Max Roach 5tet wt Abbey Lincoln Freedom Day 1964 HD

...a little mood music from Ms. Abbey.

Black History Mini Docs - James Baldwin

Thank You Dr. King: A look at Selma

Last evening, I had the pleasure of going to see SELMA at the theater. The films is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches led by the Rev., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., James Bevel (played by Common), Hosea Williams, and John Lewis of SNCC. I thought that it was, overall, a good film. Historically, it seemed accurate and honest in its content - more than I've seen in previous films.
It was as expected, I thought. I also felt that David Oyelowo did an excellent job portraying the slain Civil Rights leader. Specifically, It tells the story of that very important and pivotal day in Civil Rights history. The film also addresses some important relationships in Dr. King's life such as the relationship with his wife, Coretta Scott King. It was not depicted, as in other films, as a smooth and always loving relationship. It explored the difficult times as well. Also, it dabbled in the relationship between King and President Lyndon Johnson as well as The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

I've been indoctrinated and saturated with the life of the Rev., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. all of my life; so, this film was no revelation for me. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed watching. For some reason, I am drawn to any new depiction of Dr. King just like many others around the world. It never gets old. This is why this film is so important for younger generations or for people who don't know the history of the United States. It gives an explanation and perspective to the turmoil that is going on today here in the United States in places like Ferguson, Missouri (Michael Brown), Jena, Louisiana (Jena Six), New York City (Eric Garner) and many other places around the United States and the world. SELMA also reminds us that change can happen when people pull together as one.  It gives us hope and for that I am thankful. Go see the film if you can. It is worth your dime and all of your time. Thank you Dr. King. We love you.

Selma

MC Spotlight: Jacquelyn Ann Bond-Shropshire

By Deltonia N. Shropshire

Washington (MC) -- The Smithsonian erected a wall of historic photos as an announcement for the forthcoming National Museum of African American History and Culture (2015).  The iconic image of young Jacquelyn Bond is among those located at 14^th and R St. NW.  Here she is flanked by Goldie Frinks, aide to Dr. Martin Luther King.

In honor of Black History Month, there are those within Montgomery County Public Schools that made a difference in the lives of those once considered inferior, well before Affirmative Action was even considered.

Generations of willful women compounded within the heart, mind and spirit of one.  Her name is Jacquelyn Ann Bond-Shropshire, MA., MBA..   She was an adept business teacher within Montgomery County Public Schools for thirty eight years.  However, prior to her role as an educator, she was called to serve as a freedom fighter within her community in North Carolina, where by most accounts the civil rights movement began.

Jacquelyn was born on April 15, 1948.  Her parents by all standards were revolutionary.  Her father Styron C. Bond, Sr. was a retired buffalo soldier who had served in World War II as a Sergeant in the 307 infantry of the Army.  He was also the town’s first black entrepreneur-owning a grocery store, a barbershop, a beauty salon and a bail bondsman business.  Bond’s mother was a school teacher that hailed from a community of free Black and Native Americans.  Annie James Bond was from a family that had never know the indignations of slavery and servitude experienced by most other black families of the time.  Unfortunately, at that time the only work available for well educated women of color were in smaller towns.  These tiny towns were often far from where they lived and paid very prejudicial salaries.  Smaller towns required long stints away from the family.  In her case, Annie had to travel well over one hundred miles to get to her place of employment.  She would often come home once a month to visit family and friends only to leave again on Sunday evenings.

Jacquelyn is the middle child born between the birth of her two brothers Styron Curtis Bond, Jr. (Mickey) and Clinton Bond.  Peggy Jean, was born eight years after Jacquelyn.

In the seventh grade, “Jackie” aspired to become a teacher.  Having had some of the best influences during elementary and high school, astute English teachers relegated to teaching in segregated schools would motivate the academic pursuit of English as a minor-during Miss Bond’s undergraduate experience at North Carolina Central University.  In honor of her father, who passed away when she was sixteen, the determined young woman majored in business and received her first Master’s degree from her undergraduate alma mater, in 1972.

However prior to the age of sixteen Jackie had already lived the life of another type of soldier.  A Freedom Fighter!!  At fifteen, Jackie Bond would be the youngest civil rights leader in her hometown of Williamston, NC.  The newspaper headlines, books and radio announcements kept the young girl enthralled with the current events that were impacting all people.  She had determined at a very early age that she had to make a difference in one way or another.  Being served food from the backdoors and small windows of restaurants, being denied basic customer service and human courtesy , being denied access to common necessities and resources merely because of skin color, was unjust.  The indignation needed to cease within her lifetime.  All she knew was that she could not allow her unborn children to endure what she and other ‘different’ people had gone through.

Several instances occurred that served as the catalyst that would determine Jackie’s efforts to end discrimination in North Carolina particularly, but nationally as well.

The free thinking young girl was almost killed when the rambunctious sheriff decided to use electrified cattle prongs (used to shock livestock while herding) to make the force of demonstrators move away from the train tracks.  The electrified stick made contact with Jackie’s stomach.  The scar is still visible nearly fifty years later.

On another occasion, Jackie vividly recalls having her parents sleeping in the car with her while on a long road trip from N.C. to Florida.  Blacks were not allowed to sleep in hotels.  There were very few hotels owned and operated by Black people along any main roads within the South.  Many entrepreneurs of color were fearful that their businesses would be burned or worse-they themselves would be targeted for lynching.  Independent black people were considered a threat, and were often killed as a result.

Jackie and her brothers had also grown up hearing the horrific tale of how her great grandfather as well as their grandfather had lost their lives, at the hands of violent mobs for merely speaking to white women.  One of the two ancestors literally lost his head for being kind to someone who was ‘off limits’.  The event sent a clear message to all of the townspeople that Black men were not to court white women, yet white men frequently TOOK whatever they wanted from any black man or woman.

Jackie was also subject to arrest on more than one occasion.  On one such run-in, the teenager was incarcerated and tried for using a “White Only” Laundromat.  When brought before the court, she was asked by the judge, “Didn’t you know that you were going into a WHITE ONLY establishment?”, Jackie responded with savvy, “No sir, I thought that White Only meant White CLOTHES only”! Her father just shook his head and left the courtroom stating “She doesn’t need my help.  She can handle herself”.  Having been forced to stay in a jail cell prior to her hearing Jackie heard news of an upcoming March on Washington, where the honorable Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was going to speak.  She determined that she was going to be present for the event.  Somehow the young freedom fighter encouraged her father to sponsor one of the three charter buses that would head to Washington, D.C. for the monumental occasion.  Jackie had just turned fifteen and was not allowed to go to Washington, D.C., alone.  Sister Ella Mae Ormond (the community Auntie) agreed to chaperone the group so that any of the young adults could also attend.  Jackie Bond had to be there in the midst.  Among all other individuals who were poised to do what could be done nonviolently to effectuate equality within this country.

As a result of the social deviance exacted by clusters of determined sacrificial young people-the fifties and sixties yielded many liberties including desegregated schools.  These luxuries are often taken for granted today.  These passionate youth changed the minds and hearts of American who had forgotten that the Constitution applied to ALL Americans regardless of the circumstances that brought them to the land confiscated from the Native Americans.  To ensure that the long hard fought battle contributed to the Civil Rights victory, Jacquelyn began teaching in the school system that supported the area that she vowed to return and live while visiting the District of Columbia during the 1963 March on Washington.  She taught two years in Chapel Hill, N.C. and her home in Martin County.  From there she taught two years in Connecticut suburbia.  Bond-Shropshire would later tell her children that “SILVER SPRING just sounded magical”, an immediate draw to the area for a hopeful teen.  She began teaching in Montgomery County Public Schools in 1974.  She ended her forty two year career in the Spring of 2012.  Mrs. Shropshire (as she was referred to during her career), taught accounting and various business classes during her thirty two years at Montgomery Blair High School.  The veteran teacher completed the last six years of her career at Einstein Senior High School.

Jacquelyn Ann Bond Shropshire continues to serve as an education advocate.  She is a MD state delegate for the National Education Association (NEA).  Ms. Shropshire is also a member of the Montgomery County Education Association, a life member of the Maryland State Education Association and the NAACP.  She is a golden life member of the dynamic social justice sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, Incorporated where she has received a national award in 1990 as Maryland’s State Delta Teacher.  She is a member of the National Council of Negro Women, as well.

She is the proud mother of a daughter Deltonia and a son Dee Shropshire.  Shropshire is also the grandmother of two vivacious granddaughters Blair Logan and Brooke London Shropshire.  Jackie continues her civil rights advocacy through public speaking and community service.  She still battles in the courtroom when the occasion calls for it.

About the Author:

Deltonia N. Shropshire is a freelance writer, educator, and activist living in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

Website: Gyp'SEE Southern Star Creative Consulting

MLK Thoughts on Flying

Emmett Till’s Death inspired Civil Rights Leaders to Act

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Witness to Emmett Till lynching dies in Illinois

Willie Louis, the witness to Emmett Till lynching dies in Illinois

Photo source: wisconsinhistory.org

Letter from Birmingham Jail

On April 16, 1963 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr  wrote a letter to the clergy of Birmingham, Alabama. He wrote this letter from the Birmingham Jail where he was held for 11 days.  Dr. King had been arrested 30 times prior to his death on April 4, 1968.

Happy 100th Birthday, Mama Rosa

Source:  Heidi Creed 

Photo and Thought from MLK

"Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think."  ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Gospel Music: I'm Alright Now

This song came to mind after I felt the earth shake here in Maryland today. Either way, it's going to be alright. By the way, this is a church in Williamston, N.C., which is located in Eastern Carolina. Enjoy. Peace~

Marquette Frye and the Watts Riots of 1965

Over the past week, one cannot look at the news media without hearing something about the riots in London.  It's only a matter of time before the people will become frustrated after being mistreated for so long.  No, I don't live in London, but I believe the testimonies of the blacks who live there.  As a conscious African American [absent the bitterness], it sounds all too familiar.  It seems that there needs to be only three elements in place for a riot to ensue:  law enforcement, the disenfranchised of the population, and a crowd.  I'll repeat -- there are three elements -- It's law enforcement [gunpowder], disenfranchised  [fuse], and the crowd [fire].  There are, of course, preconditions that create these bombs that only await the fire.  On August 11, 1965 the elements were in place and fuse was lit!

In the 1965 Watts Riots, the disenfranchised man's name was Mr. Marquette Frye.  He was 21 years old, a little intoxicated, and completely unaware that his actions would ignite what would become the infamous Watts Riots.  Who was to blame for this terrible event?  You decide.  Nevertheless, this catastrophic event left 34 people dead, 1,032 injured, and 3,438 arrested.  The events that would follow Mr. Frye left him in a state of despair.  In fact, he changed his last name to Price, his stepfather's name, in order to escape the stigma of that violent day on August 11, 1965.  Marquette Frye died a little over 20 years later on Christmas Eve in 1986.  He was 42.  As Some reflect on the dark days of the 1965 riots, they believe that Marquette Frye died on the evening of August 11, 1965.  Peace in London ~ Read more...

Sources:  blackpast.org, Los Angeles Times, Vanderbilt.edu

7UP or Coca Cola



I find this photo interesting.  I was wondering why there was 7UP on the "Colored" side and Coca Cola on the "White" side.  Did African Americans have a choice?  I mean, was there a vote whether African Americans favored 7UP during Jim Crow, or maybe Whites prefered Coca Cola?   Well, it's probably nothing, but it just makes me think.  In fact, the whole separte but (un) equal Jim Crow laws of that time occasionally causes me to go into deep thought.   Baffling? I mean, people were just washing clothes.  Peace~

Photo:  1965 Laundromat in Edenton NC

Source:  North Carolina State Archives and The North Carolina Historical Review/Vol LXXVI/Number 1

King and the Chicago Mob of 1966

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s march in Chicago was met with fierce opposition and violence.  Northern cities like Chicago had shown its true colors long before Dr. King arrived, but he would get to experience it first hand. 

On Friday, August 5, 1966, Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Ralph Abernathy and others arrived in Chicago to protest housing discrimination in that city. Reverend Abernathy later reported that they received a worse reception than they had in the South. Their marches, especially the one through Marquette Park, were met by angry, screaming mobs of men and women who were throwing stones and bottles, while shouting curses and racial slurs. Read more…

Mother King: In Memoriam

On June 30, 1974 Mrs. Alberta Williams King, mother of slain Civil Rights leader and activist, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot and killed during a Sunday morning church service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga. Mother King was at the organ playing “The Lord’s Prayer” when the shooting occurred. Deacon, Edward Boykin, was also killed in this violent attack.

The assailant, Marcus Wayne Chennault Jr., an African American from Dayton, Ohio, was later convicted and sentenced to death. That sentence was upheld for many years and later changed to life in prison at a state prison in Jackson, Georgia. On August 3, 1995, only two months after his sentence was changed to a life sentence, Chennault suffered a stroke, never regained consciousness and died. He was 44.  Although Mother King's death is rarely mentioned or remembered in the media, she must be remembered as not only a mother of one of the greatest leaders in the 20th Centurty, but for her supporting contribution to the civil rights struggle and the Kingdom of God.  Peace~

Sources: Blackfacts.org, Jet magazine, and The New York Times

Acrostic King

Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)

M - Montgomery

A - Arrested

R - Resisted

T - Transformed

I - Insisted

N - Nonviolence

Today in Black History: Fast and Pray

On this day, June 2, 1899, Black Americans observed a day of fasting.  This day of fasting and prayer was called by the National Afro-American Council in protest of the lynching and racial massacres occurring in the United States.  Unfortunately, these lynchings carried on through the 20th Century, and there are still reports of hate crimes in this 21st century. 


Music/spoken word on subject:   Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday, and Black Baby Tears by Stephen Earley Jordan.

Book on subject:  Strange Fruit: Plays on Lynching by American Women, and Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
Info source:  blackfacts.com
Photo source:  latina.com

Top 20 sites to learn African American History

I have great news for Morphological Confetti!  It was chosen by onlinedegree.net as one of the 20 best sites to learn about African American History.  I have so much passion for the history of Africans in America, so this is quite an honor. To God be the glory.  Peace~

Photo source:  bowdoin.edu
Pictured above:Romare Bearden, American, 1911-1988, Heavy Freight (from the 12 Trains Suite), 1974, photo etching with hand coloring, Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Freedom Ride of 1961

On May 4, 1961 thirteen Freedom Riders began bus trip through the South to confront the injustices of Jim Crow and racism.  It turned out to be a trip they would never forget.

Do you want to ride or die?  Is it worth the trip?  Can they be that bad?  Those are the questions I imagine they asked on that spring day in 1961.  Yes, they saw the news reports, and heard testimonies in the training sessions that would prepare them for this trip south.  However, there is no experience like experiencing it for yourself:

Photo Sources:  NY Times, black past.org, and southern spaces.org