Category: Family

5/11/2017

Mother’s Day Tips For Mom’s Balancing Act

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Meet My Family! Seated L to R: Son-In-Law, (Alberto) Junior Monteiro, Daughter, Michelle Thomas-Monteiro
Standing: L to R: Carole Copeland Thomas ("Nyanya," which is Grandmother in Swahili), Daughter, Dr. Lorna Thomas-Farquharson, Son-In-Law Jerome Farquharson, Granddaughters: Gabrielle (Gabby) Farquharson, age 6 and Julianna Farquharson, age 9.
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My son, the late Mickarl D. Thomas, Jr. is pictured on the wall playing the saxophone and standing next to his twin sister, Michelle. Sadly he was killed in a single occupant car crash in 1997 at the age of 17. He had just graduated from high school with his sister and was headed to Morehouse College.

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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I’ve been there and done that. The husband. Children. House. Job. Bills and Baseball games. Mix it all up and sometimes you’re not sure what you’ll get. One thing’s for sure…today’s mom has a balancing act beyond belief at times. Staying the course depends on your fortitude, organization and resources to get you through each day.

This is a real show giving you real advice based on real mothers who are getting the job done. I invite you to breathe a bit. sit down and listen for some kernels of wisdom to help you become a fabulous chief mother in charge of your life, your home and your family.
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The History Of Mother's Day In The US And Around The World
Source: www.history.com

Celebrations of mothers and motherhood can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who held festivals in honor of the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele, but the clearest modern precedent for Mother’s Day is the early Christian festival known as “Mothering Sunday.”

Once a major tradition in the United Kingdom and parts of Europe, this celebration fell on the fourth Sunday in Lent and was originally seen as a time when the faithful would return to their “mother church”—the main church in the vicinity of their home—for a special service.
Over time the Mothering Sunday tradition shifted into a more secular holiday, and children would present their mothers with flowers and other tokens of appreciation. This custom eventually faded in popularity before merging with the American Mother’s Day in the 1930s and 1940s.

ANN REEVES JARVIS AND JULIA WARD HOWE

The origins of Mother’s Day as celebrated in the United States date back to the 19th century. In the years before the Civil War, Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia helped start “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” to teach local women how to properly care for their children.

These clubs later became a unifying force in a region of the country still divided over the Civil War. In 1868 Jarvis organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” at which mothers gathered with former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote reconciliation.

Another precursor to Mother’s Day came from the abolitionist and suffragette Julia Ward Howe. In 1870 Howe wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation,” a call to action that asked mothers to unite in promoting world peace. In 1873 Howe campaigned for a “Mother’s Peace Day” to be celebrated every June 2.

Other early Mother’s Day pioneers include Juliet Calhoun Blakely, a temperance activist who inspired a local Mother’s Day in Albion, Michigan, in the 1870s. The duo of Mary Towles Sasseen and Frank Hering, meanwhile, both worked to organize a Mothers’ Day in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some have even called Hering “the father of Mothers’ Day.”

ANNA JARVIS

The official Mother’s Day holiday arose in the 1900s as a result of the efforts of Anna Jarvis, daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis. Following her mother’s 1905 death, Anna Jarvis conceived of Mother’s Day as a way of honoring the sacrifices mothers made for their children.

After gaining financial backing from a Philadelphia department store owner named John Wanamaker, in May 1908 she organized the first official Mother’s Day celebration at a Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia. That same day also saw thousands of people attend a Mother’s Day event at one of Wanamaker’s retail stores in Philadelphia.

Following the success of her first Mother’s Day, Jarvis—who remained unmarried and childless her whole life—resolved to see her holiday added to the national calendar. Arguing that American holidays were biased toward male achievements, she started a massive letter writing campaign to newspapers and prominent politicians urging the adoption of a special day honoring motherhood.

By 1912 many states, towns and churches had adopted Mother’s Day as an annual holiday, and Jarvis had established the Mother’s Day International Association to help promote her cause. Her persistence paid off in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

JARVIS DECRIES COMMERCIALIZED MOTHER’S DAY
Anna Jarvis had originally conceived of Mother’s Day as a day of personal celebration between mothers and families. Her version of the day involved wearing a white carnation as a badge and visiting one’s mother or attending church services. But once Mother’s Day became a national holiday, it was not long before florists, card companies and other merchants capitalized on its popularity.

While Jarvis had initially worked with the floral industry to help raise Mother’s Day’s profile, by 1920 she had become disgusted with how the holiday had been commercialized. She outwardly denounced the transformation and urged people to stop buying Mother’s Day flowers, cards and candies.

Jarvis eventually resorted to an open campaign against Mother’s Day profiteers, speaking out against confectioners, florists and even charities. She also launched countless lawsuits against groups that had used the name “Mother’s Day,” eventually spending most of her personal wealth in legal fees. By the time of her death in 1948 Jarvis had disowned the holiday altogether, and even actively lobbied the government to see it removed from the American calendar.

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7/9/2015

Revolutionary Roots In The AME Church: Carole’s Family History

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Check Out Business Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with CaroleCopelandThomas on BlogTalkRadio

Focus On Empowerment can be heard every Thursday at 1pm Eastern.
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Last week we traced the history of the African Methodist Episcopal Church from its origins in 1787 to how it has expanded into the church of today. In light of the tragic events that shocked the nation when a gunman killed nine people attending Bible study at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, the connections within the denomination are personal and deeply rooted for me.

On today’s show I will go back and trace my AME roots that originate from the mid 1800s and share my American story so intertwined with our cultural past. From Georgia to Baltimore to the Midwest, the East Coast and around the United States, my family represents the essence of the AME Church. Faith, Education, Heritage and Family Reunions are the core ingredients that make my family so special to me.

I will also be joined by cousins Theresa Johnson and Keith Williams who will share their knowledge on how our Gaines Family Reunion started back in the 1980s. The legacy of the Gaines/Charleston/Bachelor families is the legacy of family ties embedded in the AME Church.

More Details About My Family:

My grandfather, Rev. James A. Charleston built the present site of St. Paul AME -Detroit and paid for it before dying in the pulpit in June 1961.

Rev. Charleston’s mother, Sarah Gaines Charleston was the wife of an AME minister and was the niece of Bishop Wesley John Gaines. Bishop Gaines was one of the founders of Morris Brown College (my grandmother’s alma mater). He also wrote 2-3 books before his death.

Rev. Charleston’s brother, Dr. Samuel P. Charleston was a celebrated principal of the segregated Carver High School in Columbus, Georgia and a lifelong AME. When he died at the age of 95 in 1999, the city designated him one of the top 100 citizens of the 20th Century.

Bishop Wesley John Gaines’ nephew was Bishop Abraham Lincoln Gaines.

The Gaines Family in Baltimore were closely linked to Thurgood Marshall’s family and Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie’s Family. My cousin, Josephine Gaines, just died in July (right before our family reunion) at the age of 86. She as the last living grandchild of Bishop Abraham Lincoln Gaines.

We have an extensive family tree that has been meticulously researched by my cousin Clarence Gaines in Chicago.

Another ancestor, Rev. William Gaines, was part of a ministerial delegation during important meeting with Major General William Tecumseh Sherman in Savannah, Georgia in January 12, 1865. Here is a link to the transcript of that meeting:

http://www.civilwarhome.com/shermanandministers.htm

My family is FILLED with AME Ministers!!!

Here is an excerpt from the 1865 meeting describing my ancestor who attended:

6. William Gaines, aged forty-one years, born in Wills County, Ga.; slave "until the Union forces freed me;" owned by Robert Toombs, formerly U.S. Senator, and his brother, Gabriel Toombs; local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Andrew's Chapel); in the ministry sixteen years.

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Radio Broadcast for More Information About The Gaines Family Reunion:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/globalcarole/2014/07/24/the-gaines-family-reunion-how-to-build-a-legacy-one-generation-at-a-time

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7/24/2014

The Gaines Family Reunion: How To Build A Legacy One Generation At A Time

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Left to Right: Top: Carole's Immediate Family at the 2014 Banquet/Dance in Philadelphia, Family Picnic at Brandywine Park in Wilmington, Delaware, Bottom Left: Cousin Theresa Johnson atop The Philadelphia Museum of Art after climbing the "Rocky" steps, The 2014 Gaines Family Reunion T-Shirt

Focus On Empowerment can be heard every Thursday at 1pm Eastern.
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Last week marked the 15th Reunion the Gaines Family has hosted since 1986. The brainchild of my cousins, Theresa Johnson and Lula McKeever, the family roots are deeply intertwined in slavery, suffering and salvation. William and Louisa Gaines were the original slave couple, allowed to stay together as they raised their 14 children in Georgia starting in the late 1700s.

Today’s show will discuss the many ways that your family reunion can serve as the principal method to archive your family history. We’ll also use the Gaines model of knowledge transfer, where one family member passes the family leadership from one generation to the next.

Big or small... family reunions, gatherings and celebrations are excellent ways to provide a long lasting thread of family stability to your immediate and expanded family unit.

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About The Gaines Family
Source: 21 Ways To Bring Multiculturalism To Your Job Your Home and Your Community

The Gaines Family In The Shadows Of American History
The pieces started coming together more than 25 years ago when The Gaines Family of Columbus, Georgia began a new tradition of gathering every other summer to connect, reflect and pay tribute to a 200 year African American story. The Gaines Family members are the original descendants of 18th century William and Louisa Gaines, two slaves on a colonial Georgia plantation who fell in love and were allowed to marry. In fact during an era when slave families were routinely broken up and sold to other plantations, this couple was allowed to stay together and raise their 14 children.

One of their 14 children was Gus Gaines, who also had 14 children. From that lineage ultimately came Sarah Gaines Charleston, my maternal great grand mother. Her parents and her relatives ultimately owned 600 acres of sweet Georgia land shortly after the Civil War had ended. When the US Government came knocking on their door, asking to buy great grandmother Sarah’s land by imminent domain at the turn of the 20th Century, her family patriotically sold their precious property so that the now famous military base, Fort Benning, could be built. Her family pocketed the money, moved to nearby Columbus, Georgia and began sending the children to college. As a result, my own children and my brother’s daughter, Lauren Copeland Morgan, make up the fourth generation to attend and complete college.

Build On A Strong Event Platform
It’s quite alright to keep your family reunion event small for several years. Perhaps an evening gathering once every other year is sufficient. Remember you can always supplement your face to face meeting with a social media presence (Facebook), conference calls and newsletters (electronic or print).

When your family is ready expand your annual or biannual gathering to a full day event or a weekend reunion.

To learn more about creating or expanding family reunion activities check out:
21 Ways To Bring Multiculturalism To Your Job
Click Here For Details

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Mother’s Day Tips For Mom’s Balancing Act

Revolutionary Roots In The AME Church: Carole’s Family History

The Gaines Family Reunion: How To Build A Legacy One Generation At A Time

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