The myth now is that people are not fighting back against Trump's reactionary, retrograde policies. There had been a Day Without Immigrants protest in American cities in February 2025. By February 5, 2025, thousands of protesters gathered at state capitols for the American Opposition and 50501 protests to protest the policies and actions of the 2nd Donald Trump administration, in America. Many protesters marched in West Hollywood, California, on February 22, 2025, to oppose Elon Musk's DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) and the Trump agenda. There have been African Americans boycotting Target and other companies that promoted anti-DEI programs. We have a crisis in the black community. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, black men earn less than white men weekly if you place the data in a controlled analysis where both had the same qualifications in 2023. We have less home ownership now than we did in 1968, and about 300,000 black women were fired unjustly since April 2025 because of the rollbacks of DEI. That reality is wrong as black women's and black men's dignity must be respected. Also, many protesters in town halls have confronted pro-Trump Republicans on the bad budget law that promotes austerity, on the Epstein issue, on constitutional issues, and other harm done to our democracy.
About five years ago, one of the biggest tragedies in black history and human history existed. It was the brutal and intense murder of George Floyd in the Midwest at Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was a hard worker and a father. He begged for his life crying out for his mother, but the officers showed no compassion or empathy to his suffering. Derek Chauvin placed his knee on his neck for over 8 minutes until he died. Chauvin, the murderer, was convicted in my opinion only because the evidence was so overwhelming that he was guilty. Unfortunately, many families of black victims of police brutality never have true justice in the world, regardless if video evidence existed or not. We live in a new generation where the crimes of the oligarchy and their agents are recorded by social media constantly. The Internet was created decades ago by DARPA, but the establishment never anticipated the grassroots and independent scholars using the Internet to give the truth to the people. Afterward, protests existed. The vast majority of the protests were peaceful. Some people did violence and vandalism which have no justification as many of the people who did it were agents provacetuers or straight up agents trying to discredit the movement for social justice and racial justice. The 2020 George Floyd protests were unique being the largest anti-police brutality and anti-racist protests in human history where people of every color stood up for black human lives from Minneapolis to Australia. This caused some reforms to exist from body cameras to police regulations. Yet, with progress comes the backlash. The backlash was head by the MAGA movement to cut services to communities, to bash woke as a slur when it isn't, and to go about to harm civil rights and voting rights policies. The MAGA movement endorses restrictions to legal protests and prevented legal federal investigations into police departments with a known history of police misconduct. Trump is in head of this cult, and Trump wants any governmental workers and all Americans to pledge total allegiance to him which is immoral. We have allegiance to our conscience, to the truth, to our God, to the legitimate parts of the U.S. Constitution, and to morality plus integrity. We have allegiance to righteousness not to a President unconditionally as we have the right to our independent thinking. So, we have a long way to go in 2025, but truth is on our side. At the end of the day, we are inspired by the George Floyd movement to stand up against up against evil, speak truth to power, and defend the dignity of human lives.
This year is the 100th year Anniversary of the Brotherhood Sleepy Car Porters. This moment is very important part of African American history and culture. This group of the BSCP was the first labor organization led by African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Back in the day, many black people were heavily discriminated against in the labor movement. Labor unionism is a legitimate aim for workers to pursue, but our black ancestors had to fight to not only end oppression against all workers. We had to fight racism, even in some unions back in the day. The BSCP grew very large with a membership of 18,000 passenger railway workers in Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America. After the American Civil War, the Pullman porter had a decent wage for black Americans. Major leaders of the BSCP were of course, the civil rights leader and socialist A. Philip Randolph (its founder and first president), Milton Webster (vice president and lead negotiator), and C. L. Dellums (vice president and second president). All three black men were involved in the eradication of Jim Crow apartheid in the South. BSCP members like E.D. Nixon were involved in grassroots organization and economic empowerment, being involved in the 1954 Montgomery Bus Boycott. By 1978, the BSCP merged with the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks (BRAC) to become the Transportation Communications and International Union.
By the 1920s and the 1930s, the Pullman Company was one of the largest single employers of black people. Back then, being a black Pullman Company worker would mean a middle-class or an upper-middle-class life. Yet, there were issues. Many workers were called George, not Mr. or Sir. Some were called slurs. Some had to work long hours and paid little wages. They weren't promoted to conductor, which was reserved for white people back then. So, 500 porters met in Harlem on August 25, 1925, to organize again. They wanted equal rights for workers. Randolph and Webster (they had differences) fought for the common cause of black workers having great working conditions, workers' rights, and other rights to benefit the black communities and their families. By 1937, the BSCP fought to allow the Pullman Company to increase wages for porters and maids, have a 240 hour month, and give overtime pay after 260 hours. Women in the BSCP were African American and Chinese Americans. Many women had fought for union like in the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union like Rosina C. Tucker and Halena Wilson including Frances Albrier. In 1953, Violet King Henry was the first black woman lawyer in Canada and the first black law graduate in Alberta). The union's president and vice president traveled to Alberta to recognize her. Today, movies and books celebrate their legacy like The Porter in 2022 being an 8 part CBC and BET television drama (being a worker of fiction partly inspired by the creation of the BSCP).
There are many hockey legends. One prominent one was Wayne Douglas Gretzky. He is a former Canadian professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 season in the National Hockey League (NHL) form 1979 to 1999. He is known as the greatest ice hockey player ever by the NHL. He is the leading point scorer and assist producer in NHL history. Gretzky has more assists than any other player has total career points. He is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season, a feat he made in four times. Gretzky scored more than 100 points in 15 professional seasons. By the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 61 NHL records, 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records, and six All-Star records. He played centre. He was born and raised in Brantford, Ontario. As a child, he played hockey above and beyond his peers. He had stamina and an intelligence plus reading of the game that caused him much success throughout his sports career. He set up behind his opponent's net too. He can improvise on the fly. He worked on many hockey teams too. He loves his wife and his children. The first black NHL player was Willie O'Ree who played first with the Boston Bruins on January 18, 1958. He was honored with the NHL's Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award and he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018. He was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. His grandparents were escapees of slavery in the United States, moving to Canada via the Underground Railroad. He played organized hockey when he was five years old. He played in his family's backyard rink. His autobiography is The Willie O'Ree Story: Hockey's Black Pioneer. He experienced racist slurs from people in the stands, but he stood firm in performing his sport that he loved. There were 23 black players in the NHL by the mid 2010s. Other black players are Art Dorrington, Mike Marson, and other human beings. O'Ree has been the NHL's Diversity Ambassador to go in North Africa to schools and hockey programs to promote messages of inclusion, dedication, and confidence.
Viola Davis is married to actor Julius Tennon since June 2003. The couple has a daughter named Genesis via adoption. Davis is also a stepmother to Tennon's 2 children from previous relationships. As part of her partnership with Vaseline to promote the Vaseline Healing Project, Davis attended the groundbreaking of a free community health center in Central Falls, Rhode Island in October 2016 that was sponsored by the project. The project provided dermatological care to help heal the skin of those affected by poverty around the world. She was a speaker at the 2018 Women's March event in Los Angeles.
Viola Davis is easily one of the greatest and influential actresses of our generation. She helped to promote dark skinned black women actresses in a positive light, similar to what Cicely Tyson did decades ago. For her stage work, Davis has won two Tony Awards, three Drama Desk Awards, an Obie Award, and a Theater World Award. She holds the distinction of becoming the first actress of color to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Davis is the first African-American to win five Screen Actors Guild Awards. Davis is also tied for the most film wins for an actress at the Screen Actors Guild Awards; and with six overall wins, she is the most awarded African American. She has also received nominations for six Golden Globes Awards and three BAFTA Awards, winning one of each, in addition to winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Fences (2016). This led to her becoming the first black performer to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting by winning a competitive Oscar, Emmy and Tony. She is also the first actress of colour to have received four Academy Award nominations. Davis was awarded an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts from her undergraduate alma mater, Rhode Island College, in 2002. On January 20, 2020, Davis was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in fine arts from Indiana University. In February 2023, she was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording for the narration to her 2022 autobiography Finding Me, making her the 18th person to achieve EGOT status. In 2024 it was announced she would receive the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award. In December of 2024, the Coalition for Faith and Media presented Davis and her husband Julius Tennon with an inaugural Faith and Spirituality in Entertainment Honor for the work of their production company JuVee Productions.
Viola Davis stands on the foundations of giants from Cicely Tyson, Sarah Vaughan, Dorothy Dandridge, and other artists who love their work. She was born in the South and raised in the New England state of Rhode Island. So, her diverse experience greatly influenced her diverse contributions involving movies, television, and the stage. As being a winner of the EGOT, her contributions to acting are paramount and diverse. After recieving the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2025, she is still going strong to outline some of the great stories of our time period. She went on the Braodway play of August Wilson's Seven Guitars in 1996. For those who don't know, August Wilson is one of the greatest playwrights in human history. She has been on Wisods, The Woman King, Doubt, Fences, and other films that shows not only the confortable side of life. She has been involved in controversial, complex roles, because human beings are filled with nuiance and complexity in our lives personally.
So many years have passed now. We are in the 25th year of this new century and nearing 2030 at a rapid pace. Today, America is at a crossroads in its audacious history. After almost 250 years of America's existence, you still have some people who want to whitewash its past for political reasons. The reality is that America's history is filled not only with slavery, but with Jim Crow, the peonage system (which was de facto slavery lasting into the 1940s), the War on Drugs, and other evils like structural racism that persists to this day. Also, we have heroes in America back then and now who have stood up against injustice constantly. Many of these human beings aren't just famous but unsung. Also, it is important to note that many members of the far right are not only fascists but historically have ties to fascists, dominionists, and promote extremist views. Heritage Foundation founder Paul Weyrich supported voter suppression in 1980, saying that he doesn't want everybody to vote at all. There is hypocrisy among many Republicans. Many of them lecture people on family values, but they support Trump, who was once a friend of the sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein (Trump had a party with Epstein at Mar-a-Lago back in 1992). Trump has coddled Putin in Alaska, and Putin being allowed to ride in the Beast vehicle raises questions in my mind. The Washington Post reported as early as 2017 that Donald Trump met with Russian diplomats in the Oval Office and shared intelligence with them. There have been rumors that Trump is a KGB agent. I don't know if this is true or not (Felix Sater is a convicted felon who has many ties to Donald Trump), but we know that Trump is known to glorify dictators and authoritarians like Hungary's leader, Putin, and other people.
There are many more children and grandchildren of my late 1st cousin Arthur Harris (1923-2009) that I didn't know about until recently. He was married twice. His first marriage was to Sarah Mattie Russell (1927-2005) on November 13, 1945 at Portsmouth, Virginia. That marriage ended on March 15, 1951 at Portsmouth, Virginia. His 2nd wife was Essie Marie Johnson (b. 1935) who was married on July 20, 1951 at Portsmouth, Virginia. Arthur Harris had the following children with Sarah Mattie Russell: Marvin Napeoleon Harris (b. 1948), Ronnie Harris (1959-2024), Ella Webb, Madeline Cecilia Harris (b. 1950), and Ulyssses Erikin Harris (b. 1949). Ronnie Harris married JeNette Jones Harris and had the daughter of Amircale Harris. He had other children who are Kiyaaan Shanise Cox (B. 1985), Andrew Williams, Anquan Williams, Jasmine Willaims, and Joshua Burton. Ronnie Harris attended Carddock High School and spent two years at Western Tidewater Community College. He is known for his sense of humor.
My 2nd cousin Marvin Napoleon Harris married Marie Rawls (b. 1950) on December 18, 1968 at Portsmouth, Virginia. Marvin Napoleon Harris and Marle Rawls had these children: Marlene Harris Thoren (b. 1969), Linette P. Harris Reese (1971-2013), and Tyrone Harris (b. 1981-2015). Tyrone is survived by a daughter, Keshayla Wynn; a son, Jaylin Dancy; a sister, Marlene Thorne (Vertie) and three brothers, Marlin Lee, Derrick Lee and DaRon Bynum; two very close friends, Quentin and Tenshia Norvell as well as a host of family and friends. Linette P. Harris-Reese (who once married Tracy Kevin Vaughan) has a daughter named Marquita Harris Evans. Marquita Harris Evans is married to Chris Evans, and their daughter is Heaven Evans.
Marvin's brother, Ulyssess Erskin Harris was married twice. His frist wife is Catherine W. Terrell, who was married on January 2, 1973 at Lincoln, Tennesse. His 2nd wife is Claudia Mae Richardson on September 2, 1994 at Portsmouth, Virginia. Ulysses Erskin's Harris and Catherine W. Terrell had the daughter of Marlene Maria Harris Thorne (b. 1969). She has the son of Rae Harris and Brehon Harris. She is married to Vertie Winnie Thorne since January 20, 2012 (at Portsmouth, Virginia). Ulysses Erskin Harris lives in Georgia now. He grew up in Portsmouth, Virginia. He went to high school by September of 1966 as one of just seven young African American children to be admitted into one of Portsmouth's all-white schools. He said that he played with kids of many colors until high school. He went to Keto School before, an all-black school. He went to Cradock High School by 1966. He was the first black person on Cradock's wreslting tema, winning 2n overall in the local dvision. He served in the U.S. Miltiary and graduated with his Asscoiate's Degree from Tidewater Community College. Today, he lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Arthur Harris and Essie Marie Johnson had the following children of Delvonia Marie Harris (b. 1949) and Mordecai Harris (b. 1955).
By Timothy
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