Eleventh Day of Black History Month: Marian Luh da Kids

Throughout my lifetime, there has been no bigger advocate for other people’s children than Marian Wright Edelman.

Allow her to drop some knowledge on Black History from Huffington Post

“Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.” So said Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the scholar and historian who is called “The Father of Black History,” and who founded Negro History Week in 1926 to help give this record and inspiration to other Black Americans. At the time Dr. Woodson was alarmed because so few people, White or Black, knew anything at all about Black history and Black people’s achievements. He would even meet other Black college history professors who had no idea Blacks had made any significant contributions to national or world history. Dr. Woodson understood just how critical it was to claim our rightful place in the history books, and so the national celebration of Black history was born.Negro History Week was originally celebrated during the second week of February to coincide with Frederick Douglass’s and Abraham Lincoln’s birthdays. As times changed, Negro History Week became Black History Week, and eventually the single week grew into Black History Month. But throughout the years the celebration’s symbolism and importance has always remained the same. This February, Americans of all colors are watching with excitement as Senator Barack Obama makes contemporary Black history before our eyes just as Senator Hillary Clinton is making women’s history. Many children are now taught in school about some of the lions of Black history, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks. Who else should we be sure to teach our children about to inspire them today?They should know about our earliest heroes like 18th century poet Phillis Wheatley and scientist Benjamin Banneker, as well as freedom fighters like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and so many others who were born in slavery but never gave up in their passion to be free. They should know about the following generation of brilliant Black leaders and thinkers like W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett and about pioneering inventors and educators like George Washington Carver and Carter Woodson himself. They should study the Harlem Renaissance and the writers, musicians and artists who bloomed there and changed American culture forever.

They should learn about civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph, whose first threatened Civil Rights March on Washington inspired the second, and Ralph Bunche, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his U.N. peacemaking efforts in the Middle East. He, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who won the Nobel Peace Prize 14 years later, refused to be “ghettoized” and saw the connection between the quest for justice at home as part of a global struggle. They also recognized the need to stand against violence at home and everywhere. Young people must celebrate all the strong women who were indispensable in the struggle for freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Septima Clark and so many more. Our youth should bask in the light of pioneers who broke racial barriers throughout the 20th century including Marian Anderson, the Tuskegee Airmen, Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, Shirley Chisholm and Mae Jemison. Of course they should applaud our elders and honor them for their lifetimes of achievement: civil and human rights leaders like Myrlie Evers and Dr. Dorothy Height, scholars like Dr. John Hope Franklin, and cultural leaders like Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee (who at age 83 is nominated for an Oscar at this month’s Academy Award® ceremony for Best Supporting Actress) and Dr. Maya Angelou. The list of great Black Americans goes on and on, and our children should know their stories and be given the tools and motivation to emulate them.

Finally, we should teach our children as much as we can about the heroes in their own families and try to be the people we want our children to become: the grandparents and great-grandparents who came before them and paved their way. Why is this so important? Family stories are often the most memorable inspiration of all. They bring history alive and reinforce the idea that anyone and everyone can use their lives to make a difference. This is a key lesson not just for Black History Month but every day. Every time we look back at our history to celebrate, we must remind ourselves and our children of just how much unfinished business we must attend to and be inspired by our history to write the next chapter.

Tenth Day of Black History Month: Tonight He Comes

Tonight, in honor of Herbie Hancock winning only the Second Album of the Year honor for River: The Joni Letters, I thought I would post my two favorite songs, One from my childhood and one from my teenage years.

I count among my extreme honors to have shaken the man’s uber-talented hands on two different occasions and am grateful to have even HALF of a clue as to how much of a giant he is in American Music History.

For the uninformed, I give you Wikipedia

And I am on the hunt for the Performance of Rhapsody In Blue with the Chinese cat whose name keeps escaping me from Tonight’s Grammys as well.

Ninth Day of Black History Month: The Struggle Continues

We live in a time where one of the front runners for president of the United States is a Black Man (spare me the details, it is what it is).

It is easy for many to act like this is the big moment and that suddenly we don’t have to worry about racial progress. The fact remains is that in even the most mundane issues, (one man’s mundane issue is another man way to feed his family, mind you) There are still mountains to climb.

Tomorrow there will be a protest registered to highlight another obstacle that exists for people of color.

The Comics

You could call it a sit-in, of sorts. Perhaps a sketch-in would be more appropriate, a comic call to arms, with cartoonists of color protesting for greater presence in newspaper pages. Protesting in the best way they know: drawing about it, en masse, all on the same day.

Because, these artists say, “Candorville” does not equal “Boondocks” or “Curtis” or “Wee Pals” or “Herb and Jamaal.” And “La Cucaracha” does not equal “Baldo” or “Gordo” and especially not “Cafe con Leche.”

But for one day — this Sunday — 11 cartoonists of color will be drawing essentially the same comic strip, using irony to literally illustrate that point. In each strip, the artists will portray a white reader grousing about a minority-drawn strip, complaining that it’s a “Boondocks” rip-off and blaming it on “tokenism.” “It’s the one-minority rule,” says Lalo Alcaraz (”La Cucaracha”). “We’ve got one black guy and we’ve got one Latino. There’s not room for anything else.”

Now I will be honest. I’ve never read the Comics in my local Newspaper (the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or should I say the Fort Worth edition of the McClatchy Press) because clearly the Editors didn’t want me to.

In fact, Let me stop and go peep today’s comics and see what I am missing.

*leaves to retrieve today’s comics out of the recycle can*

Hmm…Let’s see.

Two full Pages…a total of 32 Multi-panel strips and 10 singles. They stash Mallard Fillmore over on the Opinion Page where I do my best to ignore it.

Yup.

That good ole stand by Curtis and Baldo hold it down for the Cartoons of color.

This one was pretty good though

I take my comics seriously. I started out reading the Sunday Comics in the as Pittsburgh Press (RIP) as a child. I always read the comics, even as an adult.

Then Came the Boondocks. I was a Boondocks Stan. I remembered them in the Source (the original Source, not that thing they trot out now) . A good friend of mine knew Aaron Magruder and I even met the cat once. Cool Cat.

I can’t speak for you, but I remember picking up the Washington Post everyday to see what Huey and Riley were up to. To be honest, as amused as I am by the Cartoon Network version there is no comparison to the glory days of the comic strip. Then one day, my divorce-fueled mental breakdown took hold and I stopped following it religiously.

I never really got back to it like I should have. That is my fault.

I moved to Pittsburgh and migrated to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette where The Boondocks had migrated to the Opinion section.

Then I moved to Texas and since the Fort Worth Star-Telegram apparently had cancelled the Strip becuase apparently folk caught feelings. (you know how sensitive Republicans can be.)

Then, I just stopped even Looking.

Last night while radio surfing I came across Darrin Bell on the PRI Radio show Fair Game

Darrin Bell is a the creator of the Comic Strip Candorville, which i have NEVER SEEN BEFORE IN MY LIFE.

I was inspired all over again.

We need to Support this brother and his quest to bring More color to the funny pages and not just the color on the pages on Sunday.

I did my part. Look out for The Ink Sponsoring a strip one day soon.

(The Soundtrack to Today’s Post was brought to you by The Neptunes)

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Eighth day of Black History Month: The First Lady

You wanna feel the wrath of a black woman…do something to her son.

My earliest grasp of this concept was when some kid in St. Clair Village  had the nerve to hit me with a pole and ran.  I was out in the hall way playing with my Evel Knevel motorcycle.  Needless to say, I was a bit stunned and bloody and sans Toy when she came upstairs from the laundry room.  (mind you this was 1975, about the LAST time you could actually let your child out of your sight for more than 15 seconds)

My mother stalked that project for an hour, softball bat in hand, until she found the 8 year old who did the deed.  promptly traced him down to a somewhat responsible adult figure and proceeded to give him exactly what for.

Of course, NOW Mama Ink is an Ordained Minister, but don’t think for a second she won’t STILL get with you should the situation call for it.

Was my mother perfect?  No.  But show me a mistake she made in raising me and I’ll show you a chipped brick in the Pyramids.

Is that to say that I am a perfect product?  Psh….be serious.  It just means I am a Black man who can’t look back to his childhood and point to a parenting deficienc y as the reason why this or that isn’t right.

I bring up mama today because she called at the crack of ass (her favorite time of day to do so) to check on son #1 post-surgery (Im doing pretty well, thanks.) and I was thinking of her as I saw for the fourth time today the  Privilege test.  Its a bit dated but it’s still telling.

When you were in college:

If your father went to college, take a step forward. (If he dropped out before he met my mother, does that count?

If your father finished college  <–little late for that now.

If your mother went to college

If your mother finished college  <–My mother and I are racing to finish now.  she will probably beat me.

If you have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.

If you were the same or higher class than your high school teachers  <–nope  I thought my teachers were RICH.

If you had a computer at home

If you had your own computer at home  <–I didnt even have Nintendo.

If you had more than 50 books at home

If you had more than 500 books at home  <—Library Card.

If were read children’s books by a parent <—-indeed indeed then I was reading to her.

If you ever had lessons of any kind

If you had more than two kinds of lessons

If the people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively

If you had a credit card with your name on it <–when i was in College my MOTHER didnt have a credit card.

If you have less than $5000 in student loans

If you have no student loans

If you went to a private high school

If you went to summer camp

If you had a private tutor

If you have been to Europe

If your family vacations involved staying at hotels

If all of your clothing has been new and bought at the mall

If your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them

If there was original art in your house <—There was barely unoriginal art in the house

If you had a phone in your room

If you lived in a single family house

If your parent own their own house or apartment

If you had your own room

If you participated in an SAT/ACT prep course  <—It was free

If you had your own cell phone in High School <—I wouldnt have if they had been invented.  I didnt even have my own phone in the house.

you had your own TV in your room in High School

If you opened a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College

If you have ever flown anywhere on a commercial airline

If you ever went on a cruise with your family

If your parents took you to museums and art galleries

If you were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family. <–I knew they were too much and that we spent the winter fully dressed (pajamaed and slippers and a robe at night) but how much the bills were only was known if you were paying them.  and once I dropped out of school, I was.

 

After this, I realized that while my privilege was very limited what privilege I did enjoy was given to me at great sacrifice by my mother because she KNEW that me being gifted wasn’t going to be enough all by itself and that I needed to be exposed to a lot more stuff.  And for that, I am eternally grateful and will pass that along to my sons.

 

Seventh Day of Black History Month: Burn Hollywood Burn

If I have learned NOTHING else in the past 6 1/2 years of Blogging/Writing, it is this: Expertise ain’t what it used to be.

Or maybe it was never all that much in the first place and I am the one with the late pass.

Whatever the case, I stumbled upon the 25 most important movies on Race by way of Time Magazine.

Sounded like a challenge. As an intermittent Movie snob/buff/afficianado, I was curious how this would play out. Of course they decided to rank them chronologically rather than by sheer importance. I didn’t question who the author was until AFTER I saw the whole list. I will encourage you to reserve judgement until AFTER YOU see the whole list.

25. Body and Soul

24. Hallelujah

23. Judge Priest

22. Imitation of Life (1934)

21. God’s Stepchildren

20. The Duke is Tops

19. Gone with the Wind

18. The Blood Of Jesus

17. The Jackie Robinson Story

16. Native Son (1951)

15. Carmen Jones

14. The Defiant Ones

13. In the Heat of the Night

12. Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Aasssss Song

11. Lady Sings the Blues

10. Cooley High

9. Killer of Sheep

8. Richard Pryor Live in Concert

7. A. Soldier’s Story

6. Do the Right Thing

5. Boyz N the Hood

4. Eve’s Bayou

3. Bamboozled

2. Madea’s Family Reunion

1. I am Legend

The article/list is here:

About the Author:

Richard Corliss - Master’s in Film Studies from Columbia, Time Magazine Movie Critic since 1980, self-proclaimed liberal despite working for National Review in the 70s.

Now, good readers…tell ya what IMA do.  I’ve been nice enough to add all these goodies to my Netflix.  You can be mah friend if you click here.

When I am about to get one, I will announce that it is on the way so IF you feel so inclined to watch along, you can join me.

I’ll post the review and cultural commentary comparing what Mr. Corliss said with what I say on here along with on Netflix. (VIVA CUT AND PASTE!!!)

I will say this though.

While I don’t question Mr. Corliss’ knowledge on music, I DO question what he knows about Black People, cause THIS list, without Hollywood Shuffle, Drop Squad, Shaft, and Claudine- at LEAST….is mad light in the ass.

PS, I am  reaching out to anyone else who wants to get in on this,  hit me on the inkognegro07izzatgeemaildotkizzom  or in the comments and maybe we can get a little back and forth about this, or suggestions of other movies that may have been left out.

Shout out finally to all the other 32 Day folk

Christina Springer

Mamalicious

Tami

Chris

Mr. Shadow

Sixth Day of Black History Month: Finishing Strong

Well, I didn’t know anything about voting; I didn’t know anything about registering to vote. One night I went to the church. They had a mass meeting. And I went to the church, and they talked about how it was our right, that we could register and vote. They were talking about we could vote out people that we didn’t want in office, we thought that wasn’t right, that we could vote them out. That sounded interesting enough to me that I wanted to try it. I had never heard, until 1962, that black people could register and vote.

She was Forty-Four Years old, folk.

4…4.

Whatever you got going on in your life…you can still finish strong.

Just ask Fannie Lou Hamer 

Sorry I don’t have more to offer.

As you may know I have another Surgery today and I havent had anything to eat or drink since Midnight.

and the last actual meal I had was Saturday.

I should be Coherent in about 24 hours.

Check the New additions to the Blogroll.

Fifth Day of Black History Month: The Fierce Urgency of Now

We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood-it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “Too late.” There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect.

Those were the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  on April 4, 1967.

Those words have returned via the campaign of Barack Obama.  And with all the talk of voting, apparently folk in the great state of Texas couldn’t wait their turn.

Mrs. Ink reports that the School Clerk spent the whole morning turning folk away who were trying to vote.

Thats all laudable and all, but there was one problem.

TEXAS DOESN’T VOTE UNTIL MARCH FOURTH!!!!

(although early voting starts February 19-29)

As Super Mardi Gras winds down into Ashy Wednesday, one thing seems obvious: (although I will be getting my report on when its all said and done)

We got a long way to go, boys and girls.

I bet Michigan and Florida wish they had stayed their ass in place now, don’t they.

Fourth Day of Black History Month: Choke Artistry

The New England Patriots have NOTHING on the Ink.

About 1:30 PM CST, The Ink made the critical error of biting off more than he could chew of a bone-in Ribeye left over from one of my way too many sojourns to random local eateries.

About 1:35 he was still gagging and trying to expel said chunk of bovine goodness.

About 1:50 he decided that the Mavs/Pistons game wasn’t going to be very interesting at all so he would snatch a movie off his DVR and bide his time until the Super Bowl started.  Still choking mind you.

About 3:15 he realized that All the King’s Men wasn’t worth finishing, although it wasn’t horrible.  Just didn’t care how it ended…so it didn’t end.  And STILL choking…

A brief exercise in ass-whoopin on Fight Night Round 3 ended with two knock-outs about 5:00  He realize now that He is so old that he loses focus after about 30 minutes and that he can’t stay focused enough to dodge the shots as well during the third fight….and still choking.  At this point it becomes apparent that he has no ability to keep any kind of anything down.

The game comes and goes and he ends up spending most of it sitting near the toilet, which fortunately  provides a decent view of the prehistoric big screen.

Finally, around 9:45, during the post-poned viewing of the Wire, it became apparent that the professionals would  need to be called in.

So off  to the Emergency room he went.

8 hours and emergency surgery via general anesthesia later, he was at home and basically useless.

Finally at Dark Thirty am, 36 hours before the OTHER surgery he needs, The Ink comes to remind you that much of what takes place in the hospital came about via the innovation and genius of Black Folk.

1721

Onesimus, an enslaved African, describes to Cotton Mather the African method of inoculation against smallpox. The technique, later used to protect American Revolutionary War soldiers, is perfected in the 1790’s by British doctor Edward Jenner’s use of a less virulent organism.

1783

Dr. James Durham, born into slavery in 1762, buys his freedom and begins his own medical practice in New Orleans, becoming the first African-American doctor in the United States. As a youngster, he was owned by a number of doctors, who taught him how to read and write, mix medicines, and serve and work with patients. Durham had a flourishing medical practice in New Orleans until 1801 when the city restricted his practice because he did not have a formal medical degree.

1788

Dr. James Durham is invited to Philadelphia to meet Dr. Benjamin Rush, who wanted to investigate Durham’s reported success in treating patients with diphtheria. Dr. Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of America’s foremost physicians, was so impressed that he personally read Durham’s paper on diphtheria before the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Durham returned to New Orleans in 1789, where he saved more yellow fever victims than any other physician (During an epidemic that killed thousands, he lost 11 of 64 patients).

1837

Dr. James McCune Smith graduates from the University of Glasgow, becoming the first African American to earn a medical degree.

1852

Augusta, GA: The Jackson Street Hospital is established as the first institution of record solely for the care of colored patients. The founders were a group of charitable minded whites led by Dr. Henry Fraser Campbell, University of Georgia School of Medicine. There was no colored staff in this three story structure, which housed fifty beds, operating quarters, and a lecture hall.

1862

Freedmen’s Hospital is established in Washington, D.C., and is the only federally-funded health care facility for Negroes in the nation.

Born a slave in Georgia in 1848, Susie Baker (who later became known as Susie King Taylor) is the first African American U.S. Army nurse during the Civil War. King served in a newly formed regiment of black soldiers organized at Port Royal Island off the South Carolina coast by Major General David Hunter, commander of the Union’s Department of the South. After the war, she helped to organize a branch of the Women’s Relief Corps

1864

Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first Negro female to earn a medical degree, graduates from New England Female Medical College, Boston.

And that is just before the end of the Civil War.

Click here for more information 

Hopefully, I will be feeling more myself tomorrow.

Third Day of Black History Month: Being First is much easier than Getting in position to be first

Today, when all the hype finally dissipates and Big Blue and the Evil Empire gathers in the middle of the field to FINALLY play the damn game, history will shine on one man.

The short story is that Mike Carey will be the first African-American to referee the Super Bowl.

The long story is that he didn’t just roll up on this prime gig overnight.

He got his start refereeing Pee Wee games back in 1972.  And he took the long road to history.

I know people think that this kind of thing happens overnight.  Fool around on YouTube today and six months later the Head Coach of the University of Wisconsin Basketball team is Supermanning dat OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh.

you thought I was lyin, didn’t you.   Nope…it’s easier to tell the truth nowadays.

Anyway.

Today’s lesson, good folk, is that when you see a first, remember the work and sweat that went into making that possible.

Ask Mike Carey

John Smallwood: Carey is taking his Super step in stride

Philadelphia Daily News

PHOENIX - Until there is the first, you can’t get to the second, the third or, most important, the point where it no longer matters.

So when Mike Carey steps on the field tomorrow for Super Bowl XLII, he will do so with great pride knowing that he is the first African-American to be the referee of America’s greatest sporting event.

“Obviously, it means a lot to me,” said Carey, who is in his 18th season as an NFL official. “I’m proud, honored, humbled, blessed to have the

opportunity.

“The thing about sports in America is that it is a lot like our politics. It’s really a window to the social atmosphere of our country. What we’re seeing is that everybody is capable of

accepting anybody with competence.

“It’s the erosion of one more stereotype that all of us know should be gone. Someone asked me if this was groundbreaking. I said it’s ‘ground paving,’ because it’s just what is going to happen in America and the world. You can’t deny it.”

Carey is an official, and officials are at their best when they do their jobs without being noticed. So, no, this has not received the amount of attention that Doug Williams did in 1988 when he became the first African-American quarterback to play in and win a Super Bowl.

And it’s not like last year, when the Chicago Bears’ Lovie Smith and the Indianapolis Colts’ Tony Dungy became the first African-American head coaches to reach the Super Bowl.

But this is significant in its scope.

In 1965, Burl Toler became the first African-American official in the NFL. Johnny Grier was the first to work his way up to referee in 1988; Carey is the second.

“I may be the first [to referee a Super Bowl], but I’m just part of that path,” Carey said. “You’ve got to remember Johnny Grier, Al Jury. There are a lot of superior African-American officials who paved the way for this to happen.

“The community of officials is such a tight brotherhood. I’ve been getting e-mails, voice mails, and text messages of congratulations. Being able to represent them on that stage is humbling.”

Carey, 59, who was a running back at Santa Clara University and graduated with a degree in biology, began officiating in 1972 when a friend suggested he

officiate Pop Warner games in his native San Diego.

He worked his way up to

junior varsity high school games, varsity high school games, junior college and small-college games in the San Diego area.

In 1985, the Western Athletic Conference hired him. The NFL hired him as a side judge in 1990 and he was promoted to referee in 1995.

“You can’t get to this level unless you start with the little Pop Warner kids and work your way up,” said Carey, who was an

alternate official for Super Bowl XXXVI. “At every level, I was

fortunate enough to be athletic enough to get to the right positions to make good calls.”

(Click here to get the your Paul Harvey On)

Second Day of Black History Month: The Devil is in the Details

It’s easy to rattle off George Washington Carver and his Bootjillion uses for the peanut and the yam.

It is more complicated to discuss the journey that got him there.

Educator, Agricultural/Food Scientist, Farmer

George Washington Carver devoted his life to research projects connected primarily with southern agriculture. The products he derived from the peanut and the soybean revolutionized the economy of the South by liberating it from an excessive dependence on cotton.

Born a slave in the spring of 1864 in Diamond Grove, Missouri, Carver was only an infant when he and his mother were abducted from his owner’s plantation by a band of slave raiders. His mother was sold and shipped away, but Carver was ransomed by his master in exchange for a race horse.

While working as a farm hand, Carver managed to obtain a high school education. He was admitted as the first black student of Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa. He then attended Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) where, while working as the school janitor, he received a degree in agricultural science in 1894. Two years later he received a master’s degree from the same school and became the first African American to serve on its faculty. Within a short time his fame spread, and Booker T. Washington offered him a post at Tuskegee.

Carver revolutionized the southern agricultural economy by showing that 300 products could be derived from the peanut. By 1938, peanuts had become a $200 million industry and a chief product of Alabama. Carver also demonstrated that 100 different products could be derived from the sweet potato.

Although he did hold three patents, Carver never patented most of the many discoveries he made while at Tuskegee, saying “God gave them to me, how can I sell them to someone else?” In 1938 he donated over $30,000 of his life’s savings to the George Washington Carver Foundation and willed the rest of his estate to the organization so his work might be carried on after his death. He died on January 5, 1943.
What often get lost in all the laundry lists of accomplishments is the fact that this happened during the Jim Crow era, either officially or unofficially.

Not too many folk go from the Mop to the Lectern.