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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - 4:17 pm
I think that he writes so well that you could actually feel all the emotions that he was feeling.
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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - 5:27 pm
Excellent! Wonderful message, very inspiring.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 2:41 pm
The Atlantic slave trade, slavery and reparations Franklin Knight Wednesday, January 10, 2007 Themes of the Atlantic slave trade, systems of slavery and the justness of possible reparations for the descendants of Africans are particularly pertinent this year. After all, for much of the English-speaking world this year marks at least two important anniversaries. The first commemoration is the founding of the English colony at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Defying great odds, Virginia went on to play such an important role on the British North American colonies and the United States of America. After 12 years the colony was secure enough to call its first general legislative assembly and consolidate its fragile hold on the surrounding areas. The success of Virginia had tremendous consequences for the history of the Caribbean, especially for the English colony of Barbados. The other commemoration has far greater significance for the English-speaking Caribbean. In 1807 the British Parliament abolished the lucrative and commercially important transatlantic slave trade conducted by its citizens for more than two and a half centuries. During that time more than 10 million Africans were transported to the Americas and condemned to eternal servitude. American slavery not only profoundly transformed the economies of Europe and the Americas, but also the demography, society, ecology and culture of several continents. The termination of the English slave trade failed to end the horrible commerce. Although the English were the principal slave merchants throughout the Americas, nearly 25 per cent of all Africans arrived in the New World after 1810, with more than 600,000 sold in Cuba alone. While post-1810 American deliveries represented a dramatic decline from the 60 per cent trade conducted between 1700 and 1810, the demand for Africans remained strong through the middle of the 19th century. The abolition of a part of the trade was a modest step. By 1807, the Haitians had totally abolished slavery. That was the most important Caribbean event after 1492. <snip> When slavery collapsed, the ex-slave-owners received compensation in some cases but never the slaves. The question of reparations for the manifest injustices of slavery after 1500 is a legitimate exercise although enormously complex and eventually futile. Slavery was never uniform. Reparations might have to reflect that fact and the differences between selling and using slaves. But that is a totally different issue. Legitimacy of reparations derives from the ruthlessly exploitative nature of slavery during several centuries as well as modern precedents, especially claims made by the descendants of incarcerated Jews against Germany, and Japanese against the United States. In both cases, the two countries had invidiously selected a group, imprisoned them and confiscated their property. Germany wantonly practised genocide against the Jews. At the same time, the discussion is futile because justice has no universally accepted definition. Justice and international morality are opportunistically determined by political power relations. Descendants of slaves in Africa or in the global African diaspora lack the political or moral power that Jews and Japanese mobilised to lever a sort of convenient justice that resulted in reparations. Operations of the World Court or the United Nations indicate the sad reality that the dice is loaded and the case stacked against reparations. Proponents must accept that reality and move on to other urgent issues. link
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 7:26 pm
How much do you know about notable African American figures in history? Test your knowledge with these ten questions in Game #2.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 9:35 pm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-01-11-bolin-obit_x.htm?csp=24 Jane Bolin, nation's 1st black female judge dies at 98 The Associated Press Jane Bolin, the nation's first black female judge and the first black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, has died. She was 98. Bolin's family contacted the New York City Bar Association on Thursday for help arranging a memorial, spokesman Matthew Kovary said. Bolin was sworn in by Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia in 1939, according to the city's law department. She was assigned to the Domestic Relations Court, later named Family Court, and fought racial discrimination from the bench. She worked to end segregation in child placement facilities and the assignment of probation officers based on race. She also helped create a racially integrated treatment center for delinquent boys. Bolin reflected on her status as a barrier-breaker in a 1993 interview with The New York Times. "Everyone else makes a fuss about it, but I didn't think about it, and I still don't," she said. "I wasn't concerned about first, second or last. My work was my primary concern." The city's mayors renewed her appointment three times, until the law required her to retire at age 70. Bolin, born April 11, 1908, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., was the daughter of a successful lawyer. Initially discouraged by a Wellesley College adviser from pursuing a law degree because of her race and gender, Bolin graduated from Yale Law in 1931. She initially met resistance when she applied to work for New York's law department, but in 1937 she became an assistant corporation counsel. She held the job for two years until she was made a judge.
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Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Friday, January 12, 2007 - 4:42 pm
Theater chain won't show [Black Film] 'Stomp the Yard' link The CEO of a theater chain said he won't show a film about black college fraternities at any of his Springfield theaters this week out of fear it could trigger the kind of gang violence that erupted during another movie last month. The decision drew criticism from the president of the Springfield branch of the NAACP, who said it hurts black audiences, particularly black families that would be attracted to what he says is an uplifting film. The movie, ''Stomp the Yard,'' is about a dance competition between black college fraternities. Tony Kerasotes of Kerasotes Theatres, a Midwest chain, said he did not make his decision based on race but out of concern that the film would attract gang members. He said he feared a repeat of a fight and shooting that occurred during a Christmas Day screening of ''Black Christmas'' at Parkway Pointe theater in Springfield. ''Black Christmas'' is a horror film and did not depict the black community. Police said two groups of youths began fighting inside the theater and at least two fired shots in the theater's lobby. One teen was shot during the melee that police say stemmed from a long-standing feud between two gangs.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Saturday, January 13, 2007 - 12:05 pm
New exhibit of King papers shed light on "Dream" By Matthew Bigg Fri Jan 12, 5:18 PM ET ATLANTA (Reuters) - A major new exhibition of Martin Luther King's personal papers reveals the years of work that lay behind his "I Have a Dream" speech that has come to symbolize the U.S. civil rights movement. The exhibition of 600 documents at the Atlanta History Center is the largest display of the papers since they were bought from the King family by an Atlanta consortium on behalf of Morehouse College last June for $32 million. Displays of speeches and sermons King wrote in longhand and annotated notes on scraps of paper show how he formulated principles of nonviolence as a means to overcome the brutal system of racial segregation that prevailed in the South. Books that King started reading in the 1950s, making notes in the margins, show how his "dream" evolved. The earliest references he made were to shattered dreams, Elizabeth Muller, the exhibition curator, said on Friday. "There were 10 years of creation before 'I Have a Dream.' You can see all these threads come together in the speech," she said of the speech that capped the 1963 civil rights march on Washington. Drafts show how King worked on the speech with aides the night before, struggling to get it down to the five minutes allotted to each speaker. But the speech's landmark final section was delivered extemporaneously after gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was standing close to King, told him to tell the crowd about his "dream," Muller said. At that point, King departed from his prepared text and began to speak without notes, weaving together ideas from speeches he had delivered previously and drawing on a deep tradition of African-American preaching. King's principal biographers have had little access to the collection of 10,000 papers at Morehouse, but the exhibition would not likely lead to a substantial revision of how he was perceived by historians, Muller said. "It (the exhibition) is a reaffirmation of what we know about King. These papers are the core. They show how his philosophy developed from its earliest days," Muller said before the exhibition's opening on Monday, the official Martin Luther King national holiday. The exhibition traces King's life from his school days -- a report card shows he barely managed a passing grade for public speaking -- through the civil rights movement until the sermon he delivered the night before he was assassinated in 1968. Papers include an early fragment of his "Letter from Birmingham Jail," his best-known essay, which he wrote in jail in Alabama and smuggled out for publication. link
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Sunday, January 14, 2007 - 12:01 am
I just tripped over this WONDERFUL video - definitely worth a peek. The little girl in it is simply darling! And the words are powerful. CLICK HERE & Enjoy!
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Sunday, January 14, 2007 - 8:49 am
Lol she has much 'tude. Thx Mame.
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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Sunday, January 14, 2007 - 9:43 am
I would love to see the Dr King exhibition, I wonder if they will have it travel around like some exhibitions do
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Sunday, January 14, 2007 - 1:17 pm

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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Monday, January 15, 2007 - 7:55 am
Quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must ever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. - We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. - If man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live. - It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. - We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobile rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind. - Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. - Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love. - [I]t is necessary to understand that Black Power is a cry of disappointment. The Black Power slogan did not spring full grown from the head of some philosophical Zeus. It was born from the wounds of despair and disappointment. It is a cry of daily hurt and persistent pain. - Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....The chain reaction of evil--hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars--must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. - Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten....America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay. If it loses the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes and the country that would be great will lack the most indispensable element of greatness--justice. And one of my favorites: - We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Monday, January 15, 2007 - 8:25 am
Video of "I Have A Dream" speech
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Vacanick
Member
07-12-2004
| Monday, January 15, 2007 - 8:29 am
Thank you Ladytex! 
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Urgrace
Member
08-19-2000
| Monday, January 15, 2007 - 9:12 am
The 20th Anniversary of the MLK March that started in San Antonio, Texas is being held at this time. It is proceeding down MLK Drive.
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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Monday, January 15, 2007 - 9:58 am
Thanks for the link LadyT! I always get chills and cry everytime I hear it
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Treasure
Member
06-26-2002
| Monday, January 15, 2007 - 10:02 am
Ladytex, I can hear speak each and every one of those quotes. Thank you for this gift of knowledge and wisdom.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Monday, January 15, 2007 - 10:59 am
quote:- [I]t is necessary to understand that Black Power is a cry of disappointment. The Black Power slogan did not spring full grown from the head of some philosophical Zeus. It was born from the wounds of despair and disappointment. It is a cry of daily hurt and persistent pain.
I think that needed repeating.
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Retired
Member
07-11-2001
| Monday, January 15, 2007 - 11:57 am
LT, Thank you for posting those. I love this one.
quote:- Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 11:21 am
Slavery apology opposed Measure stirs controversy in legislature By Bob Gibson / bgibson@dailyprogress.com | 978-7243 January 16, 2007 Should Virginia apologize? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RICHMOND - A resolution to have Virginia apologize for slavery will encounter some opposition in the House of Delegates this month, according to legislators. The highly symbolic issue likely to spark debate is a proposed state apology for African enslavement sponsored by black Virginia lawmakers, at least two of whom are descended from slaves. “It is meant to be a resolution that is part of a healing process, a process that still needs to take place even today in 2007,” said one sponsor, Del. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico County. “No one is asking any individual to apologize, because certainly there are no slaveholders alive today and there are no slaves alive today,” said McEachin, whose great-grandfather was born a slave. “But Virginia is alive and well, and Virginia was built on the backs of slaves, and Virginia’s economy boomed because of slavery, and it is Virginia that ought to apologize,” he said. Some delegates believe an apology is unnecessary and a sign of too much political correctness. “The present commonwealth has nothing to do with slavery,” said Del. Frank D. Hargrove, R-Glen Allen, whose ancestors were French Huguenots who came to America in search of religious freedom. How far do these calls for apologies go, wondered Hargrove, a member of the House Rules Committee that could take up McEachin’s resolution as early as Wednesday. “Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?” Hargrove wondered. “Nobody living today had anything to do with it. It would be far more appropriate in my view to apologize to the Upper Mattaponi and the Pamunkey” Indians for the loss of their lands in eastern Virginia, he said. A similar request for an apology to Virginia Indians is planned, McEachin said Virginia, which received its first slaves at Jamestown in 1619, would be the first state to formally apologize for slavery. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Richmond Democrat, apologized for slavery while mayor of Richmond, said Kevin Hall, Kaine’s press secretary. “He wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to it and certainly he’s got a history of being able to act while in office,” Hall said. A governor’s approval is not required for passage of a joint legislative resolution. Hargrove said raising the issue is not only symbolic, but “I think it’s counterproductive.” Other Republican delegates kept their views off the record. “I personally think that our black citizens should get over it,” Hargrove said of slavery, which existed in Virginia from 1619 until the Civil War. “By golly, we’re living in 2007.” “Nobody can justify slavery today, but it’s counterproductive to dwell on that,” Hargrove said. “Political correctness has kind of gotten us into this area.” Any pollster would learn that “you couldn’t find a tenth of 1 percent [of Virginians] who said slavery is a good institution,” said Hargrove, who has represented Hanover County in the House of Delegates since 1982. Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, said the issue is symbolic but that from 1619 to 1863 many Virginians were denied their citizenship. “I think it’s appropriate and I am going to vote for it,” Deeds said. link
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 11:22 am
Get over it huh? <>
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Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 2:42 pm
That Hargrove guy sounds like a piece of work. He also said that if VA was going to apologize for slavery, Jews should "apologize for killing Christ."Hargrove says he never meant to offend his Jewish or African American friends. However, he did tell his Jewish seat-mate, Delegate David Englin, that his skin is too thin. link <77>
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 2:47 pm
Tish, you are one of a kind! Man oh man. You have the GUTS to say what I am thinking! I admire you sooooo bleeping much. Thank you for being you.

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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 2:48 pm
Sheesh.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 2:50 pm
(((((Mocha, Tish, me and everyone else who has compassion and common sense))))) Sometimes I feel like the Rodney King of this place... cuz my mantra is: WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG. The concept is simple but evidently the practice is difficult for some folks to wrap their brains around. Though danged if I know why?!
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