Primary Sources, Black History

Tonight join The Gist of Freedom with host Roy Paul as we talk with the executive producer Walter Puryear, the director Michael Green and cast members of the dynamic play Black Wall Street!  Please Mark your calendar.. Black Wall Street is running at The Andrew Freedman Home, 1125 GrandCouse Bronx, NY starting Thursday September 18th thru Sunday October 5,204.

This show is dedicated to the memory of one of the most prominent Tulsan killed in the Tulsa Massacre,  Dr. A.C. Jackson, a 40-year-old surgeon.

BLACK WALL STREET   by Celeste Bedford Walker

In 1921, in a small community in Tulsa Oklahoma, there was a Black paradise called Greenwood.  This community consisted of Blacks, Indians, and Jews, who respected and did business with each other. In time the town was soon known as Black Wall Street.  In a mere 36 block section of town, these African-Americans owned and operated up to 600 thriving businesses. One of the most popular of these businesses was Old Lady Boleys’,(fictional) an eating establishment which is where our play begins. One Sunday evening, the town’s more influential citizens gathered to have their pictures taken for the local newspaper; in honor of the community’s 20th anniversary. Before the play ends, the entire community of Greenwood is completely burned to the ground. In a 12 hour period, a major Black economic movement is halted.

Tonight on The Gist of Freedom www.BlackHistoryUniversity.com, we'll talk with Jamel Robinson, founder of the Jamel Robinson Child Welfare Reform Initiative!

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1837-1915 Amanda Berry Smith devoted her life to the ministry of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Her most noted achievement is the opening of the first orphanage for black children in Illinois.

 In 1899, the orphanage opened its doors to homeless African American girls. The 12-room brick house that served as the orphanage was the first of its kind in Illinois.

The community at large was receptive to Smith’s evangelical message and supported the presence of the orphanage. By 1910, the building housed 33 children, up from 12 in 1900

In Harvey, Illinois, a suburb founded by temperance groups south of Chicago, Smith took up the duties of the national representative for the WCTU, and wrote her life’s story. An Autobiography: The Story of the Lord’s Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith, the Colored Evangelist was published in 1893. Through book sales, donations, and lecturing fees, she began to raise money for a new cause: an orphanage for black children. She founded and distributed a small newspaper, The Helper, in order to generate publicity and income for the orphanage and other worthy charities

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In New York City, there are nearly 14,000 children in foster care, with almost 6,000 new youth entering the system every year.   Of those youth, approximately 1/3 are between the ages of 13-19, and less than 20% expect to be adopted. That equates to 1,100 youth aging out of the foster care system in New York each year without a permanent home, family or support network.

Tonight on The Gist of Freedom Join Historian Yul Anderson. He will explain the State of Black Studies and his statement below.

"Black Studies program throughout American have been taken over by others from the Diaspora community such that African American studies becomes Diaspora study programs. Leadership of Black/Afro-American studies programs have morphed and lost interest in the origination of such programs and have now been commingled with Latin American Study, Caribbean studies, Haitian Studies, to the point that there is no longer a distinctive core of Black or African American study programs in America.  This has resulted in a tug of war of funding and resentment amongst African American Scholars who feel their distinctive turf has been invaded, as a result less funding for Black or African American studies programs exist.

The Global media, while seeing the Africans influence and power in American as a result of Presidents Obama's African Summit now place more emphasis on African images rather than African American images, the so called "New Black'.  Traditional HBCU's while relatively less expensive than traditional main stream white liberal colleges have become much more favorable as the lack of qualified Black African American Scholars are not able to fill the teaching vacancies, as a result HBCU's become much more inviting to the diaspora communities which in turn morph HSBCU's into a more international college, taking on more international issues with substantive professors from the international community.

Join The Gist of freedom and host Roy Paul at The Still Family's 145th Reunion!

The Underground Railroad First Family ~The Still Family William Still, Dr. James Still and Peter

Gist-Still The Gist of Freedom is Still Faith chronicles the faithful ties that bound three incredible families of activists; all from an array of generations and races.  The Still Brothers of The Historical Underground Railroad Family;

Peter Gist-Still, Self-emancipated and authors Dr. James Still (The Recollections of Dr. James Still and William Still 1821-1902 (The Underground Railroad);

Dr. James Still's book http://archive.org/details/earlyrecollectio00stil

Peter Gist-Still's book http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/pickard/menu.html

William Still's book http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15263

EURweb’s Lee Bailey caught up with Dr. Yamma Brown  James Brown's daughter on the red carpet at the Essence Festival in New Orleans. She talks about the film, 

“Get On Up” the new James Brown bio-pic the family’s reaction to it, her father’s legacy.

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Portside Article: James Brown belongs to us, the black masses, and for us to be excluded from the creative team that made this movie is an obscenity. I'm aware that Spike Lee was involved briefly.

James Brown was a civil rights icon. Put James in the pantheon of the most impactful black men of the 20th century, and he would not be out of place. How can I make such an assertion? One song: "I'm Black and I'm Proud."

Before that song, if you wanted to start a fight with a man of color, all one had to do was call him black. Up until the mid-sixties, we were trying define ourselves: not colored anymore, now Negro. But black was not something we called ourselves. And along comes this little man and proudly states, "I'm black and I'm proud!" He took the thing that the oppressor used to bludgeon us and made it a weapon of pride for us.

Join The Gist of Freedom as we talk with Lak, Hip Hop at it's best!

Larry “LAK” Henderson is the founder of Smart Music Entertainment, and the creator of a new sound of hip-hop music that is used as a tool to educate and awaken the consciousness of youth and people in our communities. His album, Lesson One: Hip-Hop & Education, has hit Amazon bestseller lists (#1 in Hot New Releases and #8 in Educational Music), and has received airplay on major radio stations around the world, due to his combination of deep, historical insights and authentic hip-hop sound.

The album features songs about African and African-American history, politics, geography, money management, and commentary on the social war raging in our urban communities. CBS calls Lesson One “creative, innovative, and informative.” Dominion of New York Magazine says, “Most people who use hip-hop to educate do so badly. Lak does it so well.”

Lak is a social critic, history and religion intellectual, and an innovative education advocate. Through his company’s Smart Music Insights initiative, he offers free performances and educational workshops for urban youth; guidance for parents and youth educators on ways to foster learning; and original songwriting to support awareness campaigns for positive community organizations. Lak holds degrees in Africana Studies, Communications, and Labor Studies from Rutgers University, and studied studio engineering at the Institute of Audio Research.

Lak has been featured as a guest on a host of radio and television programs, including London UK’s BANG 103.6 FM, CBS, KMOJ 89.9 FM Minneapolis, WVON 1690 AM Chicago, WPRB 103.3 FM Princeton University, WRSU 88.7 FM Rutgers University, WMNF 88.5 Tampa, BET, LA Talk Radio, and many more.

Join The Gist of Freedom as we listen to Chapter 6, Music for Jesus Lyrics of Freedom and a lively discussion with Pan-Africanist Dr. Sidney and Pianki. Evangelical preaching had caused some whites to question the justness of slavery, but still more were all the more careful to censor what messages from the Bible slaves could hear. Born in 1800, Nat Turner was identified as a bright youth who developed a zeal for Scripture, though this did not prevent his masters from employing him merely as a common field hand. Turner also became a preacher to slaves from surrounding plantations and farms, preaching against slavery to his brethren but carefully keeping up the appearance of the respectful, dutiful slave to whites. Turner’s spirituality and reputation took on a mystical quality as an adult, and during this time he secretly began dreaming of revolution, believing God had specially chosen him to smite the institution of slavery. Because previous conspiracies had been discovered when members had informed on them, Turner developed his plans for revolt only among four trusted followers. He and his confederates struck on August 21, 1831, slaughtering white men, women, and children using axes and other ad hoc weapons.

"I'm for truth, no matter who tells it.

I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against.

I'm a human being

first and foremost, and as such

I'm for whoever and whaatever benefits

humanity

as a whole."

Malcolm X

Bordentown School -volunteers needed - restoration underway with volunteer electrical contractor John White! A museum on the once thriving black school's cam[us kknown as The Tuskegee of The North  is John's Mission.

The Bordentown school, was originally established in 1886 by Rev. W. A. Rice, a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, as a private institution under the name of New Brunswick Technical School. It was later called  "The Ironsides Normal School." in honor of Commodore Stewart the benefactor of t Bordentown's Campus, his 350 acre estate    .

Reverend Walter A.S. Rice of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in New Brunswick founded the Bordentown School in 1876 as New Brunswick Technical Institute a privately supported educational entity. Reverend Rice’s mission was to educate African American students of both sexes and train them “in such industries as shall enable them to become self-supporting”. The school was founded just five years after the famous Tuskegee Institute in Alabama was formed. It was known as the Tuskegee of The North"

 The school relocated to Bordentown City in 1886, where it was shrewdly renamed and incorporated as the New Jersey Manual Training and Industrial School for Colored Youth. The name change from Technical Institute to Manual Training was an insult to the founders and it  was the beginning of the propaganda campaign against black educational institutions, as a continuation of slave labor. The donor of the property, Commander Stewart, the oldest enlistee in the Civil War and an Irish activist demanded in his will that his property be used for training purposes- the State of New Jersey believes they meet the requirements, insofar as they offer training courses to their detainees.

Have you ever watched the blockbuster hit movie, Lean on Me, starring Morgan Freeman? Have you ever wondered what happened to the REAL students from the Lean on Me movie? 

Well, Dr. Pinky Miller is a graduate along with the producer of The Gist of Freedom, Lesley Gist.  Dr. Pinky  is telling OUR story about the experiences at Eastside High School (1982-1986) and the impact that leadership had on students, teacher, and administrators—good, bad, and indifferent!

Join The Gist of Freedom host, Roy Paul for a candid discussion with Dr. Pinky www.BlackHistoryUniversity.com

Documentary coming soon!!!

Listen in now, Freedom Summer Survivor, Harvey Boyd, formerly of The Washington Post!

Image: Reporters for the New York Amsterdam News at work in the newsroom, 1936. Photo by Lucien Aigner.

Harvey Boyd reflects on his extraordinary life and opportunities as an African American man during the time of segregation. He begins by describing his childhood home--which is still his current residence--in Crestdale, North Carolina, located southeast of Charlotte in Matthews. During the interview, Harvey emphasizes his passion for art, and the black community’s view that becoming an artist was not an option for an African American man at the time. Harvey decided to transfer to West Charlotte High School in order to take art classes, and afterward he attended CPCC, acquiring an Associate’s degree in graphic design.

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Listen in now to The Gist Of Freedom, Black History Internet Radio Show

www.BlackHistoryUniversity.com and www.BlackHistoryBlog.com

Click here http://bit.ly/The_Gist_Of_Freedom_Summer_Survivors_Journalist

Read more http://bit.ly/The_Gist_of_White_Freedom_Riders

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 Harvey recounts his experiences working for the Charlotte Observer in advertising, particularly in regard to the moments when he became more aware of segregation. After working in Charlotte for a few years, Harvey attended Howard University in Washington, DC and worked for the Washington Post. Harvey describes the differences he saw in a non-segregated city and his experiences as both an employee at the Washington Post and a student at Howard University. He emphasizes the influence of one of his African American art professors--Lois Mailou Jones--who confirmed that a career as an artist was possible for an African American.