757 Soul Line Dance Party FREE @ Upscale, This Friday, March 2nd, 7:30pm

For comments/concerns/details only contact: sevastep@hotmail.com Soul Line Dance Party   at Upscale Restaurant & Lounge ******* Shuffle and Glide to your favorite Hussles and Slides!! ***** When: Friday, March 2nd, 2012 Where: 6505 College Park Sq Virginia Beach, VA 23464 Time: 7:30p.m. to 9:30p.m.   Cost: FREE cover before 10:00p.m., $10 after $5 Drink Specials & Half Price Food Menu until 9:00p.m. Attire: Club Casual & Classy (No t-shirts or Athletic gear)  ***** Line Dance party participants must be at least 21 years of age. Other restrictions may apply. Event details are subject to change. The poster of this post is not connected to the event. Comments/concerns/details only contact: sevastep@hotmail.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Peace & prosperity, DJ Seko & Wifey Rhonda VArner From Boring to Fun. From Debt to Wealth ! Cell/Office: 757-248-3820 Fax: 866-400-0201 http://happilyeverafter.be/financialfreedom.html

Tax Planning Webinar -- W-4 Training (Tomorrow)

This is
G&G Associates Tax & Financial Consulting
e-Newsletter
Tax Tip of the Week

Tax Planning Webinar -- February 28, 2012 (8pm est)
W-4 Training

Imhotep (Wisdom to You) G&G Readers,

G&G Associates Tax & Financial Consulting Services is continuing its monthly free educational training webinar. These seminars are geared to increase our clients and readers tax & financial IQ.

There is a saying..."the more you learn the more you earn, the less you know the more you owe."

On tomorrows webinar I will be going over the “W-4.” Many tax payers fill out this form the first day they start their job, but fail to realize the form states right on it … “consider completing a new form W-4 each year. But, most people never do. Did you adjust your W-4 this year? Did your tax situation change?

Are you wondering why you owe taxes every year? Are you getting back a huge tax refund essentially giving the IRS an interest free loan, and then you turn right back around and pay creditors hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year in unnecessary interest payments?

If so, you surely want to be on tomorrows tax training webinar.

There are three things that are given in life: You are going to get old, you are going to die and you are going to PAY TAXES. But, there is no reason you have to pay more taxes than necessary.

Upcoming (FREE) Webinar Classes:
- W-4 (2012)
- Record Keeping (Business and Personal expenses)
- Business Expenses (Vehicle, Entertainment, etc)

-------------------------------------------------
Internal Sponsorship

G & G Associates is a Black-Owned Business focused on easing our client's minds on tax compliance matters.

We can service clients anywhere in the world and we look forward to assisting you in getting your tax return prepared for the 2011 and beyond tax season. (Referrals available upon request)

If you are a returning client you'll get a 25% discount off your tax preparation fees. If you are a new client you'll get $40 off our normal fees. Active duty or retired military get a 15% discount. Senior citizens (above 65) get a 20% discount.

*** PRICE GUARANTEE: we guarantee to beat "ANY" other tax professional’s price. We take pride in not nickeling and diming our customers with unnecessary charges & fees.

Do you have a friend, co-worker or family member who might be interested in G&G Associates Tax Preparation Services? If so, then you can earn $40 for everyone you refer that files their tax returns with us. Just refer that person, and when we complete their tax return we will send you a check for $40. To make the deal even sweeter, after (4) four referrals you will get your taxes done for free.

We are looking forward to doing business with you this tax season.

For more information about G&G Associates, visit our website at www.gngnassociates.net, and click on the “TAXES” tab.

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In order to participate in the webinars, you have to send an e-mail to taxes@gngassoc.com, and make a request to participate in the webinar. We’ll then send you instructions along with class material to participate in the webinar.

Without a doubt … please pass this along to anyone you know who might be interested in increasing their tax & financial IQ.

Visit our website for more information and free online webinar classes to help you make sure you are audit proofing your records, or contact us today to set your appointment if you need a “TAX” OR “FINANCIAL” one-on-one consultation.

One of the benefits of being a client with G&G Associates is that you'll get a free 30 min pre-tax preparation session to make sure you are gathering your documents appropriately before you submit your documents for tax preparation.

Also, all new clients get a 50% discount off the 1 – year annual subscription to G&G Investment Society (GGIS) paid newsletter service a ($74.50) value.

Also, all new clients will get a “FREE” 1 hour Financial Success Strategy Consultation appointment a ($200) value.

Contact us today to schedule an appointment!!!

Until the next time!

Ankh Uja Snb (Life, Strength, & Health),

Asar Maa Ra Gray
Tax & Financial Consultant, RFC
G&G Associates
757-251-3757 office
866-361-3872 toll free fax
www.gngassociates.net

G&G Associates & G&G Travel are on Facebook, join our fan page.

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Lil' SISTARS -National Essay and Poetry Contest 2012

MWM: "Making History Today"

      

   

Telling  Teaching, and Keeping Our Stories and History Today and Securing Tomorrow

The National Office of the Original Million Woman March announced today its first Million Woman Movement
MWM Lil' Sistahs:
"SISTARS"
Essay and Poetry Competition 2012

For Girls of African Descent Ages 7-17

• Topics: Black/African Women:of Antiquity, Modern (Recent), and Present (Today) Day
• Black/African People and the Quest for Freedom and Justice in North America (the USA in particular)
  

Maximum Length of Submission:  500 words

The MWM Lil' Sistahs: "SISTARS" Essay and Poetry Contest will not only provide greater awareness of the great contributions, achievements, beauty and creativity of females of African descent from antiquity, recent, and present day history but it will also nurture and stabilize self-esteem, self- respect and family/community/nation building. in addition to the positive competitiveness and comradery/Sistahood development, literacy enrichment, and greater appreciation for the Arts,  

Entries must be typed and received (posted dated) no later than March 31, 2012.    Winners will be notified by  June 31, 2012
Selected participants will have the opportunity to travel to Africa and/or to the Caribbean as a part of the MWM 2012-2013,
Original Universal Sistars Delegates, be featured at the MWM 16th Reunion anniversary celebration, receive school supplies, and more. 

To obtain a Lil' "SISTARS" Essay & Poetry Contest Registration Form or for more information forward your request via e-mail to: nationalmwm@aol.com  or call: 267-636-3802

Persons who may be interested in being a part of the MWM Scribes/Literary Committee (Review Team) should contact the National MWM Headquarters:. at nationalmwm@aol.com

Watch for the Lil' Sistars Talent Search and Arts Contest coming soon.

A MWM "SAVING OUR DAUGHTERS" Program Production

My Cry in the Dark - FIGHT AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

DSQ
DSQ

IMPACT
DELTA SIGMA THETA SORORITY, INC.

Inspiring Mobilizing Public Service

Advocates for Community Transformations

Norfolk Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

in conjunction with

Bethlehem Baptist Church

presents

"My Cry in the Dark"
breaking the vicious cycle of domestic violence
an educational and empowerment day
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Ruffner Middle School, Norfolk, VA
9:00- 9:45 Registration and Continental Breakfast
10:00 -12:00 Educational and Empowerment Session for women 21 and older
12:00 - 12:30 Entertainment
12:30 – 1:00 Informational Booths
Giveaways, pertinent information, and more! Free/Open to the Public
Contact Priscilla Scott-Thomas for more info at (757) 589-9460

IMPACT
DELTA SIGMA THETA SORORITY, INC.

Inspiring Mobilizing Public Service

Advocates for Community Transformations

Norfolk Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

in conjunction with

Bethlehem Baptist Church

presents

"My Cry in the Dark"
breaking the vicious cycle of domestic violence
an educational and empowerment day
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Ruffner Middle School, Norfolk, VA
9:00 - 9:45 Registration and Continental Breakfast
10:00 -12:00 Educational and Empowerment Session for women 21 and older 12:00 - 12:30 Entertainment
12:30 – 1:00 Informational Booths
Giveaways, pertinent information, and more! Free and Open to public
Contact Priscilla Scott-Thomas for more info at (757) 589-9460
C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\NGAJM81U\MC900432693[1].png

Contact Priscilla Scott-Thomas for more info' pthomas@nps.k12.va.us    (757) 589-9460   Norfolk Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. in conjunction with Bethlehem Baptist Church   presents: "My Cry in the Dark" breaking the vicious cycle of domestic violence an educational and empowerment day Saturday, March 10, 2012 FREE Ruffner Middle School, Norfolk, VA 9:00- 9:45 Registration and Continental Breakfast 10:00 -12:00 Educational and Empowerment Session for women 21 and older 12:00 - 12:30 Entertainment 12:30 – 1:00 Informational Booths Giveaways, pertinent information, and more! Free/Open to the Public Contact Priscilla Scott-Thomas for more info' pthomas@nps.k12.va.us    (757) 589-9460

757 High School Talent Hunt - $600 Cash Prize

Application deadline is 02/25/2012 Awards: (1st) - $300, (2nd) - $200, (3rd) - $100 Participation is solicited in the following areas: 1. Music: Vocal, Instrumental, Piano Solo (classical, semi-classical, gospel, jazz) [printed music must be provided for the judges]. 2. Dance: Interpretive movement to music (ballet, modern dance, tap). 3. Drama/Speech: Poetry, readings, orations, monologues. (script must be provided for the judges) Basic rules for participation in the Talent Hunt: 1. Contestant must be a high school student (grades 9 -12) at the time of the competition. 2. All presentations including instrumental selections must be memorized. 3. All presentations should reflect good taste. 4. No performance should exceed six minutes. 5. Prerecorded accompaniment may be used for musical presentations as long as there is no lead instrumental or background vocals included on the track. 6. The use of an accompanist who has rehearsed and worked closely with the contestant is recommended. 7. For the participants, recommended dress is formal (females – long formal gowns, men – black tuxedos/black tie) All electronic applications must be completed and received not later than February 25, 2012. All mailed correspondence must be postmarked by February 23, 2012. These deadlines are final. For questions, please call 757-288-9116. Our forthcoming event: The Talent Hunt will be held on Saturday, March 3, 2012, 11:00 a.m. at Old Dominion University in Room 1012 of the Batten Arts and Letters Building. The deadline for entries is Saturday, February 25, 2012. Applications may be obtained electronically by visiting http://omegapsiphitalenthunt.tripod.com/ .Completed applications are to be mailed to the following: Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc Gamma Xi Virginia Beach P. O. Box 64535 Virginia Beach, VA 23467 Attention: TALENT HUNT 2012 Applications may be also emailed to: omegatalenthunt@yahoo.com If you have any questions, or need further information, please feel free to contact Bro. David J. Whitted at 757-549-2346 or 757-288-9116. Download the current application  on the icon located to the left of this paragraph.  Completed applications may be emailed to omegatalenthunt@yahoo.com  . The application may be downloaded at the below web address: http://omegapsiphitalenthunt.tripod.com/webonmediacontents/Talent%20Hunt%202012%20Document%20and%20Application.pdf About Gamma Xi Gamma Xi is a graduate chapter of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc., located in Virginia Beach, VA, which is in the Third District of the Fraternity. Vision Statement: To provide service to our community as mentors, role models and through philanthropic endeavors, thereby demonstrating positive character traits and the importance of community involvement for our youth. Mission Statement: Through our various fund raising endeavors, the assistance of and donations from sponsors, and our community support programs, we will raise funds as well as awareness in order that we may aid our community, particularly our community youth. Peace & prosperity, Seko & Rhonda VArner [Established 09/20/1997 RCC] Positive Vibes & Financial FREEdom Your entertainment IS your celebration ! Move from debt, to savings, to Financial FREEdom ! Cell/Office: 757-248-3820 Fax: 866-400-0201 http://happilyeverafter.be/financialfreedom.html

G&G Tax Preparation Services

This is
G&G Associates Tax & Financial Consulting
e-Newsletter
Tax Tip of the Week

G&G Tax Preparation Services

Imhotep (Wisdom to You) G&G Readers,
G & G Associates is a Black-Owned Business focused on easing our client's minds on tax compliance matters. With the ever changing and burdensome tax code, overwhelming and confusing federal and state tax forms and increasing IRS scrutiny over most tax items, taxpayers need to have at least this one part of their lives made easier, less stressful and more profitable.

Our expert help includes our:

In-Depth Interview — a thorough and complete experience designed to unearth every tax savings opportunity during the course of your tax preparation. We use these to the latest IRS guidelines to guide you through a painless, interactive session so that together, we catch every single detail that results in more tax savings for you.

We can service clients anywhere in the world and we look forward to assisting you in getting your tax return prepared for the 2011 and beyond tax season. (Referrals available upon request)

If you are a returning client you'll get a 25% discount off your tax preparation fees. If you are a new client you'll get $40 off our normal fees. If you are active duty or retired military you'll get a 15% discount. If you are a senior citizen (above 65) you'll get a 20% discount.

At G&G Associates, we GUARANTEE to beat "ANY" other tax professional’s price. We take pride in not nickeling and diming our customers with unnecessary charges & fees.

Do you have a friend, co-worker or family member who might be interested in G&G Associates Tax Preparation Services? If so, then you can earn $40 for everyone you refer that files their tax returns with us. Just refer that person, and when we complete their tax return we will send you a check for $40. To make the deal even sweeter, after (4) four referrals you will get your taxes done for free.

We are looking forward to doing business with you for the upcoming tax season.

For more information about G&G Associates, visit our website at www.gngnassociates.net, and click on the “TAXES” tab.

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This year’s tax season will be a challenge for many especially since record numbers of individuals have tapped into savings, retirement accounts, etc which may have caused tax bills you didn't realize. So, it will be imperative that you have a tax professional and "not a tax preparer" doing your taxes. Trust me folks, there is a big difference.

One of the benefits of being a client with G&G Associates is that you'll get a free 30 min pre-tax preparation session to make sure you are gathering your documents appropriately before you submit your documents for tax preparation.

Also, all new clients get a 50% discount off the 1 – year annual subscription to G&G Investment Society (GGIS) paid newsletter service a ($74.50) value.

Also, all new clients will get a “FREE” 1 hour Financial Success Strategy Consultation appointment a ($200) value.

Contact us today to schedule an appointment!!!

Visit our website for more information and free online webinar classes to help you make sure you are audit proofing your records, or contact us today to set your appointment if you need a “TAX” OR “FINANCIAL” one-on-one consultation.

Until the next time!

Ankh Uja Snb (Life, Strength, & Health),

Asar Maa Ra Gray
Tax & Financial Consultant, RFC
G&G Associates
757-251-3757 office
866-361-3872 toll free fax
www.gngassociates.net

G&G Associates & G&G Travel are on Facebook, join our fan page.

**You must be a G&G Associates tax client to receive the $40 referral fee

*** [Price Guarantee does not apply to individuals, corporations or partnerships filing refunds pertaining to Revenue Ruling 2009-20/2009-09, ‘Ponzi Schemes’ or VA Amendment CFR 26 § 1.122-1]

P.S. If you're not a GGIS Paid Subscriber reader yet, why not? Currently, our GGIS portfolio is packed with great plays to kick-start your portfolio for 2012.

P.S #2 If you are looking to Travel and looking for steep discounted travel, visit www.gngassociates.net, click on the “G&G Travel” link and let your travel planning begin. Let us know where you want to go and we’ll do our best to find you the best deal your money can buy. Become a Fan of G&G Travel on Facebook.

Happy Saint Valentine Day

http://www.africanmanifesto.com/insertions.html

In western society, they're a plethora of pseudo holidays that are associated with automatic spending. For instance, Saint Valentine's Day spending ranges from simple items like Valentine Cards, a box of candy to expensive jewelry and luxurious cars. Significantly, there is never a question asked. Regardless, if you are spouse or significant other. Everyone responds automatically as if its a rite of passage. Perhaps, it would be financially responsible to determine what we are celebrating and most importantly why?

Let's investigate and identify who was Saint Valentine?

Alas, Valentine's day, but who is this mysterious Saint, and where did these traditions come from? First, we should understand that Valentine's Day began when the early Roman Catholic Church tried to Christianize a pagan Roman holiday called Lupercalia. That celebration was a licentious festival that honored Lupercus, the hero-hunter of wolves. This festival was so immensely popular among the Roman people that church leaders included it in their calendar, hoping to retain their new parishioners and turn them from sexual licentiousness to morality by linking it to a Saint.

Like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Halloween, and St. Valentine's day are disingenuous because the original purpose is distorted, and is promoted primary for monetary gain.

As innocent and harmless as St. Valentine's Day may appear, its traditions and customs originate from two of the most sexually perverted pagan festivals of history: Lupercalia and the feast day of Juno Februata.

Celebrated on February 15, Lupercalia (known as the "festival of the sexual license") was held by the ancient Romans in honor of Lupercus, god of fertility and husbandry, protector of herds and crops, and a mighty hunter-especially of wolves. The Romans believed that Lupercus 'would protect Rome from roving bands of wolves, which devoured livestock and people.

To the Romans, February was also sacred to Juno Februata, the goddess of febris ("fever") of love, and of women and marriage. On February 14, billets (small pieces of paper, each of which had the name of a teen-aged girl written on it) were put into a container. Teen-aged boys would then choose one billet at random. The boy and the girl whose name was drawn would become a "couple," joining in erotic games at feasts and parties celebrated throughout Rome. After the festival, they would remain sexual partners for the rest of the year. This custom was observed in the Roman Empire for centuries.

It was not until A.D. 496 that the church at Rome could do anything about Lupercalia. Powerless to get rid of it, Pope Gelasius instead changed it from February 15 to the 14th and called it St. Valentine's Day. It was named after one of that church's saints, who, in A.D. 270, was executed by the emperor for his beliefs.

Though the church at Rome had banned the sexual lottery, young men still practiced many toned-down version, sending women whom they desired handwritten romantic messages containing St. Valentine's name.

Over the centuries, St. Valentine' Day cards became popular, especially by the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These cards were painted with pictures of Cupid and hearts, and meticulously decorated with lace, silk or flowers.

Regardless of the varied sources and ambiguous history of Valentine's Day, a few identifiable points continue to surface:

Valentine's Day originated with a pagan Roman feast called Lupercalia. That festival was based on fertility and sexual licentiousness. In the third century, the Roman Catholic Church attempted to Christianize the ancient festival practice by naming it after the martyr St. Valentine.

When juxtaposing this day into reality, love and admiration should be express year round, and not just for one day. It should be according to everyone's respective situation in their relationships. In reality, these pseudo holidays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Halloween, and St. Valentine's day was created and promoted by the corporate structure solely for economic gain.

Of course, everyone should make their own personal decision, whether or not to celebrate their expression of love on St. Valentine Day, all year around or both. Even so, no one should be pressurized into committing economic indiscretions because of corporate advertising promotions. Especially, when you know the origin of the holiday and why it's being sponsored.

Happy Saint Valentine Day

Sabamya Jaugu
African Manifesto

Source:
http://w3.ucg.org/litlibrary/valentine.htm
http://rcg.org/articles/ttbsvd.html

Why the Heck Are you Celebrating Valentine’s Day?

Why the Heck Are you Celebrating Valentine's Day?

Hetepu All,

You know I was coming with some truth for you. Again as always, it's ok not to know, its shame not to want to know. They key is...once you do find out the truth do you keep doing the same thing which doesn't make sense or do you make a change for the better.

Now, I don't celebrate Valentine's day because I'm not going to let society and Capitalism tell me when I should shower that lady in my life with gifts of love and joy. If this person really is special to you, then the showering of love and gifts should not happen on a day Capitalist use to pimp your pockets of your finances. It's estimated that suckers spend over 14.2 billion dollars celebrating something they have no clue how the day even came to be.

On a side note, if people really knew the truth about Valentine's Day they'd think twice about celebrating it. I encourage folks to do some research and understand the truth behind exactly what it is that you are celebrating. Valentine's Day stems from Lupercalia who killed his girlfriend and stabbed her in the heart with an arrow out of a rage of jealousy.

How in the heck, do you change murdering your lover into a day where you flower them with heart shaped candy? Deception of course, led by its biggest ring leader...the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church changed the story around like they did with the pagan (Christmas and St. Nicholas story), that St. Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers.

Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death, therefore making him the CATHOLIC martyr St. Valentine.

So, know what you are celebrating because when you know the truth behind it you may become appalled like (i.e. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, etc...)

Ankh Uja Snb (Life, Health, Strength)
Asar Maa Ra Gary

"It's ok not to know, it's a shame not to want to know."
Dc. Clarke

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Slavery by Another Name Monday, February 13, 2012 at 9:00 pm

Slavery by Another Name is a riveting, must see Documentary, for every American, particularly those of African American descent.  This 90-minute documentary challenges one of Americans' most cherished assumptions: the belief that slavery in this country ended with the Emancipation Proclamation.  The film tells how even as chattel slavery came to an end in the South in 1865, thousands of African Americans were pulled back into forced labor with shocking force and brutality.  It was a system in which men, often guilty of no crime at all, were arrested, compelled to work without pay, repeatedly bought and sold, and coerced to do the bidding of masters.  Tolerated by both the North and South, forced labor lasted well into the 20th century.   Slavery by Another Name is based on a book by Douglas A. Blackmon and produced and directed by Sam Pollard. Laurence Fishburne narrates.     It airs Monday, February 13, 2012 at 9:00 pm EST.  Please click here to see a preview.    Mark your calendar for Monday, February 13, 2012 at 9:00 pm EST on PBS. Peace & prosperity, Seko VArner [Established 09/20/1997 RCC] Positive Vibes & Financial FREEdom Your entertainment IS your celebration ! Move from debt, to savings, to Financial FREEdom ! Cell/Office: 757-248-3820 Fax: 866-400-0201 http://happilyeverafter.be/financialfreedom.html

Erroneously thinking that they are Blacks...

From: Melanin Man   melaninisthekeytogreatness@yahoo.com

 

Borinquen (Puerto Rico) Excerpt by Taj Tarik Bey from the booklet entitled Moors, Mexicans, and other South Al Moroccan Indigenes Borinquen is the proper name of one of the major islands of the Ancient Arawak Tribe, but was renamed "Puerto Rico" by the Blood-Thirsty Barbaric Christian Invaders, under the leadership of the Blueblood (sangre azul) Juan Ponce de Leon. Blueblood refers to the blue color of the veins showing through the European's Albus-Complexioned Skin. The Crusading Colonizers called the Isle of Borinquen "Puerto Rico" because of the large amounts of gold, which was traditionally worn by the Natural "Melaninated HUE-Women ("Hue" as in Full Melanin Hue Pigmentation in the skin). The Barbaric Christians brutally slaughtered the Hue-women mercilessly and cut many heads off to steal the gold rings off of their necks and wrists. Of the Natural HUE-Peoples who did survive, they were badly mistreated and put to forced servitude in the name of God. Many of the young girls and women were coerced and assigned as sex slaves for the elite among the European Aristocrats and Perverted Priests. Anyone who did not convert to Christianity was summarily and ritualistically tortured or killed. Many bodies of HUE-Women and HUE-Children were strewn about, like the reeds of a field after a harvest. This was massive waste for the purpose of the conquerors to strip them of their gold and exotic stone jewelry. And that is why the War-Mongering Christian Savages renamed Borinquen "Puerto Rico" (which means "Rich Port"). Borinquen also includes the Offshore Islands of Mona, Vieques, and Culebra. The truth be told, is that the Natural "Melaninated" HUE-Peoples of that particular Island are NOT "Puerto Ricans". They are Borinquen – descendants of Moabite/Moorish (Muurish) Ancestry. In the year 1511, the mistreated and enslaved Borinquen organized a revolt, but with little and limited resources left, the Europeans slaughtered thousands of animals and food-stock. The Arawak were at a great disadvantage. The Christians slaughtered them (Hue-man, Hue-woman, and Hue-child) at such high numbers as to almost make the Isles extinct of the Indigenes. The Inquisitionist-Christians used large numbers of other Moabite/Moors (Muurs) who were defeated and enslaved from the surrounding Islands to replace the heavy Borinquen losses. The Lazy Invaders needed more laborers and sex slaves to serve their insatiable propensity for bloodshed and avarice. They also wanted to limit the capacity for the Indigenes to instigate or initiate another rebellion against their oppressors. Another plan was hatched to divide and conquer the people. Among other strategies, a 'Bull' from Phillip II, the Roman Catholic Emperor, was issued in that same year of the Borinquen Rebellion. Phillip declared that the Moors/Muurs would no longer be called Moors, but would be called Spanish; and all things (culture, religion, literacy, etc.) would be expunged from among them. Since that year (1511), the multi-dialects of Old Moorish/Muurish Latin (being an Indigenous Language of the Natural Hue-Peoples) became commonly called "Spanish" by way of Christian "Religio" Politics/Politricks and War. And this is how what is now called "Spanish" became the language – moniker to cover over or veil the original 'Moorish Latin'. The Artful distorting of words and language became an integral part of the ongoing efforts by the Occupational Christians to suppress and to destroy Borinquen Peoples, their history and their culture. The Christians methodically burned as much literature and books as they could confiscate, and, in conjunction with their extermination plan, falsely tagged Borinquen as Puerto Ricans. It must be further noted that the Natural Hue-Peoples of the Americas who have been called Puerto Ricans are not "Black", "Negro", "Hispanic", "Latino", "West Indian", etc. They are actually and factually Indigenous Aboriginal and are of Moorish (Muurish)/Al Moroccan-Descent. Many have been deceived by the Demonic-Europeans, to adopt their divide and conquer philosophy against themselves, just as the Moors/Muurs of the North, who have been tricked into erroneously thinking that they are Blacks, Negroes, Coloreds, etc.

Puerto Rican Black History

(Photo of a tribute to Jose Celso Barbosa taken by Seko VArner)

Black history in Puerto Rico initially began (according to Europeans who do not recognize the traces of African presence in the Americas prior to Columbus) with the African freeman who arrived with the Spanish Conquistadors.

In the 8th century, nearly all of Spain was conquered (711 — 718), by the (racially African & Arab) Muslim Moors who had crossed over from North Africa. The first blacks were brought to Spain during Arab domination by North African merchants. By the middle of the 13th century all of the Iberian peninsula had been reconquered. A section of the city of Seville, which once was a Moorish stronghold, was inhabited by thousands of blacks. Blacks became freeman after converting to Christianity and lived fully integrated in Spanish society. Black women were highly sought after by Spanish males. Spain's exposure to people of color over the centuries accounted for the positive racial attitudes that were to prevail in the New World. Therefore, it was no surprise that the first conquistadors who arrived to the island, intermarried with the native Taínos and later with the African immigrants.[7]

The Spaniards enslaved the Tainos who were the native inhabitants of the island and many of them died as a result of the treatment that they had received. This presented a problem for the Spanish Crown since they depended on slavery as a means of manpower to work the mines and build forts. Their solution was to import slaves from Africa and as a consequence the vast majority of the Africans who immigrated to Puerto Rico did so as a result of the slave trade. The Africans in Puerto Rico came from various points of Africa, and suffered many hardships and were subject to cruel treatment.

When the gold mines were declared depleted and no longer produced the precious metal, the Spanish Crown ignored Puerto Rico and the island became mainly a garrison for the ships. Africans from British and French possessions in the Caribbean were encouraged to immigrate to Puerto Rico and as freemen provided a population base to support the Puerto Rican garrison and its forts.

The Spanish decree of 1789 allowed the slaves to earn or buy their freedom. However, this did little to help them in their situation and eventually many slaves rebelled, most notably in the revolt against Spanish rule known as the "Grito de Lares. On March 22, 1873, slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico. (Photo - A Christo-Negro on a shop in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico)

The Africans that came to Puerto Rico overcame many obstacles and particularly after the Spanish-American War, their descendents helped shape the political institutions of the island. Their contributions to the music, art, language, and heritage became the foundation of Puerto Rican culture.

(Photo of a building in Loiza, Puerto Rico taken by Seko VArner)

Puerto Rican cuisine also has a strong African influence. The melange of flavors that make up the typical Puerto Rican cuisine counts with the African touch. Pasteles, small bundles of meat stuffed into a dough made of grated plantain (sometimes combined with pumpkin, potatoes, plantains, or yautía) and wrapped in plantain leaves, were devised by African women on the island and based upon food products that originated in Africa.

The salmorejo, a local land crab creation, resembles Southern cooking in the United States with its spicing. The mofongo, one of the island's best-known dishes, is a ball of fried mashed plantain stuffed with pork crackling, crab, lobster, shrimp, or a combination of all of them. Puerto Rico's cuisine embraces its African roots, weaving them into its Indian and Spanish influences.[42] (Mofongo & Fish from Seko's plate)

A video study of Puerto Rico's African Roots volume 1.

A video study of Puerto Rico's African Roots volume 2.

(Seko VArner at a cultural museum in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico)

Some African slaves spoke "Bozal" Spanish, a mixture of Portuguese, Spanish, and the language spoken in the Congo. The African influence in the Spanish spoken in the island can be traced to the many words from African languages that have become a permanent part of Puerto Rican Spanish (and, in some cases, English).[36]

The following is a list of Puerto Ricans of African descent born in the island who have reached notability in their respective fields, either in Puerto Rico, the United States, and/or internationally:

Juan Morel Campos - composer
Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos - lawyer, Nationalist leader
Dr. Jose Celso Barbosa - medical doctor, sociologist, and politician
Wilfred Benitez - boxer
Carmen Belen Richardson - actress
Jose Campeche - painter
Dr. Jose Ferrer Canales - educator, writer and activist
Bobby Capo - musician, composer
Roberto Clemente - baseball player
Orlando "Peruchin" Cepeda - baseball player
Rafael Cepeda - folk musician and composer
Jesús Colón - writer and politician
Rafael Cordero - educator
Jose "Cheo" Cruz - baseball player
Tite Curet Alonso - composer
Carlos Delgado - baseball player
Sylvia Del Villard - activist and actress
Cheo Feliciano - salsa singer
Ruth Fernandez - singer and actress
Pedro Flores - composer
Juano Hernandez - actor
Rafael Hernandez - musician and composer
Emilio "Millito" Navarro - baseball player
Victor Pellot - baseball player
Ernesto Ramos Antonini - Speaker of the House
Pedro Rosa Nales - News anchor/ Reporter
Mayra Santos-Febres - writer, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and professor
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg - educator and historian
Félix Trinidad - boxer
Juan Evangelista Venegas - boxer
Otilio "Bizcocho" Warrington - comedian and actor
Bernie Williams - baseball player

http://www.blackimprovement.blogspot.com
http://www.blackimprovementmedia.blogspot.com
http://www.blackimprovemententertainment.blogspot.com

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Black Hisotry # 10 - Black Cowboys - A Lil' History

http://blackhistoryclass.blogspot.com/2008/11/lesson-10-of-26-black-cowboys.html

Dr. Yasser A. Payne speaks on the impact and little known history of Black people in the wild west. as Cowboys, outlaws, gangs, sherifs, etc..

DINING ETIQUETTE & YOU (757 Event for Youth)

The Beta Theta Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.

Presents

DINING ETIQUETTE & YOU

Saturday, February 25, 2012

9:00am-11:00am

Meyera E. Oberndorf Central Library

4100 Virginia Beach Boulevard

Virginia Beach, VA 23452

"The Folio Room"

 

FOR YOUTH AGES 9 AND UP

*This event is FREE however, REGISTRATION REQUIRED*

Registration Due On or Before

February 20, 2012

Space is limited so register today.

Return registration to btz.archonettes@gmail.com

What Is a Black Greek?

Hotep All,

Learn about America's first black fraternity who just so happenz to have a connection to Global White Supremacy. And it's not Alpha Phi Alpha or any of the frats you see foolishly stomping at step shows, but this fraternity "the Boule'" did help organize them. The fraternity being referenced is Sigma Pi Phi, aka the Boule'. This article will teach you just exactly who they represent and protect and it's not Black folks.

Without a doubt pass this along to black person you know and especially to those you know are in Black fraternities and sororities. They might not like it, but the truth is what matters and maybe they'll wake up and one day become born again AfRAkan and stop letting massa continue to divide and conquer our mind, body and soul.

------------------------------------------------------
by M'bwebe aja Ishangi

As we come into knowledge of self, we must too become aware of who doesn't want us to "know thyself". The average Afrikan who has some knowledge of white supremacy might feel it's been, and only been, the "blue-eyed devil" that is responsible. True, but not truth. If you read the piece I wrote, IZ YT Human? or Mutant!, I spoke of the biblical brothas, abraham and moses, as one of the first sell-outs of the Afrikan spirit.

As you well know, this country was founded by criminalz who colonized this area just as they chalked up Afrika in the 18th and 19th century. As we had our plantationz in the south with house negroes and field Afrikanz, we find this trend has never changed as the yearz have gone by. Thanks to research done by brotha Steve Cokely, we have found there's a black secret society that's been closely associated with maintaining the grip of white supremacy on people of color. The same secret societies these house negroes answer to, have a long history rooted in the physical and mental enslavement of Afrikanz around the globe. This black "secret society" is called the Boule' aka Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated, founded May 15, 1904 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This is the 1st black fraternity in america and before the 1st black "college" frat, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated which was founded December 4, 1906.

The Boule' is a black GREEK secret society based on another secret society founded at Yale University called Skull & Bones. The Boule's primary founder was Dr. Henry McKee Minton — along with Dr.'s Eugene T. Henson, Edwin Clarence Howard, Algernon Brashear Jackson, Robert Jones Abele and Richard John Warrick; all of Philadelphia.

The founding member of the New York City chapter, WEB DuBois, said the Boule' was created to "keep the black professional away from the ranks of Marcus Garvey." (One thing that needs to be pointed out is the time period. Just over a decade after the founding of the Boule', Marcus Garvey's 'Back to Afrika' movement (also known as the 'Colonization Movement') and his newspaper, the Negro World, was reaching a million-plus people without tv or radio. DuBois emphasized, as Cokely stated,

"the importance to steal the black professional away from Garvey because an Afrocentric organization that articulated and captured the black professional would give YT no safe haven in the black community, so the Boule' — the remaking of the house negro — was necessary to build a group of negroes who had an investment in protecting the white system as produced by YT having stolen this land... This is post reconstruction. Taking away the articulate negro, now desiring to replace them with organized institutions to keep them away from self improvement. So we find in the same period, as the founding of the Boule', the founding of the 4 black male (Alpha Phi Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, and Phi Beta Sigma) and 4 black female (Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta, and Sigma Gamma Rho) college-based fraternities and sororities...We also find the founding of the NAACP and Urban League."

DuBois was one of the strongest opponents of Garvey and was an instrumental "tool" in stopping one of the strongest grassroots movements of the last century. What was Garvey's plan? His plan was to take as many Afrikanz from the america's and start a settlement in the nation of Liberia and then help this new nation produce and control their own rubber crops and other industries in natural resources. Garvey said,

"If the oil of Afrika is good for Rockefeller's interest; if iron is good for Carnegie trust; then these minerals are good for us. Why should we allow wall street and the capitalist group of america and other countries exploit our country when they refuse to give us a fair chance in the countries of our adoption? Why should not Afrika give to the world its black Rockefeller, Rothschild, and Henry Ford?"

This would've meant no Goodyear nor U.S. Steel as we know it today, because it would have set a precedent that would've made all Afrikanz aware of their land and mineral wealth. This would've shattered the financial arm of white supremacy! DuBois, along with Alain Locke — the first black (Cecil) Rhodes scholar — publicly defiled Garvey by calling him a "gorilla" any chance they got. Locke was quoted as saying, "We hope the white man deliver's cause we crushed a great black thing, but we know he'll deliver or our people will attack and plague us forever more." These two house negroes made a bet that YT would come out on top and give a certain percentage of these greedy negroes, namely Boule' memberz, the wealth they stole from Afrika. What's deep is they didn't believe in Afrikan self-reliance and deferred their allegiance to YT hoping they'd give them table scraps instead of making their own pie!

Understand the Boule' represents the weakest element of Afrikan people. As Cokely put's it, "It took a type of nigger to form an organization like this. I mean, we just got our asses kicked during reconstruction, Afrika was divided before our very eyes (via the Berlin conference), damn, this was 50 years before Rosa Parks!" The question is why were these black devilz like this? The answer may lie in the fact that the Boule' is a greek organization.

The name Boule' is a greek term, meaning "adviser's to the king". The question is, who's the king?! The king that they receive direction from and protect like their logo the sphinx — a guardian animal (more on that in a sec) — are the white secret societies responsible for white supremacy: the first white greek fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa; the Illuminati, Rhodes/Rothschild secret society, Skull & Bones, the Masons, the Round Table Group, The New World Order, One World Government, the Carnegie, Mellon, Rhodes, Milner's Kindergarten, The Rhodes Crown, Times Crown, All Souls Group, Clevedine Sect, and numerous other wealthy family organizationz (all are simply alias' and go by many names, but consist of same memberz and ideology). These white beasts have raped, murdered and colonized our people for hundredz of yearz and their children continue the genocide against people of color around the globe.

One of the problemz we should have with the Boule' (and the offsprings of the Boule', the other 8 college frats and sororities) is that they falsely acknowledge the greeks as the founderz of civilization. We of course know this is a lie. We know that the greeks got their knowledge from the Nile Valley (ancient Kemet and Ethiopia — where the original Afrikan man and woman evolved), and they plagiarized (after killing us off and raping KMT, deemed themselves as the originatorz of the knowledge we gave them) our history and sought to erase the Afrikan presence of KMT. We know that Pythagoras did not create a theorem, but that he stole it from our ancient Afrikan mystery schoolz.

Who is the Boule'? They are the so-called "talented 10th" DuBois is famous for speaking of (it must also be noted that DuBois' boy, Locke, was a homosexual. DuBois was also perceived to have homosexual tendencies). They are a mutation of a white man that seeks to represent something he is not (greek). They are "prominent" blacks white america gave to us. Collectively, all 5000+ memberz and 112 chapterz throughout the United States and West Indies making up the wealthiest group of black men on the planet — and to think, none are working in the interest of black people; but, rather, gets a kick out of holding YT's penis as he pisses on people of color. See, the house nigga/field Afrikan theory ain't dead!

As of 1994, there were 101 chapterz in the world; yes the Boule' is in your town! Anywhere there are professional blacks, the Boule' coagulates. The amount of memberz of the Boule's wealth (including strong political and economic connectionz — strong enough to assist in killing Malcolm X and fellow Boule' member Martin Luther King Jr.) cannot be matched by any other blacks anywhere in the world!

click here to read the whole article:
http://daghettotymz.com/rkyvz/articles/bouleseries/boule1-3roster/boule1/boulept1.html

Click here for the Boule Files and video:
http://daghettotymz.com/rkyvz/articles/bouleseries/BCover.html

Powerful! Important information. When we buy into non Afrikan-based cultural and/or religious concept, invariably we also consciously or unconsciously buy into their world views to our collective detriment.

Learn how and why Black fraternities, sororities and other prominent organizations like the Boule', NAACP and Urban League were created. It's given to you plain and simple, but will you listen and try to understand?

Def of Boule': Advisor to the King... I ask you? Advising what king and what info?

If you missed the broadcast with Brotha Insight and his special guest and warrior Bro. M'Bwebe of Daghettotymz.com, then you need to check it out so you can find out:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/icandiradio/2011/10/02/what-is-a-black-greek

For more research info, visit:
http://daghettotymz.com/rkyvz/articles/bouleseries/BCover.html

Asar Maat Ra Gray

April 14, 1967 - The Other America - The Honorable Dr. Martin Luther King

THE OTHER AMERICA Speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Stanford University April 14, 1967 The online video of this speech can be found here. THE OTHER AMERICA A Speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - 14 April 1967  Stanford University   Dean Napier, Mr. Bell; members of the faculty and members of the student body of this great institution of learning; ladies and gentlemen. Now there are several things that one could talk about before such a large, concerned, and enlightened audience. There are so many problems facing our nation and our world, that one could just take off anywhere. But today I would like to talk mainly about the race problems since I'll have to rush right out and go to New York to talk about Vietnam tomorrow, and I've been talking about it a great deal this week and weeks before that. But I'd like to use as a subject from which to speak this afternoon, the Other America. And I use this subject because there are literally two Americas. One America is beautiful for situation. And, in a sense, this America is overflowing with the milk of prosperity and the honey of opportunity. This America is the habitat of millions of people who have food and material necessities for their bodies; and culture and education for their minds; and freedom and human dignity for their spirits. In this America, millions of people experience every day the opportunity of having life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in all of their dimensions. And in this America millions of young people grow up in the sunlight of opportunity. But tragically and unfortunately, there is another America. This other America has a daily ugliness about it that constantly transforms the ebulliency of hope into the fatigue of despair. In this America millions of work-starved men walk the streets daily in search for jobs that do not exist. In this America millions of people find themselves living in rat-infested, vermin-filled slums. In this America people are poor by the millions. They find themselves perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. In a sense, the greatest tragedy of this other America is what it does to little children. Little children in this other America are forced to grow up with clouds of inferiority forming every day in their little mental skies. And as we look at this other America, we see it as an arena of blasted hopes and shattered dreams. Many people of various backgrounds live in this other America. Some are Mexican-Americans, some are Puerto Ricans, some are Indians, some happen to be from other groups. Millions of them are Appalachian whites. But probably the largest group in this other America in proportion to its size in the population is the American Negro. The American Negro finds himself living in a triple ghetto. A ghetto of race, a ghetto of poverty, a ghetto of human misery. So what we are seeking to do in the Civil Rights Movement is to deal with this problem. To deal with this problem of the two Americas. We are seeking to make America one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Now let me say that the struggle for Civil Rights and the struggle to make these two Americas one America, is much more difficult today than it was five or ten years ago. For about a decade or maybe twelve years, we've struggled all across the South in glorious struggles to get rid of legal, overt segregation and all of the humiliation that surrounded that system of segregation.   In a sense this was a struggle for decency; we could not go to a lunch counter in so many instances and get a hamburger or a cup of coffee. We could not make use of public accommodations. Public transportation was segregated, and often we had to sit in the back and within transportation-- transportation within cities -- we often had to stand over empty seats because sections were reserved for whites only. We did not have the right to vote in so many areas of the South. And the struggle was to deal with these problems.   And certainly they were difficult problems, they were humiliating conditions. By the thousands we protested these conditions. We made it clear that it was ultimately more honorable to accept jail cell experiences than to accept segregation and humiliation. By the thousands students and adults decided to sit in at segregated lunch counters to protest conditions there. When they were sitting at those lunch counters they were in reality standing up for the best in the American dream and seeking to take the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.   Many things were gained as a result of these years of struggle. In 1964 the Civil Rights Bill came into being after the Birmingham movement which did a great deal to subpoena the conscience of a large segment of the nation to appear before the judgment seat of morality on the whole question of Civil Rights. After the Selma movement in 1965 we were able to get a Voting Rights Bill. And all of these things represented strides.   But we must see that the struggle today is much more difficult. It's more difficult today because we are struggling now for genuine equality. And it's much easier to integrate a lunch counter than it is to guarantee a livable income and a good solid job. It's much easier to guarantee the right to vote than it is to guarantee the right to live in sanitary, decent housing conditions. It is much easier to integrate a public park than it is to make genuine, quality, integrated education a reality. And so today we are struggling for something which says we demand genuine equality.   It's not merely a struggle against extremist behavior toward Negroes. And I'm convinced that many of the very people who supported us in the struggle in the South are not willing to go all the way now. I came to see this in a very difficult and painful way in Chicago the last year where I've lived and worked. Some of the people who came quickly to march with us in Selma and Birmingham weren't active around Chicago. And I came to see that so many people who supported morally and even financially what we were doing in Birmingham and Selma, were really outraged against the extremist behavior of Bull Connor and Jim Clark toward Negroes, rather than believing in genuine equality for Negroes. And I think this is what we've gotta see now, and this is what makes the struggle much more difficult.   And so as a result of all of this, we see many problems existing today that are growing more difficult. It's something that is often overlooked, but Negroes generally live in worse slums today than 20 or 25 years ago. In the North schools are more segregated today than they were in 1954 when the Supreme Court's decision on desegregation was rendered. Economically the Negro is worse off today than he was 15 and 20 years ago. And so the unemployment rate among Whites at one time was about the same as the unemployment rate among Negroes. But today the unemployment rate among Negroes is twice that of Whites. And the average income of the Negro is today 50% less than Whites.   As we look at these problems we see them growing and developing every day. And we see the fact that the Negro economically is facing a depression in his everyday life that is more staggering than the depression of the 30's. The unemployment rate of the nation as a whole is about 4%. Statistics would say from the Labor Department that among Negroes it's about 8.4%. But these are the persons who are in the labor market, who still go to employment agencies to seek jobs, and so they can be calculated. The statistics can be gotten because they are still somehow in the labor market.   But there are hundreds of thousands of Negroes who have given up. They've lost hope. They've come to feel that life is a long and desolate corridor for them with no Exit sign, and so they no longer go to look for a job. There are those who would estimate that these persons, who are called the Discouraged Persons, these 6 or 7% in the Negro community, that means that unemployment among Negroes may well be 16%. Among Negro youth in some of our larger urban areas it goes to 30 and 40%. So you can see what I mean when I say that, in the Negro community, that is a major, tragic and staggering depression that we face in our everyday lives.   Now the other thing that we've gotta come to see now that many of us didn't see too well during the last ten years -- that is that racism is still alive in American society, and much more wide-spread than we realized. And we must see racism for what it is. It is a myth of the superior and the inferior race. It is the false and tragic notion that one particular group, one particular race is responsible for all of the progress, all of the insights in the total flow of history. And the theory that another group or another race is totally depraved, innately impure, and innately inferior.   In the final analysis, racism is evil because its ultimate logic is genocide. Hitler was a sick and tragic man who carried racism to its logical conclusion. And he ended up leading a nation to the point of killing about 6 million Jews. This is the tragedy of racism because its ultimate logic is genocide. If one says that I am not good enough to live next door to him, if one says that I am not good enough to eat at a lunch counter, or to have a good, decent job, or to go to school with him merely because of my race, he is saying consciously or unconsciously that I do not deserve to exist. To use a philosophical analogy here, racism is not based on some empirical generalization; it is based rather on an ontological affirmation. It is not the assertion that certain people are behind culturally or otherwise because of environmental conditions. It is the affirmation that the very being of a people is inferior. And this is the great tragedy of it.   I submit that however unpleasant it is we must honestly see and admit that racism is still deeply rooted all over America. It is still deeply rooted in the North, and it's still deeply rooted in the South.   And this leads me to say something about another discussion that we hear a great deal, and that is the so-called "white backlash." I would like to honestly say to you that the white backlash is merely a new name for an old phenomenon. It's not something that just came into being because shouts of Black Power, or because Negroes engaged in riots in Watts, for instance. The fact is that the state of California voted a Fair Housing bill out of existence before anybody shouted Black Power, or before anybody rioted in Watts.   It may well be that shouts of Black Power and riots in Watts and the Harlems and the other areas, are the consequences of the white backlash rather than the cause of them. What it is necessary to see is that there has never been a single solid monistic determined commitment on the part of the vast majority of white Americans on the whole question of Civil Rights and on the whole question of racial equality. This is something that truth impels all men of good will to admit.   It is said on the Statue of Liberty that America is a home of exiles. It doesn't take us long to realize that America has been the home of its white exiles from Europe. But it has not evinced the same kind of maternal care and concern for its black exiles from Africa. It is no wonder that in one of his sorrow songs, the Negro could sing out "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child." What great estrangement, what great sense of rejection caused a people to emerge with such a metaphor as they looked over their lives.   What I'm trying to get across is that our nation has constantly taken a positive step forward on the question of racial justice and racial equality. But over and over again at the same time, it made certain backward steps. And this has been the persistence of the so-called white backlash. In 1863 the Negro was freed from the bondage of physical slavery. But at the same time, the nation refused to give him land to make that freedom meaningful. And at that same period America was giving millions of acres of land in the West and the Midwest, which meant that America was willing to undergird its white peasants from Europe with an economic floor that would make it possible to grow and develop, and refused to give that economic floor to its black peasants, so to speak.   This is why Frederick Douglas could say that emancipation for the Negro was freedom to hunger, freedom to the winds and rains of heaven, freedom without roofs to cover their heads. He went on to say that it was freedom without bread to eat, freedom without land to cultivate. It was freedom and famine at the same time. But it does not stop there.   In 1875 the nation passed a Civil Rights Bill and refused to enforce it. In 1964 the nation passed a weaker Civil Rights Bill and even to this day, that bill has not been totally enforced in all of its dimensions. The nation heralded a new day of concern for the poor, for the poverty stricken, for the disadvantaged. And brought into being a Poverty Bill and at the same time it put such little money into the program that it was hardly, and still remains hardly, a good skirmish against poverty. White politicians in suburbs talk eloquently against open housing, and in the same breath contend that they are not racist. And all of this, and all of these things tell us that America has been backlashing on the whole question of basic constitutional and God-given rights for Negroes and other disadvantaged groups for more than 300 years.   So these conditions, existence of widespread poverty, of slums, and of tragic conditions in schools and other areas of life, all of these things have brought about a great deal of despair, and a great deal of desperation. A great deal of disappointment and even bitterness in the Negro communities. And today all of our cities confront huge problems. All of our cities are potentially powder kegs as a result of the continued existence of these conditions. Many in moments of anger, many in moments of deep bitterness engage in riots.   Let me say as I've always said, and I will always continue to say, that riots are socially destructive and self-defeating. I'm still convinced that nonviolence is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and justice. I feel that violence will only create more social problems than they will solve. That in a real sense it is impractical for the Negro to even think of mounting a violent revolution in the United States. So I will continue to condemn riots, and continue to say to my brothers and sisters that this is not the way. And continue to affirm that there is another way.   But at the same time, it is as necessary for me to be as vigorous in condemning the conditions which cause persons to feel that they must engage in riotous activities as it is for me to condemn riots. I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard.   And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation's summers of riots are caused by our nation's winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.   Now let me go on to say that if we are to deal with all of the problems that I've talked about, and if we are to bring America to the point that we have one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, there are certain things that we must do. The job ahead must be massive and positive. We must develop massive action programs all over the United States of America in order to deal with the problems that I have mentioned.   Now in order to develop these massive action programs we've got to get rid of one or two false notions that continue to exist in our society. One is the notion that only time can solve the problem of racial injustice. I'm sure you've heard this idea. It is the notion almost that there is something in the very flow of time that will miraculously cure all evils. And I've heard this over and over again. There are those, and they are often sincere people, who say to Negroes and their allies in the white community, that we should slow up and just be nice and patient and continue to pray, and in a hundred or two hundred years the problem will work itself out because only time can solve the problem.   I think there is an answer to that myth. And it is that time is neutral. It can be used either constructively or destructively. And I'm absolutely convinced that the forces of ill-will in our nation, the extreme rightists in our nation, have often used time much more effectively than the forces of good will. And it may well be that we will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words of the bad people and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say wait on time. Somewhere we must come to see that social progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals. And without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation. And so we must help time, and we must realize that the time is always ripe to do right.   Now there is another notion that gets out, it's around everywhere. It's in the South, it's in the North, it's in California, and all over our nation. It's the notion that legislation can't solve the problem; it can't do anything in this area. And those who project this argument contend that you've got to change the heart and that you can't change the heart through legislation.   Now I would be the first one to say that there is real need for a lot of heart-changing in our country. And I believe in changing the heart. I preach about it. I believe in the need for conversion in many instances, and regeneration, to use theological terms. And I would be the first to say that if the race problem in America is to be solved, the white person must treat the Negro right, not merely because the law says it, but because it's natural, because it's right, and because the Negro is his brother. And so I realize that if we are to have a truly integrated society, men and women will have to rise to the majestic heights of being obedient to the unenforceable.   But after saying this, let me say another thing which gives the other side, and that is that although it may be true that morality cannot be legislated, behavior can be regulated. Even though it may be true that the law cannot change the heart, it can restrain the heartless. Even though it may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, it can restrain him from lynching me. And I think that's pretty important also. And so while the law may not change the hearts of men, it can and it does change the habits of men. And when you begin to change the habits of men, pretty soon the attitudes will be changed; pretty soon the hearts will be changed. And I'm convinced that we still need strong civil rights legislation. And there is a bill before Congress right now to have a national or federal Open Housing Bill. A federal law declaring discrimination in housing unconstitutional.   And also a bill to made the administration of justice real all over our country. Now nobody can doubt the need for this. Nobody can doubt the need if he thinks about the fact that since 1963 some 50 Negroes and white civil rights workers have been brutally murdered in the state of Mississippi alone, and not a single person has been convicted for these dastardly crimes. There have been some indictments but no one has been convicted. And so there is a need for a federal law dealing with the whole question of the administration of justice.   There is a need for fair housing laws all over our country. And it is tragic indeed that Congress last year allowed this bill to die. And when that bill died in Congress, a bit of democracy died, a bit of our commitment to justice died. If it happens again in this session of Congress, a greater degree of our commitment to democratic principles will die. And I can see no more dangerous trend in our country than the constant developing of predominantly Negro central cities ringed by white suburbs. This is only inviting social disaster. And the only way this problem will be solved is by the nation taking a strong stand, and by state governments taking a strong stand against housing segregation and against discrimination in all of these areas.   Now there's another thing that I'd like to mention as I talk about the massive action program and time will not permit me to go into specific programmatic action to any great degree. But it must be realized now that the Negro cannot solve the problems by himself. There again, there are those who always say to Negroes, "Why don't you do something for yourself? Why don't you lift yourselves by your own bootstraps?" And we hear this over and over again.   Now certainly there are many things that we must do for ourselves and that only we can do for ourselves. Certainly we must develop within a sense of dignity and selfrespect that nobody else can give us. A sense of manhood, a sense of personhood, a sense of not being ashamed of our heritage, not being ashamed of our color. It was wrong and tragic of the Negro ever to allow himself to be ashamed of the fact that he was black, or ashamed of the fact that his home, ancestral home was Africa. And so there is a great deal that the Negro can do to develop self-respect. There is a great deal that the Negro must do and can do to amass political and economic power within his own community and by using his own resources. And so we must do certain things for ourselves but this must not negate the fact, and cause the nation to overlook the fact, that the Negro cannot solve the problem himself.   A man was on the plane with me some weeks ago and he came and talked with me and he said, "The problem, Dr. King, that I see with what you all are doing is that every time I see you and other Negroes, you're protesting and you aren't doing anything for yourselves." And he went on to tell me that he was very poor at one time, and he was able to make it by doing something for himself. "Why don't you teach your people," he said, "to lift themselves by their own bootstraps?" And then he went on to say other groups faced disadvantages, the Irish, the Italians, and he went down the line.   And I said to him that it does not help the Negro, it only deepens his frustration, upon feeling insensitive people to say to him that other ethnic groups who migrated or were immigrants to this country less than a hundred years ago or so, have gotten beyond him and he came here some 344 years ago. And I went on to remind him that the Negro came to this country involuntarily in chains, while others came voluntarily. I went on to remind him that no other racial group has been a slave on American soil. I went on to remind him that the other problem that we have faced over the years is that this society placed a stigma on the color of the Negro, on the color of his skin because he was black. Doors were closed to him that were not closed to other groups. And I finally said to him that it's a nice thing to say to people that you oughta lift yourself by your own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he oughta lift himself by his own bootstraps. And the fact is that millions of Negroes, as a result of centuries of denial and neglect, have been left bootless. And they find themselves impoverished aliens in this affluent society. And there is a great deal that the society can and must do if the Negro is to gain the economic security that he needs.   Now one of the answers it seems to me, is a guaranteed annual income, a guaranteed minimum income for all people, and for all families of our country. It seems to me that the Civil Rights Movement must now begin to organize for the guaranteed annual income. Begin to organize people all over our country, and mobilize forces so that we can bring to the attention of our nation this need, and this something which I believe will go a long long way toward dealing with the Negro's economic problem and the economic problem which many other poor people confront in our nation. Now I said I wasn't gonna talk about Vietnam, but I can't make a speech without mentioning some of the problems that we face there because I think this war has diverted attention from civil rights. It has strengthened the forces of reaction in our country and has brought to the forefront the military industrial complex that even President Eisenhower warned us against at one time. And above all, it is destroying human lives. It's destroying the lives of thousands of the young promising men of our nation. It's destroying the lives of little boys and little girls in Vietnam.   But one of the greatest things that this war is doing to us in civil rights is that it is allowing the Great Society to be shot down on the battlefields of Vietnam every day. And I submit this afternoon that we can end poverty in the United States. Our nation has the resources to do it. The National Gross Product of America will rise to the astounding figure of some $780 billion this year. We have the resources. The question is whether our nation has the will, and I submit that if we can spend $35 billion a year to fight an ill-considered war in Vietnam, and $20 billion to put a man on the moon, our nation can spend billions of dollars to put God's children on their own two feet right here on earth.   Let me say another thing that's more in the realm of the spirit I guess, that is that if we are to go on in the days ahead and make true brotherhood a reality, it is necessary for us to realize more than ever before, that the destinies of the Negro and the white man are tied together. Now there are still a lot of people who don't realize this. The racists still don't realize this. But it is a fact now that Negroes and whites are tied together, and we need each other. The Negro needs the white man to save him from his fear. The white man needs the Negro to save him from his guilt. We are tied together in so many ways; our language, our music, our cultural patterns, our material prosperity, and even our food are an amalgam of black and white.   And so there can be no separate black path to power and fulfillment that does not intersect white groups. There can be no separate white path to power and fulfillment short of social disaster. It does not recognize the need of sharing that power with black aspirations for freedom and justice. We must come to see now that integration is not merely a romantic or aesthetic something where you merely add color to a still predominantly white power structure. Integration must be seen also in political terms where there is shared power, where black men and white men share power together to build a new and a great nation.   In a real sense, we're all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. John Donne placed it years ago in graphic terms, "No man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." And he goes on toward the end to say, "Any man's death diminishes me because I'm involved in mankind. Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee." And so we are all in the same situation: the salvation of the Negro will mean the salvation of the white man. And the destruction of the life and of the ongoing progress of the Negro will be the destruction of the ongoing progress of the nation.   Now let me say finally that we have difficulties ahead but I haven't despaired. Somehow I maintain hope in spite of hope. And I've talked about the difficulties and how hard the problems will be as we tackle them. But I want to close by saying this afternoon, that I still have faith in the future. And I still believe that these problems can be solved. And so I will not join anyone who will say that we still can't develop a coalition of conscience.   I realize and understand the discontent and the agony and the disappointment and even the bitterness of those who feel that whites in America cannot be trusted. And I would be the first to say that there are all too many who are still guided by the racist ethos. And I am still convinced that there are still many white persons of good will. And I'm happy to say that I see them every day in the student generation who cherish democratic principles and justice above principle, and who will stick with the cause of justice and the cause of civil rights and the cause of peace throughout the days ahead. And so I refuse to despair. I think we're gonna achieve our freedom because however much America strays away from the ideals of justice, the goal of America is freedom.   Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up in the destiny of America. Before the pilgrim fathers landed at Plymouth we were here. Before Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. Before the beautiful words of the Star Spangled Banner were written, we were here. For more than two centuries, our forebearers labored here without wages. They made cotton king. They built the homes of their masters in the midst of the most humiliating and oppressive conditions. And yet out of a bottomless vitality, they continued to grow and develop.   And I say that if the inexpressible cruelties of slavery couldn't stop us, the opposition that we now face, including the so-called white backlash, will surely fail. We're gonna win our freedom because both the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of the Almighty God are embodied in our echoing demands.   And so I can still sing "We Shall Overcome." We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. We shall overcome because Carlyle is right, "no lie can live forever." We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant is right, "truth crushed to earth will rise again." We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell is right, "Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne - Yet that scaffold sways the future."   With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to speed up the day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and live together as brothers and sisters, all over this great nation. That will be a great day, that will be a great tomorrow. In the words of the Scripture, to speak symbolically, that will be the day when the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy. Thank you.   The transcript of this speech can be  found here.

 

 

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