Our History

”

History Of All Americans Of Color

CWO-4 Louis D.Miller (Ret)

Click Pic See 372nd Infantry Bn. ONG

"Call To Arms"

Now the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms, though

arms we need - not as a call to battle, though embattled we are - but

a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle year in and year out

, 'rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation' - a struggle against the common

enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself." - JFK

Toussaint Louverter

Click Pic go to " Dare To Dream Net Work"

A Lesson in Black History
The Statue of Liberty

It is hard to believe that after my many years of schooling (secondary and
post) the following facts about the Statue of Liberty were never taught:

Hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people including myself have
visited the Statue of Liberty over the years but yet I'm unable to find one
person who knows the true history behind the Statue...amazing!

Yes, amazing that so much important Black history (such as this) is hidden
from us (Black and White). What makes this even worse is the fact that the
current twist on history perpetuates and promotes white supremacy at the
expense of Black Pride!

During my visit to France I saw the original Statue
of Liberty. However,
there was a difference.the statue in France is BLACK!!!!!!

"Ya learn something new everyday!"

The Statue of Liberty was originally a Black woman.
But, as memory serves,
it was because the model was Black. In a book called "The Journey of The
Songhai People," as Dr. Jim Haskins (a member of the National Education
Advisory Committee of the Liberty-Ellis Island Committee, professor of
English at the University of Florida, and prolific Black author) points out
that is what stimulated the original idea for that 151 foot statue in the
harbor. He says that the idea for the creation of the statue initially was
to acknowledge the part that Black soldiers played in the ending of Black
African Bondage in the United States.

It was created in the mind of the French historian Edourd de Laboulaye,
Chairman of the French Anti-Slavery Society, who, together with sculptor
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, proposed to the French government that the
people of France present to the people of the United States through the
American Abolitionist Society, the gift of a Statue of Liberty in
>recognition of the fact that Black soldiers won the Civil War in the
United States. It was widely known then that it was Black Soldiers who
played the pivotal role in winning the war, and this gift would be a
tribute to their prowess.

Suzanne Nakasian, director of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island
Foundations' National Ethnic Campaign said that the Black Americans' direct
connection to Lady Liberty is unknown to the majority of Americans, BLACK
or WHITE.

When the statue was presented to the US. Minister to France in
1884, it is
said that he remonstrated that the dominant view
of the broken shackles
would be offensive to the U.S. South because the statue was
a reminder of
Blacks winning their freedom. It was a reminder to a beaten South
of the
ones who caused their defeat, their despised former captives.

Documents of Proof:

(1.) You may go and see the original model of the Statue of Liberty, with
the broken chains at her feet and in her left hand. Go to the
Museum of the
City of NY, Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street (212) 534-1672 or
call the same
number and dial ext. 208 and speak to Peter Simmons and he can
send you
some documentation.

(2.) Check with the N.Y. Times magazine, part II May 18,
1986.

(3.) The dark original face of the Statue of Liberty can be
seen in the
N.Y. Post June 17, 1986, also the Post stated the reason for the
broken
chains at her feet.

(4.) Finally, you may check with the French Mission or the French
Embassy
at the U.N. or in Washington, D.C.and ask for some original French material
on the Statue of Liberty, including the Bartholdi original model. You can
call (202) 944-6060 or 6400.

Please pass this information along!
Be sure to send it to people with children!
Open a dialog and discuss it with your friends!
Let this be the beginning of your quest for the Truth about
American History past and present!

Empower Yourself, Your Family and Your Community!

Special Report "Black Enterprize Magazine"
50 Top Colleges for African Americans
Our exclusive ranking yielded some surprises and some staples.
And this year, after we show you the best schools, we take a
comprehensive look at how to make college affordable.

CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS
To develop the 2006 be 50 Top Colleges for African Americans list,
we surveyed more than 500 African American higher education professionals
including presidents, chancellors, and directors of student affairs for their
assessments of the social and academic environments for African American
students at the nation’s colleges and universities.

A total of 1,423 colleges met our criteria based on their status as accredited
four-year colleges with African American student enrollments of at least 3%.
In addition, schools needed to have enrollment data submitted with the U.S.
Department of Education. Each school was rated on a five-point scale from
1 (strongly recommend) to 5 (strongly don’t recommend).

The schools were sorted into seven categories: historically black colleges
and universities, national universities, national liberal arts colleges, regional
universities in the Northeast and Midwest, regional universities in the South
and West, regional liberal arts colleges in the Northeast and Midwest, and
regional liberal arts colleges in the South and West. The list was derived
using the following variables:

Black student graduation rate
Average survey score for the school’s academic environment
Average survey score for the school’s social environment
Total black undergraduate enrollment
Black undergraduate students as a percentage of total undergraduates
(credit for this variable was capped at 50% for hbcus)
Ranking on the 2004 BE Top Colleges list

The criteria was established by be and Thomas A. LaVeist, Ph.D., CEO
of DayStar Research. The variables given the heaviest weighting were
black graduation rate, followed by the average academic and social environment scores.

2006 Rank	Colleges & Universities City, State	Web Address	Social Score	Academic Score	Total Undergrad Enrollment	Black Undergrad. Enrollment	Black Grad.Rate	Type of School	Tuition In/Out of State*
1	Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL	www.famu. edu	44.2	43.8	11,450	10,731	46%	Public	$2,958/ $14,949
2	Howard University, Washington, DC	www. howard. edu	43.3	42.6	7,112	5,975	62	Private	12,295
3	North Carolina A&T State Univ., Greensboro, NC	www.ncat.edu	42.0	41.6	9,121	8,409	43	Public	3,114/ 12,556
4	Harvard University, Cambridge, MA	www.harvard. edu	36.4	45.9	9,519	641	97	Private	32,097
5	Spelman College, Atlanta, GA	www.spelman. edu	43.2	43.0	2,186	2,058	77	Private	15,945
6	Hampton University, Hampton, VA	www. hamptonu. edu	42.8	41.5	5,315	4,980	54	Private	14,182
7	Stanford University, Stanford, CA	www. stanford. edu	35.7	45.4	6,555	698	92	Private	31,200
8	Columbia University, New York, NY	www. columbia. edu	36.2	42.1	7,233	511	90	Private	33,246
9	University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA	www. upenn. edu	36.8	43.6	11,958	790	90	Private	32,364
10	Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT	www. wesleyan. edu	38.6	47.1	2,777	190	90	Private	32,976
11	Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA	www. dickinson. edu	38.3	43.3	2,321	88	100	Private	32,120
12	Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA	www. wellesley. edu	38.0	42.0	2,289	135	95	Private	31,348
13	Amherst College, Amherst, MA	www. amherst. edu	38.9	45.6	1,640	148	91	Private	32,395
14	Duke University, Durham, NC	www. duke. edu	34.7	43.1	6,301	682	86	Private	31,420
15	Smith College, Northampton, MA	www. smith. edu	43.3	43.3	2,692	153	95	Private	30,754
16	Barnard College, New York, NY	www. barnard. edu	38.6	40.0	2,287	112	100	Private	30,676
17	Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN	www. tnstate. edu	40.0	39.6	7,257	5,896	47	Public	4,414/ 13,726
18	Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA	www.gsu. edu	35.2	34.2	19,889	6,765	48	Public	4,464/ 15,378
19	Brown University, Providence, RI	www. brown. edu	36.7	43.5	6,014	383	93	Private	32,974
20	Yale University, New Haven, CT	www.yale. edu	34.2	45.8	5,319	413	92	Private	31,460
21	Georgetown University, Washington, DC	www. georgetown. edu	36.6	42.6	6,522	424	85	Private	32,024
22	Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC	www. wfu. edu	40.0	42.9	4,128	249	89	Private	30,210
23	Babson College, Wellesley, MA	www. babson. edu	38.3	37.1	1,697	56	100	Private	30,496
24	Williams College, Williamstown, MA	www.williams. edu	37.5	43.8	1,991	192	86	Private	31,548
25	Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL	www.fsu. edu	35.2	35.5	30,373	3,607	68	Public	3,208/ 16,340
26	Cornell University, Ithaca, NY	www. cornell. edu	31.2	41.5	13,625	634	88	Private	31,467
27	Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX	www. pvamu. edu	38.8	38.8	6,324	5,795	46	Public	4,906/ 13,186
28	Jackson State University, Jackson, MS	www. jsums. edu	40.0	38.5	6,605	6,388	40	Public	3,964/ 8,872
29	Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH	www. oberlin. edu	41.1	47.8	2,837	175	78	Private	32,724
30	North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC	www.nccu. edu	38.1	40.0	6,028	5,182	50	Public	3,778/ 13,522
31	Mills College, Oakland, CA	www. mills. edu	42.0	43.3	762	68	89	Private	29,990
32	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC	www. unc. edu	37.6	40.0	16,525	1,794	70	Public	4,613/ 18,411
33	Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA	www. grinnell. edu	38.3	44.0	1,556	61	91	Private	27,060
34	Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD	www. morgan. edu	40.4	38.8	6,243	5,782	39	Public	6,110/ 13,520
35	University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA	www. virginia. edu	30.6	41.9	14,129	1,193	87	Public	7,370/ 24,290
36	Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA	www. mtholyoke. edu	41.3	45.0	2,143	88	82	Private	32,598
37	Emory University, Atlanta, GA	www. emory. edu	38.6	42.1	6,346	585	78	Private	30,794
38	Princeton University, Princeton, NJ	www. princeton. edu	32.8	44.4	4,678	385	90	Private	31,450
39	Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA	www. swarthmore. edu	38.6	48.6	1,474	96	82	Private	31,516
40	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI	www. umich.edu	37.1	42.5	24,828	1,875	69	Public	9,213/ 27,601
41	Temple University, Philadelphia, PA	www. temple. edu	37.3	37.3	23,429	4,666	53	Public	9,640/ 17,236
42	Washington University, St. Louis, MO	www.wustl. edu	33.7	36.3	7,350	691	90	Private	32,042
43	Davidson College, Davidson, NC	www. davidson.edu	31.4	44.3	1,714	107	91	Private	28,667
44	Simmons College, Boston, MA	www. simmons.edu	37.5	42.0	1,874	121	88	Private	24,880
45	Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA	www. morehouse. edu	41.5	42.6	2,891	2,731	49	Private	16,016
46	Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD	www.jhu.edu	35.0	43.0	5,710	472	81	Private	31,620
47	Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH	www. dartmouth. edu	30.4	40.4	4,079	274	91	Private	31,770
48	Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY	www.vassar. edu	36.7	44.2	2,475	128	83	Private	33,800
49	Northwestern University, Evanston, IL	www. northwestern. edu	30.5	38.6	9,115	498	90	Private	31,789
50	University of Maryland, College Park, MD	www.umd. edu	36.7	37.5	25,140	3,047	57	Public	7,821/ 20,145

Buffalo Soldier

Buffalo Soldier Commemorated with Action Figure
G.I. JOE figure made in image of soldier who received the Medal of Honor for bravery
By Tamara E. Holmes

The legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers, the all-black military units established after the Civil War,

is being remembered with the release of a 12-inch G.I. JOE action figure designed in the likeness of

First Lieutenant John R. Fox, a Buffalo Soldier killed during World War II.

The Lieutenant John R. Fox action figure is the latest release in Hasbro's G.I. JOE line

that commemorates recipients of the Medal of Honor, the highest award an individual in the

Armed Forces can receive for bravery shown in combat beyond the call of duty. President Clinton

awarded Fox the Medal of Honor posthumously in 1997. Allegedly, during a surprise attack,

Fox told his comrades to aim artillery fire in his position so they could escape.

"The G.I. JOE brand and its Medal of Honor series pays tribute to not only famous war

heroes but also the everyday soldiers who have amazing and moving stories of unselfish heroism,"

says Billy Lagor, director of marketing for Hasbro's G.I. JOE brand. "Fox's decision to call a

strike on himself to save others is such an incredibly selfless act that we thought it was worthy of honoring."

Fox is not the first African American to be honored with a G.I. JOE figure. Hasbro released two

figures-a fighter and bomber pilot-to commemorate the Tuskegee Airmen in 1997 and one in the likeness of

Colin Powell in 1998. The company has also released African American versions of all of its generic G.I. JOE figures.

The announcement of the Lieutenant John R. Fox action figure is particularly gratifying to members

of the country's 9th and 10th Horse Cavalry Association, an organization whose mission is to preserve

and promote the legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers.

“If it's a doll that's a likeness of a soldier it can only promote and enhance people's knowledge, interest,

and learning, especially [that of] a child,” says Dallas W. Miller, president of the Greater Atlanta 9th

and 10th Horse Cavalry Association.

The Lieutenant John R. Fox action figure wears a combat uniform, carbine, carbine clip, binoculars,

radio with antenna, and radio carrying pack. The action figures will be available in retail stores that

sell Hasbro items this month with a retail price of approximately $19.99.
Black Enterprise Magazine

CARVER'S LEGACY

During the 1998-1999 academic year, Iowa State University celebrated the legacy of
its first African American student and faculty member, George Washington Carver.
Renowned for developing innovative uses for a variety of agricultural crops such as peanuts,
soybeans and sweet potatoes, Carver's legacy at Iowa State is even more than academic achievement.
He was an accomplished musician, artist, orator, athletic trainer and student leader. Iowa State's

Black Jews of Israel

Demography
Although nearly all the Jews of Ethiopia were brought to Israel (about 50,000),
thousands of Ethiopians who claim Jewish ancestry were left behind. Historians argue
whether these people represent descendants of converts to Christianity, or whether
they simply left the Jewish fold without adopting another religion. The motivation for
conversion is a matter of dispute: some claim that the conversions were undertaken by
people who wanted to improve their socioeconomic status, while others claim that they
were made under duress. Many of these so-called Falash Mura have family ties with
those who emigrated to Israel and are returning to Judaism. It is estimated that there
may be as many as 30,000 people who fit this category. A number of these have
relatives in Israel, and their requests to emigrate are treated as matters of family
reunification.

History
Ethiopian Jewry represents one of the oldest Diaspora communities. Little is known
about the early origins of the community, but it is believed that they adopted Jewish
beliefs around the 2nd and 3rd centuries c.e. The community calls itself Beta Israel, but
Ethiopian Jews are also often referred to as Falashas, which means "strangers" or
"immigrants" in the Ge'ez tongue (the classical literary and ecclesiastical language of
the country). Ethiopian Judaism was based on the Torah but did not include later
Rabbinic laws and commentaries, which never reached Ethiopia. Still, in the 16th
century, Radbaz, an Egyptian rabbi, recognized the Jewishness of Ethiopian Jewry.

During the Italian occupation, which lasted from 1935 until 1941, the small Jewish
communities of Addis Ababa and Diredawa, which were made up of European and
Yemenite Jews, were disbanded.

Throughout the succeeding decades, Israeli, and Jewish organizations provided help in
education and welfare and later lobbied for Ethiopian Jews' right of emigration. In 1975
the Israeli rabbinate recognized the status of Ethiopian Jews, thus paving the way for
mass immigration. It was only in 1984 and 1985, during the Ethiopian Civil War, that
the Mengistu government agreed to allow Israel to airlift the community to Israel via
Sudan. Some 10,000 Jews went to Israel at that time. Media leaks led the Sudanese
government to withdraw its cooperation, ending "Operation Moses" and stranding
some 15,000 Jews. Only in 1991, when the Ethiopian government was on the verge of
collapse, did Israel mount "Operation Solomon," which succeeded in airlifting most of
the remaining Jews to Israel.

Community and Religious Life
Religious life is concentrated in Addis Ababa, where most of those awaiting eventual
repatriation to Israel live. Within a central compound are located a synagogue, a
vocational training center, and other facilities. There are also several dozen Adenite
Jews residing in the capital. They have their own synagogue and burial ground, which is
also used by the Falash Mura. There are still several hundred Jews living in rural
villages in Gondar.
Israel
Aliya: Since 1948, 50,700 Ethiopian Jews have emigrated to Israel
Embassy
Higher 16 Kebele 22, House 22, P.O.Box 1266
Addis Ababa
Tel. 251 1 610 999, Fax 251 1 612 456
Back to Africa and the Sudan

Talk about Cheaters Look below

talk about cheaters.png

Hurricane Katrina
Dr Cornel West is professor of African American studies at
at Princeton
University. His great grandfather was a slave.This is his story.

It takes something as big as Hurricane Katrina and the misery
we saw among the poor black people of New Orleans to get
America to focus on
race and poverty. It happens about once every 30 or 40 years.

What we saw unfold in the days after the hurricane was the
most naked manifestation of conservative social policy towards
the poor,
where the message for decades has been: 'You are on your own'.
Well,
they really were on their own for five days in that Superdome,
and it was
Darwinism in action- the survival of the fittest.
People said: 'It looks like something out of
the Third World.' Well, New
Orleans was Third World long before the hurricane.

It's not just Katrina, it's overtime. People were quick to
call them refugees because they looked as if they were from
another
country. They are. Exiles in America. Their humanity had been
rendered invisible
so they were never given high priority when the well-to-do got
out and the
helicopters came for the few. Almost everyone stuck on
rooftops, in the shelters, and dying by the side of the road
was poor black.

In the end George Bush has to take responsibility. When [the
rapper] Kane West said the President does not care about
black people, he was
right, although the effects of his policies are different from
what goes on in his
soul. You have to distinguish between a racist intent and the
racist
consequences of his policies. Bush is still a 'frat boy',
making
jokes and trying to please everyone while the
Neanderthals behind him push him more to the right.

Poverty has increased for the last four or five years. A
million more Americans became poor last year, even as the
super-wealthy
became much richer. So where is the trickle-down, the equality
of opportunity Healthcare and education and the social safety
net being ripped away - and that flawed structure was nowhere
more evident than
in a place such as New Orleans, 68 per cent black. The average
adult income in
some parishes of the city is under $8,000 (4,350) a year. The
average national
income is $33,000, though for African- Americans it is about
$24,000. It
has one of the highest city murder rates in the US. From slave
ships to the
Superdome was not that big a journey.

New Orleans has always been a city that lived on the edge. The
white blues man
himself, Tennessee Williams, had it down in A Streetcar Named
Desire - with Elysian Fields and cemeteries and the quest for
paradise.
When you live so close to death, behind the levees, you live
more intensely,
sexually, gastronomically, psychologically. Louis Armstrong
came out of
that unbelievable cultural breakthrough unprecedented in the
history of American
civilization. The rural blues, the urban jazz. It is the
tragic-comic lyricism
that gives you the courage to get through the darkest storm.

Charlie Parker would have killed somebody if he had not blown
his horn. The history of black people in America is one of
unbelievable
resilience in the
face of crushing white supremacist powers.

This kind of dignity in your struggle cuts both ways, though,
because it does not mobilize a collective uprising against the
elites.
That was the
Black Panther movement. You probably need both. There would
have
been no
Panthers without jazz. If I had been of Martin Luther King's
generation I would never have gone to Harvard or Princeton.

They shot brother Martin dead like a dog in 1968 when the
mobilization of
the black poor was just getting started. At least one of his
surviving
legacies was the quadrupling in the size of the black middle
class. But
Oprah [Winfrey] the billionaire and the black judges and chief
executives and movie stars do not mean equality, or even
equality of
opportunity yet. Black
faces in high places does not mean racism is over. Condoleezza
Rice has sold her soul.

Now the black bourgeoisie have an even heavier obligation to
fight for the
33 per cent of black children living in poverty - and to
alleviate the spiritual crisis of hopelessness among young
black
men.

Bush talks about God, but he has forgotten the point of
prophetic
Christianity is compassion and justice for those who have
least. Hip-hop has? the
anger that comes out of post-industrial, free-market America,
but it lacks the
progressiveness that produces organizations that will threaten
the status quo.
There has not been a giant since King, someone prepared to die
and create an
insurgency where many are prepared to die to upset the
corporate elite. The
Democrats are spineless.
There is the danger of nihilism and in the Superdome around
the fourth day,
there it was - husbands held at gunpoint while their wives
were raped,
someone stomped to death, people throwing themselves off the
mezzanine
floor, dozens of bodies.

It was a war of all against all - 'you're on your own' - in
the center of
the
American empire. But now that the aid is
pouring in, vital as it is, do not
confuse charity with justice. I'm not asking for a revolution,
I am asking for reform. A Marshall Plan for the South could be
the first step.

Dr Cornel West is professor of African American studies at
at Princeton
University. His great grandfather was a slave. He is a rap
artist and appeared
as Counselor West in Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions.

Interview by Joanna Walters, in Princeton, New Jersey

Subject: Christmas at Arlington

Rest easy, sleep well my brothers.
Know the line has held, your job is done.
Rest easy, sleep well.
Others have taken up where you fell,

the line has held.
Peace, peace, and farewell...

Reader Bruce K. e-mails:

Thanks for posting the photo of the wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery. Your readers may be interested to know that these
wreaths -- some 5,000 -- are donated by the Worcester Wreath Co. of Harrington, Maine. The owner, Merrill Worcester, not only provides
the wreaths, but covers the trucking expense as well. He's done this since 1992. A wonderful guy. Also, most years, groups of Maine school kids
combine an educational trip to DC with this event to help out. Making this even more remarkable is the fact that Harrington is in one the poorest

parts of the state.
_._ _ _ _ .. _ . _ _ _ . _ _