I want to post links to three discussions I caught on C-SPAN during the Thanksgiving break. The goal of this blog to help broaden horizions and empower people, especially high school and college students.  In addition to exploring great works of literature from Africa and the African Diaspora we will examine issues of
education, empowerment, spirituality, global affairs, economics, civic empowerment, community revitalization and public policy.

Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State, recalls her childhood in Birmingham, Alabama in the 1960's and profiles her parents, John and Angelena. Ms. Rice discusses her memoir with her cousin Constance Rice, co-director of the Advancement Project at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Extraord

A group of emerging young professionals, including some from the Obama administration, talked about building successful careers in politics. This program was part of the 40th Annual Legislative Conference of the Congressional Black Caucus.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/EmergingPo

Angela Davis presents a critical edition of Frederick Douglass' memoir, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - An American Slave Written By Himself. Ms. Davis explores the abolitionists intellectual life and recalls the several other editions of Douglass' memoir. Angela Davis is joined in conversation with Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Toni Morrison at the New York Public Library in New York City.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/LifeofF

New York Times article on Chinua Achebe link

Books of The Times

Chinua Achebe’s Encounters With Many Hearts of Darkness

By DWIGHT GARNER

Published: December 15, 2009

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/books/16book.html

THINGS FALL APART: Why Chinua Achebe is still the Father of African Literature

THINGS FALL APART: Why Chinua Achebe is still the Father of African Literature

Chinua Achebe

  

Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930. He was raised in the large village of Ogidi, one of the first centers of Anglican missionary work in Eastern Nigeria, and is a graduate of University College, Ibadan. His early career in radio ended abruptly in 1966, when he left his post as Director of External Broadcasting in Nigeria during the national upheaval that led to the Biafran War. He was appointed Senior Research Fellow at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and began lecturing widely abroad. From 1972 to 1976, and again in 1987 to 1988, Mr. Achebe was a Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and also for one year at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. Cited in the London Sunday Times as one of the 1,000 "Makers of the Twentieth Century," for defining "a modern African literature that was truly African" and thereby making "a major contribution to world literature," Mr. Achebe has published novels, short stories, essays, and children's books. His volume of poetry, Christmas in Biafra, written during the Biafran War, was the joint winner of the first Commonwealth Poetry Prize. His novel Arrow of God was winner of the New Statesman-Jock Campbell Award, and Anthills of the Savannah was a finalist for the 1987 Booker Prize in England. Often mentioned as a leading candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Mr. Achebe holds an Honorary Fellowship of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, as well as more than twenty honorary doctorates from universities in England, Scotland, the U.S., Canada, and Nigeria. He is also the recipient of Nigeria's highest award for intellectual achievement, the Nigerian National Merit Award.

Chinua Achebe Videos

http://www.vimeo.com/11032220

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjtXPw7c5Jc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON7-G0XqJrc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGEzn0ZECvY

Nigeria

Things Fall Apart takes place in the West Africa country of Nigeria.
Nigeria officially named the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a federal constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal Capital Territory. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast lies on the Gulf of Guinea, part of the Atlantic Ocean, in the south.

FAST FACTS ABOUT NIGERIA

• Population: 158.2 million (UN, 2010)
• Capital: Abuja
• Largest city: Lagos
• Area: 923,768 sq km (356,669 sq miles)
• Major languages: English (official), Yoruba, Ibo, Hausa
• Major religions: Islam, Christianity, indigenous beliefs
• Life expectancy: 49 years (men), 50 years (women) (UN)
• Monetary unit: 1 Nigerian naira = 100 kobo
• Main exports: Petroleum, petroleum products, cocoa, rubber

Africa is A Continent

This may seem like a simplistic way to begin out discussion of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, but often times we forget that Africa is not one huge country but over 50 separate countries located on the second largest continent.

New Book: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

      Last week Mrs. Trina V. Toles and I were having a lively discussion with the African graduate students who work at the Margaret Walker Alexander National Research Center and Mrs. Toles suggested we needed more discussion and exploration of international issues, especially in regards to the continent of Africa.  At the Center the following African countries are currently represented: Ghana, Nigeria, and Tunisia.  In the past we have had students from Cameroon and Gambia as well. 

I recommended we read the classic African novel, Things Fall Apart by Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart is a great jumping off point for our discussion of both African history and current events.  Please join us both online and an actual meeting TBA. 

Freedom Riders Videos

 Please check out these youtube videos on the Freedom Riders

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T50Ym94k8Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFWETmFjOg0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzaNPgHjWno 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-UE6n6JnM4

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdbQKjr9Bu4 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqhVv9--MSY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ISDcGAQmgw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mEk3PQWHsM

Check out website for Freedom Riders Celebration

http://www.mississippifreedom50th.com/blog/

Freedom Riders Of 1961 Honored - WLBT 3 - Jackson, MS:

Freedom Riders Of 1961 Honored - WLBT 3 - Jackson, MS:

Freedom Riders 50th Anniversary Celebration begins on Farish Street

On Thursday, November 11, the Farish Street Historic District was the site of the reception and movie screening honoring the Freedom Riders.  It was an awesome event highlighting progress, opportunity, challenges and diversity. 
Peaches Cafe hosted a reception attended by a standing room only, diverse crowd excited by the opportunity to screen excerpts of the new documentary film on the Freedom Riders.  The Alamo Theater was also filled with energized individuals who savored the opportunity to meet actual Freedom Riders. 
The events also highlighted another opportunity, the revitalization of Farish Street.  The much delayed revitalization project is finally gaining momentum at the Amite Street corner of Farish Street, but as I passed gutted out facades closer to Peaches Cafe and the Alamo Theater, I realized that there is still a lot more work to be done. 
Farish Street represents the best and worst of Jackson.  Once a thriving economic, religious, cultural corridor in the heart of downtown Jackson, it has fallen victim to urban decay and blight.  Farish Street runs north and south with its southern terminus being Pascagoula Street and its northern terminus Fortification Street. 
The Farish Street Historic District borders include North: Fortification Street, South: Amite Street, East: Lamar Street and West: Mill Street.  The Farish Street Entertainment District currently consist of Farish Street from Amite to Griffith Streets. 
When the Freedom Riders arrived in Jackson in 1961 Farish Street was the hub of the African American religious, economic, cultural, lives.  There were doctors' offices, funeral homes, churches, restaurants, night clubs, record companies, movie theaters, attorney offices, etc.  Richard Wright writes memorably about Farish Street and downtown Jackson in his books, Black Boy and Uncle Tom's Children.  I currently attend church at the historic Farish Street Baptist Church located there since 1893.  Stalwarts of Farish Street preservation and revitalization, Dr. Alferdteen Harrison, Col. James Talmadge Anderson, Ms. Nettie Stowers and others attend Farish Street Baptist Church.  Other churches and businesses such as New Hope Baptist Church-Hamilton Street, Mount Helm Baptist Church, Central United Methodist Church, Collins Funeral Home, Peoples Funeral Home and many others work to save Farish Street. 

Article on 2010 Mid-term Elections

 Click on link below to check out article on mid-term elections by Dr. Anthony Samad,  BlackCommentator.com
Analyzing The 2010 Mid-Term Elections: Not As "Gloom and Doom" As We Think - Between the Lines - By Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad, PhD - BlackCommentator.com Columnist

Photos from Last Reading Community Meeting

Click on link below to see photos from JSU  Reading Community discussion of The Mis-Education of the Negro by Dr. Carter G. Woodson:
http://presidentreading.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/photos-from-book-discussion-the-mis-education-of-the-negro-by-carter-g-woodson/

Where Do We Go From Here?

Hope you’re enjoying reading “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Our next discussion will be held at 6 p.m., Monday, Nov. 15, at the Java & News Cyber Cafe inside the H.T. Sampson Library.

This will be our last book discussion for 2010 and I hope we can generate lots of excitement for our January selection.

Remember, the President’s Campus Reading Community is open to the general public. To join, send an email with your name, class (if you’re a student) and email address topublicrelations@jsums.edu.

Womanhood is something that doesn't seem to have a real description

Megs said:

Womanhood is is something that doesn't seem to have a real description. Once you try to define it, you limit what it can be, and it should be a force. And all real forces of nature move without boundaries. Womanhood is like nature. It encompasses everything. It touches everyone, and it is a symbol of life.
I don't like to think that all African Americans have a certain attitude toward anything because we are all individuals and have our own minds. But I would like to see more people embrace sex as something that is akin to love and instead of a sin. When you demonize something beautiful, all the products of it are suspected to be dirty as well. People will live in the closet with their dirty secrets allowing it to torture them and become something painful and violent. Being more open with conversations involving sex and not trying to proselytize a certain dogma is very important in making people think about what it is they are doing and why they do it.

 Thank you Megs for your comments!
Megs you bring up some great points about African American attitudes toward womanhood and human sexuality.  Some of our attitudes are based on our history as African American women.  African American women activists of the nineteenth and  early 20th century fought against stereotypes that labeled African American women as liars, sluts, and whores. 
Read what Mrs. Mary Church Terrell  says about that time:

When Ernestine Rose, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony began that agitation by which colleges were opened to women and the numerous reforms inaugurated for the amelioration of their condition along all lines, their sisters who groaned in bondage had little reason to hope that these blessings would ever brighten their crushed and blighted lives, for during those days of oppression and despair, colored women were not only refused admittance to institutions of learning, but the law of the States in which the majority lived made it a crime to teach them to read.

During slavery and Jim Crow African American women's sexuality was defined as promiscuity.  And African American women leaders worked very hard to remove that stigma. While we should not limit what womanhood is Megs, I do think we need to define what womanhood isn't.  Womanhood is not limited to what is between a woman's legs and women have more to offer humanity than simply what is between their legs.  
Also many African American women identify themselves as Christian and Christianity defines sex as the function of marital procreation and marital intimacy.  Any sexual relations that is not related to either making babies during marriage or promoting intimacy in marriage is considered wrong.    Two of the ten commandments deal directly with sexuality: "Thou shalt not covet" and "Thou shalt not commit adultery", both the Old and New Testaments consider homosexuality  and premarital sex wrong. 
But the reality the 21st century church faces is while it condemns certain sexual behaviors, both Catholic and Protestant pastors and  leaders have been caught in horrific sex abuse scandals.  But it is not just the church leadership that has problems with double standards in terms of sexuality, we as loyal congregants endorse public policy that outlaws abortion, insist on abstinence only sex education, forbids gay marriage, limits entitlement programs, while coping in our personal lives with teenage pregnancy, increased exposure to sexually transmitted diseases, single-parent homes, extra-marital affairs, closeted or "down low" family and church members. 

Where do we go from here? We need more discussion on womanhood and sexuality. 

For Colored Girls

i found god in myself & i loved her/i loved her fiercely

This line represents what For Colored Girls is ultimately about.  It is about women making the journey from victimhood and self-destruction to self-acceptance and self-love.  Society, friends, family, lovers often tell women that they are not beautiful, not smart, not sexy, not desirable and women often internalize these feelings but once we learn in spite of obstacles to love ourselves fiercely then we can move forward.

Ntozake Shange

 

ntozake shange

(pronounced en-to-zaki shong-gay)

1948-

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Ntozake Shange was born Paulette Williams in Trenton, New Jersey on October 18, 1948. In 1971 she changed her name to Ntozake Shange which means "she who comes with her own things" and "she who walks like a lion" in Xhosa, the Zulu language. Her father was an Air Force surgeon and her mother was an educator and a psychiatric social worker. The Williams were upper middle class African Americans whose love of the arts contributed to an intellectually stimulating childhood for Shange and her three siblings. Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Chuck Berry, and W. E. B. Du Bois were among the frequent guests at her parents' house.
In 1966 Shange enrolled at Barnard College and separated from her husband, a law student. She attempted suicide several times. Nonetheless, she graduated cum laude in American Studies in 1970 and entered the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, where she earned a master's degree in American Studies in 1973.
While living in California and teaching humanities and women's studies courses at Mills College in Oakland, the University of California Extension, and Sonoma State College, Shange began to associate with poets, teachers, performers, and black and white feminist writers who nurtured her talents. Shange and her friends began to perform their poetry, music, and dance in and around the San Francisco Area. Shange also danced with Halifu Osumare's company. Upon leaving the company she began collaborating with Paula Moss on the poetry, music, and dance that would become for colored girls Moss and Shange left California for New York and performed for colored girls in a Soho jazz loft and later in bars in the lower East Side. Producer Woodie King Jr. saw one of these shows and helped director Oz Scott stage the choreopoem Off-Broadway at the New Federal Theatre where it ran for eight months, after which it moved to the New York Shakespeare Company's Anspacher Public Theatre, and then to the Booth Theatre.
In addition to her plays, she has written poetry, novels, and essays. She has taught at California State College, the City College of New York, the University of Houston, Rice University, Yale, Howard, and New York University. Among her many awards are an Obie, a Los Angeles Time Book Prize for Poetry, and a Pushcart Prize.

PLAYS

"for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf: a choreopoem"-1975

First produced in New York City at Studio Riobea in 1975; produced Off-Broadway at the Anspacher Public Theatre in 1976; produced on Broadway at the Booth Theatre that same year.

"A Photograph"-1977

First produced Off-Broadway at the Public Theatre.

"Boogie Woogie Landscapes"-1979

First produced in New York at Frank Silvera's Writers' Workshop; first produced on Broadway at the Symphony Space Theatre in 1978.

"Spell #7"-1979

First produced Off-Broadway at Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theatre.

"Black and White Two Dimensional Planes"-1979

First proudced in New York at Sounds in Motion Studio Works.

"Mother Courage and Her Children"-1980

An adaptation of Brecht's play; first produced Off-Broadway at the Public Theatre, directed by Shange.

"Three for a Full Moon" and "Bocas"-1982

First produced at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

"Educating Rita"-1982

Adapted from Willy Russell's script; first produced at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta.

"Three views of Mt. Fuji"-1987

First produced in San Francisco at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre; first produced in New York at the New Dramatists.

AWARDS

"for colored girls...."

Obie Award, Outer Circle Critics Award, Audelco Award; and Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award nominations, 1977

"Mother Courage and Her Children"

1981 Obie Award

For Colored Girls

 SPOILER ALERT!!
I went to see Tyler Perry's film adaptation of Ntozake Shange's powerful choreopoem last night and thought his approach was good but also highly commercial and limited.  Tyler Perry accepted a major challenge bringing For Colored Girls to the big screen and should be appreciated for that effort.

For Colored Girls was originally written in the mid-1970s so it deals with issues such as illegal abortions, Vietnam War veterans and timeless issues such as self-esteem, sexuality, post-traumatic stress disorder, religion, incest, rape, sexually transmitted diseases, infertility, etc. 
The original choreopoem consisted of about 20 choreographed monologues by women in various different colored outfits, (The Lady in Blue, The Lady in Red, The Lady in Brown, etc.) 
It is interesting to go on the web and see all these posts written by people offended by the movie's title, most of these people seem to not understand three crucial points:
1. The movie title is an abbreviation of the choreopoem title
2. The original characters were not identified by name but by outfit color
3. Colored is a state of mind, where a lot of African Americans still reside

Now granted in American history the word colored does not just have negative connotations, however in reference to For Colored Girls I think the word colored refers to the characters low self-esteem, victimhood and often self-destructive behaviors.  These women for the most part are presented as powerless or at least seeing themselves as powerless.
LET'S TALK
Questions this movie raised for me are what are we teaching our African Americans about womanhood in the 21st century?
What are African American attitudes toward sexuality?
How do we stop/prevent sexual violence against African American women and girls?
Please comment to the above questions.
Thank you!

Chaos or Community?

How do we define community in the 21st century?
How do we develop community or civic engagement?
What are some possible solutions to the problems we are currently facing?

After November 2, 2010: Where do we go from here?

On Tuesday November 2, 2010 the Republicans regained control of the United States House of Representatives, numerous state houses, and gubernatorial posts in their and the Tea Party's efforts to take the country back.  After a brief two years in control, the Democrats were lucky to barely hold on to a slim majority in the United States Senate. 
What happened?  According to the Tea Party and the Republican party too much government spending and according to the Democrats not enough job growth.  Mississippi ousted two marginal Democrats in Travis Childers and Gene Taylor, so that even Democrats who actively distanced themselves from President Obama lost their seats.  In two short years the nation has gone from embracing "change" and "hope" to embracing the party of "nope".
No Health Care
No new taxes
No earmarks
No compromises
No cooperation with President Obama or the Democrats
And according to new Florida United Senator Mark Rubio, no cooperation with even moderate Republicans either.  While more attention was focused on Sharron Angle of Nevada and Christine O'Donnell of Delaware, the Tea Party movement was able to get minorities such as Mark Rubio and  LTC Allen West of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina elected. 
But the mid-term elections are over and the question is where do we do from here?  November 2012 is less than two years away.  What are our priorities for the new two years?  Can the Democratic party and President Obama recover before the 2012 presidential elections?  What should they do to attract more African Americans and young people to the polls?

Malcolm X: The Ballot or The Bullet

Check out these links on Malcolm X's timely speech:
AUDIO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRNciryImqg

TRANSCRIPT OF SPEECH
http://www.cis.aueb.gr/Besides Security/TALKS/TALKS-10-X (The Ballot or the Bullet).pdf

Malcolm X explains Black Nationalism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO6Co8v2XjY

Definition and History of Black Nationalism
http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_black_nationalism/

Black Power & Urban Politics by Albert Cleage (1968)  
http://www.hippy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=116 

 

 

Check out  this video on voting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ2j8zSxPgU 

Check out this video on why we should vote

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX_vBf1XTEE

Check out video on Freedom Summer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_81kkJDvrUQ

Check out video of President Lyndon B. Johnson's speech on the 1965 Voting Rights Act

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxEauRq1WxQ

The 1965 Voting Rights Act

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

The 1965 Enactment

By 1965 concerted efforts to break the grip of state disfranchisement had been under way for some time, but had achieved only modest success overall and in some areas had proved almost entirely ineffectual. The murder of voting-rights activists in Philadelphia, Mississippi, gained national attention, along with numerous other acts of violence and terrorism. Finally, the unprovoked attack on March 7, 1965, by state troopers on peaceful marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, en route to the state capitol in Montgomery, persuaded the President and Congress to overcome Southern legislators' resistance to effective voting rights legislation. President Johnson issued a call for a strong voting rights law and hearings began soon thereafter on the bill that would become the Voting Rights Act.

Congress determined that the existing federal anti-discrimination laws were not sufficient to overcome the resistance by state officials to enforcement of the 15th Amendment. The legislative hearings showed that the Department of Justice's efforts to eliminate discriminatory election practices by litigation on a case-by-case basis had been unsuccessful in opening up the registration process; as soon as one discriminatory practice or procedure was proven to be unconstitutional and enjoined, a new one would be substituted in its place and litigation would have to commence anew.

President Johnson signed the resulting legislation into law on August 6, 1965.  Section 2 of the Act, which closely followed the language of the 15th amendment, applied a nationwide prohibition against the denial or abridgment of the right to vote on the literacy tests on a nationwide basis. Among its other provisions, the Act contained special enforcement provisions targeted at those areas of the country where Congress believed the potential for discrimination to be the greatest. Under Section 5, jurisdictions covered by these special provisions could not implement any change affecting voting until the Attorney General or the United States District Court for the District of Columbia determined that the change did not have a discriminatory purpose and would not have a discriminatory effect. In addition, the Attorney General could designate a county covered by these special provisions for the appointment of a federal examiner to review the qualifications of persons who wanted to register to vote. Further, in those counties where a federal examiner was serving, the Attorney General could request that federal observers monitor activities within the county's polling place.

The Voting Rights Act had not included a provision prohibiting poll taxes, but had directed the Attorney General to challenge its use. In Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663 (1966), the Supreme Court held Virginia's poll tax to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. Between 1965 and 1969 the Supreme Court also issued several key decisions upholding the constitutionality of Section 5 and affirming the broad range of voting practices that required Section 5 review. As the Supreme Court put it in its 1966 decision upholding the constitutionality of the Act:

Congress had found that case-by-case litigation was inadequate to combat wide-spread and persistent discrimination in voting, because of the inordinate amount of time and energy required to overcome the obstructionist tactics invariably encountered in these lawsuits. After enduring nearly a century of systematic resistance to the Fifteenth Amendment, Congress might well decide to shift the advantage of time and inertia from the perpetrators of the evil to its victims.

South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U.S. 301, 327-28 (1966).

The 1970 and 1975 Amendments

Congress extended Section 5 for five years in 1970 and for seven years in 1975. With these extensions Congress validated the Supreme Court's broad interpretation of the scope of Section 5. During the hearings on these extensions Congress heard extensive testimony concerning the ways in which voting electorates were manipulated through gerrymandering, annexations, adoption of at-large elections, and other structural changes to prevent newly-registered black voters from effectively using the ballot. Congress also heard extensive testimony about voting discrimination that had been suffered by Hispanic, Asian and Native American citizens, and the 1975 amendments added protections from voting discrimination for language minority citizens.

In 1973, the Supreme Court held certain legislative multi-member districts unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment on the ground that they systematically diluted the voting strength of minority citizens in Bexar County, Texas. This decision in White v. Regester, 412 U.S. 755 (1973), strongly shaped litigation through the 1970s against at-large systems and gerrymandered redistricting plans. In Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S. 55 (1980), however, the Supreme Court required that any constitutional claim of minority vote dilution must include proof of a racially discriminatory purpose, a requirement that was widely seen as making such claims far more difficult to prove.

The 1982 Amendments

Congress renewed in 1982 the special provisions of the Act, triggered by coverage under Section 4 for twenty-five years. Congress also adopted a new standard, which went into effect in 1985, providing how jurisdictions could terminate (or "bail out" from) coverage under the provisions of Section 4. Furthermore, after extensive hearings, Congress amended Section 2 to provide that a plaintiff could establish a violation of the Section without having to prove discriminatory purpose.

Source: http://www.justice.gov/crt/voting/intro/intro_b.php

                                                                                                            

Toward a Vision of Beloved Community

Click on link below to check out article by Rev. Shirley Strong on the meaning of the beloved community:
http://www.chaplaincyinstitute.org/rev-shirley-strong/toward-a-vision-beloved-community

Where Do We Go From Here?

Isaiah 58:1-12 - The Message

1 "Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back - a trumpet-blast shout! Tell my people what's wrong with their lives, face my family Jacob with their sins!

2 They're busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people - law-abiding, God-honoring. They ask me, 'What's the right thing to do?' and love having me on their side.

3 But they also complain, 'Why do we fast and you don't look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?' "Well, here's why: "The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit. You drive your employees much too hard.

 4 You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won't get your prayers off the ground.

5 Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, God, would like?

6 "This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts.

7 What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families.

8 Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage.

9 Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.' A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places "If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins,

10 If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

11 I will always show you where to go. I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places - firm muscles, strong bones. You'll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry.

12 You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.

Excerpt from introduction by Vincent Harding

Introduction by Vincent Harding

The last book written by King—his final reflections after a decade of civil rights struggles

Read the introduction by Vincent Harding.

In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., isolated himself from the demands of the civil rights movement, rented a house in Jamaica with no telephone, and labored over his final manuscript. In this prophetic work, which has been unavailable for more than ten years, he lays out his thoughts, plans, and dreams for America's future, including the need for better jobs, higher wages, decent housing, and quality education. With a universal message of hope that continues to resonate, King demanded an end to global suffering, asserting that humankind-for the first time-has the resources and technology to eradicate poverty.

New Book: Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?

 

Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the annual report at the 11th Convention of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference on August 16, 1967, in Atlanta, Georgia.  

Dr. King projected in this speech the issues which led to Poor People's March on Washington.

Check out links on the speech and Martin Luther King, Jr. biography.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4id6TXqzYA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diLhFvXXPto


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foXJIPYTqsc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHFWide96CQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VorFJ6PzWzI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXiEN-9UplQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYs_sWrqPaY

TRANSCRIPT of Speech
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/628.html

http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/kingpapers/article/where_do_we_go_from_here/

Martin Luther King, Jr. BIOGRAPHY
http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_martin_luther_king_jr_biography/

Please Come to the JSU Reading Community Book Discussion

       
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
6:00 p.m.
Cyber Cafe (in H.T. Sampson Library on JSU's campus)
Angela D. Stewart, Archivist of the Margaret Walker National Research Center will lead the discussion of Carter G. Woodson's The Mis-Education of the Negro for the JSU President Reading Community
Click on link to check out photos from the discussion of The Souls of Black Folk:
http://presidentreading.wordpress.com/

Another perspective on the African American educational experience

Check out this article by consevative scholar, John McWhorter on what should be taught in African American Studies program:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2009/09/by_john_mcwhorter_while_this.html

Check article on race and education reform
http://atlantapost.com/2010/10/06/ignoring-race-in-education-reform-will-do-more-harm-than-good/

Check out reprint of interview with John Henrik Clarke
http://www.africanaonline.com/2010/09/john-henrik-clarke-bad-boy-of-academe/

I. The Seat of The Trouble

The first chapter of The Mis-Education of the Negro is entitled "The Seat of the Trouble". 
The "Educated Negroes"
Carter G. Woodson, while having a Ph.D. in history from Harvard himself, feels that "educated Negroes" are the "seat of the trouble" in chapter I. 
There are several reasons why Dr. Woodson feels this way.

1.  Educated Negroes are taught to despise African people, history and culture.
2.  Few are taught African/African American history, literature and culture in school.
3. African/African American inferiority is drilled into African American students from preschool-post- 
    graduate education.
4. According to Woodson, most African American students are subjected to educational lynching
5. Northern and Western universities are not designed to adequately prepare African Americans who reside  
    in the American South
6. Schools of theology promote an interpretation of the Bible that justified slavery and justifies segregation
    and peonage
7. Schools of business administration prepare African Americans to be employees and not business owners.
8. Schools of journalism do not prepare to students to own and operate newspapers in the African American
    community
Woodson summarizes the "seat of the trouble" thusly:

When a Negro has finished his education in our schools, then, he has been equipped to begin the life of an Americanized or Europeanized white man, but before he steps from the threshold of his alma mater he is told by his teachers that he must go back to his own people from whom he has been estranged by a vision of ideals which in his disillusionment he will realize that he cannot attain.

Marian Wright Edelman video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwHCCro66Vw

21st Century African American Education Issues

Check out  link to read a Harvard Education Review classic reprint on empowering minority students
http://her.hepg.org/content/j261357m62846812/fulltext.pdf

Check out this strategic plan developed by the State of Washington to address the needs of African American Students
http://www.wce.wwu.edu/Resources/CEP/METT/2006/African%20American%20Strategic%20Plan.pdf

Check out "A Dream Deferred: The Future of African Education:
http://www.collegeboard.com/dreamdeferred/downloads/dream-deferred-program-2010.pdf

Building Skills for America’s Future

Source: http://www.ed.gov/blog/2010/10/building-skills-for-america%e2%80%99s-future/
Today [October 5, 2010, President Obama announced the launch of a new initiative Skills for America’s Future – an effort to improve industry partnerships with community colleges to ensure that America’s community college students are gaining the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in the workforce.
In his remarks before the start of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) meeting today, President Obama laid the vision for Skills for America’s Future program:

The idea here is simple:  we want to make it easier to connect students looking for jobs with businesses looking to hire.  We want to help community colleges and employers create programs that match curricula in the classroom with the needs of the boardroom.
We’ve already seen cases where this can work.  Cisco, for example, has been working directly with community colleges to prepare students and workers for jobs ranging from work in broadband to health IT.  And all over the country, we know that the most successful community colleges are those that partner with the private sector.  So Skills for America’s Future would help build on these success stories by connecting more employers, schools, and other job training providers, and helping them share knowledge about what practices work best.  The goal is to ensure that every state in the country has at least one strong partnership between a growing industry and a community college.  Already, companies from UTC to Accenture to the GAP have announced their support for this initiative, as well as business leaders like my friend Penny Pritzker and the Aspen Institute’s Walter Isaacson.   I hope other business leaders will follow suit, and I’m also setting up a taskforce to work directly with the business community on this effort.

The President also emphasized the importance investing in education as a means of investing in our long-term economic growth.

But what I won’t do is cut back on investments like education that are directly related to our long term economic performance.  Now is not the time to sacrifice our competitive edge in the global economy.  And that’s why I disagree so strongly with the proposal from some on the other side of the aisle to cut education by 20% in next year’s budget.  It’s a cut that would eliminate 200,000 children from Head Start programs; a cut that would reduce financial aid for eight million college students; a cut that would leave community colleges without the resources they need to meet the goals we’ve talked about today.  That just doesn’t make sense to me.

President Obama understands that the education and skills of the American workforce is crucial to our ability to compete in the global economy. That’s why the President has set a goal of having an additional 5 million community college degrees and certificates by 2020, and called on PERAB to develop new steps to ensure that those degrees and certificates will provide graduates with the skills they need to get ahead in their careers.
To respond to the President’s call, PERAB reached out to private sector employers, labor leaders, philanthropy organizations, and policy leaders within the Administration solicit their views on the workplace development challenges of the 21^st century.  Many employers identified public-private partnerships as one of the most effective ways to ensure that college graduates and certificate earners have the skills they need to be successful in the workforce.
The Skills for America’s Future initiative will match up the employers like PG&E, United Technologies, McDonald’s, Accenture and Gap Inc. with community colleges in every state to develop curricula and programs that will prepare graduates to excel in the workforce.  To learn more about this initiative visit www.SkillsForAmerica.org.
Tomorrow, Dr. Jill Biden will host the first ever White House Summit on Community Colleges, an effort to bring together bring together community colleges, business, philanthropy, federal and state policy leaders, faculty and students to discuss how community colleges can help meet the job training and education needs of the nation’s evolving workforce.  Leaders from the Skills for America’s Future will be leading a breakout session during the summit to discuss best practices for building robust, successful partnerships.
You can join the conversation as well, by submitting your ideas and comments in our online dialogue on community colleges.  Visit WhiteHouse.gov/CommunityCollege to get started.

Mis-Education in the 21st Century

Miseducate: To educate improperly

What does mis-education mean in the 21st century especially for African American children?

Check articles and data produced by Apple computer on the challenge of 21st Century education:
http://ali.apple.com/acot2/challenge/

Mis-Education of the Negro LINKS

The Mis-Education of the Negro
By Carter G. Woodson
Download the Study Guide
http://www.asalh.org/files/Miseducation_Study_Guide.pdf


Why read Mis-Education of the Negro?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRvezBtRB1I


Excerpt from Chapter 1 of Mis-Education of the Negro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXq3z2BHYZg


Dr. Adele Logan Alexander discusses the origin of African American History Month
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJBIM2hygYQ

Download the entire audiobook or individual chapters
http://www.movementunes.com/Miseducation/Miseducation.html

The Mis-Education of the Negro FACEBOOK page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Mis-Education-of-the-Negro/103740466331843

Carter Godwin Woodson

As another has well said, to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching. 

Carter G. Woodson 

If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated. 

Carter G. Woodson 

Check out these videos on the life Carter G. Woodson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkBEjJH1j5U


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV1T8N6oB0A

Carter Godwin Woodson

                       

Carter Godwin Woodson, Ph.D. (1875-1950)

"The Father of Black History"

Historian, educator, author, and publisher. Born in 1875 in New Canton, Virginia. The son of freed slaves, Woodson worked as a sharecropper and a miner to help his family. He began high school in his late teens and proved to be an excellent student. Woodson went on to college and earned several degrees. He received a doctorate from Harvard University in 1912—becoming one of the first African Americans to earn a Ph.D. at the prestigious institution. After finishing his education, he dedicated himself to the field of African American history, working to make sure that this subject was taught in schools and was studied by scholars. For his efforts, Woodson is often known as the "Father of Black History."

In 1915, Woodson helped found the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (which later became the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History). The next year he established the Journal of Negro History, a scholarly publication. Woodson also formed the African-American-owned Associated Publishers Press in 1921, which produced several of his own works, including The Negro in Our History (1922) and Mis-Education of the Negro(1933).

Woodson lobbied schools and organizations to participate in a special program to encourage the study of African American history, which began in February 1926 with Negro History Week and was later expanded and renamed Black History Month. To help teachers with African American studies, he created the Negro History Bulletin in 1937. While Woodson died on April 3, 1950, his work continues on. Every February, students around the United States spend time learning about the subject closest to his heart—African American history.

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