Wednesday, November 28, 2012

BHN.TV BLACK HERITAGE NETWORK



Check it out:

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.


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.


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


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.


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."



Thursday, October 25, 2012

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.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

JOHN LEWIS SPEECH



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



Published on Sep 6, 2012 by 
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.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

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
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.”

Monday, August 20, 2012

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


Saturday, August 11, 2012

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.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

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."