Monday Information.

 

 

From long ago, gospel music is part of our voice and our song. It has been a totally powerful expression not only in calling for change in the lives of human beings. It is definitely about the glorification of God in many ways. For centuries, gospel has been a beacon of advice, of inspiration, and of excellent celebration. It is also important to reiterate that gospel is not monolithic. It has been expressed by people of every color and of every background throughout the ages. Likewise, the black American experience is intertwined in the gospel tradition. The black church has been an anchor for our community not only as a meeting place. Back then, the black church was a location where people learned how to read, to be educated in STEM Fields, they facilitated progressive social movements (like the Abolitionist and Civil Rights Movements), and religious churches have been a location where folks unapologetically expressed their concerns and august dreams. Gospel music has been a soundtrack for so many. My parents enjoy gospel music, and I have certainly listened to gospel music found in America including throughout the world. Life doesn't require us to be perfect 24/7 365. No one is 100 percent except God. Yet, we do have the responsibility to be better and do better among our neighbors though. We certainly have the duty to advance a moral code in our lives. That is precisely why gospel has been used as a tool to help those to overcome many challenges. Modern day gospel have roots from Africa, Europe, and other locations When you think about the Fisk Jubilee Singers, The Soul Stirrers, The Clarks Sisters, Mahalia Jackson, and other artists, you think about their commitment in showing love towards the Lord. In recent generations, many old school people have criticized the commercialization and secular-appealing that some new school gospel music has become. That issue should be debated. We should always reject the wordiness that promotes compromise, the promotes evil, and harbors a hatred of God and his will. Yet, it is also important to note as long as an artist has the intention to promote righteousness, have legitimate lyrics of holiness, and not compromise to the ways of the world (regardless of the artist's age or generation), then that person shouldn't be massively criticized. Guitars, choirs, drums, bass guitars, and tambourines are readily utilized in gospel music. After long centuries of modern day gospel music, it remains a powerful force of black culture and musical culture in general too. Excitement, charisma and spiritual growth characterize the essence of true gospel musical expression. 

 

 

The Presidential cabinet of President Joseph Biden is a reflection of his political ideology and his intentions about what he wants for the United States of America. Vice President Kamala Harris is the first African American and South Asian American to be Vice President of the United States of America.  Kamala Harris has been a California Attorney General, a Senator, and a District Attorney of San Francisco. So, she has all of the qualifications in the world politically. Being from Oakland, Kamala Devi Harris knows about diverse communities and dealing with complex economic and social issues. The Secretary of State is Antony Blinken. The Secretary of State heavily deals with foreign policy affairs. He worked under President Barack Obama as Deputy National Security Advisor including Deputy Secretary of State. He worked under the Clinton administration too. Blinken was born in Yonkers, NY whose maternal ancestors were Hungarian Jewish people. He once supported the Iraq War and advocated a 3 regional area in Iraq along ethnic or sectarian lines. That plan was rejected mostly. Of course, I didn't agree with the Iraq War. He has criticized China over abuse of the Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang. I agree with him that Brexit has become a total mess. The Secretary of Treasury is Janet Yellen. Janet Yellen is the first woman Secretary of the Treasury. She has great qualifications, and she publicly wanted a strong stimulus plan to address the economic distress existing as a product of the vicious pandemic in the United States of America. The Secretary of Defense is Lloyd Austin. Lloyd Austin is the first black man to be the Secretary of Defense. Austin was the 12th commander of CENTCOM or the United States Central Command form 2013 to 2016. He had a heavy role in the Iraq War. Austin and his wife, Charlene Denise Banner Austin, have been married for over 40 years.  Charlene has worked as a non-profit administrator and served the board of the Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University. Austin wanted to investigate and eradicate white racist extremists who have infiltrated some sections of the U.S. military. Among his early acts as Secretary of Defense, Austin removed Trump appointees from the Pentagon advisory boards. The Secretary of Transportation is Pete Buttgieg. Buttegieg was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana in the Midwest. Also, he was a former U.S. Navy intelligence officer, Presidential candidate in 2020, and graduate of Harvard including Oxford University. Denis McDonough is the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Alejandro Mayorkas is the Secretary of Homeland Security. He is the first Latino American to have that position. Mayorkas was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris on February 2, 2021, after his confirmation that day. Avriel Haines is the Director of National Intelligence. The Chief of Staff is Ron Klain. Shuwanza Goff is the Deputy Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. 

 

  

 

Ronald Reagan ended his Presidency on January 20, 1989 when George H. W. Bush took office. The Reagans purchased a home in Bel Air, Los Angeles including the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara. By April 13, 1992, another incident happened to Ronald Reagan. He was assaulted by an anti-nuclear protester. This was during a luncheon speech while accepting an award from the National Association of Broadcasters in Las Vegas. The protester was Richard Springer. He smashed a two-foot-high (61 cm), 30-pound (14 kg) crystal statue of an eagle that the broadcasters had given the former president. Flying shards of glass hit Reagan, but he was not injured. Using media credentials, Springer intended to announce government plans for an underground nuclear weapons test in the Nevada desert the following day. Springer was part of an anti-nuclear group. Springer was arrested and was lucky that he didn't get felony charges. Questions were raised about how he would get past the federal agents that guarded Reagan at all times. Later, Springer pled guilty to reduced charges and said he had not meant to hurt Reagan through his actions. He pled guilty to a misdemeanor federal charge of interfering with the Secret Service, but other felony charges of assault and resisting officers were dropped. Ronald Reagan continued to public speak after his Presidency. The Reagan couple attended Bel Air Church regularly. Ronald Reagan gave speeches to support the Republican Party. He gave a speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention to support George H. W. Bush. 

 

Previously, on November 4, 1991, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was dedicated and opened to the public. Five presidents and six first ladies attended the dedication ceremonies, marking the first time that five presidents were gathered in the same location.  Reagan continued to speak publicly in favor of a line-item veto; the Brady Bill;  a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget; and the repeal of the 22nd Amendment, which prohibits anyone from serving more than two terms as president. In 1992 Reagan established the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award with the newly formed Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.  His final public speech occurred on February 3, 1994, during a tribute to him in Washington, D.C.; his last major public appearance was at the funeral of Richard Nixon on April 27, 1994. At the end, Ronald Reagan unfortunately  suffered Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is one of the worst diseases on Earth that eliminates memories and it's an incurable neurodegenerative disease that destroys brain cells. It ultimately causes death as when the brain dies, the body dies. Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with the disease on August 1994 when he was 83 years . He informed the nation of his illness via a handwritten letter on November 1994. Many well wishers sent him notes to his California home. There has been debate on whether he had Alzheimer's while he was President. Michael Reagan fiercely denies this view. Reagan's other son Ron Reagan suspected this. This is why Michael Reagan accused Ron of making that view to sell books. Regardless of the truth, I don't wish that disease on anyone. Anyone who has it should receive compassion, treatment, and empathy. At a June 1981 reception for mayors, not long after the assassination attempt, Reagan greeted his Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Samuel Pierce by saying "How are you, Mr. Mayor? How are things in your city?",  although he later realized his mistake. Ron would later temper his claims, telling The New York Times he did not believe his father was actually inhibited by Alzheimer’s while in office, only that “the disease was likely present in him”, for years prior to his 1994 diagnoses.  Former CBS White House correspondent Lesley Stahl recounted that in her final meeting with the president in 1986, Reagan did not seem to know who she was. Stahl claims that she came close to reporting that Reagan was senile, but by the end of the meeting, he had regained his alertness. Lay observations that Reagan suffered from Alzheimer's while still in office have been widely refuted by medical experts, however, including the many physicians who treated Reagan both during and after his presidency. Neurosurgeon Dr. Daniel Ruge said that he never saw Reagan having signs of Alzheimer when he examined him. Reagan's doctors said that he first began exhibiting overt symptoms of the illness in late 1992 or 1993, several years after he had left office. Reagan fell off his horse in Mexico at July 1989. Nancy Reagan said that this event could have harmed Reagan's memory. Years after 1994, Reagan only could recall a few people like his wife, Nancy. He remained active. Ronald Reagan walked into parks near his home and on beaches. He played golf all of the time until 1999. That was when he came to his office nearby the Century Cub. Reagan suffered a fall at his Bel Air home on January 13, 2001, resulting in a broken hip. The fracture was repaired the following day,  and the 89-year-old Reagan returned home later that week, although he faced difficult physical therapy at home. On February 6, 2001, Reagan reached the age of 90, becoming only the third U.S. president after John Adams and Herbert Hoover to do so. Reagan's public appearances became much less frequent with the progression of the disease, and as a result, his family decided that he would live in quiet semi-isolation with his wife Nancy. She told CNN's Larry King in 2001 that very few visitors were allowed to see her husband because she felt that "Ronnie would want people to remember him as he was." During the afternoon of June 5, 2014, Ronald Reagan passed away. He was 93 years old. 

 

 

The R&B music of the 2000s had many powerful, inspirational joints. The 2000s was the time of the start of the war on terror, the growth of reality TV shows, and political debates galore. Likewise, talented musicians made their way to show their talent like Mario, Amerie, Ciara, Fantasia, Melanie Fiona, Sunshine Anderson, Kelly Rowland, 3LW, Jill Scott, Lloyd, Jaheim, Musiq Soulchild, Rihanna, Ledisi, Jordin Sparks, Chris Brown, Akon, and other singers. The sounds of that era included the growth of neo-soul, love ballads, and by the end of the decade filled with electronic sounds. A lot of the music then was a continuation of the melodies and rhythms found in the late 1990's. The rise of a younger generation artists were widespread in that time period too like Vivian Green, Jazmine Sullivan, Shontelle, Leona Lewis, Keyshia Cole, Floetry, Lyfe Jennings, and the outstanding singer of Jennifer Hudson. Many artists got their start from TV shows like American Idol. Many of them would expand their careers by going into acting in various movies including TV shows. One of the most underated songwriters of that time were Ne-Yo and Keri Hilson. Legends rose up to the occasion like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Toni Braxton, Gerald Levert, and Brian McKnight. The modern R&B movement today came about from 2010 to the present. Modern R&B in the 2010's and 2020s is characterized by new school soundcloud sounds, hip hop influenced artists, and comebacks from legends like Babyface and Toni Braxton (whose album in the 2010's was one of the greatest R&B albums in the 21st century. That is why their duet album won many awards including a Grammy). Many artists of the 2010s and 2020s involved in R&B are human beings like: Bryson Tiller, Rihanna, Miguel, Usher, Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Estelle, Natalie La Rose, Kali Uchis, Ne-Yo, Tinashe, Ciara, Jennifer Hudson, Janelle Monae, Lianne La Havas, Audra Day, Emeli Sande, Snoh Aalegra, Toni Braxton, Chloe and Halle, Tamar Braxton, Justine Skye,  Elle Varner, Trey Songz,  Sevyn Streeter,  Kem, Kelly Rowland, K. Michelle, Monica, Brandy, Ari Lennox, Esperanza Spalding, Maxwell, Anthony Hamilton, Corinne Bailey Rae, Tyrese, Jazmine Sullivan, Solange, Mariah Carey, Summer Walker, Toni Braxton, Russ, Babyface, Alessia Cara,  Weeknd, Khalid, Normani, Khelani, H.E.R., John Legend, Daniel Casear, SZA, and other artists. R&B like any form of music constantly evolves. There is great talent out here in our generation, even in 2021. Later on the future, the modern essence of R&B music will be shown. 

 

 

By the early 1900's, there was a plague epidemic. That is why authorities used quarantines measures at Oakland ports to save lives. Some rats were infected. Over 5,000 people were quarantined in 1908. Hunters came into to shoot the squirrels. The State Board of Health of the U.S. Public Health Service only allotted about $60,000 a year to end the disease. Oakland didn't have sufficient health facilities back then. Some of the infected human beings were treated at home. The pnuemoic plague killed a dozen people in Oakland in 1919. The situation started when a man went hunting in Contra Costa Valley and killed a squirrel. After eating the squirrel, the man fell ill. 4 days later, another household member had the plague. This led to others having it. Officials acted quickly by issuing death certificates to monitor the spread of the plague. Oakland grew in size. It started to annex farmland and settlements to the east and north. Industries grew in the city. Alameda was made an island. By 1906, the city's population doubled with migrants made homeless after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. The Rotary Club of Oakland was created in 1908. By 1916, General Motors opened an automobile factory in East Oakland called the Oakland Assembly. The location produced Chevrolet cars and then GMC trucks until 1963. Then, it moved to Fremont in southern Alameda County. By 1916,  the Fageol Motor Company chose East Oakland for their first factory, manufacturing farming tractors from 1918 to 1923.  By 1920, Oakland was the home of numerous manufacturing industries, including metals, canneries, bakeries, internal combustion engines, automobiles, and shipbuilding.  By 1929, when Chrysler expanded with a new plant there, Oakland had become known as the "Detroit of the West," referring to the major auto manufacturing center in Michigan. 

 

Oakland's population in the 1920's further expanded with factory workers. About 13,000 homes were built in the 3 years between 1921 and 1924. That was more than during the 13 years between 1907 and 1920. Many of the large downtown office buildings, apartment buildings, and single family houses still exist in Oakland like they did in the 1920's. Russell Clifford Durant formed the Durant Field at 82 Avenue and East 14th Street in 1916. The   first transcontinental airmail flight finished its journey at Durant Field on August 9, 1920, flown by Army Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker and Navy Lt. Bert Acosta.  Durant Field was often called Oakland Airport, though the current Oakland International Airport was soon established four miles (6.4 km) to the southwest. 

During World War II, the East Bay Area was home to many war-related industries. Oakland's Moore Dry Dock Company expanded its shipbuilding capabilities and built over 100 ships. Valued at $100 million in 1943, Oakland's canning industry was its second-most-valuable war contribution after shipbuilding. The largest canneries were in the Fruitvale District, and included the Josiah Lusk Canning Company, the Oakland Preserving Company (which started the Del Monte brand), and the California Packing Company 

President Franklin D. Roosevelt called on defense industries with government contracts to integrate their workforces and provide opportunities for all Americans. Tens of thousands of laborers came from around the country, especially poor whites and blacks from the Deep South: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas, as well as Missouri and Tennessee. Henry J. Kaiser's representatives recruited sharecroppers and tenant farmers from rural areas to work in his shipyards. African Americans part of the Great Migration (in about 5 million people) left the South to the West and all over America from 1940 to 1970. White migrants from the Jim Crow South carried their racial attitudes, causing tension to rise among black and white workers competing for the better paying jobs in the Bay Ara. The racial harmony that many Oakland black people have been accustomed to prior to the war ended. Many Mexican Americans migrated to the area from New Mexico, Texas, and Colorado. Many worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad, as its major rail yard in West Oakland. Their young men encountered hostility and discrimination by Armed Forces personnel, and tensions broke out in "zoot suit riots" in downtown Oakland in 1943 in the wake of a major disturbance in Los Angeles that year. In 1946, National City Lines (NCL), a General Motors holding company, acquired 64% of Key System stock. This was during the next several years NCL engaged in the conspiratorial dissolution of Oakland's electric streetcar system. The city's expensive streetcar fleet was converted to the cheaper diesel buses. The state Legislature formed the Alameda and Contra Costa Transit District in 1955, which operates today as AC Transit, the third-largest bus-only transit system in the nation. Soon after the war, as Oakland's shipbuilding industry declined and the automobile industry went through restructuring, many jobs were lost. Economic competition increased racial tension.  In addition, labor unrest increased as workers struggled to protect their livelihoods. Oakland was the center of a general strike during the first week of December 1946, one of six cities across the country that had such a strike after World War II.

  

 

After WWII, massive changes happened in Oakland. In 1960, the Kaiser Corporation created its new headquarters. It was the largest skyscrapers in Oakland and was the largest office tower back then west of Chicago. By this time, suburban developed increased around Oakland. Wealthier residents moved into new housing. Despite the major increases in the number and proportion of African Americans in the city,  in 1966 only 16 of the city's 661 police officers were black. Tensions between the black community and the largely white police force were high, as expectations during the civil rights era increased to gain social justice and equality before the law. Police abuse of blacks was common. Students Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party at Merritt College (then located at a former high school on Grove Street, now occupied by Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute), which emphasized black power, advocated armed self-defense against police brutality, and was involved in several incidents that ended in the deaths of police officers and other Black Panther members. Among their social programs were feeding children and providing other services to the needy. During the 1970s, Oakland began to suffer serious violence and other problems related to gang-controlled dealing of heroin and cocaine when drug kingpin Felix Mitchell created the nation's first large-scale operation of this kind. Both violent crime and property crime increased during this period, and Oakland's murder rate rose to over twice that of San Francisco and New York. Many other American cities during the 1980's had the crack cocaine epidemic. It was a serious problem in Oakland too. Back then, no one issued programs to help with families or drug addiction in a massive level. People were placed into prison, people were scapegoated, and no radical changes happened to save families. Crime rates grown. By 1980, Oakland's black population had its 20th century peak at 47% of the overall city population.

 

The 6.9 M Loma Prieta earthquake happened on October 17, 1989. The rupture was related to the San Andreas fault system and affected the entire San Francisco Bay Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Many structures in Oakland were badly damaged including the double-decker portion of Interstate 880 that collapsed. The eastern span of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge also sustained damage and was closed to traffic for one month. On October 20, 1991, a massive firestorm swept down from the Berkeley/Oakland hills above the Caldecott Tunnel. Twenty-five people were killed, 150 people were injured, and nearly 4,000 homes destroyed. With the loss of life and an estimated economic loss of US$1.5 billion, this was the worst urban firestorm in American history, until 2017. During the mid-1990s, Oakland's economy began to recover as it transitioned to new types of jobs. In addition, the city participated in large development and urban renewal projects, concentrated especially in the downtown area, at the Port of Oakland, and at the Oakland International Airport. 

 

 

 

There is always a diverse culture in Oakland, California. Back in 2018, 35.0.6% of the people in Oakland are white, 23.18% are African Americans, 0.87% are Native Americans, 15.32 percent are Asian Americans, and 226.5 percent are Hispanic Americans. Oakland is one of the most ethnically diverse major cities in America. That is why a 2019 analysis by WalletHub showed that Oakland was the most ethnocracially diverse city in the United States of America. Oakland became a destination for African Americans in the Great Migration during and after World War II as they gained high-paying jobs in the defense industry. With gentrification and raising housing prices, many black people have relocated ot other housing in the Bay Area suburbs or moving to the Southern United States via the Reverse Great Migration. There are many immigrants in the city too. Oakland is known for having a large art scene. Tons of art communities are found in Downtown, Chinatown, Old Oakland, and Jack London Square. The city is a renowned culinary hotbed, offering both a wide variety and innovative approaches to diverse cuisines in restaurants and markets, often featuring locally grown produce and international styles such as French, Italian, Portuguese/Spanish, Ethiopian, Asian, Latin American, as well as Caribbean, Southern United States/Louisiana Creole, etc., all of which reflects the culinary traditions of the city's ethnically diverse population. Historically a focal point of the West Coast blues and jazz scenes, Oakland is also home to musicians representing such genres as rhythm and blues, gospel, funk, punk, heavy metal, Rap/Gangsta rap, and hip hop. There is the African American Museum and Library at Oakland, California. The National Register of Historic Places have Fox Oakland Theater (opening in 1928) was a historic landmark. 

 

 

There is constant research about my paternal relatives too. Derrick Alan Galloway is my 4th cousin as we share the same ancestor of George Perkins I (b. 1815). Derrick Alan Galloway was born on March 26, 1964, and he lived in Washington, DC. He married the late Vanessa Lynette Howard on December 17, 1988 at Caroline, Virginia. They had twin daughters whose names are Danielle Ashley Galloway and Deaven Alycia Galloway. They were born in 1989, and they are my 5th cousins. Derrick Alan Galloway's siblings are Charles Theodore Galloway Jr. (b. 1956) and Douglas Anthony Galloway (b. 1961). Their parents are Charles Theodore Galloway Sr. (1931-2003) and Nannie Lou Hampton (b. 1934). My 4th cousin Charles Theodore Galloway Jr. had many children like: Charles Theodore Galloway III (B. 1984), Gabrielle Alissa Galloway (b. 1989), Lateisha Marchelle Galloway, etc. My 3rd cousin Nannie Lou Hampton's parents are Joe Hatrice Hampton (1902-2001) and Verglene Casey (1906-1981). Nannie Lou Hampton's siblings are Joseph Samuel Hampton (1927-1990), James Andrew Hampton (1930-2012), Virginia Dare Hampton (b. 1932), Estell Hampton (b. 1938), Malissa Florence Hampton (1940-2005), Hila Mae Hampton (1942-2016), Samuel Lee Hampton (b. 1945), and Patricia Jane Hampton (B. 1947). Verglene Casey's mother was Sophronia Perkins (1870-1926), and her father was George Perkins II (1847-1932). George Perkins II's father was George Perkins I. My 3rd cousin Maissa Florence Hampton was born on April 16, 1940 at North Carolina. She married Curtis D. Mooty (1936-2015), and their child is Cheryl Denise Mooty (b. 1969). My 4th cousin Cheryl Denise Mooty Oliver was born on February 19, 1969. She married Ernest Oliver, and their 2 children are Bryan Olvier and Brent Olvier (or my 5th cousins). 

 

 

By Timothy