M. Christopher Brown II

Over 50 applicants applied to take the top post at Alcorn State University and at the end of the day the youngest applicant stood out.  Co-chair of the Search Advisory Committee Percy O. Norwood says, “We were looking for the best fit for Alcorn State University and Dr. Brown is the Perfect fit for the beloved institution. He is familiar with HBCUs and land-grant universities and Dr. Brown is a visionary and an authority on higher education policy – what more could we ask for. He is familiar with HBCU’s and land-grant universities and Dr. Brown is a visionary and an authority on higher education policy-what more could we ask for.”

What is causing this decline in successful African-American marriages? According to an article posted on divorce360.com, entitled “African-Americans are Less Likely to Marry and More Likely to Divorce,” a study conducted resulted in 32 percent of African-American couples divorced compared to White couples at 21 percent and 22 percent for Hispanics.  

This tells a big part of the story of the chronic segregation, but it’s only part of the story. The painful truth three years after the election of America’s first Black president is that there are far too many policy makers, political leaders, and many Whites that still think that segregation is too much a long-standing, even immutable, way of life in America to ever change.

Mrs. Lovenia Wormley Posey, who has outlived most elected-Presidents, thought she would never see the day that we would elect our First Black President.

Mrs. Posey’s childhood is one that none of us could have imagined going through. She unfortunately  became an orphan at a very young age. Her father was killed and her mother died during childbirth, therefore she never had the opportunity to really know either of them.

African-American historical moments are those times when one learns the valuable lesson of greatness born out of struggle.  Human greatness in the annals of history takes courage, risk, sacrifice, humility, and wealth.  Those were the attributes in the lives of Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Madame C.J. Walker and other great African-American heroes.  These leaders carried a prophetic energy that destined them to create an atmosphere of civil liberties for the next generation.  I read an article which described the quintessential role of our Black leaders who impacted the Black community and the world.  They possessed ethical virtues which created audacious change.  One of the greatest weapons used by our African-American leaders in fighting against the evils of poverty and social injustice was their ability to overreach complacency with a love for the next generation.  This was the legacy they left  us to celebrate.

The Buffalo Soldier National Museum, 1834 Southmore, recently held its
11th annual gala honoring military chaplains.

History’s Buffalo Soldiers were called that by Indians because to them, their short curly hair and dark faces resembled the buffalo, as well as they possessed the spirit of an animal. Records show that in 1867, there were four Black regiments: the 9th and 10th Cavalry units and the 24th and 25th Infantry units. The first Black regiment to wear the moniker Buffalo Soldiers was the 10th Cavalry unit.  Other regiments soon followed.

Mary Church was a writer, political activist, suffragist, and lecturer of the nineteenth century. She was the daughter of Robert and Louisa Church of Memphis, Tenn. Robert Church, Sr. was a well-known activist, businessman, and philanthropist. Mary adopted her father’s spirit of activism which propelled her into the arena of the African-American women’s club movement that was highly visible and active from 1832-1900. 

She was born the year President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Although she was born in Memphis, as a young girl she spent her time in Yellow Springs, Ohio with friends of the family. During this era, some affluent African-Americans sent their children to Ohio for educational purposes because Ohio was known as a progressive state, noted for its Underground Rail Road Societies. 

When the yellow fever epidemic erased most of the town’s population and those that survived fled into other areas, he stayed in Memphis and commenced the aggressive purchase of land, real estate, restaurants, and hotels. With Memphis reduced to what was known as a Taxing District because of the horrible deaths caused by the epidemic, the town was about to collapse.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825- 1911) was born in Baltimore, Maryland into a well respected, articulate, free Black family.  It is said that her mother passed when Harper was about the age of three.

Her aunt Henrietta and uncle the Reverend William Watkins raised her thereafter. Her uncle was a well known teacher and community leader.  She was an exceptional student of her uncle’s school, which was known as The William Watkins Academy for Negro Youth. 

Ruby Lee Sanders Mosley

HOUSTON—The City of Houston will recognize Ruby Lee Sanders Mosley for her commitment and service to the Acres Homes community by renaming the Acres Homes MSC Auditorium in her honor. This celebratory recognition will take place in the Auditorium of the Acres Homes Multi-Service Center on Feb. 5 at 11 am.

HOUSTON— Morgan Hunter, a fifth grade student at Dodson Elementary was declared winner by the judges of the 15th Annual Martin Luther King Jr., oratory competition for fourth and fifth graders at the Antioch Missionary Baptist church in Downtown Houston.

It is no secret that Blacks, who make up only 12 percent of this nation’s population, also make up 41 percent of the U.S. prison population. As of Dec. 2009, close to 600,000 Blacks (over 560,000 men) were incarcerated in state or federal prisons. The imprisonment rate for Black men was more than six times higher than White men, and almost three times higher than Hispanic men.

Thirty Blacks gathered around a large slave cabin on Smith’s
Plantation, Beaufort, South Carolina.
                                                           Photo by Timothy O’Sullivan

Being born into slavery was not an impediment to success for many African-Americans.  Being of the lineage of the creators of civilization, African-Americans continued to create and invent as people of the Diaspora. Sarah E. Goode, inventor of the cabinet bed, is a prime example of achievement. On July 14, 1885, she became the first African-American woman to receive a patent for her invention.

Elijah McCoy was a resourceful and clever man, whose name signified quality and superior workmanship.  He was born in Colchester, Ontario, Canada on May 2, 1844 to George and Emillia McCoy, former slaves from Kentucky who used the services of the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom.

George McCoy enlisted with the British forces to abolish slavery. As a reward for service, he received 160 acres of land in Canada, where he and his wife raised their 12 children.

Maria W. Stewart (1803-1879) was born Maria Miller, to free parents in Hartford, Connecticut. Unfortunately, she would become an orphan at the age of five. Being without parents, she was forced to become a servant.

Black women celebrate the trend back to natural hair 

HOUSTON- Hundreds of women convened at the Nzuri ‘Just Keeping It Real’ Natural Hair Show, held in the Power Center in Houston, to discuss issues of “good” and “bad” hair, self-esteem and identity. The show, hosted by Leola Anifowoshe of The Healthy Hair Society, featured a lengthy panel discussion, a hair show and a “Happyheaded Pageant” for children intended to celebrate the trend back to natural Black hair.

The elaborate lengths Black women will go to in effort to beautify their hair is nothing new to the Black culture. According to Esi Sagay of the magazine, African Hairstyles, “Africans rarely leave the hair or the body in their simple, natural state but spend a considerable amount of time and energy on grooming and self-adornment.  The hair has always been accorded particular attention.”

According to African-American studies professor Sonja Peterson-Lewis from Temple University in PA, Africans kidnapped from their native land and sold into slavery, were separated from their culture and the tools, oils and herbs, which allowed them to maintain healthy hair. Without the ability to properly groom their hair, it became kinky and matted- “nappy.”

Asha Mandela, originally from Trinidad, Tobago (Caribbeans), said her hair
weighs 5 .lbs dry and 12 to 15 .lbs wet. Washing and drying her hair is a
24 hour process and she uses 25 bottles of dye. She has become an
unintentional spokeswoman for the beauty of the Black woman’s natural hair.

Stella Byrd, left, presents a plaque to activist
Ricky Jason who worked with the Byrd family
over five years and did an award-winning documentary
on the life of James Byrd, Jr.
                                                             Photo Credits: LoneStarPowerPages

JASPER—While racism and hate walk the earth as two untamed lions stalking our land, one courageous woman’s life and legacy should inspire others to never give up on the struggle to fight for real justice. Stella Byrd is being remembered as a pillar of residual strength and a solid example of how one sincere heart and honest voice can spark a movement and make a difference.

“Mrs. Byrd and her family made us proud of them for the way they handled such a horrific event under such an intense public microscope,” said Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas NAACP. “Their actions helped pave the way for the passage of the (Hate Crime) act and enhanced public awareness of the continued existence of heinous hate crimes.”

Byrd, 85, died last week after a long illness. She is the mother of James Byrd Jr. who was dragged to death in Jasper County 12 years ago.
“This is truly a loss for African- Americans in Jasper County, Jasper and across the state of Texas,” said Quannel X, leader of the New Black Muslims, New Black Panther Nation. “She was a true survivor. She was a godly woman, not bitter or hateful, and despite being a victim of hate crime where her son died brutally at the hands of killers, lived her life in a way that put the issues on the table, made her voice and concerns known all the way to legislators.”

The Association for African-American Historical Research and Preservation (AAAHRP) is now accepting proposals for topics concerning Black history, culture and genealogy for its one-day Black History Conference which will be held on Feb. 5, 2011 at the Northwest African American Museum (NAAM), Seattle, Washington. With this 6th Black History Conference, AAAHRP continues to narrow the gap between historians and the public by encouraging cooperation among university-based scholars, librarians, historic preservationists, museum professionals, students, and the general public.

Two schools named after famed Tuskegee Airman General Benjamin O. Davis

HOUSTON- The year Air Force General Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr., died (July 4, 2002),  Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, a professor in the Department of African-American Studies at Temple University, placed him on his list of 100 Greatest African-Americans. It was a recognition not to be taken lightly. Dr. Asante, the founder of the first PhD program in African-American Studies, the founding editor of the Journal of Black Studies, and the author of more than 65 books, is considered by his peers as one of the nation’s most distinguished contemporary scholars.

Tensions were beginning to mount in Houston as the People’s Party II gained strength. Under the leadership of Carl Hampton, the civil rights organization, fashioned after the Black Panthers’ was truly becoming a party for the people. The organization fed the hungry, clothed those in need and helped to provide housing. It focused on making life better for the oppressed in the community. Under the influence of Robert E. Lee, Jr, Hampton extended his leadership to White and Hispanic civil rights organizations, forming the Rainbow Coalition, which was inspired by the Rainbow Coalition in Chicago.

From the left James Ford Jr. served the USA as a member
of the Air Force in the Vietnam era (1969-74) and his father,
(right) the late James H. Ford, Sr. served in the Army Air Force
Services in the 1940’s.

I loved my daddy. Even at sixty-three, while living in a world that encourages macho behavior, I don’t mind telling folks that I loved my daddy. He died when he was sixty-three, the same age that I just turned. He wasn’t the best of dads, he wasn’t the worst of dads. But, he was my dad. On this occasion of my arriving at my sixty- third birthday, I remember reading something that said that Black men die at sixty-three.

That’s an exaggeration, but it says something like that. In 1986, when dad died, the average death age for Black men was 64.5. Now, that age has improved to 69.7. That is almost a five-year improvement. I wish my dad had had that extra time.

Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D., Founder & Chairman of the National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign.

GALVESTON– Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Galveston Island and the Juneteenth Coalition remember this holiday with a series of celebrations held June 12- June 20. “Juneteenth is a day of reflection, a day of renewal, a pride-filled day,” said Ennis Williams, Juneteenth Coalition member. “It is a moment in time taken to appreciate the African American experience.”

AUSTIN- The Reverend Jacob Fontaine was born into slavery in Arkansas in 1808. His owners were several, but the most influential was Reverend Edward Fontaine, a Virginia native who moved to Austin in 1839 and served as the personal secretary of Texas president Mirabeau B. Lamar.

In an April 23, 2010 Op-Ed piece for The New York Times entitled “Ending the Slavery Blame-Game,” Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. argues that a moral, historic, political and economic equivalency exists between the culpability and responsibility of some Africans who participated in the transatlantic slave trade with the nations of Europe and the American colonies. This article perverts history and violates what Dr. W.E.B. DuBois called “scientific truth.”  The article was intellectually disingenuous from the stand point of history and scholarship.     

DALLAS- I was sitting at my desk at The Black Academy of Arts and Letters a little over a month ago and the telephone rang. It was Dr. Dorothy Height on the other end of the line.  She simply said, “Curtis King, this is Dorothy Height . . . I left you a message and you didn’t call me back . . . But anyway, I need an artist for my June project.”

In recent weeks, considerable turmoil has emerged among some elite members of the Civil Rights community. Publicly aired expressions germinating from PBS’s Tavis Smiley and the National Action Network’s President Rev. Al Sharpton, in which both parties have accused the other of working against the interests of the African-American community in an effort to garner favor from members of the political class, have created a stir within many African-American quarters.  

Sojourner Truth

March is National Women’s History Month, so designated in 1987 by Congress at the request of the National Women’s History Project (NWHP).  Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the NWHP, this year’s theme is “Writing Women Back into History.”  This presents a great opportunity to recognize and celebrate historic achievements by many women who have gone before us, as well as to honor women locally within our families and communities.

Before the Declaration of Independence was signed, Phillis Wheatley, considered by many to be the founder of African- American literature, published Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, in 1773.  In 1884, Judy W. Reed became the first African-American woman to receive a patent, granted for a hand-operated machine used to knead and roll dough.