NEW YORK'S ABYSSINIAN BAPTIST CHURCH FOUNDED IN 1809

From: The Church's website

History

In 1808, a group of Africans in America and Ethiopian sea merchants, armed with their faith in God and strengthened by mercies already seen, left First Baptist Church in lower Manhattan and withdrew forever their membership. They had refused to accept racially segregated seating in God’s house and were determined to start their own church. Inspired by the ancient name of the nation from which the Ethiopian merchants had come, Abyssinia, the group formally organized themselves as The Abyssinian Baptist Church in the City of New York. Reverend Thomas Paul, a minister from Boston, aided the new congregation in becoming organized as the first African-American Baptist Church in the state of New York.  Abyssinian called as its first pastor the Rev. Vanvelser.

In its infancy, Abyssinian bought property on Worth Street.  After several years, a new building was needed and the members sold the property for $3,000.  Thereafter, they held services at the Broadway Tabernacle and in buildings on Thompson and Spring Streets before seeking another permanent place of worship.

Rev. Vanvelser was succeeded by The Reverends Sigel, Benjamin Paul, James Hayborn, Lomis Samson White, John T. Raymond, and Thomas Henderson.  In 1856, Abyssinian Baptist Church called the Rev. William Spellman to serve as its pastor.  During his administration from 1856 to 1885, the membership increased to 1,600 and the $3,000 realized from the sale of the Worth Street property was applied to the purchase of a church building on Waverly Place.  Following Spellman’s retirement, the Reverend Robert D. Wynn of Norwich, Connecticut was called to the pastorate of the church.  For sixteen years he led a congregation that continued to increase in numbers and together they freed the Waverly Place property from indebtedness.

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

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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.

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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.