Dr. King's "I Have Come To The Mountaintop" Speech

This year marks 40 years since Dr. King's assassination. At this point in time, now more than ever, is it important for us to look back in history to a man that brought America to a turning point. America remembers the history of Dr. King that they want us to remember--only pieces of his "I have a Dream" speech that they twist to propel their colorblind rhetoric. Yet, there were many speeches that Dr. King delivered. And it is up to us to educate ourselves on Dr. King in his entirety, not only through the lens that America deems as safe.

Delivered in Memphis, TN on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated, his "I have come to the Mountaintop" speech gives great insight into what Dr. King was thinking and seeing about the future of this nation. He delivers this speech, it seems, as if he knew it was his last. His heartfelt charge given during this message remains true today. Please take time out to listen to this speech; you will not regret it.

Part 1:


Part 2:

Honoring a Civil Rights Hero: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

CNN has a dedicated portion of their website entitled, Black in America, which gives video accounts of those who were with King when he was assassinated and discusses how the FBI followed his every move. Come here Jesse Jackson as he recalls the moments followings King being shot and the call he had to make to Coretta Scott King to inform her that her husband had been shot. FBI files called King, "the most dangerous and effective Negro in the country." Click the link above for more.

Obama's Speech on Asian immigrants & Monolithic whiteness

We here at Righteous Minds strive to make sure that you have access to historical issues that play a role today. This one particularly focuses on "whiteness" in America and Obama's stance which is linked to early Asian immigrants:

UCLA Law Professor Jerry Kang, who is an active member of the UCLA
Asian American Studies Center's Faculty Advisory Committee, has
written a very insightful opinion piece in the National Law Journal,
in which he draws parallels between Barack Obama's recent speech on
race, and two historically significant US Supreme Court cases --
Ozawa v. U.S. and U.S. v. Thind -- dealing with naturalization and
race for early Asian immigrants:


http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1206528538825

"Study to show thyself approved"

Hot Topic: Obama's Pastor Jeremiah Wright

I've been searching for unique takes on this debate. And I found two columns that I found to be quite interesting. The first is from a columnist for The American Spectator, a conservative journal. The following is an excerpt:

"Ever since Barack Obama delivered his much praised but inadequate race speech on Tuesday, the editorialists have been telling us how much we need a national dialogue on the subject.

Right. It's high time. So here's my contribution:

Rev. Jeremiah Wright's remarks about America were the worst things said about my adopted country since I came here from England in 1962. Louis Farrakhan and Malcolm X are not in the same league as this champion of race hatred from Chicago. Imagine if Senator John McCain had for years been a member of a church where a white pastor said that blacks should go back to Africa where they came from. And McCain were to respond: Well, I disagree with his remarks and I reject what he said but I won't disassociate myself from him, because he has been so important to my life. McCain would be out of the race in the blink of an eye. Yet Obama has not felt the need to distance himself from Pastor Wright.

The New York Times has praised Obama's speech as a "profile in courage." That is baloney -- reflecting the gross double standard that has prevailed for decades on the subject of race. The underlying problem is that the liberals who still control so much of the debate quietly agree with much of what Wright said."

He goes on to say several paragraphs down:

"Anti-white discrimination has been legal in this country for 30 years now, even though it is politically unpopular and goes down to defeat when voters are given a voice in the matter.

THE TRUTH IS THAT the African-American establishment benefits from the current system of affirmative action and racial preferences. They feel ennobled by their victim status. White liberals like this arrangement, too, because the cultivation of victimhood and the arousal of guilt feelings is their stock in trade -- practically their raison d'etre. The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof sought to excuse Pastor Wright's mendacious claims that the U.S. government engineered HIV as a death-dealing weapon against blacks. Maybe 30 percent of blacks believe that, Kristof wrote, in extenuation. Perhaps it's time to expose the lies that black leaders spread within their own communities, and not excuse them."

Click here to read the rest of Tom Bethel's, Senior Editor of The American Spectator, op-ed piece entitled, "Obama and His Minister".

In response to his piece, Vince McKnight responds. He offers great insight into what many people leave out in this debate: the history of racial discrimination against blacks in this country and its effect on our lives today. The following is an excerpt from his response:

"I read your article about the Obama-Wright flap, and there is an element to this story that you are missing. Indeed, much of the press is missing this point.

You minimize and trivialize the pernicious, virulent, and lasting effects of state sponsored racism in the United States. I will be the first to admit that the United States of America has made spectacular progress in becoming a more open and just society. However, many white journalists look at the world as it exists today in a vacuum, as if the past has been eradicated by the passage of landmark legislation and Supreme Court cases.

I am a 54 year old African American, Ivy League educated attorney. In my lifetime, I have personally experienced acts that you can't imagine. Moreover, I dare say, that if you took the time to speak to any African American over the age of 45 -- anybody -- and ask them to candidly tell you their experiences with racism in this country, you would understand that this is not a figment of their imaginations, that it had real and lasting impacts, and that no law can fix or undo the harm that has been done."

Click here to read the rest of his response (you will have to scroll down the page to find it, but it's worth it). Then I pose to you, did you agree or disagree with Pastor Wright's remarks? Also, what is your opinion on how the media has framed this debate? Since black voices are not the ones heard in mainstream media because we do not have control over CNN or MSNBC, we do not have shows like Glenn Beck or other political pundits, how do you feel about the silence of black voices in the media? And anything else you have to say about this, just speak your mind.

Hot Topic: Typecasting

I received a Facebook message as a part of the BGLO Scholar group from Gregory Sparks, a scholar in Black Greek-lettered organizations, about the controversy surrounding the Lebron James cover of Vogue and was compelled to send you all the story. Check out the images below:


Here's an excerpt from the blog:

"Tom Withers of the Huffington Post describes LeBron James on the cover of the April cover of Vogue thusly:

LeBron James is striking a pose.

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ superstar will appear on the April cover of Vogue, joining actors Richard Gere and George Clooney as the only men to do so in the influential fashion magazine’s 116-year history.

Wearing a tank top, shorts and sneakers from his own Nike clothing line, James appears on the cover dribbling a basketball and screaming as if in game mode while throwing one arm around supermodel Gisele Bundchen with Tom Brady nowhere to be found.

LeBron James is striking a pose, all right.

What Withers does not say is that neither Gere nor Clooney struck a pose remotely close to that of James’. What Withers does not say - nor does anyone else as of yet - is that Tom Brady would never have been asked to pose with his girlfriend, Gisele Bundchen, in full New England Patriots gear.

And Tom Brady never, ever would have allowed himself to be cast as a human ——-

King Kong.

Some people who see the Vogue cover and see the inescapable similarities between King Kong and King James will blame Vogue and/or photographer Annie Leibovitz for the ape-like visage of James, mouth agape, all 6′9″, 260 pounds of his blackness charging out of the cover with Bundchen swept up in his arm and her in her best German-Euro version of Ann Darrow."

Click here to read the rest of Dwil's post, "Lebron James and the Vogue Cover: More 'King Kong' than 'King James'" and also check out this amazon review of the book Typecasting and then speak your mind.

Obama's speech about much more than race

To say I was moved would the the understatement of my lifetime. This speech was by far the most honest and relevant testimonial on the state of race relations I've had the opportunity to witness. This is by far the most important speech delivered on this country's soil in more than forty years. Rest assured, win or lose, your children will watch, read, and relive this moment. This speech will be memorized and recited in classrooms along side the Declaration of Independence, King's "I Have a Dream", Maya Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman", Act 3--Scene 2 of Julius Caesar, Old Major's address to his fellow farm animals in Orwell's masterpiece, and any other major speech that has embeded itself in the American psyche. But enough of my brown-nosing...what are your thoughts?

Hot Topic: Apology from Congress

Many gave thoughtful comments on my article about slavery in Maryland. Well now, Congress is debating giving their own apology. Many called this worthless, more time should be spent on educating our youth, eradicating the fact that disproportionate people of color are locked up behind bars, and that asthma causes inner city and homeless students to miss school to the point where NCLB is truly irrelevant.

all these statements, I agree with in theory. but there has to be something in an apology....Otherwise, why do we demand it so much in our daily lives?

Let us know your thoughts. The article is here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-27-slavery_N.htm

Have We Forgotten the Women of Plums?

I know that this blog tends to be about current political and social issues, but I believe that in order to make progress, sometimes we need inspiration from the past. Recently I was given an assignment in my Literature by Women on the Plantation course that required us to do a book review. Originally, I was going to do a novel but as time progressed, the subject matter was very uninteresting….I frankly did not care about the troubles of plantation mistresses with their “unruly, lazy” slaves. So then I came across a book entitled The Women of Plums which is a compilation of poetry by slave women. The following is the first poem of the book:

To Market, to Market

Arthur Mason’s Shopping List,
November 6, 1804

One Black Angus
One Yew
two Hogs
one Spinning Wheel
one Dresser Mirror
one nigger wench & child
(pay no more than $2,000)
twelve Silver Spoons
four Tea Cups
four saucers
six China Plates
one Pewter Tea-pot

Bill to be paid in full to Tydus Wellington,
Sixth of November, eighteen hundred and four.

I was speechless, my book had fully captivated my attention and although somewhere in my memory I believe I’ve come across this poem before, this time I was at a loss for words. My major forces me to notice the little things about literature such as the fact that the people on the list were lower cased which furthers their identity as property and they were also given a cost listed as “no more than” as if there is no way possible they should be worth more than the listed amount. This poem introduced poem after poem of riveting imagery and reflections of a past that I think we sometimes too soon forget. I congratulate the progress that African Americans have made but it seems like somewhere along the way the “talented tenth” has come to the conclusion that we have in many ways arrived. They dismiss any idea of slavery and feel no need for black unity across class barriers, but let’s not forget that we all came from this….

Happens that I be a slave woman,
maybe that makes me property,
not a human bein’ like all
you who come to buy me.
see if I’m sturdy, can hold ground,
can withstand the elements, bear fruit
when the seed is in me, like the Lord’s land,
sing for my supper when the seasons come,
give death the mortgage on my bones.

Don’t come near me! Stay away!
I’m not buyable yet,
I’m a bit unleavened.

Unleavened….yes, I think I can understand.

Blessings.

About time? A Year long course to Investigate Maryland's role in Slavery

I thought I would never see the day. As some of you may know, last year the state of Maryland wrote a letter that stated that they had "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery. Many people on the flagship campus, University of Maryland, College Park, were disturbed that our president, Dr. C.D. Mote had very little to add to this discussion by way of an apology. Given the fact that UMCP was founded by Charles Calvert, who was a slave owner who donated some of his land to found the university, UMCP's ties are dripping in slavery.

Well Dr. Ira Berlin, Professor in the History Department here in UMCP, has decided to take this topic a couple of steps further. Renowned author of Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South (1975) and Generations of Captivity: A History of Slaves in the United States(2002) has decided to turn this into a year long project for undergraduate students.

You heard me right, starting Fall 2008, 30 students will have the opportunity to take a year long course with Dr. Berlin studying Maryland's role in slavery. Call me a nerd, whatever, but I wish I was one of these 30 students. Come May 2009 perhaps Dr. Mote will have more to say since they will present their research to him.

I am excited and look forward to hearing about this project, and trying to sneak into a class. (Remember ..."Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate, no despotism can enslave.")

So my question for you, would you sign up for this year long class and what would you hope to get from it?

information from this article found in the Washington Post.