Pan Africa! 2019

Table of Contents

Pan African Cultural Heritage ‘Quotes’

page 3

Pan African Cultural Heritage initiative

page 4

Letter from the Publisher

page 5

Cover Story: Estevanico: Pan Africa’s and the America’s Greatest Explore page 9

The Institute, Inc.

page 13

The Book Club

page 17

Cultural Heritage Art Gallery

page 27

Gateway Countries to Gateway Cities

page 30

The History of African American Travel

page 41

The History of African American Art – Food – Music

page 51

Cultural Heritage Communities

page 61

Faith & Community

page 65

The Cultural Heritage Market Place

page 75

Who’s Who

page 82

The Organization

page 112

Pan African Cultural Heritage Societies

page 114

The Vault

page 118

Advertisement

page 170

Pan African American Cultural Heritage News Network

page 176

Membership

page 179

Sponsorship

page 180

Pan African Cultural Heritage ‘Quotes’ www.panafricanchi.org

“We are the custodians, as well as, the heirs of a great civilization. We have given something to the world as a race, and for this, we are proud and fully conscious of our place in the total picture of mankind’s development.” ​Mary Jane McLeod Bethune “If we just build our businesses and only do business with each other, we not only will survive but prosper.” Booker T Washington “If you can control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one.”

Carter G. Woodson, The Mis-Education of the Negro "What is the quality of your intent? Certain people have a way of saying things that shake us at the core. Even when the words do not seem harsh or offensive, the impact is shattering. What we can be experiencing is the intent behind the words. When we intend to do good, we do. When we intend to do harm, it happens. What each of us must come to realize is that our intent always comes through. We cannot sugarcoat the feelings in our heart of hearts. The emotion is the energy that motivates. We cannot ignore what we really want to create. We should be honest and do it the way we feel it. What we owe to ourselves and everyone around is to examine the reasons of our true intent. My intent will be evident in the results.“ Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall *Neither look up to the rich nor down on the poor; *Lose, if need be, without squealing; *Be clean both inside and out; *Win without bragging; *Always be considerate of women, children, and older people; *Be too brave to lie; *Be too generous to cheat; *Take your share of the world and let others take theirs. George Washington Carver

‘Pan African Cultural Heritage Initiative’

Sharing “Our Cultural Knowledge and Experiences” in the areas of Commerce, Culture, Community, Education, Influence, Knowledge, and Faith; via established business, educational, social and tourism networks. The ultimate goal being: to “Rebuild and Connect” the global people of PAN AFRICA, via the technology platforms of the internet and to use proven Cultural Economics and Heritage Tourism programs to develop Forgotten Communities, foster prosperity through business growth and job creation; and to facilitate cultural exchanges and services with other members of the African Diaspora, in partnership with the Pan African Cultural Heritage Alliance.

‘Letter from the Publisher’ Inaugural Edition 2019

Rev. Eugene Franklin Welcome to the First Edition of ‘Pan Africa!’, the annual membership magazine that explores the culture and historical connectivity of the People of African Descent across the globe. ‘Pan Africa!’ is a production of the Pan African American Cultural Heritage News Network, a department of the Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute.

The primary focus of this publication is to promote the culture and heritage of the People of Pan Africa from a historical and educational perspective, in the areas of: COMMERCE, CULTURE, COMMUNITY, EDUCATION, PEOPLE OF INFLUENCE, KNOWLEDGE, and FAITH. This edition is just a snippet of the information that will be presented via this and other membership magazines for our members, sponsors and supporters.

The development of this publication has been a spiritual journey for all involved.

Researching and evaluating the history and diversity of our culture was an eye opener for all involved on how rich we are culturally as a People. We are Innovative and built on a foundation of Faith and Natural Grit, our ancestors carved a legacy for us, the smartest generation they ever produced.

Pan Africa! ‘Letter from the Publisher” Continued:

Unfortunately our history and accomplishments as a people is unorganized, undiscovered, not shared or hidden intentionally. Our immediate goal is to change this and begin the process anew, of discovery, at the community level. So much of our culture and history is now available on the internet, all that remains is organizing it for consumption by the masses.

Again, Organization of the information is a major issue, in addition, our history and culture is often presented by other cultural people and organizations with a myopic slant in the presentation of the information. Our research has shown that we are a diverse people, with very similar customs and tradition, but with a wide range of creativity and knowledge.

Across the African Diaspora, major advancements are being made by People of Pan Africa in the areas of Commerce, Culture, Community, Education and Research. People of Influence, Knowledge, and Faith have always came together to better their communities and nations The Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute was created as an internet-based knowledge platform to assist every major facet of our endeavors to assist in the redevelopment of every historic community and village, by the sharing of our collective knowledge. We are grass-root, driven and our focus is redeveloping and preserving our cultural and heritage assets in every village, and creating economic opportunity for all, by sharing our most valuable asset, “OUR KNOWLEDGE and OUR HISTORY”!

The Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute is working to become a major repository of our history. Additionally our lofty goals are to share that knowledge with every member of Pan Africa via the internet, using various delivery platforms and to develop a knowledge network that will allow every village of the African Diaspora to communicate and share their culture, history, arts, and traditions with each other. This, we believe will allow a greater and more rapid expansion and development of ideas and lead to collaboration and partnering opportunities across the globe, that will facilitate greater economic development for all of our people. A people who often find themselves in difficult or oppressive economic situations.

My ‘HOPE and FAITH’ is that there are other like-minded and spiritually driven individuals that believe as I do, and is willing to answer the call: “IT IS TIME TO REBUILD THE WALLS IN FORGOTTEN COMMUNITIES! IT IS TIME TO REBUILD GOD’S PEOPLE!” It is time for the People of Pan Africa who have the gifts and abilities to connect and begin the process of sharing to help those who are unable to move forward because of a variety of circumstances. We are not about charity!! We are about sharing!! And we will do the work attached to the Pan African Cultural Heritage Initiative!! Will you join us in our endeavors!

Bless YOU!

E.Franklin Eugene Franklin Publisher/Chairman Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute

'Commerce - Culture- Community Education - Influence - Knowledge - Faith'

"Culture is one of the most important levers to pull in order to rehabilitate and re-launch an economy. It also provides direction.� Aminata Traorẝ

Pan Africa!!

Connecting the People of the African Diaspora!

COVER STORY Estevanico: Pan Africa’s and the America’s Greatest Explorer Around the year 1500, Estévanico was born in the port city of Azemmour, Morocco. Estévanico was a guide and translator who traveled from Seville to Florida and Northwestern Mexico with Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, Andrés Dorantes, and Alonso del Castillo Maldonado.

This was a tumultuous journey in which. Estévanico was one of only four survivors of a 600 men crew.

Therefore, this voyage was termed the Ill-Fated Journey in which men starved to death and were stranded in unknown territory. Estévanico’s efforts as a tolerant and diplomatic figure among the natives would give them the + food needed in the aid of the remaining survivors.

The first historically significant slave in what would become the United States was Estevanico, a Moroccan slave and member of the Narvaez Expedition in 1528 and acted as a guide on Fray Marcos de Niza’s expedition to find the Seven Cities of Gold in 1539.

Estevanico became the first person from Africa known to have set foot in the present continental United States.

Estevanico; also known as Estevan, Esteban, Estebanico, Black Stephen, and Stephen the Moor, was born in Azamor, Morocco around the year 1500. In 1513, the Portuguese took control of this area. When they fell on hard times during a drought in the early 1520s, the Portuguese started selling Moroccans as slaves to European customers. Estevanico was sold to Andres de Dorantes. Estévanico was fluent in many languages spoken in Spain, including Arabic, Spainish, Berber, and Portuguese. This ability allowed Estevanico and Andres de Dorantes to develop a very positive relationship, and the two were said to be friends.

Dorantes dreamed of sailing to the New World and he sought to take Estevanico with him.

Estevanico was raised as a Muslim, but because Spain did not allow non-Catholics to travel to the new world, Estevanico was converted to Roman Catholicism. In 1527, Dorantes signed them up to join an expedition organized by Pánfilo de Narváez to conquer the unexplored territory between Florida and Mexico, along the Gulf of Mexico. Narváez had twenty years of experience in conquering Mexico, and Spain had just appointed him Governor of the unconquered Florida. Hurricanes caused the crew to spend the winter in Cuba until they recouped and could travel safely. After more severe weather, on April 12, 1528, Dorante and Estévanico landed on the shores on Florida with more than three hundred other men, including Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and Alonso del Castillo Maldondo. They landed just north of Tampa Bay.

Estevanico – Continued:

Narváez and his crew were given many gifts and food by the first natives they met. Feeling confident, he set out to claim the land with a compliment of three hundred men and 40 horses.

After three months of traveling in hostile land and encountering hostile natives, they arrived in Aute, with no sign of their ships. With disease and desperation running high, the leaders became determined to see civilization again and set out to build five watercrafts. After six weeks, they had eaten all of their horses and on September 22, 1528 loaded fifty men on each barge and set sail, near what is now Apalachiiocola. Two days later, Estévanico's company was left with nothing but maize and water held in bags made of rotting horse skins. Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca wrote of this journey, "So great is the power of need that it brought us to venture out into such a troublesome sea in this manner, and without any among us having the least knowledge of the art of navigation." The men all tried to keep their boats within sight of land.

On October 27, 1528, the explorers landed in what would become American First Settlement; Pensacola, Florida. They were greeted by friendly natives and traded all their corn for fresh water and seafood. They were allowed to stay the night and invited them to sleep in a lodge house of 300 men. After an altercation the Spanish explorers were forced to leave Pensacola the following morning, October 28,1528. The men drifted for several days and eventually were caught off-guard by the strong currents at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Slowly, the boats separated and disappeared from the sight of each other. Governor Narváez’s boat drifted out into the Gulf of Mexico and become lost.

Drantes' boat eventually capsized near what is now Galveston, Texas; where they joined the group led by Cabeza de Vaca . The combined group numbered 80 . In de Vaca ‘s journal , he recorded that the Native Indians felt so sorry for the miserable crew that they wept. In a relationship balancing between pity and fear, the men spent the winter on the island they named Malhado (Misfortune). After the winter ended, only 15 men were left. It was reported that a group of Spaniards committed the horror of cannibalism in the presence of the natives.

In April 1529, Estévanico, Dorante and Castillo gathered the survivors from their original group and left Cabeza de Vaca's company behind. The Natives in the area accepted the men, but eventually enslaved them for more than five years. During this time, five men died from trying to escape, while more died from disease and hunger.

By 1534, only four were alive: Estevanico, Dorantes, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and Alonso del Castillo Maldonado. (The most famous of those is Cabeza de Vaca, whose writings are an important source of information on the Americans of the 16th century.) In 1535, they finally escaped and interacted with other natives to survive. They used their healing skills to befriend them. This was not a skill of science, but herbal medicine and prayer. Estevanico soon gained the reputation as a healer and was called upon to heal everything from headaches to people near death. Not only did this make them friends with the locals, but also, it ensured their survival and created areputation that opened up the opportunity for travel again. Estévanico also helped the group with his ability to learn more than six Indian languages.

Estevanico – Continued:

The Spaniards wanted to maintain their mystique and authority, so EstĂŠvanico was constantly among the Indians acting as ambassador for the group.

With the aide of thousands of Indians, they made their way west by way of the Rio Grande, Presidio, and crossing into Mexico at what is now El Paso. They were nicknamed ""children of the sun" by the Indians, because the men traveled from east to west. Because their reputation was so great, when a patient died, the people assumed the fault was with the patient. In May of 1536, they arrived at San Miguel de Culiacan (Sinaloa, Mexico). In July, they arrived in Mexico City, the four survivors told stories of wealthy indigenous tribes to the North and this created great interest in the city.

While the other three men all returned to Spain, Estevanico was sold to Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of New Spain, who used Estevanico as a guide in expeditions to the North. In 1539, Estevanico was one of four men who accompanied Marcos de Niza as a guide in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola, preceding Coronado. Estevanico traveled ahead of the main party with a group of indigenous servants instructed to send back crosses to the main party, with the size of the cross equal to the wealth discovered.

One day, a cross arrived that was as tall as a person causing de Niza to quickly progress forward. Estevanico had entered the Zuni village of Hawikuh (in present-day New Mexico) and for some reason offended the inhabitants so they killed Estevanico and his indigenous servants were sent from the village. De Niza reportedly witnessed the results and quickly returned to New Spain. The exact reason Estevanico was killed is not precisely clear, but accounts suggest the Zuni did not believe his account of representing a party of whites, and further that he was killed because Estevanico was black and wore feathers and rattles, and may have looked like a wizard to the Zuni. Another theory, published in 2002, claims that Estevanico was not killed by the Zuni, and that he and friends among the Indians faked his death to achieve his freedom.

Estevanico – Continued:

The mural of EstĂŠvanico shows him standing between Morocco and Florida. He came to Florida in 1527. (Mural by TatsCru in Azemmour, Morocco)

Painting of Estevanico by Granger

‘The Institute Inc.’

The Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute celebrates the culture and connectivity of the people of the African Diaspora. The African Diaspora being defined as people of African descent who live as cultural and national communities in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, South America, Central America, and North America.

The Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute was created in honor of the life of the first person of African descent to set foot on North American soil. Estevanico was born in Azamor, Morocco. When he was a teenager, during the sold many Moroccans into slavery.

Estevanico was sold to Andres de Dorantes, and the two joined an expedition to the lands of Florida. It was to be a tragic expedition: Although they reached Florida in 1528, many on the expedition died of illness, injuries and attacks by the indigenous tribes. The survivors eventually fled by boat, reaching the Texas coast, where they were enslaved. By 1534, only four were alive: Estevanico, Dorantes, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and Alonso del Castillo Maldonado.

The saga of Estevanico is symbolic and recognizable to all people in the African Diaspora.

His courage under duress, his intelligence and survival skills are culturally evident. But most importantly, Estevanico was a product of his faith teachings and his culture. His heritage gave him the pride and stamina to endure and to serve as a humanitarian to those less fortunate. Gifted, he used those gifts in relationships with other cultures for the benefit of the whole. Although enslaved, Estevanico became a leader, an explorer, an educators, a healer and a spiritual ambassador for every culture he represented. And the Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute was created as a way on celebrating his life and many others, and to connect the African Diaspora by showcasing our culture and economic prowess.

The Pan African Community “One Culture, One Heritage, One Village!

Africa, Europe, Caribbean, South America, Central America, South America, North America!” www.panafricanchi.org

From Imagining to Understanding the African American Experience

Author/Dr. Phyllis A. Gray

is currently Professor of Sociology and Social Psychology at Florida A & M University in Tallahassee, FL. Previously, she served as the Vice President for Research, and then as the Executive Director of the Juvenile Justice Research Institute at Florida A & M University. Other positions include being the Chief Research Officer and Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Research at Winston-Salem State University; Head of the Division of Social Sciences, and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Voorhees College; Professor and Research Director of the Institute for Disability Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi.

She has published numerous scholarly research articles in both national and international journals, and is the recipient of many honors and awards including induction into the prestigious Sigma Xi National Scientific Research Society. She is also the founding Executive Director of the National Black Graduate Student Association, Inc. Dr. Gray has generated close to 10 million dollars in external research funds. Her research has been funded by The National Science Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, the U. S. Department of Education, the Mississippi Department of Health, the Mississippi Department of Human Services, and the Kellogg Foundation. During her tenure as Vice President for Research at Florida A & M University, faculty generated over $60 million in single-year funds and over $100 million in multi-year funds, within one year.

Her current book, From Imagining to Understanding the African American Experience, was published in August, 2012. Her second book, focusing on the disparate treatment of minority youth in the juvenile justice system is slated for publication in 2013.

Dr. Phyllis A. Gray is a native of Beaufort, SC and received her B. S. degree in Psychology from South Carolina State University, and both the M. S. degree and Ph.D. in Sociology/Social Psychology from Iowa State University. She is the mother of two, Akeem T. Ray, a Junior majoring in Psychology at Florida State University, and Shakenna J. Durant, a 5th grader at Killearn Lakes Elementary School in Tallahassee, Florida.

‘A MUST READ’

The main purpose of this book is to aid individuals in developing their “sociopsychological imaginations” and to broaden their understanding of the “Social Psychology of the Black Experience,” particularly in the United States’ multicultural society. Although one book cannot provide the total experience of the Black Diaspora, this book provides a unique socio-psychological exploration of the African American experience, and how it has been specifically impacted by culprits such as slavery and racism. The hidden reality of slavery and racism is deeply threaded throughout the fabric of the current mental and social conditions of African Americans, and this threading must be understood. Blacks are still one of the most disadvantaged minority groups in the nation. Because “race” still matters in the United States, every section of this book explores the socio-psychological impact of slavery and racism on the experiences of Black Americans. Moreover, this book provides a solid presentation of the different phases of the “Black Experience” in American society. As the book moves through each phase, beginning with the institution of slavery itself and right up to the present, it explores the mental and social impact of slavery and racism on major social problems of black life (family, education, crime, etc.), to show how a life of slavery and racism have impacted every aspect of the black experience in America. Understanding slavery provides the foundation for understanding Black Americans, and therefore understanding America.

ISBN 978-1-4652-0215-4 Publisher Kendall Hunt Website http://www.kendallhunt.com/store-product.aspx?id=32478 Available Formats Electronic Delivery EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-4652-0978-8 $41.28

‘THE BOOK CLUB’

The Book Club showcases the member authors of the Pan African cultural arts and entertainment network. The subject matters are varied but, significant as it relates to our culture and our history. They each are successful in their own rights.

Dr. Michael W. Wesley, Sr. Pastor/Author Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr. is a native of Birmingham, Alabama where he was educated in the public school system. He graduated from Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Music Education. He received a Master’s Degree in Music Education; a Class A certification in School Principal ship and the Educational Specialist Degree in Educational Leadership from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. In addition, Dr. Wesley received a Bible Diploma and Bible Certification from Birmingham Baptist Bible College. He completed the Beeson Institute for Advanced Church Leadership Program from Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. Dr. Wesley earned the Doctor of Ministry Degree from Louisiana Baptist University and Theological Seminary in Shreveport, Louisiana May 2006.

Dr. Wesley retired in 2003 after a brilliant 26-year career as an educator in the Birmingham Public Schools. He served as a teacher, assistant principal and principal of three different schools (Powderly Elementary; Arrington Middle and was the first African American principal of Woodlawn High School).

He served on the Central Office staff as Extended Day Principal and Coordinator of Safe and Drug Free Schools.

Dr. Wesley is regularly sought after to speak in both schools and churches. He has had the privilege of speaking across the nation and in several foreign countries. His spiritual gifts of teaching and preaching are well documented. He is a member of many organizations. His civic and professional associations are too numerous to mention.

Most recent is the evidence of his leadership, occurred with the completion of a multimillion dollar edifice and education facility located in the heart of the West End community.

Dr. Wesley is currently the pastor of the Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in the West End community where he has given thirty years of service. He has a great love for people and for learning.

He is married to the former Venita Burkes, and is the father of two sons, Rev. Michael Wesley Jr. and James Edward, one grandson and two granddaughters.

Dr. Wesley is the author of three books, When God Changes A Church, Everybody Deserves A Good Funeral and Reaching the Unchurched Pathway to Church Growth.

Mark Stephen O'Neal was born November 22, 1966 in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Prairie View A&M University and graduated with a degree in Business Administration/Management. He's currently a paralegal by trade but developed his talent for writing many years ago.

One day after a taxing week of work in the banking industry, O'Neal got on his knees and prayed to the Lord for direction and guidance. The Holy Spirit then quietly and instantly gave him the instruction and inspiration to embark on his writing career, and thus an author was born. He currently has four books published on Amazon, and he has numerous projects in the works that will soon be released in the near future.

O'Neal's best-selling book to date is titled Nefarious, a crime fiction drama about a young nightclub owner whose fast lifestyle soon catches up with him. His nightclub is subsequently robbed, and someone close to him is murdered. This intriguing story based in Chicago can be purchased on O'Neal's Amazon page.

https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Stephen-ONeal/e/B074Y5K6TC

When you pick up a book by Melinda Michelle you should expect for your eyes to be opened, your heart to race, your emotions to rise and your faith to be taken up a notch. Purpose is her passion and with that passion she weaves a story about the matchless power of the Almighty God through the written word. It is her desire to awaken the Body of Christ to not only the power that they have, but the knowledge that they truly wrestle not against flesh and blood.

Gwendolyn Melinda Michelle Evans (GMME) is a Florida native. She was born in Jacksonville and raised in Sanford. Reading has been a part of her life from a very young age.

Growing up in a family of avid readers exposed her to various genres of writing creating an eclectic taste in books.

Graduating from the university on the highest of seven hills, Florida A&M University, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting. She also holds an MBA with a concentration in Finance and Accounting from American Intercontinental University. For nine years she worked for financial institutions before deciding to step out on faith and write full time. She is the owner and founder of Global Multi Media Enterprises (GMME), a freelance writing, publishing and media company.

She currently resides in Tallahassee, Florida.

Melinda’s stories are designed to connect with Christians, but it is her hope to connect to anyone who likes to read. Her stories are designed to captivate the reader with powerful testimonies about God.

And More‌http://www.melindamichelle21.com/Publications.aspx

Mark Miller Author

For over seventeen years, I have been working with at risk kids and struggling readers. I have been a case manager for a children's mental health corporation, a family counselor for child protective services, and a teacher in juvenile justice facilities, alternative education programs, high schools, and middle schools. I currently teach reading and language arts in elementary school grades. More than ever, we must understand the importance of establishing a good foundation in reading from an early age. Kids will read if you give them something they want to read. The more they read, the better readers they become. I am on a mission to inspire more kids to read and adults to read more. Although my students inspire me to write novels with young adults in mind, my books address a variety of high interest topics that appeal to people of all ages.

My first three novels are a reflection of my experiences working with kids in child protective services and juvenile justice facilities who have faced grave adversity.

Chasing Faith- Cara was a good, Catholic school girl until her mother dies from an unexpected drug overdose and she is forced to live with her estranged father. Join this intelligent, courageous, young woman as she attempts to overcome the death of her mother, establish a relationship with her father, find her place in the world, and regain her faith.

Baby Club- Every girl wants love. For Tynise, Ruby, Lauryn and Marisol, find love in one of the roughest projects in Chicago was no easy task. In the belief having a bay will fill the void, they make a bet to see which one can get pregnant first and Baby Club is born. How far will four fifteen year old girls go for the unconditional love they crave?

The Inner Light- Follow Trouble, a boy born into a world of gangs and violence, a world of darkness. When his mother is arrested, he discovers a unique gift. He sees an inner light emanating from the heads of people who treat him well. The light guides him through the foster care and juvenile justice systems, the void of an absent mother, and a quest to find his own inner light.

The Collective, Judgment- This science fiction novel explores the idea that we were never alone. The guardians of the universe have been watching us, guiding us, and protecting the most precious thing in the universe, life. Now they must make a decision. Is man ready to take their place in the Collective or is it time for judgement?

Mark Miller Continued:

Jomo Zende, The Arrival- Taken from his home in Africa at the age of ten, Jomo is enslaved on a cotton plantation in Georgia for six years. While being tied to a post for a whipping, Jomo finds the courage to run from his masters. He seeks refuge in a cave that is used as a hiding place for the Underground Railroad and discovers a mysterious light shining from deep within the cave. Seeking an escape, he runs into the light and emerges in the year twenty eighteen with great physical strength, enhanced senses, and futuristic weapons. Now, he must learn to adapt to his new powers in a world where all men and women are free but are not treated equally. *All titles available for sale on www.Amozon.com/books or kindle- search mark miller, (title of book)

Janice Kelsey Educator/Author In 1963, 16-year-old Janice Kelsey made a decision that had a profound affect on her future. She decided to risk it all and go to jail by becoming a foot soldier in the Birmingham, Alabama Children’s Crusade to protest the racial segregation that prevailed in her city and throughout the South. Janice tells the story of her arrest in I Woke Up with My Mind on Freedom, and goes on to describe her role in the new South as an educator and administrator.

Today, she travels the United States, speaking about the horrors of living in the old South while describing how she and other youth made a difference and changed their world.

Mrs. Janice Wesley Kelsey is a native of Birmingham, Alabama where she received her secondary education in the Birmingham Public Schools. While a student at Ullman High School, Mrs. Kelsey became involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Janice earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Miles College, and an Educational Specialist degree and master’s degree in Guidance and Counseling from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She has been married for over 40 years to her husband Rufus and is the proud mother of two children and five grandchildren.

https://www.amazon.com/Woke-Up-My-Mind-Freedom/dp/1633600688

Jeremie Samuel is photographed outside the T.T. Wentworth Museum with a copy of his book The Moorish Essence of Pensacola. The book highlights the Moorish architectural influence in buildings in Pensacola including the Saenger Theatre, Pensacola Museum of Art and Crowne Plaza Pensacola Grand. (Photo: Ben Twingley/btwingley@pnj.com)

Jeremie Samuel was born in Pensacola, Florida on January 5, 1987. He attended Florida State University where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in English in 2010. While studying at Florida State University in Tallahassee, he developed a strong desire to reconnect with his ancestry. Samuel begin to read literature on the ancient history of Africa and America. His inspiration came after reading the autobiography of Malcolm X and learning teachings of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Prophet Noble Drew Ali and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Prophet Noble Drew Ali established the Moorish Science Temple in 1913 and through his teaching on the Moors of antiquity and their transoceanic empire, Samuel turned his focus on the Moorish paradigm and their influence on the world as we know it today.

Jeremie Samuel specializes in Moorish and Pre-Columbian American history. In 2015, through the observations in his hometown of Pensacola, he applied the research and his writing skills to bring about a new perspective of history in his first published book, “The Moorish Essence of Pensacola”. His book analyzes the congruent climate and ecology which cultivates Pensacola in the likeness of Moorish Spain and Morocco.

Explorers embarked in quest of the rich territory of Pensacola and Estevanico the Moor, born in Morocco, reached her shores in 1528. The layout of the city’s main districts of Cordova, Seville, and Granada correspond with the great ancient cities of Cordova, Seville, and Granada in Moorish Spain. With passions in ancestral knowledge, history, and culture, Samuel’s aspirations are to share his findings through lectures, publications, and the industry of tourism.

For more information about the book and author, visit. https://littlealandalus.wordpress.com/ or the Facebook page: The Moorish Essence of Pensacola-Book.

Jeremie Samuel is available for interviews at (850.748.7060) Email: jayshemuel@gmail.com

Author Sharon Parris-Chambers ‘Living Life as a Sacred Practice is a Lifestyle Trend’ February 2019 (Negril, Jamaica). Living Life as a Sacred Practice: Discover Yourself as a Source of Creation authored by Sharon Parris-Chambers is now available online at www.Balboapress.com, www.Amazon.com and www.Barnesandnoble.com. It is the longawaited second publication since her 2011 book, excerpts of which has been shared with audiences on Social Media as a Daily Quote over the past year.

There is a buzz surrounding the book reviewed by Queen Mother Barbara Makeda Blake Hannah, author, film maker and former senator who shares her convincing perspectives with readers on the merits of Living Life As a Sacred Practice. She pens “Thoughtful people who seek answers to the mysteries of living life fully, often turn to books of sacred wisdom and advice. Whether it be the holy books such as the Bible, Koran or books by modern gurus like Iyanla Van Zant, the desire for spiritual guidance occupies a major part of many. For those who thought such wisdom only came from ancient sages or well-promoted American, European or Asian gurus, it is a welcome surprise to find that our friend, cultural Sister and PR practitioner Sharon Parris-Chambers has given us such an excellent tome of spiritual healing.”

From beginning to end, the author seeks to establish an inner vision of the self as a Divine being. She shares “my morning quotes sometimes awaken me at 5:00 a.m. as prompts; I awake and write them down. These have become the basis of the descriptions and affirmations in the book.” The book is beautifully laid out in clear typesetting, with each chapter prepared as a daily teaching complete on its own. The reader has only to turn to a chapter to find an introspective meditation, sacred practice and affirmation to be used as a daily spiritual cleansing and healing ritual. Sample topics such as: “Pacify your Restless Mind”, “Let the Real you Stand Up,” “I Live my Dream,” “Stop Suffering,” and “Insource before you Outsource” can be found and savoured in the way one enjoys a feast. The key to the exercises is mindfulness meditation, which involve breathing practice, awareness of body and mind, muscle and body relaxation and is concluded with journaling. When this is done, it is more likely that something profound will be left with the seeker more than just merely reading passages within the book.

Author Sharon Parris-Chambers Continued:

Dr. Glenville Ashby, Religion & Culture editor, The Jamaica Gleaner, penned the forward wherein he takes note of the author’s maiden voyage to Africa. “The author returned to her roots in Gambia 2012 which unveiled her calling and sealed her mission as a veritable messenger of Spirit. It is in Gambia that she was grounded and initiated into the innermost mystery. It is there that she drank from the well of the First People and was handed the fabled Philosopher's Stone.”

Living Life as a Sacred Practice: Discover Yourself as a Sacred Practice is a transformational experience truth seekers do not want to miss.

Contact: Theo Chambers Caribbean Wellness Network 876-310-6612

Cultural Heritage Art Gallery

Sonja Evans Cultural Artist

www.sonjagrifinevans.com

Erick O’Neal Heritage Artist

www.erikonealart.com

Gate Way Countries

Gate Way Cities

‘PAN AFRICAN DIASPORA’ “One Culture, One Heritage, One Village!

Gateway Countries to Gateway Cities (GC to GC) effectively applies time-tested cultural principles that produce optimum socio-economic development in the "New and Old Worlds". Similar to the Marco Polo era and other historical examples, GC to GC recognized the cultural and heritage routes of the "Old and New Worlds" are as the roots of the "New Marketplace". Gateway Countries to Gateway Cities supports the idea that the "New Marketplace" will currently thrive best in the "New World". Nevertheless, it promotes and celebrates the "New Marketplace" globally through the formation of strategic socio-economic linkages with countries in both the "New World" and the "Old World". Of significance, it recognizes Europe and African countries; as important Gateways to the heritage routes of the New World, via the Caribbean, and Florida, the "Gateway State".

Based in the Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute, the Gateway Countries to Gateway Cities: 1. Establishes Gateway Trade, Travel and Transformation Centers to promote effective socioeconomic development perspectives for individual, organizational and community development, including community-based socio-economic development 2. Assists Chambers of Commerce to become more effective in reaching deeper and more broadly into the marketplace by creating within each chamber a Culture, Commerce and Community identity that integrates different socio-economic perspectives“ 3. Uses cultural explanations to describe the physical and spiritual resources of the "New World" and the "New Marketplace" thereby assisting individuals and organizations to more easily capitalize on the available wealth in their culture and heritage.

Gateway Countries to Gateway Cites Continued:

4. Designs and implements tourism packages for greater experiences of the "New Marketplace and the "New World" and focuses on developing new attitudes and improving relationships by "taking" individuals and organizations back to the "Old World" through Ghana and "The Joseph Project".

The "New Marketplace" or knowledge economy is a physical representation of a spiritual world we are now beginning to discover. Some of us increasingly comprehend that the rules governing the Spiritual World are the same as those that guide the "New Marketplace". Just as the spiritual world is deeply influenced by our attitudes and our relationships; likewise, success in the "New Marketplace" is largely dependent on our renewed commitment to improving our attitudes and building great relationships. Attitude will indeed determine altitude in the "New Marketplace".

Information and knowledge will only be utilized properly when we gain a thorough understanding of culture in the "New and Old Worlds". Likewise, the information and knowledge economy will only realize its maximum value when we achieve an intelligent understanding of Spirit in the Spiritual World. The degree to which we develop culturally is the exact degree to which our physical and Spiritual Worlds develop.

Gateway Countries to Gateway Cities Africa - Europe - Caribbean & 'The Americas' The Gateway Countries to Gateway Cities traces Estevanico's travel from Africa, via Europe and the Caribbean, to the Americas. The program was mimics and applies time-tested cultural principles that produce optimum cultural-economic development in the Motherland and in the "New and Old Worlds". Cultural and Heritage routes of the "Old and New Worlds" are as the roots of the "New Marketplace". Gateway Countries to Gateway Cities supports the idea that the "New Marketplace" will currently thrive best in the "New World". Nevertheless, it promotes and celebrates the "New Marketplace" globally through the formation of strategic cultural economic linkages with countries in both the "New World" and the "Old World". It recognizes that Europe and the West African countries, as important Gateways to the heritage routes of the New World."

The Gateway Countries to Gateway Cities Program encompasses the following: 1.

Establishes Gateway Trade, Travel and Transformation Cultural Heritage Societies to promote effective cultural economic development perspectives for individuals, organizations, communities, and most important businesses. Businesses that will spurn growth in community development and job creation.

2.

Assists Economic and Community Development Agencies to become more effective in reaching deeper and more broadly into the marketplace by creating within each entity an acute awareness in the importance of culture and heritage in the development of the marketplace.

3.

Uses cultural explanations to describe the physical and spiritual resources of the "New World" and the "New Marketplace" thereby assisting individuals and organizations to more easily capitalize on the available wealth.

4.

Designs and implements tourism packages for greater experiences and appreciation of the Cultural Heritage Community and Cultural Heritage Market Place. The end result being, an acute appreciation of values of all cultures and their contribution to the creation of the "New Marketplace and the "New World" and the Americas becoming the Cultural "Gumbo Pot".

Pan African History Different Trees - Same Roots!

Same Doors – Same Stories!

Pan African Cultural Heritage ‘Doors’ “Our Heritage of Struggle and Resilience” Africa – Europe – Caribbean – South America – Central America – North America

‘The Door of No Return’

‘Artist: Sonja Griffin Evans’

Pan African Cultural Heritage ‘Doors’ “Our Heritage of Struggle and Resilience” Africa – Europe – Caribbean – South America – Central America – North America

‘Freedom’s Door’

‘Artist Sonja Griffin Evans’

‘The Americas’ Slave History’

The Pan African Diaspora was created by the development of the slave trade. The first slaves used by Europeans, in what later became United States territory were among Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon’s colonization attempt of North Carolina in 1526. The attempt was a failure, lasting only one year; the slaves revolted and fled into the wilderness to live among the Confitachiqui people. In 1619 , twenty Africans were brought by a Dutch soldier and sold to the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia as indentured servants. It is possible that Africans were brought to Virginia prior to this, both because neither John Rolfe, the information source on the 1619 shipment, nor any contemporary of his ever says that this was the first contingent of Africans to come to Virginia; and because the 1625 Virginia census lists one black as coming on a ship that appears to only have landed people in Virginia prior to 1619.

The transformation from indentured servitude to racial slavery happened gradually. It was not until 1661 that a reference to slavery entered into Virginia law, directed at Caucasian servants who ran away with a black servant. It was not until the Slave Codes of 1705 that the status of African Americans as slaves would be sealed. This status would last for another 160 years, until after the end of the American Civil War with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in December 1865.

Only a fraction of the enslaved Africans brought to the New World ended up in British North America—perhaps 5%. The vast majority of slaves shipped across the Atlantic were sent to the Caribbean sugar colonies, Brazil or Spanish Colonies in Central America. Slavery was greatly reduced around the world in the 19th century. Following a successful slave revolt in Haiti, Britain forced the Barbary pirates to halt their practice of kidnapping and enslaving Europeans, banned slavery throughout its domain, and charged its navy with ending the global slave trade. Slavery was then abolished in Russia and Brazil. It was declared illegal in 1948 under the Universal Rights of Man of the United Nations. The last country to abolish legal slavery was Mauritania, where it was officially abolished by presidential decree in 1981.

‘AFRICA and Colonization’

Following the abolition of the slave trade, and propelled by economic exploitation, the colonization of Africa was initiated formally at the Berlin West Africa Conference in 1884– 1885. All the major European powers laid claim to the areas of Africa where they could exhibit a sphere of influence over the area. These claims did not have to have any substantial land holdings or treaties to be legitimate. The French gained major ground in West Africa, the British in East Africa, and the Portuguese and Spanish at various points throughout the continent, while King Leopold was able to retain his personal fiefdom, Congo. The Scramble for Africa, also known as the Race for Africa or Partition of Africa was a process of invasion, occupation, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers during the New Imperialism period, between 1881 and World War I in 1914. As a result of the heightened tension between European states in the last quarter of the 19th century, the partitioning of Africa may be seen as a way for the Europeans to eliminate the threat of a Europe-wide war over Africa. The last 59 years of the 19th century saw transition from 'informal imperialism' of control through military influence and economic dominance to that of direct rule.

Attempts to mediate imperial competition, such as the Berlin Conference (1884–1885), failed to establish definitively the competing powers' claims. Many African polities, states and rulers (such as the Ashanti, the Abyssinians, the Moroccans, the Somalis, the Benin Empire and the Zulus) sought to resist this wave of European aggression. However, the industrial revolution had provided the European armies with advanced weapons such as machine guns, which African

Africa & Colonization Continued:

armies found difficult to resist (with the exception of the Abyssinians, who were indeed successful). Also, unlike their European counterparts, African rulers, states and people did not at first form a continental united front although within a few years, a Pan-African movement did emerge. During the Scramble for Africa in the late nineteenth century, European powers divided Africa and its resources into political partitions at the Berlin Conference of 1884-85.

By 1905, African soil was almost completely controlled by European governments, with the only exceptions being Liberia (which had been settled by African-American former slaves) and Ethiopia (which had successfully resisted colonization by Italy). Britain and France had the largest holdings, but Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal also had colonies.

As a result of colonialism and imperialism, Africa suffered long term effects, such as the loss of important natural resources like gold and rubber, economic devastation, cultural confusion, geopolitical division, and political subjugation. Europeans often justified this using the concept of the White Man’s Burden, an obligation to "civilize" the peoples of Africa. By the 1930s, the colonial powers had cultivated (sometimes inadvertently) a small elite of leaders educated in Western universities and familiar with ideas such as self determination. These leaders, including leading nationalists such as Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Kwame Nkrumah (Gold Coast), now Ghana), Leoplold Sedar Senghor (Senegal), and Felix Houphouet-Boigny (Cote d’ Ivoire), came to lead the struggles for independence.

This movement led to most of the nations become independent by the 1990’s and the rebirth of Pan-African cultural economic philosophy, “Connecting the African Diaspora, “Culturally and Economically– Village by Village! ”

‘THE TRAVELER’

Artist Jean Pugh

‘The History of African American Travel’

Are We Welcome?

“Now we can travel without embarrassment” The Negro traveler's inconveniences are many and they are increasing because today so many more are traveling, individually and in groups." -Wendell P. Alston The Negro Motorist Green Book was a publication released in 1936 that served as a guide for African-American travelers. Because of the racist conditions that existed from segregation, blacks needed a reference manual to guide them to integrated or black-friendly establishments. That's when they turned to "The Negro Motorist Green Book: An International Travel Guide that was developed by activist Victor Green, and distributed by the Esso Standard Oil Company. Originally, the Green Book was created to serve Metropolitan New York. The book however, received such an overwhelming response, it spread throughout the country within one year. The catch phrase was “Now we can travel without embarrassment” The Green Book provided information on local tourist homes, which were private residences, owned by blacks and open to travelers. It was especially helpful to blacks that traveled through sunset towns or towns that publicly stated that blacks had to leave the town by sundown or it would be cause for arrest. Also listed were hotels, barbershops, beauty salons, restaurants, garages, liquor stores, ball parks and taverns. It also provided a listing of the white-owned, black-friendly locations for accommodations and food.

The publication was free, with a 10-cent cost of shipping. As interest grew, the Green Book solicited salespersons nationwide to build its ad sales. Inside the pages of the Green Book were action photos of the various locations, along with historical and background information for the readers' review. Within the pages of the introduction, the guide states, “There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal opportunities and privileges in the United States." The Green Book printed its last copy in 1964 after the passing of the Civil Rights Act.

New Orleans is one of the most celebrated cities of the American South and the largest city in Louisiana.

Known as the “Culture Capital� its the tourist hot-spot.

Jazz music still rules the city's streets and there's still a bit of Mardi Gras all year round.

New Orleans is known for a host of attributes like its famous Creole food, music of many styles, nearby swamps and plantations, 18th & 19th century architecture, antiques, streetcars, museums and much more.

Nicknamed the Big Easy, New Orleans has famous festivals like Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest which bring in tourists by the millions, and are the two times of the year when one needs to be sure to book well in advance to be sure of a room.

The city also offers many attractions for families with children and those interested in culture and the arts.

New Orleanians are either planning a party, enjoying one or recovering from one.

CafĂŠ du Monde

Zulu Parade

Coming Soon The Cultural Heritage Traveler Magazine “ Fulfilling Our Cultural Travel and Hospitality Needs" The cultural Heritage Traveler Magazine will place an emphasis on the inclusion of cultural destinations, sites and businesses of the Cultures of Pan Africa. “The Guide” is designed to promote ‘Black Heritage and Culture’; and businesses of importance, both majority and minority; to include diversity - sensitive hotels, restaurants, various destinations and attractions, to ensure they receive the deserved recognition, not previously afforded them by other marketing agencies.

Honoring the Legacy of the Green Book

‘Cultural Heritage Travel’ The Pullman Porters

‘Pullman porters’ were men hired to work on the railroads as porters on sleeping cars. Starting shortly after the American Civil War, George Pullman sought out former slaves to work on his sleeper cars.

Pullman porters served American railroads for 100 years from the late 1860s until late in the 20th Century. Pullman porters, who were largely black, formed the first all-black union. Under the leadership of A. Phillip Randolph, Pullman porters formed the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

The formation of the union, in 1925, was instrumental in the advancement of the Civil Rights Movement.

Many people credit Pullman porters as significant contributors to the development of America's black tourism and travel; and the subsequent development of the black middle class. In the late 19th century, Pullman porters were among the only people in their communities to travel extensively. Consequently, they became a conduit of new information and ideas from the wider world to their communities. Many Pullman porters supported community projects, including schools, and saved rigorously to ensure that their children were able to obtain an education and thus better employment. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown were descendants of Pullman porters. Marshall was also a porter himself, as were Malcolm X and the photojournalist Gordon Parks.

It is not widely known that in the early 1900s, the heyday of luxury travel, the more luxurious trains also had African-American Pullman maids to care for women's needs, especially women with children.

They were expected to assist ladies with their bath, be able to give manicures and dress hair, and assist with children.

According to historian Greg LeRoy, "A Pullman Porter worked 400 hours a month or 11,000 miles, sometimes as much as 20 hours at a stretch. They were expected to arrive at work several hours early to prepare their car, on their own time; they were charged whenever their passengers stole a towel or a water pitcher. On overnight trips, they were allocated only three to four hours of sleep—and that was deducted from their pay. "It didn't pay a livable wage, but they made a living with the tips that they got, because the salary was nothing," says Lyn Hughes of the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum.

The porters were expected to pay for their own meals and uniforms and the company required them to pay for the shoe polish used to shine passengers' shoes daily. There was little job security, and the Pullman Company inspectors were known for suspending porters for trivial reasons.

"One of the most remarkable stories I liked hearing about was how when Jackie Gleason would ride; all the porters wanted to be on that run. The reason why? Not only because he gave every porter $100.00, but it was just the fun, the excitement, the respect that he gave the porters. Instead of their names being George, he called everybody by their first name. He always had like a piano in the car and they sang and danced and had a great time. He was just a fun person to be around.”

‘The Great Migration’

‘The Great Migration ‘was the movement of 6 million African Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West that occurred between 1910 and 1970. Blacks moved from 14 states of the South, especially Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, to the other three cultural regions of the United States. Georgia was especially affected, seeing net declines in its African-American population for three consecutive decades after 1920. Some historians differentiate between a first Great Migration (1910–1930), which saw about 1.6 million people move from mostly rural areas to northern industrial cities, and a Second Great Migration (1940–1970), which began after the Great Depression and brought at least 5 million people — including many townspeople with urban skills — to the north and to California and other western states.

By the end of the Second Great Migration, African Americans had become an urbanized population. More than 80 percent of blacks lived in cities. A bare majority of 53 percent remained in the South, while 40 percent lived in the North, and 7 percent in the West. In 1991, Nicholas Lemann wrote that the Great Migration: was one of the largest and most rapid mass internal movements in history—perhaps the greatest not caused by the immediate threat of execution or starvation. In sheer numbers it outranks the migration of any other ethnic group—Italians or Irish or Jews or Poles—to [the U.S.]. For blacks, the migration meant leaving what had always been their economic and social base in America, and finding a new one.

The Great Migration drained off much of the rural black population of the South, and for a time, froze or reduced African-American population growth in parts of the region. A number of states witnessed decades of black population decline, especially across the Deep South "black belt" where cotton had been king. The migration changed the demographics of the South. In 1910, African Americans constituted the majority of the population of South Carolina and Mississippi, and more than 40 percent in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas; by 1970, only in Mississippi did the African-American population constitute more than 30 percent of the state's total.

The Great Migration Continued:

"The disappearance of the 'black belt' was one of the striking effects" of the Great Migration, James Gregory wrote. In Mississippi, blacks decreased from about 56% of the population in 1910 to about 37% by 1970, remaining the majority only in some Delta counties. In South Carolina, blacks decreased from about 55% of the population in 1910 to about 30% by 1970.

The growing black presence outside the South changed the dynamics and demographics of numerous cities in the North, Midwest and West. In 1900, only 740,000 African Americans lived outside the South, just 8 percent of the nation's total black population. By 1970, more than 10.6 million African Americans lived outside the South, 47 percent of the nation's total.

Because the migrants concentrated in the big cities of the north and west, their influence was magnified. Cities that had been virtually all white at the start of the century became centers of black culture and politics by mid-century. Informal residential segregation and the tendency of people to settle with others of their home communities led to concentrations of blacks in certain areas. The northern "Black metropolises" developed an important infrastructure of newspapers, businesses, jazz clubs, churches, and political organizations that provided the staging ground for new forms of racial politics and new forms of black culture.

The Great Migration created the first large urban black communities in the North. It is conservatively estimated that 400,000 African Americans left the South in 1916 through 1918 to take advantage of a labor shortage in the wake of the First World War. In 1910, the African-American population of Detroit was 6,000. The Great Migration, plus the immigration from eastern and southern Europe, rapidly turned the city into the country's fourth-largest. By the start of the Great Depression in 1929, the city's African-American population had increased to 120,000. In 1900–01, Chicago had a total population of 1,754,473. By 1920, the city had added more than 1 million residents. During the second wave of the Great Migration (1940–60), the African-American population in the city grew from 278,000 to 813,000.

The flow of African Americans to Ohio, particularly to Cleveland, changed the demographics of the state and its primary industrial city. Before the Great Migration, an estimated 1.1% to 1.6% of Cleveland's population was African American. By 1920, 4.3% of Cleveland's population was African American. The number of African Americans in Cleveland continued to rise over the next 20 years of the Great Migration.

Other northern and mid-western industrial cities, such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City, and Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Omaha, also had dramatic increases in their African-American populations. By the 1920s, New York's Harlem became a center of black cultural life, influenced by the American migrants as well as new immigrants from the Caribbean area.

Second-tier industrial cities that were destinations for numerous black migrants were Buffalo, Rochester, Boston, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Columbus, Cincinnati, Grand Rapids, and Indianapolis, and smaller industrial cities such as Gary, Dayton, Erie, Toledo, Youngstown, Peoria, Muskegon, Newark, Flint, Saginaw, and Albany. People tended to take the cheapest rail ticket possible and go to areas where they had relatives and friends.

The Great Migration Continued:

For example, many people from Mississippi moved directly north by train to Chicago, from Alabama to Cleveland and Detroit, from Georgia and South Carolina to New York City and Philadelphia, and in the second migration, from Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi to California.

Since 1965, a reverse migration has gathered strength. Dubbed the New Great Migration, it has seen many blacks move to the “South, generally to states and cities where economic opportunities are the best. The reasons include economic difficulties of cities in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, growth of jobs in the New South" and its lower costs of living, family and kinship ties, and improving racial relations. As early as 1975 to 1980, seven southern states were net black migration gainers. African-American populations have continued to drop throughout much of the Northeast, particularly with black emigration out of the State of New York, as well as out of Northern New Jersey, as they rise in the South.

Educated African Americans were better able to obtain jobs after the Great Migration, eventually gaining a measure of class mobility, but the migrants encountered significant forms of discrimination. Because so many people migrated in a short period of time, the African-American migrants were often resented by the urban European-American working class (often recent immigrants themselves); fearing their ability to negotiate rates of pay or secure employment, the ethnic whites felt threatened by the influx of new labor competition.

Sometimes those who were most fearful or resentful were the last immigrants of the 19th and new immigrants of the 20th century. In many cities, working classes tried to defend what they saw as "their" territories.

African Americans made substantial gains in industrial employment, particularly in the steel, automobile, shipbuilding, and meatpacking industries. Between 1910 and 1920, the number of blacks employed in industry nearly doubled from 500,000 to 901,000. After the Great Depression, more advances took place after workers in the steel and meatpacking industries organized into labor unions in the 1930s and 1940s, under the interracial Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The unions ended the segregation of many jobs, and African Americans began to advance into more skilled jobs and supervisory positions previously informally reserved for whites.

Populations increased so rapidly among both African-American migrants and new European immigrants that there were housing shortages in most major cities. With fewer resources, the newer groups were forced to compete for the oldest, most rundown housing. Ethnic groups created territories which they defended against change. Discrimination often restricted African Americans to crowded neighborhoods. The more established populations of cities tended to move to newer housing as it was developing in the outskirts. Mortgage discrimination and redlining in inner city areas limited the newer African-American migrants' ability to determine their own housing, or obtain a fair price. In the long term, the National Housing Act of 1934 contributed to limiting the availability of loans to urban areas, particularly those areas inhabited by African Americans.

Integration and Segregation White tenants seeking to prevent blacks from moving into the Sojourner Truth housing project in Detroit in 1942 erected this derogatory signs and protested. In cities such as Newark, New York and Chicago, African Americans became increasingly integrated into society. As they lived and worked more closely with European Americans, the divide became increasingly indefinite. This period marked the transition for many African Americans from lifestyles as rural farmers to urban industrial workers.

This migration gave birth to a cultural boom in cities, such as, Chicago and New York. In Chicago, for instance, the neighborhood of Bronzeville became known as the "Black Metropolis". From 1924 to 1929, the "Black Metropolis" was at the peak of its golden years.

Many of the community's entrepreneurs were black during this period. "The increase in the number of "backwards" blacks moving into the Black Metropolis was cause for concern in the native community. The foundation of the first African American YMCA took place in Bronzeville, and worked to help incoming migrants find jobs in the city of Chicago. The "Black Belt" geographical and racial isolation of this community, bordered to the north and east by whites, and to the south and west by industrial sites and ethnic immigrant neighborhoods, made it a site for the study of the development of an urban black community.

For urbanized people, eating proper foods in a sanitary, civilized setting, such as, the home or a restaurant was a social ritual that indicated one's level of respectability. The people native to Chicago had pride in the high level of integration in Chicago restaurants, which they attributed to their unassailable manners and refined tastes.

Migrants often encountered residential discrimination, in which white home owners and realtors prevented migrants from purchasing homes or renting apartments in white neighborhoods. In addition, when numerous blacks moved into white neighborhoods, white would quickly relocate out of fear of a potential rise in property crime, rape, drugs and violence that was attributed to neighborhoods with large black populations. These tendencies contributed to maintaining the "racial divide" in the North, perhaps accentuating it. By the late 1950s and 1960s, African Americans were hyper-urban, more densely concentrated in inner cities than other groups.

Since African-American migrants retained many Southern cultural and linguistic traits, such cultural differences created a sense of "otherness" in terms of their reception by others who were already living in the cities. Stereotypes ascribed to black people during this period and ensuing generations often derived from African-American migrants' rural cultural traditions, which were maintained in stark contrast to the urban environments in which the people resided.

The Great Depression of the 1930s resulted in reduced migration because of decreased opportunities. With the defense buildup for World War II, migration was revived, with larger numbers of blacks leaving the South through the 1960s. After the political and civil gains of the African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968), in the 1970s migration began to increase again. It moved in a different direction, as blacks traveled to new regions of the South for economic opportunity.

‘Harlem’

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke.

The Movement also included the new African-American cultural expressions across the urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest United States affected by the Great Migration (African American), of which Harlem was the largest. Though it was centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York, in addition, many black writers from African and Caribbean colonies who lived in Paris were also influenced by the Harlem Renaissance.

The Harlem Renaissance is generally considered to have spanned from about 1919 until the early or mid-1930s. Many of its ideas lived on much longer. Harlem became an AfricanAmerican neighborhood in the early 1900s. In 1910, a large block along 135th Street and Fifth Avenue was bought by various African-American realtors and a church group. Many more African–Americans arrived during the First World War. Due to the war, the migration of laborers from Europe virtually ceased, while the war effort resulted in a massive demand for unskilled industrial labor. The Great Migration brought hundreds of thousands of African–Americans to cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, and New York.

Despite the increasing popularity of Negro culture, virulent white racism, often by more recent ethnic immigrants, continued to affect African-American communities, even in the North. After the end of World War I, many African-American soldiers—who fought in segregated units such as the Harlem Hellfighters came home to a nation whose citizens often did not respect their accomplishments. Race riots and other civil uprisings occurred throughout the U.S. during the Red Summer of 1919, reflecting economic competition over jobs and housing in many cities, as well as tensions over social territories.

‘Harlem’ Continued:

The first stage of the Harlem Renaissance started in the late 1910s. In 1917, the premiere of Three Plays for a Negro Theatre took place. These plays, written by white playwright Ridgely Torrence, featured African-American actors conveying complex human emotions and yearnings. They rejected the stereotypes of the blackface and minstrel show traditions. James Weldon Johnson in 1917 called the premieres of these plays "the most important single event in the entire history of the Negro in the American Theater”. Another landmark came in 1919, when the poet Claude McKay published his militant sonnet, "If We Must Die". Although the poem never alluded to race, African-American readers heard its note of defiance in the face of racism and the nationwide race riots and lynchings, then taking place. By the end of the First World War, the fiction of James Weldon Johnson and the poetry of Claude McKay were describing the reality of contemporary African-American life in America.

In 1917 Hubert Harrison, "The Father of Harlem Radicalism", founded the Liberty League and The Voice, the first organization and the first newspaper, respectively, of the "New Negro Movement". Harrison's organization and newspaper were political, but also emphasized the arts (his newspaper had "Poetry for the People" and book review sections). In 1927, in the Pittsburgh Courier, Harrison challenged the notion of the renaissance. He argued that the "Negro Literary Renaissance" notion overlooked the stream of literary and artistic products which had flowed uninterruptedly from Negro writers from 1850 to the present.

The Harlem Renaissance grew out of the changes that had taken place in the AfricanAmerican community since the abolition of slavery, as well as the expansion of communities in the North. These accelerated as a consequence of World War I and the great social and cultural changes in early 20th-century United States. Industrialization was attracting people to cities from rural areas and gave rise to a new mass culture. Contributing factors leading to the Harlem Renaissance were the Great Migration of African Americans to northern cities, which concentrated ambitious people in places where they could encourage each other, and the First World War, which had created new industrial work opportunities for tens of thousands of people. Factors leading to the decline of this era include the Great Depression that followed the Stock Market Crash of 1929.

Christianity played a major role in the Harlem Renaissance. Many of the writers and social critics discussed the role of Christianity in African–American lives. For example, a famous poem by Langston Hughes, "Madam and the Minister", reflects the temperature and mood towards religion in the Harlem Renaissance. The cover story for the Crisis Magazine's publication in May 1936 explains how important Christianity was regarding the proposed union of the three largest Methodist churches of 1936. For Blacks, the Church and the arts were a way to prove one’s humanity and demand equality. For a number of Whites, preconceived prejudices were challenged and conquered. Corresponding with the era of the Harlem Renaissance was the beginning of mainstream publishing. The Harlem Renaissance would help lay the foundation of the Civil Rights Movement. Moreover, many Black artists coming into their own careers after this literary movement would take inspiration from it.

The History of African American ART – FOOD - MUSIC

‘THE ENTERTAINER’

Artist Jean Pugh

Culture Heritage Arts

THE FLORIDA HIGHWAYMEN The Highwaymen, also referred to as the Florida Highwaymen, are a group of 26 African American landscape artists in Florida, from the mid - 1950’s until the early 1980’s. They were self-taught and worked together, and created a body of work of over 200,000 paintings, despite facing many racial and cultural barriers. The Highwaymen painted landscapes and cultural images and made a living selling them door-to-door, to businesses and individuals, throughout Florida.

The Highwaymen created large numbers of relatively inexpensive landscape paintings using construction materials rather than traditional art supplies. Because of the fact that no art galleries would accept their work, they sold them in towns and cities and along roadsides throughout Florida, often still wet, out of the trunks of their cars. Their success and longevity is remarkable considering they began their career in the racially unsettled and violent times of the 50s in Florida, and amid the social conditions of the Jim Crow South where the stirrings of the civil rights movement were only just beginning. They have been called "The Last Great American Art Movement of the 20th century".

In the 50s and 60s, it was impossible to find galleries interested in selling artworks by a group of unknown, self-taught African Americans. Instead they sold their art directly to the public rather than through galleries and art agents. Rediscovered in the mid-1990s, today they are recognized as an important part of American folk history and their fame has grown internationally.

The remaining artists in the original group (8 deceased) continue to paint to this day, more than 50 years since they first started to paint, even though most artists are now in their 70s and some nearing their 80s. Over time their style has evolved into more carefully created works and away from the original "fast painting" techniques that enabled them to produce large quantities of paintings in their early years.

Paintings by the Florida Highwaymen are prized by collectors today, but their story is about much more than art. Today their 200,000 plus paintings have gathered significant interest and have become quite collectible. At auctions some of these particular painters' works have been recognized with high prices, notably important older works by the "original" members.

‘Cultural Heritage Cuisine’

‘Sylvia’s Soul Food’ Restaurant owner, Sylvia Woods, the "Queen of Soul Food”, is the founder and owner of the world famous Sylvia's Restaurant, located in the historical village of Harlem, since 1962. Sylvia, is one of many nationally known cultural significant eating establishments that are know for their outstanding Soul Food cuisine.

Soul food is a variety of cuisine associated with the African American culture of the Southern United States. The term soul food became popular in the 1960s. The origins of soul food, however, are much older and can be traced back to Africa and to Europe, as well.

Foods such as rice, sorghum, and okra are common stables of West African cuisine and were brought to the Americas via the Atlantic Slave Trade. They became the food staples for enslaved Africans.

Many culinary historians believe that in the beginning of the 14th century, around the time of early Euro-African exploration, European explorers brought their own food supplies and introduced them into local African diets. Foods such as corn and cassava from the Americas, turnips from Morocco, and cabbage from Portugal were important part in the history of Soul Food. When the Europeans began their African slave trade in the early 15th century, the indigenous crops of Africa began showing up in the Americas.

European enslavers fed their captive workers as cheaply as possible, often with leftover/waste foods from the plantation, forcing slaves to make do with the ingredients at hand. In slave households, 'vegetables' consisted of the tops of turnips, beets, and dandelions.

Soon, African-American slaves were cooking with new types of "greens": collards, kale, cress, mustard, and pokeweed. They also developed recipes which used lard, cornmeal, and discarded cuts of meats; pigs feet, oxtail, ham hocks, pig ears, pork jowls, tripe, and skin.

Cooks added onion, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf to enhance the flavor.

Cultural Heritage Cuisine Continued:

For meat, slave owners provided their slaves with the poor parts of the pig, such as the small intestines (Chitterlings). Chitterlings were a dish of poor people in medieval England and the name was adopted by the African-Americans. Some African-American slaves supplemented their meager diets by gardening small plots given to them for growing their own vegetables.

Many engaged in subsistence fishing and hunting, which yielded wild game for the table.

Foods such as rabbits, raccoon, squirrel, opossum, and turtle were a common delicacy, until the 1950’s in the rural Southern states.

Because it was illegal in many states for enslaved Africans to learn to read or write, soul food recipes and cooking techniques tended to be passed along orally, until after their emancipation. The first soul food cookbook is recorded as being authored by Abby Fisher, What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, published in 1881. Good Things to Eat was published in 1911; the author, Rufus Estes, was a former slave who worked for the Pullman Railway car service. Many other cookbooks were written by African Americans during that time, but as they were not widely distributed, most are now lost. Since the mid20th Century, many cookbooks highlighting soul food , compiled by African Americans, have been published and well received. Vertamae Grosvenor’s Vibration Cooking, or the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl, originally published in 1970, focused on South Carolina’s Lowcountry/Gullah/Gechee cooking. It was a bestseller.

‘Cultural Heritage Music’ Motown & Stax Records

The ‘Chitlin’ Circuit

The "Chitlin' Circuit" is the collective name given to the string of performance venues throughout the eastern, southern, and upper mid-west areas of the United States that were safe and acceptable for African American musicians, comedians, and other entertainers to perform in during the age of racial segregation in the United States (from at least the early 19th century through the 1960s).

In the 21st century, the term is applied to the venues where contemporary African-American blues singers such as Bobby Rush, Denise LaSalle, and O.B. Buchana continue to appear regularly, especially in the South. The name derives from the soul food item, chitterlings, (stewed pig intestines).

It is also a play on the term “Borscht Belt”, which referred to a group of resort venues (primarily in New York State's Catskill Mountains) that were popular with Jewish performers and audiences during the 1940s, '50s and '60s.

Noted theaters and night clubs on the Chitlin' Circuit included the Royal Peacock in Atlanta; the Carver Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama; the Cotton Club, Smalls Paradise and the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City; Robert’s Show Lounge, Club DeLisa and the Regal Theatre in Chicago; the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C.; the Uptown Theatre in Philadelphia; the Royal Theatre in Baltimore; the Fox Theatre in Detroit; the Victory Grill in Austin, Texas; the Hippodrome Theatre in Richmond, Virginia; the Ritz Theatre in Jacksonville, Florida; the Manhattan Casino in St. Petersburg, Florida, the Red Bird Café in Frenchtown, Tallahassee, Florida, and the Madam C.J. Walker Theatre on Indiana Avenue, in Indianapolis.

According to Ruth Brown, an artist needed to play at four of these theaters to prove they had made it: the Regal Theater in Chicago, the Howard in Washington, the Uptown in Philadelphia, and the Apollo in New York. This was called the "litchman chain’’. The song “Tuxedo Junction" was written about a stop along the Chitlin' Circuit in Birmingham. Once the performance was over, the band would leave for the next stop on the circuit. After composing the music, Erskine Hawkins explained the reason for the title to Buddy Feyne, who created lyrics to express the concept.

Many notable 20th-century performers worked on the Chitlin' Circuit, including Count Basie, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Peg Leg Bates, George Benson, Hammond B-3, James Brown, Cab Callaway, Ray Charles, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, The Jackson Five, Redd Foxx, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday, John Lee Hook, Lena Horne, Etta James, B.B. King, Patti LaBelle, Moms Mabley, The Delfonis, Gladys Knights &the Pips, Wilson Pickett, Richard Pryor, Otis Redding, Lonnie Smith, Marvin Gaye, Little Richard, The Miracles, Ike and Tina Turner, The Four Tops, The Isley Brothers, The Supremes, The Temptations, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Tammi Terrell, Muddy Waters, Johnnie Taylor, Tyrone Davis, Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland, Flip Wilson, Jimmie Walker, Roy Hamilton and the 5 Stair Steps.

Jazz – Blues - Gospel

The African American culture is responsible for most of the innovations in modern music.

Blues, jazz, gospel, soul, rock and roll, rap, hip-hop, and southern soul are innovations traced to tribal music. In the world of music, my culture, the African American tribe, still can hear the beat of the drum from the mother continent.

My ancestors in Africa were in tune – spiritually to their world and universe. Tribal music of 400 years ago differed in one respect from the music of European and white American music. There was no secular music. Secular music did not exist. All African music was naturally sacred and the concept of singing sacred music was alien to them. My African ancestors used music and song to satisfy the basic functions in their lives, religion, agriculture and sexual fertility, hunting and war. Sounds familiar! In this regards, African music had more in common with the Native American music than European music, because songs were used as a means to be in harmony with nature and the universe.

Music was the most powerful tool the African slave had to keep its culture alive. Slave owners recognized this and forbid slaves to use traditional African instruments and songs during celebrations and gatherings. The banjo and drum were forbidden.

In an attempt to control the spirit of the huge slave population, slave master introduced them to sacred music and edited versions of the bible. Through worship, a new and empowered being was created spiritually. Slaves quickly learned a new method of channeling and incorporating their traditions and beliefs around the platform of European sacred music. At last, they were able to communicate under the guise of praise. They held camp meeting and redeveloped their spiritual tribal connection to one another and from one plantation tribe to another. A new tribe was created through praise and worship. From praise and music, other forms of communications were developed around their daily lives. Knowledge about free states and safe havens were passed from one slave to another by how a quilt was hung on the line, or a row was hoed, or a buggy was parked.

Jazz-Blues-Gospel Continued:

Signed unknown by the masters, but understood by the slaves. And masters allowed, them to have their own preachers and praise and worship service; their world and America would never be the same. The discovery of the power of tribal music and sacred music, allowed slaves to gain acceptance into nineteenth century civilized society. The singing and playing of African versions of American folk music, allowed ragtime performers like Scott Joplin to become popular and some soon became associated with the Harlem Renaissance and early civil rights activists. More and more African Americans were accepted into the American mainstream culture. Tribal music was slowly changing the culture of America.

The early part of the twentieth century saw a constant rise in the popularity of African American blues and jazz. In Harlem, musicians and singers developed their music as professionals, without any outside cultural interference. Segregated in an African-like tribal environment, creativity ruled. Harlem singers and musicians created a unique tribal music and introduced it to America and the world. Latinos and white performers delivered it into the American culture via performances on stage together. Cross-cultural communication had begun, although it had a “Latin Tinge’ to make it more acceptable.

Soon white bands were routinely playing African American music, in a simplified version for white audiences, who would not have as readily accepted black performers. This led to what is known as swing music, a pop-based outgrowth of jazz. Harlem musicians cracked the door that so many of us walked through and were responsible for the cultural changes and acceptance in our society and gave black artist the freedom we enjoy today.

By the 1940’s, cover versions of African American songs were commonplace, and frequently topped the charts. Unfortunately, the original musicians could only find success in African American audiences. Mainstream audiences were still off limits. On the horizon at the time was a generation that would introduce to the world, a class of music called rock and roll. Little Richard and Jackie Brenston would soon arrive on the African market, with their version of tribal music.

The next decade saw the first major crossover acts, with Bill Haley and Elvis Presley performing rockabilly, a rock and country fusion, while black artists like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley received unprecedented mainstream success. Elvis Presley went on to become perhaps the most lauded and culturally changing musician in American history and marked the beginning of the acceptance of musical tastes crossing racial boundaries among all audiences. He was also the first in a long line of white performers to achieve what some perceive as undue fame for his influence, since many of his fans showed no desire to learn about the origin of his music and its creators.

The fifties also ushered in the popularity of doo wop music and the late fifties also saw an increased popularity of hard blues in the United States and the United Kingdom. A secularized form of American gospel music called soul also developed, with pioneers like Ben E. King and Sam Cooke, leading the wave. Soul and R&B became a major influence on mainstream radio and often topped the charts.

Jazz-Blues-Gospel Continued:

In the 60’s, chart topping girl groups arrived on the scene. Groups named The Angels and the Shangrilas, some were white. Black divas like Diana Ross and the Supremes and Aretha Franklin became 60’s reverse crossovers. In the UK, British blues became a gradual mainstream phenomenon, returning to the United States in the form of the British Invasion. A group of bands led by the Beatles, who performed classic-style R&B, blues and pop, with both traditional and modernized aspects, changed the culture once again!

The British Invasion knocked most other bands off the charts, with only a handful of groups like the Mamas and Papas, maintaining a pop career. Soul music remained popular among blacks, but Funk evolved, and soon heavy metal emerged. Soul music needed another cross-over market outlet, to keep it financially viable, further evolved, with the creation of album-oriented soul music, with intelligent and philosophical lyrics and socially aware tones.

Marvin Gayes’ “What’s Going On’ is perhaps the best-remembered of the field. The 1970’s and 80’s were the birth decades of great black bands, groups and unprecedented singers. Sly and the Family Stones, George Clinton, P-Funk, Kool and the Gang, Earth, Wind and Fire, and the list goes on and on. Black pop artists, that included Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston, and Prince, who sang a type of pop dance-to soul, allowed other unique artist the ability to find a place in the mainstream market.

In 1986, Rap took off into the mainstream with Run-D.M.C., Raising Hell and the Beastie Boys, Licensed to Kill. The Beastie Boys became the first rap album to enter the number one spot on the billboard 200. Both of these groups mixed rap and rock together, which appealed to rock and rap audiences. Hip-hop took off from rap, and its golden age started. It soon became popular worldwide.

The 1990’s and 2000’s, introduced male vocal groups, New Edition, Boyz II Men, Jodeci, and Blackstreet. Boyz II Men, became the highest selling R&B male group of all time. Women groups were up to the challenge; TLC, Destiny’s Child, and En Vogue were highly popular. Destiny Child would go on to be the highest selling female vocal group of all time. Singer songwriters such as R. Kelly, Mariah Carey, Montell Jordan, D’Angelo, and Tony! Toni! Tone! were also significantly popular. The Stevie Wonder inspired sound would lead to development of neo soul artists like Lauryn Hill, Erykak Badu, India.Arie, and others. Currently Usher, Alicia Keys, B2K, and others continue to have success.

The line between R&B, hip-hop, and rap continue to blur and evolve. Tribal music is still alive and all music still is sacred. Our culture is still spiritual and our ancestor’s music has made us all spiritual members of the tribe of the world!

IT IS TIME TO REBUILD THE WALLS IN OUR COMMUNTIES! “VILLAGE BY VILLAGE”

‘CULTURAL HERITAGE COMMUNITIES’

The “Forgotten Communities Program’ is the cornerstone of the Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute and the National Cultural Heritage Tourism Center, Inc. The program is a major program under the National Cultural Heritage Initiative and serves as the catalyst for the promotion and marketing of the culture, heritage and the communities of people of African Descent in partnership with the National Black Chamber of Commerce, Inc. Washington, D.C. The program was created and developed to support the efforts of chambers of commerce, economic and community development entities address economic and job creation issues in disadvantaged communities.

The leadership at the local level is comprised of entrepreneurs, artist, educators, government, and community activists/leaders. The goal by all is to access the viability of creating a tourism destination, by establishing an arts cluster as an attraction. Art that focuses on the cultural history and people of the city and community, told in paint, with emphasis on faith and tradition.

The program has proved itself as very successful and has allowed an industry to take hold and renewed interest in historic Black communities. With the support of talented painters and performing artists, the program has been able to spiritually recapture the people’s memories and visions and dreams of the people that resided there, outside of the view of mainstream America. Forgotten Communities is not Black Art, it is a spiritual movement, to showcase a people of dignity and neighborhoods that are a part of us. Only through the arts, can the spiritual moment and importance of a culture be recreated and conveyed to another culture.

The Forgotten Communities Program is a ‘call to all artists’, particularly those of African descent, to begin painting their visions and memories of their culturally significant and historic communities. The National Cultural Heritage Tourism Center was created to allow those images to be shared with the world and rekindle an interest in these forgotten communities. The knowledge required to sustain the community and help it grow is provided by the research and teaching of the fellows and members of the Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute.

The National Black Chamber of Commerce, National Cultural Heritage Tourism Center, and Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute are poised to share their knowledge and resources to assist in ultimate goal being to create artistic images and performances that will cause a nation to think and consider redeveloping these cultural treasures for future generations reeducate others and ourselves on the value and importance of our culture in America and the Diaspora.

Culture & Heritage ‘De Villiers’

“We are benefactors of our Ancestors. So let us be good Stewards of what we’ve been given.”

'The Forgotten Communities Arts and Music Program‘ The Forgotten Communities Arts and Music Program’ was created as a community based tourism project to support talented painters and performing artists to re-capture the spirituality and dignity of "Ordinary People"; who once and now, inhabit cultural and historic communities that are neglected by mainstream society. Only through the arts, can the spiritual moment and importance of a culture be recreated and conveyed to another culture.

The Forgotten Communities Program is a call to all artists, particularly those of African descent, to begin painting their visions and memories of their culture and historic communities, and share them with the world. It is a call to singers and musicians, to remember the great works of masters in the art of gospel, jazz, blues, and poetry and to sing, play and perform those creative masterpieces of our culture. It is important for us to remember and preserve the great works of our ancestors and make a major effort the preservation of these past contributions to our culture and our history so future generations can use them and find their way in our multi-cultural society.

The Forgotten Communities Program is also a cultural heritage tourism and marketing program. The program assists community tourism leaders and artists in the development of Community Festivals and Events to expose others to cultural heritage arts, the history and traditions of our culture in the communities they were created. The festival and events will assist in the attraction of investors and new businesses that will create jobs by catering to the needs of tourists and the artisans of these planned art and entertainment districts. This program a major platform of the Pan African Cultural Heritage Initiative.

'Historic Belmont De Villiers in Pensacola, Florida’ Belmont De Villiers was a major entertainment destination on the Chitlin' Circuit. The community was the location for several major clubs, including the famous 'Abe's 506 Club and the Historic Bunny Club'. Some of America's greatest entertainers performed in these venues, including Louis Armstrong, James Brown, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Ike & Tina Turner, Fats Domino, B.B. King and Sam McClain. This area is being revitalized and is once again a cultural heritage tourism attraction and is a major asset in the city's tourism marketing program, which makes it an outstanding community based tourism model.

The Pensacola Cultural Heritage Society promotes festivals and other events associated with the Belmont De Villiers Community and the arts, to include the showcasing of local and national blues, gospel and jazz artists. The primary concern being the creation and promotion of a ‘Gathering Place’ that will focus on the culture, music, arts and history of Pensacola's African American Community.

FAITH & COMMUNITY!

‘THE HISTORICAL BLACK CHURCH’

Picture: Historic Talbot Chapel AME Zion, Pensacola, Florida, Belmont De Villiers Community – over 150 Years since founding

African American churches have served to provide African American people with leadership positions and opportunities to organize that were denied in mainstream American society. Because of this, African American pastors became the bridge between the African American and European American communities and thus played a crucial role in the American Civil Rights Movement! Although African American neighborhoods may suffer from civic disinvestment with lower quality schools, less effective policing, and fire protection, there are institutions such as churches and museums and political organizations that help to improve the physical and social capital of African American neighborhoods. In African American neighborhoods the churches may be important sources of social cohesion.

For some African Americans the kind spirituality learned through these churches works as a protective factor against the corrosive forces of racism. Museums devoted to African American History are also found in many African American neighborhoods.

People of Faith ‘We Are the Community!’

Justice - ‘Faith’ - Mercy Mathew 23:23

Now, it is our time to leave a legacy! Our communities and its people are suffering. It is time for us to take our faith, our skills and education, our hopes and dreams, our culture and heritage; and put them to work Rebuilding the Walls in our historic communities. Faith was created to share the knowledge of nationally recognized faith and cultural practitioners, with elders, community leaders and organizations across the country.

‘We’, as a people, are people of faith. Our faith has sustained us through the most trying of circumstances. Now it is time for us to come together and ‘Rebuild Our Communities’. It sustained and guided our ancestors through slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow. They brought their culture, their heritage, their skills and most importantly, their faith. They built communities, churches, schools, businesses and gave us our culture and heritage. The rest is history.

Faith sustained Dr. Booker T. Washington and Dr. George Washington Carver, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, and all our great ancestors. It sustained them through the trials of slavery, colonialism, Jim Crow and segregation. Faith is the immeasurable ingredient that made this country great, and faith will help us face the challenges of our generation and those of the future.

‘We’ are the greatest generations our ancestors have ever produced. It is time for us to revisit our roots and reclaim the faith and visions of our past. We have the skills and knowledge base to claim the opportunities America has in store, by coming together as a community and focus on rebuilding our own forty acres. If a service or product is needed, ‘we’ can provide it; ‘we’ have the skills, talents and the knowledge to complete this great task. Partnering with people of faith, using biblical principles will ensure ‘our’ success. Remember, our ancestors paid a heavy price to ensure we would have the life we now enjoy. ‘We’ now must do our part! Rebuild the Walls in Your Community.

We Give Back! We will share our knowledge, resources and experiences!

‘WORKING BY FAITH’

George Washington Carver - viewed faith as a means of destroying both barriers of racial disharmony and social stratification. He compiled a list of eight cardinal virtues for his students to strive toward: *Neither look up to the rich nor down on the poor. *Lose, if need be, without squealing. *Be clean both inside and out. *Win without bragging. *Always be considerate of women, children, and older people. ​*Be too brave to lie. *Be too generous to cheat. *Take your share of the world and let others take theirs.

Throughout the southern United States, the National Asset Building Coalition (NABC) works with organizations to enhance the economic vitality and competitiveness of the region's Forgotten Communities. The NABC team works with historic African American communities to help them recognize, promote and capitalize upon their existing assets, through its asset mapping process and by coordinating the efforts of local chambers, business and community organizations. A community’s assets may include culture and historical its natural resources, recreational sites, local eateries, or historical buildings and monuments. Once assets are identified, the team recommends strategies to community leaders that will promote and develop the assets to further strengthen the local community and economy. Working in collaboration with the National Black Business Support Corporation and the Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute's partners, the National Asset Building Coalition offers a variety of programs and services designed to create more vibrant neighborhoods and communities and enriching the lives of the citizens that call them home. ​Sharing “Our Cultural Knowledge and Experiences” in the areas of Commerce, Culture, Community, Education, Influence, Knowledge, and Faith; via established business, educational, social and tourism networks. The ultimate goal being to “Rebuild and Connect” the global people of PAN AFRICA, via the technology platforms of the internet and to use proven Cultural Economics and Heritage Tourism programs to develop Forgotten Communities, foster prosperity through business growth and job creation; and to facilitate cultural exchanges and services with other members of the African Diaspora, in partnership with the Pan African Cultural Heritage Alliance.

We Serve!

Military Veterans Framed the Civil Rights Movement and Built the African American Middle Class following World War II.

Speech by Dan Brown Park Superintendent (GUIS) Gulf Island National Seashore FL & MS Rosamond Johnson Memorial Celebration - May 3, 2014

Private Rosamond Johnson May 18, 1933 – July 26, 1950

Private Rosamond Johnson - Belmont De Villiers’ Native Son The story of Rosamond Johnson is compelling: getting permission from his parents at age 15 so he could serve his country in the military; his heroic acts during the Korean War to save his fellow soldiers while under fire, and his ultimate sacrifice, giving his life for his country. This is even more notable when you realize that this beach that is named after him was one of the few beaches at that time where he and his family and other African Americans could go. Rosamond actually comes from a long line of African Americans who served their country in time of war, not necessarily for the freedoms they were afforded back home, but for the promise of that freedom and those rights that our nation aspires to fulfill. Many are not aware that African Americans have participated in every single war fought by or within the United States.

• When the Minutemen gathered at Lexington and Concord in April 1775 for that “shot heard round the world,” African Americans were fighting along-side other Patriots. At least 5,000 African Americans fought for our new nation during the Revolutionary War, and when the British finally surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown in 1781, about ¼ of the American Army was black. The sites at Lexington, Concord, and Yorktown are now part of our National Park system.

Rosamond Johnson Continued:

• The War of 1812 with the British brought the fight nearby at the Battle of New Orleans. Andrew Jackson incorporated two battalions of Free Men of Color into the fray, and the overwhelming American victory began when the British Commanding General was shot – by one of these free black troops. The site known as Chalmette Battlefield is now part of our National Park system.

• Many are familiar with the 54th Massachusetts regiment during the Civil War, made famous by the movie “Glory” with Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington. But before the 54th Massachusetts, the very first black Union troops – known as Louisiana Native Guard - were raised after New Orleans fell to the Union in 1862. The 2nd Regiment of the Louisiana Native Guard was stationed at Fort Massachusetts on Ship Island (now part of Gulf Islands National Seashore) and they launched the first engagement by Black U.S. Army regulars during the Civil War against Confederate troops at Pascagoula, Mississippi.

• Following the Civil War, Congress created six black regiments that became known as “Buffalo Soldiers,” a nickname given them by the Plains Indians. When the first national parks were created in the west, there was no agency, no National Park Service, to protect and manage them. Approximately 500 Buffalo Soldiers from the 9th Cavalry Regiment were assigned to Yosemite National Park and Sequoia National Park – basically serving as the first park rangers, fighting forest fires, evicting poachers and timber thieves, and building the first roads and trails. Charles Young, the third African American to graduate from West Point, served as the acting military superintendent of Sequoia National Park – and is considered by many to be the first African American superintendent of a national park. Just last year his home in Ohio was designated as one of our newest National Park Areas – the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument.

• The famed Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American military aviators in the U.S. armed forces. Following WWI, it took over 20 years of advocacy by African Americans who wanted to enlist and train as military aviators. When they were finally allowed to train and get their wings during WWII, the Tuskegee Airmen served with distinction, setting a record for destroying five enemy aircraft in under four minutes, and shooting down three German jets in a single day. Today the Tuskegee Airmen training site is also part of our National Park System. ​I’ve shared all of this with you today to say this - we are proud; I personally am proud, to have this beach – part of Gulf Islands National Seashore - named after our own hero, Rosamond Johnson. We will continue to tell the story of his service to his country, and his sacrifice, and of the history of this beach. It is a story that belongs to all of us.

Thank you.

The Art of Faith Network Program

The Art of Faith Network program was created and developed to support the Forgotten Communities Program and community development entities in addressing the preservation issues in disadvantaged communities. ‘Art of Faith’ focuses on the cultural history and people of the city and community, told in paint, with emphasis on faith and tradition.

The program has proved itself as very successful and has allowed community re-developers to take hold and renew interest in historic disadvantaged communities. With the support of talented painters and performing artists, the program has been able to spiritually recapture the people’s memories and visions and dreams of the people that resided there, outside of the view of mainstream America. Forgotten Communities is not Black Art, it is a spiritual movement, to showcase a people of dignity and neighborhoods that are a part of us. Only through the arts, can the spiritual moment and importance of a culture be recreated and conveyed to another culture.

The Faith Communities Arts Program members are poised to share their knowledge and resources to assist in ultimate goal, being, to create artistic images and performances that will cause a nation to think and consider redeveloping these cultural treasures for future generations reeducate others and ourselves on the value and importance of our culture in America and the Diaspora. Our “Faith is who we are and it sustains us and rebuilds us and our communities”. Art is a major tool!

Front Row: Brain McCreary Sr. Vocalist/Percussion; Terrance McCreary Vocalist/Bass Guitar Back Row: Toney McCreary Vocalist/Lead Guitar; Johnny Banks/Percussion; Rev. Marcus McCreary

THE McCREARY SINGERS One of the best cultural gospel singing groups in the gulf Coast and Southeast Region.

The groups name came from the group’s vision to preserve the family’s lifelong legacy of singing gospel music. Their goal was threefold, Glorify God in song, pay homage to the elder generation of McCreary’s the members grew up admiring and listening to, and to respectfully carry on the torch yet create a sound uniquely their own.

The McCreary Singers grew up under the tutelage of their maternal grandmother Claudia Sampson. She was a self-taught organist and God fearing woman whose musical talents and Bible teachings have transcended from one generation to the next.

The McCreary’s initially began performing in quartets and playing for church choirs in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The members served as musicians for the Spiritual Kings of Cantonment, Fl; The Voices of Genesis in Pensacola, Fl; and The George Washington III Lodge #15 gospel group.

Sometime around 2002, the group “officially” organized as the McCreary Singers. Since the onset, the group has played all over the local areas, as well as, Mississippi and Alabama. The group has played for Grammy Nominated Gwen McCrae in 2010 at Pensacola Junior College, opened for several professional acts including: Willie Banks and the Messengers, Rance Allen and Mama Burke of The Mississippi Mass Choir, Lee Williams and the Spiritual Q.C.’s, and The Williams Brothers.

The group has also written several yet to be published songs; however most local audiences have “Unknowingly” been favored with their first endeavor, “I Made up my Mind”. As the years change for one to the next, the constancy of God’s goodness keeps them focused, and on the go for God!

Culture – Heritage – Food and the Church

Church and Food is a match made in Heaven. In many Afro-centric communities across the United States, restaurants and other formerly culturally sensitive eateries are slowly disappearing and are being replaced by chain fast foods restaurants. In Pensacola, Florida a Baptist Church may have found the solution to provide a must needed service. Englewood Baptist Church opened the “All In One Kitchen Ministry and it is a major success and a model for other communities. The following excerpts are from the church’s website: “Englewood All in One Kitchen Ministry has long served up foods originated from traditional Southern cuisine, including cornbread, candied yams, black-eyed peas, smothered pork chops and oxtails.

The Kitchen was organized by Pastor Larry Watson Sr., his vision was to expose the community to the great recipes of the Church. Englewood All in One, dishes out delicious soul food from the steam table from a diverse mix of customers, working-class and professionals to politicians, entertainers, tourists, conference attendees, as well as its regular customers and neighborhood residents.

Englewood All in One Kitchen Ministry is opened 7 days a week. Locals call it the best Soul food in town! Stop by for Lunch, Dinner and Breakfast on (Sunday’s) have your meal topped off with one of our homemade sweets for dessert. Our experienced caterers and chefs cook and prepare a variety of food for any event or occasion.

At Englewood All in One Kitchen Ministry, we always treat our supporters with the utmost care and we always aim to please. We look forward to exceeding all your expectations!”

The Cultural Heritage Market Place

‘Connecting Businesses’ Africa – Europe – Caribbean – South America – Central America – North America www.paachmp.com

‘The Global Cultural Marketplace’

The Pan African American Cultural Heritage Market Place (The Market Place) is designed to celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit of Pan Africa and to connect businesses and perspective clients. The Pan African American Market Place is the cornerstone of the ‘Pan African Cultural Heritage Initiative’, whose ultimate goal is to rebuild Pan African communities and villages and create wealth and jobs, through the promotion of our businesses, culture and heritage to the Global Market Place. The Market Place has also partnered with the National Black Business Support Corporation to facilitate Access to Capital and the National Black Tourism Marketing Corporation to enhance marketing. Access to Capital and Marketing are the weakness of all micro-enterprise and cultural businesses.

The clustering of cultural businesses is our tradition. Our ancestors and all cultures created the Market Place by clustering businesses to serve the cultural and communal needs of the people in the region. Clustering also produce other business opportunities. Most importantly, it creates wealth and jobs. The Pan African American Cultural Heritage Market Place and serves the cultural needs of a global people, Pan Africans.

The Pan African American Cultural Heritage Market Place is a cultural business cluster, not unlike a China Town. The Market Place will consistently strive to become the NEW WORLD MARKET PLACE; to showcase the products and services of our affiliate members, and increase the business opportunities for our members, by marketing their products and service to the African Diaspora across the globe. Our network of partners includes our Chambers of Commerce, the National Black Tourism Marketing Corporation, and Pan African entrepreneurs and Sponsors.

Our desire will always be to educate, connect national and global communities, and to create jobs and opportunities for our members and international affiliates. The Pan African American Cultural Heritage Initiative Partners and Sponsors are: the Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute, Inc., the National Black Business Support Corporation, the Florida Black Chamber of Commerce, Inc., National Cultural Heritage Tourism Center, Inc., and the National Black Chamber of Commerce, Inc., Washington, D.C.

‘CULTURE AND KNOWLEDGE’ American Educator and Cultural Economist Booker T. Washington once stated:

“If we just build our businesses and only do business with each other, we not only will survive but prosper.”

Commerce, Culture, Community and Education are all very important, but they must be used collectively to achieve the cultures utmost goal in our society. That goal being the development of………..Influence and Knowledge.

No progress can be made without the establishment of an institution that will house, as a repository, the critical knowledge elements and collective learned works of the elite and practical thinkers in a culture. The Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute will serve the roles as a Think Tank, a School, and a Repository for the shared ideas of culture for the African Diaspora, dedicated to advancing the goals and aspirations of those who seek a place of equal opportunity all societies across the globe, thus contributing to the growth and development of the Pan African Community, as a whole. Collaborating and forming equally beneficial partnerships. Seeking resolutions of common problems… Locally, Statewide, Nationally, and Internationally!

Booker T. Washington National Negro Business League

Born a slave on a Virginia farm, Washington (1856-1915) rose to become one of the most influential African-American intellectuals of the late 19th century. In 1881, he founded the Tuskegee Institute, a black school in Alabama devoted to training teachers. Washington was also behind the formation of the National Negro Business League 20 years later, and he served as an adviser to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Although Washington clashed with other black leaders such as W. E. B. Du Bois and drew ire for his seeming acceptance of segregation, he is recognized for his educational advancements and attempts to promote economic self-reliance among African Americans. Across the landscape of the most anguished era of American race relations (1895-1915) strode the self-assured and influential Booker T. Washington. The foremost black educator, power broker, and institution builder of his time, Washington in 1881 founded Tuskegee Institute, a black school in Alabama devoted to industrial and moral education and to the training of public school teachers. From his southern small-town base, he created a national political network of schools, newspapers, and the National Negro Business League (founded in 1901). In response to the age of Jim Crow, Washington offered the doctrine of accommodation, acquiescing in social and political inequality for blacks while training them for economic self-determination in the industrial arts.

Booker T. Washington Continued:

Born a slave on a small farm in western Virginia, Washington was nine years old when the Civil War ended. His humble but stern rearing included his working in a salt furnace when he was ten and serving as a houseboy for a white family where he first learned the virtues of frugality, cleanliness, and personal morality. Washington was educated at Hampton Institute, one of the earliest freedmen’s schools devoted to industrial education; Hampton was the model upon which he based his institute in Tuskegee. Growing up during Reconstruction and imbued with moral as opposed to intellectual training, he came to believe that postwar social uplift had begun at the wrong end: the acquisition of political and civil rights rather than economic selfdetermination.

Washington’s philosophy and the “Tuskegee machine” won him widespread support among northern white philanthropists as well as acclaim among blacks. In his Atlanta Compromise address, delivered at the Cotton States Exposition in 1895, he struck the keynotes of racial accommodation: “Cast down your buckets where you are,” Washington urged blacks. “In all things that are purely social,” he announced to attentive whites, “we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” His thoroughly bourgeois, anti-labor, antidemocratic appeal stood for years as an endorsement of segregation.

He sustained his power as an educational statesman by some ruthless and duplicitous methods.

Rival black newspapers, educators, and thinkers were frequently intimidated by his brand of boss politics. Black newspaper editors and aspiring young intellectuals risked ostracism and unemployment if they embraced political activism rather than Washington’s ‘accommodationist’ social policy. Such disputes surfaced especially in the famous debate between Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois over the aims of “industrial” as opposed to “classical” education among blacks.

Growing black and white opposition to Washington’s acquiescence in disfranchisement and Jim Crow led to the formation of the Niagara Movement (1905-1909) and the NAACP, activist organizations working for civil and political rights, as well as, against lynching.

Ironically, Washington also labored secretly against Jim Crow laws and racial violence, writing letters in code names and protecting blacks from lynch mobs, though these efforts were rarely known in his own time.

Washington was a pragmatist who engaged in deliberate ambiguity in order to sustain white recognition of his leadership. Such visibility won him international fame and the role of black adviser to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. His widely read autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), stands as a classic in the genre of narratives by American self-made men, as well as the prime source for Washington’s social and historical philosophy. His racial philosophy did not long survive his death, but in theory and practice, his views on economic self-reliance have remained one of the deepest strains in Afro-American thought.

The Reader’s Companion to American History. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Micro- Enterprises are businesses that employ five or less employees and are not readily visible in the business community. These businesses are managed by average citizens, but most citizens believe that business ownership is something increasingly beyond the reach of ordinary working people. Fortunately, this perception is untrue. Micro businesses are being created every hour, by ordinary people who have skills that can produce income for themselves and their families. Now is the time to change this perception.

The current economic climate dictates that we must begin to think outside of the box and find ways to create jobs for our residents. If, as a country, we are going to break the yokes of the current economic climate and stem the slide of many who are facing poverty situations, we must develop an organizational structure that will assist in the development of microenterprise businesses. To support this infrastructure, more effort must also be given to making more micro-loans available to micro-businesses, especially in rural areas and the inner cities. With today’s technology, micro-enterprise businesses can become participate in the global economy. These tiny businesses employ most of the world’s workers.

The real backbone of world commerce and global employment is made up of the millions of vey small enterprises that farm small plots of land, cook food, provide daycare for children, make clay pots or straw mats by hand, perform piece work for manufacturers, and carry out untold other tasks that larger business contract out. In our great country, where most people work for big business and government; more than a quarter of all employees work for establishments of fewer than 20 people and those businesses constitute 87 percent of all U.S. business establishments.

Micro Enterprise Continued:

Because of the above and many other considerations, it is time for economic developers and business leaders to consider creating employment opportunities by utilizing job training dollars, in part, to train micro-entrepreneurs and create a more robust business climate that will create jobs and improve opportunities for community residents. Micro-businesses are more flexible and mobile than larger businesses. They provide part-time work for women and men who have to take care of children and family members; and seasonal work in places where crops have to be harvested. They require little capital, office space for startup. They can thrive in rural areas, thereby slowing the rush to urbanization. Jobs in microenterprises are accessible to immigrants and disenfranchised people who need to moonlight or share jobs.

And they are run by women, as often as men, promoting equality in the workplace.

Finally, microenterprises offer a simple way of bringing economic development and social benefits to poor communities, without major infrastructure. In recent years, some socially concerned lenders have begun to demonstrate their willingness to lend to micro-businesses, defying the usual rules, by creating agreements that the borrowers will repay the loans out of their profits. Some lenders require a co-signer, but are not collateralized. Non-collateralized co-signer loans are reported as having a ninety nine percent payback rate and have little overhead. The co-signer is required to perform the duties of the lender. Ingenious peer pressure!

The Pan African Culture is poised to lead the globe in the growth of Micro Enterprise businesses and job creation and the production of culturally sensitive products and services.

The Micro-Enterprise infrastructure and foundation already exists. There is an abundant of entrepreneur opportunities, especially in a down economy. Wealth in America is traditionally created in a down economy.

Join the Pan African Cultural Heritage Market Place and the global business community; become a micro-entrepreneur! Let’s export and import our products and services and do business with each other. *Wealth increases as trade and travel increases. *International tourism increases. Both countries benefit!

National Negro Business League

‘WHO’S WHO’

AFRICA - EUROPE - CARIBBEAN - SOUTH AMERICA – CENTRAL AMERICA - NORTH AMERICA

EXPANDING… CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE THROUGH COMMUNITY-BASED INITIATIVES!

Eugene Franklin Chairman Eugene Franklin is the author of the Pan African American Cultural Heritage Initiative and the architect and organizer of the Pan African Cultural Heritage Alliance, whose membership includes the National Black Chamber of Commerce, Inc., National Cultural Heritage Tourism Center, Inc., National Black Business Support Corporation, National Black Tourism Marketing Corporation, and the Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute, Inc. Franklin also serves as the President of the Florida Black Chamber of Commerce, Inc. Gene is known internationally as a driving force behind the Pan African American cultural economic development movement. His efforts include the creation and development of cultural programs and infrastructure models that benefit disadvantaged and under served historic communities. His latest endeavor includes the development of “Pan Africa!”, an e’ magazine that will promote the culture, history and traditions of the People of African Descent in support of cultural heritage tourism and travel, and the arts and as a expositor on the cultural economics impact of the historic ‘Green Book’.

Eugene was born August 19, 1948, in Ethel, Louisiana and moved to New Orleans in 1953. Gene attended grade school and high school in Metairie, Louisiana. To serve his country and further his educational dreams, Gene enlisted in the United States Navy in 1969, and served a total of 27 years on active duty. Gene retired 1996 in Pensacola, Florida after serving his command tour as Officer-inCharge of Naval Air Training Management Support Activity at the Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. After the military, Gene founded Franklin Mortgage & Investment Company and worked in the industry for approximately ten years.

Gene Franklin currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Black Chamber of Commerce, Inc. Washington, D.C., the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, and serves as Chairman of the Board for the Florida Black Business Support Corporation. He supports his local community by his service as a board member for Pensacola Habitat for Humanity, the Escambia County Health Facilities Authority, and Every Child a Reader in Escambia. Gene previously served as a board member for the Pensacola Area Chamber of Commerce, the Gulf Coast African American Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Administration - Northern Florida Region Advisory Board, and a host of local and state boards and committees. ​As the President of the Florida Black Chamber, he works closely with over twenty local chambers and in partnership with the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Visit Florida. His many awards include being named as one of Florida’s Most Influential People in 2004 and as One Of Florida's Most 500 Influential Business Leaders in 2018 by Florida Trend Magazine. His other awards are too many to mention. Gene Franklin is also an ordained minister and serves as an associate minister for a local church and as the lead evangelist of a local ministry. His thirst for knowledge and service continues………!

Dr. Phyllis A. Gray Director, Pan-African Cultural Heritage Institute, Inc.

Dr. Phyllis A. Gray is currently Professor of Sociology and Social Psychology at Florida A & M University in Tallahassee, FL. Previously, she served as the Vice President for Research, and then as the Executive Director of the Juvenile Justice Research Institute at Florida A & M University. Other positions include being the Chief Research Officer and Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Research at Winston-Salem State University; Head of the Division of Social Sciences, and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Voorhees College; Professor and Research Director of the Institute for Disability Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi; The City of Jackson (Mississippi)Chief Strategic Planner/Consultant for the city’s 2000 – 2004 Strategic Plan; Executive Director of the Mississippi Urban Research Center at Jackson State University; Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at North Carolina Central University; Associate Professor and Assistant Professor of Sociology/Criminology, and Coordinator of the Mississippi Crime and Justice Research Unit of the Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State University, as well as an Instructor of Sociology at Iowa State University. Dr. Gray has produced approximately 20 professional research final reports, 8 major strategic plans, and presented nearly 60 papers at national and international conferences. She has published numerous scholarly research articles in both national and international journals, and is the recipient of many honors and awards including induction into the prestigious Sigma Xi National Scientific Research Society. She is also the founding Executive Director of the National Black Graduate Student Association, Inc. Dr. Gray has generated close to 10 million dollars in external research funds. Her research has been funded by The National Science Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, the U. S. Department of Education, the Mississippi Department of Health, the Mississippi Department of Human Services, and the Kellogg Foundation. During her tenure as Vice President for Research at Florida A & M University, faculty generated over $60 million in single-year funds and over $100 million in multi-year funds, within one year. Her current book, From Imagining to Understanding the African American Experience, was published in August, 2012. Her second book, focusing on the disparate treatment of minority youth in the juvenile justice system is slated for publication in 2013. Dr. Phyllis A. Gray is a native of Beaufort, SC and received her B. S. degree in Psychology from South Carolina State University, and both the M. S. degree and Ph.D. in Sociology/Social Psychology from Iowa State University. She is the mother of two, Akeem T. Ray, a Junior majoring in Psychology at Florida State University, and Shakenna J. Durant, a 5th grader at Killearn Lakes Elementary School in Tallahassee, Florida.

Chairman Frank J. Smith Florida Black Chamber of Commerce, Inc.

Captain Frank J. Smith, U.S. Navy (Retired) graduated from Savannah State University in June 1976 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electronics Engineering Technology. He was also commissioned in June 1976 via Savannah State University’s Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) Program and was designated an Aeronautical Engineering Duty Officer in 1979. He received a Master’s Degree in National Resource Strategy from the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy (formerly the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF)) in 1995 and graduated from the Defense Acquisition University Senior Acquisition Course Acquisition at Fort McNair in Washington, DC that same year. He was later designated as a level-three certified member of the Department of Defense Acquisition Professional Community where he provided oversight and negotiated contracting, acquisition and logistics support agreements with major commercial, government, and academic organizations nation-wide.

Operational tours include two tours onboard Aircraft Carrier USS John F. Kennedy in Norfolk, Virginia; Attack Squadron One Forty-Seven in Lemoore, California; Aircraft Carrier USS Constellation in San Diego, California; Training Squadron Eighty-Six, Pensacola, Florida; and Aircraft Carrier USS Coral Sea in Norfolk, Virginia; Captain Smith’s acquisition tours include the Navy Supply Corps School; the National Defense University in Washington, DC; Defense Acquisition University, Washington, DC; The Pentagon, Washington, DC; and the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training (formerly Naval Air Maintenance Training Group Headquarters) onboard Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida.

His awards include the Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal (three awards) Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (two awards), Meritorious Unit Commendation, Navy Expeditionary Medal (two awards), National Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Service Medal, NATO Medal, and Sea Service Deployment Ribbon (Four awards).

He currently works as a business consultant. Frank serves his community as a board member for several non profit organizations in Pensacola Florida.

Dr. Huberta Jackson-Lowman Senior Fellow Dr. Huberta Jackson-Lowman is a Professor of Psychology and past Chair of the Department of Psychology at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida. A Fulbright-Hays Scholar and editor of the anthology Afrikan American Women: Living at the Crossroads of Race, Gender, Class and Culture (2013), her post-doctoral career spans nearly 40 years and has consisted of roles in both the private and public sectors. These positions include serving as Executive Director/Director of the Mayor’s Commission on Families in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; as co-director of the former Institute for the Black Family at the University of Pittsburgh; and as a psychologist and consultant in private practice for 15 years.

She is the newly elected (2015) President-Elect of the National Association of Black Psychologists and has served in various capacities within the organization, both locally and nationally. She is certified through the Association of Black Psychologists as a diplomate and fellow in Afrikancentered psychology. In 2008, the Association of Black Psychologists presented her with the annual Scholarship Award for her research and presentations. In 2011, she received the Asa Hilliard Road Scholar Travel Award.

Dr. Jackson-Lowman demonstrates an ongoing commitment to engaging the community to promote the health and well-being of families. In previous roles, she developed and implemented Teen Pregnancy Prevention Campaigns and Healthy Family Fairs, and also worked with her students to implement “We Believe in Youth” community days in Tallahassee’s Orange Avenue community in 2007-08. She provided leadership in the development and implementation of Community Healing Days in Tallahassee, Florida, in 2012, 2013, and 2014. She is currently implementing training of trainers focusing on the implementation of Emotional Emancipation Circles in the greater Tallahassee community. Emotional Emancipation Circles utilize a curriculum developed by the Community Healing Network and the Association of Black Psychologists to debunk the myth of black inferiority and promote knowledge of the history and culture of people of Afrikan ancestry. Additionally, she serves as a Commissioner on the Tallahassee/Leon County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls.

Dr. Jackson-Lowman’s research examines the effects of the intersectionality of race, gender, class, and culture on the health, mental health, and relationships of women of Afrikan ancestry and explores the use of cultural strategies, such as proverbs and rites of passage, as tools of socialization for Afrikan American youth. An emerging area of research focuses on the use of cultural policy to facilitate a sense of agency in disadvantaged neighborhoods. In addition to her recently published textbook, she has developed measures that assess levels of internalization of engendered racial myths that target Afrikan American women, The Engendered Racial Myths Scale (ERMS), and a measure which evaluates the quality of relationships between Black women, The Totem Self Scale-II (TSS), both of which she utilizes in ongoing research.

Dr. CoSandra McNeal Senior Fellow Dr. McNeal is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology at Jackson State University. She received her doctorate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Her areas of teaching include Marriage and the Family, Alcohol and Drug Studies, Sociological Theory, Gender Studies, and Criminology. Her research focuses on minority health disparities, the role of Black churches in health prevention, parental marital violence and the effects on children, and the issues of gender disparities at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Currently, Dr. McNeal is a CO-Principal Investigator to an ADVANCE IT Grant from the National Science Foundation: “Transforming the Climate and Advancing STEM women at JSU.” She has also served as a Senior Personnel to other NSF funded grants: “Students Promoting Interest in Computing supported by Educational Scholarships (SPICES) and Advancing Computational Thinkers and Computing Innovators in a Cyber-Enabled Environment. In the area of health disparities, she has received funding from the Mississippi Institute for Improvement of Geographic Minority Health, The University of Mississippi Medical Center to gain a better understanding of cardiovascular disease risk factors among college-aged African-American students. For this accomplishment, she was the recipient of the Outstanding Proposal, Community Pilot Grant Program. Additionally, Dr. McNeal has received other pilot research grants in health disparities and the role of Black churches in health prevention.

Dr. McNeal has served as a past journal reviewer for several mainstream journals, a book reviewer for Pearson Publishing Company, Prentice Hall Publishing, and Allyn Bacon Publishing Company, a proposal reviewer for the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Science Foundation, and a Subject Matter Expert for McGraw Hill Publishing Company. She has also served as a Program Evaluator for the City of Jackson, MS. Dr. McNeal has published manuscripts in various journals in her respective discipline, while presenting her research nationally. For two years, she served as a mentor for the JSU NIMH-COR Honors Program; giving her the opportunity to work with bright and promising undergraduate and high school students on research projects. She was recently elected Vice President of JSU Faculty Senate for the upcoming academic year. She has one daughter, Courtney McNeal-Thomas.

Debbie-Ann V. Beckford - Director Pan African American Cultural Heritage Market Place Manager, 2010 to Present: Site manager and accounting professional for major business corporation.

General Manager, January 2002 to 2009: Responsibilities included: Develop control procedures for variable and semi-variable expenses, forecast each departments sales and expenses each month with each department manager for the Dealer, conduct weekly management meetings with all departmental managers, develop growth plans for service and parts department.

Parts and Service Director, July 2003 to 2008: Responsibilities included: Develop control procedures to develop growth plans for service and parts department to attain 100% absorption. Took service operation customer pay from 1.4 to 2.5 currently (goal 3.0 by Feb 05). Total Service operation average gross from $78,830.00 in 2003 to $90,249.00 at the end of 2004. Working with new Parts manger to develop control procedures for Parts.

Dealer Manager, January 1996 to December 2001 Responsibilities included: ordering of vehicles, develop control procedures for the dealership utilizing computer software, conduct weekly management meeting with sales managers, manage the wholesaling of new and used vehicles, attend vehicle auctions and co-ordinate with my financial controller the balance of vehicle inventory to minimize frozen capital.

Finance Manager, January 1994 to December 1996 As a finance manager I was involved in presenting vehicle products and payments, terms and rates to customers.

Sales Consultant, October 1992 – December 1993 As a sales consultant I was involved in performing the proper selling techniques, prospecting, consulting, closing and plan presentations.

Debbie-Ann V. Beckford – Continued:

The First Boston Corporation Financial and Methods Analysts, January 1989 – October 1992 Productivity Analysis: Develop and improve productivity reporting procedures utilizing computer software. Maintain historical expense, staffing and trade volume databases to perform projections for budgeting and planning estimates, volume and growth comparisons and measuring productivity.

Budget Preparations: Provide management with a comprehensive budget package detailing methods of calculating and supporting justification for each department’s budget ($33 million). Prepare detailed variance analysis comparing budget versus actual expenses.

Management Reporting: Prepare monthly operation’s management report outlining key operations measures. Utilize all types of computer software to compose senior management presentations.

Junior Statistical Analyst May 1985 – January 1989 Provide managers with accurate and timely financial and direct expense information and analysis. Analyze major key controllable items for 15 departments in operations. Introduce methods to control, reduce, and report on expenses to operations.

Dean Witter-Reynolds Inc. National Credit Administrative Assistant, June 1983 – May 1995 Monitored debit balances in customer cash accounts to estimate the firm’s overnight cash debit balance, and adjusted interest earned in these accounts. Prepared interest income, interest expense, branch write-off reports for senior management, and national account executives.

Corporate Account Analyst/Canadian Trading Operations.

Developed daily profiles and handled the reconciliation’s of client account. Responsibilities include reconciliation of accounts funds and security transfers, verified and authorized trade adjustments, provided and documented security dividend claims, and filed New York Stock exchange extensions.

EDUCATION St. John’s University New York, New York M.B.A, Quantitative Analysis September 1988 – May 1991 Bachelor of Science in Finance September 1979 – May 1983

NADA October 1997 – July 1998 AWARDS/PERSONAL Full four-year athletic scholarship, Division One Basketball.

Team Captain.

Awarded – District 2 All American; Big East player of the Year; Lady Niagara player of the Year; New York State player of the Year; St. Board Member: Florida Sports Foundation-Grant Committee, Florida Black Chamber of Commerce

Laura Dorsey Fellow and Chief Editor Professor Laura Dorsey is an educational professional and community activist. She has a wide-ranging background in educational administration and corporate management. Her experiences include quality management, performance improvement, accreditation compliance, education, instructional design, and training/development. She is a professional in Higher Education with experience in proprietary, post-secondary institutions directing, lecturing/teaching, facilitating/delivering curriculum, and providing academic counseling regarding retention, progression and graduation. Facilitation using multiple distance educational modalities including assessment and evaluation is one of her specialties. In addition, she has served as a University Academic Cabinet Member, SME General Education & English and Area Chair: Academic Writing and General Studies in the College of Humanities.

Prior to her academic career, Laura had a very extensive career in financial services; retiring as the Assistant Vice President directly responsible for merger/acquisition, strategic planning, development, budgeting and forecasting. She was also a Securitas Trader, managing over 200 IRA accounts, responsible for purchasing, balancing and reposting over $1 million of daily transaction. Currently, she has combined both careers and is a sought-after speaker on financial literacy. Laura is the Associate Editor of ONYX Magazine and publishes a column on Money Matter and current editorial topics. She is CEO/President of LLD Consulting LLC, where she provides consultation on strategic planning, organizational structure and writing to a number of major clients and organizations.

As a community activist, Laura is involved in several professional associations and service organizations. She serves as the Vice President of Women of Excellence and Leadership, Founding Board Member of Central Florida Higher Education Alliance, Chair of BOD Clarita’s House Outreach Ministry, Board Member and SE Regional Vice President of Infinite Scholars Program. She is also a key presenter and speaker at BIG (Blacks in Government) Conference, National Teach In, Goodwill Industries, Junior Achievement, Career Education Clubs of America, Youth Employment Services (YES) Program, Upward Bound Program, and has worked on several Congressional campaigns. Awards for her commitment have been numerous: Who’s Who of American Women, Who’s Who in American Education, Who’s Who in the World, and Alpha Sigma Lambda (Lifetime Member). Laura holds a Bachelor’s in Business Management and a Master’s in Organizational Management. She also has a specialized certification in Personal Trust Operations. Her doctoral research and specialized studies have all been in Adult Education

Dr. Arbutas Washington Fellow Community Affairs As an ordained Minister and Elder, Rev. Dr. Arbutas Washington is an avid believer in community service and assisting those in need by using every resource available to help others reach a sense of stability. Arbutas understands homelessness, abuse, financial hardship, hopelessness, incarceration, and despair due to either personal or secondary experiences. Her faith in a Mighty God is the creator of her resilience and determination. She has graduated from believing that GOD is real, to KNOWING that GOD is real as an undeniable fact. Every one of her paths, encounters, and situations produced testimonies of faith and miracles. Because Arbutas is a Mother (first and foremost), there were times that a regular job was insufficient or simple not available. However, due to growing up with Grandparents, and Great Uncles and Aunts that believed in creating a job when one did not exist, she adopted that same attitude. She is presently working on developing a program to teach ex-offenders and others the skills of entrepreneurship so that they will cease to beg for the crumbs that fall from the master’s table and become the Master from which the crumbs fall.

Dr. Washington is the President and Director of Help from the Sanctuary, Inc. (a charitable organization) and the author of The Making of Me and Help from the Sanctuary. She has owned other businesses that included Arbutas Auto Sales (e.g., sold used cars), Arbutas A. Dawson Agency (e.g., both as an independent and through Allstate), Notary Public, and as an independent Seamstress. She has 28 years of experience in the financial services industry as an agent, agency owner, and a financial advisor with skills in budgeting, finance, marketing, and Investing. She also holds certifications in Mental Health First Aid, Assisted Living, and Faith-Based Clinical Counseling.

Dr. Washington received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi in Computer Science while minoring in Business Administration. She received a Master’s degree from Gulf Coast College and Seminary where she majored in Christian Counseling and a PhD in Ministry from Florida State Seminary. Dr. Washington also holds a Master’s degree in Psychology with a specialization in Crisis Management and Response and is currently in the PhD program of Health and Human Services specializing in Crisis, Disaster, and Management at Walden University.

Dr. Washington’ work experience ranges from working on an assembly line to owning businesses. Some of that experience includes clerical and clerk work, substitute teaching, customer service and support manager, mental health case manager, and motivational speaker. She is a firm believer that working hard at whatever you do is a success within itself. Dr. Washington also holds an active memberships in the Golden Key International Honor Society through graduate studies and Psi Chi International Honor Society in Psychology. With all of that said, Dr. Washington’s greatest joys are her children, grandchildren, and quilting as she volunteers for Sew for Hope in Tallahassee where quilts are made to benefit homeless children.

Dr. Nzinga Metzger Fellow Pan African Culture

Dr. Nzinga Metzger was educated in the United States, receiving her B.A in history from Florida State University and her M.A. in history from Temple University. Dr. Metzger completed her Ph.D. in Culture at Florida State University.

Over her years of study, Dr. Metzger’s holistic approach to acquiring knowledge has led to her development as a scholar, folklorist and artist. Ms. Metzger’s anthropological work focuses on Africa, the African diaspora, ritual, religion and identity. Both her master’s level and doctoral work address themes including West African notions of personhood, the historical context and the sociocultural politics of identity in relation to colonial power, and issues of diaspora and identity formation, Also of interest to her is the fluidity with which individual and group identities ebb and flow through history as they confront changing socio-political climates. This idea re-emerges in her dissertation which encompasses West Africa and Afro Atlantica, and addresses topics such as identity, Africanity, African and African based religions, aesthetics, and the histories of the African diaspora with special reference to African American practitioners of Yorùbá based religion in Philadelphia.

Ms. Metzger’s investigation of these topics has lead to both national and international field research wherein she has observed communities of devotees of orìsà traditions: Internationally, she has traveled to Cuba and Nigeria to investigate òrìsà tradition, while domestically she has obtained a decade of exposure and access to and study of òrìsà communities in New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Tallahassee, and Atlanta. Through this work, she has been able to collect personal oral histories and also observe, study, and contextualize the processes of identity formation, cultural reinterpretation and adaptation amongst community members from both individual and groups perspectives. Her work strives to situate these within the larger sociohistorical context within in which these processes take place.

Complimentarily to her academic work, Ms. Metzger is also a singer, dancer and folklorist. She has been a student of traditional West African dance since 1991, when she began to study dances from the Old Mali Empire at Florida State University. From 1991 to 1995, Ms. Metzger’s study was focused on the dances of the Old Mali/Senegambian region of West Africa. In 1996 Dr. Metzger began to study Afro Cuban Lucumí dances for the òrìsà. This study has both lead to and fed a special interest in the historical and present day contexts of these dances and their socio-religious functions. Ms. Metzger is also a student of the singing of Afro Cuban Lucumí songs dedicated to the òrìsà of that tradition, studying with such artistic stalwarts as master bàtá player and Pew artist Greg ‘Peachy’ Jarman, now deceased, and Olufemi DeWindt, a renowned akpón from New York with whom she continues to apprentice. She has performed and taught both song and dance in and out of Tallahassee and in the Southeastern United states over the past 24 years.

Dr. Nzinga Metzger Continued:

Finally, in addition to her scholarly work, Dr. Metzger is also the founder and director of The DuniaForé Foundation which is a philanthropic, non profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to working in the African Diaspora. The organization launched a successful summer school for traditionalist children in Osogbo, Nigeria last year. The summer school, called “Asalaye Academy,” will also be running this year.

Currently, Dr. Metzger is currently interested in on the waking traditions of Sierra Leone as well as Sierra Leonean masquerades and their relevance to Sierra Leonean identity both at home and abroad.

She is currently an assistant professor of anthropology at Florida A&M University.

Victor Chimezie Okorochukwu African Network Television Victor is the Executive Producer for the African Network Television. ANTV broadcasts globally from Gainesville Florida, United States featuring breaking news from across the African continent and lively discussion on current affairs, politics, health, money, cultural lifestyle reflecting the global African experience for all people of African descent.

ANTV bridges current media gap on Africa through trustworthy and reliable Africans led discussion on Africa; by engaging Africans in reshaping Africa’s image and by making it possible for Africans to take a lead in telling Africa’s story.

With enormous natural economic wealth and the abundance of numerous untapped resources, ANTV sheds unprecedented spotlight on Africa’s role on the global future while portraying the numerous highly skilled people of African descent that are crafting the global economic future.

ANTV Network provides reliable central platform for serious conversations on real issues, prospects, challenges, and concerns of both the continent of Africa and all people of its descent.

ANTV’s core audience spans the globe, and includes all people of African descent, foreign investors to Africa, and members of general public with interests on Africa and its beautiful cultures.

Attorney Lawrence R. Williams, Jr. Community Development and Art & Entertainment Lawrence R. Williams, Jr. serves on the Board of the Harmony Institute (FL), One World Foundation (Atlanta, GA), and the Osceola County (FL) Industrial Development Authority. He serves as counsel to Millennium Management, a professional sports and entertainment management company in Atlanta, GA and Connectiv Solutions, a business development firm (FL). Mr. Williams was formerly: President of the Osceola County (FL) Black Business Council, a member of the Executive Board of Trustees for the Osceola County-Kissimmee (FL) Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Executive Board of Trustees for the Lake Buena Vista Rotary (Disney), a member of the Board of Directors for the Osceola County (FL) Education Foundation, and also a former member of the Osceola County (FL) Charter Review Committee. Mr. Williams is a licensed attorney in the State of Ohio, and former member of the National Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Ohio State Bar Association and the Thurgood Marshall Law Society. His area of expertise has been in Mergers and Acquisitions, Charitable Foundations, Corporate Structures, Estate Planning and Civil Law.

Dr. Robert Conners Researcher- Author-Lecturer Dr. Bob Conners is Vice President of Infoworks Research, a Tallahassee-based, government and business consulting firm. He received his doctorate from the Florida State University in Counseling Psychology in 1989. Early in his career while employed at FSU, he initiated the university’s National Achievement Program for minority scholars, the first at a predominantlyWhite institution in the southeastern U.S. During the eighties, he received a $1 million grant from the Florida Board of Regents to develop and implement a pilot program at FSU to increase minority enrollment in higher education. In 1984, he was appointed by FSU’s President to the President’s Ad Hoc Committee on the Student Athlete which made recommendations on behalf of student athletes subsequently adopted by the NCAA. In 1985, he co-authored a book chapter with the late FSU Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. Bob Leach, for a Jossey-Bass special edition. Titled Pygmalion on the Grid-iron, the chapter examined the plight of Black student athletes at predominantly-White universities and made recommendations for student services to better serve their particular needs.

As a result of these and other efforts on behalf of minority students, in 1991 Dr. Conners was invited to join the Florida State University’s Black Studies Program faculty where he directed program research and taught both graduate and undergraduate courses on race relations, the dynamics of racism and oppression, inequality and race, and multicultural perspectives in education. From 1991 through 1993, as the Program’s director of research, he supervised a U.S. Department of Justice grant project investigating sources of minority overrepresentation in Florida’s juvenile justice system and worked with Black Studies Program staff to deliver a highly successful, three-year, academic skill development project for African American public school students enrolled in Tallahassee schools. In 2002, he left FSU to join MGT of America, a government consulting firm, where he conducted or participated in 19 disparity study projects investigating state and municipal governments’ utilization of minority-owned businesses in government contracting. He also directed a six year, longitudinal evaluation of the State of New York’s special education services, the most thorough analysis of special education ever conducted at the state level. From 2007 through 2012, he served as Director of Research for the Florida Commission on Human Relations, Florida’s civil rights agency, where he directed research related to majority/minority group inequality in Florida.

Dr. Conners is a published author and has been an invited lecturer and speaker, presenting before more than 75 professional bodies and forums around the nation on topics dealing with educational inequality, race relations and social justice. His research and presentations are informed by a theory of the dynamics of societal oppression developed during his tenure with Black Studies. In response to a recent request from the University Press of Florida, he is authoring a manuscript for a book explaining the dynamics of modern race relations and inequality in America, due at year’s end.

Dr. Yvonne Blanchard Freeman Fellow and Cultural Ambassador Program Professional Positions Held • Equal Opportunity Specialist – Federal Transportation Administration • President – Alliance for Global Education and Leadership • Executive Director – Southeastern Consortium of Minorities in Engineering • Senior Research and Policy Associate – Integra Ventures • Associate Administrator-Senior Executive – NASA • Senior Manager – NASA/JPL • Special Assistant to the Director of Civil Rights – U.S. Department of Agriculture

Awards & Recognitions • NASA and Tuskegee University 2007 Excellence Award for the Tuskegee University Center for Food and Environmental Systems for Human Exploration of Space • Top 50 Blacks in Technology • Black Engineer of the Year Awards, Baltimore, Maryland, 2006 • Top 100 Blacks in Technology • Black Engineer of the Year Awards, Baltimore, Maryland, 2005 • Congressional Black Caucus, Women Opening the Pipeline Award 2004 • Congressional Award Educational Leadership 2005 • Congressional Black Caucus, Women Opening the Pipeline Award 2004 • Congressional Award Educational Leadership 2005 • National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education Leadership Award, 1995 • NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, 1996 • Presidential Award of Distinction, Morehouse College, 1995 • NASA Group Achievement Award (for Equal Opportunity Council), 1995 • NASA Senior Executive Distinguished Service Medal, 1994

Dr. Yvonne Blanchard Freeman Continued:

Prairie View A&M University, College of Engineering and Architecture, Presidents Bronze Panther Statue, 1994

National Association of Professional Asian American Women Federal Agency Special Recognition Award, 1993 Leadership Award, Pasadena Unified School District, 1992 Women in Action Leadership Award, 1992 Outstanding Service Award, Pasadena Unified School District Space Academy, 1992 NASA Group Achievement Award, 1992 Women at Work, Twelfth Anniversary Medal of Excellence Luncheon Honoree, Pasadena, California, 1992 Appreciation Award, Native American Sacred Mountain Scholars, College of Engineering and Technology, Northern Arizona University, 1991 (Sequoia Fellow) Life Member, Alumni Association of Fisk University, 1991 NASA Appreciation Award, 1988 Martin Luther King Award, Vincennes University, Evansville, Indiana, 1988 First William Cosby Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Massachusetts, 1981 President’s Medallion, Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio Distinguished Service Awards Alabama A&M University; University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff; Central State University; Clark Atlanta University; Elizabeth City State University; Florida A&M University; Grambling State University; Howard University; Jackson State University; Lincoln University; North Carolina A&T State University; Spelman College; Northern Arizona University; Quality Education for Minorities (QEM); Mobile Alabama Business Alliance; The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education; Distinguished Service Award, Tuskegee University.

Memberships Hampton University Engineering Council, National Action Council for Minorities in EngineeringNACME, National Advisory Committee for the National Engineering Coalition, National Urban Coalition Education Taskforce, Aerospace Advisory Compliance Council, Clinton/Gore Transition Team—Space Science and Technology, 1992, Chair, University Space Research Association (URSA) Science Council, Chair, Wiley College NASA Science, Engineering, Math, Aerospace Academy Advisory Board, American Association of Higher Education, Association of Women in Higher Education, Leadership California, National Organization of Women (NOW), National Association of Minority Engineering Program Administrators

Guenet Gittens – Roberts Fellow and Cultural Advisor

Guenet Gittens-Roberts is CEO of GGR Marketing & Public Relations. She is responsible for developing and directing their communication strategy while also managing the agency’s outreach to the advertising, charitable and business communities. GGR Marketing & Public Relations was formed to develop and execute programs aimed at reaching multicultural communities and niche markets utilizing an effective mixture of relationship marketing, event marketing and branding through social media and traditional media sources.

GGR is a full service, public relations and marketing firm with the intention to serve as a “publicity machine” for our clients, ensuring that they are included in targeted publications and broadcast media while also utilizing social media and networking to build relationships. They offer a broad range of services that include marketing, public relations, branding, special event planning & management, sponsorship/fundraising, business development and media relations. GGR Marketing currently produce the largest Caribbean Festival in Orlando, the Orlando Carnival Downtown.

She is the publisher of Caribbean American Passport News Magazine, the largest Caribbean owned Statewide Newspaper in Florida. Caribbean American Passport covers the people of the English, French and Spanish communities. Through their publishing arm, they were responsible for the publication of Mision Boricua a Spanish publication designed to raise awareness for the Puerto Rican community to vote in the 2016 election.

Guenet is active in the community serving for the past 7 years as President of the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce, Vice President of Central Florida Association of Black Journalists, Vice President of the Guyanese American Cultural Association of Central Florida, Program Director of the Caribbean American Business Expo and Vice-President of Caribbean Affairs at Realty World Orlando.

A native of Georgetown, Guyana, she spent five years at NCE Screen Printers, her family's 40 year old company developing ad campaigns for large and small companies and creating innovative corporate gift ideas out of combinations of print and local products. She maintains that this experience where she had to think outside the box remains at her core and allows her to come up with creative ideas that are diverse and interesting.

Guenet is married to her partner in their business Sam Roberts and is the proud parents of 2 college kids, Aleia and Kadeem.

Kenneth Jolly, Ph.D. Fellow and Coordinator ‘The Vault’ Program

Kenneth Jolly earned his Ph.D. in African American history from the University of Missouri, Columbia and is currently Associate Professor of History and Advisor to Black Studies at Saginaw Valley State University. Jolly’s book "By Our Own Strength": William Sherrill, the UNIA and the Fight for African American Self-Determination in Detroit, was published in 2013 by Peter Lang Academic Publishing Group as part of the Black Studies and Critical Thinking series.

Jolly’s book Black Liberation in the Midwest: The Struggle in St. Louis, Missouri, 1964-1970 was published by Routledge in 2006 as part of the African American History and Culture series. His research interests include African American History, the Black Power and Civil Rights Movements, and Black Liberation movements in the African Diaspora.

Sonja Griffin Evans Fellow and Cultural Artist Sonja Griffin Evans is an international Cultural Gullah Artist born and raised in Beaufort, South Carolina. Growing up in the ‘Low Country’, which prides itself on its ability to preserve its culture and heritage, has heavily influenced Sonja's artwork, and gives her an uncanny ability to capture the beauty, spirituality and purest representations of the Sea Islands and of African American culture. As a prolific mix media artist, she incorporates items such as tin, wood and other materials in her art. She is also adept at painting the vibrantly textured colored art on canvas that is acknowledged as the traditional Gullah style. In both mediums, Sonja is careful to express her culture in its purest form. Evans believes that everything that God has created is not only beautiful, but has a purpose and states nothing should be wasted. She further believes she merely holds the paint brush and God ultimately creates the art.

Sonja is known for her ability to see the beauty in found items and selects each item and unveils the alluring stories these pieces hold within them; reflecting the spirituality of the people of African descent. With her masterful use of color and perspective in her work, Griffin Evans' artwork is constantly evolving. Each piece has a story or inspirational quote that invokes spiritual and cultural insight.

Sonja Griffin Evans is the founder of the National For Artists – By Artists Society and a major contributor in the development for the 'Forgotten Communities Art Program' for the Pan African American Cultural Heritage Initiative, which is a program designed to preserve and promote the culture and heritage of people of Pan Africa -via the arts. Evans is the President of the South Carolina Cultural Heritage Society and serves on the Board of Directors for the Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute and the National Cultural Heritage Tourism Society.

Sonja Griffin Evans and her Gumbo e-Gallery have won many prestigious awards. In 2013 her gallery received the African Diaspora World Tourism Flame Keepers Award for honoring the culture and heritage of people of African Descent. Sonja has personally been named Honoree, Mamie Till Mobley Woman of Courage Award, and was an Onyx Award Nominee. As a highly sought after speaker and advocate for the arts, Evans has been featured on television and radio broadcasts, and in publications; such as DuPont Registry, Southern Lady Magazine, From Imagining to Understanding the African American Experience and more. Her artwork is in prestigious galleries, private and corporate collections, nationally and abroad. Her artwork was recently selected by the Westin Hilton Head Spa and Resort to display permanently commemorating historic Mitchelville and as the Historic Penn Center 2014 Heritage Days featured artist of the year. Evans is currently the resident artist at the Three Sisters Resale and More, Gallery 3 located in the Village Exchange on Hilton Head Island.

Erik O’Neal Fellow and Heritage Artist Erik O’Neal took his first formal lesson at the Art Institute of Chicago. He later went on to study art at Southern University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree. Erik joined the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS) in 2012. He also is a member of the Louisiana Art and Artists’ Guild and the Art Council of New Orleans.

Erik was part of the Art Council of New Orleans’ 2012 class of “ Artist as Entrepreneurs”.

Erik primarily works with pastels and oils. “Impressionistic realism is how I describe my work. My goal is to bring a sense of intensity to my work and invoke passion within the viewer. I want to recreate the moment”.

Erik has exhibited his work across the country, including the East Baton Rouge Parish Library system multiple times. He has twice been selected to participate in the Great Gulf Coast Arts Festival (2009, 2012). Erik was a featured artist for the Gumbo Gallery in Pensacola, Florida for the month of June 2013. He is a gifted artist and historian and adept at teaching and conducting seminars and art events.

Quote: “I’ve been creating art for as long as I can remember. I cannot imagine not doing it. Wherever I go, whomever I meet could be an inspiration for my next painting. Art is in all of us, it’s all around us.”

Mrs. Georgia Blackmon Fellow and Pensacola Cultural Heritage Society

Mrs. Georgia Blackmon was born and raised in Pensacola, Florida. She graduated from Booker T. Washington High School. She has been married to Johnny Blackmon for over 57 years. They have two children, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Mrs. Blackmon is very active in the community. She was taught a long time ago, “If you take care of your community and children, the community and children, will take care of you!”

Mrs. Blackmon was one of the first African American Sales Associates to work at the Carmen Daniel Dress Shop in downtown Pensacola. She worked in major retail stores for 40 years, but when the company she worked for began to terminate senior employees and hire younger people at a far less salary, she began to plan for her independence.

With a strong commitment to connect African Americans to their history and recognized the need for community building, Johnny and Georgia Blackmon decided to establish a bookstore. They opened ‘The Gathering Awareness and Book Center’ 26 years ago. The store is a cultural, community and education center for the spirit of black consciousness in Pensacola, Florida. The store specializes in books on African American History and Self Awareness. The book store is also a gift shop and supply the churches with hymnals, Bibles, and Christian literature.

Kitty Pope Fellow and Travel Writer ​Kitty J. Pope is the founder/ executive director of the International Association of Black Travel Writers. A graduate of University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, she is also the publications manager for AfricanDiasporaTourism.com, an online magazine, exploring the culture and heritage of people of African descent around the world in order to promote travel.

The author of one book, 'Beside Every Great Man' (Amber Publishers), Pope is the former lifestyle editor of the Atlanta-based Upscale Magazine and the former Coordinator of Counseling at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. She is also the director of membership development in North America for the International Council of Tourism Partners. (ICTP) Pope is also a black heritage travel consultant, and a member and media partner for the African Travel Association (ATA). She is also the founder and executive producer of the African Diaspora World Tourism Awards, a gala-ceremony that recognizes achievements of people in the areas of black culture and heritage tourism.

Theola Bright Fellow and Writer THEOLA BRIGHT is an independent, interdisciplinary artist that is a native of Mobile, Alabama, and former Artist-In-Residence for the State of Alabama. She was educated at Blount high school in Mobile, Ann York Business school in New York City, Miami-Dade college, Florida International University, and Lindsey Hopkins Technical School in Miami, and Actors Models and Talent for Christ (AMTC) in Atlanta.

Bright is the CEO and Founder of T.C. Bright Productions Ministry, Inc. (TCBPM), which uses the arts to spread the gospel. TCBPM collaborates with other faith based, and non-profit organizations to produce major outreach productions such as The King of Kings Unity Concert, an annual event held in conjunction with the annual Unity Walk in Mobile, AL (kingdomcovenantconnections.org), the annual Mobile International Festival (mobileinternationalfestival.org) that features a show of Bright’s original African hair and fashion designs, and The Theatre of Truth (TTOT). which brings historical characters to life on stage throughout the year as educational entertainment; sponsored by various organizations.

TCBPM is also the host for teaching seminars on God Consciousness, Healthy Eating and Living, Relationships, and Respect, which are presented by Theola Bright based on excerpts from her published books. These seminars are often presented with music, poetry, and songs from Bright’s collection as a vocalist and producer of the radio show, “Think About It With Theola Bright. “ Live performances can be seen at www.youtube.com/theolabright

Google: Theola Bright for more information.

Frank R. Morton Fellow and Musician Frank R. Morton is a native of Nashville, Tennessee and is lauded for his musical knowledge and talent. While attending public school, Frank began taking music lessons in the fourth grade, playing the clarinet. Following his transfer to Cameron High School in the seventh grade, Frank began playing the alto saxophone and joined the marching and symphonic bands. As his talent became more pronounced, Morton changed instruments, and began playing the tenor saxophone studying great jazz saxophonists.

After graduating high school in 1967, with a music scholarship to the University of Maryland, he was directed by his family members (smile) to study music at Tennessee State University. While at Tennessee State, Frank studied music and played in local night clubs in Nashville. The country was at war in Viet Nam and his musical career was halted when Morton received his draft notice. He immediately joined the United States Navy.

In the Navy, Frank Morton continued to study music, when the opportunity was presented. He also decided to pursue a military career. His thirst for knowledge and improvement allowed him to earn an Associate of Arts Degree and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology for Columbia College in Columbia, Missouri.

Frank retired with honors in 1968 from the United States in 1968, following an illustrious career, with the top enlisted rank of Master Chief Petty Officer, and as a graduate of the prestigious Navy Senior Enlisted Academy. As a Senior Enlisted Academy graduate, Morton assumed the coveted position of Command Master Chief of two sea commands and two shore commands. After retiring, he taught physical science in public schools in Pensacola, Florida and again picked up his saxophone and studied music at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. Frank Morton is currently the Minister of Music at Emmaus Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida and plays Gospel and Smooth Jazz for private engagements. His love of music has taken Frank full circle, and he share his gifts with his community!

Arden K. Blackwell Fellow and Community Organizer

Arden K. Blackwell accepted her calling as a Community Organizer at age 17 as the founder of a student organization at Homewood High, followed by the creation of a second association her senior year at Troy University in 2011, where she refined her life’s purpose through a B.S. in Humanities & Leadership Development.

As Executive Director for The National Business League of Alabama (NBLA), Arden is responsible for re-chartering and modernizing a century-old framework that fosters economic partnerships, to cultivate self-sustainable African-American communities, through entrepreneurship and workforce development. The National (Negro) Business League was America’s first trade association for people of color, founded by Dr. Booker T. Washington in 1900.

As a native of the birthplace for Human & Civil Rights, Arden envisions herself a curator of Alabama's future narrative and flavor. She is most excited to nourish her creative roots as President of the Alabama Cultural Heritage Society and Fellow of the National Cultural Heritage Tourism Society, through designing a cultural-economic development strategy for Pan-African communities, businesses and artisans statewide. A zeal for learning and self-mastery fuels Arden's philanthropy and service; she is humbled by the opportunity for growth while addressing many of Alabama's most pressing issues as a member of Class II for the Alabama Leadership Initiative, the young professional’s cohort of Leadership Alabama.

Arden currently nurtures her passion for community by reinvesting time and talent as Ward 2 Representative for the Homewood Arts Council and Co-Chair for the Alabama Humanities Foundation, Young Professionals Board. She also chaired two sub-committees for the Social Justice component of the Woodfin Administration Mayoral Transition Team, with the City of Birmingham in 2018 and served as 2017 Advocacy Chair for the Birmingham Urban League, Young Professionals.

Arden’s life’s work speaks truth to the power of addressing the holistic needs of individuals, so that communities may transform themselves from within. She demonstrates this by curating events, festivals, workshops, and campaigns that highlight and connect diverse community organizations on wellness and justice initiatives to enrich Alabama’s cultural heritage.

In her personal time, Arden loves to compose music, create DIY health and beauty products, binge watch educational documentaries and is also a vintage maven—her mind has been free from television since 2009.

Mark Scovera Treasurer/Trustee Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute

Mark is and Accounting Professional and the former President of the Florida Black Business Support Corporation, and dba, Access Florida Finance Corporation. He is well known in the finance service arena as an avid advocate for micro and minority enterprises. He is constantly sought for his advice and expertise. He serves on several boards of directors and has made significant strides in addressing policy issues that inhibit black business development and growth.

Previously, Mark was the Sr. Vice President/Chief Financial Officer for the Florida Black Business Investment Board, Inc., a public private partner with the state. His twenty years experience in accounting and finance, starting at Arthur Andersen LLP in the audit division, continuing on serving as the controller and Chief Financial Officer for various companies in the Detroit area.

Mark was born and raised in Michigan and resides with his wife and children in his favorite city, Detroit!

Leon King Trustee ​ an African Cultural Heritage Institute P Leon King is the Founder and Managing Partner of K-WAM Financial Solutions. He launched K-WAM in 2005, with the goal of supporting the financial needs of small and midsized companies; with a focus on veteran and minority-owned companies doing business with federal and state government agencies. Recognizing that access to capital is essential for starting, sustaining and growing a business; he has positioned K-WAM as a pivotal funding source for start-ups and rapidly growing companies. Through his network of traditional, alternative lenders and investors; Leon has secured financing for business owners across many industry sectors.

Prior to launching K-WAM, Leon served as a financial consultant with Washington Mutual and several boutique lenders; focused on residential mortgages, small business and commercial real estate lending. He also had a long career in healthcare administration at the University of California, San Francisco.

Mark Miller Author Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute For over seventeen years, I have been working with at risk kids and struggling readers. I have been a case manager for a children's mental health corporation, a family counselor for child protective services, and a teacher in juvenile justice facilities, alternative education programs, high schools, and middle schools. I currently teach reading and language arts in elementary school grades. More than ever, we must understand the importance of establishing a good foundation in reading from an early age. Kids will read if you give them something they want to read. The more they read, the better readers they become. I am on a mission to inspire more kids to read and adults to read more. Although my students inspire me to write novels with young adults in mind, my books address a variety of high interest topics that appeal to people of all ages.

My first three novels are a reflection of my experiences working with kids in child protective services and juvenile justice facilities who have faced grave adversity.

Chasing Faith- Cara was a good, Catholic school girl until her mother dies from an unexpected drug overdose and she is forced to live with her estranged father. Join this intelligent, courageous, young woman as she attempts to overcome the death of her mother, establish a relationship with her father, find her place in the world, and regain her faith.

Baby Club- Every girl wants love. For Tynise, Ruby, Lauryn and Marisol, find love in one of the roughest projects in Chicago was no easy task. In the belief having a bay will fill the void, they make a bet to see which one can get pregnant first and Baby Club is born. How far will four fifteen year old girls go for the unconditional love they crave?

The Inner Light- Follow Trouble, a boy born into a world of gangs and violence, a world of darkness. When his mother is arrested, he discovers a unique gift. He sees an inner light emanating from the heads of people who treat him well. The light guides him through the foster care and juvenile justice systems, the void of an absent mother, and a quest to find his own inner light.

The Collective, Judgment- This science fiction novel explores the idea that we were never alone. The guardians of the universe have been watching us, guiding us, and protecting the most precious thing in the universe, life. Now they must make a decision. Is man ready to take their place in the Collective or is it time for judgement?

Jomo Zende, The Arrival- Taken from his home in Africa at the age of ten, Jomo is enslaved on a cotton plantation in Georgia for six years. While being tied to a post for a whipping, Jomo finds the courage to run from his masters. He seeks refuge in a cave that is used as a hiding place for the Underground Railroad and discovers a mysterious light shining from deep within the cave. Seeking an escape, he runs into the light and emerges in the year twenty eighteen with great physical strength, enhanced senses, and futuristic weapons. Now, he must learn to adapt to his new powers in a world where all men and women are free but are not treated equally.

Aleigha M. Alexander Associate Fellow Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute

Aleigha M. Alexander is an undergraduate student at Florida International University, where she prides herself in being a part of the International Relations Department. A big believer in showcasing culture through media, her goal as a student is to emphasize the cultural value found within African American art forms.

She advocates the use of ethical marketing to spread ideas from border to border, and sea to sea. “It is important for all cultures to have their own dialogue; where they too can tell their stories. If media were all inclusive-- diplomacy would be a given; wars would cease, and the world would be a much better place.” During her free time, she works as a freelance creative under the moniker Lei Mô.

‘The Organization’

The Pan African Cultural Heritage Websites •Florida Black Chamber of Commerce, Inc. www.floridablackchamber.com •National Black Business Support Corporation https://www.nbbsc.org •National Cultural Heritage Tourism Center Inc. https://www.nationalculturalheritagetourismcenter.com •Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute, Inc. www.panafricanchi.org •National Asset Building Coalition www.natlassetbldgcoalition.com •National For Artist - By Artist Society www.fabaarts.org

Our Program Websites •Pan African American Cultural Heritage Market Place https://www.paachmp.com •Art & Entertainment Network https://www.culturalartnetwork.org •Faith! - https://www.faithcommunitynetwork.org •Pan African American Travel Club https://panafricanamericantravel.net

THE PAN AFRICAN CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY NETWORK “LIKE US” on FACEBOOK!

The Pan African Cultural Heritage Society is an alliance of many partners. Those partners are Network partners, International Affiliates, State Affiliates, Regional Affiliates and US Territory Affiliates. The listings below document our partners.

Please note the corresponding Code, which should be annotated to the membership/sponsorship application.

Network Partners and Affiliates N-01

FLORIDA BLACK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, INC.

N-02

NATIONAL CULTURAL HERITAGE TOURISM SOCIETY

N-03

NATIONAL BLACK TOURISM MARKETING

N-04

PAN AFRICAN AMERICAN TRAVEL CLUB

N-05

PAN AFRICAN CULTURAL HERITAGE INSTITUTE, INC

N-06

PAN AFRICAN CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY, INC.

N-07

PAN AFRICAN CULTURAL HERITAGE SPEAKERS ALLIANCE

N-08

PAN AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL HERITAGE MARKET PLACE

N-09

NATIONAL 'FOR ARTISTS-BY ARTISTS' SOCIETY

N-10

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK

N-11

FAITH!

Pan African International Affiliates I-01

AFRICA CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

I-02

BAHAMAS CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

I-03

BELIZE CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

I-04

BRAZIL CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

“LIKE US” on FACEBOOK! Continued:

I-05

CANADIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

I-06

CARIBBEAN CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

I-07

CUBA CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

I-08

EUROPEAN CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

I-09

FRANCE CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

I-10

HAITI CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

I-11

JAMAICA CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

I-12

KINGDOM OF SPAIN CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

I-13

SAINT LUCIA CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

I-14

UNITED KINGDOM CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

I-15 SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICAN CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY Pan African Cultural Heritage Society State Affiliates S-01

ALABAMA CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

S-04

ARKANSAS CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

S-05

CALIFORNIA CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

S-DC

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

S-09

FLORIDA CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

S-10

GEORGIA CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

S-13

ILLINOIS CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

S-14

INDIANA CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

S-16

KANSAS CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

S-17

KENTUCKY CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

S-18

LOUISIANA CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

Continue to next page

“LIKE US” on FACEBOOK! Continued:

S-20

MARYLAND CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

S-21

MASSACHUSETTS CULTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY

S-22

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The VAULT – (A White Paper Repository)—is a forward-looking and panoptic approach assuring the vitality of Pan African communities and enterprises by the publication of academic papers and theoretical writings that will allow policy makers, educators, community leaders, and business owners to view proven- successful economic and community development models that can be implemented to create jobs and business opportunities in partnership with Historical Black Colleges and Universities and other global institutions of learning.

The Vault 2019 Published Student Research Papers CARRYING THE TORCH TOWARDS EQUALITY MORGAN JAMES FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY SYD 4730:SOCIOLOGY OF THE BLACK EXPERIENCE 5 APRIL 2018 Page 116

FROM THE SHADOWS: UNCOVERING THE LOST CONTRIBUTIONS OF BLACK FIGURES IN AMERICA TIA MAXWELL FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY SYD 4730: SOCIOLOGY OF THE BLACK EXPERIENCE APRIL 6, 2018 Page 133

THE UNKNOWN CONTRIBUTIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICANS TAMEKA GILLYARD FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY SYD 4730: SOCIOLOGY OF THE BLACK EXPERIENCE APRIL 5TH, 2018 Page 152

CARRYING THE TORCH TOWARDS EQUALITY MORGAN JAMES FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY SYD 4730:SOCIOLOGY OF THE BLACK EXPERIENCE 5 APRIL 2018

Abstract

For decades, the contributions made by blacks have been concealed, stolen, illegitimated, and appropriated at the hands of a prejudiced and discriminatory whitedominated society. This creates numerous issues for both the black and white communities as children lack education about key black history events, individuals, and contributions. This miseducation, perpetuates the prejudiced attitudes of whites and the generational stagnation of black advancement. The purpose of this study is to: (1) recognize black individuals and their contributions, and (2) address the cultural and societal significance their work has promoted.

Understanding black history and the flaws in our nation’s history, allows us to recognize the prejudice within our modern society, educate future generations, prevent the repetition of

mistakes in the past, and strive towards racial equality. Through acknowledging black contributions, blacks will take pride in their identity and follow the examples set by their predecessors to gain recognition and whites will begin to understand the struggles and triumphs that have been concealed by a racist society.

Due to the concealed and illegitimated contributions made by blacks, uncovering evidence of black efforts and achievements is a difficult task as many resources have credited whites with innovations and accolades rather than the true black contributors.

However, after the careful collection of evidence for each of the contributions discussed throughout the study, the recognition and sociological significance of each contribution has been brought to light. The results of this study find that the concealed, illegitimated, and appropriated contributions have degraded the black identity, caused disruption within the

black community, and perpetuated a racist society. It concludes that through the cooperation of both whites and blacks, the mis-education of children could be addressed creating a racially supportive environment open to growth and expansion towards racial equality.

Introduction

Throughout this study, we will be researching how the social problem of factual

contributions made by blacks have been unknown, largely ignored, discredited, and/or appropriated to others. Further, how the deliberate rejection of recognition affects the progress and identity of the black race as a whole. The lack of acknowledgement of black contributions

to society through

various

societal

facets

(e.g.

politics, science,

industrialization, pop culture, military, and medicine) have been a socially systematic strategy designed to minimize the status, power, and prestige of the black race from the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade to present day. This study also intends to recognize black individuals and their contributions. Contributions that have been lost in the pages of white history books or who have had credit stolen by their white masters or other prominent white progressionalists. This study will recognize several black innovative pioneers and their contributions. It will also explore the affects of their efforts assessed on the micro and macro levels of society; and, more specifically the black community. This issue has tremendous social significance as failing to acknowledge black accomplishments remains prevalent in today’s society. Through denying black contributions, society is doomed to repeat the results of Kenneth and Mamie Clark’s doll test on a macro level as black children will develop psychological effects due to racism and prejudice as they learn to embrace a status of inferiority rather than celebrating their rich culture. Research done in this study will receive

long overdue recognition of black contributions to empower the black community and uphold a proud cultural identity rather than perpetuating the historic cycle of racism and prejudice.

Literature Review

The study of black oppression through ignoring and discrediting social and global contributions to society has been studied by many sociologists and psychologists to identify the effects that lack of recognition has upon the individual and the race as a whole.

The contributions of blacks were largely discredited as a means of crushing and silencing black identity and unity. This strategic system was implemented by whites to gain social, economic, and political dominance through “considerable discrimination that stemmed from negative perceptions of [the] African American [race] (Cook, 2012).� Cook (2012) specifically studied the economic strife of black inventors during the Reconstruction Era who were fortunate enough to obtain a patent but where financially plagued by consumer

withdrawal after whites discovered the race of the inventor.

This association between

creator and creation within industry made it difficult for blacks to advance in the economic world, not only provide for their families, but also to advance in the social stratification in order to minimize inequality. The continuation of black discrimination in industry was documented by Christopher (1981) who studied how black industrialists were deceived primarily due to lack of education and by selling their products and claims to white corporations and companies who then made a profit. This deception cost rising black industrialists financial gain and recognition for their own inventions and products concealing many black advancements from society.

These societal competition factors contribute to a fragmented sense of racial identity as blacks struggle to find unity within their own race and within society as they are pulled apart by prejudice and discrimination. Sanders-Thompson (2001) investigates this concept of a false sense of identity as it pertains to the advancement of blacks socially and culturally. Her work reveals that the appropriation and lack of recognition contributes to the

degradation of the black psyche causing “competition within the group” rather than

supporting united advancement. Allen and Stukes (1982) work reaffirms this concept through their research on how racial identification is directly correlated to “positive psychological outcomes”. They argue that racial identification instills blacks with a sense of purpose, higher self-esteem, and greater tolerance for prejudice and discrimination as the effort to fight oppression becomes a group effort rather than singular turmoil. Through the process of developing a resilient racial identification, blacks can continue to overcome the oppression that has plagued them for generations shedding light on their social and global contributions.

Methods of Data Collection

As the contributions of blacks have been discredited throughout history by a prejudiced society, the evidence of these contributions has been buried and their efforts credited to whites. As a result of this repetitive cycle of discrimination, evidence of contributions presented throughout this study and in other supporting studies has been difficult to uncover. Throughout the research community, academic articles and journals discussing black contributions accompanied by historical facts and charts are rare and often do not contain enough information to create a citation. This was a difficult challenge to

overcome especially with notable black contributors in the field of education as their involvement, even up into the 19th and 20th centuries, was largely hidden to suffocate the selfesteem of the black community.

Although the challenges in finding and collecting research were immense, the sources found were taken from journals in the Florida A&M University (FAMU) databases. The databases are an online resource which allow FAMU students to browse multiple archives from around the world to find information on various topics.

These databases in particular were a

tremendous help as all historically black colleges and universities collect an archive of

articles and journals pertaining specifically to African American subject matter such as: history, accomplishments, and modern day struggles. However, even with the help of the databases, it was difficult finding informative databases amid the hundreds then searching through thousands of scholarly journals to discover relevant information regarding a specific contribution or historical figure. These struggles and challenges provide a small glimpse into the de-identification of blacks after the transatlantic slave trade and shed light on the harsh reality of the continuation of hidden black contributions.

Findings and Explanation of Factual Contributions

Throughout the 15th century, when the transatlantic slave trade was beginning, millions of slaves were taken from Western African and Central America and brought to

America to work under a chattel slavery system. As a result of this forced mass exodus, many slaves were uprooted from their own culture and planted new roots in America slowly assimilating their African and Caribbean identities with their new American identity. Over the years, through this assimilation process, blacks made great contributions to society through their discoveries, inventions, and bravery as they merged their native knowledge and traditions with the American way of life. Among the many who fought against the chains of discrimination and prejudice to make strides toward progress and equality were: Onesimus, Norbert Rillieux, Edward Bouchet, Lewis Howard Latimer, Matthew Henson, Garrett Morgan, Harlem Hell Fighters, Esther Jones, Hattie McDaniel, and Katherine Johnson. Their contributions and efforts to overcome oppression and elevate the status of blacks in America has been buried in the pages of white history and gone largely unrecognized. However, these

pioneers were able to penetrate the prejudice of society to prove that blacks hold a significant place in our nation’s infrastructure.

Through this study, the significant contributions of blacks will be listed in date order from 1721 to 1986. The oldest contribution analyzed in this study was made by Onesimus in Massachusetts in 1721 when he introduced the process of inoculation to the thirteen colonies.

Onesimus described the process of immunizing patients with “a small dose of the live virus” to build up immunity over time (Wisecup, 2011). This was a monumental contribution as the smallpox epidemic was sweeping across Boston affecting the lives of thousands. Dr. William Douglass attempted to discredit Onesimus’ method, however, found that it was successful medical procedure. Unfortunately, Onesimus’ knowledge about inoculation was credited to Cotton Mather, a minister whom Onesimus had shared his findings with, and Douglass whose medical philosophies attempting to discredit the slave brought him recognition for the African medical knowledge. Although Onesimus did not receive the credit for the inoculation method he brought with him from Africa, the knowledge allowed African knowledge to gain attention.

Onesimus’ contribution was followed by Norbert Rillieux in 1864 when he patented improvements to power plants and revolutionized how sugar was processed. His

contributions, although overshadowed by Elijah McCoy, a fellow black engineer, were immense throughout the 19th century industrialization age and helped lead the nation in steam power. Although Rillieux is most commonly known for “his evaporative process for sugar refining, [he was] first and foremost a steam-engine pioneer (Thompson, 1999).” His designs and patents made improvements to power plants and he became renowned for his expertise in the “principles of steam (Thompson, 1999).” Though his passion was working with steam industrialization, Rillieux also patented a machine which would pressurize sugar and refine it increasing the quality of the product, allowing companies to mass produce, and making it safer for workers. However, his patent was later revoked because two engineers had created a machine that had similar features and functions even though their design failed to function.

Another highly educated man leading his time period was Edward Bouchet.

Although Bouchet lived in a time where educational resources were highly limited to blacks, he managed to attend Yale and become the first black to earn a Ph.D. and later became the sixth individual, regardless of race, to earn a Ph.D. in physics. This was a monumental accomplishment as he achieved all this just eleven years after the Emancipation Proclamation and with honors (Yale University Honors Its First Blak Graduate, 1998). His academic prowess laid the foundation for blacks to advance within the segregated school systems and later helped integrate schools by helping to prove that blacks had an equal intellectual level and right to attend schools of higher education (Yale University Honors Its First Blak Graduate, 1998). .

Similar to Rillieux, Lewis Howard Latimer was an inventor in the late 19th

century who patented and improved multiple products that are still in use today. He helped Alexander Graham Bell with the patent application and sketches for the telephone which revolutionized communication in the mid-19th century. His experiences working with Bell

and electricity, led Latimer to work alongside Edison and Maxim to patent “an improved method for bonding carbon filaments...and an improved electric lamp (Judd, 1998).�

Unfortunately, the company Latimer worked for, Maxim-Weston Electric Light Company, took credit for these groundbreaking innovations and reaped the financial benefits from their production. Although Latimer never received the credit for his contributions to communication and electricity, his ideas and concepts are still relevant today and used throughout the electricity field.

Much like Lewis Latimer, Matthew Henson also made discoveries for which, he was not credited. Henson was an explorer who accompanied Peary on numerous voyages

all over the world, including his historic journey to the North Pole. Henson was well-known among the Eskimo tribes and treated as a hero for his expeditions and skill for speaking “the Eskimo language, driving dogsleds, hunting,” and trading furs (Robinson, 1983). He was

better prepared and skilled to explore the dangerous climate of the North Pole than his companion Peary and even saved his life on multiple occasions. Although Henson was the first person to reach the North Pole arriving 45 minutes before Peary, Peary (a white man) is credited with having reached the pole first and Henson “drifted into semi-obscurity” after returning home to the United States (Robinson, 1983). It is believed that without Henson, Peary would have never made it to the North Pole by himself demonstrating the skills and resilience of the black race.

Another black icon of his time who has been buried in the pages of history by white supremacists, is Garrett Morgan. Morgan made great strides for the black community through his inventions and approaches to advertising. During the 19th century, it was hard for blacks to make a profit off of their inventions as discriminatory consumer practices plagued

the markets forcing black inventors to advertise solely to their own race. This divided the markets for both blacks and whites creating a decrease in possible profits and an overall dip in the economy. Garrett Morgan sought to end this cycle of discrimination and economic downfall by advertising his inventions of the modern gas mask and the traffic light to both white and black consumers “simultaneously and across region (Cook, 2012).” Although Morgan lost some potential consumers, his efforts to desegregate the markets and boost the economy was unprecedented and gave blacks the confidence to continue to fight against the prejudiced economic system.

As Garrett Morgan fought the U.S. economic markets, the Harlem Hell Fighters demonstrated their prowess on the battlefields of France during WWI. As tensions between black leaders and racist Southern politicians mounted, the Hell Fighters were sent to

the front lines in France for their own protection after only being in the South for twelve days

(Capozzola, 2006). The Hell Fighters quickly gained recognition in France for their daring rescues and brave assaults against the enemy earning them the highest French award for valor, the Croix de Guerre. Private Henry Johnson from the Hell Fighter’s regiment was the first American to ever be awarded the prestigious Croix de Guerre and after their “contribution to the final push of the Allied troops in the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne earned the entire regiment the Croix de Guerre (Capozzola, 2006).” The outstanding performance of the Hell Fighters demonstrated to the world the capabilities of blacks in battle and helped lead the military towards integration.

Esther Jones was also a great contributor for the black community and the way their culture and standard of beauty was perceived by whites. Esther Jones was a jazz singer in Harlem and was the inspiration for the iconic pop culture cartoon character Betty Boop.

Jones was a flapper in the 1920’s and one of the most famous sex symbols of the time. Often called “Baby Esther,” she was characterized by her low-cut dresses, strong vocal talent, and the appealing curvature of her body. Although the cartoonist Max Fleischer is credited with the iconic design, he depicted Betty Boop as a white woman rather than Jones’ true physical appearance as a black woman. Esther Jones’ lifestyle, fame, and appearance promoted appreciation for the physical beauty of blacks and broadened the standard of beauty at the

time. Although she was misrepresented and appropriated by the cartoon character, her image brought appreciation for the African culture (The Forgotten black Woman Behind Betty Boop, 2017).

Hattie McDaniel, much like Esther Jones, broke the barriers of the entertainment world in her appearance in Gone With the Wind in 1939. Much controversy surrounding McDaniel’s performance within the black community as some argue that her character negatively portrayed the black stereotype of the “Mammy” of the house thus continuing the cycle of discrimination.

However, her performance and contribution was ignored by the white community and unappreciated by the black community; even after she won an Academy Award for her performance. She became the first black performer to win this award and broke through the glass ceiling for blacks in the entertainment industry (Campbell, 1990).

Finally, one of the most prominent black pioneers who has just recently received recognition for her contributions in the movie Hidden Figures is Katherine Johnson. She was one of the first black mathematicians to be employed at NASA from 1953 to 1986 and her calculations played a pivotal role in the success of the Apollo missions (Winston, 1997). Her contributions not only shattered the glass ceiling for women in the workplace, specifically engineering, but also proved to the world that black women have the capabilities to outperform others in their field.

Who? What?

When?

Onesimus Introduced 1721 the African medical technique of inoculation to the U.S.

Where?

Massachusetts

Norbert Rillieux

Louisiana/Fr He helped lead ance steam industrializatio n to allow companies to mass produce sugar.

Improved 1864 power plants/ revolutionize d sugar processing

Why? How? He introduced Challenge: vaccines to cure Overcoming his diseases and status as a slave. increase the Contribution: overall life -introduced expectancy. inoculation -earned blacks some credit in the medical field -raised life expectancy Challenge: He spurred the economy through his inventions in spite of having all rights and privileges stripped away by a prejudiced system.

Contribution: -He made work conditions safer for everyone

Who?

What?

When?

Edward Bouchet

First black to earn a Ph.D. and sixth American of any race to earn one in physics

1876 Conn(eleven ecticut years after the Emancipation Proclamation)

Challenge: Earning a Ph.D. in a segregated education system and amongst much racial animosity.

Contribution: -overcame racism to earn a Ph.D. in physics -encouraged blacks to pursue higher education

Lewis Howard Latimer

Improved Edison’s Lightbulb

1884

Challenge: -Continuing to produce new ideas and contribute to society despite discretization.

Contribution: -brought the black community together through communication

Matthew First to Alexander discover the Henson North Pole

Garrett Morgan

1909

Inventor of 1914 the gas mask

Where?

Why?

He heightened society’s view of black education, thus, he wanted to inspire the younger generations to break down prejudiced barriers through the expansion of education.

MassHis alterations He achusetts sought to connect the black community through further communication and lower discriminatory views of blacks in science.

Greenland His expeditions brought international prestige and destroyed negative views and beliefs about black’s physical abilities.

Kentucky/ He changed Ohio advertising to

How? during the industrial revolution

Challenge: Perseverance to pursue expeditions despite his accomplishments being ignored.

Contribution: -He was an example of the resilience of blacks Challenge:

Who?

What?

When?

Harlem Hell Fighters

First Americans 1917-1919 to receive the Croix de Guerre from France

New York/ France

Esther Jones

Pop culture 1930 icon who was the inspiration for Betty Boop

New York

Hattie McDaniel

First black actress to win an Academy Award

California

1939

Where?

Why? appeal to all races and sought to desegregate the market economy.

How? Earn a profit in a white dominated market economy.

Contribution: -combatted economic decline -helped desegregate consumerism of all races They Challenge: demonstrated Excelling at their black prowess job despite the and success in antagonism of their the military and own countrymen. on the Contribution: battlefield.

-lead the way for the integration of the military -demonstrated the courage of blacks on the front lines She helped Challenge: bring Overcoming appreciation for negative the physical connotations beauty of regarding black blacks and body image at the crushed time. negative Contribution: stereotypes.

-inspired the iconic cartoon Betty Boop -shattered old stereotypes by promoting her body as beautiful and appealing to others.

She lead the Challenge: way for blacks Overcoming in Hollywood. prejudice in the entertainment world.

Who?

What?

When?

Katherine Johnson

One of the first 1953-1986 black mathematicians at NASA

Where?

Why?

How? Contribution: -first woman to win an Academy Award

Texas

Her work opened up jobs for blacks, especially women, in the space program.

Challenge: Overcoming prejudice in the workplace during the civil rights movement.

Contribution: -did the calculations for the Apollo missions -shattered the glass ceiling for women of color

Discussion, Strategies, Implications and Future Research The research presented in this study identifies how the contributions of blacks have been largely unknown, ignored, discredited, or appropriated by a racist society. This attempt to conceal black successes throughout the generations is simply the continuation of slavery as whites sought to enslave the minds, identities, and actions of blacks. This mindset has plagued the black race generating the society-perpetuated belief of inferiority resulting in the struggle to overcome generational poverty, broken households, and positive identities.

The individuals analyzed in this study, played pivotal roles in breaking the chains of mental

and societal inequality through the multiple fields of medicine, innovation, education, exploration, and entertainment. The continuation of contributions and the discovery of past hidden contributions aid to slowly change first the prejudiced mindset and lack of appreciation that society has for blacks then the actions to abolish discriminatory practices and policies.

The process and responsibility to bring about social change rests in the hands of each generation as they strive to educate society about the wrongs of the past to move forward into the future together. To move on, new strategies and implications have to be made starting with constantly educating today’s youth about black history and their contributions rather than focusing on a few notable civil rights figures once a year during black History month.

There needs to be social programs and community healing days where individuals from all races, ethnicities, and ages can come together to learn about current contributions and listen to each other’s struggles and concerns within an open, non-judgmental environment. Through this education process, W.E.B. Du Bois’ concept of double consciousness would be minimized among blacks as well as the frustration-aggression theory among whites. The

elimination of these two concepts would allow blacks and whites alike to empathize with each other’s perspectives creating a renewed level of patience and healing within the community. Thus, the overall attitude towards blacks would change improving race relations and promoting cooperation.

However, one essential aspect of creating better race relations is first acknowledging the many contributions that blacks bring to society. This is difficult to accomplish if the information is not readily available and accessible by the general public.

There should be more organizations committed to uncovering black contributions and making them available to the public in order to raise awareness of discredited strides that blacks have made in society and promote racial unity. Specifically, more knowledge and research should be collected about how micro-social issues such as the identity and

atmosphere of black communities are directly correlated to macro-social issues such as black political participation and success. If children are educated about black contributions and brought up in a racially supportive environment, they will strive to emulate those who have come before and carry the torch towards equality with pride.

References Allen, W., & Stukes, S. (1982). black family lifestyles and the mental health of black Americans. In E Munoz & R. Endo (Eds.), Perspectives on minority mental health.

Washington, DC: University Press of America Barbas, S. (2006). The black Actor's Dilemma. The Women's Review of Books, 23(2), 25-26.

Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4024599 Campbell, E. (1990). The Georgia Historical Quarterly, 74(3), 554-555. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40582221 Capozzola, C. (2006). From Harlem to the Rhine: New Perspectives on African-American Military Service in the First World War. New York History, 87(3), 365-377. Retrieved

from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23183496 Christopher, M. (1981). Granville T. Woods: The Plight of a black Inventor. Journal of black Studies, 11(3), 269-276. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2784179 Cook, L. (2012). Overcoming Discrimination by Consumers during the Age of Segregation: The Example of Garrett Morgan. The Business History Review, 86(2), 211-234.

Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23239496 The Forgotten black Woman Behind Betty Boop. (2017). The Cut. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A485568357/ITOF?u=tall18692&sid=ITOF&xid =ad0c26e4 Judd, M. (1998). Lewis Latimer: African American Inventor, Poet and Activist. OAH Magazine of History, 12(2), 25-30. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25163202 Robinson, B. (1983). Matthew A. Henson (1866-1955). Arctic,36(1), 106-107. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40509478

Sanders-Thompson, V. (2001). The Complexity of African American Racial Identification. Journal of black Studies, 32(2), 155-165. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3180958 Thompson, G. (1999). The Color of TECHNOLOGY: Moving Things Rapidly Along. US black Engineer and Information Technology, 22(4), 14-14.

Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43689691

Winston, B. (1997). My Greatest CHALLENGE: Her Footprints Reached the Moon. US black Engineer and Information Technology, 21(2), 54-51.

Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43689684 Wisecup, K. (2011). African Medical Knowledge, the Plain Style, and Satire in the 1721 Boston Inoculation Controversy. Early American Literature,

46(1), 25-50. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25800130 Yale University Honors Its First Blak Graduate, Dr. Edward Alexander Bouchet; Memorial Tombstone Unveiled. (1998). Jet, 22. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A53365381/ITOF?u=tall18692&sid=I TOF&xid=4a3a2c04

FROM THE SHADOWS: UNCOVERING THE LOST CONTRIBUTIONS OF BLACK FIGURES IN AMERICA TIA MAXWELL FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY SYD 4730: SOCIOLOGY OF THE BLACK EXPERIENCE APRIL 6, 2018

ABSTRACT

This research article reflects on a relevant social problem: what are some factual contributions made by blacks to society or globally that have been unknown, largely ignored, discredited, or appropriated to others? The purpose is to reveal these lost contributions and the implications associated with the deletion of black history from world history. Once these implications are revealed, it leaves room to discuss how the removal of black history affects race relations in sum. This research was conducted with secondary data analysis, using social artifacts as the basis for much of the research. Although research revealed that an almost infinite amount of contributions have been lost, ignored, and appropriated, ten were to be found of great significance to the researchers.

These ten revealed why these contributions were so important, as well as, the implications associated with the aforementioned problem.

Introduction Although black people have existed since the dawn of humankind, and have existed for thousands of years, their contributions have been lost to the world. Many of black people’s most innovative ideas, theories, and inventions have been lost, discredited, appropriated, or simply unknown. The history of blacks, in general, has been erased or eroded in the history books; this can be attributed to society’s extreme mistreatment of blacks around the world. The research question at hand is such- what are some factual contributions made by blacks to society or globally that have been unknown, largely ignored, discredited, or appropriated to others? The problem associated with this erasure is more than just not giving credit- this erasure influences the way in which blacks are perceived and the way they perceive themselves. This erasure

becomes socially significant because it instills an inferiority complex in regards to the black psychology. It perpetuates older thought processes that suggested blacks have little to offer the world and know very little, when in fact that is not to the case. Race is a social construct, but it still serves to divide people and create an unnecessary hierarchy. It is the duty of all people, not just blacks, to unearth the multitude of contributions blacks have made to the world in order to better understand the black experience in sum, and destroy the hierarchy in place.

Literature Review

During the research process, there was difficulty identifying works that specifically address the issue of the erasure of black contributions. While there is an abundance of

works uncovering shadowed figures and bringing them to light, few explained the absence of those figures for all of these years, or explain their purpose. For those aforementioned works, though, it is recognized that black contributions have been erased due to rampant racism worldwide.

His-Story: Black History’s Little Known Facts directed by Michael Colgan, begins with this statement by Dr. Charles W. Simmons: “One of the missions of this [film] is to serve as a memory of a people. See, if you were cut off now, with no memory of your past, you would be lost.” (1979) Colgan’s film synthesizes some of the information lost about blacks and their contributions to America as well as this world. This particular piece was created to illuminate the information found in a “search for the truth” (1979). Similarly, Dr. Phyllis Gray-Ray’s From Imagining to Understanding the African American Experience works to illuminate the social implications of slavery and racism in America from a sociological paradigm, as well as “appreciate the greatness of Africa” (Gray 2012: ix). In chapter ten, in a section subtitled “The Good”, Gray attributes some of America’s greatest inventions, discoveries, creations,

and achievements of black creators. She highlights the barriers of racism contributors had to face in academia and entertainment, while also connecting those contributions to black’s relevancy in those fields today (Gray 2012:168-172). In an article dedicated to revitalizing the history of blacks at Rutgers University, the authors write, “for over 250 years, the black individuals whose labor helped build Queens College have remained nameless and invisible.

No more. The aim old this essay is simple: to name them, to tell their stories” (Baker et al.

2016:58) Another relevant book and subsequently film, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, reveals the perils, tribulations, and contributions suffered by blacks, while also revealing the relevancy of black history in relation to history itself. In a review article, the book’s author and film’s director Henry Louis Gates write this: “I want people to realize how awesome our ancestors were to survive the Middle Passage, survive slavery and then Jim

Crow and never give up hope that one day there would be a black man in the White House.

That’s what I want them to see – the nobility of the African-American people for 500 years, half a millennium… All this history has been lost. We’ve put it back in there.” (Crisis 2013:10).

These articles helped shape the direction of the forthcoming research, as well as created space for more research into the lost contributions of blacks in the world.

Methods of Data Collection

This study was conducted using secondary sources and social artifacts in order to answer the research question at hand- what are some factual contributions made by blacks to society or globally that have been unknown, largely ignored, discredited, or appropriated to others?

A film that served to inspire much of the research done was aptly named Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed, written by Andrew Rooney and Perry Wolff, and it served as a basis for much of the data collected. Alongside this introductory film, Google was used as a preliminary source for compilations of little known black history facts. These searchers served as inspiration as to which contributions to present in this research. Subsequently, those contributions and the research to substantiate them was discovered on a variety of scholarly databases. Some challenges did arise during the research process: one, there is inherent

difficulty when attempting to study anything that is lost or unknown, as it consequently makes that information hard to find. Secondly, much of the information was distorted or appropriated to others, making some contributions too difficult to substantiate and thusly many were eliminated from the research. These frustrations, though, did not discourage the process, and much of the information revealed was incredibly relevant.

Findings

To begin to understand the magnitude of black contributions, one might find it beneficial to begin with one of America’s greatest scholars and revolutionary leader.

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, otherwise known as W.E. B. Du Bois, inspired revolutionary thought within the African American community as well the world, specifically during the Cold War. A graduate of Fisk University and Harvard University, Du Bois was inspired by the work of academics like William James and David Ricardo.

(Mullen 2016:17) He used their works to comprehend capitalism in relationship to slavery and subsequently wrote Black Reconstruction in 1935. (Mullen 2016:73) This major literary work was pivotal in not only highlighting the racism imbedded in American capitalism but also contributed to Du Bois’ sociological body of work. Most famously, though, is Du Bois’ earlier work The Souls of Black Folk, which highlighted the duality of being black in America, and the subsequent social consequences associated with the black experience.

Like many early sociologists, Du Bois’ life and academic contributions were largely excluded from the sociological canon, and are deserving of recognition. (Zuckerman 2004:2) Du Bois can, and should, be regarded as one of the greatest contributors to sociological thought and theory; his significance, specifically to blacks, is relevant in regards to race relations, economics, religion, crime, education and a multitude of social

factors that still affect the world today. As a criminologist, historian, sociologist, and educator, W. E. B. Du Bois’ significance to academics as well as the advancement of marginalized blacks is boundless and yet, only in recent years has become relevant.

Another academic marked by brilliance but hidden due to rampant racism in America was Ernest Everett Just. As a child, E. E. Just grew up in the Charleston, South

Carolina and was marked as a brilliant child. His mother, subsequently sent him to New York City to receive a better education; he excelled and continued on to Dartmouth University as the only black student in the class, graduating in 1907 with his B.A. degree and numerous recognitions for his work in biology and zoology. (Bigelow 1993:132) Just, finding roadblocks in the academic world, taught at Howard University and subsequently obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. Just struggled to gain a position at the Marine Biology Lab, despite his peer-reviewed and supported works on unfertilized reproduction; nevertheless, his importance and relevancy in the marine biological/zoological soared. Just’s relevancy helped legitimate Howard University’s newly formed science department in a time where black students were searching for higher education amongst peers, as well as secure

funding and grants that expanded the department. (Bigelow 1993:133) At this time, E.E. Just was the first to receive the NAACP’s Spingam Medal in 1915 for his extraordinary advancements in biology that serviced the black race. Just’s research found that the function of ectoplasmic behavior “was the key to all problems in biology.” (Bigelow 1993:135) Subsequently, his greatest work, The Biology of the Cell Surface, was published in 1938, wherein he was solidified in the scientific community as one of the biological researchers.

This recognition, though, was not accepted by all and yet his legacy has managed to survive, although hidden behind the scenes. The social implications of Just’s discoveries and contributions are clear; Just paved a way for black scientists in the field of marine biology, as well continued to support a university conceptualized to uplift black academics. (Bigelow 1993:136)

While the people aforementioned have been largely ignored, Lewis Latimer is another African-American of great importance, whose invention was appropriated by a White man. Lewis Howard Latimer, born in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1848, was an AfricanAmerican inventor; his most notable invention is the carbon filament for the lightbulb.

(Bigelow 1993:157 Impressively, Latimer became a self-taught draftsman, and was so skilled

he obtained a position at Crosby Gould. While employed there, Latimer became responsible for several clients, including Alexander Graham Bell, of whom Latimer perfected the patent work and drawings for the telephone. (Bigelow 1993:157) Latimer was responsible for a variety of pivotal inventions in the late 1800s and came in high regard as a draftsman and engineer. Latimer’s most important contribution to the engineering community and the world itself, though, was his carbon filament. Latimer’s invention, though, is largely credited to Thomas Edison. This is partially due to Latimer, at the time of the invention, being employed with Edison’s electric company. (Bigelow 1993:157) It can also be said this appropriation was a sign of the times. America in 1882 was a far cry from equality, and Latimer’s blackness would precede his intelligence and importance, especially in regards to society giving him due credit. Nevertheless, Latimer’s carbon filament was in an incredibly important contribution to society, its presence a key in the creation of the carbon lightbulbs used currently. His erasure, and recent exposure serve as an important notice to America that black inventions should not

be ignored or appropriated, and that astute individuals should be allowed ownership over their own creations.

Rastafarianism is a fairly recent contribution made by Jamaican blacks in the realm of religion and has remained in the shadows. Originating in the 1930s in Jamaica, Rastafari is an Abrahamic religion, influenced by local history and tradition. (Salter 2005:8) During times of political unrest, social injustice, and oppression, Rastafari as served as not only a religion but a movement. (Chevannes 1990:127). Since the beginning of its inception, with roots in the African religion of Myal, Rastafari has participated in resistance to slavery, which translated to later movements during America’s Jim Crow era. Rastafari leaders heavily supported the “back to Africa” movement, with Claudius Henry distributing “blue cards to be used in lieu of passports for a ’miraculous repatriation’ on October 25 (Chevannes 1990:136) Rastafari’s importance is lost in translation often, due to society’s obligation to suppress any remnants of black people being autonomous and self-fulfilling.

Even more, oppressors fear when the oppressed gain a sense of self and community, as it threatens the strongholds they have enforced, and the Rastafarians represent the resistance to oppression and succumbing to societal norms.

Nicknamed ‘the Hurdler’, Dr. Charles Drew is iconic in his contribution to American medicine: the blood bank. (Buckley 2011) Born in Washington, D.C. in 1904, Dr. Drew faced all the perils any young man in Jim Crow America faced: racism, oppression, poverty, and seemingly few opportunities. And yet, Charles Drew excelled and surpassed all expectations. An All-American athlete and scholar, Drew graduated Amherst College with distinction and prepared to tackle the challenges of professional school, specifically medical school. (Buckley 2011) Drew served as a professor of Pathology at Howard University at the

end of his residency in Canada, where he continued to ponder the process of transferring blood. He began his experiments in Europe in 1936; with his persistence and intelligence, Dr. Drew managed to perform over 100 successful human blood transfusions with stored blood by 1939. He expounded on his research with the discovery of plasma’s usefulness in the transfusion process. Not only were Drew’s discoveries monumental for the medical community, they came at a pivotal time. America was engaging in World War II at the time of Drew’s discovery, and plasma transfusion functioned to save thousands of wounded troops. (Buckley 2011) Although Dr. Drew’s discoveries in storing and transferring blood and plasma are nothing less than a medical marvel, a Google search of ‘first blood bank’ will not yield his name but rather that of a Jewish doctor in 1937. This is further evidence of the appropriation of successes by blacks, as well as the burial of that success deep into the

recesses of available information.

In the vein of medical discoveries, research into the little known revealed that the first open heart surgery was performed by a brilliant surgeon named Dr. Daniel Hale Williams.

Described as the “Moses to Negro Medicine”, Dr. Williams managed to excel in medicine despite the American climate in the late 1800s. Born in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania in 1856, Williams was originally a barber, who eventually interned with Dr. Henry Palmer and began a career in medicine at the Chicago Medical School. (Gordon 2005:105) One little-known facet of his education is that he was the first African-American to graduate from Chicago Medical School, another being that post-graduation Dr. Williams advocated for black institutions for medical care, and fundraised for the creation of Provident Hospital in Chicago. He reorganized a multitude of black-run hospitals and improved surgical education for students at Meharry Medical College and the Tuskegee Institute. (Gordon 2005:106) In conjunction with his work in surgical education and influence in black-run hospitals, Williams successfully completed open heart surgery on a patient who had been stabbed. Williams, being the first to publish his work, became known as the first. (Gordon 205:106) Williams may be noted as the first open-heart surgeon, but it is his earlier work that is actually shadowed. It is important to state that many of the notable contributions made by some black men and women may overshadow much larger contributions made in their earlier lives. In this case, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams dedication to hospital and surgical education reform served to have a long-lasting impact that serviced the black medical community as a whole.

In relatively recent history, Patricia Hill Collins has served to be an influential sociologist and educator, and has impacted epistemology and the politics surrounding gender and race. As Baca Zinn writes, “in today’s swiftly moving currents of feminist scholarship, it is all too easy to take Collins’ early contributions for granted.” (2012:28) A notable contribution of Hill Collins is here theory surrounding black feminist epistemology, as well as her other works surrounding gender.

Hill Collins has also actively contributed to the subsection of feminist theory called intersectionality, which recognizes that race, gender, socioeconomic status, and age do not stand alone, but actively work in conjunction with each other to determine a person’s status in society. (Baca Zinn 2012:30) Despite her incredible influence, much of her work in families, motherhood, and childhood are lost to the sociological community, due to her acclaimed works in intersectionality. (Baca Zinn 2012:31) Nevertheless, Collin’s work is significant to education and the sociologically community as it continues to guide gender and family and promote an understanding of social organization in society. (Baca Zinn 2012:31) Another woman of great cultural significance to the black community is Zora Neale Hurston. Regarded as a “neglected woman writer of the Harlem Renaissance”, Hurston’s works are lost to many and yet are prolific in their literary power. (Davis 2013:vii) Hurston was born in 1891 to her sharecropper parents, with chaos surrounding her birth. (Plant 2007:10) Having been raised in America’s first incorporated all-black town, Eatonville,

Florida, Hurston had a unique upbringing that inspired her works regarding race, autonomy, and gender in her later years. (Plant 2007:11) Unbeknownst to many Hurston studied at literature at Howard University and anthropology and ethnography at Barnard college, during the height of the Harlem Renaissance. (Plant 2007:31-46) She befriended many of the greats, including Margaret Walker, Jean Toomer, and Langston Hughes. (Randall 1995:8) In her lifetime, Hurston wrote 21 major works, most notably Their Eyes Were Watching God. (Randall 1995:12) Despite all of this, Hurston’s legacy has been rewritten, as many critics find her works “fawning and insincere” (Davis 2013:vii). This aids in the argument that despite a period of re-discovery, critics and naysayers have attempted to bury Hurston’s works in a myriad of ways, further solidifying the idea the black contributions are constantly being stripped from the worldview.

Nina Simone is another woman who, while at first glance seems recognized, has many facets to her biography that are ignored. As Loudermilk writes, “American pianist, vocalist, songwriter, and activist Nina Simone played a major role in the Civil Rights Movement and yet many historical accounts of the area have snubbed her” (Loudermilk 2013:121). Born Eunice Waymon in 1933, Nina Simone was immediately a piano prodigy, becoming the first black concert pianist. (Loudermilk 2013:121) Nina’s success, though was marred by racial tension during the formative years of her career, evidenced in her jarring performances and the way in which she “embodied pain and power” (Loudermilk 2013:123) Simone’s song Four Women exposed colorism in the black community, while Blues for Mama revealed the struggles black women face. Even Simone’s Young, Gifted, and Black served as the black national anthem. (Loudermilk 2013:124-126) After Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, Simone proclaimed a removal from the non-violent movement, telling her crowd “’I ain’t bout to be nonviolent, honey!’” (Loudermilk 2013:126) Despite this incredibly poignant discography by

a gifted artist, Simone’s work gets little recognition in regards to being considered activists, in the Civil Rights Movement. Loudermilk writes “Simone’s commitment seems evident so it is alarming that Martin Luther King’s major biographies fail to credit Nina Simone as the civil rights force who sang King’s elegy.” (2013:126) Even though she has been erased as a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, Simone’s works live on and is relevant now more than ever.

Ida B. Wells, born in Mississippi in 1862, was born a child of slavery and ended her life as one of the most iconic women in the suffrage and civil rights movements.

(Greaves 1989) Wells’ childhood was, fortunately, better than most who had been born into slavery: she grew up in the post-civil war era known as Reconstruction. During Reconstruction, Wells was sent to school, and learned to read via the Bible and newspapers she read to her father. Her father, like Ida in her later years, was a “race man” and was “very involved in the politics of the period,” which could suggest her eventual interest in politics.

Despite growing tensions in the South, Wells’ family faced perils of their own after the Yellow Fever epidemic in the Mississippi Delta, leaving Ida orphaned at 16. (Greaves 1989) She immediately took up teaching to support her few siblings, moving to Memphis. It was here she began to partake in “Black cultural and self-improvement societies” (Greaves 1989).

Ida’s power and determination were evidenced in her suit against a train company who forcefully and unlawfully moved her from a train; they granted her $500 in damages, and Ida became a pseudo-hero in the black community. Unfortunately, the train company appealed and Ida lost her suit in the Supreme Court. This decision sparked an anger that encourages Ida to speak out in articles that were published across the country, giving a voice to the budding activist. (Greaves 1989) This also gave way to Wells’ career as a journalist and an advocate for social reform and social justice. Most famously, Wells spoke out against lynching, writing her famous pamphlet “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All its Phases.” (Greaves1989) Wells is commonly recognized as a black journalist, but her efforts, research, and writings qualify her to be a sociologist and activist as well. But as one knows, much of Ida’s recognition is lost in the world, due to her status as a black woman. Many tried to suppress and mock the work of Ida, and much of her influence is lost despite her vying for the public’s ear.

WHO

WHAT

WHEN WHERE

W.E.B. Du Bois

black 1868activist, 1963 sociologist, and author; First black person to graduate from Harvard University

WHY

HOW

Philadelphia, He believed New York City, black people Boston were miseducated; interested in understanding the relationship blacks had with the world

Through his writings, teachings, research and speeches; wrote The Souls of Black Folks and The Philadelphia Negro

Ernest Everett Pioneered 1883Just ectoplasmic 1941 research, built Howard University’s Science Department

Charleston. New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C.

He was a brilliant scientist who personally strived for recognition in a community not willing to accept him

Numerous biology and zoology research projects, some funded

by Howard University; wrote The Biology of the Cell Surface

Lewis Latimer Invented the 1882 carbon filament for the lightbulb

Bridgeport, Connecticut

Latimer was a self-taught draftsman and electrician who desired to improve upon the electricity designs before him

Employed as the chief draftsman at numerous firms, he created the carbon filament during the race to create light

Rastafarianis An m Abrahamic religion

Jamaica

Combined Christianity with influences from the African Myal religion, as well as cultural aspects of Caribbean people; influenced revolution and free thinking

Served as a movement in resistance to slavery, as well as Jim Crow; supported Back to Africa movements

1930

WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE Dr. Charles 1904- Washington, Drew Created the 1950 D.C., Quebec, first blood Chicago bank

WHY Interested in pathology and transfusion of blood

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams

First person to successfully complete open-heart surgery; altered surgical education for blacks Patricia Hill black Collins sociologist, famous for her intersectional theories Zora Neale Prolific author Hurston during the Harlem Renaissance; anthropologist

18561931

Detroit, Chicago, Nashville

A talented surgeon who found that medical for blacks was lacking

1948-

Philadelphia

Feminist scholar focused on gender and race

18911960

Eatonville, Harlem

Nina Simone

19332003

Civil Rights activist and singer

Ida B. Wells Suffragette and black activist; journalist

1862-

HOW Participated in years of research in regards to blood transfusion in Europe and the U.S.; 100 successful practice trials Reorganized programs at Meharry Medical College

Wrote Towards an African American Feminist Epistemology, a knowledge base used in sociology today Has a bibliography of 21 major works, including her last, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Unique upbringing provided material for writings; interested in anthropology Atlantic City, Child prodigy Extensive discography; Paris, pianist with an present at numerous Birmingham intense vocal marches and civil rights presence; events such as the Selma highly involved March and Martin Luther in civil rights King’s funeral and combined it with her music Holly Springs, Experienced Wrote the pamphlet Chicago oppression in “Southern Horrors: Lynch the South and Law in All its Phases” wanted to which highlighted the highlight horrific acts of lynching in wrongdoings by the country whites

Implications and Future Research After research, it has been solidified that many of the discoveries and influence had by Blacks all around the world have been buried deep, throughout history, and this research’s aim to uncover those truths, while successful, has not unearthed all of the other lost contributions. The tolls of socialization have altered the way people think about blacks, even in today’s desegregated society. Much of the research revealed that while many of these contributors/contributions are recognized in the black community, prejudice and discrimination

have stood in the way of the greater population being aware of such great achievements. This unknowing is a disservice to society as a whole, and discrimination, prejudice, and ultimately racism thrive in this disservice. It is the duty of all humans to consciously take into account the contributions of black to society, as their contributions serve all of society.

Taking into account this knowledge, it is important to continue to consciously educate people on the relevancy of blacks in the world and to fight ignorance with intelligence. When people educate, changes in our socialization occur as well. When those changes occur, fear dissipates, taking with it racism, prejudice, and discrimination. Race relations are important for the world moving forward; although it is a social construct, race will continue to be relevant due to its place in the world’s tumultuous history. Despite this, race divisions do not need to exist in the future. With education, the world can become more tolerant in its interactions as people begin to realize that all people are important. In the future, contributions should be studied in a variety of fields, with a focus on how some contributions have positively affected race relations and cohesiveness in the world’s sphere. Particularly, contributions in religion and politics would be of great importance, as both are facets of major social factors (family and government, respectively) that govern the way in which people live their lives and interact with others. All in all, this study was revelatory but opened the doors to new thoughts, ideas, and questions that

need to be answered in the realm of lost, stolen, or forgotten black history.

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THE UNKNOWN CONTRIBUTIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICANS

TAMEKA GILLYARD FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY SYD 4730: SOCIOLOGY OF THE BLACK EXPERIENCE APRIL 5TH, 2018

Abstract Many contributions to society that have been made by blacks often go unknown, discredited, ignored, or appropriated to others. There are not many published works that focus on African American accomplishments; so, the purpose of this research is to acknowledge work done by blacks that many people may not know about. In order to find the material needed, Google Scholar was used as a reference for scholarly sources and books. Florida A&M University’s library and the Tallahassee public library were also used as sources for books related to the topic. After extensive research, information proved just how fundamental blacks have been to society with their inventions, which range from the gas mask to the potato chip.

Introduction African American people have made more contributions to this world than one would ever imagine, yet a large number of them go unknown, discredited, ignored, or appropriated to others. African American people have faced discrimination in every way, shape, and form, and their inventions and contributions to society are constantly overlooked.

This study is being conducted because knowledge of black facts and contributions should not be limited to just one month out of the year. Blacks deserve recognition year round. Black history is not just black history; it is everybody’s history. Without African Americans life, as it is known, would not be the same. It is time for blacks to get the recognition they deserve.

This study is being done to research and shine light upon some very important factual contributions made by blacks to society.

Literature Review Review of the African American experience: Psychoanalytic perspectives

Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Salman Akhtar conducted a study in 2012 as an attempt to “upend the assumptions about the history, struggles, and goal accomplishments” of African Americans who just so happen to make up about twelve percent of the United States total population (Bowen, 2017). African Americans have experienced many years of prejudice, discrimination, and legal disenfranchisement; however, they are still very resilient.

Akhtar’s study focused on four different subdivisions including African American life in the United States, analysis of prominent black lives over the last sixty years, development of African American identities, and informed therapy with African Americans (Bowen, 2017).

Akhtar found that despite the fact that a lot of black contributions go ignored by society; blacks have been very powerful and influential. For example, Akhtar focused on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King went through very traumatic experiences and was often discredited by a lot of people. Nevertheless, he made a way for blacks to even have the ability to let their lights shine and their work be known.

Akhtar’s work is very beneficial because it focuses on how the works of African American’s go unrecognized or unknown.

Mathematic and Engineering in the Nile Valley Dr. Beatrice Lumpkin is an African American scholar, author, and activist who have focused her life on fighting for African American rights and discovering the truth regarding their history. In 1984, Lumpkin conducted a study that focused on how the Nile Valley was the main street of the civilized world, “yet the full scale of this African contribution is either little known, or attributed to other peoples” (Bell 2018). The article gave a brief outline of over 4,000 years of superiority in Africans throughout the Nile Valley.

Lumpkin found out significant facts including the fact that Africa is the birth place of mathematics and science. She also found out that “the first person to measure the circumference of the earth accurately, Eratosthenes of Cyrene, Libya, was also African born” (Bell, 2018). In the same time frame, an engineering and mathematician called Heron of Alexandria created one hundred different machines and wrote very extensive mathematical works (Bell, 2018). Lumpkin’s study is very important because this African knowledge is very often ignored or the credit is given to other people. Lumpkin went on to say that “almost completely left out, the work of African mathematicians and scientists of that period remains little known” (Bell, 2018). However, Dr. Lumpkin has dedicated her life to exposing the truth about African knowledge despite the blatant efforts to keep African history suppressed.

Kemetic Concepts in Education Dr. Asa G. Hilliard was an African American professor who worked in the field of educational psychology and studied ancient African history. Dr. Hilliard did a study in 1984 focusing on the African education system, and found out that African people had developed the most sophisticated system of education to ever be found on record, long before the African

continent was colonized by European nations (Bell, 2018). Few sources have written about Kemetic education however, there is lots of evidence that shine light upon it including sacred texts, monuments, pyramids, paintings, and carvings. Dr. Hilliard’s research is fundamental because it gives Africans the recognition they deserve. Africans created one of the most diverse and widely used education systems known to man including but not limited to geology, philosophy, and astrology. Hilliard went on to say that “yet because of traditional ignorance, neglect, defamation, and destruction of African history by outsiders over centuries, the reclamation of African history today is still a very difficult task” (Bell, 2018).

Nile Valley Origins of the Science of the Mind Dr. Na’im Akbar did a study in 1979 that focused on the originators of modern thought. It was found out that as it emerged from its genesis in the Nile Valley, that the only people who were there were the early and indigenous people of Northern Africa, or in other words, black people (Bell, 2018). Akbar emphasized that it’s important to be specific about the race of ancient civilization. Not because of greatness, but because the thieves of Kemetic civilization intentionally “conceal the racial identity of their teachers in order to take credit for Africa’s accomplishments” (Bell, 2018). Akbar’s work is very important to the black community because it focuses specifically on helping them to get the truth about their culture out. Dr. Akbar has made major advances in terms of giving blacks recognition for the things they have done for society.

Methods of Data Collection Collecting data for this research was an extremely challenging task. The most difficult part was not being able to use websites as references. There are not many articles or books out there that focus on black factual contributions, specifically ones that are related to those that have been unknown, largely discredited, or appropriated to others. However, there are a few printed materials

out that give insight into the topic. One of the methods that were used to find information was Google Scholar which allowed the use of websites as a reference to find scholarly materials. The topic was typed into the search bar, which brought up a wide variety of sources. Those sources were then taken and put into Florida A&M University’s (FAMU) library database which brought up the articles that were used. The books that were used were found in FAMU’s library in the African American studies section and the Tallahassee public library.

Findings and Explanations In 1973, Shirley Ann Jackson became the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate degree in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Jackson began taking classes at MIT in 1964, being one of less than twenty African American students studying the subject. Upon graduating from undergraduate school she decided to stay at MIT to begin working on earning her doctoral degree. Jackson also happens to be the second woman in

the United States of America to earn a degree in physics. This contribution is very important because it paved the way for other African American females just like her to take the initiative to study and earn their degrees during a time where blacks were looked down upon, especially black women. Physics is a male dominated profession, and she made a name for herself by earning that degree. Currently, Dr. Jackson is seventy-one years old and the chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which is an advisor to the Executive board of the President of the United States (Young, 2009).

In 1914, a black man named Garrett Morgan patented a device that he called the “Safety Hood”. The safety hood was intended to help provide wearers with a safe breathing experience for a period of time while in the presence of different pollutants, smoke, and gases and prevent suffocation. The hood was to be worn over the head and had

a tube extending from it that dropped to the floor that filtered the air coming in, which helped firefighters to be able to fulfill their duties of saving lives without risk of suffocating. This invention is very significant because in 1916, after an explosion in a tunnel, the safety hood helped save the workers who were trapped under the tunnel. After finding out about the hood, which later became known to the world as gas masks, firefighters around the world placed orders to Morgan. There was a lot of resistance to Morgan’s product, particularly because he was black however, the gas masks earned him the first place prize in the Second International Exposition of Safety and Sanitation in New York City. This invention was important to society because it made an African American man famous during a time when racism was still very prevalent. Despite the fact that many people hated him for his skin color the gas masks were still a much needed product (Amram 1996).

On October 11th, 1887, an African American man by the name of Alexander Miles patented an electric elevator. The issue with elevators before Miles’ invention was that the doors of the shaft and the elevator had to be manually opened and closed, which could either be done by riders or designated doormen. However, people would often forget which could cause major injuries as a result of people falling down the shaft. Miles became concerned when he saw an elevator door that was left open and decided it was time for a change. Miles created an automatic mechanism that close any access to the elevator shaft by a process of a cage moving which was done by a flexible belt. When the cage was positioned properly at spots above and below a floor, levers and rollers allowed for the doors to automatically open and close. This prevented any further damages that could be done by falling through the shaft. Miles’ invention is very important because it is still used in buildings all around the world today. Without his invention, elevators would not be as safe and efficient for use as it is today (Timmons, 2005).

In the 1980’s, Lonnie Johnson, who was working as an Air Force and NASA engineer at the time, accidentally created what is known as the Super Soaker while working on an environmentally friendly heat pump that used water instead of Freon. While testing out his heat pump prototype in his bathroom, he aimed the nozzle into the tub and it shot out a stream of water. Johnson was intrigued by the stream of water, and instead of fixing the leak he decided to turn it into a project. Johnson figured out what cause the stream of water, and then applied his knowledge of a water pistol. From there, he built his prototype. The product was initially called the “Power Drencher” but after failed marketing attempts the name was changed to the “Super Soaker”, which became massively successful. Johnson’s invention went on to make two hundred million dollars in 1991, and went on to rank in the world’s top twenty toys. This invention is important because it was the first of its kind and is still used today amongst kids around the world. Johnson made history as a black man in America (Timmons, 2005).

On December 5th, 1918 and African American woman was born by the name of Charity Edna Adams. Adams enlisted in the United Sates Arm’s Women Army Auxiliary Corp (WAAC) in July of 1942 at a time when the army was still very much segregated both by race and gender. Adams became the first ever black female officer, and she was the highest ranking female to be in the army during World War 2. She commanded the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, which was the first black female unit overseas. They were responsible for delivering mail to the American troops that were stationed in Europe. Adams recently died in 2002, but during her life she accomplished so many things. Adams paved the way for African American women all around the world. She made it possible for black women to become officers, and show that they are just as capable of doing the things that males do.

She went on to win a countless number of awards including The Smithsonian Institution: 100 Most Important Black Women in History and South Carolina Black Hall of Fame (Gray, 2012).

In 1791 an African American male by the name of Thomas L. Jennings was born. In his early twenty’s, Jennings became a tailor but later decided that he wanted to open a dry-cleaning business in New York City. His reputation grew and people loved his work, however he was dismayed when he found out that some of his clothes had to be thrown out because there was no conventional method that could be used to clean the material he used. Thus, he set out experimenting with different solutions and fabrics until he found out what worked. He ended up calling his method “dry-scouring” which is what is known referred to today as drycleaning. In 1820, Jennings applied for a patent for his method, and received it in 1821.

Jennings is a very important person in black history because he became the first African American to ever receive a patent. He opened up opportunities for other black people to do the same in a time where racism and slavery was still a very big deal. In fact, slaves were not even allowed to hold patents back then because they were not considered to be citizens.

Thankfully, Jennings was born a free man and his process of “dry-scouring” went on to make him a fortune (Leslie & Rucker, 2010).

George Crum (born George Speck) was an all-around American chef who accidentally invented the potato chip. In 1853, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt was visiting

Crum’s restaurant where he ordered fried potatoes. Vanderbilt sent his potatoes back to Chef Crum with complaints that they were way too thick. Crum became annoyed and thought that he deserved a sarcastic reply. So the chef fried the potatoes paper thin, piled the salt on them, and sent them back to the commodore. However, Commodore Vanderbilt loved the potatoes and started calling them “crunch potato slices”. The potato slices became very popular, and the chef started featuring them on every table in his restaurant. Unfortunately, Crum never decided to patent his invention or market them outside of his restaurant. Despite that fact, the potato chip went on to become one of the most popular snack items in the world, all credited to an African American male with a sense of humor (Lusas and Rooney, 2001).

Marie Van Brittan Brown, born in 1922, was an African American female who is credited with inventing the first home security system. Brown was married to an electronics technician who did not work regular 9-5 hours. When she was home alone at odd hours of the night, Brown was concerned with her safety because crime rates in her neighborhood were at an alltime high. She wanted a way to feel less vulnerable, so working alongside her husband, the two began devising a home security system. The original invention was comprised of peep holes, hidden cameras, monitors, microphones, and a button that would immediately alert police after pressing it. The pair filed for a patent on August 1st, 1966 and their application was approved on December 2nd, 1969. Their original home security system is now the basis of security systems throughout the world. The invention made it possible for many people to protect themselves and feel comfortable within their own homes (Raymond, 1999).

Benjamin Banneker, born in 1731, is noted as being a farmer, mathematician, author, and astronomer. However, he is most famous for being the creator of the first working clock in the United States. Sometime in the early 1750’s Banneker borrowed a pocket watch from an acquaintance. He became fascinated with the watch, and over the next few days he repeatedly took it apart and put it back together. After borrowing a couple of books on geometry and Sir Isaac’s law of motion, he set out to create a larger version of the pocket watch. After two years, Banneker successfully built the first ever clock in the United States.

He handcrafted each piece of the clock, including the gears, out of wooden pieces in order to

avoid rusting and the need to oil the clock’s parts. The clock was very precise, and it kept ticking for at least thirty years. Banneker’s clock gained him lots of attention and recognition and it inspired him to open up a clock and watch repair business. His invention of the clock is very important because it allowed for people to be able to tell time on a much larger scale than ever before (Weatherly, 2006).

Sarah Goode was an African American woman who was born into slavery in 1850. She was an inventor and entrepreneur, and is credited with being the first black woman to receive a patent for her invention of the folding cabinet bed.

Along with her husband, Goode owned a furniture store, and often her

customers would complain about not having enough space for furniture in their houses, including beds. Goode decided to create a solution to the problem and invented what she described as a “folding bed� which could be folded up when it was not being used. It could also be used for a desk and included compartments for stationery. Goode received a patent for the folding cabinet bed in 1885. Goode made it possible for many people to save space throughout their homes and her invention is still being used today, especially in hotels.

Sarah Goode later died in 1905, but before her death she made history (Jordan, 2013).

Who

What

When

Where

Why

1. Shirley Ann Jackson

First black woman to earn a doctorate degree from MIT in physics

1964

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Wanted to pursue a career in the field of physics

Studied and passed the classes necessary for obtaining the degree

Young, 2009

2. Garrett Morgan

Safety hood/ Gas mask

1914

Cleveland, Ohio

Wanted a way for firefighters to save people without risk of suffocation

Amram, 1996

3.Alexander Miles

Automatic elevator doors

1887

Duluth, Minnesota

People were falling through the original elevator shafts

4. Lonnie Johnson

Super soaker

1982

Mobile, Alabama

5. Charity Edna Adams

First black female officer

1942

United States Army

6. Thomas L. Jennings

“DryScouring”

1821

New York City, New York

7. George Crum

Potato chips

1853

Saratoga Springs, New York

Was testing out a heat friendly pump that used water instead of Freon Wanted to work in the army and make a name for women Needed a way to clean the material he made his clothes with Customer complained that his fried potatoes were too thick

Created a hood that was worn over the head with a tube extending to the floor Used levers, rollers, and a cage that would open automatically when positioned properly Built a prototype of a water pistol that used a nozzle to shoot out water Went through all the training needed to be certified Tested different materials with different chemicals

Lusas and Rooney, 2001

8. Marie Van Brittan Brown

Home security system

1969

Queens, New York

9. Benjamin Banneker

Clock

Early 1750’s

Baltimore, Maryland

Fried the potatoes extremely thin and poured salt on them Used hidden cameras, peep holes, and microphones Repeatedly took apart and put back together a watch

10. Sarah Goode

Folding Bed Cabinet

1885

Chicago, Illinois

Created a version of a bed that folded up when not being used

Jordan, 2013

Afraid for safety of her family in her neighborhood Wanted to create a larger version of a watch

Customers complained about not having enough space for furniture in homes

How

Citation

Timmons, 2005

Timmons, 2005

Gray, 2012

Leslie & Rucker, 2010

Raymond, 1999

Weatherly, 2006

Discussion, Implications, Strategies Contributions of African Americans often go unknown, ignored, discredited, or appropriated.

However, this research was done to show just how important black people have been all around the world. This research was an attempt to shine light upon African Americans and their inventions that lots of people may not know about, including the clock, potato chips, and the gas mask. African American history is very important and should not be ignored or downplayed. There should be different ways to place emphasis on black history including African based classes through primary and secondary school that focuses specifically on blacks and their inventions and contributions to society. Also, black history should not be limited to national recognition just one month out of the year, as the attention is well deserved year round. There are very few studies out there that focus on black contributions, so this research was very hard to complete. Future research should include the use of websites as references.

References Amram, F. (1996). African-American Inventors. Minnesota: Capstone Press.

Bell, Y. (2018). History and Systems of Psychology-PSY 4604. Florida- Kopykat Copy Center Bowen, M. S. (2017). Review of the African American experience: Psychoanalytic perspectives. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 34(2), 266-269. Doi: 10.1037/pap0000029 Gray, P. A. (2012). From Imagining to Understanding the African American Experience.

Iowa: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.

Jordan, H. J. (2013). Black Americans 17th Century to 21st Century: Black Struggles and Successes. Indiana: Trafford Publishing Leslie, A & Rucker, W., eds. (2010). Encyclopedia of African American History. California: ABC-CLIO, LLC. Lusas, E & Lloyd R., eds. (2001). Snacks Food Processing. Florida: CRC Press LLC. Timmons, T. (2005). Science and Technology in Nineteenth-century America. Connecticut: Greenwood Press.

Weatherly, M. (2006). Benjamin Banneker: American Scientific Pioneer. Minneapolis: Compass

Point Books.

Webster, R. B. (1999). African American Firsts in Science and Technology. Michigan: Gale Group Young, C. J. (2009). Brilliant African American Scientist: Nine Exceptional Lives. Illinois: Enslow Publishers, Inc.

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