Happy Kwanzaa - Teddy Pendergrass

KWANZAA

Go tell it on the Mountain-Bob Marley and the Wailers

Kwanzaa  









    Kwanzaa is a unique African American celebration with focus on the traditional African values of family, community responsibility, commerce, and self-improvement. Kwanzaa is neither political nor religious and despite some misconceptions, is not a substitute for Christmas. It is simply a time of reaffirming African-American people, their ancestors and culture. Kwanzaa, which means "first fruits of the harvest" in the African language Kiswahili, has gained tremendous acceptance. Since its founding in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, Kwanzaa has come to be observed by more than 18 million people worldwide, as reported by the New York Times.

Kwanzaa is based on the Nguzo Saba (seven guiding principles), one for each day of the observance, and is celebrated from December 26th to January 1st.

The seven principles of Kwanzaa are:
- Umoja (Unity)
- Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
- Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
- Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)
- Nia (Purpose)
- Kuumba (Creativity)
- Imani (Faith)





Dancers from Wesley Praise Dancers celebrate the second day of Kwanzaa, Kujichagulia, representing self-determination. (Baltimore Sun photo by Chiaki Kawajiri / December 27, 2008)



Members of the Imani Edu-Tainers African Dance Company perform at a Kwanzaa celebration  in the Capitol East Wing Rotunda, Harrisburg,Pa. 12-29-08



























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Merry Christmas

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Ron Paul Message to Occupy Wall Street LETS END THE FED!

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Dave Chapelle Talks About The Illuminati (HD)_1080p

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Superfail: Why D.C.’s Fiscal Clown Show May Still Yield Results

..Superfail: Why D.C.’s Fiscal Clown Show May Still Yield Results
By Daniel Gross | The Ticket – Mon, Nov 21, 2011....
Share0EmailPrint.....Cross-posted from Yahoo! Finance

To the surprise of nobody, the Congressional Supercommittee tasked with coming up with $1.2 trillion in deficit-cutting measures has completely failed.

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then Washington is officially bonkers. The entirely predictable face-plant of the Supercommittee came on the heels of the highly predictable failure of the Simpson-Bowles Commission and the Obama-Boehner grand bargain talks.

You don't have to have a Ph.d. in political science to grasp the dynamic at work. The White House has a set of preferences, which it has laid out here. But it doesn't spend a lot of time campaigning for them, and it doesn't believe that getting intensely involved in the negotiations will help move the ball. Democrats aren't entirely sure what they want, though they insist any large deficit reduction deal must include significant tax increases, preferably on higher-income earners and companies. Otherwise, they won't consider significant changes in entitlements that their forebears created, like Social Security and Medicare. As for Republicans, there are two things they aren't interested in: (1) raising taxes; and (2) doing a large deal with President Obama that will give him an achievement going into the next election.

Oh, and the overwhelming majority of people who parade around Washington posing as fiscal hawks are frauds. They're the ones who created a tax system that collects revenues that can't fully fund the spending system they also voted to create. And when push comes to shove, those who cry most loudly about the deficit shy away from doing what's necessary. When the Republican presidential candidates all indicated that they'd reject a deficit plan that included 10 dollars of spending cuts for every dollar of tax increases, it was an extremely clear signal that the Republican party as currently constituted isn't interested in a grand deal. Democrats, for their part, figure there's no point in making massive concessions on entitlements if there's no reciprocation on taxes. And for both parties, these postures make complete political sense.

As the Supercommittee met, there simply wasn't any space for a deal. And the Supercommittee's secret weapon turned out to be a dud. In theory, if the Supercommittee failed to come to an agreement, the default position would be automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion split between social spending and defense. The theory was that such reductions would be so odious to both sides that they'd simply have to come to terms. Here, too, the design was flawed. The cuts aren't set to take place until 2013, which lessens the urgency. And this thing called the Constitution allows Congress to change laws through a process called legislation. Even before the Supercommittee failed, there was talk of simply ignoring or overturning the proposed defense cuts.

While the Supercommittee drama played out, Washington continued to stage a theater of the absurd. The House, led by its Republican majority, last week voted on a Balanced Budget Amendment, a change to the Constitution that could finally force fiscal discipline. But Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republicans' lead voice on budget issues, didn't vote for it. Why? He realized that the budget plan he has proposed, the one which his colleagues have adopted as their own and that creates trillions of dollars of new debt, would be unconstitutional under the amendment. Never mind. Almost all the Congressmen who voted for the balanced budget amendment also voted for the Ryan plan.

The silver lining is that this failure is not likely to matter much to the bond and stock markets over the long-term. And it's quite possible our salvation may come from the same set of conditions that has inhibited action, as The Daily Ticker's Henry Blodget and I discuss in the accompanying video.

While the Supercommittee tried to set up a fake trigger for deficit reduction, there are some real triggers out there that have the potential to take a bite out of deficits. If Congress and the White House simply argue, grandstand, and refuse to come to an agreement over the coming year, some $7.1 trillion in deficit reduction could be on the way. This is what Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne dubbed the do-nothing option. The full details are here. There's $3.3 trillion from letting the Bush-era tax cuts on income, capital gains, and dividends expire at the end of 2012. The alternative minimum tax isn't indexed for inflation. And so each year, it catches more people up in its maw, unless Congress enacts a temporary patch. Simply doing nothing on the AMT would raise $700 billion over the next several years. A law passed in the 1990s cut the reimbursement rate for Medicare providers. But Congress has enacted a series of temporary fixes to forestall the cuts. If Washington locks grids over the issue, Congress would effectively cut $300 billion in spending. And don't forget the $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts that stem from the Supercommittee's failure.

The best chance for doing something about the deficit, in other words, may be to do nothing. And if there's one thing this divided Congress has proven it can do, it's nothing.

Daniel Gross is economics editor at Yahoo! Finance.

Follow him on Twitter @grossdm; email him at grossdaniel11@yahoo.com.



His most recent book is Dumb Money: How Our Greatest Financial Minds Bankrupted the Nation

Reoccupy Main Street

Reoccupy Main Street
‎68% of every dollar spent locally is reinvested in the community, versus 43% of every dollar spent at a big box store. Make a measurable daily dent in big box receipts this holiday season, and you will not only make the daily news, you will make your communities more diverse, vibrant and healthy. Print this high resolution poster and invite your favorite Mom and Pop shop to display it. We are the 99%.

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Genetically Modified Food - The Right To Know

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We Are The Many - Makana

9 11 Experts Speak Out

RADIOVISION - Prof. Molefi Asante on Libya & Cote D'Ivoire

Take time to learn the background of the irrational decision of the President to invade and attack Libya and the Continent of Africa. Dr. Molefi Asante, Professor of Temple University, astutely lectures on the historical motivation has been festering many years for imperialistic intervention on the African Continent -- especially in places that have oil. Do not depend upon the American Media to offer anything but disguised misinformation. You will never get a true examination of the incidents except through an African-American scholar who has the courage to reveal the reality of the day. It is Long but it is Strong! Take time to LISTEN AND LEARN!

3 MoTenors America 0001

The Unveiling Of "The Black List" Photo Exhibit At The Smithsonian

Health Care & The Occupy Wall Street Movement

The Greediest Generation

Alan Simpson, Senator from Wyoming , Co-Chair of the deficit commission, calls senior citizens the Greediest Generation as he compared "Social Security" to a Milk Cow with 310 million 'teats'.

Here's a response in a letter from PATTY MYERS in Montana ... I think she is a little ticked off!  She also tells it like it is! 

"Hey Alan, let's get a few things straight..

1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole for FIFTY YEARS.

2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63).

3 My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero ambition losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would have made Bernie Madoff proud..

4. Recently, just like Lucy & Charlie Brown, you and your ilk pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age 67. NOW, you and your shill commission is proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.

5. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from Day One, and now you morons propose to change the rules of the game. Why? Because you idiots mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal money from Medicare to pay the bills.

6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why? Because you incompetent bastards spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR debt.
To add insult to injury, you label us "greedy" for calling "bullshit" on your incompetence. Well, Captain Bullshit, I have a few questions for YOU.

1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?

2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the American taxpayers?

3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?

4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and healthcare benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or, as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?

It is you, Captain Bullshit, and your political co-conspirators called Congress who are the "greedy" ones. It is you and your fellow nutcases who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. And for what? Votes. That's right, sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it.

And you can take that to the bank, you miserable son of a bitch.

If you like the way things are in America delete this. If you agree with what a fellow Montana citizen Patty Myers says,PASS IT ON!!!!

Cops turn Violent, NYPD drag girl across the street. #OccupyWallStreet

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Occupy Oakland Calls For City-Wide General Strike, Nov 2

Last night hundreds marched through the streets of NYC, chanting "New York is Oakland, Oakland is New York." We circled City Hall, ran in the streets, refused to be kettled or have our voices silenced, marched up broadway, North on 6th Ave, circled around on Bleecker, and marched south against traffic on 6th ave, running past police barricades, running past our fear, running in solidarity with each other and #occupyoakland.

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MESSAGE from MOVE ON - a National Political Action Organization

This is just insane:


Scott Olsen, a protester who’s done two tours of duty in Iraq and is now involved in Veterans For Peace, was critically wounded during an Oakland police raid by police projectiles. When people tried to help him, an officer lobbed a flash bang grenade right into their group. Olsen is currently hospitalized with serious injuries and is reported to be in critical condition.

If you’re as horrified by this as we are, please sign this petition to Oakland’s mayor and then share this page with everyone you know.

Found on Kresling’s YouTube channel. Originally submitted by Marika S. and Jayne C.

Michael Moore Speaks With Roseanne Barr on HLN, Part 1 -- March 29th, 2011

Would anyone ever have believed that Roseanne Barr would have something intelligent to say that is political in this country? Here she sits in for Joy Behair and speaks with no less than Michael Moore and makes good sense! Their scrutiny of President Obama is something to consider with a rational mind. It could help prevent the abject disgust that is rising in opinion of the POTUS. Heaven help us!

99 Percenters Discredit Capitalism

African Community Center of Atlanta Presents a Point of View

Capitalism Coming Home to Roost
By EZRAH AHARONE 10/2011

While capitalism is upheld by Western-European nations as the paradigm for economic fairness and efficiency, it conversely has a 400-year history of profiteering that traces to shameless enslavement and colonizing of non-European people by the same nations. Today, capitalism's tentacles of debauchery reach beyond the so-called "third world" to now roost among citizens within these very European nations, including America. Once fiscally robust, America is debt-addicted and job-starved, with near-bankrupt states and crippled infrastructures of roads, bridges, schools and airports.

In fed-up response, protesters of the Occupy Wall Street Movement (OWSM) are rightly ranting over capitalism's recent malfeasance. Yet, in broad-spectrum, it must be reckoned that the descendants of those who were once enslaved or colonized, comprise a majority of people who now live in poverty. The sum of Westernize capitalism - from its extirpations of yesterday to free-market enterprise today - has left trails of billions of impoverished non-European people all around the world wherever labor is performed, services are provided, and resources are located.

With Africa particularly, it is not coincidental that its currencies and economies are among the weakest in the world, while the currencies and economies of Western colonial nations are among the strongest, even though most lack comparable natural resources of the African states they colonized. Capitalist hegemony over Africa siphoned unknown trillions in labor and resources, upon which Western economies unfairly stand.

True, the OWSM cannot undo capitalism's ugly past. But the point is to stitch threads of commonality and continuity, given that capitalism did not suddenly get derailed by Bush or Obama; or by halos of immunity and tax havens for the rich; or by the cost of war adventurism in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. The middleclass is certainly feeling capitalism's pitchfork more of late, but capitalism is no more depraved lately than at its inception. A main difference is that - yesterday, its parasitic forces usurped non-Europeans of sovereignty, territories, resources and freedom, while today, extensions of the same parasitic forces are coming home to roost by cannibalizing Americans of all ethnicities of jobs, savings, stocks, pensions, social programs, healthcare and homes.

Like African Americans, growing numbers of Euro-Americans have discovered that capitalism has nothing to do with "equality" nor is it "democratic." You don't vote on the overly-priced gas and oil for your car and home. You don't vote for who owns or commercializes natural resources. You don't vote on mortgage or bank interest rates or the elasticity of money supply regulated by the Federal Reserve . . . There's no such thing as equality or democracy in the Western format of capitalism.

As such, the current 16.7% unemployment rate for Blacks more than doubles the 8% for Whites, and Blacks lag in every major index of economics. It's interesting that 8% would be long-awaited relief to African Americans. Conversely, 8% is so insufferable to Euro-Americans that it has sparked the OWSM to condemn "certain aspects" of capitalism. But at core, US capitalism is fueled by consumption, which is fueled by credit, which is fueled by the very financial institutions that lie at the heart of the protests. Besides, be it Bush or Obama, both parties are corporate manifestations. America operates a de-facto plutocratic style of governance, where insiders make "contributions" with known intents for favoritism to influence policymaking and party platforms.

With the 2012 election approaching and Obama empathizing with occupiers, the media is setting a stage for Tea Party vs. OWSM showdowns. Beyond partisan bickering however that blames the "other party" for America's woes, a definitive matter is that, America's economy is linked to centuries of international graft and gluttony from when Europeans ruled by overt brute force. But with fewer "banana republics," new Balances of Power are reshaping today's decolonized world and diminishing the once-sturdiness of Pax Americana (US political, economic, and military advantages).

The fluffy wording of the US constitution is one thing, but America's capitalistic wealth wasn't acquired by playing by the "democratic" rules it now wants to export to Africa and the Middle East. So as predatory capitalism is coming home to roost while Americans simultaneously cheer the downfall of "select" governments, Black America should be circumspect that we aren't in effect, cheering the latest mutation of the selfsame predatory forces of which we are historically among the greatest casualties.

Ezrah Aharone is the author of two acclaimed political books: Sovereign Evolution: Manifest Destiny from Civil Rights to Sovereign Rights (2009) and Pawned Sovereignty: Sharpened Black Perspectives on Americanization, Africa, War and Reparations (2003). He is a founding member of the Center for Sovereignty Advancement. He can be reached at Ezrah@EzrahSpeaks.com.
****************
African Community Centers
3079 Campbellton Rd. S.W. Suite 114
Atlanta, GA 30311 USA (404)344-5454
www.unity4power.org & www.10-10-50.org

Dr. Martin Luther King ,Jr.

‎"Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks to so dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored."

~Martin Luther King Jr (Letter from Birmingham Jail)

President Obama Delivers Remarks at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial...

THIS IS BLACK HISTORY (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)

MARCH AND RALLY ON WASHINGTON

FROM THE EMANCIPATOR (ABRAHAM LINCOLN) TO THE LIBERATOR (MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.)
THE COLLECTIVE JOURNEY OF CIVIL RIGHTS TO BE REAFFIRMED

Why we must stop the Banks

Bill Moyers Journal . This is Usury -  2008
Why we must stop the Banks

For Troy Davis

Fire In Their Eyes (For Troy Davis)
by Author Diane Vincent on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 11:37pm


Cries for justice spew out like roaring thunder unto the heavens

But it's ears have grown deaf.

And the wicked will once again destroy hope

As the innocent becomes but a statement to a Blackman

That he is still less in this chalky wilderness

That has become a Diaspora of presidential ignorance

A cultural decadence and diatribe on freedom, justice and equality

Innocence is not the fight.

No this war is waged to maintain a hierarchy of oppression

For all which they have stolen and murdered to possess.

In this pale, bloodless, waxed cold wilderness.

And the people of the world eyes burn like flames of fire

As they look into the future of their existence

Rummaging through the receipts of their past

Trying to find that one they can return

For their sold integrity, souls, consciousness, and conscience

In hope it will barter them mercy as the last spectrum bends

The sky and the flames from the hell they made

With the brush of their careless hands and the turn of their cheeks

Reflect from their damned eyes.

We are cursed to see the final judgment

Of our own lack of fortitude, and lose of determination.

For we’ve closed our eyes on the struggle.

Young, Gifted, and Black(Live)- Donny Hathaway

Morehouse College - We Shall Overcome

BeBe Winans - I have a dream

Yolanda King Interview with Caleb Crump

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

MLK - A Knock at Midnight

BeBe Winans - I have a dream

An AMAZING Michael Jackson Tribute "Earth Song"

IKEA Unfair to American Workers

Tell IKEA to let its workers organize for fair wages and a safer workplace.

In Sweden, IKEA's factory workers are paid $19 per hour and get five weeks of paid vacation every year. In America? Not so much.

IKEA's Swedwood plant in Danville, Virginia is the most dangerous plant in the wood furniture industry -- workers there have suffered more than 1,536 days of lost work due to accidents on the job in a 30-month period. According to the LA Times, IKEA's Danville workers are paid as little as $8 an hour and face racial discrimination from their managers. Workers often find out on Friday night that they'll be forced to work for the entire weekend -- and if they can't make it, they face disciplinary action.

In Sweden, IKEA's factory workers are unionized, which is one reason they receive better wages and have a safer workplace -- but the company is going all out to prevent American workers from receiving those same rights and protections. Please sign the petition to tell IKEA to give its American workers the freedom to organize.

The workers in Danville have filed for an election to start a union of their own -- the election could come as soon as six weeks from now. But rather than pay its workers fair wages, Swedwood pays the notorious union-busting firm Jackson Lewis thousands of dollars a day to hold mandatory "captive audience meetings" with the Danville workers. At these meetings, the Jackson Lewis associates inundate the workers with anti-union propaganda and veiled threats that are backed up with random firings. 

Here's the good news: The publicity surrounding this organizing drive has already made a difference -- last month, Swedwood announced that Danville workers would no longer be forced to work mandatory overtime. But Liz Cattaneo of American Rights at Work stresses that continued public pressure is extremely important: "If IKEA thinks the public isn't paying attention, they're going to play hardball … throughout the election process - which could mean more firings and more union busting."

Now that the workers have filed for a union election, you can bet IKEA will redouble its efforts to squash their rights. They need our support now more than ever.

Please sign the petition to tell IKEA's head of Corporate PR that we are paying attention, and we expect IKEA to treat its American workers just as well as its Swedish workers:

http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-ikea-to-respect-its-workers

Thanks for taking action,

REV. DR L. WALTER CREWS

Remembering my Father, the Preacher: REV. DR L. WALTER CREWS (Pt 1).
by Gwen Crews on Saturday, June 18, 2011

"Only What You Do For Christ Will Last""
My father, the Rev. Dr. L. Walter Crews was born at home on the family farm in Johnson County, NC. Son of Walter and Pocahontas Wyche Crews, great grandson of slaves, Rev Harry Blacknall Crews & Zenia Philpott. Knew at an early age that he had a calling, so as a youngster, he would preach to the cornstalks. He was licensed to preach at Riley Hill Baptist Church in Wendell,NC and ordained by Rev. A.Ross Brent at Shiloh Baptist in Plfd. where he served as Assistant Pastor. Went on to pastor Second Baptist in Metuchen and under his leadership a new church was erected. Over100 Masons from his Lodge in New Bruns. helped lay the cornerstone which reads, "Upon this rock, I'll build my church." He pastored 20 years and died while in service to the Church. He was the a Chaplain for the Middlesex Cty jails, a member of Plfd Concerned Clergy, and a missionary and Bible school teacher at 1st Baptist in South Bound Brook and part of the District Union and MC Ministers Assoc. His calling was sincere, he was committed, he stayed prepared, he lived the life he preached about, he was humble and he loved the Lord. I count myself blessed to have had such a wonderful God-fearing earthly Father that pointed me in the direction of knowing my Heavenly Father. To God be the Glory!

Rev. Walter Crews Jr. Graduation from Manhattan Bible Institute 1967

REV. DR L. WALTER CREWS

Acapella - Lift Every Voice

First lady Michelle Obama in South Africa

First lady Michelle Obama and her family paid their respects Tuesday to Nelson Mandela during a private visit at the home of the former South African president and revered statesman.
It was the first meeting, and likely a moving one, between America's first black first lady and the political prisoner who later became his country's first elected black president.

Mrs. Obama, daughters Malia, 12, and Sasha, 10, and her mother, Marian Robinson, were being shown some of Mandela's personal papers during a stop at his foundation when, according to White House officials, he sent word from his nearby home that he wanted to meet the Obamas.
The family was then driven to Mandela's home in a well-manicured Johannesburg neighborhood, where they spent about 20 minutes with him and his wife, Graca Machel, who is a former first lady of Mozambique.
Mrs. Obama's niece and nephew, Leslie Robinson, 15, and Avery Robinson, 19, who are traveling with her, were also invited to meet Mandela.

White House officials had no immediate comment on the meeting. No aides, except for photographers for the foundation and the White House, witnessed the meeting.
Mandela, who stepped down in 1999 after serving one term as president, is rarely seen in public anymore. At age 92, he is in fragile health and was briefly hospitalized in January with an acute respiratory infection. But he apparently felt well enough Tuesday to invite the Obama family to visit.

Mrs. Obama is traveling without President Barack Obama, who met Mandela on a previous visit to Africa when he was a U.S. senator. Obama and Mandela have spoken by telephone several times since Obama took office, most recently last June, the White House said. Obama also wrote a foreword for Mandela's book, "Conversations with Myself."
Mandela spent 27 years in prison for his role in the movement against apartheid, South Africa's now-abolished system of racial separation.

The First Lady's Trip to Africa

It's Your Time

The 90th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Riot

Oklahoma had been plagued by lynchings

The Tulsa race riot was a large-scale racially motivated conflict between the white and black communities of Tulsa, Oklahoma, including aerial attack, beginning May 31, 1921. During the 16 hours of the assault, over 800 people were admitted to local hospitals with injuries,more than 6000 Greenwood residents were arrested and detained in a prison camp, an estimated 10,000 were left homeless, and 35 city blocks composed of 1,256 residences were destroyed by fire caused by bombing.

The Tulsa race riot occurred in the racially and politically tense atmosphere of northeastern Oklahoma, some of which was a growing hotbed of anti-black sentiment at that time. The Ku Klux Klan made its first major appearance in Oklahoma on August 12, 1921, less than three months after the riot.

As in several other states and territories during the early years of the twentieth century, lynchings were not uncommon in Oklahoma. Between the declaration of statehood on November 16, 1907, and the Tulsa race riot some thirteen years later, thirty-one individuals — twenty-six of whom were black — were lynched in Oklahoma. During the twenty years following the riot, the number of lynchings statewide fell to two.

Tulsa-Greenwood before the riot

Greenwood, Okla.: The Legacy of the Tulsa Race Riot

In 1921, Greenwood, a successful, all-black enclave in Tulsa, was the site of the deadliest race riot in U.S. history. For the inhabitants of "the Black Wall Street," life would never be the same.

• By: Monée Fields-White | Posted: February 24, 2011 at 9:50 AM
• Monée Fields-White is a Chicago-based writer who covers a wide array of topics, including business and economic news.

       The 90th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Riot on May 31, 2011, here's the story of a sad chapter of American history, pulled from The Root's archives.

J.B. Stradford, the son of a freed Kentucky slave, rose to prominence in Oklahoma during the early 1900s as one of the key developers of the all-black Tulsa enclave Greenwood. A lawyer and businessman, Stradford owned the 65-room hotel that sat right in the heart of the thriving community that would later become known as "the Black Wall Street."

But in a single day, all of that would change. On May 31, 1921, the arrest of a young black man on a questionable charge of assaulting a young white woman touched off the deadliest race riot in U.S. history. Whites charged through the community in retaliation, leaving an estimated 300 people dead, another 10,000 black residents homeless and 35 city blocks in ruin.

Stradford and 69 other black men were subsequently charged with inciting the riot. Stradford, however, jumped bail after his arrest and fled Tulsa for Kentucky. According to his great-granddaughter Laurel Stradford, his son (her grandfather), who was also a lawyer, used legal maneuvering to help his father avoid having to stand trial, including filing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus to keep him from being unlawfully detained.

"When I was a little girl, our grandmother used to tell us that J.B. had said that there was no greater gift that a man can be given than to have a son who saves his father's life," says Laurel Stradford. "There would be a lot of remembrance of my great-grandpa and the role he played in Tulsa, and the role my grandpa had in getting him free from being lynched."

But although J.B. -- who went on to run a successful law practice in Chicago -- managed to avoid facing "justice" in Oklahoma (he never returned to the state), the charges hung over him until he died. The Stradford family fought to clear J.B., but it wasn't until 1996 -- 75 years after the riot, and six decades after his death in 1935 in Chicago at the age of 75 -- that he was cleared of all charges. (Ultimately, none of the men indicted were convicted of anything.)

That 75th-anniversary year was also when the nation learned about the Tulsa Race Riot, which would come to be considered the most destructive race riot in U.S. history. "For years, silence engulfed this incident," says Hannibal B. Johnson, author of Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa's Historic Greenwood. "In 1921, Tulsa was booming, so anything that would detract from its allure, such as the riot, was minimized."

A Black Mecca

Indeed, Tulsa had been attracting thousands -- blacks and whites -- to the rich oil fields. By 1920, the overall population had swelled to more than 100,000 residents. Black Americans, migrating from Southern states as far as Georgia and Mississippi, were also attempting to escape the harsh realities of Southern racism. But old Jim Crow laws followed them northwest. Tulsa was divided into two cities. Whites held court in the southern end of the city, closer to the larger main downtown area, while African Americans were segregated in the northern section of town.

The racial split, however, gave rise to black Tulsans' famed entrepreneurial mecca. Anchored by Greenwood Avenue, black-owned businesses stretched along the more than mile-long roadway. They included grocery stores, restaurants, medical and law offices, and two newspapers. Many black entrepreneurs in addition to Stradford -- including real estate developer and Greenwood founder O.W. Gurley -- thrived and reached regional and even national stature. Booker T. Washington, who had lectured in Tulsa, was the first to call Greenwood "the Negro's Wall Street." That moniker later became "the Black Wall Street."

Many white Tulsans, who referred to the district as "Little Africa," were not happy about the growth and prosperity of the community, according to Andrew Rosa, assistant professor of history at Oklahoma State University. "You had a pretty stable, upwardly mobile people in Greenwood, and the city's whites had their eye on Greenwood," says Rosa. "That was sort of the spirit of the friction."

White Rage Unleashed

The underlying racial and economic tension finally boiled over on May 30, 1921. Dick Rowland, a 19-year-old shoe shiner in downtown Tulsa, had gone to use the only bathroom for blacks, located at the top of an office building. He crossed paths with white elevator operator Sarah Page, 17, whom a store clerk claimed to have heard scream. The clerk said that he found a distraught Page and saw a young black man running from the building. There is no record of what Page told the police.

Rowland was arrested but never charged. The incident, however, made the front page of the Tulsa Tribune -- along with an editorial entitled, "To Lynch Negro Tonight."

Right before dawn on June 1, a mob of nearly 10,000 white men launched an all-out assault on the Greenwood District, systematically burning down every home and business. They dropped firebombs and shot at blacks from planes that had been used in World War I. Those blacks who were captured were held in internment camps around the city by the local police and National Guard units.

Martial law was eventually declared. The National Guard confirmed that 37 blacks and whites were killed, although historians (pdf) have put that number at closer to 300. Many of the dead black Americans were buried in unmarked graves around town, and some were laid to rest in an anonymous section of Tulsa's Oak Lawn cemetery. Some photographers made their pictures of the dead into postcards. 

The riot "just shows you how irrelevant, not only from the view of Oklahoma but that of the nation as a whole, black life was. It was seen as expendable," says Rosa.

After the riot, black Tulsans, who were living in tents and forced to wear green identification tags in order to work downtown, still managed to turn the tragedy into triumph. Without state help, they rebuilt Greenwood, and by 1942 the community had more than 240 black-owned businesses.

Justice Denied

In subsequent decades, however, the community declined as the pioneers of Greenwood died and many of their descendants moved away. The district struggled most critically during the 1960s as Tulsa became more integrated, which led to a decline in the Greenwood population and also undermined many of the local black family-run businesses. In the 1970s, a large segment of Greenwood was demolished to make way for an interstate highway that became a main connector for the downtown area.

An Oklahoma state commission conducted an investigation of the riot from 1997 to 2001, questioning survivors about that day back in 1921. The commission recommended specific reparations to the community, the living survivors and their descendants.

The state did subsequently enact a law in June 2001 that provided about 300 scholarships for descendants, developed a memorial and pushed for development in Greenwood -- but the law fell far short of what the commission had recommended. The remaining survivors have continued to fight for further restitution, which is addressed in the 2008 documentary Before They Die!

For some descendants, the demise of such a prosperous business community highlights the struggles that black America continues to face today. "The difference is that our society now is desegregated much more, and the challenge now is for our businesses to do successful business with a majority of firms," says John Rogers Jr., the founder of Chicago-based Ariel Investments, LLC -- and the great-grandson of J.B. Stradford. "There's still a remnant of historical discrimination."

 Another Account

The Tulsa race riot started when Dick Rowland, a 19-year old black shoe shiner in a shine parlor entered the elevator at a Drexel building to the colored washroom on the top floor around 4pm. In the elevator was a 17 year old white elevator operator named Sarah Page who was on duty. No one really knows what exactly happened in the elevator but the two must have been acquainted with each other at one point by sight. Most would say Rowland tripped in the elevator, and grabbed the arm of Page to prevent himself from falling. Page screamed and a clerk at one of the floors heard it, seeing the black man hurriedly leave the building. She assumed the young woman was assaulted and immediately called the authorities.

The next morning Rowland was detained by detective Henry Carmichael and Henry C. Pack and was taken to the jail for questioning. News spread about the event that day, along with an article titled ‘To Lynch Negro Tonight’ which was about whites assembling to lynch Rowland. As this newspaper hit the streets, white people gathered near the county Courthouse, seeking answers about the incident. Some were spectators only curious, but others were looking to participate and show support of the lynching of the young teenager. By sunset, hundreds of whites were assembled to have the making of a lynch mob. The sheriff Willard M. McCullough went outside and tried to talk the crowd into going home, but they did not listen. Eventually three white men entered the courthouse demanding Rowland be turned over, but deputies were able to turn them away. Eventually they were being vastly outnumbered by the crowed on the street.

A few blocks away, members of the black community gathered to discuss the situation at the courthouse. They came to a conclusion they were going to lynch Dick Rowland like they did to Roy Belton. Armed with rifles and shotguns they marched to the courthouse to support the sheriff and his deputies while defending Rowland from the angry whites. The sheriff though, assured them Rowland was safe and made them to return to Greenwood. The whites around the courthouse turned into 2000, many of them armed with weapons. Small groups of armed black started to go back to the courthouse in automobiles, ready to take action to protect Rowland.

It is said a white man told one of the armed black man to surrender his pistol, but he refused and fired a shot. It could have been accidental, or meant as a warning shot, but the ones followed were not, and eventually the courthouse was taking fire.

Immediately the white men returned fire, and the blacks continued firing back. It lasted only a few seconds, but already several men lay dead or dying in the street. The black mob retreated with the armed white mob following from behind. Innocent people from around were caught off guard and started to run as well. Panic came and mobsters started to fire at any black in the crowd. At 11 p.m. members of the National Guard assembled, joining patrols of the streets. Though, they were mainly being organized to protect the white districts near Greenwood. They rounded up any black who hadn’t made it back to Greenwood and took them to the armory for detainment.

The riot continued until Wednesday, June 1, 1921, progressively getting worst each minute. Whites eventually pushed into Greenwood, killing many innocent blacks along the way.

In 1921 the ABB (The African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption ) gained notoriety and a boost in membership after its Tulsa branch was linked to the armed resistance of local blacks during the Tulsa race riot. 

Lynching believed to be at Mannford, Oklahoma

Click Here for;

Final Report of the Oklahoma Commission to Study The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921