HOW MEMORIAL DAY WAS STRIPPED OF ITS AFRICAN-AMERICAN ROOTS



Company E, 4th USCT



How Memorial Day Was Stripped of Its African-American Roots

Excerpts Written by: Ben Becker

What we now know as Memorial Day began as “Decoration Day” in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. Civil War. It was a tradition initiated by former slaves to celebrate emancipation and commemorate those who died for that cause. The spirit of the first Decoration Day—the struggle for Black liberation and the fight against racism—has unfortunately been whitewashed from the modern Memorial Day.

These days, Memorial Day is arranged as a day “without politics”—a general patriotic celebration of all soldiers and veterans, regardless of the nature of the wars in which they participated. This is the opposite of how the day emerged, with explicitly partisan motivations, to celebrate those who fought for justice and liberation.

The concept that the population must “remember the sacrifice” of U.S. service members, without a critical reflection on the wars themselves, did not emerge by accident. It came about in the Jim Crow period as the Northern and Southern ruling classes sought to reunite the country around apolitical mourning, which required erasing the “divisive” issues of slavery and Black citizenship. These issues had been at the heart of the struggles of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

To truly honor Memorial Day means putting the politics back in. It means reviving the visions of emancipation and liberation that animated the first Decoration Days. It means celebrating those who have fought for justice, while exposing the cruel manipulation of hundreds of thousands of U.S. service members who have been sent to fight and die in wars for conquest and empire.

Cite:
http://www.dominionofnewyork.com/2012/05/27/the-african-american-roots-of-memorial-day/#.UaNaUaTD-P-

 

 

 

Too Much Schooling, Too Little Education: A Paradox Of Black Life In White Societies. Written by Mwalimu J. Shujaa

"Schooling is a process intended to perpetuate and maintain the society's existing power relations and the institutional structures that support those arrangements. All societies must provide a means for their members to learn, develop, and maintain adequate motivation throughout their life cycles for participation in socially valued and controlled patterns of action. However, what is crucial to understand for this discussion is that when multiple cultural orientations exist within a nation-state, it is the leadership among the adherents to the politically dominant cultural orientation that exercise the most influence on the 'concepts, values, and skills' that schools transmit....Education, in contrast to schooling, is our means of providing for the intergenerational transmission of values, beliefs, traditions, customs, rituals and sensibilities along with the the knowledge of why these things must be sustained. Through education we learn how to determine what is in our interests, distinguish our interests from those of others, and recognize when our interests are consistent and inconsistent with those of others. Education prepares us to accept the staff of cultural leadership from the generation that preceded ours, build upon our inheritance and make ready the generation that will follow us. Education transmits knowledge all things that give our particular cultural orientation its uniqueness. Every cultural group must provide for this transmission process or it will cease to exist."
 
Citation:  Shujaa, Mwalimu, J. Too much schooling, too little education: a paradox of black life in white societies. Africa World Press, 1994.

REMEMBERING BOBBY JAMES HUTTON, BLACK PANTHER PARTY FOR SELF DEFENSE

 

April 21, 1950 - April 6, 1968

 

BOBBY HUTTON -
The Day My Beloved Brother Comrade was Murdered

by Terry M. Cotton

On April 6, 1968, two days after Martin Luther King had been murdered, I got dressed and prepared to go to Central Headquarters of the Black Panther Party (BPP) along with Panthers Jimmy Charley and Terry Claridy. I read a chapter of the "Red Book - Quotations by Chairman Mao" before I left. We arrived at Central Headquarters at 45th and Grove St. to get assigned to various locations to sell the Party's newspaper "The Black Panther," collect donations and pass out leaflets in the community about the barbecue for the "Free Huey Newton" defense committee to be held at then called - Defremery Park on April 7th.  

Later that evening, around 4pm, other Panthers and I, in groups of two and three, were circulating in the community and going to high schools spreading the word that despite the murder of Dr. King, they should stay cool, lay low and refrain from all counterproductive and random violence, because riots would cause nothing but mass genocide. If trouble erupted, it would be open season on blacks and the BPP would be the first attacked.  

Around 6pm, some Party members and I met at a Panther's apartment off San Pablo Ave. We decided that we would ride in three vehicles transporting food and supplies for the barbecue picnic and at the same time we would observe and patrol the police activities in the Black community.

Around 7:30pm, after patrolling and picking up supplies for the rally, two policemen turned their cruiser south observing and following us onto 28th street and Union street where we had stopped for a minute for Eldridge Cleaver who had to urinate. Eldridge and L'il Bobby Hutton were riding in a 1961 Ford with several other Panthers. I was riding shotgun, in the center of the back seat, armed with a banana clip 30 caliber carbine. Panther Charles Bursey was to the left of me and Donnell Lankford was to the right. The officers pulled their cruiser to a stop in the middle of the street side by side with these vehicles. (The 1961 Ford with Florida license plates had been observed all week because it was known by the Oakland Police as a Panther vehicle.) Gunfire erupted at once, two wild shots were followed instantly by a deluge of lead that riddled the squad cars and shots were fired by police into the rear window of the 1954 Ford in which I was riding.  

More policemen flocked to the shooting scene. Charles Bursey was able to get out of the car and escape the scene. Donnell Lankford, who was to the right of me, attempted to open the door so we could take cover, but the door was jammed. The door finally came open, but as soon as we tried to exit the vehicle, there were about a dozen police with their guns and shotguns drawn and thrust into our faces. They were making racist, insulting remarks while we were lying face down, handcuffed behind our backs, helpless on the pavement. They made statements such as, "you niggers just lost Martin Luther King and if you make one move we will not hesitate to blow your heads off."  

We were then put into the police paddy wagon. Donnell, John L. Scott and I were the first to be arrested. The over- reactionary pigs sprayed mace into our eyes after we were already handcuffed and helpless. As the police wagon drove away from the scene, I could barely see out the back, but it appeared to me that there were black people running behind the wagon saying, "Free these brothers, you racist cops." I told my comrades in the police wagon that this was a deliberate ambush, attempting to commit genocide against the BPP.  

The booking officer asked me if I wanted to make a statement after being booked. I said no, I was taking the 5th amendment until I consulted with my attorney, Charles Garry. They put Lankford, Scott and me into different holding cells. I could hear racist statements like, "They should kill Eldridge Cleaver. He's like a wild animal running amok." Note: the ambush of other Party members was still going on at this time. Later that night, Harold Rodgers, Charles Garry's assistant attorney, visited me in my cell and told me that one Party member did not survive. That was the Party's first member and treasurer, Bobby James Hutton.

 

Long Live The Spirit of L"il Bobby Hutton.

Terry M.cotteon, former political prisoner and BPP member.

 

http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Memorials/Bobby_Hutton_Murdered.html

 

 

MARCH 6, 2013 CONGRATULATIONS GHANA ON 56 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

 

 

 


After the Second World War (1939-1945), things began to change in the then Gold Coast. The discrimination against educated Ghanaians in the civil service was on the increase and high positions were reserved for white men while Ghanaians became "hewers of wood and drawers of water". The European and Asian firms were also seriously exploiting the Africans. The Ex-servicemen (Ghanaian soldiers who fought in the World War), helped in another way to expose the weakness of the British.

On June 12th, 1949 Kwame Nkrumah formed a radical nationalist party - Ghana's Convention People’s Party (C.P.P) with its motto "self-government now". He was joined by Kojo Botsio, K.A Gbedemah and others.

On 9th January, 1950 the C.P.P organized a nation-wide boycott and strike for workers and the masses. The people refused to buy all British goods. Workers were warned not to cause any trouble. In the cause of the riots however, two policemen were shot dead. On January 21st 1950, Nkrumah and other leading C.P.P members including Kojo Botsio and K.A. Gbedemah were imprisoned at the James Fort Prison, Accra, on charges arising from pursuing what was termed as "Positive Action" against the Government. The imprisonment of Nkrumah made him a hero and martyr in the eyes of the people.

In 1951, the pace was set for general elections. Kwame Nkrumah was in prison when the elections were conducted. He overwhelmingly won the elections and was released by the then Governor, Sir Charles Noble Arden-Clark to head the new government. This however became the British Colony’s first African government. In March 1952, Kwame Nkrumah was designated Prime Minister. He was to appoint a cabinet, which was not to be responsible to the Governor but the Assembly.Kwame Nkrumah in June 1953 submitted proposals for a new constitution. It was upon those that the April 1954 constitution was introduced making the country virtually self-governing. This new constitution provided for an All-African cabinet from an enlarged legislature. A general election followed in June 1954 from which the C.P.P won 79 out of the 104 seats of the National Assembly.

In 1956, another election was held in response to a pledge by the British Secretary of State for the colonies that if the newly elected legislature, by a reasonable majority, passed a resolution calling for independence; a firm date for the changeover would be announced. C.P.P won 71 out of the 104 contested seats. The British Mandated Togoland also held a plebiscite to join the Gold Coast.

This action opened the way for Ghana’s Independence and on 6th March, 1957, the curtain was drawn on the old order. The country emerged as the first country in Africa, South of the Sahara to regain independence from colonial rule. A new chapter was opened in the history of Ghana. On the eve of Ghana’s independence, Kwame Nkrumah (then Prime Minister) proclaimed at the old Polo Grounds in Accra: "At long last, the battle has ended and Ghana, our beloved country is free.

For further reading, go to: http://www.ghana.gov.gh/index.php/about-ghana/ghana-at-a-glance/1237-know-more-about-ghana

KNOW YOUR HISTORY BOOKLIST Created by Professor James Small

by Professor James Small African World

•  African Glory -J.C. Degraft-Johnson
• African Origins Of The Major Western Religions -Yosef Ben Jochannan
• Africans At The Crossroads -Dr. John Henrik Clarke
• Before The Mayflower -Lerone Bennet, Jr.
• Black Labor, White Wealth - The Search For Power And Economic Justice -Claud Anderson, Ed. D.
• Blueprint For Black Power -Amos Wilson
• Breaking The Chains Of Psychological Slavery -Na'im Akbar
• Chains And Images Of Psychological Slavery -Dr. Na'im Akbar
• Civilization Or Barbarism -Cheikh Anta Diop
• Criminalizing A Race -Charshee C. L. McIntyre
• From "Superman" To Man -J.A. Rogers
• From Babylon To Timbuktu -Rudolph Windsor
• From Columbus To Castro -Eric Williams
• How Europe Underdeveloped Africa - Walter Rodney.
• Introduction To African Civilization -John G. Jackson
• Isis Papers -Frances Cress Welsing
• Man, God And Civilization -John G. Jackson
• Precolonial Black Africa -Cheikh Anta Diop
• Stolen Legacy -George James
• The African Origin Of Civilization -Cheikh Anta Diop
• The Afrocentric Idea -Molefi Kete Asante
• The Black Jacobins -C.L.R. James
• The Community Of Self -Dr. Na'im Akbar
• The Destruction Of Black Civilization -Chancellor Williams
• The Mis-Education Of The Negro -Carter G. Woodson
• The Philosophy & Opinions Of Marcus Garvey -Amy Jacques Garvey
• The Shaping Of Black America -Lerone Bennett, Jr.
• The Wretched Of The Earth -Frantz Fanon
• They Came Before Columbus -Ivan Van Sertima
• What They Never Taught You In History Class -Indus Khamit Kush
• Wonderful Ethiopians Of The Ancient Cushite Empire -Drusilla Dunjee Houston

Credit: Professor James Small, https://www.facebook.com/ProfJamesSmallAfricanWorld

 

TCXPI - A LIFETIME JOURNEY

Happy Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King, jr.

KWANZAA 2012