Monday Information

The Birmingham movement continued with courage by the protesters and activists. On May 5, 1963, a new era started. This was when black people in the area of Kelly Ingram Park used self-defense and act of rebellion against racist tyranny. Many spectators taunted the police. The SCLC leaders begged them to be peaceful or go home. James Bevel borrowed a bullhorn from the police and shouted, "Everybody get off this corner. If you're not going to demonstrate in a nonviolent way, then leave!"  The racist Commissioner Connor was overheard saying, "If you'd ask half of them what freedom means, they couldn't tell you." To prevent further marches, Connor ordered the doors to the churches blocked to prevent students from leaving. On May 6, the jails were so full that Connor transformed the stockade at the state fairgrounds into a makeshift jail to hold protesters. Black people arrived at white churches to try to integrate services. They were accepted in Roman Catholic, Episcopal, and Presbyterian churches, but they were turned away at others. Some knelt and prayed until they were arrested by churches that turned them away. Well known national figures arrived in Birmingham gave support to the protesters. Singer Joan Baez arrived to perform for free at Miles College and stayed at the black owned and integrated Gaston Motel. Comedian Dick Gregory and writer for the Nation Barbara Deming were both arrested. The young Dan Rather reported on this story for CBS News. The car of Fannie Flagg, a local television personality and recent Miss Alabama finalist, was surrounded by teenagers who recognized her. Flagg worked at Channel 6 on the morning show, and after asking her producers why the show was not covering the demonstrations, she received orders never to mention them on air. She rolled down the window and shouted to the children, "I'm with you all the way!" Birmingham’s fire department refused orders from Connor to turn the hoses on demonstrators again. They went through the basement of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church to clean up water from earlier fire hose flooding. White business leaders met with protest organizers to try arrange an economic solution but said they had no control over politics. Protest organizers disagreed, saying that business leaders were positioned to pressure political leaders. By May 7, 1963, the crisis continued. Breakfast in the jail took 4 hours to distribute to all the prisoners. 70 members of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce pleaded with the protest organizers to stop the actions. The NAACP asked for sympathizers to picket in unity in 100 American cities. 19 rabbis from New York flew to Birmingham, equating silence about segregation to the atrocities of the Holocaust. Local rabbis disagreed and asked them to go home. The editor of The Birmingham News wired President Kennedy and pleaded with him to end the protests. Fire hoses were used once again, injuring police and Fred Shuttlesworth, as well as other demonstrators. Commissioner Connor expressed regret at missing seeing Shuttlesworth get hit and said he "wished they'd carried him away in a hearse." Connor is a callous, wicked male. Another 1,000 people were arrested, bringing the total to 2,500.

News of the mass arrests of children had reached Western Europe and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union caused 25 percent of its news broadcast to cover the demonstrators. They sent much of the coverage to Africa (which is where the Soviets and the U.S. interests competed with each other). Soviet news people accused the Kennedy administration of neglect and inactivity. Alabama Governor George Wallace sent state troopers to assist Connor. Attorney General Robert Kennedy prepared to activate the Alabama National Guard and notified the Second Infantry Division from Fort Benning, Georgia that it might be deployed to Birmingham. No business of any kind was being conducted downtown. Organizers planned to flood the downtown area businesses with black people. Smaller groups of decoys were set out to distract police attention from activities at the 16th Street Baptist Church. Protesters set off false fire alarms to occupy the fire department and its hoses. One group of children approached a police officer and announced, "We want to go to jail!" When the officer pointed the way, the students ran across Kelly Ingram Park shouting, "We're going to jail!" Six hundred picketers reached downtown Birmingham. Large groups of protesters sat in stores and sang freedom songs. Streets, sidewalks, stores, and buildings were overwhelmed with more than 3,000 protesters.  The sheriff and chief of police admitted to Burke Marshall that they did not think they could handle the situation for more than a few hours.

One story in our society that deals with popular culture is how Kanye West was temporarily handcuffed and hospitalized for a “psychiatric evaluated.”  This reality shows many lessons. It documents how money alone can't bring happiness or life fulfillment. It shows clearly also that mental health problems should be taken seriously in our world. I don't agree with Kanye West on every issue. I don't agree with his mistakes. I do wish for him to get the adequate help that he needs as he is obviously suffering from mental illness. Many of our people have real mental health issues and a strong support system have carried them to live very productive lives. I feel like Kanye West may have too many yes people around him seeking profit instead of true friendship. I also believe that his low self-esteem is a reality and he should be responsible for his rants and other actions (as his precious mother has nothing to do with his deeds at all). There are many sources giving a diversity of accounts of why he has been hospitalized. We know that he has been under stress. We know that his tour has been cancelled. He was at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Before, he was acting erratically at his trainer’s house when the call was made. Kanye, according to sources, didn’t want to go to the hospital and had to be handcuffed to a gurney while being transported. The house was surrounded by security guards, fire trucks, and the police. This comes days after his rant where he retroactively supported Trump and lashed out at Mark Zuckerberg, Beyoncé, and Jay Z (where he pleaded to him not to send killers to him). This comes after his mother died in November years ago in 2007. She was 58 and her name is Donda. His wife is Kim Kardashian (who was a recent victim of a robbery in Paris, France months ago) and the Kardashians are no stranger to dealing with low self-esteem, hurt men. Lamar Odom was found unconscious and he was saved by many people. Many of the Kardashians have sex with black males, but they are silent on black men and black women being unjustly murdered by crooked police and by vigilantes. They are silent on the Gullee struggle for their land rights. They are silent on many issues important in our black community. I haven't forgotten about how Khloe disrespected Ciara and Russel Wilson's relationship because Ciara and Russell chose to be celibate until after they were married. It is no secret that Hollywood is filled with corruption, manipulation, hurt people, and other evils. It is no secret that many people in Hollywood are into the occult. Therefore, we have to use discernment and not condone the mistakes Kanye has made while wishing Kanye to get better emotionally.


There is mystery involving the Chartres Cathedral to this very day. The Cathedral's guide-book has this to say about the object of the pilgrimages: "The crypt is the origin and heart of the pilgrimage. For many centuries Our Lady of Chartres has accepted the homage of her votaries. Our Lady of the "Belle Verrière" was once an object of veneration, and particularly invoked by women before childbirth, and formerly, there was the gilt statue on the main altar, where people knelt in prayer as today before Our Lady of the Pillar." Female imagery is found in the cathedral. There are also zodiacal and astrological imagery in the Cathedral too. Some theorize that the feminine iconography relates to the ancient pagan Goddess worship wrapped up in the orthodox Christian tradition. It is true that before Christianity existed in France, pagan worship was very commonplace. The Lady of the Pillar shows the image of the Black Madonna or the Black Virgin.  Such an image shows Mary (or the mother of Jesus Christ) with dark skin. It is interesting to point out that people with blond hair and blue eyes aren’t the only people who lived in Europe or the Middle East. Those locations had people with a diversity of skin complexions including black people. There is the star symbolism that surrounding the Lady of the Pillar at Chartres too. There is an inclusion of a scene of the worship of Diana in the stain glass above the shrine. The Cathedral is taller than even the Statue of Liberty. The structures use duality in its composition. One of the most fascinating parts of the cathedral is the rose window. So, the Chartres cathedral is more than a religious building. It does have symbols, strong architecture and meanings that represented the ancient world’s knowledge about things. That is why it isn’t a secret that many of the guilds of the medieval period are the ancestors of modern day Freemasonry.

Afro-Canadians in our generation (during the 21st century) are increasingly telling their stories and experiences. We want them to have happiness, joy, and human liberation.  Afro-Canadian Anthony Morgan has written about his experience in Canada. He writes that racism still exists in Canada. There is a Black Lives Movement in Toronto, Canada too.  Many protests have temporarily shut down one of the Toronto’s busiest expressways in protest of the police killings of 2 black men. Many black organizations and their allied called for a country wide ban on displaying the Confederate flag in Halifax. In Ottawa, a mural memorializing Sandra Bland (who was a black woman who died in suspicious circumstances) while in a Texas jail was defaced with graffiti. Racial profiling occurs in Canada from Hamilton to other locations. A younger generation of Black Canadians continues to stand up for their rights too. Alyson Renaldo is an Afro-Canadians who has written about her experiences too. She wrote about refuting stereotypes that many people have of Afro-Canadians and acknowledging the cultural diversity of African Americans and Afro-Canadians. She lives in Toronto and Los Angeles. Therefore, we should recognize that the lives of Afro-Canadian matter and we seek justice throughout the world.

By Timothy