ANYWAY...Mother Teresa

RACE ADJUSTMENT

p. 188, RACE ADJUSTMENT: essays on the Negro in America, “Eminent Negroes,” by Kelly Miller (The Neale Publishing Co., New York, Washington, D. C: 1909)

“The individual is the proof of the race, the first unfoldment of its potency and promise. The glory of any people is perpetuated and carried forward by the illustrious names which spring from among them. As we contemplate the great nations and peoples, whether of the ancient or of the modern world, their commanding characters rise up before us, typifying their contribution to the general welfare of the human race. On the contrary, no people can hope to gain esteem and favor which fails to produce distinguished individuals illustrative and exemplary of its possibilities.”

Mordecai Johnson on Mahatma Gandhi: excerpt from Benjamin Mays' biography

p.123, BENJAMIN ELIJAH MAYS: SCHOOLMASTER OF THE MOVEMENT, A BIOGRAPHY, by Randal Maurice Jelks (University of North Carolina Press: 2012)

“Mordecai Johnson gave the banquet address on Mahatma Gandhi. “Dr. Johnson pointed out,” according to the News, the [Howard] School of Religion's newsletter, “that for the first time in history political power, economic exploitation, and military domination have been challenged by the power of the Spirit. It is the first time that 'Soul force or non-violent coercion' has been projected into the political area as a technique of the under-privileged for achieving social ends.” He continued, “The modern political powers are so accustomed to brute force as the means of gaining their objectives that they are hardly prepared to deal with spiritual forces embodied in the work of Mahatma Gandhi. The Indian Saint releases to the world a new method of dealing with entrenched power, and the 'Gandhi Way' will no doubt prove more effective and permanent than the brutal way of military power or the domineering way of the dictator.”

BATTLE OF ISLAND MOUND

This photo, taken by my friend, Preston Washington, in October 2008, appeared in the KC Call newspaper. It shows re-enactors of the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry, with Me and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (r), in between, at the dedication of our statue in Butler, Bates County, Missouri, to black troops at The Battle of Island Mound. A 40-acre, State of Missouri, historical site was dedicated in October 2012 of this October 29, 1862, battle; the first fought (and won!) by black troops in the Civil War. This victory strongly convinced President Abraham Lincoln of the wisdom, military necessity, of issuing the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.

"BATTLE OF ISLAND MOUND" MEMORIALIZATION

“BATTLE OF ISLAND MOUND, MISSOURI”: MEMORIALIZING THE FIRST BLACK TROOPS TO FIGHT IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

AUTHOR’S AFFILIATIONS:

Itinerant Elder, African Methodist Episcopal Church; former Pastor, Brooks Chapel A.M.E. Church, Butler, Missouri; former Second Vice President, Civil War Round Table of Kansas City; Founder, The Amen Society; Attorney, Missouri Bar (Inactive); Member, Association for the Study of African American Life and History; first Chaplain, National Bar Association; Founder, former Historian and Guardian, Section on Law and Religion, National Bar Association; Former Assistant United States Attorney; Former Publisher, THE NILE REVIEW newsletter; former instructor, “Black History: The Sacred Secret,” Communiversity Program, University of Missouri at Kansas City; former Parliamentarian, Jackson County Bar Association; Member, Prudence Lodge #6, Kansas Jurisdiction, Prince Hall Masons; Editor-in-Chief, Howard University, “THE HILLTOP”weekly newspaper; Editor, “THE DARK SIDE,” Webster Groves,Missouri High School; Author, THE COLORED GREEN TREE @Amazon.com

On October 28-29, 1862, the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry fought and won the profoundly historic battle now modestly known to history as the “Skirmish at Island Mound, Missouri.”

These unusual troops dislodged a twice-larger contingent of Confederate irregulars from “Hog Island,” a bivouac in the Osage River, 8 miles southwest of Butler, in Bates County, Missouri. From it, rebels had launched murderous attacks into Kansas, a newly admitted “free” state that had fought a “Border War” with Missouri since 1954, when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was enacted. That Act brought forth many names to the fore like John Brown and U.S. Senator James Lane, who formed this incredible unit of freedom fighters. This mélange of men-- escaped slaves, freed men and one Cherokee Indian and his “slaves” plus their white officers-- routed their enemy in a battle involving cavalry raids, infantry maneuvers, smoke, fire, and hand-to-hand combat, ending in retreat by the defeated rebels, whose leader said “They fought like tigers!”

This was the first battle in which black troops had fought in the American Civil War, albeit under the flag of Kansas. These men were organized and armed by Kansas’ U.S. Senator, James Lane, prior to President Abraham Lincoln’s issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and prior to Lincoln's desperate war measure finally authorizing the muster of black troops into Union forces later that year. Their battle field success, coupled with embarrassing Union losses elsewhere, as graphically emblazoned on the nation's awareness by Harper's Weekly, validated the need for black troops to fight and to win “The Freedom War,” as slaves termed the so-called “Civil War.” Or, the Union would be no more!

This historic battle banished the white supremacists’ lie that black troops could not fight and would not fight for their own freedom. Indeed blacks' fight for freedom assumed many forms and dated back to their initial importation into Virginia in 1619 as “servents.” Escaping slavery individually was the primary means of obtaining freedom; purchasing one's own freedom was another. Yet, armed revolt was always simmering just beneath the placid veneer of peace.

The bloody “Stono Rebellion” in South Carolina in 1739 led the way! It was led by a literate slave named “Jemmy” from Angola, resulting in the deaths of 22 whites and 44 blacks. Later, free man, Denmark Vesey, who had purchased his freedom from lottery ticket winnings, conceived an African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church-based plot in 1822, in Charleston, using Bible study, and the church's class-leader structure, as cover. Vesey's elaborate plan was betrayed by a fearful slave, who warned his master to get away; he, in turn, alerted the militia who hung dozens of slave, and who shut down the A.M.E. Church there till after the Civil War.

In Virginia, Gabriel Prosser, a 25-year old blacksmith and preacher in 1800, also organized about 1,000 slaves to revolt in Richmond. But, his plan was frustrated by a sudden, violent thunderstorm storm, which washed away bridges and roads delaying its August 30 commencement. But, like the others, it too was betrayed by a slave before it could be reorganized. Then, in 1831, the greater liberator, Nat Turner, a slave and a self-taught preacher, rose up and slew over 60 white slave masters in Southampton Virginia, near New Jerusalem. This bold stroke for freedom sent shock waves across the nation, especially as “Prophet” Nat Turner, who quoted scripture and saw hieroglyphics written in blood, eluded capture for 3 weeks after his rebellion was quelled.

In October 1999, tiny Brooks Chapel A.M.E. Church of Butler, Missouri, located in Bates County, Larry Delano Coleman, Pastor, hosted a community-wide celebration to commemorate the memory of the 8 men who died near Butler, during the Battle of Island Mound. The battle's occurrence was unknown to the locals of both races, being lost to history and lore. At that celebration, money was raised for the erection of a monument to those heroic fallen soldiers, which was superintended by the Amen Society, a benevolent corporation created by attorney/pastor Coleman, and run by his church members.

Finally, on October 20, 2008, the bronze statue of a fully armed black soldier, designed by sculptor, Joel Randall, of Edmund, Oklahoma, was unveiled on the north side of the court house square in Butler to citizens amid great public fanfare and political acclaim! Uniformed First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry re-enactors from Oklahoma marched and drilled. Dr. Jimmy Johnson, a descendent of an original First Kansan, and a history teacher, gave background about the unit. A parade was hosted; Pastor Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman preached a sermon entitled “Angels Rolled the Stone Away.” The anointed sculptor, Joel Randall described his involvement in, and inspiration for his beautiful life-like design. A free dinner was hosted by Butler-area churches on the Fairgrounds serving to all comers. Proclamations were read by city, county and local museum officials. Walter Wright, then-President of the Amen Society spoke in tribute to Elnora Burton, the Amen Society's original President, whose name appears on the statue, who had died a few years earlier. Two U.S. Congressmen, Emanuel Cleaver II and Ike Skelton, appropriately framed the national importance of the dedication and complimented the Butler cooperative spirit exhibited throughout the festivities.

More than civic importance, however, the statue's erection and dedication, was of great spiritual and religious importance for the entire region and for country! Pastor Coleman learned about the battle from Noah Andre Trudeau's book, LIKE MEN OF WAR: Black Troops in the Civil War 1862-1865, while visiting Ft. Scott, Kansas' federal bookstore. When he saw Butler, Missouri, on a map in the front of that book, he was shocked, as he was ignorant of anything historic about Butler, notwithstanding its border with Kansas. His “official” church members—all 3 of them—were also ignorant of such. So, they all resolved to acclaim this victory and to erect a notable tribute to these now, apparently, forgotten men, “in Jesus' holy name,”totally undeterred by their laughably small numbers!

It turns out that these fallen men, these heroes were not forgotten.

Unbeknown to Pastor Coleman, or to the members of his flock, Chris Tabor, a white ex-Marine and cartographer, then a resident of Butler, was researching the history of the battle and was writing prolifically about it. Amazingly, a rash of articles written by Tabor, along with illustrations and photographs appeared in the Butler weekly newspaper, The News-Xpress, on the same weekend as the Amen Society's celebration at City Hall, which was attended by over 300 people! That October 1999 event was when and where these two passionately Christian men, Coleman and Tabor, met and became fast friends, neither knowing about the others' efforts or existence.

Eventually, Tabor led Coleman out to the Toothman Farm, where the battle was fought, and where “Fort Africa,” as the sable soldiers' had named their fortifications. Irorically, it was erected, on the abandoned farm of inveterate, Confederate rebel, John Toothman. Tabor doggedly pursued recognition for the site as an historic battleground with state and federal authorities. Coleman, meanwhile, accompanied Realtor Bob Baer on site visits to adjoining properties in the expectation that “the Lord will make a way, somehow” through purchase or otherwise, for the famous battleground to be secured.

Further deepening the mystery, the State of Missouri, which had long resisted according sorely-sought recognition to the “Battle of Island Mound,” purchased 40 acres of the Toothman Farm, including the “Fort Africa” site. The state constructed thereon a visitor's center, and made it a part of its state park system under the Department of Natural Resources. The State's dedication services are October 26-27, 2012, in Butler, and at the site, now deeply hallowed in history.

This paper recounts for posterity the evolutionary process of this observance from the perspective of one, central to its execution.

#30

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman

LCOLE81937@AOL.COM

"Are All the Gospels Fictitious" Excerpted from A REBIRTH FOR CHRISTIANITY

"We have tried to show that Christian doctrine, having in the early centuries taken misdirection, was pushed farther and farther away from the truth by the force of its own momentum.

"All the great religious systems posit a point in the normal evolution of man when the process of individuation would require the natural and instinctual propensities to be curbed, and, in the end, give way to more spiritualizing energies. Understood properly, this result might be considered at the end of one evolutionary cycle and the beginning of a new one--a transcendence, as it were, that yet occurs within the framework of natural order and in full harmony therewith. Through the operation of the law of polarity between the positive spiritual principle and the negative physical forces in the economy of man's nature, there was to come a time of crisis in evolution at which the further progress of the soul was to be facilitated by the resolution of the tension between the two. Out of the agon, the struggle of which St. Paul speaks so eloquently, was to be born a new and higher order of conscious being for the soul. But Christian theologians mistook the beneficence of the polar opposition between the natural and the spiritual law for the evil of nature's battle of the flesh with the spirit. This confusion impaled Christianity on a false concept of the true significance of human life on earth. As a result, Christians were persuaded into an attitude of hostility to the world, which was regarded as inherently sinful. They were at enmity with their environment, when the relationship should have been wholesome, delightful and natural, as it was with the Greeks. Psychologically, a posture of distaste and rejection of the world can blight nature's power to sustain, nourish, and heal the soul. Christianity failed to grasp the beneficent role of physis--"nature"--in life's polarity. And, as John Dewey perceived, the false view split the soul of man and produced the tragic hostility of the spirit to the world, which has so great a need of that spiritual flowering.

"The seventh chapter of St. Paul's epistle to the Romans has disturbed and baffled theologians to this day because it lauds the law of the flesh which brings the soul into polar relation to physis, entailing for it the battle against "sin" and "death" and explaining that man could not know spiritual glory if his soul had not had to wrestle with and know the nature of "sin." This makes St. Paul's discourse a tribute to "sin." Yet this chapter, which reveals the salutary nature and the office of the negative pole in the duality of life, is one of the most luminous expositions in all the scriptures. The polar tension in the heart of man can be fierce and take tragic forms, and the soul's battle in this arena can have its grim moments. The struggle is only complicated and, indeed, debased by the persuasion that the battle itself is a miscarriage of divine intent.

"It has been a failure of Christian insight not to realize that all of the potential needed for the implementation of man's self-evolution is already there, within the arsenal of his constitution. He has all the militant power of God that he can possibly appropriate and utilize within his own organism, available to him at every moment. God could do no more than plant the seed of his own nature in the tiny garden of man's physical life and let man have the thrilling adventure of nourishing it to growth and glory. As many a Christian thinker has said, "God could do nothing for man without man's own effort." The Zohar again and again declared that the "above" could or would not bestir itself on behalf of the "below" until it was awakened by the effort of the latter. Modern philosophers like Buber are saying God needs man as much as man needs God. The natural extension of this view is the recognition that the Messiah God, the Christ Savior, comes to mankind, not as a gift from the benevolent Father in heaven, but in inevitable response to the compelling call from within the depths of man's own being. In that moment when the spiritual fire enters man's earthly tenement, the Christ child is born within his heart, progeny to the union of the two polar energies."

P.171-173, A Rebirth for Christianity, "Are the Gospels Fictitious," by Alvin Boyd Kuhn (2005)

"European Solidarity," an excerpt from THE EQUALITY OF THE HUMAN RACES

Antenor Firmin, The Equality of the Human Races, pp.383-385, “European Solidarity” (University of Illinois Press, Champlain: 1885, 2002).

“All the laws of sociology, no matter how elevated their formulation, must necessarily connect with a biological law which gives them a concrete foundation and roots them in the order of material phenomena. As has been seen elsewhere, the idea of equal rights is based on the aprioristic belief in the natural equality of all human beings. To assuage their conscience as they went about encroaching the land of deprived races, Europeans only had to suppose that all these other races were inferior to those of Europe. Once this assumption was made, the principles of justice lost their importance and their application became a matter of convenience. Such is the shrewdness of Caucasians. Things, of course, are not talked about openly. Those who deal with anthropological and philosophical issues, do not seem to concern themselves with the legal implications of the theories or doctrines they propound. Yet everything is connected. Thus, it happens that the statesman who faces difficult and pressing questions sometimes fall back on scientific theories which appear quite foreign to his sphere of activity...

“The intelligence of philosophers and anthropologists who uphold the thesis of the inequality of the human races is most strongly affected by one particular source of error, namely, the pervasive influence of European aspirations and attending policies of invasion and usurpation, which are fueled by the spirit of domination and the arrogant faith in the superiority of Caucasian man...

“Thus economists, philosophers, and anthropologists become adept at constructing lies, misusing both science and nature for purposes of propaganda...

“The ideas I sketch here are not the product of my imagination. They actually reflect a world view so pervasive in Europe that the most philosophical minds on the continent have not quite escaped its influence. It would have been perhaps surprising to see a man the caliber of Herbert Spencer succumb to it like everybody else and thus compromise his reputation as a man of profound lucidity. Unfortunately, Spencer goes much further than everyone, as far as asserting the rights of Europeans to exterminate those who resist their conquest. In his treatise on moral evolution, the gem of his philosophical and scientific principles, we read the following statement: “The Hebrews, who believed they were entitled to the lands God had promised them, felt authorized, in some cases, to exterminate the original inhabitants. We too, bowing to the 'manifest intention of Providence,' dispossess the inferior races every time we need their territories. But we, at least, massacre only those we feel we have to massacre, and let live those who submit to us.” It is curious to note the sort of conclusion the doctrine of the inequality of the races can inspire in the best of minds, in the most balanced of intellects. Such is the power of logic that whenever one strays away from it, in science or in any other endeavor, one falls into the grossest errors and embraces the most absurd theories.”

home-schooling never ends

education begins at home and never ends...

my black history teachers

3 out of 4 these great and wise men, historians of our people, personally taught me; Dr. Ben did not.

TRUTH RESURGENT

Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light. Micah 7:8

Nature and cosmos embody truth

Truth is embodied all around us, both cosmically and sub-atomically ...

HIS TROPE GOES MARCHING ON

MARK TWAIN'S CHARACTER, JIM, A SLAVE IN THE NOVEL, "THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN," FREED HIMSELF JUST LIKE BLACK CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS "FREED" THEMSELVES. JIM'S PLUCK ALSO FREED HUCK, WHO WAS BESET BY HIS OWN FAMILIAL DEMON, HIS DRUNKEN DAD.

NOTWITHSTANDING ITS "NORTHERN" POLITICAL, AND INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EXPEDIENCY, THE EXECUTIVE ORDER ISSUED BY PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON JANUARY 1, 1863, "THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION," WHICH FREED "SOUTHERN" SLAVES OVER WHOM HE LACKED JURISDICTION, WHILE NOT FREEING "NORTHERN" SLAVES WITHIN HIS JURISDICTION,  THE "FREEDOM WAR" WOULD STILL HAVE BEEN LOST! 

THERE WOULD BE NO "UNION" TODAY KNOWN AS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. BUT FOR THE INDISPENSABLE, SELF-LIBERATING CONTRIBUTIONS OF 200,000 BLACK SOLDIERS AND SAILORS, AND THOUSANDS MORE OF THEIR "CONTRABAND OF WAR" KINSMEN, THE UNITED STATES WOULD HAVE BEEN DEFEATED. "THIS SABLE ARM" AS HISTORIAN SAMUEL CORNISH HAS TERMED THEM, WHOSE ENLISTMENT, SERVICES, LIVES, AND PENT-UP POWER, LINCOLN'S ORDER ENABLED, FREED HIM!

FAR FROM FREEING THE SLAVES, THE SLAVES FREED LINCOLN AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FROM ITS "TAR-BABY" CHARADE OF NATIONAL HYPOCRISY, LEGAL SLAVERY: CUSTOMARY, CONSTITUTIONAL, STATUTORY AND COMMERCIAL. 

THE SAME IS TRUE OF JIM. HE FREED HIMSELF BY RUNNING AWAY FROM SLAVERY. THIS ACT ALSO FREED HUCK FINN WHO WAS FLEEING HIS FATHER'S TYRANNY. TOGETHER, THEY TRIUMPHED OVER THEIR TWIN TERRORS ON A RAFT FLOATING SOUTH DOWN THE INEXORABLE AND QUIXOTIC MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

MARK TWAIN'S DEEPLY CODED EPIC IS RIGHTFULLY AN AMERICAN LITERARY CLASSIC, A METAPHOR ARTFULLY ALLEGORIZING ITS GREATEST NATIONAL TRIAL.  HIS TROPE GOES MARCHING ON!

OF WRITING AND PUBLICATION

OF WRITING AND PUBLICATION
by Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman

A number of very well-meaning persons have recommended that I publish my writings in book form. I take the view that it is better that a writer be read than published.

All kinds of books sit on library shelves for years in between check-outs. Far more sit unread at home on book shelves, or, worse yet, in boxes, still unread. To reiterate, a writer's greatest desire is to be read. Few, indeed, are they who can hope to earn a living as professional authors these days, when book stores are closing!

As for publication, I do that daily on Facebook, Email and my blog, Larryslibrary@blogspot.com. "Cast thy bread upon the waters, and after many days you shall find it." Eccl. 11:1

I am alive. I enrich the cosmos with seed that I am freely given, which is, miraculously, replaced like the meal in the bottom of the widow's barrel, daily. All of my needs are met. I still have joy!

But, your publication suggestion is appreciated, nonetheless! Indeed, I thank you for it and I am honored by the suggestion!

Of course, I am self-published, already. My novelette, THE COLORED GREEN TREE, is available at Amazon.com in book form and on Kindle. That must suffice until my change comes! God bless!

A TALE OF TWO MISSOURI JULIA'S: ULYSSES GRANT'S WIFE, JULIA; AND HER SLAVE, JULIA--ULTIMATE AMERICAN ANTINOMY

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/the-two-julias/?smid=fb-share

I AM LAUGHING OUT LOUD AND WIPING AWAY TEARS, AS I READ ABOUT THE TWO MISSOURI JULIA'S. THE FIRST JULIA BEING THE WIFE OF GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. THE OTHER JULIA BEING HER SLAVE WHO WAS WITH HER AS NURSE AND TRAVELING COMPANION. BOTH ACCOMPANIED THE GENERAL ON THE BATTLE FIELDS WHICH HE TRAVERSED TRIUMPHANTLY, OVER THOUSAND OF MILES. THIS THEN IS THE ULTIMATE AMERICAN ANTINOMY: TWO JULIA'S. ONE SLAVE ONE FREE. ONE BLACK, ONE WHITE. ONE MARRIED, THE OTHER SINGLE--UNTIL AFTER THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION; WHEN, THE SLAVE JULIA, LEFT THE SERVICE OF THE WIFE, JULIA, AFTER 37 YEARS, TO BECOME MARRIED AND FREE HERSELF. IRONY OF IRONY. A GREAT AMERICAN STORY, WORTHY OF ANOTHER MISSOURIAN, MARK TWAIN, WHO BECAME THE FUTURE PRESIDENT GRANT'S FINANCIAL SAVIOR AND BENEFACTOR!

IN PRAISE OF BENNIE MAYS, SCHOOLMASTER OF THE MOVEMENT

RANDAL MAURICE JELKS' BIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN ELIJAH MAYS IS OUTSTANDING! IT RAISES PERPENDICULARS IN MY SPIRIT! OUR PEOPLE'S SPIRITUAL AND CIVIC CONSCIOUSNESS EVOLVES IN TANDEM WITH THEIR EDUCATION ATTAINMENTS, AS ILLUSTRATED THROUGH SUCH PERSONS AS BENNIE MAYS, HOWARD THURMAN, AND MORDECAI WYATT JOHNSON, ALL OF WHOM CONVERGED AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY IN THE SEMINAL 1930'S, LATER POLLINATING THE PLANET!

MORDECAI WYATT JOHNSON AND BENJAMIN ELIJAH MAYS

p.113, BENJAMIN ELIJAH MAYS: SCHOOLMASTER OF THE MOVEMENT, A BIOGRAPHY, by Randal Maurice Jelks (University of North Carolina Press: 2012)

“In his 1927 inaugural presidential address [Rev. Mordecai Wyatt] Johnson highlighted the significant role of religion in the lives of black people; he especially highlighted the role of churches. 'There are 47,000 Negro churches in the United States, and there are in the whole country less than sixty college graduates getting ready to fill these pulpits,' he reflected. ' There is no organization and no combination of organizations that can, at this stage in the history of the Negro race, begin to compare with the fundamental importance of the Negro church. And yet we can see what is going to happen to that church if only sixty college men are preparing to enter the Negro pulpit.' He had reached the same conclusion that [Benjamin Elijah] Mays had reached about the education of the black clergy: 'The simple, unsophisticated, mystical religion of the Negro cannot continue to endure unless it is reinterpreted over and over to him by men who have a fundamental and far-reaching understanding of the significance of religion in relation to the complexities of modern civilized life.' He further underscored the university's role in addressing issues germane to black Protestant churches and religion: 'Here at Howard University we have the ground work laid for a great nonsectarian school of religion.' The purpose of the graduate school of religion, he continued, would be to seek 'the truth about the meaning of life without bias, endeavoring to deliver the people from superstition and from uncharitable sectarianism, binding them into an understandable cooperation, clarifying their vision, and releasing their energies for constructive service to the common good.”  

RIGHT-ON!

Successful execution of any goal is largely a function of being at the right place, at the right time, with the right people, and the right subject matter; even then, grace, luck or fate is a silent and important factor!

Black Moors and William Shakespeare

Prior to the invention of the false and pernicious doctrine of "white supremacy," black moors had profound respect throughout Western Europe, as reflected in William Shakespeare's drama's "Othello," and "Titus Andronicus". The sculpture reflects that spirit.

EVOLVING ANTINOMIES

Throughout the evolution of American history, among and between the "racial" antinomies of persons red, black, brown, yellow, and white, individual acts of humanity have been historically overwhelmed and smothered by the opposite antinomy, or counter-tendency, imposing lawful and customary oppression and extermination corporately upon "colored" persons. Fortunately, that negative antinomy of "white supremacy" is yielding to the more sane, scientific, and spiritually humane antinomy of individual merit; such is  based not on the "color of one's skin, but on the content of one's character," to paraphrase the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who, himself embodied defined and projected such many antinomies in his life, education, and Christian leadership methodology.

THE UNSUNG HEROES by Paul Laurence Dunbar

THE UNSUNG HEROES

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

  A song for the unsung heroes who rose in the country's need,
  When the life of the land was threatened by the slaver's cruel greed,
  For the men who came from the cornfield, who came from the plough and
            the flail,
  Who rallied round when they heard the sound of the mighty man of the
            rail.

  They laid them down in the valleys, they laid them down in the wood,
  And the world looked on at the work they did, and whispered, "It is good."
  They fought their way on the hillside, they fought their way in the glen,
  And God looked down on their sinews brown, and said, "I have made them
            men."

  They went to the blue lines gladly, and the blue lines took them in,
  And the men who saw their muskets' fire thought not of their dusky skin.
  The gray lines rose and melted beneath their scathing showers,
  And they said, "'T is true, they have force to do, these old slave boys
            of ours."

  Ah, Wagner saw their glory, and Pillow knew their blood,
  That poured on a nation's altar, a sacrificial flood.
  Port Hudson heard their war-cry that smote its smoke-filled air,
  And the old free fires of their savage sires again were kindled there.

  They laid them down where the rivers the greening valleys gem.
  And the song of the thund'rous cannon was their sole requiem,
  And the great smoke wreath that mingled its hue with the dusky cloud,
  Was the flag that furled o'er a saddened world, and the sheet that made
            their shroud.

  Oh, Mighty God of the Battles Who held them in Thy hand,
  Who gave them strength through the whole day's length, to fight for their
            native land,
  They are lying dead on the hillsides, they are lying dead on the plain,
  And we have not fire to smite the lyre and sing them one brief strain.

  Give, Thou, some seer the power to sing them in their might,
  The men who feared the master's whip, but did not fear the fight;
  That he may tell of their virtues as minstrels did of old,
  Till the pride of face and the hate of race grow obsolete and cold.

  A song for the unsung heroes who stood the awful test,
  When the humblest host that the land could boast went forth to meet the
            best;
  A song for the unsung heroes who fell on the bloody sod,
  Who fought their way from night to day and struggled up to God.

LET JUSTICE ROLL DOWN LIKE WATER

Justice, fairness, even-handedness in the legal system are among the greatest of public mental health palliatives, cures, or remedies that exist. Their unreasonable denial is the cause of too many personnel explosions, or of other human life tragedies, played out in the media, such as those who go "postal;" or who, like Charles "Cookie" Thornton of Kirkwood, Missouri, or Christopher Dorner, formerly of the Los Angeles Police Department, will sacrifice their own lives to obtain in death the respect and acclaim denied to them in life.

Let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream. Amos 5:24.

psalm 19

1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, 5 which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. 6 It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat. 7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. 8 The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. 9 The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous. 10 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. 11 By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. 12 Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. 13 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me.Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. 14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

OBAMA: RAISED TO RULE

Blacks and "liberals" who loudly and consistently oppose President Barack Obama as being "anti-black and anti-poor" in his policies might benefit by reading his two autobiographies: DREAMS OF MY FATHER and THE AUDACITY OF HOPE. Therein, they might find that this graduate of Columbia University, with a degree in political philosophy, spurned other more lucrative opportunities to become a "community organizer" on Chicago's notorious Southside, among an abundance of black and poor people, where he searched for solutions to their socially intractable difficulties. These captious critics might also discover that his mother--Ann Dunham--a white native of Kansas, used to awaken him at 4:00 a.m. to teach him lessons in black history, literature, and culture from books,records, and tapes preparing him, steeling him, for life as a black man that mainland American prejudices would indelibly and brutally impress upon him, after he left Hawaii's racial nirvana. (All mothers could profitably benefit from this single mother's sterling pedagogical example along with their children!) Finally, these talking-head and do-nothing bodies, might learn that in making President Obama out to be the "bogeyman" to their constituencies that they have thereby created that "dynamic tension," cited by Dr. Martin Luther King; that political polarity, which facilitates aerodynamic lift, and political lift, in the broader American public who believe the bogeyman is black, anyway! So, in seeking to harm Obama these Republican shills--disguised as "conscious" persons-- actually help Obama secure his legacy!

"THE UNITED STATES OF LYNCHERDOM" by Mark Twain

This is the Mark Twain now publicly derided as "touched" or "off the mark" by the mavens of American literature. Back in his early, "nigger" days of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, they adored him. But, in his later "Negro" days, they scandalize his honorable name. Of course, typically, most who criticize have read only bits and pieces, if that much, of this mighty man's literary corpus. I love him, all of him, from his beginnings, as an infant among story-telling Missouri slaves, like "Uncle Daniel," whose voice he mimics, to later acclaim.

http://people.virginia.edu/~sfr/enam482e/lyncherdom.html

KISS BLACK HISTORY

Kiss history in the mouth, sensuously! It tastes like creamy rich chocolate!

America's First Black Lawyers

Macon B. Allen was the first black lawyer in America, Beverly. You are right! Ironically, I knew that in 1973, when my article about the new Howard Law School's Dunbarton Campus mentioned him. Thanks! Here's a link:http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/4102/Allen-Macon-Bolling-1816-1894.html

The above Facebook comment was written, "after further review." Initially, I had assumed and speculated that either John S. Rock of Portland, Maine, and Boston, Massachusetts--who was a doctor, dentist, lawyer and abolitionist in the 1850's; or, John Mercer Langston,  who maintained an actual law practice in the 1850's in Oberlin, Ohio and was the founder of the Howard Law School and its first Dean in 1869, was the first black lawyer in America. 

Turns out that it was neither Rock nor Langston, but Allen, who was the first black lawyer, being admitted to practice in the 1840's after examination in both states, first Maine, and later Massachusetts. Allen never practiced law, because no white clients would have him. He pursued other unspecified business interests.

Rock was similarly plagued by lack of clients, so he practiced medicine and dentistry, principally upon runaway slaves, furnished by Bostonians. He was also the first black man admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Langston, on the other hand, had a thriving law practice in Ohio in the 1850's. His autobiography recites that he was also the first black elected official in the United States, a town clerk near Cleveland. He also aided John Brown in recruiting men for his raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859, sending him two preeminent martyrs, among many other distinctions. His autobiography is commended to you, "From Virginia Plantation to the U.S. Capitol..."

IBIS

child lacquer

As you were as a child, so you are as an adult; lacquered over by years of living.

JESUS AND THE DISINHERITED

Howard Thurman, FOR THE INWARD JOURNEY, “Jesus and the Disinherited,” pp.128-129 (Friends United Press, Richmond, Indiana: 1984)

“It was this kind of atmosphere that characterized the life of the Jewish community when Jesus was a youth in Palestine. The urgent question was what must be the attitude toward Rome. Was any attitude possible that would be morally tolerable and at the same time preserve a basic self-esteem—without which life could not possibly have any meaning? The question was not academic. It was the most crucial of questions. In essence, Rome was the enemy; Rome symbolized total frustration; Rome was the great barrier of peace of mind. And Rome was everywhere. No Jewish person of the period could deal with the question of his practical life, his vocation, his place in society, until first he had settled deep within himself this critical issue.

“This is the position of the disinherited in every age. What must be the attitude toward the rulers, the controllers of political, social, economic life? This is the question of the Negro in American life. Until he has faced and settled that question, he cannot inform his environment with reference to his own life, whatever may be his preparation or his pretensions.

“In the main, there were two alternatives faced by the Jewish minority of which Jesus was a part. Simply stated, these were to resist or not to resist. But each of these alternatives has within it secondary alternatives.”

AT THE RIGHT TIME

"At the right time"

The right song, at the right time, brings ecstasy.

The right touch, at the right time, brings intimacy.

The right word, at the right time, brings harmony.

The right taste, at the right time, brings satiety.

The right scene, at the right time, brings security.

The right anything, at the right time, brings salubrity.