BLOCKADE RUNNERS

BLOCKADE RUNNERS! “Blockade-running” is an apt characterization to describe all our African Americans’ attempts to “work-around” blocks , boulders, fortifications, blockades to our spirits’ aspirations, souls delight by our own governments . This correlation comes from none other than Joel Chandler Harris, the 19th-20th century white, Georgian, journalistist, ‘amanuensis’ of our great African American folklore. His “Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Bear” books have preserved a now-woefully-unappreciated genius of African American wisdom, folklore, that was transmitted generation by generations to our abased forbears. Harris wrote: “When the deadly game of war began in earnest , the Southern leaders found it necessary to depend almost entirely on blockade -running as the means of communicating with their agents abroad. But this method was a ‘skittish’ one at best. Comparatively few men could be induced to engage in it, and those were willing were just the men whose services could be better employed in other directions. More than that, the blockade was becoming more real and consequently, more serious every day. No plan to elude the increasing vigilance of the blockaders could be looked upon as certain or definite. It was a game of hazard, thrilling enough to attract the reckless and the adventurous, but dangerous enough to repel all others. One day with another, the advantages all lay with the grim war-vessels that rocked lazily up and down just outside the Southern harbors .” P. 3-4, “Why the Confederacy Failed” That said, the “South” was neither the first nor last blockade runner in America’s history: Black folks are and were most under-appreciated blockade-runners before, after, during, all our national wars : home or abroad! And we’re still running!