Tuesday, February 27, 2007

BBC Reported Building 7 Had Collapsed 20 Minutes Before It Fell

UPDATED 7:35AM 2/28/07
A quick post on a new revelation of the False Flag Attacks of 9/1/1.
Go here for story.

UPDATE - Here is the video.

One can skip to the 14:30 mark to get to the part related to the revelation. In the still above Bldg 7 also known as the Saloman Brothers Bldg. can be seen directly next to her left side of her head. I, like many others, do not claim that BBC was part of the Conspiracy in a knowing way.
One can read BBC's lame response and responses to it here. Notice that no comments by Human were allowed to be posted by the comment moderator. So I think I'm being more than fair to link their response. In their response the BBC promotes their slime piece "Conspiracy Files". Alex Jones throughly debunked their show which was full of preconceptions and falsehoods. Including the false claim that Dylan Avery (one of the makers of Loose Change, a film I do not recommend) is a University drop out.

Peace.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

BLESSED ARE THE PEACE MAKERS

And what is the opposite of that?

Damned are the War Makers.

"We come in Peace"?

And just where is the evidence of that?


(NOT GRAPHIC, SFW & CHILDREN)


For more Esther Sparks

PS - Sorry friends, for I have not been to visit or post here. I've been busy with all the housework that had fallen to the wayside during my battles with kidney stones. I also had to go down to the DC metro area twice this week. I'll visit when I get a chance. Right now, "YOU PLAY"! "YOU PLAY"! is the non stop chant I'm hearing right now.

Peace. Bring it On.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

2 FIRSTS FOR LIL JOE & A FIRST FOR DADDY HUMAN

On this Day in History Sunday Feb. 18th 2007) Lil Joe drew his 1st discernible picture. "TRUCK"! he exclaimed proudly. Daddy Human so proud too! His Grandfather and namesake could draw a fine picture. His Mother is pretty good too. He sure didn't get it from me! Anything beyond a stick figure and ya have to call an Evidence Technician.
















The other Firsts are combined. For a few weeks now, Lil Joe has been "Hammering" with toys and various objects. I thought it was time to get him a tool bench. Mommy bought one at Tuesday Morning. While my two precious ones napped I snuck out to the car and brought it in. He was so excited to see it! Here he is having fun "working" in my the 1st online video post.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

A MUSICAL MENAGE E' TROIS FOR MELISSA

Introducing my newest friendly Melissa of Written Rebellion.Most of you know her already but for those who don't she is one of a kind. A Lover of Books who understands the Connections to our Past. A stalwart on Progressive values,
She Walks the Talk.


















So, because She Cares about others enough to call for the Comfort of Another:


Because She has a sense of humour:


And just because:

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Feb. 14, 1831 Ex Slave & Mexican President, Vicente Ramon Guerrero is Executed












The following is from an article dated April 17, 2002 -
THE MAJESTIC LIFE OF PRESIDENT VICENTE RAMÓN GUERRERO
"This weekend's overthrow and sudden return of Huge Chavez to the Presidency of Venezuela should remind millions of Americans that he was not the first president of a major Latin American country whose ancestors included Africans. Chavez was born to a family of African, Native American and European stock, but he was certainly not the first or the most famous. That honor belongs to Mexico's Vicente Guerrero.

Vicente Guerrero has been a towering figure in the Americas, masterfully commanding Mexico's liberation army during much of its independence movement, and later assuming his country's presidency where he again fought off foreign invaders. Born poor to a Black Indian family and growing up without formal schooling, he taught himself to read and write as he trained his troops in the Sierra Madre mountains. He was able to help write Mexico's constitution, free its slaves, take steps to educate and elevate its poor and people of color, and serve as his country's first president of African and Native American descent.

Guerrero at 27 was a hard-working mule driver until the spirit of freedom moved him to action along with tens of thousands of other men and women of his racial and economic background. In 1810 he cast his skills and offered his sacred honor in the struggle against a Spain that dominated his country and most of Latin America.

African American historian J.A. Rogers called Guerrero the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln of Mexico an assessment that indicates the man's stature. Now, Theodore G. Vincent, no stranger to Mexican cultural development or the African American experience, has written a thorough study of this important figure, The Legacy of Vicente Guerrero, Mexico's First Black Indian President (University of Florida Press, 2001, 336 pages). More than just the biography of a public figure, Vincent weaves an inspiring addition to the freedom-fighting heritage of the Americas and uncovers the untold story of "Mexican cultural nationalism."

In 1810 Guerrero joined the struggle in which he would fight in "491 battles without a defeat" and began his rise from the ranks of other "pardos" or people of mixed races. His attributes included an ability to speak many indigenous languages and a command of military tactics. When first given command, Guerrero had 500 unarmed troops, but he soon remedied this with a midnight cavalry attack on a Spanish fortification that gained his men guns and ammunition. In his first year when he was elevated to Captain, he was able to convince many Indian men of military age to support the revolution.

The Mexican Independence war was one of the first modern guerrilla wars against an imperialist army that burned villages. It was also one of the first instances where guerrilla fighters without an urban base maintained a political base. The revolutionaries lacked enough guns and ammunition, and had to battle against local militias determined to settle old scores. Roadsides were marked by crucifixes bearing the rotting bodies of bandits and insurgents. Guerrero had to make it up as it came along.

Guerrero's humanitarian impulses, close identification with his soldiers and public speaking skills helped cement a relationship with his "pardo" army. When he won a victory he would claim he was a soldier in the ranks and, "It wasn't me . . . but the people who fought and triumphed." He appointed Pedro Ascencio Alquisiras to be the first Native American General in Mexico's army -- and this when more citizens considered not Africans but Indians as the lowest rung of the social and political ladder.

Vincent is carefully tuned to the complicated racial structure of Mexico caused by the Spanish invasion, and he paints a vivid and sharp picture of the changing social relations caused by the revolution. He points out that the great liberator, Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon who mentored Guerrero, was also a Black Indian as were many other high officers. By 1800 Africans were a majority of settlers in Durango, Sinaloa, Sonora, and California and Acapulco was 95% pardo. By 1820 the Independence movement boasted only one standing army, the dark freedom-fighters under the command of Guerrero.

Spain's obsession with race led to laws that denied people of color advancement, but permitted many to bribe their way up the caste ladder. Even the first revolutionary Constitution of 1812 included article #22 that excluded African Americans from benefiting from many reforms such as political rights and freedoms. But this only mobilized Guerrero and others to see that the overthrow of Spanish officials also included an agenda of freedom and equality for all.

Guerrero also had to defeat efforts of the white elite of Mexico to highjack the revolution won by his dark-skinned soldiers. Terms such as pardo, zambo, mulatto lobo were erased from the Mexican language. In 1823 he declared "We have defeated the colossus, and we bathe in the glow of new found happiness." True freedom, he declared is "living with a knowledge that no one is above anyone else, and that there is no title more honored than that of the citizen" and this applies equally to soldier, worker, official, cleric, landowner, laborer, writer and craftsman.

On April first, 1829 Vicente Guerrero assumed the presidency of Mexico and his partisans riotously celebrated this "father of his people." Decades before Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address spoke of a democracy of, by and for the people, Guerrero promised to be guided always by "that important truth that those in office are for the people, and not the people for those in office."

In his first address to the Mexican Congress, Guerrero said:
"The administration is obliged to procure the widest possible benefits and apply them from the palace of the rich to the wooden shack of the humble laborer. If one can succeed in spreading the guarantees of the individual, if the equality before the law destroys the efforts of power and of gold, if the highest title between us is that of citizen, of the rewards we bestow are exclusively for talent and virtue, we have a republic, and she will be conserved by the universal suffrage of a people solid, free and happy."

On his third day in office, the president invited people of all races to his 47th birthday party, a fiesta held on the city outskirts. On the fourth day he addressed a letter to his constituents in the "land of the pintos" meaning darker people, commending their 33 martyrs in the fight for liberty. At the same moment, Guerrero was being roundly denounced by conservative and liberal politicians for being of a lower class and lower caste and was snidely called "the commoner" as though this made him unable to lead. He rejoiced in his own common touch.

In Oaxaca he was supported by a 23-year old Indian campaign worker, Benito Juarez, who would become the first Indian president and drive out the last foreign invasion of Mexico in the 1860s. Guerrero sought out the wisdom of his wife Maria Guadalupe Hernendez de Guerrero who became an important advisor known as "la Generala." She later became the leader of his movement.

Guerrero began his term by ending the death penalty by edict, and also commuted all death sentences. Next he raised taxes to pay for improvements in the lives of the poor. Then he proclaimed "Slavery is abolished in the Republic" on Independence Day, September 16, 1829.

However, Guerrero, concerned with the plight of his people rather than distant investors, did not repay foreign loans and little investment capital reached Mexico from abroad. The rich staged a tax rebellion against his policies and as his army went unpaid units became mutinous. Some of Guerrero's officials were assassinated, and army desertions rose. The Mexican Congress finally declared by a vote of 23 to 17 he had abused his presidential power and had provided funds for revolutionaries in Haiti. His foes wanted to have him declared morally unfit and "crazy" but this did not happen. However, his foes had him kidnapped at a dinner party aboard an Italian ship in Acapulco and executed by a firing squad in February, 1831." End.
Original Source <--click

Friday, February 09, 2007

The most important question in the world is, 'Why is the child crying?'

A quote of Alice Walker's. Author of the Color Purple and many other writings.





"On Feburary 9, 1944, in the small farming community of Eatonton, GA, Willie Lee and Minnie Grant gave birth to their eighth and final child, a girl, they named Alice. Little did her parents know that their youngest daughter would become one of the most prolific, controversial and respected African-American novelists of the later-half of the 20th Century. But the potential in Willie Lee and Minnie Grant's baby may not have been recognized early on by others living in their farming community. Alice would have to overcome a number of difficulties in her lifetime that would profoundly influence the way she pictured herself and the world around her and would later help shape her views as a writer."

1944: February 9, Alice Malsenior Walker is born to sharecroppers, Willie Lee and Minnie Tallulah (Lou) Grant Walker in the farming community of Eatonton, GA.
1952: At the age of eight, Alice is accidentally blinded by one of her brothers while playing a game of "Cowboys and Indians."
1952-58: Alice is ostracized as an outcast because of her scar. To deal with her feelings of loneliness, Alice begins to read and write poetry.
1958: At the age of fourteen, while visiting her brother Bill in Boston, Alice is taken to a hospital to have the cataract in her eye removed. She becomes confident and her life is transformed.
1960: Alice graduates as valedictorian from her high school class. She is voted most popular student of her graduating class and is elected queen of the prom.

1961: Alice Walker is awarded a scholarship to attend the historical African-American woman's institution, Spelman College.
1961-63: During her time at Spelman, Alice participates in civil right's movement as an activist.
1963: She leaves Spelman College which she finds too puritanical to attend Sarah Lawrence, a liberal arts college in New York City.
1964: After her junior year at Sarah Lawrence, Alice travels abroad during the summer to become an exchange student in Uganda.
1965: In the winter, during her last few months of school, Alice learns that she is pregnant. For three days Alice sleeps with a razor blade underneath her pillow and contemplates suicide. A friend of hers locates a doctor to help Alice get an abortion.
1965: After the abortion, Alice suffers from anxiety and depression. She writes poems based on her experiences which she submits to her writing teacher and mentor Muriel Rukeyser. Her professor submits them to her agent for review. These poems will become the basis of Alice's first book of poetry, Once, which will not be published until three years later.

1965: Walker returns to the south to work in voter registration and promoting welfare rights in Georgia.
1967: Alice falls in love with Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal who she marries on March 17, 1967. He later becomes an attorney who prosecutes civil rights cases in court. They move to Mississippi in becoming the state's first legally married interracial couple in history.
1967: Alice Walker publishes her first short story, "To Hell with Dying," based in reaction to her depression.
1969: Alice's work in Georgia helps her to see the effect poverty on relationships between black men and women.
1969: With the help of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, Walker finishes The Third Life of Grange Copeland, three days before her daughter, Rebecca Grant's birth.
1969: Becomes a Writer in Residence at Jackson State University, where she teaches Black Studies Courses.
1970: "Third Life of Grange Copeland" is published.
1970-71: Walker is appointed a "Writer in Residence at Tougaloo College in Mississippi

1970: While researching for a short story on voodoo, Alice discovers the folk stories of Zora Neale Hurston.
1972: Alice moves with her daughter Rebecca to Massachusetts where she is taught at Wellesley College a course on African-American Women Studies, the first class of its kind in the country. She also teaches classes at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.
1973: Alice and a friend, Charlotte Hunt, fly down to Eatonville, FL, Zora Neale Hurston's birthplace and places a tombstone on her unmarked grave.
1973: Alice's second volume of poetry, Revolutinary Petunias and Other Poems is published, along with her first short story collection, In Love and In Trouble: Stories of Black Women.
1974: Alice Walker moves back to New York where she becomes a contributing editor at Ms. Magazine. Her book Langston Hughes: American Poet is published.
1976: She and her husband Mel Leventhal divorce amicably.
1976: Her novel Meridian is published. Critics hail it as one of the best novels to come out of the Civil Rights movement.
1976: Alice begins work on her third work of poetry, "Goodnight Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning."

1978:Alice Walker is awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Grant.
1979:She packs up her bags in New York, sells her house and moves to San Francisco to begin writing on her third novel.
1981:Her second collection of short stories comes out, You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down.
1982:Alice Walker's third Novel The Color Purple is published and is nominated for a National Book Award.
1982:Alice Walker becomes a professor at University of California duirng the Spring and Bradeis University during the Fall.
1983: Her first collection of essays In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens is Published
1984:Her third collection of poems come out, Horses Make a Landscape More Beautiful.
1984: Her publishing company,Wild Trees Press is begun with her long-time boyfriend, Robert Allen.
1986:The Color Purple premieres on January 18 in her hometown of Eatonton, GA.

1988:Alice Walker's second book of essays Living By the Word is published.
1988:Alice Walker company Wild Trees Press closes.
1989:Alice's fourth novel, Temple of My Familiar is published.
1991:Alice's second children's story is released Finding the Green Stone is published and her collected book of poems is released Her Blue Body Everything We Know: Earthling Poems 1965-1990
1992:Alice's fifth novel is released, Possessing the Secret of Joy a novel that discusses the horrors of the effects of Female Genital Mutilation.
1993:Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women is published. The film makes its United States debut.
1996:Alice's third book of essays Same River Twice is released.
1998:By the Light of My Father's Smile is released

You can read a more detailed and very interesting Bio written by Alice herself here.

Other News and Facts on this Day in History.
Feb.9th 2007 Human e-mailed comment to Jack Cafferty. Comment read on air by Jack Cafferty at 5:56pm EST. Human felt quite a Rush. It was in response to his 5 O'clock question; "What's the message when virtually every major government official has a higher negative rating than positive?" I wrote in my response and signed "Human" by accident. I meant to put my real 1st name. Jack(we are on a 1st name basis now)read -
"H. from Pennsylvania said, "It means that both parties are responsible for the Mis Management of Government. It's time for people to start taking a look at 3rd party candidates. 'Course they will have to look hard. The MSM doesn't show them or let them speak."(I think he added "on the air" which I did not write, but sounds better, thanks Jack) I didn't save the e-mail(embedded on CNN site)and I didn't expect him to read it as I've sent quite a few in the past. So I'm paraphrasing myself to the best of my ability. The name Human musta confused them, so Jack said "H".

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

NEW STUFF AT CARBON PAPER

In case you didn't notice there are new things on the right sidebar.
One is the flag of the Keystone State Pennsylvania. The State of my birth and current residence. Below that is a short on a Historical Marker. At each visit the marker will be a new one. Hey, I told ya, I was a History Freak. While driving if I see a Historical marker, I have to fight the urge to pull over and read it.

One can find the exact location of the Historical marker featured by clicking the name of that particular marker (e.g. xxxxx PA 1234)

Immediately below the Pa. Flag is a link to the National Historical marker Database. You can find your own State's Historical markers there. This a Historical Marker in Washington State's Clallam County at Port Angeles.

Below the Historical marker stuff yo will find a picture of President Gore. To the right of the pic, is a link to a petition site where you can join in the effort to Draft Al Gore for President. Strong rumour has it that He will make a Big Announcement at the Oscars on Award Night, this Febuarary 25th. So there is not much time to drag him into the fray.

I hope he runs as an Independent for the reasons I stated last May.

I'll add to that by saying, I feel certain that we, by Womanning and Manning the Tubes of the Internets, we can funnel $10,000,000.00 to him in the first 31 days of his Official Announcement. Like go totally Tubular on their Ass. We don't need no stinking Democratic Party Machine.

Peace. It's possible. We just have some Walls to Tear down. And I want to use Gore's head as Battering Ram to knock 'em down.

I do think there are some good Democrats. Right now (11:45 am EST), I'm particularly enjoying Rep. Henry Waxman Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee nail Viceroy Bremer and Gang asses to the wall on C-SPAN over their Corrupt practices in Iraq.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Feb 5th 1956 Louis Lautier became the first Black admitted to membership in the National Press Club



Louis Lautier (Born unknown - Died 1962) was both a Washington correspondent for The Atlanta Daily World and Washington bureau chief of the NNPA wire service during the 1940s. For NNPA, he headed a staff of five and wrote a column called ''Capital Spotlight.'' In 1947, the NNPA and U.S. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (D-N.Y.) successfully fought to get the Congress to integrate its House and Senate press galleries.

The NNPA wire service was relatively new at the time. The group of Negro newspaper publishers was founded only seven years earlier.

The following are excerpts from an AFRO Magazine profile on Lautier, published in April 1947. The article was written by Woody L. Taylor -

"Forty-seven years ago a little fellow came to live with Harry and Ida Lautier in New Orleans. They named him Louis Robert. Louis developed the yen to write at an early age. Shortly after graduating from Straight College Prep School, he decided to try his hand at putting his thoughts on paper
.
He kissed his mother and dad goodbye and struck out on his own. He got his A.B. degree from Morris Brown College and attended Howard University Law School for one year.

The Atlanta Independent gave him the first opportunity to get his journalistic spurs in 1923. When it folded, the youngster decided to be a freelance writer. By this time it had dawned on him that he had the makings of the big time.

He jumped from a small, unknown local sheet straight toward the top.

The AFRO-AMERICAN Newspapers gave him a chance to show his wares by accepting some of his material for publication. That was 24 years ago. He has been a contributor ever since.

He made contacts with other publications and soon had built up a chain throughout the country that used his material.

Publishers Organize - In 1940 publishers of Colored weeklies and one daily decided to pool their resources to obtain national news coverage of Washington.

The organization, which had named itself National Negro Publishers' Association, after experimenting for a year or so, chose Louis to head the staff.

Has Detremination - Those who know ''Louie,'' as he is best known, say he is a tough man when he gets peeved. Well, he got his ''dander'' up over the fact that only White daily press reporters were admitted to the Senate and House press galleries. Under [President] Roosevelt, the association's [NNPA's] representative was already admitted to White House press conferences.

Although he is a little man weighing a scant 135 pounds and only five feet six inches tall, Louie never lets up when there is something he wants.

He applied, in a letter to Sen. Harry Byrd (D-Va.), Then chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, on Dec. 3, 1945. The Senator promised to submit Louie's application to the committee but somehow never got around to it.

After appeals to Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-Tex.), his application was finally submitted. A letter announcing the correspondent's rejection came Jan. 25, 1946.

When Republicans got control of Congress, Louis tried again.
This time he asked Sen. C. Wayland Brooks (R-Ill.) to present the matter to the Rules Committee on Jan. 7, 1947. At the hearing [on] Mar. 4, Lautier was again rejected on the grounds that his work with the 36 [NNPA member] newspapers, mostly weeklies, was more important than his connection to The Atlanta Daily World. This put him in the weekly class [,they said,] and weeklies are not eligible for places in the daily press galleries."

The following are excerpts from an article Lautier wrote for the NNPA describing why it was necessary to have Black press representatives watching Congress. My copy is from the March 29, 1947 edition of The Afro-American -

WASHINGTON (NNPA)--"Explaining the mission of the NNPA News Service, before the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration regarding my admission to the Senate Press Gallery, I remarked:

"A sub-committee of this committee hearing on amending the Senate cloture rule, involved fundamental principles of democratic government. Yet, from the viewpoint of minority citizens, they were inadequately reported by the White daily press.

"For example, I saw in no White daily any reference to the profound statement of Sen. John H. Overton, of Louisiana, that 'The Democratic South stands for White supremacy.' An effective cloture rule and the attitudes of both the Democratic and Republican parties are matters which deeply interest minority citizens."

White View Only - Another example of the type of service rendered by The Atlanta Daily World and NNPA involves an incident before the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. Clarence Mitchell, labor secretary of the NAACP, appeared before that committee recently in opposition to all pending labor legislation.

At the close of his testimony, Sen. Wayne Morse, of Oregon, rebuked representatives of labor organizations who had appeared before the committee and opposed all pending labor bills but had not offered any suggestions as to the type of legislation they thought the Congress ought to enact.

The White dailies carried Senator Morse's comment, but not the views of Mr. Mitchell. If minorities are to be intelligently informed of what is going on in the Congress, it is essential that they also get the views of representatives of Colored organizations.

Committee Coverage Easy - Instances cited involved no difficulty in coverage because committee hearings are open to all reporters, except that accredited correspondents get first consideration and if all seats at press tables are taken minority reporters may be forced to sit in the audience, as they must occupy seats in the visitors' galleries in the Senate and House......

Heavy Service Required - As to my qualifications, I represent both a daily newspaper and a wire service, some of whose members require telegraphic service. The larger weeklies, some of which publish editions daily, require telegraphic service. These include The Amsterdam News, AFRO-AMERICAN newspapers, Pittsburgh Courier, Chicago Defender, Norfolk Journal and Guide, and Kansas City Call."

Continued excerpt from an AFRO Magazine profile on Lautier, published in April 1947. The article was written by Woody L. Taylor
"However, the rejection this time crystallized enough pressure from the weekly and daily press so that the previous decision made by the Standing Committee to bar him was overruled by the Senate Rules group.

The important thing is that Louie had won his fight."

This article titled "Color Bar" appeared in TIME Magazine on Monday, Jan. 31, 1955
"In Washington, Negro newsmen have the right to sit in congressional press galleries, enjoy full press privileges at the White House and in Government offices, and have even been elected to Congress itself. But there is still one inner sanctum where Negro newsmen have never been admitted as members: the 911-member National Press Club, to which virtually all capital correspondents (and hundreds of pressagents and lobbyists) belong.* Three weeks ago Louis Lautier, 56. Washington correspondent for the National Negro Press Association and the Atlanta Daily World, decided to put the club's color bar to its first formal test. Lautier, the first Negro reporter on a daily newspaper to be admitted to the congressional press galleries (TIME. March 31, 1947), applied for club membership. The club, he reasoned, is not only a social institution but a place where newsmen come to exchange information, hear speakers at club luncheons, and meet sources. Many a newsman agreed with Lautier. and he had no trouble finding as sponsors Columnists Drew Pearson and Marquis Childs and U.P. Correspondent Lee (Breakthrough on the Color Front} Nichols.

A fortnight ago Lautier's application was tentatively approved by the club's board of governors, but the best it could do was a 6-4 vote. The board's action touched off a hot debate, and Lautier's supporters and opponents got ready for a stormy floor fight at the club's annual meeting. But four days before the meeting both factions agreed on a way to keep the fight from flaring into the open. The members agreed to "avoid discussion that might become acrimonious and unseemly" by putting Lautier's application to a secret yes or no ballot of the entire membership — the first time such a vote has ever been taken. At week's end, Lautier himself nutshelled the question: "How can I be denied membership on my color when they have people of the yellow race, and, I understand, Communists, as members from other countries? My color is against me as an American."

* Negroes are admitted to the club's big banquet hall when it is rented out to other organizations, but only two have ever ventured into the members' private dining room or Press Club bar. One, William Hastie. now a federal judge, was refused service; the other, C.I.O. Aide George Weaver, was served luncheon, but his newsman host got an anonymous letter warning him never to bring a Negro again."

Later on Monday, Feb.14,1955 TIME Magazine had this article titled "Color Bar Lifted"
"As Washington correspondent for the Atlanta World and National Negro Press Association, Louis Lautier stirred up a storm when he applied for admission to the National Press Club last month. The 911-member club had never admitted a Negro before, and the members split into two sharply divided groups over his application (TIME. Jan. 31). But Lautier's backers confidently expected the members to go along with the national trend toward desegregation and end their color bar. On the eve of the club's referendum vote. Lautier wrote a column for Washington's Negro semiweekly Afro-American, personally attacking two members of the club, George Durno of International News Service and Jerry Greene of the New York Daily News, for opposing his admission. After the column, many a middle-of-the-roader in the fight turned against Lautier, feeling that his piece was out of line and inaccurate. Nevertheless, in the largest voting turnout in the club's history, Lautier last week was admitted to the Press Club by a vote of 377 to 281."

ONE FOR THE BEAN TOWN BOBBIES

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid.


Tip O' Hat to Kalapusa from a C&L late nite open thread. Click pic to enlarge for full scary effect.

And to keep the Sunday Giggles going, watch the trailer for "Dubya The Movie".

Saturday, February 03, 2007

FEB 3RD 1870 Jonathan Jasper Wright is appointed the first Black Superior Court Justice in South Carolina


Jonathan Jasper Wright was born February 11, 1840, in Luzerne County, the son of runaway slaves who came north aided by the Underground Railroad and grew up in Springville. He was privately tutored and mentored by Springville’s Dr. William Wells Pride, who was active in the anti-slavery movement.
Educated in common schools of Pennsylvania and Lancasterian Academy, Ithaca, NY, he read law at the Bentley, Fitch, Bentley law office in Montrose, while supporting himself as a teacher. He later read law in the chambers of Wilkes-Barre Judge O. Collins and taught school in Wilkes-Barre. He attempted to stand for the Pennsylvania Bar, but was denied the opportunity because of his race. After the passage of the Civil Rights Bill in 1866, Jonathan returned to Pennsylvania and petitioned authorities to allow him to take the bar examination. His request was granted, and he was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar on August 13, 1866, making him the first black man licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania.
He joined the American Missionary Association, a legendary, abolitionist group and moved to Beaufort, South Carolina in 1865 to teach the newly freed slaves. He also became the legal advisor to General Oliver O. Howard, for the Freedman’s Bureau. Wright viewed his responsibility as one "to vindicate the cause of the downtrodden," and he quickly acquired a following among the newly freed slaves. These activities drew criticism from some in Beaufort. Wright answered by saying, “Had I been content to settle down and been what the masses of white persons desired of me (a bootblack, a barber, or a hotel waiter), I would have been heard of less.” He was a delegate to the Colored People’s Convention in Charleston and was elected to the Union Republican Party’s state central committee, upon which he served as a delegate to the South Carolina State Constitutional Convention in 1867.
Wright was elected to the South Carolina Senate in April, 1868, and was sworn in as a member of the South Carolina Bar on September 23, 1868, becoming one of three black lawyers to be admitted to practice law in South Carolina.
After serving as a State Senator he was appointed to the Supreme Court of South Carolina, and on February 1, 1870, Justice Wright was elected as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of South Carolina where he served until December 1, 1877. Justice Wright authored some 90 opinions that influenced the direction of the court in South Carolina, and many of these decisions are still relied upon to this day as legal precedent. Charges were made concerning Wright’s conduct when he refused to recognize the disputed election of Wade Hampton as governor, which he said he could not do and "honor my judicial trust after Wade Hampton was elected Governor of South Carolina. Although these allegations appear to have been entirely fabricated, Wright saw that he would be forced from the Supreme Court and submitted his resignation.
Jonathan Jasper Wright set up law offices in Charleston, South Carolina, and he established the Law Department at Claflin College, where he began training law students. He served as a Claflin College trustee and was active in the Republican Party. He died on February 19, 1885 of tuberculosis. He is buried in Calvary Episcopal Church Cemetery, Charleston, South Carolina.
For many years after Justice Wright’s death from tuberculosis, his reputation was subjected to suspicion, racism, and neglect. Even official portraits of the Justice could no longer be found.
A century after his death the South Carolina Supreme Court did rectify his stature. On two occasions within the past four years, South Carolina Supreme Court justices bestowed belated honor on Justice Wright. In 1997, the justices celebrated Wright’s service to the court by unveiling a rare 1870 portrait of him that had been published in Harper’s magazine. Last year, a granite grave marker was unveiled. During that ceremony, Chief Justice Ernest Finney, Jr., stated, "[Wright's] election to the supreme court marked a high point in a celebrated career of public service, as a teacher, a lawyer, and as a statesman."

In partnership with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the Springville Settlers’ Historians and the Center for Anti-Slavery Studies participated in the dedication of a state historical marker on September 13, 2001 in Springville, PA. on Route 29 commemorating Justice Jonathan Jasper Wright.

Also on this Day in Black History -
1870 - The U.S. Congress passesd the 15th Amendment giving the right to vote to all male citizens, including Blacks. The American Anti-Slavery Society later disbands, thinking their work is done.

1956 - Black student, Autherine Lucy, enrolled at the University of Alabama. She is later expelled for making false and derogatory statements about the University.

1989 - Bill White, former St. Louis Cardinals first baseman, became the first Black to head the National League of an American Baseball professional sport league.

Friday, February 02, 2007

The Father of Black History


"Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history."






These are the words of Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, distinguished Black author, editor, publisher, and historian (December 1875 - April 1950). Carter G. Woodson believed that Blacks should know their past in order to participate intelligently in the affairs in our country. He strongly believed that Black history - which others have tried so diligently to erase - is a firm foundation for young Black Americans to build on in order to become productive citizens of our society.

Known as the "Father of Black History," Carter G. Woodson holds an outstanding position in early 20th century American history. Woodson authored numerous scholarly books on the positive contributions of Blacks to the development of America. He also published many magazine articles analyzing the contributions and role of Black Americans. He reached out to schools and the general public through the establishment of several key organizations and founded Negro History Week (precursor to Black History Month). His message was that Blacks should be proud of their heritage and that other Americans should also understand it.

Carter G. Woodson was born in New Canton, Buckingham County, Virginia, to former slaves Anne Eliza (Riddle) and James Henry Woodson. Although his parents could neither read nor write, Carter G. Woodson credits his father for influencing the course of his life. His father, he later wrote, insisted that "learning to accept insult, to compromise on principle, to mislead your fellow man, or to betray your people, is to lose your soul."

His father supported the family on his earnings as a carpenter. As one of a large and poor family, young Carter G. Woodson was brought up without the "ordinary comforts of life." He was not able to attend school during much of its five-month term because helping on the farm took priority over a formal education. Determined not to be defeated by this setback, Carter was able "largely by self-instruction to master the fundamentals of common school subjects by the time he was seventeen." Ambitious for more education, Carter and his brother Robert Henry moved to Huntington, West Virginia, where they hoped to attend the Douglass High School. However, Carter was forced to earn his living as a miner in Fayette County coal fields and was able to devote only a few months each year to his schooling. In 1895, a twenty-year-old Carter entered Douglass High School, where he received his diploma in less than two years.

From 1897 to 1900, Carter G. Woodson began teaching in Winona, Fayette County. In 1900, he returned to Huntington to become the principal of Douglass H.S.; he finally received his Bachelor of Literature degree from Berea College, Kentucky. From 1903 to 1907, he was a school supervisor in the Philippines. Later he traveled throughout Europe and Asia and studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris. In 1908, he received his M.A. from the University of Chicago, and in 1912, he received his Ph.D. in history from Harvard University.

During his lifetime, Dr. Woodson developed an important philosophy of history. History, he insisted, was not the mere gathering of facts. The object of historical study is to arrive at a reasonable interpretation of the facts. History is more than political and military records of peoples and nations. It must include some description of the social conditions of the period being studied.

Woodson's work endures in the institutions and activities he founded and promoted. In 1915, he and several friends in Chicago established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. The following year, the Journal of Negro History appeared, one of the oldest learned journals in the United States. In 1926, he developed Negro History Week and in 1937 published the first issue of the Negro History Bulletin.

Dr. Woodson often said that he hoped the time would come when Negro History Week would be unnecessary; when all Americans would willingly recognize the contributions of Black Americans as a legitimate and integral part of the history of this country. Dr. Woodson's outstanding historical research influenced others to carry on his work. Among these have been such noted historians as John Hope Franklin, Charles Wesley, and Benjamin Quarles. Whether it's called Black history, Negro history, Afro-American history, or African American history, his philosophy has made the study of Black history a legitimate and acceptable area of intellectual inquiry. Dr. Woodson's concept has given a profound sense of dignity to all Black Americans.

December 19th 1875 - Carter is Born in New Canton Virginia.

1892 - Left home to work on the railroad and then in the mines.

1893 - Family moved to Huntington, West Virginia

1895-1896 - Attended Douglass High School, Huntington, West Virginia

1896-1897 - Attended Berea College, Kentucky

September - December 1897 - Attended Lincoln University, Pennsylvania

1898-1900 - Taught, Winona, West Virginia

1900-1903 - Principal, Douglass High School, Huntington, West Virginia

June 18th 1902 - December 1903 - Attended University of Chicago

1903 - Bachelor of Literature from Berea College

1903-1907 - Taught in the Philippines

1907 - Traveled in Europe and Asia; attended the Sorbonne, Paris, France

October - December 1907 - Attended University of Chicago

January - August 1908 - Attended Graduate School, University of Chicago; received B.A. in March; M.A. in August

1908-1909 - Attended Harvard University

1909-1918 - Taught, M Street (Dunbar) High School, Washington, D.C.

1912 - Ph.D. in History from Harvard University

1913 or 1914-1921 - Member of the American Negro Academy

April 1915 - The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 published

September 1915 - Established the Association for the Study of Negro Life & History

August 29th 1917 - First Biennial meeting of ASNLH

1918 - A Century of Negro Migration published

1918-1919 - Principal, Armstrong Manual Training School, Washington, D.C.

1919-1920 - Dean, School of Liberal Arts, Howard University

1920-1922 - Dean, West Virginia Collegiate Institute (West Virginia State College); Established Associated Publishers

1921 - Received grant from the Carnegie Institution; The History of the Negro Church published

1922 - The Negro in Our History published

1924 - Free Negro Owners of Slaves in the U.S. in 1830: Together with Absentee Ownership of Slaves in the U.S. in 1830 published

1925 - Free Negro Heads of Families in the United States in 1830 published

1926 - Negro Orators and Their Orations published; The Mind of the Negro as Reflected in Letters Written During the Crisis, 1800-1860published; established Negro History Week; received Spingarn Medal

1927 - Appointed to Advisory Committee, Interracial Relations Committee on Problems and Policy Social Science Research Council; appointed staff contributor Dictionary of American Biography

1928 - Negro Makers of History published; African Myths: Together with Proverbs published

1928 - Attended summer meeting of Social Science Research Council, Dartmouth College

1929 - The Negro as a Businessman, with John H. Harmon, Jr. and Arnett G. Lindsay published

1929-1933, 1938 - Established Woodson Collection at the Library of Congress

1930 - The Negro Wage Earner, with Lorenzo Greene published; The Rural Negro published

1932 - The encyclopedia controversy

1932-1935 - Summers in Europe

1933 - The Mis-Education of the Negro published

1934 - The Negro Professional Man and the Community, with Special Emphasis on the Physician and the Lawyer published

1935 - The Story of the Negro Retold published

1936 - The African Background Outlined published

1937 - Began publication of the Negro History Bulletin

1939 - African Heroes and Heroines published

1941 - Doctor of Laws from West Virginia State College

April 3rd 1950 - Dies suddenly.

1958 - Elected to the Ebony Hall of Fame
(above original source)

And in 1975 the highest form of compliment for any scholar was paid when the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library in Chicago was built.

As a self admitted History freak, I feel particularly ripped off. The History that was taught White children of my Era had a huge gaping hole in it. Other than some of the story of slavery, Nat Turner and Martin Luther King nothing else was taught to us. Today many schools offer studies in Black History and so much of the story can be learned. I only have read one book by a Black person. Days of Grace by Arthur Ashe.
Most of my reading of History has focused on World War Two. In the last few years I've mostly read contemporary WW II narratives and the such. My current reading is "Flags of our Fathers". The personal History of the Iwo Jima Mt. Suribachi Flag raisers. After I finish it, I'm going to try to find if one of Dr. Carter's books is available. There is so much for me to learn about Black History, which in Truth is as Dr. Woodson maintained, is a integral part of all of our History as Americans. I didn't even know there was a "Father of Black History" and never heard of Dr. Carter. I think his 1st book "THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO PRIOR TO 1861: A HISTORY OF THE EDUCATION OF THE COLORED PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES FROM THE BEGINNING OF SLAVERY TO THE CIVIL WAR" would be a good start. Hope I can find a copy.

Peace.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

GOODBYE MOLLY



Molly Ivins has died of Breast Cancer. This was her third and final bout with that dreadful disease. I don't think it was an accident that her last column was a call for all of us to carry on the fight.





Stand Up Against the Surge
Jan. 11th 2007

"The purpose of this old-fashioned newspaper crusade to stop the war is not to make George W. Bush look like the dumbest president ever. People have done dumber things. What were they thinking when they bought into the Bay of Pigs fiasco? How dumb was the Egypt-Suez war? How massively stupid was the entire war in Vietnam? Even at that, the challenge with this misbegotten adventure is that WE simply cannot let it continue.

It is not a matter of whether we will lose or we are losing. We have lost. Gen. John P. Abizaid, until recently the senior commander in the Middle East, insists that the answer to our problems there is not military. "You have to internationalize the problem. You have to attack it diplomatically, geo-strategically," he said.

His assessment is supported by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the senior American commander in Iraq, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who only recommend releasing forces with a clear definition of the goals for the additional troops.

Bush's call for a "surge" or "escalation" also goes against the Iraq Study Group. Talk is that the White House has planned to do anything but what the group suggested after months of investigation and proposals based on much broader strategic implications.

About the only politician out there besides Bush actively calling for a surge is Sen. John McCain. In a recent opinion piece, he wrote: "The presence of additional coalition forces would allow the Iraqi government to do what it cannot accomplish today on its own — impose its rule throughout the country. ... By surging troops and bringing security to Baghdad and other areas, we will give the Iraqis the best possible chance to succeed." But with all due respect to the senator from Arizona, that ship has long since sailed.

A surge is not acceptable to the people in this country — we have voted overwhelmingly against this war in polls (about 80 percent of the public is against escalation, and a recent Military Times poll shows only 38 percent of active military want more troops sent) and at the polls.
We know this is wrong. The people understand, the people have the right to make this decision, and the people have the obligation to make sure our will is implemented.

Congress must work for the people in the resolution of this fiasco. Ted Kennedy's proposal to control the money and tighten oversight is a welcome first step. And if Republicans want to continue to rubber-stamp this administration's idiotic "plans" and go against the will of the people, they should be thrown out as soon as possible, to join their recent colleagues.

Anyone who wants to talk knowledgably about our Iraq misadventure should pick up Rajiv Chandrasekaran's "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone." It's like reading a horror novel. You just want to put your face down and moan: How could we have let this happen? How could we have been so stupid?

As The Washington Post's review notes, Chandrasekaran's book "methodically documents the baffling ineptitude that dominated U.S. attempts to influence Iraq's fiendish politics, rebuild the electrical grid, privatize the economy, run the oil industry, recruit expert staff or instill a modicum of normalcy to the lives of Iraqis."

We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge. If you can, go to the peace march in Washington on Jan. 27. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, "Stop it, now!"

Human says - Next DC demo is March 17th.

To find out more about Molly Ivins and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com."
COPYRIGHT 2007 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. <-Original Source

Her Editor and Close friend Anthony Zurcher has written a tribute that you may read here.