Category: History

6/2/2016

Roots 2016 Unpacking The Emotions of Race and Slavery of The American Past

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Focus On Empowerment can be heard every Thursday at 1pm Eastern.
Log Onto: www.blogtalkradio.com/globalcarole
Listen LIVE or Download Anytime At This Blog Post. Each broadcast can be replayed immediately following the show.

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It’s powerful, gripping and moving. It will bring tears to your eyes, while driving you to celebrate through the pain. That sums up my thoughts about this week’s television miniseries “Roots” on the History Channel. For some it’s an unnecessary reminder of our past. For others it’s a troubling account of the strength and resilience of Black people who endured and survived the brutality of American slavery.

On today’s show we’ll unpack the wide range of emotions with my special guest, clinical psychologist Dr. Lynda Morris Parham. She’ll help us examine why this miniseries is impossible for some to watch…while helping others to understand why race is still a thorny issue in this country.

I vividly remember getting my young family squared away at bedtime before watching every installment of Roots back in 1977. Now some 40 years later I’ve rearranged my own personal schedule to watch this newer version that’s equally as powerful and painful at the same time. Join our conversation of our past, our present and our future through the Roots of our ancestor’s legacy.

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Watch Carole Copeland Thomas participate on a LIVE video stream show on Friday June 3, 2016 at 7pm EDT. Here's the link:
https://blab.im/gail-turner-brown-roots-recap-review-who-watched-what-did-you-learn-what-s-next-afjgcq

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About Roots On The History Channel

HISTORY® premieres "Roots" on Memorial Day 2016, airing over four consecutive nights at 9 p.m. beginning Monday, May 30, it was announced today by Paul Buccieri, President of A&E and HISTORY. The four-night, eight-hour event series developed by HISTORY, from A+E Studios, is a historical portrait of American slavery recounting the journey of one family and their will to survive and ultimately carry on their legacy despite hardship.
The stellar cast includes Academy Award® winners Forest Whitaker ("Fiddler") and Anna Paquin ("Nancy Holt"); Academy Award® nominee and Emmy Award® winner Laurence Fishburne ("Alex Haley"); Golden Globe Award® winning and Emmy Award® nominated actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers ("Tom Lea"); Tony Award® winner Anika Noni Rose ("Kizzy"); Grammy Award® winner Tip "T.I." Harris ("Cyrus"); Chad L. Coleman ("Mingo"); Emayatzy Corinealdi ("Belle"); Matthew Goode ("Dr. William Waller"); Derek Luke ("Silla Ba Dibba"); Mekhi Phifer ("Jerusalem"); James Purefoy ("John Waller"); Erica Tazel ("Matilda") and introduces Regé-Jean Page ("Chicken George") and Malachi Kirby ("Kunta Kinte").
"'Roots' will allow new audiences to experience this epic family saga with a new vision that is both inspiring and tremendously entertaining," said Buccieri. "We are proud that HISTORY will be able to bring new life to this powerful story that remains as important today as it did when the original 'Roots' first premiered."

For More Information Visit: http://roots.history.com

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2/4/2016

Vision And The Black Community: From Woodson To Allen To Tuitt

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From Left To Right: Mary-dith Tuitt, Bishop Richard Allen, Dr. Carter G. Woodson

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Focus On Empowerment can be heard every Thursday at 1pm Eastern.
Log Onto: www.blogtalkradio.com/globalcarole
Listen LIVE or Download Anytime At This Blog Post. Each broadcast can be replayed immediately following the show.
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Adversity has always been the resilient spark that ignites the courage and tenacity of Black people. Through the darkest days of American history, the African American spirit always rises from the ashes of hate, discrimination, and most recently rising levels of micro-inequities.

The stories of personal achievement overcoming problems show the true merit of Black people and give us the hope and promise to move forward in spite of our difficulties . On today’s show we’ll capture that spirit by telling the stories of three great Americans both past and present.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Bishop Richard Allen. And Mary Tuitt. Woodson was the founder of Black History Month. Allen was the founder of the AME Church. And Tuitt is a modern day Navy veteran turned public servant and community activist.
Three different individuals from three different era. But all representing the best of the best in the Black community.

Black History IS American History. And we’ll celebrate our rich traditions on today’s show.

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Three Great Stories

Richard Allen
The United States Post Office unveiled a Forever Commemorative Stamp featuring Bishop Richard Allen at Mother Bethel AME Church on February 2, 2016.

Richard Allen was born a slave on February 14,1760 in Germantown,
Pennsylvania.
Richard taught himself to read and write.
Allen was qualified as a preacher in 1784, at the first conference of
the Methodist Church in North America,
in Baltimore, Maryland. He was allowed to lead services at 5 a.m.

Allen and Absalom Jones, also a Methodist preacher, resented the white congregants' forcing them to a segregated section for worship and prayer. They decided to leave St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church to create independent worship for African Americans. This brought some opposition from the white church and the more established blacks of the community.
They formed the Free African Society (FAS), a non-denominational mutual aid society, which assisted fugitive slaves and new migrants to the city.
In 1787 Allen and Jones led the black members out of St. George's Methodist Church and established the A.M.E. Church/denomination in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1787.
Allen along with Absalom Jones, William Gray and William Wilcher found an available lot on Sixth Street near Lombard. Allen negotiated a price and purchased this lot in 1787 to build a church, but it was years before they had a building.
Allen and others wanted to continue in the Methodist practice. Allen called their congregation the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). Using a converted blacksmith shop which they moved to the site on Sixth Street,

they opened the doors of Bethel AME Church on July 29, 1794, and were affiliated with the larger Methodist Episcopal Church. In the beginning, they had to rely on visiting white ministers.

This site is now occupied by Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, this is the oldest parcel of real estate in the United States owned continuously by black people.
In 1794 Bethel AME was dedicated with Allen as pastor.
In 1799, Allen became the first black Methodist minister ordained by Bishop Francis Asbury, in recognition of his leadership and preaching. He and the congregation still had to continue to negotiate white oversight and deal with white elders of the denomination.
Allen then met and married Sarah Bass in 1801; six children.
To establish Bethel’s independence from interfering white Methodists, Allen, a former Delaware slave, successfully sued in the Pennsylvania courts in 1807 and 1815 for the right of his congregation to exist as an independent institution.
In 1816 Allen united four African-American congregations of the Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Salem, New Jersey; Delaware, and Maryland. Together they founded the independent denomination of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the first fully independent black denomination in the United States.
On April 10, 1816, Allen was elected its first bishop. The African Methodist Episcopal Church is the oldest and largest formal institution in black America.
Allen Died on March 26, 1831 at his home.

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Mary Tuitt

Mary-dith E. Tuitt, “Ms. Mary” served fourteen (14) years as a Navy Aviation Machinists Mate, first on active duty and then in the active & inactive Reserves. Her military career included positions in Orlando, Florida, San Diego, California, South Weymouth, Massachusetts,Rota, Spain and other Reserves stations. In 1991 she returned to Boston and became a student of East Coast Aero Technical School. Mary did some military archive research on women of color in the United States Navy and in 2010 she received information that as far as the archival research shows she was the first African American Aviation Machinist Mate (jet mechanic) in the Navy.

Click Here To Read More About Mary Tuitt

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Dr. Carter G. Woodson

Teacher, scholar, publisher and administrator, Carter Godwin Woodson articulated ideas that are antecedents to the discipline of black studies; however, he is best known as the "father of black history."

Woodson was born in New Canton, Buckingham County, Virginia, to former slaves Ann Eliza (Riddle) and James Woodson. The oldest of nine children, Woodson labored on his father's farm and in the coal mines of West Virginia. Attending elementary school only a few months per year, Woodson was mostly self-taught. At age nineteen he enrolled in the Frederick Douglass High School in Huntington, West Virginia, where he excelled and completed the four-year curriculum in under two years.

Education and Early CareerWoodson attended Berea College in Kentucky for two years, until the institution closed its doors to blacks. Woodson took courses at the University of Chicago, returning to Berea (when blacks were readmitted) to complete his bachelor's degree in literature in 1903. Securing a position as general superintendent of education in Manila, the Philippines, for the United States Bureau of Insular Affairs, Woodson taught English, health, and agriculture. He resigned for health reasons in 1907, and traveled to Asia, North Africa, and Europe.

Woodson applied for graduate study at the University of Chicago; however, school officials would not recognize his Berea degree. This situation forced Woodson to earn a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago, which he received in 1907. His master's thesis, completed in 1908, examined French diplomatic relations with Germany in the eighteenth century. Woodson then enrolled in the doctoral program at Harvard University. After completing coursework, he sought employment in Washington, D.C., so that he might have access to the Library of Congress. While teaching courses in American history, French, Spanish, and English at local Washington, D.C., high schools, Woodson researched and completed his doctoral dissertation on secession, entitled "The Disruption in Virginia," in 1912. At the time, he was the first African American of slave ancestry and the second African American, after W. E.B. Du Bois, to receive a doctorate from Harvard.

Woodson's desire to move into the academic world met with frustration. He failed to get his dissertation published and discovered that his professional options were limited. Committed to writing black history, he published another manuscript, The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861(1915). Quickly tiring of academic politics, he sought other avenues to advance his passion for the scientific study of blacks and black history.

The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History

In 1915 Woodson, with associates Dr. George C. Hall, James E. Stamps, William B. Hartgrave, and Alexander L. Jackson, met at a downtown Chicago YMCA to establish the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), later changed to the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History. Founded as a historical society devoted to the research of black America, the organization was meant to be ideologically and politically independent. There were three organizational tiers within ASNLH: branch members who paid dues; professional historians who conducted research; and a publication department. In 1916 the association established a quarterly, the Journal of Negro History.

Woodson evolved a philosophy about black history: He wanted to free black history from white intellectual bias and present blacks as active participants in history. Additionally, he wanted both black and white people to be exposed to the contributions of blacks. He believed that black history should be a part of the school curriculum. Finally, Woodson saw value in James Robinson's "new" history that asserted that history could serve social change. His passion became obsession as he worked to protect and promote the ASNLH. He never married, and friends and supporters noted that Woodson worked day and night for his association.

Financing ASNLH proved difficult as member dues were never sufficient. Woodson raised funds from white corporate philanthropists; however, frequent disagreements and accusations of "radicalism" forced him to compromise his beliefs and declare his loyalty to American capitalism.
Struggling to support the organization and himself, Woodson accepted a position as principal at the Armstrong Manual Training School in Washington, D.C., in 1918. From there he moved on to become the dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Howard University. Clashing with Howard president J. Stanley Durkee, Woodson left after two years to become dean at West Virginia Collegiate Institute.

After 1922, Woodson was finally able to work full-time for ASNLH, conduct research, and publish prolifically. The spread of Pan-Africanism, Garveyism, and the emergent Renaissance cultural movement were indications of heightened racial consciousness among African Americans. This climate provided support for "race men." Woodson founded Associated Publishers, Incorporated, in 1921 to produce books endorsed by the association. By 1925 the Journal of Negro History had published ten monographs and many articles. Woodson expanded his public presence by writing articles for mass consumption, including many newspaper editorials and regular contributions in the Garvey organization's Negro World.

In 1926 Woodson and his association made their indelible imprint on America and the world. He began the celebration of Negro History Week–a special commemoration of the birthdays of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Abraham Lincoln. Additionally it would celebrate the achievements of blacks throughout history. In 1976 this celebration was expanded to the widely celebrated Black History Month.
In 1933 Woodson published his most celebrated work, The Mis-Education of the Negro. This penetrating work critiqued the established school curriculum as grounded in racism and Eurocentric thought. Such education, he believed, could only result in the colonial subordination of African people in America. The often quoted passage, "When you control a man's thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions…. He will find his proper place and willstay in it" (p. viii) points to Woodson's assessment of the deleterious effect of existing schooling on the black psyche. Educated blacks would dissociate themselves from the majority of their race, and black people could never achieve unity and racial advancement with this type of education.

Concerned that the Journal of Negro History only reached a limited audience, Woodson established the Negro History Bulletin in 1937. Aimed at schools and young people, the Bulletincost very little and used accessible language. Woodson's commitment to make black history accessible to elementary and secondary school students led him to write books for school children, which were often accompanied by study guides, chapter questions, and recommended projects.

Throughout the 1940s, the widely respected Woodson worked to popularize black history, maintain the ASNHL, and continue publication efforts. He was honored with the prestigious Spingarn Medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People along with several honorary degrees. The U.S. Postal Service honored him with a memorial stamp in February 1984.

Source: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Carter_Godwin_Woodson.aspx

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12/31/2015

The History of Watch Night Services In The Black Church

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Black Eyed Peas,
Watch Night, and
The Power Of Prayer

Dear Family, Valuable Friends, Clients, and Colleagues:

From my home to yours, I wish you rich blessings into the New Year. Here is a special article I created about the history of Watch Night Service in the African American community. The tradition predates the importance of the famous 1862 Watch Night Services and originated with the Moravians in Germany many years earlier. However, it is particularly important in the Black Church, with its evolution in the early to mid-1800s.

Wishing You The Best in 2016 !
Carole Copeland Thomas, MBA CDMP, CITM

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The History Of Watch Night Services
In The Black Church
by Carole Copeland Thomas

With the festivities of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa now on full display, there is still time to reflect on the ritual of my ancestors and many other African Americans, whose forefathers sat around campfires and wood stoves in the twilight of December 31, 1862. There they sang spirituals acapella, prayed, and thanked the Good Lord for what was about to happen the next day.

A Look Back...153 Years Ago Tonight...

It was on January 1, 1863 amidst the cannon fire, gun shots, and burnings at the height of the Civil War that President Abraham Lincoln sealed his own fate and signed the Emancipation Proclamation. It begins with the following decree:

Whereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, towit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."

CAROLE' S TRANSLATION:
Effective January 1, 1863 all slaves in the states in rebellion against the Union are free.

Technically that is all that President Lincoln could do at the time. He used his wartime powers as Commander in Chief to liberate the "property" of the states in rebellion of the Union. The act did not free the slaves of the Union or border states (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, or West Virginia) or any southern state under Union control (like parts of Virginia). It would take the 13th Amendment (that freed all slaves in 1865), the Union Army winning the Civil War (April 9, 1865), and the assassination of President Lincoln (shot on April 14th and died on April 15, 1865) for all of the slaves to be freed. That included the liberation of the slaves in rebellious Texas on June 19, 1865 (Juneteenth Day) and finally the ratification of the 13th Amendment on December 18, 1865, giving all black people freedom and permanently abolishing slavery in the US.

So in 1862 on the eve of this great era, the slaves "watched", prayed, and waited. My ancestors, including Bishop Wesley John Gaines of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and the other four million slaves prayed for divine guidance and an empowered Abraham Lincoln to do the right thing. It is as important today as the tradition of black people eating black eyed peas on New Year's Day for good luck.

That is the history of Watch Night in the African American culture.

May you and your family enjoy a spirit filled New Year throughout 2016. Thank you for ALL of your support you have given to me and my business throughout 2015.

-Carole

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6/25/2015

Take Down The Confederate Flag!

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The Civil War ended in 1865, and now more than 150 years later the battle flag of the Southern states is still at the crossroads in South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia and elsewhere. From license plates to T-shirts to flags, the "stars and bars" remains a hateful symbol of slavery to the Black community.

With the execution of nine innocent African Americans merely attending Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015, the killer was a 21 year old White supremacist who cherished the Confederate flag.

With racial hatred and gun violence robbing this country of true progress, it’s time to take down the Confederate Flag and park it in a museum where it belongs.

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For More On The Various Versions of the Confederate Flag Visit:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America

http://confederatemuseum.com/collections/flags

http://www.confederatemuseumcharlestonsc.com/about.html

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Roots 2016 Unpacking The Emotions of Race and Slavery of The American Past

Vision And The Black Community: From Woodson To Allen To Tuitt

The History of Watch Night Services In The Black Church

Take Down The Confederate Flag!

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Roots 2016 Unpacking The Emotions of Race and Slavery of The American Past﻿

Vision And The Black Community: From Woodson To Allen To Tuitt

The History of Watch Night Services In The Black Church

Take Down The Confederate Flag!

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Roots 2016 Unpacking The Emotions of Race and Slavery of The American Past