Friday, February 19, 2010

SNCC 50 YEARS LATER





To be was held in

Raleigh, North Carolina

April 15-18, 2010


Presently we're in Feb. 2017 which will make this the 57th anniversary of SNCC and I have made some adjustments and added a few things to this post.



Freedom Riders

John Lewis describes his experience on the Freedom Rides




Lunch Counter Sit-ins



                                                   RealAudio


Ella Josephine Baker



Marian Wright Edelman
SNCC FIFTY YEARS LATER



Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday every January becomes an occasion for looking back at the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. As the celebration of the King Holiday leads into February and Black History Month, it's a time to consider not only how far we've come but how far we still have to go, and to reflect on some of the milestones in movement history. This year, one of those national and personal milestones is the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

On February 1, 1960, when I was a senior at Spelman College in Atlanta, four black freshmen from North Carolina A&T State University sat in at the Whites-only lunch counter in the Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth's store. It was just the spark I and so many black youth were waiting for to stand up against the segregation that daily assaulted our dignity and lives. I and thousands of other students were galvanized to strike our blow for freedom, giving birth to the sit-in movement, the formation of SNCC, and a new era of student activism that energized the larger Civil Rights Movement. People often forget that children and youth were major frontline soldiers in the Civil Rights Movement. Little Ruby Bridges in New Orleans and the Little Rock Nine and other young black children desegregated schools across the South, often standing up to howling mobs. They were instrumental in Brown v. Board of Education. Young people coordinated voter registration drives, participated in Freedom Rides testing segregation laws on interstate buses, conducted voter education and other activities during 1964's Freedom Summer in Mississippi including Freedom Schools, and more. My generation was blessed beyond measure to be in the right places at the right times to experience and help bring transforming change to the South and to America.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday every January becomes an occasion for looking back at the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. As the celebration of the King Holiday leads into February and Black History Month, it's a time to consider not only how far we've come but how far we still have to go, and to reflect on some of the milestones in movement history. This year, one of those national and personal milestones is the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

On February 1, 1960, when I was a senior at Spelman College in Atlanta, four black freshmen from North Carolina A&T State University sat in at the Whites-only lunch counter in the Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth's store. It was just the spark I and so many black youth were waiting for to stand up against the segregation that daily assaulted our dignity and lives. I and thousands of other students were galvanized to strike our blow for freedom, giving birth to the sit-in movement, the formation of SNCC, and a new era of student activism that energized the larger Civil Rights Movement. People often forget that children and youth were major frontline soldiers in the Civil Rights Movement. Little Ruby Bridges in New Orleans and the Little Rock Nine and other young black children desegregated schools across the South, often standing up to howling mobs. They were instrumental in Brown v. Board of Education. Young people coordinated voter registration drives, participated in Freedom Rides testing segregation laws on interstate buses, conducted voter education and other activities during 1964's Freedom Summer in Mississippi including Freedom Schools, and more. My generation was blessed beyond measure to be in the right places at the right times to experience and help bring transforming change to the South and to America.

Read More

Officers "Suspended" in Jordan Miles Police Brutality Case

Officers get paid vacation in Jordan Miles Police Brutality Case
Wow, when will it end?



Three officers under investigation by the city for allegedly beating a Homewood teen during his arrest last month have been placed on paid administrative leave, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said




A judge has again postponed a hearing for the CAPA High School student who says police officers beat him up during his arrest.

The three accused officers did not show up to testify at the hearing for 18-year-old Jordan Miles, of Homewood.

He was accompanied by members of the Black Political Empowerment Project.

Prosecutors in the case say they need a delay so the FBI can continue its civil rights investigation.

Authorities say the officers allegedly got into a confrontation with Miles back in January after they thought he was carrying a weapon in his pocket. It turned out to be a soda bottle.

"He didn't have any weapons on him," said Reggie Roberts, of the Black Political Empowerment Project. "There were three police officers to take down a 150-pound, thin, young man. Why was that necessary?"

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Rebuilding Haiti

We Are The World 25 For Haiti - Official Video






HAITI VIDEO from Al Jazeera: “The Politics of Rebuilding” (Avi Lewis Reporting for Faultlines)


I found the video above on the blog below.
It offers alternet solutions and viewpoints to the ones we find in and on the mainstream media about, how to rebuild Haiti.


Monday, February 15, 2010

Black Settlers of Eastern Canada

William Hall was the son of African American refugees who settled in Nova Scotia after the War of 1812. During the Indian Mutiny, Hall became the first Canadian winner of the naval Victoria Cross. He was the third Canadian to win the Victoria Cross.


  THE Nova Scotia government has a website that highlights Hall and other Black Nova Scotians
to check it out click here.


Black History in Canada is hard to come by. Not because it didn't happen but because the stories are not told in the mainstream historical vehicules.
The history of Black people in PEI is well told by the;
The Black Islanders Co-operative.


The Black Islanders Co-operative’s intention is to share its information with the public. It does not vouch for the accuracy of the information. The research information is the genealogical summary of a research project undertake by the Black Islanders Co-operative. It was gathered through research and member contributions.

Black History
The Saint John, New Brunswick Connection

Black people were in the Province of New Brunswick even before its earliest settlements. They came as Indian captives, explorers, workers in the fur trade and early industries but the majority arrived after the American Revolutionary War both as free blacks and slaves.

The British had offered all blacks freedom if they fought on the side of the British - hundreds of them managed to escape from their owners and fought against the Americans. At the end of the war, many of them were shipped to Nova Scotia which at that time included what is now New Brunswick. Here they were given grants of land but they were half the size of the grants which were given to the white Loyalists and the grants were a fair distance away from any sizable town. One of those New Brunswick settlements was Willow Grove. It is approximately 16 miles from Saint John and originally there were about 500 people sent there. Life in a new country was very hard and it was especially difficult for people living so far from the main centre. The winters were long and bitter and there were many hills to transverse on a walk between Saint John and Willow Grove. But by standing together and hard work they survived and many of their descendants still live in Saint John today.



Measha Brueggergosman
A shining example of the of the contribution the descendants of these
early Black Canadian settlers of New Brunswick.



Measha Brueggergosman

Measha Brueggergosman (née Gosman) was born to Anne Eatmon and Sterling Gosman in Fredericton, New Brunswick, becoming at least the eighth generation of her family in Canada. At the time of the American War of Independence, African Americans were offered their freedom if they fought for the British, and many accepted, heading to Canada—especially the Maritime provinces.

Also see Buxton Settlement