Someone our Children's Should Know, Learn, and Read About: Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer was an voting rights activist, civil rights leader, and philanthropist. She was instrumental in organizing Mississippi’s Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the vice-chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

Hamer did not write any books, but many have been written about her. Most of us are aware of the impassioned testimony Hamer gave at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. But Hamer also gave speeches at the 1968 and 1972 conventions, and even spoke with Malcolm X in Harlem.

Someone Our Children Should Read About: Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson; born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, and science communicator. Since 1996, he has been the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City. The center is part of the American Museum of Natural History, where Tyson founded the Department of Astrophysics in 1997 and has been a research associate in the department since 2003.

Who is Edmund Pettus and What is the Selma to Montgomery Marches?

Edmund Pettus served as chairman of the state delegation to the Democratic National Convention for more than two decades. In 1877, Pettus was named Grand Dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan, during the final year of Reconstruction^.]

Fifty years ago, on March 7, 1965, hundreds of people gathered in Selma, Alabama to march to the capital city of Montgomery. They marched to ensure that Blacks could exercise their constitutional right to vote — even in the face of a segregationist system that wanted to make it impossible.
On the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, state troopers and county members violently attacked the marchers, leaving many of them injured and bloodied — and some of them unconscious.
But the marchers didn't stop. Two days later, Dr. Martin Luther King led roughly 2,500 people back to the Pettus Bridge before turning the marchers around — obeying a court order that prevented them from making the full march.
The third march started on March 21, with protection from 1,000 military policemen and 2,000 Army troops. Thousands of people joined along the way to Montgomery, with roughly 25,000 people entering the capital on the final leg of the march. On March 25, the marchers made it to the entrance of the Alabama State Capitol building, with a petition for Gov. George Wallace.
Only a few months later, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law on August 6, 1965. The Voting Rights Act was designed to eliminate legal barriers at the state and local level that prevented Blacks from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment — after nearly a century of unconstitutional discrimination.

Look how far we have come with, we, Black Americans is the only group who freed ourselves with no army, no guns, no military, and no war....just the belief and faith that God is still on the throne and injustice any where is a threat to justice everywhere....we are free and if we keep believing one day all people will be equal under the law.

Selma! 50 Years Later: "Remember, Recommit, and Restore."

The first Black U.S. President of three of the most important civil rights milestones in America's tortured racial history, President Obama and his family will pay homage, again: 

• In 2013,  President Obama spoke at the 50th anniversary celebration of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
• Last year, President Obama addressed the 50th anniversary of the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
• Today, President  Obama and his family will lead a tribute at the Edmund Pettus Bridge to mark the 50th anniversary of what became known as "Bloody Sunday," when police set upon scores of people marching from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama, to protest their inability to vote, clobbering and tear-gassing them until they were bloody.

"We should be commemorating Selma, but today the cause for celebration has been marred by Shelby," Jackson said, referring to the 2013 Supreme Court ruling that resulted in the high court calling on Congress to revise the formula used to decide which communities should require federal approval before changing voting rules. Congress has yet to do so.
Jackson said that the Shelby ruling amounted to "taking away the keys but leaving us with the car."

"We are at a critical moment," said Bernice King, CEO of the King Center and Martin Luther King Jr.'s youngest daughter. "We can keep reacting, or we can finally make some critical changes like they did in the '50s and '60s."

On March 7, 1965 nearly 500 civil rights marchers were beaten back by police officers equipped with tear gas and clubs as they tried to cross the infamous Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. On March 21, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., led a five-day march with crowds growing to 25,000 in a federally supported march for equality. The 54 mile march directly impacted the signing of Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

Countless American heroes whose names are not in the history books, that are not etched on marble somewhere — ordinary men and women from all corners of this nation, all walks of life, black and white, rich and poor, students, scholars, maids, ministers — all who marched and who sang and organized to change this country for the better. 

Today, Selma still struggles to overcome its legacy.The city's population has declined by about 40 percent to 20,000 in the last 50 years and Dallas County's unemployment rate is nearly double the state average. Public schools in Selma are nearly all black; most whites go to private schools. Blacks lead the annual "Bloody Sunday" commemoration; whites lead an annual re-enactment of the 1865 "Battle of Selma" to attract Civil War re-enactors.

From March 5th through the 9th, all eyes will once again be on Selma as The Bridge Crossing Jubilee commemorates the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday with a weekend of reflection around the theme  "Remember, Recommit, and Restore."

Thousands are expected to attend the festivities including U.S.Presidents, congressional representatives, national personalities, and entertainers. 

The Color Doll Experiments...Where are we today?

The Color Doll Experiments 

The Clarks' doll experiments grew out of Mamie Clark's master's degree thesis. They published three major papers between 1939 and 1940 on children's self-perception related to race. Their studies found contrasts among Black children attending segregated schools in Washington, DC versus those in integrated schools in New York.  The doll experiment involved a child being presented with two dolls. Both of these dolls were completely identical except for the skin and hair color. One doll was white with yellow hair, while the other was brown with black hair. The child was then asked questions inquiring as to which one is the doll they would play with, which one is the nice doll, which one looks bad, which one has the nicer color, etc. The experiment showed a clear preference for the white doll among all children in the study. These findings exposed internalized racism in Black children, self-hatred that was more acute among children attending segregated schools. This research also paved the way for an increase in psychological research into areas of self-esteem and self-concept.  Have our minds been changed?

today

yesterday

Free but not Equal? Are we going back?

Now we are free. What do we want? We want education; we want protection; we want plenty of work; we want good pay for it, but not any more or less than any one else...and then you will see the down-trodden race rise up.

—John Adams, a former slave   Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot. —Frederick Douglass, 1865 We went every day about nine o’clock, with our books wrapped in paper to prevent the police or white persons from seeing them...After school we left the same way we entered, one by one, when we would go to the square about a block from school, and wait for each other. —Susie King, who attended a secret school in Savannah, Georgia Have we really actually been free?

Happy Valentine's Day--Love is In the Air!

Love Is Such a Beautiful Thing

 

How Do I Really Move On After A Breakup?

Unfortunately, there is no quick fix to a painful breakup, but there are a few things you can do to try and ease the emotional pain.

Love is such a beautiful thing, but if you find that you are physically, mentally, emotionally, financially and sexually drained, you are fighting for love with the wrong person, now you are beginning to know, feel, and think that love hurts. Reality has now set in and you now are at the fork in the road; your relationship has ended and your heart is fully broken, now you may find that it is difficult to find that happy place you once were in before, thinking, feeling, wondering, asking, what will my family, friends, and co-workers think and sometimes all of the emotional craziness begin, shame, guilt, pity party and mentally, physically, and spiritually hiding.  Let’s get started!

Get Walking…..Exercise!

Exercise is like natural pain killers and are far healthier than brewing. Exercising is one of the best ways to produce this natural pain killers. Working up a sweat is not only great for your physical health, but your emotional health, too. So get to it!

Avoid Becoming a Glutton for Punishment.

After a breakup, memory lane during a break-up phase is a dead end. Do not become a stalker via social media or through any other means of communication.  Do not try to get the latest gossip through their friends, and do not re-read old love notes and texts, delete and trash them all.  When you are trying to mend a broken heart it is best to avoid everything that has to do with him or her and anything that reminds you of him or her.

Go through the Grieving Period.

But do not stay there!  What is done is done. Sometimes when it is over, it is over, and it is what it is, over!  Then you forget why you ended it and the emotional craziness start all over again. Then you start having doubts about your decision. Then you start thinking, “I cannot live without him or her” or “What is wrong with me?” This is called the grieving period, the rough time, but keep going forward and do not look back; do not back track. Think of yourself, your worth, and who you are! Then comes the breakthrough!  Re-vamp your living space and work space. Begin to re-invent your life imagine a new you and become that new you.   

Remember who loves you.

Your love ones! Call your friends and family and tell them about the new you.  Now you are in a position to uplift their spirit and maybe even make them smile.  Or better yet, become the sounding board or great buffer for them during a hard time.  And as the old saying goes, “It is better to have loved and lost, then to have never loved at all”. Give love another chance for the first time.