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

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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."