AfroCentric Black History News Portal writes.....
I find it very easy for some of us in the Black community, to forget precious dates and events. It really aches my soul when great men like Martin especially, around his assassination...hardly a whispered. We really need to get a stronger hold on self and keep in rememberance our own people that have sacrificed their lives, so that We All could reap the benefits of their labor.
Every April 4th, should always be reverened by our community. Even more important than July 4th, or any other holiday.
Let's try to do better than we have.
Thank you Martin for your sacrifice.
----------
THE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., ASSASSINATION
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, was assassinated on 4 April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee while lending support to a sanitation workers' strike. He was shot by James Earl Ray at approximately 7:05 P.M. Ray's bullet struck King as he was standing on his balcony at the Lorraine Motel; King died approximately one hour later. Although no television cameras were in the vicinity at the time of the assassination, television coverage of the event quickly followed.
News reports of King's wounding appeared first, but reporters remained consistent with the traditional news format, making early reports of the shooting seem both impersonal and inaccurate. The assassination took place at the same time as the evening news, and several anchormen received the information during their live broadcasts and because details of the shooting were not yet clear, inaccurate information was offered in several cases. Julian Barber of WTTG in Washington, D.C., for example, mistakenly reported that King had been shot while in his car. Following this presentation of incorrect details, Barber then proceeded to introduce the station's weatherman. The rest of the newscast followed a standard format with only minor interruptions providing information about King's condition.
Similarly, Kondrashov recalls that Walter Cronkite had almost finished delivering his report on The CBS Evening News when he received word of King's wounding. Visibly shaken, he announced the shooting. Moments after the announcement, however, the news program faded into commercial advertising. With little information available, the networks continued with their regularly scheduled programming and only later interrupted the programs with their station logos. At that point an anonymous voice announced that King was dead.
Having received word of King's death, all three networks interrupted programming with news programs. Awaiting President Lyndon Johnson's statement, all three featured anchormen discussing King's life and his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. The networks then broadcast President Johnson's statement in which he called for Americans to "reject the blind violence" which had killed the "apostle of nonviolence." In addition, the networks also covered Hubert Humphries' response, and presented footage of King's prophetic speech from 3 April in which he acknowledged the precarious stage of his life. Although the networks had reporters positioned in Memphis, there were no television reporters on the scene because an official curfew had been imposed on the city in an attempt to prevent violence.
According to McKnight, the immediacy of the television coverage prompted riots in over 60 American cities including Chicago, Denver, and Baltimore. Television coverage of King's death and the riots which it sparked continued for the next five days. King's life was featured on morning shows (e.g., NBC's The Today Show), evening news programs, and special programs. The riots themselves commanded extensive television coverage (e.g., CBS' News Nite special on the Riots). Carter suggests that the riots following King's assassination represent a significant shift from previous riotous activities, from responses dealing primarily with local issues to the national focus emerging in the wake of the King riots. National television coverage of the circumstances surrounding the King assassination may have contributed to this shift.
The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a significant moment in the history of the Civil Rights Movement as well as in the history of the United States. In death, as in life, Dr. King influenced millions of Americans. From the first reports of his shooting to the coverage of his funeral services on 9 April at the Ebenezer Church on the Morehouse College Campus, television closely followed his struggle. Even after his death, news coverage of King's legacy continued when, on 11 April President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Bill.
-Vidula Bal
FURTHER READING
Carter, G.L. "In the Narrows of the 1960's U.S. Black Rioting." Journal of Conflict Resolution (Ann Arbor, Michigan), 1986.
Kondrashov, S. and translated by Keith Hammond. The Life and Death of Martin Luther King. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1981.
Lewis, D.L. King: A Biography . Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1970; 2nd edition 1978.
McKnight, G.D. "The 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike and the FBI: A Case Study in Urban Surveillance." South Atlantic Quarterly (Durham, North Carolina), 1984.
AFROCENTRIC NEWS PORTAL
Until the Lion tells His Own story, the tale of the Hunt will Always Glorify the Hunter.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Somalia piracy connected to toxic dumping, illegal fishing
While CNN, FOX, Times and other corporate media sources have fixated on one-dimensional reporting of the "Somalia Piracy" story, some diligent reporters and outlets have reported the broader picture. The following article and attached video offers that broader picture.
In this image provided by the U.S. Navy, Somali pirates holding the merchant vessel, MV Faina, stand on the deck of the ship after the U.S. Navy's request to check on the health and welfare of the ships crew on October 19, at sea in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Hoybyo, Somalia. Photo: Jason Zalasky/U.S. Navy via Getty Images UNITED NATIONS - The head of the UN's body charged with combating piracy has advocated establishing a UN force to fight the piracy problem off Somalia's coast—but the problem may be more complex than simple banditry on the high seas.
According to the UN secretary-general's spokesman's office, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Bureau Efthimios Mitropoulos said the Gulf of Aden, the gateway to the vital Suez Canal, and the eastern coast of Somalia rank as the world's top piracy hot spots. The Gulf of Aden accounted for a third of all attacks on ships in the first nine months of 2008, said Mr. Mitropoulos. Thousands of cargo ships and tankers pass through on their way to Mombasa port in Kenya or destinations in southern Africa.
While the hijackings have been described as the work of criminals, officials admit the problem of waste dumped off the coast of Somalia may be a reason why ships have been commandeered.
In September, a Ukrainian freighter with Russian tanks on board, anti-aircraft guns and heavy weaponry was seized by Somali pirates and ransom negotiations are ongoing.
A spokesman for the pirates, who reportedly use the autonomous region of Puntland as their base, told Al Jazeera some of the ransom money will be used to help clean up waters off the Somali coast ravaged by years of toxic waste dumping. The ransom demand is a means of “reacting to the toxic waste that has been continually dumped on the shores of our country for nearly 20 years,” the spokesman said.
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN special envoy for Somalia, said the world body had “reliable information” that European and Asian companies are responsible for the dumping. The United Nations has also been told that some Somali pirates claim to act as “coast guards,” protecting their country's waters, he added.
“This is not something new, the accusation that toxic dumping is happening off the shores of Somalia, it is amazing though that it is now coming out,” said Sadia Aden, president of the Somalia Diaspora Network. “Opinions are mixed on the pirates. Some of the people are saying the pirates are defending our territory,” Ms. Aden told The Final Call .
A political solution in Somalia would solve the piracy problem, said Ms. Aden. “We need elections. We need a central government,” she argued.
Somalia has not had a central government since 1991 when late President Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted.
Analysts said the chaotic state of the Transitional Federal Government has meant no binding trade measures are in affect and Somalia has not signed the Basel Convention or the Bamako Convention, which ban the import of hazardous waste to African nations.
“While I know the subject of this interview is waste dumping in Somalia, I must say that toxic dumping is an issue all over West and East Africa,” said Nii Akuetteh, executive director of Africa Action, a member of the Scholars' Council at Trans Africa Forum and founder of the Democracy and Conflict Research Institute in Accra, Ghana.
“The Somali toxic waste dumping issue is of great concern to me because it spills over to other African nations,” Mr. Akuetteh said. “Did you know that when the Islamic Courts Union was in charge of Somalia, piracy had come to a virtual halt? But thanks to the Bush administration and Ethiopia after the ouster of the ICU in 2006, the phenomenon returned,” said Mr. Akuetteh.
In early October, the UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1838 (2008) which determined “that the incidents of piracy and armed robbery against vessels in the territorial waters of Somalia and the high seas off the coast of Somalia exacerbate the situation in Somalia which continues to constitute a threat against international peace and security.”
“The UN must monitor more closely the toxic waste issue; and there doesn't seem to be any mention of that in Resolution 1838,” observed Professor Abdi Ismail Samatar, of the geography and global studies department at the University of Minnesota, in a Final Call interview.
While the media is covering piracy, there needs to be coverage of the plundering of Somali resources by rich companies and rich governments, said Prof. Samatar. “They are destroying the coral reefs—breeding grounds for the fisheries—destroying the livelihoods of Somalis, taking the food out of the mouths of the poor.”
According to Ms. Aden there are 3.5 million Somalis facing starvation. East African waters, particularly off Somalia, have huge numbers of commercial fish, including the prized yellow-fin tuna. Observers say the Somali coastline once sustained hundreds of thousands of people as a source of food and livelihoods.
Related links:
Somalia: a clear case of ‘blood oil’ in Africa (FCN, 02-05-2007)
Reconnecting the international struggles of Black people (FCN, 07-26-2006)
The Oil Factor In Somalia (LA Times, 01-18-1993)
Somalia piracy and the untold story
Report spurs new call to investigate Bush
In this image provided by the U.S. Navy, Somali pirates holding the merchant vessel, MV Faina, stand on the deck of the ship after the U.S. Navy's request to check on the health and welfare of the ships crew on October 19, at sea in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Hoybyo, Somalia. Photo: Jason Zalasky/U.S. Navy via Getty Images UNITED NATIONS - The head of the UN's body charged with combating piracy has advocated establishing a UN force to fight the piracy problem off Somalia's coast—but the problem may be more complex than simple banditry on the high seas.
According to the UN secretary-general's spokesman's office, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Bureau Efthimios Mitropoulos said the Gulf of Aden, the gateway to the vital Suez Canal, and the eastern coast of Somalia rank as the world's top piracy hot spots. The Gulf of Aden accounted for a third of all attacks on ships in the first nine months of 2008, said Mr. Mitropoulos. Thousands of cargo ships and tankers pass through on their way to Mombasa port in Kenya or destinations in southern Africa.
While the hijackings have been described as the work of criminals, officials admit the problem of waste dumped off the coast of Somalia may be a reason why ships have been commandeered.
In September, a Ukrainian freighter with Russian tanks on board, anti-aircraft guns and heavy weaponry was seized by Somali pirates and ransom negotiations are ongoing.
A spokesman for the pirates, who reportedly use the autonomous region of Puntland as their base, told Al Jazeera some of the ransom money will be used to help clean up waters off the Somali coast ravaged by years of toxic waste dumping. The ransom demand is a means of “reacting to the toxic waste that has been continually dumped on the shores of our country for nearly 20 years,” the spokesman said.
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN special envoy for Somalia, said the world body had “reliable information” that European and Asian companies are responsible for the dumping. The United Nations has also been told that some Somali pirates claim to act as “coast guards,” protecting their country's waters, he added.
“This is not something new, the accusation that toxic dumping is happening off the shores of Somalia, it is amazing though that it is now coming out,” said Sadia Aden, president of the Somalia Diaspora Network. “Opinions are mixed on the pirates. Some of the people are saying the pirates are defending our territory,” Ms. Aden told The Final Call .
A political solution in Somalia would solve the piracy problem, said Ms. Aden. “We need elections. We need a central government,” she argued.
Somalia has not had a central government since 1991 when late President Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted.
Analysts said the chaotic state of the Transitional Federal Government has meant no binding trade measures are in affect and Somalia has not signed the Basel Convention or the Bamako Convention, which ban the import of hazardous waste to African nations.
“While I know the subject of this interview is waste dumping in Somalia, I must say that toxic dumping is an issue all over West and East Africa,” said Nii Akuetteh, executive director of Africa Action, a member of the Scholars' Council at Trans Africa Forum and founder of the Democracy and Conflict Research Institute in Accra, Ghana.
“The Somali toxic waste dumping issue is of great concern to me because it spills over to other African nations,” Mr. Akuetteh said. “Did you know that when the Islamic Courts Union was in charge of Somalia, piracy had come to a virtual halt? But thanks to the Bush administration and Ethiopia after the ouster of the ICU in 2006, the phenomenon returned,” said Mr. Akuetteh.
In early October, the UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1838 (2008) which determined “that the incidents of piracy and armed robbery against vessels in the territorial waters of Somalia and the high seas off the coast of Somalia exacerbate the situation in Somalia which continues to constitute a threat against international peace and security.”
“The UN must monitor more closely the toxic waste issue; and there doesn't seem to be any mention of that in Resolution 1838,” observed Professor Abdi Ismail Samatar, of the geography and global studies department at the University of Minnesota, in a Final Call interview.
While the media is covering piracy, there needs to be coverage of the plundering of Somali resources by rich companies and rich governments, said Prof. Samatar. “They are destroying the coral reefs—breeding grounds for the fisheries—destroying the livelihoods of Somalis, taking the food out of the mouths of the poor.”
According to Ms. Aden there are 3.5 million Somalis facing starvation. East African waters, particularly off Somalia, have huge numbers of commercial fish, including the prized yellow-fin tuna. Observers say the Somali coastline once sustained hundreds of thousands of people as a source of food and livelihoods.
Related links:
Somalia: a clear case of ‘blood oil’ in Africa (FCN, 02-05-2007)
Reconnecting the international struggles of Black people (FCN, 07-26-2006)
The Oil Factor In Somalia (LA Times, 01-18-1993)
Somalia piracy and the untold story
Report spurs new call to investigate Bush
Friday, April 10, 2009
Black Panther Robert H. King Tell's His Story.
King, 66, will speak Friday at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy in support of his book, "From the Bottom of the Heap: The Autobiography of Black Panther Robert Hillary King" (PM Press, 224 pages, $24.95).
Robert Hillary King spent nearly three decades in solitary confinement at the notorious Angola state prison in Louisiana. As a member of the Black Panther Party, he and two party members became nationally known as the Angola 3 political prisoners who spent decades in solitary confinement for, they contend, organizing prisoners to improve conditions.
After becoming a Black Panther in prison and organizing inmates, according to the book's dust jacket, "prison authorities beat him, starved him and gave him life without parole after framing him for a second crime. He was thrown into solitary confinement, where he remained in a 6-by-9-foot cell for 29 years as one of the Angola 3. In 2001, the state grudgingly acknowledged his innocence and set him free."
Born poor in Louisiana and abandoned by both parents, King was stealing and fighting on the street by the time he was 11 and serving time in reform school at 15. In and out of local and state prison, he ended up at Angola in 1971 for a robbery he claims he did not commit. There, he says, he was framed for the stabbing death of another inmate.
"Solitary confinement is terrifying, especially if you are innocent of the charges that put you there," King writes. "My soul still cries from all that I witnessed and endured. ... So let's call prisons exactly what they are: an extension of slavery."
King recently spoke to the Times Union by phone from his home in Austin.
Q: You write that while in solitary you were allowed out of your cell one hour per day to shower and, sometimes, to go outside into the yard. How did you maintain your sanity?
A: When people ask me that, I tell them, laughing: 'I didn't tell you I wasn't crazy.' It's kind of hard to get dipped in waste and not come up stinking.
But I go on to say that I was in prison; prison wasn't in me. I kind of insulated myself against prison. My political awareness shielded me. Becoming politically aware in the early '70s, I saw America as being one big prison. All they'd done was take me from minimum custody and put me in maximum security.
But there is some luxury to going insane. I can understand that. Very few things I'm afraid of, but I was scared to go crazy, because I was scared of what they would do to me. I saw them do horrible things to people who, quote, lose their mind or regress into insanity. They were given medications, hosed down with 40-pound, 50-pound pressure hoses. ... And it wasn't just the administration. Inmates took part in the victimization of their own fellow prisoners. You see a lot of things. I couldn't describe all the things.
Q: Who are the Angola 3?
A: Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox and myself became collectively known as the Angola 3 after spending decades in solitary confinement. Herman and Albert, both members of the Black Panther Party, were placed there for a crime they allegedly committed, participating in the death of a correction officer back in 1972. It's since come out that Herman and Albert were framed.
When our story got out in the public, I was subsequently released in 2001 when the courts overturned my conviction of participating in the death of an inmate. Herman and Albert are still in prison. (After 36 years in solitary, reportedly the longest of any inmates ever in the U.S., they were transferred last year to maximum security. When the correction officer was killed, Wallace and Woodfox were serving 50-year sentences, Wallace for bank robbery, Woodfox for armed robbery.) We have a strong legal case, but the state seems to be hanging on for dear life. Albert's case is in the federal courts, and Herman's is in the state Supreme Court. We have a civil suit as well.
Q: Are you consumed by anger and bitterness?
A: I don't know how anybody can go through what I went through and not be bitter, angry and a little crazy. But I can compartmentalize these things that took place in my life. I can dissect them and make an assessment of them.
Prison gave me a focus. The focus is to do my best to make sure that nobody else undergoes the type of thing that I underwent.
Q: What are you doing these days? How are you making a living?
A: When I got released from Angola, I got $10 from the state. That's all. I went on a few speaking engagements. I was putting out the word for the Angola 3. In some cases, people gave me a little money for doing it. I couldn't get a job, because when I got out, I was nearly 60 years old. And I had a record.
I got into making candy, something I learned in prison King's Freelines, my twist on "pralines". That's how I'm able to sustain myself. And I have the book. I have spoken at colleges. Sometimes I've received compensation for that. But it's never much. By no stretch of the imagination am I rich. But I'm not homeless.
Q: What's the message you'd like readers to take from your book?
A: In the final analysis, America may be heaven for some. But in heaven, there's some people catching hell. I just happened to be of that segment that caught hell. There's still people catching hell.
But I guess the main message is one of benevolence. I think we have much more in common than we have differences. I guess that's the final message.
-------------
Pt 1/15 Dr.Clarke vs. Mary Lefkowitz-The Black Athena Debate
THE MIS-EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO
The education of any people should begin with the people themselves....
The Honorable Robert F. Williams: "
A History of The Republic of New Afrika
42 LAWS OF MA'AT!
Afrikan- Centered Cultural Development and Education
FORMAL METHODS, FORMATIVE AND SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENTS
Front for the Liberation of the New Afrikan Nation
Afrikan centered Mythology, Religion / Spirituality and Neuromelanin in Education
Imhotep Virtual Medical School and It's Physician Tutors' Profile: In Pursuit of Academic Excellence
The Great Debate 4 (Is Hip Hop Good for Black folks) From the Pin of TRUTH Minister Paul Scott
The Spook Who Sat by the Door and A RBG Street Scholar Break Down
History of the The Black Power Movement, f. RBGz New
Who Is Dr. Mutulu Shakur?: A Lifelong Activist in the New Afrikan (Black) Independence Movement
Why Black History Month 24 / 7/ 365? To Combat Negroization:
Carter G. Woodson
Robert Hillary King spent nearly three decades in solitary confinement at the notorious Angola state prison in Louisiana. As a member of the Black Panther Party, he and two party members became nationally known as the Angola 3 political prisoners who spent decades in solitary confinement for, they contend, organizing prisoners to improve conditions.
After becoming a Black Panther in prison and organizing inmates, according to the book's dust jacket, "prison authorities beat him, starved him and gave him life without parole after framing him for a second crime. He was thrown into solitary confinement, where he remained in a 6-by-9-foot cell for 29 years as one of the Angola 3. In 2001, the state grudgingly acknowledged his innocence and set him free."
Born poor in Louisiana and abandoned by both parents, King was stealing and fighting on the street by the time he was 11 and serving time in reform school at 15. In and out of local and state prison, he ended up at Angola in 1971 for a robbery he claims he did not commit. There, he says, he was framed for the stabbing death of another inmate.
"Solitary confinement is terrifying, especially if you are innocent of the charges that put you there," King writes. "My soul still cries from all that I witnessed and endured. ... So let's call prisons exactly what they are: an extension of slavery."
King recently spoke to the Times Union by phone from his home in Austin.
Q: You write that while in solitary you were allowed out of your cell one hour per day to shower and, sometimes, to go outside into the yard. How did you maintain your sanity?
A: When people ask me that, I tell them, laughing: 'I didn't tell you I wasn't crazy.' It's kind of hard to get dipped in waste and not come up stinking.
But I go on to say that I was in prison; prison wasn't in me. I kind of insulated myself against prison. My political awareness shielded me. Becoming politically aware in the early '70s, I saw America as being one big prison. All they'd done was take me from minimum custody and put me in maximum security.
But there is some luxury to going insane. I can understand that. Very few things I'm afraid of, but I was scared to go crazy, because I was scared of what they would do to me. I saw them do horrible things to people who, quote, lose their mind or regress into insanity. They were given medications, hosed down with 40-pound, 50-pound pressure hoses. ... And it wasn't just the administration. Inmates took part in the victimization of their own fellow prisoners. You see a lot of things. I couldn't describe all the things.
Q: Who are the Angola 3?
A: Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox and myself became collectively known as the Angola 3 after spending decades in solitary confinement. Herman and Albert, both members of the Black Panther Party, were placed there for a crime they allegedly committed, participating in the death of a correction officer back in 1972. It's since come out that Herman and Albert were framed.
When our story got out in the public, I was subsequently released in 2001 when the courts overturned my conviction of participating in the death of an inmate. Herman and Albert are still in prison. (After 36 years in solitary, reportedly the longest of any inmates ever in the U.S., they were transferred last year to maximum security. When the correction officer was killed, Wallace and Woodfox were serving 50-year sentences, Wallace for bank robbery, Woodfox for armed robbery.) We have a strong legal case, but the state seems to be hanging on for dear life. Albert's case is in the federal courts, and Herman's is in the state Supreme Court. We have a civil suit as well.
Q: Are you consumed by anger and bitterness?
A: I don't know how anybody can go through what I went through and not be bitter, angry and a little crazy. But I can compartmentalize these things that took place in my life. I can dissect them and make an assessment of them.
Prison gave me a focus. The focus is to do my best to make sure that nobody else undergoes the type of thing that I underwent.
Q: What are you doing these days? How are you making a living?
A: When I got released from Angola, I got $10 from the state. That's all. I went on a few speaking engagements. I was putting out the word for the Angola 3. In some cases, people gave me a little money for doing it. I couldn't get a job, because when I got out, I was nearly 60 years old. And I had a record.
I got into making candy, something I learned in prison King's Freelines, my twist on "pralines". That's how I'm able to sustain myself. And I have the book. I have spoken at colleges. Sometimes I've received compensation for that. But it's never much. By no stretch of the imagination am I rich. But I'm not homeless.
Q: What's the message you'd like readers to take from your book?
A: In the final analysis, America may be heaven for some. But in heaven, there's some people catching hell. I just happened to be of that segment that caught hell. There's still people catching hell.
But I guess the main message is one of benevolence. I think we have much more in common than we have differences. I guess that's the final message.
-------------
Pt 1/15 Dr.Clarke vs. Mary Lefkowitz-The Black Athena Debate
THE MIS-EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO
The education of any people should begin with the people themselves....
The Honorable Robert F. Williams: "
A History of The Republic of New Afrika
42 LAWS OF MA'AT!
Afrikan- Centered Cultural Development and Education
FORMAL METHODS, FORMATIVE AND SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENTS
Front for the Liberation of the New Afrikan Nation
Afrikan centered Mythology, Religion / Spirituality and Neuromelanin in Education
Imhotep Virtual Medical School and It's Physician Tutors' Profile: In Pursuit of Academic Excellence
The Great Debate 4 (Is Hip Hop Good for Black folks) From the Pin of TRUTH Minister Paul Scott
The Spook Who Sat by the Door and A RBG Street Scholar Break Down
History of the The Black Power Movement, f. RBGz New
Who Is Dr. Mutulu Shakur?: A Lifelong Activist in the New Afrikan (Black) Independence Movement
Why Black History Month 24 / 7/ 365? To Combat Negroization:
Carter G. Woodson
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Health Reform is Crucial- write a letter while congress is in recess.
Spirit of Sankofa writes.........
Health care reform is one of the important issues on the table. Congress is on break, and "We The People" should use this opportunity to make our voices heard. It is far time for us as a whole not continue to rely on congress and lobbiest to speak for the people. Let us join by writing the editors of your local news papers, in order to let them know we need a resolution and we need it quick.
Let's do what we can..
---------------
Congress is at home for a two-week break. When they get back to DC, health care will be on top of the agenda.
Write a letter to the editor of your paper today.
As you read this, Congress is at home for two weeks of recess. And what your member of Congress hears from you is crucial to the direction of the health reform debate on Capitol Hill.
Make sure Representative Towns hears from you during the congressional recess.
Take a few minutes today to write a letter to the editor of your local paper. To help you get started, I've included a few tips and talking points.
In March, five Republican senators reached out to President Obama and pledged to work with him to pursue bipartisan reform. It's an encouraging sign that we can finally end the partisan fighting and pass meaningful health care reform this year.
But the mood in Washington can turn on a dime. It's crucial that Congress knows that health care reform is not just the Obama administration's priority -- it's the American people's priority.
While members of Congress are at home for the April recess, they need to see and hear "health reform" everywhere they go -- from the supermarket to their morning breakfast table. And if there's one thing we know your lawmaker has on the breakfast table, it's the local morning paper.
The truth is what Representative Towns hears from constituents is far more powerful than anything a talking head or interest group could ever say or do. In just the few minutes it takes to write a letter, you can be more influential than the most connected D.C. lobbyists.
Writing a letter to the editor is simple --
start your letter now -- and make sure Representative Towns hears from you during April recess.
Thank you for being a part of this crucial effort to bring access to affordable, quality care to all Americans. We couldn't do this without you.
Health care reform is one of the important issues on the table. Congress is on break, and "We The People" should use this opportunity to make our voices heard. It is far time for us as a whole not continue to rely on congress and lobbiest to speak for the people. Let us join by writing the editors of your local news papers, in order to let them know we need a resolution and we need it quick.
Let's do what we can..
---------------
Congress is at home for a two-week break. When they get back to DC, health care will be on top of the agenda.
Write a letter to the editor of your paper today.
As you read this, Congress is at home for two weeks of recess. And what your member of Congress hears from you is crucial to the direction of the health reform debate on Capitol Hill.
Make sure Representative Towns hears from you during the congressional recess.
Take a few minutes today to write a letter to the editor of your local paper. To help you get started, I've included a few tips and talking points.
In March, five Republican senators reached out to President Obama and pledged to work with him to pursue bipartisan reform. It's an encouraging sign that we can finally end the partisan fighting and pass meaningful health care reform this year.
But the mood in Washington can turn on a dime. It's crucial that Congress knows that health care reform is not just the Obama administration's priority -- it's the American people's priority.
While members of Congress are at home for the April recess, they need to see and hear "health reform" everywhere they go -- from the supermarket to their morning breakfast table. And if there's one thing we know your lawmaker has on the breakfast table, it's the local morning paper.
The truth is what Representative Towns hears from constituents is far more powerful than anything a talking head or interest group could ever say or do. In just the few minutes it takes to write a letter, you can be more influential than the most connected D.C. lobbyists.
Writing a letter to the editor is simple --
start your letter now -- and make sure Representative Towns hears from you during April recess.
Thank you for being a part of this crucial effort to bring access to affordable, quality care to all Americans. We couldn't do this without you.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Health Day: Networking May Aid Blacks Who Need KidneyTransplant
Sankofa writes.......
In the focus of "Health Day" Blacks need to be a little more aware of heath issue's. Also, information that can alleviate the stress of not knowing what they dealing with and where to find help.
I can remember watching the news one evening where this older man children went on one of the sites, posted there about needing a matching kidney. Do you know what? This man received it from someone that frequent the site. Truly amazing, after a number of years his family searched and decided to try the net.
This is a good venue to a much more knowledge where to receive one.
It would be a beautiful thing if we would try to focus more on the health issues that affect us personally.
em-Hotep*
-------------
Networking May Aid Blacks Who Need Kidney Transplant
Survey finds that active role by patients doubled their odds of success
(HealthDay News) -- Social and medical networking can improve the chances that blacks who have kidney failure will acquire a new kidney, a survey has found.
"Research overwhelmingly indicates that African-Americans are less likely to successfully get kidney transplants, even allowing for differences in socioeconomic and insurance status and patient preference," Teri Browne, of the University of South Carolina, said in a National Kidney Foundation news release.
The survey, by Browne and colleagues, found that more than 90 percent of the 228 blacks with kidney failure who were surveyed wanted a transplant and had insurance that would pay for the procedure. But those who gathered information from dialysis teams and social networks were nearly twice as likely to get an appointment at a transplant center, which improves the likelihood of their being placed on the transplant list.
Networking with others that have been through it already can give you more info and experience their exprience shed more light.
The study was to be presented at the Kidney Foundation's spring clinical meetings, in Nashville, Tenn.
"In regards to kidney transplant, an effective social network is made up of people who have had a kidney transplant themselves or know of someone who did," Browne said. "That way, they have information about how to get one. We know that getting a transplant is not an easy process and requires much follow-up on the patient's part and may be confusing."
Browne said that because rules from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stipulate that dialysis centers must have interdisciplinary teams in place for every patient, "social workers and other team members can incorporate relevant interventions to help patients remove barriers to getting a kidney transplant."
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about kidney transplant .
Related News
Diets That Promote Health
Keeping Your Brain Fit
Good Parents, Bad Results
America's Best Hospitals
Health News From HealthDay
Third of EMS Stethoscopes Carry MRSA Virus
How Much Should Women Drink? It Depends on Who You Ask
Baby's Sleep Position May Not Affect Severity of Head Flattening
Scientists Capture HIV Transfer Among T-Cells on Video
Microsurgery May Cut Swelling After Breast Cancer Treatment
More Headlines From HealthDay
Featured Video
Birth Control Methods
Learn about condoms, diaphragms, and other barrier methods of birth control.
Taking a Skin Self-Exam
A step-by-step demonstration of how to look for the warning signs of cancer.
What Is Diabetes?
Diabetes, if unchecked, can lead to very serious conditions such as kidney problems, blindness, and amputations.
Cancer Treatments
There is a wide range of treatments to help you fight your cancer.
Understanding Chemotherapy
Learn why chemotherapy often plays a large part in cancer treatment.
Healthy Eating
From grilling recipes to making the right choice at the grocery store
advertisement
Health Features from U.S. News
ADHD Drugs Don't Help Children Long Term
Fitness Buzz: Caffeine, Beef, and More
Health Buzz: Hot Tea and Throat Cancer, and Other Health News
Why Women Should Favor Circumcision: To Prevent HPV Infection
New iPhone App Could Monitor Glucose Levels Remotely
Health Buzz: American Medical Association Sues WellPoint and Other Health News
advertisement
Our panel of experts weighs in on your health concerns. Ask one of our experts a question here .
Read more Health Advice
In the focus of "Health Day" Blacks need to be a little more aware of heath issue's. Also, information that can alleviate the stress of not knowing what they dealing with and where to find help.
I can remember watching the news one evening where this older man children went on one of the sites, posted there about needing a matching kidney. Do you know what? This man received it from someone that frequent the site. Truly amazing, after a number of years his family searched and decided to try the net.
This is a good venue to a much more knowledge where to receive one.
It would be a beautiful thing if we would try to focus more on the health issues that affect us personally.
em-Hotep*
-------------
Networking May Aid Blacks Who Need Kidney Transplant
Survey finds that active role by patients doubled their odds of success
(HealthDay News) -- Social and medical networking can improve the chances that blacks who have kidney failure will acquire a new kidney, a survey has found.
"Research overwhelmingly indicates that African-Americans are less likely to successfully get kidney transplants, even allowing for differences in socioeconomic and insurance status and patient preference," Teri Browne, of the University of South Carolina, said in a National Kidney Foundation news release.
The survey, by Browne and colleagues, found that more than 90 percent of the 228 blacks with kidney failure who were surveyed wanted a transplant and had insurance that would pay for the procedure. But those who gathered information from dialysis teams and social networks were nearly twice as likely to get an appointment at a transplant center, which improves the likelihood of their being placed on the transplant list.
Networking with others that have been through it already can give you more info and experience their exprience shed more light.
The study was to be presented at the Kidney Foundation's spring clinical meetings, in Nashville, Tenn.
"In regards to kidney transplant, an effective social network is made up of people who have had a kidney transplant themselves or know of someone who did," Browne said. "That way, they have information about how to get one. We know that getting a transplant is not an easy process and requires much follow-up on the patient's part and may be confusing."
Browne said that because rules from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stipulate that dialysis centers must have interdisciplinary teams in place for every patient, "social workers and other team members can incorporate relevant interventions to help patients remove barriers to getting a kidney transplant."
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about kidney transplant .
Related News
Diets That Promote Health
Keeping Your Brain Fit
Good Parents, Bad Results
America's Best Hospitals
Health News From HealthDay
Third of EMS Stethoscopes Carry MRSA Virus
How Much Should Women Drink? It Depends on Who You Ask
Baby's Sleep Position May Not Affect Severity of Head Flattening
Scientists Capture HIV Transfer Among T-Cells on Video
Microsurgery May Cut Swelling After Breast Cancer Treatment
More Headlines From HealthDay
Featured Video
Birth Control Methods
Learn about condoms, diaphragms, and other barrier methods of birth control.
Taking a Skin Self-Exam
A step-by-step demonstration of how to look for the warning signs of cancer.
What Is Diabetes?
Diabetes, if unchecked, can lead to very serious conditions such as kidney problems, blindness, and amputations.
Cancer Treatments
There is a wide range of treatments to help you fight your cancer.
Understanding Chemotherapy
Learn why chemotherapy often plays a large part in cancer treatment.
Healthy Eating
From grilling recipes to making the right choice at the grocery store
advertisement
Health Features from U.S. News
ADHD Drugs Don't Help Children Long Term
Fitness Buzz: Caffeine, Beef, and More
Health Buzz: Hot Tea and Throat Cancer, and Other Health News
Why Women Should Favor Circumcision: To Prevent HPV Infection
New iPhone App Could Monitor Glucose Levels Remotely
Health Buzz: American Medical Association Sues WellPoint and Other Health News
advertisement
Our panel of experts weighs in on your health concerns. Ask one of our experts a question here .
Read more Health Advice
Health Day: Networking May Aid Blacks Who Need KidneyTransplant
Sankofa writes.......
In the focus of "Health Day" Blacks need to be a little more aware of heath issue's. Also, information that can alleviate the strss of not knowing what they dealing with and where to find help.
I can remember watching the news one evening where this older man children went on on of the sites posted there were in bneed of a matching kidney. Do you know what? This man received from someone that frequent the site. Truly amazing after a number of years his family searched and decided to try the net.
This is a good venue to a much more knowledge where to receive one.
It would be a beautiful thing if we would try to focus more on the health issues that affect us personally.
em-Hotep*
-------------
Networking May Aid Blacks Who Need Kidney Transplant
Survey finds that active role by patients doubled their odds of success
(HealthDay News) -- Social and medical networking can improve the chances that blacks who have kidney failure will acquire a new kidney, a survey has found.
"Research overwhelmingly indicates that African-Americans are less likely to successfully get kidney transplants, even allowing for differences in socioeconomic and insurance status and patient preference," Teri Browne, of the University of South Carolina, said in a National Kidney Foundation news release.
The survey, by Browne and colleagues, found that more than 90 percent of the 228 blacks with kidney failure who were surveyed wanted a transplant and had insurance that would pay for the procedure. But those who gathered information from dialysis teams and social networks were nearly twice as likely to get an appointment at a transplant center, which improves the likelihood of their being placed on the transplant list.
Networking with others that have been through it already can give you more info and experience their exprience shed more light.
The study was to be presented at the Kidney Foundation's spring clinical meetings, in Nashville, Tenn.
"In regards to kidney transplant, an effective social network is made up of people who have had a kidney transplant themselves or know of someone who did," Browne said. "That way, they have information about how to get one. We know that getting a transplant is not an easy process and requires much follow-up on the patient's part and may be confusing."
Browne said that because rules from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stipulate that dialysis centers must have interdisciplinary teams in place for every patient, "social workers and other team members can incorporate relevant interventions to help patients remove barriers to getting a kidney transplant."
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about kidney transplant .
Related News
Diets That Promote Health
Keeping Your Brain Fit
Good Parents, Bad Results
America's Best Hospitals
Health News From HealthDay
Third of EMS Stethoscopes Carry MRSA Virus
How Much Should Women Drink? It Depends on Who You Ask
Baby's Sleep Position May Not Affect Severity of Head Flattening
Scientists Capture HIV Transfer Among T-Cells on Video
Microsurgery May Cut Swelling After Breast Cancer Treatment
More Headlines From HealthDay
Featured Video
Birth Control Methods
Learn about condoms, diaphragms, and other barrier methods of birth control.
Taking a Skin Self-Exam
A step-by-step demonstration of how to look for the warning signs of cancer.
What Is Diabetes?
Diabetes, if unchecked, can lead to very serious conditions such as kidney problems, blindness, and amputations.
Cancer Treatments
There is a wide range of treatments to help you fight your cancer.
Understanding Chemotherapy
Learn why chemotherapy often plays a large part in cancer treatment.
Healthy Eating
From grilling recipes to making the right choice at the grocery store
advertisement
Health Features from U.S. News
ADHD Drugs Don't Help Children Long Term
Fitness Buzz: Caffeine, Beef, and More
Health Buzz: Hot Tea and Throat Cancer, and Other Health News
Why Women Should Favor Circumcision: To Prevent HPV Infection
New iPhone App Could Monitor Glucose Levels Remotely
Health Buzz: American Medical Association Sues WellPoint and Other Health News
advertisement
Our panel of experts weighs in on your health concerns. Ask one of our experts a question here .
Read more Health Advice
In the focus of "Health Day" Blacks need to be a little more aware of heath issue's. Also, information that can alleviate the strss of not knowing what they dealing with and where to find help.
I can remember watching the news one evening where this older man children went on on of the sites posted there were in bneed of a matching kidney. Do you know what? This man received from someone that frequent the site. Truly amazing after a number of years his family searched and decided to try the net.
This is a good venue to a much more knowledge where to receive one.
It would be a beautiful thing if we would try to focus more on the health issues that affect us personally.
em-Hotep*
-------------
Networking May Aid Blacks Who Need Kidney Transplant
Survey finds that active role by patients doubled their odds of success
(HealthDay News) -- Social and medical networking can improve the chances that blacks who have kidney failure will acquire a new kidney, a survey has found.
"Research overwhelmingly indicates that African-Americans are less likely to successfully get kidney transplants, even allowing for differences in socioeconomic and insurance status and patient preference," Teri Browne, of the University of South Carolina, said in a National Kidney Foundation news release.
The survey, by Browne and colleagues, found that more than 90 percent of the 228 blacks with kidney failure who were surveyed wanted a transplant and had insurance that would pay for the procedure. But those who gathered information from dialysis teams and social networks were nearly twice as likely to get an appointment at a transplant center, which improves the likelihood of their being placed on the transplant list.
Networking with others that have been through it already can give you more info and experience their exprience shed more light.
The study was to be presented at the Kidney Foundation's spring clinical meetings, in Nashville, Tenn.
"In regards to kidney transplant, an effective social network is made up of people who have had a kidney transplant themselves or know of someone who did," Browne said. "That way, they have information about how to get one. We know that getting a transplant is not an easy process and requires much follow-up on the patient's part and may be confusing."
Browne said that because rules from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stipulate that dialysis centers must have interdisciplinary teams in place for every patient, "social workers and other team members can incorporate relevant interventions to help patients remove barriers to getting a kidney transplant."
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about kidney transplant .
Related News
Diets That Promote Health
Keeping Your Brain Fit
Good Parents, Bad Results
America's Best Hospitals
Health News From HealthDay
Third of EMS Stethoscopes Carry MRSA Virus
How Much Should Women Drink? It Depends on Who You Ask
Baby's Sleep Position May Not Affect Severity of Head Flattening
Scientists Capture HIV Transfer Among T-Cells on Video
Microsurgery May Cut Swelling After Breast Cancer Treatment
More Headlines From HealthDay
Featured Video
Birth Control Methods
Learn about condoms, diaphragms, and other barrier methods of birth control.
Taking a Skin Self-Exam
A step-by-step demonstration of how to look for the warning signs of cancer.
What Is Diabetes?
Diabetes, if unchecked, can lead to very serious conditions such as kidney problems, blindness, and amputations.
Cancer Treatments
There is a wide range of treatments to help you fight your cancer.
Understanding Chemotherapy
Learn why chemotherapy often plays a large part in cancer treatment.
Healthy Eating
From grilling recipes to making the right choice at the grocery store
advertisement
Health Features from U.S. News
ADHD Drugs Don't Help Children Long Term
Fitness Buzz: Caffeine, Beef, and More
Health Buzz: Hot Tea and Throat Cancer, and Other Health News
Why Women Should Favor Circumcision: To Prevent HPV Infection
New iPhone App Could Monitor Glucose Levels Remotely
Health Buzz: American Medical Association Sues WellPoint and Other Health News
advertisement
Our panel of experts weighs in on your health concerns. Ask one of our experts a question here .
Read more Health Advice
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Pioneering Historian John Hope Franklin dies at 94
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — John Hope Franklin, a towering scholar and pioneer of African-American studies who wrote the seminal text on the black experience in the U.S. and worked on the landmark Supreme Court case that outlawed public school segregation, died Wednesday. He was 94.
David Jarmul, a spokesman at Duke University, where Franklin taught for a decade and was professor emeritus of history, said he died of congestive heart failure at the school's hospital in Durham.
Born and raised in an all-black community in Oklahoma where he was often subjected to humiliating racism, Franklin was later instrumental in bringing down the legal and historical validations of such a world.
As an author, his book "From Slavery to Freedom" was a landmark integration of black history into American history that remains relevant more than 60 years after being published. As a scholar, his research helped Thurgood Marshall and his team at the NAACP win Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case that barred the doctrine of "separate but equal" in the nation's public schools.
"It was evident how much the lawyers appreciated what the historians could offer," Franklin later wrote. "For me, and I suspect the same was true for the others, it was exhilarating."
Franklin himself broke numerous color barriers. He was the first black department chair at a predominantly white institution, Brooklyn College; the first black professor to hold an endowed chair at Duke; and the first black president of the American Historical Association.
He often regarded his country like an exasperated relative, frustrated by racism's stubborn power, yet refusing to give up. "I want to be out there on the firing line, helping, directing or doing something to try to make this a better world, a better place to live," Franklin told The Associated Press in 2005.
In November, after Barack Obama broke the ultimate racial barrier in American politics, Franklin called his ascension to the White House "one of the most historic moments, if not the most historic moment, in the history of this country."
"Because of the life John Hope Franklin lived, the public service he rendered, and the scholarship that was the mark of his distinguished career, we all have a richer understanding of who we are as Americans and our journey as a people," Obama said in a statement. "Dr. Franklin will be deeply missed, but his legacy is one that will surely endure."
Obama's achievement fit with Franklin's mission as a historian, to document how blacks lived and served alongside whites from the nation's birth. Black patriots fought at Lexington and Concord, Franklin pointed out in "From Slavery to Freedom," published in 1947. They crossed the Delaware with Washington and explored with Lewis and Clark.
The book sold more than 3.5 million copies and remains required reading in college classrooms. It was based on research Franklin conducted in libraries and archives that didn't allow him to eat lunch or use the bathroom because he was black.
"He was working in a profession that more or less banned him at the outset and ended up its leading practitioner," said Tim Tyson, a history professor at Duke. "And yet, he always managed to keep his grace and his sense of humor."
Late in life, Franklin received more than 130 honorary degrees and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Spingarn Award. In 1993, President Bill Clinton honored Franklin with the Charles Frankel Prize, recognizing scholarly contributions that give "eloquence and meaning ... to our ideas, hopes and dreams as American citizens."
Clinton awarded Franklin the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian prize, two years later, and gave him the role for which he was perhaps best known outside academia, as chairman of Clinton's Initiative on Race. It was a job of which Franklin said, "I am not sure this is an honor. It may be a burden."
As he aged, Franklin spent more time in the greenhouse behind his home, where he nursed orchids, than in libraries. He fell in love with the flowers because "they're full of challenges, mystery" — the same reasons he fell in love with history.
In June, Franklin had a small role in the movie based on the book "Blood Done Signed My Name," about the public slaying of black man in Oxford in 1970. Tyson, the book's author, said at the time he wanted Franklin in the movie "because of his dignity and his shining intelligence."
Franklin attended historically black Fisk University, where he met Aurelia Whittington, who would be his wife, editor, helpmate and rock for 58 years, until her death in 1999. He planned to follow his father into law, but the lively lectures of a white professor, Ted Currier, convinced him history was his field. Currier borrowed $500 to send Franklin to Harvard University for graduate studies.
Franklin's doctoral thesis was on free blacks in antebellum North Carolina. His wife spent part of their honeymoon in Washington, D.C., at the Census Bureau, helping him finish. The resulting work, "The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790-1860," earned Franklin his doctorate and, in 1943, became his first published book. Four years later, he took a job at Howard University. It was the same year "From Slavery to Freedom" was published.
Some of his greatest moments of triumph were marred by bigotry.
His joy at being offered the chair of the Brooklyn College history department in 1956 was tempered by his difficulty getting a loan to buy a house in a "white" neighborhood.
When he was to receive the freedom medal, Franklin hosted a party for some friends at Washington's Cosmos Club, of which he had long been a member. A white woman walked up to him, handed him a slip of paper and demanded that he get her coat. He politely told the woman that any of the uniformed attendants, "and they were all in uniform," would be happy to assist her.
Franklin was born Jan. 2, 1915, in the all-black town of Rentiesville, Okla., where his parents moved in the mistaken belief that separation from whites would mean a better life for their young family. But his father's law office was burned in the race riots in Tulsa, Okla., in 1921, along with the rest of the black section of town.
His mother, Mollie, a teacher, began taking him to school with her when he was 3. He could read and write by 5; by 6, he first became aware of the "racial divide separating me from white America."
Franklin, his mother and sister Anne were ejected from a train when his mother refused the conductor's orders to move to the overcrowded "Negro" coach. As they trudged through the woods back to Rentiesville, young John Hope began to cry.
His mother pulled him aside and told him, "There was not a white person on that train or anywhere else who was any better than I was. She admonished me not to waste my energy by fretting but to save it in order to prove that I was as good as any of them."
On the Net:
Duke University's John Hope Franklin Web site: http://www.duke.edu/johnhopefranklin
America loses its pre-eminent black historian Brisbane Times - 2 hours ago
Pioneer black historian gave meaning to past
Chicago Sun-Times - 5 hours ago
Historian John Hope Franklin, 94; chronicled South
Arizona Republic - 8 hours ago
The Historian Who Lived What He Taught
Washington Post - 10 hours ago
In this July 1997 file photo, Duke University historian and African-American scholar John Hope Franklin talks to the press following his speech to a joint session of the legislature in Raleigh, N.C. Franklin died Wednesday, March 25, 2009, at the age of 94. (AP Photo/Karen Tam)
R.I.P. Brother historian John Hope Franklin
David Jarmul, a spokesman at Duke University, where Franklin taught for a decade and was professor emeritus of history, said he died of congestive heart failure at the school's hospital in Durham.
Born and raised in an all-black community in Oklahoma where he was often subjected to humiliating racism, Franklin was later instrumental in bringing down the legal and historical validations of such a world.
As an author, his book "From Slavery to Freedom" was a landmark integration of black history into American history that remains relevant more than 60 years after being published. As a scholar, his research helped Thurgood Marshall and his team at the NAACP win Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case that barred the doctrine of "separate but equal" in the nation's public schools.
"It was evident how much the lawyers appreciated what the historians could offer," Franklin later wrote. "For me, and I suspect the same was true for the others, it was exhilarating."
Franklin himself broke numerous color barriers. He was the first black department chair at a predominantly white institution, Brooklyn College; the first black professor to hold an endowed chair at Duke; and the first black president of the American Historical Association.
He often regarded his country like an exasperated relative, frustrated by racism's stubborn power, yet refusing to give up. "I want to be out there on the firing line, helping, directing or doing something to try to make this a better world, a better place to live," Franklin told The Associated Press in 2005.
In November, after Barack Obama broke the ultimate racial barrier in American politics, Franklin called his ascension to the White House "one of the most historic moments, if not the most historic moment, in the history of this country."
"Because of the life John Hope Franklin lived, the public service he rendered, and the scholarship that was the mark of his distinguished career, we all have a richer understanding of who we are as Americans and our journey as a people," Obama said in a statement. "Dr. Franklin will be deeply missed, but his legacy is one that will surely endure."
Obama's achievement fit with Franklin's mission as a historian, to document how blacks lived and served alongside whites from the nation's birth. Black patriots fought at Lexington and Concord, Franklin pointed out in "From Slavery to Freedom," published in 1947. They crossed the Delaware with Washington and explored with Lewis and Clark.
The book sold more than 3.5 million copies and remains required reading in college classrooms. It was based on research Franklin conducted in libraries and archives that didn't allow him to eat lunch or use the bathroom because he was black.
"He was working in a profession that more or less banned him at the outset and ended up its leading practitioner," said Tim Tyson, a history professor at Duke. "And yet, he always managed to keep his grace and his sense of humor."
Late in life, Franklin received more than 130 honorary degrees and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Spingarn Award. In 1993, President Bill Clinton honored Franklin with the Charles Frankel Prize, recognizing scholarly contributions that give "eloquence and meaning ... to our ideas, hopes and dreams as American citizens."
Clinton awarded Franklin the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian prize, two years later, and gave him the role for which he was perhaps best known outside academia, as chairman of Clinton's Initiative on Race. It was a job of which Franklin said, "I am not sure this is an honor. It may be a burden."
As he aged, Franklin spent more time in the greenhouse behind his home, where he nursed orchids, than in libraries. He fell in love with the flowers because "they're full of challenges, mystery" — the same reasons he fell in love with history.
In June, Franklin had a small role in the movie based on the book "Blood Done Signed My Name," about the public slaying of black man in Oxford in 1970. Tyson, the book's author, said at the time he wanted Franklin in the movie "because of his dignity and his shining intelligence."
Franklin attended historically black Fisk University, where he met Aurelia Whittington, who would be his wife, editor, helpmate and rock for 58 years, until her death in 1999. He planned to follow his father into law, but the lively lectures of a white professor, Ted Currier, convinced him history was his field. Currier borrowed $500 to send Franklin to Harvard University for graduate studies.
Franklin's doctoral thesis was on free blacks in antebellum North Carolina. His wife spent part of their honeymoon in Washington, D.C., at the Census Bureau, helping him finish. The resulting work, "The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790-1860," earned Franklin his doctorate and, in 1943, became his first published book. Four years later, he took a job at Howard University. It was the same year "From Slavery to Freedom" was published.
Some of his greatest moments of triumph were marred by bigotry.
His joy at being offered the chair of the Brooklyn College history department in 1956 was tempered by his difficulty getting a loan to buy a house in a "white" neighborhood.
When he was to receive the freedom medal, Franklin hosted a party for some friends at Washington's Cosmos Club, of which he had long been a member. A white woman walked up to him, handed him a slip of paper and demanded that he get her coat. He politely told the woman that any of the uniformed attendants, "and they were all in uniform," would be happy to assist her.
Franklin was born Jan. 2, 1915, in the all-black town of Rentiesville, Okla., where his parents moved in the mistaken belief that separation from whites would mean a better life for their young family. But his father's law office was burned in the race riots in Tulsa, Okla., in 1921, along with the rest of the black section of town.
His mother, Mollie, a teacher, began taking him to school with her when he was 3. He could read and write by 5; by 6, he first became aware of the "racial divide separating me from white America."
Franklin, his mother and sister Anne were ejected from a train when his mother refused the conductor's orders to move to the overcrowded "Negro" coach. As they trudged through the woods back to Rentiesville, young John Hope began to cry.
His mother pulled him aside and told him, "There was not a white person on that train or anywhere else who was any better than I was. She admonished me not to waste my energy by fretting but to save it in order to prove that I was as good as any of them."
On the Net:
Duke University's John Hope Franklin Web site: http://www.duke.edu/johnhopefranklin
America loses its pre-eminent black historian Brisbane Times - 2 hours ago
Pioneer black historian gave meaning to past
Chicago Sun-Times - 5 hours ago
Historian John Hope Franklin, 94; chronicled South
Arizona Republic - 8 hours ago
The Historian Who Lived What He Taught
Washington Post - 10 hours ago
In this July 1997 file photo, Duke University historian and African-American scholar John Hope Franklin talks to the press following his speech to a joint session of the legislature in Raleigh, N.C. Franklin died Wednesday, March 25, 2009, at the age of 94. (AP Photo/Karen Tam)
R.I.P. Brother historian John Hope Franklin
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Obama lobbies at Capitol-Democrat's on budget
Spirit of Sankofa writes........
Obama is one Hard Working President! However, he doesn't get half the credit that he deserves! Obama has inherited thisTrillion dollar budget, and the republicans nick pick and critique everything. They want him to turn water into wine within a (100 days) in office. "Unbelievable" Guess what? It's their fault the country is in the state it's in right now.
He made it clear, that he realizes everyone will not agree with everything. However, if we could put away childish ways...and seek what's important to the fabric of this country, then we can begin to move forward in the right direction.
Cheers, to President elect Obama for handling the curved ball thrown to him last night. I applaud his response on the "race" question. He let that reporter and the world know, He has been much to busy to focus at this time on "race" when people are loosing their jobs etc... I stand with him now is now is not the time.
Keep your head up Mr. President your doing awesome for such a short time in office!
Remember, keep your. Head up, many are pulling for you.
May you and your family be blessed!
Spirit of Sankofa*
-------------
Obama goes to Capitol to lobby Democrats on budget
WASHINGTON (CNN)
President Obama huddled with Senate Democrats on Capitol Hill Wednesday as the White House fought to save major domestic priorities in its record $3.6 trillion budget from the congressional budget ax.
Key budget votes are expected in the Senate and House later this week.
Obama's visit to the Hill came shortly after Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota, trimmed the president's proposal in response to congressional projections showing larger-than-expected budget deficits over the next several years.
Obama has pledged to cut the deficit in half within five years.
"We had a very comfortable meeting with President Obama," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "He made us all feel content and inspired by where we need to go."
Reid said he is confident the full Senate will pass Conrad's version of the budget next week.
Conrad said he had preserved the president's major initiatives in education, energy and health-care reform in the wake of "new realities" on finances without sacrificing the administration's deficit reduction goals.
Multiple senators said the Democrats' meeting with Obama was cordial, and that the president said he understood that the budget process would require compromise on all sides.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu said the most pointed questions Obama got were about how he can undertake large initiatives in energy and health care reform during difficult economic times.
Obama repeated an argument he has made in recent weeks, saying that smarter investments in core priorities now will ultimately help control costs later. The president said initiatives such as health reform and economic reform are linked, according to Wyden.
"He reiterated what he said before," Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh told reporters. Namely, that "he never had [any] expectation that the budget would be rubber stamped ... and he fully expected members of the Senate to come forward with their ideas about how to improve the process."
Conrad and other centrist Democratic senators, whose support is critical to passing the legislation, had raised concerns about the long-term impact of the president's spending plan on the federal deficit.
In a letter to the Senate Budget Committee dated Tuesday, 12 of the 16 members of the centrist Senate Democratic coalition, which calls itself "the moderate Dems Working Group," expressed concerns about the direction of the president's $3.6 trillion budget.
The lawmakers noted the Congressional Budget Office's projection of a cumulative deficit over the next 10 years of $9.3 trillion, "roughly $2.3 trillion higher than the president's budget had assumed."
While acknowledging the economic and fiscal distress the Obama administration has inherited, the 12 moderates said the deficit projections "are not acceptable."
The senators who signed the letter were: Bayh, Landrieu, Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida and Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska. Sen. Joe Lieberman, formerly a Democrat and now an independent from Connecticut, also signed the letter.
Publicly, the administration has tried to minimize differences between Obama's budget proposal and changes sought by congressional Democrats.
The "House and Senate budget committees are taking up resolutions that are fully in line with the president's key priorities for the budget," White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag said in a conference call Wednesday morning.
"There have been some changes made ... but they are 98 percent the same as the budget the president sent up in February."
Obama, in a news conference on Tuesday, defended his budget, saying the plan he proposed is "inseparable" from the overall strategy for economic recovery.
Obama brushed off those skeptical of the scope of his investments, saying, "We haven't seen an alternative budget out of them."
Republicans, who blasted the Obama budget proposal because it "spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much," according to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, have also criticized Conrad's proposal because some of the items Conrad stripped from the spending blueprint might have to be funded anyway.
For example, Conrad's budget strikes Obama's proposal to set aside $250 billion in case more money is needed for the financial sector rescue, an aide said.
Conrad's budget also curtails Obama's fix of the costly alternative minimum tax and doesn't account for increased payments for doctors who care for Medicare recipients, said Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the top Republican on the Budget Committee.
"You can get these presidential numbers down by using a lot of gimmicks that the president didn't use. That would be a mistake. Let's be honest with the Americans," Gregg said Tuesday.
"It's certainly not a gimmick," Conrad responded Tuesday. "We faced up to changes."
Obama is one Hard Working President! However, he doesn't get half the credit that he deserves! Obama has inherited thisTrillion dollar budget, and the republicans nick pick and critique everything. They want him to turn water into wine within a (100 days) in office. "Unbelievable" Guess what? It's their fault the country is in the state it's in right now.
He made it clear, that he realizes everyone will not agree with everything. However, if we could put away childish ways...and seek what's important to the fabric of this country, then we can begin to move forward in the right direction.
Cheers, to President elect Obama for handling the curved ball thrown to him last night. I applaud his response on the "race" question. He let that reporter and the world know, He has been much to busy to focus at this time on "race" when people are loosing their jobs etc... I stand with him now is now is not the time.
Keep your head up Mr. President your doing awesome for such a short time in office!
Remember, keep your. Head up, many are pulling for you.
May you and your family be blessed!
Spirit of Sankofa*
-------------
Obama goes to Capitol to lobby Democrats on budget
WASHINGTON (CNN)
President Obama huddled with Senate Democrats on Capitol Hill Wednesday as the White House fought to save major domestic priorities in its record $3.6 trillion budget from the congressional budget ax.
Key budget votes are expected in the Senate and House later this week.
Obama's visit to the Hill came shortly after Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota, trimmed the president's proposal in response to congressional projections showing larger-than-expected budget deficits over the next several years.
Obama has pledged to cut the deficit in half within five years.
"We had a very comfortable meeting with President Obama," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "He made us all feel content and inspired by where we need to go."
Reid said he is confident the full Senate will pass Conrad's version of the budget next week.
Conrad said he had preserved the president's major initiatives in education, energy and health-care reform in the wake of "new realities" on finances without sacrificing the administration's deficit reduction goals.
Multiple senators said the Democrats' meeting with Obama was cordial, and that the president said he understood that the budget process would require compromise on all sides.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu said the most pointed questions Obama got were about how he can undertake large initiatives in energy and health care reform during difficult economic times.
Obama repeated an argument he has made in recent weeks, saying that smarter investments in core priorities now will ultimately help control costs later. The president said initiatives such as health reform and economic reform are linked, according to Wyden.
"He reiterated what he said before," Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh told reporters. Namely, that "he never had [any] expectation that the budget would be rubber stamped ... and he fully expected members of the Senate to come forward with their ideas about how to improve the process."
Conrad and other centrist Democratic senators, whose support is critical to passing the legislation, had raised concerns about the long-term impact of the president's spending plan on the federal deficit.
In a letter to the Senate Budget Committee dated Tuesday, 12 of the 16 members of the centrist Senate Democratic coalition, which calls itself "the moderate Dems Working Group," expressed concerns about the direction of the president's $3.6 trillion budget.
The lawmakers noted the Congressional Budget Office's projection of a cumulative deficit over the next 10 years of $9.3 trillion, "roughly $2.3 trillion higher than the president's budget had assumed."
While acknowledging the economic and fiscal distress the Obama administration has inherited, the 12 moderates said the deficit projections "are not acceptable."
The senators who signed the letter were: Bayh, Landrieu, Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida and Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska. Sen. Joe Lieberman, formerly a Democrat and now an independent from Connecticut, also signed the letter.
Publicly, the administration has tried to minimize differences between Obama's budget proposal and changes sought by congressional Democrats.
The "House and Senate budget committees are taking up resolutions that are fully in line with the president's key priorities for the budget," White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag said in a conference call Wednesday morning.
"There have been some changes made ... but they are 98 percent the same as the budget the president sent up in February."
Obama, in a news conference on Tuesday, defended his budget, saying the plan he proposed is "inseparable" from the overall strategy for economic recovery.
Obama brushed off those skeptical of the scope of his investments, saying, "We haven't seen an alternative budget out of them."
Republicans, who blasted the Obama budget proposal because it "spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much," according to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, have also criticized Conrad's proposal because some of the items Conrad stripped from the spending blueprint might have to be funded anyway.
For example, Conrad's budget strikes Obama's proposal to set aside $250 billion in case more money is needed for the financial sector rescue, an aide said.
Conrad's budget also curtails Obama's fix of the costly alternative minimum tax and doesn't account for increased payments for doctors who care for Medicare recipients, said Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the top Republican on the Budget Committee.
"You can get these presidential numbers down by using a lot of gimmicks that the president didn't use. That would be a mistake. Let's be honest with the Americans," Gregg said Tuesday.
"It's certainly not a gimmick," Conrad responded Tuesday. "We faced up to changes."
Questions pour in for Obama's online town meeting.
(CNN)
During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt reassured anxious Americans through his famous fireside chats over the radio.
Now, in the 21st century, President Obama has found his own fireside equivalent, launching an online town hall meeting Thursday where he will answer citizens' questions about the troubled economy and his efforts to fix it.
"We're going to try something a little different. We are going to take advantage of the Internet to bring all of you to the White House to talk about the economy," he says in an introductory video on the site.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, more than 30,000 people had submitted more than 32,000 questions on the official administration Web site, WhiteHouse.gov.
Americans may submit questions, and vote on others' queries, until 9:30 a.m. ET Thursday. Obama has promised to answer the most popular questions through a live video stream on WhiteHouse.gov. beginning Thursday at 11:30 a.m. ET.
The site had recorded more than 1 million votes as of late Wednesday afternoon.
The White House's Web site asks people to agree to post "only questions related to the economy (including topics essential to long-term economic growth, such as education, fiscal responsibility, green jobs and energy, health care reform, and home ownership)."
A quick review of questions revealed deep concerns among Americans trying to make ends meet.
"What is the government doing to make higher education more affordable for lower and middle class families?" asked James of Bloomington, Indiana, who described himself as a full-time student who also works full time, "only to break even at the end of the month."
Page 1 of 3
Next >>
Read Full Article
During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt reassured anxious Americans through his famous fireside chats over the radio.
Now, in the 21st century, President Obama has found his own fireside equivalent, launching an online town hall meeting Thursday where he will answer citizens' questions about the troubled economy and his efforts to fix it.
"We're going to try something a little different. We are going to take advantage of the Internet to bring all of you to the White House to talk about the economy," he says in an introductory video on the site.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, more than 30,000 people had submitted more than 32,000 questions on the official administration Web site, WhiteHouse.gov.
Americans may submit questions, and vote on others' queries, until 9:30 a.m. ET Thursday. Obama has promised to answer the most popular questions through a live video stream on WhiteHouse.gov. beginning Thursday at 11:30 a.m. ET.
The site had recorded more than 1 million votes as of late Wednesday afternoon.
The White House's Web site asks people to agree to post "only questions related to the economy (including topics essential to long-term economic growth, such as education, fiscal responsibility, green jobs and energy, health care reform, and home ownership)."
A quick review of questions revealed deep concerns among Americans trying to make ends meet.
"What is the government doing to make higher education more affordable for lower and middle class families?" asked James of Bloomington, Indiana, who described himself as a full-time student who also works full time, "only to break even at the end of the month."
Page 1 of 3
Next >>
Read Full Article
Monday, March 16, 2009
The 'three-fifth clause' in the Constitution
1783-1799: The Miracle of Democracy
1783-1865: UNITED STATES. The U.S. Constitution is approved. Amongst other things, this fabulous instrument of freedom carries a provision preventing Congress from banning the importation of slaves. But, most significantly, the authors of the Constitution were very careful to ensure that it validated slavery by means of a so-called "positive" law embedded in Article 4, Section 2: "No person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up; on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due." In plain English, there was no escape for slaves in the land of the free and the U.S. Constitution made damned sure of it.
In a magical inversion of reality, U.S. histories repeatedly refer to assemblies, governors and presidents as being elected by “popular” vote. In truth, however, in the United States, popular votes are strictly verboten. Blacks in the new “democracy” are items of property who cannot vote or hold office. Indentured whites, are simply slaves of another name and another color and who can not vote or hold office. Indians, upon whose stolen land the new nation stands, and who were described in the racist Declaration of Independence as “merciless Indian savages”, cannot vote or hold office. In most states in this brave new homeland of “religious freedom”, Catholics and Jews cannot vote or hold office. Women, regardless of race, creed, color or religion, are chattels who cannot vote or hold office. White men, even those most sacred of all God's creatures; white, Protestant, non-indentured men, cannot vote or hold office unless they meet a further qualification for membership in the ruling class; they must be very, very rich.
Although it varied from state to state, the property qualification which opened the doors to participation in the new demockracy was as much as $4000, an astronomical sum in the eighteenth century, equal to millions of dollars today.
The right to vote and hold office and all political and economic power in the new demockracy was, of course, held by a tiny handful of what would later come to be known as fascists, a small fraction of one percent of the population, the ultra-wealthy, white, male, Protestant, slave-owning, land speculating, terrorist, thoroughly unscrupulous elite; a self-appointed aristocracy of hypocrisy which looked down in open contempt upon most of their fellow human beings including ordinary Americans of all races.
Depend upon it, sir, it is dangerous to open so fruitful a source of controversy and altercation, as would be opened by attempting to alter the qualifications of voters. There will be no end of it. New claims will arise. Women will demand a vote. Lads from twelve to twenty one will think their rights not enough attended to, and every man, who has not a farthing, will demand an equal voice with any other in all acts of state. It tends to confound and destroy all distinctions, and prostrate all ranks, to one common level. John Adams.
Imagine that, equality in the land of the free! Can't be havin' none of that.
Those who refused to swear allegiance to the newly installed dictatorship of the ultra-wealthy were denied virtually all civil liberties, were jailed, murdered or forced into exile and their property stolen.
The “three-fifths” clause of the Constitution counted each slave owned as three-fifths of a person for the sake of apportionment of electoral districts although the slaves themselves were not, of course, allowed to vote. The effect was to give slave-owners a hugely disproportionate share of political power amongst the tiny minority of Americans who had any at all. The slave-owners had about a third more seats in Congress and a third more electoral votes than they would otherwise have had.
The desire to keep control of the country in the hands of the slave-owners also stood behind the creation of the Electoral College. Votes in the Electoral College, which “elects” the president, neatly sidestepping direct election, were apportioned using the same three-fifths rule. Thanks to the three-fifths clause, slave-owners dominated the government of the United States until 1865. For most of the period, slave-owners occupied the presidency, the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Speaker’s chair. During the same period, eighteen of thirty one justices of the Supreme Court, that great protector of human rights and dignity, were slave-owners.
The much propagandized first president, George Washington, was an elitist snob who considered ordinary Americans no better than cattle. He called the white citizens of the new country over which he lorded “the grazing multitude”. Washington was a slave owner and a land speculator.
The great freedom lover owned about two hundred and fifty slaves, dressed them in rags, auctioned off their children for yet more cash, of which he could never, apparently, acquire enough, and had them viciously whipped for “disobedience”. Among Washington’s many business "enterprises" was the construction of a canal through the Great Dismal Swamp in the Carolinas. The canal was hand-dug by slaves through steaming, mosquito-infested swamp. The slaves were worked to death in appalling conditions so that Washington, already the wealthiest man in the United States, could grow even richer.
Aside from his desire to maintain slavery, Washington, as a leading land speculator, was particularly anxious to gain control of the government because the British had signed a treaty with the Cherokee Nation and other Indian nations which prevented him stealing their ancestral land for profit. As President, Washington, in his fervor to steal the maximum possible amount of Indian land, was also a mass murderer of considerable accomplishment; the country's leading early practitioner of the ethnic cleansing of native Americans. According to Washington, native Americans were "wolves and beasts" who deserved nothing from the whites but "total ruin."
The second president, John Adams, had no higher opinion of ordinary white Americans than Washington. They were, he said, the “common herd” and had “no idea of learning, eloquence and genius” and were “locked within vulgar, rustic imaginations”.
1780: UNITED STATES. Captain Daniel Shays, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, fought at Saratoga, Bunker Hill and Lexington and was wounded in action. A poor farmer, he, like thousands of others, was not paid by the ruling class which had forced colonists by threat and violence into the Revolutionary armies. He returned to his hometown of Pelham, Massachusetts, where he, like many others, was promptly imprisoned for unpaid taxes by the new regime.
Although he had had to fight for “democracy” and was assessed taxes he could not afford to pay, Shays was not permitted to vote or hold office in new demockracy. To Shays and the vast majority of people in the new United States, the slave-owners’ propaganda slogan, “no taxation without representation” was simply a sick joke of the wealthy hypocrites who now completely controlled the country.
Revolutionary “hero” Sam Adams, staunch hypocrite and liar, safely installed as one of the ruling class sitting in the Massachusetts State Council, achieved new but unsurprising heights of hypocrisy when he proposed to hang Shays and anyone else resorting to civil disobedience in an attempt to bring genuine democracy and liberty or even something as simple as "no taxation without representation" to the United States.
The Massachusetts Riot Act of 1786 ordered the killing of any rebellious farmer and instituted a property seizure law. Rebellious farmers were to "forfeit all their lands, goods and chattels to the Commonwealth." Massachussetts also suspended habeas corpus meaning that citizens could be imprisoned indefinitely by the ruling junta without charge or trial. Freedom of speech in Massachussetts was banned if it was "to the prejudice of the government." The chief sponsor of all this fascist oppression? None other than the great freedom fighter Sam Adams. Vermont went down the same road, enacting The Riot Act which authorized county sheriffs to shoot rebellious farmers on sight
Petitions were made to the regime for an honest monetary system, lower taxes and a fair judicial system. The petitions were ignored and, in desperation, groups of farmers occupied the courthouses in Northampton, Worcester, Concord, Taunton and Great Barrington, Massachusetts in an attempt to stop the ongoing jailing of those who could not afford to pay the taxes assessed by the regime.
The Supreme Judicial Court, sitting in Springfield, indicted eleven leaders of the uprising for “sedition”. Upon his release from jail, Shays lead a ragtag army of fifteen hundred ex-soldiers, wearing the uniform of the Revolutionary army which had betrayed them, to occupy the Courthouse. Later, Shays lead two thousand farmers in an assault on the Federal Arsenal in Springfield.
Shays’ Rebellion, the real American revolution for liberty and equality (for white people at least), for no taxation without representation and for some semblance of democracy, was ruthlessly crushed by overwhelming military force, leaving the United States firmly in the hands of the slave-owning ruling class. Shays and thirteen others were condemned to death for “treason” against the elitist dictatorship. Ultimately, twelve of the fourteen were pardoned by the newly-installed governor of Massachusetts. Two were executed. Shays, one of the few true heroes of the era, died in poverty.
1782: UNITED STATES. A raiding party of one hundred and fifty Pennsylvania militiamen under Lieutenant Colonel David Williamson rounds up a group of Munsee Indians near Gnadenhutten, Ohio. Even though the Indians are unarmed non-combatants who have converted to Christianity, they are falsely accused of taking part in raids into Pennsylvania. In true democratic fashion, the militiamen vote to slaughter the Indians anyway and inform the Munsee of their fate.
The Munsees spend the night praying and singing hymns. The following morning, they are slaughtered as they kneel, praying, their skulls crushed with mallets. Twenty eight men, twenty nine women and thirty nine children are murdered and then scalped by the forces of freedom. The corpses are then heaped into nearby Christian mission buildings and the entire town burned to the ground. Other towns nearby are burned as well. Two Munsee boys, one of whom had been scalped, survived to tell of the massacre. Slave-owner and land speculator General George Washington's reaction to the massacre was not to punish the murderers but to order that no American soldier allow himself to be taken alive by Indians for fear of retribution for the massacre.
1783-present: UNITED STATES. The new regime immediately allows the land speculators who had been instrumental in the planning and execution of the Revolution to seize Indian land, abrogating treaties and carrying out a relentless program of genocide and ethnic cleansing against native Americans which will last for more than a century. Millions of American Indians are killed outright or die as a result of deliberately-induced disease and starvation. Virtually all Indian land, consisting of the vast majority of the land west of the Mississippi River, is stolen. Of course, this will all be presented to Americans of later generations as valiant pioneers taming the wilderness.
A British visitor to America, 1784
1789-1797: UNITED STATES. Slave-owner, land speculator, ethnic cleanser and mass murder cover-up-artist George Washington becomes the first President of the United States, an office to which he was “elected”, unanimously, by his fellow land speculators and slave-owners in the Electoral College, dispensing with even the merest pretence of democracy.
A great proponent of liberty, Washington takes eight of his slaves to the executive mansion in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania had outlawed slavery but Washington, a straight shootin' guy as we all know, got around the law by declaring that he was a Virginia resident only temporarily staying in what was then the capitol.
Once he gets his slaves settled in, Washington gets down to work, spending eighty percent of the budget of the new nation on ethnic cleansing; exterminating native Americans and stealing their land, something very dear to his own heart and bank account.
1791-1794: UNITED STATES. The new U.S. government, with an unelected president and voting for other offices restricted to wealthy, white, Protestant males, continues to explore the limits of hypocrisy by broadening its policy of taxation without representation. The federal government imposes a new tax on distilled spirits. Naturally, the rate is fifty percent higher on small farms than on large commercial producers. Because they often lacked any way of getting their grain to market, distilling liquor, thereby making a compact, easily transported commodity, was, for many small farmers, the only way of making any money at all from their crop.
Bitterly opposing such taxation without representation, farmers harass tax collectors and stage sometimes violent protests in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia in the so-called Whiskey Rebellion. As in the case of Shay's Rebellion, the fine new "democratic" government of the United States uses overwhelming violence to suppress dissent by American citizens and to enforce the policy of taxation without representation. Slave-owner and ethnic cleanser cum unelected President George Washington invokes martial law and assembles a force of 13,000 troops, about the same size as the entire American army in the Revolutionary War. He personally leads the troops against the citizens of the United States in order to enforce obedience to his regime's dictates and its policy of taxation without representation.
Ultimately, twenty residents of the new demockracy are arrested and imprisoned. One dies in captivity. Two are convicted of treason and sentenced to death by hanging.
1793: UNITED STATES. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act which mandates the return of escaped slaves to their "owners" from anywhere in the U.S. Blacks fleeing slavery no longer just have to get to a state which has abandoned slavery but have to escape completely from the "land of the free” to British territory in Canada or elsewhere in order to find freedom.
1798: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. U.S. Marines invade the Dominican Republic and seize a French vessel in the city of Puerto Plata.
1798: UNITED STATES. Just seven years after the ratification of the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment to the Constitution goes right down the toilet when the Sedition Act of 1798 makes it a crime to, gasp, criticize the government. Can't be havin' none of that in the world's greatest demockracy, can we now bubba?
There were numerous indictments, prosecutions and convictions under the act, the best known of which was the prison sentence given to Congressman Matthew Lyon of Vermont. Taking the first Amendment a bit too literally for the tastes of the ruling class, Lyon had a few harsh words for President John Adams saying that Adams is "swallowed up in a coNewer Post
1620: Lie Number One, The Pilgrims
1763-1783: Lie Number Two, The American Revolution
1783-1799: Lie Number Three, The Miracle of Democracy
1800-1849: Thirty Five Invasions And A Genocide
1850-1859: Invasions, Racism, Slavery and Ethnic Cleansing
1860-1864: The Civil War, But First, Let's Kill Some Indians And Get Rid of the Jews
1865-1869: The Final Solution To The Indian Problem And The Invasions Keep On Coming
1870-1884: More Invasions, More Racism, More Ethnic Cleansing. Happy 100th Birthday America.
1885-1894: The U.S. Steals Hawaii, Four Thousand Lynchings, Shooting Workers in the Streets and Planning For a Splendid Little War
1895-1899: The Spanish-American War, A Sordid Little War
1900-1904: The Philippines, A Full Dress Rehearsal For Iraq
1905-1909: Treacherous Muslims and Ze Quest For Ze Master Race
1910-1912: Invasions, Apartheid, Lynchings, Censorship And The Quest For The Master Race But No Conspiracies
1913-1914: Destroying Democracy in Mexico and the Federal Reserve Scam
1915-1916: Dangerous Singers, Lynching Jews and Blacks Speaking French!
1917-1918: Now The Great War's A Good Thing, Fascism In America, SettingThe Stage For Old Adolf Plus The Miracle Of Free Speech
1919-1920: A Summer Of Blood, Lynching Will Brown And J. Edna Hoover Takes The Stage
1921-1922: Setting Up The Hitler Project, Giving Away The Nation's Oil, Mass Murdering Black Americans And Poisoning All Americans
1923-1924: Destroying Rosewood, Racial Purity In Virginia And Prescott Bush And The Boys Get Old Adolf Started
1925-1926: Legislated Ignorance, Dupont's Supermen, Hoover In Drag And Murdering Nicaraguans
1927-1928: Sterilizing Americans, Slaughtering Miners, Making Your Boyfriend FBI Assistant Director, Invading China And Dive Bombing Nicaraguans
1929-1930: The Crash of '29--A Federal Reserve Production, Racist Pseudoscience, Murdering Workers (Again) And The Dulles Brothers Help Old Adolf
1931-1932: Admiring Mussolini, The Depression Ain't So Bad For Some, Murdering U.S. Veterans And Killing Puerto Ricans And Black People For Science
1933-1934: The Dust Bowl, Gangsters In Pinstripe Suits, Pimping For Hitler, The Merchants of Death And An All-American Coup
1935-1936: Arming The Nazis, Gangsters For Capitalism, Hanging Out With Hitler, Blackmailing Hoover And Truth, Justice Or The American Way
1937-1938: Lebensborn U.S.A., Murdering Workers (Again), Murdering Puerto Ricans (Again), Arming Adolf (Again) And Outlawing The Killer Weed
1939-1940: War's Just Good Business, Shortselling Czech Stock, Torturing Veterans' Kids, Crushing Dissent And The Hitler Project Boys Hedge Their Bets
1941-1942: Lobotomizing Rosemary, Shock And Awe, Playing Both Sides Of The War And Concentration Camps In The Land Of The Free
1943-1944: GM Builds Jet Engines For The Nazis, Apartheid In The Workplace, Beating Up Hispanics And The Hitler Project, Plan B
1945: At Nuremberg, Kissinger Joins The Boys, Experiment In Hiroshima, Installing Fascists And It's Not A War Crime When We Do It
You'll be amazed how often the same family names keep popping up. Or maybe not.
This is what is called, in the history biz, a revisionist history. American history, at least as far as the general public knows it, is in desperate need of revision, bringing what is taught and what is said about America's past more in line with the truth.
Making the World Safe For Hypocrisy is a chronology of the largely suppressed history of the United States. It is the history that good upstanding Americans are not supposed to know.
Almost everything you read here is based on publicly available information and most historians know all about it. And yet they remain strangely silent, allowing the fantasyland, propagandized version of American history and the fatuous pseudo-patriotic nonsense spewed by politicians and the mass media to stand unchallenged.
A nation
which does not know
what it was yesterday,
does not know
what it is today.
Woodrow Wilson
He who controls the present,
controls the past.
He who controls the past,
controls the future.
George Orwell
The essence of propaganda
consists of winning people
over to an idea
so sincerely, so vitally,
that in the end
they succumb to it utterly
and can never escape from it.
Joseph Goebbels
America has been something
of a divided personality,
tragically divided
against herself.
On the one hand
we have proudly professed
the great principles
of democracy,
but on the other hand
we have sadly practiced
the very opposite
of these principles.
Martin Luther King
None are more
hopelessly enslaved
than those
who falsely believe
that they are free.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
ANTI-AMERICAN?
Whenever anyone dares to point out the painfully obvious fact that the U.S. and its leaders have for two hundred years consistently acted in a fashion diametrically opposed to the values which America claims to represent, that person is instantly accused of being anti-American.
Do you consider yourself anti-american?
If believing in free speech and real democracy is anti-American, If believing that a government should not lie endlessly is anti-American, then I guess I am. If believing that a government should not spy on its own citizens is anti-American, then I guess I am. If believing that a government should not kidnap, torture and murder is anti-American, then I guess I am. If believing that a government shouldn't slaughter millions of innocent people simply to further enrich the same old handful of psychopathic bastards and their offspring is anti-American, then I guess I am.
RESOURCES ON THE WEB
911 Truth: A very good place to begin thinking about the Bush regime's unlikely conspiracy theory of 9-11.
AdBusters: A spunky Canadian anti-consumerist magazine with a lot of interesting news and comment you won't find in the mainstream media.
Alex Jones' Prison Planet: Lots of coverage of events past and present.
Amnesty International.
Common Dreams: The news CNN and Fox don't want you to know.
Conspiracy Planet: Amazing how often the simple truth is labelled a "conspiracy theory".
CorpWatch: The dark underside of corporate America.
Exulanten: An exhaustively researched look at how anti-German hatred was manufactured by the CPI during World War One.
Global Research: Excellent and detailed background and commentary on the American Empire.
Indy Media: An excellent resource of the news the mainstream media studiously avoid.
John Pilger is an intrepid Australian journalist. Read his stuff.
KryssTal, The Acts of the Democracies: An appalling record of genocide and war crimes carried out by the "democracies".
Mostly Water: A slightly differenent compendium of news and comment.
National Security Archive at George Washington University: A repository of declassified U.S. government documents. Imagine what they are still hiding from us.
Project Censored: Decades of documented censorship and suppression of truth in the American corporate mass media.
Robert Fisk: One of the most intrepid journalists in the world. What you're not supposed to know about Israel, Iraq and much more.
The Memory Hole: A treasure trove of official documents.
Third World Traveler: A huge resource on what the U.S. really does in the developing world.
Without Sanctuary: A heartbreaking collection of photogaphs of lynchings. Real U.S. history.
World Socialist Website: Never mind socialism, more truth than you'll ever find in the corporate mass media.
NEEDLES OF TRUTH IN THE HAYSTACK OF LIES
1984, George Orwell: Old George was bang on with the techniques used by the rulers. "America" couldn't exist without doublethink.
A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn: More history you're not supposed to know.
American Holocaust, David Stannard: The genocide of the American Indians.
Body of Secrets, James Bamford: The National Security Agency spies on all Americans all the time.
Deadly Deceits, Ralph McGehee: A insider's look at one of the world's leading terrorist organizations, the CIA.
Freeing The World To Death, William Blum: Essays on the American Empire.
Full Spectrum Dominance, Rahul Mahajan: The U.S. in Iraq and beyond.
Hidden Agenda, Ramsey Clark et al: The destuction of Yugoslavia by the U.S. and NATO.
House of Bush, House of Saud, Craig Unger: The Bushes have had their snouts up the Saudi pursehole for half a century.
IBM and the Holocaust, Edwin Black: the Nazis and America's most powerful corporations in cahoots.
Imperial Brain Trust, Laurence Shoup and William Minter: The Rockefellers' Council on Foreign Relations.
Killing Hope, William Blum: A saddening record of America's use of overwhelming violence to crush democracy and hope around the world.
Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen: American children are taught the lies from day one.
Propaganda, Edward Bernays: The textbook of manipulation of the public by Woodrow Wilson's propaganda maven.
Rogue State, William Blum: All other rogue states pale into insignificance when compared with the U.S.
Terrorizing the Neighbourhood, Noam Chomsky: What America really does to its neighbors.
The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, Anthony Summers: America's leading law enforcment officer was a lifelong crook. Quelle surprise.
The Splendid Blond Beast, Christopher Simpson: Nazi war criminals rescued by the U.S. and hired by the U.S. government and military.
Warriors of Disinformation, Alvin Snyder. On disinformation by someone who should know, the former director of the U.S. Information Agency.
Western State Terrorism, Alexander George Editor: The title says it all.
1783-1865: UNITED STATES. The U.S. Constitution is approved. Amongst other things, this fabulous instrument of freedom carries a provision preventing Congress from banning the importation of slaves. But, most significantly, the authors of the Constitution were very careful to ensure that it validated slavery by means of a so-called "positive" law embedded in Article 4, Section 2: "No person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up; on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due." In plain English, there was no escape for slaves in the land of the free and the U.S. Constitution made damned sure of it.
In a magical inversion of reality, U.S. histories repeatedly refer to assemblies, governors and presidents as being elected by “popular” vote. In truth, however, in the United States, popular votes are strictly verboten. Blacks in the new “democracy” are items of property who cannot vote or hold office. Indentured whites, are simply slaves of another name and another color and who can not vote or hold office. Indians, upon whose stolen land the new nation stands, and who were described in the racist Declaration of Independence as “merciless Indian savages”, cannot vote or hold office. In most states in this brave new homeland of “religious freedom”, Catholics and Jews cannot vote or hold office. Women, regardless of race, creed, color or religion, are chattels who cannot vote or hold office. White men, even those most sacred of all God's creatures; white, Protestant, non-indentured men, cannot vote or hold office unless they meet a further qualification for membership in the ruling class; they must be very, very rich.
Although it varied from state to state, the property qualification which opened the doors to participation in the new demockracy was as much as $4000, an astronomical sum in the eighteenth century, equal to millions of dollars today.
The right to vote and hold office and all political and economic power in the new demockracy was, of course, held by a tiny handful of what would later come to be known as fascists, a small fraction of one percent of the population, the ultra-wealthy, white, male, Protestant, slave-owning, land speculating, terrorist, thoroughly unscrupulous elite; a self-appointed aristocracy of hypocrisy which looked down in open contempt upon most of their fellow human beings including ordinary Americans of all races.
Depend upon it, sir, it is dangerous to open so fruitful a source of controversy and altercation, as would be opened by attempting to alter the qualifications of voters. There will be no end of it. New claims will arise. Women will demand a vote. Lads from twelve to twenty one will think their rights not enough attended to, and every man, who has not a farthing, will demand an equal voice with any other in all acts of state. It tends to confound and destroy all distinctions, and prostrate all ranks, to one common level. John Adams.
Imagine that, equality in the land of the free! Can't be havin' none of that.
Those who refused to swear allegiance to the newly installed dictatorship of the ultra-wealthy were denied virtually all civil liberties, were jailed, murdered or forced into exile and their property stolen.
The “three-fifths” clause of the Constitution counted each slave owned as three-fifths of a person for the sake of apportionment of electoral districts although the slaves themselves were not, of course, allowed to vote. The effect was to give slave-owners a hugely disproportionate share of political power amongst the tiny minority of Americans who had any at all. The slave-owners had about a third more seats in Congress and a third more electoral votes than they would otherwise have had.
The desire to keep control of the country in the hands of the slave-owners also stood behind the creation of the Electoral College. Votes in the Electoral College, which “elects” the president, neatly sidestepping direct election, were apportioned using the same three-fifths rule. Thanks to the three-fifths clause, slave-owners dominated the government of the United States until 1865. For most of the period, slave-owners occupied the presidency, the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Speaker’s chair. During the same period, eighteen of thirty one justices of the Supreme Court, that great protector of human rights and dignity, were slave-owners.
The much propagandized first president, George Washington, was an elitist snob who considered ordinary Americans no better than cattle. He called the white citizens of the new country over which he lorded “the grazing multitude”. Washington was a slave owner and a land speculator.
The great freedom lover owned about two hundred and fifty slaves, dressed them in rags, auctioned off their children for yet more cash, of which he could never, apparently, acquire enough, and had them viciously whipped for “disobedience”. Among Washington’s many business "enterprises" was the construction of a canal through the Great Dismal Swamp in the Carolinas. The canal was hand-dug by slaves through steaming, mosquito-infested swamp. The slaves were worked to death in appalling conditions so that Washington, already the wealthiest man in the United States, could grow even richer.
Aside from his desire to maintain slavery, Washington, as a leading land speculator, was particularly anxious to gain control of the government because the British had signed a treaty with the Cherokee Nation and other Indian nations which prevented him stealing their ancestral land for profit. As President, Washington, in his fervor to steal the maximum possible amount of Indian land, was also a mass murderer of considerable accomplishment; the country's leading early practitioner of the ethnic cleansing of native Americans. According to Washington, native Americans were "wolves and beasts" who deserved nothing from the whites but "total ruin."
The second president, John Adams, had no higher opinion of ordinary white Americans than Washington. They were, he said, the “common herd” and had “no idea of learning, eloquence and genius” and were “locked within vulgar, rustic imaginations”.
1780: UNITED STATES. Captain Daniel Shays, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, fought at Saratoga, Bunker Hill and Lexington and was wounded in action. A poor farmer, he, like thousands of others, was not paid by the ruling class which had forced colonists by threat and violence into the Revolutionary armies. He returned to his hometown of Pelham, Massachusetts, where he, like many others, was promptly imprisoned for unpaid taxes by the new regime.
Although he had had to fight for “democracy” and was assessed taxes he could not afford to pay, Shays was not permitted to vote or hold office in new demockracy. To Shays and the vast majority of people in the new United States, the slave-owners’ propaganda slogan, “no taxation without representation” was simply a sick joke of the wealthy hypocrites who now completely controlled the country.
Revolutionary “hero” Sam Adams, staunch hypocrite and liar, safely installed as one of the ruling class sitting in the Massachusetts State Council, achieved new but unsurprising heights of hypocrisy when he proposed to hang Shays and anyone else resorting to civil disobedience in an attempt to bring genuine democracy and liberty or even something as simple as "no taxation without representation" to the United States.
The Massachusetts Riot Act of 1786 ordered the killing of any rebellious farmer and instituted a property seizure law. Rebellious farmers were to "forfeit all their lands, goods and chattels to the Commonwealth." Massachussetts also suspended habeas corpus meaning that citizens could be imprisoned indefinitely by the ruling junta without charge or trial. Freedom of speech in Massachussetts was banned if it was "to the prejudice of the government." The chief sponsor of all this fascist oppression? None other than the great freedom fighter Sam Adams. Vermont went down the same road, enacting The Riot Act which authorized county sheriffs to shoot rebellious farmers on sight
Petitions were made to the regime for an honest monetary system, lower taxes and a fair judicial system. The petitions were ignored and, in desperation, groups of farmers occupied the courthouses in Northampton, Worcester, Concord, Taunton and Great Barrington, Massachusetts in an attempt to stop the ongoing jailing of those who could not afford to pay the taxes assessed by the regime.
The Supreme Judicial Court, sitting in Springfield, indicted eleven leaders of the uprising for “sedition”. Upon his release from jail, Shays lead a ragtag army of fifteen hundred ex-soldiers, wearing the uniform of the Revolutionary army which had betrayed them, to occupy the Courthouse. Later, Shays lead two thousand farmers in an assault on the Federal Arsenal in Springfield.
Shays’ Rebellion, the real American revolution for liberty and equality (for white people at least), for no taxation without representation and for some semblance of democracy, was ruthlessly crushed by overwhelming military force, leaving the United States firmly in the hands of the slave-owning ruling class. Shays and thirteen others were condemned to death for “treason” against the elitist dictatorship. Ultimately, twelve of the fourteen were pardoned by the newly-installed governor of Massachusetts. Two were executed. Shays, one of the few true heroes of the era, died in poverty.
1782: UNITED STATES. A raiding party of one hundred and fifty Pennsylvania militiamen under Lieutenant Colonel David Williamson rounds up a group of Munsee Indians near Gnadenhutten, Ohio. Even though the Indians are unarmed non-combatants who have converted to Christianity, they are falsely accused of taking part in raids into Pennsylvania. In true democratic fashion, the militiamen vote to slaughter the Indians anyway and inform the Munsee of their fate.
The Munsees spend the night praying and singing hymns. The following morning, they are slaughtered as they kneel, praying, their skulls crushed with mallets. Twenty eight men, twenty nine women and thirty nine children are murdered and then scalped by the forces of freedom. The corpses are then heaped into nearby Christian mission buildings and the entire town burned to the ground. Other towns nearby are burned as well. Two Munsee boys, one of whom had been scalped, survived to tell of the massacre. Slave-owner and land speculator General George Washington's reaction to the massacre was not to punish the murderers but to order that no American soldier allow himself to be taken alive by Indians for fear of retribution for the massacre.
1783-present: UNITED STATES. The new regime immediately allows the land speculators who had been instrumental in the planning and execution of the Revolution to seize Indian land, abrogating treaties and carrying out a relentless program of genocide and ethnic cleansing against native Americans which will last for more than a century. Millions of American Indians are killed outright or die as a result of deliberately-induced disease and starvation. Virtually all Indian land, consisting of the vast majority of the land west of the Mississippi River, is stolen. Of course, this will all be presented to Americans of later generations as valiant pioneers taming the wilderness.
A British visitor to America, 1784
1789-1797: UNITED STATES. Slave-owner, land speculator, ethnic cleanser and mass murder cover-up-artist George Washington becomes the first President of the United States, an office to which he was “elected”, unanimously, by his fellow land speculators and slave-owners in the Electoral College, dispensing with even the merest pretence of democracy.
A great proponent of liberty, Washington takes eight of his slaves to the executive mansion in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania had outlawed slavery but Washington, a straight shootin' guy as we all know, got around the law by declaring that he was a Virginia resident only temporarily staying in what was then the capitol.
Once he gets his slaves settled in, Washington gets down to work, spending eighty percent of the budget of the new nation on ethnic cleansing; exterminating native Americans and stealing their land, something very dear to his own heart and bank account.
1791-1794: UNITED STATES. The new U.S. government, with an unelected president and voting for other offices restricted to wealthy, white, Protestant males, continues to explore the limits of hypocrisy by broadening its policy of taxation without representation. The federal government imposes a new tax on distilled spirits. Naturally, the rate is fifty percent higher on small farms than on large commercial producers. Because they often lacked any way of getting their grain to market, distilling liquor, thereby making a compact, easily transported commodity, was, for many small farmers, the only way of making any money at all from their crop.
Bitterly opposing such taxation without representation, farmers harass tax collectors and stage sometimes violent protests in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia in the so-called Whiskey Rebellion. As in the case of Shay's Rebellion, the fine new "democratic" government of the United States uses overwhelming violence to suppress dissent by American citizens and to enforce the policy of taxation without representation. Slave-owner and ethnic cleanser cum unelected President George Washington invokes martial law and assembles a force of 13,000 troops, about the same size as the entire American army in the Revolutionary War. He personally leads the troops against the citizens of the United States in order to enforce obedience to his regime's dictates and its policy of taxation without representation.
Ultimately, twenty residents of the new demockracy are arrested and imprisoned. One dies in captivity. Two are convicted of treason and sentenced to death by hanging.
1793: UNITED STATES. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act which mandates the return of escaped slaves to their "owners" from anywhere in the U.S. Blacks fleeing slavery no longer just have to get to a state which has abandoned slavery but have to escape completely from the "land of the free” to British territory in Canada or elsewhere in order to find freedom.
1798: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. U.S. Marines invade the Dominican Republic and seize a French vessel in the city of Puerto Plata.
1798: UNITED STATES. Just seven years after the ratification of the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment to the Constitution goes right down the toilet when the Sedition Act of 1798 makes it a crime to, gasp, criticize the government. Can't be havin' none of that in the world's greatest demockracy, can we now bubba?
There were numerous indictments, prosecutions and convictions under the act, the best known of which was the prison sentence given to Congressman Matthew Lyon of Vermont. Taking the first Amendment a bit too literally for the tastes of the ruling class, Lyon had a few harsh words for President John Adams saying that Adams is "swallowed up in a coNewer Post
1620: Lie Number One, The Pilgrims
1763-1783: Lie Number Two, The American Revolution
1783-1799: Lie Number Three, The Miracle of Democracy
1800-1849: Thirty Five Invasions And A Genocide
1850-1859: Invasions, Racism, Slavery and Ethnic Cleansing
1860-1864: The Civil War, But First, Let's Kill Some Indians And Get Rid of the Jews
1865-1869: The Final Solution To The Indian Problem And The Invasions Keep On Coming
1870-1884: More Invasions, More Racism, More Ethnic Cleansing. Happy 100th Birthday America.
1885-1894: The U.S. Steals Hawaii, Four Thousand Lynchings, Shooting Workers in the Streets and Planning For a Splendid Little War
1895-1899: The Spanish-American War, A Sordid Little War
1900-1904: The Philippines, A Full Dress Rehearsal For Iraq
1905-1909: Treacherous Muslims and Ze Quest For Ze Master Race
1910-1912: Invasions, Apartheid, Lynchings, Censorship And The Quest For The Master Race But No Conspiracies
1913-1914: Destroying Democracy in Mexico and the Federal Reserve Scam
1915-1916: Dangerous Singers, Lynching Jews and Blacks Speaking French!
1917-1918: Now The Great War's A Good Thing, Fascism In America, SettingThe Stage For Old Adolf Plus The Miracle Of Free Speech
1919-1920: A Summer Of Blood, Lynching Will Brown And J. Edna Hoover Takes The Stage
1921-1922: Setting Up The Hitler Project, Giving Away The Nation's Oil, Mass Murdering Black Americans And Poisoning All Americans
1923-1924: Destroying Rosewood, Racial Purity In Virginia And Prescott Bush And The Boys Get Old Adolf Started
1925-1926: Legislated Ignorance, Dupont's Supermen, Hoover In Drag And Murdering Nicaraguans
1927-1928: Sterilizing Americans, Slaughtering Miners, Making Your Boyfriend FBI Assistant Director, Invading China And Dive Bombing Nicaraguans
1929-1930: The Crash of '29--A Federal Reserve Production, Racist Pseudoscience, Murdering Workers (Again) And The Dulles Brothers Help Old Adolf
1931-1932: Admiring Mussolini, The Depression Ain't So Bad For Some, Murdering U.S. Veterans And Killing Puerto Ricans And Black People For Science
1933-1934: The Dust Bowl, Gangsters In Pinstripe Suits, Pimping For Hitler, The Merchants of Death And An All-American Coup
1935-1936: Arming The Nazis, Gangsters For Capitalism, Hanging Out With Hitler, Blackmailing Hoover And Truth, Justice Or The American Way
1937-1938: Lebensborn U.S.A., Murdering Workers (Again), Murdering Puerto Ricans (Again), Arming Adolf (Again) And Outlawing The Killer Weed
1939-1940: War's Just Good Business, Shortselling Czech Stock, Torturing Veterans' Kids, Crushing Dissent And The Hitler Project Boys Hedge Their Bets
1941-1942: Lobotomizing Rosemary, Shock And Awe, Playing Both Sides Of The War And Concentration Camps In The Land Of The Free
1943-1944: GM Builds Jet Engines For The Nazis, Apartheid In The Workplace, Beating Up Hispanics And The Hitler Project, Plan B
1945: At Nuremberg, Kissinger Joins The Boys, Experiment In Hiroshima, Installing Fascists And It's Not A War Crime When We Do It
You'll be amazed how often the same family names keep popping up. Or maybe not.
This is what is called, in the history biz, a revisionist history. American history, at least as far as the general public knows it, is in desperate need of revision, bringing what is taught and what is said about America's past more in line with the truth.
Making the World Safe For Hypocrisy is a chronology of the largely suppressed history of the United States. It is the history that good upstanding Americans are not supposed to know.
Almost everything you read here is based on publicly available information and most historians know all about it. And yet they remain strangely silent, allowing the fantasyland, propagandized version of American history and the fatuous pseudo-patriotic nonsense spewed by politicians and the mass media to stand unchallenged.
A nation
which does not know
what it was yesterday,
does not know
what it is today.
Woodrow Wilson
He who controls the present,
controls the past.
He who controls the past,
controls the future.
George Orwell
The essence of propaganda
consists of winning people
over to an idea
so sincerely, so vitally,
that in the end
they succumb to it utterly
and can never escape from it.
Joseph Goebbels
America has been something
of a divided personality,
tragically divided
against herself.
On the one hand
we have proudly professed
the great principles
of democracy,
but on the other hand
we have sadly practiced
the very opposite
of these principles.
Martin Luther King
None are more
hopelessly enslaved
than those
who falsely believe
that they are free.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
ANTI-AMERICAN?
Whenever anyone dares to point out the painfully obvious fact that the U.S. and its leaders have for two hundred years consistently acted in a fashion diametrically opposed to the values which America claims to represent, that person is instantly accused of being anti-American.
Do you consider yourself anti-american?
If believing in free speech and real democracy is anti-American, If believing that a government should not lie endlessly is anti-American, then I guess I am. If believing that a government should not spy on its own citizens is anti-American, then I guess I am. If believing that a government should not kidnap, torture and murder is anti-American, then I guess I am. If believing that a government shouldn't slaughter millions of innocent people simply to further enrich the same old handful of psychopathic bastards and their offspring is anti-American, then I guess I am.
RESOURCES ON THE WEB
911 Truth: A very good place to begin thinking about the Bush regime's unlikely conspiracy theory of 9-11.
AdBusters: A spunky Canadian anti-consumerist magazine with a lot of interesting news and comment you won't find in the mainstream media.
Alex Jones' Prison Planet: Lots of coverage of events past and present.
Amnesty International.
Common Dreams: The news CNN and Fox don't want you to know.
Conspiracy Planet: Amazing how often the simple truth is labelled a "conspiracy theory".
CorpWatch: The dark underside of corporate America.
Exulanten: An exhaustively researched look at how anti-German hatred was manufactured by the CPI during World War One.
Global Research: Excellent and detailed background and commentary on the American Empire.
Indy Media: An excellent resource of the news the mainstream media studiously avoid.
John Pilger is an intrepid Australian journalist. Read his stuff.
KryssTal, The Acts of the Democracies: An appalling record of genocide and war crimes carried out by the "democracies".
Mostly Water: A slightly differenent compendium of news and comment.
National Security Archive at George Washington University: A repository of declassified U.S. government documents. Imagine what they are still hiding from us.
Project Censored: Decades of documented censorship and suppression of truth in the American corporate mass media.
Robert Fisk: One of the most intrepid journalists in the world. What you're not supposed to know about Israel, Iraq and much more.
The Memory Hole: A treasure trove of official documents.
Third World Traveler: A huge resource on what the U.S. really does in the developing world.
Without Sanctuary: A heartbreaking collection of photogaphs of lynchings. Real U.S. history.
World Socialist Website: Never mind socialism, more truth than you'll ever find in the corporate mass media.
NEEDLES OF TRUTH IN THE HAYSTACK OF LIES
1984, George Orwell: Old George was bang on with the techniques used by the rulers. "America" couldn't exist without doublethink.
A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn: More history you're not supposed to know.
American Holocaust, David Stannard: The genocide of the American Indians.
Body of Secrets, James Bamford: The National Security Agency spies on all Americans all the time.
Deadly Deceits, Ralph McGehee: A insider's look at one of the world's leading terrorist organizations, the CIA.
Freeing The World To Death, William Blum: Essays on the American Empire.
Full Spectrum Dominance, Rahul Mahajan: The U.S. in Iraq and beyond.
Hidden Agenda, Ramsey Clark et al: The destuction of Yugoslavia by the U.S. and NATO.
House of Bush, House of Saud, Craig Unger: The Bushes have had their snouts up the Saudi pursehole for half a century.
IBM and the Holocaust, Edwin Black: the Nazis and America's most powerful corporations in cahoots.
Imperial Brain Trust, Laurence Shoup and William Minter: The Rockefellers' Council on Foreign Relations.
Killing Hope, William Blum: A saddening record of America's use of overwhelming violence to crush democracy and hope around the world.
Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen: American children are taught the lies from day one.
Propaganda, Edward Bernays: The textbook of manipulation of the public by Woodrow Wilson's propaganda maven.
Rogue State, William Blum: All other rogue states pale into insignificance when compared with the U.S.
Terrorizing the Neighbourhood, Noam Chomsky: What America really does to its neighbors.
The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, Anthony Summers: America's leading law enforcment officer was a lifelong crook. Quelle surprise.
The Splendid Blond Beast, Christopher Simpson: Nazi war criminals rescued by the U.S. and hired by the U.S. government and military.
Warriors of Disinformation, Alvin Snyder. On disinformation by someone who should know, the former director of the U.S. Information Agency.
Western State Terrorism, Alexander George Editor: The title says it all.
Origins of the word 'Lynch'
1776-82: THIRTEEN COLONIES.
Virginia planter Charles Lynch puts his name into the language when he creates a kangaroo court for the persecution of Loyalists and their forced conversion to the “patriot” cause by torture and terror. Lynch and his vigilantes kidnap Loyalists, subject them to fake trials and then immediately carry out “sentence” which might include up to thirty nine lashes, property seizure and hanging by the thumbs from the walnut tree on Lynch’s property, giving rise to the term “lynching”. Lynch also coerced pledges of allegiance to the rebel cause and forced conscription into the rebel forces. Lynch also facilitated the theft of property belonging to his victims.
In the interests of fairness and justice, in 1782, the General Assembly of Virginia passed a special act naming Lynch and three of his fellow vigilantes, retroactively providing them with immunity for their crimes.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Courts refuses to expand minority voting rights
March 9, 2009
Court refuses to expand minority voting rights
The Supreme Court has ruled that electoral districts must have a majority of African-Americans or other minorities to be protected by a provision of the Voting Rights Act.
The decision could make it harder for southern Democrats to draw friendly boundaries after the 2010 Census.
The justices on Monday declined to expand protections of the landmark civil rights law to take in electoral districts where the minority population is less than 50 percent of the total, but strong enough to effectively determine the outcome of elections.
In 2007, the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down a state legislative district in which blacks made up only about 39 percent of the voting age population. The court said the Voting Rights Act applies only to districts with a numerical majority of minority voters.
AP
Supreme Court considers challenge to Voting Rights Act
- Are You Riled Up? …
Anonymous on For Blacks in France Obama’s…
Court refuses to expand minority voting rights
The Supreme Court has ruled that electoral districts must have a majority of African-Americans or other minorities to be protected by a provision of the Voting Rights Act.
The decision could make it harder for southern Democrats to draw friendly boundaries after the 2010 Census.
The justices on Monday declined to expand protections of the landmark civil rights law to take in electoral districts where the minority population is less than 50 percent of the total, but strong enough to effectively determine the outcome of elections.
In 2007, the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down a state legislative district in which blacks made up only about 39 percent of the voting age population. The court said the Voting Rights Act applies only to districts with a numerical majority of minority voters.
AP
Supreme Court considers challenge to Voting Rights Act
- Are You Riled Up? …
Anonymous on For Blacks in France Obama’s…
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Unfair Justice -The two faces of the law
The Spirit of Sankofa writes...........
I have often wondered, why is that a Black Man or the not so well to do gets arrested, (jump a tunstile in NY) immediately they receive a free go to jail card. Where rich individuals, well to do get arrested they get to enjoy the comforts of home (Penthouse).
Someone expressed- well Madoff hasn't been proven guilty. Neither has the soul that jumped the turnstile.
Another case the Equador immigrant that was murdered alledgely by two black men, charged with a hate crime are receivng a unfair call. Let's be clear if you do the crime you should do the time. But when the district attorney says they should get a sentence of 78 years, I Must Raise My Voice!
Hate-Crimes?
Lets discuss All the Crimes of Hate committed in our time, against people of color. that goes without even a slap on the rist! Unfair for the wheels of Justice that is suppose to represent itself for truth. Exposied the Reality, the scales of Justice are Not leveled when it comes to Afrcan Americans.
Let us take a look back as far as the Civil Rights Movement.
For the symtoms remain -Whatever is within the Heart flows the issues of life.
Part of the problem is- most Blacks earn less, learn less.
Marcus Garvey had an influence in the millions. This made J. Edgar Hoover uneasy. Why did it make him uneasy? Whenever a Black Man had any influence, the goverment saw it as power. According to James Foran, The CRM was under attack by Hoover. The FBI. testified against King and admitted they were persuing him with obessive behavior. The board investigating the FBI asked why, and asked did King comment any crimes of violence to warrant him to be persued and wire tapped. The answer was a resounding NO! They had a hand in the murder of Malcolm, and so on.
Black Culture as a whole was put on notice and spied upon as if it were terrioriist needing to be disected and put on file for more intensive investigation.
Othello a FBI informat spoke about the role he played in the conspiracy and down fall of the fabric of African Culture. He expressed, Black magazines, music. entertainers, athletics Black wrters etc....were placed in an intensive study, using the information such as Blacks behavior patterns, to seek out weaknesses, to use against those that we respect and would listen to. These types of agents didn't stop there, but they ran many studies on African tribalism etc.. They paid this particlar black informnt $800 a week and back in the 70's this salary was very good especially a man of color. He was responsible by his own admission -he burned down Watts. These people also took part in setting people up and writing letters and signing false signatures.
I believe what's most important to the Black community is to understand we need a wake-up call. The point is as I am concern, learn and seeked out as much about yourself, your ancient history. And know..... A people without the knowledge of their ancient history, is like a tree without roots
Marcus Garvey
Hotep - Know Thyself
I have often wondered, why is that a Black Man or the not so well to do gets arrested, (jump a tunstile in NY) immediately they receive a free go to jail card. Where rich individuals, well to do get arrested they get to enjoy the comforts of home (Penthouse).
Someone expressed- well Madoff hasn't been proven guilty. Neither has the soul that jumped the turnstile.
Another case the Equador immigrant that was murdered alledgely by two black men, charged with a hate crime are receivng a unfair call. Let's be clear if you do the crime you should do the time. But when the district attorney says they should get a sentence of 78 years, I Must Raise My Voice!
Hate-Crimes?
Lets discuss All the Crimes of Hate committed in our time, against people of color. that goes without even a slap on the rist! Unfair for the wheels of Justice that is suppose to represent itself for truth. Exposied the Reality, the scales of Justice are Not leveled when it comes to Afrcan Americans.
Let us take a look back as far as the Civil Rights Movement.
For the symtoms remain -Whatever is within the Heart flows the issues of life.
Part of the problem is- most Blacks earn less, learn less.
Marcus Garvey had an influence in the millions. This made J. Edgar Hoover uneasy. Why did it make him uneasy? Whenever a Black Man had any influence, the goverment saw it as power. According to James Foran, The CRM was under attack by Hoover. The FBI. testified against King and admitted they were persuing him with obessive behavior. The board investigating the FBI asked why, and asked did King comment any crimes of violence to warrant him to be persued and wire tapped. The answer was a resounding NO! They had a hand in the murder of Malcolm, and so on.
Black Culture as a whole was put on notice and spied upon as if it were terrioriist needing to be disected and put on file for more intensive investigation.
Othello a FBI informat spoke about the role he played in the conspiracy and down fall of the fabric of African Culture. He expressed, Black magazines, music. entertainers, athletics Black wrters etc....were placed in an intensive study, using the information such as Blacks behavior patterns, to seek out weaknesses, to use against those that we respect and would listen to. These types of agents didn't stop there, but they ran many studies on African tribalism etc.. They paid this particlar black informnt $800 a week and back in the 70's this salary was very good especially a man of color. He was responsible by his own admission -he burned down Watts. These people also took part in setting people up and writing letters and signing false signatures.
I believe what's most important to the Black community is to understand we need a wake-up call. The point is as I am concern, learn and seeked out as much about yourself, your ancient history. And know..... A people without the knowledge of their ancient history, is like a tree without roots
Marcus Garvey
Hotep - Know Thyself
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Ancient statue discovered near Egypt pyramid
This is a fantastic discovery, think about it. Not an excavation but found by maintenanace workers? Awesome.
Check the story out.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29368122/
------------------------
Ancient statue discovered near Egyptian pyramid
February 24, 2009 ·
A 1.5 meter (5 feet) high 4,000-year-old quartz statue has been discovered buried just 40 centimetres (16 inches) below the surface of the sand in the northern part of the pyramid of pharaoh Menkaure (2551-2523 BC). Amazingly, the lifesize statue was not found during an archaeological excavation, but by maintenance workers cleaning an area stepped on by thousands of tourists every day.
The sculpture depicts an unidentified person wearing a medium-length wig, sitting on a chair with his right arm stretched on his knee and holding an unidentified object in his fist, in the style of the Old Kingdom, though it’s difficult at the moment to pinpoint the exact dynasty, because the statue has no visible inscriptions.
The pyramid of Menkaure is the smallest of the three Pyramids of Giza.
Pyramids, Plans and Perimeters!
Reflections in the Nile
Talking Pyramids
Royal tomb discovered in Saqqara
Amenhotep III statue rises again in Luxor
Archaeologists rediscover lost Egyptian tomb
Africa afterlife akhenaten Alexander the Great Alexandria Amarna ancient egyptian religion antiquities theft Archaeology Aswan book british museum Brooklyn Museum cairo Christianity economy Egypt environment hatshepsut islam karnak Luxor Metropolitan Museum of Art Middle East Modern Egypt mummies mummy museum Nefertiti Nile Nubia Old Kingdom osiris outsourcing ramses Saqqara Sinai Peninsula theft antiquities tourism tutankhamen Tutankhamun Valley of the Kings women Zahi Hawass
WordPress
Check the story out.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29368122/
------------------------
Ancient statue discovered near Egyptian pyramid
February 24, 2009 ·
A 1.5 meter (5 feet) high 4,000-year-old quartz statue has been discovered buried just 40 centimetres (16 inches) below the surface of the sand in the northern part of the pyramid of pharaoh Menkaure (2551-2523 BC). Amazingly, the lifesize statue was not found during an archaeological excavation, but by maintenance workers cleaning an area stepped on by thousands of tourists every day.
The sculpture depicts an unidentified person wearing a medium-length wig, sitting on a chair with his right arm stretched on his knee and holding an unidentified object in his fist, in the style of the Old Kingdom, though it’s difficult at the moment to pinpoint the exact dynasty, because the statue has no visible inscriptions.
The pyramid of Menkaure is the smallest of the three Pyramids of Giza.
Pyramids, Plans and Perimeters!
Reflections in the Nile
Talking Pyramids
Royal tomb discovered in Saqqara
Amenhotep III statue rises again in Luxor
Archaeologists rediscover lost Egyptian tomb
Africa afterlife akhenaten Alexander the Great Alexandria Amarna ancient egyptian religion antiquities theft Archaeology Aswan book british museum Brooklyn Museum cairo Christianity economy Egypt environment hatshepsut islam karnak Luxor Metropolitan Museum of Art Middle East Modern Egypt mummies mummy museum Nefertiti Nile Nubia Old Kingdom osiris outsourcing ramses Saqqara Sinai Peninsula theft antiquities tourism tutankhamen Tutankhamun Valley of the Kings women Zahi Hawass
WordPress
Monday, March 2, 2009
Are Black Reporters caught in a Catch-22?
Spirit of Sankofa writes........
I myself find reporting news from the Black community a task in itself. However,those brothers and sisters who are dedicated to get the news to us are stressed.They feel like their backs are against the wall. Most of our news is indeed compromised. In the perpective Black News Reporters articles are edited to fit the needs of their paper.This practice is disabling, Omitting pertinent information,and preventing the full story from reaching the masses. They also, feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. For the reporters themself don't want to be stereo-type as the only one's capable of covering news in the Black communities. One part of the Catch 22 is,would'nt they better serve the community by covering these type of stories? Do you feel someone other than a african american could be just as fair and straight to the point of reporting all the truth?
What do you think?
Below Black Reporters Sound off. _______
Black Broadcasters Sound Off On Covering Black Community
Mar 01, 2009
Unfair, unbalanced and the overabundance of negative reporting about the black community has often been a complaint among many. There is concern that not only does such reporting paint an inaccurate portrait of a particular ethnic group, but it also sets a dangerous pattern.
Images shown by the media play a role in influencing attitudes toward blacks. Many in the community believe that the over-use of negative images has resulted in a lack of confidence when it comes to entrusting outsiders to tell the black community’s story.
So the question becomes: Are black journalists the only ones capable of accurately and fairly reporting on the black community? Or is the black reporter caught in a Catch-22, stuck between getting it right for his or community and being professionally pigeon holed? If they cover only the black community, they run the danger of becoming known as a reporter who can only cover black stories. If they cover only the mainstream stories, they’d be entrusting someone else to tell the black community’s story.
Should their loyalties be to their media outlets or to their communities? There are lots of questions and just as many answers. Many find themselves walking a tightrope.
To get a clearer picture of just what black broadcasters are faced with on a daily basis, the L.A. Watts Times went straight to the source, asking local black broadcasters these questions:
As an insider, what is your perspective on how the media covers the black community? Have you attempted to contribute toward covering the black community?
BEVERLY WHITE (NBC4 anchor/reporter) — “I can only speak for the electronic media, which I believe adequately covers the black community but can do much more. The industry should employ more black people (in front of and behind the camera) and encourage diversity in sourcing and in story selection.
The responsibility to cover our community without fear or favor must never rest solely with black reporters. I pitch ideas and handle all manner of assignments. My non-black counterparts should do the same. Anyone who knows my work knows I try to cover the black community every way I can — with contacts who enhance my storytelling beyond race and sports, or entertainment and crime. I keep an eye out for distinct voices from mudslides to market issues, violence to Valentine’s Day. I strive to include people who look like me because it deepens my reporting and often helps defy stereotypes, one sound bite at a time. I see that as my mission as an African American journalist.”
TONY COX (NPR “News and Notes” host) — “How the media covers the black community depends on which media you’re referring to. The mainstream press doesn’t cover the black community at all. It looks for stories of general interest, and if those happen to involve black folks in particular, then chances are you’ll see something written or broadcast.
And even that depends on what market your outlet is in and how large the black audience is. The black press covers the black community all the time. They just don’t have the resources to cover it as effectively as is sometimes warranted. And because the black press has to compete for advertising dollars, like all media, their story selection is often dictated by what sells and will generate the most revenue. That’s when even the black press becomes more selective about what it does and doesn’t cover. In the end, the black community suffers either way.”
CHRIS SCHAUBLE (NBC4 anchor) — “The media does a poor and shallow job of covering the African American community (myself included). However, it’s due mostly to a lack of resources that all newsrooms face, as opposed to a willful disregard. As TV newsrooms shift to the concept of photojournalists (reporters carrying their own cameras while also presenting the story), there will be more of us beating the street. I think there will be more room for the individual newsperson to influence coverage ... more stories, yes the positive ones, will get told.
I find that while I cannot always influence news coverage, I can make sure the African American community knows it has my support. I emcee countless events within the black community and only say no when it conflicts with another engagement (or when my wife tells me to slow it down).”
MARC BROWN (ABC7 anchor) — “Having grown up in Los Angeles, I have watched the evolution of the news media’s coverage of the African American community. It used to be fairly one-dimensional and primarily negative. It no longer is. I feel very good about how ABC7, in particular, covers the black community. We try to cover African Americans, as we do every other community in Los Angeles, with fairness, sensitivity and across a broad spectrum.
We’re able to do it because we have a very diverse staff both in front of and behind the camera. Some of the stories I’ve covered over the last few months include the Eso Won Bookstore and its struggle to survive, an African American funeral director in South L.A. who handles victims of gang violence, and the inauguration of Barack Obama. These stories, while of special significance to African Americans, I believe are important to everyone.”
BOBBY HOWE (KTYM radio – public affairs director) — “Black press should give equal time to the good done by blacks and less to the not-so-good… I am on air 10-15 times a week, and I present the ‘Other Side of War’ and ‘Conversations with the Community.’ There is always the good, the bad and the ugly. I make sure I talk to the good being done in our community, but if I must report on the ugly, I make sure I have some solutions to the bad news.”
I myself find reporting news from the Black community a task in itself. However,those brothers and sisters who are dedicated to get the news to us are stressed.They feel like their backs are against the wall. Most of our news is indeed compromised. In the perpective Black News Reporters articles are edited to fit the needs of their paper.This practice is disabling, Omitting pertinent information,and preventing the full story from reaching the masses. They also, feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. For the reporters themself don't want to be stereo-type as the only one's capable of covering news in the Black communities. One part of the Catch 22 is,would'nt they better serve the community by covering these type of stories? Do you feel someone other than a african american could be just as fair and straight to the point of reporting all the truth?
What do you think?
Below Black Reporters Sound off. _______
Black Broadcasters Sound Off On Covering Black Community
Mar 01, 2009
Unfair, unbalanced and the overabundance of negative reporting about the black community has often been a complaint among many. There is concern that not only does such reporting paint an inaccurate portrait of a particular ethnic group, but it also sets a dangerous pattern.
Images shown by the media play a role in influencing attitudes toward blacks. Many in the community believe that the over-use of negative images has resulted in a lack of confidence when it comes to entrusting outsiders to tell the black community’s story.
So the question becomes: Are black journalists the only ones capable of accurately and fairly reporting on the black community? Or is the black reporter caught in a Catch-22, stuck between getting it right for his or community and being professionally pigeon holed? If they cover only the black community, they run the danger of becoming known as a reporter who can only cover black stories. If they cover only the mainstream stories, they’d be entrusting someone else to tell the black community’s story.
Should their loyalties be to their media outlets or to their communities? There are lots of questions and just as many answers. Many find themselves walking a tightrope.
To get a clearer picture of just what black broadcasters are faced with on a daily basis, the L.A. Watts Times went straight to the source, asking local black broadcasters these questions:
As an insider, what is your perspective on how the media covers the black community? Have you attempted to contribute toward covering the black community?
BEVERLY WHITE (NBC4 anchor/reporter) — “I can only speak for the electronic media, which I believe adequately covers the black community but can do much more. The industry should employ more black people (in front of and behind the camera) and encourage diversity in sourcing and in story selection.
The responsibility to cover our community without fear or favor must never rest solely with black reporters. I pitch ideas and handle all manner of assignments. My non-black counterparts should do the same. Anyone who knows my work knows I try to cover the black community every way I can — with contacts who enhance my storytelling beyond race and sports, or entertainment and crime. I keep an eye out for distinct voices from mudslides to market issues, violence to Valentine’s Day. I strive to include people who look like me because it deepens my reporting and often helps defy stereotypes, one sound bite at a time. I see that as my mission as an African American journalist.”
TONY COX (NPR “News and Notes” host) — “How the media covers the black community depends on which media you’re referring to. The mainstream press doesn’t cover the black community at all. It looks for stories of general interest, and if those happen to involve black folks in particular, then chances are you’ll see something written or broadcast.
And even that depends on what market your outlet is in and how large the black audience is. The black press covers the black community all the time. They just don’t have the resources to cover it as effectively as is sometimes warranted. And because the black press has to compete for advertising dollars, like all media, their story selection is often dictated by what sells and will generate the most revenue. That’s when even the black press becomes more selective about what it does and doesn’t cover. In the end, the black community suffers either way.”
CHRIS SCHAUBLE (NBC4 anchor) — “The media does a poor and shallow job of covering the African American community (myself included). However, it’s due mostly to a lack of resources that all newsrooms face, as opposed to a willful disregard. As TV newsrooms shift to the concept of photojournalists (reporters carrying their own cameras while also presenting the story), there will be more of us beating the street. I think there will be more room for the individual newsperson to influence coverage ... more stories, yes the positive ones, will get told.
I find that while I cannot always influence news coverage, I can make sure the African American community knows it has my support. I emcee countless events within the black community and only say no when it conflicts with another engagement (or when my wife tells me to slow it down).”
MARC BROWN (ABC7 anchor) — “Having grown up in Los Angeles, I have watched the evolution of the news media’s coverage of the African American community. It used to be fairly one-dimensional and primarily negative. It no longer is. I feel very good about how ABC7, in particular, covers the black community. We try to cover African Americans, as we do every other community in Los Angeles, with fairness, sensitivity and across a broad spectrum.
We’re able to do it because we have a very diverse staff both in front of and behind the camera. Some of the stories I’ve covered over the last few months include the Eso Won Bookstore and its struggle to survive, an African American funeral director in South L.A. who handles victims of gang violence, and the inauguration of Barack Obama. These stories, while of special significance to African Americans, I believe are important to everyone.”
BOBBY HOWE (KTYM radio – public affairs director) — “Black press should give equal time to the good done by blacks and less to the not-so-good… I am on air 10-15 times a week, and I present the ‘Other Side of War’ and ‘Conversations with the Community.’ There is always the good, the bad and the ugly. I make sure I talk to the good being done in our community, but if I must report on the ugly, I make sure I have some solutions to the bad news.”
Friday, February 27, 2009
Wilbert Tatum 76 Activist Publisher dies
Spirit of Sankofa expresses.....
Much honor and respect to a great and courageous brother..
A deep brother that stood against police brutality, redling and other manifastations of discrimination. One of Harlems FINEST.
Our thoughts and our prayers go up for his wife and family. We should all strive to remember the sacrifices made for the community as a whole.
For brothers like him shown us the way.
We are so glad he passed this way.
Wilbert Tatum, 76, Activist Publisher, Dies
By DENNIS HEVESI
Published: February 27, 2009
Wilbert A. Tatum, the often provocative former publisher and editor of The New York Amsterdam News, whose name became almost synonymous with that of the oldest and best-known of the city's black newspapers, died Thursday while on vacation with his wife in Dubrovnik, Croatia. He was 76 and lived in Manhattan.
The cause was multiple organ failure, said Mr. Tatum's daughter, Elinor Ruth Tatum, who took over as publisher and editor of the weekly paper in 1998. Ms. Tatum said her father was diabetic, but added that the specific cause had not yet been determined.
The Amsterdam, as it is often called, was founded 100 years ago. Mr. Tatum bought it in 1971 with a group of prominent investors that included Percy E. Sutton, the former Manhattan borough president, and H. Carl McCall, the former New York State comptroller. Mr. Tatum assumed control of the paper in 1983; he bought out the last investor in 1996 and remained chairman of the board until his death.
With editorial offices in a fourth-floor walk-up on Frederick Douglass Boulevard between 125th and 126th Streets in Harlem, The Amsterdam News primarily covered what it called "a small town in a metropolis." It reported on Harlem's galas and local residents' achievements, weddings and deaths. But it also focused, particularly under Mr. Tatum, on issues of police brutality, redlining and other manifestations of discrimination. Although the paper's circulation fell significantly during Mr. Tatum's tenure - it was 58,907 in 1977 and 25,962 in 2000 - its imprimatur was always coveted by many politicians.
As Mr. Tatum clacked out editorial after editorial on his typewriter (he barely made the switch to computers), The Amsterdam was both cheered and vilified. Critics accused Mr. Tatum of fanning the flames of racial tension and of sometimes taking an anti-Semitic stance.
Page 1 of 3 1. NEXT PAGE
Much honor and respect to a great and courageous brother..
A deep brother that stood against police brutality, redling and other manifastations of discrimination. One of Harlems FINEST.
Our thoughts and our prayers go up for his wife and family. We should all strive to remember the sacrifices made for the community as a whole.
For brothers like him shown us the way.
We are so glad he passed this way.
Wilbert Tatum, 76, Activist Publisher, Dies
By DENNIS HEVESI
Published: February 27, 2009
Wilbert A. Tatum, the often provocative former publisher and editor of The New York Amsterdam News, whose name became almost synonymous with that of the oldest and best-known of the city's black newspapers, died Thursday while on vacation with his wife in Dubrovnik, Croatia. He was 76 and lived in Manhattan.
The cause was multiple organ failure, said Mr. Tatum's daughter, Elinor Ruth Tatum, who took over as publisher and editor of the weekly paper in 1998. Ms. Tatum said her father was diabetic, but added that the specific cause had not yet been determined.
The Amsterdam, as it is often called, was founded 100 years ago. Mr. Tatum bought it in 1971 with a group of prominent investors that included Percy E. Sutton, the former Manhattan borough president, and H. Carl McCall, the former New York State comptroller. Mr. Tatum assumed control of the paper in 1983; he bought out the last investor in 1996 and remained chairman of the board until his death.
With editorial offices in a fourth-floor walk-up on Frederick Douglass Boulevard between 125th and 126th Streets in Harlem, The Amsterdam News primarily covered what it called "a small town in a metropolis." It reported on Harlem's galas and local residents' achievements, weddings and deaths. But it also focused, particularly under Mr. Tatum, on issues of police brutality, redlining and other manifestations of discrimination. Although the paper's circulation fell significantly during Mr. Tatum's tenure - it was 58,907 in 1977 and 25,962 in 2000 - its imprimatur was always coveted by many politicians.
As Mr. Tatum clacked out editorial after editorial on his typewriter (he barely made the switch to computers), The Amsterdam was both cheered and vilified. Critics accused Mr. Tatum of fanning the flames of racial tension and of sometimes taking an anti-Semitic stance.
Page 1 of 3 1. NEXT PAGE
Friday, February 20, 2009
Boycott N.Y. Post and affiliated Fox News
Spirit of Sankofa expresses.......
It was outrageuos that this happened ..let alone during Black History Monrh. This type of thing has gone.the distance. NY Post Fox News its parent affiliate has always had a certain sway of racism for people of color. I believe its time to boycott and not support any company that published this type of childest garbage. We have the power to shut it down. Much respect to Al Sharpton and Charles Barron for staying on the tront lines in NYC. Many want to discredit your good works. Just Keep It Pushing.
New York Post Racist Cartoon Slanders President Obama-Boycott the Post
City Wide Emergency Protest Demonstration
Thursday, February 19, 2008 at 12 Noon
New York Post Offices
1211 Avenue of the Americas (between 47th & 48th Sts)
New York, NY
The New York Post maligned President Barak Obama in an overly racist cartoon depicting two police officers, one is pointing a smoking gun at a large chimpanzee, lying on the ground clearly shot dead. The caption reads "They'll have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill."
The cartoon in Wednesday's (2/18/09) edition on the infamous "Page Six," is a crass distortion of a recent horrific incident in which a 200 pound pet chimpanzee mauls a woman and police shoot and kill him.
NYC Councilman Charles Barron has called for A City Wide Emergency Protest Demonstration. The protest will be held on Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 12 noon in front of the New York Post main offices at 1211 Avenue of the Americas (between 47th and 48th Streets) New York, NY.
"The clearly racist tone is outrageous," said Colette Pean of the Women of Obama. "We are in support of Councilman Barron and we must let the New York Post know this will not be tolerated by the people in this city."
Invited speakers joining Councilman Barron include Reverend Al Sharpton of the National Action Network, NYC, State Senator Bill Perkins, State Assemblywoman Inez Barron, Viola Plummer of the Women for Obama, Monica Moorehead of the International Action Center, and representatives of the Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive To African People (CEMOTAP),20December 12th Movement, NAACP-Jamaica Queens, Harriet Tubman, Black Men's Movement, and many others.
__________________________ ____
Women For Obama
c/o Sistas Place
456 Nostrand Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11216
Phone (718) 398-1766
Fax (718) 623-1855
Here's a special note from Harlem rap star Priest...
Ok so I don't know if you heard about this but this is a cartoon that they placed on Page Six of the New York Post. The back story to this cartoon is that there was a wild chimpanzee that attacked an older lady and as a result of this, had to be shot and killed by police the other night. This is the cartoon that ran in the post the next day.
Needless to say, it is not only racially insensitive, it is indicative of how the NY post has historically maintained an position of constantly printing articles that are demeaning to people of color.
With that said I am calling on all people who find this cartoon offensive to boycott the NY Post. Do not purchase it, do not read it and encourage others to do the same. If you must read the New York Post then do so only to make a list of the companies that advertise in the New York Post and let them know that you will no longer be supporting them if they continue to advertise in the New York Post.
I am specifically calling on all Hip Hop websites, blogs and radio programs to address this issue with the same fervor with which they address the "Rick Ross vs 50 Cent" beef or whatever incessant nonsense it is that they spew under the guise of giving you "Hip Hop News" . I watched Curtis Silvia of the "Guardian Angels" sit on NY1 News tonight and say that he thought there was nothing wrong with the cartoon since rappers say worse things when they are making fun of each other. Let's show them that we can address issues more serious than the "Chris Brown - Rhianna" situation. If the Hip Hop media cannot take a position on this then they need to be held accountable as well.
It is sad that during a such historic time in our nation that we as African Americans are still having to fight these kinds of battles on a DAILY basis. If we are truly to affect change then that begins with us being the change that we want to see. To make a long story short, its time for us to let our voices be heard in regards to this issue. Its time that we boycott this newspaper and let them know in a language that they will understand. The language of economics.
DO NOT BUY THE NY POST NEWSPAPER!!!
Priest
At a date in time where Obhama has had numerous threats on his life and police have been trigger happy shooting or tasing to death Black men from coast to coast-what was this about? Time to boycott everything owned by Fox-from the NY Post to American Idol
It was outrageuos that this happened ..let alone during Black History Monrh. This type of thing has gone.the distance. NY Post Fox News its parent affiliate has always had a certain sway of racism for people of color. I believe its time to boycott and not support any company that published this type of childest garbage. We have the power to shut it down. Much respect to Al Sharpton and Charles Barron for staying on the tront lines in NYC. Many want to discredit your good works. Just Keep It Pushing.
New York Post Racist Cartoon Slanders President Obama-Boycott the Post
City Wide Emergency Protest Demonstration
Thursday, February 19, 2008 at 12 Noon
New York Post Offices
1211 Avenue of the Americas (between 47th & 48th Sts)
New York, NY
The New York Post maligned President Barak Obama in an overly racist cartoon depicting two police officers, one is pointing a smoking gun at a large chimpanzee, lying on the ground clearly shot dead. The caption reads "They'll have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill."
The cartoon in Wednesday's (2/18/09) edition on the infamous "Page Six," is a crass distortion of a recent horrific incident in which a 200 pound pet chimpanzee mauls a woman and police shoot and kill him.
NYC Councilman Charles Barron has called for A City Wide Emergency Protest Demonstration. The protest will be held on Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 12 noon in front of the New York Post main offices at 1211 Avenue of the Americas (between 47th and 48th Streets) New York, NY.
"The clearly racist tone is outrageous," said Colette Pean of the Women of Obama. "We are in support of Councilman Barron and we must let the New York Post know this will not be tolerated by the people in this city."
Invited speakers joining Councilman Barron include Reverend Al Sharpton of the National Action Network, NYC, State Senator Bill Perkins, State Assemblywoman Inez Barron, Viola Plummer of the Women for Obama, Monica Moorehead of the International Action Center, and representatives of the Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive To African People (CEMOTAP),20December 12th Movement, NAACP-Jamaica Queens, Harriet Tubman, Black Men's Movement, and many others.
__________________________ ____
Women For Obama
c/o Sistas Place
456 Nostrand Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11216
Phone (718) 398-1766
Fax (718) 623-1855
Here's a special note from Harlem rap star Priest...
Ok so I don't know if you heard about this but this is a cartoon that they placed on Page Six of the New York Post. The back story to this cartoon is that there was a wild chimpanzee that attacked an older lady and as a result of this, had to be shot and killed by police the other night. This is the cartoon that ran in the post the next day.
Needless to say, it is not only racially insensitive, it is indicative of how the NY post has historically maintained an position of constantly printing articles that are demeaning to people of color.
With that said I am calling on all people who find this cartoon offensive to boycott the NY Post. Do not purchase it, do not read it and encourage others to do the same. If you must read the New York Post then do so only to make a list of the companies that advertise in the New York Post and let them know that you will no longer be supporting them if they continue to advertise in the New York Post.
I am specifically calling on all Hip Hop websites, blogs and radio programs to address this issue with the same fervor with which they address the "Rick Ross vs 50 Cent" beef or whatever incessant nonsense it is that they spew under the guise of giving you "Hip Hop News" . I watched Curtis Silvia of the "Guardian Angels" sit on NY1 News tonight and say that he thought there was nothing wrong with the cartoon since rappers say worse things when they are making fun of each other. Let's show them that we can address issues more serious than the "Chris Brown - Rhianna" situation. If the Hip Hop media cannot take a position on this then they need to be held accountable as well.
It is sad that during a such historic time in our nation that we as African Americans are still having to fight these kinds of battles on a DAILY basis. If we are truly to affect change then that begins with us being the change that we want to see. To make a long story short, its time for us to let our voices be heard in regards to this issue. Its time that we boycott this newspaper and let them know in a language that they will understand. The language of economics.
DO NOT BUY THE NY POST NEWSPAPER!!!
Priest
At a date in time where Obhama has had numerous threats on his life and police have been trigger happy shooting or tasing to death Black men from coast to coast-what was this about? Time to boycott everything owned by Fox-from the NY Post to American Idol
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Obama warns of need for stimulus urgency*
Obama warns of need for stimulus bill right away
Print 13 mins ago
Featured Topics: Barack Obama Presidential Transition Play Video CNBC – An Overexposed Economy
Slideshow: Economic Stimulus Plan Play Video Video: Tapper on Obama's Executive Salary Cap ABC News Play Video Video: Obama: 'time for action is now' AP AP – President Barack Obama speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009. … WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says the time for talk on an economic recovery package is over and "the time for action is now."
Speaking at the Energy Department, Obama made a fresh plea for the stimulus plan that the Senate is debating. He cited the latest bad economic news of jobless claims as another reason for quick action.
He said: "The time for talk is over, the time for action is now."
Republicans and some Democrats have expressed reservations about the growing price tag of the package — more than $900 billion. Senate Democratic leaders hope to have a bill completed by Friday.
Senate moderates from both political parties worked to cut up to $100 billion from economic stimulus legislation and clear the way for the bill's passage as Obama urged lawmakers to "rise to the moment."
Senate Democratic leaders said they hoped for passage of the legislation by Friday, and prospects appeared to hinge on agreement to a series of changes that would trim the size of a bill costing well over $920 billion.
Senate centrists met privately, and emerged saying they had made progress toward an accord.
"The president made a strong case for a proposal that would be in the neighborhood of $800 billion," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who met with Obama at the White House on Wednesday.
Earlier today, Obama warned that failure to pass an economic recovery package could plunge the nation into an even longer, perhaps irreversible recession, as senators searched for compromises to whittle down the enormous bill.
Obama painted a bleak picture if lawmakers do nothing.
In an op-ed piece in The Washington Post, the president argued that each day without his stimulus package, Americans lose more jobs, savings and homes. His message came as congressional leaders struggle to control the huge stimulus bill that's been growing larger by the day in the Senate. The addition of a new tax break for homebuyers Wednesday evening sent the price tag well past $900 billion.
"This recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse," Obama wrote in the newspaper piece.
He rejected the argument that more tax cuts are needed in the plan and that piecemeal measures would be sufficient. His latest plea came on the same day the economy dealt with another dose of bad news: A big jump in jobless claims and another round of weak retail sales.
Initial jobless claims rose to 626,000, a 26-year high, the Labor Department said. And the number of claims by people continuing to apply for unemployment benefits reached a new record of nearly 4.8 million.
The housing tax break was the most notable attempt to date to add help for the crippled industry and gave Republicans a victory as they work to remake the legislation more to their liking.
"It is time to fix housing first," Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said Wednesday night as the Senate agreed without controversy to add the new tax break to the stimulus measure, at an estimated cost of nearly $19 billion.
Three swing-vote senators met with Obama at the White House on Wednesday to discuss possible cutbacks, but they declined to discuss details of their talks. Obama has made the legislation a cornerstone of his recovery plan.
For their part, Senate Republicans signaled they would persist in their efforts to reduce spending in the measure, to add tax cuts and reduce the cost of mortgages for millions of homeowners.
Officials figures were unavailable, but it appeared that the measure carried a price tag of more than $920 billion, making it bigger than the financial industry bailout that passed last year and as large as any measure in memory.
Despite bipartisan concerns about the cost, Republicans failed in a series of attempts on Wednesday to cut back the bill's size.
The most sweeping proposal, advanced by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., would have eliminated all the spending and replaced it with a series of tax cuts. It was defeated 61-36.
Democrats also upheld a so-called Buy American provision that requires projects financed by the measure to be built with domestically produced iron and steel.
But with Obama voicing concern about the provision, the requirement was changed to specify that U.S. international trade agreements not to be violated.
Additionally, Democrats turned back an attempt to strip out a provision that Obama has said was essential. It would provide a tax cut of up to $1,000 for working couples, including those who do not make enough to pay income taxes.
Isakson said the new tax break for homebuyers was intended to help revive the housing industry, which has virtually collapsed in the wake of a credit crisis that began last fall.
The proposal would allow a tax credit of 10 percent of the value of new or existing residences, up to a $15,000 limit. Current law provides for a $7,500 tax break but only for first-time homebuyers.
The provision was the second tax cut approved in as many days targeted to individual industries. On Tuesday, the Senate voted to give a break to consumers who buy new cars.
The House approved its own version of the bill last week.
Print 13 mins ago
Featured Topics: Barack Obama Presidential Transition Play Video CNBC – An Overexposed Economy
Slideshow: Economic Stimulus Plan Play Video Video: Tapper on Obama's Executive Salary Cap ABC News Play Video Video: Obama: 'time for action is now' AP AP – President Barack Obama speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009. … WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says the time for talk on an economic recovery package is over and "the time for action is now."
Speaking at the Energy Department, Obama made a fresh plea for the stimulus plan that the Senate is debating. He cited the latest bad economic news of jobless claims as another reason for quick action.
He said: "The time for talk is over, the time for action is now."
Republicans and some Democrats have expressed reservations about the growing price tag of the package — more than $900 billion. Senate Democratic leaders hope to have a bill completed by Friday.
Senate moderates from both political parties worked to cut up to $100 billion from economic stimulus legislation and clear the way for the bill's passage as Obama urged lawmakers to "rise to the moment."
Senate Democratic leaders said they hoped for passage of the legislation by Friday, and prospects appeared to hinge on agreement to a series of changes that would trim the size of a bill costing well over $920 billion.
Senate centrists met privately, and emerged saying they had made progress toward an accord.
"The president made a strong case for a proposal that would be in the neighborhood of $800 billion," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who met with Obama at the White House on Wednesday.
Earlier today, Obama warned that failure to pass an economic recovery package could plunge the nation into an even longer, perhaps irreversible recession, as senators searched for compromises to whittle down the enormous bill.
Obama painted a bleak picture if lawmakers do nothing.
In an op-ed piece in The Washington Post, the president argued that each day without his stimulus package, Americans lose more jobs, savings and homes. His message came as congressional leaders struggle to control the huge stimulus bill that's been growing larger by the day in the Senate. The addition of a new tax break for homebuyers Wednesday evening sent the price tag well past $900 billion.
"This recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse," Obama wrote in the newspaper piece.
He rejected the argument that more tax cuts are needed in the plan and that piecemeal measures would be sufficient. His latest plea came on the same day the economy dealt with another dose of bad news: A big jump in jobless claims and another round of weak retail sales.
Initial jobless claims rose to 626,000, a 26-year high, the Labor Department said. And the number of claims by people continuing to apply for unemployment benefits reached a new record of nearly 4.8 million.
The housing tax break was the most notable attempt to date to add help for the crippled industry and gave Republicans a victory as they work to remake the legislation more to their liking.
"It is time to fix housing first," Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said Wednesday night as the Senate agreed without controversy to add the new tax break to the stimulus measure, at an estimated cost of nearly $19 billion.
Three swing-vote senators met with Obama at the White House on Wednesday to discuss possible cutbacks, but they declined to discuss details of their talks. Obama has made the legislation a cornerstone of his recovery plan.
For their part, Senate Republicans signaled they would persist in their efforts to reduce spending in the measure, to add tax cuts and reduce the cost of mortgages for millions of homeowners.
Officials figures were unavailable, but it appeared that the measure carried a price tag of more than $920 billion, making it bigger than the financial industry bailout that passed last year and as large as any measure in memory.
Despite bipartisan concerns about the cost, Republicans failed in a series of attempts on Wednesday to cut back the bill's size.
The most sweeping proposal, advanced by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., would have eliminated all the spending and replaced it with a series of tax cuts. It was defeated 61-36.
Democrats also upheld a so-called Buy American provision that requires projects financed by the measure to be built with domestically produced iron and steel.
But with Obama voicing concern about the provision, the requirement was changed to specify that U.S. international trade agreements not to be violated.
Additionally, Democrats turned back an attempt to strip out a provision that Obama has said was essential. It would provide a tax cut of up to $1,000 for working couples, including those who do not make enough to pay income taxes.
Isakson said the new tax break for homebuyers was intended to help revive the housing industry, which has virtually collapsed in the wake of a credit crisis that began last fall.
The proposal would allow a tax credit of 10 percent of the value of new or existing residences, up to a $15,000 limit. Current law provides for a $7,500 tax break but only for first-time homebuyers.
The provision was the second tax cut approved in as many days targeted to individual industries. On Tuesday, the Senate voted to give a break to consumers who buy new cars.
The House approved its own version of the bill last week.
Apollo Celebrating it's 75th: Has a great history*
January 27, 2009...11:19 p01
Apollo’s 75th Anniversary Kick-off it 75th!!
THE RESURGENCE OF THE 125TH STREET STRIP HAS BEEN
PEGGED TO THE RE-OPENING OF THE APOLLO THEATER -- A
HARLEM INSTITUTION THAT CAME TO SYMBOLIZE THE HEYDAY
OF JAZZ AND RELATED AFRICAN AMERICAN ART FORMS FROM
THE MID-1920S THROUGH THE 1950S.
PERCY SUTTON IS THE BIG CITY POLITICIAN, MEDIA MOGUL
AND CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST WHO BOUGHT THE SHUTTERED
APOLLO IN 1980 AND REFURBISHED IT IN THE OLD STYLE.
ACCORDING TO HIM, THE APOLLO'S INITIAL POPULARITY
AMONG BLACKS WAS DUE TO THE RACISM OF NEW YORK'S
ENTERTAINMENT WORLD DURING THE 1930S AND 40S.
"THE APOLLO THEATER HAS A GREAT HISTORY.
HISTORICALLY, IT WAS THE RESULT OF DISCRIMINATION. IT
WAS, TOGETHER WITH THEATERS IN SEVEN OTHER CITIES,
THE PLACE WHERE BLACK ENTERTAINERS COULD GO AND HONE
THEIR TALENTS AND WHERE BLACK PEOPLE COULD COME.
BLACKS COULDN'T GO INTO WHITE THEATERS. THEY HAD TO
GO INTO BLACK THEATERS. ** BLACK PERFORMERS COULDN'T
GO INTO WHITE THEATERS. THEY HAD TO GO IN BLACK
THEATERS."
ALL THE BLACK JAZZ GREATS, FROM BILLIE HOLIDAY TO
LOUIS ARMSTRONG, AND FROM DUKE ELLINGTON AND COUNT
BASIE TO THE GREAT LIONEL HAMPTON REGULARLY "PLAYED
THE APOLLO" AND CONTRIBUTED TO ITS FAME.
"IT WAS SO POWERFUL. IT WAS LIKE A BOMBSHELL! IT WAS
SO POWERFUL, THE WHOLE WORLD KNEW ABOUT IT... IT WAS
JUST SOMETHING THAT HAD TO HAPPEN. GOD WANTED IT
THAT WAY!"
THAT'S LIONEL HAMPTON HIMSELF. THE LEGENDARY "SWING
ERA" MUSICIAN WHO FIRST MADE THE VIBRAPHONE FAMOUS AS
A JAZZ INSTRUMENT IS NOW 89 YEARS OLD. STILL, HE
EASILY RECALLS WHEN THE APOLLO THEATER WAS GROUND
ZERO FOR HARLEM AND HARLEM WAS "GROUND ZERO" FOR
JAZZ.
"... WE HAD TO DO TEN SHOWS A DAY. BOY, I'M TELLING
YOU PEOPLE LINING UP AROUND SEVENTH AVENUE ONE WAY,
AROUND EIGHTH AVENUE THE OTHER [WAY]. AND THE CROWD
WOULD MEET ON 126TH STREET BEHIND THE APOLLO THEATER
AT THE BACK DOOR. THE CROWD WAS SO TREMENDOUS! IT WAS
JUST JOY ALL THE WAY."
THESE DAYS, IT IS RAP AND HIP-HOP, NOT JAZZ THAT
YOU HEAR ON THE STREET AND IN THE CONCERT HALLS OF
HARLEM. RAP AND HIP-HOP MUSIC LIKE THIS ARE CERTAINLY
THE MAINSTAY FEATURES OF ANOTHER VENERABLE APOLLO
TRADITION: "AMATEUR NIGHT" CONTESTS.
EVERY WEDNESDAY AT SEVEN SHARP, UNKNOWN LOCALS -- AND
THE OCCASIONAL FOREIGNER -- TAKE TO THE STAGE TO TRY
TO PLEASE THE FAMOUSLY TOUGH CROWD, HOPING FOR A
BREAK. *** MS. GRACE BLAKE OF THE APOLLO THEATER
FOUNDATION, SAYS THAT THE PERFORMERS LOVE TO STRUT
THEIR STUFF BEFORE THEIR PEERS.
"THEY ALL THINK THEY ARE GOING TO BE THE NEXT STAR OF
TOMORROW. LIKE MICHAEL JACKSON, HE PLAYED THE APOLLO
AT ONE TIME. AND LUTHER VAN DROSS. HE WAS BOOED OFF
OF HERE ABOUT FOUR OR FIVE TIMES. SO THERE IS HOPE.
THERE ARE KIDS FROM GERMANY AND JAPAN AND ALL OVER
THE WORLD WHO FEEL THAT IF THEY CAN MAKE IT ON THE
APOLLO STAGE, THEY CAN MAKE IT ANYWHERE. "
DURING AMATEUR NIGHT, THE AUDIENCE IS THE JUDGE, AND
CONTESTANTS ARE RANKED ACCORDING TO THE APPLAUSE AT
THE END OF THE SHOW. UNLIKE THE ETIQUETTE AT THE MORE
STAID VENUES DOWNTOWN, THE MOSTLY TEENAGE APOLLO
AUDIENCE IS ENCOURAGED TO CHEER OR BOO AS LOUD AS IT
LIKES. STILL, MS. BLAKE SAYS SHE SOMETIMES FEELS FOR
THE HOPEFULS WHO COME ONSTAGE TO SING ONLY TO BE
SUMMARILY USHERED OFF IN A PANDEMONIUM OF LIGHTS AND
SOUND BY THE APOLLO'S RESIDENT CLOWN, C-P -- FOR
"CROWD-PLEASER" -- LACEY.
"BECAUSE IT'S TOUGH! YOU COME AND YOU PREPARE AND YOU
PREPARE AND AFTER ABOUT THE THIRD NOTE IT'S
'ZOOOMMMM!' HERE COMES THE C-P LACEY TO TAKE YOU OFF
THE STAGE. C-P LACEY HE'S THE EXECUTIONER."
FOR AUDIENCE MEMBERS LIKE MERLINE AND HER PALS FROM
QUEENS, THE CLOWN IN THE MUTLI-COLORED WIG IS AN
ESSENTIAL PART OF THE DRAMA. BUT THERE ARE OTHER
REASONS FOR GOING TOO.
"Q: WHY'D YOU COME HERE TONIGHT? A: TO SEE AMATEURS.
Q: WHAT'S THE DRAW? A: BOOING PEOPLE. AND TO SEE WHO
GOT TALENT... GIVES PEOPLE A CHANCE TO START A
CAREER. Q: DID YOU EVER BOO ANYONE THAT EVERYONE ELSE
LIKED OR VICE VERSA? A: YEAH. YEAH YEAH. YEAH!"
NOT EVERYONE LOSES OF COURSE. ON THIS WEDNESDAY,
AMATEUR NIGHT FIRST PRIZE WENT TO A TEENAGE GIRL IN
RADIANT WHITE WHO SANG A SOULFUL SONG THAT PLEASED
THE CROWD. PERHAPS SHE WILL WIN THE SEMI-FINALS AND
GO ON TO FAME AS NINA SIMONE, ELLA FITZGERALD, GLADYS
KNIGHT, THE INK SPOTS AND NUMEROUS OTHER AMATEUR
NIGHT WINNERS HAVE DONE BEFORE HER.
BUT WINNING IS NOT THE MAIN POINT FOR BILLY MITCHELL,
AN ENTERTAINER WHO DOES DOUBLE DUTY GIVING TOURS TO
THE MANY VISITORS WHO COME TO THE THEATER HOPING FOR
A PIECE OF HARLEM HISTORY. FOR HIM, THE APOLLO'S
ILLUSTRIOUS PAST IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS THIS YEAR'S
AMATEURS -- OR NEXT YEAR'S SUPERSTARS.
"... THERE IS A LOT OF TIMES AFTER THE CONCERTS, I
WILL GO INTO THE THEATER, THERE IS NO ONE HERE AND I
WILL SIT THERE AND I CLOSE MY EYES AND TAKE IN THE SPIRITS
OF ALL OUR ANCESTORS WHO HAVE PERFORMED HERE. ** I FEEL
THEIR PRESENCE. SOME PEOPLE MIGHT SAY 'BILLY! WHAT
ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?' BUT I AM TAKING IT IN. WHEN
YOU HAVE A LOVE FOR A PLACE.... THERE IS NO OTHER
PLACE I WANT TO WORK EXCEPT FOR THE APOLLO THEATER. I
REALLY, REALLY LOVE IT HERE."
SPECIAL EDITION: 75th ANNIVERSARY AMATEUR NIGHT BIRTH DAY PARTY
To kick off its 75th Anniversary Season, the world famous Apollo Theater will present a special anniversary edition of its popular signature show, Apollo Amateur Night, on Wednesday January 28, 2009 at 7:30pm. In a salute to the community who has kept the Theater going for the last 75 years, tickets will be only $7.50 for the first 750 people who purchase tickets for the January 28 performance. Considering this Amateur Night, “the official birthday party” for the iconic Theater, producers have pulled out all the stops for this show. Hosted by KISS-FM Morning Show personality Talent, the evening will include a very special performance from Harlem native and super producer/rapper Ron Browz performing his monster hit “Pop Champagne” and his latest single “Jumpin’ Out the Window.” There will also be a cake and cupcakes, (provided by Harlem bakery Make My Cake), prizes, giveaways, a very unique rendition of Happy Birthday, and a chance for people to write messages to the Apollo. Tickets are available at The Apollo Theater Box Office- (212) 531-5305, 253 West 125th Street. Ticketmaster at (212) 307-7171 or www.ticketmaster.com/venue/6 .
About Amateur Night
From its notoriously tough audience to the magic of the Tree of Hope, the Apollo Amateur Night story is the stuff that legends are made of–literally. Amateur Night has been the launching pad for countless world-class artists across generations and genres, including Stevie Wonder, The Jackson Five and Lauryn Hill. Long before Ted Mack and the Amateur Hour and American Idol, the Apollo’s Amateur Night was, and continues to be, a primary source for discovering new talent and spotlighting up-and-coming artists, all hoping that the hallowed stage and the approval of the infamous audience will launch their careers in the entertainment world.
Since introducing the first Amateur Night contests in 1934, the Apollo Theater has played a major role in the emergence of innovative musical genres including jazz, swing, bebop, R&B, gospel, blues, soul and hip-hop. Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Sammy Davis, Jr., James Brown, Bill Cosby, Gladys Knight, Luther Vandross, D’Angelo, and countless others began their road to stardom on the Apollo’s stage. Based on its cultural significance and architecture, the Apollo Theater received state and city landmark designation in 1983 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
About the Apollo Theater
Celebrating its 75th Anniversary Season in 2009-10, the Apollo Theater is one of Harlem’s, New York City’s, and America’s most iconic and enduring cultural institutions. The Apollo was one of the first theaters in New York—and the country—to integrate, welcoming traditionally African-American, Hispanic, and local immigrant populations, and headlining uniquely talented entertainers who found it difficult to gain entrance to other venues of similar size and resources. For that reason, the Apollo has been a pioneer in presenting the cultural contributions of black and Latino communities and has played a central role in the development of American music into the 21st century.
The Apollo Theater Foundation, Inc., was established as a nonprofit, charitable organization in 1991 and is dedicated to the preservation and development of the Apollo Theater. The Foundation brought stability to the Theater’s operations and focused its efforts on reinvigorating the Apollo legend. Recently, the Apollo has roughly tripled its operating budget, full-time staff, annual audience, and weekly programs. In January 2008 the Apollo announced a series of initiatives leading up to its 75th Anniversary Season in 2009-10, including an archive of historic documents, photographs, audio and video recordings, artifacts, and other memorabilia and ephemera as part of its ongoing mission of preserving and making available its legacy.
The Apollo’s mission is to honor the influence and advance the contributions of African-American artists and advance emerging creative voices across cultures and artistic media through the Apollo experience of world-class live performances and educational programs. The Apollo reigns as one of New York City’s premiere uptown attractions and is the cultural anchor of the current reinvigoration of the 125th Street corridor.
For more information, visit www.apollotheater.org.
http://harlemworldblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/apollo%E2%80%99s-75th-anniversary-kick-off/
Apollo’s 75th Anniversary Kick-off it 75th!!
THE RESURGENCE OF THE 125TH STREET STRIP HAS BEEN
PEGGED TO THE RE-OPENING OF THE APOLLO THEATER -- A
HARLEM INSTITUTION THAT CAME TO SYMBOLIZE THE HEYDAY
OF JAZZ AND RELATED AFRICAN AMERICAN ART FORMS FROM
THE MID-1920S THROUGH THE 1950S.
PERCY SUTTON IS THE BIG CITY POLITICIAN, MEDIA MOGUL
AND CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST WHO BOUGHT THE SHUTTERED
APOLLO IN 1980 AND REFURBISHED IT IN THE OLD STYLE.
ACCORDING TO HIM, THE APOLLO'S INITIAL POPULARITY
AMONG BLACKS WAS DUE TO THE RACISM OF NEW YORK'S
ENTERTAINMENT WORLD DURING THE 1930S AND 40S.
"THE APOLLO THEATER HAS A GREAT HISTORY.
HISTORICALLY, IT WAS THE RESULT OF DISCRIMINATION. IT
WAS, TOGETHER WITH THEATERS IN SEVEN OTHER CITIES,
THE PLACE WHERE BLACK ENTERTAINERS COULD GO AND HONE
THEIR TALENTS AND WHERE BLACK PEOPLE COULD COME.
BLACKS COULDN'T GO INTO WHITE THEATERS. THEY HAD TO
GO INTO BLACK THEATERS. ** BLACK PERFORMERS COULDN'T
GO INTO WHITE THEATERS. THEY HAD TO GO IN BLACK
THEATERS."
ALL THE BLACK JAZZ GREATS, FROM BILLIE HOLIDAY TO
LOUIS ARMSTRONG, AND FROM DUKE ELLINGTON AND COUNT
BASIE TO THE GREAT LIONEL HAMPTON REGULARLY "PLAYED
THE APOLLO" AND CONTRIBUTED TO ITS FAME.
"IT WAS SO POWERFUL. IT WAS LIKE A BOMBSHELL! IT WAS
SO POWERFUL, THE WHOLE WORLD KNEW ABOUT IT... IT WAS
JUST SOMETHING THAT HAD TO HAPPEN. GOD WANTED IT
THAT WAY!"
THAT'S LIONEL HAMPTON HIMSELF. THE LEGENDARY "SWING
ERA" MUSICIAN WHO FIRST MADE THE VIBRAPHONE FAMOUS AS
A JAZZ INSTRUMENT IS NOW 89 YEARS OLD. STILL, HE
EASILY RECALLS WHEN THE APOLLO THEATER WAS GROUND
ZERO FOR HARLEM AND HARLEM WAS "GROUND ZERO" FOR
JAZZ.
"... WE HAD TO DO TEN SHOWS A DAY. BOY, I'M TELLING
YOU PEOPLE LINING UP AROUND SEVENTH AVENUE ONE WAY,
AROUND EIGHTH AVENUE THE OTHER [WAY]. AND THE CROWD
WOULD MEET ON 126TH STREET BEHIND THE APOLLO THEATER
AT THE BACK DOOR. THE CROWD WAS SO TREMENDOUS! IT WAS
JUST JOY ALL THE WAY."
THESE DAYS, IT IS RAP AND HIP-HOP, NOT JAZZ THAT
YOU HEAR ON THE STREET AND IN THE CONCERT HALLS OF
HARLEM. RAP AND HIP-HOP MUSIC LIKE THIS ARE CERTAINLY
THE MAINSTAY FEATURES OF ANOTHER VENERABLE APOLLO
TRADITION: "AMATEUR NIGHT" CONTESTS.
EVERY WEDNESDAY AT SEVEN SHARP, UNKNOWN LOCALS -- AND
THE OCCASIONAL FOREIGNER -- TAKE TO THE STAGE TO TRY
TO PLEASE THE FAMOUSLY TOUGH CROWD, HOPING FOR A
BREAK. *** MS. GRACE BLAKE OF THE APOLLO THEATER
FOUNDATION, SAYS THAT THE PERFORMERS LOVE TO STRUT
THEIR STUFF BEFORE THEIR PEERS.
"THEY ALL THINK THEY ARE GOING TO BE THE NEXT STAR OF
TOMORROW. LIKE MICHAEL JACKSON, HE PLAYED THE APOLLO
AT ONE TIME. AND LUTHER VAN DROSS. HE WAS BOOED OFF
OF HERE ABOUT FOUR OR FIVE TIMES. SO THERE IS HOPE.
THERE ARE KIDS FROM GERMANY AND JAPAN AND ALL OVER
THE WORLD WHO FEEL THAT IF THEY CAN MAKE IT ON THE
APOLLO STAGE, THEY CAN MAKE IT ANYWHERE. "
DURING AMATEUR NIGHT, THE AUDIENCE IS THE JUDGE, AND
CONTESTANTS ARE RANKED ACCORDING TO THE APPLAUSE AT
THE END OF THE SHOW. UNLIKE THE ETIQUETTE AT THE MORE
STAID VENUES DOWNTOWN, THE MOSTLY TEENAGE APOLLO
AUDIENCE IS ENCOURAGED TO CHEER OR BOO AS LOUD AS IT
LIKES. STILL, MS. BLAKE SAYS SHE SOMETIMES FEELS FOR
THE HOPEFULS WHO COME ONSTAGE TO SING ONLY TO BE
SUMMARILY USHERED OFF IN A PANDEMONIUM OF LIGHTS AND
SOUND BY THE APOLLO'S RESIDENT CLOWN, C-P -- FOR
"CROWD-PLEASER" -- LACEY.
"BECAUSE IT'S TOUGH! YOU COME AND YOU PREPARE AND YOU
PREPARE AND AFTER ABOUT THE THIRD NOTE IT'S
'ZOOOMMMM!' HERE COMES THE C-P LACEY TO TAKE YOU OFF
THE STAGE. C-P LACEY HE'S THE EXECUTIONER."
FOR AUDIENCE MEMBERS LIKE MERLINE AND HER PALS FROM
QUEENS, THE CLOWN IN THE MUTLI-COLORED WIG IS AN
ESSENTIAL PART OF THE DRAMA. BUT THERE ARE OTHER
REASONS FOR GOING TOO.
"Q: WHY'D YOU COME HERE TONIGHT? A: TO SEE AMATEURS.
Q: WHAT'S THE DRAW? A: BOOING PEOPLE. AND TO SEE WHO
GOT TALENT... GIVES PEOPLE A CHANCE TO START A
CAREER. Q: DID YOU EVER BOO ANYONE THAT EVERYONE ELSE
LIKED OR VICE VERSA? A: YEAH. YEAH YEAH. YEAH!"
NOT EVERYONE LOSES OF COURSE. ON THIS WEDNESDAY,
AMATEUR NIGHT FIRST PRIZE WENT TO A TEENAGE GIRL IN
RADIANT WHITE WHO SANG A SOULFUL SONG THAT PLEASED
THE CROWD. PERHAPS SHE WILL WIN THE SEMI-FINALS AND
GO ON TO FAME AS NINA SIMONE, ELLA FITZGERALD, GLADYS
KNIGHT, THE INK SPOTS AND NUMEROUS OTHER AMATEUR
NIGHT WINNERS HAVE DONE BEFORE HER.
BUT WINNING IS NOT THE MAIN POINT FOR BILLY MITCHELL,
AN ENTERTAINER WHO DOES DOUBLE DUTY GIVING TOURS TO
THE MANY VISITORS WHO COME TO THE THEATER HOPING FOR
A PIECE OF HARLEM HISTORY. FOR HIM, THE APOLLO'S
ILLUSTRIOUS PAST IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS THIS YEAR'S
AMATEURS -- OR NEXT YEAR'S SUPERSTARS.
"... THERE IS A LOT OF TIMES AFTER THE CONCERTS, I
WILL GO INTO THE THEATER, THERE IS NO ONE HERE AND I
WILL SIT THERE AND I CLOSE MY EYES AND TAKE IN THE SPIRITS
OF ALL OUR ANCESTORS WHO HAVE PERFORMED HERE. ** I FEEL
THEIR PRESENCE. SOME PEOPLE MIGHT SAY 'BILLY! WHAT
ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?' BUT I AM TAKING IT IN. WHEN
YOU HAVE A LOVE FOR A PLACE.... THERE IS NO OTHER
PLACE I WANT TO WORK EXCEPT FOR THE APOLLO THEATER. I
REALLY, REALLY LOVE IT HERE."
SPECIAL EDITION: 75th ANNIVERSARY AMATEUR NIGHT BIRTH DAY PARTY
To kick off its 75th Anniversary Season, the world famous Apollo Theater will present a special anniversary edition of its popular signature show, Apollo Amateur Night, on Wednesday January 28, 2009 at 7:30pm. In a salute to the community who has kept the Theater going for the last 75 years, tickets will be only $7.50 for the first 750 people who purchase tickets for the January 28 performance. Considering this Amateur Night, “the official birthday party” for the iconic Theater, producers have pulled out all the stops for this show. Hosted by KISS-FM Morning Show personality Talent, the evening will include a very special performance from Harlem native and super producer/rapper Ron Browz performing his monster hit “Pop Champagne” and his latest single “Jumpin’ Out the Window.” There will also be a cake and cupcakes, (provided by Harlem bakery Make My Cake), prizes, giveaways, a very unique rendition of Happy Birthday, and a chance for people to write messages to the Apollo. Tickets are available at The Apollo Theater Box Office- (212) 531-5305, 253 West 125th Street. Ticketmaster at (212) 307-7171 or www.ticketmaster.com/venue/6 .
About Amateur Night
From its notoriously tough audience to the magic of the Tree of Hope, the Apollo Amateur Night story is the stuff that legends are made of–literally. Amateur Night has been the launching pad for countless world-class artists across generations and genres, including Stevie Wonder, The Jackson Five and Lauryn Hill. Long before Ted Mack and the Amateur Hour and American Idol, the Apollo’s Amateur Night was, and continues to be, a primary source for discovering new talent and spotlighting up-and-coming artists, all hoping that the hallowed stage and the approval of the infamous audience will launch their careers in the entertainment world.
Since introducing the first Amateur Night contests in 1934, the Apollo Theater has played a major role in the emergence of innovative musical genres including jazz, swing, bebop, R&B, gospel, blues, soul and hip-hop. Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Sammy Davis, Jr., James Brown, Bill Cosby, Gladys Knight, Luther Vandross, D’Angelo, and countless others began their road to stardom on the Apollo’s stage. Based on its cultural significance and architecture, the Apollo Theater received state and city landmark designation in 1983 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
About the Apollo Theater
Celebrating its 75th Anniversary Season in 2009-10, the Apollo Theater is one of Harlem’s, New York City’s, and America’s most iconic and enduring cultural institutions. The Apollo was one of the first theaters in New York—and the country—to integrate, welcoming traditionally African-American, Hispanic, and local immigrant populations, and headlining uniquely talented entertainers who found it difficult to gain entrance to other venues of similar size and resources. For that reason, the Apollo has been a pioneer in presenting the cultural contributions of black and Latino communities and has played a central role in the development of American music into the 21st century.
The Apollo Theater Foundation, Inc., was established as a nonprofit, charitable organization in 1991 and is dedicated to the preservation and development of the Apollo Theater. The Foundation brought stability to the Theater’s operations and focused its efforts on reinvigorating the Apollo legend. Recently, the Apollo has roughly tripled its operating budget, full-time staff, annual audience, and weekly programs. In January 2008 the Apollo announced a series of initiatives leading up to its 75th Anniversary Season in 2009-10, including an archive of historic documents, photographs, audio and video recordings, artifacts, and other memorabilia and ephemera as part of its ongoing mission of preserving and making available its legacy.
The Apollo’s mission is to honor the influence and advance the contributions of African-American artists and advance emerging creative voices across cultures and artistic media through the Apollo experience of world-class live performances and educational programs. The Apollo reigns as one of New York City’s premiere uptown attractions and is the cultural anchor of the current reinvigoration of the 125th Street corridor.
For more information, visit www.apollotheater.org.
http://harlemworldblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/apollo%E2%80%99s-75th-anniversary-kick-off/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)