Beautiful Black Child (An Ode to the
Jena 6)
By Yohannes Sharriff Smith
Beautiful black child, fill the world
with wonder,
Breathe life into exhausted hopes.
Your pure innocent nature,
Not yet hindered by the evil of this
world,
Forever changes those you touch.
Help us to honor the love still living
in slave quarters.
The blood shed and pride fed to
European insecurities.
Whips struck lashes like lightening
Across a horizon of shackled African
bodies
Field hands wounded and bleeding run
north to freedom.
Escaping the Klan,
Communing with Native People in swamp
lands
Recaptured stretched necks
Suspended in midair from southern trees
Noose dangled strange fruit burned
bare.
Blistered ebony backs frying in the
Louisiana sun.
Crisp while picking cotton, crying a
soulful moan,
As stalks pricked overworked fingertips
With impunity that master bastard raped
Our Queens forcing fathers to watch
All endured because babies can't go
hungry.
Do not let fear rob you of your gift!
You are special!
Lead the way to the future for those
who follow.
Defy the odd and let your light shine
in defiance.
Your sheer brilliance blinding the
faithless
And guiding the believers
An ever glowing tribute to your people
Beautiful black Pearl
The inhumane conditions you have
endured
For thousands of generations
transformed you.
Glory belongs to our ancestors'
sacrifices.
Darwin is the witness.
Evolution is ours; we possess the will
to survive.
Beautiful black butterfly
Rise as the sun with your dreams firmly
in hand.
Boldly place them amongst the stars,
Ever burning spectacles for the world
to gaze upon
Beautiful black people
Let our audacious ascension emulate the
Nile River.
It began as a few struggling drops.
As time passed its surging growth
overcame obstacles
Defeating whatever lay in its path.
Refusing to allow the world to define
it
Instead our existence defines the
world.
We are an unstoppable force, shaping
the universe.
All lips shall utter these words, Black
is Beautiful!
Beautiful black child, this is my pray
for you!
The
Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro has been on an exceptionally long hiatus.
Over this period, he has grown tremendously, both physically and mentally. A
high school freshman, he is definitely fighting evil in another dimension. He
spends lots of time in the cave; determined to make good grades to earn an
assortment of privileges, including an allowance, time to play video games and
learning to drive a car. When asked for comments because his fans have missed
his words of wisdom, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro responded, "Tell them,
ignorance is a mighty foe."
Edward
Franklin Frazier
Born
in Baltimore, Maryland on September 24, 1894, Edward Franklin Frazier was one
of five children of James H. Frazier, a bank messenger, and Mary Clark Frazier,
a housewife. A product of the Baltimore segregated public school system,
Frazier graduated from its Colored High School in June 1912. An excellent
student, Frazier received the school's annual scholarship to Howard University.
After
graduating from Howard with honors (1916), Frazier taught mathematics at
Tuskegee (1916 -1917), English and History at St. Paul's Normal and Industrial
School in Lawrenceville, Virginia (1917-1918), and French and Mathematics at
Baltimore High School (1918-1919).
In 1920, he earned a master's degree from Clark University in Worcester,
Massachusetts. He spent 1920-1921 as a Russell Sage Foundation fellow at the
New York School of Social Work (later Columbia University School of Social
Work) and a year at the University of Copenhagen as a fellow of the American
Scandinavian Foundation.
Frazier accepted an appointment at Atlanta University as director of the
Atlanta School of Social Work and instructor of sociology at Morehouse College.
He organized the Atlanta University School of Social Work and became its
director. His article, "The Pathology of Race Prejudice" (1927),
which argued that racial prejudice was analogous to insanity, stirred such
strong reactions among Atlanta residents that Frazier was removed from his
position.
He received a fellowship from the University of Chicago, where he earned a
Ph.D. in 1934. Published as The Negro Family in the United States, his dissertation,
The Negro Family in Chicago, analyzed the cultural and historical forces that
influenced the development of the black family from the time of slavery. Among
the first sociological works on blacks researched and written by a black
person, the book received the 1939 Anisfield Award.
Frazier
taught at Fisk University (1929-34) and then at Howard University from 1934.
Along with Ralph Bunche and Abram Lincoln Harris,
Frazier attacked older generations at the NAACP's 1933 Amenia
Conference. He often made it known through his literature that blacks had not
made any real progress and that the black position in the USA was not at the
top. Many of his writings focused on the impact of slavery and how it divided
the black family. His support for black civil rights during the McCarthy era
resulted in him being acknowledged not for his brilliant work but as a traitor.
Supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship (1941), Frazier spent a year studying
family life in Brazil. For the next twenty years, he worked at Howard
University. A founding member of the DC Sociological Society, he served as its
president (1943-44). He also served as President of the Eastern Sociological
Society (1944-45). In 1948, Frazier was the first black to serve as President
of the American Sociological Society. As director of the Division of Applied
Social Sciences UNESCO (1951-53), he worked on the Tension and Social Change
Project, assessing the interactions between people of different races and
cultures and the effect of these interactions. He helped draft the UNESCO
statement The Race Question in 1950.
Dr. Frazier dedicated his life to creating empirically based knowledge for use
in solving problems affecting black people. His research on black youth and
families established his worldwide scholarly reputation. Included in the nine
books and more than 100 articles and essays, he wrote Negro Youth at the
Crossways (1940) and Race and Culture Contacts in the Modern World (1957) and
Black Bourgeoisie (1957), which focused on the black middle class. E. Franklin
Frazier died May 17, 1962. (Sources: www.asanet.org,
www.aaregistry.com/, and www.naswdc.org)
By John
Burl Smith
Congratulations
on a job well done to those involved in the Jena 6 Movement. The rally in Jena,
Louisiana on September 20, 2007 fulfilled one of my deepest aspirations and
made my life's work truly meaningful. Developing leadership skills working at
the grassroots, I have used that knowledge to train young blacks, who desire to
work for justice, equity and greater access for slave descendants in the United
States (US). Some of you have embarked on a similar course, so I offer this
harsh reality for those of you who contemplate such a course.
I
returned to Memphis, Tennessee after my discharge from the US military in 1966
and joined the black power movement. Segregation strangled black people's
lives, just like what those nooses hanging from that tree on Jena High's campus
symbolized. I organized a group of young activists called the Invaders. It was
modeled on the Black Panther Party. Black sanitation workers (garbage
collectors) went on strike during the fall of 1967 and the black community
rallied in support. The Invaders joined the fight and became shock troops,
marching, turning out schools and harassing garbage collection crews that
crossed the picket line.
The Invaders' aggressive stance inspired strikers and strengthened their hand
in dealing with city leaders. Once the news media began interviewing us, black
community leaders who had embraced and encouraged us did an about-face. They
closed meetings and dropped us from the community coalition. Trying to boaster
their sagging image, black community leaders planned a big march and brought in
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to lead it. Committed to supporting striking
workers, rather than community leaders, we continued organizing blacks in the
tri-state area for the march. The turnout was far greater than civil rights
leaders anticipated.
Simultaneously,
J. Edgar Hoover unleashed his Co-Intel-Pro hit squads that infiltrated black
power organizations. Co-Intel-Pro provocateurs instigated a riot during the
march and civil rights leaders blamed the Invaders for the violence. Arrested
and indicted for encouraging students to leave school to march, an all white
jury sentenced me to five years in prison.
I
was lucky; more than 125 black power advocates were assassinated by
Co-Intel-Pro across the US, most notably Fred Hampton and Mark Clarke in
Chicago. Co-Intel-Pro's aim was to kill future black leaders. These deaths left
the void you are now stepping in to fill. Upon my release from prison three
years later, I wondered had the desire for justice, equity and greater access
for slave descendants died along with black power.
Young
leaders of the Jena 6 movement you have finally provided the answer. Viewing scenes
of the march, I know you sent a resounding "NO" as your answer. My
words are to let you know the road of real leadership exacts a heavy toll.
Rewards don't come to those who stand up for black people. You walk a lonely
road most times. Those riding who say they are headed in your direction will
pass you by. Many will judge you as
too inexperienced while they sit back doing nothing.
I have fought and led at the front line, so take it from me, don't be concerned
about your inexperience, you will get your training doing the job. The most
difficult thing about leadership is having the courage to get started. Your
rally in Jena showed you have courage and based on the turnout you have already
begun. Now, all you need do is keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Leadership is yours; the test is whether your generation can develop a new
psychology to plan your actions and a new philosophy to explain those actions.
Remember, those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it! We are
slave descendants! You must define your future. Jena 6 we got your back! To
read more from John Burl Smith, visit www.thedish.org.
The Chickens Come Home To Roost
Below
are excerpts from the speech most refer to as "The Chickens Come Home To Roost." Actually, the statement was Malcolm X's
response to a question following the speech called Judgement of White America
(12-4-63). The statement concerned the late President John F. Kennedy's
assassination. Malcolm X indicated he believed the violence against blacks
Kennedy failed to stop had come back against him. After this speech, the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad silenced Malcolm, who left the Nation of Islam a
short time later.
The
Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that the evil sin of slavery that caused
the downfall and destruction of ancient Egypt, Babylon, Greece and Rome, as
well as, the evil sin of colonialism (19th-century slavery) caused the collapse
of European powers. So, this present generation is witnessing how the
enslavement of millions of black people in this country is bringing white
America to her hour of judgment and downfall as a respected nation.
White America chooses to listen to Negro civil rights leaders, the Big Six;
puppets who have been trained in white institutions and placed over us as
"spokesmen" of our people. These handpicked "spokesmen"
parrot exactly what whites want to hear. In the deceitful American game of
power politics, these Negroes are nothing but tools (i.e., race problem,
integration and civil rights issues), used by one group of whites called
Liberals against another group of whites called Conservatives, either to get
into power or to remain in power.
Howard University sociologist, the late E. Franklin Frazier, referred to these
so-called middle-class Negroes as the "black bourgeoisie," who have
been educated to think as patriotic "individualists," with no racial
pride..... These Uncle Tom leaders do not speak for the Negro majority; they
don't speak for the black masses. They speak for the "black
bourgeoisie," the brainwashed, white-minded, middle-class minority who are
ashamed of being black and don't want to be identified with the black
masses.....
Martin Luther King's image had been shattered the previous year when he failed
to bring about desegregation in Albany, Georgia. Other civil rights leaders had
also become fallen idols. The black masses across the country at the grass
roots level had already begun to take their cases to the streets on their own.
Spontaneous demonstrations began taking place all over the country. At the
grass roots level Negroes began to talk about marching on Washington, tying up
the Congress, the Senate, the White House, and even the airport. They
threatened to bring this government to a halt. This frightened the entire white
power structure.
The late President (Kennedy) called in the Negro civil rights leaders and told
them to bring this "march" to a halt. The Negro civil rights leaders
told the late President that they couldn't stop the march because they hadn't
started it. It was spontaneous at the grass roots level across the country, and
they had nothing to do with the leadership. When the late President saw that he
couldn't stop the march, he joined it; he endorsed it; he welcomed it; he
became a part of it; and it was he who put the six Negro civil rights leaders
at the head of it. It was he who made them the Big Six.
A
few days later in New York City, at the Carlysle
Hotel, the Taconic Foundation, a philanthropic society headed by Stephen
Currier met with the six civil rights leaders..... Martin Luther King had been
released from the Birmingham jail. Roy Wilkins attacked King, accusing him of
stirring up trouble and taking up all the money for his own organization, the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, leaving the NAACP holding the
bag.....
Stephen Currier, formed the Council for the United
Civil Rights Leadership to reduce competition for funds from white liberals.
According to The New York Times (8-4-63), $800,000 was split between these six
Negro civil rights leaders who met at the Carlysle
Hotel (6-19-63), and another $700,000 was promised, if everything went well
with the march...
Public relations experts were made available to these "Six Big Negroes,"
and they were given access to the news media throughout the country. The press
skillfully projected them as the leaders of the March on Washington....
The original black militant organizers had planned to march on the White House,
the Senate, and the Congress to bring all political traffic on Capitol Hill to
a halt. Realizing that the black militants could not be stopped, Washington
joined them. By joining the marchers, white liberals were able to lead the
marchers away from the White House, the Senate, the Congress, Capitol Hill, and
away from victory. By keeping them marching from the Washington Monument to the
Lincoln Monument, they never reached the White House to see the then living
President.....
The entire march was controlled by the late president (Kennedy), who told the
Big Six what signs to carry, what songs to sing, what speeches to make, and to
get out o f town by sundown...... To read the complete unedited text of this
and other Malcolm X speeches go to www.malcolm-x.org/speeches.htm.
Disgruntled
feels: Stagnant!
On September 25, 1957, nine frightened black children, escorted by federal
troops, integrated racist Little Rock, Arkansas' all-white Central High School.
This week, the nation looked back on that landmark occasion. As expected, some
in the media posed the questions, have blacks made progress over the past fifty
years and has the nation's race relations improved over that period.
Invariably, respondents answered in the affirmative to both questions with the
caveat that more needs to be done on both fronts. However, if we were honest,
we would look at the situation empirically, free of emotional baggage, and
admit, relatively speaking, blacks have made no 'real' progress in achieving
racial equality. As far as race relations go, they are just as abysmal today as
they were in the 1950s. Fact is, on both questions, the nation has neither
moved forward nor backward, but is stagnant!
Disgruntled says: Much like the crowds and students that
gathered to "welcome" the Little Rock Nine," Columbia
University's President, Lee Bollinger, spat on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejah. Bollinger's
speech, which was delivered before Ahmadinejah, the
invited guest spoke, represents another low point for this nation's image, not
only in the eyes of the rest of the world, but its own citizens. Ironically,
some in mainstream media acted as though Bollinger's rude behavior was a smart
move. Sure a few Jews and some "Christians" cheered, but surely the
vast majority of Americans that consider themselves civilized could not have
been pleased by Bollinger's ignorant and petty display.
Disgruntled wants to know: Are the minds of future US leaders so
fragile they cannot handle competing ideas and information from a variety of
sources?