Issues and Ideas

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

EDUCATION

Something to think about
Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education.

Martin Luther King Jr.
in his "The Purpose of Education"

EDUCATING THE CHILDREN OF AMERICA

Presumably, everyone regards education for America's children as a high priority. Here is one view from a distinguished citizen:

Children's education - from a speech by General Colin Powell

Scholarships for Minorities

The Herbert Lehman Education Fund Scholarship

BLACK INVENTION

The Black Inventor Online Museum

Black inventors and their work.

IMPORTANT IDEAS

Useful Quote:

I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come.

Abraham Lincoln

(Video) “It’s You, and the choices you make.”

Dr. Benjamin Carson

Somebody said:

To make your dreams come true, you have to stay awake.

(Video) The Pound Cake Speech

Bill Cosby

MUSIC AND THE ARTS

THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE (1919-1937) - A research and Reference Guide.

Click here for link

Contains an Introduction, Selected Bibliography, Blues Lyrics, and Research and Study Topics.

Personalities featured include: Gwendolyn Bennett, Marita Bonner, Arna Bontemps, Sterling A Brown, Countee Cullen, W. E. B. Du Bois, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Rudolph Fisher, Marcus Garvey, Angelina Weld Grimke, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Charles Spurgeon Johnson, James Weldon Johnson, Nella Larsen, Alain Locke, Claude McKay, Mary White Ovington, George Schuyler, Anne Spencer, Wallace Thurman, Jean Toomer, Carl Van Vechten, Eric Walrond, Dorothy West, Walter White.

JUST THE BLACK NOTES
Dr. Wintley Phipps, pastor of Palm Bay Seventh Day Adventist Church, Palm Bay, Florida popularized the fact that negro spirituals mainly use the black notes of the piano. His illustrations included a powerful rendering of the well-known hymn "Amazing Grace."
Amazing Grace as you've never heard it before. (Recorded at Carnegie Hall)
(In 1998, Dr. Phipps founded the U.S. Dream Academy, "an organization dedicated to making a better place by starting with the most significant members of the society - our children.")

THE TWO BROTHERS WHO GAVE US

“LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING”

One brother, James Weldon Johnson, wrote the words in 1899. He was born on June 17, 1871 in Jacksonville, Florida. He graduated from Atlanta University in1894 (MA 1904), and went on to be come a songwriter, anthologist, teacher, and lawyer. He was the first African-American to pass the bar in the state of Florida. In 1920, he was appointed Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

His works in clude: The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, 1920; The Book of American Negro Poetry, 1922; God’s Trombones, 1927; and Along This Way, 1933

James Weldon Johnson died in a car accident in Wiscasset, Maine on June 26, 1938. He was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn New York.

His brother, John R. Johnson, composed the music. He was born on August 11, 1873 in Jacksonville, Florida. He too attended Atlanta University, and also the New England Conservatory of Music. With his brother, James, he belonged to the songwriting team of Cole and Johnson Brothers. He also edited a number or collections of African-American music.

John R. Johnson died November 11,1954 in New York City.

RACE

A little poem, pointing to the lasting effects of an unkind word.

Incident

Once, riding in Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me "nigger."

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.

(by Countee Cullen)
1903–1946
A leading poet of the Harlem Renaissance

What is the U.S. Constitution to Me?

A presentation on Race, Law and the Constitution by Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, followed by a panel discussion.

Analysis of Barack Obama’s “A More Perfect Union”

A panel discussion analysing The Speech: Race and Barack Obama's "A More Perfect Union", moderated by Jelani Cobb with editor T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting and contributors Keli Goff, Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., Adam Mansbach, and Joan Morgan.

The speech itself : “A More Perfect Union”

ABOUT BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Biographies of Notable Black Personalities

Articles, Videos, Pictures and Facts

AFRICAN-AMERICAN FIRSTS

African-American Firsts in all areas

ISSUES AND IDEAS

Relating to African Americans