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

Memorial Day 2011 - Freedom Isn't Free

Les Twins.mp4

Saheela Ibraheem 15-Year-Old Picks Harvard

15-Year-Old Picks Harvard After Being Accepted to 13 Colleges
By Abena Agyeman-Fisher on May 4th 2011 6:03PM

Do you know any 15-year-olds who are on their way to Harvard?


Meet Saheela Ibraheem (pictured), a senior at Wardlaw-Hartridge School in Edison, N.J.


Crediting her parents, who are Nigerian immigrants, for her academic achievements -- her father is said to have stayed up at night teaching her subjects not found at school -- Saheela's exceptional journey began as a 6th grader at Conackamack 
Middle School in Piscataway, N.J.
While there, Saheela asked to be moved to a higher-level class because she was passionate about math. Instead, the school decided to skip her a grade. 


But this would be just the beginning.
Saheela realized early on that her public school still wasn't doing it for her; consequently, the zealous student moved to Wardlaw-Hartridge, a private school, and skipped freshman year to land in 10th grade. Her new school would end up being the right place for Saheela, giving her the bandwith to feel challenged and excel. Wardlaw-Hartridge Director of Development William Jenkins says:


"She's learned and she's very smart. But she keeps pushing herself."


But this is not just the story of a student who has mastered education. Saheela takes the concept of stimulating the mind and body to a whole other level. 
"She is a three-sport athlete, playing outfield for the school's softball team, defender on the soccer team, and swimming relays and 50-meter races for the swim team. She also sings alto in the school choir, plays trombone in the school band and serves as president of the school's investment club, which teaches students about the stock market by investing in virtual stocks."


Last year, Saheela applied to 14 colleges and universities that spanned the nation with a "grade point average (between a 96 and 97 on a 100-point scale) and her 2,340 SAT score (a perfect 800 on the math section, a 790 in writing and a 750 in reading)." 


California Institute of Technology, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Cornell, Brown, Williams College, Stanford, University of Chicago, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Washington University in St. Louis all accepted her. 


Surprise, surprise, Saheela chose Harvard and wants to major in either neurobiology and neuroscience in order to study how the brain works. 


Of her accomplishments, Saheela only had this to say:
I try my best in everything I do," Saheela said. "Anyone who's motivated can work wonders."


I am dumbfounded by Saheela's success. If she is like this as a teen, what will she accomplish as a full-fledged adult? Kudos to her family for doing such a fine job raising a balanced, ambitious child. As a fellow parent, that is not an easy thing to do.
Just a few months ago, the phenomenon of Amy Chua's Tiger Mom overwhelmed the airwaves as people discussed the strategy of raising a successful child. The Tiger Mom ideology tauted all work and no play, with everything -- consciously or unconsciously -- focusing on being the best academic student. 


Saheela's parents, though, allowed their daughter (and other children who also attend the same school as Saheela) to have a more balanced existence, encouraging her in academics and extracurricular activities. 

Will.i.Am - Take Our Planet Back

linebacker Ray Lewis and former cornerback Reggie Howard

NFL Star Helps NY Boy After Mom's Suicide Plunge

Date: Wednesday, May 04, 2011, 11:11 am
By: Verena Dobnik, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — NFL linebacker Ray Lewis and former cornerback Reggie Howard are helping a 10-year-old New York boy whose mother drowned herself and three children by driving a van into the Hudson River.

The surviving child, La'Shaun Armstrong, attended a Manhattan fundraiser Saturday night for the United Athletes Foundation, which is supported by the Baltimore Ravens star. Some of the proceeds will go to create a relief fund to provide him with mentoring, counseling and tutoring.

Lewis reached out to the child as soon as he heard about the April 12 tragedy. The boy escaped through a van window after the car plunged into the water in Newburgh, N.Y., and was rescued by a passing driver. La'Shaun's 25-year-old mother, Lashanda Armstrong, reportedly was distraught over an argument with her boyfriend.

La'Shaun said meeting Lewis earlier this week was "awesome," according to Howard.

The 35-year-old linebacker went bowling with La'Shaun, saying the boy needs mentoring from a father figure. His biological father, Todd Johnson, is in prison on a robbery conviction.

Lewis is vice chairman of the United Athletes Foundation, which was created in 2008 by a group of professional athletes aiming to improve the lives of other athletes and their communities.

The president of the nonprofit is Howard, who took La'Shaun shopping for a new suit earlier this week.

"I hopped into a cab in Manhattan to his house (in Middletown, N.Y.) — and I had no idea it was more than 60 miles away!" Howard said as he prepared to host Saturday's event at Manhattan's Grand Hyatt hotel.

La'Shaun and his grandmother, Datrice Armstrong, who is raising him now, were the foundation's guests for the weekend, sleeping at the Grand Hyatt.

Besides a check presented to La'Shaun on Saturday — for an undisclosed amount — the foundation plans to help him well into the future, Howard said.

Are you sick of highly paid teachers?

by Everette Blacknall on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at 7:03pm

Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit!

We can get that for less than minimum wage.

     That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours).

     Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.

However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.

LET'S SEE.... That's $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).

     What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year. Wait a minute -- there's something wrong here! There sure is! The average teacher's salary

(nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student--a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!

Show appreciation for educators...

Nurturing Pain - T.D Jakes Talks to the Ladies

Circle of Protection

In the face of historic deficits, the nation faces unavoidable choices about how to balance needs and resources and allocate burdens and sacrifices. These choices are economic, political—and moral. As Christians, we believe the moral measure of the debate is how the most poor and vulnerable people fare. We look at every budget proposal from the bottom up—how it treats those Jesus called “the least of these” (Matthew 25:45). They do not have powerful lobbies, but they have the most compelling claim on our consciences and common resources. The Christian community has an obligation to help them be heard, to join with others to insist that programs that serve the most vulnerable in our nation and around the world are protected. God is calling us to pray, fast, give alms and to speak out for justice. The following is a statement by church leaders from diverse theological and political beliefs who have come together to form a Circle of Protection around programs that serve the most vulnerable in our nation and around the world. All people are invited to sign the statement and we'll send a copy to President Obama and your members of Congress.       https://secure3.convio.net/sojo/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=419 Circle of Protection: A Statement on Why We Need to Protect Programs for the Poor ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  As people of faith, we are committed to fiscal responsibility and shared sacrifice. We are also committed to resist budget cuts that undermine the lives, dignity, and rights of poor and vulnerable people. Therefore, we join with others to form a Circle of Protection around programs that meet the essential needs of hungry and poor people at home and abroad.  1. The nation needs to substantially reduce future deficits, but not at the expense of hungry and poor people. 2. Programs focused on reducing poverty should not be cut. They should be made as effective as possible, but not cut. 3. We urge our leaders to protect and improve poverty-focused development and humanitarian assistance to promote a better, safer world. 4. National leaders must review and consider tax revenues, military spending, and entitlements in the search for ways to share sacrifice and cut deficits. 5. A fundamental task is to create jobs and spur economic growth. Decent jobs at decent wages are the best path out of poverty, and restoring growth is a powerful way to reduce deficits. 6. The budget debate has a central moral dimension. Christians are asking how we protect "the least of these." "What would Jesus cut?" "How do we share sacrifice?" 7. As believers, we turn to God with prayer and fasting, to ask for guidance as our nation makes decisions about our priorities as a people. 8. God continues to shower our nation and the world with blessings. As Christians, we are rooted in the love of God in Jesus.