Saturday, December 19, 2015
Monday, December 14, 2015
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Kid President’s 25 Reasons To Be Thankful!
Sometimes we just have to look at some other matters of life to let us smile and still have faith in the possible joy of life with all of the awful incidents that are occurring in the world today that make us miserable and sad with all the war, violence, police killings, sex trafficking of young children. It makes us think that too much of life is so awful. But there still must be many things to be positive about and be thankful. Kid President helps lead us in the right direction. This is a special "Kid!" He has a special gift that needs to become contagous to many in the world as well as myself. Peace and Blessings to all.
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
The First African-American Piano Manufacturer
The First African-American Piano Manufacturer
WILLARD JENKINS FROM NPR JAZZ
At the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival in February, one couldn't help but notice the striking new grand piano on the main stage, emblazoned with the name SHADD. When the many accomplished pianists that weekend sat down to strike those keys, it was equally easy to spot their delight in the instrument.
That piano was the product of a trailblazer in his field. The Shadd in question is jazz drummer Warren Shadd, the first African-American piano manufacturer. That makes him the first large-scale commercial African-American instrument manufacturer, period.
For Shadd, piano making is part of his birthright. His grandparents were musicians: His grandmother was a ragtime pianist in the South in the '30s, and his grandfather invented (and performed on) a collapsible drum set. (He never patented it, a lesson his grandson learned.) Shadd's father was himself a piano technician, restorer, builder and performer — as well as a trombonist. And Shadd's aunt was the NEA Jazz Master pianist and vocalist Shirley Horn. A child prodigy, young Warren made his own concert debut at age 4.
Shadd Pianos are now in churches and concert venues across the U.S. — including the set of American Idol, where house keyboardist Wayne Linsey will play it on Wednesday night's episode. On a recent visit to Warren Shadd's home in a suburb of Washington, D.C. — a home that doubles as the Shadd Piano showroom — he spoke about his life and work.
Willard Jenkins: What sparked your original interest in pianos?
Warren Shadd: My father was the exclusive piano technician for the Howard Theatre, so I would go down there with him four times a week and see James Brown, Count Basie, [Duke] Ellington, Pearl Bailey, Peggy Lee, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers ... rehearsing. I'd see this all day long, every day. From the time I woke up, there were band rehearsals. Shirley Horn rehearsing in my basement with Billy Hart and Marshall Hawkins ... We had pianos everywhere in my house, from the garage to the basement, sometimes even one of the upright pianos sitting in the kitchen, [Laughs.] And musicians would come over to our house after the gig and play all night: Dude Brown, Bernard Sweetney, Steve Novosel, Roberta Flack ...
My father would have me do little repairs on the piano. When he went on these piano [repair] jobs, he would take me with him to see what the whole thing was about ... and I would never want to go. I just wanted to stay home and play the drums; just wanted to be Warren Shadd the drummer. Except when he said he was going to the Howard Theatre — I was in the car before he got there! I wanted to see all these cats rehearse, see the show ... I met Grady Tate when I was about 6 years old, playing with Jimmy Smith, then went full circle and played with Jimmy Smith myself.
As I progressed and learned more about piano technology, I never aspired to; I just knew how to do it. I would say, 'Piano is what I know, drums is who I am.' As I went out there and toured with different acts, did a bunch of Broadway shows and got a little tired of the road, I learned how to tune, rebuild and restore pianos. I would take these pianos down to the nuts and bolts and build them back up just for fun, just for a hobby. I would take whole grand or upright pianos apart, build them back up with everything refinished — new strings, new soundboard, new keys, new ivories — for fun. And then my father would sell the piano. [Laughs.] I was about 12, 13 when I started doing this.
The record player was always going, from Sonny Stitt's Low Flame album, to Count Basie, to Buddy Rich, to Miles, to Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, the James Gang, Iron Butterfly — I had a real potpourri and understanding of all genres of music. While I was doing this piano thing just for the heck of it, I was also performing with a bunch of folks. After I got through high school, I went to Howard University and was in the big band with Wallace Roney, Geri Allen, Gary Thomas, Noble Jolley Sr., Carroll Dashiell and Paul Carr.
When my father passed in 1993, I took over the piano business full tilt, because he had all of these clients for tuning, rebuilding and restoring. He pretty much had Washington, D.C., totally sewn up with all the church pianos. So when I took it over, I already had a client base — it wasn't like I had to start over fresh. We had all these contracts with churches. Coming in as the second generation of this business was phenomenal for me. Secure from being a musician on tour, it was a built-in job.
As the industry changed a bit, I found that rebuilding pianos was not so much what I really wanted to do financially. I would take these pianos and beautifully restore them ... and somebody would say 'OK, I'll give you $600 for it...' [Laughs.] I'm like, 'Dude, even the new strings I put on this cost four times that much!' So I kind of migrated out of that restoration business into doing tunings and repair work.
I would also exchange parts. I'd take a soundboard out of a Steinway and put it in a Baldwin to see what kind of reaction it would give, understanding the engineering, understanding which side vibrates the most. I'd exchange strings, put on heavier strings, lighter strings, to achieve a certain type of sound. Being a musician, I have an advantage of understanding what musicians want and what they want to hear. If I can compare here — Mr. Steinway doesn't play piano, Yamaha no, Kawai no, Bosendorfer no, Fazioli a little bit ... They are engineers and businessmen; I'm a musician and an engineer and businessman. I have somewhat of a musical advantage. What I'm crafting is a musical instrument and all those different components that go into that, especially the musical parts.
At what point did you decide to actually manufacture pianos?
From churches and especially symphonic tunings, you understood that the piano had a disadvantage in terms of the pianists especially being able to hear themselves play, because in church you're in total competition with the Hammond B-3 organ or the pipe organ, the drums, the bass, the percussion, the choir and the congregation. They would put microphones in the piano, but they weren't placed right to give you the most opulent sound of the piano. You would have to totally jack up that sound for the pianist to feel really comfortable. In the symphony, there'd be a floor monitor, but you're totally surrounded by all these string instruments and you're still at a disadvantage ... and you just play the part.
My first notion was enhancing the volume of the acoustic piano by itself, without any kind of electronics. Even if you add electronics, you'll have more sound, because the origin of the piano will have more sound, more volume to it without distorting it — which is important, too. There's a piano on the market that is somewhat loud, but as you play it louder, it has distortion. The soundboard is not made so well that it can take that kind of pounding. My pianos: You can stand on them and you will not get any kind of distortion.
I studied and researched in the library and wrote a dissertation. I went back to some of those old pianos I restored, and I would experiment with the soundboard. I wrote this stuff on sheets of notebook paper and just put it away, didn't really think that much about it. One day, I was tuning a piano at this old man Mr. Tucker's house. As I'm tuning his old upright piano, he started whimpering. I said 'Mr. Tucker, what's going on?' He said, 'It's all right, Shadd, it's all right.' So I go on tuning the piano, then he really starts crying a lot. 'What's wrong, Mr. Tucker?' He said, 'Shadd, see that piano? See that name on the front of it? That should say Shadd, because you're the only one!' I said, 'OK, Mr. Tucker, I've got these ideas, I'm gonna go back and study.' He pretty much planted the seed.
I went back and blew the dust off of these old ideas that had been sitting in a cabinet, and I started trying to engage some of these parts and put some of these old ideas I had together. And then I said, 'Why not try to do some of this stuff electronically?' So I built this prototype piano. It took me two summers and there it is [pointing to a high-tech grand piano in the adjoining room]. I put an audio system in the piano where speakers are right in front of the piano, so the sound would come right to the pianist and the pianist can hear themselves play. And I put speakers under the piano and a subwoofer so you can get the full gamut of the piano and control the volume and graphic equalize each section of the piano — bass, alto, tenor and treble — so you could go to each section of the piano and customize it just like that. I went another step and made it MIDI, so you could play all of your electronic synthesizer sounds on the piano.
For educational purposes, I made this piano interactive. I put a computer under the piano and I built this 24" touchscreen on the front and a 13" screen on the left and encompassed video cams throughout the piano. So on the other side, interactively, your piano teacher can see you, you can see your piano teacher, they can see our face, torso, left hand, right hand, pedal movement, and teach intelligently anywhere in the world ... distance learning right there at the piano.
From that point, you can also have your band on the other screen, so you can even cut tracks with your band live and in real time. You can teach and you can score on your touchscreen as you're watching that, so it's like a total workshop right in front of the piano. Now you can compete in a church environment, in a symphonic environment, because now you have the volume right in your face. But even taking it to another level ... I have a [piano] bench that has surround sound; it has a subwoofer in it. So now, you don't only just hear the music; you feel the music, so that every little nuance that you play on the piano down to the triple pianissimo ... you feel everything that you're playing.
From there, I said, 'Let me go back to the acoustic piano and see how I can apply some of that stuff to these new pianos.' So I incorporated a lot of the soundboard technology that I invented — and I have patents on all of this technology, unlike my grandfather with the collapsible drum set. I assembled an A team of piano manufacturers around the world and sort of cherry-picked the best of the best. I said I want you to make this ... in accordance to my patents and designs.
My first piano, I sold to the Setai Hotel in New York, now called the Langham Place Hotel, and they play jazz there on this piano — seven days a week. I was trying to get a particular piano company to build my pianos. When I called, they said, 'We'll build your pianos if you bring us 1,000 signatures of people who would buy your pianos.' A friend of mine suggested going to the Gospel Workshop of America, the big convention of all the ministers of music and trustees. It happens annually, and I'm thinking at that time all I had was paperwork: I had a provisional patent, but no prototype piano.
How am I going to go there without a piano? Hammond Organ, Yamaha are going to be there, and they're going to have instruments. So I'm just going to be there selling a piano without a piano? I had these big posters made to put on easels and put all this stuff into an SUV and traveled up to Detroit. I bought a corner booth because people were going to be coming to you on both sides as opposed to being in the middle of a straight line in the exhibit hall. I had these banners made that said, 'First African-American piano manufacturer.' I made a video of all the proposed technology. But I still didn't have a piano. [Laughs.]
I've got a lot of family in Detroit, so I got a couple cousins with clipboards to stand outside of my booth to get these signatures — the name of their church, their minister of music's name, what kind of piano they had in their church, how many pianos would they replace if they were able, and how many would they replace with the Shadd Piano based on the technology you see [in his booth presentation]? I ended up with 864 signatures in four days. I got the rest of them from DC Public Schools.
I had six people across and three deep the whole time. I had no idea there was going to be this much interest. This little church lady with a pillbox hat points up to the poster and says, "You mean, we've got a piano!" When she said that, it was like the whole place stopped — it went silent to me, I did not hear a word. At that moment, I knew that this wasn't about me; this was much bigger than me. I'm thinking I'm a conduit, being the first African-American piano manufacturer, and some would say the first African-American musical instrument maker — we don't make trumpets, trombones, tubas...
What's been the reaction of the players to your piano?
It was kind of tough initially to get cats to come out here and play the piano. One cat — after he came out and played the piano and was overwhelmed — said 'You know, I've got to apologize. I didn't come out at first because I didn't want to be disappointed!'
How are you going about connecting with piano players?
One player at a time. I call folks, they come over, they play the piano, and they're wowed. Barry Harris was here three weeks ago and he's brought some attention to some other folks about this piano. Church musicians are in here all the time now. I do know there's a responsibility with this, to make the best piano — not one of the best — the best piano, period, in the world, and that's what I believe I've done. As a people, we can't be parallel; we've got to be three times as good. I'm a perfectionist, so every nuance that goes into this piano has to be the very best.
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Friday, September 4, 2015
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Justice Or Else, Million Man March 2015 Anniversary Promo Video
I shall never forget the incredible day that I, as one of those "Hard-Headed" women attended the Million Man March. Another woman and I motored to DC and had a hot breakfast prepared by my brother, a day of warmth and camaraderie with my brothers and nephews. My brother had also bought us all matching MM March T-shirts. I joyfully recall all those men of strong conviction who stood for hours to hear all speakers. I had brought blankets for us (women have forethought). I recall the strong arms of young men who, in a gentlemanly gesture, lifted my riding companion and me over a wall so we could venture nearer the front on the lawn to see better. It was a day of love and pride for Black men who traveled from all across the country to be there. And YES, there REALLY were a MILLION OR MORE BLACK MEN on the National Mall that day.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Friday, June 12, 2015
ALSO FOR OUR FRIEND LAVONNE:
LIVE
ON, LAVONNE!
Live on, LaVonne . . .
You are really not gone --
Now you are free to become One –
Amid ethereal essences of life – from now on!
Although you did have sanguine sisters,
You chose to become one of mine
Although you had other family members,
You chose to adopt mine over a period of time.
At family gatherings -- at graduations,
Christmas, or Thanksgiving,
For any celebrations
For meritorious living
You joined us with glee
For the merriment that would always be --
Helping to cherish each wonderful memory.
So - We’ll miss the small frame
The very musical sound of your name,
Your droll expressions we’ll recall
And remember wry humor with all.
Through your life’s ups and downs
You rose above ordinary frowns --
You had the courage to always find a way
to succeed in life each and every day.
For -- Under that tough exterior
lay a heart of pure gold
Your kindness to others
Was a great thing to behold.
And now -- Live on, LaVonne . . .
You are really not gone --
Now you are free to become One –
Amid ethereal essences of life – from now on!
Your love not only went beyond humans
but to many pets did extend.
You carried them with you
nearly wherever you went.
The so-called
“nephew” pups – as you referred of them to me
that you’d carry about quite lovingly --
dressed up in the very best,
or tucked sweetly in carry bags
slung neatly across your chest.
They were the perennial companions
Life-giving, loving and “Hands-on!”
It was like you were their loving mother --
and when you lost one, you’d get another.
This love was not only for your pets
but the Love of the Lord transcended the rest
that taught the life lessons which you did learn
and guided you to often share your concern
with elder ladies of your long-time congregation
also older relatives, wherever
you discerned in their situation
there was a need for companionship or assistance
And you’d find wonderful ways to provide this.
At Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church
You loved becoming a Deacon
Faithfully fulfilling expected duties
from annual season to season.
Right training elicited appropriate dignity
Yet avoiding excess piety -- out of your humanity.
You often managed to find the humor in life
Which strengthened you amid day-to-day pains and strife.
Moreover, you always kept the family tradition
of living life as a dutiful Christian.
Then -- Live on, LaVonne . . .
You are really not gone --
Now you are free to become One –
Amid ethereal essences of life – from now on!
Although you were not raised
With your other dear siblings,
Your love and caring for them was not missing,
You tried to become a rock of solutions
whenever you felt family problems needed resolution.
You’d stop by to see me and rest
When you’d travel to North Carolina to give of your best.
Once Ron and I went to Greensboro for family support
to observe your uncle’s magnificent art work
For his achievements, we joined you in pride
And realized the family marks you carried inside.
From a long line of professionals, educators, and ministers
Your upbringing made you a lady and produced one of life’s winners.
For you had conviction of character and strength
to undergo days of health pains -- years of suffering at length
You hid tribulations hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute
Few would be able to conceive how you really did it.
It was only by God’s Grace
You kept a smile on your face.
So,
Live on, LaVonne . . .
You are really not gone --
Now you are free to become One –
Amid ethereal essences of life – from now on!
Submitted lovingly by the family of
Rev, Charles H. Clay White,
I of New Bern, N.C. and
Mrs, Elizabeth S. Blacknall White, whom LaVonne referred to as
“Aunt Elizabeh”, as well as my siblings, Charlene; myself, Mary; Charles H.
Clay White, II; my younger sister Julia; and youngest brother, Ronald Govan,
her faithful friend, and Pamela Preston White, as well as the next generation: Camara White,
Asmaa El Maliki, (both of whom, along with Ron, cared for her pets during her
illnesses); Nefertari, Charles H. C. White, III; and Shane Clay Ezra: Each of whom would think of LaVonne and smile.
So . . .
Be Resplendent in Peace, LaVonne,
LIVE ON!
Sunday, May 24, 2015
FOR MY FRIEND LaVonne
For LaVonne Playlist
Delores LaVonne Brewington McMillan Yahn Trimiar.
Passed away on May 14, 2015 at Walter Reed National Medical Center. She is survived by husband Otha, two brothers Harvey Brewington (Elsie) and Carroll (Myra) Brewington, two sisters, Mary Gean Edwards, Chesapeake Beach, Maryland and Joanne Blaine, Washington, DC, one uncle, James C. McMillan of Greensboro N.C. nieces, nephews and a host of relatives and friends. . She was predeceased by her parents, Harvey and Delores McMillan Brewington and Dr. Clarence and Beatrice Stanton McMillan. A memorial service will be held June 6,2015, 11:00 am, at 15th St. Presbyterian Church, 1701 15th ST, NW, Washington, DC. 20009.
There will also be a Memorial Held June 27, 2015,11 AM At Blandonia Presbyterian Church 605 Wall St, Sanford N.C. Friends and family gathering after Memorial, come out and tell your LaVonne story.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Monday, May 4, 2015
Friday, May 1, 2015
Friday, April 24, 2015
Monday, April 20, 2015
Thursday, April 16, 2015
N.J. teacher Marylin Zuniga and supporters address Orange school board
No child should be prevented from speaking his or her mind in a compassionate manner, and it should not cause him or her to loose a teacher. This is America where Freedom of Speech is revered. That's what we must continue to teach our children. This Fascist FOP must be brought down by the People. Only WE THE PEOPLE can demand the type of deep, widespread REVISION of LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING AND REQUIREMENTS that are so urgently needed in this nation.
The USA police kill and or frame more people than anyone in the world. European officers are never this vicious and violent. Something is wrong with the USA picture, and it must be CHANGED. Just look at the fact that the INNOCENCE Project has exonerated over 325 innocent human beings from prison -- many of whom have served over 30 or 40 years. The evil that is in Law Enforcement Mentality must be Broken. It is EQUIVALENT to any of the evil and injust that is in the minds of the True Perpetrators. Our system must become revolutionized as RESTORATIVE -- NOT PENAL. Check out how the Scandinavian countries do it. We must not only pray for TRUE justice to prevail in this country, but WORK toward that end incessantly..
Activists, teachers and members of the community were on-hand to support elementary school teacher Marylin Zuniga, as she addressed the Orange school board about her suspension.The board decided to ’table the matter.’ (Video by Saed Hindash | NJ
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Rev. CT Vivian
Rev. CT Vivian
A 36-year-old Baptist minister from Howard, MO, the Reverend Cordy "C.T." Vivian was the oldest of the Nashville Riders. A close friend of James Lawson, he had gained the trust of the students involved in the Nashville Movement by participating in the 1960 Nashville sit-in campaign to end lunch counter desegregation. On May 24, 1961, he was arrested in Jackson, MS on the formal charge of breach of peace and imprisoned at Parchman State Prison Farm.
One of the Civil Rights Movement's most respected and revered figures, he was named director of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) affiliates in 1963, and later founded and led several civil rights organizations, including Vision, the National Anti-Klan Network, the Center of Democratic Renewal, and Black Action Strategies and Information Center (BASIC).
From Wikipedia
Cordy Tindell Vivian, usually known as C. T. Vivian (born July 30, 1924), is a minister, author, and was a close friend and lieutenant of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. during the American Civil Rights Movement. Vivian continues to reside in Atlanta, Georgia and most recently founded the C. T. Vivian Leadership Institute, Inc. He is a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Senator Barack Obama, speaking at the occasion of the anniversary of Selma to Montgomery marches in March of 2007 at Selma's Brown Chapel A.M.E., recognized Vivian in his opening remarks in the words of Martin L. King Jr. as "the greatest preacher to ever live.”
On August 8, 2013, President Barack Obama named Vivian as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The citation in the press release reads as follows:
C.T. Vivian is a distinguished minister, author, and organizer. A leader in the Civil Rights Movement and friend to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he participated in Freedom Rides and sit-ins across our country. Dr. Vivian also helped found numerous civil rights organizations, including Vision, the National Anti-Klan Network, and the Center for Democratic Renewal. In 2012, he returned to serve as interim President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Vivian was born in Howard, Missouri. As a small boy he migrated with his mother to Macomb, Illinois, where he attended Lincoln Grade School and Edison Junior High School. Vivian graduated from Macomb High School in 1942 and went on to attend Western Illinois University in Macomb, where he worked as the sports editor for the school newspaper. His first professional job was recreation director for the Carver Community Center in Peoria, Illinois. There, Vivian participated in his first sit-in demonstrations, which successfully integrated Barton's Cafeteria in 1947.
Vivian wrote Black Power and the American Myth in 1970, a book about the failings of the Civil Rights Movement. The book was published by Fortress Press of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The telling prophetic citing of an ongoing challenge between Christians and Muslims judges the previous generation's negligence on working toward peace. "Christians and Muslims can find common ground in the necessity to create new alternatives. Anyone who starts to struggle at any place can go all the way to achieve the changes all desire." (p. 125.)
In 1961, Vivian, now a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) participated in Freedom Rides replacing injured members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
He helped found the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference, and helped organize the first sit-ins in Nashville in 1960 and the first civil rights march in 1961. Vivian rode the first "Freedom Bus" into Jackson, Mississippi, and went on to work alongside Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, Diane Nash, and others on SCLC's Executive Staff in Birmingham, Selma, Chicago, Nashville, the March on Washington; Danville, Virginia, and St. Augustine, Florida. Some claim that the St. Augustine campaign helped lead to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Vivian's role in it was honored when he returned to the city in 2008 to dedicate a Freedom Trail of historic sites of the Civil Rights Movement.
During the summer following the Selma Movement, Vivian conceived and directed an educational program, Vision, and put 702 Alabama students in college with scholarships (this program later became Upward Bound). His 1970 Black Power and the American Myth was the first book on the Civil Rights Movement by a member of Martin Luther King's staff.
In the 1970s Vivian moved to Atlanta, and in 1977 founded the Black Action Strategies and Information Center (BASICS), a consultancy on multiculturalism and race relations in the workplace and other contexts. In 1979 he co-founded, with Anne Braden, the Center for Democratic Renewal (initially as the National Anti-Klan Network), an organization where blacks and whites worked together in response to white supremacist activity. In 1984 he served in Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign, as the national deputy director for clergy. In 1994 he helped to establish, and served on the board of Capitol City Bank and Trust Co., a black-owned Atlanta bank. He serves currently on the board of Every Church a Peace Church.
Vivian continues to speak publicly and offer workshops, and has done so at many conferences around the country and the world, including with the United Nations. He was featured as an activist and an analyst in the civil rights documentary, Eyes on the Prize, and has been featured in a PBS special, The Healing Ministry of Dr. C. T. Vivian. He has made numerous appearances on Oprah as well as the Montel Williams Show and Donahue. He is the focus of the biography, Challenge and Change by Lydia Walker.
In 2008, Vivian founded and incorporated the C. T. Vivian Leadership Institute, Inc. (CTVLI) to "Create a Model Leadership Culture in Atlanta" Georgia. The C. T. Vivian Leadership Institute conceived, developed and implemented the "Yes, We Care" campaign on December 18, 2008 (four days after the City of Atlanta turned the water off at Morris Brown College [MBC]) and, over a period of two and a half months, mobilized the Atlanta community to donate in excess of $500,000 directly to Morris Brown as "bridge funding." This effort literally saved this Historically Black College University (HBCU) which was founded in 1881 and allowed the college to negotiate with the City which ultimately restored the water services to the college. Additionally, this strategic campaign gave impetus to MBC to expand and renew its donor base.
Subsequent to the Morris Brown campaign, Vivian began discussions with Mosaica Educational Systems which ultimately lead to a partnership with the Atlanta Preparatory Academy (APA) an innovative charter school based in Atlanta at the historic Jordan Hall facility.
Dr C T Vivian
C. T. Vivian on Nonviolence & Hypocrisy of U.S. Promoting Democracy Abroad
Rev. C.T. Vivian Interview (2007)
THE END OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY - Rev.Dr.C.T.Vivian
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
A. Philip Randolph
Freedom is never granted and is never given; it is won and exacted.
A Philip Randolph
A Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom
A. Philip Randolph was the most important civil rights leader to emerge from the labor movement. Throughout his long career, he consistently kept the interests of black workers at the forefront of the racial agenda. Whereas W. E. B. Du Bois argued that the problem of the twentieth century was “the color line,” Randolph concluded that it was the question of the “common man.”
Asa Philip Randolph (1889-1979) was born in Crescent City, Florida, and grew up in Jacksonville.The son of a Methodist minister he was brought up to value education, he attended high school at the Cookman Institute where he studied Greek and Latin and excelled in drama and public speaking.
Randolph was also brought up to take pride in his heritage and his abilities. He and his brother "never felt we were inferior to any white boy, never had that concept at all," he remembered, "and we were told, constantly and continuously that 'You . . . are not supposed to bow and take a back seat for anybody.'"
Graduating at the top of his class in 1907, Randolph began working for the Union Life Insurance Co. Although it was a well-respected job in the black community at the time, it did not hold Randolph's interest -- and neither did a series of odd jobs he tried after that. Inspired by W.E.B Du Bois 's book, The Souls of Black Folk and its critique of racism, Randolph was determined to get out of the South. In 1911 he found work on a steamboat headed for New York City.
Settling in Harlem, Randolph found work as switchboard operator in an apartment building, enrolled in the College of the City of New York and helped organize the Independent Political Council, a debate group.In 1913 Randolph courted and married Mrs. Lucille Campbell Green, a widow, Howard University graduate and entrepreneur who shared his socialist politics. She earned enough money to support them both. The couple had no children. A member of the Socialist party by 1916, and a popular street-corner orator, Randolph got a job doing political work for the Brotherhood of Labor, an employment office for African American migrants from the South and West Indian immigrants.
Randolph’s politics were rooted in the World War I era. A child of hard-working parents who respected learning . Working during the day and studying at the City College at night, Randolph broadened his intellectual horizons as he read modern economic and political writers, including Marx. This theoretical grounding predisposed him to view the black working class, not the black elite, as the major hope for black progress. His associations with socialists and the continuing urbanization of the black population strengthened his working-class orientation.
In New York, Randolph became familiar with socialism and the ideologies espoused by the Industrial Workers of the World. He met Columbia University Law student Chandler Owen, and the two developed a synthesis of Marxist economics and the sociological ideas of Lester Frank Ward, arguing that people could only be free if not subject to economic deprivation. At this point, Randolph developed what would become his distinctive form of civil rights activism, which emphasized the importance of collective action as a way for black people to gain legal and economic equality. To this end, he and Owen opened an employment office in Harlem to provide job training for southern migrants and encourage them to join trade unions.
Randolph’s first experience with labor organization came in 1917, when he organized a union of elevator operators in New York City. In 1919 he became president of the National Brotherhood of Workers of America, a union which organised amongst African-American shipyard and dock workers in the Tidewater region of Virginia. The union dissolved in 1921, under pressure from the American Federation of Labor.
In 1917 his career as an organizer and activist took off when he and Chandler Owen, a longtime associate, launched The Messenger, a monthly magazine that delved into politics, trade union news, and literary criticism, among other subjects. As editor, Randolph campaigned against lynching, U.S. participation in the First World War, and the segregation he witnessed in the trade union movement. In fact in 1919 he denounced the AFL as "the most wicked machine for the propagation of race prejudice in the country."
Because he believed black Americans would never gain political freedom without economic power, in 1918 Randolph helped organize the National Association for the Promotion of Labor Unionism Among Negroes. He also supported the National Brotherhood of the Workers an independent union organized in 1919 that combined black nationalism with trade unionism.
Impressed by Randolph's abilities, a group of Pullman porters invited him in 1925 to help organize their fledgling union, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Although it would take ten years for the Brotherhood to gain an AFL charter -- the first awarded to a union of black workers -- in 1937 the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters would become the first black union to win a collective bargaining agreements.
The victory made Randolph the leading black figure in the labor movement. He headed the new National Negro Congress, an umbrella movement of mass organizations, but resigned in 1940, believing the group was controlled by communists. Through his success with the BSCP, Randolph emerged as one of the most visible spokespeople for African-American civil rights. In 1941, he, Bayard Rustin, and A. J. Muste proposed a march on Washington to protest racial discrimination in war industries, an end to segregation, access to defense employment, the proposal of an anti-lynching law and of the desegregation of the American Armed forces. Randolph's belief in the power of peaceful direct action was inspired partly by Mahatma Gandhi's success in using such tactics against British occupation in India. Randolph threatened to have 50,000 blacks march on the city; it was cancelled after President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, or the Fair Employment Act. Some activists, including Rustin, felt betrayed because Roosevelt's order applied only to banning discrimination within war industries and not the armed forces. Nonetheless, the Fair Employment Act is generally considered an important early civil rights victory.
The movement continued to gain momentum, In 1942, an estimated 18,000 blacks gathered at Madison Square Garden to hear Randolph kick off a campaign against discrimination in the military, in war industries, in government agencies, and in labor unions. Following passage of the Act, during the Philadelphia transit strike of 1944, the government backed African-American workers' striking to gain positions formerly limited to white employees. Buoyed by these successes, Randolph and other activists continued to press for the rights of African Americans. In 1947, Randolph, along with colleague Grant Reynolds, renewed efforts to end discrimination in the armed services, forming the Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service, later renamed the League for Non-Violent Civil Disobedience. When President Truman asked Congress for a peacetime draft law, Randolph urged young black men to refuse to register. Since Truman was vulnerable to defeat in 1948 and needed the support of the growing black population in northern states, he eventually capitulated. On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman abolished racial segregation in the armed forces through Executive Order 9981.
Randolph and Rustin also formed an important alliance with Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1957, when schools in the south resisted school integration following Brown v. Board of Education, Randolph organized a Prayer Pilgrimage with Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1958 and 1959, Randolph organized Youth Marches for Integrated Schools in Washington, DC. At the same time, he arranged for Rustin to teach King how to organize peaceful demonstrations in Alabama and to form alliances with progressive whites. The protests directed by Rustin and King in cities such as Birmingham and Montgomery provoked a violent backlash by police and the local Ku Klux Klan throughout the summer of 1963, which was captured on television and broadcast throughout the nation and the world. Rustin later remarked that Birmingham "was one of television's finest hours. Evening after evening, television brought into the living-rooms of America the violence, brutality, stupidity, and ugliness of {police commissioner} Eugene "Bull" Connor's effort to maintain racial segregation." Partly as a result of the violent spectacle in Birmingham, which was becoming an international embarrassment, the Kennedy administration drafted civil rights legislation aimed at ending Jim Crow once and for all.
As a result of the groundwork laid 22 years earlier for the 1941 March on Washington, A. Philip Randolph was prepared for the leadership role he held in the 1963 March on Washington. With Bayard Rustin as the main organizer of the march, Randolph was able to unite the many groups and leaders that comprised this national call for masses of people to take action.
Randolph finally realized his vision for a March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, which attracted over 250,000 to the nation's capital. The rally is often remembered as the high-point of the civil rights movement, and it did help keep the issue in the public consciousness. However, when President Kennedy was assassinated three months later, Civil Rights legislation was stalled in the Senate. It was not until the following year, under President Lyndon B. Johnson, that the Civil Rights Act was finally passed. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed. Although King rightly deserves great credit for these legislative victories, it is hard to overestimate the importance of Randolph's contributions to the civil rights movement.
While expanding his targets, Randolph never forgot the interests of black workers and was a constant critic of discrimination in some unions. The originator of the March on Washington in 1963, Randolph aimed to obtain government sponsorship of black jobs. Although his goal was overshadowed by the demands of the southern civil rights movement, Randolph’s understanding of the economic needs of blacks predated the riots that drew the nation’s attention to them. He also became a critic of the black power movement, which he believed was programmatically bankrupt.
Despite his concern for ordinary workers, Randolph’s style was intellectual and aloof. Perhaps because he believed in the controlling force of self-interest, he could not fully comprehend the social and psychological impetus for the black power movement. But his theoretical bent and rationality enabled him to construct political alliances and to choose and win significant labor and civil rights objectives.
Pullman Porters - Ordinary Men, Extraordinary History
A. Philip Randolph: Reading Pledge of the March on Washington
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