Volume 5 Issue 50…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…December 20, 2002

Theodore Gilmore Bilbo (1877-1947)

Born in Pearl River County, Mississippi near Poplarville on October 13, 1877, Theodore Gilmore Bilbo attended public school and Peabody College. He studied at the University of Nashville (1897-1900) and Vanderbilt University law school (1905-1907). A teacher in district and high schools for five years, Bilbo was admitted to the Tennessee bar (1908).

Bilbo returned to Mississippi, started his law practice in Poplarville and entered politics. Considered a progressive while in office, Bilbo won successive elections by playing the race card. A racist demagogue in the tradition of Pitchfork Ben Tillman, Cotton Ed Smith, George Wallace and Strom Thurmond, Bilbo practiced such an extreme form of racist demagoguery that he became an embarrassment to his fellow white supremacists that controlled southern politics.

From 1909 - 1912, Bilbo served in the Mississippi State Senate and became lieutenant governor from 1913-1916. From 1917-1920, he served his first of two terms as Mississippi's governor. After losing two gubernatorial races, Bilbo returned to the governor's mansion and served from 1929-1932. In 1934, he won a hard-fought election to the United States Senate and represented Mississippi in the Senate until 1947.

Bilbo did not take the oath of office in 1947. A Senate committee found him guilty of accepting bribes from military contractors during World War II. Bilbo refused to resign. On August 21, 1947, he died of mouth cancer as Congress continued to investigate charges that Bilbo had used intimidation to keep blacks from voting in the 1946 campaign. During that campaign, Bilbo was quoted as suggesting, "The way to keep the 'nigger' from the polls is to see him the night before," an obvious reference to lynching, cross-burning and other racist activities used by the Ku Klux Klan to intimidate blacks.

According to Bilbo biographers, he boasted of being a redneck. A lying philanderer, Bilbo advocated deporting blacks back to Africa, called US Rep. Claire Booth Luce a nigger lover, praised Adolf Hitler on the Senate floor and attacked interracial marriage. The ultraconservative Democrat, like his Southern compatriots, believed, "one drop of Negro blood placed in the veins of the purest Caucasian destroys the inventive genius of his mind and strikes palsied his creative faculty." (Sources: www.olemiss.edu, www.ehistory.com and http://bioguide.congress.gov) More Bits of History

Employment Discrimination

Professors Marianne Bertrand, University of Chicago, Sendhil Mullainathan, M.I.T., selected 1,300 help-wanted ads from newspapers in Boston and Chicago and submitted multiple résumés for phantom job seekers with black and white sounding names. These fictitious job seekers were assigned last names common to their racial group. Applications were submitted for nearly 5,000 entry-level jobs. Applicants had the same experience, education and skills.

In Boston and Chicago, applicants with white-sounding names were 50 percent more likely to receive interviews than males and females with black-sounding names. Interviews were requested for 10.1 percent of applicants with white-sounding names and only 6.7 percent of those with black-sounding names. Names like Aisha, Keisha, Tamika, Latonya and Tyrone consistently rated low for interview requests.

The bottom-line, race matters when seeking employment. The Bertrand/Mullainathan study is one more verification that institutionalized racism dictates employment opportunities and incomes for blacks in the USA economy. While employment discrimination based on race is supposed to be illegal, it is part and parcel of the USA socioeconomic reality. Hood Notes Homepage

By John Burl Smith

One cannot change history; they can only lie about it. At Strom Thurmond's birthday bash, US Senator Trent Lott followed the tradition of demagogues like Pitchfork Ben Tillman, Cotton Ed Smith, Senator John C. Stennis, James O. Eastland and Theodore G. Bilbo at playing the race card. Today, whites pretend not to remember that white educators, businessmen, politicians and preachers enthusiastically supported everything segregation represented.

When I was born in Quitman County, Mississippi in 1943, the lives of black sharecroppers were desperate lots. During these terror-ridden times, education and other opportunities were secondary to the everyday struggle to survive. Blacks had no rights. No court would accept a black man's charges against white offenders, no matter the crime. Segregation gave any white the power of life and death over blacks. Lynch law, mob rule, nightriders and fiery crosses held blacks on farms as virtual slaves. It was total lock down. In 1948, under the cover of night, my family, like thousands of others, escaped this terrorist regime. That was the year Strom Thurmond ran for president and helped incite a climate of fear, madness and murder by spewing the fiery segregationist rhetoric of white supremacy.

Following his career from Mississippi to the US Congress, Trent Lott built a solid record as a segregationist. A youth when Emmett Till's swollen body surfaced in the Tallahatchie River, the Senator is as silent today on lynching as he was then. Although Lott is a lawyer, he has done nothing to help uncover the truth regarding what happened to other blacks during the nightmarish time of the James E. Chaney, Andrew Goodwin and Michael Schwerner ghastly murders. Moreover, he has never addressed the pain caused by Medger Evers' assassination, conspiracy and cover-up.

Years have passed, but Senator Lott has never repudiated his years of service to the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission (MSC). Fighting Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), the State legislature created the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission. A Gestapo segregation-era agency, it compiled files on over 250 groups and tens of thousands of ordinary citizens. Its 12-member board, which included lawmakers and judges, operated in secret.

The information gathered by the Commission was used to terrorize individuals, families, businesses and organizations that fought to gain constitutional rights for black Americans. When intimidation failed, people were murdered on orders from Mississippi governors, MSC chairmen. Modeled on the FBI's Counter Intelligence Program (Co-InTel-Pro), southern states established sovereignty commissions to fight court-ordered school desegregation. These agencies made the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) extra-legal enforcers of segregation. Federal and state judges were selected based on their allegiance to the KKK and their pledge to defend segregation. The KKK reviewed court files and witness lists, then tampered with juries to secure the desired verdicts.

Totally committed to segregation, Lott was a staunch supporter of the Sovereignty Commission until it was disbanded in 1977. Even after entering Congress, he never once tried to expose its illegal activities. If Lott is repudiating the segregationist traditions of his Contract with America, then he must push for congressional hearings on Sovereignty Commissions to expose their illegal actions, such as conspiracy to commit murder. Nationally, Sen. Lott should support the Congressional Blacks Caucus' call to open the record of Co-InTel-Pro and report on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's assassination to the public. A lot of change is needed and such public acts would establish Lott's contrition, while exposing the USA's true history. More Essays by John Burl Smith

Plastic Chicken Recall and Microwave Warning

Georgia-based Con Agra recently recalled 36,000 pounds of fully cooked and frozen chicken sold under the label "Easy Entree Popcorn Style Chicken, because it may be contaminated with plastic. Plastic contains di(2-ethylhexyl)adepate (DEHA), a carcinogen. The chicken was produced on August 29 and distributed to retail stores in Alabama. If you have questions, contact Con Agra consumer affairs at (800) 321-1470.

Studies on microwave cooking and cooking with plastic raise serious health concerns. Microwave cooking destroys the food's nutrients. People are urged not microwave in plastic DHEA and other toxins, such as xenoestrogens, which are linked to low sperm counts and breast cancer, may seep into the food. As a safety precaution, microwave users are urged to use tempered glass and non-plastic microwave-safe containers. The American Plastics Council at www.plasticsinfo.org has a list of useful tips on plastics in the microwave. News Homepage

Hands

by Yohannes Sharriff Smith

Broad as magnolia leaves spread wide over me

Dark like clouds cover the sun

Cover me cool like rain

Swallow me black whole like oceans of midnight

Swallow me black whole

Like the waves of my lover's womb

I long for hands worn rough from work

Hands of the living unwavering faith,

Flexible and graceful hands that have faced death

Pronounced dead on arrival

only to passionately rip through caskets

Dig magically through earth

To triumphantly penetrate the surface

I want a rebel revolutionary

Toss a Molotov cocktail, then cook a good meal

Hands to pull, push, claw, fight, survive, thrive

Through the dark and find light on the other side

Resurrected palms and fingers that have shaped history

Isis, Maat, Ester, Harriet Tubman,

Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Nina Simone

Rosa Parks, Angela Davis, Ahsata Shakur,

Mrs. Jones my third grade teacher,

My mama's hands soiled by trials and tribulation

Warmed by tears and smiles unique as her fingerprint

Hands to hold my seed safe

Secure in her hands my future rest

Cover me with the hands of a Black woman

That long to discover the subtleties of my skin

Tend my scars, massage my aches

A mate to help me build my dreams

Healing elixir Holy Ghost

Go to church move my soul

Hands wrinkled yet smooth

Fresh dirt beneath the nails

Fresh vegetable garden and we plant our future

Naked and waiting; kitchen floor making love

And I kiss her hands

The smell of carrots, corn, collards and yams

Onion, garlic and cilantro

Hands strong enough

to remind me of my great-great-grandmother

I need hands to hold

Wrinkled yet smooth

Old, worn and absolutely beautiful

Intuit's Homepage

Keeping the Vibe Alive

Closing out 2002, great things are happening in the Atlanta Vibe that creates real enthusiasm for 2003. Losing several major spoken word venues since 2000, most notably Pattie Hut, Ying Yang and Level 2, were setbacks. However, new nightclubs are opening in old places. Phoenix-like, the Apache Café replaced Ying Yang, and on Sunday (12-15-02), Kimani and Sun Christopher threw down with Free Form Exchange (FFX). Formerly the Mighty I Am Project, these dynamic brothers blew up Planet Earth back in 1998. Today, their exciting new concept is blowing the doors off the Apache Café.

FFX is formatted for newcomers and veteran poets alike. Beginning with an open mic, it closes by featuring the hottest artists in the Vibe. This week the packed house heated up with Jeff Word, a vocalist/guitarist, who stoked their fire to a white flame. Then, like pouring hot syrup over butter, Yohannes torched the hearts of the female fateful with seductive innuendo that melted the coldest cubes into steamy pools of erotica. However, honoring the code for conscious poets to never leave an audience hanging on fantasy, Yohannes brought them to earth with the jolting reality of being black in the United States of America.

Gracing the place with their faces were Queen Nairobi, We One, Kito, Goldie and the DeKalb crew- Laquitta, Latonya and Kim - just to spotlight a few. Urban Soul Fire, a new experimental group of MCs, which includes Spanky, T, Nukumba and Yohannes, was on the scene but did not throw down. If you are in Atlanta and in the mood for cutting edge performances by some explosive artists, let FFX torch your Sunday nights at the Apache Café. Doors open @ 8:00. Atlanta Vibe Homepage

Disgruntled wants to know: Hypocrisy knows no bounds when a superpower decides it wants to control another sovereign nation's natural resources, particularly oil. Whether overt war against Iraq or covert destabilization with CIA funding of pseudo-unions, there is no depth to which a superpower will sink. In Venezuela, an oil-rich nation, Hugo Chavez was popularly elected, which is more than can be said about George Bush. Under the circumstances, how can the US maintain a straight face while demanding early elections?

Disgruntled feels: Anti-Christ! During a presidential election debate, George Bush claimed Jesus Christ is the most influential person in his life. At that time, this born-again 'Christian' was the killingest governor in the USA; Texas led the nation in carrying out the death penalty. Ultraconservative in his compassion, Bush maintains an enemy list, ala Richard Nixon, of targets for CIA assassination. He increased the CIA mandate to hunt down and kill those on his list. Each hit gets a Bush "X" etched across a photograph of the victim's face. Bush's actions are definitely not Christ-like. His warmongering and constant advocacy of violence are antithetical to what Jesus would do! He is more like an anti-Christ!

Disgruntled says: Conservatives control the US media; they want to get rid of Senator Trent Lott. Intimidated, Democratic Tin Men, Scarecrows and Cowardly Lions are not even in the picture. Connecting the dots, Lott is a liability for the conservatives' hidden agenda. Disgruntled Homepage

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is a cynical nine. On Monday, he lost another tooth and came home with it carefully wrapped in tissue. He declared he was putting it under his pillow because he needed money. When asked what money, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro inquired, "Did you forget the Tooth Fairy?" Back to the Bat Cave

On Relative Progress!

By Dot

Preceding this brouhaha over Trent Lott's racist remarks, "Should Santa Be Stopped By Newtie and Lott" (www.thedish.ws, click on Reparations page) dissected the Contract with America and conservative agenda. Led by George Bush, part of the conservative agenda, which includes a faith-based initiative to drive a wedge in the religious community and the appointment of strict construction judges, is to turn back the clock on perceived gains made by blacks over the past fifty years. Lott's public lament for the past exposes the racist aspect of the agenda. The media will not connect the dots, but it is Bush's hands that hold the dagger over Lott's heart.

Talking heads and print reporters that laud black progress over the last fifty years rarely compare black progress to the progress of others. This oversight is especially egregious when 'educated' blacks fail to put black life in proper perspective. For example, black incomes may have increased ten-fold since the days of Jim Crow, but white incomes rose more. So, black progress relative to whites is nominal or non-existent.

Empirical examinations of median family incomes and unemployment rates from 1947 to today show the relative economic condition of black and white families changed little over this period. Historically, black unemployment averaged twice the white unemployment rate, and median family incomes of blacks relative to whites moved along the narrow band of .50 to .62. During the Clinton Administration, the Bureau of Labor changed the historical income tables. The change resulted in a nominally narrowed gap.

Lott's racist remarks reflect the actions that created and maintain the income gap between blacks and whites that have existed since slavery. Whether the code words politicians use to show their commitment to white supremacy are "traditional family values," the appointment of strict construction judges or a wish for the openly racist days of 1948, there is no denying institutionalized racism defines black life in this country.

The next time talking heads laud black progress remember that relatively speaking little has changed since slavery. Lott lost little in not getting Thurmond elected president. Those that were elected and appointed supported the tenets of a racist conservative agenda, which explains the lack of real black progress. DISHing It Up Hot Homepage

Email alarkam@webtv.net The real issue is not how racist Senator Lott is. All of the white members of Congress criticizing Lott's praise of Strom Thurmond are fierce opponents of Reparations for Afro-Descendants. As the head of the government, which continues in the 21st century to oppress Black people through its policies, President Bush is far worse of an adversary than any wicked Senator.

Email fubaraws@aol.com Rather than call for Lott's resignation, I think a better approach is to publicize the national outrage at his racist beliefs, and leave his constituents and Republican colleagues to take it from there. That way the country and the world at large will learn two important lessons. First, racism still exists in the United States, but is abhorrent to the leadership class and to many people in this country. Second, the right to free speech includes the right to make outrageous statements, and the right to show through speech that one is abysmally moronic. More Mailbox

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