180 years after Nat...

On this day in black history...

In 1831, Nat Turner was hanged on November 11 for leading the deadliest slave rebellion in North American history. As a result of the rebellion, 55 whites and 100-200 blacks were killed and legislation was passed forbidding the education of blacks as well as any religious gatherings without white supervision.

180 years later, we can be thankful that we do not have to fight for our freedom...at least not on the level of physical violence. We are no longer considered as the property of any other person. We have access to the highest levels of education in the world. We worship as we please and in many cases in segregated congregations in all faiths with no "supervision."

Many would argue that we still have to fight for our freedoms; however we no longer need to fight with weapons against individuals. Now our power lies in our ability to live our lives in freedom, build our families with love and strengthen our kids with education and encouragement to validate their potential within.

And This is for Colored Girls....

"When I die, I will not be guilty of having left a generation of girls behind thinking that anyone can tend to their emotional health better than themselves."

Ntzoke Shange

We have to tell our stories..in the telling comes understanding...and with understanding comes healing and power. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, When the Rainbow is Enuf, shares 20 poems, stories of black women that speak to the fabric of a portion of the African diasporic experience. In 1975, this choreopoem was brought to the stage and 35 years later it was brought to the big screen telling the story of colored girls who have considered suicide.

It has been said that suicide is what happens when the pain excees the resources for coping. Other research has shown that people are most suicidal when they enter a state of psychosis and misinterpret reality perceiving there is no hope. In the poem, "A Night With Beau Willie Brown" it says, "she could only whisper, and he dropped them." In the midst of all the abuse, this colored girl had lost her voice, her power. In the movie we see that this was a woman who had definitely considered suicide at a point when all hope was lost.

What's most hopeful about the movie is that the stories are brought to life in such a way as to highlight the power of the black woman. Each story's tragedy teaches lessons of what could have been done with the power these women possessed. Crystal had the power to protect her kids. Tangie did have the power to protect her sister. Juanita and Jo both had the power to protect themselves.

"I LOVED YOU ON PURPOSE..."

African-American women also have an amazing gift of love...love that heals, grounds and attracts love from others. Through all 20 of the poems, each black woman realizes that her love is too delicate, too beautiful, too sanctified, too magic, too saturday night, too complicated and too music to be thrown back into her face. Our love is too vital to the fabric that weaves us together to have it wasted. My love is too powerful to allow someone else to "walk off wid alla my stuff." Each black woman needs to speak her own truth:
"MY LOVE IS TOO..."

The author, born as Paulette Williams, changed her name to Ntzoke (she who comes with her own things) Shange (who walks like a lion) in 1971. The stories Shange shares with us in "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, When the Rainbow is Enuf" shows that each colored girl comes with her own things...the power of love, a voice and the power to protect...and these gifts enable her to walk as a lioness.

"& this is for colored girls who have considered suicide/but are movin to the end of their rainbows"

Asking No Favors

On this day in 1884, John R. Lynch, former congressman from Mississippi was elected temporary chairman of the Republican convention and became the first black to preside over deliberations of a politcal party.

Born enslaved in Louisiana in 1847, John Roy Lynch was buried with military honors in Arlington National Cemetary in 1939. During his lifetime, this self-educated man was a photographer, veteran, lawyer, congressman and an author. As a representative, he became known this speech arguing his support for the Civil Rights Bill then under debate in Congress.

"They were faithful and true to you then; they are no less so today. And yet they ask no special favors as a class; they ask no special protection as a race. They feel that they purchased their inheritance, when upon the battlefields of this country, they watered the tree of liberty with the precious blood that flowed from their loyal veins. They ask no favors, they desire; and must have; an equal chance in the race of life."Books by John R. Lynch:

The Late Election in Mississippi. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1877.
Colored Americans: John R. Lynch's Appeal To Them. Milwaukee: Allied Printing, [1900?]
The Facts of Reconstruction. New York: The Neale Publishing Company, 1913. Reprint, edited by William C. Harris, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1970.
The Facts of Reconstruction (New York, 1913), online[2]
Some Historical Errors of James Ford Rhodes. Boston: The Cornhill Publishing Co., 1922.
Pittsburgh Courier, article, February 22, 1930.

www.blackfacts.com
http://www.blackpast.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Lynch

Does Silence Mean Approval?

As the NAACP celebrates 100 years of dreams, struggles and success, we honor them as we reflect on its history, past and future. Founded in 1909, largely as a response to lynchings and race riots, the founders of the NAACP were fed up with the seemingly indifferent Northern US and saw the need to organize a national conference to speak out against the racial injustice in the United States.

Over the years the NAACP was active through sit-ins (like the NC A&T students in 1960) demonstrations and legal influence for such laws such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Act and the voting rights act.

As the socio-political environment has changed, the NAACP has changed and even struggled at times be what the current civil rights movement needs. Today, many are questioning the need for and relevance of the NAACP as an organization in light of the election of an African-American US President. Yes, it is still necessary even though the needs of the civil rights movement have matured through several generations. We have gone from a need for entitlement to empowerment, from black inclusion to global inclusion, from activist to advocate to educator.

Think about how the NAACP has directly impacted your life...no matter who you are, you may be surprised at the impact this organization has had on your life as it is today.

Rebranding Africa

As an African-American owner of a brand consulting firm, this article in today's edition of the New York Times drew my attention immediately. It talks about the significance of President Obama's visit to Ghana today and why he chose Ghana over Kenya. He ends the article with this statement:

"African is not just Barack Obama's homeland. It's ours too. The birthplace of humanity. Wherever our journeys have taken us, they all began there....until we accept and appreciate this we cannot be fully whole. Could it be that all Americans are, in that sense, African-Americans?"

REFLECTION:  I wonder...does Africa need to be re-branded? If so, who owns this re-branding process? Are we waiting for "others" (unacknowledged) to do it? Will the world one day accept/believe the knowledge that we are all one race? What do you think?

Read the entire article here: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/opinion/10bono.xml