ON THIS DAY IN BLACK MUSIC HISTORY: JANUARY 16

#1 R&B Song 1943:   “See See Rider,” Bea Booze

 

Born:   Barbara Lynn, 1942; Sade (Helen Folasade Adu), 1959; Debbie Allen, 1950; Maxine Jones (En Vogue), 1966; Aaliyah (Aaliyah Haughton), 1979

 

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1975   Sly & the Family Stone performed at Radio City Music Hall in New York City at the beginning of an eight-day stay. The West Coast group apparantly didn’t stir much East Coast excitement, as attendance was off by two thirds of the hall’s capacity.

 

1984   Michael Jackson received an astonishing seven awards at the American Music Awards eleventh annula event, including Favourite Male Artist, Pop/Rock; Favourite Male Artist, Soul/R&B; Favourite Album, Pop/Rock; Special Award of Merit, Favourite Video, Pop/Rock; Favourite Single, Pop/Rock; and Favourite Video, Soul/R&B.

 

1988   Tina Turner performed before more than 180,000 fans at the Rio de Janeiro’s American Stadium, which would put her in the Guinness Book of records for the attendance feat set by a solo performer.

 

1991   Tina Turner and ex-husband Ike Turner were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at its sixth annual induction ceremonies. Producer phil Spector accepted the award in their absence: Ike was in prison at the time for driving under the influence of cocaine. The same night, Bobby Brown inducted soul legend Wilson Pickett into the Hall. Howlin’ wolf, the legendary blues great, was also inducted posthumously by Robert Cray (sixty-three years and a day after his first performance), and blues pioneer John Lee Hooker was inducted. Tracy Chapman inducted the Impressions. LaVern Baker and Jimmy Reed were also inducted. In all, seven of the eight acts inducted were Black artists.

1993   Boyz  II Men reached #3 pop and #4 R&B with the Five satins classic, “In th Still of the Night,” bringing the immortal song song styling of the Five Satins to a whole new generation of music buyers. The Boyz version was from the TV miniseries, The Jacksons. The Satins’ standard originally made it only to #24 in 1956. The same night, Boyz II Men won the Best Vocal group category at the NAACP twenty-fifth annual Image Awards, at the Civic Auditorium, Pasadena, California.

 

1999   Prince’s “1999” was reissued and charted today, reaching #45 R&B. The record had originally been issued in 1982; the label must have been curious to see how it would do in the actual year of its title.

 

“1999″

THE SPACE TRADERS: JANUARY 16

16 January. Professor Golightly and his family were not granted detainee status. Instead, the White House promised him safe passage to Canada for all his past services even though he had not made the patriotic appeal the President had requested of him. But, at the border that evening, he was stopped and turned back. It turned out the Secretary of the Interior had called to countermand his departure. Golightly was not surprised. What really distressed him was his failure to convince the black leaders of the anti-Trade coalition to heed their own rhetoric: namely that whites in power would, given the chance, do to privileged blacks what, in fact, they had done to all blacks.

 

“I wonder,” he murmured, half to himself, half to his wife, as they rode in a luxury limousine sent, in some irony, by the Secretary of the Interior to convey them to the nearest roundup point, “how my high-minded brothers at the conference feel now about their decision to fail with integrity rather than stoop to the bit of trickery that might have saved them.”

 

“But, Gleason,” his wife asked, “would our lives have really been better had we fooled the country into voting against the Trade? If the Space Traders were to depart, carrying away with them what they and everyone else says can solve our major domestic problems, wouldn’t people increasingly blame us blacks for increases in debt, pollution, and fuel shortages? We might have saved ourselves–but only to face here a fate as dire as any we face in space.”

 

“I hope your stoic outlook helps us through whatever lies ahead,” Golightly responded as the car stopped. Then guards hustled him and his family toward the buses being loaded with other blacks captured at the Canadian border.

 

 

Tomorrow. . . .the conclusion.

RESOLUTIONS 2009

I paid a visit over to Tameka Vasquez’s blog, http://belespirit.wordpress.com   and found a delightful post she wrote on New Year’s resolutions.

I liked Tameka’s suggestions, so here is an excerpt of her post:

 

1. Forget changing silly habits…it’s your imperfections that make you interesting.

2. Laugh out loud!

3. Realize you have multiple intelligences…and use them.

4. Minimize your “connections” to the world…(Why do you need five email addresses, a Facebook/MySpace/IM, cellphone, text phone, all
to stay “connected”…you do realize roughly five years ago none of this was necessary?)

Read the rest here:   May all your troubles last as long as your New Year’s Resolutions

I enjoyed her post so much that I started writing just to leave a few comments on her site, when my comments evolved into an entire post, so I decided to make a post on how I respond to the curves, the highs, the lows, the joys, that life throws me.  Posts like Tameka’s make you stop and think and ponder the many things that we all can do to have a more full-filling and prosperous life.

Here are my responses to Tameka’s  suggestions.

 

1. Yep. Those so-called “imperfections” are what gives us our life experiences, our character, our sense of self.

2. Need to do more of that. You can never bee too happy in this world. And by laugh I do not mean titter, or hide the smile behind a hand. I mean LAUGH! just like you stated. Guffaw! Laugh until your sides split. Laugh until milk (or whatever your favourite beverage is) shoots out of your month, but, whatever you do bring as much joy and exhilaration into your life. We will all get our share of sorrows. More laughter helps us keep an even keel and helps us to shake off the things that we should not let hold us back.

3. There is more to us than just the 5 senses. Would that people would go with their gut feelings more often. (Many times, their gut feeling was right on the money.)

4. Five years ago…..many people did not even OWN a computer. Scenario: What did we all do BEFORE we got our computers, Blackberrys, etc. Yes, that’s exactly right! We all had lives! Time to get back to the basic simplicity of the lives we led before all the clutter was allowed to take over and crowd us out of our very own lives.

5. Waistlines come and go, up and down, in and out, but…..that MOUTH is the hardest thing to keep under control. On the otherhand, never feel that you have to always explain yourself to all people. For instance, if you are a Black woman who wears her hair natural, and people question why you do, just tell everyone God made you that way and that you are thankful for being the unique person you are. If one spends so much time explaining themselves, there is no aura, no mystery left. Always leave them guessing.

6. STILL have my “Snoopy” piggybank. At receiving my paycheck, at LEAST 2 rolls of quarters are fed to dear old Snoopy, and I can tell you, that money does come in handy when I am low on funds, because quarters DO add up (not to mention a $1 dollar her  or $5 dollar bill ther put into the bank, from time to time.)

7. Seize the moment….NOW. Look back on what you could have done 5 years ago….5 MONTHS ago. That could have been 5 years or 5 months of experience you would now have under your belt.

8. I agree. Break out of the routine, the same old tired track. The same old loop. Something new revs up your brain cells, energizes you and keeps your outlook on life positive.

9. Yes. No one needs a negative lifeforce in their world. And I will add: Being older does not mean that life has ended for you. You are still alive. ACT like it

10. During our mother’s and grandmother’s time, they could not be all they aspired to. Today, many of the young women alive now can work their way to engineer, mathematician, CEO, prime contractor—just about anything our foremothers could only dream of. For them, let us all live a life well-lived, a remarkable life. We owe them that, and ourselves.

11. Agreed. BEFORE I left school I resolved that knowledge and *education* did not end for me when I left the 4 walls of high school/college. To me, that was only the BEGINNING, not the END. Today, I am never without a book to read. I never read only one subject (though I do have one favourite —-the history of Black women in America). Even then, I read more than one author on that particular subject, because no one person has all the anmswers on ANY subject or topic.

Not reading to me is like not living. Not breathing. Reading is a life source for me. I do not know what I would do if I could not read, if all books were taken away from me….if, God forbid, a Farenheit 451 really did occur in this country, in this world.

Reading is the window on the world, the car that takes me on a learning and self-discovery journey, the destination of knowledege.

“When I get a little money, I buy books; and IF any is left, I buy food and clothes.”

Erasmus

12. Swim like the salmon. We will all leave this world one day, so make your mark on it, and hopefully for the better. I agree: be realistic, dare to believe it, set out on it and stay with it to the end. Then when you turn around one day and look back on your life you will be able to say like the Black women of old: “My soul looks back in wonder. Yet do I marvel at how I, and we, got over.”

 

Peace.

HATEWATCH: SOUTH HARRISON MAYOR RESIGNS OVER RACIST DEATH THREATS

Posted on Wed, Jan. 7, 2009

 

 

SOUTH HARRISON TOWN, PENNSYLVANIA MAYOR STEPS DOWN OVER RACISM

 

 

By Jan Hefler

Inquirer Staff Writer

 

 

Charles Tyson has decided not to serve a third term as mayor of South Harrison Township, saying he and his family have endured death threats and racist vandalism since he became the town’s first black mayor two years ago.

 

At a township reorganization meeting on Monday, the 66-year-old Tyson declined a nomination to continue serving as mayor but agreed to be deputy mayor. The five committee members in the Gloucester County community fill the leadership positions each year from within their ranks.

 

Tyson said he stepped aside “because of the threats and the personal attacks, and the fact that I don’t want to put my family, my wife, and my wife’s family through this.”

 

 

Charles Tyson, two-term mayor of South Harrison Twp.

 

 

 

“It’s time. I’ll continue to serve the residents, but not as mayor,” he said.

 

Soon after Tyson, a retired computer technician, was elected mayor in this rural community of 2,700, he said he received a dozen phone calls and several e-mails warning he was being watched and labeling him a dead man, using a racist epithet.

 

No arrests were made, and investigators said the caller or callers in 2007 used untraceable disposable phones. His tires were also slashed and his lawn sign was defaced with “KKK.”

 

Last month, a member of a neo-Nazi organization from Virginia was indicted on charges he made several threatening calls last year to Tyson and other African Americans. Tyson, a lifelong resident and a grandfather, said he had never experienced racism in the town before he held the top job.

 

“It’s not that the whole town is racist. It’s just that a certain group of people in the town were trying to get to me,” Tyson said.

 

In recent months, the town has been embarrassed by nasty political fights and racial tensions that spilled into meetings attended by nearly 100 people. Charges and counter-charges have been filed in municipal court against several officials and a police officer.

In two separate incidents, Tyson has accused Patrolman Nicholas Barbetta and newly elected Committeeman Bob Diaz, the lone Republican on the committee, of harassing him.

 

Diaz and Barbetta have denied the charges.

 

At Monday’s meeting, the committee elected Robert Campbell as mayor and Tyson as deputy mayor. Campbell, who is white, last month expressed concerns about racism in the town and said that he and other officials were committed to stopping it.

 

Some residents said he was wrong. They said the real problem in the town is political, not racial, and that Campbell was playing the race card to advance an agenda and deflect criticism.

 

“Everything that’s gone wrong has been racially motivated?” Michelle McCall asked at a Dec. 10 meeting after Campbell said many of the recent controversies have racial overtones.

 

McCall, the wife of former Mayor Jim McCall, said the accusation was unfounded. “You have a lot of people very upset,” she said.

 

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Contact staff writer Jan Hefler at 856-779-3224 or jhefler@phillynews.com.

 

 

SOURCE:   http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20090107_S__Harrison_mayor_steps_down_over_racism.html

ON THIS DAY IN BLACK MUSIC HISTORY: JANUARY 15

#1 R&B Song 1955:   “Earth Angel,” the Penguins

 

Born:   Joan Johnson (the Dixie Cups), 1945; Lisa Lisa (Lisa Valez), 1967

 

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1928   Blues great-to-be Howlin’ Wolf played his first gig in the South before eventually moving to Chicago.

 

1955   LaVern Baker charted with “Tweedle Dee” (#14), her first of twenty pop Top 100 45s between 1955 and 1966. She also had twenty-one R&B hits and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.

 

 

1960   Little Junior Parker, Bo Diddley, Bobby Bland, Etta James, Bill Doggett, and the Isley Brothers performed at the Regal Theater in Chicago.

 

1972   Issac Hayes began a European tour with a performance in West Germany.

 

1990   Patti LaBelle received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Cobgress of Racial Equality (CORE) awards dinner in New York.

 

1991   LL Cool J’s “Around the Way Girl” which sampled Rick James’s “All Night Long,” was certified platinum in sales.

 

 

1992   On TV’s Entertainment Tonight Brenda Lee, the dimunitive dynamite damsel, suggested that the all-male line-up of inductees into that night’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame should include the likes of the Shirelles, Mary Wells, Dionne Warwick, and herself. “The women who pioneered rock ‘n’ roll. . . .were just as important as the males,” she stated.

 

1992   The Rock and Roll Hall of fame inducted Bobby “Blue” Bland, Jimi Hendrix, Sam & Dave, Elmore James, and Booker T & the MG.’s for the seventh Annual awards ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York. Little Richard inducted the Isley Brothers and brought down the house when he sang “Shout” with them at the post-awards party. Also inducted was pioneer New orleans bluesman, Professor Longhair, whom presenter Aaron neville called “The Grandfather of rock ‘n’ roll. Where did rock ‘n’ roll come from? It’s the baby of R&B.”

 

1994   The Old School Reunion Tour began, with rappers Sugar Hill Gang, Kurtis Blow, Kool Moe Dee, and Houdini, amonh others.

THE SPACE TRADERS: JANUARY 15

15 January. Many whites had, to their credit, been working day and night to defeat the amendment; but, as is the usual fate of minority rights when subjected to referenda or initiatives, the outcome was never really in doubt. The final vote tally confirmed the predictions. By 70 percent to 30 percent, American citizens voted to ratify the constitutional amendment that provided a legal basis for acceptance of the Space Traders‘ offer. In anticipation of this result, government agencies had secretly made preparations to facilitate the transfer. Some blacks escaped, and many thousands lost their lives in futile efforts to resist the joint federal and state police teams responsible for rounding up, cataloguing, and transporting blacks to the coast.     To be continued. . . .

A BIRTHDAY REMEMBERED: DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: JANUARY 15, 1929 – APRIL 4, 1968

 

Lest everyone still thinks of Dr. King in a syrupy, saccharine way, lest everyone still thinks that Dr. King was only one speech—–the “speech” that so many often invoke without really understanding the profound meaning behind it; lest so many still persist in seeing Dr. King as some pacified entity who could not have a broad understanding of the world, and how the country of his birth still sought to destroy him and his people  in body and soul, listen, and see here, the man behind the speeches, the writings, the non-violent movement to bring this country to its conscious of the wrongs it had, and was doing to its defenseless Black American citizens.

Lest everyone forgets, Dr. King was more than just one speech.

He was a complicated and multi-faceted man. who cared not just for black life—-but, for all life.

Lest we forget.

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MLK: “STICKING TOGETHER” (“ALSO KNOWN AS “A KNOCK AT MIDNIGHT”), one of Dr. King’s most poignant and profound speeches, where he speaks of the virulent hatred against him and the many Black citizens who fought for their basic human rights as citizens of the United States of America.

LINK:   http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/sermons/670827.000_Why_Jesus_Called_a_Man_a_Fool.html

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See and know Dr. King here in his “The Drum Major” speech.

Given in the month of February 1968, Dr. King foretold of the conditions in which we live in this country in the year 2009. He spoke of how he wished to be remembered when his life on this earth ended—to be remembered as a “drum major for peace.”

Forty-one years later, it still stands the test of time. Forty-one years later it is still relevant.

 

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“WHY I AM OPPOSED TO THE VIETNAM WAR”.

Dr. King admonished the U.S. government of its wars of atrocities against peoples around the world, especially the Vietnam war which while killing tens of thousands of Vietnamese, was also destroying its young black and white men in a rogue war of military aggression. Dr. King was attacked for making this speech, attacked as a traitor by many trying to silence his dissent and opposition against the Vietnam War. Ths was a watershed moment for him, because he took a different path that so many had pigeon-holed him into:  the Civil Rights Movement. His taking of the Gospels seriously meant that a true Christian speaks put against all kinds of agrressions and wrongs; the inequities of a country that mistreats it citizens, as well as a country gone mad on war, and mistreats people thousands of miles away. He saw the war as an enemy of the poor, and he attacked the war as such.

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“I’VE BEEN TO THE MOUNTAINTOP”, Dr. King’s last speech before he was assassinated, while mobilizing Black sanitation workers in Memphis, TN, April 4, 1968.

 

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Then there is Dr. King’s “Unfulfilled Dreams, one of his least well-known sermons, which was taken from Chapter 8, Kings I. He stated that it is not one of the more familiar passages in the Old Testament, but, when he came across it, it struck him as having cosmic significance, becaused it said so much in so few words about the many things we all experience in this journey called life.

 

 

I want to preach this morning from the subject: “Unfulfilled Dreams.” “Unfulfilled Dreams.” My text is taken from the eighth chapter of First Kings. Sometimes it’s overlooked. It is not one of the most familiar passages in the Old Testament. But I never will forget when I first came across it. It struck me as a passage having cosmic significance because it says so much in so few words about things that we all experience in life. David, as you know, was a great king. And the one thing that was foremost in David’s mind and in his heart was to build a great temple. The building of the temple was considered to be the most significant thing facing the Hebrew people, and the king was expected to bring this into being. David had the desire; he started.And then we come to that passage over in the eighth chapter of First Kings, which reads, “And it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. And the Lord said unto David my father, ‘Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house unto my name, thou didst well that it was within thine heart.’” And that’s really what I want to talk about this morning: it is well that it was within thine heart. As if to say, “David, you will not be able to finish the temple. You will not be able to build it. But I just want to bless you, because it was within thine heart. Your dream will not be fulfilled. The majestic hopes that guided your days will not be carried out in terms of an actual temple coming into being that you were able to build. But I bless you, David, because it was within thine heart. You had the desire to do it; you had the intention to do it; you tried to do it; you started to do it. And I bless you for having the desire and the intention in your heart. It is well that it was within thine heart.”So many of us in life start out building temples: temples of character, temples of justice, temples of peace. And so often we don’t finish them. Because life is like Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony.” At so many points we start, we try, we set out to build our various temples. And I guess one of the great agonies of life is that we are constantly trying to finish that which is unfinishable. We are commanded to do that. And so we, like David, find ourselves in so many instances having to face the fact that our dreams are not fulfilled. Now let us notice first that life is a continual story of shattered dreams. Mahatma Gandhi labored for years and years for the independence of his people. And through a powerful nonviolent revolution he was able to win that independence. For years the Indian people had been dominated politically, exploited economically, segregated and humiliated by foreign powers, and Gandhi struggled against it. He struggled to unite his own people, and nothing was greater in his mind than to have India’s one great, united country moving toward a higher destiny. This was his dream. But Gandhi had to face the fact that he was assassinated and died with a broken heart, because that nation that he wanted to unite ended up being divided between India and Pakistan as a result of the conflict between the Hindus and the Moslems. Life is a long, continual story of setting out to build a great temple and not being able to finish it. Woodrow Wilson dreamed a dream of a League of Nations, but he died before the promise was delivered. The Apostle Paul talked one day about wanting to go to Spain. It was Paul’s greatest dream to go to Spain, to carry the gospel there. Paul never got to Spain. He ended up in a prison cell in Rome. This is the story of life. So many of our forebearers used to sing about freedom. And they dreamed of the day that they would be able to get out of the bosom of slavery, the long night of injustice. (Yes, sir) And they used to sing little songs: “Nobody knows de trouble I seen, nobody knows but Jesus.” (Yes) They thought about a better day as they dreamed their dream. And they would say, “I’m so glad the trouble don’t last always. (Yeah) By and by, by and by I’m going to lay down my heavy load.” (Yes, sir) And they used to sing it because of a powerful dream. (Yes) But so many died without having the dream fulfilled. And each of you this morning in some way is building some kind of temple. The struggle is always there. It gets discouraging sometimes. It gets very disenchanting sometimes. Some of us are trying to build a temple of peace. We speak out against war, we protest, but it seems that your head is going against a concrete wall. It seems to mean nothing. (Glory to God) And so often as you set out to build the temple of peace you are left lonesome; you are left discouraged; you are left bewildered. Well, that is the story of life. And the thing that makes me happy is that I can hear a voice crying through the vista of time, saying: “It may not come today or it may not come tomorrow, but it is well that it is within thine heart. (Yes) It’s well that you are trying.” (Yes it is) You may not see it. The dream may not be fulfilled, but it’s just good that you have a desire to bring it into reality. (Yes) It’s well that it’s in thine heart. Thank God this morning that we do have hearts to put something meaningful in. Life is a continual story of shattered dreams. Now let me bring out another point. Whenever you set out to build a creative temple, whatever it may be, you must face the fact that there is a tension at the heart of the universe between good and evil. It’s there: a tension at the heart of the universe between good and evil. (Yes, sir) Hinduism refers to this as a struggle between illusion and reality. Platonic philosophy used to refer to it as a tension between body and soul. Zoroastrianism, a religion of old, used to refer to it as a tension between the god of light and the god of darkness. Traditional Judaism and Christianity refer to it as a tension between God and Satan. Whatever you call it, there is a struggle in the universe between good and evil. Now not only is that struggle structured out somewhere in the external forces of the universe, it’s structured in our own lives. Psychologists have tried to grapple with it in their way, and so they say various things. Sigmund Freud used to say that this tension is a tension between what he called the id and the superego. But you know, some of us feel that it’s a tension between God and man. And in every one of us this morning, there’s a war going on. (Yes, sir) It’s a civil war. (Yes, sir) I don’t care who you are, I don’t care where you live, there is a civil war going on in your life. (Yes it is) And every time you set out to be good, there’s something pulling on you, telling you to be evil. It’s going on in your life. (Preach it) Every time you set out to love, something keeps pulling on you, trying to get you to hate. (Yes, Yes, sir) Every time you set out to be kind and say nice things about people, something is pulling on you to be jealous and envious and to spread evil gossip about them. (Yes, Preach it) There’s a civil war going on. There is a schizophrenia, as the psychologists or the psychiatrists would call it, going on within all of us. And there are times that all of us know somehow that there is a Mr. Hyde and a Dr. Jekyll in us. And we end up having to cry out with Ovid, the Latin poet, “I see and approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do.” We end up having to agree with Plato that the human personality is like a charioteer with two headstrong horses, each wanting to go in different directions. Or sometimes we even have to end up crying out with Saint Augustine as he said in his Confessions, “Lord, make me pure, but not yet.” (Amen) We end up crying out with the Apostle Paul, (Preach it) “The good that I would I do not: And the evil that I would not, that I do.” Or we end up having to say with Goethe that “there’s enough stuff in me to make both a gentleman and a rogue.” (All right, Amen) There’s a tension at the heart of human nature. (Oh yeah) And whenever we set out to dream our dreams and to build our temples, we must be honest enough to recognize it. And this brings me to the basic point of the text. In the final analysis, God does not judge us by the separate incidents or the separate mistakes that we make, but by the total bent of our lives. In the final analysis, God knows (Yes) that his children are weak and they are frail. (Yes, he does) In the final analysis, what God requires is that your heart is right. (Amen, Yes) Salvation isn’t reaching the destination of absolute morality, but it’s being in the process and on the right road. (Yes) There’s a highway called Highway 80. I’ve marched on that highway from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery. But I never will forget my first experience with Highway 80 was driving with Coretta and Ralph and Juanita Abernathy to California. We drove from Montgomery all the way to Los Angeles on Highway 80—it goes all the way out to Los Angeles. And you know, being a good man, being a good woman, does not mean that you’ve arrived in Los Angeles. It simply means that you’re on Highway 80. (Lord have mercy) Maybe you haven’t gotten as far as Selma, or maybe you haven’t gotten as far as Meridian, Mississippi, or Monroe, Louisiana—that isn’t the question. The question is whether you are on the right road. (That’s right) Salvation is being on the right road, not having reached a destination. Oh, we have to finally face the point that there is none good but the father. (That’s right) But, if you’re on the right road, God has the power (Yes, sir) and he has something called Grace. (Yes, sir) And he puts you where you ought to be. Now the terrible thing in life is to be trying to get to Los Angeles on Highway 78. That’s when you are lost. (Yes) That sheep was lost, not merely because he was doing something wrong in that parable, but he was on the wrong road. (Yes) And he didn’t even know where he was going; he became so involved in what he was doing, nibbling sweet grass, (Make it plain) that he got on the wrong road. (Amen) Salvation is being sure that you’re on the right road. (Yes, Preach it) It is well—that’s what I like about it—that it was within thine heart. (Yes) Some weeks ago somebody was saying something to me about a person that I have great, magnificent respect for. And they were trying to say something that didn’t sound too good about his character, something he was doing. And I said, “Number one, I don’t believe it. But number two, even if he is, (Make it plain) he’s a good man because his heart is right.” (Amen) And in the final analysis, God isn’t going to judge him by that little separate mistake that he’s making, (No, sir) because the bent of his life is right. And the question I want to raise this morning with you: is your heart right? (Yes, Preach) If your heart isn’t right, fix it up today; get God to fix it up. (Go ahead) Get somebody to be able to say about you, “He may not have reached the highest height, (Preach it) he may not have realized all of his dreams, but he tried.” (Yes) Isn’t that a wonderful thing for somebody to say about you? “He tried to be a good man. (Yes) He tried to be a just man. He tried to be an honest man. (Yes) His heart was in the right place.” (Yes) And I can hear a voice saying, crying out through the eternities, “I accept you. (Preach it) You are a recipient of my grace because it was in your heart. (Yes) And it is so well that it was within thine heart.” (Yes, sir) I don’t know this morning about you, but I can make a testimony. (Yes, sir, That’s my life) You don’t need to go out this morning saying that Martin Luther King is a saint. Oh, no. (Yes) I want you to know this morning that I’m a sinner like all of God’s children. But I want to be a good man. (Yes, Preach it) And I want to hear a voice saying to me one day, “I take you in and I bless you, because you try. (Yes, Amen) It is well (Preach it) that it was within thine heart.” (Yes) What’s in your heart this morning? (Oh Lord) If you get your heart right . . . [gap in tape] Oh this morning, if I can leave anything with you, let me urge you to be sure that you have a strong boat of faith. [laughter] The winds are going to blow. (Yes) The storms of disappointment are coming. (Yes) The agonies and the anguishes of life are coming. (Yes, sir) And be sure that your boat is strong, and also be very sure that you have an anchor. (Amen) In times like these, you need an anchor. And be very sure that your anchor holds. (Yes, Glory to God) It will be dark sometimes, and it will be dismal and trying, and tribulations will come. But if you have faith in the God that I’m talking about this morning, it doesn’t matter. (Yes) For you can stand up amid the storms. And I say it to you out of experience this morning, yes, I’ve seen the lightning flash. (Yes, sir) I’ve heard the thunder roll. (Yes) I’ve felt sin-breakers dashing, trying to conquer my soul. But I heard the voice of Jesus, saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, (Yes, sir) never to leave me alone. (Thank you, Jesus) No, never alone. No, never alone. He promised never to leave me. Never to leave me alone. (Glory to God) And when you get this faith, you can walk with your feet solid to the ground and your head to the air, and you fear no man. (Go ahead) And you fear nothing that comes before you. (Yes, sir) Because you know that God is even in Crete. (Amen) If you ascend to the heavens, God is there. If you descend to hell, God is even there. If you take the wings of the morning and fly out to the uttermost parts of the sea, even God is there. Everywhere we turn we find him. We can never escape him. [recording ends]     Delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, on 3 March 1968. MLKEC

 © The Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr.

GLOBAL WOMEN’S STRIKE: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST SEXISM & RACISM: JANUARY 31-FEBRUARY 8, 2009

 

Global Women’s Strike   Dear sisters and brothers, We appreciate you may not be able to attend the events below, but thought you might be interested in the International Events below. We invite you to send a message of support and/or information about the struggles you are making for justice.     You are invited to an INTERNATIONAL GATHERING of the GLOBAL WOMEN’S STRIKE and INTERNATIONAL WOMEN COUNT NETWORK The Struggle Against Sexism & Racism: an International Comparison 31 January-8 February 2009 London, England All Welcome Five major events over 10 days. Films to be announced. Saturday 31 January 9.30am-5.30pm Bolivar Hall, Venezuelan Embassy 54 Grafton Way, London W1 5AJ   1. Grassroots Struggle Against Sexism and Racism: an International Comparison A Black family in the White House: what power can we draw for our movement? What can we learn from our own struggle by comparing it with the struggle of others?     SPEAKERS from: AFRICA and IRAQ on war-torn families; BOLIVIA on Indigenous communities confronting the white elite; GUYANA on a people divided along race lines; INDIA on Dalit and Tribal women; HAITI on rural and sweatshop workers; PALESTINE on women’s resistance to occupation; the UK on seeking asylum and confronting racist assault; the US on immigrants’ rights, and Black communities fighting multinationals and the death penalty; VENEZUELA on defending the gains of the revolution. Sunday 1 February 10.30am-5.30pm Bolivar Hall, Venezuelan Embassy     2. Our Debt to Haitians – the First to Abolish Slavery Independent since their revolution in 1804, the Black Jacobins of Haiti have blazed an anti-imperialist, anti-racist trail for us all. They have been punished for their boldness. But despite a US coup in 2004 which overthrew Haiti’s first democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a UN occupying army, murders and rapes, the imprisonment and disappearance of organizers like Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, four hurricanes and near starvation, the Haitian grassroots, beginning with women, maintain their revolutionary resistance, commanding our solidarity.   SPEAKERS from: HAITI, GUYANA, VENEZUELA, EUROPE, CANADA, the US. Tuesday 3 February 6-8pm House of Commons     3. Rape and Prostitution – A Question of Consent   While government feminists and religious fundamentalists equate prostitution with rape and claim most sex workers have been trafficked, rapists continue to get away with it – the conviction rate for reported rape in England and Wales is a shocking 6%. But a growing international movement for women’s safety is demanding the decriminalization of sex work. In England it has defeated government attempts to “rehabilitate” sex workers and is opposing proposals to raid brothels and criminalize clients. In San Francisco 41% voted for decriminalization in the last elections.   SPEAKERS from the Safety First Coalition, Women Against Rape, the International Prostitutes Collective, and from GUYANA, INDIA, PERU, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO. Saturday 7 February 9.30am-5.30pm Bolivar Hall, Venezuelan Embassy     4. Invest In Caring, Not Killing: Valuing the Work of Caring for People and the Planet   While money is always found to wage war and bail out banks, the caring needs of people and the planet are never the priority. Women who do 2/3 of the world’s work are the poorest everywhere. Mothers who produce all the workers of the world are not considered contributors to the economy and must fight for every penny to feed families in war and so-called peace. Others are separated from their children and must fight to win them back. Domestic workers who “produce time for others” are marginalized and exploited. Rural workers who grow the food we eat are the most neglected. Men and women who refuse to kill for the military are criminalized.   SPEAKERS: single mothers, women with disabilities, domestic & rural workers, sex workers, women & the double day, trade unionists, refuseniks, from ENGLAND, GUYANA, INDIA, IRAQ, IRELAND, PERU, SPAIN, TURKEY, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO, the US, VENEZUELA. Sunday 8 February 1.30-5.30pm Bolivar Hall, Venezuelan Embassy   5. Rediscovering Tanzania’s Ujamaa – Tribute to the Great Ntimbanjayo Millinga and the Ruvuma Development Association   In the 1960s, a great anti-imperialist movement for independence swept the world. President Julius Nyerere urged Tanzanians to reject capitalist exploitation, and build a society based on African communalism. Ntimbanjayo Millinga with a few others and hardly any funding put these views into practice and built an extraordinary rural society based on equity between women and men, young and old. By 1969, 17 ujamaa villages had formed the Ruvuma Development Association (RDA). But the governing party was so hostile that, against Nyerere’s will, they closed it down. Tragically, Millinga died in 2008. RDA’s legacy is a beacon in our struggle today.   SPEAKERS: Conrada Millinga, Suleman Toroka, Ralph & Noreen Ibbott, Rosemary Nyerere (daughter of the President) & Selma James. The Gathering is unfunded, donations welcome. For information contact: Crossroads Women’s Centre, 230A Kentish Town Rd, London NW5 2AB Tel: 44 (0)20 7482 2496 Email: womenstrike8m@server101.com http://www.globalwomenstrike.net http://www.allwomencount.net

ON THIS DAY IN BLACK MUSIC HISTORY: JANUARY 14

#1 Jukebox Song 1956:   “At My Front Door,” the El Dorados

 

Born:   Songwriter Allen Toussaint, 1938; singer Linda Jones, 1944; LL Cool J (James Todd Smith), 1968

 

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1956   Little Richard’s debut single for Specialty Records, “Tutti Frutti,”  (one of the first songs that started rock ‘n’ roll!) charted, reaching #17 pop and #2 R&B for six weeks. Little Richard (Richard Wayne Penniman, one of eleven brothers and sisters), who ran off at twelve to join Dr. Hudson’s Traveling Medicine Show and sell snake oil at carnivals, began singing with Sugar Foot Sam’s Minstrel Show  in the late ’40s and Buster Brown & His Band in 1950.

 

 

1966   Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles performed on Britain’s TV show Ready, Steady, Go! while promoting their new single, “Over The Rainbow.”

 

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1967   The Fifth Dimension hit the Top 100 with “Go Where You Wanna Go” (#16), their first of thirty charters through 1976.

 

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1970   Diana Ross performed in her last show as a Supreme at Las Vegas’s Frontier Hotel. While onstage she introduced her replacement, Jean Terrell, who was the sister of famed boxer Ernie Terrell.

 

1978   Natalie Cole charted, reaching #10 pop with “Our Love,” but, more importantly hitting #1 R&B. In doing so she had her fifth chart topper in a little more than two years.

 

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1995   Babyface had his thirty-second Top 10 hit as a songwriter when Madonna’s “Take A Bow” reached #8 today. Babyface also dueted with Madonna on the hit recording. His top 10 as a songsmith was the 1987 Whispers hit, “Rock Steady.”

 

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THE SPACE TRADERS: JANUARY 14

14 January. With the legal questions of the Trade resolved, the U.S. government announced that as a result of intensive negotiations with the Space Trader leaders, the latter had agreed to amend their offer and exclude from the Trade all black people seventy years old, and older, and all those blacks who were seriously handicapped, ill, and injured. In addition, a thousand otherwise-eligible blacks and their immediate families would be left behind as trustees of black property and possessions, all of which were to be stored or held in escrow in case blacks were returned to this country. Each of the thousand black “detainees” was required to pledge to accept a subordinate status with “suspended citizenship” until such time as the “special service inductees” were returned to the country. The administration selected blacks to remain who had records of loyalty to the conservative party and no recorded instances of militant activity. Even so, many of those blacks selected declined to remain. “We will, like the others,” said one black who rejected detainee status, “take our chances with the referendum.”

 

 

To be continued. . . .