In honor of Black History month

[Asclepias]

Richard Wright

Richard Wright Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story - Biography.com

African-American writer and poet Richard Wright was born on September 4, 1908 in Roxie, Mississippi and published his first short story at the age of 16. Later, he found employment with the Federal Writers Project and received critical acclaim for Uncle Tom's Children, a collection of four stories. He’s well known for the 1940 bestseller Native Son and his 1945 autobiography Black Boy. Wright died in Paris, France on November 28, 1960.

 

[GreenBean]

 

[Cajun]

man, confusing.

i wonder what black history month is trying to accomplish and what it has accomplished and if the two are the same.

me, i went to the ghetto catholic school in my city and my kid went to a very predominantly (95%) black public school and no one made a big deal out of black history month at my son's school, and i would visit all the time. no big deal.

what i see reading these threads though is a devisiveness that need not occur over our acknowledgement of the contributions of good americans. that to me ain't what black history month is supposed to be about.

the whole thing is beginning to strangle up my mind.

all this stuff should really begin at home anyway. teachers will teach the accepted version of history no matter what and all the kids will see is the rev. dr. martin luther king jr. being non-violent and they will miss the malcolm X standing behind him that made that non-violent resistance work.

so my son is 7 y.o. and his mom comes to pick him up for visitation and we get along sometimes so i take them to the indian cultural center and there was a guided kids tour so we sloop in. the woman comes to a display of a great chief of nez pierce and asks "do any of you boys or girls know who this is?" and my kid raises his hand and chirps out "Hinmatoowyalahtket" (hin-ma-to-ya-lat-ket) and the docent lady starts to mist up and she says to him "thank you. i have worked here 17 years and no one has called him by his native name." i was kinda proud because i taught him to respect those native names...and i think we should be teaching those things to our kids about all people. please, forgive me for bragging about the guy..

hell, my son could sit down and discuss the differences in political philosophy and social strategies between bobby seale and huey newton and ya ain't gonna learn that during black history month even if you and toto aren't in kansas anymore and are plopped down on the other side of the bay bridge.

siochain, mo cairde, ach ni gan saoirse.

Yes. I dont understand why someone would get upset at or disagree with BHM. To me its simply a month to hear about some people that others may have not heard about. How that is divisive is beyond me. The only thing that keeps coming to mind is the jealousy you may see exhibited by toddlers when you praise one but not the other. This is even if you praised the neglected toddler earlier that morning for an hour. Personally I think everyone should have a particular month were the accomplishments of a specific ethnicity is highlighted. My only knock on BHM is that the emphasis is always put on slavery and jim crow. We need to hear a lot more about the Malcolms, the Garveys, Imhoteps, the empires of Ghana etc.

oh, it is a touchy subject and i am sort of ambivalent. i think it was a good idea but i think it has outlived, or is at least beginning to outlive, its usefulness.

i think we have to include all americans equally in the teaching of american history and acknowledge the leaders and shakers no materr their political bent or method. we have, i think, gotten to the point where we can begin to teach history, the history of the united states to include perspectives of right or wrong and be inclusive and not seperate the great people according to their ethnicity while at the same time acknowledging the different ethnicities.

black people have suffered horrible discrimination beginning with slavery from the earliest days right up to the present where they are afflicted by poverty more than the white people. we should include economics into the mix of history because that is a far greater problem than race.

i don't know...i remember at break once DJ starts in about the "white devil" and such and i am there and all the black catz are listening and all, i am the white paddy who is out there too with all the same sweat and dirt on me, and he gets to frothing away about white folk's money and how they rob black folk and i just laugh cuz i thought it was funny and say "hey DJ, i wasn't exactly born with a silver spoon in my gob." well, DJ was an old friend so he laughs and comes over and gives me a hug and laughs and sez "sorry, i forgot you were here" and then the horn rang or the bell buzzed or whatever it was happened that we had been trained to head back in to sweat and cake our tired bodies with another layer of dirt for another three hours but it seemed like we figured out the good guys and bad guys.

i just think maybe we should look at history from a different angle in such away that unites us in a common experience instead of seperates us on our differences, which plays us right into a lot of the "bad" peoples hands...and i've seen it.

ya know [MENTION=37709]MHunterB[/MENTION], maybe you will explain to me what you find so objectionable about this post that you negged me for it.

 

[Dot Com]

Denver Library display from a tweet:

 

[Statistikhengst]

I've changed my avatar to an American composer named John Work III.

Neat guy, wrote some really beautiful stuff. Respect for the man!!!

 

[GibsonSG]

My favorite negro was Rerun from What's Happening!

 

[katsteve2012]

We just got through watching a documentary on Billie Holiday early, wow. Very sad ending at an early age, the victim of initial poverty and addiction, but what a voice that could sing in "context". My Dad was a Billie Holiday fan, so I heard her often and he would explain the meaning of some of the songs. I forgot some of them, but my wife pointed out the meaning of this song that I think was written by a Russian Jew. At one time there was a connection there, and in some respects there still is.

I never heard such a combination of beautiful. gruesome, haunting, and true.

Billie Holiday-Strange fruit- HD - YouTube

My Grandma was a huge Billie Holiday fan, and had many of her old records that she used to play on an old Victrola, (which I still have to this day).

I must have only been about 5 years old when I first heard "Strange Fruit". I was at my Grandmas house and it was a rainy day so she sat and told me the story about the song and what it really meant.

That same day, she told me the story about Emmitt Till. Haunting is right.
I remember after hearing that song and the stories she told me that I couldn't go to sleep that night.

 

[GibsonSG]

My favorite negro was Rerun from What's Happening!

 

[katsteve2012]

Boogie Down Productions – You Must Learn

Boogie Down Productions - You Must Learn - YouTube

Nice Brother! I was just playing that song and FTP (KRS-1) for my wife earlier as well as "self destruction" to show the ore intelligent and socially minded Hip Hop.

Speaking of "Social Mindedness" Did you ever hear of "The Last Poets?"
The Last Poets Bio | The Last Poets Career | MTV

 

[Asclepias]

Boogie Down Productions – You Must Learn

Boogie Down Productions - You Must Learn - YouTube

Nice Brother! I was just playing that song and FTP (KRS-1) for my wife earlier as well as "self destruction" to show the ore intelligent and socially minded Hip Hop.

Speaking of "Social Mindedness" Did you ever hear of "The Last Poets?"
The Last Poets Bio | The Last Poets Career | MTV

I heard about them but never heard a full record. I know they were sampled by some of the rap artists.

Found this just now.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdFXaDj0dYk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdFXaDj0dYk[/ame]

 

[katsteve2012]

Nice Brother! I was just playing that song and FTP (KRS-1) for my wife earlier as well as "self destruction" to show the ore intelligent and socially minded Hip Hop.

Speaking of "Social Mindedness" Did you ever hear of "The Last Poets?"
The Last Poets Bio | The Last Poets Career | MTV

I heard about them but never heard a full record. I know they were sampled by some of the rap artists.

Found this just now.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdFXaDj0dYk]THE LAST POETS: Made in Amerikkka - YouTube[/ame]

They were definately "the voice" of change in the late 60's. When I was in high school, there was a ban on even having their records on campus.

Their last big one, titled "This Is Madness", scared the hell out of people..

This Is Madness ? The Last Poets ? Listen and discover music at Last.fm

 

[Dot Com]

I bet very few people ever heard of the guy in my avie unless they studied international affairs.

 

[katsteve2012]

I bet very few people ever heard of the guy in my avie unless they studied international affairs.

Definately an interesting guy. He played 3 sports at UCLA, and was also valedictorian of his graduating class before moving on to Harvard.

 

[GibsonSG]

My second favorite negro.

 

[Pheonixops]

Boogie Down Productions – You Must Learn

Boogie Down Productions - You Must Learn - YouTube

Nice Brother! I was just playing that song and FTP (KRS-1) for my wife earlier as well as "self destruction" to show the ore intelligent and socially minded Hip Hop.

Speaking of "Social Mindedness" Did you ever hear of "The Last Poets?"
The Last Poets Bio | The Last Poets Career | MTV

Yep! A blast from the past. My Dad used to listen to their recordings, I initially got them mixed up with Gil-Scott Heron (The Revolution Will Not be Televised). I did quick research and found that he was influenced by The Last Poets.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGaRtqrlGy8]Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - YouTube[/ame]

 

[katsteve2012]

Nice Brother! I was just playing that song and FTP (KRS-1) for my wife earlier as well as "self destruction" to show the ore intelligent and socially minded Hip Hop.

Speaking of "Social Mindedness" Did you ever hear of "The Last Poets?"
The Last Poets Bio | The Last Poets Career | MTV

Yep! A blast from the past. My Dad used to listen to their recordings, I initially got them mixed up with Gil-Scott Heron (The Revolution Will Not be Televised). I did quick research and found that he was influenced by The Last Poets.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGaRtqrlGy8]Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - YouTube[/ame]

Yes he was. There is a series on TV1 called "Unsung". Last night they profiled Gil Scott Heron, and mentioned his influence being The Last Poets.

 

[Coyote]

Ruby Bridges

Ruby Bridges - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

6 years old.

As soon as Bridges entered the school, white parents pulled their own children out; all the teachers refused to teach while a black child was enrolled. Only one person agreed to teach Ruby and that was Barbara Henry, from Boston, Massachusetts, and for over a year Henry taught her alone, "as if she were teaching a whole class."

That first day, Bridges and her adult companions spent the entire day in the principal's office; the chaos of the school prevented their moving to the classroom until the second day. Every morning, as Bridges walked to school, one woman would threaten to poison her;[7] because of this, the U.S. Marshals dispatched by President Eisenhower, who were overseeing her safety, only allowed Ruby to eat food that she brought from home.

Another woman at the school put a black baby doll in a wooden coffin and protested with it outside the school, a sight that Bridges Hall has said "scared me more than the nasty things people screamed at us." At her mother's suggestion, Bridges began to pray on the way to school, which she found provided protection from the comments yelled at her on the daily walks.[8]

...The Bridges family suffered for their decision to send her to William Frantz Elementary: her father lost his job, the grocery store the family shopped at would no longer let them shop there, and her grandparents, who were sharecroppers in Mississippi, were turned off their land. She has noted that many others in the community, both black and white, showed support in a variety of ways. Some white families continued to send their children to Frantz despite the protests, a neighbor provided her father with a new job, and local people babysat, watched the house as protectors, and walked behind the federal marshals' car on the trips to school.[5][9]

...and the painting that commemerates the day with it's many nuances

 

[Dot Com]

Vintage photos celebrating Black History Month in NJ | NJ.com