Pro-God, Pro-Human Life, anti-New World Order, Anti-Nefarious Secret Societies, Pro-Civil Liberties, anti-Torture, anti-National ID Card, Pro-Family, Anti-Neo Conservativism, Pro-Net Neutrality, Pro-Home Schooling, Anti-Voting Fraud, Pro-Good Israelis & Pro-Good Palestinians, Anti-Human Trafficking, Pro-Health Freedom, Anti-Codex Alimentarius, Pro-Action, Anti-Bigotry, Pro-9/11 Justice, Anti-Genocide, and Pro-Gun Control. My name is Timothy and I'm from the state of Virginia.
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Monday, July 31, 2017
Jesse Jackson's 2 Presidential runs
The two Presidential campaigns of Jesse Jackson of 1984 and 1988 represent many truths about American politics and the fallibility of the two party system. They taught us about how black people can achieve massive political successes despite obstacles. Also, it presented the truth about how power the political elites are in trying to promote corporate interests at the expense of the working class and the rest of the American people. Jesse Jackson’s actions during his two runs at the Presidency was very important in Black American history. His Presidency came about after the massive political growth of the black community. The many great gains of the civil rights movement (as documented by many scholars) heavily came unto the middle class and the rich of the black community. Along with this growth, more black people came into the Democratic Party as mayors, councilmen, councilwomen, Senators, House representatives, journalists, and other political activists. This came about the state suppression of the black revolutionary movements of the 1960's like the BPP (who legitimately advanced the proclamation of not only black militancy against capitalist exploitation & racism, but being anti-imperialist, and pro-social justice), etc. The 1973 oil crisis and the 1974-1975 recessions changed the country. After the recession of the 1970’s, inflation grew, corporations influenced governmental policies to promote more tax breaks for large corporations, social program cuts, attacks on affirmative action, attacks on civil rights, and unemployment grew by the early 1980’s. From 1980 to 1984, 11.5 million workers lost their jobs due to relocations and plant shutdowns. The real standard of living for average industrial workers plus their families in America dropped by one-fifth from 1968 to 1981. Even the so-called “recovery” year of 1985 still showed high unemployment for black Americans, black youth. In essence, the 1980’s saw the destruction of our communities with the crack cocaine epidemic and the continuation of the War on Drugs (which increased the military industrial complex). Even Carter’s Presidency saw the massive deregulation of businesses nationwide, the growth of PACs, and many cuts to services.
After Reagan was President, America experienced another early recession that harmed the poor especially. By 1983, Harold Washington was mayor of Chicago and he was the first black mayor. By that time, many people called for Jesse Jackson to run for President. The problem was that the Democratic Party shifted to the right during the 1980’s. Historically, massive changes occurred via strong, grassroots social movements like the 1930’s labor movement which helped to enact New Deal reforms (and the 1950’s and 1960’s civil rights movement that caused Great Society policies to exist. These policies decreased the poverty rate in half from 1960 to 1970). Jesse Jackson was in a new world from his early civil rights days of the 1960’s (he worked with Dr. King in many movements). I will give Jackson credit for being involved in protests and movements from the Selma movement, the Chicago housing movement, and many protests in our generation. Yet, it is also true that compared to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson was more conservative along with Andrew Young being more conservative than the late Dr. King. Jesse had some reservations about the Poor Peoples Campaign initially, but he later supported it. Jesse Jackson focused more on private sector policies, but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. respected democratic socialism and a radical redistribution of wealth. Dr. King was one strong critic of capitalism. Jesse Jackson supported the Chicago-based Operation Breadbasket and had no criticisms of black capitalism. The black population in the working class and the poor abhorred Reaganism and they were desperate for change. After months of chants from his supporters of "Run, Jesse, run!" Jackson threw his hat in the ring. Under these conditions (of the brutal policies of Reaganonomics), Jesse Jackson decided to run for President in 1984. He was the second African American to do so in the Democratic Party. The first African American to do so in the Democratic Party was Sister Shirley Chisholm.
His first campaign was the most progressive out of the two. He faced more opposition. Even many black politicians opposed his first campaign, because they felt that he had no chance to defeat Ronald Reagan. Many establishment Democratic members decided to ally with moderate Democrat Walter Mondale (who has been cordial to civil rights leaders). During his 1984 Presidential campaign, Jesse Jackson explicitly opposed apartheid and desired jobs for people. His campaign was very historic and he campaigned in support of the Rainbow coalition. This coalition was a multi-racial, multi-ethnic coalition desiring equal rights for African Americans, women, LGBT Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Arabic Americans, disabled people, and the poor. He traveled the nation. He advocated for a Palestinian state. He wanted to reform the Democratic Party from within since he felt that that was the best political way to make change. The problem was that the Democratic Party establishment shifted so much to the right that some of them wanted to out Reagan Reagan instead of advancing truly progressive change. Jesse Jackson was stuck in a catch 22. He knew what the deal was. He continued onward despite the disrespect that he experienced from the Democratic Party elites (filled with superdelegates). Gifted with a great oratory ability, Jesse Jackson inspired many Americans. His 1984 campaign had diverse supporters from nationalists, socialists, moderates, liberals, progressives, etc. African American clergy heavily supported Jesse Jackson. The National Baptist Convention (with 6.5 million black people) allied with his campaign back in 1984 too. His platform was similar to the old school New Deal proposals along with other progressive plans from reduction from military expenditures, billions of dollars to social programs, opposition to U.S. military intervention in Central America, reparations to the descendants of black slaves, opposition to apartheid in South Africa, pro-ERA, and other proposals. Jesse Jackson made a remark about Jewish people and NYC that he apologized for. Also, Louis Farrakhan (he is a black nationalist with many conservative views on social and economic issues. We know that Malcolm X explicitly condemned capitalism by his own words, promoted gender equality, and desired an end to imperialism) was an early supporter of Jesse Jackson and Jesse Jackson had to deal with that issue. He said it in a private conversation and he admitted his error like a man and moved forward. His 1984 Democratic National Convention was very powerful and electrified the crowd. He surprised many when he took third place behind Senator Gary Hart and former Vice President Walter Mondale, who eventually won the nomination. Jackson garnered 3,282,431 primary votes, or 18.2 percent of the total, in 1984, and won five primaries and caucuses, including Louisiana, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, Virginia, and one of two separate contests in Mississippi.
As he had gained 21% of the popular vote but only 8% of delegates, he afterwards complained that he had been restricted politically by party rules. Mondale would choose the first woman Vice Presidential Democratic candidate who was named Geraldine Ferraro of New York. Mondale supported the ERA and a nuclear freeze. He lost the election to Reagan with Reagan having a landslide. Back in those days, it was taboo for a certain segment of Americans to accept a black man being President of the United States. Jesse Jackson has the gift of massive registration and organization that brought tons of people into the Democratic Party. The Rainbow Coalition tried to shift the Democratic Party to the left, but they were unsuccessful during the 1980’s. The neoliberals and the rightward trend continued. The DLC or the Democratic Leadership Council or the DLC was created in 1985 in order to cause the Democratic Party to distance themselves from extremely progressive black people, people of color, women, the poor, etc. in order to curry favor with Wall Street interests and corporate CEOs. The DLC had no shame in their disgraceful actions. Bill Clinton, then an Arkansas governor, was a key figure in the DLC movement.
Afterwards, Jesse Jackson promoted voter registration campaigns that caused the Democrats to gain most of the Congress by 1986. Jackson was always a competitor, so he worked to strengthen the Rainbow Coalition and he decided to run for President again in 1988. The second campaign was different. Jesse Jackson was more involved in trying to appeal to wide spectrum of people. The 1988 Democratic Primary was more up for grabs, so Jesse Jackson had more success in his 1988 campaign than in his 1984 campaign. A massive black American turnout caused Jesse Jackson to be second place in March 8, 1988. He finished 16 out of 21 primaries. He was the frontrunner in the delegate count. Later, he won the Michigan party caucuses with 55 percent of the vote. He appealed to many white working class people in the Midwest, especially farmers with his economic populist message. Jesse Jackson ended the race with 7 million votes or 30 percent of the total. He called for economic justice in the midst of declining union power. By the second term of Reagan, the economy grew out of the recession, but most of the recovery was to the upper class and the rich. This grew economic inequality. Jesse Jackson’s historic primary victories caused many people to be shocked from the media to Democratic Party elites. One Time magazine cover mentioned, the headline of “JESSE!?” Charles Rangel was one leader in his campaign. A more moderation of policies existed in the 1988 campaign than his 1984 run. Many black nationalists and leftists were not in his 1988 campaign. By the late 1980’s, the military budget of the Reagan administration reached about $1 trillion. On some views, he moderated his message.
Jesse Jackson gained more support. His percent of support in Arizona (a state with only 3 percent African American back then), he grew his support from 14 percent in 1984 to 35 percent in 1988. He won Alaska and Vermont. Ronald Brown soon was named leader of the Democratic Party’s National Committee. Jesse Jackson lost, because the political elites of the Democratic Party decided to choose Michael Dukakis. Dukakis chose Lloyd Bentsen as his vice Presidential running mate. Bentsen was a conservative Democrat. Jesse Jackson spoke of common ground in pro-worker themes in his 1988 Democratic National Convention. He downplayed his anti-racism views during the 1988 campaign even saying that the question of racism has been “solved.” We know that is definitely not true. Dukakis didn’t campaign much in the African American community. The Bush campaign used the racist Willie Horton ad in claiming that Dukakis was “soft on crime.” He lost the election to Bush in 1988. Jesse Jackson would continue to both advise Democratic Presidents and participate in social justice rallies and protests. The great achievements and mistakes of Jesse Jackson must be shown. Donna Brazile was a national Rainbow coordinator of the first Jackson campaign and she continued to live her life. His legacy is a legacy of a combination of things. Also, his runs for President would be a prelude to the historic 2008 Presidential run by Barack Obama. The end of the Rainbow movement represented the truth that the Democratic elites are heavily resistant to progressive, revolutionary movements unless they are co-opted to fulfill their agendas. That is why with the exception of a resolution to implement sanctions against South Africa for its apartheid policies, none of the major positions of the Jesse Jackson campaign made it into the Democratic Party’s platform in either 1984 or 1988. The journey of Jesse Jackson shows the limitations of the capitalist Republican and Democratic Parties. Political independence along with progressive insights is a sacrosanct value to embrace. Jesse Jackson’s historical political campaigns should always be analyzed and remembered in our continued struggle for black liberation and social justice.
By Timothy
After Reagan was President, America experienced another early recession that harmed the poor especially. By 1983, Harold Washington was mayor of Chicago and he was the first black mayor. By that time, many people called for Jesse Jackson to run for President. The problem was that the Democratic Party shifted to the right during the 1980’s. Historically, massive changes occurred via strong, grassroots social movements like the 1930’s labor movement which helped to enact New Deal reforms (and the 1950’s and 1960’s civil rights movement that caused Great Society policies to exist. These policies decreased the poverty rate in half from 1960 to 1970). Jesse Jackson was in a new world from his early civil rights days of the 1960’s (he worked with Dr. King in many movements). I will give Jackson credit for being involved in protests and movements from the Selma movement, the Chicago housing movement, and many protests in our generation. Yet, it is also true that compared to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson was more conservative along with Andrew Young being more conservative than the late Dr. King. Jesse had some reservations about the Poor Peoples Campaign initially, but he later supported it. Jesse Jackson focused more on private sector policies, but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. respected democratic socialism and a radical redistribution of wealth. Dr. King was one strong critic of capitalism. Jesse Jackson supported the Chicago-based Operation Breadbasket and had no criticisms of black capitalism. The black population in the working class and the poor abhorred Reaganism and they were desperate for change. After months of chants from his supporters of "Run, Jesse, run!" Jackson threw his hat in the ring. Under these conditions (of the brutal policies of Reaganonomics), Jesse Jackson decided to run for President in 1984. He was the second African American to do so in the Democratic Party. The first African American to do so in the Democratic Party was Sister Shirley Chisholm.
His first campaign was the most progressive out of the two. He faced more opposition. Even many black politicians opposed his first campaign, because they felt that he had no chance to defeat Ronald Reagan. Many establishment Democratic members decided to ally with moderate Democrat Walter Mondale (who has been cordial to civil rights leaders). During his 1984 Presidential campaign, Jesse Jackson explicitly opposed apartheid and desired jobs for people. His campaign was very historic and he campaigned in support of the Rainbow coalition. This coalition was a multi-racial, multi-ethnic coalition desiring equal rights for African Americans, women, LGBT Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Arabic Americans, disabled people, and the poor. He traveled the nation. He advocated for a Palestinian state. He wanted to reform the Democratic Party from within since he felt that that was the best political way to make change. The problem was that the Democratic Party establishment shifted so much to the right that some of them wanted to out Reagan Reagan instead of advancing truly progressive change. Jesse Jackson was stuck in a catch 22. He knew what the deal was. He continued onward despite the disrespect that he experienced from the Democratic Party elites (filled with superdelegates). Gifted with a great oratory ability, Jesse Jackson inspired many Americans. His 1984 campaign had diverse supporters from nationalists, socialists, moderates, liberals, progressives, etc. African American clergy heavily supported Jesse Jackson. The National Baptist Convention (with 6.5 million black people) allied with his campaign back in 1984 too. His platform was similar to the old school New Deal proposals along with other progressive plans from reduction from military expenditures, billions of dollars to social programs, opposition to U.S. military intervention in Central America, reparations to the descendants of black slaves, opposition to apartheid in South Africa, pro-ERA, and other proposals. Jesse Jackson made a remark about Jewish people and NYC that he apologized for. Also, Louis Farrakhan (he is a black nationalist with many conservative views on social and economic issues. We know that Malcolm X explicitly condemned capitalism by his own words, promoted gender equality, and desired an end to imperialism) was an early supporter of Jesse Jackson and Jesse Jackson had to deal with that issue. He said it in a private conversation and he admitted his error like a man and moved forward. His 1984 Democratic National Convention was very powerful and electrified the crowd. He surprised many when he took third place behind Senator Gary Hart and former Vice President Walter Mondale, who eventually won the nomination. Jackson garnered 3,282,431 primary votes, or 18.2 percent of the total, in 1984, and won five primaries and caucuses, including Louisiana, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, Virginia, and one of two separate contests in Mississippi.
As he had gained 21% of the popular vote but only 8% of delegates, he afterwards complained that he had been restricted politically by party rules. Mondale would choose the first woman Vice Presidential Democratic candidate who was named Geraldine Ferraro of New York. Mondale supported the ERA and a nuclear freeze. He lost the election to Reagan with Reagan having a landslide. Back in those days, it was taboo for a certain segment of Americans to accept a black man being President of the United States. Jesse Jackson has the gift of massive registration and organization that brought tons of people into the Democratic Party. The Rainbow Coalition tried to shift the Democratic Party to the left, but they were unsuccessful during the 1980’s. The neoliberals and the rightward trend continued. The DLC or the Democratic Leadership Council or the DLC was created in 1985 in order to cause the Democratic Party to distance themselves from extremely progressive black people, people of color, women, the poor, etc. in order to curry favor with Wall Street interests and corporate CEOs. The DLC had no shame in their disgraceful actions. Bill Clinton, then an Arkansas governor, was a key figure in the DLC movement.
Afterwards, Jesse Jackson promoted voter registration campaigns that caused the Democrats to gain most of the Congress by 1986. Jackson was always a competitor, so he worked to strengthen the Rainbow Coalition and he decided to run for President again in 1988. The second campaign was different. Jesse Jackson was more involved in trying to appeal to wide spectrum of people. The 1988 Democratic Primary was more up for grabs, so Jesse Jackson had more success in his 1988 campaign than in his 1984 campaign. A massive black American turnout caused Jesse Jackson to be second place in March 8, 1988. He finished 16 out of 21 primaries. He was the frontrunner in the delegate count. Later, he won the Michigan party caucuses with 55 percent of the vote. He appealed to many white working class people in the Midwest, especially farmers with his economic populist message. Jesse Jackson ended the race with 7 million votes or 30 percent of the total. He called for economic justice in the midst of declining union power. By the second term of Reagan, the economy grew out of the recession, but most of the recovery was to the upper class and the rich. This grew economic inequality. Jesse Jackson’s historic primary victories caused many people to be shocked from the media to Democratic Party elites. One Time magazine cover mentioned, the headline of “JESSE!?” Charles Rangel was one leader in his campaign. A more moderation of policies existed in the 1988 campaign than his 1984 run. Many black nationalists and leftists were not in his 1988 campaign. By the late 1980’s, the military budget of the Reagan administration reached about $1 trillion. On some views, he moderated his message.
Jesse Jackson gained more support. His percent of support in Arizona (a state with only 3 percent African American back then), he grew his support from 14 percent in 1984 to 35 percent in 1988. He won Alaska and Vermont. Ronald Brown soon was named leader of the Democratic Party’s National Committee. Jesse Jackson lost, because the political elites of the Democratic Party decided to choose Michael Dukakis. Dukakis chose Lloyd Bentsen as his vice Presidential running mate. Bentsen was a conservative Democrat. Jesse Jackson spoke of common ground in pro-worker themes in his 1988 Democratic National Convention. He downplayed his anti-racism views during the 1988 campaign even saying that the question of racism has been “solved.” We know that is definitely not true. Dukakis didn’t campaign much in the African American community. The Bush campaign used the racist Willie Horton ad in claiming that Dukakis was “soft on crime.” He lost the election to Bush in 1988. Jesse Jackson would continue to both advise Democratic Presidents and participate in social justice rallies and protests. The great achievements and mistakes of Jesse Jackson must be shown. Donna Brazile was a national Rainbow coordinator of the first Jackson campaign and she continued to live her life. His legacy is a legacy of a combination of things. Also, his runs for President would be a prelude to the historic 2008 Presidential run by Barack Obama. The end of the Rainbow movement represented the truth that the Democratic elites are heavily resistant to progressive, revolutionary movements unless they are co-opted to fulfill their agendas. That is why with the exception of a resolution to implement sanctions against South Africa for its apartheid policies, none of the major positions of the Jesse Jackson campaign made it into the Democratic Party’s platform in either 1984 or 1988. The journey of Jesse Jackson shows the limitations of the capitalist Republican and Democratic Parties. Political independence along with progressive insights is a sacrosanct value to embrace. Jesse Jackson’s historical political campaigns should always be analyzed and remembered in our continued struggle for black liberation and social justice.
By Timothy
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Links
http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/02/18/6-common-misconceptions-enslavement-african-people/?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=kw&kwp_0=254706&kwp_4=1517497&kwp_1=659807
http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/ccrb/downloads/pdf/about_pdf/news/press-releases/2017/20170728_release_trumpspeech.pdf
http://www.isreview.org/issues/32/racism.shtml
http://www.pbs.org/the-contenders/people/jesse-jackson/
https://socialistworker.org/2016/07/25/how-democrats-got-over-the-rainbow
http://www.solidarity-us.org/rainbow1988
http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/10/14/10-things-black-people-know-white-people-yet-accepted/?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=kw&kwp_0=302883&kwp_4=1540751&kwp_1=669115
http://www.iloveoldschoolmusic.com/
http://ikeracity.tumblr.com/post/110464012144/theladybadass-black-women-serving-in-the
http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/ccrb/downloads/pdf/about_pdf/news/press-releases/2017/20170728_release_trumpspeech.pdf
http://www.isreview.org/issues/32/racism.shtml
http://www.pbs.org/the-contenders/people/jesse-jackson/
https://socialistworker.org/2016/07/25/how-democrats-got-over-the-rainbow
http://www.solidarity-us.org/rainbow1988
http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/10/14/10-things-black-people-know-white-people-yet-accepted/?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=kw&kwp_0=302883&kwp_4=1540751&kwp_1=669115
http://www.iloveoldschoolmusic.com/
http://ikeracity.tumblr.com/post/110464012144/theladybadass-black-women-serving-in-the
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Friday, July 28, 2017
Rosa Parks' Latter Years.
After her arrest in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks became an icon of the Civil Rights Movement. Yet, she experienced many obstacles. Economic sanctions came against activists. She lost her job at the department store, because of her civil rights activism. Her husband quit his job after his boss forbade him to talk to about his wife or the legal case. Rosa Parks traveled the country to speak on many issues extensively. By 1957, Raymond and Rosa Parks left Montgomery. They came into Hampton, Virginia. They came into Virginia, because she couldn’t find a job. She also disagreed with Dr. King and other leaders of Montgomery’s civil rights leaders about how to proceed. She received constant death threats. In Hampton, she worked as a hostess in an inn at Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), which is a historically black college. Later, Rosa and Raymond Parks including her mother moved north into Detroit. They were inspired do so by Sylvester and Daisley McCauley (her brother and sister-in-law). Many leaders in Detroit wanted to promote a progressive reputation to the city. Yet, Rosa Parks encountered many signs of discrimination against African Americans. In Detroit back then, schools were heavily segregated. Many services in black neighborhoods were substandard. By 1964, Rosa Parks told an interviewer that, “I don't feel a great deal of difference here... Housing segregation is just as bad, and it seems more noticeable in the larger cities." She regularly participated in the movement for open and fair housing. Rosa Parks assisted the first campaign for Congress by John Conyers. She persuaded Dr. Martin Luther King (who was very reluctant to endorse local candidates) to appear before Conyers. Therefore, this boosted the novice candidate’s profile. Conyers was elected. He hired her as a secretary and receptionist for his Congressional office in Detroit. Rosa Parks held this position until she retired in 1988.
In a telephone interview with CNN on October 24, 2005, Conyers recalled, "You treated her with deference because she was so quiet, so serene — just a very special person ... There was only one Rosa Parks." Rosa Parks did much of the daily constituent work for Conyers. She focused on socio-economic issues like welfare, education, job discrimination, and affordable housing. Rosa Parks visited schools, hospitals, senior citizen facilities, and other community meetings. She kept Conyers grounded in community concerns and activism. Rosa Parks continued to be involved in civil rights activism during the mid-1960’s. She traveled to support the Selma to Montgomery Marches, the Freedom Now Party, and the Lowndes County Freedom Organization. She befriended Malcolm X, who she regarded as a personal hero. Rosa Parks was concerned about housing issues like other Detroit black human beings. She lived in Virginia Park, which has been damaged by highway construction and urban renewal. By 1962, policies caused the destruction of 10,000 structures in Detroit. 43,096 people were displaced. 70 percent of them were African Americans. Rosa Parks lived about a mile from the epicenter of the 1967 Detroit rebellion. She considered housing discrimination a major reason on why the rebellion took place in the first place. After the rebellion, Rosa Parks worked with members of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and the Republic of New Afrika. She wanted to expose the police brutality in Detroit. She served on a “people’s tribunal” on August 30, 1967. This investigated the killing of three young men by the police during the 1967 rebellion. This was the Algiers Motel incident. She created the Virginia Park district council to help rebuild the area. The council helped to build the only black owned shopping center in the country. Rosa Parks worked in the Black Power Movement. She attended the Philadelphia Black Power conference, and the Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana. She also supported and visited the Black Panther school in Oakland.
During the 1970’s, she worked in the prison rights movement. She wanted cases of self-defense to be worked out. She helped found the Detroit chapter of the Joann Little Defense Committee. Rosa Parks supported the Wilmington 10, the RNA-11, and Gary Tyler. Following national outcry around her case, Little succeeded in her defense that she used deadly force to resist sexual assault and was acquitted. Gary Tyler was finally released in April 2016 after 41 years in prison. During the 1970’s, it was a sad time for her in many ways. Her family experienced illnesses. She and her husband had stomach ulcers for years. They were both hospitalized. She had fame and constant speaking engagements. Yet, she wasn’t a wealthy woman. She donated most of the money from speaking to civil rights causes. She lived on her staff salary and her husband’s pension. Medical bills and time missed from work caused financial strain. That is why she received aid from church groups and admirers. Her husband died of throat cancer on August 19, 1977. Her brother and only sibling died of cancer that November. Her personal ordeals caused her to work with her family more. She learned from a newspaper of the death of Fannie Lou Hamer, once a close friend. Parks suffered two broken bones in a fall on an icy sidewalk, an injury which caused considerable and recurring pain. She decided to move with her mother into an apartment for senior citizens. There she nursed her mother Leona through the final stages of cancer and geriatric dementia until she died in 1979 at the age of 92.
In 1992, Rosa Parks published “Rosa Parks: My Story.” This book was an autobiography that was geared to younger readers. It shows her life leading to her decision to keep her seat on the bus. Years later in 1995, she published Quiet Strength. This book was her memoir, which focused on her faith. At the age of 81, she was robbed and assaulted in her home in central Detroit on August 30, 1994. The assailant, Joseph Skipper, broke down the door but claimed he had chased away an intruder. He requested a reward and when Parks paid him, he demanded more. Parks refused and he attacked her. Hurt and badly shaken, Parks called a friend, who called the police. A neighborhood manhunt led to Skipper's capture and reported beating. Parks was treated at Detroit Receiving Hospital for facial injuries and swelling on the right side of her face. Parks said about the attack on her by the African-American man, "Many gains have been made ... But as you can see, at this time we still have a long way to go." Skipper was sentenced to 8 to 15 years and was transferred to prison in another state for his own safety. She had anxiety. So, she moved into Riverfront Towers. This was a secure high rise apartment building. Learning of Parks' move, Little Caesars owner Mike Ilitch offered to pay for her housing expenses for as long as necessary.
In 1994, the Ku Klux Klan applied to sponsor a portion of United States Interstate 55 in St. Louis County and Jefferson County, Missouri, near St. Louis, for cleanup (which allowed them to have signs stating that this section of highway was maintained by the organization). Since the state could not refuse the KKK's sponsorship, the Missouri legislature voted to name the highway section the "Rosa Parks Highway". When asked how she felt about this honor, she is reported to have commented, "It is always nice to be thought of." In 1999, Parks filmed a cameo appearance for the television series Touched by an Angel. It was her last appearance on film; health problems made her increasingly an invalid. In 2002, Rosa Parks received an eviction notice from her $1800 per month apartment due to nonpayment of rent. She had age related physical and mental decline, so she had difficulty paying for her financial affairs. Her rent was paid from a collection taken by Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit. When her rent became delinquent and her impending eviction was highly publicized in 2004, executives of the ownership company announced they had forgiven the back rent and would allow Parks, by then 91 and in extremely poor health, to live rent free in the building for the remainder of her life. Elaine Steele, who manages the nonprofit Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute, told the newspaper that Parks gets proper care and eviction notices were sent in error in 2002. Her heirs and various interest organizations alleged at the time that her financial affairs had been mismanaged. During the later years of Rosa Parks’ life, she continued to live her life.
By Timothy
In a telephone interview with CNN on October 24, 2005, Conyers recalled, "You treated her with deference because she was so quiet, so serene — just a very special person ... There was only one Rosa Parks." Rosa Parks did much of the daily constituent work for Conyers. She focused on socio-economic issues like welfare, education, job discrimination, and affordable housing. Rosa Parks visited schools, hospitals, senior citizen facilities, and other community meetings. She kept Conyers grounded in community concerns and activism. Rosa Parks continued to be involved in civil rights activism during the mid-1960’s. She traveled to support the Selma to Montgomery Marches, the Freedom Now Party, and the Lowndes County Freedom Organization. She befriended Malcolm X, who she regarded as a personal hero. Rosa Parks was concerned about housing issues like other Detroit black human beings. She lived in Virginia Park, which has been damaged by highway construction and urban renewal. By 1962, policies caused the destruction of 10,000 structures in Detroit. 43,096 people were displaced. 70 percent of them were African Americans. Rosa Parks lived about a mile from the epicenter of the 1967 Detroit rebellion. She considered housing discrimination a major reason on why the rebellion took place in the first place. After the rebellion, Rosa Parks worked with members of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and the Republic of New Afrika. She wanted to expose the police brutality in Detroit. She served on a “people’s tribunal” on August 30, 1967. This investigated the killing of three young men by the police during the 1967 rebellion. This was the Algiers Motel incident. She created the Virginia Park district council to help rebuild the area. The council helped to build the only black owned shopping center in the country. Rosa Parks worked in the Black Power Movement. She attended the Philadelphia Black Power conference, and the Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana. She also supported and visited the Black Panther school in Oakland.
During the 1970’s, she worked in the prison rights movement. She wanted cases of self-defense to be worked out. She helped found the Detroit chapter of the Joann Little Defense Committee. Rosa Parks supported the Wilmington 10, the RNA-11, and Gary Tyler. Following national outcry around her case, Little succeeded in her defense that she used deadly force to resist sexual assault and was acquitted. Gary Tyler was finally released in April 2016 after 41 years in prison. During the 1970’s, it was a sad time for her in many ways. Her family experienced illnesses. She and her husband had stomach ulcers for years. They were both hospitalized. She had fame and constant speaking engagements. Yet, she wasn’t a wealthy woman. She donated most of the money from speaking to civil rights causes. She lived on her staff salary and her husband’s pension. Medical bills and time missed from work caused financial strain. That is why she received aid from church groups and admirers. Her husband died of throat cancer on August 19, 1977. Her brother and only sibling died of cancer that November. Her personal ordeals caused her to work with her family more. She learned from a newspaper of the death of Fannie Lou Hamer, once a close friend. Parks suffered two broken bones in a fall on an icy sidewalk, an injury which caused considerable and recurring pain. She decided to move with her mother into an apartment for senior citizens. There she nursed her mother Leona through the final stages of cancer and geriatric dementia until she died in 1979 at the age of 92.
In 1992, Rosa Parks published “Rosa Parks: My Story.” This book was an autobiography that was geared to younger readers. It shows her life leading to her decision to keep her seat on the bus. Years later in 1995, she published Quiet Strength. This book was her memoir, which focused on her faith. At the age of 81, she was robbed and assaulted in her home in central Detroit on August 30, 1994. The assailant, Joseph Skipper, broke down the door but claimed he had chased away an intruder. He requested a reward and when Parks paid him, he demanded more. Parks refused and he attacked her. Hurt and badly shaken, Parks called a friend, who called the police. A neighborhood manhunt led to Skipper's capture and reported beating. Parks was treated at Detroit Receiving Hospital for facial injuries and swelling on the right side of her face. Parks said about the attack on her by the African-American man, "Many gains have been made ... But as you can see, at this time we still have a long way to go." Skipper was sentenced to 8 to 15 years and was transferred to prison in another state for his own safety. She had anxiety. So, she moved into Riverfront Towers. This was a secure high rise apartment building. Learning of Parks' move, Little Caesars owner Mike Ilitch offered to pay for her housing expenses for as long as necessary.
In 1994, the Ku Klux Klan applied to sponsor a portion of United States Interstate 55 in St. Louis County and Jefferson County, Missouri, near St. Louis, for cleanup (which allowed them to have signs stating that this section of highway was maintained by the organization). Since the state could not refuse the KKK's sponsorship, the Missouri legislature voted to name the highway section the "Rosa Parks Highway". When asked how she felt about this honor, she is reported to have commented, "It is always nice to be thought of." In 1999, Parks filmed a cameo appearance for the television series Touched by an Angel. It was her last appearance on film; health problems made her increasingly an invalid. In 2002, Rosa Parks received an eviction notice from her $1800 per month apartment due to nonpayment of rent. She had age related physical and mental decline, so she had difficulty paying for her financial affairs. Her rent was paid from a collection taken by Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit. When her rent became delinquent and her impending eviction was highly publicized in 2004, executives of the ownership company announced they had forgiven the back rent and would allow Parks, by then 91 and in extremely poor health, to live rent free in the building for the remainder of her life. Elaine Steele, who manages the nonprofit Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute, told the newspaper that Parks gets proper care and eviction notices were sent in error in 2002. Her heirs and various interest organizations alleged at the time that her financial affairs had been mismanaged. During the later years of Rosa Parks’ life, she continued to live her life.
By Timothy
Thursday, July 27, 2017
More News
https://draxe.com/benefits-of-exercise/
https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/cia-torture-psychologists-compare-themselves-nazi-poison-gas-manufacturer-defense
https://blacksouthernbelle.com/6-black-owned-bed-breakfasts-in-the-south/
http://makeyourbodywork.com/benefits-of-morning-exercise/
https://www.scribd.com/document/310206264/Life-in-Black-America-in-the-21st-Century
http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-vietnam-war/home/
https://blackamericaweb.com/2016/11/23/little-known-black-history-fact-charles-p-bailey-sr/
http://invisiblewarriorsfilm.com/
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Richmond Historical Information
By 1900, Richmond’s population grew to 85,050 people. There was the theater mogul Jake Wells. He built many vaudeville theaters and opera houses in Richmond during the early 20th century. There were other theater and opera houses which started to open on what became “Theater Row.” They included The Bijou, the Colonial Theater, and The Lyric Opera House. In 1903, the African American businesswoman and financier Maggie L. Walker chartered St. Luke Penny Savings Bank. She served as its first President. She was the first woman (of any race) bank President of America. Today, the bank is called Consolidated Bank and Trust Company. It is the oldest surviving African American bank in the United States. For over 250 years, the James River divided Richmond on the north bank from its sister, independent city of Manchester. It is located on the south bank. There was the issue of toll bridges over the James River among the Manchester and Richmond residents. By 1910, Manchester agreed to a political consolidation with the much larger independent city of Richmond. Richmond's better-known name was used for both areas as it contained the location of Virginia's state capital. Key features of the consolidation agreement were requirements that a "free bridge" across the James River and a separate courthouse in Manchester be maintained indefinitely. Instead of a barrier between neighboring cities, under the consolidation the James River became the centerpiece of the expanded Richmond. Although Manchester is now defunct as an independent city, vestiges of the name can be found in the Manchester Bridge, Manchester Slave Trail, and the Manchester Courthouse. In 1914, Richmond was the headquarters of the Fifth District of the Federal Reserve Bank. It was selected, because of the city’s geographic location. It was the place with importance as a commercial and financial center. It has transportation and communication facilities. Virginia had a leading regional role in the banking business. The bank was originally located near the federal courts downtown and moved to a new headquarters building near the Capitol in 1922 (today the Supreme Court of Virginia building), and finally to its present location overlooking the James River in 1978.
In 1919, (or at the end of World War I), Philip Morris was established in the city. Richmond was in the broadcasting era by late 1925 when WRVA (or known originally as Edgeworth Tobacco Station and owned by Larus & Brothers) went on air. There were white ballad singers and black gospel quartets who were popular on the radio during that time. Richmond back then knew of its southern roots. Entertainment locations grew in Richmond by the 1920’s. In 1926, the Mosque (now called the Altria Theater) was constructed by the Shriners as their Acca Temple Shrine, and since then, many of America's greatest entertainers have appeared on its stage beneath its towering minarets and desert murals. Loew's Theater was built in 1927, and was described as, "the ultimate in 1920s movie palace fantasy design." It later suffered a decline in popularity as the movie-going population moved to the suburbs, but was restored during the 1980's and renamed as the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts. In 1928, the Byrd Theater was built by local architect Fred Bishop on Westhampton Avenue (now called Cary Street) in a residential area of the city. To this day, the Byrd remains in operation as one of the last of the great movie palaces of the 1920's and 1930's. In 1926, the Carillon in Byrd Park was constructed as a memorial to the World War I dead. The Carillon still towers above Byrd Park in the city. In 1927, the dedication of Byrd Airfield (now Richmond International Airport) included a visit by Charles Lindbergh. The airport was named after Richard E. Byrd, the famous American polar explorer. The John Marshall Hotel opened its doors in October 1929.
The tobacco industry grew. This was the industry that helped Richmond recover from the Great Depression. Within 5 years, Richmond’s economy bounced back. Richmond attracted businesses relocating from other parts of the country as one of the northernmost cities of the right to work states. The population of the city had grown to 255,426 by 1936, and the value of new construction to the region was 250% over that of 1935. By 1938, Reynolds Metals moved its executive office from New York City to Richmond. By the end of World War II in 1945, more than 350,000,000 pounds of war supplies were being shipped through the Defense General Supply Center, located nine miles (14 km) south of the city. 1946 marked a crucial turning point for Richmond’s economy. During that year, the highest level of business activity was recorded in the history of the city. Within one year, Richmond was the fastest growing industrial center in the United States.
From 1945 to 1960, Richmond continued to grow. In 1948, Oliver Hill was the first black person elected to the city council of Richmond since the Reconstruction era. In 1948, WTVR-TV or the south’s “first television station” existed to broadcast in Richmond. Roads improved in the early20th century. Streetcars soon disappeared after World War II as they couldn’t compete with automobiles and buses. The Richmond-Petersburg area's interurban services were gone by 1939. The last streetcars ran in 1949 on the Highland Park line when they were replaced by buses. The National Auto Trails system grew into a national network of highways. The area was served by the Davis Memorial Highway or the busy north-south corridor in central Virginia shared by U.S. 1 and U.S. Route 301 through the cities of Richmond, Colonial Heights, and Petersburg. It crossed the James River on the Robert E. Lee Memorial Bridge. After World War II, with only four traffic lanes and long stretches of undivided roadway, the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway became a major area of traffic congestion, as well as the site of occasional spectacular and deadly head-on collisions. The 1952, the Wilton House museum opened up. In 1954, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County is decided as part of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling (officially overturned racial segregation in U.S. public schools). The Davis case was the work of Richmond civil rights attorneys Oliver Hill and Spottswood William Robinson III who took on the state's law firm of Hunton, Williams, Gay, Powell and Gibson, also based in Richmond. In 1955, VMFA, under the leadership of Leslie Cheek Jr, constructs a 500-seat proscenium stage known as the "Virginia Museum Theater" to feature the arts of drama, acting, design, music, and dance alongside the static arts of the galleries. In 1955, prior to the creation of the U.S. Interstate Highway System, the Virginia General Assembly created the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike Authority as a state agency to administer the new Turnpike of the same name. The new toll road was planned with only 15 exits, and most of these were well away from the highly developed commercial areas along parallel U.S. 301. Following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling the Byrd Organization (in 1956) passed the Stanley plan to advance Massive resistance policy of segregated schools. Some of the intellectual framework for these laws was due to forceful editorials from Richmond News Leader editor James J. Kilpatrick. Effects of these policies would affect the Richmond area for years, especially in rural areas like New Kent and Prince Edward County. The Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike opened in 1958, and soon was granted the Interstate 95 designation in the Richmond area, splitting into Interstates 85 and 95 at Petersburg.
New Developments came from 1960 to the year of 2000. Richmond had natural gas in 1950. Energy demands were desired to be met. By 1952, cigarettes production reached an all-time high for Richmond at 110 billion per year. There was the huge downtown boom from 1963 to 1965. This came to cause the construction of more than 700 buildings in the city. By 1968, Virginia Commonwealth University was created by the merger of the Medical College of Virginia with the Richmond Professional Institute. The Richmond Coliseum opened in 1971. In 1972, Richmond experienced severe flooding. Hurricane Agnes dumped 16 inches of rain on central Virginia. The rain flooded the James River to 6.5 feet. This was over the original 200 year old record. In 1984, Richmond completed the Diamond ballpark and the Richmond Braves or an AAA baseball team, was created for the Atlanta Braves. The Richmond Braves started to play in that year. In 1985, Richmond saw the opening of the 6th Street Marketplace. This is a downtown festival marketplace which was a solution to the downtown area’s urban erosion. The project did fail and the shopping center was closed and demolished in 2004. In 1990, Richmond native L. Douglas Wilder (the grandson of slaves) was sworn in as Governor of Virginia. Douglas Wilder was the first elected African American governor of any state in United States history. In 1995, a multimillion dollar floodwall was complete. This was down to protect the city and the Shockoe Bottom businesses from the rising waters of the James River. Also during 1995, a statue of Richmond native and tennis star Arthur Ashe was added to the famed series of statues on Monument Avenue. Notwithstanding objections of purists in the country, Ashe was added to a group of statues that previously had consisted primarily of prominent Confederate military figures (we know that the Confederacy was heinous and evil), as a sign of the changing nature of the city's population. Richmond continued to grow well into the 21st century.
By Timothy
In 1919, (or at the end of World War I), Philip Morris was established in the city. Richmond was in the broadcasting era by late 1925 when WRVA (or known originally as Edgeworth Tobacco Station and owned by Larus & Brothers) went on air. There were white ballad singers and black gospel quartets who were popular on the radio during that time. Richmond back then knew of its southern roots. Entertainment locations grew in Richmond by the 1920’s. In 1926, the Mosque (now called the Altria Theater) was constructed by the Shriners as their Acca Temple Shrine, and since then, many of America's greatest entertainers have appeared on its stage beneath its towering minarets and desert murals. Loew's Theater was built in 1927, and was described as, "the ultimate in 1920s movie palace fantasy design." It later suffered a decline in popularity as the movie-going population moved to the suburbs, but was restored during the 1980's and renamed as the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts. In 1928, the Byrd Theater was built by local architect Fred Bishop on Westhampton Avenue (now called Cary Street) in a residential area of the city. To this day, the Byrd remains in operation as one of the last of the great movie palaces of the 1920's and 1930's. In 1926, the Carillon in Byrd Park was constructed as a memorial to the World War I dead. The Carillon still towers above Byrd Park in the city. In 1927, the dedication of Byrd Airfield (now Richmond International Airport) included a visit by Charles Lindbergh. The airport was named after Richard E. Byrd, the famous American polar explorer. The John Marshall Hotel opened its doors in October 1929.
The tobacco industry grew. This was the industry that helped Richmond recover from the Great Depression. Within 5 years, Richmond’s economy bounced back. Richmond attracted businesses relocating from other parts of the country as one of the northernmost cities of the right to work states. The population of the city had grown to 255,426 by 1936, and the value of new construction to the region was 250% over that of 1935. By 1938, Reynolds Metals moved its executive office from New York City to Richmond. By the end of World War II in 1945, more than 350,000,000 pounds of war supplies were being shipped through the Defense General Supply Center, located nine miles (14 km) south of the city. 1946 marked a crucial turning point for Richmond’s economy. During that year, the highest level of business activity was recorded in the history of the city. Within one year, Richmond was the fastest growing industrial center in the United States.
From 1945 to 1960, Richmond continued to grow. In 1948, Oliver Hill was the first black person elected to the city council of Richmond since the Reconstruction era. In 1948, WTVR-TV or the south’s “first television station” existed to broadcast in Richmond. Roads improved in the early20th century. Streetcars soon disappeared after World War II as they couldn’t compete with automobiles and buses. The Richmond-Petersburg area's interurban services were gone by 1939. The last streetcars ran in 1949 on the Highland Park line when they were replaced by buses. The National Auto Trails system grew into a national network of highways. The area was served by the Davis Memorial Highway or the busy north-south corridor in central Virginia shared by U.S. 1 and U.S. Route 301 through the cities of Richmond, Colonial Heights, and Petersburg. It crossed the James River on the Robert E. Lee Memorial Bridge. After World War II, with only four traffic lanes and long stretches of undivided roadway, the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway became a major area of traffic congestion, as well as the site of occasional spectacular and deadly head-on collisions. The 1952, the Wilton House museum opened up. In 1954, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County is decided as part of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling (officially overturned racial segregation in U.S. public schools). The Davis case was the work of Richmond civil rights attorneys Oliver Hill and Spottswood William Robinson III who took on the state's law firm of Hunton, Williams, Gay, Powell and Gibson, also based in Richmond. In 1955, VMFA, under the leadership of Leslie Cheek Jr, constructs a 500-seat proscenium stage known as the "Virginia Museum Theater" to feature the arts of drama, acting, design, music, and dance alongside the static arts of the galleries. In 1955, prior to the creation of the U.S. Interstate Highway System, the Virginia General Assembly created the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike Authority as a state agency to administer the new Turnpike of the same name. The new toll road was planned with only 15 exits, and most of these were well away from the highly developed commercial areas along parallel U.S. 301. Following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling the Byrd Organization (in 1956) passed the Stanley plan to advance Massive resistance policy of segregated schools. Some of the intellectual framework for these laws was due to forceful editorials from Richmond News Leader editor James J. Kilpatrick. Effects of these policies would affect the Richmond area for years, especially in rural areas like New Kent and Prince Edward County. The Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike opened in 1958, and soon was granted the Interstate 95 designation in the Richmond area, splitting into Interstates 85 and 95 at Petersburg.
New Developments came from 1960 to the year of 2000. Richmond had natural gas in 1950. Energy demands were desired to be met. By 1952, cigarettes production reached an all-time high for Richmond at 110 billion per year. There was the huge downtown boom from 1963 to 1965. This came to cause the construction of more than 700 buildings in the city. By 1968, Virginia Commonwealth University was created by the merger of the Medical College of Virginia with the Richmond Professional Institute. The Richmond Coliseum opened in 1971. In 1972, Richmond experienced severe flooding. Hurricane Agnes dumped 16 inches of rain on central Virginia. The rain flooded the James River to 6.5 feet. This was over the original 200 year old record. In 1984, Richmond completed the Diamond ballpark and the Richmond Braves or an AAA baseball team, was created for the Atlanta Braves. The Richmond Braves started to play in that year. In 1985, Richmond saw the opening of the 6th Street Marketplace. This is a downtown festival marketplace which was a solution to the downtown area’s urban erosion. The project did fail and the shopping center was closed and demolished in 2004. In 1990, Richmond native L. Douglas Wilder (the grandson of slaves) was sworn in as Governor of Virginia. Douglas Wilder was the first elected African American governor of any state in United States history. In 1995, a multimillion dollar floodwall was complete. This was down to protect the city and the Shockoe Bottom businesses from the rising waters of the James River. Also during 1995, a statue of Richmond native and tennis star Arthur Ashe was added to the famed series of statues on Monument Avenue. Notwithstanding objections of purists in the country, Ashe was added to a group of statues that previously had consisted primarily of prominent Confederate military figures (we know that the Confederacy was heinous and evil), as a sign of the changing nature of the city's population. Richmond continued to grow well into the 21st century.
By Timothy
Tuesday, July 25, 2017
A Lesson on Strength and Power from Bruce Lee
FROM BRUCE LEE'S BOOK, "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do" (Page 45-46). Bruce's explanation about Power.
POWER
To be accurate, the striking or throwing skills should be executed from a body base that possesses enough strength to maintain adequate balance during the action.
To appropriately incorporate momentum with mechanical advantage, neural impulses are sent to the working muscle to bring a sufficient number of fibers into action at precisely the right time, while impulses to the antagonistic muscles are reduced to lessen the resistance - all acting to improve efficiency and to make the best use of available power.
When approaching an unfamiliar task, the athlete tends to overmobilize his muscular forces, exerting more effort than required. This is a lack of "knowledge" by the reflective neuromuscular coordinating system.
A powerful athlete is not a strong athlete, but one who exert his strength quickly. Since power equals force times speed, if the athlete learns to make faster movements he increases his power, even though the contractile pulling strength of his muscles remains unchanged. Thus, a smaller man who can swing faster may hit as hard or as far as the heavier man who swings slowly.
The athlete who is building muscles through weight training should be very sure to work adequately on speed and flexibility at the same time. Combined with adequate speed, flexibility and endurance, high levels of strength lead to excellence in most sports. In combat, without the prior attributes, a strong man will be like the bull with its colossal strength futilely pursuing the matador or like a low-geared truck chasing a rabbit.
POWER
To be accurate, the striking or throwing skills should be executed from a body base that possesses enough strength to maintain adequate balance during the action.
To appropriately incorporate momentum with mechanical advantage, neural impulses are sent to the working muscle to bring a sufficient number of fibers into action at precisely the right time, while impulses to the antagonistic muscles are reduced to lessen the resistance - all acting to improve efficiency and to make the best use of available power.
When approaching an unfamiliar task, the athlete tends to overmobilize his muscular forces, exerting more effort than required. This is a lack of "knowledge" by the reflective neuromuscular coordinating system.
A powerful athlete is not a strong athlete, but one who exert his strength quickly. Since power equals force times speed, if the athlete learns to make faster movements he increases his power, even though the contractile pulling strength of his muscles remains unchanged. Thus, a smaller man who can swing faster may hit as hard or as far as the heavier man who swings slowly.
The athlete who is building muscles through weight training should be very sure to work adequately on speed and flexibility at the same time. Combined with adequate speed, flexibility and endurance, high levels of strength lead to excellence in most sports. In combat, without the prior attributes, a strong man will be like the bull with its colossal strength futilely pursuing the matador or like a low-geared truck chasing a rabbit.
Monday, July 24, 2017
Crossroads: The 1967 Newark Riots
http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/page/newark_riots_50th_anniversary.html#incart_m-rpt-2
http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2017/07/newark_marks_50th_anniversary_of_riots_with_prayer.html
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2017/07/how_newark_has_changed_since_1960.html
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/national/unpublished-black-history/newark-summer-riots-of-1967
Historical Research
After the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., many people rejected nonviolence as a way of life. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense grew into a higher level and membership radically increased by 1968. On the night of April 6, 1968, the Black Panthers had a shootout with the Oakland police. In this shoot out, Black Panther member Bobby Hutton was murdered by the police. Eldridge Cleaver was with him and Cleaver was injured. According to Cleaver and the deposition of Officer Eugene Jennings (or one of the 2 black police officers who witnessed Hutton’s murder), Cleaver and Hutton was brutalized by the police. The officer said that one officer stepped forward and shot Hutton in the head. More than 2,500 people attended his funeral at Ephesians Church of God in Christ on Alcatraz Avenue in Berkeley, California. In the midst of police brutality and economic oppression, the BPP continued to have a huge following back then. The FBI and J. Edgar Hoover used COINTELPRO and other policies to try to suppress the BPP. Black Panthers spread across America. Many were arrested on trumpeted up charges. The Seattle BPP headquarters were raided in July of 1968. Captain Aaron Dixon of the Seattle BPP and Panther Curtis Harris were arrested for grand larceny. Both men were found not guilty later on. Protests continued to try to make Huey P. Newton free. The Black Panther Party also formed alliances with non-black organizations like the Brown Berets and white progressives. Black Panthers were shot at, harassed, and abused of their rights in Oakland, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc. As the 1968 election existed, Chairman Bobby Seale and Captain David Hilliard spoke to a crowd of 5,000 across the street from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The Panthers also supported international proletarian solidarity. In other words, they wanted poor and oppressed peoples to be free globally. They also explicitly opposed the Vietnam War, which was one of the greatest things that they did. The BPP had imperfections. Many Panthers were sexists, some were violent against women (including women Panther members), and some lacked a class analysis (as you have to have both racial justice and an end to capitalist exploitation at the same time in order for liberation to come). Communications Secretary Kathleen Cleaver spoke nationwide during this time as well. She promoted black liberation and the beauty of our black African features. 1969 would be the start of the Free Breakfast Children Program or the FBCP. It first started in January of 1969 in St. Augustine’s Church in Oakland, California. They helped to feed children free food, they helped to educate children, and to the Panthers it was a socialist display of a community service to humanity. Also, they existed in response to the lax funding from the War on Poverty’s programs involving feeding poor children. The Breakfast program was very successful. Los Angeles Black Panther captain Bunchy Carter and John Huggins were murdered in Campbell Hall on the UCLA campus on January 17, 1969. There was a dispute between the Panthers and the cultural nationalist Us organization (which was exacerbated by the FBI). Black Panthers Seale and Masai Hewitt came into the Scandinavian countries (of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. These nations have social democratic policies) as a way to promote anti-war, pro-liberation views. Bobby Seale was part of the Chicago 8 or those who protested the DNC in Chicago back in 1968. Seale was gagged in trial. Early in the course of the trial, Black Panther Party activist Bobby Seale was denied his constitutional right to counsel of his choice and was thereafter illegally denied his right to defend himself. Later, he was released from prison in 1972. His charges (of inciting violence and a riot in Chicago) were serious. Many Panther headquarters in America continued to be bombed.
One of the most tragic events of Black Panther Party history was the murder of Fred Hampton in December of 1969. Hamptons’ murder was so unjust that people from across the political spectrum condemned his murder. Fred Hampton was a great leader. He was born in Summit, Illinois on August 30, 1948. He was a natural leader. He worked in the NAACP. He graduated from high school. He worked in his community and knew of the great importance of leadership. He was the greatest Black Panther member of Chicago. Fred Hampton fought to organize gang truces in Chicago. He was publicly in favor of socialism and revolutionary change. He condemned racism and imperialism. Brother Fred Hampton fought for justice. He wanted black people, who were improvised in Chicago, to have their rights. He formed a class conscious, multiracial alliance among the Black Panther Party, the Young Patriots Organizations, and the Young Lords. They met in Lincoln Party. The SDS, the Blackstone Rangers, the Brown Berets, and the Red Guard allied with the BPP too. The truce came about in May of 1969. The FBI monitored Fred Hampton constantly since 1967. We know that William O’Neal was an informant (he committed suicide in 1990). O’Neal told the Chicago police and the FBI about Hampton’s whereabouts and where he lived. O’Neal was Hampton’s bodyguard. O’Neal tried to instigate tensions among the BPP and the Rangers. On December 4, 1969, the Chicago police executed Fred Hampton. He was asleep. The raid was organized by the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Edward Hanrahan (who was criticized by Fred Hampton). Hanrahan had recently been the subject of a large amount of public criticism by Hampton, who had made speeches about how Hanrahan's talk about a "war on gangs" was really rhetoric used to enable him to carry out a "war on black youth.” Other Black Panther members were arrested including Hampton’s pregnant girlfriend. Her name is Deborah Johnson. Mark Clark was murdered too by the Chicago police in that 1969 shooting. Black Panthers, progressive groups, and civil rights organizations all condemned the murder. Many called for an independent investigation. More people condemned this police repression like Reverend C. T. Vivian and others. Nearly every shot into the building was shot by the police. His funeral was met by about 5,000 people including Ralph Abernathy and Jesse Jackson. The families of Hampton and Clark had to settle a lawsuit with the government for $1.85 million. December 4th is Fred Hampton Day in Chicago. RIP Brother Fred Hampton. The Black Panthers grew in New York City too. The Panther 21 were falsely accused of planning to blow up buildings in NYC. Assata Shakur was part of this group. The Black Panthers continued to grow by 1971 to reach its peak. After 1971, the Black Panther Party was split among a dispute among Huey P. Newton and Cleaver over philosophies and tactics. Many famous Black Panther leaders who were women include Kathleen Cleaver, Angela Davis, Erika Huggins, Assata Shakur, Elaine Brown, and other people. The Black Panther Party’s anti-capitalist, pro-black liberation views inspired many back then and today.
Richard Nixon was President from 1969 to 1974. His two term Presidency was controversial and antithetical to progressive Black Americans. Early on, he tried to gain some black support under the guise of ‘black capitalism.’ This was the philosophy that investments in capitalist enterprises in the black community would end the rebellions and incorporate black Americans into the mainstream of American society. Many black conservatives supported Nixon even former CORE and conservative civil rights leaders supported him. James Farmer was elected as assistant secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. Nixon promoted affirmative action programs like the Philadelphia Plan. Nixon allied with Roy Wilkins (who was the Executive Secretary of the NAACP) and other people to work with him. Later, Wilkins opposed Nixon because of his policies on civil rights and on the poor. The hypocrite Agnew lectured many people on morality, but he resigned because he was involved in financial corruption. The law and order radical Spiro Agnew was his Vice President. He was the one who was former Maryland governor during the 1968 rebellions. Nixon wasn’t so apt to promote busing or the desegregation of schools. That was why Leon E. Panetta resigned to protest Nixon’s policies. Panetta was the director of civil rights for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Nixon promoted the view of New Federalism, which wanted more power sent to the states from the federal government (which is anti-New Deal). By September 1970, less than ten percent of black children were attending segregated schools. By 1971, however, tensions over desegregation surfaced in Northern cities, with angry protests over the busing of children to schools outside their neighborhood to achieve racial balance. Nixon opposed busing personally but enforced court orders requiring its use. Nixon supported the ERA. The ERA was the Equal Rights Amendment which promoted gender equality federally. Also, Richard Nixon supported the FBI’s effort to destroy the Black Panthers and progressive activist groups. Nixon declared a War on Drugs in July of 1969. Recently, the Nixon aide admitted the following: "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people," former Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman told Harper's writer Dan Baum for the April cover story published Tuesday. "You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities," Ehrlichman said. "We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did." Ehrlichman's comment (on tape Ehrlichman made racist remarks about black people and Jewish people. One sign of a demonic person is a person who hate black people or Jewish people) is the first time the war on drugs has been plainly characterized as a political assault designed to help Nixon win, and keep, the White House. The Nixon tapes proved that Richard Nixon was a bigot and an extremist. (On those tapes, he made anti-Semitic and racist commentaries). Nixon committed the bombing in Cambodia and other war crimes in Vietnam. He ended the draft, but that doesn’t justify his criminal actions in Watergate. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights criticized Nixon for his approval of delays of school desegregation. So, Richard Nixon was slicker than a person like Trump in advancing reactionary politics.
Angela Davis is a black woman who made many lasting contributions of the black freedom struggle. We know of her working hard during the 1970’s, but she fought for justice long before the 1970’s. She was part of the counterculture, the Communist Party USA, and she had close ties to the Black Panther Party too. She was born in the South in Birmingham, Alabama (in 1944). She is also a great educator, author, and social activist. During her childhood, she heard the bombing of homes in her middle class neighborhood. She traveled into New York City too. Her relatives were active in the Civil Rights Movement. Her mother was a national officer and leading organizer of the Southern Negro Youth Congress. Her name was Sallye Bell Davis. She grew up learning about communism and liberal thinking. She attended Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. She also studied the Frankfurt School philosophy of the philosopher Herbert Marcuse. Marcuse criticized capitalism, modern technology, historical materialism, and entertainment culture. He was a theorist of the New Left. Angela Davis at her core was a social activist. She attended the conference on "The Dialectics of Liberation" in 1967. The black contingent at the conference included the Trinidadian-American Kwame Ture and the British Michael X. Although moved by Carmichael's rhetoric, she was reportedly disappointed by her colleagues' Black Nationalist sentiments and their rejection of communism as a "white man's thing." The truth is that socialist thinking has existed throughout human history, especially in Africa, Europe, Asia, etc. Angela Davis was part of the Communist group called Che-Lumumba Club (an all-black branch of the Communist Party USA). Davis earned her master's degree from University of California-San Diego. She earned her doctorate in philosophy from the Humboldt University in East Berlin. She was an acting assistant professor in the philosophy department of the University of California from 1969 to 1970. Back then, Reagan was Governor and he opposed her being a professor, because she was a Communist. Back then, there was massive red baiting in America. I believe that a Communist or a non-Communist has the right to teach wherever they want to. Angela Davis was in favor of feminism and equality. The Board of Regents of the University of California, urged by then-California Governor Ronald Reagan, fired her from her $10,000 a year post in 1969 because of her membership in the Communist Party. The Board of Regents was censured by the American Association of University Professors for their failure to reappoint Davis after her teaching contract expired.
She didn’t back down. On October 20, 1969, when Judge Jerry Pacht ruled the Regents could not fire Davis solely because of her affiliation with the Communist Party, Davis resumed her post. Angela Davis supported the Soledad Brothers. She was and is a supporter of the prisoner rights movement. She condemned the prison system as inhumane, corrupt, and repugnant. On August 7, 1970, Jonathan Jackson was armed and held up and took hostage Judge Harold Haley, the prosecutor, and three female jurors as hostages. As Jackson transported the hostages and two black convicts away from the courtroom, the police began shooting at the vehicle. The judge and the three black men were killed in the melee; one of the jurors and the prosecutor were injured. Although the judge was shot in the head with a blast from the shotgun, he also suffered a chest wound from a bullet that may have been fired from outside the van. Evidence during the trial showed, however, that either could have been fatal. California authorities accused Angela Davis of giving support to Jonathan Jackson in sending him the gun to do the prison break. Hours after the judge issued the warrant on August 14, 1970, a massive attempt to locate and arrest Angela Davis began. On August 18, 1970, four days after the initial warrant was issued, the FBI director J. Edgar Hoover listed Davis on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List; she was the third woman and the 309th person to be listed. Angela Davis was a fugitive. She left California. She lived with friends’ homes and traveled into NYC. She was captured by FBI agents in a Howard Johnson Motor Lodge in New York City on October 13, 1970. Nixon congratulated the FBI on capturing Davis. She was on trial. She was found innocent by an all-white jury. She spent 16 months in jail. She once dated George Jackson. Both exchanged love letters with each other. There is no evidence that she was involved in the plot. Angela Davis was a free woman by 1972. By 1997, she publicly came out as a lesbian. To this very day, she has a love of academics and politics. She continues to speak up against the prison industrial complex, against imperialism, against xenophobia, and against many injustices. The documentary "Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners" shows the ordeals of her life. I have the DVD at my home and it's a great, superb documentary. Angela Davis spoke out for a long time in favor of black liberation. The struggle for black freedom continues.
By Timothy
Sunday, July 23, 2017
News
http://blackgirllonghair.com/2015/10/16-photos-that-show-the-real-work-of-the-black-women-riveters/
https://kathmanduk2.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/black-women-in-america-black-women-american-women-in-world-war-ii/amp/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/125608277084623715/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/187673509444811727/
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/07/20/geni-j20.html
https://www.scribd.com/document/306713101/Detroit
http://www.ducksters.com/science/bones.php
https://kathmanduk2.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/black-women-in-america-black-women-american-women-in-world-war-ii/amp/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/125608277084623715/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/187673509444811727/
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/07/20/geni-j20.html
https://www.scribd.com/document/306713101/Detroit
http://www.ducksters.com/science/bones.php
Saturday, July 22, 2017
The 50th year Anniversary of the Detroit rebellion
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/07/21/intr-j21.html
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/07/22/1967-j22.html
http://revcom.us/a/v19/910-19/915/det67.htm
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/07/24/riot-j24.html
https://socialistworker.org/2017/07/12/the-speech-the-racists-didnt-want-you-to-hear
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2017/07/july_1967_a_declaration_of_war.html
http://www.wxyz.com/news/state/play-to-tell-of-1967-detroit-riots-from-female-perspective_69855017
http://www.wxyz.com/news/detroit1967/fmr-police-chief-ike-mckinnon-looks-back-50-years-after-detroit-riots
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2017/07/july_1967_a_declaration_of_war.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Detroit_riot#Sunday.2C_July_23
_____________________________
Today is the weekend of the 50th year anniversary of the rebellion of Detroit. The rebellion started on July 23, 1967.
I wasn't born during that time, but my parents were alive then. It happened during the post-World War II boom (from 1945-1973), which many middle class people had economic growth while the poorest of Americans still suffered a great deal. It was an uprising and one of the most serious uprisings in American history. The rebellion was very large and it was suppressed by the police, the State National Guard, and U.S. Army troops. It was caused by many factors.
For decades before 1967, the Great Migration caused thousands of black people from the South to come into Detroit. They wanted economic opportunities and escape from Southern tyranny (filled with lynchings, murder, violence, and discrimination). Yet, many of them found in Detroit: de facto segregation, lax educational opportunities, dilapidated housing, discrimination, and police brutality. Police brutality existed nationwide from NYC to Los Angeles. Detroit had it too. America was in a crossroads. Many young people wanted more radical action to end pernicious injustices in the world. By the early 1960's, the black middle class in Detroit grew into a great level, because more black residents joined unions and jobs with adequate benefits. The economic burden of the Vietnam War by the late 1960's started to restrict investments in poor communities. The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Acts were passed and they were great, progressive legislation, but economic inequality wasn't truly addressed by the federal government. By the late 1960's, housing and racial discrimination were rampant in Detroit. City schools were underfunded as compared to the suburbs just before the rebellion.
That is why a diversity of black people in Detroit from integrationalists to Black Nationalists wanted real change in their lives. Incidents of racist terror continued in Detroit well into the 1960's. Danny Thomas was a black Army veteran and he was killed by a racist white gang just before the rebellion. Danny Thomas was a courageous man who tried to protect his pregnant wife from the sexual advances of the racist gang. She later lost the baby. The police refused to arrest the gang. The incident was kept out of the major newspapers until the city's Black newspaper made it a banner headline. The rebellion of July of 1967 started by the police trying to shut down a blind pig. A blind pig is an unregistered club. Many black Vietnam War veterans were in the club. Then, the crowd increased and the rebellion started. It was long spanning many days. It was bloody. The result was 43 dead, 1,189 injured, over 7,200 arrests, about 5,000 people were left homeless, and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed. Hundreds of people were wounded. Military tanks roamed the streets. Innocent people were killed. There was the Algiers Hotel incident where many innocent people were assaulted and killed by authorities. Businesses were destroyed. People were confused. Men, women, and children were displaced of their homes. Many people, who were arrested, were viciously assaulted by the police. 12th Street (in the Virginia Park area of Detroit) is a major focus point of the black community in Detroit. From Albert B. Cleage, Jr. to Malcolm X, Detroit has a long history in the black freedom movement.
The result of the rebellion was an exodus of many people from Detroit along with the acceleration of deindustralization for decades to come. For decades, Detroit's population declined and there was the bankruptcy of Detroit during the 21st century. Also, there has been many activists in Detroit fighting for a new, better Detroit to this very day. Their efforts should be acknowledged and respected. The rebellions of the 1960's represented how American capitalism was fallible (in the sense of it claiming to be for the rights of people domestically while funding reactionary foreign policy actions overseas) and the issues of class oppression and racial oppression must be addressed if we are to be in the Promised Land of justice for real. Even the Kerner report outlined that economic oppression and racism were contributing factors to the rebellion. Today, we see the growth of the middle class and the rich.
We see also the growth of the economic inequality and militarism in the world. The rebellions of the 1960's was exploited by the powers that be, so they could make militarized more of the local police, to expand the mass incarceration state (under the guise of "law and order" which reactionaries use all of the time), and to use other evil methods of suppression. The Detroit rebellion caused the increased military involvement in the lives of suppressing future rebellions. Also, Coleman Young was soon mayor of Detroit. He was the first black mayor of Detroit.
The Detroit rebellion was a reminder that hurting, oppressed people don't need scapegoating. They need adequate resources, compassion, and respect to achieve their own aspirations in life. Still, Detroit residents are resilient and they a'int backing down. They are our Brothers and our Sisters.
By Timothy
More News
https://urbanintellectuals.com/2016/11/21/americas-first-black-female-prisoner-war-denied-ptsd-treatment-u-s-army/
http://btnomb.com/white-officers-shoot-kill-pregnant-black-woman-reports-burglary/
https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/7/21/16005068/confederate-hbo-game-of-thrones-new-show
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sUSpjD04MC8J:www.vernonjohns.org/snuffy1186/cortmrtl.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
http://www.angelfire.com/hi5/interactive_learning/america/Unit_6_research_activities.htm
http://mrjohansen.pbworks.com/w/page/78633398/American%20Revolution%20Maps
http://btnomb.com/white-officers-shoot-kill-pregnant-black-woman-reports-burglary/
https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/7/21/16005068/confederate-hbo-game-of-thrones-new-show
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sUSpjD04MC8J:www.vernonjohns.org/snuffy1186/cortmrtl.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
http://www.angelfire.com/hi5/interactive_learning/america/Unit_6_research_activities.htm
http://mrjohansen.pbworks.com/w/page/78633398/American%20Revolution%20Maps
Friday, July 21, 2017
Friday Information in late July of 2017
The myth of the West is pernicious and influential today. The myth of the West involves the romanticization of the frontier West. It involves many things. It involve the myths that cowboys and gold miners had a quaint experience, that the frontier was filled with little violence, that most of the Western heroes were white males, that cowboys were totally independent without any assistance, that tons of people of the West were filled with happiness plus joy, and the racist myth that the Native Americans were the enemies of frontiers people. Another myth was that the land of the frontier was unlimited and that anyone could just go over there and conquer it without restraint. The mythical image of the American West has been promoted not only by movies. It has been shown by books, magazines, and other forms of media from the 19th century to this very day during the early 21st century. Many people criticized Frederick Jackson Turner’s interpretation of the American West. Turner published the “The Significance of the Frontier in American History" in 1893. The literature was promoted before the American Historical Association in Chicago during the World’s Columbian Exhibition (Chicago World's Fair). His Frontier thesis was that expansion into the West caused more American democracy, a lack of interest in high culture, and violence. These characteristics in his mind was unique and American. Scholars of the New Western History, including Limerick and Richard White argue that Turner ignored gender, race and class in his work, focusing wholly on facets of American exceptionalism. The one-dimensional aspects of his work can be seen in the stereotypically male frontier myth that endures. The major myth of the West is that the West mostly was a great time of exploration and drama was kept to a minimum.
The truth about the frontier West is the opposite. Often, the West was very violent. There was racism against Mexican-Americans and African Americans. There was the massive exploitation of natural resources which cause boom and bust towns. Many Native Americans experienced discrimination, murder, and terror. Many settlers were massacred by many factions. People fought against each other massively. Also, many people in the West were progressive, opposed bigotry, and fought for justice too. So, the frontier West was complex. I am more in line with the New Western History ethos. You have to take into account of race, class, gender, the environment, and other aspects of history in order to gauge a clear, excellent picture of frontier Western existence. Scholars of the New Western History movement criticized Turner’s Frontier Thesis. These new scholars (from the 1970’s and beyond) include Patricia Nelson Limerick, Michael Allen, Richard Slotkin and Richard White. They have disputed the value of Turner's thesis. They also focused on an examination of the problems of expansion; destruction of the environment, indigenous massacres, and the realities of settler lives. In essence, people want truth not myths. Journalist Samuel Lubell saw similarities between the frontier's Americanization of immigrants that Turner described and the social climbing by later immigrants in large cities as they moved to wealthier neighborhoods. He compared the effects of the railroad opening up Western lands to urban transportation systems and the automobile, and Western settlers' "land hunger" to poor city residents seeking social status. Just as the Republican party benefited from support from "old" immigrant groups that settled on frontier farms, "new" urban immigrants formed an important part of the Democratic New Deal coalition that began with Franklin Delano Roosevelt's victory in the 1932 presidential election. The real West must be shown, so this generation and future generations can understand the diverse, complex historical legacy of the frontier West.
The American frontier West has been influenced by popular culture for a long time. Art, music, novels, dance, magazines, stories, movies, television, etc. show information about the West. There are many composers that showed their voices on this issue from Aaron Copland to Arthur Farwell. The concept of the wilderness to some related to environmental issues. The mythologizing of the West has been shown by minstrel shows and music since the 1940’s. P.T. Barnum shown Native American chiefs, dances, and other exhibits in his museums. Many novels exaggerated what was really going on in the West like the 1859 book of Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter.” It simplified reality and exaggerated the truth. The novel gathered the attention of many people. It showed the stereotypical images of heroes and villains. It showed cowboys as courageous while Native Americans were portrayed as “savage.” It showed the lawmen as heroes and the cattlemen as predators. The most successful of all dime novels was Edward S. Ellis' Seth Jones (1860). Ned Buntline's stories glamorized Buffalo Bill Cody and Edward L. Wheeler created "Deadwood Dick", "Hurricane Nell", and "Calamity Jane.” Buffalo Bill Cody popularized the Old West in the U.S. and in Europe. By the 20th century, many tourists can into the West to research the land and its history. One of the most famous filmmakers of the 20th century who showed his depictions of the West was John Ford. John Ford loved scenery. Many early movies talked about the transcontinental railroad, cowboys, Native Americans, etc. Movies especially romanticized the cowboy. The cowboy is an American archetype. Many American revere the cowboy from President Theodore Roosevelt to others. Roosevelt conceptualized the herder (cowboy) as a stage of civilization distinct from the sedentary farmer—a theme well expressed in the 1944 Hollywood hit Oklahoma! that highlights the enduring conflict between cowboys and farmers. Roosevelt argued that the manhood typified by the cowboy—and outdoor activity and sports generally—was essential if American men were to avoid the softness and rot produced by an easy life in the city. The reality is that manhood is diverse and sensitivity is not antithetical to true manhood or womanhood.
Will Rogers was famous for his depictions of the West. He was the son of a Cherokee judge in Oklahoma. Many fictional stories came about to describe life about cowboys, Native Americans, etc. There were cowboy autobiographical stories too. Western films were existence by the early 1900’s too. John Ford directed the film called Stagecoach in 1939. It was the movie that showed John Wayne in a breakthrough role. John Wayne is famous for being in Western films. He was once more liberal and became one of the most conservative movie actors in history. He not only supported the Vietnam War and voted for Nixon instead of JFK in 1960. He also supported white supremacy in a 1971 interview. He was notorious for his racism and far right politics. The film Stagecoach was about a group of settlers and them going into Apache territory. Stagecoach was the first of many Westerns that Ford shot using Monument Valley, in the American Southwest on the Arizona–Utah border, as a location. Stagecoach was a very popular film. It is not a secret that many Western films used negative stereotypes against Native Americans. Many films back then showed Native Americans in a more negative light while white settlers were portrayed as virtuous. Back then, it was so bad that many white actors acted as Native Americans with feathers and makeup. The 1913 film of The Battle of Elderbusch Gulch portrayed Native Americans as criminals trying to raid a white establishment. The director was D. W. Griffith who directed the notoriously racist film Birth of a Nation. Nicolas Rosenthal wrote a book entitled, “Reimagning Indian County.” He wrote that many high paying roles of Native American chiefs came to non-Native American actors while many Native Americans were used in the background. Those Native Americans were paid a lower rate.
Many Native Americans who were actors fought for fair wages in the War Paint Club and the Indian Actor’s Association with people like Luther Standing Bear, William Eagleshirt, and Richard Thunderbird. The Native American Movement for justice in the 1960’s and the 1970’s caused people to fight against racist stereotypes in film. The 1962 film Geronimo has Geronimo fighting for his family and tribe while 1939’s Stagecoach has Geronimo being blood thirsty. After the 1970’s, more diverse depictions of Native Americans existed. There was Dances with Wolves in 1990 and the Last of the Mohicans in 1992. Native Americans also directed, produced, and acted in their own films and productions. The Falling Arrow was directed in 1909 by the Native American James Young Deer (of the Nanticoke tribe). In 1966, several Navajos near Pine Springs, Arizona, participated in an anthropological study that produced several short films known collectively as Navajos Film Themselves. Victor Masayesva, Jr. directed Weaving in 1981. Native Americans like Jeff Barnaby and others directed their own films. Native American films continue to exist. Many Westerns, even today, have shown stereotypes. Yet, more people are learning the truth and taking their time to promote fair, accurate depictions of Western life and of Native American human beings.
By Timothy
The truth about the frontier West is the opposite. Often, the West was very violent. There was racism against Mexican-Americans and African Americans. There was the massive exploitation of natural resources which cause boom and bust towns. Many Native Americans experienced discrimination, murder, and terror. Many settlers were massacred by many factions. People fought against each other massively. Also, many people in the West were progressive, opposed bigotry, and fought for justice too. So, the frontier West was complex. I am more in line with the New Western History ethos. You have to take into account of race, class, gender, the environment, and other aspects of history in order to gauge a clear, excellent picture of frontier Western existence. Scholars of the New Western History movement criticized Turner’s Frontier Thesis. These new scholars (from the 1970’s and beyond) include Patricia Nelson Limerick, Michael Allen, Richard Slotkin and Richard White. They have disputed the value of Turner's thesis. They also focused on an examination of the problems of expansion; destruction of the environment, indigenous massacres, and the realities of settler lives. In essence, people want truth not myths. Journalist Samuel Lubell saw similarities between the frontier's Americanization of immigrants that Turner described and the social climbing by later immigrants in large cities as they moved to wealthier neighborhoods. He compared the effects of the railroad opening up Western lands to urban transportation systems and the automobile, and Western settlers' "land hunger" to poor city residents seeking social status. Just as the Republican party benefited from support from "old" immigrant groups that settled on frontier farms, "new" urban immigrants formed an important part of the Democratic New Deal coalition that began with Franklin Delano Roosevelt's victory in the 1932 presidential election. The real West must be shown, so this generation and future generations can understand the diverse, complex historical legacy of the frontier West.
The American frontier West has been influenced by popular culture for a long time. Art, music, novels, dance, magazines, stories, movies, television, etc. show information about the West. There are many composers that showed their voices on this issue from Aaron Copland to Arthur Farwell. The concept of the wilderness to some related to environmental issues. The mythologizing of the West has been shown by minstrel shows and music since the 1940’s. P.T. Barnum shown Native American chiefs, dances, and other exhibits in his museums. Many novels exaggerated what was really going on in the West like the 1859 book of Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter.” It simplified reality and exaggerated the truth. The novel gathered the attention of many people. It showed the stereotypical images of heroes and villains. It showed cowboys as courageous while Native Americans were portrayed as “savage.” It showed the lawmen as heroes and the cattlemen as predators. The most successful of all dime novels was Edward S. Ellis' Seth Jones (1860). Ned Buntline's stories glamorized Buffalo Bill Cody and Edward L. Wheeler created "Deadwood Dick", "Hurricane Nell", and "Calamity Jane.” Buffalo Bill Cody popularized the Old West in the U.S. and in Europe. By the 20th century, many tourists can into the West to research the land and its history. One of the most famous filmmakers of the 20th century who showed his depictions of the West was John Ford. John Ford loved scenery. Many early movies talked about the transcontinental railroad, cowboys, Native Americans, etc. Movies especially romanticized the cowboy. The cowboy is an American archetype. Many American revere the cowboy from President Theodore Roosevelt to others. Roosevelt conceptualized the herder (cowboy) as a stage of civilization distinct from the sedentary farmer—a theme well expressed in the 1944 Hollywood hit Oklahoma! that highlights the enduring conflict between cowboys and farmers. Roosevelt argued that the manhood typified by the cowboy—and outdoor activity and sports generally—was essential if American men were to avoid the softness and rot produced by an easy life in the city. The reality is that manhood is diverse and sensitivity is not antithetical to true manhood or womanhood.
Will Rogers was famous for his depictions of the West. He was the son of a Cherokee judge in Oklahoma. Many fictional stories came about to describe life about cowboys, Native Americans, etc. There were cowboy autobiographical stories too. Western films were existence by the early 1900’s too. John Ford directed the film called Stagecoach in 1939. It was the movie that showed John Wayne in a breakthrough role. John Wayne is famous for being in Western films. He was once more liberal and became one of the most conservative movie actors in history. He not only supported the Vietnam War and voted for Nixon instead of JFK in 1960. He also supported white supremacy in a 1971 interview. He was notorious for his racism and far right politics. The film Stagecoach was about a group of settlers and them going into Apache territory. Stagecoach was the first of many Westerns that Ford shot using Monument Valley, in the American Southwest on the Arizona–Utah border, as a location. Stagecoach was a very popular film. It is not a secret that many Western films used negative stereotypes against Native Americans. Many films back then showed Native Americans in a more negative light while white settlers were portrayed as virtuous. Back then, it was so bad that many white actors acted as Native Americans with feathers and makeup. The 1913 film of The Battle of Elderbusch Gulch portrayed Native Americans as criminals trying to raid a white establishment. The director was D. W. Griffith who directed the notoriously racist film Birth of a Nation. Nicolas Rosenthal wrote a book entitled, “Reimagning Indian County.” He wrote that many high paying roles of Native American chiefs came to non-Native American actors while many Native Americans were used in the background. Those Native Americans were paid a lower rate.
Many Native Americans who were actors fought for fair wages in the War Paint Club and the Indian Actor’s Association with people like Luther Standing Bear, William Eagleshirt, and Richard Thunderbird. The Native American Movement for justice in the 1960’s and the 1970’s caused people to fight against racist stereotypes in film. The 1962 film Geronimo has Geronimo fighting for his family and tribe while 1939’s Stagecoach has Geronimo being blood thirsty. After the 1970’s, more diverse depictions of Native Americans existed. There was Dances with Wolves in 1990 and the Last of the Mohicans in 1992. Native Americans also directed, produced, and acted in their own films and productions. The Falling Arrow was directed in 1909 by the Native American James Young Deer (of the Nanticoke tribe). In 1966, several Navajos near Pine Springs, Arizona, participated in an anthropological study that produced several short films known collectively as Navajos Film Themselves. Victor Masayesva, Jr. directed Weaving in 1981. Native Americans like Jeff Barnaby and others directed their own films. Native American films continue to exist. Many Westerns, even today, have shown stereotypes. Yet, more people are learning the truth and taking their time to promote fair, accurate depictions of Western life and of Native American human beings.
By Timothy
News
http://time.com/3916680/native-american-hollywood-film/
https://blackthen.com/history-first-african-baptist-church-savannah-georgia/
https://blackthen.com/hattie-mcdaniel-first-african-american-actor-win-academy-award/
https://www.rt.com/shows/breaking-set-summary/185216-hurricane-katrina-unheard-story/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/henry-wallace-americas-forgotten-visionary-politician_b_8569658.html
http://www.blackhealthhq.com/the-low-stress-way/
https://blackthen.com/history-first-african-baptist-church-savannah-georgia/
https://blackthen.com/hattie-mcdaniel-first-african-american-actor-win-academy-award/
https://www.rt.com/shows/breaking-set-summary/185216-hurricane-katrina-unheard-story/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/henry-wallace-americas-forgotten-visionary-politician_b_8569658.html
http://www.blackhealthhq.com/the-low-stress-way/
Thursday, July 20, 2017
Women’s Leadership in the Organization of Afro-American Unity
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Politics
https://socialistworker.org/2011/05/19/obama-and-the-black-vote
https://socialistworker.org/2017/01/06/the-obama-years-of-squandered-hopes
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/04/11/ufw1-a11.html
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/04/12/ufw2-a12.html
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/05/10/chav-m10.html
https://socialistworker.org/2017/07/19/beyond-their-caricature-of-the-working-class
https://socialistworker.org/2017/07/19/the-bolsheviks-retreat-in-order-to-advance
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/05/saul-alinsky-alinskyism-organizing-methods-cesar-chavez-ufw
https://socialistworker.org/2017/01/06/the-obama-years-of-squandered-hopes
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/04/11/ufw1-a11.html
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/04/12/ufw2-a12.html
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/05/10/chav-m10.html
https://socialistworker.org/2017/07/19/beyond-their-caricature-of-the-working-class
https://socialistworker.org/2017/07/19/the-bolsheviks-retreat-in-order-to-advance
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/05/saul-alinsky-alinskyism-organizing-methods-cesar-chavez-ufw
Economics and Mandela
Macroeconomics deals with researching the economy as a whole. It deals with general equilibrium theory, national income, output, the unemployment rate, inflation (which are aggregates), and sub aggregates like consumption, investment spending, etc. It also studies the effects of monetary policy and fiscal policy. In macroeconomic analysis, people research the growth of national income. There are investigations on technological change and labor force growth. Economic growth deals with the increase in output per capita of a country over a long period of time. There are many factors that tell the differences in the level of output per capita between nations (in why some countries grow faster than others and whether countries converge at the same rates of growth). These factors include the rate of investment, population growth, and technological change. These are represented in theoretical and empirical forms (as in the neoclassical and endogenous growth models) and in growth accounting. In macroeconomics, there is the study of the business cycle. There are many theories on whether to do something or nothing in dealing with the business cycle. John Maynard Keynes wrote a book during the 1930’s called, “The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money.” This book came out during the Great Depression. In the book, he believed that the aggregate demand for goods might not be sufficient during economic downturns. This caused high unemployment and losses of potential output. He wanted the public sector like monetary policy actions by the central bank and fiscal policy actions by the government to stabilize output over the business cycle. This is Keynesian economics in wanting the government to move forward (via strong intervention in the market) towards full employment. The business cycle involves the different stages of an economy. There is the expansion, then the boom, the recession, and the depression. Later, the business cycle comes about back again with expansion.
Friedman’s permanent income hypothesis dealt with this issue too. The neoclassical synthesis refers to the reconciliation of Keynesian economics with neoclassical economics, stating that Keynesianism is correct in the short run but qualified by neoclassical-like considerations in the intermediate and long run. There are the new classicals assume that prices and wages adjust automatically to attain full employment, whereas the new Keynesians see full employment as being automatically achieved only in the long run, and hence government and central-bank policies are needed because the "long run" may be very long. To find the amount of unemployment in an economy is about measuring the unemployment rate, and the percentage of workers without jobs in the labor force. The labor force includes only people actively looking for jobs. People who are retired, pursuing education, or discouraged from seeking work by a lack of job prospects are excluded from the labor force. Unemployment can be generally broken down into several types that are related to different causes. Unemployment can happen when wages are too high for employers to be willing to hire more workers. Structural unemployment deals with skills, etc. While some types of unemployment may occur regardless of the condition of the economy, cyclical unemployment occurs when growth stagnates. Okun's law represents the empirical relationship between unemployment and economic growth. The original version of Okun's law states that a 3% increase in output would lead to a 1% decrease in unemployment. Government using fiscal policies definitely deals with macroeconomics. Some fiscal policies involve adjusting spending and taxation policies to change aggregate demand. When aggregate demand falls below the potential output of the economy, there is an output gap where some productive capacity is left unemployed. Governments increase spending and cut taxes to boost aggregate demand. Resources that have been idled can be used by the government.
For example, unemployed home builders can be hired to expand highways. Tax cuts allow consumers to increase their spending, which boosts aggregate demand. Both tax cuts and spending have multiplier effects where the initial increase in demand from the policy percolates through the economy and generates additional economic activity. Some fiscal policy can be limited by crowding out when the economy is producing at full capacity. That is when there are no excess productive resources. Some people believe in a Ricardian equivalence (which is a hypothesis) or people must save money, reduce consumption, and future tax increases must exist in order for an increase in debt to be paid for. Chris Carroll, James Poetrba, and Lawrence Summers disagree with the Ricardian equivalence hypothesis. The government readily provides certain goods and services that individuals and businesses acting alone can’t provide efficiently. The government provides these benefits to many simultaneously. They wouldn’t be in massive supply if individuals had to provide them. These services include interstate highways, postal service, and national defense. The government pays for public and services by tax revenues, borrowed funds, and by fees (like tolls and park entrance fees). The government taxes, borrows, and spends its influence to promote economic activity. The government tax increases can reduce the funds available for individuals and business spending. Tax decreases increase funds for some corporate businesses. The government can reduce or increase funds available for borrowing by individuals or businesses. More government spending can increase demand which can increase employment and production. The decrease of government spending can have the opposite effect or a slowing of the economy. Increasing government spending can increase taxes while decreased government spending may result in lower taxes. The 16th Amendment of the Constitution authorizes Congress to tax personal and business incomes. The Federal Reserve Bank maintains the value of the national currency or the dollar. It regulates banks, and manages the money in the economy in dealing with inflation. Some have called it the nation’s central bank.
When I think of Nelson Mandela, I think of a hero (as he was one). Yesterday, it was Madiba's Birthday. No words can eloquently describe his courage and his ebullient spirit. Yet, he followed a path of love and of hope. He desired black people and the rest of the human race to be free from injustice and oppression. Nelson's sacrosanct wisdom taught all about perseverance and never wavering in the midst of tyranny. Nelson Mandela was born in 1918 to a strong Xhosa family in South Africa. He was a brilliant man intellectually and he was highly educated. Later, he was in the legal field and an early opponent of the vicious system of apartheid. Apartheid is not only evil and racist. It restricted the human rights of black people and forced black people to be denied of basic economic rights. Nelson Mandela worked with a diversity of people in trying to eliminate apartheid. He worked with communists, socialists, black nationalists, liberals, and others. They differed on many issues, but they agreed with the principle that apartheid is incompatible with equality and that a new South Africa must be instituted in order for South Africans to exist in a land filled with true freedom. The 1955 Freedom Charter, as advocated by Nelson Mandela and others, wanted economic equality, justice, and an end to oppression. He worked in the ANC and other groups. Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, and other heroes were his close friends.
The Sharpeville Massacre of the early 1960's when when mostly black peaceful protesters were murdered by apartheid forces. Lilian Ngoyi and other women were leaders in the anti-apartheid movement too. Mandela was monitored by the apartheid government and by the CIA. He was captured by authorities in June of 1963. He was imprisoned for a long time in Robben Island including Pollsmoor Prison. In prison, he worked long hours. Letters, sent to him, were censored by prison authorities. He was mistreated, but he never lost the faith. Meanwhile, the anti-apartheid movement globally existed. Black youth was murdered in the Soweto massacre during the 1970's. Steve Biko was assassinated. Boycotts against South African corporations transpired. So, the movement for change continued. Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990. It was a time of jubilation. He used his abilities to find common ground to end apartheid and to be elected as the first black President of South Africa in 1994. He lived in the age of globalization and a more international world. Yet, he did the right thing to oppose the Iraq War, to stand up for the rights of minorities, and to believe in compassion for humanity. He passed away in 2013. I was 29 years old when he passed. It was very close to my 30th birthday. He was 95. He lived a long life of service and of commitment to our people. For that, I send great honor and appreciation to his heroic memory. Today, South Africans are still fighting racism, xenophobia, economic inequality, and other issues, but we stand firm to promote liberation. That is our goal and that is our right.
Rest in Power Brother Nelson Mandela.
By Timothy
Friedman’s permanent income hypothesis dealt with this issue too. The neoclassical synthesis refers to the reconciliation of Keynesian economics with neoclassical economics, stating that Keynesianism is correct in the short run but qualified by neoclassical-like considerations in the intermediate and long run. There are the new classicals assume that prices and wages adjust automatically to attain full employment, whereas the new Keynesians see full employment as being automatically achieved only in the long run, and hence government and central-bank policies are needed because the "long run" may be very long. To find the amount of unemployment in an economy is about measuring the unemployment rate, and the percentage of workers without jobs in the labor force. The labor force includes only people actively looking for jobs. People who are retired, pursuing education, or discouraged from seeking work by a lack of job prospects are excluded from the labor force. Unemployment can be generally broken down into several types that are related to different causes. Unemployment can happen when wages are too high for employers to be willing to hire more workers. Structural unemployment deals with skills, etc. While some types of unemployment may occur regardless of the condition of the economy, cyclical unemployment occurs when growth stagnates. Okun's law represents the empirical relationship between unemployment and economic growth. The original version of Okun's law states that a 3% increase in output would lead to a 1% decrease in unemployment. Government using fiscal policies definitely deals with macroeconomics. Some fiscal policies involve adjusting spending and taxation policies to change aggregate demand. When aggregate demand falls below the potential output of the economy, there is an output gap where some productive capacity is left unemployed. Governments increase spending and cut taxes to boost aggregate demand. Resources that have been idled can be used by the government.
For example, unemployed home builders can be hired to expand highways. Tax cuts allow consumers to increase their spending, which boosts aggregate demand. Both tax cuts and spending have multiplier effects where the initial increase in demand from the policy percolates through the economy and generates additional economic activity. Some fiscal policy can be limited by crowding out when the economy is producing at full capacity. That is when there are no excess productive resources. Some people believe in a Ricardian equivalence (which is a hypothesis) or people must save money, reduce consumption, and future tax increases must exist in order for an increase in debt to be paid for. Chris Carroll, James Poetrba, and Lawrence Summers disagree with the Ricardian equivalence hypothesis. The government readily provides certain goods and services that individuals and businesses acting alone can’t provide efficiently. The government provides these benefits to many simultaneously. They wouldn’t be in massive supply if individuals had to provide them. These services include interstate highways, postal service, and national defense. The government pays for public and services by tax revenues, borrowed funds, and by fees (like tolls and park entrance fees). The government taxes, borrows, and spends its influence to promote economic activity. The government tax increases can reduce the funds available for individuals and business spending. Tax decreases increase funds for some corporate businesses. The government can reduce or increase funds available for borrowing by individuals or businesses. More government spending can increase demand which can increase employment and production. The decrease of government spending can have the opposite effect or a slowing of the economy. Increasing government spending can increase taxes while decreased government spending may result in lower taxes. The 16th Amendment of the Constitution authorizes Congress to tax personal and business incomes. The Federal Reserve Bank maintains the value of the national currency or the dollar. It regulates banks, and manages the money in the economy in dealing with inflation. Some have called it the nation’s central bank.
When I think of Nelson Mandela, I think of a hero (as he was one). Yesterday, it was Madiba's Birthday. No words can eloquently describe his courage and his ebullient spirit. Yet, he followed a path of love and of hope. He desired black people and the rest of the human race to be free from injustice and oppression. Nelson's sacrosanct wisdom taught all about perseverance and never wavering in the midst of tyranny. Nelson Mandela was born in 1918 to a strong Xhosa family in South Africa. He was a brilliant man intellectually and he was highly educated. Later, he was in the legal field and an early opponent of the vicious system of apartheid. Apartheid is not only evil and racist. It restricted the human rights of black people and forced black people to be denied of basic economic rights. Nelson Mandela worked with a diversity of people in trying to eliminate apartheid. He worked with communists, socialists, black nationalists, liberals, and others. They differed on many issues, but they agreed with the principle that apartheid is incompatible with equality and that a new South Africa must be instituted in order for South Africans to exist in a land filled with true freedom. The 1955 Freedom Charter, as advocated by Nelson Mandela and others, wanted economic equality, justice, and an end to oppression. He worked in the ANC and other groups. Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, and other heroes were his close friends.
The Sharpeville Massacre of the early 1960's when when mostly black peaceful protesters were murdered by apartheid forces. Lilian Ngoyi and other women were leaders in the anti-apartheid movement too. Mandela was monitored by the apartheid government and by the CIA. He was captured by authorities in June of 1963. He was imprisoned for a long time in Robben Island including Pollsmoor Prison. In prison, he worked long hours. Letters, sent to him, were censored by prison authorities. He was mistreated, but he never lost the faith. Meanwhile, the anti-apartheid movement globally existed. Black youth was murdered in the Soweto massacre during the 1970's. Steve Biko was assassinated. Boycotts against South African corporations transpired. So, the movement for change continued. Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990. It was a time of jubilation. He used his abilities to find common ground to end apartheid and to be elected as the first black President of South Africa in 1994. He lived in the age of globalization and a more international world. Yet, he did the right thing to oppose the Iraq War, to stand up for the rights of minorities, and to believe in compassion for humanity. He passed away in 2013. I was 29 years old when he passed. It was very close to my 30th birthday. He was 95. He lived a long life of service and of commitment to our people. For that, I send great honor and appreciation to his heroic memory. Today, South Africans are still fighting racism, xenophobia, economic inequality, and other issues, but we stand firm to promote liberation. That is our goal and that is our right.
Rest in Power Brother Nelson Mandela.
By Timothy
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
More News
https://www.blackagendareport.com/content/nelson-mandela-contradictions-his-life-and-legacies
http://www.blogtrendbuzz.info/2017/07/14/racist-white-man-slaps-and-spits-on-elderly-black-woman-and-it-turns-out-she-was-a-judge-video/
http://allblackmedia.com/2017/07/colin-kaepernick-responds-to-michael-vicks-haircut-advice-stockholm-syndrome/?utm_content=bufferefc77&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
https://urbanintellectuals.com/2017/07/17/armed-black-protesters-cause-cleveland-police-call-temp-suspension-second-amendment-open-carry-law/
https://blackwomenofbrazil.co/2017/07/18/17-black-brazilian-women-who-fought-against-the-institution-of-slavery-that-you-wont-find-in-history-textbooks/
http://www.athletepromotions.com/speaker/tasha-danvers.php
http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-womens-struggle-south-africa
http://www.forharriet.com/2015/05/david-banner-sit-down-we-are-tired-of.html#axzz4nEtYU1Xw
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/12/06/mand-d06.html
Monday, July 17, 2017
More News about African American Life
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/no-need-for-semi-automatic-weapons-protesters-intimidated-by-texas-militia-at-gop-governors-event/
http://racisminamerica.org/benefits-teaching-african-american-babies-read-enter-school-years/
http://www.kolumnmagazine.com/2017/06/29/james-baldwin-fbi-files-authors-fearlessness-toward-fbi-others-led-decade-long-witch-hunt-atlanta-black-star/
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/17/15364546/universal-basic-income-review-stern-murray-automation
Research and Culture
https://popularresistance.org/the-smartest-people-in-seattle-politics/
https://www.socialistalternative.org/2014/12/04/blacklivesmatterfriday-1000-people-disrupt-black-friday-seattle/
https://blog.cdphp.com/how-to/understanding-health-insurance-id-card/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/521502831835283834/
http://www.kolumnmagazine.com/2017/04/14/maria-borges-first-african-model-century-make-elle-u-s-cover-huffington-post/
https://foreverblackeffusion.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/afro-colombian-hair-contest-and-showcase/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/184506915954111256/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es0Bo6vQCHs
https://www.amazon.com/African-American-Women-Old-West/dp/0762739002
https://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.com/2014/08/afro-colombians-afro-colombianos.html
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/322288917069217989/
https://www.socialistalternative.org/2014/12/04/blacklivesmatterfriday-1000-people-disrupt-black-friday-seattle/
https://blog.cdphp.com/how-to/understanding-health-insurance-id-card/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/521502831835283834/
http://www.kolumnmagazine.com/2017/04/14/maria-borges-first-african-model-century-make-elle-u-s-cover-huffington-post/
https://foreverblackeffusion.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/afro-colombian-hair-contest-and-showcase/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/184506915954111256/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es0Bo6vQCHs
https://www.amazon.com/African-American-Women-Old-West/dp/0762739002
https://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.com/2014/08/afro-colombians-afro-colombianos.html
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/322288917069217989/
History of Black America (from the late 1960's to the early 1970's)
There is always the beauty of Blackness since the beginning of human history. The modern Black is Beautiful cultural movement started in America by the 1960’s by African Americans. It also spread into South Africa by Steve Biko and his Black Consciousness Movement. Black is Beautiful is self-explanatory. It means that Black is glorious, beautiful, strong, and inspirational. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in many of his speeches, especially from 1966 to 1968, said that Black is Beautiful. The movement wanted black people to love their natural features and fight for justice. It was a movement that wanted us as black people to always love our skin, our melanin, our hair, our facial features, and our African being. It was an antidote to the evil of internalized racism and colorism (back in the day, self-haters had paper bag parties where African Americans with lighter skins complexions were only allowed in social circles. My father talked about these evil social gathering back in the day). Black people are beautiful regardless of hue. The beauty of Blackness has been articulated by a diversity of black people from Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, black women leaders, the NOI, and other black Nationalists. One of the earliest promoters of Black is Beautiful is John Rock. John Rock didn’t verbatim use the term black is Beautiful, but in one speech, he did promote the beauty of the blackness of our people by saying, “"the beautiful, rich color ... of the negro.” Throughout his life, he promoted equality and justice for black Americans. He lived to see the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The law promoted equal protection under the law or all American citizens. He lived to see the existence of the Thirteenth Amendment. The Black is Beautiful movement is part of the Black Power movement and the overall black freedom movement. By the late 1960’s, more African Americans wore Afros, dashikis, spoke Swahili and other African languages, etc. Many black people started to investigate African history, study black African art, and rejected the racial stereotypes that were so prominently shown in the mainstream media back during the early 20th century. Self-love is a very powerful force that has inspired our people for a very long time. Black is Beautiful has been shown in Soul Train, weddings, the streets, in the rural areas, and in other places globally. Muhammad Ali’s confidence, Cicely Tyson’s talent, Angela Davis’ intellectual power, and Nina Simone’s wisdom outline the power of Blackness in action.
The period of the 1960’s to the 1970’s saw an explosion of the growth of black political power. Many black people started to be mayors, lawyers, Congress people, etc. The majority of our people were in the Democratic Party. In November 1967, Carl Stokes was the first black elected mayor of one of America’s 10 largest cities in November of 1967. The campaign was long and tough. He was supported by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. too. Stokes later spoke his views. By 1967, many people viewed Dr. King as too radical. In the same year, Richard Hatcher was elected Mayor pf Gary, Indiana. African American political leaders won victories against white candidates. Gary Hatcher was mayor for five terms before his defeat in a 1987 primary. Carl Stokes served for two terms before he voluntarily stepped down in 1971. Back during the 1960’s, Cleveland was in a Civil Rights Movement of its own. Its black population was about 37 percent by 1967. Black people had disproportionately lowest paying jobs and white people in Cleveland had disproportionately higher wage jobs. Many whites left Cleveland. Unemployment rates were high for black residents by 1966. The election of Stokes had mostly black support while most white people voted for his Republican opponent. Black mayors started to experience many of the same issues and controversies as previous white mayors. Many black mayors would be progressive and many black mayors would go and compromise to appease reactionary forces. Carl Stokes faced massive opposition as mayor. He opened city hall jobs to black people and women. He formed Cleveland: Now!, which is a program that used public and private resources in trying to revitalize Cleveland neighborhoods. Carl Stokes continued to work. He was reelected in 1969. Many black mayors believed that finding a niche in the system would cause progress for black people. Yet, the system of capitalism in urban communities will not go far enough to cause social liberation for all since capitalism by its nature promotes inequality and disparities economically. Only 2 of Stokes’ 10 first appointments went to black people. He hired the right wing Michael Blackwell as police chief. This was a shock to black people who experienced police terror during the Hough rebellion. Blackwell’s rhetoric and black nationalists groups like the Black Nationalists of New Libya were real in Cleveland. Stokes tried to keep the peace by joining a July 21, 1968 march to remember the 2 year anniversary of the Hough rebellion. 2 days later, the the Black Nationalists of New Libya were in a shootout with Cleveland police and the Ohio National Guard, sparking a rebellion that lasted five days. Seven people, three of them cops, were killed; fifteen people, 11 of them officers, were injured. A FBI report said that people wanted him or Stokes assassinated including other black liberals. So, Stokes ordered the police to watch or surveil New Libyan Leader Fred Ahmed Evans. Evans was captured and Evans said that the group’s weapons were purchased with funds from Stokes’ neighborhood redevelopment program. In 1969, Stokes embraced the reactionary “law and order” rhetoric. He gained backing of local business, the media, and national Democrats. Stokes appointed Benjamin O. Davis Jr. as director of public safety. Davis supported the police suppression of local black nationalists in Cleveland. Davis agreed with the police using soft core bullets that expand on impact. Davis resigned by 1970. Stokes faced scandals and the same challenges that other black politicians faced. One issue was that many mayors experienced fiscal problems which came before they took office, but some of them used neoliberal policies and cut services from workers and resources sent to the poor. As early as the 1970’s, the right wing backlash was in full swing. In 1968, political leader Beualah Sanders was part of the National Welfare Rights Organization who wanted to help the poor. She spoke in Chicago on August 22, 1968. She was the leader of the NWRO too. Shirley Chisholm was in a state of NY seat in 1964. She was a Congresswoman by 1968. She was a progressive Democrat who believed in health care rights, civil rights, and human justice. She was the first African American woman to be elected to the Congress. The Black Expo featured black leaders in promoting economic causes too. Kenneth Gibson was the first black mayor of Newark in 1970. Coleman Young was the first black mayor of Detroit. Tom Bradley was the first black mayor Los Angeles. Maynard Jackson would be elected as the first black mayor of Atlanta by the 1970's too. One of the greatest events of black political history was the National Black Political Convention which was held in March of 1972 in Gary, Indiana. Back then, many black people wanted an independent black political movement to be independent of both the Republican and Democratic parties. They wanted to be use liberation politics. This is why this convention was created. The convention was diverse. It included black liberals, progressives, socialists, nationalists, Republicans, Democrats, etc. This comes during the time of FBI using COINTELPRO harassing black activists. Political establishment leaders wanted to co-opt the struggle. In 1972, black people wanted mass action. The preamble of the National Black Political Agenda was very radical and progressive. It exposed both major parties and wanted radical change in society. Mayor Richard Hatcher convened the meeting. Black Nationalist Amiri Baraka was involved in the meeting too. Congressman Charles Diggs of Michigan was there along with Queen Mother Moore (who wanted reparations. She is a great Black Nationalist legend). Jesse Jackson of PUSH was there and called for a Black Liberation Party. It lasted from March 10-12, 1972. There was a debate in the meeting on whether to ally with Democrats or be independent politically. The promises of continued support for the Democrats were not enough to stop a walkout by the convention's Michigan delegation. These delegates, many of whom were NAACP leaders and trade union officials, were worried that any association with the National Black Political Agenda would damage their relationship to the Michigan Democratic Party. Jackson and Baraka wanted to stop the walk out, but it was too later. Many members of the convention wanted Palestinian liberation. Back then, that was extremely taboo. The Black Agenda was eventually dumped in favor of the Congressional Black Caucus' watered-down Black "Bill of Rights." Although the convention formed a National Black Political Assembly, the perspectives of this group were left largely undefined. The 2nd National Black Political Convention took place in Little Rock, Arkansas. This was in 1974. Many statements wanted to promote an independent black party. Afterwards, the convention’s leaders left the organization. Many black leading politicians followed the Democratic machine. The National Black Political Conventions wanted independent black movement for change legitimately. Members wanted a black independent party. It was a glorious dream. They were sidetracked by establishment forces who desired imperialism and slick policies of neoliberalism instead of black liberation.
One of the greatest parts of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City was the Black Power salute shown by Gold medalist Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos on October 16, 1968. They were sprinters. They wore black socks without shoes and use the black gloved fist as the Star Spangled Banner was played. They expressed solidarity with the Black Freedom Movement in America. Both sprinters were members of the Olympic Project for Human Rights. This was a group in favor of human equality. It was created in 1967 by sociologist Harry Edwards and others including Tommie Smith and John Carlos. The group wanted to oppose racism in sports, racial segregation in America, and apartheid in South Africa. Smith said that the project was about human rights, of "all humanity, even those who denied us ours." Most members of the OPHR were African American athletes or community leaders. They once called for a boycott of the 1968 Olympics unless 4 conditions are met like South Africa and Rhodesia not being in the Olympics, Muhammad Ali’s world heavyweight title restored, Avery Brundage to not be the President of the International Olympic Committee, and hiring more African American assistant coaches. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. supported the boycott. While the boycott largely failed to materialize, African-American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos and Australian sprinter Peter Norman wore OPHR patches during the medal ceremony for the 200-metre race. Despite being a primarily African-American organization, the OPHR was supported by white athletes such as Norman and members of the Harvard University rowing team. After Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised the black fist, they were ordered by the U.S. Organizing Committee to leave the Olympic Village. The International Olympic Committee used an excuse that politics played no part in the games. Yet, many racists sent death threats to both Smith and Carlos for a long time. The 1968 Summer Olympics was the first Olympic Games to be staged in Latin America and the first to be stage in a Spanish speaking country. George Foreman won a gold medal for boxing in the heavyweight division. He defeated Soviet Ionas Chepluis in a second round TKO. He waved a small American flag and bowed to the crowd after the victory. This was the time first time when East and West Germany participated in separate nations. It was the first games at which there was a significant African presence in men's distance running. Africans won at least one medal in all running events from 800 meters to the marathon, and in so doing they set a trend for future games. Most of these runners came from high-altitude areas of countries like Kenya and Ethiopia, and they were well-prepared for the 2240m elevation of Mexico City. It was the first Olympic Games in which the closing ceremony was transmitted in color to the world, as well as the events themselves. Wyomia Tyus returned to the 1968 Olympics to defend her title in the 100m. In the finals, she set a new world record of 11.08s to become the first person, male or female, to retain the Olympic 100 meters title. Tyus also qualified for the 200m final, in which she finished sixth. Running the final leg for the relay team, Tyus helped setting a new world record, winning her third gold medal. Long jumper Bob Beamon broke the 29-foot record at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Black Excellence was in full display during the 1968 Olympics.
The 1968 Presidential election was one of the most important elections in history. It represented the end of one era and the beginning of a new one. It outlined the divisions of the Democratic Party and the total near unity of Republicans, who promoted “law and order" and the silent majority to control society. Some candidates readily didn’t appeal to black people or to progressives in general. 1968 dealt with labor rights, international workers’ revolts, the Vietnam War, racism, rebellions, and other events. It was an election that brought down the New Deal Coalition for decades to come after 36 years. The election came during the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was one leader of the Civil Rights Movement. There was widespread unrest in university campuses. The election campaign started as early as 1967. By that time, the Vietnam War dominated much of the resources that could have been used for the Great Society domestic programs. Landmark civil rights legislation existed. The exploration of space continued. Young people and minorities wanted a more radical society. The rise of the Black Power movement, the hippie counterculture, and New Left activism was a rejection of far right politics and mainline political establishment people too. Women rights leaders grew in influence as well. One of the early candidates for President was Eugene McCarthy. He opposed the Vietnam War. He was supported by many college educated liberals. He had a progressive platform in economic issues. His problem was that he made comments calling Robert Kennedy supporters as not intelligent, which lost him much support. Robert Kennedy ran for President later. Many people glamorize RFK as a total progressive. It is true that Robert Kennedy was a progressive on civil rights, on pollution, on the death penalty, and on other issues. Yet, he wasn’t on other issues. He refused to support a boycott of companies supporting apartheid South Africa though he opposed apartheid on moral grounds. He wants tax breaks to corporations to help communities. He questioned the current policies of the Vietnam War, but he didn’t want an immediate withdrawal of military forces. As time went on, Robert Kennedy did the wise thing by building a strong coalition among black Americans, Latino Americans, working class whites, labor, Asian Americans, and the youth in order to gain primary victories, especially in California. By California’s primary, Eugene and Robert were close in votes. When Robert Kennedy won, he could win the nomination. LBJ dropped out after the Tet Offensive. Yet, Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June of 1968. It was blow to the movement for change. Hubert Humphrey won the Democratic nomination for President while Richard Nixon won the Republican nomination for President. Nixon beat Ronald Reagan and Rockefeller in the Republican primary. Nixon called himself a new Nixon, but he had right wing views on legal matters. He wanted to use the government to suppress the liberal movements in America. He was overt about it. He wanted “law and order.” George Wallace ran for President as an Independent candidate, but he appealed to racism, extreme nationalism, and militarism back then. His campaign was very similar to the Trump campaign. The Democrats bickered on platform and policies. They were weakened, because of generational and ideological divisions. Four factions of the Democrats existed. One was of labor union and big cities bosses like Richard Daley of Chicago. The second faction was behind McCarthy made up of middle class and upper middle class college students and intellectuals who wanted to be the future of the Democratic Party. The third group was mostly made up of black people, people of color, Roman Catholics, and anti-war people who allied with Robert F. Kennedy. The fourth group consisted of white Southern Democrats. Many of them supported Humphrey for his pro-New Deal policies and others allied with Wallace. The Democratic National Convention in late August 1968 had police using terror against protesters, chaos on the floor, and divisions growing further. It was a moment of challenges. Richard Nixon promoted black capitalism or using tax incentives to help small businesses and struggling communities. Nixon developed a "Southern strategy" that was designed to appeal to conservative white southerners, who traditionally voted Democratic, but were opposed to Johnson and Humphrey's support for the civil rights movement, as well as the rebellions that had broken out in the ghettos of most large cities. Wallace, however, won over many of the voters Nixon targeted, effectively splitting the conservative vote. Indeed, Wallace deliberately targeted many states he had little chance of carrying himself in the hope that by splitting the conservative vote with Nixon he would give those states to Humphrey and, by extension, boost his own chances of denying both opponents an Electoral College majority. Humphrey, meanwhile, promised to continue and expand the Great Society welfare programs started by President Johnson, and to continue the Johnson Administration's "War on Poverty." He also promised to continue the efforts of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and the Supreme Court, in promoting the expansion of civil rights and civil liberties for minority groups. However, Humphrey also felt constrained for most of his campaign in voicing any opposition to the Vietnam War policies of President Johnson, due to his fear that Johnson would reject any peace proposals he made and undermine his campaign. As a result, early in his campaign Humphrey often found himself the target of anti-war protestors, some of whom heckled and disrupted his campaign rallies.
Nixon asked Anna Chennault to be his "channel to Mr. Thieu" in order to advise him to refuse participation in the talks. Thieu was promised a better deal under a Nixon administration. Chennault agreed and periodically reported to John Mitchell that Thieu had no intention of attending a peace conference. On November 2, Chennault informed the South Vietnamese ambassador: "I have just heard from my boss in Albuquerque who says his boss [Nixon] is going to win. And you tell your boss [Thieu] to hold on a while longer." In 1997, Chennault admitted that "I was constantly in touch with Nixon and Mitchell." The effort also involved Texas Senator John Tower and Kissinger, who traveled to Paris on behalf of the Nixon campaign. William Bundy stated that Kissinger obtained "no useful inside information" from his trip to Paris, and "almost any experienced Hanoi watcher might have come to the same conclusion". While Kissinger may have "hinted that his advice was based on contacts with the Paris delegation," this sort of "self-promotion....is at worst a minor and not uncommon practice, quite different from getting and reporting real secrets." In 2007, Conrad Black asserted that there is "no evidence" connecting Kissinger in particular, who was "playing a fairly innocuous double game of self-promotion," with attempts to undermine the peace talks. Black further commented that "the Democrats were outraged at Nixon, but what Johnson was doing was equally questionable," and there is "no evidence" that Thieu "needed much prompting to discern which side he favored in the U.S. election." Johnson learned of the Nixon-Chennault effort because the NSA was interfering in communications in Vietnam. In 2009, new tapes were declassified revealing that Johnson was enraged and said that Nixon had "blood on his hands" and that Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen agreed with Johnson that such action was "treason." Defense Secretary Clark Clifford considered the moves an illegal violation of the Logan Act. In response, Johnson ordered NSA surveillance of Chennault and wire-tapped the South Vietnamese embassy and members of the Nixon campaign. He did not leak the information to the public because he did not want to "shock America" with the revelation, nor reveal that the NSA was interfering in communications in Vietnam. Johnson did make information available to Humphrey, but at this point Humphrey thought he was going to win the election, so he did not reveal the information to the public. Humphrey later regretted this as a mistake. The South Vietnamese government withdrew from peace negotiations, and Nixon publicly offered to go to Saigon to help the negotiations. Dallek wrote that Nixon's efforts "probably made no difference," because Thieu was unwilling to attend the talks and there was little chance of an agreement being reached before the election. However, his use of information provided by Harlow and Kissinger was morally questionable, and Humphrey's decision not to make Nixon's actions public was "an uncommon act of political decency."
Hubert Humphrey almost beat Richard Nixon, because Humphrey at the end of the campaign called for a bombing halt in Vietnam. In October, Humphrey—who was rising sharply in the polls due to the collapse of the Wallace vote—began to distance himself publicly from the Johnson administration on the Vietnam War, calling for a bombing halt. The key turning point for Humphrey's campaign came when President Johnson officially announced a bombing halt, and even a possible peace deal, the weekend before the election. The "Halloween Peace" gave Humphrey's campaign a badly needed boost. In addition, Senator Eugene McCarthy finally endorsed Humphrey in late October after previously refusing to do so, and by Election Day the polls were reporting a dead heat. Also on the ballot in two or more states were black activist Eldridge Cleaver (who was ineligible to take office, as he would have only been 33 years of age on January 20, 1969) for the Peace and Freedom Party, Henning Blomen for the Socialist Labor Party, Fred Halstead for the Socialist Workers Party, E. Harold Munn for the Prohibition Party, and Charlene Mitchell – the first African-American woman to run for president – for the Communist Party. Comedians Dick Gregory and Pat Paulsen were notable write-in candidates. Richard Nixon won the 1968 election. From that time forward, many Democrats would be more moderate and compromise. Republicans would also be more conservative in their thinking. Nixon would be a controversial President and Black America would be changed forever.
By Timothy
The period of the 1960’s to the 1970’s saw an explosion of the growth of black political power. Many black people started to be mayors, lawyers, Congress people, etc. The majority of our people were in the Democratic Party. In November 1967, Carl Stokes was the first black elected mayor of one of America’s 10 largest cities in November of 1967. The campaign was long and tough. He was supported by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. too. Stokes later spoke his views. By 1967, many people viewed Dr. King as too radical. In the same year, Richard Hatcher was elected Mayor pf Gary, Indiana. African American political leaders won victories against white candidates. Gary Hatcher was mayor for five terms before his defeat in a 1987 primary. Carl Stokes served for two terms before he voluntarily stepped down in 1971. Back during the 1960’s, Cleveland was in a Civil Rights Movement of its own. Its black population was about 37 percent by 1967. Black people had disproportionately lowest paying jobs and white people in Cleveland had disproportionately higher wage jobs. Many whites left Cleveland. Unemployment rates were high for black residents by 1966. The election of Stokes had mostly black support while most white people voted for his Republican opponent. Black mayors started to experience many of the same issues and controversies as previous white mayors. Many black mayors would be progressive and many black mayors would go and compromise to appease reactionary forces. Carl Stokes faced massive opposition as mayor. He opened city hall jobs to black people and women. He formed Cleveland: Now!, which is a program that used public and private resources in trying to revitalize Cleveland neighborhoods. Carl Stokes continued to work. He was reelected in 1969. Many black mayors believed that finding a niche in the system would cause progress for black people. Yet, the system of capitalism in urban communities will not go far enough to cause social liberation for all since capitalism by its nature promotes inequality and disparities economically. Only 2 of Stokes’ 10 first appointments went to black people. He hired the right wing Michael Blackwell as police chief. This was a shock to black people who experienced police terror during the Hough rebellion. Blackwell’s rhetoric and black nationalists groups like the Black Nationalists of New Libya were real in Cleveland. Stokes tried to keep the peace by joining a July 21, 1968 march to remember the 2 year anniversary of the Hough rebellion. 2 days later, the the Black Nationalists of New Libya were in a shootout with Cleveland police and the Ohio National Guard, sparking a rebellion that lasted five days. Seven people, three of them cops, were killed; fifteen people, 11 of them officers, were injured. A FBI report said that people wanted him or Stokes assassinated including other black liberals. So, Stokes ordered the police to watch or surveil New Libyan Leader Fred Ahmed Evans. Evans was captured and Evans said that the group’s weapons were purchased with funds from Stokes’ neighborhood redevelopment program. In 1969, Stokes embraced the reactionary “law and order” rhetoric. He gained backing of local business, the media, and national Democrats. Stokes appointed Benjamin O. Davis Jr. as director of public safety. Davis supported the police suppression of local black nationalists in Cleveland. Davis agreed with the police using soft core bullets that expand on impact. Davis resigned by 1970. Stokes faced scandals and the same challenges that other black politicians faced. One issue was that many mayors experienced fiscal problems which came before they took office, but some of them used neoliberal policies and cut services from workers and resources sent to the poor. As early as the 1970’s, the right wing backlash was in full swing. In 1968, political leader Beualah Sanders was part of the National Welfare Rights Organization who wanted to help the poor. She spoke in Chicago on August 22, 1968. She was the leader of the NWRO too. Shirley Chisholm was in a state of NY seat in 1964. She was a Congresswoman by 1968. She was a progressive Democrat who believed in health care rights, civil rights, and human justice. She was the first African American woman to be elected to the Congress. The Black Expo featured black leaders in promoting economic causes too. Kenneth Gibson was the first black mayor of Newark in 1970. Coleman Young was the first black mayor of Detroit. Tom Bradley was the first black mayor Los Angeles. Maynard Jackson would be elected as the first black mayor of Atlanta by the 1970's too. One of the greatest events of black political history was the National Black Political Convention which was held in March of 1972 in Gary, Indiana. Back then, many black people wanted an independent black political movement to be independent of both the Republican and Democratic parties. They wanted to be use liberation politics. This is why this convention was created. The convention was diverse. It included black liberals, progressives, socialists, nationalists, Republicans, Democrats, etc. This comes during the time of FBI using COINTELPRO harassing black activists. Political establishment leaders wanted to co-opt the struggle. In 1972, black people wanted mass action. The preamble of the National Black Political Agenda was very radical and progressive. It exposed both major parties and wanted radical change in society. Mayor Richard Hatcher convened the meeting. Black Nationalist Amiri Baraka was involved in the meeting too. Congressman Charles Diggs of Michigan was there along with Queen Mother Moore (who wanted reparations. She is a great Black Nationalist legend). Jesse Jackson of PUSH was there and called for a Black Liberation Party. It lasted from March 10-12, 1972. There was a debate in the meeting on whether to ally with Democrats or be independent politically. The promises of continued support for the Democrats were not enough to stop a walkout by the convention's Michigan delegation. These delegates, many of whom were NAACP leaders and trade union officials, were worried that any association with the National Black Political Agenda would damage their relationship to the Michigan Democratic Party. Jackson and Baraka wanted to stop the walk out, but it was too later. Many members of the convention wanted Palestinian liberation. Back then, that was extremely taboo. The Black Agenda was eventually dumped in favor of the Congressional Black Caucus' watered-down Black "Bill of Rights." Although the convention formed a National Black Political Assembly, the perspectives of this group were left largely undefined. The 2nd National Black Political Convention took place in Little Rock, Arkansas. This was in 1974. Many statements wanted to promote an independent black party. Afterwards, the convention’s leaders left the organization. Many black leading politicians followed the Democratic machine. The National Black Political Conventions wanted independent black movement for change legitimately. Members wanted a black independent party. It was a glorious dream. They were sidetracked by establishment forces who desired imperialism and slick policies of neoliberalism instead of black liberation.
One of the greatest parts of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City was the Black Power salute shown by Gold medalist Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos on October 16, 1968. They were sprinters. They wore black socks without shoes and use the black gloved fist as the Star Spangled Banner was played. They expressed solidarity with the Black Freedom Movement in America. Both sprinters were members of the Olympic Project for Human Rights. This was a group in favor of human equality. It was created in 1967 by sociologist Harry Edwards and others including Tommie Smith and John Carlos. The group wanted to oppose racism in sports, racial segregation in America, and apartheid in South Africa. Smith said that the project was about human rights, of "all humanity, even those who denied us ours." Most members of the OPHR were African American athletes or community leaders. They once called for a boycott of the 1968 Olympics unless 4 conditions are met like South Africa and Rhodesia not being in the Olympics, Muhammad Ali’s world heavyweight title restored, Avery Brundage to not be the President of the International Olympic Committee, and hiring more African American assistant coaches. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. supported the boycott. While the boycott largely failed to materialize, African-American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos and Australian sprinter Peter Norman wore OPHR patches during the medal ceremony for the 200-metre race. Despite being a primarily African-American organization, the OPHR was supported by white athletes such as Norman and members of the Harvard University rowing team. After Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised the black fist, they were ordered by the U.S. Organizing Committee to leave the Olympic Village. The International Olympic Committee used an excuse that politics played no part in the games. Yet, many racists sent death threats to both Smith and Carlos for a long time. The 1968 Summer Olympics was the first Olympic Games to be staged in Latin America and the first to be stage in a Spanish speaking country. George Foreman won a gold medal for boxing in the heavyweight division. He defeated Soviet Ionas Chepluis in a second round TKO. He waved a small American flag and bowed to the crowd after the victory. This was the time first time when East and West Germany participated in separate nations. It was the first games at which there was a significant African presence in men's distance running. Africans won at least one medal in all running events from 800 meters to the marathon, and in so doing they set a trend for future games. Most of these runners came from high-altitude areas of countries like Kenya and Ethiopia, and they were well-prepared for the 2240m elevation of Mexico City. It was the first Olympic Games in which the closing ceremony was transmitted in color to the world, as well as the events themselves. Wyomia Tyus returned to the 1968 Olympics to defend her title in the 100m. In the finals, she set a new world record of 11.08s to become the first person, male or female, to retain the Olympic 100 meters title. Tyus also qualified for the 200m final, in which she finished sixth. Running the final leg for the relay team, Tyus helped setting a new world record, winning her third gold medal. Long jumper Bob Beamon broke the 29-foot record at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Black Excellence was in full display during the 1968 Olympics.
The 1968 Presidential election was one of the most important elections in history. It represented the end of one era and the beginning of a new one. It outlined the divisions of the Democratic Party and the total near unity of Republicans, who promoted “law and order" and the silent majority to control society. Some candidates readily didn’t appeal to black people or to progressives in general. 1968 dealt with labor rights, international workers’ revolts, the Vietnam War, racism, rebellions, and other events. It was an election that brought down the New Deal Coalition for decades to come after 36 years. The election came during the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was one leader of the Civil Rights Movement. There was widespread unrest in university campuses. The election campaign started as early as 1967. By that time, the Vietnam War dominated much of the resources that could have been used for the Great Society domestic programs. Landmark civil rights legislation existed. The exploration of space continued. Young people and minorities wanted a more radical society. The rise of the Black Power movement, the hippie counterculture, and New Left activism was a rejection of far right politics and mainline political establishment people too. Women rights leaders grew in influence as well. One of the early candidates for President was Eugene McCarthy. He opposed the Vietnam War. He was supported by many college educated liberals. He had a progressive platform in economic issues. His problem was that he made comments calling Robert Kennedy supporters as not intelligent, which lost him much support. Robert Kennedy ran for President later. Many people glamorize RFK as a total progressive. It is true that Robert Kennedy was a progressive on civil rights, on pollution, on the death penalty, and on other issues. Yet, he wasn’t on other issues. He refused to support a boycott of companies supporting apartheid South Africa though he opposed apartheid on moral grounds. He wants tax breaks to corporations to help communities. He questioned the current policies of the Vietnam War, but he didn’t want an immediate withdrawal of military forces. As time went on, Robert Kennedy did the wise thing by building a strong coalition among black Americans, Latino Americans, working class whites, labor, Asian Americans, and the youth in order to gain primary victories, especially in California. By California’s primary, Eugene and Robert were close in votes. When Robert Kennedy won, he could win the nomination. LBJ dropped out after the Tet Offensive. Yet, Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June of 1968. It was blow to the movement for change. Hubert Humphrey won the Democratic nomination for President while Richard Nixon won the Republican nomination for President. Nixon beat Ronald Reagan and Rockefeller in the Republican primary. Nixon called himself a new Nixon, but he had right wing views on legal matters. He wanted to use the government to suppress the liberal movements in America. He was overt about it. He wanted “law and order.” George Wallace ran for President as an Independent candidate, but he appealed to racism, extreme nationalism, and militarism back then. His campaign was very similar to the Trump campaign. The Democrats bickered on platform and policies. They were weakened, because of generational and ideological divisions. Four factions of the Democrats existed. One was of labor union and big cities bosses like Richard Daley of Chicago. The second faction was behind McCarthy made up of middle class and upper middle class college students and intellectuals who wanted to be the future of the Democratic Party. The third group was mostly made up of black people, people of color, Roman Catholics, and anti-war people who allied with Robert F. Kennedy. The fourth group consisted of white Southern Democrats. Many of them supported Humphrey for his pro-New Deal policies and others allied with Wallace. The Democratic National Convention in late August 1968 had police using terror against protesters, chaos on the floor, and divisions growing further. It was a moment of challenges. Richard Nixon promoted black capitalism or using tax incentives to help small businesses and struggling communities. Nixon developed a "Southern strategy" that was designed to appeal to conservative white southerners, who traditionally voted Democratic, but were opposed to Johnson and Humphrey's support for the civil rights movement, as well as the rebellions that had broken out in the ghettos of most large cities. Wallace, however, won over many of the voters Nixon targeted, effectively splitting the conservative vote. Indeed, Wallace deliberately targeted many states he had little chance of carrying himself in the hope that by splitting the conservative vote with Nixon he would give those states to Humphrey and, by extension, boost his own chances of denying both opponents an Electoral College majority. Humphrey, meanwhile, promised to continue and expand the Great Society welfare programs started by President Johnson, and to continue the Johnson Administration's "War on Poverty." He also promised to continue the efforts of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and the Supreme Court, in promoting the expansion of civil rights and civil liberties for minority groups. However, Humphrey also felt constrained for most of his campaign in voicing any opposition to the Vietnam War policies of President Johnson, due to his fear that Johnson would reject any peace proposals he made and undermine his campaign. As a result, early in his campaign Humphrey often found himself the target of anti-war protestors, some of whom heckled and disrupted his campaign rallies.
Nixon asked Anna Chennault to be his "channel to Mr. Thieu" in order to advise him to refuse participation in the talks. Thieu was promised a better deal under a Nixon administration. Chennault agreed and periodically reported to John Mitchell that Thieu had no intention of attending a peace conference. On November 2, Chennault informed the South Vietnamese ambassador: "I have just heard from my boss in Albuquerque who says his boss [Nixon] is going to win. And you tell your boss [Thieu] to hold on a while longer." In 1997, Chennault admitted that "I was constantly in touch with Nixon and Mitchell." The effort also involved Texas Senator John Tower and Kissinger, who traveled to Paris on behalf of the Nixon campaign. William Bundy stated that Kissinger obtained "no useful inside information" from his trip to Paris, and "almost any experienced Hanoi watcher might have come to the same conclusion". While Kissinger may have "hinted that his advice was based on contacts with the Paris delegation," this sort of "self-promotion....is at worst a minor and not uncommon practice, quite different from getting and reporting real secrets." In 2007, Conrad Black asserted that there is "no evidence" connecting Kissinger in particular, who was "playing a fairly innocuous double game of self-promotion," with attempts to undermine the peace talks. Black further commented that "the Democrats were outraged at Nixon, but what Johnson was doing was equally questionable," and there is "no evidence" that Thieu "needed much prompting to discern which side he favored in the U.S. election." Johnson learned of the Nixon-Chennault effort because the NSA was interfering in communications in Vietnam. In 2009, new tapes were declassified revealing that Johnson was enraged and said that Nixon had "blood on his hands" and that Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen agreed with Johnson that such action was "treason." Defense Secretary Clark Clifford considered the moves an illegal violation of the Logan Act. In response, Johnson ordered NSA surveillance of Chennault and wire-tapped the South Vietnamese embassy and members of the Nixon campaign. He did not leak the information to the public because he did not want to "shock America" with the revelation, nor reveal that the NSA was interfering in communications in Vietnam. Johnson did make information available to Humphrey, but at this point Humphrey thought he was going to win the election, so he did not reveal the information to the public. Humphrey later regretted this as a mistake. The South Vietnamese government withdrew from peace negotiations, and Nixon publicly offered to go to Saigon to help the negotiations. Dallek wrote that Nixon's efforts "probably made no difference," because Thieu was unwilling to attend the talks and there was little chance of an agreement being reached before the election. However, his use of information provided by Harlow and Kissinger was morally questionable, and Humphrey's decision not to make Nixon's actions public was "an uncommon act of political decency."
Hubert Humphrey almost beat Richard Nixon, because Humphrey at the end of the campaign called for a bombing halt in Vietnam. In October, Humphrey—who was rising sharply in the polls due to the collapse of the Wallace vote—began to distance himself publicly from the Johnson administration on the Vietnam War, calling for a bombing halt. The key turning point for Humphrey's campaign came when President Johnson officially announced a bombing halt, and even a possible peace deal, the weekend before the election. The "Halloween Peace" gave Humphrey's campaign a badly needed boost. In addition, Senator Eugene McCarthy finally endorsed Humphrey in late October after previously refusing to do so, and by Election Day the polls were reporting a dead heat. Also on the ballot in two or more states were black activist Eldridge Cleaver (who was ineligible to take office, as he would have only been 33 years of age on January 20, 1969) for the Peace and Freedom Party, Henning Blomen for the Socialist Labor Party, Fred Halstead for the Socialist Workers Party, E. Harold Munn for the Prohibition Party, and Charlene Mitchell – the first African-American woman to run for president – for the Communist Party. Comedians Dick Gregory and Pat Paulsen were notable write-in candidates. Richard Nixon won the 1968 election. From that time forward, many Democrats would be more moderate and compromise. Republicans would also be more conservative in their thinking. Nixon would be a controversial President and Black America would be changed forever.
By Timothy