Prolific Black Poet – Taalam Acey

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When the Smoke Clearz

Four little girls

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On September 15, 1963, Addie Mae Collins- 14, Carole Robertson-14, Cynthia Wesley-14, and Denise McNair-11,  were in the basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. They were preparing for the 11:00am service when a dynamite bomb exploded, killing them and injuring other members of the church.

Sacrifices can be honored or ignored.  Prices where paid, we must remember and push towards national, cultural  and inner peace.

Differences

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There is no remedy for love but to love more

Quote by: Henry David Thereau

You will never feel more alive than when you live the dream God created you for

Daily Mantra from Mary J. Blige

Mary J. Blige (born January 11, 1971), an American singer, record producer, and actress. Awarded the World Music Legends Award for combining Hip-Hop and Soul. “The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul”

MJB is the Founder of the Foundation For the Advancement of Women Now (FFAWN), which aims to help all women gain the confidence and skills they need to reach their full individual potential.

The Mission of FFAWN is to inspire women from all walks of life to gain the confidence and skills they need to reach their individual potential. Their

With a tumultuous start and an ever growing persona which is evedent in her music, MJB serves as an example of the growth that all people (not just Black women) need to seek within their own lives. For being that example, she is a invaluble Black hero…”You go girl”

Nelson Mandela – Most committed, Most sacrificed, Most accomplished

20 years ago before today, Nelson Mandela stepped out of South Africa’s Victor Verster prison a free man. He was his country’s most famous freedom fighter. He was convicted of treason in 1964 and given a life sentence for opposing South African apartheid. He served 27 years before receiving a pardon.

Once free, Mandela worked with South Africa’s white president, F.W. de Klerk to end those policies, knocking down the pillars of segregation one at a time. Three years after his release from prison, Mandela and de Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize. The African National Congress that was banned in 1961 was once again legal, elected Mandela as its presidential candidate. Mandela won South Africa’s presidential election in a landslide in 1994, the country’s first black president.

“We dedicate this day to all the heroes and heroines in this country and the rest of the world who sacrificed in many ways and surrendered their lives so that we could be free,” he said in his inauguration speech. “Their dreams have become reality. Freedom is their reward. We are both humbled and elevated by the honor and privilege that you, the people of South Africa, have bestowed on us, as the first President of a united, democratic, non-racial and non-sexist government.”

“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination,” he said. “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony, and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for, and to see realized. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

“I have traveled this long road to freedom,” he wrote. “I trust I did not falter. I made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that, after crossing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to cross.”

Twenty years ago, there was no freedom for Mandela, no freedom for black South Africans. There may be more hills to cross, but black South Africans are no longer strangers to freedom.

Pastor Eddie Seals – my spiritual hero

When my father pasted away in 1996 I felt alone. I felt that there was no one above me; everyone else was my equal. My bosses, my professors, my elders were people I could learn from. Yet I was my own man and I had just as much to offer as the next man. As I grew within my career, so did my pride. I eventually learned the importance of humility. I learned that regardless of how much of a leader or maverick I may want to be, I needed men in my life that I could submit my allegiance to. I sought out leaders and men of high integrity that I could mimic for my own continual growth.

After many years of a difficult search, I unfortunately found very few mentors that I could respect deeply. Every man needs a spiritual leader, mine is Pastor Eddie Seals, founder of the Church of Destiny.  Eddie and I grew up in the same neighborhood and even as a childhood friend, he always carried himself with strong intelligence and a record of making good decisions.  With him as my spiritual Sheppard, my strength is multiplied. He married my wife and I, and continues to serve as the commanding voice that evokes God’s grace in my life.

Everyone needs a spiritual guide…everyone

America I am

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Tavis Smiley is a journalist who has taken it upon his self to be a barer of truth to not only America, but to African Americans.  As celebrities, as well as average human beings, we have an opportunity to choose our impact.  

“America I Am” is brought by Tavis Smiley,  it is a traveling African American museum that exhibits the indelible imprint of African Americans on this country.  Through more than 150 rare historic objects, documents, photos and multimedia that have shaped American culture, we can find our pride.

My non-profit organization will be co-sponsoring a large group of African American men of all ages to attend the exhibit at the California Science Center Exposition Park, Los Angeles later this month.  Young and old, all in suits and ties to display our progress and our pride.  United we learn, united we stand, united we remain. We encourage everyone to experience history while the exhibit is here in Los Angeles (or touring in your town).

Tavis Smiley… Being a Hero by awakening our consciousness of our Heroes

Black History – Black Future – Black Manifesto

They molded, carved and shaped us to their liking, and complain about what we have become. We are their, unforeseen, creation.

We must make a conscious effort to get back what the devil stoled from us.

 Many will agree; he stoled our heritage, hidden and buried our African-American history so deep that it has taken the most savvy prospectors and data miners to assumable a patchwork of facts, biographies and events to try and resurrect what should have been proud memories of our past inheritance. 

That said, our black communities have assimilated and been acculturated to the point that apathy rules over our desire to understand who we used to be. We have been directed in such a way, that we fail to realize the many contributions we have made that makes this country so attractive to other peoples of the world. The failure to understand who we were is the very reason we are who we are today. It is our responsibility to disrupt and ameliorate this issue and piece back together our, confiscated, history.

History is the memory of the world. The only memories that we black folk have are the memories that have been decremently and deliberately filtered to us. To be black, they taught us, came with inferiority and shame-nothing positive or up-lifting. We have no self to be proud of, so we emulate the caricatures and labels that they provided and continue to provide us.

Our history, in this land, has been ignored or at best seriously marginalized.  If we want to regain our self-worth and stop the cannibalism that currently exists in many of our African-American neighborhoods, a starting point might be to, reach back and learn true American history. For, African-American history has not been interwoven with the events of it’s time; therefore, you will not learn it in that context. We must juxtaposition our history with other events and discoveries to weave the true American history for ourselves; self-enlightenment.

Make no mistake, slavery had a great deal to do with our current attitudes and behaviors but remember slavery was about economics, and though Jim Crow was part of the same fabric as slavery, it [Jim Crow] was about hatred and classism-we must outwit these mental barriers and move beyond these debilitating institutions to respect ourselves, dignify ourselves. No more blaming others for our current situation(s). Use slavery and Jim Crow, if we must, as negative reinforcements, along with the many positive aspects of our rich history to be the catalyst to drive us to achieve greater ends.

In the pejorative sense; the way the world views us seems to be pervasive and permanent, however, we can change and control how we view ourselves. Since the early years of the African diaspora, colonial racism has dominated the black – white relationship. And with the current president of the United States being a black man [Barack Obama], racism seems to have reached an old familiar pitch.

How do we combat self-hatred and racism? The only viable answer is in two parts, the first is the continued pursuit of education. The second part is to derive the new age “Black Manifesto” in honor of past struggled Movements, yet with a futuristic twist that reunites our people around a moral standard to travel into the future with.  The idea of becoming educated was imbued into every generation of blacks born in this country up until the early nineteen seventies. During the Black power movement, we embraced our blackness and most of the leaders of our movement were pursuing postgraduate degrees.  Many things can be attributed to the lack of vigilance on our part for letting this main ingredient slip from our culture. With this understanding of our past, we can look forward in unison for mutual benefit. Since the end of the movement the next generation lost the passion for mainstream knowledge.  They have twisted the idea of speaking properly and being educated as “trying to be white”.  Educate yourself not only of your today, but your yesteryear, only then will your future become vivid.  Get back what the devil stole from you and true freedom will follow.

by Mickey Chavis

The unknow slave statue

Champs de Mars, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Statue honoring Haitian unknown freedom fighters using the conch shell to make a rally call of freedom.