"More Mary Matters" is the flag-ship of Brady Enterprise
Association, Inc. designed to help enlighten and associate enterprising
attitudes and behaviors among people of African heritage before, during and
after the shinning light on
Mulberry
Row on the mountain-top named by Thomas Jefferson as Monticello.
It is also designed to remind gifted and talented youth about many people
of past generations who lived useful lives and deserve to be remembered for goodness sake. For our own sense of self, we are compelled to believe
many of
our ancestors were believers in the pursuit of goodness; and left us an inheritance
of moral worth greater than
marble temples or myths fancied by writers of novels and other trivia pursuits.
Our goals and hopes are to
help generate more scholarly interest and
"story telling" about
lives of functional saviors and sources of family and community formation. It is about many
causes and colors in the generations and pursuits of
"goodness" born on
Christmas Day as beginning of the first generation. It is how we set our compass
magnetized for true readings by any other name and descriptions to research
and envision the pursuit of goodness by mother
and child such as:
Mary X Robinson, born abt 1774
. Our hopes are that gifted and talented new screen and song writers will help generate
good news for preachers and teachers to at least think about, ... in citing
great literatures others have written in other times and places.
For poets, preachers and other imaginative and
enterprising minds, the site is perhaps a
Greenwich
Meridian route for enlightened and educated youth of African heritage
seeking to navigate life without getting lost in seas of make-believe such as
occurred with gifted and talented O. J. Simpson. He was challenged in the
enlightenment era of athletes like Willie Mays
who on at least one known occasion tried to counsel the future hall of fame
sensation about his arrogant attitudes and behaviors.
Whether heathen or not,
Simpson's glamorous route to success, sex, love and power ought not be denied as
attitudes and behaviors endemic among many men and women of African heritage,
... who negatively affect "the least of us"
lifetimes and beyond. We have cited the above testament of reality about
any philosophies espoused in contradiction to traditional and accepted
"faith, hope and love"
philosophy. We have tried to single
out some relative families engaged in getting on and up in the world without
"juicing" others as
"juiced" by Hollywood.
We think it is now time for enlightened and educated African-Americans who have
seen it all come and go to speak out about what is most obviously at course with
so many bright youth redefining victorious virtues and values.
"OJ" is perhaps the
poster boy but not the only example of gifted and talented bad attitudes and
behaviors.
The site is targeted on
gifted and talented scholars and writers born in generations #66
(birth years 1950-1979)
and #67 (birth years 1980-2009).
Our hopes are to challenge the growing cultural dynamics threatening to
re-introduce dysfunctional values (like a wet
blanket) onto
"the least of us." Without the
institution of marriage reflected in the 1880 U.S. Census Data correlated by the
Mormon Church, we could not even have began the challenge of researching
African-American family dynamics "up from
slavery" for this website. For
folks able and willing to travel outside the United States, it is enlightening
to learn that for most places on earth and even in the U.S. during its early
years, ... marriage was never easy or simply two lovers.
Indeed, many, not all our ancestors believed they were
brothers and sisters in the spirit and body before ever meeting to love and
mate. We have taken that cue in trying to understand the culture that caused so
many men and women up from slavery to address each other and even strangers as:
mother, sister and brother?
Cora Lee Hill Atkins
noted that in the post-Civil War period of over four million ex-slaves, many
were indoctrinated by preachers to believe their faith would reveal their lost
mothers and siblings to them. And, for at least a generation after the
war, roadways were filled with seekers such as
Samuel and Spencer Jones.
We believe that marriage matters in not only defining
identity of offspring but also relationships within their own generation that
will allow them to accept others even the ones they marry, .... first and
foremost as brothers and sisters, which is the essence of Christian doctrine:
"Love ye one another."
The site is not about propagation of marriage but reflecting generations of
goodness that flowed from it, including integration of America to be as we now
have and hold that every child is born
"somebody," not a nobody. We do want learned
youth to carefully consider that children being born and certified without named
fathers is a return to the states of nothingness that existed in the not distant
past when we were without community. It is irrational for any mother in
the short-term or long-term to deny a child knowledge of his or her biological
father. father.
We believe writers of African heritage everywhere
ought continue Dr. Martin Luther King's aspirations seeking to integrate
(not simply litigate and mitigate)
cultures that honor
(not denigrate or destroy)
fathers and mothers in the pursuit of
goodness. As Spike Lee might note: it all boils down to which gifted
and talented minds can be trusted to
"do the right thing?" We think it is not
right for writers to rationalize that lesser endowed mothers can successfully
manage to generate goodness in offspring without benefit of grandparents,
spouses, uncles, aunts, siblings or cousins and friends for their offspring.
Mothers are not gods.
We believe every free-born person has a God given right to know
his/her patriarchy in life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, ... not to be
denied or hidden by mothers or others as existed with chattel slavery. It was
an abomination with attitudes and behaviors that ought not be forgotten.
Scholars and writers should never forget that marriages among
people of African heritage were discouraged or not allowed in much of America
prior to 13th Constitutional Amendment. The matter is a lot more than
simply about property and inheritance rights but more so is reflective of the
adopted culture looking to the future, rather than dead ancestors as sources of
goodness. Indeed, most African-Americans have never lived in Africa; but, have a
lot of Africa's worst cultural values in them. In much of Africa and rest of the
world, it is now clear to gifted and talented leaders that for medical and other
reasons, both the father and mother's heritage are important for child
development. Leaving no child behind begins with mother-wit!
Thereafter chattel slavery, the separation of
procreative men and women was often coerced including welfare as we once knew
it; and by 19th-20th century was reinforced via criminal codes plus military enlistments and
conscriptions. What a great writer does not know or include can help
entertain but hurt the cause of racial integration for men or women. Did Alice Walker's book adapted for screen-play by Stephen
Spielberg help reawaken 19th century anti-Black male demons? Her book
"The Color Purple"
skipped over realties like the Buffalo Soldiers and Spanish American War in
which young Black men excelled. Did she
unwittingly inspire Hollywood to exclude Black men from epic films like
"Search For Private Ryan?"
One purpose of site is to help fight epidemic
"dumb-down"
of too many gifted and talented youth.
Many perceive cultural, geographic and historical source dynamics about
"the least of us"
...
through visions of non-scholars who earned fame and money:
"writing tales of degenerate behavior in pursuit of folly that enlightened
and educated screen-writers and actors ought not propagate as a community
characteristic up from slavery in love or war."
How do Hollywood movie makers and viewing audiences
around the world perceive Black men to be or have ever been in war or peace?
How many movies reflecting heroics by other racial and ethnic groups ever
portray men of African heritage as being equal in virtues and values.
Indeed, some Black men have been blind, cripple, cowardly and crazy in the
irrational environment of war and rumors of war; but, not all of them all the
time, everywhere in all wars. It is not the fault of government that these
perceptions dominate Hollywood writings.
The National Archives are a wonderful institution open
to all without regards to race, creed or cause but when writers deliberately
seek to denigrate African-Americans in historic events such as winning of wars,
it is sheer racism whether the writers are Black, White or just lazy. It
matters a lot as to what gifted and talented minds think and propagate for mass
viewings by young men and women, ... far than what preachers say on Sunday
mornings.
As an example, most writers and audiences now perceive
that African-Americans were the last ethnic group of mass migration
(after Jews, Irish, Italians, Serbs, Syrians and Polish)
into Pittsburgh despite numerous facts that sizeable populations of such existed
there since at least the Revolution and certainly the Civil War. Why?
Because Black scholars have failed to document the experiences and realties of
prior generations, leaving such to people like August Wilson who by any measure
was a prolific writer but non-scholar about African-American histories.
August Wilson's ancestors did not serve in the Great Emancipation and Wars for
Mexican Independence or Spanish-American Wars. So far can be determined
neither on his father or mother's side was there services in World Wars I and
II, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, nor the Christian Leadership Campaigns for
Civil Rights. Our ancestors did and we are determined to not allow such
writers to redefine our histories to suit their view of the Hill District or any
other place to be remembered such as Bethel AME Church that was the center of
recruitment activities that generated young men like Congressional Medal of
Honor recipient:
KELLY, ALEXANDER
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company F, 6th
U.S. Colored Troops. Place and date: At Chapins Farm, Va., 29 September 1864.
Entered service at: ------. Birth. Pennsylvania. Date of issue: 6 April 1865.
Citation: Gallantly seized the colors, which had fallen near the enemy's lines
of abatis, raised them and rallied the men at a time of confusion and in a place
of the greatest danger.
In order
to have recruited two brigades of U.S. Colored Troops there had to have been at
least 30,000 Black folks living in the area during era of abolition activity
preceding
Civil War. Virginia was right across the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers
from Pittsburgh to which many African-Americans escaped. The Lower Hill District of August Wilson's knowledge did not include
the Mother Bethel African-Methodist Episcopal Church that included men like
Civil War Major Martin Delany. And, non-scholars and scholars alike assume
that since he was such a smart and award winning author, such people and places
obviously did not exist or have any stories worth being told.
Xernona Clayton, founder of the
The Trumpet Foundation that
seeks to recognize and award the best and brightest in the cause of goodness;
... will tell you
that she and other mass media focused pioneers like Jesse Jackson fought a long and hard fight to
help
generate opportunities for youth like Tara Edwards. Tara is the former Pittsburgh region
television news journalist, on right who shares the Atlanta spirit of smiling
faces we now see every day. Getting them admitted and graduated at
prestige institutions like the University of Michigan, Rutgers and many other
places where the best and brightest are trained was a battle royal. As Joe
Lewis might have said: "Ma, I glad I won."
Yes, we fought the good fight and think we won.
But, the struggle must go on to encourage gifted and
talented youth to fight the great fights for goodness sake less
"the least of us" be left
to the whims and wrath of people who are not. CNN in Atlanta has given us
an example of what gifted and talented Black news givers can do and inspire for
"the least of us."
Cities like Pittsburgh suffer from a lack of Atlanta depth in mass media deeds
and doing that inform and inspire Black youth. True, most cities, if any,
in America are not like Atlanta in which people of African heritage all over the
world now view as a cultural hub. It is why Tyler Perry and many others
are now located therein pursuant their professions. Gifted and talented
youth therein truly seem to "love ye one
another."
Our hopes are that young enlightened and well educated
young minds like Tara Edwards will consider researching and producing television
documentaries for commercial and public TV stations. There is a dire need
for scholarly Black journalist types to take on topics such as the near
disappearance of organized baseball sponsorship and aspirations among Black boys
in the Pittsburgh region wherein her ancestors with far less money and
opportunities once learned and played the game. We believe the absence of
such is a serious signal about decline of integration realities on fields of
dreams in the American dream of families and community evolvement among African-Americans.
Documentaries are critical in the new process via which goodness is pursued.
Since at least the 1960s, television documentaries have inspired what the
screen-writers write about. Playwrights rationalize what they see and
hear, as August Wilson did with "Fences"
which is not a story about
Josh Gibson but many
viewers think so.
We believe it is an affront to many of
"the least of us"
to depict existence of
"make believe community"
for movies and television
wherein it did not or does not exist. Writers and artists have
long-lasting residual effects among librarians, readers, viewers and others
wherein English is the language of empowerment and respect by people who matter
a lot in shaping public opinion as to who is deserving of
Christian fellowship. Images matter in the mass public mind about people
and places.
Hollywood black-buster horror films beginning with
"Birth of A Nation" was very influential in America during first three decades
of the 20th century wherein America had a total population of about 100 million
including 10 million African and Native Americans. It not only inspired
expansion and success of the Ku Klux Klan into northern industrial states and
labor unions; but, also served as a model propaganda tool for Nazi Germany 10-15
years later that had a population of about 70 million. Instead of African
and Native Americans as inferiors removed to make way for new births, the German
film-makers substituted six million Jews and Gypsies who needed removal.
For better or worse, people of African heritage owe a lot, if not most, of their
cultural heritage during the past ten generations to change in attitudes and
behaviors that occurred among Anglophiles, ... our favorite clearly being
John
Wesley.
Our great grandmother
Adaline Frog Kyle thought Wesley was
one of the greatest men in history next to Jesus; but we doubt that she ever
conveyed such thoughts to the Armstrong and Dillard families that owned her in
Southwest Virginia.
Herein lies the mystery in power of faith had and held dear:
hate the sin but not the sinners. So, grandma did not need courage to tell
slave owning White folks that she viewed them as sinners, ... merely faith that
Christ would end slavery. Her minister told her that Jesus
(not Paul)
said so in a Roman Empire of which 70 percent of the inhabitants
(Jews and Gentiles)
were officially classified as slaves to be liberated.
The English language empowered men like Reverend John Wesley
and
Reverend Francis Asbury to circumvent and overpower prevailing Latin dogma in Church
and State for changes we can only marvel to comprehend. Wesley recruited
and ordained Asbury who is the Christian that ordained
Reverend Richard Allen
that used his perceived power to recruit and organize thousands and tens
of thousands people of African heritage in Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburgh
and beyond on behalf of
"the least of us"
still in bondage. London based
Libraries have a lot of data that escape minds of people who write but not read
a lot.
We rejoice there are generations and colors of
believers up from the ugly past whose ancestors labored for community in
functional body and spirit of
"goodness" that has triumphed
(though often rejected and abused by many Blacks, Whites and Native Americans.)
We want new mothers and children to be-do better than what is propagated by many
writers and entertainers for them to read, hear and see.
We want poets, preachers and teachers to tell youth about real non-biblical
Sarah types of the
Family Robinson
that came into existence with U.S. Constitution legalizing human beings
as commodities bred for labor, sex and trade. Clearly by now, it is self
evident to even Alice Walker that men like Jackie Robinson and women such as
Michelle Robinson Obama were generated by family virtues and values, ... not
rape and rage against men.
Books of Samuel still
to be written by functional believers are all about the reality rappers claim to
see and hear. Black writers have not learned how to tell their own stories
that youth need to hear about their own triumphs in overcoming adversities
imposed by others. Samuel lived to see his prayers answered.
Tell youth that within two
generations many heavy hearts generated more than 3,000 young men named Robinson
as U.S. Colored Troops during the great emancipation war. Tell them they
can believe what they want to believe but believe what others have seen and
heard in the ending of the hated and hurtful institution. Let the Black poets
write about songs of wonder and faith as Langston Hughes and others tried to do
for past generations in the pursuit of goodness.
We want them to
rationalize that families come into existence and are sustained by fathers and
mothers over multi-generations seeking goodness.
Consequently, we believe families give functional cause and substance to
communities of caring for
"the least of us" such as learning to
labor, relative doctrines, music lessons, marching bands, little league
baseball, and other adult organized and sponsored activities that teach boys and
girls to respect and tolerate one another. Our hopes are for scholars and
writers with the aspirations and abilities to research and tell stories that
matter in the faith and hopes of new generations to learn and pursue better and
more useful lives.
Our view is the functional
church of our best and brightest ancestors came into existence, not by buildings
and temples but by such means
as occurred with other anglophile ethnic groups. The Seven Sisters
Colleges (like Smith and Sarah Lawrence)
that sent hundreds of volunteer teachers and nurses
(via the Freedmen's Bureau)
into the ex-confederate states did not seek to build places to preach but
instead to institutionalize facilities for learning and character building.
These were the feminists we most admire even though modern men of means managed
to take over and redefine social work doctrine to be something all together
different than originally practiced.
Menu on left below affords an overview of topics generated and commemorated such
as courage, faith, hope and love by multi-generations of West African, East Asian
(especially Cherokee, Creek and Seminole Native American)
and West European
(especially Anglo Saxon)
heritages we have seen and heard in
pursuit of goodness.
Our theme
(thesis)
is that pursuit of goodness
(like the interstate highway system)
is best measured by a philosophy of life about generations of it rather than
individual achievements such as Civil War patriotism
(in which young men mattered
much more than matrilineal heritage most African-Americans have
internalized or postulated). We want
contents of character by youth to be-do as better Americans, not less.
Indications are that too many people of African heritage, unlike
most other ethnic group cultural dynamics, have little caring or knowledge about
patriot ancestor functions in wars or liberation movements thereto and made
possible as a result. We hope this site can be helpful
to those who do care to research and learn about functional benefactors of
all Messianic colors in
life, liberty and pursuit of goodness/happiness. It is more than
"big mamas and colored girls."
It links past, present and futures.
We want
to tell what we think our generation
(birth years 1920-1949) saw and heard about preceding benefactor generations
of youth (18 to 26 and 27 to 35 male and female
age-groups) UP
from the world existing prior to ending of World War I-II reigns of terror.
The site wants to make certain that youth know that many men of African heritage
contributed to winning the wars of liberation that other ethnic groups routinely
proclaim and propagate as achievements. Our issue here is that writers who
exclude or skip over existence of Black men in wars and rumors of wars of human
history are not
"keeping it real"
and fuel the exclusions in future Hollywood make believes.
Topics are more or less set forth in
the context of patrilineal family generations listed alphabetically on the menu
as long-term
(sustainable)
attitudes and behaviors in pursuit of goodness. Many people of
African heritage in Africa, the Americas and Caribbean have a
matriarchal cultural heritage; and we believe these cultural dynamics are not
only proven inferior by five hundred years of observation but directly contributed to and
reinforced degenerations during and after era of chattel slavery.
For
example, matriarchal cultural dynamics are clearly reflected in attitudes of well-meaning men and women
who lobbied to name Pittsburgh's newly erected African-American cultural center in
memory of Frederick August Wilson Kittel
(African-Jewish heritage). We think it
matters a lot as to what youth generations are given to see and believe as their
heritage; and especially so for youth, parents and teachers of other ethnic
groups, ... who have even less knowledge of African heritage cultural
contributions to the greater American culture shaped by long-lasting ideas that
matter in how people live their lives.
August Wilson was chosen for gifted and talented youth to commemorate
rather than someone like Robert L. Vann
(African-Cherokee heritage) who helped generate
opportunities for many Black writers and artists including Billy Eckstein, Earl
Gardiner, Lena Horne and other Pittsburgh greats in world of music masters.
Indeed, they all labored long and hard for a place at the table, ... not crumbs
thrown to undeserving sidemen and underlings.
Of
course we are prejudiced in our judgment of the matter because the social
dynamics that Wilson describes in his writings are typical of what most Whites
perceived: inferiors to be observed and tolerated but not integrated. And,
that is our point about August Wilson or anyone else that seeks or sought to
redefine the values of previous generations up from slavery. For at least
one hundred years after slavery ended, most educated people of African heritage
even in Pittsburgh were agreed the desired cultural dynamics were via people
doing good at their craft, ... not bad news.
If August Wilson's writings about African-Americans in Pittsburgh's
past are a reflection of cultural achievement, ... then few if any of the men
and women now employed at institutions like Carnegie Mellon University and other
bastions of learning deserve to be there. What kind of people and values
generated them? Where have they come from? Did Pittsburgh ancestors
propagate or share their virtues and values; or that described by August Wilson.
He was not representative or reflective of African-American cultural dynamics
that built twenty-eight mother churches in the Pittsburgh Hill District that
fueled more than 200 more in the many outlying areas covering five counties.
We do not know whether or not August Wilson was a
member of any churches but we assuredly state that anyone who has not breathed
and lived in the dynamics of the Black Church does not know beans about
African-American culture. Who could ever imagine the culture of Pittsburgh
excluding sports like baseball and football? It is akin to evoking claims
of representing Jewish culture but not Judaism. Even worse, it is very
much akin to the pseudo scholars who cite the emancipation proclamation but
ignore caring or knowledge about the 43,000 young Black men who died in the
Civil War to make it real. It is best that we not seek to glorify any one
person when seeking to evoke recognition of the culture heritage of
African-American contributions to the greater society.
Old-timers who remember the Lower Hill
District that existed before August Wilson's observations as a teenager, ... are
struck by suspicion that barbershop tales overheard about the infamous
"Ma Brown's" house of
ill-repute may have inspired August Wilson's award winning play entitled
"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"
in a Chicago setting about down-river blues singers. Ma Brown's famous
remarks to disgruntled customers were often repeated, and week-end killings by
men in a drunken rage were all too common on Logan Avenue. But, can
African-Americans afford to allow generations of Americans to perceive that is
or was what most of our ancestors were or wanted us to be. So far as we
know, there are no positive image plays, if ever written, published about Black
Pittsburghers for theater goers to even imagine better lives than envisioned by
August Wilson. In fact, White theater goers are left with the impression
that inferior people deserved to be treated the way they were, ... in the not
distant past.
By
comparison with Wilson's writings, Robert L. Vann's functional contributions for
integrating millions of
"the least of us"
among White Americans
included activation of nationwide information that fueled networks of
over 400,000 nationwide weekly readers in the:
Above organized entities propagated works for equal opportunities and civil rights now enjoyed by millions of people
who know not the functional heritage of African-Americans that many seek to
honor and patronize. It is most evident that now
deceased self-educated writer August Wilson and his literary fans had very limited access to
or knowledge about gifted and talented functional African-Americans such as
Robert Lee Vann, Esq. in Greater Pittsburgh Region of over 100 zip
code areas/municipalities dating back to at least the American Revolution. Men
and women lived then and there, where the mills and mines beckoned those of
courage, faith, hope and love into the places lesser folks could ever know in
the great cause of raising up new and better generations.
Ignoring him and other African American enterprise and cultural
leaders like
Dudley Fuqua was akin to Hollywood thinking that somehow the contributions of Al
Jolson above were equal to or greater than giants like Louis Armstrong in
pursuit of goodness in music. Jazz is an art form introduced by
African-American musicians like Billy Strayhorn who studied and labored many years and decades to
create something of value to themselves and others.
It is the pride and joy of cultural achievement by African-Americans unsurpassed
via any other art form in the integration of America as we now know it.
We owe these men and women our greatest respect and are obliged to teach youth
the virtues and values of faith in learning to prepare, practice and play.
The below picture is an amazing example of what jazz has done. But, in the
valley of the blind "the one eyed man is always
viewed as King, and his words as their gospel."
We fail to see how August Wilson plays have defined or
advanced African-American cultural acceptance and integration in American
society as did jazz music, ... played every day over radio and television of
Pittsburgh and cities all over the world. Given the power by
benefactors, Pittsburgh matriarchal oriented cultural dynamics chose to name
their
African-American Cultural Center in honor of a man who had no known
affiliation with any of the cultural dynamics listed above: reflective of more
than one hundred years persistent contributions to American culture
including writers and artists sponsored by the Pittsburgh Courier. Mrs.
Robert L. Vann literally adopted and sponsored the brilliant
Billy Eckstine
who was born and died in Pittsburgh where his jazz roots
originated and flourished throughout the world bringing honor and respect to a
city he loved more than anywhere. Black and White women loved him, and
great musicians admired his creativity in the arts. Perhaps even more
important to African-American cultural expression was that he was also a
believer and participant in the faith.
We perceive a growing conflict with aspirations and goals of African-American
achievements during the first fifty years after emancipation. Most freshmen and sophomore literature courses for gifted and talented
university level youth have exposed them to writings by great scholars like
Dr. Edward B. Du Bois,
and even Dr. Carter G. Woodson. But, we do not think many modern writers have had benefit of enlightenment about actual
societal
functions by gifted and talented men and women of
color in the earlier generations.
There were and are many, with more to be born, God willing!
To help readers and writers better understand the generation of attitudes and
values among the gifted and talented that preceded our generation, we have
republished on the web
(first published in year 1919 commemorating the Jubilee Year of 1915 that
occurred 50 years after ending of Great Emancipation War in 1865. It
was sanctified by the death of Booker Taliaferro Washington beloved by millions
but not all lives he impacted.)
The
color most remembered is not make-believe
purple wherein fatherhood is clearly disdained,
and young men deemed cowardly and useless. Rather that writers should learn and
write about
red
blood of many hundreds of thousands of souls in mines, mills and military
services along with livery and railroad men like
John Henry.
These were the courageous hands
(not share-crop and domestic servant employment)
that left slavery and serfdom to fight, learn and earn cash money that helped
liberate and finance millions of mothers and children in pursuit of goodness.
Site includes their legacies before, during and after chattel slavery,
persecution and wars.
Was there a genealogy and/or spiritual purpose
for or in their lives, or a mere coincidence of human conception? Consider possibilities that your genealogy has a
purpose. Perhaps give greater meaning and purpose to your ancestral
benefactors
now past? How deep are your roots in the creation of your attitudes?
Who paid the bill for you to now be you? We acknowledge there are many ministers and teachers
of the good news such as
Robinson Generations of African-American offspring in
many endeavors and locations where great struggle was waged and won for
"the least of us" in the search for goodness. Why does Randall Robinson
or Jesse Robinson Jackson
care? Indeed, our souls were lifted to wonder in amazement when Nelson
Mandella was freed from a prison system in which most people expected he would
eventually die; but, not the spirit within two Robinson descendents orchestrated
world-wide public opinion that demonstrated once again for the whole world to
witness what it is to keep the faith and hope alive. And, upon Mandella's
first visit to the United States, the two cousins wrapped an Akan Kente cloth
around Nelson's neck reminding him and us that we are wrapped in the same spirit
of goodness, if we choose to seek it even though a long-term journey spanning
generations.
What role does mass media play in
lives of you and yours? Who is on your face-book page? Generation #66
Great stories by educator-writers like
Cyrene Williams
and her cousin
Darnell Martin
are yet to be written about gifted and talented youth like their uncle
Harold Martin up from Lowry, Martin,
Robinson and Wilkerson generations of African, Asian (Native-American) and European ancestors
integrated for labor and/or love that generated useful lives by self and other believers
like their fathers in the virtues and values proven true.
By now you have no doubt learned that classical thought
defines courage as the most important virtue but who defines and declares its
existence in Black men? Many writers, both men and women, have tried their
best to inoculate English speaking and even foreign societies with beliefs that
Black men were not courageous, just crazy at best. Prejudice still
prevails and dominates thoughts about men that mattered in making possible for
men of means and power to ever consider granting the civil rights now so often
cited.
"We
were at war, and in war you don't have friendly
relationships, you're out to kill each other. That's
how it was at the Courier. We were trying to kill
Jim Crow, and racism . They didn't seem to
understand that we had every right to fight for full
citizenship at home if we were expected to give our
lives overseas."
On the eve of World War II, the double V campaign by
Pittsburgh Courier and other Black media leadership perceived the need to
propagate images of courage and competence in conjunction with movements for
employment rights in the financially attractive war industries.
Many
liberal souls like Robert L. Vann, owner of the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper
insisted that all young men, both Black and White, ought be given the
opportunity to achieve the status of flying like an eagle. The
greatest problem to be overcome were common mass media views that all people of
African heritage
(unlike categorizations and
classifications applied to Whites) were
essentially all the same in both gifts of intelligence and characteristics, ...
mocking birds and entertainers at best.
Men like
Marvin Williams and his brother-in-law Lewis Emmet Lowry Robinson Martin
had
"the right stuff" in
abundance along with values to master World War II era state of the art
technologies even though screen-writers and actors too often portray otherwise.
Too few writers, Black or White, have dared write about patriots among the least
of us in a nation that highly values it, ... ranging from George Washington and
the founding fathers to young men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Testing before entry into training by Emmett and his
brother
Album (Buster) Lowry
Martin along with thousands of other applicants (including
Percy Sutton) confirmed
gifted and talented percentile (2 to 10
percent) of young men of African heritage was
the same as found among White applicants. First Lady Eleanor
Roosevelt had helped shatter the myth by many scholars and writers that young
Black men were inherently less than other men in not only courage, faith, hope
and love but also dexterity and determination to learn and master matters of
complexities in the military, industries and technologies. The story is
told in family circles that Album Martin, who was very bright and later became a
judge in New York, ... was less interested in flying than proving to himself,
father and brother Emmett that he also "had the
right stuff."
The U.S. Army Air Corps had
established the Psychological Research Unit 1 at Maxwell Army Air Field,
Montgomery, Alabama, and other units around the country for aviation
cadet training, which included the identification, selection, education,
and training of pilots, navigators, and bombardiers. Psychologists
employed in these research studies and training programs used some of
the first standardized tests to quantify IQ, dexterity, and leadership
qualities to select and train the best-suited personnel for the roles of
bombardier, navigator, and pilot.
The Air Corps determined that the
existing programs would be used for all units, including all-black
units. At Tuskegee this effort continued with the selection and training
of the Tuskegee Airmen.[citation
needed]In an effort to subvert the unit before it could
commence operations, the War Department set up a system to accept only
those with a level of flight experience or higher education, criteria
intended to exclude most applicants. The attempts to derail the unit by
setting high standards of entry requirements, ensured that only the most
able and intelligent were able to join, contributing to the ultimate
success of the all-black combat flyers.[citation
needed]
We believe the fights in the plights by people of African
heritage are not easy for the best and brightest writers to comprehend.
But it must be done to help uplift "the least of
us" especially the potentially gifted and talented
boys and their mothers who are inclined to believe what they hear and see on
television and movie screens as somehow true. Screen-writers have an
awesome challenge to not endorse or propagate imaginary attitudes and behaviors
"the least of us"
have to internalize as unbearable burdens unlike values existing in other ethnic
and racial groupings. For example, what ethnic group can imagine a
talented tenth to exclude the young men that fought for their lives, liberties
and happiness?
Imitations of life in Harlem or any other place on earth
are
"whistling Dixie"
when imagining the
"talented tenth"
to mean mostly
artists, musicians and novelists like
"little Jimmy Baldwin"
seeking acclaim and fame among the kind of people he most admired in Greenwich
Village and Paris. Baldwin did not write about or speak for the kind of Black
men now proven to have helped others generate goodness on behalf of Asians and
Europeans he admired. Again, we do not condemn his story-telling achievements in
the literary world. Rather, we want youth to understand his anger and
frustration about racism did not inspire successful struggle that overcame
racial discrimination in industrial jobs, civil service employment, military
services, sports and other functional activities Black families dealt with.
Lewis Marshall
Robinson Martin, born abt 1895 His generation #64 included not only
distant cousins
Jackie
Robinson and fathers of Jesse Jackson, Randall Robinson, Michelle
Obama and many other Robinson heritage believers, but also the same challenges to be courageous and faithful
in a time and place where the opposite was more often not expected in both war
and peace.
Far too many writers are
apparently inclined to view or find acceptable the well-entrenched
theme of characterizing Black men in cowardice colors or portraying the worst of
us (alcoholics, addicts and felons)
as a norm for "the least of us."
Is the contempt earned and deserved?
Negative characterization issues did not begin
with Black men in Vietnam wherein even men like Colin Powell and Milton Olive
were ignored or deleted when casting characters for screen-plays that seemingly
always portray "the least of us"
as crazy or stupid at best. And, Black actors get paid for it just as Willie
Best who made a lot of money mocking Black manhood. Less anyone chooses to
forget, we remind youth that in the 1930s, many Hollywood productions were used
by Nazi Germany in their race superiority propaganda.
It is past due time
for Hollywood elites and significant others to commit themselves to challenging
denigrating characterizations of Black men as less than all other human species
in the context of courage, faith, hope and love. Youth, especially boys, need
heroes in their mind's eye to develop healthy attitudes about self worth
relative to others in their generation. Gifted and talented writers and
artists are not sources of the problem but deputies of it.
And it is downright unhealthy for
them to perceive people of African heritage as statistically or functionally of
no consequence in great wars (Revolution,
Civil, Spanish-American, WWI, WWII) that
changed the world they live in for the better. Maxie
Cleveland Robinson the former network anchor for ABC News during the
Vietnam War was undaunted in his criticism to friends and associates about the
need for integrity in reporting war news. Max was a champion in the call
for self integrity by Black journalists. He certainly had the Robinson
spirit of goodness up from a lot of ancestors down in Virginia and beyond
haunting him. He grew up in Richmond at a time when it mattered to many
men and women to remember that Maggie Walker was an good honest and solvent
banker even though the federal reserve had closed her down after the
stock-market crash of 1929. For enlightened and educated Blacks in
Richmond, what mattered most to them is that she kept her integrity in the face
of power, and never succumbed to it.
Unlike Ed Bradley of CBS News,
Max perceived correctly that
Vietnam was the first fully integrated war in American history and important for
the public to not perceive Black men as less than others in
wars or peace. Unlike Juan Williams who was recently fired for negative
remarks about Moslem travelers, ... Max was essentially fired for refusal to
anchor negative news stories about Black men in Vietnam as a means to improve
viewer ratings.
We think perhaps the big difference between the two
newsmen was that Bradley was unlike Max Robinson with a long heritage of courageous
generations of men that mattered in acts of courage such as his above cousins
and Richmond born cousin
Bill Bojangles Robinson
on left. Cousin Bill served as an infantryman in 369th Regiment during World War I
fighting to save the world for democracy before he taught Shirley Temple how to
dance. He refused to accept denigrating Hollywood roles for Black
men.
Max Robinson's attitude was that indistinguishable men
in harmony performing their duty was not news desired by TV network producers
and directors to compete for ratings. Bradley on the other hand was more or less an
opportunist who took advantage of the war to tell what his New York City based
bosses wanted him to see and hear like "The
Bloods of Vietnam" with ghetto rags around
their heads, getting high and buying sex from Vietnamese prostitutes. It was
this haunting memory of Vietnam era portrayal of Black men that prompted Colin
Powell and other senior officers (especially
those of African heritage) to demand change in means and methods of
reporting during the Gulf War1990-1991. Powell used his power to
encourage the United States to now allow mass media whims to trash
"the least of us" in
order to gain favorable viewer writings. And, that is exactly what was
desired evidenced by a TV drama only a year or so later starring Denzel
Washington as a disgraced Army officer with wrongful death of tank crew during
the Gulf War, ... even though no such accident ever occurred in WWII, Korea or
Vietnam war experiences by Black or White tankers. So, who wrote the
script and why?
Draftees out of uniform and behaving badly was something the public
would change channels to see and hear. Unlike Bradley, Max had many childhood and college
friends from Richmond, Virginia in Vietnam as officers like Wilson Barnes and
Jackson Rozier, Jr. Max knew they were nothing like
what Bradley seemed to find for millions of American nightly viewers of CBS
News. And, when the war was over and anti-war sentiment gone, the public
view (including Black women)
of Black men in general, young ones in particular, was worse than it was before
the war. Alice Walker's popular book published after the war basically
reiterated that Black men were basically bad.
It is and was a very old problem, dating back
to the era of
William Lee's Story,
as to how mass media and its sustaining academia
chooses to portray men of African heritage relative to the virtues of courage
and faith, and even virtues of hope and love. As
Jesse Robinson Jackson long ago surmised that otherwise loving minds of many men and women, even
among the Romans, have consistently sought to denigrate hope for a better life
among "the least of us"
and destroy elements of courage propagating it. Jesse, Dr. King and our
other beloved and legitimate ministers of the good news have usually
downplayed the virtue of courage since it is not one that Jesus emphasized.
Indeed, most people seeking goodness are not courageous.
Yet the lives of
some truly courageous men and women of African heritage are a cause for us to
suggest youth of African heritage ought to know more about. It is a lot
more than
"lovin"
somebody on Saturday night or Sunday morning. Nor is it found among most
Hollywood cast characterizations. Our site is not about Hollywood heroes like John Wayne
and Gregory Peck but rather the men and women of courage not characterized
because writers have not yet written the stories that ought to be produced for
youth generations to digest as their heritage to hold dear.
John Noble Roberts
(image on right) was only
19 years of age when he experienced the horrors of D-Day that included having a
leg blown off by German artillery.
Scholars should not fail to free associate the D-Day 1944 contribution
of Roberts and men like Sylvester McCauley
(Rosa McCauley Parks brother)
walking across the beaches and minefields at Normandy.
His marching was nearly 20 years before the
great march in 1963, continuing a long struggle to overcome a lot barricades and
obstacles that lesser men and women freely avoided and/or tolerated. Less
anyone misunderstand, Normandy was dangerous during for days after D-Day on June
4, 1944; with not only fighting to secure the invasion force but also to care
for the sick and injured along with finding and burying the dead bodies and
pieces. It was then and now the worst of times for men like Sylvester to
see and smell horrors of war.
He marched with same
faith as that of his sister Rosa who would sit down so others might be
encouraged to stand up in the pulpits of Montgomery, Alabama. They had the
inherited virtue of courage. Hollywood
writers, directors and actors have rarely, if ever, free associated courage by
young Black men at war with virtues and values in pursuit of goodness.
Hollywood moguls produced hundreds of film during and after World War II dealing
with virtues and values of soldiers, sailors and marines. Only one movie
featured an African-American and
Actor James Edwards characterized
him as a coward made a man because the White psychologist used the
"N"
word to anger him into walking again.
Until very recently, most American audiences had no idea that African-Americans
fought and died in all of America's wars as most other ethnic groups singled out
for display of courage above and beyond the call of duty.
Famed Hollywood Director John Ford was a good
friend of actorWoody Strode
who was both an All-American football team-mate of
Jackie Robinson
and a World War II veteran like Jackie. In a feature film about the
Korean War and staring Gregory Peck, ... Woody was cast as a cowardly Black man.
Like most other Black actors, he was likely happy to accept the role that would
help him earn a lot of money. Ford characterized and directed many westerns and
war movies but castings about courage always starred box-office draws like John
Wayne who was not an All-American athlete and had in fact successfully avoided
military service during World War II.
Even in the making of movies about the famed U.S.
Marshalls and Deputy Marshalls that made the wild west safe for settlement and
the rule of law, .... researchers and writers had to have reviewed reams of
records about men like renowned Deputy U.S. MarshallBass Reeveswho was the best ever. It would have been
impossible for a screen-writer to tell the story of famed federal hanging Judge
Ezra Parker without reading about the men he hired to enforce the law. Yet
Hollywood screen-writers and directors like Ford used such data to cast men like
John Wayne in the lead roles about courage. Like Strode, Bass Reeves also
shared Native American ancestry among thousands of men and women with African
heritage in the once wild west. Their multi-lingual numbers included
various men and wives in four regiments of Buffalo Soldiers
that helped escort, protect and provide for the safety and security of those who
would remember their ancestors as first.
It is not scholarly to speculate about
Who's On First
or was first in African-American pursuits of integrating liberty, education,
government, mass media, military, sports or any other endeavor of goodness in American life. It is terribly painful for many men of African heritage
to understand that most writers have no idea as to what gifted and talented
Black men have seen and heard. It is no wonder that urban poor mothers no
longer foster baseball for their sons nor even organized basketball leagues, ...
unlike suburban soccer moms who sustain dozens of game and practice fields of
dreams. Any child who does not at least understand baseball is
unlikely to pursue the American dream. Children and youth games matter
more in human development than pretentious preaching and praying.
Our question for all gifted and talented youth to
consider with their fresh minds and potentials is: how does goodness come into
existence? By adventure, education, friends, labor, laws, luck, money, prayers, reading,
skills, work, wars or all those
things? Yes, plus a lot more to be considered in ancestral journeys
UP from them and
theirs to you and yours? Was there a genealogy and/or spiritual purpose
for or in their lives, or a mere coincidence of human conception? Consider possibilities that your genealogy has a
purpose. Perhaps give greater meaning and purpose to your ancestral
benefactors
now past?
Scores of interviews during the past
thirty years have convinced us that most writers of African heritage are very
deficient in their knowledge about ancestral lineages and lives of
"the least of us."
Writers, especially novelists, write what they imagine to be or have been
feasible, likely or possible based on views gleamed from the literature and
screen-plays of others. But, their academic courses in American literature depicted
Margaret Mitchell's view of Black men in Georgia after the war being crazy,
lazy, useless and a threat to good women. The racism of Mitchell's book
viewing the Ku-Klux-Klan as a necessary evil, was not removed by simply deleting
blatant chapters and pages for the screen-version. It is a theme that still
dominates Hollywood screen-plays because such a proven way to generate
box-office hits. It is no surprise that Alice Walker wrote what
she did about "the least of us."
African-American ancestors also mattered in pursuit of
goodness even though excluded in great screen plays and other Steven Spielberg
money makers like
Saving
Private Ryan The movie heaped
credits and praise on every ethnic group in America excepting African-Americans. Were there any
African-Americans, like Rosa Parks brother on D-Day or within the bloody
aftermath, ... when the so-called
greatest generation mattered greatly in fighting for matters that still matter
most? Who did research for the movie?
I am French and I live in Normandy. I
teach at the University of Caen. There were a few black veterans at D Day
memorial events in Normandy but I was shocked not to see any representation of
black troops in the many exhibits since there were apparently 18OOO black
soldiers at Normandy Beach on D Day. The people in charge of the Muséee pour la
Paix told me they were deeply sorry but they have no pictures, letters or
anything representing black soldiers. The representatives of the city of Caen
and region gave me the same answer. They would like to exhibit documents if they
can find any. If I can help gathering information from veterans' families, even
stories orally passed on, I will be more than glad to transfer them to the
appropriate authorities. In any case I intend to do research on the issue at the
archives of St Lô. As a French person I have felt immensely grateful all my life
to all the soldiers, black and white, who came to fight in Normandy. Alice Mills
People of African heritage ought not blame screen
producers like Stephen Spielberg above for excluding Black men from matters that
matter greatly. Many people of African heritage in the Hollywood
Black researchers and scholars have not generated the
reference material for his screen-writers to use in making their great films
such as referenced above. There were thousands of military and naval units in
the Allied order of battle during the Normandy Invasion and the majority were
British and Canadian with Black men integrated in their forces.
The American
forces were the minority and had African-Americans segregated in fast and
furious functions designated as combat support and combat service support units.
The bad news is that dating back to at least the Revolutionary War, very few of
the best and brightest writers who happen to be born Black
(most of them also women)
have ever taken time and energy to research and write about what Black men at
war have seen and heard. Or for that matter, men at work in the mills,
mines, factories and places other than cotton and tobacco fields preferred by
most writers who think they know. And most men who write are not the kind who can
or care to
interview those who fight, whether Black or White! The ones with talent to
tell tales that ought to be told for youth to know seem to be inflicted with the
disease of mindless wonders. We think the plight of not knowing what to
research and write about
"the least of us"
is due to a lack of philosophy on what to seek?
We are dismayed by hordes of gifted and talented
youthful writers (such as former New York Times
writer Jason Blair) in pursuit of short-term
success generating long-term "nothingness"
for "the least of us."
The results thereto concern us that so many youth obviously lack belief systems
proven true in what we have seen and heard climbing
UP such as: values for legitimate enlightenment,
education and enterprising lifestyles generated from virtues of courage, faith,
hope and love. Therein was the disaster of what happens with a perhaps
gifted or talented youth who happen not to be enlightened in the cultural values
of people who hired and advanced him believing he shared the values of admired
men like Dr. King.
Jason reminds us very much of a talented
(possibly gifted) young
man Why We Are about his
age that we hired to help us develop our websites and learned to our horror the
existence of degenerate character contents that almost always exploit trust
placed in them, ... regardless of how much they are financially rewarded.
Among African-Americans, cocaine addiction is a major factor at issue that needs
to be addressed by novel writers in order that families and communities might be
really saved from within. All institutions, church, state and enterprising
ought to be aware and alerted regarding any obviously gifted and talented youth
who are too busy or otherwise inclined to acquire college/university degrees
that more or less attest to their character traits to at least have been trusted
by professors of knowledge.
A more recent example is a new movie by gifted and
talented screen-writer David Merritt; and apparently propagating different
values in quest for
Success, Sex, Love and
Power by five young men in Los Angeles. And, like many other newly emerged Black
screen-writers, he does not advance the
inherited philosophy of life and faith that generated his life, liberty
and opportunities to pursue happiness with works that help uplift himself and
"the least of us."
Indeed, we fear for African-American youth if gifted and talented ones use their
superior mental powers to exploit rather than inspire, motivate and educate
others in virtues
and values of the greatest philosopher in human history inclusive of: Africa, America, Asia, Caribbean
and Europe generations.The problem is long-standing in that writers
cannot write about matters they know little or nothing about, ... made worst by
an education or lack of that fosters ignorance in the making.
In fact, Phyllis Wheatley probably did not know
William Lee rode with her hero George Washington. It is a major deficiency in the
cultural heritage of memories never known or kept most evident on Memorial Day
when "the least of us"
stay home while patriarchal and paternal cultures show respect for their earthly
family functional saviors. Most African-Americans have no idea as to what
functions their ancestors performed in WWI or WWII even though the government
has excellent archive records about them that grandma never knew.
The problem has been that of resources to perform
scholarly works for which there is no fame or glory but rather done in pursuit
of goodness about "the least of us."
For
African-American youth in particular who aspire to being chosen among the
best and brightest, ... they ought be told triumphant stories such as the Tuskegee Airmen. They labored, learned
and mastered technologies and training that helped save the world in one of its greatest
hours, days, weeks, month and years of need. Emmett was one
(his brotherAlfonzo Lowry Martin
was another) among a million
plus
African-American young men in uniform forces opposing those organized and deployed
by Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo.
And, Emmett's brother-in-law
Marvin Williams was one of a million plus other young men and women of African
heritage in America executing skills and training in building the ships, planes
and other armaments needed by America and its allies to win the war. For youth not familiar with the story of men of color
who learned to soar like eagles, ... we have revised this page to help tell their
story. We believe enlightened and
educated youth are being unfaithful to the faith many inherited from known
generations during the past two centuries, ... if they remain silent about facts
that adversities were overcome by virtues and values including courage,
abilities, education and determination.
Jesse and Jackie Robinson are excellent examples about
the mysteries in our faith that we and no one else knows when, where and how or
in which generation or name the virtues of courage, faith, hope and love are
conceived or will emerge as a blessing to "the
least of us." And,
because the genetic realities are not known even by mothers, ... the inherited
matrilineal faith dictates loving what God has genetically joined together, not
necessarily the Pauline Christian view limited to marriage pronouncements by
preachers and priests. There is a persistent belief that fans and school teachers will not patronize
books or other media depicting courageous men of color. Faith, hope and
love are OK and even crazy, but never courage such as exhibited by
Robinson Generations?
Year 1965-1966 marked the
Second Jubilee Years ...
sanctified by passing over of
JFK, MLK and RFK
among other courageous souls on behalf of "the
least of us." The Third Jubilee
if there is to be one will perhaps be years 2015-2016, provided gifted and talented
scholars and writers of African heritage view it as such. We are very concerned that so many writers commemorate
imagined unenlightened and uneducated souls in the traditions of folly; rather
than commemorating our inherited moral worth as human beings up from
nothingness. Youth ought never forget that doing nothing
(being cowardly)
generated nothing of value. We want gifted and talented youth to think about the
functional Christian movements to end: (1) international slave trade (2)
slave raid-wars (3) chattel slavery (4) southern terrorism (5) agricultural
serfdom (6) Black heathenism still alive and raising hell among
"the least of us."
There were distinct movements in the pursuit of
goodness by multi-generations, ... despite many pretentious preachers who know
little or nothing about American history and functional heritage such as how the
enlightened and educated African-Americans learned to travel across racially
restricted America during times and places wherein many enterprising Black women
owned and operated rooming houses for boarders, working offspring and even
children of relatives who needed more than a house for them to live in.
There are questions to be examined in teaching a
functional faith "the least of us"
can use and bank on earth. But, who is telling them?
We hasten to add that people of African
heritage in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe have never been
monolithic in cause, color, virtues, values, attitudes or behaviors. Integration
with other cultures and lands have normally been viewed under different
conditions about the past, present or future. Education, at its best,
helps youth comprehend these realities that can not be reasoned away by color
coded
ideology.
How does spirit and functions of goodness come into
existence? Luck? Learning? Moral inheritance? Screen-writers and movie producers in past 40 years of
the post Southern Christian Leadership Movementmay have unintentionally helped rationalize
many matters like murder and incarceration rates now four to five times the rate
anywhere in the world. Yet the reality is that degenerations of many
people with African heritage backgrounds existed for a long time before and
after the international slave trade and chattel slavery. So what?
Artistic and novelist movements away from religious
centered belief systems generated values that challenged the old leadership but
also the relevance of fatherhood, family and even motherhood. Drug crazed and/or bad girls and
boys-n-the-hood Hollywood media images help drive box-office success;
but much more importantly the mean spirited
and/or mad constituents of law makers and enforcers with functional power to
help or hurt
"the least of us?" We perceive that
modern African heritage writers need to see and hear more musings by scholars in
their past, ... before
embracing degenerate values about success, sex, love and power that brought on
godlessness
in Africa and the United States. In our view, too many performing artists
(rappers and others)
have sold their souls to propagate degenerate attitudes and behaviors among
"the least of us"
no less so than existed during the slave trade generation of people who valued
money more than pursuit of goodness that is our Christ by any name.
Many of our ancestors in generations
#57 thru 63 saw and heard Armageddon prophecy in 17th, 18th and 19th centuries
Africa and the Americas. Youth ought never forget to wonder about approximately 43,000 ancestral
souls killed during Civil War fighting and the 175,000 mostly veterans murdered
by terrorists in the first year afterwards. We dare not neglect to know
those who gave up their ghost to lynch mobs during the next fifty years.
So, what is Armageddon? When John of Pathos wrote his famed prophecy, was
he predicting the fall of Rome as an example of evil beings and doings
constantly undone and made right by the righteous generated in the philosophy
of Jesus?
Twentieth Century world wars were indeed
Armageddon for those who saw and heard hell on
earth by air, land and sea that killed men with guns and sailors in a sea of
fire, farmers in the fields,
children in their beds; ... and even hiding rabbis, priests and preachers praying and
pretending to be seers. The chickens came home to roost
in Asia and Europe forcing a change in values by those who were not dead or dumb. A
hundred million violent deaths during 1914-1945 made evident the need for not
only reformed Judaism but also liberation theology by many
(not all)
Christians and Jews, including Black ones.
Some survivors were thus inspired to help
"the least of us"
courageous believers like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
in pursuit of goodness. So far as we saw and heard, the new kingdom on
earth already came in our functional faith
(minus hype)
and will stay if new generations labor and learn to keep
it. Bad attitudes yield bad behaviors, ... and at best goodness requires
multi-generations of pursuit by both
"colored girls"
and
"colored boyz to men"
less they perish as many surely do. We believe that people of all colors
best look to the son for philosophical
moorings that energize life, not rainbow daughters of the moon contemplating
more death and destruction as though the past and present are not enough.
Menu on left lists some generations that have made the great
climb and still climbing. What
virtues and values will
Generation #68(birth years 2010-2039) inherit?
Can mass media minds of generation #67 formulate
sustainable doctrine for #68 without first conceptualizing beliefs in matters
before and beyond their own lives? We think there is an ever existing challenge to
understand how goodness comes into existence. Never easy or simple to
detect and understand regardless of what preachers might shout on Sunday
mornings or writers might conceive. So what?
Far too many millions of Black boys and girls who
"just grew" have never
seen or known enlightened and educated people of African heritage, especially
males, who have labored for love and money. Unfortunately, many who have
benefited from parents who did work for a living have used their writing
abilities to denigrate the thoughts that most men and women are compelled to
work for love of God and families. Worst still, mass media including
pulpits are gods for many of the poor and sick who need a lot more to lift them
up.
Our grave concerns are that too many performing
artists and screen-writers
in this mass media age are propagating cultural dynamics
(inclusive of hair, jewelry and plastic surgery)
that encourage unsustainable lifestyles by mothers and offspring. In too many cases, there is degeneration, not generation of
goodness. We are seeing a drastic departure from themes by graphic artists
like Alex Beujour whose images on right and above tend to project traditional
faith and wisdom weaving sustainable generations in pursuit of goodness.
Throughout human history,
not all cultures or environments in which they bred have been sustainable by
mankind or nature. Slavery beginning with polygamy came into existence due to
cultural weaknesses, ... not strengths. The dark side included not only
men kidnapping women and children for slavery; but, women seeking power by betraying and even
poisoning men
(Black and White)
who trusted them. And, the worst results of unenlightened and uneducated
children is that most grow to be worse than parents who birthed them,
contributing to the plight of degeneration we have seen and heard. So, who
can help save-uplift
"the least of us?"
Clearly, most gifted and talented adult males and
females of African heritage in Africa and abroad have decisively different world views
reflected in their homes, labors, neighborhoods, churches, schools and
literature. Tyler Perry is both talented and very successful in making the
most money compared to African heritage peers in the movie industries of Africa, the
Americas, Caribbean and Europe. He is a spark-plug for many of our
observations about different perspectives about African-American past and
present relative to a future hoped for but obviously not guaranteed for anyone.
Evidence of these differences can be found among many African-American
screen-writers who suggest or seek to delete and/or redefine basic virtues and
values; and thus rationalize a new doctrine of:
(1) success, (2) sexuality, (3) self-love and (4) power.
Does such conflict the traditional doctrine
up from slavery:
(A)
personal courage, (B) faith in goodness, (C) hope for new generations and (D)
love of others.
Is the pursuit of success a
measure of personal courage or reflections in our dark past? If sex is
wonderful, is there a natural purpose of goodness for it to be so?
If the greatest love is for self, then "the
least of us" doctrine is without hope in our
historic interpretation? Many enlightened and educated people of
African heritage up from what they knew was true when their non-believer
ancestors toiled as slaves, .... embraced the new doctrine espoused by Jesus as
their own personal course in Philosophy I.
Hear their music and read the tales of their
testimonies dating back at least to the American Revolution, and the doctrine
they lived by is very clear for those who would accept it. We dare not
remain silent in the cause of "the least of us"
faced by clear and decisive contrary doctrinal declarations on screen for
digestion by millions seeking happiness. So, how and who are the new
interpreters about love by "colored girls"
loving self first. Did Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth think like that?
Other mothers that mattered, like pretty and smart
Rose Alice Wilkerson Lowry Martin
sacrificed her desires for nice clothing, jewelry and other comforts in order to
raise up a new generation that included daughters and sons that have mattered so
much in the lives of others, including those who unwittingly propagate false
doctrine?
We are not propagating organized religion but as scholars
indoctrinated in the philosophy of life espoused by Jesus the question must be
asked: what will
the new proposed doctrine of selfishness procreate and generate? More
happiness for mothers with hair from India, and priceless jewelry to be seen at
show and tell churches or Hollywood award ceremonies? People of African
heritage, especially from West Africa ought to know better by now as to what
happens when one or more generations of adults greatly love themselves but
neglect children.
Perhaps twenty-five or thirty years of living well as
many have done, but then what follows?
The scholarly question for youth to ponder is what do
"the least of us"
need to believe in addition to self? Whether gifted and talented Jews like
Matthew heard it or imagined such to be true, ... they reasoned that men and
women, especially youth, need something far greater than themselves to believe
in. Indeed, the Jews beginning with Moses may have foisted their beliefs
on the world as some scholars have suggested; but their success as writers was
mainly because no one in the successive empires of the Egyptians, Assyrians,
Babylonians, Nubians, Aksumites, Greeks, or Latins, .... had anything better to inspire, motivate and educate people to
"get along with others."
The question as to how groups of people get along and up in the world is a
matter of philosophy as to themes chosen by various writers. Black writers
winning awards on Broadway and in Hollywood may enrich themselves but further
impoverish souls who still need a dependable, maintainable, sustainable and
teachable philosophy to live by.
Jesus said to him, “‘you
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your
soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great
commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the
Law and the Prophets.”
(Matthew 22:37 – 40)
In fact, without the philosophy of life espoused by Jesus,
... most Blacks (including Muslims) would still be
down and out without allies among Africans, Arabs or Jews, nor White Catholics
and Protestants. The mentality of gals and guys who used to sell drugs or
sex is no different than that of now dead sinners who used to sell sex and
slaves to coastal traders. Writers have free-will to believe what they
choose to propagate but are urged to think deeply about the minimal balance
minds impacted by their thoughts of what might be or could be such as: a
death and destruction dealing drug dealer who miraculously becomes a community
benefactor? No one in Harlem or the other urban centers has ever
experienced such; but it is no less believable than persistent themes about bad
women being good mothers to boys who somehow become healthy, wealthy and wise
without benefit of Christian enlightenment and education.
The "Big Mama"
theme from slave plantation days is still alive and well entrenched in
Hollywood. The notion most often propagated is that such women without a
lot of energy or traditional virtues, ... are nevertheless energetic and
virtuous to inspire growing boys and girls to become good men and women that
matter in lives of helping others. Who turns the switch to generate
enlightenment? Brotherhood, fatherhood, neighborhood, motherhood,
sisterhood or heathen youth rapping out lyrics without melodies about what they
have seen and heard of success, sex, love or power?
How is power measured, turned on or off: by
health, guns, money, men, women, procreation, voting, education, religion, etc.? So who is right, wrong and why?
Hopefully, gifted and talented youth will read, research and wonder about
self-evident population increases and decreases reflecting generations and
degenerations. When, where, how? Whose time-lines will new
writers use to pursue goodness or alternatives? How and where will they be educated to
gain knowledge and understanding?
How is goodness pursued? Scholars of African heritage, of all the people on
earth, ought by now be educated enough to warn degenerate writers:
"we have been there and done that"
recently as the 18th century when some Kings and Queen-Mothers in Africa were among most
successful and certainly wealthy monarchs on earth.
And, let us be clear to note these men and women had free-will and many
with very superior IQ levels equal to other monarchs on earth.
Most monarchs such as the Akan Kings
(modern day Cote de Ivoire and Ghana)
employed
"Couriers of The Word"
such as man on left
dressed in historical garb during an anniversary celebration in Kumasi.
(not to be confused with
John 1of Anglican-Methodist-Presbyterian
Christian faith now added and internalized in the Akan culture including a bible
rewritten in Twi language by English speaking Akans).
"Twi" was and still
is the language of empowerment (along with
English and French) among the Akan Kingdoms in West
Africa. It is quite unlike slave trade mediums such as Swahili in East
Africa. The Twi language evolved from a cultural and dynamic literary
heritage inclusive of musical instruments and sounds. The rhythms, sounds and
tales of New Orleans confirm it (though the
great river city is distinguished by Catholic-Baptist-Pentecostal Christian
faith nurtured in after-math of at least three (3) enslaved and four (4)
born-free generations). 7
Linguists
(like modern-day preachers)
were able to speak entertaining dialects but generally
feared and disdained by men who had to pan gold, chop timber, haul salt, farm
and fish for women to pay tithes. And frequent gatherings occurred to hear
"The Word" (surrounded by the king's wing chiefs and armed
young men often sent out to collect or raid for unwanted children, disobedient
daughters, promiscuous mothers and convicted felons slaves to be sold as slaves).
The lands and people, including slaves functionally
belonged to their
spiritual father who were very much like and a
predecessor for African-American church gatherings and tithes.
It is silly to imagine all or even most African-American
Akan ancestors sold to the European slave castles were innocent victims or
warriors captured in battles
unknown. Albeit,
weaker cultural groups, like the Ga and Ewe, without armies to defend them often
were victims of Asante might. African-Americans have many ancestors came
from the innocent coastal fishing villages of the Ga and Ewe cultures forced to
flee from as far away as their Igbo roots and relatives in Nigeria. Their
stories are many yet to be told.
The best linguists sweetened their tithe collection
duties by telling and entertaining the faithful,
especially mothers and children, ... with what they wanted to hear and see about
their Akan cultural heritage (such as the famed
animated Tales From
Ashanti that entertained adults and children long before being
rewritten and retold in America). Keep in mind
that Akans were and are of matrilineal cultural dynamics wherein mothers
(not to be confused as women in the western sense)
had and have genuine political and economic power. Blood-line inheritance is
determined by mother-hoods who effectively select nominees in both government
and chieftaincy to lead them. Akan fathers (like
traditional Black Church deacon and trustee boards)
generally affirm what the mothers want! (But,
often with disastrous consequences such as the market-women instigated
American-British encouraged Ghana Army rebellion against
President Kwame
N'krumah because of his ban against non-essential frivolous consumer
imports like wigs, nail polish and liquors by an economy that lacked foreign
exchange to pay for it).
Scholars and
writers of African heritage in America and Europe have many tales to tell and
write about when they take time to seek and learn about generations of goodness
despite the bad news of present and past. Those with money to spare ought sail
the great Blue and White Nile River tributaries to see and hear the ancient biblical reference
kingdoms like Meroe and
Aksumite Empire where great kings and queen-mothers long ago had
their powers taken away.
Makeda was
a real mother, not make believe. She had success, sex, love and real power
unlike any found in "Madea."
And, maybe Makeda is waiting for writers to help
tell her story.
Perhaps
educated colored girls like
Paulette
Williams (Ntozake_Shange) daughter of Surgeon Paul Williams, an
enlightened and well educated man, ... have had enough of distorted histories and will research and
write about the African mother of the great King Solomon. She was a
colored girl who as a blood princess of ancient Egypt helped make King David
successful in relationships with Pharaoh who dominated the now days Middle East.
It is a Black feminist story for daring writers who have the courage to research
what might be helpful in healing poor colored girls from the dogma of being
preached to but not taught how to read about sex, love and power in real places.
Alex
Haley like Columbus, was a sailor who
learned to overcome fear propagated by secular and non-secular beliefs. In
fact, the first fear to overcome was that of deep waters and navigation of the
world he was born into, rather than the very limited geography and single
generation focus of Black writers like James Baldwin. He became a
model writer in pursuit of goodness after he overcame traditional ignorance and
fears about his identity and that of other people
(including women and children) of African
heritage. Rather than follow Haley's comet model with bits and pieces
of documented truths, many gifted and talented minds are using Hollywood
"Gone With the Wind"
formulas for make-believe success, sex, love and power not among but far beyond
realties about
"the least of us."
Obviously, Black writers cannot write about something they
know little or nothing about including men and women who mattered.
It is unhealthy psychologically for millions of women,
Black, White or any color to imagine themselves less than a child of God and cry
out for glorification as victims of men by any means. No, not even Mary,
the mother of Jesus did so; and surely no one recalls the sweet loving mothers
of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Joe, John and Robert Kennedy ever proclaiming
themselves as victims of men. The stories need to be told and written
about women of means that mattered, not house madams of jute joints as role
models to be admired and emulated. The literature about African-Americans and
works adapted for the screen are terribly unbalanced. The workings about
victim-hood are a form of unintended propaganda audiences are flocking to see
about the inferiority of Black folks, especially Black men. Any people or places
all over the world digesting enough such money making movies ... are filled with
thoughts of people deserving of disdain as a group: in the past, present
and future in which superior persons are expected to raise up new and better
generations to inherit and inhabit the world born into. So what is
success? Making money?
The problem we see is that virtually all White
audiences and most Black audiences have no idea that women Jean Hamilton Walls
above or even real parents of women like
(Ntozake_Shange)
ever existed. Why do so many Black feminist writers imagine success, sex,
love and power via women of means not acceptable or praised anywhere on earth? Rather
than write about real pursuits of goodness,
like gifted and talented children have been observed to often believe of
themselves, ... too many writers are
using their superior minds to
make-believe heroes and heroines in environments of nothingness. We are hopeful that with
new-found wealth, many are now beginning to venture into the geographies of
Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe to learn more and write better stories
that matter for something helpful in our historic pursuit of goodness.
Kings and authorized raider-traders had power to exploit "the least of us"
... made feasible by polygamous lifestyles, selfish mothers and ruthless
attitudes by young men
(not unlike modern-day drug distributors)
who killed more Africans than any physicians
ever healed. We ought never imagine that polygamy is goodness, ignore
attitudes of mothers that perpetuate it and expect offspring to pursue different
results. Many families of African heritage in the Americas and Europe have
had to overcome realities of polygamy that scattered offspring away from each
other as potential sources of courage, faith, hope and love. Yet, we know
prison statistics and other data sources reveal many souls fallen and
unable to get up in the absence of family values by any other name or
description.
If writers
glorify matriarchal-polygamous cultures, what can be expected in short-term,
mid-term and long-term years? What goodness is hoped for beyond make-believe heroines like Tyler Perry's
"Madea," and other
Hollywood generated "Big Mamas,"
and "Mammies." Who is defining goodness for who?
What works do screen-writers imagine to be the pursuit of goodness?
The Color Purple? What about real mothers' such as seamstress who
sewed and hemmed every day so their sons could attend places like
Meharry Medical College
and learn to help heal "the least of us"
from ignorance like botched abortions?
Do enlightened and educated military age young Black men still matter?
As craftsmen? electrical workers? mechanics? miners? liverymen?
policemen? sailors? soldiers? Who motivates, educates and
coaches who, how and why to pursue goodness? How do
enlightened and educated folks measure success? How do we know where
people of African heritage are going if most writers have little or no knowledge
about their own past or inherited faith, labors and learning that functioned to
generate better and more fruitful lives.
"This is like deja vu all over again."
[Yogi Berra]
Who is fooling who with millions of children bordering
on and/or born of polygamy, promiscuity, illiteracy and incarceration rates akin
to those fifty years after slavery ended? Were the great jubilee
celebrations in year 1915 false pride and a waste of time in the achievements of
African-Americans in re-establishment of families? Many women, including
perhaps the first Black millionaire like Madam Walker, ... perceived that women
should be loved and beautified including the home but not neglect matters like
music and other lessons for children such as honoring their fathers, known and
unknown.
Our web is not about propagating organized religion or the
Bible as Literature; nor
do we exclude it to placate non-believers. We have seen and heard two
consecutive generations of many African-Americans
(births 1920-1949 and 1950-1979)
exploit and neglect inherited faith up from slavery and post- slavery
experiences. But, we have also seen and heard men like Dr. Martin Luther
and
Dr.Vernon Johns among other champions in our
functional faith about the pursuit of goodness spanning generations. The
site is intended to pose a lot of questions for new generations to think about,
especially beliefs, faith, and values thereto. The
"Atlanta Rhythm"
we have seen and heard began a long time ago even before Gladys Knight and the
Pips were born in the bosom of mother-love.
Our first questions for all gifted and talented youth to
consider with their fresh minds is: how does the spirit of goodness come into
existence? Can goodness be born and inspired without pursuit of same? In
the worst cases of our African heritage, too many look for good minus functional
virtues. What
about Courage? Who has functional Faith? Hope for what and how? Love
of who and what? Writers use the terms often. How is it defined in the
pursuit of success?
Yes, there is a lot more to be considered in ancestral journeys
UP from them and
theirs to you and yours? The voyage begins with the virtue of
courage and thus about whether or not any ancestors were courageous
enough to serve in any of the great struggles for liberty. Question: Who categorizes and
classifies behavior of African heritage men, women and children? During good
times? Bad times? Think back about all the Hollywood
characterizations that Black and White youth saw and heard during the forty
years preceding Hurricane Katrina. Are there any Black actors in Hollywood
who still do not understand why the Red Cross folks were afraid to venture into
New Orleans following the flood?
Many, many, many movies and TV stories about Black men
in prison and block-busters such as the 1981
Escape From New York in which all of Manhattan Island has become a
federal prison colony to contain "the least of
us." It successfully portrayed animal
like attitudes and behaviors led by Isaac Hayes as the self-proclaimed
Duke of New York. And, when the real floods and storms came, ... the mass
media culture and government officials with very few exceptions, expected to see
and hear the same that Black actors had so often characterized about
"the least of us." Yes,
indeed, college educated Black actors with middle-class backgrounds studying how
best to read scripts portraying "the least of
us" as heathens to avoided and feared.
NBC
media commentators like Tucker Carlson immediately proclaimed New Orleans flood
victims as "animals" and host Don Imus generated daily skits portraying the
Mayor of New Orleans as a criminal thug akin to the Isaac Hayes
characterization. Federal Emergency Aid workers and the Red Cross,
especially female employees, were deathly afraid to go into harms way.
The worst part of the story uncovered by Spike Lee and others in their
documentary is that even New Orleans police chief Eddie Compass had been
pre-indoctrinated to believe the worst about
"the least of us." The pen is indeed mightier than
the sword that can at best pierce the heart, ... but written words have images
that are implanted in the mind which can make cowards out of men with the means
to be brave. When the flood came, the chief stayed at his desk and read
reports called in from policemen who were not near or where they claimed to be
witnessing bad news by bad Black men.
New
Orleans Police Chief Resigns
after the Hurricane Katrina
disaster disclosed that most of his claims about
civil unrest, rapes, murders and other wrong-doings
were fabricated lies to cover-up the lack of
courage, faith, hope and love among the 1,700 men
and women police force. Katrina was an
excellent example that most people are not
courageous in the face of deadly challenges, and
often lie about it after the fact to goodness minded
women like Oprah in her concern about
"the least of us." We all
heard and saw the infamous police chief tell
Oprah Winfrey
(with half the world watching)
that he had seen unspeakable murders and rapes that
had occurred in the Super Dome. We now know
that he not only lied but had stayed at home rather
than going out to do the job he had been hired and
sworn to do for
"the least of us."
So, other than Hollywood make-believes, ... who has
courage?
Tyler Perry
like many other
gifted and talented youth of African heritage from
all over the world have chosen to live in Atlanta
where the torch and touch of Morehouse College
inspired both Martin Luther King, Jr. and many men
like Spike Lee. But how many from places like
New Orleans and Lagos have heard the sermon Dr.
Benjamin Mays warning them to do something pursuant
goodness with their minute of life.
Indeed, who has seen the light
in Atlanta or heard the trumpet sound in
pursuit of goodness, inclusive of courage that Eddie
Compass lacked to do the right thing? Did the love of self, him and his
including a newly expected child drown out the calls
from people needing help and leadership toward
salvation.
What kind of cultural values
existed in New Orleans that allowed so many men with
power and possessions including most of the Black
preachers and even Fats Domino
Fats Domino to flee and avoid so many
thousands of
"the least of us?"
Did they
not hear the trumpet sound calling them to help
others? New Orleans history, traditions and
values among people of African heritage throughout
the 20th century have tended to be very different
from the enlightened and educated in places like
Atlanta where it is quite unlikely that a man like
Compass could have become police chief. The issue here is not about
religion but theology that people with real power
live by. What good is power if held by men and
women with the mindsets to use it when we need it?
Who would ever have believed it? Morehouse
College graduates like Dr. Louis Sullivan and
Tennessee State University graduate
"lady tigers"
like
Xernona Clayton Brady in center of picture
above would have been all over the super-dome
helping Morehouse doctors and medical students
heal the sick and help inspire mothers and
their children, ... even if they had to swim there
clothed in faith in order to help
"keep the faith." Hurricane Katrina experiences were a failure by the
Federal Emergency Management Agency incompetent
leadership and even worse an absence of a useful
theology when the floods and storms came.
There were no John Lewis type courageous men as
would have been in Atlanta. We now know their
Congressman elected by
"the least of us"
was a lawyer of the worst kind who seemingly was
more interested in hiding illicit money in his
freezer than helping constituents in despair.
And, we make the comparison with Congressman John
Lewis below who is not only a Congressman but a
living disciple of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
We believe he, Jesse Jackson, Andy Young, Joe Lowry
and others in Atlanta would have risked their lives
to minister and comfort
"the least of us"
not because it was safe; but
rather their theology demanded it.
Whose doctrine do youth now
imagine as the pursuit of goodness?
Entertainers? Does the doctrine of
success, sex, love and power represent a movement
away from enlightenment and education aspirations
among the kind of African-Americans enlightened by
the light of Dr. King and his disciples like
Reverend Andrew Young who came from New Orleans to
be born again in realities rather than Mardi Gras
pretentions and music improvisations that people
live and die by? Who is preaching what to who
and how? Where are the functional bully
pulpits that gifted and talented youth at home and
abroad hear?
What good is derived from
billionaires and millionaires? Do they help employ,
engage, energize, enlighten, enrich, entertain, or
exploit "the least
of us." We
certainly do not want Oprah to retire from her
endeavors to spread the good news in America and
abroad including fellow Black billionaires in
Nigeria and South Africa. We hope that she
might fund more research into lives that matter in
defining success.
For many Black millionaires
who might become billionaires we reference them to
the story of
Joseph P Kennedy who invested in making
movies that women in particular wanted to see about
themselves and their dreams and hopes. So far
as we have been able to determine, his productions
did not denigrate
"the least of us." After
all is said and done, the mass media market place
for English speaking movie and television audiences
outside the United States is greater than the arms
of Hollywood producers and distributors.
A lot of stories need to
be seen and heard about mother matters. Are Black
mothers in Accra generating more enlightened and
educated children than those living in Atlanta?
Does faith of the fathers matter? Founding
fathers? Other folks fathers? Ancestral
fathers? Why do most Akan heritage folks in
Ghana believe in Jesus; also that ancestors are
ever-lasting life with them as intermediaries? Are
beliefs generated by culture or religion?
Mothers or fathers? How are names chosen and
given? Do DNA findings matter in evaluating
temperament and other unique traits like that of the
gifted and talented? Artists?
Story-tellers?
Did
William Lee at Mount Vernon help
generate and hand down beliefs and values
(including
education and enlightenment)
of: Spike Lee?
His
daddy's genetic gift of music?
"Honor thy father?"
"Father's father?" Maybe love of sports? Value Family ties? Sojourn at Morehouse College?
Our thoughts are that Spike
as a Morehouse man likely cares about the faith,
functions and fates of men like Billy Lee in photo
on left, born in Pittsburgh and went off to fight
during World War II in a segregated navy that
believed he and his kind were only qualified for
menial tasks often in the bottom of hole of cargo
and war ships subject to being sunk deep below
waters of Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. So, who
are the writers that imagine men like Billy Lee and
Harry Belafonte working in ships being fired on to
be sunk, ... somehow did not have courage worthy to
be remembered?
Are and were African-American men ever
courageous or simply crazy per Hollywood screen-writers and actors? Who comprised the "talented
tenth" during the Emancipation War? World Wars
I-II? Racial Integration Movement? Who paid the price for what? Or do people and places
"just growed up" like Topsy described by writer
Harriet Beecher Stowe in her famed novel about chattel slavery and later
inferences that African-Americans did not value, sacrifice sons or account for liberty?
Who decided that folks living in Harlem during the turbulent world of the
1920s-1930s were only interested in good times? Recreating themselves? Not raising families? Not
seeking education and skills to labor? Not their kinfolks in distress down
home? Not the bombs being dropped on Ethiopia? Who has told so many Black
women writers that Black men no longer matter? Coincidental?
So
our site is about both virtues and values of the past and present for functional
lives pursuant goodness in a meaningful existence rather than imitations of live
that great screen-writers are often able to brilliantly create. It is not about present
popularly proclaimed pretentious spiritual fathers to fatherless boys, nor past
pretenders like
Father Devine
who bilked gullible women by claiming to be God.
Other imitators of the Roman Catholicism faith
(born of the Latin culture that generated Rome and
emperors referred to as Papa) have long and
continue to foster titles for themselves such as
"Daddy Grace" and
"Spiritual Father."
Historically, unenlightened and lowly educated Black women have been the sources
of empowerment for men who would be their father superiors. For most of them,
thoughts by other men, including fathers of their children, ... are ignored as
many gladly tithe away money that ought be spent on tutoring, music lessons,
little league, scouting, travel, fishing and all the other American middle-class
values most do not
embrace. The deficiency in values did not begin in the United States and there is a very long history of
poor women filling hope chests with
"dysfunctional faith"
that disregards children.
Roman Robes and
Gowns
is an example of imitations of lives we ought not embrace. Roman Emperors
such as Tiberius with unique hairstyles and beards gowned themselves in White
and purple trim robes to be admired and worshipped as spiritual fathers.
Tiberius was also the emperor that appointed Pontius Pilot who crucified Jesus.
The
reports that Eddie Long on left allegedly induced many thousands of people in
Atlanta to
perceive him as a spiritual father is nothing new.
It is just another matter
enlightened and educated men and women of African heritage have had to overcome
in helping uplift "the least of us."
While many Black men have seen and heard enough to respectfully
"fear" God,
... many women
have been induced by preaching to love men imagined to be somehow more than seen
and heard by enlightened and educated men like Julian Bond. Why?
Maybe women are more impressed by how a man looks and entertains them than his
behaviors? Perhaps building great temples like the Romans did is a
projection of success, sex, love and power ordinary husbands do not have to make
wives feel good and secure from depression and projected threats of any kind
including death.
Because many dependent women want to believe in someone they see as better than
their experiences with grandfathers, fathers, uncles, brothers, and cousins
and others observed or not known. Like it or not, boys born of women who
happen to be of African ancestry do indeed have or had natural fathers that
ought not be denied in minds of mothers. It is irrational to imagine
rights to deny conception truths.
Our criticism of many colleges and
universities is they have helped propagate the belief system set forth by great
writers of the past that Black men should be viewed and treated as one would view and
appreciate a "mocking bird"
not to be harmed or frightened away. Too many have unwittingly served as
bully pulpits for propagating myths about Black male inferiority in virtues that
matter: courage, faith, hope and love. Brock Peters like Sidney Poitier
grew up in the Caribbean. He believed in and accepted coaching and cues
from the movie director as to how Black men behaved down south
(proud but fearful, a contradiction of terms).
Peters played the character, though different from his
perception of manhood experienced in the Caribbean and New York where men like
himself displayed courage even in the face of adversity and death.
Big and strong Black men like actor Brock Peters were
thus imaged and cast as cowardly victims, ... unless strong willed virtuous
White men became their saviors. The problem with such make-believe stories
is that truths are crushed to the earth allowing men and women to believe that
bad was not and is not so bad as others might want them to believe. It
breeds contempt for others, especially Black men. It is how public opinion is
made and kept alive and well in America for "the
least of us" who just happen to be young Black
males mostly getting worse believing what they hear and see.
While make-believe lawyers and judges of good
intentions may have lived in Alabama, the more documented realities are its
histories of real judgments, events and places that writers ought not ignore in
telling what the least of us have seen and heard. But, the Mockingbird
scenario is what audiences want to see and hear, and is a strong theme in
Hollywood movies and winner of many television and screen-play awards diluting
the harsh realities of what was seen and heard in Alabama before, during and
after the Civil War even unto the lifetime experiences of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.
African-American scholars and
writers are terribly guilty of silence and even themselves characterizing gifted and talented Black men to
fit least common denominator profiles by Hollywood box-office moguls. And,
there are many who like Peter before them simply lack the courage to openly
identify with champions in the faith, like Jesse Robinson Jackson. How
many times during the past thirty years have we seen Black media personalities,
including actors deny having a favorable opinion about Jesse and his ministry of
facilitating hope for the least of us. And
some with heads bowed at the altar of anti-Black this and that sentiments
including the affirmative actions that benefited them, ... had the audacity to
use the term "bleeding heart liberal"
in describing Jesse. Even so, Jesse and
others of his calling offered condolences when Clarence Pendleton suffered and
died from a massive heart attack. We believe Pendleton like many others
who find it profitable to denigrate "the least of
us" ought never forget the spirit for
life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for "the
least of us" emerged from our beliefs, not
political ideology.
The spirit of American freedom was born of courage in
Massachusetts at a time and place when very few later beneficiaries of it, ...
dared imagine that liberation from tyranny, slavery, polygamy, and serfdom was a
Christian calling rooted in philosophical yearnings far above and beyond the
ideas of organized religion and government. A generation of Black, White and
Native American women in the 1740s-1750s gave birth to thousands of common boys
(free and slave) who
miraculously grew into courageous men nurtured with virtues heretofore believed
to be held only by the educated elite.
Crispus Attucks above has been described by many
writers as not so much a patriot with values for liberty but rather a paid
hoodlum, runaway slave, disgruntled seaman and anything but a courageous man in
the great initial fight against the overwhelming might of the greatest power on
earth. And the same pundits about history have never allowed for the notion of
York as a slave to William Clark ever being anything more, and thus without
undaunted courage accepted about others in the great expedition.
American writers, including a lot of women like Alice
Walker have always been taught or inclined to doubt and diminish images and and
imaginations of undaunted courage among men of African heritage prior to the
emergence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Jim Brown, an icon
among Black men and football fans, ... made himself persona non-grata in
Hollywood by refusing to portray himself in any role less than courageous.
For some reason or other, we have to suspect there are some York or Robinson
traces way back when, ... in Jim Brown's DNA. So far as we have been able
to determine, York, his wife and offspring were likely sold by the Clark family
down river to places like Alabama and Georgia where prices were high for big
strong bucks and fertile female slaves. General William Clark, ancestor to
the modern General Wesley Clark threatened to do so, and likely did. We do
not know but believe at least one or more U.S. Colored Troops enlisted with
surname of York might be related.
York Generations
Common men born of common
(and especially slave)
mothers were not expected to have a philosophy of life, other than obedience and
faithfulness to their superiors in land, liberty, and litigation. But a uniquely
Christian flame was lit in Boston that spread far beyond its boundaries into the
hearts and minds of men and women for at least a hundred and fifty years
(five generations). The
Continental Congress, American Declaration of Independence, Revolutionary War
and Constitutional Conventions were mere beginnings in the faith that would
generate men and means to not only end chattel slavery but pursue goodness
against for "the least of us"
throughout the earth, both Jew and Gentile.
Massachusetts was by far a bastion of the anti-slavery
movement and when war came, it generated 73 regiments with approximately 147,000
men
(including two composed of African-Americans led by
White officers). Many of the young men
conscripted or volunteered were born in Ireland and migrated to America during
the great 1840s potato famine that uprooted millions and changed America.
Over 14,000 of these young men died in the war and fatalities likely included
one or more of the approximately 132 Fitzgerald and 127 Kennedy young men likely
related to the Kennedy's we know and love. And, as with Colonel Robert
Gould Shaw (left),
we believe their lives were not spent in vain but rather certainly sacrificed in
the onward march of Christianity as we know it.
Our view is that much of the problem
lies in the family history of most Black writers and actors who have little or
no functional knowledge about the functions performed by Black men during
American wars that have occurred in every generation since at least the 1750s.
The issue is very important. Stories by grandma in matriarchal oriented
generations more often than not excluded matters they neither saw or heard, such
as occurred with
Adaline Frog
following the Civil War. She did not tell what she did not
know, loved her husband Charles Kyle but was anxious to avoid bad news about killings and
war. And, she apparently did not know about his other wife/wives and
children. Following the death of Charles, perhaps murdered in Tennessee by the
KKK, ...she avoided the subject except to speak kindly of him to grandson:
So far as we have been able to determine the
Federal Writer's Project funded during the depression employed a lot of
scholarly women writers from places like Sarah Lawrence College and Smith
College who interviewed ex-slaves like Adaline about their lives but few if any
men such as
Ellis Kile/Kyle
who had fought the good fight. Their views and attitudes about young Black
men came from other sources. On the other hand, women writers like Margaret
Mitchell had references to ex-confederate soldiers in the fight to keep slavery
including post-war murders by the wondrous character
"Ashley Wilkes" of young
Black men who had dared rebel against them. The book helped shape 20th
century American attitudes towards African-Americans, especially young Black men
deemed both unworthy and threatening to women such as emulated in the famed book
by another Sarah Lawrence alumni Alice Walker. Both writers depicted young
Black men to be less than, never equal to other men and women.
Wilkes family characterized
by Margaret Mitchell and portrayed by Hollywood glamorizing slavery:
Ashley Wilkes
– The gallant Ashley married his unglamourous cousin, Melanie,
because she represented all that he loved and wanted in life, that
is, the quiet and happy life of a Southern gentleman of the "Twelve
Oaks" plantation. In that role, Ashley fulfilled what was expected
of him as civil war drew near. He became a soldier for the
Confederate cause though he personally would have freed the slaves
his father owned had the war not erupted, or at least that is what
he claimed. Although many of his friends and relations were killed
in the Civil War, Ashley survived to see its brutal aftermath.
Ashley was the object of Scarlett's daydream devotion, even
throughout her three marriages. She became obsessed with
unobtainable Ashley. Believing that she was in love with him, Ashley
became the "perfect man" in the mind of Scarlett, leaving her unable
to love another.
Melanie Hamilton Wilkes
– Ashley's wife and cousin, her character is that of the genuinely
humble, serene and gracious Southern woman. As the story unfolds,
Melanie becomes progressively physically weaker, first by
childbirth, then the effects of war, and ultimately illness. She had
her own unique inner spirit of perserverance, as did Scarlett.
Melanie loved Ashley and Scarlett unwaveringly, and dutifully
supported the Confederate cause, revealing the naivete of her
character.
It is a
story that might be helpful in addressing the age-old question in scholarly
Christian thought. Why does
"goodness"
come into existence? Is it physical, spiritual or both? Does it
transcend generations? A related question is whether or not goodness can
be pursued minus seeking to be a good offspring and sibling to others in pursuit
of goodness? Were World War II soldiers pursuing goodness in fighting
against evil that killed millions of innocent souls?
If Black men had
refused to serve in segregated military forces, would the cause and benefits of
desegregation have occurred sooner or later? It is akin to
suggesting that if their ancestors had not served in the Civil War on behalf of
the Union, ... emancipation would still have occurred?
The Civil War beyond any reasonable doubts proved that
Black men had the courage to fight. Mass media propaganda since at least
the revolutionary war had insisted that men of African heritage were inferior
because they lacked the most important of virtues ... courage.
Feats of courage by the Buffalo Soldiers and even
federal marshals like Bass Reeves were systemically removed from publications by
the mass media. The great Frederick Remington spent ten years living and
riding with the all-Black 10th Cavalry Regiment in combating the Apache and
other hostile Native Americans, ... but always portrayed them as White in his
famous art sketches published back east.
And, the same New York media
later decided that San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American Was was not captured by
the famed Buffalo Soldiers as the army saw and heard, ... but rather editors
dishonestly proclaimed victory was achieved by the patchwork militia regiment of
untrained unprofessional "rough riders"
organized by Teddy Roosevelt.
Worse yet, if young men had proved to be too inferior for service based on the
nation's first use of mass IQ testing, ... would there have been any rational
reason for Eleanor Roosevelt and other friendly folks to perceive separate but
equal doctrine as wrong?
We would add that judging a person's
before and after generations is also important in understanding long march
challenges overcome in the spirit that King and other believers such as A.
Philip Randolph and the Kennedys held close. African-Americans in the
military services were indeed, dating back to the Civil War, ... the first group
to march for what current generations now enjoy as civil rights. It is
silly to imagine goodness began in 1950-1960s.
For
all believers and even agnostics, behold below the
countrymen of two men in Papua New Guinea who in turmoil of the Pacific War in
1943 came, saw and acted to "keep hope alive"
not simply for the crewmen of P.T. Boat 109, ... but also for
"the least of us"
not yet born such as President Barrack Obama and others into the light of a
better and brighter world. The men of African heritage who
sought and found "wisdom's child"
to help "the least of us"
were fishermen for goodness sake.
In London we were fortunate enough to
interview Charles K. Siniu on my right who is an official in the Maritime Transport
Division in government of Papua, New Guinea. As guests at the Marne Hotel, owned by a business woman
from Nigeria, we quickly learned the fellow occupants from Papua New Guinea were
countrymen of Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana rescuers of
our beloved 35th President of the United States. So far as we can
determine they were fishermen of functional courage who practiced
their Christian faith in daily challenges of the sea all around them. Their
islands and sea in 1943 included Japanese patrol boats, sailors, soldiers
and ships determined to drive the allied American, Australian and British forces
out of the Solomon Islands that Japanese Empire had invaded and occupied in
their quest to master and control.
Millions of people migrated to the Solomon Islands
from Africa upward of 50,000 years ago across expansive Pacific Ocean long ago,
and over many millennium evolved into many village based small tribal groupings
and languages. By the time, John F. Kennedy arrived with the U.S. Navy
many Solomon Islanders had been evangelized and assimilated in generations of
Christianity evolved from philosophy of Jesus in a world that categorized and
classified them as savages with a heritage of cannibalism, barbarism, tribalism
and all the other definitions of inferior human beings. Yet we know that too was
overcome by propagation of virtues and values matured and nurtured by many
generations of belief and effort in the cause and matter of a common humanity
that many have never believed in or wanted for
"the least of us."
Their story that became part of ours is not the kind African-Americans will ever
hear from anyone on the National Public Radio Network excepting perhaps Tavis
Smiley who has tried for years to generate enlightenment of Americans
about events and people that ought to matter for
goodness sake. Like Sinbad, he is a
preacher's son and very careful to not denigrate the faith that has made
millions of people functional in their climb up from slavery.
We do not know the names of disciples or denominations
that obviously labored for love of Christ in New Guinea but
John F. Kennedy likely knew and understood the Black men confronting him may
have been sent to help rather than harm him. JFK was more than a
scholar in that having read widely and very quickly, ... he was able to apply
knowledge gained to conclude quickly that Gasa and Kumana might be helpful.
Indeed they were, having been sent by Australian coast watchers to find him if
he would receive them. Had they failed or Kennedy's men refused to
accept their offer of friendship, African-American history during the past 60
years would have been quite different indeed. The Allied forces would still have conquered the vast Pacific
expanse below including the Solomon Islands, ... but racial
persecution and segregation as we knew it worldwide would have continued
unabated throughout the 20th century. True, the spirit of goodness may
have emerged in another man or woman but who, when, where and how?
The dark past was overcome by the spirit of goodness among believers we could see
and hear like the Kennedys who saw us when and where
"the least of us"
needed functional Christian fellowship such as the Peace Corps. JFK announced recruitment, training and sending of young men and women when and
where pretentious prophets would never go and do anything but wait and wonder.
Reading about racism and the various discourses of
learning about it, such as the writings by serious Black writers is good for
those seeking to gain greater knowledge. But it ought never become a substitute for
understanding that many, many, many young Black men dating back to the first and
second American revolutions for liberty paid a dear price for it. Neither
emancipation from slavery nor the acquisition of civil rights ever occurred
without prices in blood being paid by a lot of young men who generated no heirs
to remember them excepting the gifted and talented who can tell their stories.
We hope the many generations
referenced on this site will help gifted and talented writers free associate
their intellect with African-American traditional families and patriots
(not simply beneficiaries) in the long march toward goodness in life, liberty
and pursuits of functional happiness in America. And in the process, ... also learn
about relative values some paternal and maternal ancestors propagated in
generating multi-generation families. We want writers to believe there
were prior generations possessing virtues of courage, faith, hope
and love sustained by labor and learning to be useful. Our voyage via this
website provides more questions than answers, believing as we do the body for
goodness was and is born of mothers seeking same, ... including prenatal and
other health care.
NOTES:
Please advise us by email regarding any images or pages that fail to load and/or errors and mistakes in our editing about your ancestors or people and places known to you. Our grand plan is to add relative blog, face-book and other links that will help foster inter-active communications among you and long-lost cousins in new generations of goodness.
Additions and corrections discovered will be included in our updates. Please be patient as our efforts are to help inspire new authors to characterize and help tell "inspirational stories about people of color other than purple who fought, died and lived useful lives that generated generations of goodness, ... not of the characteristics imagined in books by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Margaret Mitchell and Alice Walker characterizing Black males (old and young) as cowardly, useless and threats or hindrances to liberation and pursuit of happiness by women."
RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION IS OUR "NOT FOR PROFIT ENTERPRISE"
TO HELP ENERGIZE AND MOTIVATE GIFTED & TALENTED YOUTH TO
HELP THEMSELVES BY HELPING, NOT DENIGRATING OTHERS
What role does mass media play in
lives of you and yours? Who is on your face-book page?
.jpg)
And most men who write are not the kind who can
or care to
interview those who fight, whether Black or White! The ones with talent to
tell tales that ought to be told for youth to know seem to be inflicted with the
disease of mindless wonders. We think the plight of not knowing what to
research and write about
"the least of us"
is due to a lack of philosophy on what to seek?
Is the pursuit of success a
measure of personal courage or reflections in our dark past? If sex is
wonderful, is there a natural purpose of goodness for it to be so?
If the greatest love is for self, then "the
least of us" doctrine is without hope in our
historic interpretation? Many enlightened and educated people of
African heritage up from what they knew was true when their non-believer
ancestors toiled as slaves, .... embraced the new doctrine espoused by Jesus as
their own personal course in Philosophy I.
Perhaps
educated colored girls like
