DNC Freedom School

The Democrats are coming! The Democrats are coming! The 2016 Democratic National Convention will be gaveled to order on July 25th.

The City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection will host the DNC, but protesters may not be shown any love. So a coalition of clergy and activists is taking a page from the old-school Freedom Schools and boning up on their rights.

During a press conference, Rev. Robin Hynicka of the Arch Street United Methodist Church said:

We know those coming to the city and those already here, planning to exercise their First Amendment right are going to need some support. They’re going to need love, they’re going to need some place to go. We’re sending that message today.

The DNC Freedom School will be in session from 9am-9pm on Saturday, July 23 at the Arch Street United Methodist Church. Rev. Hynicka noted:

Voter registration, civic engagement, political and social activism were key components of the Summer of Freedom. Revisiting the courage, commitment, conviction and cause at the Summer of Freedom and the Freedom schools, has the potential to shape the current context that we are facing.

The Democrats are coming! Get ready.

Fourth of July 2016

In 1852, abolitionist Frederick Douglass asked, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”:

What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful…

…But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?

For me, July 4, 2016 means that in a little over two months, I will join thousands of African Americans for the opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The museum has been 101 years in the making. At last, everyone will now know that when we celebrate black history and culture, we, too, sing America.

Black Power Movement@50

In June 1966, James Meredith, the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi, began a solitary “Walk Against Fear” from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi. On the second day of his walk, he was shot by a white man and hospitalized.

Civil rights organizations, including the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) vowed to continue the march in Meredith’s place.

On June 16, SNCC Chairman Stokely Carmichael spoke before a rally in Greenwood, Miss., and uttered two words that became a rallying cry for a movement:

We been saying freedom for six years. What we are going to start saying now is Black Power.

Carmichael (later Kwame Ture) later defined “Black Power”:

It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is marking this milestone with a digital exhibition, “Black Power!” The virtual museum is a collaboration between the Schomburg Center and Google Cultural Institute.

On Wednesday, June 15, the Schomburg Center will kick off a year-long examination of the Black Power Movement with a conversation with Kathleen Cleaver and Jamal Joseph. For more information, go here.

African American History and Culture Matter

It’s been more than a decade in the making, the National Museum of African American History and Culture will open on September 24. Founding Director Lonnie Bunch wrote :

After 13 years of hard work and dedication on the part of so many, I am thrilled. In a few short months visitors will walk through the doors of the museum and see that it is a place for all people. We are prepared to offer exhibitions and programs to unite and capture the attention of millions of people worldwide. It will be a place where everyone can explore the story of America through the lens of the African American experience.

The National Museum of American History is asking citizen curators to vote on photos from its Archives Center that reflect the diversity of the African American experiences. Twenty-five photos, six of which selected by the public, will go on display in September to commemorate the opening of the new museum. For more information, visit http://s.si.edu/PhotoVote1. Voting closes May 27 at midnight ET.

To say I can’t wait is an understatement. Even though I get no closer than the “No Trespassing” sign, I stop by the museum on every trip to DC.

On Opening Day, the National Museum of African American History and Culture will be open for 24 hours. I plan to skip President Barack Obama’s ribbon cutting and visit after midnight. I hope to spend some quiet time in the Contemplative Court reflecting on the ancestors and their incredible stories of faith, struggle and triumph.

Great Gosh A’Mighty! Been a long time coming.

Why the Voting Rights Act Matters

Well, it looks like Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is headed to the White House.

This will be the first presidential election in 50 years without the full protection of the Voting Rights Act. Since the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the act, it should come as no surprise that voting is tougher in states with high numbers of racial minorities. The Los Angeles Times reports:

As the nation approaches its first presidential election in 50 years without a core protection of the Voting Rights Act— the requirement that states with a history of discrimination get federal approval before changing electoral practices — large swaths of the electorate face new voting hurdles.

Over the last four years, 17 states, mostly in the Deep South and Midwest, have passed stringent voting laws. Many demand voters show official photo ID. Others restrict early voting, eliminate same-day registration, remove out-of-precinct voting, limit mail-in ballots, require proof of citizenship, curb voter registration drives and tighten absentee ballot rules.

Take a look back in anger on why the Voting Rights Act matters.

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Black History is American History

It’s leap year but black history is still officially celebrated in the shortest month.

Fact is, there is no American history without black history. Let Stevie Wonder key you in.