Wednesday, July 20, 2011

LARRY HOOVER TRANSFER PETITION

PETITION LETTER

Transfer Petition For Larry Hoover

Greetings,

As American citizens who care about the treatment of prisoners throughout the United States, both state and federal, we call for the transfer of Larry Hoover, federal prison number 86063-024, to a less secure facility. He does not fit the criteria for continued placement in the Federal ADX supermax prison, located in Florence, Colorado.

Mr. Hoover has been housed at Florence ADX since 1997, 13 years to date. Upon entering the facility Mr. Hoover was informed he would be in Florence for three years and could transfer out the step down program. The rules of ADX Florence state:
“Once an inmate successfully completes the HSP Marion or ADX Florence program, the warden will submit a transfer request to the North Central Regional Directors (Florence ADX program 4).”

Mr. Hoover has no chronic or severe behavior problems, he has no special management concerns, he has not demonstrated or repeated incidents of assaultive or predator behavior. Mr. Hoover can be transferred under Code 308, lesser security.

Mr. Hoover's disciplinary record is impeccable, his program participation and completion is outstanding.

Mr. Hoover has no continued involvement as the founder and leader of the Gangster Disciples, and has continuously demonstrated that he can function in a less secure unit without posing a risk to institution security and good order. We urge that you consider Mr. Hoover for transfer based on what he is doing now, not on his past.

http://www.change.org/petitions/transfer-petition-for-larry-hoover

Power Anywhere There's People

Power Anywhere Where There's People

A Speech By Fred Hampton

POWER ANYWHERE WHERE THERE'S PEOPLE!

Power anywhere where there's people. Power anywhere where there's people. Let me give you an example of teaching people. Basically, the way they learn is observation and participation. You know a lot of us go around and joke ourselves and believe that the masses have PhDs, but that's not true. And even if they did, it wouldn't make any difference. Because with some things, you have to learn by seeing it or either participating in it. And you know yourselves that there are people walking around your community today that have all types of degrees that should be at this meeting but are not here. Right? Because you can have as many degrees as a thermometer. If you don't have any practice, they you can't walk across the street and chew gum at the same time.

Let me tell you how Huey P. Newton, the leader, the organizer, the founder, the main man of the Black Panther Party, went about it.

The community had a problem out there in California. There was an intersection, a four-way intersection; a lot of people were getting killed, cars running over them, and so the people went down and redressed their grievances to the government. You've done it before. I know you people in the community have. And they came back and the pigs said "No! You can't have any." Oh, they dont usually say you can't have it. They've gotten a little hipper than that now. That's what those degrees on the thermometer will get you. They tell you "Okay, we'll deal with it. Why dont you come back next meeting and waste some time?"

And they get you wound up in an excursion of futility, and you be in a cycle of insaneness, and you be goin' back and goin' back, and goin' back, and goin' back so many times that you're already crazy.

So they tell you, they say, "Okay niggers, what you want?" And they you jump up and you say, "Well, it's been so long, we don't know what we want", and then you walk out of the meeting and you're gone and they say, "Well, you niggers had your chance, didnt you?"

Let me tell you what Huey P. Newton did.

Huey Newton went and got Bobby Seale, the chairman of the Black Panther Party on a national level. Bobby Seale got his 9mm, that's a pistol. Huey P. Newton got his shotgun and got some stop signs and got a hammer. Went down to the intersection, gave his shotgun to Bobby, and Bobby had his 9mm. He said, "You hold this shotgun. Anybody mess with us, blow their brains out." He put those stop signs up.

There were no more accidents, no more problem.

Now they had another situation. That's not that good, you see, because its two people dealing with a problem. Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, no matter how bad they may be, cannot deal with the problem. But let me explain to you who the real heroes are.

Next time, there was a similar situation, another four-way corner. Huey went and got Bobby, went and got his 9mm, got his shotgun, got his hammer and got more stop signs. Placed those stop signs up, gave the shotgun to Bobby, told Bobby "If anybody mess with us while were putting these stop signs up, protect the people and blow their brains out." What did the people do? They observed it again. They participated in it. Next time they had another four-way intersection. Problems there; they had accidents and death. This time, the people in the community went and got their shotguns, got their hammers, got their stop signs.

Now, let me show you how were gonna try to do it in the Black Panther Party here. We just got back from the south side. We went out there. We went out there and we got to arguing with the pigs or the pigs got to arguing-he said, "Well, Chairman Fred, you supposed to be so bad, why dont you go and shoot some of those policemen? You always talking about you got your guns and got this, why dont you go shoot some of them?"

And I've said, "you've just broken a rule. As a matter of fact, even though you have on a uniform it doesn't make me any difference. Because I dont care if you got on nine uniforms, and 100 badges. When you step outside the realm of legality and into the realm of illegality, then I feel that you should be arrested." And I told him, "You being what they call the law of entrapment, you tried to make me do something that was wrong, you encouraged me, you tried to incite me to shoot a pig. And that ain't cool, Brother, you know the law, dont you?"

I told that pig that, I told him "You got a gun, pig?" I told him, "You gotta get your hands up against the wall. We're gonna do what they call a citizens arrest." This fool dont know what this is. I said, "Now you be just as calm as you can and don't make too many quick moves, cause we don't wanna have to hit you."

And I told him like he always told us, I told him, "Well, I'm here to protect you. Don't worry about a thing, 'm here for your benefit." So I sent another Brother to call the pigs. You gotta do that in a citizen's arrest. He called the pigs. Here come the pigs with carbines and shotguns, walkin' out there. They came out there talking about how they're gonna arrest Chairman Fred. And I said, "No fool. This is the man you got to arrest. He's the one that broke the law." And what did they do? They bugged their eyes, and they couldn't stand it. You know what they did? They were so mad, they were so angry that they told me to leave.

And what happened? All those people were out there on 63rd Street. What did they do? They were around there laughing and talking with me while I was making the arrest. They looked at me while I was rapping and heard me while I was rapping. So the next time that the pig comes on 63rd Street, because of the thing that our Minister of Defense calls observation and participation, that pig might be arrested by anybody!

So what did we do? We were out there educating the people. How did we educate them? Basically, the way people learn, by observation and participation. And that's what were trying to do. That's what we got to do here in this community. And a lot of people don't understand, but there's three basic things that you got to do anytime you intend to have yourself a successful revolution.

A lot of people get the word revolution mixed up and they think revolutions a bad word. Revolution is nothing but like having a sore on your body and then you put something on that sore to cure that infection. And Im telling you that were living in an infectious society right now. Im telling you that were living in a sick society. And anybody that endorses integrating into this sick society before its cleaned up is a man whos committing a crime against the people.

If you walk past a hospital room and see a sign that says "Contaminated" and then you try to lead people into that room, either those people are mighty dumb, you understand me, cause if they weren't, they'd tell you that you are an unfair, unjust leader that does not have your followers' interests in mind. And what were saying is simply that leaders have got to become, we've got to start making them accountable for what they do. They're goin' around talking about so-and-so's an Uncle Tom so we're gonna open up a cultural center and teach him what blackness is. And this n****r is more aware than you and me and Malcolm and Martin Luther King and everybody else put together. That's right. They're the ones that are most aware. They're most aware, cause they're the ones that are gonna open up the center. They're gonna tell you where bones come from in Africa that you can't even pronounce the names. Thats right. They'll be telling you about Chaka, the leader of the Bantu freedom fighters, and Jomo Kenyatta, those dingo-dingas. They'll be running all of that down to you. They know about it all. But the point is they do what they're doing because it is beneficial and it is profitable for them.

You see, people get involved in a lot of things that's profitable to them, and we've got to make it less profitable. We've got to make it less beneficial. I'm saying that any program that's brought into our community should be analyzed by the people of that community. It should be analyzed to see that it meets the relevant needs of that community. We don't need no n*****s coming into our community to be having no company to open business for the n*****s. There's too many n*****s in our community that can't get crackers out of the business that they're gonna open.

We got to face some facts. That the masses are poor, that the masses belong to what you call the lower class, and when I talk about the masses, I'm talking about the white masses, I'm talking about the black masses, and the brown masses, and the yellow masses, too. We've got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you do'nt fight racism with racism. We're gonna fight racism with solidarity. We say you don't fight capitalism with no black capitalism; you fight capitalism with socialism.

We ain't gonna fight no reactionary pigs who run up and down the street being reactionary; we're gonna organize and dedicate ourselves to revolutionary political power and teach ourselves the specific needs of resisting the power structure, arm ourselves, and we're gonna fight reactionary pigs with INTERNATIONAL PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION. That's what it has to be. The people have to have the power: it belongs to the people.

We have to understand very clearly that there's a man in our community called a capitalist. Sometimes he's black and sometimes he's white. But that man has to be driven out of our community, because anybody who comes into the community to make profit off the people by exploiting them can be defined as a capitalist. And we don't care how many programs they have, how long a dashiki they have. Because political power does not flow from the sleeve of a dashiki; political power flows from the barrel of a gun. It flows from the barrel of a gun!

A lot of us running around talking about politics don't even know what politics is. Did you ever see something and pull it and you take it as far as you can and it almost outstretches itself and it goes into something else? If you take it so far that it is two things? As a matter of fact, some things if you stretch it so far, it'll be another thing. Did you ever cook something so long that it turns into something else? Ain't that right?

That's what were talking about with politics.

That politics ain't nothing, but if you stretch it so long that it can't go no further, then you know what you got on your hands? You got an antagonistic contradiction. And when you take that contradiction to the highest level and stretch it as far as you can stretch it, you got what you call war. Politics is war without bloodshed, and war is politics with bloodshed. If you don't understand that, you can be a Democrat, Republican, you can be Independent, you can be anything you want to, you ain't nothing.

We don't want any of those n*****s and any of these hunkies and nobody else, radicals or nobody talking about, "I'm on the Independence ticket." That means you sell out the republicans; Independent means you're out for graft and you'll sell out to the highest bidder. You understand?

We want people who want to run on the People's Party, because the people are gonna run it whether they like it or not. The people have proved that they can run it. They run it in China, they're gonna run it right here. They can call it what they want to, they can talk about it. They can call it communism, and think that that's gonna scare somebody, but it ain't gonna scare nobody.

We had the same thing happen out on 37th Road. They came out to 37th road where our Breakfast for children program is, and started getting those women who were kind of older, around 58---that's, you know, I call that older cause Im young. I aint 20, right, right! But you see, they're gonna get them and brainwash them. And you ain't seen nothin till you see one of them beautiful Sisters with their hair kinda startin getting grey, and they ain't got many teeth, and they were tearin' them policemen up! They were tearing em up! The pigs would come up to them and say "You like communism?"

The pigs would come up to them and say, "You scared of communism?" And the Sisters would say, "No scared of it, I ain't never heard of it."

"You like socialism?"

"No scared of it. I ain't never heard of it."

The pigs, they be crackin' up, because they enjoyed seeing these people frightened of these words.

"You like capitalism?"

Yeah, well, that's what I live with. I like it.

"You like the Breakfast For Children program, n****r?"

"Yeah, I like it."

And the pigs say, "Oh-oh." The pigs say, "Well, the Breakfast For Children program is a socialistic program. Its a communistic program."

And the women said, "Well, I tell you what, boy. I've been knowing you since you were knee-high to a grasshopper, n****r. And I don't know if I like communism and I don't know if I like socialism. But I know that that Breakfast For Children program feeds my kids, n****r. And if you put your hands on that Breakfast For Children program, I'm gonna come off this can and I'm gonna beat your ass like a ...."

That's what they be saying. That's what they be saying, and it is a beautiful thing. And that's what the Breakfast For Children program is. A lot of people think it is charity, but what does it do? It takes the people from a stage to another stage. Any program that's revolutionary is an advancing program. Revolution is change. Honey, if you just keep on changing, before you know it, in fact, not even knowing what socialism is, you dont have to know what it is, they're endorsing it, they're participating in it, and they're supporting socialism.

And a lot of people will tell you, way, Well, the people dont have any theory, they need some theory. They need some theory even if they don't have any practice. And the Black Panther Party tells you that if a man tells you that he's the type of man who has you buying candy bars and eating the wrapping and throwing the candy away, he'd have you walking East when you're supposed to be walking West. Its true. If you listen to what the pig says, you be walkin' outside when the sun is shining with your umbrella over your head. And when it's raining youll be goin' outside leaving your umbrella inside. That's right. You gotta get it together. Im saying that's what they have you doing.

Now, what do WE do? We say that the Breakfast For Children program is a socialistic program. It teaches the people basically that by practice, we thought up and let them practice that theory and inspect that theory. What's more important? You learn something just like everybody else.

Let me try to break it down to you.

You say this Brother here goes to school 8 years to be an auto mechanic. And that teacher who used to be an auto mechanic, he tells him, "Well, n****r, you gotta go on what we call on-the-job-training." And he says, "Damn, with all this theory I got, I gotta go to on-the-job-training? What for?"

He said, "On on-the-job-training he works with me. Ive been here for 20 years. When I started work, they didn't even have auto mechanics. I ain't got no theory, I just got a whole bunch of practice."

What happened? A car came in making a whole lot of funny noise. This Brother here go get his book. He on page one, he ain't got to page 200. I'm sitting here listening to the car. He says, "What do you think it is?"

I say, "I think its the carburetor."

He says, "No I don't see anywhere in here where it says a carburetor make no noise like that." And he says, "How do you know its the carburetor?"

I said, "Well, n****r, with all them degrees as many as a thermometer, around 20 years ago, 19 to be exact, I was listening to the same kind of noise. And what I did was I took apart the voltage regulator and it wasn't that. Then I took apart the alternator and it wasn't that. I took apart the generator brushes and it wasn't that. I took apart the generator and it wasn't that. I took apart the generator and it wasn't even that. After I took apart all that I finally got to the carburetor and when I got to the carburetor I found that that's what it was. And I told myself that 'fool, next time you hear this sound you better take apart the carburetor first.'"

How did he learn? He learned through practice.

I dont care how much theory you got, if it don't have any practice applied to it, then that theory happens to be irrelevant. Right? Any theory you get, practice it. And when you practice it you make some mistakes. When you make a mistake, you correct that theory, and then it will be corrected theory that will be able to be applied and used in any situation. Thats what we've got to be able to do.

Every time I speak in a church I always try to say something, you know, about Martin Luther King. I have a lot of respect for Martin Luther King. I think he was one of the greatest orators that the country ever produced. And I listened to anyone who speaks well, because I like to listen to that. Martin Luther King said that it might look dark sometime, and it might look dark over here on the North Side. Maybe you thought the room was going to be packed with people and maybe you thought you might have to turn some people away and you might not have enough people here. Maybe some of the people you think should be here are not here and you think that, well if they're not here then it won't be as good as we thought it could have been. And maybe you thought that you need more people here than you have here. Maybe you think that the pigs are going to be able to pressure you and put enough pressure to squash your movement even before it starts. But Martin Luther King said that he heard somewhere that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And we're not worried about it being dark. He said that the arm of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward heaven.

We got Huey P. Newton in jail, and Eldridge Cleaver underground. And Alprentice Bunchy Carter has been murdered; Bobby Hutton and John Huggins been murdered. And a lot of people think that the Black Panther Party in a sense is giving up. But let us say this: That we've made the kind of commitment to the people that hardly anyone else has ever made.

We have decided that although some of us come from what some of you would call petty-bourgeois families, though some of us could be in a sense on what you call the mountaintop. We could be integrated into the society working with people that we may never have a chance to work with. Maybe we could be on the mountaintop and maybe we wouldn't have to be hidin' when we go to speak places like this. Maybe we wouldn't have to worry about court cases and going to jail and being sick. We say that even though all of those luxuries exist on the mountaintop, we understand that you people and your problems are right here in the valley.

We in the Black Panther Party, because of our dedication and understanding, went into the valley knowing that the people are in the valley, knowing that our plight is the same plight as the people in the valley, knowing that our enemies are on the mountain, to our friends are in the valley, and even though its nice to be on the mountaintop, we're going back to the valley. Because we understand that there's work to be done in the valley, and when we get through with this work in the valley, then we got to go to the mountaintop. We're going to the mountaintop because there's a motherfucker on the mountaintop that's playing King, and he's been bullshitting us. And weve got to go up on the mountain top not for the purpose of living his life style and living like he lives. We've got to go up on the mountain top to make this motherfucker understand, goddamnit, that we are coming from the valley!

(SPEECH DELIVERED AT OLIVET CHURCH, 1969)

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

DR. YOUSEF BEN JOCHANNAN

Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan

Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan, is a skeptic on religion and scholar of Black-African history. He was born in Ethiopia and reared in the Hebrew faith of the Falasha culture. He has studied at Cambridge University and the University of Barcelona. He has traveled South America and the Caribbean Islands and is multilingual. Originally a graduate in civil engineering, he developed skills in history, philosophy, law, and earned his doctorate degree in cultural anthropology.

In 1945, he moved to the U.S. Many years a Harlemite, he has taught as adjunct professor of African History/Black Studies in Marymount College, Cornell University, and Malcolm-King College. Also, he worked in the Pan-African Studies Department of Temple University. His lecture specialty is the history and philosophy of ancient Nile Valley civilizations.

On the streets of Harlem, Dr. ben-Jochannan established himself as a truly dynamic soapbox orator. Being active in the Black community remains a high priority for him. He lectured before many community and university audiences, both formally and informally.

A Catholic magazine, Ramparts, printed the report of Lez Edmond on the 1964 rioting in Harlem. Edmond, having attended a neighborhood rally, reported on ben-Jochannan’s presentation:

I was brought up as a religious person. As a matter of fact my family wanted me to be a rabbi but after growing up and seeing the situation in all religions, I realized that the churches always support the state wherever they are. The churches can’t help the people when the chips are down because their interest is with the power structure. . . .

I say the black [sic] man has called upon Jesus Christ for so many years here in America, and now he starts calling on Mohammed and there are many who are calling on Moses, and at no time within this period has the black [sic] man’s situation changed, nor has the black [sic] man any freedom. It is obvious that someone didn’t hear his call or isn’t interested in that call — either Jesus, Moses, or Mohammed.

Even Jesus when he got hung upon the cross, he said in his own Book — he says. Father, why has Thou forsaken me? He was calling for help. Now if he couldn’t help himself how is he going to help you?. . . Our position is not to ask dead people to come back and help us; our position is to find ways and means to help ourselves.

While lecturing at the Ninth Annual Conference of the Afrikan [sic] American Institute in 1983, he answered a question on reconciling Western religion with Pan-African sentiments. His candid response was:

Now I am ultrareligious, I’m a member of the religion of freethought — to think freely. So if you carry a label — because I know that some of us must carry a social label, religion is the social label for a lot of people who go to church and don’t believe in anything being said there — in that sense, yes. . . . What is wrong with religion is when you make yourself a slave to it. . . . So, if you are poor, you’d be a fool to give 10 percent to the church in any name, and then have a hole in your shoe with snow coming through.

DR. IVAN VAN SERTIMA

Dr. Ivan Van Sertima
© J.L. Van Sertima

Ivan Van Sertima was born in Guyana, South America. He was educated at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London University) and the Rutgers Graduate School and holds degrees in African Studies and Anthropology. From 1957-1959 he served as a Press and Broadcasting Officer in the Guyana Information Services. During the decade of the 1960s he broadcast weekly from Britain to Africa and the Caribbean. He is a literary critic, a linguist, an anthropologist and has made a name in all three fields.
As a literary critic, he is the author of Caribbean Writers, a collection of critical essays on the Caribbean novel. He is also the author of several major literary reviews published in Denmark, India, Britain and the United States. He was honored for his work in this field by being asked by the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy to nominate candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature from 1976-1980. He has also been honored as an historian of world repute by being asked to join UNESCO's International Commission for Rewriting the Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind.
As a linguist, he has published essays on the dialect of the Sea Islands off the Georgia Coast. He is also the compiler of the Swahili Dictionary of Legal Terms, based on his field work in Tanzania, East Africa, in 1967.
He is the author of They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America, which was published by Random House in 1977 and is presently in its twenty-ninth printing. It was published in French in 1981 and in the same year, was awarded the Clarence L. Holte Prize, a prize awarded every two years “for a work of excellence in literature and the humanities relating to the cultural heritage of Africa and the African diaspora.”
He also authored Early America Revisited, a book that has enriched the study of a wide range of subjects, from archaeology to anthropology, and has resulted in profound changes in the reordering of historical priorities and pedagogy.
Professor of African Studies at Rutgers University, Dr. Van Sertima was also Visiting Professor at Princeton University. He is the Editor of the Journal of African Civilizations, which he founded in 1979 and has published several major anthologies which have influenced the development of multicultural curriculum in the United States. These anthologies include Blacks in Science: ancient and modern , Black Women in Antiquity, Egypt Revisited, Egypt: Child of Africa, Nile Valley Civilizations (out of print), African Presence in the Art of the Americas (due 2007), African Presence in Early Asia (co-edited with Runoko Rashidi), African Presence in Early Europe, African Presence in Early America, Great African Thinkers, Great Black Leaders: ancient and modern and Golden Age of the Moor.
As an acclaimed poet, his work graces the pages of River and the Wall, 1953 and has been published in English and German. As an essayist, his major pieces were published in Talk That Talk, 1989, Future Directions for African and African American Content in the School Curriculum, 1986, Enigma of Values, 1979, and in Black Life and Culture in the United States, 1971.
Dr. Van Sertima has lectured at more than 100 universities in the United States and has also lectured in Canada, the Caribbean, South America and Europe. In 1991 Dr. Van Sertima defended his highly controversial thesis on the African presence in pre-Columbian America before the Smithsonian. In 1994 they published his address in Race, Discourse and the Origin of the Americas: A New World View of 1492.
He also appeared before a Congressional Committee on July 7, 1987 to challenge the Columbus myth. This landmark presentation before Congress was illuminating and brilliantly presented in the name of all peoples of color across the world.

DR. CARTER G. WOODSON

Dr. Carter G. Woodson

(1875-1950)

We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world, void of national bias, race, hate, and religious prejudice. There should be no indulgence in undue eulogy of the Negro. The case of the Negro is well taken care of when it is shown how he has far influenced the development of civilization.

—Carter G. Woodson

Dr. Carter G. Woodson was born of slaves in New Canton, Virginia. Mainly self-taught, he mastered the fundamentals of common school subjects by the time he was seventeen. At age 20, he entered Douglas High School in Huntington, West Virginia where he earned his teaching diploma after two years (he later returned as principal). He subsequently obtained his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in History from Harvard, becoming the second African-American to receive this degree.

In his career as an educator, Dr. Woodson became convinced that the role of his people in history was either ignored or misinterpreted. As a result of this conviction, Dr. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History to conduct research into the history of African people throughout the world. It is worth noting that he did not believe in "Negro history" as a separate discipline but instead viewed so-called "Negro history" as a missing segment of world history, and he devoted his life to reconstructing this segment.

One year later, in 1916, he published the influential Journal of Negro History, which has not missed an issue to this day. In 1921, he established Associated Publishers to provide a forum for publication of valuable books on African history not then acceptable to most publishers. In addition, he authored numerous scholarly works and publications.

In 1926, Dr. Woodson inaugurated Negro History Week. The chosen week included February 12th (Abraham Lincoln's birthday) and February 14th (Frederick Douglass's birthday). In cases where only one of these days fell within the week, Frederick Douglass's birthday had priority. It is worth noting that Dr. Woodson realized that Negro History Week would be no longer necessary once this segment of World history was integrated into the curriculum and taught with respect and sensitivity.

In the 1960's the name was changed to Black History Week to reflect the increasing racial awareness of African-Americans. In 1976, the celebrations were extended to include the entire month of February.

Commentary

Black History Month is turning 80 this year, and as much as Carter G. Woodson wanted it to be part of the curriculum, it appears this will not happen any time soon.

In the schools, black contributions in mathematics, science or language arts are not mentioned/acknowledged/discussed in relevant subject areas. Every February, black achievement is relegated to posters displaying portraits of the same black historical figures, including our many scientists and inventors, without explaining/exploring how their deeds and discoveries contributed to the society at large.

In the community, the raison d'être for Black History Month is completely distorted. It has been effectively hijacked by federal, state and provincial governments in the name of diversity and multiculturalism; by community groups celebrating with dinners and dances; by quasi-historians and a plethora of shysters of every stripe. Here again, the same heroes are displayed, accompanied by sound bites of information—who invented what, who is really black (the Egyptians come to mind)—reducing major contributions and decades of research to factoids.

On the inauguration of Negro History Week (the precursor of Black History Month) in February 1926, Dr. Woodson affirmed that:

We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world, void of national bias, race, hate, and religious prejudice. There should be no indulgence in undue eulogy of the Negro. The case of the Negro is well taken care of when it is shown how he has far influenced the development of civilization.

Dr. Woodson did not view Negro/black history as being a stand-alone discipline but as the missing segment of world history, which would eventually be integrated into the curriculum and taught with appreciation and respect.

It has been a historically exciting 80 years, during which time black people have influenced, enhanced and contributed to American and world history, yet Dr. Woodson's dream is still deferred. Will it be fulfilled in time for our grandchildren to benefit? I wonder.

—David Townsend, February 2006

Books

Carter G. Woodson: A Bio-Bibliography, Jacqueline Goggin. Louisiana State University Press, reprint edition, 1997.

Buy it in hardcover: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

Carter G. Woodson: Father of African-American History, Robert Franklin Durden. Enslow Publishers, 1998.

Buy it in library binding: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

Carter G. Woodson: The Father of Black History, Patricia McKissick, Ned Ostendorf, and Fredrick L. McKissack. Enslow Publishers, 1991.

Buy it in library binding: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

Carter G. Woodson: A Life in Black History, Sister Anthony Scally. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1985.

Buy it in paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

A Century of Negro Migration, Carter G. Woodson. Reprint Services Corp., 1991.

Buy it in hardcover: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca
Buy it in paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

Mind of the Negro As Reflected in Letters Written During the Crisis 1800-1860, Carter G. Woodson. Reprint Services Corp., 1991.

Buy it in library binding: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

Mis-Education of the Negro, Carter G. Woodson. Red Sea Press, 1990.

Buy it in paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

Selling Black History for Carter G. Woodson: A Diary, 1930-1933, Lorenzo J. Greene and Arvarh E. Strickland (Editor). University of Missouri Press, 1996.

Buy it in hardcover: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca
Buy it in paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

Through Loona's Door: A Tammy and Owen Adventure With Carter G. Woodson, Tonya Bolden, Luther Knox. Corporation for Cultural Literacy, 1997.

Buy it in hardcover: Amazon.com

Working With Carter G. Woodson, the Father of Black History: A Diary, 1928-1930, Lorenzo J. Greene and Arvarh E. Strickland (Editor). Louisiana State University Press, 1989.

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Creative Quotations from Carter G. Woodson

MAN KNOW THYSELF

For man to know himself is for him to feel that for him there is no human master. For him Nature is his servant, and whatsoever he wills in Nature, that shall be his reward. If he wills to be a pigmy, a serf or a slave, that shall he be. If he wills to be a real man in possession of the things common to man, then he shall be his own sovereign. When man fails to grasp his authority he sinks to the level of the lower animals, and whatsoever the real man bids him do, even as if it were of the lower animals, that much shall he do. If he says "go." He goes. If he says "come," he comes. By this command he performs the functions of life even as by a similar command the mule, the horse, the cow perform the will of their masters. For the last four hundred years the Negro has been in the position of being commanded even as the lower animals are controlled. Our race has been without a will; without a purpose of its own, for all this length of time.

Because of that we have developed few men who are able to understand the strenuousness of the age in which we live. Where can we find in this race of ours real men. Men of character, men of purpose, men of confidence, men of faith, men who really know themselves? I have come across so many weaklings who profess to be leaders, and in the test I have found them but the slaves of a nobler class. They perform the will of their masters without question. To me, a man has no master but God. Man in his authority is a sovereign lord. As for the individual man, so of the individual race. This feeling makes man so courageous, so bold, as to make it impossible for his brother to intrude upon his rights.

So few of us can understand what it takes to make a man - the man who will never say die; the man who will never give up; the man who will never depend upon others to do for him what he ought to do for himself; the man who will not blame God, who will not blame Nature, who will not blame Fate for his condition; but the man who will go out and make conditions to suit himself. Oh, how disgusting life becomes when on every hand you hear people (who bear your image, who bear your resemblance) telling you that they cannot make it, that Fate is against them, that they cannot get a chance. If 400,000,000 Negroes can only get to know thesmelves, to know that in them is a sovereign power, is an authority that is absolute, then in the next twenty-four hours we would have a new race, we would have a nation, an empire, - resurrected, not from the will of others to see us rise, - but from our own determination to rise, irrespective of what the world thinks

Who Are The Yurugu ?

Before the Maafa (the African enslavement process), us Africans were practising our OWN INDIGENOUS spiritual systems. We created names for the Creator such as KATONDA (Uganda) ASHE , MUSIKI (Zimbabwe) ASHE , NZAMBI MPUNGU (Angola) ASHE, MWIN (Burkina Faso)ASHE, AUSAR, AUSET, DJEHUTY, PTAH, MA'AT, etc.(ancient Kemet(egypt)) ASHE, ULIMWENGU (Swahili term)ASHE, RANGE (Kenya)ASHE, CHUKWU (Nuer people)ASHE, OLUDUMARE, OLORUN (Ifa (Yoruba tradition))ASHE, KLE (Bambara)... ASHE the list goes on ad infinitum. Before the Maafa, we had rituals, ceremonies, holy days which gave reverence to these Creative forces as well as to the ancestral realm and those yet to be born. We were/are a holistic people. Then the savage, barbaric, brutish, hateful, bad-smellin', non-spiritual caucasoids/europeans came and destroyed our NATURAL way of life and continued to do what the hateful arabs had done--continued to give us FOREIGN, ALIEN GODS. And they also laughed at and eventually made us laugh at and hate our Creator, in our image, venerated OUR WAY. WE MUST RETURN TO OUR ORIGINAL WAYS OF VENERATION IF THE POWERS OF THE UNIVERSE ARE EVER TO BE IN OUR FAVOR AGAIN!!!
The traditions of our Ancestors WILL once again be lifted up and we will shout their names aloud as we liberate ourselves and the future so those before us can look upon us and SMILE!!! AKERA!!!

The Revolutionary Love of Fred Hampton, Sr.

by Kweku Azikiwe Mensah on Friday, July 8, 2011 at 8:47am

The Revolutionary Love of Fred Hampton, Sr.

In the wee hours of the morning on this day in 1969, Fred Hampton, Sr., was assassinated by a coalition of law enforcement officers representing city, county and federal agencies in Chicago, Illinois. These lines, taken from some of his speeches, as presented in the movie, "The Murder of Fred Hampton," are why:

"I was born in a bourgeois community and had some of the better things in life, but I found that there were more people starving than there were people eating, more people that didn’t have clothes than did have clothes, and I just happened to be one of the few. So I decided that I wouldn’t stop doing what I’m doing until all those people are free.
"We’re gonna have to do more than talk. We're gonna have to do more than listen. We're gonna have to do more than learn. We’re gonna have to start practicing and that’s very hard. We’re gonna have to start getting out there with the people and that’s difficult. Sometimes we think we’re better than the people so it’s gonna take a lot of hard work.
"You don’t fight fire with fire. You fight fire with water. We’re gonna fight racism with solidarity. We're not gonna fight capitalism with Black capitalism. We’re gonna fight capitalism with socialism. Socialism is the people. If you’re afraid of socialism, you’re afraid of yourself.
"Without education, people will accept anything. Without education, what you’ll have is neo-colonialism instead of the colonialism like you have now. Without education, people don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing, you know what I mean? You might get people caught up in an emotionalist movement, might get them because they’re poor and they want something and then if they’re not educated, they’ll want more and before you know it, we’ll have Negro imperialism.
"You have to understand that people have to pay the price for peace. If you dare to struggle, you dare to win. If you dare not struggle, then you don’t deserve to win. Let me say ‘Peace’ to you, if you’re willing to fight for it.
"Nothing is more important than stopping fascism because fascism will stop us all. We don’t hate White people. We hate the oppressor, whether they be White, Black, Brown or Yellow. We will work with anybody, coalesce with anybody that has revolution on their mind. But anybody that comes into our community and sets up anything that does not meet the needs of the masses, I will grab him by the neck and beat that man to death with a Black Panther paper.
"I’m going to do my job and I believe that I was born not to die in a car wreck. I don’t believe I’m going to die slipping on a piece of ice. I don’t believe I was born to die because of a bad heart. I don’t believe I was born to die of lung cancer. I believe I’m going to be able to do what I came to do. I believe that I’m going to be able to die high off the people. I believe that I will be able to die as a revolutionary in the international revolutionary proletariat struggle. And I hope that each one of you will be able to live in it. I think that struggles are going to come. Why don’t you live for the people? Why don’t you live for the struggle? Why don’t you die for the struggle?
"If you ain’t gonna do no revolutionary act, forget about me. I don’t want myself on your mind if you’re not gonna work for the people.
"I might not be back. I might be in jail. I might be anywhere. But you can believe that the last words on my lips were ‘I am a revolutionary.’

"You can kill a revolutionary, but you can’t kill the revolution."

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Love, Peace & Unity

THE COMMON GROUND APPROACH

by Kweku Azikiwe Mensah on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 1:06am

I WELCOME EVERYONE TO THE COMMON GROUND APPROACH. WE HAVE SOME WORK AHEAD OF US AS YOU ALL KNOW. THIS WORK MUST BEGIN WITH HEALING THE PAST, ANALYZING THOSE ELEMENTS WHICH MADE IT POSSIBLE TO HATE AND DESPISE OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AND BROTHERS CAUSE THEY SHARE IN DIFFERENT BELIEFS AND IDEAS. LEARNING FROM THE PAST CAN FOSTER AN UNDERSTANDING OF HOW WE HAVE GOTTEN TO THIS POINT IN OUR LIVES WITH THE RESOLVE TO EXERCISE MEASURES NECESSARY TO PREVENT OUR NEICES AND NEPHEWS FROM EXPERIENCING THE SAME HARDSHIPS THAT ONCE ARRESTED OUR POTENTIAL. WE MUST HEAL THOSE WOUNDS AND CLOSE THAT CHAPTER OF VIOLENCE TOWARDS ONE ANOTHER AND INSTEAD OF BUILDING HATRED WE MUST BEGIN TO BUILD BRIDGES OF LOVE !
SOCIETY IS IN NEED OF A FEW GOOD MEN WHO HAVE A SINCERE LOVE AND DESIRE TO HELP IN THE STRUGGLE TO SAVE OUR YOUTH FROM THEIR PREMATURE DEATHS, INCARCERATION, ILLITERACY, POVERTY AND RECIDIVISM. SOCIETY IS IN NEED OF A FEW GOOD MEN READY, ABLE AND WILLING TO REACH OUT AND GET INVOLVED IN THEIR COMMUNITY, PICK UP THE TRASH, PUT A SMILE ON A KIDS FACE, HAVE NEIGHBORHOOD COOKOUTS FOR THE YOUTH IN YO' HOOD, HELP THE ELDERS AND PROTECT OUR WOMEN FROM RAPE AND ABUSE. THE ROAD AHEAD IS A LONG AND WINDING ROAD GOOD BROTHERS AND SISTERS AND TIME IS NOT ON OUR SIDE.
OUR DAYS OF HATING THE SO-CALLED OPPOSITION CAUSE THEY HAVE A DIFFERENT SYSTEM OF BELIEF OR UNIQUE WAY OF DOING THINGS IS OVER ! GANG-BANGING IS DEAD BUT TRUE GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT IS VERY MUCH SO ALIVE. FOR WE UNDERSTAND THAT TO REMAIN STUCK IN PAST ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS IS TANTAMOUNT TO STANDING STILL IN STAGNATION WHICH IS EQUIVALENT TO DEATH AND DYING.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The Common Ground Approach

Time has not been on the side of the people here in this wilderness of North America. Ever since we were pushed and shoved upon these shores we have been faced with nothing but hell and a hard time. For years reading and educating yourself could get you killed. Exercising the native spirituality of whatever tribe a person from was enough cause to put a slave to death. Exposing any rebellious attitude was haulted immediately.

America has witnessed many uprisings on the slave plantations of old. Just as quickly she has devised a myriad of ways and means as to breaking the spirit of the slave for generations and generations to come. This fool proof plan was been called, "The Willie Lynch Letter and The Making of a Slave." Through investigations of an historical nature it has been found that this very letter somehow never existed in reality. However, the implications of said letter is plainly evident in our world today.

For a long time, even today, conversations arise in regard to the extra special treatment of light complexioned African Americans over a darker complexioned African American. Which one has more priviledge due to their complextion. I could state many more examples existing in the Willie Lynch publication. However, to be brief, my point is to say that the conditions enumerated are alive and well in the minds of our people.

In contemporary times, the remnants of Willie Lynch are seen and felt by the society. Gang violence, gun violence, armed robbery, home invasion, rape, domestic abuse, etc. All of these ills plague our communities to this very day.

Our communities are ravaged by senseless killings. Our communities are not safe and have not been safe for quite some time. Our kids have been caught up in a vicious cycle of death and incarceration for quite some time now. It must end ! There must be some sort of change, a drastic change, that must take place. This change can only come from the streets.

WE ARE THE PEOPLE'S ARMY
THE COMMON GROUND APPROACH