WHEN THE MOORS RULED EUROPE

On Youtube, "When the Moors Rule Europe"
CLICK HERE TO SEE: When the Moors Ruled Europe Video

Moorish history is part of Black Heritage. Although Islam came from Arabia, most northern Africans adopted Islam as their religion. Unified by Islam, Africans excelled in the military conquest, the arts, sciences, and intellectual pursuits. 

From: GENERAL HISTORY OF AFRICA III Editor: M. Elfasi

"The Arab conquest of was in many ways similar to but also in many ways different from all other conquests known to the world. First, although inspired by religious teaching, the Arabs did not expect the conquered people, in principle, to enter their religious community; the conquered people were allowed to maintain their old religious allegiances. But after a few generations the majority of the urban population adopted Islam and even those who did not do so tended to use Arabic as a common medium of culture. 

Buy MOORISH SPAIN here!

The distinctive and rich civilization that characterized the Muslim world at its height came into being through the amalgam of varied traditions of all the people who adopted Islam or lived under its sway. It inherited not only the material of intellectual achievements of the Near Eastern and Mediterranean world but also appropriated and absorbed many elements of Indian and Chinese origin and transmitted them further.  

It would be erroneous to see the Muslim civilization merely as a simple conglomerate of bits and pieces of borrowed cultural goods. At first, of course, many traits were appropriated directly without any reshaping but gradually they were combined, enlarged and developed into new patterns that served both as resource and stimulus to creative Muslim sciences, artistic expression and technological innovations. In this way emerged the Muslim civilization with its own distinctive pattern corresponding to the new universalistic spirit and new social order."

American Murder and Mayhem

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/122112guns#.UNSZ0eQ72So

There is a common thread tying together the mass murder Connecticut and the gun violence in the Black community. 

That thread is the denial that lax gun laws have had a disastrous influence on the entire country at all social strata. 

From Role/Reboot 

Why Most Mass Murderers are Privileged White Men
By Hugo Schwyer 
http://www.rolereboot.org/culture-and-politics/details/2012-07-why-most-mass-murderers-are-privileged-white-men?fb_action_ids=4270127115308&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

"White men from prosperous families grow up with the expectation that our voices will be heard. We expect politicians and professors to listen to us and respond to our concerns. We expect public solutions to our problems. And when we’re hurting, the discrepancy between what we've been led to believe is our birthright and what we feel we’re receiving in terms of attention can be bewildering and infuriating. Every killer makes his pain another’s problem. But only those who've marinated in privilege can conclude that their private pain is the entire world’s problem with which to deal. This is why, while men of all races and classes murder their intimate partners, it is privileged young white dudes who are by far the likeliest to shoot up schools and movie theaters."

From: U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Bureau of Justice Statistics

Trends by race
Blacks were disproportionately represented among homicide 
victims and offenders 
 In 2008, the homicide victimization rate for blacks (19.6
homicides per 100,000) was 6 times higher than the rate for
whites (3.3 homicides per 100,000).
 Th e victimization rate for blacks peaked in the early 1990s,
reaching a high of 39.4 homicides per 100,000 in 1991.
 Aft er 1991, the victimization rate for blacks fell until 1999, when
it stabilized near 20 homicides per 100,000.
 In 2008, the off ending rate for blacks (24.7 off enders per
100,000) was 7 times higher than the rate for whites (3.4
offenders per 100,000)
 The offending rate for blacks showed a similar pattern to the
victimization rate, peaking in the early 1990s at a high of 51.1
offenders per 100,000 in 1991.
 Aft er 1991, the off ending rate for blacks declined until it reached
24 per 100,000 in 2004. Th e rate has since fluctuated, increasing
to 28.4 offenders per 100,000 in 2006 before falling again to 24.7
offenders per 100,000 in 2008.



From: Forbes Magazine

Gun Violence: How Research on an American Health Crisis Has Been Suppressed

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robwaters/2012/12/17/gun-violence-americas-secret-health-crisis/

The effort to kill the Prevention Center failed but Congress cut the CDC’s budget by $2.6 million—the amount thought to be spent on the offending publication—and passed language declaring: “None of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.”

With that act, the nation’s leading public health agency was effectively barred from making recommendations on a public health problem that constitutes one of the leading causes of death of Americans. The law remains in effect, and it’s had a chilling effect on research, says David Hemenway, professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health and director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center.

• Children age 5 to 14 living in states with high rates of gun ownership and weak gun laws were more likely to die in homicides, suicides or accidental shootings in their home, according to a 2002study. In the five states with the highest rates of gun ownership, kids were 3.3 times more likely to die in a gun homicide, 6.7 times more likely to die in a gun suicide and 16 times more likely to die of an unintended gunshot, compared with kids in the five states with the lowest rates of gun ownership.

• Firearm homicide rates in the U.S. in 2003 were 20 times greater than in 22 other high-income countries, according to a studypublished last year. Among 15-to-24-year-olds, the homicide-by-gun rate was 43 times greater. While the other countries had a total population of 564 million compared with 291 million in the U.S., 80 percent of gun deaths occurred here.

• A 1997 study looking at the largely employed members of a health maintenance organization around Seattle found that if anyone in a family had purchased a gun, the odds of a homicide occurring in their home were twice as high as in the homes of health-plan members of the same age, sex and neighborhood who hadn’t bought guns.

• In homes where a gun was kept, there was a 2.7 times greater risk of a homicide taking place compared to homes without guns, according to a 1993study conducted in the counties including Memphis, Seattle and Cleveland.

BLACK and CREOLE SETTLEMENT ISLE BREVELLE

From: Creoles in the Cane River

Full Article

As the area's earliest families, the Creoles of Natchitoches Parish had first choice of farmland and wisely settled in the rich Red River Valley, where the largest plantations flourished through the antebellum period. In southern Natchitoches Parish, the Creole descendants of Marie Thérèse Coincoin, an enslaved woman, and Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer, a French soldier stationed at the Natchitoches Post, established the community of Isle Brevelle. Today's Cane River Creoles form the basis of the Isle Brevelle settlement, which has continued as a Creole community since its late 18th-century beginnings.

Americans, who were latecomers to the area, tended to settle in the piney uplands away from the Creoles. Arriving with the English language, Protestant religion and a new form of representative government, Americans were foreign in almost every way to the Creoles of Natchitoches. Creoles maintained a dominant influence in local society despite the influx of Americans into the area.

Creole History  

Who are Louisiana's Creoles?

Featured Book: Atlantic Creoles in the Age of Revolutions

The term Creole has had a number of meanings in the past several hundred years. The core of those meanings centers around the concept of New World products derived from Old World stock. The term today applies to those people of non-American ancestry who were born in Louisiana during its French and Spanish colonial periods and their descendants. From the colonial period on, there has been a significant Creole population in the state. Some Creoles are of French or Spanish descent, while others have a mixed heritage of African, French, Spanish and/or American Indian. When Louisiana became an American territory, the term Creole increasingly came to mean "native born" and was used to distinguish between the land's anciens habitants, or former colonial residents, and incoming Americans. Over time, the French language and the Catholic religion remained as identifying marks of many of Louisiana's Creoles. People sometimes confuse Louisiana's Creole population with French-speaking Acadians, today's Cajuns, who were exiled from Canada by the British and arrived in Louisiana years after the Creoles had established themselves there.

BHN.TV BLACK HERITAGE NETWORK

Check it out:

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Here’s your special opportunity to be part of television history. I invite you to enjoy great television and enjoy the freedom of watching remarkable stories without the “cable cord” – all at a special introductory price. And a portion of every subscription goes to the United Negro College Fund.

Our Promise

BHN is the first and only true to life non-fiction network devoted exclusively to Black achievement in American life. We also feature classic Black films. We add fresh content daily

 BHN.TV is for You

Three years in the making, Black Heritage Network – BHN.TV – is here for you. The story of Black achievement and excellence – truly American history – now available for the first time ever at a single full-time television destination – BHN.TV. A group of Americans has joined together in a commitment  to bring you the piece of the American television puzzle that’s been missing for years at an easy to find 24/7 channel – the first channel devoted to non-fiction programs that chronicle the Black American experience. Plus classic movies.

 GO TO BHN NOW

Finally, what you have asked for is here. TV that cherishes and celebrates the Black American experience. TV that doesn’t fill the day with caricatures and stereotypes of Black Americans.  TV that will bring a smile. TV that may brings tears with important memories. TV that you can be proud to have in your home and share with your children and grandchildren. TV that presents and preserves our history. Watch on your laptop, iPad, or flat screen TV with a Roku internet connection device.

GO TO BHN NOW

Who are we?

 “JB” James Brown, Host of CBS Sports’ The NFL Today, is Senior Advisor to BHN.TV.  JB is one of those who have fought to bring BHN.TV to your laptop and TV screen and believes in the importance of BHN being available in our homes. JB knows great television and the sacred role of a commitment to service. You can count of JB to make sure that BHN.TV delivers compelling television of high value to you.

Joe Madison and Elvin Ross

Among our Advisory Board members and investors are:

Paul S. Besson, Member, State Panel of Illinois Relations Board; former GE/NBC executive

Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. President and CEO of TIAA-CREF, former Vice Chairman of the U. S. Federal Reserve Bank.

Teresa Hairston

Reuben Mark, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Colgate-Palmolive Company.

George L. Miles Jr.,

Clarence Page, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist

Elvin Ross

John Rogers, Founder and CEO of Ariel Investments, America’s largest Black owned mutual fund family.

Kurt Schmoke, VP and General Counsel of Howard University Law School and first African American Mayor of Baltimore BHN’s Mission

GO TO BHN NOW

BHN.TV was founded to bring you quality, relevant programming that reflects the Black American experience. The founders believe that it is time to step up and create one TV channel whose single mission is to be the first and only full-time television destination for the real stories of Black life in America. Black heritage is American heritage. BHN is a channel for all Americans and the world.

BHN Programming

BHN.TV offers powerful documentaries in our series Not So Long Ago. Joe Madison, the Black Eagle on SiriusXM’s The Power, introduces each documentary and puts it in the context of America in another time and how the subject affects our lives today.

Classic Movies in Black Retro Theater. Filmmaker Elvin Ross, Tyler Perry’s Music Director, introduces each film and shares important facts that make watching the film a special experience. 

Faith in America is a cornerstone of BHN.TV. In our series Faith on the Road we visit congregations around the country. In their own words, members and clergy reveal what makes that church unique and special and what each of us can learn from their success.

In addition, get motivated to act on your dreams and Live Better with Willie Jolley. Willie has been named one of the five outstanding speakers in the world. Willie lives by the life-changing message, “A Set-back is a Set-up for a Comeback.”

Weekdays, Joe Madison, the Black Eagle, speaks his mind and shines his light on a key issue of the day in The Madison Memo.

And enjoy our daily quiz Who Said That? on both Facebook and BHN.TV. You’ll find the answers and interesting information about the person quoted at blackheritagenetwork.com

And that’s just the beginning. We will be adding new content genres as we grow.

Subscribe to BHN and Support UNCF

BHN contributes 5% of all monthly and annual subscription revenue to the United Negro College Fund. Subscribing to BHN supports Black heritage at HBCUs as well as providing a unique home for Black heritage on television.

TAKE ME TO BLACK HERITAGE NETWORK NOW

Here’s how to subscribe

Go to bnh.tv and at the middle of the page click on the panel titled “Become a Charter Member.” Subscribe now get $10 off the annual low rate of just $59.99 and pay just $49.99 for a year of All Access to bhn.tv’s great content. And have the opportunity to purchase as many annual gift subscriptions at half off the regular price as you would like.

Remember, 5% of all subscription revenue gores to UNCF. Your subscription will help support today’s important role of HBCUs and create America’s first and only one stop destination for compelling Black programming of interest to all Americans.

"BETTER TELEVISION AND BETTER FUTURES THROUGH THE UNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND. THAT'S THE MISSION OF BHN.TV, THE BLACK HERITAGE NETWORK."

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Colin Powell Endorses Obama: A common way forward

Now I know that Colin Powell's endorsement is not earth shaking news, but it is important that the second most powerful Black man in America supports the first. This is a rarity in US history. Usually, almost always, powerful brothers are pitted against each other. Usually one is seen as the accomodationist  and the other is seen as the radical.

FEATURED BOOK Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell

Martin versus Malcolm

WEB Dubois versus Booker T. Washington

President Obama is a Democrat and Gen. Colin Powell a Republican. This endorsement symbolizes a common way forward. How these guys think is the important take away lesson: strategically, intelligently, circumspectly.

JOHN LEWIS SPEECH

Watch John Lewis Speech on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwlsQ8CX20w

Published on Sep 6, 2012 by 5portsCenter

John Robert Lewis (born February 21, 1940) is the U.S. Representative for Georgia's 5th congressional district, serving since 1987 and is the dean of the Georgia congressional delegation. He was a leader in the American Civil Rights Movement and chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), playing a key role in the struggle to end segregation. He is a member of the Democratic Party and is said to be one of the most liberal legislators.

Featured Book: Across that River: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change 
by John Lewis

Lewis was born in Troy, Alabama, the third son of Willie Mae (née Carter) and Eddie Lewis.[1] His parents were sharecroppers. Lewis was educated at the Pike County Training High School, Brundidge, Alabama and also American Baptist Theological Seminary and at Fisk University, both in Nashville, Tennessee, where he became active in the local sit-in movement. As a student he made a systematic study of the techniques and philosophy of nonviolence, and with his fellow students prepared thoroughly for their first actions. He participated in the Freedom Rides to desegregate the South, and was a national leader in the struggle for civil rights.[2] In an interview John Lewis said "I saw racial discrimination as a young child. I saw those signs that said "White Men, Colored Men, White Women, Colored Women."..."I remember as a young child with some of my brothers and sisters and first cousins going down to the public library trying to get library cards, trying to check some books out, and we were told by the librarian that the library was for whites only and not for "coloreds." John Lewis followed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and Rosa Parks on the radio. He and his family supported the Montgomery bus boycott.

FEAR OF OBAMA

from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2012/09/fear-of-a-black-president/309064/

Fear of a Black President

AS A CANDIDATE, BARACK OBAMA SAID WE NEEDED TO RECKON WITH RACE AND WITH AMERICA’S ORIGINAL SIN, SLAVERY. BUT AS OUR FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT, HE HAS AVOIDED MENTION OF RACE ALMOST ENTIRELY. IN HAVING TO BE “TWICE AS GOOD” AND “HALF AS BLACK,” OBAMA REVEALS THE FALSE PROMISE AND DOUBLE STANDARD OF INTEGRATION.

By Ta-Nehisi Coates

BLACK HERITAGE BOOKS

Purchase THE ESSENTIAL OBAMA: The Grammy Award Winning Recordings

After Obama won, the longed-for post-­racial moment did not arrive; on the contrary, racism intensified. At rallies for the nascent Tea Party, people held signs saying things like Obama Plans White Slavery. Steve King, an Iowa congressman and Tea Party favorite, complained that Obama “favors the black person.” In 2009, Rush Limbaugh, bard of white decline, called Obama’s presidency a time when “the white kids now get beat up, with the black kids cheering ‘Yeah, right on, right on, right on.’ And of course everybody says the white kid deserved it—he was born a racist, he’s white.” On Fox & Friends,Glenn Beck asserted that Obama had exposed himself as a guy “who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture … This guy is, I believe, a racist.” Beck later said he was wrong to call Obama a racist. That same week he also called the president’s health-care plan “reparations.”

EARLY FREE BLACK SETTLEMENT

http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/index.html


From Black Saga: The African American Experience by Charles M. Christian

Parting Ways, one of the earliest free Black settlements in America, was established near Plymouth, Massachusetts, when the town gave Cato Howe, a Black Revolutionary War veteran, ninety-four acres of land. The grant specified that the land had to be cleared and settled by Cato Howe, Prince Goodwin, Plato Turner, and Quamony Quash and their families. The four men built homes and lived out their lives on the land. 

A fuller treatment of current efforts understand the history of Parting Ways available at:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2011/02/17/plymouth_efforts_to_build_museum_for_parting_ways_african_american_settlement_stall/

A history of Black Settlements in Oklahoma:
CLICK HERE

HISTORY OF EARLY SUDAN

Adapted from General History of Africa III: Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century

The first settlement of Sudan dates from the end of the Stone Age when the flourishing Sahara had become barren and forbidding as slowly became a desert. The Blacks who lived their migrated south to the Sahel where they found other groups of Blacks to form stronger groups and small kingdoms. When the Muslims arrived in the Sudanese Sahara, they found a series of states. The powerful Soninke kingdom of Ghana dominated the extended Mande group in the region between the Senegal and Niger rivers while the nucleus of what would become the Songhay Kingdom took shape in the eastern part of the Inland Niger Delta.

The period from the eighth to the eleventh century was decisive for the peoples of Sudan. Because of sound organization and powerfully centralized structure of their monarchies, they were able to realize the importance of trade with the Mediterranean and Saharan African. Black states succeeded in safeguarding their personality, despite the coming of Islam, and thus ensured the foundations of lasting civilization whose subsequent development found expression in Mali, the Songhay empire and in the city-states of the Hausa.

BLACKS IN AMERICAN REVOLUTION

From PBS http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2narr4.html

"While the Patriots were ultimately victorious in the American Revolution, choosing sides and deciding whether to fight in the war was far from an easy choice for American colonists. The great majority were neutral or Loyalist. For black people, what mattered most was freedom. As the Revolutionary War spread through every region, those in bondage sided with whichever army promised them personal liberty. The British actively recruited slaves belonging to Patriot masters and, consequently, more blacks fought for the Crown. An estimated 100,000 African Americans escaped, died or were killed during the American Revolution."

SLAVERY ABOLISHED IN ENGLAND BEFORE U.S.

From: Black Saga: The African-American Experience by Charles M. Christian

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Murray,_1st_Earl_of_Mansfield

"On June 22, 1772, Chief Justice Lord Mansfield abolished slavery in ENGLAND and thereby gave immediate freedom to 14,000 slaves. His decision in the Sommersett case stated that, 'by Common Law no man could have property in another man and that as soon as a Negro came to England he is free, one may be villein in England but not a slave.' Penalties were levied on those who did not free their slaves. The English courts did not attempt to apply this decision to their colonies and no official body in America took notice of the decision. Nevertheless some slave upon hearing of the decision ran way from their owners and attempted  to get passage to England." 

HOW DID ISLAM CONQUER AFRICA? DID CHRISTIANS FIGHT BACK?

According to the General History of Africa, Vol 3: Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century, there were several basic patterns of Islamization in Africa between the 600 and 1000 C.E (A.D.)

1) The Arab conquest of Egypt and North Africa
2) The commercial activities of Muslims
3) Clerics and holy men spread the word
4) The penetration into different societies into Arab societies 

 From: http://17-122.qataracademy.wikispaces.net/Islamic+Empires+Webpage

From: General History of Africa, Vol 3: Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century, pages 90-91

"Christians fought back as much as they could, however. In North Africa, in Nubia and in Ethiopia the incoming Muslims encountered Christianity. The resistance of local Christians to Islamization varied according to local political and social conditions. In the Maghrib where the Christians represented only a minority (mostly of mixed or foreign origin), Islamization has been more complete and Christianity completely  died out by the eleventh century. In Egypt the process took a longer time being accelerated only by the Fatimids; Islamization has never been complete, as about 10 per cent of Egyptians still belong to the Coptic Church. 

In Christian Nubia, by contrast, the impact of Islam until the end of the thirteen century was minimal but during the next two centuries Christianity gradually vanished, being superseded by Islam. Only in the Ethiopian highlands were Christians able to resist. Neither the peaceful penetration of Muslim merchants nor the military campaigns of Muslim states to the south of the plateau shattered the fidelity of the Ethiopians to the faith of their fathers. Although Christianity in Ethiopia emerged from this centuries-old struggle victorious, it remained an isolated outpost amidst a Muslim sea." 

BLACK SAILORS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY NAVY

  Black people have always served in America's armed forces since the time of the Revolutionary War. 




FROM:

                                                          http://www.portraitsinblack.com/Navy.htm

Picture from: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p51.html

"The small Continental navy was supplemented by individual state navies, privateers, and vessels sailing under letters of marquee. All carried blacks, although race was not always noted on the ship rosters. Naval vessels suffered from chronic manpower shortages. Many black seamen had naval experience from previous colonial wars or from serving on numerous coastal vessels prior to the war. Although no ship captains were black, many pilots were black. As early as 1775 a recruiting poster in Newport sought “ye able backed sailors, men white or black, to volunteer for naval service in ye interest of freedom.” The War of 1812 proved, for the most part , to be a naval war with fleets engaged at sea as well as on the Great Lakes. With their Revolutionary War experience and relatively unlimited access to shipping jobs, blacks proved to be a most valuable and eagerly sought source of manpower. Blacks constituted from 10 to 20% of most ship’s crews and performed heroic duty in many engagements. Oliver Hazard Perry spoke of his black crew members as “absolutely insensible to danger” after their efforts in freeing the Great Lakes from British control."

  

ISLAM AND THE AFRICAN CHURCHES

Northern Africa played a huge role in early Christianity. I am not saying that these early Christian theologians were all Black, but I am say that Africans played a significant role in the creation of Church doctrine and history.  




From Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch

"The story of Christianity in Africa into the early modern period is ... one of defensiveness and decline nearly everywhere, leading inexorably to its complete extinction along the North African coast and in Nubia. The North African Church, the first stronghold of Latin Christianity, the home of Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine of Hippo, should be given credit for surviving the Arab conquest of the 690's for some five centuries in certain areas, but it never recovered its unity after the bitterness of the fourth- and fifth-century divisions between the Donatists and the Catholic elite which was in communion with the wider Mediterranean  Church. Eventually, in the twelfth century, the rigidly intolerant Almohad dynasty insisted on mass conversions of both Jews and Christians....
Western Christians have forgotten that before the coming of Islam utterly transformed the situation in eastern Mediterranean and Asia, there was a good chance that the center of gravity of Christian faith might have moved east to Iraq rather than to Rome. Instead, the ancient Christianity of the East was nearly everywhere faced with a destiny of contraction in numbers, suffering from martyrdom which still continues. But there is one practical consequence of the fifteenth century Latin delusion that Prester John might unite with Western Christians. The myth generated an optimism which had a vital galvanizing effect on Latin Christianity, so it played a part in that surprising new expansion worldwide which from the fifteenth century led Western Catholicism and Protestantism to become the dominant form of Christian faith into modern times."

BLACK MEN READ?!

Black Men Read?! by Lindsay Robinson--member of a Black, all male, book club near Washington, D.C.

from http://www.kasitimes.co.za/

Th

The Audacity of Hope by President Barack Obama,

When Chickenheads come home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down by 

Joan Morgan

Bedtime Stories by Trey Ellis

Moving to higher ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life by Wynton Marsalis

This is just a snippet of the literature that has been digested, diagnosed and discussed in the book club, Black Men Read?! (A name to both poke fun at the stereotype and destroy it simultaneously) 

Let me pose a question. When was the last time an African American male approached you with these words, "I want to start a African American Book club complete with brothers who like to read exclusively?" That is what a friend asked me about 3 years back. This was an interesting idea that I must confess was new to me. I have been a part of male dominated study groups and know of some women’s book clubs, but never one solely devoted to African American men. 

I jumped in, a bit intimidated by the letters and multiple degrees of the gentlemen involved; however, one thing came to the forefront immediately: anyone can read and simply give their opinion, good, bad or indifferent and enjoy other points of view.

Fresh from our, at times, enlightening, and at other times heated meetings on, "Them," by former Washington Post writer Nathan McCall and “The Beautiful Struggle” by Ta-Nehisi Coates and a number of other good books, I wanted to share my experience with others on the fun and benefits of our group. 

The only setback for me comes from the fact the club meets two hours away from me. Going 2 hours away five times a year does not sound that difficult, but at times life and TRAFFIC get in the way.  I considered starting a similar group in my area or get a couple more brothers willing to ride down from time to time.  I was floored by the response and reactions of others when I spoke loud and proud of the Black Men Read?!

When I approached brothers, sad to say, some admitted they did not read books. Some only read hardcore books on the Black experience, which we do that category as well. We just mix in some other genres because we want variety. Some only read papers and magazines and some did read, but the just were not too keen on the idea of an all male book club. Some admitted to only reading when bored. I am not sure whether their reading maintained of lifted their boredom.  

I really gave up on the idea early of a new reading group; however, from time to time, I would just throw the question out there to get a response. I met one brother who loved to read, but like to keep that a secret. Perhaps, it may ruin his reputation.

Another stated, "Do you all read a book then sit around talking about it!?

“Yes,” I responded.  What was his political correct comeback? 

"That is so gay!" A lady accused us of saying it is a book club, but actually we really go to strip clubs. 

My truly unscientific research has minimum if any real credentials to come to any conclusions either way on the subject matter of, Black Men Read!?

I guess stereotypes take time to fall, and I have the audacity to feel that one day, African American men gathering to read will not cause a stir. Until then, although there should be more, I am glad know that SOME, Black Men Read!?

RACE: AN ILLUSION, SKIN COLOR: EVOLUTION PROOF

"Nina Jablonski Breaks the Illusion of Skin Color"
Watch the Video:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/nina_jablonski_breaks_the_illusion_of_skin_color.html

Map  of UV Exposure on Earth's Surface:                        











Map of average human skin color












And read her paper:
http://www.direct-ms.org/pdf/VitDGenScience/Jablonski%202002%20Skin%20color.pdf



Skin deep
Abstract:
Throughout the world, human skin color has evolved to be dark enough to prevent sunlight from
destroying the nutrient folate but light enough to foster the production of vitamin D. Recent
epidemiological and physiological evidence suggests that the worldwide pattern of human skin color
is the product of natural selection acting to regulate the effects of the sun's ultraviolet radiation on
key nutrients crucial to reproductive success.



From:  Scientific American; New York; Oct 2002; Nina G Jablonski;George Chaplin; Volume: 287; Issue: 4
Start Page: 74-81; ISSN: 00368733; Subject Terms: Ultraviolet radiation; Skin Color Evolution

ISLAM SPREADS THROUGH AFRICA

Two different views of the same history.

1. Watch a short youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPPdpXKv_CY

From: http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/students/curriculum/m14/activity3.php

2. From the BBC's The Story of Africa: Islam
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section7.shtml

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Africa

"According to Arab oral tradition, Islam first came to Africa with Muslim refugees fleeing persecution in the Arab peninsula. This was followed by a military invasion, some seven years after the death of the prophet Mohammed in 639, under the command of the Muslim Arab General, Amr ibn al-Asi. It quickly spread West from Alexandria in North Africa (the Maghreb), reducing the Christians to pockets in Egypt, Nubia and Ethiopia.

Islam came to root along the East African coast some time in the 8th century, as part of a continuing dialogue between the people on the East coast and traders from the Persian Gulf and Oman. Like early Christianity, Islam was monotheistic, that is, Muslims worship only one God.
Islam was a modernising influence, imposing a consistent order among different societies, strengthening powers of government and breaking down ethnic loyalties. 

Unlike Christianity, Islam tolerated traditional values, allowing a man to have more than one wife. For many, this made conversion to Islam easier and less upsetting than conversion to Christianity 

In the early centuries of its existence, Islam in Africa had a dynamic and turbulent history, with reforming movements and dynasties clashing and succeeding each other. Gaining power depended on securing trade routes into gold-producing areas in Sub-Saharan Africa. Islamic rulers expanded north as well as south. In the last quarter of the 11th century, Islam dominated the Mediterranean world. 

In the 14th century the Black Death came from Europe and seriously undermined the social and economic life of North Africa, or the Maghreb, as it is known. However Islam remained the dominant religion. 

From the 16th to the 19th century, much of the Maghreb was under Ottoman rule. By the 1880's, Islam had taken root in one third of the continent."

THE TRUE HERITAGE OF GEORGE JEFFERSON

I know that some of you remember the progression of Sherman Hemsley's character, George Jefferson. The Jeffersons was a spin-off from All in the Family. George Jefferson was Archie Bunker's next door neighbor. George gave Archie hell. Archie was the lovable "racist", uneducated, underachieving, and stuck in a lower middle class existence. George, on the other hand, was a successful businessman who owned multiple dry cleaners. Eventually, George and the rest of his TV family moved away from Queens to a posh part of New York, the upper east side of Manhattan. George had two contradictory sides to his personality. Yes, he was rich, but he also played an egotistical, selfish buffoon.

What message was George sending us? I loved the fact that George made it on his own, moved out of the 'hood, and owned his own successful business. According to the writers of the TV show, the price he had to pay was being totally addicted to making money, being insensitive to everyone around him, and ultimately being a clown. Admittedly, the show was a comedy, and George always showed his redeeming qualities by the end of each show. The problem is, the only independently successful, and outspoken Black man on TV, also had to be at times ridiculous.

A less explicit case was the son Micheal on Good Times. The young brother was smart, radical, and on his way to success, but he was often denigrated by his own family for his "crazy" views. Even now, when one  reads the cartoon Boondocks or watches it on TV, yes the Black pride comes out, but it's always couched in comic terms.

So the legacy of these comedies seems to be, "Yes, we know that there are many racial injustices that you are experiencing, but your pain, like so many Three Stooges pratfalls, is fodder for our comic relief."

But the fact is, like much of America, there was a time I loved all if these comedies, and laughed as much as anyone else. I laughed because the hard truth expressed by a gifted comic is extremely funny, and makes you think without being clouded by anger. George Jefferson expressed the truth of a Black man trying to make it to the top. In order to "move on up" you may just have to strut and fret your hour upon the stage until you are heard no more.

PHILLIS WHEATLEY: GREAT AMERICAN POET

From My Name is Phillis Wheatley by Afua Cooper.
This is youtube video of an interview with Ms. Cooper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdLPT2lr4NE&feature=related


From Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS7LiMrUjCM

From Poetry Foundation

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/phillis-wheatley

Phillis Wheatley
1753–1784
"Although she was an African slave, Phillis Wheatley was one of the best-known poets in prenineteenth-century America. Pampered in the household of prominent Boston commercialist John Wheatley, lionized in New England and England, with presses in both places publishing her poems, and paraded before the new republic's political leadership and the old empire's aristocracy, Phillis was the abolitionists' illustrative testimony that blacks could be both artistic and intellectual. Her name was a household word among literate colonists and her achievements a catalyst for the fledgling antislavery movement.

 No more, America, in mournful strain

Of wrongs, and grievance unredress'd complain,

No longer shalt thou dread the iron chain,

Which wanton Tyranny with lawless hand

Had made, and with it meant t' enslave the land.

   Should you, my lord, while you peruse my song,

Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung,

Whence flow these wishes for the common good,

By feeling hearts alone best understood,

I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate

Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat:

What pangs excruciating must molest,

What sorrows labour in my parent's breast?

Steel'd was that soul and by no misery mov'd

That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd:

Such, such my case. And can I then but pray

Others may never feel tyrannic sway?

EGYPT BIRTHPLACE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION (PART 2)

From Black Athena (The Fabrication of Ancient Greece). Check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXdgURdWRCA

Examine the claims of Professor Martin Bernal who questions the assumption of the "Europeaness" of our civilization, placing instead the "black" Egyptians and Phoenicians at the center of the West's origin. Black Athena examines Cornell Professor Martin Bernal's iconoclastic study of the African origins of Greek civilization and the explosive academic debate it provoked. This film offers a balanced, scholarly introduction to the disputes surrounding multiculturalism, "political correctness" and Afrocentrist curricula sweeping college campuses today. In his book Black Athena, Prof. Bernal convincingly indicts 19th-century scholars for constructing a racist "cult of Greece" based upon a purely Aryan origin for Western culture. He accuses these classicists of suppressing the numerous connections between African and Near Eastern cultures and early Greek myth and art. Leading classical scholars, on the other hand, contend that Bernal, like the 19th-century classicists he attacks, uses evidence selectively, uncritically and ahistorically to support his own Afrocentric agenda. They argue that cultural diffusion alone can't account for the distinctive achievements of the Greeks during the Classical Period. Black Athena can help students begin to distinguish between sound scholarship and cultural bias - whether inherited from the past or imposed by the present.