March 23rd: 1968 – Rev. Walter Fauntroy, a former aide of Martin Luther King Jr., becomes the first non-voting congressional delegate from the District of Columbia since the Reconstruction period.
March 24th: 1941 – “Native Son,” a play adapted from Richard Wright’s novel of the same name, opens at the St. James Theatre in New York City.
March 25th: 1807 – The British Parliament abolishes the African slave trade. Although slavery was abolished within England in 1772, it was still allowed in the British colonies, as was the slave trade. The continued slave trade was not only accepted, but considered essential to the power and prosperity of the British Empire. English slave-merchants made fortunes carrying slaves from Africa to the British colonies in North America and the Caribbean, and many of England’s industries, notably textiles and sugar refining, depended on raw materials produced by slave labor on colonial plantations. Still, there were opponents, and in 1787, they launched a nationwide campaign to seek the abolition of the slave trade.
1965 – The Selma-to-Montgomery march ended with rally of some fifty thousand at Alabama capitol. One of the marchers, a white civil rights worker named Viola Liuzzo, is shot to death on U.S. Highway 80 after the rally by white terrorists. Three Klansmen are convicted of violating her civil rights and sentenced to ten years in prison.
March 26th: 1872 – Thomas J. Martin is awarded a patent for the fire extinguisher.
1910 – William H. Lewis is appointed assistant attorney general of the United States.
1937 – William Hastie is appointed to a federal judgeship in the Virgin Islands. With the appointment, Hastie became the first African American to serve on the federal bench in the U.S. or its territories. Judge Hastie served on the bench for two years then became dean and professor of law at Howard University in Washington DC.
March 27th: 1969 – The Black Academy of Arts and Letters is founded at a meeting in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. C. Eric Lincoln, professor of religion and sociology at Union Theological Seminary, is elected president of the organization.
March 28th: 1870 – Jonathan S. Wright becomes the first African American State Supreme Court Justice in South Carolina.
March 29th: 1968 – Students seize building on the campus of Bowie State College in Bowie, Maryland.
March 30th: 1869 – The 15th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, which guarantees men, the right to vote regardless of “race, color or previous condition of servitude.” Despite ratification of the amendment, it will be almost 100 years before African Americans become “universally” enfranchised. Editor’s Note: The entire African American population of Washington DC (approximately 300,000+ of the 550,000+ people who live there) is still constitutionally denied any voting rights or self-government in the United States. This is a gaping exception to a so-called “universal” practice.
1995 – Tens of thousands of Rwandan refugees, fleeing violence in Burundi, begin a two-day trek to sanctuary in Tanzania.
“You’re not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.” – Malcolm X
My friend Yobachi set up this day as a day for bloggers to get together and blog for voter justice. Just like the blogging for justice with the Jena 6 situation, we as bloggers do hold some power.
On this day of blogging for voter justice I’ll hit on a few topics. I was reminded that I need to get back to my politrickal roots by my little sis Meshia (What up girl!! text me!).
First, this whole democratic candidate race has gone on too long. I began to lose interest after the first super Tuesday. Just a bunch of back and forth. I’m just tired of it and I can’t wait until it’s over. Speaking of primaries, no disrespect to my Florida and Michigan readers but there are rules for a reason. They chose to violate rules and move the dates up knowing that the votes would not count, according to the rules. I don’t blame the people that came out and did their duty and voted I blame the establishment for moving the dates. Now if you were in a competition and your name wasn’t even on the ballot, who do you think they will vote for? Should they have been considered the fair winner? Hell no! Even if Hillary’s “we came under sniper fire and were running for cover” lying ass won the votes after the mulligan she still wouldn’t have enough to take the lead. I think they shouldn’t have a do over just for the principle of it all. I mean what are we teaching our kids? ‘It’s okay to knowingly break the rules, if you’re losing we’ll just do it over and make it all right. Whatever. Now Rev. Wright was correct in some of the things he said. I think it was more of the way it was said as opposed to what he actually said. I mean even white people that were appalled by what he said know that this country is run by rich, privileged white people. Quick, name another minority in the white house cabinet besides Condi “I kept shopping for shoes when they told me about 9/11″ Rice. Not including the waitstaff either. You can’t. Oprah may be the first female black billionaire but the only power she has is to make people go out and buy her favorite things (usually some overpriced sweats or something) and read her favorite novels. Don’t get me wrong I love watching the Oprah show every chance I get, even after all that crap she talked about hip hop music and culture, but she holds no real power. The real power is in the hands of the big Bankers. We all know that this is a capitalist society. We are run by money and who has the money? Big banks. And who runs these big banks? Rich, privileged white people. It’s funny how the media says nothing of the Clintons’ relationship with Rev. Wright
I truly think that Barack is being set up to fail. It’s a conspiracy I tell ya! a C-O-N-Spiracy!! Why did the media make such a big deal of the ties between Rezko and Obama but once again ignore the Clintons’ ties (thanks Matt Lauer for showing the pic on the Today show)
If they will look into his passport records, which doesn’t hold much pertinent info anyway, what else have they done and just not gotten caught. Don’t think for one second that the Clintons aren’t behind this somehow. Maybe Brother Malcolm X was right when he said – “You’ve been hoodwinked. You’ve been had. You’ve been took. You’ve been led astray, run amuck. You’ve been bamboozled.” You gotta open your eyes people. I may be biased because I support Barack (as you can tell from my header pic and sidebar) but so what! Fox news is biased because they seem to support Hillary. The New York Times is biased because they endorse and support John “out of touch with reality” McCain. I should be able to be a little biased on my own blog right? This whole politrickal race is getting to me. Everyday it’s some new jab at the competition. There is no way for us to win if we can’t even decide on who’s going to run. We should be using this time to campaign against the republicans not ourselves.We need to make sure that the establishment doesn’t pull the wool over our eyes like in 2000. I’m not even going to go there about the whole Kwame “the rapping mayor’ Kilpatrick’s dumbness..
How could you not think you were getting setup for one of those ‘just in case this jigga trip on me’ moments? I mean come on.. You text: I missed you. and she hits you with : Did you miss me sexually.. What the hell! and on your government issued blackberry nonetheless!! That was a straight jigga moment. Come on dawg you can’t be that stupid.. Can you? This is part one of my blog on the politricks of the game. Stay tuned.
8:00 – The show starts with Aundrea giving a recap of all the wild events.
8:03 – Diddy goes on about the promo tour and how excited he is. When did Bad Boy go to Atlantic?
8:04 – Both groups meet with the heads of Atlantic to talk about the direction of the promotonal tour. Danity Kane once again play the experience card.
8:05 – Donnie will have a single out in a few weeks after the others start promotion? sucks to be you!
8:07 – The Girls go see Miss Jones (she has gotten a lil ummm.. big). I am not feeling miss jones at all. she gets into the relationship with Dawn and Q. She handles herself well.
8:13 – Then the guys go in to see Miss Jones. Donnie goes as well. Donnie tries to smooth her over with some of that white swag he stole from Diddy.
8:15 – She asks Donnie how he feels about being solo and asks him to sing. after watching the guys I know he’s like ‘hell yeah i’m glad i’m solo!! he performs a track called ‘Love Doctor’ and kills.
8:17 – They all leave to go on the promo tour. All on one bus.. meaning one small bathroom and no place to have privacy. It’s 11 of them!
8:20 – Diddy makes a special announcement that the radio stations have a case of Bitch-assness because they don’t play the records.. Whatever dude
8:22 – The groups go on xm radio and the girls say they plan to go Diamond (10 mil) on this album. the guys say they will too (umm… ok). d. Woods makes a friendly wager on who can get the most itunes downloads and requests the first week of sales.
8:30 – nothing of interest happened. Just more promos and Mike took off his shoes to show his feet in Philly. The wager was that if they guys win Andrea has to lick between Mike’s toes and vice versa.
8:32 – The groups go to a club to do promo (Dawn was dancing like an old lady). the DJ plays both singles and Q is wildin’ out a little too much! Dawn gives him the gas face!!!
8:34 – Q overhears the girls back at the hotel talking about the situation. Dawn doesn’t want to talk to him. he goes in the guy’s room to vent. Why is Q crying? (bitchassness alert!!)
8:41 – so it seems Q has rallied the troops ( mainly robert) against DK. He thinks that all they do is disrespect the group while they constantly are defending them on air and all.
8:42 – Donnie goes to the studio to work with Diddy on the new single. I guarantee that Diddy with mess up anything that donnie and Seven did.
8:45 – Diddy all over the song, all in the videos *doing my best Suge Knight impersonation*
8:46 – Q goes to talk with Dawn. He goes over to apologize and they are back lovey dovey. Straight high school puppy love going on here. Early stage of the relationship asses!!
8:53 – Special announcement: Donnie finally has a single and they (diddy and donnie) will perform it live.
8:54 – Diddy has dinner with the groups and tells them to kill that beef that they have and be more like brothers and sisters. (22 shots of Tequila chilled? wow!) This is the part in the show, just like the others, where he reminisces about first meeting them and how proud he is of them thus far. He then messes things up by saying that Day 26 is on Jodeci and New Edition level. Negro Please!! what are you smoking? Personally, Donnie is the most talented guy. I know I’m hard on him but honestly I think he’ll do the best.
8:58 – The winner of the bet was Danity Kane by 75%. Big shock!! a platinum selling group versus an unknown.. Who did you think was gonna win?
9:00 – The live portion of the show starts. Donnie’s last name is Klang? umm yeah just go by Donnie. sounds too much like Danity Kane. Donnie Klang/Danity Kane.. Sounds like a male cover band of the girls. 9:02 – the guys perform ‘Got Me Going’. ummm…. No comment. Naw, it was okay.
9:08 – the show is hosted by Sway and the first thing he gets into is D. Woods and Robert. Robert sets the record straight that ‘Junebug’ is not his girl. I gues she didn’t get my memo about shades indoors. Does she have fingerwaves? When D. Woods was asked if it didn’t happen what would have happened she danced around it. but they’re friends now.
9:10 – Gotta get into Donnie and Aubrey (you know she has to get some shine). The both make me sick!
9:13 – The next thing to discuss is Dawn and Q. Dawn really needs to stop the madness with that ‘really good friends’ crap. You are no Rihanna or Beyonce and he is not Chris Brown or Jay. They both say they want to claim each other, umm then do it… He finally kisses her!!
9:15 – Out comes Diddy (“all in the video, all over the song” * refer to 8:45.
9:21 – I am really not feeling D. Woods’ haircut.. Straight foolishness.
9:23 – I’m tired of Sway and that same hat.. that scarf prolly smells like wet dog by now!
9:25 – the girls perform ‘Damaged’. looks like Aubrey has on a bathing suit! whatever it is it’s not a good look. I still like Shannon’s hair darker. aundrea is such a little cutie! I want to just run up and pinch her cheeks and squeeze her! umm. their stylist needs to be fired! for real.
9:28 – Aubrey needs to sitting down with all that dry humping by herself on stage. DK has the #1 album in the country.
9:32 – Bitch-assness = Envy, hate or deceit. People hating on you for no apparent reason is Bitch-assness. Donnie says Diddy showed Bitch-assness by apologizing to the girls! Shirts availble at Seanjohn.com
9:39 – The guys named themselves Day 26 because August 26th was the day they were picked. they then perfom a new track called ‘since you’ve been gone’. It’s okay but no Jodeci or New edition like diddy says they are.
*sidenote: I just was a commercial about that new movie ‘Stop Loss” is not a true representation of what the military can and cannot do. not to get into it too much, save that for another blog, but in your contract it states that you can be involuntarily called back to duty that 4 or 6 years afrter your contract is up (depending on your contract) and it also states that during war time if you are scheduled for seperation, they can stop that. Hence the term stop loss.*
9:48 – Diddy brings out his adorable twins!
9:53 – They show a shot of Seven.. WTH!!! SMH @ that wig and shades!
9:55 – Donnie performs ‘Take You There’ with Diddy. Hot track. His first single comes out on tuesday. remember I told ya he drops this fall. You heard it hear first! lls
9:58 – The big announcement is that friday you can go to badboyonline.com and purchase tickets to the Making The Band tour and they will be shooting the new season while on tour.
Thus ends another season of Making The Band. See you next year!! Peace
March 16th: 1827 – With the assistance of James Varick, Richard Allen, Alexander Crummel, and others, Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm publish “Freedom’s Journal” in New York City. Operating from space in Varick’s Zion Church, “Freedom’s Journal” is the first African American newspaper. Russwurm says of the establishment of the newspaper, “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us.”
1870 – Senator Hiram R. Revels argues against Georgia’s re-admission to the Union without safeguards for African American citizens. It is the first official speech by an African American before Congress.
1960 – San Antonio, Texas becomes the first major southern city to integrate lunch counters.
1988 – President Ronald Reagan vetoes a civil rights bill that would restore protections invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1984 ruling in Grove City College v. Bell. Reagan’s veto will be overridden by Congress less than a week later.
1995 – Mississippi ratifies the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, some 130 years after the rest of the country got around to it.
March 17th: 1865 – Aaron Anderson wins the Navy’s Medal of Honor for his heroic actions aboard the USS Wyandank during the Civil War.
1896 – C.B. Scott receives a patent for the street sweeper.
2008 – David Paterson is sworn in as New York’s 55th governor. He is New York’s first Black governor and the nation’s first legally blind governor.
March 18th: 1972 – The USS Jesse L. Brown, the first U.S. naval ship to be named after an African American naval officer, is launched at Westwego, Louisiana. Brown was the first African American pilot in the U.S. Naval Reserve and was the first African American pilot killed in the Korean War (1950). Editor’s Note: This was not the first naval vessel named after an African American. The USS Harmon was named after an enlisted man, Leonard Roy Harmon, during World War II (1944).
1991 – The Philadelphia ’76ers retire Wilt Chamberlain’s #13 jersey.
March 19th: 1870 – “O Guarani,” the most celebrated opera by Afro-Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Gomes, premiers at the Scala Theater in Milan, Italy. His enormous musical talent opened the doors of the Milan Conservatory where he studied under the guidance of the greatest opera directors of the time. Among other operas, Gomes produces “Fosca,” “Condor,” and “O Escravo” (The Slave).
1872 – T.J. Boyd, inventor, awarded patent for apparatus for detaching horses from carriages.
March 20th: 1852 – Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by white abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published. The controversial novel was credited by many, including Abraham Lincoln, with sparking the Civil War. Mr. Lincoln later told Mrs. Stowe, that she was “the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war”.
1883 – Jan Matzeliger receives patent #274,207 for his shoe lasting machine. His invention revolutionized the shoe industry, allowing for the first mass production of shoes.
1970 – Students strike at the University of Michigan and demand increased African American enrollment. The strike ends on April 2, after the administration agrees to meet their demands.
1973 – Roberto Clemente is elected to Baseball’s Hall of Fame, 11 weeks after he joins the ancestors. He becomes the first person of African descent to be elected to the Hall of Fame in a special election (before the five-year waiting period). He also is the first Hispanic to enter the Hall of Fame.
March 21st: 1965 – Thousands of marchers complete the first leg of a five-day freedom march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, dramatizing the denial of voting rights for African Americans. Led by Martin Luther King, Jr., thousands of marchers are protected by U.S. Army troops and federalized Alabama National Guardsmen because of violence encountered earlier, including the fatal beating of a white minister, Reverend James J. Reeb.
March 22nd: 1873 – Slavery is abolished in Puerto Rico. The Spanish Crown finally ends slavery in one of its last Latin American colonies. Slave owners are compensated with 35 million pesetas per slave. Despite the pronouncement of abolition, slaves are still required to keep working for three more years as indentured servants.
1986 – Debi Thomas becomes the first African American woman to win the world figure skating championship.
Hey folks! I’m moving on up like George and Weezy!! I’m 246 out of 900 (as of Mar 2nd, I think)! I gotta thank you guys for checking me out and coming back to read what I have to say. If you want to check your rank hop on over to Electronic Village. I know I’m a little late posting this, seeing as this came out on the 1st of March, but I’ve been a little busy around here. If you want to check out your ranking you can Click here or hit up The Villager.
and I added the transcript for my people at work that can’t watch the video:
“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”
Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.
Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at its very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk – to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.
This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.
I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.
Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.
This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.
And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.
On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.
Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way
But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:
“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”
That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.
Legalized discrimination – where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.
A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.
This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.
But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.
And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.
This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.
But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs – to the larger aspirations of all Americans — the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.
Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old — is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know — what we have seen – is that America can change. That is the true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination – and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past – are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina – or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.
I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.
There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.
And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.
She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.
Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”
“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.
But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
Okay folks. This goes out to my urban bloggers out there. Even if you’re not urban you can still pay attention but especially for my urban bloggers. I have an announcement to make. There is a new social networking type site called Urbanblogger.com. I believe it was started by Necole Bitchie. You know hot chick from Tha A with all the latest and greatest gossip. Anyway, it’s a great way to network and check out other urban bloggers and see what they’re up to. You know we’re all like family so we need to stick together and that is what this site is all about. Okay enough of me selling you on it. Just go check it out for yourselves. Oh and add Me as a friend while you’re at it. I’m off to log on right now!
So the show starts with the guys doing the photo shoot for the album. Mikes looks slim. Good job. Later that night they go to a club in Ft. Lauderdale for a performance. The guys have their first taste of performing and it tastes pretty bad. They really needed to practice before they decide to just do a show. Who does that? I mean just jump out there and perform without practice? Ehhh… No… The funny thing is that Will thought they killed it. Negro please!! Y’all were a hot mess mixed with foolishness. Straight foolish mess. So at breakfast they as DK what they thought about the performance and it’s silence. Awkwaaarrrdd! The girls give them some pointers. Hopefully when they look back at the tapes they’ll see the the dumbness that was them. No diss but I’m getting kind of sick of DK talking about how “experienced” they are in the industry. Like they’ve been around for like umpteen years or something. You only have one album. Platinum but still one album. So Diddy sits the girls down and pretty much takes them apart physically. He doesn’t like Shannon’s hair, Andrea is getting plump and the weaves and fake lashes have got to go! *Did anybody notice how when he started talking about weaves they show Dawn’s ratty hair? Hahahahaha*. I liked Shannon’s hair but once again I’m not the boss. the crew decides to throw a party for themselves to celebrate their last night in M.I.A. and in comes a mariachi band. What the hell? *DEAD* The next day they head back to the big apple to make things happen. The first thing is preparing for the showcase. The girls pretty much run through their set. Next up is Day 26. Lord help us! They are all over the place, just horrible. Harve Pierre is like if this is how you’re gonna do it than we just won’t do it (paraphrasing of course). So Diddy gets the guys a new choreographer. Whoever their first choreographer was needs to kill themselves! The girls head to the salon for their makeovers before re shooting the album cover. Of course Aubrey has something to say. They are just dogging my girl Shannon’s hair. the worse possible thing that can happen happens. Her hair starts to fall out! Think about that scene from ‘What’s love got to do with it‘ when the young girl is dying Tina’s hair blond and while washing it she holds up her hand with a big clunk of blond hair attached.. Except less dramatic and Shannon is calm as hell the entire time. Seems that bitchassness has dropped by 15%. You can thank my posts for that. I keed I keed!! Or am I? Bruhahahahaha!!!! the girls are in the salon all day getting their new looks. Diddy drops by to see what’s the haps. I actually like Shannon’s new hair. It’s like strawberry blondish. He tells everyone that he likes the new looks. I mean I would too if I told the salon exactly how to do them. Duh. Next stop for Diddy is the spotlight to see them all perform for R & B live. The guys come out and start performing. Kill the soundbwoi!! Diddy tries to give them queue’s to trade mics but they’re full of adrenaline and rocking out. Diddy can’t take it anymore and comes onto the stage in the middle of their song and stops the show to get the sound right. After a brie intermission they get a do over. they get themselves together and give an impressive show. *This is a special message to Andre Harrell. Listen Dawg, I know you’re probably worth like 20, 25 times more than me monetarily but please please, for the sake of all that is holy, take those coke bottle glasses off!! looking like that old lady from those old Old Navy commercials* Okay I’m back, just had to put that out there. The girls perform next. the performance was great but the outfits? Ummerra… No ma’am. *Question. Now that the season is pretty much over and The Wire is done, what’s next for me? I guess I gotta find another show to recap or start reviewing albums. I mean I usually get them before they come out and I think I’m a pretty good judge on what’s hot or next to blow. Except that soulja boi type ish. You can miss me with that. What’s my next move? I guess we’ll both have to wait and see.*
Next Week: The season finale is on Sunday and will be 2 hours long? That’s a whole bunch of Aubrey to hate on. Until next week…
March 9th: 1841 – Sengbe Pieh, known as Joseph Cinque, and the surviving African slaves who revolted on the ship Amistad are ordered freed by the United States Supreme Court and return to Africa after successfully appealing their mutiny conviction on grounds that they were kidnapped by outlawed slave traders. Their defense attorney is John Quincy Adams, former President of the United States and a Massachusetts senator. Before reaching the Supreme Court, U.S. President Martin Van Buren appeals twice the decision of lower courts to free the slaves. View the original documents of the U.S. Supreme Court at: http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/amistad/supreme- court-statement.html
1891 – The North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University is founded in Greensboro.
1914 – The “New” Southern University campus opens in Scotlandville, Louisiana near Baton Rouge with nine teachers and 47 students.
1966 – Andrew F. Brimmer becomes the first African American governor on the Federal Reserve Board.
March 10th: 1863 – Two U.S. African American infantry regiments, the First and Second South Carolina Volunteers, capture and occupy Jacksonville, Florida, causing panic along the Southern seaboard. These regiments are not to be confused with the confederate army First South Carolina Volunteers Infantry Regiment.
1969 – James Earl Ray pleads guilty in the first degree to the murder of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. and will be sentenced to 99 years in prison. The House Select Committee on Assassinations will later state that although it believes Ray shot King, Ray was part of a larger conspiracy. Ray will later repudiate that plea, maintaining his innocence until his death.
1972 – Three thousand delegates and five thousand observers attend the first African American political convention in Gary, Indiana. The NAACP and other groups withdraw from the convention after the adoption of resolutions that are critical of busing and the state of Israel.
March 11th: 1861 – The Confederate Congress, meeting in Montgomery, Alabama, adopts a constitution which declares that the passage of any “law denying or impairing the right of property in Negro slaves is prohibited.”
1874 – Frederick Douglass is named president of the failing Freedmen’s Bank.
1948 – Reginald Weir becomes the first African American to play in the U.S. Indoor Lawn Tennis Association Championship. He won his first match, but was eliminated on March 13th.
1956 – A manifesto denouncing the Supreme Court ruling on segregation in public schools, is issued by one hundred southern senators and representatives.
1959 – “A Raisin in the Sun” becomes the first play written by an African American woman, Lorraine Hansberry, to open on Broadway. The play will run for 19 months at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, and be named “Best Play” by the New York Drama Critics Circle, and bring Lloyd Richards to Broadway as the first African American director in modern times.
March 12th: 1791 – Benjamin Banneker and Pierre Charles L’Enfant are commissioned to plan and develop Washington, DC.
1945 – New York becomes the first state to prohibit discrimination by race and creed in employment.
1964 – Malcolm X resigns from the Nation of Islam.
March 13th: 1861 – Jefferson Davis signs a bill authorizing the use of slaves as soldiers in the Confederate army.
1943 – Frank Dixon becomes the first great African American miler in track as he wins the Columbian Mile in New York City. Dixon ran the mile in the record time of 4 minutes, 9.6 seconds.
1946 – Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African American to command an United States Air Force base, when he assumes command of Lockbourne Air Force Base in Ohio.
1984 – James L. Usry is elected the first African American mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey. He served as mayor until 1990. A former member of the Harlem Globetrotters, he became an educator before entering politics.
March 14th: 1794 – Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin, making it possible to clean 50 pounds of cotton a day, compared to a pound a day before the invention. This made cotton king and increase the demand for slave labor.
1917 – The first training camp for “colored” officers is established by the U.S. Army in Des Moines, Iowa, after a long lobbying effort by the NAACP, led by Joel E. Spingarn and James Weldon Johnson. The camp will issue 678 officer commissions to African Americans, compared to 380,000 African American enlisted men mobilized in World War l.
1967 – In the first NFL-AFL common draft, the Baltimore Colts pick Bubba Smith as the first pick.
March 15th: 1897 – The Fifty-fifth Congress (1897-99) convenes. Only one African American congressman is in attendance: George H. White, of North Carolina.
1933 – The NAACP begins a coordinated attack on segregation and discrimination, filing a suit against the University of North Carolina on behalf of Thomas Hocutt. The case is lost on a technicality after the president of an African American college refuses to certify the records of the plaintiff.
1968 – “LIFE” magazine calls Jimi Hendrix “the most spectacular guitarist in the world.”
1991 – Four Los Angeles police officers-Sergeant Stacey Koon and Officers Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Theodore Briseno, are charged with felony assault and related charges arising from the Rodney King beating.
So the Den mother is actually still there. he was M.I.A. last week. Except for a little snippet. Diddy decides to take the crew out for some relaxation so he gets them a yacht. It’s like they’re trying to hard to be sexy. Diddy meets up with the girls and guys and tries to get to know them better while out there. He suckers them into doing imitations of him. they’re nervously laughing at his jokes. Diddy drops the bomb that he’s in love with Kim Porter. You don’t miss your water until your well runs dry. Then he turns the tables and questions them. Asking if Donnie and Aubrey are attracted to each other. Aubrey doesn’t really answer. Then he asks Dawn and Q. The blushing ensues!! He’s proud of them and says it’s not going to end up like they thought it would? Huh? are you dropping somebody or something? Do you think they’ll flop? What are you talking about? I kind of understand but don’t crush my platinum dreams Diddy!! So Diddy says that there is an outbreak of Bitch assness going on in the Democratic party. I wonder who has been infected? Can we say Hilary? Anyway.. The girls go in the studio to work on “Sucker for love”, sounds wack. Next up is Donnie and Seven working on a track called “Spank Me”. Let’s go Donnie! Prove the naysayers (I am one of them) wrong!! the guys go in the studio and work on some new material knocking out another joint. *Note to Brian and Robert, stop with the cuts in the brow! this is not 87 and you’re not Big Daddy Kane. Also Guys please stop saying “no homo”!*. Diddy stops through to see what’s happening, he listens for a few and starts searching for Ankh Rha. I guess he’s tired of hearing Brian screaming all over the track. Have you noticed that they always show him having a problem with vocals when Brian’s in the booth? Hmmm.. I’m not saying but I’m just saying… He says that Q and Willie are at an all star level as far as musically, physically and all. Then he goes down the list. Mike could lose 15, Brian 8, and Robert could lose some too. Brian is the weakest link and he has to make a turn around in 7 days or else. Robert is about to cry because he wasn’t considered to be an all star. Boo hoo! get over it and move on. The den mother says they have five minutes to go and Brian and Robert start to fight over the shower. Yes the shower! Robert’s unstable ass and Brian are nuts! They both just talk to much and need to just shut the f**k up!! I’m not with all the talking. Just do what you do. I can’t get over these fools arguing over a shower. Now it’s up to the den mother to play the mediator and actually work for that nice check he’s getting. Aubrey is such a dork. “gansta fight”? whatever. You lost. Okay Donnie’s album may be shaping up to be a banger. The girls go in to record “Damage”. If you like it I love it. So the guys are in the studio and once again Robert doesn’t want to be told he can’t sing a part he wants. Not a team player. His raspy voice needs to sit down somewhere. Still trying to be the lead singer. Will and Q try to talk to him about it but I don’t think he gets it, or ever will get it. Straight bitch-assness! So after DK finished their last song for the album they call everybody in to listen. Dawn is especially proud because she wrote it. I mean not to be mean but I’ve heard better. Seems that the guys are losing steam while the girls are finished and Donnie can take his time and make a great album. Once again Robert and Brian start arguing in the van after leaving the studio. Why is Robert always looking like he’s about to cry? Drama queens… Den mother was right. bunch of divas! Thanks to the two divas arguing the group is now filled with doubt about their future. They have vocal training with Ankh Rha and he has them opening up to each other. Everything is going good until they get to Brian and Robert. The guys just tell them that they both basically need to stop being so emotional. They need to work on their facial expressions while singing, looks fake and contrived. After the session with Ankh Rha the guys come together and make a banger (“Got me Going”). In comes Diddy to listen to what they recorded, nodding his head a little he says that it sounds beautiful and gave him goosebumps. Once they finally finish their albums they go out to celebrate.
Next Week: Diddy doesn’t like Shannon’s hair color (I do but I’m not the boss) and has her lighten it up a little, but it starts to break off and fall out. Whoa. the guys have problems with their first showcase.
The show opens with Daniels and Pearlman at the mayor’s office delivering the bad news about the serial killer. They explain that the case was a front to bring down Marlo. Now they must figure out what to do, either bring it to the light or sweep it under the rug. Of course by-the-book Daniels wants to get rid of anyone that had anything to do with it but everyone else wants to just sweep this under the rug to avoid a public backlash. Lester heads down to City Hall to let Gary Pascal(?) know that he knows that he’s the courthouse mole. Daniels is upset because they won’t allow him to discipline the troops because the mayor is running for governor and this could hurt his campaign as well as end Pearlman’s career. Bubs is a little leery about letting the reporter print the story about his life and Sherod. Carcetti meets with Commissioner Rawls and State Attorney Bond to let them know that they will bury this story slowly and let it fade away. Everybody seems to be making back door deals in order to let this incident go. dukie goes to Prezbo and asks for a loan, telling him that he’s homeless and that he needs money for a place to stay and to get his GED. Prezbo looks to have the hang of things at the school. Lester catches up with Pearlman in the hall of the courthouse and tells her about the leak at the courthouse and that he has proof. McNulty is slowly trying to bury this serial killer case by telling Jay that he doesn’t need the manpower or the wiretap anymore. “Shit is like war. Easy to get in but hell to get out”- Bunk. Lester tells McNulty that Daniels and Pearlman know everything about everything so they decide to meet at the bar to sort things out. Presbo drops Duk off at the copper spot knowing that he’s not going to enroll in any program and that he will probably never see him again. Duk then takes the money and heads down to the corner with one of the older men to cop some testers. Daniels runs into McNulty in the elevator and tells him “to be continued”. So Lester and McNulty try to figure out the next move. they figure they need to lay low on the killer and let it fade away. Gus (the editor) finds out that most of Scott’s quotes and stories are made up. Levy meets with Marlo and tells him that he has no bail. Neither does Chris. Monk and Cheese get out on $300,000. they discuss who knew the code and how the cops could have broken it. Marlo puts Cheese on to round up some muscle and find Michael. Scott does something to a homeless guy and the next thing you know, McNulty is getting called. Bubs meets with his sponsor to talk about the story the reporter wrote about him and whether or not to let him print it. Scott makes up more lies about somebody trying to kidnap a homeless guy not knowing that there was an undercover cop watching the entire time. The paper wants to print the story but Gus wants no part or it in the paper now that he has proof that Scott is a liar. they still run the piece nonetheless. One lie begets another begets another… Bunk and Greggs go to work on another case and find out that now there is a copycat serial killer on the loose. Levy runs into Pearlman in the hall and tells her he thinks the wiretaps were ilegal and that he has a source (figuratively). When McNulty makes it back to the station commisioner Rawls and Daniels are waiting on him. He tells them that he has nothing to do with the murders. McNulty makes a break in the case when he sees some cards in the evidence from the copycat killer. Gus goes to confront the bosses about Scott and his lies when Alma shows him the notebook that he claims had all his quotes and notes is full of blank pages. Pearlman and Levy meet and she plays the taped convo about the court papers and attempts to make a deal with him to keep the case from trial. Chris must cop to the murders and get life with no parole (similar to what Wee-Bey did) and Marlo gets 10 years along with Cheese and Monk. Levy doesn’t bite and counters with Chris copping to one murder and Marlo walking or taking it to trial. Pearlman than drops the hammer about the mole and he decides to talk it over with Marlo. McNulty goes down under the bridge to pick up the homeless guy that is always asking for cards and pins the murders on him. He did kill the last two, but confesses to kiling them all. Levy meets with Marlo to deliver the news. Marlo takes the deal. Chris gets life for the murders and he walks because of the illegal wiretap. Lester and McNulty meet with Pearlman and find out that they can’t be fired or do any type of policework that can eventually go to trial. Marlo sells the connect for $10 million ans says he’s getting out of the game. The guys have an Irish funeral for one of their own and it pans up to McNulty laying on the table laughing along, faking his death. Jokesters! Lester put in his retirement papers. Noreese gives Daniels ex wife the dirt she got from Burrell. she ( his ex) goes to talk to him and tells him that if he doesn’t feel right going along with the broken program than to get out. He will be okay with his law degree to fall back on. Kima tells Lester and McNulty that she told Daniels about the case. Slim meets with the co-op as they discuss getting the money together. Cheese offers to put up more than his share and they all wonder where he is getting the extra money from. Slim pops him in the side of the head while he’s talking mess about everybody and how much they should have. Now they complain because with Cheese dead they are short $900,000. He says that he did it for Prop Joe’s sake. Bubs agrees to let the story run and it goes Sunday front page. Alma ends up getting sent to Carroll County because she told that Scott was making things up and that Gus was right all along. Carver makes Lieutenant. Daniels decides not to play ball and quits the force. McNulty goes down to find out about the homeless guy that he dropped off only to find that he wandered off a couple of days later. Sidnor goes to speak with Judge Phelan to find out what happened with Marlo and how he was able to walk. Levy now has Marlo Schmoozing with the big timers making connections. Michael bursts into Marlo’s rim shop aka his bank and robs them. The next Omar in training. Marlo leaves the party and goes up to some random corner boys who have no idea who he is and takes their spot. He gets stabbed (nothing serious) in the process. Lester retires with Shandra(?), the stripper from season 1 that was with DeAngelo, by his side. The Co-op gets the money for the connect and meet with the Greek. carcetti becomes governor. Duk is now gone to the streets getting high. Pearlman makes judge and Daniels becomes a lawyer. Bubs finally reconciles with his sister. Chris goes to Jessup and meets up with Wee-Bey in the yard. Seems everything works out somehow for everyone. Some good, some bad but they survive another day. The saga continues….
March 2nd: 1867 – Howard University is chartered by Congress in Washington, DC. Also founded or chartered are Talladega College in Talledega, Alabama, Morgan State College in Baltimore, Maryland, Johnson C. Smith College in Charlotte, North Carolina, and St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina.
1867 – African Americans vote in municipal election in Alexandria, Virginia, for perhaps the first time in the South. The election commissioners refuse to count the fourteen hundred votes and military officials suspend local elections pending clarification of the status of the freedmen.
1919 – Claude A. Barnett establishes the Associated Negro Press (ANP), the first national news service for African American newspapers. The goal of the ANP is to provide national news releases to African American publishers. The ANP will operate for the next 48 years and have, at one time, 95% of all African American newspapers as subscribers.
1990 – Carole Gist, of Detroit, Michigan, is crowned Miss USA. She becomes the first African American to win the title.
March 3rd: 1821 – Thomas L. Jennings receives a patent for an invention to “dry scour” (dry clean) clothes. It is the earliest known patent granted to an African American.
1869 – The University of South Carolina is opened to all races. Two African Americans, B.A. Boseman and Francis L. Cardozo were elected to a seven-man board of trustees.
1988 – Juanita Kidd Stout becomes the first African American woman to serve on a state supreme court when she is sworn in as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
March 4th: 1869 – The forty-second Congress convenes (1871-73) with five African American congressmen: Joseph H. Rainey, Robert Carlos Delarge, and Robert Brown Elliott from South Carolina; Benjamin S. Turner, of Alabama; Josiah T. Walls of Florida. Walls is elected in an at-large election and is the first African American congressman to represent an entire state.
1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr. announces plans for the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, DC. He says that he will lead a massive civil disobedience campaign in the capital to pressure the government to provide jobs and income for all Americans. He tells a press conference that an army of poor white, poor African Americans and Hispanics will converge on Washington on April 20 and will demonstrate until their demands were met.
March 5th: 1770 – Crispus Attucks dies after becoming the first of five persons killed in the Boston Massacre. Historians have called him the first martyr of the American Revolution.
1897 – The American Negro Academy is founded by Alexander Crummel. The purpose of the organization is the promotion of literature, science, art, the fostering of higher education, and the defense of the Negro.
1985 – The Mary McLeod Bethune commemorative stamp is issued by the U.S. Postal Service as the eighth stamp in its Black Heritage USA series.
March 6th: 1857 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules against citizenship for African Americans in the Dred Scott decision. The Court rules that Dred Scott, a slave, cannot sue for his freedom in a free state because he is property and, as such, “has no rights a white man has to respect.” This ruling also opens up the northern territory to slavery.
1957 – Ghana becomes the first African nation to achieve freedom from colonial rule when the Ashanti, Northern Protectorates, the Gold Coast and British Togoland declare their independence. The celebration ceremonies are attended by a number of American dignitaries, including African American leaders Ralph Bunche, A. Philip Randolph, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King.
1981 – Dr. Bernard Harleston, former dean of arts and sciences at Tufts University, is appointed president of New York’s City College.
2000 – Three white New York police officers are convicted of a cover-up in the brutal police station attack on Haitian immigrant Abner Louima.
2000 – “Earth, Wind and Fire” is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
March 7th: 1927 – In Nixon v. Hearn, the United States Supreme Court strikes down a Texas law prohibiting African Americans from voting in a “white” primary.
1930 – “The New York Times” capitalizes the word Negro “in recognition of racial self-respect for those who have been for generations in the lowercase.”
1942 – The first five cadets graduate from the Tuskegee Flying School: Captain Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. and Second Lieutenants Mac Ross, Charles DeBow, L.R. Curtis, and George S. Roberts. They will become part of the famous 99th Pursuit Squadron.
1965 – John Lewis leads a group of civil rights marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where they are attacked by Alabama state troopers and sheriff’s deputies with tear gas and billy clubs. This violent confrontation will be known as “Bloody Sunday,” and will spark the historic Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march led by Martin Luther King Jr.
2006 – Gordon Parks, renown photogragher, writer and director, passes away at the age of 93.
March 8th: 1945 – Phyllis Mae Daley, a graduate of Lincoln School for Nurses in New York, receives her commission as an ensign in the Navy Nurse Corps. She is the first of four African American Navy nurses (including Helen Turner, Ella Lucille Stimley, and Edith De Voe) to serve on active duty in World War II.
1977 – Henry L. Marsh, III is elected the first African American mayor of Richmond, Virginia.
1991 – “New Jack City,” a film directed by Mario Van Peebles, actor and son of director Melvin Van Peebles, premieres. Produced by African Americans George Jackson and Doug McHenry, the film, which tells the violent story of the rise and fall of a drug lord played by Wesley Snipes, will suffer from widespread violence among moviegoers.
Black History | Sincere March 31, 2008 | 
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