#anti slavery leaders in america

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William Lambert | Central Michigan University

An African American Leader of Detroit's Anti-Slavery Movement.

By Evelyn Leasher

Before the Civil War Detroit had a small but active African American population. One of the most active African American men of the time was William Lambert, who in addition to his public activities, ran a thriving tailoring and dry cleaning business. Lambert's name is prominent in many accounts of activities involving African Americans in Detroit from his arrival in 1840 to his death in 1890. He worked with the Underground Railroad, he organized an African American secret order, he led the Detroit Vigilant Committee, he was a deacon in his church, and he worked to bring publicly supported education to the African American children of Detroit. Lambert corresponded with many of the anti-slavery leaders of his day. He was a personal friend of John Brown and participated in the Chatham meeting in which John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry was planned.

In 1886 Lambert was interviewed by a reporter on the Detroit Tribune about his activities before the Civil War in Detroit. The resulting newspaper article is an important source of information about antebellum Detroit and African American activities there. That interview is the focus of this website. The newspaper article is reprinted in full with links to the various references made by Lambert wherever they could be found. For example, when talking to the reporter Lambert pulled from his desk a copy of Walker's Appeal for Freedom. There is a link to the Walker website which gives the full text of the Appeal, a publication banned in the South, which is full of references to the evils of slavery and which calls for the elimination of that portion of the population who refuse to grant slaves the right to be human. That Lambert was in possession of this document is important information which helps to understand his work.

Lambert also mentions an important co-worker in Detroit, George De Baptiste. In the article De Baptiste is repeatedly called Le Baptiste, but there is no doubt about the identity of the person. De Baptiste and Lambert worked together for many years on all aspects of anti-slavery work. When De Baptiste died newspapers carried lengthy obituaries which gave details of his life and his work on the Underground Railroad. There are links to these obituaries which give an idea of the scope of De Baptiste's work and the dangers he faced in pursuing his anti-slavery goals.

Lambert's detailed description of a secret African American organization which worked to free slaves is one of the few references to this organization. The elaborate ritual he describes and the secrecy of the work speak to the need to keep its existence hidden. There may be many reasons for this secrecy but one of the reasons may have been the danger involved in working to free slaves, especially after the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law was enacted.

Lambert's interview was conducted in 1886, many years after the events he was recalling. There are some statements which could not be verified or which were slightly wrong. For example, he and the reporter mention an article in Century magazine about John Brown by Col. Green of the United States Marine Corp. There is an article by Col. Green but it was not in Century magazine. A link to Col. Green's article is provided. The reporter also mentioned a poem by Richard Realf which has not been discovered, but information about Richard Realf is included. Another problem is in the estimate of the number of people who were helped by the Underground Railroad. Although it is not possible to give accurate figures of Underground Railroad work these figures do not appear to be realistic in comparison with the actual number of slaves in the United States.

The Underground Railroad has been written about and studied at great length. However, there is relatively little mention of the involvement of African Americans in the work. Lambert's interview makes clear that in Detroit African Americans were actively involved. They were organized and they were efficient and they were militant. They knew what they were doing and they were willing to take risks to free their fellow human beings from slavery and discrimination. Lambert is an example of a man who saw a wrong and did his best to remedy it.

At the end of the website there is a short bibliography for further reading. This is by no means a complete Underground Railroad or Detroit bibliography. This reading list stresses material which might help in understanding the antebellum Detroit scene. Of particular interest is the article by Katherine DePre Lumpkin in which Lumpkin uses this same Lambert article to discuss Detroit and the secret organization Lambert describes.

Detroit Tribute January 17, 1887, Page 2 FREEDOMS'S RAILWAY Reminiscences of the Brave Old Days of the Famous Underground Line Historic Scenes Recalled Detroit the Center of Operations that Freed Thousands of Slaves

The western underground railway paid no dividends, aspired to no monopoly, and never had a general meeting of its directors. Its objective termini were Canada and Freedom, and its trade was derived from the slave plantations of the south, its patrons were people of color, and its promoters and managers had their headquarters in Detroit. Some of them still live and all of them recall the days of the underground road with the hearty satisfaction that comes from a good work accomplished.

Among those living here, well known and highly respected, is William Lambert, age, say, 70; occupation, tailor and philanthropist; son of a slave father and free mother; a man of education, wide reading, rare argumentative power; the founder of the colored episcopal church of this city, and the leader of his race in this state. He is the warm, personal friend of Frederick Douglass, was intimate with the Rev. Highland Garnet, worked hand in hand with J. Theodore Holly, now bishop of Hayti; was the trusted counselor of Gerrit Smith, William Lloyd Garrison, and Wendell Philips, and had something more than a passing acquaintance with John Brown. Under such circumstance it is no wonder that William Lambert was chosen as active manager of the underground railway service. His energy was unflagging and his executive qualities of the highest order. Associated with him was George DeBaptiste, also colored, and like Lambert, possessing good executive ability. The pictures of both these men are worth turning to as presenting faces and heads whose phrenological development would attract attention were they Caucausian instead of negro. LeBaptiste is dead, but Lambert still lives, his mind and eye undimmed and his enthusiasm for the advancement of his race sparkling as brightly as ever. He told the greater part of this story which follows, but the charm of its narration is lost in the writing, for Lambert's modulated voice, his graceful gesticulation and the carefully chosen and accurately pronounced words with which he clothed his teeming ideas can only be suggested here. Nearly 40,000 slaves were made free by crossing them into Canada over Detroit and St. Clair rivers between the years 1829 and 1862, when the last one was ferried over. In the last twenty years of that time $120,000 were collected and expended to bring slaves from the south to Canada, by way of Detroit. There escaped to Canada in all the estimated number of 50,000 slaves. A few of these were not travelers on the underground road, but they were a small minority. The larger number were brought from Florida and Louisiana and from the border states. They were never left unprotected in their journeys, and the hardships they underwent to secure liberty were not only shared with them by their conductors, but repeated time after time by the hundred or so of men who cheerfully assumed this arduous duty.

Taking up Mr. Lambert's story of personal reminiscences he begins with 1829, at which time a band of desperadoes, something in general character like the James' Boys, were the terror of the southwestern states. McKinseyites they were called, and in number were some sixty or seventy. They robbed and pillaged wherever they could with safety, and these people were the first southern agents of the underground railway system of Detroit. "It was a long time," said Mr. Lambert, "before we could make up our minds to make use of these scoundrels, but we at last concluded that the end justified the means. Indeed we went further than that before we got through our work, and held that the effort to secure liberty justified any means to overcome obstacles that intervened to defeat it. These men would, with the permission of the slave himself, steal him away from the owner who had a title to him, and then sell him. From this second bondage they would steal him again and deliver him to us on the line of the Ohio river. They got their profit out of the sale, although they had to commit two thefts to do it. There were no steam railways in those days. We traveled at night, or if in daytime with peddling wagons. We had at one time more than sixty tin peddling wagons with false bottoms, large enough to hold three men, traveling through the south. Our association with the McKinseyites was from the very necessities of the case of short life. They were sure to be caught sooner or later, and at last some more daring robbery than usual brought some of them to prison and dispersed the rest. We then began the organization of a more thorough system and we arranged passwords and grips, and a ritual, but we were always suspicious of the white man, and so those we admitted we put to severe tests, and we had one ritual for them alone and a chapter to test them in. To the privileges of the rest of the order they were not admitted."

"Mr. Lambert," said the reporter, "there is among the poems of Richard Realf one that hints at the existence of the order whose ritual was filled with a marvelous imagry."

"Oh, you have seen that, have you?" and the old gentleman's eyes sparkled. "Well, I wrote that ritual and you shall see it."

He took from a desk where "Walker's Appeal for Freedom," and the letters of Mr. John Brown, Lloyd Garrison, and Wendell Phillips, and  Lucretia Mott were carefully preserved, two books bound in sheep, and of the pattern called memoranda books in the trade. In Lambert's own handwriting was the ritual, the names of the degrees, the test words, grips, description of emblems and lessons. It is impossible to give full space to them here. The order of using them was composed of nearly 1,000,000 free Negroes in the United States and Canada. Of their literary merit it can only be said that they rank with the best of all the orders, and as to the poetry and imagry so richly used, Mr. Realf, who was a white member of the order, had made no exaggeration. The title of the order was the "African-American Mysteries; the Order of the Men of Oppression." In the first chapter the degrees were captives, redeemed and chosen. A branch of the first degree was that of confidence which was used on the underground road. It could be bestowed by any one of those in or above the degree of chosen. It was from this degree that the agents sent to the south were selected. The oath administered ran thus:

I. A.B., do most solemnly and religiously swear and unreservedly vow that I never will confer the degree of confidence on any person, black or white, male or female, unless I am sure they are trustworthy. And should I violate this solemn covenant may my personal interests and domestic peace be blasted and I personally be denounced as a traitor.

This was a mild oath compared with those called for in passing to other degrees. To complete the confidence ritual, however, which was the one actively used by the underground railway managers: Word - "Leprous." Password - "Cross over" - spoken thus: Question -Cross? Answer - Over. First lecture: Q. Have you ever been on the railroad? A. I have been a short distance. Q. Where did you start from? A. The depot. Q. Where did you stop? A. At a place called Safety. Q. Have you a brother there? I think I know him. A. I know you now. You traveled on the road.

This conversation was the test. It was taught to every fugitive, and the sign was pulling the knuckle of the right forefinger over the knuckle of the same finger on the left hand. The answer was to reverse the fingers as described. It is an interesting feature of this history to remember that nearly 40,000 slaves used this test, and it was on the lips of every Quaker in America, the latter for the first and only time foregoing the use of "thee" and "thou" in order to make the test more certain.

The Grand charter lodge had its rooms on Jefferson avenue, between Bates and Randolph, about where No. 202 now is. When the applicant for the degree of captive was brought up for examination he was detained without while asked what it was he sought. "Deliverance," was the answer. "How does he expect to get it?" "By his own efforts." "Has he faith?" "He has hope."

He was clad in rough and ragged garments, his head was bowed. His eyes blindfolded and an iron chain put about his neck. When his examination was over his eyes were unbound and he was admitted to the fellowship of the degree of captive. When he passed to that of the redeemed the chain and fetters were stricken off, although before that, when his eyes were unbound and he was a captive, he found about him all the members of the lodge present, each of them with a whip in his hand. In this way the organization maintained its typical character. After passing to chosen there were yet five degrees, that of rulers, judges and princes, chevaliers of Ethiopia, sterling black knight and knight of St. Domingo. To pass into these was no small task upon the memory and studiousness of the aspirant. The last one has a ritual of great length dealing with the principles of freedom and the authorities on revolution; revolt, rebellion, government - in short a digest of the best authorities. It is of no little credit to the mental capacity of the colored race in that day when free schools were closed to them in most of the states that over 60,000 took the highest degree. It was when the highest ranks were reached that the full intention of the order were first learned. The general plan was freedom, and it is only in the presence of such records as these that the strength of the colored race in organization for their manumission becomes known.

It is from this body that John Brown took on his task of raiding Harper's Ferry. The history of the Chatham Convention (pdf), presided over by Elder W. C. Monroe of Windsor, and one of whose prominent members was Mr. Lambert, has been told in Redpath's history of John Brown (Roberts & Co., Boston, 1860) and it is gone into at some length by Mr. Farmer (pdf) in his excellent history of Detroit. In both of these it is shown that John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry was planned here, and much of the money used was subscribed here.

It was on some of the personal qualities of John Brown that the reporter opened the interview with Lambert which may run steadily along from this point. "Have you read the last contribution to the history of John Brown episode published in the Century, from the pen of Col. Green of the United States marine corps?" "Yes, I saw that, and he most unjustly says what so many have equally erroneously declared, that John Brown (pdf) was crazy. I knew him well, as the many letters you see here from him and this one from his wife of his execution will show. He was sane and reasonable, but he knew that what was necessary was to make a beginning. It was out of the circumstances of the case destined to be a failure of itself, but it opened the way. John Brown told me himself that he could not expect to escape martyrdom. 'But I shall have made the flame that will give the unquenchable light of liberty to the world,' he said, standing erect and pointing to heaven as he spoke. That was what he did."

"When did you meet Brown first?"

"Here in Detroit. I was expecting a train from the south and we were waiting for it at the lodge on Jefferson avenue. This was our custom. The fugitives were brought in from the country from Wayne and Ann Arbor so as to arrive at night. They would be brought to the vicinity of the lodge, when we would go and test them, and all those with them. Some twenty or thirty came on the night I speak of, and I went down to test them. Among others to whom I applied the test was a tall, smoothly-shaven man. When he had answered correctly I cried out: "Are you John Brown? You are: I know it, brother." "Yes, brother, I am John Brown." From that moment he and I were the firmest friends. He stopped with me at my house, then in the western part of the city, and became a conductor on the underground railway. He brought to Detroit more than 200 fugitives. Here are the books. If you care to go over them you will see the reports that give the dates and names, and from whence they came. He penetrated every part of the south, and visited every colored man that it was possible to get at, who had intelligence to grasp the idea of freedom, and yet made no boast of it. He was indefatigable in these respects. He was always on time, and his personal courage, tested a thousand times, was beyond dispute.

"When we had received the people at the lodge we then took them to the rendezvous, which was the house of J.C. Reynolds, an employe of the company then constructing the Michigan Central railway. He had been sent by Levi Coffin of Cincinnati, who was the head of the underground railway in the west. His residence was at the foot of Eighth street, just opposite the place where the first elevator was subsequently built. The house has long since been torn down. We would fetch the fugitives there, shipping them into the house by dark one by one. There they found food and warmth, and when, as frequently happened, they were ragged and thinly clad, we gave them clothing. Our boats were concealed under the docks, and before daylight we would have everyone over. We never lost a man by capture at this point, so careful were we, and we took over as high as 1,600 in one year. Some times we were closely watched and other rendezvous were used. Ald. Finney, Luther Beecher, McChubb and Farmer Underwood could tell you lots about these details. Finney's Barn used to be filled with them some times. It stood opposite the hotel property which bears Finney's name. Well, one night we had reason to believe we were watched.

Two persons were skulking about and we turned upon them. Brown seized them both and dropped them over the pier head first into the water. He had scarcely done so when he threw off his coat and plunged in after them and brought them safely to land. They would have certainly been drowned had he not interfered to save them. Once in Indiana, near Indianapolis, he was driving a covered wagon with nine fugitives concealed under some old furniture. He was pursued by some slave-hunters who had got on the trail in some way, and although they were armed and fired at him he boldly faced the crowd and drove them away, and brought his charge through in safety.

But those incidents of Brown were the recurring ones to every conductor, of whom we had as many as a hundred employed. It was recalled by all the old underground railroad people who are living. He wore a belt of seven revolvers and he used them when necessary with deadly aim. He engaged in the business of a conductor rather from the necessity of his nature for excitement than for any other reason. Over the revolvers he wore at all times a loose-fitting overcoat, with wide openings for the pockets cut high up, but no pockets. Into the holes he thrust his hands and drew his weapons unperceived and fired with telling effect through the cloth of his coat. I used to make those coats for him, and I knew how often they were marked by bullet holes and burned by exploding powder.

That fellow used to go down into any one of the states and get an engagement as driver and overseer and then get a train load and fetch them in safety every time. He brought over 1,500 to Detroit. At last he became so well known and had to run such risks that he was sent to the east, where he worked on the Philadelphia branch very successfully. It would be a picture if you could only have seen it, never to be forgotten, if you could have witnessed many of the scenes of families reuniting and of freemen reaching Canada. For any labor, or cost, or danger, that was our ample reward. I guess most of the incidents that happened in Detroit are pretty well known. After we got to Michigan we didn't have a regular route, but we did have others. We used to work up the Wabash river to Ft. Wayne, and then cross into Washtenaw county, where Ann Arbor is, you know.

There we had lots of friends and help. Then if the hue and cry had been sharply raised we would keep our people in concealment and get them over the ferry when we could. They used to lay in barns and all sorts of retreats and doubtless underwent many hardships, which at times caused them almost to regret their flight, but we got them through all right at last. Girls we often brought as boys, and women disguised as men, and men as women were frequent arrivals. When railways began to be built we used to pack them in boxes, and send them by express. We got thirty or forty through in that way, but the danger to their lives by reason of lack of careful handling and fear of suffocation made that means dangerous."

"In making some preliminary inquiries I heard of one Lovett who had three or four negroes who used to go south with him and allow themselves to be sold and share the proceeds after escaping with the underground railroad. Do you know him?"

"There was such a man from St. Clair. I do not remember that Lovett was the name. It was all very disgraceful, indeed. His accomplices were not permitted on the underground railroad after they were discovered, you may be sure. The man, whatever his name was, finally died in prison - was captured in Tennessee and, after being locked up in Brownsville jail, was removed to Jackson to prevent his being mobbed."

"Well, the story is that the underground railroad people gave the information that secured his arrest."

"That may be so. You see we could not stand upon hair-splitting questions of right and wrong when the main objective of our intention was threatened. I am not aware that we did anything more serious than Lovett's own acts themselves to imperil his safety."

"But what was the most important thing happening in Detroit in connection with your railroad on society?"

"Well, I suppose it was the one that led to fugitive slave law being introduced by Benton of Missouri in the United States senate. Benton, strangely enough, as perhaps you know, was the father of Mrs. John C. Fremont, the wife of the first candidate of the republican party for president. They eloped together. Well, there was a slave escaped from Arkansas some time in 1840 and we got him into Indiana among some abolitionists, who said he would be safe there. They taught him to read and so on and he came to Detroit. His name was Robert Cromwell. After awhile he went to Flint and opened a barber shop there. Now, one of the greatest difficulties we had was to keep fugitives from writing home and giving their addresses, or otherwise betraying their whereabouts.

Cromwell thought he'd be cunning, so he wrote to his old master, dating his letter at Montreal, and telling what he was doing and so on, and asking his master, whose name was John Dun, to send him his sister, and he would send him $100. But he posted his letter at Flint, and it went forward with the post stamp of the same date as that within. Dun knew that no one could come to Flint from Montreal in one day, so he came to St. Louis and looked up a Flint newspaper in the exchanges of the St. Louis Republican, and there found Robert Cromwell's advertisement, "next door to the hotel" that was described and named in Robert's letter.

About this time Robert began to think he had done a foolish thing, and becoming frightened hurried down to see me. He concluded to come to Detroit for a while and leave his shop in charge of some man. This he did, and then opened a little restaurant at the corner of Brush and Larned streets. His mother came to Flint and soon traced him here, but the slave law then was the one of 1790. It authorized the master to seize his slave and bring him before the judge of the United States court, who would make the necessary order to bring him back. Judge Ross Wilkins, of sainted memory, was then judge of this circuit, and the United States courthouse was the First national bank building at the corner of Jefferson and Griswold.

Dun knew that to get any warrant or summons would be to put Cromwell on his guard and he consulted with the United States district attorney, at that time John Norvell, who told him he could seize his slave and bring him before Judge Wilkins, who would then have to make the order, but it would be impossible to do this in the streets, the man must be enticed to the court-house.

Accordingly an officer, who was appropriately named Bender, went to Cromwell and told him to come to the United States court to give testimony as to the character of certain houses in the vicinity of his shop, Cromwell wanted to know what the United States court had to do with the character of the houses. Bender, said he knew nothing, had recently come there, and so on. Then the officer produced an unsigned subpoena. Cromwell laughed at this, and the officer then went away and returned to say that the judge had ordered him to fetch him. On this Cromwell went.

Dun stood just inside the door of the building, and as soon as Cromwell entered he pushed it to and attempted to seize his former slave. Cromwell dashed for the window and tried to escape, giving the alarm. This was heard above and its nature suspected by Judge Wilkins, who at once fled from the court, it is said, to the attic. Anyway he disappeared.

George Ball was the clerk of the court. He yelled down to Cromwell not to allow himself to be fetched up - for God's sake not to come up. By this time George Le Baptiste, myself, and a score of others, among them George Rogers, a lawyer, were on the ground, but we could not get into the court-house - the door was closed. Ball, however, came to the upper window and threw us out a key to come in by another door, and in two minutes we had Cromwell free from Dun and rushed him down to the foot of Shelby street, into a skiff, and into Canada.

While this was done Dun was detained on the steps, the crowd growing momentarily larger and more threatening, a number of Irish among them crying out, "Where's the man stealer?" "Let us at him." When I came back Jefferson avenue was filled with people.

There stood Dun on the steps, towering over every one about him, and looking for a means of escape. All at once Dun make a dash. He thrust the crowd aside like chaff blown from a fanning-mill, and tore down Jefferson avenue, where a friendly door opened for him and closed to shut out the crowd. Just at this time the passage of a state law had been secured making it a penal offense "to inveigle or kidnap any fugitive slave to return him to slavery." Mark the wording.

Well, Elder Monroe whose picture you have there and who died in Africa on the St. Paul Loando river, where he had gone to establish a colony of episcopalians, took the lead in this affair and we demanded Dun's arrest under the law. It was hours before the officers fetched him out and brought him to Justice O'Byrne's office at the corner of Woodward and Jefferson avenues. We colored people demanded admittance, which was refused us, and we appealed to Mayor Van Dyke (pdf). We told him that Dun was from Maryland, and the United States court had jurisdiction. Our law point was bad, but we were many in number and resolute.

The mayor made us a speech and then declared we should be admitted. It was decided to postpone the hearing until 9 o'clock the next day, and when a bankrupt merchant was offered as bail Elder Monroe objected. The judge threatened to put us out, and we asked him to begin.

Then John Norvell offered himself as bail, but Monroe remembered that a mortgage sale of his property had recently been published, and objected to him. What would have happened I cannot say had not Dun cried out that he wanted no bail, that he preferred to go to jail. The mayor begged that no disgrace be brought upon the city by mob law.

The state law should be enforced, he declared, and proposed that we form in a double line in the street, allow Dun to be brought down and to pass to the jail, then on the site of the public library, where we could see him enter and be assured that he would be kept. We agreed to this, and the colored people kept their word, but the Irish population had not so agreed, and the danger to Dun's life was very great.

Just as we got to the jail a rush was made but it was stayed. Well Dun lay in jail till the next term - three months - and being afraid of the mob let his trial go over, and lay in jail six months more. He was rich, and had big lawyers come up from St. Louis, but it was no use, and we would have sent him to state prison had it not been that the law read, "to return to slavery." He had inveigled and attempted to kidnap, but there were not able to prove that he did it to return him to slavery.

"Well, when the United States senate met, Senator Benton introduced a fugitive slave bill with a speech in which his wonderful faculty for invective was turned upon Michigan. The history of the case he recited and charged Michigan (pdf) with being the resort of a nigger mob. Gen. Cass, United States senator from Michigan, then replied; and defended the state and its colored citizens in a way that set our hearts beating with joy.

But afterwards, when we thought we had him ready to swallow, and came to him to lead the petition to the state legislature to strike out the distinctive words "white and colored" in the state laws and constitution, he evaded us. So we went in to defeat his presidential aspirations, and we did. That is the story of the inception of the fugitive slave law.

"Well, our work went forward here just thirty-three years. It was a great one, and I am satisfied with my share of it. I have told more of it to you than I ever did to any one before. Indeed, I am quite hoarse with talking."

The old gentleman rose, indicating thereby that he had talked himself out for one sitting, and, giving me a courteous good night, added that, some other day, he would like to tell about the Bulwer-Clayton Treaty at length. F.H.P.

FIFTY YEARS A DETROITER

WILLIAM LAMBERT, THE REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO OF THIS VICINITY

Fifty years ago last Wednesday William Lambert, the veteran negro citizen of Detroit, reached this city to remain here permanently. He had been here three years before, but he remained but a few weeks. His first visit to Detroit was as cabin boy on a steamboat. Mr. Lambert was born free at Trenton, N.J., his father having been a slave who had bought his own freedom. In those days all negro children who received education in the common school branches, received it at the hands of Quakers and other philanthropic white people, and young Lambert was one who was so favored. After the historical Watt Tyler massacre the feeling against all people having African blood in their veins was so strong that it was very uncomfortable for them to live in counties bordering the southern states and so many of them moved into Canada.

Young Lambert, about this time, accepted an invitation to accompany his schoolmaster, also a negro, on a visit to Canada. Reaching Buffalo, the teacher changed his mind and left the boy at that city while he took a run over to Toronto. The boy passed his leisure by haunting the wharves, and when the teacher returned to Buffalo he learned that Will Lambert had shipped aboard a steamboat. Upon reaching Detroit Lambert had had enough of sailing and so stopped off. He had no shoes or stockings, no coat and no hat, but he had a good constitution and could read, write and cipher quite well. More than that he had energy, self-confidence and ambition.

Three years after reaching Detroit to remain here permanently, he was the secretary of the first state convention of colored citizens of Michigan ever held and the following winter he made an able argument before the judiciary committee of the State Legislature in support of a resolution - adopted at the convention named - and of a petition signed by Judge Wilkens and forty other leading citizens of Michigan asking that the word "white" be stricken from the State Consitution.

From that time to the time of John Brown he was an indefatigable worker in the cause of anti-slavery and it was at his house in this city that many meetings were held by John Brown and his followers, Mr. Lambert being one of them. The subject of this sketch, now over 70 years old, is full of thrilling reminiscences of the underground railway, and reels them off with great gusto. He is also well to do in a worldly sense, a member of the Episcopal Church, of many years standing, and one of the wardens of the St. Mathew's Church. A thorough believer in the inherent abilities of the negro race, he does not air his views except upon invitation, and then he argues clearly, forcibly and fairly, and greatly to the credit of that race of which he is so marked and able a representative.

Detroit Tribune, May 1, 1890.

Detroit Free Press, April 29, 1890

TOOK HIS LIFE

WILLIAM LAMBERT, THE WELL-KNOWN COLORED CITIZEN, COMMITS SUICIDE.

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE DECEASED, WHO HAD LIVED HERE FIFTY-TWO YEARS

About 4:30 yesterday morning the dead body of the venerable William Lambert, Detroit's most prominent and distinguished colored citizen, was found hanging by a clothes line suspended from a rafter in the woodshed in the rear of his cozy home, 497 Larned street east. Sunday morning and evening Mr. Lambert attended service at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, of which he was a warden and prominent member, returning the evening about 9 o'clock. His wife soon retired for the night, but Mr. Lambert, in pursuance of a custom that he has observed for some time, sat down in a favorite rocking chair near a base-burner stove, in the family sitting-room, and alternately dosed and meditated. When his son, Cromwell, returned home about 11 o'clock his father was in his accustomed place by the stove, and the young man supposing that he would soon go to bed, went on upstairs to his own room.

At 4 o'clock yesterday morning Mrs. Lambert awoke, and discovering that her husband was not in the room, immediately aroused her sons, Cromwell and Benjamin, who made a careful search of the premises, with the startling result before stated. Benjamin, who first found his father hanging in the shed, at once cut the body down and sent for Dr. Lyster, who soon responded. The physician soon satisfied himself that there was no possible hope of resuscitating Mr. Lambert, as life had apparently been extinct for two or three hours at least. Coroner Brown was summoned and viewed the remains.

For the last three months the members of Mr. Lambert's family have observed with much concern that a change was gradually coming over him. He seemed to be losing his mental grasp, and developed a well-defined tendency to wander almost dazed, and it ws with considerable difficulty that he could be made to appreciate his surroundings. Dr. Eaton, who was consulted, said that he had incipient softening of the brain, and ought not to be permitted to be left alone at all. About two months ago he left the house in the night and was found early the next morning at his place of business, 273 Jefferson avenue. The probabilities are that while sitting by the fire Sunday night, he became unusually despondent, and the impulse to take his own life became so strong he could not resist it. The clothes line with which the suicidal act was consummated was doubled four times around Mr. Lambert's neck, and from the position in which he was found, it is believed that he stood on the partition of a coal bin until he had fastened the line to the ring in the rafter, and then jumped off.

William Lambert was well and favorably known in Detroit, where he has resided fifty-two years. He was born in Trenton, N.J., a little more than seventy-one years ago. At an early age he was taken in hand by a schoolmaster named Abner Francis, under whose tutelage he received a good education. In 1832 young Lambert accompanied Mr. Francis as far west as Buffalo, where they separated. Lambert shipping as a cabin boy on a vessel. During that season he made his first visit to Detroit. He returned east after a brief experience on the lakes, and remained there until 1838, when he took up his permanent residence in Detroit. He opened a small tailor shop at the corner of Brush and Larned and there carried on business in a modest, unpretentious way for a number of years. Subsequently he moved to 273 Jefferson avenue, where he has since remained.

During the operation of the fugitive slave law Mr. Lambert was one of the principal conductors of the underground railway, and through his efforts many a poor, despairing, hunted slave was helped across the border into Canada. He was a conspicuous figure in the Chatham convention that met in May, 1858, where John Brown and a score or so of the faithful met in conference. About that time Fred Douglass lectured in Detroit, and a meeting was held here at which that distinguished orator, Elder Monroe, George DeBaptiste, Isaac [ ], and Mr. Lambert were prominent figures. At these conferences Brown advanced his ideas and presented his plans, which were opposed by Douglass, but approved of by Lambert. At the Chatham conference a provisional constitution for the United States and a declaration of independence that John Brown had prepared, were adopted. The chief end aimed at in this constitution was the emancipation of all slaves, dissolution of the union was not asked for, nor anything subversive of good government advocated.

Mr. Lambert was elected treasurer of the league of liberty that came into existence after the convention adjourned, and in that capacity did much good work. Mr. Lambert was a man of wide information, a student all his life, and possessed the faculty of expressing his ideas and opinions with more than ordinary felicity. He was a contributor for several years to the Voice of the Fugitive, a Canadian publication that did notable service in behalf of the colored race. In this community Mr. Lambert has always held the friendship and respect of the very best people, who saw in him much to honor and esteem. He was an excellent and exemplary citizen in all the walks of life, and his demise will have the best and kindest thoughts of all. All day yesterday his late residence was thronged with friends and acquaintances, who called to tender their sympathies and condolence to the stricken family. Mr. Lambert had accumulated a handsome property, which is estimated at about $75,000. He was a Mason and Odd Fellow of high standing. He is survived by a widow and six children. His oldest son, Touissant, is a letter-carrier; another son is a resident of New Orleans, while his remaining sons, Cromwell and Benjamin W., have been associated with him in business. One daughter, Miss Ella, lives at home, the other is Mrs. Samuel Williams, of this city. The time of the funeral has not yet been definitely fixed.

[send-up-my-heart-to-you]

who's your favorite member of any royal family?

now why on earth would i like any person from a royal famil—

ladies and gentlemen, stand up before king faisal bin abdulaziz bin abdulrahman al saud, the ruler of the kingdom of saudi arabia from 1964 until his assassination in 1975

in this man’s time in the royal family, he singlehandedly:

issued a decree that abolished slavery

demanded that saudi princes had to be schooled inside the country, not outside (he didn’t like how white-washed and bootlicking some certain middle easter rulers were)

is the reason that saudi’s oil revenue is still high TO THIS DAY

speaking of oil, he heard that america was backing israel in 1973 in the yom kippur war, so he placed a total embargo on oil shipments, leading to the 1973 oil crisis that affected nations worldwide. america threatened to bomb saudi’s oil fields and he basically said “idfc do it lol” (the exact quote is below)

i cannot emphasize how much this guy was an anti-zionist. he loved palestine sm and he hated israel sm. he visited al-aqsa mosque while he was king and constantly spat out bangers slamming israel

emphasized equal opportunity education for men and women

established the first regular government school for girls

also made textbooks free for everyone + made sure that special provisions were made to support families who couldnt afford to educate their kids (saudi was piss poor at the time ok)

made significant investments in healthcare

and so much more omg i could go on and on about how patriotic this man makes me feel (i’m not even saudi)

here’s some cool stuff he’s said:

I beg of you, brothers, to look upon me as both brother and servant. 'Majesty' is reserved to God alone and 'The Throne' is the throne of the Heavens and Earth

– shortly after becoming king. this’ll interest muslims more than the average tumblr user, i think

But today the Arabs wish to repel the aggression of a political minority group, namely, the Zionists. It is a group which does not represent world Jewry. It is a group which is more political than religious, a group whose ways and methods are not different from those of the Nazis.

– MODERN ARAB LEADERS COULD NEVERR

You are the ones who cant live without oil. We come from the desert, our ancestors lived on dates and milk, we can easily go back and live like that again.

– his response to the usa’s threats to bomb saudi’s oil fields after he caused the 1973 oil crisis

If I were not a king, I would be a teacher.

– dying from the respect i have for this man

We consider the issue of Palestine our cause and the first Arab cause, and Palestine is more valuable to us than oil. Oil can be used as a weapon in battle if necessary. The Palestinian people must return to their homeland, even if it costs us all our lives.

– he’d be so disappointed if he saw what has come of his brother and his nephew omg

anyways yea this guy is my idol if every ruler was like him the world would be heaven dmdksoskxkx

[rustingways]

I don't think Armand wants to be in charge. I think he knows what happens when you aren't in charge (rape, brutalizations, becoming a slave again) and he knows that all his abuse and torture when he was groomed into being the coven leader would all be for naught. Ripping Riccardo into pieces, the starvation, watching all his brothers being burned: all of that would be for nothing is he let up and gave Santiago the reigns.

But Louis doesn't understand because, despite not being privileged himself as a black man in America, he's still privileged as a rich, affluent black man in a way average black folks just aren't. It's almost laughable how much Louis doesn't understand slavery and being someone's personal lap dog despite spending his adult years living on the edge of that life style. He was never brutalized or raped due to what he was born as. He was exluded, and humilated from white folks, but Europe doesn't work that way and he doesn't seem to understand that (even pertaining to claudia).

Context: so uhhhhhh I was pretty on the fence about replying to this cause I’m ngl it feels real dicey but here goes—skip to the last paragraph for my response about Louis specifically

I was basically saying that Armand hates being in charge of a coven but needs to feel in control of a situation to feel safe because he’s made of trauma. Giving the reigns to Santiago doesn’t only feel like it’s gonna be a disaster, it feels inherently unsafe.

But I don’t really agree that he’s hanging on to whatever torture he suffered at the hands of the Children of Darkness (as we don’t know specifics yet for show Armand) as justification for being the coven leader. For one, the Children of Darkness are gone. While there’s some crossover in membership with the theater, and the core rules are (probably) the same, the theater is a very different entity than the original coven. Imo, Armand’s inflexibility stems from fear. He can’t move on by himself; he needs a tether. He knew the Paris coven was crumbling, he tries to latch on to Lestat. That doesn’t work, so he latches on to the theater. Claudia (correctly) calls out all the members of the theater turning inward which is why he’s trying to move on to Louis. He tries to latch on to Louis, but then he’s so scared of being hurt he picks the theater instead. Armand needs something to devote himself to because it’s through devotion that he endures.

Something I will NOT be doing on my blog is speculating how much a Black man in the 1900s American South may or may not understand slavery, holy shit. But calling the racism Louis experienced “exclusion and humiliation” feels criminally reductive, regardless of his access to wealth and education. The first anti-lynching law in America was signed in, uh, 2022. Louis’ entire life would’ve been perpetuated by the threat of violence and brutality, not just on an interpersonal level but an institutional level as well. I’m not going to try and compare Louis and Armand’s traumas. I’m also not going to try and dissect how racism works in Europe vs America. I don’t personally experience anti-Black racism. I am not qualified to speak on it. There are better, smarter, and more knowledgeable bloggers around who are talking about race and racism, and its portrayal and presence in the show. But like… saying Louis didn’t experience violence for how he was born feels like a gross understatement of his experience at best.

[alpaca-clouds]

Let's talk about the whole "natural order" thing

Something I have realized is that a ton of people are not quite aware of the context of the one idea that the bad guys within Castlevania: Nocturne keep bringing up again and again: The natural order.

If you watch the show you will find that no episode goes by without a bad guy bringing up that idea every other scene, so let this history nerd quickly explain that concept.

So, this entire idea came from two sources: Enlightenment, and the pre-capitalist, colonialist system.

You need to understand that from the 4th century till the 16th century usually most stuff got explained to people with "because it is God's will". Why is that person poor, and that person rich? Because it is God's will. Why is that guy the king? Because God had made him. Why do we have this war? Because God wants us to.

That does not mean that the people in power actually believed that, but they could get away with everything by having some arch bishop or even the pope agree with them. (I mean, just look at the crusades.)

But then things happened. Gutenberg invented the printing press. Folks read the bible for themselves. People started to get more literate in general. Information about science got wider spread. There was splintering within the church. And people were just not as willing to accept "because God" anymore.

At the same time we had just as bad (if not at times worse) differences in quality of life between rich and poor than in the middle ages. And of course we had the entire colonialism happening, that also included genocide and slavery. And this needed justification. Que: The natural order.

This was just the umbrella under which so much pseudo-science would pressed underneath at the time. A pseudo-scientific explanation for everything that was happening.

Why are some people richer than other? Because they are just naturally more suited to be rich. That is the natural order.

Why do we have a king? Because it is a human need to have one central leader. And that family were always kings. It simply is the natural order of things.

Why do we subjugate the people in America? Because it is just natural for advanced civilizations to subjugate other civilizations. It is actually good for them. It is the natural order.

Why do we enslave Black people? Because they were actually born to be servants. That is their natural state. It is the natural order.

The entire stuff with phrenology and eugenics and all of that came from this specific idea. Of a natural order. Like, racism and all that came from that. Manifest destiny. All of that was connected to this idea of a natural order.

Ironically, while this sprang from the need to take the religion out of the stuff, they then just fitted religion right back in. Making the "church being excempt from everything" also as part of "natural order".

And yes, this is still very much the idea that a lot of conservatism is build around. That there is this pseudo-scientific idea of "this has proofen to work this way before, so it should work like that forever, that is only natural".

Funnily enough those new atheist scientist dudes also LOVE to appeal to the natural order. At times literally. Because they are also really big at conservatism when it comes to women, and keeping cultures apart, and anti-queerness and all of that. And yes, they are gonna appeal to the natural order and it being natural. Somethin that has only been brought up and seen critically recently.

But of course religious conservatives also love to use that, too. Because not all of them have the guts to just keep saying "but God" to defend their position (and sometimes they even know that their stuff directly contradicts the bible). And then they will also go: "But it is natural!"

It is a shitty idea. That is where it came from. It was what a lot of people used to argue against a lot of change that was happening in the 18th and 19th century.

[beardedmrbean]

NPR has suspended Uri Berliner, the senior editor who published a bombshell essay a week ago that claimed that the publicly funded outlet has “lost America’s trust” by approaching news stories with a left-wing bias.

NPR media writer David Folkenflik revealed on Tuesday that Berliner beginning on Friday was suspended for five days without pay. Folkenflik, who reviewed a copy of the letter from NPR brass, said the company told the editor he had failed to secure its approval for outside work for other news outlets — a requirement for NPR journalists.

NPR called the letter a “final warning,” saying Berliner would be fired if he violated NPR’s policy again.

Neither NPR nor Berliner immediately responded to requests for comment.

Berliner is a dues-paying member of NPR’s newsroom union, but Folkenflik reported that the editor is not appealing the punishment.

Berliner, a Peabody Award-winning journalist who has worked at NPR for 25 years, called out journalistic blind spots around major news events, including the origins of COVID-19, the war in Gaza and the Hunter Biden laptop, in an essay published Tuesday on Bari Weiss’ online news site the Free Press.

The fallout from the essay sparked outrage from many of his colleagues. Late Monday afternoon, NPR chief news executive Edith Chapin announced to the newsroom that executive editor Eva Rodriguez would lead monthly meetings to review coverage.

The fiasco also ignited a firestorm of criticism from prominent conservatives — with former President Donald Trump demanding NPR’s federal funding be yanked — and has led to internal tumult, the New York Times reported Friday.

NPR’s new chief executive Katherine Maher defended NPR’s journalism, calling Berliner’s article “profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning,” The 42-year-old exec added that the essay amounted to “a criticism of our people on the basis of who we are.”

Folkenflik said Berliner took umbrage at that, saying she had “denigrated him.” Berliner said he supported diversifying NPR’s workforce to look more like the US population at large. Maher did not address that in a subsequent private exchange he shared with Folkenflik for the story.

The fiasco soon put the spotlight on Maher, whose own left-leaning bias came to light in a trove of woke, anti-Trump tweets she penned.

In January, when Maher was announced as NPR’s new leader, The Post revealed her penchant for parroting the progressive line on social media — including bluntly biased Twitter posts like “Donald Trump is a racist,” which she wrote in 2018.

That hyper-partisan message was scrubbed from the platform now known as X, but preserved on the site Archive.Today.

It’s unclear when Maher deleted it, or if its removal was tied to her new gig.

Other woke posts remain on Maher’s X account. In 2020, as the George Floyd riots raged, she attempted to justify the looting epidemic in Los Angeles as payback for the sins of slavery.

“I mean, sure, looting is counterproductive,” Maher wrote on May 31, 2020.

“But it’s hard to be mad about protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression founded on treating people’s ancestors as private property.”

The next day, she lectured her 27,000 followers on “white silence.”

“White silence is complicity,” she scolded. “If you are white, today is the day to start a conversation in your community.”

The NPR job is Maher’s first position in journalism or media.

She was previously the CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, the San Francisco-based nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia, after holding communications roles for the likes of HSBC, UNICEF and the World Bank.

Maher earned a bachelor’s degree in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies from New York University, according to her LinkedIn account, and grew up in Wilton, Conn. — a town that her mother, Ceci Maher, now represents as a Democratic state senator.

[justforbooks]

The actor Lou Gossett Jr, who has died aged 87, is best known for his performance in An Officer and A Gentleman (1982) as Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley, whose tough training transforms recruit Richard Gere into the man of the film’s title. He was the first black winner of an Academy Award for best supporting actor, and only the third black actor (after Hattie McDaniel and Sidney Poitier) to take home any Oscar.

The director, Taylor Hackford, said he cast Gossett in a role written for a white actor, following a familiar Hollywood trope played by John Wayne, Burt Lancaster, Victor McLaglen or R Lee Ermey, because while researching he realised the tension of “black enlisted men having make-or-break control over whether white college graduates would become officers”. Gossett had already won an Emmy award playing a different sort of mentor, the slave Fiddler who teaches Kunta Kinte the ropes in Roots (1977), but he was still a relatively unknown 46-year-old when he got his breakthrough role, despite a long history of success on stage and in music as well as on screen.

Born in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, Louis was the son of Helen (nee Wray), a nurse, and Louis Sr, a porter. As a child he suffered from polio, but became a high school athlete before a basketball injury led to his joining the drama club. His teacher encouraged him to audition professionally, and at 17 he was on Broadway playing a troubled child in Take a Giant Step, which won him a Donaldson award for best newcomer.

He won a drama scholarship to New York University, but continued working, in The Desk Set (1955), and made his television debut in two episodes of the NBC anthology show The Big Story. In 1959 he was cast with Poitier and Ruby Dee in Raisin in the Sun, and made his film debut reprising his role in 1961. On Broadway that year he played in Jean Genet’s The Blacks, in an all-star cast with James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson, Roscoe Lee Brown, Godfrey Cambridge and a young Maya Angelou; it was the decade’s longest-running show.

Gossett was also active in the Greenwich Village folk music scene. He released his first single Hooka Dooka, Green Green in 1964, followed by See See Rider, and co-wrote the anti-war hit Handsome Johnny with Richie Havens. In 1967 he released another single, a drums and horns version of Pete Seeger’s anti-war hymn Where Have All the Flowers Gone. He was in the gospel musical Tambourines to Glory (1963) and in producer Mike Todd’s America, Be Seated at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

His plays became more limited: The Zulu and the Zayda and My Sweet Charlie; the very short run of Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights, in which he played a black man owning a white slave; and a revival of Golden Boy (1964), with Sammy Davis Jr. His final Broadway part was as the murdered Congolese leader Patrice Lamumba, in Conor Cruise O’Brien’s Murderous Angels (1971). Gossett had played roles in New York-set TV series such as The Naked City, but he began to make a mark in Hollywood, despite LAPD officers having handcuffed him to a tree, on “suspicion”, in 1966.

On TV he starred in The Young Rebels (1970-71) set in the American revolution. In film, he was good as a desperate tenant in Hal Ashby’s Landlord (1970) and brilliant with James Garner in Skin Game (1971), taking part in a con trick in which Garner sells him repeatedly into slavery then helps him to escape.

In 1977, alongside Roots, he attracted attention as a memorable villain in Peter Yates’s hit The Deep, and got artistic revenge on the LAPD in Robert Aldrich’s The Choirboys. The TV movie of The Lazarus Syndrome (1979) became a series in which Gossett played a realistic hospital chief of staff set against an idealistic younger doctor. He played the black baseball star Satchel Paige in the TV movie Don’t Look Back (1981); years later he had a small part as another Negro League star, Cool Papa Bell, in The Perfect Game (2009).

After his Oscar, he played another assassinated African leader, in the TV mini-series Sadat, reportedly approved for the role by Anwar Sadat’s widow Jihan. Though he remained a busy working actor, good starring roles in major productions eluded him, as producers fell back on his drill sergeant image. He was Colonel “Chappy” Sinclair in Iron Eagle (1986) and its three dismal sequels.

But in 1989 he starred in Dick Wolf’s TV series Gideon Oliver, as an anthropology professor solving crimes in New York. And he won a best supporting actor Golden Globe for his role in the TV movie The Josephine Baker Story (1991). He revisited the stage in the film adaptation of Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class (1994).

Gossett twice received the NAACP’s Image Award, and another Emmy for producing a children’s special, In His Father’s Shoes (1997). In 2006 he founded the Eracism Foundation, providing programmes to foster “cultural diversity, historical enrichment and anti-violence initiatives”. Despite an illness eventually linked to toxic mould in his Santa Monica home, he kept working with a recurring part in Stargate SG-1 (2005-06). A diagnosis of prostate cancer in 2010 hardly slowed him down.

Most recently, he played Will “Hooded Justice” Reeves in the TV series Watchmen (2019), in the series Kingdom Business, about the gospel music industry, and in the 2023 musical remake of The Color Purple.

His first marriage, to Hattie Glascoe, in 1967, was annulled after five months; his second, to Christina Mangosing, lasted for two years from 1973; and his third, to Cyndi (Cynthia) James, from 1987 to 1992. He is survived by two sons, Satie, from his second marriage, and Sharron, from his third.

🔔 Louis Cameron Gossett Jr, actor, born 27 May 1936; died 28 March 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[3rdeyeblaque]

Today we venerate Elevated Ancestor El-Hajj Malik El-Shabaz aka Brother Malcolm "X" Little on his 98th birthday 🎉

A minister, scholar, orator, & legendary Freedom Fighter- who infamously bore the name "X" to signify our self-liberation from the shackles of a European legacy forced upon us during Slavery -, we elevate Brother Malcolm as one of THE most prolific voices of freedom, justice, self-determination, & Pan-Afrikan unity in modern history.

Born into a legacy of freedom fighters, Brother Malcolm was raised on the cusp between Black Nationalism unity & White Supremacist terror. His father was a member of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), in which he served as an orator publicly advocating for Black liberation before his murder.

Though a gifted student, Malcolm dropped out of school when a teacher ridiculed his aspirations to become a lawyer. He later drifted into a life of hustling on the streets of Harlem. He cleverly avoided the draft in WWII by making the outrageous declaration that he'd organize Black soldiers to attack their White counterparts which classified him as "mentally unfit to serve". After his burglary arrest in Boston, Malcolm faced 10 years in prison. Here, he found Islam via the NOI.

Upon his parole release, Malcolm took the name "X" as he began to serve in the NOI as a speaker, organizer, and minister. He quickly grew in his prominence & drew national attention after an expose on the NOI was aired on CBS. Both, Black & White Americans, saw the stark contrast in his/NOI views from that of other Black religious leaders/organizations of the time. Thus planting the first seeds of warped perception & fear.

Meanwhile, Brother Malcolm's personal views & interests slowly began to split from the leaders of the organization he'd come to love. Malcolm grew increasingly frustrated with the NOI's bureaucracy & outright refusal to join the Civil Rights Movement. His forbidden response to the assassination of JFK earned him a 90 suspension from the NOI; at which time he announced his departure from the organization.

In March 1964, he founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. Three months later, he founded a political group called, the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). Malcolm firmly placed Black Revolution in a global context of an anti-imperialist struggle here, in Afrika, Latin America, & Asia. This is what set him & his work further apart from any Black leader & organization in the U.S. at the time. And this is what sparked the breadth of his influence & mapped out the future of his work.

Brother Malcolm toured North & East Afrika as well as the Middle East Region in the late Spring of 1964. He met with heads of state from several countries (i.e.: Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria) before making his hajj to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Here, he added "El-Hajj" to his Muslim name, "Malik El-Shabazz". This journey into the Motherland & Self brought Malcolm to the realization that his revolutionary vision/influence superceded any colour line.

Once he returned to the U.S, he infamously declared Pan-African unity amid struggle for freedom “by any means necessary.” This marked a turning point in Malcolm's life & revolutionary fight against White Supremacy on a global scale. He spent 6, albeit unsuccessful, months in Afrika petitioning the U.N. to investigate the Human Rights violations of Black Americans by the U.S. Government. From then on, threats to his safety and that of his family & the OUAA mounted. Still, he continued the fight until his assassination that was ultimately orchestrated & carried out by the CIA.

"If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary" - Malcolm X

Today, Brother Malcolm rests alongside his wife at the Ferncliff Cemetery in upstate NY.

We pour libations & give him💐 today as we celebrate him for his incomparable leadership, love, commitment, & sacrifice for the socioeconomic & sociopolitical freedom of our people.

Offering suggestions: libations of water, read/share his work, & prayers from the Quran

Note: offering suggestions are just that & strictly for veneration purposes only. Never attempt to conjure up any spirit or entity without proper divination/Mediumship counsel.

[eretzyisrael]

by Benjamin Baird

After a lengthy search, Brown's office announced the new members of the Commission on Hate Crimes on July 31. Nassar, who was picked to replace Chaudry and represent the Muslim American community, is described as "the CEO of the Islamic Leadership Institute, where he works with youth to help them be the leaders of tomorrow ... ."

An FBI "Most Wanted Terrorist," Siddiqui was arrested in Afghanistan in 2008 with bomb-making materials and plans to attack U.S. targets on behalf of Al-Qaeda. Under questioning by U.S. authorities, she managed to get her hands on a rifle and shoot at her interrogators. Nassar's group alleges that her prosecution was all part of a grand Zionist plot, joining ISIS, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in bargaining for her release.

The official Aafia Foundation Facebook page is filled with pro-Hamas screeds and includes statements glorifying the Taliban and deploring the killing of Al-Qaeda terrorists. The terrorist support group also advocates for Hamas operatives and is close to convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad member Sami Al-Arian.

Furthermore, the Islamic Leadership Institute (ILI) that Nassar founded for youth engagement has also faced recent allegations of extremism. Lecturing at a local mosque, ILI instructor Mahmoud Abdel-Hady called Hamas's Oct. 7 attacks a "great victory" and promised that Muslims "will be the ones in control" and "have the final say" around the world due to their expanding population.

This is not merely a case of guilt by association. Nassar's own social-media history shows that he adheres to the same radical antisemitic views that cost his predecessor her seat on the commission. His favorite platform for spreading these hateful opinions is the professional networking website LinkedIn; his profile page is teeming with examples.

First, Nassar echoes antisemitic tropes that have been used to justify violence against Jews. Referring to the Israeli military arrest of a Palestinian youth, Nassar reflected: "Same kidnappings that happened to Africans, [the] only difference [is that] Africans were taken as slaves; Palestinians are taken as body organ donors then murdered."

In a May LinkedIn post, he insisted that the Gazan floating pier used to bring humanitarian aid to Palestinians was built with the "rubble & body parts of the natives" or collected from bombed civilian infrastructure in Gaza that contained human remains. He also referred to Israel as "the colonized portion" of Palestine or the "apartheid land," and shared posts calling the war in Gaza a "Holocaust" and "genocide."

Nassar reserves equal animus for the United States, especially regarding its support for Israel. "If you are working in America, every day two hours of your 8-hour workday is dedicated to murdering children and creating chaos across the globe," he wrote.

His hatred extends to the gay community. In a June rant, he compared how "the white race was able to justify slavery 200 years ago," with how "special interests [were] able to justify homosexuality 20 years ago."

"Attorney General Brown's persistence in naming hate mongers to a commission whose very purpose is to combat hate is a travesty," said Jay Bernstein, a local pro-Israel activist who testified in support of an early version of HB763.

[ptseti]

KAMALA HARRIS NOT FOR REPARATIONS

US President Joe Biden appears to have heeded calls from fellow Democratic Party members to withdraw from the 2024 US presidential race, ending his re-election bid on 21 July.

This follows his debate performance on 27 June, which fuelled some Democrats’ worry about Biden’s ability to defeat former President Donald Trump. Public opinion polls released over more than a year have shown Biden faring poorly against Trump.

He has endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, whom reports say is the only other Democrat who could access $91 million in Biden-Harris campaign donations.

Since the announcement, Harris has secured the backing of several Democratic Party bigwigs. However, beloved figures like former President Barack Obama held off on endorsing Harris. The Democratic Party will hold its nominating convention in August in Chicago. Still, it remains unclear how the party will democratically choose a nominee, with state primaries ending in June.

The mainstream media has touted Harris’s identity as a mixed Indian and Black woman as why her candidacy is notable, showcasing her as a champion of Black people.

However, in this 2020 interview with theGrio senior correspondent Natasha Alford (@NatashaSAlford on IG, X and TikTok), Harris made it clear that she does not support calls for paying reparations to Black people who are descendants of enslaved people in the United States. Meanwhile, a Reuters/Ipsos poll in 2023 revealed that at least 74 per cent of Black people support reparations.

That position, as well as her record imprisoning Black people as California’s attorney general, has raised questions about her loyalty.

Like Biden, Harris fares poorly in polls against Trump.

Video credit: @theGrio (YouTube)

BUT someone made this comment :

It does a disservice to voters who are in the election of a lifetime to share this clip without the full context or a balanced analysis of her civil rights record. VP Harris has endorsed HR 40, a bill for a reparations commission (along with an anti-lynching bill, Black maternal mortality initiatives and more). She has given nuanced and slightly different answers on the reparations issue with various outlets over the years, each revealing how her thinking has shifted- as most politicians do. This won’t be satisfactory to some people, and everyone is entitled to their opinions about the way she answered the question in 2020. But that was FOUR years ago. The Trump administration does not support reparations, let alone DEI. Civil rights for Black Americans are being rolled back before our eyes. The choice between Trump and Harris is day and night. Let’s advance the conversation further so people understand what is at stake right now.

MY RESPONSE TO HER COMMENTS:

I completely get where you're coming from—this is the first time I've actually sat through all her comments on the issue. The REALITY is that none of our so-called leaders have a clue how to tackle this. Sure, they back it as a right to right a wrong, but not one of them has seriously put in the work to make the reparations issue coherent. And let's be honest, all those "leaders" are too scared to even whisper about it to their colonial overlords. So she's just doing what they all do best—DANCE around the question. Until we, as Black people, UNITE and form a global commission with representatives from the Caribbean, Latin and North America, and Europe to sit down, analyze, and figure out what and how much reparations are due, all this talk is nothing more than post-slavery freedom of speech.

[girlactionfigure]

7 reasons why the Palestinian crisis & the Black struggle for freedom are absolutely nothing alike

The “parallels” between the Palestinian plight and that of African-Americans have been made for decades, and this has always been spurious. Sadly, the exercise continues and seems to be growing as anti-Israel sentiment including global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) inexplicably gain credibility.

1. UNRWA

Beginning operations on May 1, 1950, the United Nations Relief Works Agency for the Palestinian people is the only UN relief agency that exists exclusively for one group — the Palestinians. At the time of its founding, there were some 720,000 Palestinian refugees. Many of these people became refugees after refusing the offer to become Israeli citizens and choosing to await the great victory over the Jews promised to them by the leaders of the Arab states.

Black Americans from slavery to Jim Crow to the civil rights era never had anything that vaguely resembled UNRWA or any type of international relief agency. We were also unsuccessful at being declared refugees — which surely would have led to reparations for 400 years of forced servitude.

2. INTERNATIONAL AID

The Palestinian Authority (formerly the Palestinian Liberation Organization – PLO) receives about $1 billion annually. This money comes primarily from American and European taxpayers. The money is supposed to go to relieve the suffering of the Palestinian people which, as Dr. King said in 1968, “are part of that third world of hunger, of disease, of illiteracy.” Unfortunately, much of that aid goes to political and racial propaganda and programming, as Palestinian children are fed a constant diet of anti-Semitism and hatred for Israel. From curriculum to suicide bomber camps, Palestinian children are taught to hate Israel and the West — on our dime.

Black Americans received no international aid during centuries of slavery and Jim Crow segregation. Neither did we receive domestic aid.  The very term “forty acres and a mule” (what the US  government promised former Black slaves, but didn’t deliver) became code for, “what we never got.” Money to help fund our quest for freedom came almost exclusively from private donors including Black businesses and families, White abolitionists, churches, synagogues, and other Jewish organizations and individuals.

3. ARAB STATES (Arab League)

In the Middle Eastern region alone there are multiple Arab homelands including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and oil-rich Saudi Arabia. They were the dominant force in the Middle East when Israel was reestablished in 1947-48, and used their combined military might to attempt to crush the nascent Jewish State. They failed. Now, not only will these states not take in the Palestinians who have been given official refugee status for three generations, these nations also have a horrible record of human rights abuses against their Arab-Palestinian brothers. They will not allow them to live as citizens, enroll in school, buy property, or even repair their dilapidated dwellings. Palestinian refugees are being killed in Syria while you read this.

Black Americans had no Black nations to which we could turn for help or shelter. While we were enslaved in America, our continent had been colonized by the Europeans. Further, all of North Africa is currently being occupied by Arabs, who stole it from our people. But that’s another list.

4. TERRORISM & TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS

Other than Nat Turner and a few rebellious slaves whom history has forgotten, Black victims of oppression never possessed the means to offer armed resistance to our oppressors during slavery. After slavery (and due to the legal right to purchase guns), Black Americans were able to arm themselves but had no access to rockets, rocket launchers, IEDs, or other explosives.

If Black Americans had been able to fight with weapons, you can be certain that blowing up our sons and daughters would not have been a strategic option. Ever. Under any circumstances.

5. PALESTINIAN ROCK THROWERS & INSTIGATORS

Pictures of Palestinians throwing rocks at, or dropping boulders on unsuspecting Jewish motorists are quite strange to informed Black Americans (my grandmother would have called those rock throwers ‘hoodlums’). During the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s our ‘weapon’ was non-violent resistance. This was by choice and by necessity, as we were vastly outnumbered and outgunned by the White majority. We could not imagine what would have happened to our young men had they stood at ambush on the roads of Montgomery, Alabama, or Jackson, Mississippi, and thrown rocks at White passers-by. We were lynched for simply breathing while Black.

6. UNHRC

The United Nations Human Rights Council has condemned Israel more than any other nation — combined. In fact, since 1975, over 40% of the UNHRC’s indictments have been against Israel. This imbalance is a result of the Arab states’ undue influence over the UNHRC, as they have worked in tandem with the enemies of the US to discredit and delegitimize the Jewish State. The UNHRC is a large part of the reason that even the casual follower of world events may view Israel in a negative light.

Not only did Black Americans ever have something like a League of Nations to condemn our enemies, the UNHRC further insults us by largely ignoring the suffering of African people in places like Sudan, Eritrea or Congo; or Egypt/Sinai where African slavery and organ harvesting is taking place. This disparity prompted former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Anan to comment, “Since the beginning of their work, [the UNHRC] has focused almost entirely on Israel and there are other crisis situations, like Sudan, where they have not been able to say a word.”

7. ARAB REPRESENTATION IN ISRAELI GOVERNMENT

Not only are there Arab members of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) and the Supreme Court, some of the individuals are actively working to destroy the Jewish State. They are very vocal anti-Zionists, and their speech (as well as their legislative action) are all protected by Israeli law.

Black Americans did not become a part of the legislative system until after slavery during Reconstruction. We were exclusively Republican by default, as the Democrats were the party of slavery, Jim Crow, and the KKK. We never called for the destruction of America. We have a long, proud tradition of working within the American legal system to address violations of civil and human rights — for everyone. This process reached its zenith during the 1960s as Black leaders and lay people (led by Dr. King and other stalwarts) marched on Washington, D.C. demanding jobs, justice, and equal treatment under the Constitution. 400 years of hard work resulted in Black people helping to make America the greatest democracy on earth.

There are many more than seven reasons why the Black saga and the Palestinian plight should not be compared, but I believe sufficient point has been made.

Lastly, I do not spurn the Palestinian fight for self-determination.  Every fight for justice is a righteous struggle. I would just say that, what made the Black historic struggle effective was our remembering who our enemy was — and who it was not. In the interest of defending Palestinian human rights, one may want to start with the main perpetrators: The Palestinian Authority and Hamas. But again, that is the subject of another discussion.

[rabbitcruiser]

The International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

The International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade is honored on March 25. It was observed for the first time in 2008. The day honors and recalls the more than 15 million people who were brutalized for over 400 years as a result of a slave system. The Panamanian port city of Portobelo is a key entry site during the transatlantic slave trade for enslaved Africans who would then be transported to various locations if they survive the treacherous ocean voyages. Despite its abolition, slavery still exists today in various ways.

HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE OF THE VICTIMS OF SLAVERY AND THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

The transatlantic slave trade was the world’s largest forced migration and unquestionably one of the cruelest. Over 400 years, a massive exodus of Africans spread over the globe in a way that had never been seen before or recorded in human history. Between 1501 and 1830, a ratio of four to one African to European crossed the Atlantic, making the American population more of an extension of Africans than Europeans.

During the 16th century and up to the 19th century, approximately 15 to 20 million individuals were carried against their will from Africa to Central, South, North America, as well as Europe. The transatlantic slave trade was a profitable triangular commerce between Europe, the Americas, and West Africa. It provided the foundation for most of Britain’s prosperity. Slaves were traded as men, women, and children in various slave trading systems. During the travels, up to 2.4 million slaves died, with millions more dying soon after. Slaves were sold to serve as domestic servants, on plantations, mines, and rice fields.

Britain was the first country to establish legislation prohibiting the slave trade in 1807, and by 1815, the British had persuaded the Netherlands, Spain, France, and Portugal to follow suit. Slave trading was made illegal in the United States nearly five years later, in 1820, and was eventually abolished in 1865.

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE OF THE VICTIMS OF SLAVERY AND THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE TIMELINE

1619

Arrival on Virginia Shores

A Dutchman forces the first captives onto Virginia's shores.

1776

Signs of Segregation

Slaves, Africans, and African Americans are not included in the Declaration of Independence.

1865

Slavery is Abolished in America

Slavery is abolished in the United States.

1950s and 1960s

Anti-segregation March

Civil rights leaders lead anti-segregation marches across the country.

2013

Slavery in the 21st Century

Approximately 25 to 40 million people are still enslaved, the majority of these in Asia.

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE OF THE VICTIMS OF SLAVERY AND THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE FAQS

Who started enslaving Africans?

The Portuguese.

Is there a day for Anti-slavery?

There is, indeed. October 18 is Anti-Slavery Day.

Who created slavery?

Sumer or Sumeria is believed to be the birthplace of slavery.

HOW TO OBSERVE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE OF THE VICTIMS OF SLAVERY AND THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

Spread awareness: Make use of your platform and voice to raise awareness about the perils of racism and discrimination in today's world. Use the hashtag #rememberanceofvictimsoftransatlanticslavetrade to share posts and facts concerning racism.

Make donations: With a sad heart, we must also accept that, despite the abolition of slavery, it continues to exist in modern forms. You may donate or learn more about how to help victims of modern-day slavery by visiting the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery.

Visit the Ark of Return: Visit The Ark of Return, a permanent memorial honoring slavery and the transatlantic slave trade victims. The visible reminder that slavery's legacy, such as prejudice and inequality, continues to have an impact on us.

5 FACTS WORTH KNOWING ABOUT THE SLAVE TRADE

A long journey: Journeying from Africa to America took approximately seven weeks.

Beginning of the Atlantic slave trade: In the 1440s, the Atlantic slave trade began.

Slaves were used on plantations: Enslaved Africans were taken to Portugal or Atlantic islands like Madeira to labor in agriculture.

The first beneficiaries: The Portuguese were the first to embark on and make huge profits from the slave trade.

West Central Africa: About 40% of people taken into slavery were from West-Central Africa.

WHY INTERNATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE OF THE VICTIMS OF SLAVERY AND THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE IS IMPORTANT

It teaches us about a sad past: Learning about the dehumanizing treatments and effects of slavery will prompt us to action. The future can only be better if we learn from the mistakes of the past. This will lead to the wholeness and healing that the world so desperately needs.

It honors the victims of the slave trade: The event commemorates and pays respect to the millions of lives lost to slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. It also emphasizes the prevalence of modern-day slavery and the need to eradicate it.

It helps to promote awareness: Even though slavery has been abolished for over 400 years, its legacy lives on. This day brings attention to the events that occurred and how retribution can be carried out. It also raises awareness about the negative effects of racism and prejudice.

Source

[ausetkmt]

On this day in 1886: Black abolitionist shares Underground Railroad strategy ⋆ Michigan Advance

On Jan. 17, 1886, Black abolitionist William Lambert revealed that he was part of a secret order called, “African American Mysteries: Order of the Men of Oppression.”  He made the declaration in a Detroit Tribune newspaper article.

Lambert and others used codes, passwords and secret handshakes to help slaves gain freedom along the Underground Railroad, the Detroit tailor said. 

“These and other abolitionist efforts, by both groups and individuals, assisted thousands of fugitives on their travels on the Underground Railroad in Michigan,” according to the Detroit Historical Society.  William Lambert | Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library

The “railroad” was a multi-state network of men and women, Blacks and whites African American who offered shelter and aid to escaped enslaved people from Southern states like Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, ending slavery in America. 

Born in Trenton, N.J, Lambert was 21 when he arrived in Detroit in 1838. As a leader in the Underground Railroad movement, Lambert assisted in the escapes of Thornton and Rutha Blackburn in 1833. They were slaves from Kentucky.

In 1837, Lambert helped to form the Detroit Anti-Slavery Society. It included prominent Black abolitionists Robert Banks, and Madison Lightfoot as well as prominent whites Edwin Cowles, Robert Steward and Shubael Conant.

In 1840, Lambert addressed the Michigan Legislature and challenged the body to amend the state constitution to allow for African Americans to be given full citizenship. 

Three years later, Lambert also participated in a two-day Negro Suffrage Convention which was held at Second Baptist Church, Michigan’s first Black church congregation located in Detroit. There, 23 delegates discussed and planned a strategy to win voting rights and sustainable employment for African Americans.

A resolution adopted by the assembly read as follows:

“Whereas we find ourselves existing in this state, with no marks of criminality attached to our names as a class — no spots of disloyalty dishonoring our birthright; and whereas, we yet find ourselves the subjects and not the objects of legislation, because we are prevented from giving an assenting or opposing voice in the periodic appointments of those who rule us.”

Lambert died in 1890 at age 71.

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

CIA, Moonies Cooperate in Sandinista War

▲ Contras in Nicaragua

Washington Post page E-15 (and Indiana Gazette)

August 16, 1984 by Jack Anderson

In the Central American hinterlands, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish CIA operatives from the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s disciples. They appear to be working in harness against the communist-tainted Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.

This troubles at least one Pentagon analyst, now stationed in Korea, who has warned the White House that the CIA-Moonie connection could cause possible political damage to President Reagan’s re-election campaign.

The analyst’s unofficial memo, “Potential Problems,” has been slipped to my associate Donald Goldberg.

“Current Moonie involvement with government officials, contractors and grantees [in Central America] could create a major scandal,” the memo warns. “If their activities and role become public knowledge, it will unite both the left and the right in attacking the administration.”

The memo continues: “If efforts are not taken to stop their growing influence and weed out current Moonie involvement in government, the president stands a good chance of being portrayed in the media as a poor, naive incompetent who is strong on ideology and weak on common sense. …

“The likelihood of a reporter or a Democratic staff member piecing the total picture together is too great to be neglected. Any thought that this festering problem will go away if ignored is foolish.”

The “total picture” of Moon’s activities in Latin America is not clear. But there is no doubt that the Korean messiah – now in prison for income tax evasion [and document forgery and perjury] – has established a solid presence in the region, with ties to right-wing groups and U.S.-supported guerrillas.

My associate John Lee Anderson reports from Central America that CAUSA international, Moon’s political front, has representatives working in programs that help the CIA in its “contra” war against the Sandinista government.

CAUSA maintains a publicity office in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, but its principal activities are in the field. CAUSA provides cash and other aid to Honduran-based Nicaraguan contras and Honduran right-wing political groups. Many anti-Sandinista guerrillas wear red CAUSA T-shirts with a map of the world on them.

But CAUSA and its affiliate, the Refugee Relief Freedom Foundation, provide more than T-shirts to rebel groups. They also funnel supplies to refugee families in and near contra camps and pay for trips by rebel leaders to the United States.

One contra leader, Fernando “El Negro” Chamorro, told my associate that as early as 1981, CAUSA representatives sent him on an all-expenses paid trip to the United States to try to unify the Nicaraguan exile groups.

The airlift of supplies to the rebels by Moon’s Unification Church has escalated since congress cut off CIA funding for the contras. The administration has been attempting to “privatize” its war against the Sandinistas and is apparently willing to work with Moon’s people.

Footnote: A Unification Church official denied that the church is engaged in any but religious activities in Central America.

––––––––––––––––––––––––

“The UC is truly anti-Christian” and produces “a species of material and spiritual slavery.” Catholic Bishops in Honduras

Jorge Guldenzoph, deeply involved with CAUSA and Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church, given 10 years in jail for torturing

The Unification Church and the KCIA – ‘Privatizing’ covert action: the case of the UC

Sun Myung Moon organization activities in Central & South America

Introduction

‘Illegal Aliens Joining Moonies’ – The Pittsburg Press

Moon’s ‘Cause’ Takes Aim At Communism in the Americas – Washington Post

Moon in Latin America: Building the Bases of a World Organisation – Guardian

Guatemala

Nicaragua

Honduras

Costa Rica

Bolivia

Uruguay

Paraguay

Brazil

[kny111]

Could New York Lead In Movement For Reparations?

By Patricia Battle

In a Q&A with state Sen. Jabari Brisport, the lawmaker discusses establishing a commission that would explore reparations for Black New Yorkers.

CASNY: Your bill would establish a commission to consider how to implement reparations for slavery in New York state. What is your vision for the commission? Who will be on the commission, and what are the technicalities of it?

Sen. Jabari Brisport: So my vision for this commission is to engage in a robust statewide discussion on the harms of slavery and the ripple effects of slavery beyond in New York state. So they’ll be tasked with examining all the laws, the economic motives and all things related to the slave trade in New York state and any interactions that it would have had with other states. In terms of who gets on the commission, it is a community-led commission, which is very important. It’s an 11-person commission with five political appointees, one each from the governor, and the leaders of both houses in both parties for that five, and then six from community-led reparations groups, two from the Institute of the Black World, two from N’Cobra, which is the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, and two from the December 12th Movement.

CASNY: What led you to create a bill that would establish this commission? Has there been an increased call for reparations from the public?

Sen. Jabari Brisport: What led me to this was really seeing the incredible work that former Assembly Member Charles Barron had been working to get this through and wanting to ensure that we actually saw it passed in both houses of the state government. But I’ve also always been a strong supporter of reparations for years, and this is one area where the federal government should be doing it, but it’s not doing it, and so individual states need to lead. And New York state is in a position to lead on this.

CASNY: What’s holding up the bill in the state Senate? The bill is still in committee, and the chamber has never voted it out of committee in previous sessions, even though it passed the Assembly.

Sen. Jabari Brisport: This is a bill that will begin a process of repair for hundreds of years of racism and anti-Black legislation policies and society. And we wanted to make sure we took every step possible to be very clean and clear on what we were doing to be very thorough, and I am working hard to make sure we do it, that we pass it this month in Black History Month.

CASNY: Native Americans and Japanese Americans have received reparations in the United States in the form of a public apology and compensation from the government. What does reparations look like to you for Black Americans?

Sen. Jabari Brisport: It’s those things and more. I mean, the apology is absolutely necessary, financial compensation is absolutely necessary, but it’s not limited to those. We must work to make sure these things never happen again. And that means changes to education, especially the history that is taught, the correct history. Things that help to restore the deep wealth imbalances, and that may not just be immediate financial compensation but access to building things that others were entitled to. So it can take a variety of forms, and we’ve seen many attempts to start reparations like in California or in other municipalities around the state. And so what this commission is to do is after a year of vigorous research and engagement with communities across New York is (to have) a list of proposals. I think in California, after their commission, they produced a 600-page report of various proposals. So I’m expecting to see something very robust.

CASNY: How long do you think it would take to disperse reparations in the state?

Sen. Jabari Brisport: That’s up to the commission, because reparations is not just financial. So if there are policy changes, policy changes can be done on a dime, but also in terms of money, there’s no fiscal commitments in this bill. It’s up to the commission. But you know, New York is one of the richest states in America, and billionaires were able to enrich themselves by tens of billions of dollars in the first several months to a year of COVID-19. So it’s definitely possible for billions of dollars to move in the state.

CASNY: Why do you think it is taking a long time for the government to find a way to compensate Black Americans for slavery?

Sen. Jabari Brisport: I think it’s extremely complicated. And also, I think a lot of politicians have not found the political will. And in terms of the complication, it’s widely accepted that it’s not simply just slavery leading up to 1865, but that Black Americans have been systematically disenfranchised. Even with all the ripple effects of slavery, whether it was Jim Crow, it’s going to be sharecropping immediately after the Jim Crow era, redlining, and for-profit policing and prison systems. Even now, with the political moment we’re in with the protests over Tyre Nichols, it’s worth remembering that a lot of our police force had their roots in slave-catching patrols. And so slavery extends into today. So I think it’s addressing this much larger question of not only how do we repair from slavery but also repair from slavery and the aftereffects? And then also just the lack of political will from a lot of politicians to really dig into this and make it a priority.

CASNY: How will the commission determine which Black people in the state receive reparations since not every Black person in America has lineage that ties back to slavery in this country? For example, people who immigrated to America from the Caribbean after slavery may not have ancestors that were enslaved in America, but they still deal with the effects of slavery in their everyday lives.

Sen. Jabari Brisport: We need to have a discussion on what the harms were specifically. But, you know, it’s important not to preemptively divide ourselves based on where the slave ships dropped us off. These were deeply intricate and connected systems of operation. And there were people in America and institutions that benefited from the slave trade of sugar in the Caribbean, just as there are people in the Caribbean and economies that benefited from the slave trade of cotton in America. There were ports, and slaves themselves were traded back and forth between the Caribbean and America. These are extremely intricate systems. And that’s part of what the commission does is just a study, with a broad brush, on how these were connected and make recommendations as to what makes sense based on the research.

CASNY: What effects from slavery do you see present in New York state?

Sen. Jabari Brisport: That’s wide ranging from very blatant things, like the fact that we still have streets that are named after slave owners in New York state, to the way that redlining has played out in New York state and from the years after, to just acknowledging that New York state is also home to Wall Street. And we had a situation where slaves were literally bought and sold as capital just blocks down the street from it. And we can see our current financial system disproportionately empowers white Americans over Black Americans.

CASNY: As you may know, New York City Mayor Eric Adams backed the push for a reparations bill in Albany, and he said something really interesting: “We need to zero in on some of those corporations and companies that the foundation of their wealth came from slavery.” Will this commission address the companies in New York that profited off of slavery and, if so, how?

Sen. Jabari Brisport: In New York, we’re surrounded by companies that have profited off slavery, from Domino Sugar to major Wall Street banks and insurance companies. The commission has a wide scope to conduct research on any entities that profited or engaged with slavery directly or profited from it as an institution, so those corporations would be in the scope.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Tucked away in an amendment to the FY2023 U.S. defense authorization bill is a rare instance of congressional bipartisanship and a tribute to U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.

If approved, the measure would posthumously promote Grant to the rank of General of the Armies of the U.S., making him only the third person – along with John J. Pershing and George Washington – to be awarded the nation’s highest military honor.

As Executive Director of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library, I believe that the promotion would be much more than a symbolic nod to a great military general. Rather, it would highlight the overlooked legacy of a man who fought to end the last vestiges of slavery.

OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR

During the Civil War, Grant rose to fame as a decisive leader who was willing to doggedly pursue Confederate armies and avoid retreat at all costs. He first gained his reputation for tenacity with Union victories at Shiloh, the Battles for Chattanooga and the Siege of Vicksburg.

Like most white Northerners, Grant signed up to fight for the Union – not for emancipation.

But by 1862, the freedom of enslaved African Americans had become vital to the Union war strategy, if not yet its cause.

A year before President Abraham Lincoln signed in 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation that freed enslaved people in the Confederate states, Grant oversaw the establishment of refugee, or contraband camps, throughout the Mississippi Valley. Those camps provided basic housing, food and work for Black men and women who had fled from slavery.

Grant also administered the enlistment of African American men into United States Colored Troops units during the Vicksburg campaign.

In March 1864, Lincoln appointed Grant to the rank of lieutenant general and ordered him to take on the Confederate Army in Virginia, a task at which numerous other Union leaders had failed.

At this point during the war, Grant assumed the role of chief strategist for the entire Union war effort. It took the next 13 months of fighting during the Overland campaign before Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox on April 9, 1865.

In this illustration, Gen. Ulysses S, Grant, left, accepts the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee. (Getty Images)

After the Federal victory, many Americans hailed Grant as the man who saved the Union.

But Grant was magnanimous in victory.

Multiple times during the war he honored the dignity of his defeated adversaries, most famously at Appomattox, where he did not require Lee to hand over his sword, as usually required. Grant also allowed Confederate officers to keep their sidearms and horses.

Lee appreciated Grant’s actions, remarking: “This will have the best possible effect upon the men … it will be very gratifying, and will do much toward conciliating our people.”

IMPACT OF THE ‘LOST CAUSE’

But after the war, the conciliatory feelings vanished.

Southern partisans constructed the narrative of the “Lost Cause.” It held that the root of the Civil War was not slavery, but the rights of states to control their own destinies. It further held that the Union victory had nothing to do with Confederate character or leadership, but rather the Union’s sheer numbers and superior resources.

In this Lost Cause narrative, Grant was seen as a bumbling butcher devoid of any meaningful strategic vision, who succeeded only by mercilessly throwing more soldiers at his enemy. It also revived the old rumors of his excessive drinking.

In this storyline, Grant’s foil was always the courtly gentleman, Robert E. Lee. The hagiography of Lee demanded Grant’s inferiority.

By the early 20th century, the Lost Cause was no longer isolated in the South and had spread across America. Crowds flocked to see the racist anti-Reconstruction “Birth of a Nation” in movie theaters, and during the World War I rush to build military bases, the Army named 10 of them after Confederate generals.

PRESIDENT GRANT’S FIGHT FOR EQUALITY

Grant served as President from 1869 to 1877 during a time when white Southerners proved hostile toward federal Reconstruction measures that sought equal rights for recently freed enslaved people.

Grant saw his role of enforcing these policies as an extension of his wartime duty and necessary to protect the gains of the Union victory, especially the newly established rights for African Americans.

He used the resources of the federal government to crush the Ku Klux Klan, established the Department of Justice to investigate civil rights abuses and signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

GRANT’S LATEST CAUSE

In recent years, the American public has questioned the Lost Cause and taken steps to mitigate its pervasiveness throughout the U.S.

Southerners themselves have chosen to remove Confederate leaders from town squares and state flags. The U.S. Army has established a Naming Commission to rebrand Confederate-named bases.

It is telling, too, that Grant’s Presidential Library is now located in Mississippi, a Deep South state he once conquered.

It remains to be seen whether the request made to elevate Grant’s rank by U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a Democrat, and Roy Blunt of Missouri, a Republican – along with GOP U.S Rep. Ann Wagner – will be finally approved by Congress as part of the FY2023 National Defense Authorization Act.

Either way, in my view, a thoughtful reconsideration of Grant’s wartime and post-war contributions is long overdue.

[thepitofjob]

Job 21: 22-26. "The Marrow."

At the heart of a Gemara is bitterness, the Myrrh, the Balsam of God just as there is marrow at the center of our bones.

Myrrh, which is more bitter than sweet is the symbol substance of freedom from slavery and ignorance because it is a shame it is necessary. Anyone who has struggled to be gay, black, Jewish, Muslim, poor, homeless, or tormented because of their weight or appearance knows the moment we give up on caring what others think is cause for elation, but it is not without its bitter memories.

These struggles should not at all be necessary, but human nature will always prevail and it shall always be with us. The Prophet says therefore, every Gemara must encourage the search for the Self and extol upon its magnificence and the horrible demises of persons and organizations that would stifle it.

All of the Jewish heroes named in the Torah and Tanakh were successful at finding the Self and reveled. The Melachim are another story, but the characters in the epic poems all reached Ha Shem.

I do not teach there is virtue in struggle. Divorces, cancer, the loss of loved ones, the loss of a job and one's wealth are not moments of grandness just waiting to happen if we invoke Adonai. There are constructive ways contained in Adonai that assist the mind in creating favorable conditions within which to overcome pain and suffering and have faith in itself, but suffering, no matter the underlying reason is sad and it is reasonable to do what can be done to put an end to one's sadness. This is the highest knowledge:

22 “Can anyone teach knowledge to God,     since he judges even the highest? 23 One person dies in full vigor,     completely secure and at ease, 24 well nourished in body,[b]     bones rich with marrow. 25 Another dies in bitterness of soul,     never having enjoyed anything good. 26 Side by side they lie in the dust,     and worms cover them both.

The books in the Tanakh discuss how bitter and smelly men can be and this is certainly alluded to in the above, but within the humor is the usual irony associated with every term or adage in Hebrew. Sacrifice on behalf of one's sugar makes one not at all not bitter, it is the cure for everything that goes wrong in the world.

The Values in Gematria are:

v. 22-23: Can one teach knowledge to God? About one thing- about the Self. Even He does not know who or what we are going to become. The Number is 7097, ע‎ץז, atz, "timber."

Timber within a man is not unlike the term in we apply to a forest. Men must be grown up, hewn down and remade into useful pieces of furniture. God allows each man to chose the final configuration of the wood, but the hewing process and basic requirements for manhood are not at all at his discretion.

v. 24-25: Bones rich with marrow, but some have enjoyed nothing good. The Number is 9176, טאז‎ו‎, tazo, "dare, be bold."

If you are living in squallor, in hopeless conditions underneath a corrupt regime, it is not naive to expect change or do what has to be done to improve conditions until they meet the legal requirements the human race has agreed to provide for itself.

There is no such thing as legal poverty, Pro-Life, homophobia, anti-Semitism all of these things are illegal and the government has to do everything in its power to address them when they are present.

America has not been a leader in the relief of illegal conditions in its jurisdictions, most nations are struggling against currents of illegal oppression thanks to a sudden surge or right wing activities, but they are not allowed and can be shut down under the law this very moment. There are moments it seems as of soap on a rope is a keener invention that the Department of Justice but it does have to act and close down oppressive organizations like the Family Research Council, RNC, Heritage Foundation, Alliance Defending Freedom, Faith and Freedom Coalition etc. for taking position and advocating for the end of certain civil rights.

Civil rights are self-protecting. The right to protect one's civil rights cannot be attacked under international law. It is time the governors on this planet were forced to accept the burden of their agreements.

v. 26: Side by side they lie in the dust. Church and State must always argue for the refuge of the singular and the few. The Number is 4057, םןז‎, sanz, דיהז‎‎, "proportions."

The proportions named in the Torah and the methods for their determination are provided in order to explain what God considers the height of equity; what we get to keep, what we have to give up in order to achieve Shabbos and Shabbat, and ultimately Mashiach.

Like the rest of the Torah they are written in Hebrew Swahili and must be decrypted and explained properly but a good Gemara will mention the return on investment when a question involving portions is raised. The ROI, called Shabbos is what we call the Marrow at the center of the frame, wherein none of the bitterness stated above should be found. Gemara is not complete with mentions of the importance of Shabbos.