as a fundamental human right. To that end, the illegitimacy of the current system within which media are only serving the powerful must be emphasized. We point out that this has resulted in an incredible, anti-democratic media concentration overwhelmingly controlled by financial capital. The media allies and enemies of the people need to be identified. We denounce all intellectual mercenaries who have sold out their ideas to transnational corporations. We also denounce communication groups and institutions that in the name of a distorted idea of the freedom of expression are serving economic and imperialist structures, such as Reporters Without Borders and the Inter-American Press Association. The Declaration of Cochabamba - In Defence of Humanity—5th Conference of Intellectuals and Artists in Defence of Humanity—May 22nd & 23rd, 2007 in Cochabamba, Bolivia latinlasnet Kwanzaa Candles by Chuck Siler>>>>> |
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Cynthia McKinney Confronts Corporate Media Malice in Court By Glen Ford, BAR executive editor |
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Rev. T.D. Jakes’ and Mega Churches—Churches are building apartment buildings and a wide range of other businesses. An investigative report last month in the Buffalo News concluded that Black churches in that city “are utilizing resources from government and non-profits to create economic engines.” The Business Journal of Milwaukee headlined this past Friday that African American churches in that area were undergoing “a construction boom.” And the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators and Developers (NABHOOD) concluded a July conference in Atlanta suggesting “Black churches are an increasing source for partners …in the [hotel] business and cause for progress.” The Black church revenue estimate is based on a 1998 study reported by the Interdenominational Theological Center which found 70,000 Black churches in America with median yearly revenue of $200,000. Assuming only a modest growth in the number of churches and contributions which have at least kept pace with inflation, Black churches at the end of 2006 would have stood at $17.1 billion. The revenue estimate may be an under statement because at the time of the 1998 study, the growth of so-called Black Mega Churches (congregations of 5,000 to 30,000) was just beginning. FreeWebs |
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A White Person's Meditation on the Jena 6 Students—I would ask that white people who may be “doubters” on the issue of dropping all the charges, study the situation more, and reflect more on the racism surrounding the issue. I feel strongly that the only proper role for white people in this situation is to either join the demand for all the charges to be dropped, or stand aside while others struggle to do.Of course, as with any injustice labeled as “racism”, someone is going to proclaim that it is not truly based on racism. Race is a hard word to swallow, especially for white people, who unlike most black people in America, can sometimes go for whole days, weeks, months or even years, without having to acknowledge racism. Racism is scary to admit to. And, often hard to prove. Since the Jena 6 students did do something wrong, and since that something included violence, it is easy for white peace activists and progressives to believe that the system is just running its course. It is easy to want to believe that there was no racism, because this time, it might appear the black young men involved actually “deserve” the punishment they are receiving from the criminal justice system.—Kimberly Wilder Graphic left (Chuck Siler, "American Necktie") |
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Bring the Troops Home: "A time comes when silence is betrayal." A Time to Break Silence by Rev. Martin Luther King 4 April 1967 / Securing my homeland (JS) |
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A Post-Imus Discussion on Race, Gender, & Corporate Power in America Mackie Blanton |
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Books by and About C.L.R James Minty Allen (a novel, 1936) / World Revolution, 1917-1936: The Rise and Fall of the Communist International (1937) / A History of Negro Revolt (1938) The Black Jacobins: A Study of Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (1938; 1963) Beyond a Boundary (1963) / A History of Pan-African Revolt (1995) / Facing-Reality (2006) / C.L.R. James on the Negro Question (1996) / Marxism-Our-Times-Revolutionary-Organization (1999) / State Capitalism & World Revolution (1986) / Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution (1978) A Majestic Innings: Writings on Cricket (2006) / C.L.R.James: A Life (2001) / Beyond Boundaries: C.L.R. James: Theory and Practice (2006) / The Letters of C. L. R. James to Constance Webb, 1939-1948 (2007) / Rethinking Race, Politics and Poetics: C.L.R. James' Critique of Modernity (2007) |
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Death of the American Republic—In years to come, historians may look back on U.S. press coverage of George W. Bush’s presidency and wonder why there was not a single front-page story announcing one of the most monumental events of mankind’s modern era – the death of the American Republic and the elimination of the “unalienable rights” pledged to “posterity” by the Founders. The historians will, of course, find stories about elements of this extraordinary event—Bush’s denial of habeas corpus rights to a fair trial, his secret prisons, his tolerance of torture, his violation of Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches, his “signing statements” overriding laws, the erosion of constitutional checks and balances. But the historians will scroll through front pages of the New York Times, the Washington Post and every other major newspaper – as well as scan the national network news and the 24-hour cable channels – and find not a single story connecting the dots, explaining the larger picture: the end of a remarkable democratic experiment which started in 1776 and which was phased out sometime in the early 21st century. Robert Parry, Bush's Mafia Whacks the Republic (consortiumnews.com) |
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The Tavis Smiley Presidential Forum "Showtime At The Apollo!" By Leutisha Stills, senior correspondent, CBC Monitor |
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Do Mercenaries Determine War & Peace?: Since the launch of the “global war on terror,” the administration has systematically funneled billions of dollars in public money to corporations like Blackwater USA , DynCorp, Triple Canopy, Erinys and ArmorGroup. They have in turn used their lucrative government pay-outs to build up the infrastructure and reach of private armies so powerful that they rival or outgun some nation’s militaries. “I think it’s extraordinarily dangerous when a nation begins to outsource its monopoly on the use of force and the use of violence in support of its foreign policy or national security objectives,” says veteran U.S. Diplomat Joe Wilson, who served as the last U.S. ambassador to Iraq before the 1991 Gulf War. The billions of dollars being doled out to these companies, Wilson argues, “makes of them a very powerful interest group within the American body politic and an interest group that is in fact armed. And the question will arise at some time: to whom do they owe their loyalty?” Precise data on the extent of U.S. spending on mercenary services is nearly impossible to obtain — by both journalists and elected officials—but some in Congress estimate that up to 40 cents of every tax dollar spent on the war goes to corporate war contractors. At present, the United States spends about $2 billion a week on its Iraq operations. Jeremy Scahill The Mercenary Revolution |
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Indelible Images of People of Color Crying Out from Rooftops
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Heroes and Hypocrites -- More than two-thirds of the Congressional Black Caucus signed on as members of the Out of Iraq Caucus, but when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic corporate cohorts turned up the fire, all but four melted into the mass of hypocrisy that joined the U.S. war machine while pretending to resist it. The heroes are mostly heroines: Reps. Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee, Diane Watson, and the only man in the bunch, John Lewis. The collapse of the CBC is not a morality play, but the story of a power play. The lesson: the CBC will not stand up to Power, and is a politically spent force as presently constituted. The same must be said of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, only four of whose non-Black members stuck by their guns. Black Caucus Shattered on Iraq BlackAgendaReport |
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The First African-American Newspaper By Jacqueline Bacon Book Review by Kam Williams |
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We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party (Mumia Abu-Jamal) What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race and the State of the Nation (South End Press Collective) |
| Clarence J. Munford -- (files) N'COBRA / Atlantic Slave Traffic / Race and Reparations / Benefits of Whiteness / Atlantic Slave Traffic / Boukman and His Comrades // (Books) -- Production relations, class and Black liberation: A Marxist perspective in Afro-American studies (1978) / The Black Ordeal of Slavery and Slave Trading in the French West Indies 1625-1715 (1991) / Race and Reparations: A Black Perspective for the 21st Century (1996) / Race and Civilization: The Rebirth of Black Centrality (2003) |
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Jackson Incident Revives Some Blacks' Concerns About Obama—Andrea, Why Obama decided to tackle in a middle-class church, that which should have been avoided, I do not know. It was not so much "airing dirty laundry." Everybody knows that poverty and incarceration create instability in black households. One does not need to be reminded by a presidential candidate of such internal problems unless there are real solutions in his programs. Moreover, Obama's statements were gender divisive—black women are heroic and black men irresponsible—from a person who claims to be a "unifer." Though I am not a father, my enthusiasm for Obama eroded quickly. His "story" became rather old hat for me. The racist jibes FOX are making on him, I will not come to his defense. Obama thought he had the black vote in his pocket and thus could say anything about blacks and they would enthusiastically continue to support him. Well, he does not know black folk. His advisers miscalculated the backlash from many black men and from many progressives. The win at any cost strategy is a sore spot with me. That he's more concerned with appeasing the gun lobby and hunters in Montana to the neglect of black male sensibilities and the black hardships of those on the margins in urban centers and rural areas troubles me.—Rudy |
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Luqman -- In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful / The Name of Allah Be Round About Us / Seven Last Words of Jesus / Sermon on the Mount |
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Obama's Community Roots—After a transient youth and an earnest search for identity, Obama also found a home—a community with which he continued relationships, a church and a political identity. He honed his talent for listening, learned pragmatic strategy, practiced bringing varied people together and developed a faith in ordinary citizens that still influences his campaign message. He discovered the importance of personal storytelling in politics (and wrote short stories that refined his style). Later, as a politician, he worked closely with community groups (though not as ardently as another community organizer turned politician, the late Senator Paul Wellstone). As a presidential candidate, he frequently refers to his community organizing, asking supporters to treat his campaign as a social movement in which he is just "an imperfect vessel of your hopes and dreams." David Moberg The Nation Speeches of Al Sharpton and Barack Obama Wow Democratic National Convention (2004) |
| The Saga of Cornell West: Cornel West Moves to Princeton West Cites Reason For Quitting Cornel West: An Editorial Pass the Mic Responses to Pass the Mic |
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Seven-Year-Old Black Child Arrested, Cuffed, Fingerprinted in Baltimore, a City with a Black Mayor, Sheila Dixon After the Mayor apologizes for the arrest of Gerard Mungo Jr., City Police arrest Gerard's mom “If they want war, they’ll have war,” said Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, president of the NAACP Baltimore Chapter outside Central Booking Gregory Kane, "It's a crime that police arrested dirt-bike kid." / Black leader calls for Baltimore boycott / |
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Harry Belafonte (at 80) on Clinton & Obama Selma Campaign—"We are hearing platitudes, not platforms. What do they plan to do for people of color, Mexicans, for people who are imprisoned, black youth? What are their plans for the Katrinas of America?" Seattle PI |
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Obama on the Moses & Joshua Generations -- Getting his church groove on, Obama dubbed the elders of the civil rights movement - the heroes and heroines of Edmund Pettus Bridge and other struggles - the "Moses Generation" that led the people to the borders the Promised Land. Obama's generation was personified by Joshua, who the Old Testament says picked up the leadership reigns from Moses and conquered Canaan by repeatedly marching his troops around Jericho while commanding the priests to blow their horns. The walls of the city "came tumbling down." Getting those walls to tumble is Black folks' unfinished business, with Obama playing Joshua. But Obama has never blown a bugle or commanded troops or outlined a strategy for victory. It is true that Selma is "home" to every African American, part of the collective legacy. But Obama gained national fame declaring at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, "There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America." Apparently, home is wherever Obama hangs his campaign hat on a given day. Glen Ford , "The Barack and Hillary Show Plays Selma" Black Agenda Report |
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Books by Eldridge Cleaver: Soul on Ice / Post-Prison Writings and Speeches / Target Zero; A Life in Writing / Conversation with Eldridge Cleaver Being Black / Education and Revolution / Eldridge Cleaver / Eldridge Cleaver Is Free / Related files: Cleaver Bio Retrospective on Soul on Ice By Sharif Cleaver Speaks to Skip Gates Tearing the Goats Flesh / Ishmael Reed's Preface Maxwell Geismar's "Introduction" / Black Panther Platform & Program / Daniel Berrigan on Cleaver
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Democratic presidential candidates crave the Latino and black vote, but ignore the Drug War’s unfair toll on people of color.—According to a 2006 report by the American Civil Liberties Union, African Americans make up an estimated 15% of drug users, but they account for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison. Or consider this: The U.S. has 260,000 people in state prisons on nonviolent drug charges; 183,200 (more than 70%) of them are black or Latino. . . . Unfortunately, a quick search of the top Democratic hopefuls’ websites reveals that not one of them — not Hillary Clinton, not Barack Obama, not John Edwards, not Joe Biden, not Chris Dodd, not Bill Richardson — even mentions the drug war, let alone offers any solutions. . . . Obama has written eloquently about his own struggle with drugs but has not addressed the tragic effect the war on drugs is having on African American communities. As for Clinton . . .she has ignored the suffering of poor, black women right in her own backyard. Arianna Huffington Common Dreams |
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Black
Power "America, We Have Found You Out" A
Tribute to Kwame Toure/Stokely Carmichael Black
Power, A Critique of the System Of International White Supremacy & International Capitalism By Stokely Carmichael |
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Black America's leadership structures are in disarray. Such was evident and, in various ways, widely acknowledged at media entrepreneur Tavis Smiley's State of the Black Union event, held this past weekend at Hampton University, in Virginia. The forum has evolved into an annual substitute for genuine politics in a Black polity that is bereft of institutions of accountability. By default, Tavis fills the void with his road shows and media exhibitions. But Mr. Smiley is not the problem: he is simply a businessman, who sees a hole in the market where a movement used to be. . . . Tavis Smiley's fortunes have risen in direct proportion to the decline of Black leadership, which today is largely a gaggle of media-dependent personalities and elected officials contemptuous of their own constituents. No amount of showmanship can conceal the vast, empty space that separates the people and those who claim to speak for them. The entire Black leadership class must be made to apply for renewal of their lapsed credentials. We are tired of "Black Faces in High Places." A Black Leader should be a Black Leader, and not just "Leading Blacks" to their doom. Leutisha Stills, Black Leaders...or Leading Blacks?" Black Agenda Report |
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President Robert G. Mugabe's UN Speech 62nd Session New York, 26 September, 2007 |
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