| From the Villa ge of Brook ly n |
OUR TIME PRESS THE L OCAL PAPER WITH THE G LOBAL VIEW
| VOL. 23 NO. 27
July 4 – 10, 2019 |
Since 1996
What to Millions is the Fourth of July? "Mournful Wails" Muffle Glee of Independence Orator Frederick Douglass' 1852 Speech Echoes Today
T
Stolen Land, Stolen Labor: The Case for Reparations
he discussion of reparations comes at another turning point in American history. The Supreme Court has ruled that partisan gerrymandering is outside of court control. This means that the Republican Party, now controlled by white supremacists, will continue to cement their voting power by devising voting districts that favor their control and cram all others into fewer districts than they deserve. They will continue to dominate state legislatures, and from their safe seats, Republican politicians put job before country and vote their gerrymandered constituency, regardless of how the majority of people stand on an issue. And more white supremacist fascist judges will be given lifetime appointments, putting both Black and Brown people, as well as nonrich white people, firmly under the control of overseers with their laws, regulations of income inequality and the
W
economic whips of marketing and chains of debt. It is in this environment that the topic of reparations is being put on the table. And if Trump wins this next election, then there will be no more of that reparation talk. Just try and hold on to what you have. In a 1998 interview with historian John Henrik Clarke, he said, “…if Black people don’t unite and begin to support themselves, their communities and their families, they might as well begin to go out of business as a people. Nobody’s going to have any mercy. And nobody’s going to have any compunction about making slaves out of them.” This next election will determine who we are as a nation and it is good to understand where we’ve been, and the level of amorality white supremacists are capable of. They can whitewash as much as they want. The reality is revealed in the kind of
world they have created when they first had complete and total control. The articles beginning on page 7, started with a 1997 trip to the Cadman Plaza Business Library in downtown Brooklyn. I was there looking for banks to approach for advertising and was struck by how many of them were formed during slavery times. I found myself following the money instead of doing my other work and this sidetrack led to a place where the oft-heard “slaves built this country” is shown to be true in dollars and cents and answers the questions, “Why reparations?” “For what?” In “Stolen Land, Stolen Labor,” we can count the slave dollars flowing across the country, and in Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave is Your 4th of July?” we see the pain and suffering for which no compensation can be made, but which must be faced and acknowledged. By David Mark Greaves
“Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them.” Page 10
Special Salute to Orators of Our Time
hen we think of great orators, the names of Frederick Douglass, The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X easily come to mind. Although their messages of justice and freedom ring in harmony still, the mic is live and has not been dropped by their Brooklyn-based heirs. We heard two of them – community advocate Richard Green of the Crown Heights Youth Collective and
historian/activist Graham Weatherspoon, former detective and current broadcast commentator, at The Cooperative Culture Collective’s 19th Juneteenth Celebration in Ft. Greene, June 15. The event themed “Celebrating Our Story and Pouring into Our Future” featured the two leaders’ rousing keynotes: Green on the historical significance of the annual June observance to Central Brooklyn, and Weatherspoon on
Graham Weatherspoon
Photo: B Green
“When We Were Kings.” Mid-May, in Montgomery, Alabama, the voice of village griot Rev. Taharka Robinson resounded throughout the sanctuary of the Dexter Avenue Historic Martin Luther King Jr. Baptist Church. Rev’s knowledge and voice also brought to life, during a tour of a Selma museum, a movement in his total recall of details of the city’s history.
Richard Green
Photo: B Green
Here at Our Time Press, we are rediscovering our own voice in the form of echoes from the past: forgotten, now found, stories reflecting our journey through two decades. This week, we pulled publisher David Greaves’ interview with Mr. Green out of the files to share on Page 2. Next week, we feature the messages of Mr. Weatherspoon and Rev. Robinson. (Bernice Green)
Photo: Courtesy Robinson
Rev. Taharka Robinson
(Reprint) Griot Calling: Professor William Mackey, Jr., on Page 3