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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Monday, October 17, 2005 - 4:57 pm
Sculpture Commemorates 1968 Black Power Salute Protest by Smith, Carlos at Mexico City Games Sparked Controversy By JOHN MEHAFFEY, Reuters http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/special4/article.adp?id=20051016112109990012 LONDON (Oct. 16) - A seven-meter sculpture commemorating the 1968 Mexico City Olympics black power protest by Tommie Smith and John Carlos will be unveiled in San Jose State College on Monday. Smith, who had won the 200 meters gold medal in world record time, and third-placed Carlos bowed their heads and raised one black-gloved hand each in the black power salute on the victory podium while "The Star-Spangled Banner" was played. The pair, who had been teammates at the college, will be present at Monday's ceremony along with second-placed Australian Peter Norman. Smith and Carlos say they were influenced in 1968 by a young sociologist friend Harry Edwards who asked them and other black American athletes to boycott the Games. Edwards said the civil rights movement had not gone far enough to eliminate the injustices faced by blacks in the United States. Although the boycott never happened, Smith and Carlos joined Edwards's group, the Olympic Project for Human Rights, and planned a peaceful protest after the 200 meters final, which they were expected to dominate. Smith said he had raised his right fist to represent black power while Carlos's left fist represented unity in black America. A black scarf around Smith's neck stood for black pride and their black socks with no shoes represented black poverty in the United States. They bowed their heads because they believed the words of freedom in the U.S. anthem represented white Americans only and wore a badge representing the Olympic Project for Human Rights. "We didn't come up there with any bombs," Carlos recalled. "We were trying to wake the country up and wake the world up too." Silver medallist Norman heard about the plan as the trio prepared for the victory ceremony. "They involved me in the conversation," he said. "It wasn't a secret huddle, they were letting me know. "I said to John: 'You got another of those badges?' 'If I get one will you wear it?' he asked. 'I sure would,' I replied." The International Olympic Committee were outraged, threatening to expel the U.S. team if Smith and Carlos were not sent home. The U.S. Olympic Committee complied and the duo were sent home. On their return to the United States they were treated as outcasts and struggled to earn a living. Both their marriages broke up and Carlos's wife committed suicide. "We were under tremendous economic stress," said Carlos. "I took any job I could find. We had four children and some night I would have to chop up our furniture and make a fire in the middle of the room." Smith eventually found a job as a track coach and Carlos was hired by the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee to help promote the 1984 Games. "I don't feel embraced," said Carlos. "I feel like a survivor. I was almost like we were on a deserted island. But we survived." Norman is proud to have been associated with the protest. "It's a life-changing experience that is still held up, not just as a moment in sport but as a moment in American history," he said.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Monday, October 24, 2005 - 8:05 pm
Civil Rights Icon Dies at 92 By BREE FOWLER , AP DETROIT (Oct. 24) - Rosa Lee Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement, died Monday evening. She was 92. Mrs. Parks died at her home during the evening of natural causes, with close friends by her side, said Gregory Reed, an attorney who represented her for the past 15 years. Mrs. Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of American history and earn her the title "mother of the civil rights movement." At that time, Jim Crow laws in place since the post-Civil War Reconstruction required separation of the races in buses, restaurants and public accommodations throughout the South, while legally sanctioned racial discrimination kept blacks out of many jobs and neighborhoods in the North. The Montgomery, Ala., seamstress, an active member of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was riding on a city bus Dec. 1, 1955, when a white man demanded her seat. Mrs. Parks refused, despite rules requiring blacks to yield their seats to whites. Two black Montgomery women had been arrested earlier that year on the same charge, but Mrs. Parks was jailed. She also was fined $14. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said he felt a personal tie to the civil rights icon: "She stood up by sitting down. I'm only standing here because of her." The Rev. Al Sharpton called Mrs. Parks "a gentle woman whose single act changed the most powerful nation in the world. ... One of the highlights of my life was meeting and getting to know her." Speaking in 1992, Mrs. Parks said history too often maintains "that my feet were hurting and I didn't know why I refused to stand up when they told me. But the real reason of my not standing up was I felt that I had a right to be treated as any other passenger. We had endured that kind of treatment for too long." Her arrest triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system organized by a then little-known Baptist minister, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who later earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his work. "At the time I was arrested I had no idea it would turn into this," Mrs. Parks said 30 years later. "It was just a day like any other day. The only thing that made it significant was that the masses of the people joined in." The Montgomery bus boycott, which came one year after the Supreme Court's landmark declaration that separate schools for blacks and whites were "inherently unequal," marked the start of the modern civil rights movement. The movement culminated in the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act, which banned racial discrimination in public accommodations. After taking her public stand for civil rights, Mrs. Parks had trouble finding work in Alabama. Amid threats and harassment, she and her husband Raymond moved to Detroit in 1957. She worked as an aide in the Detroit office of Democratic U.S. Rep. John Conyers from 1965 until retiring in 1988. Raymond Parks died in 1977. Mrs. Parks became a revered figure in Detroit, where a street and middle school were named for her and a papier-mache likeness of her was featured in the city's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Mrs. Parks said upon retiring from her job with Conyers that she wanted to devote more time to the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development. The institute, incorporated in 1987, is devoted to developing leadership among Detroit's young people and initiating them into the struggle for civil rights. "Rosa Parks: My Story" was published in February 1992. In 1994 she brought out "Quiet Strength: The Faith, the Hope and the Heart of a Woman Who Changed a Nation," and in 1996 a collection of letters called "Dear Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue With Today's Youth." She was among the civil rights leaders who addressed the Million Man March in October 1995. In 1996, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded to civilians making outstanding contributions to American life. In 1999, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian honor. Mrs. Parks received dozens of other awards, ranging from induction into the Alabama Academy of Honor to an NAACP Image Award for her 1999 appearance on CBS' "Touched by an Angel." The Rosa Parks Library and Museum opened in November 2000 in Montgomery. The museum features a 1955-era bus and a video that recreates the conversation that preceded Parks' arrest. "Are you going to stand up?" the bus driver asked. "No," Parks answered. "Well, by God, I'm going to have you arrested," the driver said. "You may do that," Parks responded. Mrs. Parks' later years were not without difficult moments. In 1994, Mrs. Parks' home was invaded by a 28-year-old man who beat her and took $53. She was treated at a hospital and released. The man, Joseph Skipper, pleaded guilty, blaming the crime on his drug problem. The Parks Institute struggled financially since its inception. The charity's principal activity - the annual Pathways to Freedom bus tour taking students to the sites of key events in the civil rights movement - routinely cost more money than the institute could raise. Mrs. Parks lost a 1999 lawsuit that sought to prevent the hip-hop duo OutKast from using her name as the title of a Grammy-nominated song. In 2000, she threatened legal action against an Oklahoma man who planned to auction Internet domain name rights to www.rosaparks.com. After losing the OutKast lawsuit, attorney Gregory Reed, who represented Mrs. Parks, said his client "has once again suffered the pains of exploitation." A later suit against OutKast's record company was settled out of court. She was born Rosa Louise McCauley on Feb. 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Ala. Family illness interrupted her high school education, but after she married Raymond Parks in 1932, he encouraged her and she earned a diploma in 1934. He also inspired her to become involved in the NAACP. Looking back in 1988, Mrs. Parks said she worried that black young people took legal equality for granted. Older blacks, she said "have tried to shield young people from what we have suffered. And in so doing, we seem to have a more complacent attitude. "We must double and redouble our efforts to try to say to our youth, to try to give them an inspiration, an incentive and the will to study our heritage and to know what it means to be black in America today." At a celebration in her honor that same year, she said: "I am leaving this legacy to all of you ... to bring peace, justice, equality, love and a fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die - the dream of freedom and peace." 10-24-05 23:56 EDT http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/special4/article.adp?id=20051024223309990004
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Friday, December 02, 2005 - 8:37 am
Link to a part of Rosa Park's service: link I've listened 3 times already.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Friday, December 02, 2005 - 10:52 pm
that was awesome ...
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Monday, December 19, 2005 - 12:36 pm
I had to listen to this again.... Or I would've but it's not working now, crap.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Monday, December 26, 2005 - 3:24 pm
Umoja (Unity) The Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles, begin with the principle of Umoja (unity). Our text, Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture, states that the principle Umoja calls on us “to strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race,” i.e., the world African community. Umoja encourages a profound sense of relatedness, togetherness and oneness in the small and larger circles of our lives. It fosters a spirit of togetherness and moral sensitivity which encourages us to avoid injuring each other and the world and to eagerly work and struggle for the common good. Indeed, the principle of unity reminds us of the ancient ethical teaching of the Odu Ifa that the greatest good comes from our gathering together in harmony whether in family, friendship, community, society or the world. And this too the principle of unity teaches us: we live in a web and world of interdependence and that freedom, dignity, well-being and other goods should and must be shared goods for everyone, if there is to be any peace, justice and security for anyone in the world.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Tuesday, December 27, 2005 - 4:08 pm
Today, the second day of Kwanzaa, the principle of self-determination, kuchijagulia, is celebrated. Let us affirm our determination to create, name and define our selves for ourselves, instead of allowing others to define us... On this the second day of Kwanzaa, the principle of self-determination, kuchijagulia, is celebrated. Today we affirm our determination to create, name and define our lives for ourselves, instead of allowing others to do this for us. The mind rules the body. To the extent that the mind is conquered, the body follows. Psychological warfare is a very potent form of combat. Propaganda is information, often masked as entertainment, that attempts to elicit a specific behavior. The message of the Spike Lee film, "Do the Right Thing", is self-determination. It’s theme song "Don’t Believe the Hype" warns us not to fall for propaganda. Television is a potent tool of propaganda. To the extent that we ignore the images it projects into our minds, and go our own way, we practice kuchijagulia. Our young people who stay in school, avoid drugs and alcohol, and stay away from involvement with the police, are practicilng self- determination in the face of determined propaganda onslaughts. Martin Luther King, in criticizing the war in Viet Nam, even though it cost him his government support, and put his life in jeopardy, practiced kujichagulia. Muhammad Ali, in refusing to be drafted, and used as a propaganda tool for the government to use to enlist Black soldiers in the War in Viet Nam, practiced self-determination. It cost him the title, and the right to fight for four years in his prime, but Ali never flinched. Queen N’Zinga of Angola, in the 17th century when many other African rulers traded their captives to the Portuguese, firmly refused to do so. When the Portuguese joined forces with their African allies to bring her into line, still she refused, and waged war against them all. Accompong Nanny, was a leader of the Maroons, and is today honored as a National Hero of Jamaica. For many years, she fearlessly led her African warriors in countless battles against the British thereby winning, and ensuring, the independence of her people, up until today. All of these men and women embody the principle of Self-Determination, Kujichagulia! link
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Wednesday, December 28, 2005 - 6:08 pm
December 28 This date is the third day of Kwanzaa: The day focuses on Ujima or collective work and responsibility. The third principle of the Nguzo Saba is a commitment to active and informed togetherness on a subject of common interest. It is also recognition and respect for the fact that without collective work and struggle, progress is impossible and liberation unthinkable. Akoma ntoaso-the Adinkra is a symbol of shared effort and obligation. Ujima focuses on African freedom as indivisible, active cooperation, and the challenge of culture and history. link
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Thursday, December 29, 2005 - 8:23 am
African-Americans.... An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black), is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. Some African Americans have European and/or Native American ancestry as well. Some have Asian ancestral backgrounds too. The term refers specifically to black African ancestry; not, for example, to white or Arab African ancestry, such as Moroccan or white South African ancestry. Blacks from non-African countries such as Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, Great Britain, or Australia are theoretically referred to by their nation of origin and not African American, but in general the assumption is that if you are black, you are "African American". The term "African American" has been in common usage in the United States since the late 1980s, when greater numbers of African Americans began to adopt the term self-referentially. Malcolm X favored the term "African American" over "Negro" and used the term at an OAAU (Organization of Afro American Unity) meeting in the early 1960s, saying, "Twenty-two million African-Americans - that's what we are - Africans who are in America." Former NBA player/coach Lenny Wilkens is another who used the term as a teenager when filling a job application. Many Blacks began to abandon the term "Afro-American", which had become popular in the 1960s and '70s, for "African-American," because they desired an unabbreviated expression of their African heritage that could not be mistaken or derided as an allusion to the afro hairstyle. The term became increasingly popular, and by the 1980s, Jesse Jackson and others pressed for its adoption and acceptance. Users of the term argued that "African-American" was more in keeping with the nation's immigrant tradition of so-called "hyphenated Americans", who were known by terms like "Irish-American", or "Chinese-American", "Polish-American"), which link people with their, or their ancestors', geographic points of origin. Terms used at various points in American history include Negro, colored, Black and Afro-American. Negro and colored were common until the late 1960s, but are now less commonly used and considered derogatory. African American, Black and, to a lesser extent, Afro-American are used interchangeably today, but their precise meanings and connotations are in dispute. The term African American is sometimes problematic because of its imprecise cultural and geographic meaning. The term as originally applied refers to only those descended from a small number of colonial indentured servants and the estimated 500,000 Africans taken to British North America or the U.S. as slaves (of approximately 11 million Africans taken to the western hemisphere in general). In slightly broader usage, the term can include West Indian and Afro-Latino immigrants whose African ancestors also survived the Middle Passage or recent African immigrants/children of immigrants with American citizenship, but these groups tend to use the ethnic terms Latino or Hispanic, or identify themselves by their countries of origin (i.e., as Dominican or Jamaican instead of African American). The term does not include white, Indian or Arab immigrants from the African continent. The common interpretation of the term 'African American' is frequently, and controversially, challenged; including an infamous incident at a Nebraska High School where a white South African student campaigned for a "Distinguished African American Student Award." [1] link
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Metoo
Member
02-22-2005
| Thursday, December 29, 2005 - 8:29 am
Good article, Mocha. Thanks. Also, thanks for starting this thread.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Thursday, December 29, 2005 - 9:48 am
Thanks, Mocha, I dropped the ball on Kwanzaa this year ...
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Thursday, December 29, 2005 - 10:21 am
Thx Me2. No problem Ladyt, we can alternate years lol.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Thursday, December 29, 2005 - 12:42 pm
AOL Black Voices features in their Best of 2005 some of those we lost this past year. They feature: Luther Vandross Shirley Chisholm August Wilson Johnny Cochran Shirley Horn Nipsey Russell Ossie Davis Clarence Gaines C. Delores Tucker Richard Pryor John H. Johnson Constance Baker Motley http://blackvoices.aol.com/black_news/headlines_features/best_of_2005/obits They did not feature her on that page, but we cannot forget Rosa Parks.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Thursday, December 29, 2005 - 12:59 pm
Dang I don't remember John H. Johnson passing away.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Thursday, December 29, 2005 - 2:06 pm
I kinda remember it because of a tribute to him on BET, I think ...
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Thursday, December 29, 2005 - 2:16 pm
Oh ok
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Thursday, December 29, 2005 - 4:24 pm
Ujamaa (oo-jah-MAH): Collective economics To build, maintain, and support our own stores, establishments, and businesses. This fourth principle of the Nguzo Saba is a commitment to the practice of shared social wealth and the work needed to achieve it. Ujamaa, as the late Julius Nyerere points out, is above all human centered-concerned foremost with the well being, happiness and development of the human person. link
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Danas15146
Member
03-31-2004
| Thursday, December 29, 2005 - 4:30 pm
Mocha - just wanted to thank you for listing the principles of Kwanza here for us here. My kids are learning the different winter holidays in school - but they don't get any detail on what the Kinara (sp?) means or what the candles are in honor of.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Thursday, December 29, 2005 - 4:41 pm
You're very welcome Dana. Just tryin to do my lil part. 
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Mameblanche
Member
04-13-2005
| Thursday, December 29, 2005 - 9:49 pm
Mocha, LadyTex, et al, I hope y'all are enjoying your Kwanza holiday... its still going on, isn't it? Also I had posted a quiz recently on Kwanza in the Games (holiday) section. If you scroll back a bit, you should find it.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Friday, December 30, 2005 - 5:38 pm
This date is the fifth day of Kwanzaa: The day focuses on Nia or purpose. The fifth principle of the Nguzo Saba is a dedication to the collective vocation of building, developing, and defending our community, its culture and history. This is done to regain our historical initiative and greatness as a people, and add good and beauty in the world. Nia focuses on Black people as heirs and custodians of a great legacy, generational responsibility, and joining together for personal and social purpose. link
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Saturday, December 31, 2005 - 9:41 pm
This date is the sixth day of Kwanzaa: The day focuses on Kuumba or creativity. This principle of the Nguzo Saba is a vow to being creative in the name of restoring Black people to their traditional greatness by leaving our community more beautiful and beneficial. A large piece of expression can be found in the literature and culture of ancient Egypt. This focus is deeply rooted both in social and sacred teachings of African Societies. link
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Cndeariso
Member
06-28-2004
| Saturday, December 31, 2005 - 9:46 pm
wow, what a wonderful thread. i appreciate the educational information here. thank you.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Sunday, January 01, 2006 - 11:50 am

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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Sunday, January 01, 2006 - 4:01 pm
This date is the seventh (last) day of Kwanzaa: The day focuses on Imani or faith. This principle of the Nguzo Saba is a profound belief in and devotion to all that is of value to Black people as a family, community, people, and culture. The ancient Egyptian double symbol of the ankh life and djed pillar stability, endurance represents this day. Imani is to believe in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle. link
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