August 2013
n a i l l i v e z n o r B e th
nt Suppleme A newsletter from the An electronic newsletter from the Department of African African American American and and African African Studies Studies Community Extension Extension Center Center Community
Cashing a Bad Check: The 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington and Slain Black Boys By: Simone Drake, Ph.D.
Features Pages 1, 3: Cashing a Bad Check: The 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington and Slain Black Boys– by Simone Drake, Ph.D. Page 4: Racists, Racial Pimps and the Reparations that have Eluded US – by C. Earl Campbell DA III, M.A. Page 5: Near Eastside Cooperative Market Ad Pages 6-7: Program for March on Washington Page 8-9 : John Lewis’ March on Washington Speech Page 10: Photo Collage
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ugust 28, 2013 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In his famous “I Have a Dream Speech,” Dr. King noted the one hundred years that had passed between emancipation and that monumental march, lamenting the fact that the words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were promissory notes guaranteeing the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights, however, in 1963 had not been extended to “her citizens of color,” and Dr. King equated that failure to the United States of America defaulting on its promissory note: “Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’” Dr. King’s life was taken, because he had a dream that rocked the very foundation of white supremacy. Forty-five years after his death and, on Wednesday August 28, 2013, what will be exactly fifty years to the day after his call for justice—to let freedom ring—in our nation’s capital, the questions arise: Has his death been vindicated? Does freedom ring? Are there now sufficient funds in the vaults of justice to cover the promissory note that the nation’s citizens of color can indeed collect on the debts of freedom and the security of justice owed to them? Perhaps the names of Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Kimani Gray, and countless other unarmed black boys murdered in cold blood and whose assailants are free, can answer those questions. These names of unarmed, black boys join the memorialized name of Emmett Till, whose murder created a global, visceral image of what exactly defaulting on a promissory note looks like in the United States. Black boys who society, and particularly white society, find continued on page 3
Department of African American and African Studies Community Extension Center 905 Mount Vernon Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43203-1413
Phone: (614) 292-3922 Fax: (614) 292-3892 http://aaascec.osu.edu aaascec@osu.edu
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of the CEC 12Core Programs 6 T he Ohio State University’s AAAS Community Extension Center is the outreach component of the Department of African American and African Studies. The CEC is one of the few off-campus facilities of its kind in the nation. Originally housed at two different locations on Ohio Avenue, the CEC moved to its current location in 1986. The CEC plays an integral role in enhancing the life chances of those who live in and around the Mount Vernon Avenue Area. Toward that end, the CEC offers an array of programs at no or nominal cost to the public. Programs include, but are not limited to, the following: conferences, symposia, computer classes, credit and noncredit courses, summer programs, lecture series, and film series. People from all walks of life have participated in these programs. Based on evaluations of our programs and personal testimonies, the CEC is having an impact on residents living in and around the Bronzeville Neighborhood.
1 Black Veterans Day Salute During the salute, Black men and women from Ohio who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces are publicly recognized. Since the salute’s inception in 2006, the CEC has honored the Tuskegee Airmen (2006), Vietnam War veterans (2007), Korean War veterans (2008), African-American servicewomen (2009), World War II veterans (2010), Gulf War Era veterans (2011) and Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom Veterans (2012).
2 Ray Miller Institute for Change & Leadership This 10-week long leadership course trains young Black professionals from the Columbus community in various areas of leadership. The Institute was founded in 2006 by former State Senator and Minority Whip Ray Miller. Miller has built a reputation as a strong advocate for those who have historically not had access to power. Admission to the Institute is highly competitive. The Institute is offered during OSU’s autumn and spring semesters with the support of OSU’s Office of Continuing Education. Participants who complete the course receive three CEU credits.
3 Senior Citizens Movie Matinee The movie matinee is a chance for senior citizens to watch a film that otherwise might be cost prohibitive in an accommodating environment. A discussion, usually led by an OSU professor or administrator, is held at the end of the film.
4 Computer Literacy Program Throughout the academic year, the CEC offers free and reduced-cost computer technology courses. The program is geared toward seniors but open to everyone. Courses include the following: Senior Computer Orientation, Internet, Email, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher.
5 Lecture Series Presentations given by OSU faculty, students and/or community members about topics pertinent to the Black community.
Math and Science Program
The Math and Science Program was established in partnership with the OSU Medical Center in 2003. The Math and Science Program exposes students in grades 4 through 12 to the wonders of math and science using hands-on activities. The purpose of the program is three-fold: 1) To increase competency in math and science among students of color; 2) To expose students of color to math and science related careers; and 3) To encourage students of color to major in math or science. The program meets on the fourth Monday of each month from October to May.
7 Summer Residential Program The Summer Residential Program (SRP) was established in 1999 and is designed to provide students with both an appreciation for and an understanding of African-American and African culture and history. The SRP also helps students strengthen their computer literacy skills. Past themes include: “The Underground Railroad” (2012), “All Eyez On Me: Deconstructing Images of African-American Women in Hip Hop” (2011), “letz b down: Social Justice Advocacy for Blacks During the American Revolutionary War Era” (2010), “The Low Country: Black Culture, Literacy and History in Charleston, South Carolina” (2009), and “Hip Hop Literacies” (2008). The program is held every June and is for rising 11th and 12th graders. Students live on OSU’s campus.
8 African Affairs Symposium This one-day symposium brings members of the African American and African communities together to discuss issues of particular interest to Africa. The inaugural symposium in 2007 examined the life of South African civil rights activist Steve Biko. “Africa in the Age of Globalization” was the theme of the 2008 symposium. The 2009 symposium examined the life of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, West Africa. In 2010, the focus was on Pan-Africanism and the Diaspora. The Democratic Republic of the Congo was the theme of the 2011 symposium.
9 Summer Enrichment Program This week-long, non-residential day program is designed to help rising 9th and 10th graders improve their reading and writing skills. The program, which was founded in 2009, is hosted annually in June and accepts approximately 15 students.
10 History of Black Columbus Conference This one-day conference celebrates the rich history of African Americans in Columbus and increases awareness of the significant contributions African Americans have made in all areas of city life. This annual conference is held in the spring.
11 Black History Month Forum The forum is in its fourth year and is focused on celebrating African descended peoples from all over the world. This year, documentaries about the following influential Black historical figures were shown: John Henrik Clarke, Kwame Nkrumah, Fannie Lou Hamer, James Baldwin, Minister Elijah Muhummad.
12 Enemies of the State The annual event features activists from America’s most notorious radical organizations, people who pressured America to live up to its highest ideals. In past years, activists from The Us Organization (2012), The Black Panther Party (2011) and the Young Lords Organization (2010) were invited to speak.
About Bronzeville During the 1930s, African-American leaders in Columbus named the predominately African-American neighborhood between the boundaries of Woodland Avenue (East), Cleveland Avenue (West), Broad Street (South) and the railroad tracks (North) “Bronzeville.” The population was approximately 40,000 residents. In 1937, the same African-American leaders elected a mayor of Bronzeville and created an eight member Cabinet to address social, political and economic issues in the neighborhood. Now, as a result of the establishment of several Neighborhood Civic Associations such as the Woodland Civic Association (East) and the Discovery District (West), Bronzeville was reduced to its current boundaries: Taylor Avenue (East), Jefferson Avenue (West), Broad Street (South), and I-670 (North). The Bronzevillian is inspired by this rich history.
CEC Advisory Board Paul Cook Wanda Dillard Francisca Figueroa-Jackson Mark S. Froehlich Ray Miller, former State Senator Lupenga Mphande, Ph.D. William E. Nelson, Jr., Ph.D. (Deceased) *Ike Newsum, Ph.D. and Chair Rick Pfeiffer, City Attorney Thomas Simpson, Ph.D. Reita Smith Charleta Tavares, State Senator Nana Watson
CEC Director *Judson L. Jeffries, Ph.D.
CEC Staff Sarah Twitty Senior Program Coordinator & Fiscal Officer Kevin L. Brooks, Ph.D. Program Coordinator Alecia Shipe Technology Program Coordinator
Address Department of African American and African Studies Community Extension Center 905 Mount Vernon Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43203-1413 *Ex officio members.
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challenging to imagine as anything other than a problem at the least, and as a criminal, at worst. The inherent guilt of being born black, male, and occupying public spaces when you are between the ages of ten and eighteen years old has been the popular critique of the contemporary slaying of black boys in the street. As a scholar and a mother of three black boys, I intervene in this discourse of “guilt” and propose that it is too simplistic as it misses a critical nuance of what fuels the slayings. Dr. King deliberately used pecuniary rhetoric—rhetoric of promissory notes, checks, and default to describe the relationship between the nation and its disenfranchised citizens. There is an economic component that should be recognized if we truly want to understand the phenomenon of slain black boys, as well as providing one method to assess where we are as a nation after the assassination of Dr. King. During slavery, the labor and offspring black men produced equated to the growth of white capital, thus the lives of black boys and men had economic value. After emancipation, enforced black labor and the ownership of human beings became unconstitutional. Simultaneously, conceptions of manhood changed significantly, as society re-conceptualized the “genteel patriarch,” or wealthy landowner, as the ideal of manhood, and began to embrace the concept of the “self-made man.” This new manhood afforded white men (immigrant and natural born) the opportunity to create selves that were economically secure, and manhood became defined by these ideals. In spite of being granted citizenship and equal protection through the Fourteenth Amendment, black men were not given the opportunity to participate freely in the burgeoning industrial revolution during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In a society that placed value on men’s ability to labor and produce capital, black men, whose employment opportunities were limited and business ventures were often thwarted by either the law or white violence, found it difficult to build social capital. The result was that black men transitioned from embodying economic value during slavery through their labor and literal bodies, to possessing little social or cultural capital to be wealth producers and consumers in a society that weighed manhood on those abilities. The civil rights movement did not change this reality significantly. A shift from a Roosevelt era social democracy that valued social welfare and attempted fair distribution of goods was replaced by a neoliberal economy during the late 1970s that became full-blown during the Reagan era. For this reason, black men’s earnings in relation to white men’s faired no better in 2010 than in 1975. The neoliberal social policies worked to make the rich even richer and create significant gaps in wealth distribution. Unarmed black boys being slain in cold blood by non-Black assailants, then, is not simply an issue of inherent “guilt”—of society only being able to imagine black boys as criminals. Certainly, guilty of
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criminal activity is often associated with black boys and men, but the lack of measurable value associated with those bodies—a measurable value that was rescinded at emancipation—drives the modern visual economy that has shaped the nation’s understanding of black maleness as dangerous, criminal, and ultimately, not registering slain black boys as fully incorporated citizens of the nation and worthy of full citizenship. Although black boys’ lack of social capital limits their economic value to the nation, the cultural capital inherent in visual images of black boys as the embodiment of hip-hop culture creates a contradiction. Hip-hop created a market place for highly consumable products that have value. Hip-hop is a performative culture—dress, posture, language, etc. Thus, as the embodiment of hip-hop, black men have value, but because hip-hop has been heavily commodified, the black male body can be easily disembodied from hip-hop. Moreover, the performative nature of hip-hop means that the valued black male bodies are a dime a dozen. To bring the analysis back to the slaying of black boys, this means that the hip-hop personas that these boys have represented and that their non-Black assailants have (mis)read as suspicious, and, therefore, guilty, has no social or economic value. Outside of spaces such as entertainment and sports in which their social and cultural value can be marketed, consumed, and exploited, black boys literally have no value to the nation and are, therefore, expendable. To end commentary memorializing Dr. King’s life and legacy so bleakly would be a disservice to a phenomenal leader. A final matter, then, is how to cash the bad check. Pervasive and persistent inequality and disenfranchisement, of course, is not specific to black boys—these are realities of all black people’s lives. Given the relationship between inequality and a devaluation of black life, could one way of troubling the vision be to increase the cultural capital of black children and youth? Increasing social capital has been a troubled pursuit for black people, because the nation failed to grant them true equality—an equality that was substantive and not just written on paper. Although the majority of black people do not have the wealth and social networks that can increase their social capital, they do have some control over building a cultural capital that would compel the dominant culture that, for example, labels black boys as guilty to see other spaces for black boys to occupy beyond either guilty or as an embodiment of hip-hop. This could perhaps be a new dream. Simone Drake is an assistant professor of African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University. Her research interests are broad and interdisciplinary, focusing on: critical race, gender, and legal studies; transnational black feminism; black masculinities; visual and popular culture; and the literature of the African Diaspora in the Americas.
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Racists, Racial Pimps and the Reparations that have Eluded US By: C. Earl Campbell DA III, M.A.
H
ave you had enough of Racists, Racial Pimps and African Americans complaining about their problems without taking action to solve them? Well I have! Racists are people who hold bigoted views about certain groups or individuals: and then goes about the business of attempting to prevent those persons or groups from the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. They collaborate to create, support, implement, enforce and defend group based laws, policies and programs designed to target, oppress, discriminate and deny access to resources specifically to people who have historically not had access to levers of power. It’s all about money, power and control. Racial Pimps are so-called Black leaders at the city, county, state and federal levels, who never offer a plan of action that seeks to address and solve their people’s problems. You know them by their behavior or lack thereof. They are reactionary and accusatory when the media spotlight is shining. They sit around enjoying the prestige and rewards of leadership, while at the same time avoiding any semblance of accountability or responsibility. They operate from the old 1960’s playbook of calling for marches, protests and boycotts. They wait for an injustice before springing into action; normally the kind that causes a national stir. They pretend that they care when we all know that national attention is what they really crave; all the while ignoring the collective suffering of their own people. As soon as the media loses interest in the story, they vanish until the next newsworthy item. Many African Americans are the direct descendants of Enslaved Africans. The debt for over 300 hundred years of free labor has not and will not be forgiven. Enslavement created the economic conditions in which African Americans have been mired for years. They were suffering comfortably, with pre-2008 depression, despite having an
estimated income of 800 billion dollars collectively, comparable to some countries. Additional they suffer from interference from the continuation of Counter Intelligence Programs that target, capture or kill the few leaders born with the courage to advocate for the empowerment of their people. They are often mesmerized by “Black Faces in High Places”, who give great speeches, but produce little or no economic results for their people. The leadership in which they have placed their trust is directly correlated to their quality of life. Take a look at Black poverty rates, home ownership, education attainment, wealth creation, homicide rates, unemployment and access to federal dollars for economic development. We all pay taxes and those taxes should be used by elected politicians to ensure that we all have access to a better quality of life. In a global competitive society, America is ill-equipped to compete and win, with one eye, one arm and one leg; the net result of racism and racial pimping. America will continue to decline, until a new social revolution occurs. Here’s what I propose: The US Government must provide reparations to African Americans. Black academics and policy wonks should review the statistics and the racist laws and policies with an eye toward measuring their impact on Black communities in this country. Racial Pimps should resign their elected or appointed positions or be ushered out by the people. African Americans (in or without the cooperation of their leaders) must create and implement a National Black Empowerment Plan that addresses their issues. They must demand that President Barack Obama dismantle all existing Homeland Security and Counter Intelligence Programs that disproportionately target African American who have the courage to stand up for their people. African Americans must demand that their churches be utilized during the week day to educate, re-educate and train members of their communities with the
purpose of empowering them to take control of their destiny. Many African Americans are currently in a state of survival despite the fact that they have an unrealized potential to change their own conditions, if they would just wake up. Wake Up people and recognize the Racists and Racial Pimps for who they are. Time is a wasting; and despite our collective buying power of 800 billion dollars, time is one commodity that money can’t buy.
C. Earl Campbell DA III, M.A.is an inventor and innovator and the Founder & CEO of Allen Hydro Energy Corporation (AHEC) http://www.ahecEnergy.com and the author The Quiet Resolution (TQR, Inc.) http://www.MyMoneyBudget.com. He is also a graduate of Jackson State University and The Ohio State University.
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Near Eastside Cooperative Market Ad
On August 10th the community is invited to join The Near East Side Cooperative Market, located at 1117 Oak St, Columbus, Ohio, 43205 in celebrating the Grand Opening of this brand new community-owned grocery store on the Near East Side. NESCM is a member/ community owned cooperative market dedicated to addressing issues of food access and justice on the Near East Side and Greater Columbus area. In June 2011, the Community Health Funders' Collaborative awarded a $150,000 grant to Local Matters, a non-profit that works with issues of food sovereignty and community food security, to assist in establishing a community-owned food co-op with local residents. The neighborhood was selected for this funding due to the lack of existing access to fresh fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods. Local Matters applied for the grant with the support of members of a community buying club, and partnered with the group to bring the bricks-and-mortar market to life. "This is a celebration not just about the market’s opening, but of what this community can do together and how we can own our own solutions," enthuses Market Director, Jessica Roach, stressing the market's mission to address food access and justice issues. The Grand Opening will include music, mural painting by Transit Arts, children’s educational activities by Local Matters, membership and in-store specials, local food vendors including Willobeez SoulVeg, and more. The co-op accepts all forms of payment options including EBT. The store operates on a local as possible model, purchasing produces and other added value items (Snowville Creamery, Taylor's Hot Sauce, Urban Chef, etc.) The co-op market will also will be a community space for educational programming and has a garden plot located next to the building to serve as production for the store and as an educational space. The market is currently open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10a to 7p and Sundays from 1p until 5p. The store is open to everyone, but members receive added benefits (ownership of store, voting, and discounts.) The Near East Side Cooperative Market will continue its missions of education and community involvement throughout the year, working with individuals and organizations in the community. For information on upcoming events or membership, visit the web site at http://www.neareastsidecoop.org. About Local Matters Local Matters, established in 2008, “To inspire action because food impacts the quality of our health, our land and our communities,” is celebrating five years of serving the central Ohio. Local Matters focuses on three impact areas: Access, Education, and Engagement and offers four core programs to inspire individuals to consider the role of food in their lives. The four core programs: Food Matters, a hands-on cooking and healthy food education program for children; Cooking Matters, cooking and nutrition classes for lower income families and community members that teach how to shop for healthy food on a budget; Growing Matters, teaching skills and providing the resources for community members to grow their own food; and Wellness Matters, healthful food education for the workplace.
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John Lewis’ March on Washington Speech Because history has favorably recorded and memorialized Dr. King’s famous I have a Dream speech, few Americans are familiar with the remarks made by the other scheduled presenters on August 28, 1963. I also suspect that few people have seen the program for the March on Washington. To say that it boasted some of the country’s most vigilant freedom fighters and well-respected intellectuals of that era would not be an exercise in hyperbole. We have included the program for your viewing pleasure. According to people who were there; of those who took the dais on that momentous day, no one including Dr. King was more insightful, incisive and invigorating than SNCC National Chairman John Lewis. As I recount in my 2006 book Black Power in the Belly of the Beast Lewis delivered a memorable presentation that put the Kennedy administration on notice for its inaction in the area of civil rights. Below is his speech in its entirety. TRANSCRIPT OF SPEECH “We march today for jobs and freedom, but we have nothing to be proud of, for hundreds and thousands of our brothers are not here, for they are receiving starvation wages or no wages at all. While we stand here, there are sharecroppers in the Delta of Mississippi who are out in the fields working for less than three dollars per day, 12 hours a day. While we stand here, there are students in jail on trumped-up charges. Our brother James Farmer, along with many others, is also in jail. We come here today with a great sense of misgiving. It is true that we support the administration's Civil Rights Bill. We support it with great reservation, however. Unless title three is put in this bill, there's nothing to protect the young children and old women who must face police dogs and fire hoses in the South while they engage in peaceful demonstration. In its present form this bill will not protect the citizens of Danville, Virginia, who must live in constant fear of a police state. It will not protect the hundreds and thousands of people that have been arrested on trumped up charges. What about the three young men, SNCC field secretaries in Americus, Georgia, who face the death penalty for engaging in peaceful protest? As it stands now, the voting section of this bill will not help the thousands of people who want to vote. It will not help the citizens of Mississippi, of Alabama and Georgia who are unqualified to vote for lack of sixth grade education. One man, one vote is the African cry. It is ours too. It must be ours. We must have legislation that will protect the Mississippi sharecroppers, who have been forced to leave their homes because they dared to exercise their right to register to vote. We need a bill that will provide for the homeless and starving people of this nation. We need a bill that will ensure the equality of a maid who earns five dollars a week in the home of a family whose total income is 100,000 dollars a year. We must have a good FEPC bill. My friends let us not forget that we are involved in a serious social revolution. By and large, politicians who build their career on immoral compromise and allow themselves an open forum of political, economic and social exploitation dominate American politics. There are exceptions, of course. We salute those. But what political leader can stand up and say, "My party is a party of principles"? For the party of Kennedy is also the party of Eastland. The party of Javits is also the party of Goldwater. Where is our party? Where is the political party that will make it unnecessary to march on Washington? Where is the political party that will make it unnecessary to march in the streets of Birmingham? Where is the political party that will protect the citizens of Albany, Georgia? Do you know that in Albany, Georgia nine of our leaders have been indicted, not by the Dixiecrats but by the federal government for peaceful protest? But what did the federal government do when Albany deputy sheriff beat Attorney C.B. King and left him half-dead? What did the federal government do when local police officials kicked and assaulted the pregnant wife of Slater King and she lost her baby? To those who have said, "Be patient and wait," we must say that we cannot be patient. We do not want our freedom gradually but we want to be free now. We are tired. We are tired of being beat by policemen. We are tired of seeing our people locked up in jail over and over again, and then you holler "Be patient." How long can we be patient? We want our freedom and we want it now. We do not want to go to jail, but we will go to jail if this is the price we must pay for love, brotherhood and true peace. I appeal to all of you to get into this great revolution that is sweeping this nation. Get in and stay in the streets of every city, every village and hamlet of this
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John Lewis’ March on Washington Speech nation until true freedom comes, until a revolution is complete. We must get in this revolution and complete the revolution. In the Delta of Mississippi, in Southwest Georgia, in the Black Belt of Alabama, in Harlem, in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and all over this nation the black masses are on a march for jobs and freedom. They're talking about slow down and stop. We will not stop. All of the forces of Eastland, Barnett, Wallace, and Thurmond will not stop this revolution. If we do not get meaningful legislation out of this Congress, the time will come when we will not confine our march into Washington. We will march through the South, through the streets of Jackson, through the streets of Danville, through the streets of Cambridge, through the streets of Birmingham. But we will march with the spirit of love and with the spirit of dignity that we have shown here today. By the forces of our demands, our determination and our numbers, we shall send a desegregated South into a thousand pieces, put them together in the image of God and Democracy. We must say wake up America, wake up! For we cannot stop, and we will not and cannot be patient.�
Photo courtesy of www.blackpast.org
Photo courtesy of www.achievement.org
Photo courtesy of www.nationaljournal.com
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