I know there are people, both black and white, who have either heard of the Hon Elijah Muhammad, heard or his teachings, heard from his top pupil Hon Min Louis Farrakhan or heard or seen his tapes. I have heard of him all of my life. From a lil boy not knowing what I was listing to, to an grown man trying to understand the depth of his wisdom. Most don't really understand his mission. Most don't really understand why people follow him like they do. What people should understand, is that he is one of the most important factors in this thing we call religion.Today marks the day of his birth, Oct 7. I want those who are hearing his name for the first time and others who have heard his name many times, to take some time to get to know and understand his importance.....check Noi.org for more about The Hon Elijah Muhammad....
Log on to Noi.org for more about the historical sojourn of Hon Elijah Muhammad....peep the vid below for one of his rare interviews....Thirty-four years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was born on or about Oct. 7, 1897 in Sandersville, Georgia. The exact date of his birth remains unknown because record keeping in rural Georgia for the descendants of slaves was not kept current, according to historians and family members. Nevertheless, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said his birth took place some time in the first or second week of October in 1897 and set forth Oct. 7th as the anniversary date of his birth.
Indeed, life in the rural South at the turn of the century was quite hard. Poverty and survival were at war with each other. Elijah Poole, the son of a minister, and whose parents, William (later named Wali) and Marie Poole, had 12 other children, had to quit school after barely finishing the third grade to work in the fields as a sharecropper so his family could eat.
Just before the roaring twenties came in, Elijah Poole married the former Clara Evans, also of Georgia. They had eight children, Emmanuel, Ethel, Lottie, Nathaniel, Herbert, Elijah, Jr., Wallace and Akbar.
In April 1923, Elijah Poole moved his young family from Macon, Georgia, where he worked for the Southern Railroad Company and the Cherokee Brick Company to Detroit, Mich. Black families, like the Pooles, were leaving the south, at that time, in search of better economic and social circumstances. Detroit was a bustling upwardly mobile city with its burgeoning auto industry.The stock market crash in 1929 was the gateway to economic misery that sparked the fuel of the "Great Depression" of the 1930s. Moreover, America's racial situation continued its downward spiral. Lynchings, race riots and other forms of terrorism against Blacks continued unabated. But Detroit, with its huge population of 1.5 million people including 250,000 thousand Blacks, was beginning to see changes in its social scene.
During the 1950s, Mr. Muhammad promoted Min. Malcolm X to the post of National Spokesman, and began to syndicate his weekly newspaper column, "Mr. Muhammad Speaks," in Black newspapers across the country. Membership was increasing when, in 1955, Minister Louis Farrakhan, then Louis Walcott, an entertainer, enrolled in the Nation of Islam after hearing Mr. Muhammad deliver a speech in Chicago.
Persecution of the Muslims continued. Members and mosques continued to be attacked by whites in Monroe, La., Los Angeles, Calif., and Flint, Mich., among others. Publicity in the white owned and operated media began to circulate anti-Nation of Islam propaganda on a large scale. By the early 1960s, the Readers Digest magazine described Mr. Muhammad as the most powerful Black man in America. In Washington, D.C., Mr. Muhammad delivered his historic Uline Arena address and was afforded presidential treatment, receiving a personal police escort.
Subsequently, television commentator Mike Wallace, in conjunction with Louis Lomax, a Black journalist, aired the documentary, "The Hate That Hate Produced," on a local New York City station. The documentary misrepresents the message of the Nation of Islam, calling it a hate teaching. James Baldwin, a famous Black author, released the book, "The Fire Next Time," based largely upon his interview with Mr. Muhammad. At the same time, white political leaders such as Senator Al Gore Sr., began to denounce the Nation of Islam and hold hearings on alleged "un-American" activities. Minister Louis Farrakhan and the ministers of Islam defended the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam against these attacks in mass media in their public speeches, written editorials and other public relations thrusts.
"I want you to pay good attention to his preaching. His preaching is a bearing of witness to me and what God has given to me," he declared. "This is one of the strongest national preachers that I have in the bounds of North America. Everywhere you hear him, listen to him. Everywhere you see him, look at him. Everywhere he advises you to go, go. Everywhere he advises you to stay from, stay from. For we are thankful to Allah for this great helper of mine, Min. Farrakhan." (Another rousing round of applause ensued). "He's not a proud man," he said. "He's a very humble man. If he can carry you across the lake without dropping you in; he don't say when you get on the other side, 'You see what I have done?' He tells you, 'You see what Allah has done.' He doesn't take it upon himself. He's a mighty fine preacher. We hear him every week, and I say continue to hear our Min. Farrakhan. I thank you."
I don't know about ya'll, but I have been a fan of magazine since I was a shorty. Especialy, magazines where black issues were being discussed in way that black people and people going through that struggle could relate to.
This recession thing has really hit the print business hard. Magazines and newspapers are being shut down one by one. Not just print that is bad, but print that had a huge fan base and was extremely relevant. Magazines like KING and VIBE were among the most recent, and now you can add JET & EBONY to that list of gone but not forgotten. Shout out to theROOT.com for the story...
When word spread recently that the venerable magazines Ebony and Jet were up for sale, a palpable sense of depression could be felt throughout some segments of black America.
This sense of depression would generally reside among those born before 1960, or at least those whose sympathies lie with the pre-‘60 crowd. For a certain generation of African Americans, Ebony and Jet were as integral to blackness as Murray’s “Superior Hair Dressing Pomade,” a “Deuce and a Quarter” and funeral home hand-fans featuring the holy triumvirate of MLK, JFK and RFK. And now, once again, like Motown and BET before it, a black media empire is being put on the auction block. Considering that Ebony and Jet were in existence before Motown and well before BET, the depression is perhaps that much stronger this time around.
The depressed among us worry that the potential sale of another black media property to perhaps a large non-black corporate media conglomerate signals the continued erosion of black capitalism in the post-civil rights era. These economic black nationalists bemoan the loss of something they consider their own. While such feelings speak to a certain sense of racial pride, those who hold such ideas personify the definition of Old School in the worst possible way. The fact is, Ebony and Jet have not been relevant for a long time, and neither have their supporters.
For those with a contemporary mind-set who have grown up either mocking the datedness of Ebony and Jet or not even being particularly aware of them, the potential sale carries much less significance. If anything, some might have even breathed an it’s-about-time sigh of relief. I know I did.
Yet for those who grew up in an era either stuck in segregation or its immediate aftermath, Ebony and Jet were much-needed national publications that confirmed the humanity of black existence when other mainstream publications ignored it. Like black banks, black insurance companies and black colleges, Ebony and Jet served a vital purpose in an era quite unlike the present, spreading all the relevant black news that other publications deemed unfit to print.
There was no better proof of that role than in Jet’s publication of the infamous Emmitt Till photos in 1955. Their publication brought attention to the racial terrorism that ruled the South and helped to bolster the burgeoning civil rights movement. I remember once going through a box of old Ebony and Jet magazines that my mother kept. This would have been in the ’70s. As I rummaged through this archive of black history, I became transfixed upon seeing for the first time the surreal photos of Till’s mutilated head. At the time, I was about the same age as he was when he was brutally murdered. Though I was not born when that occurred, the magazine photos helped connect me with the larger historical narrative around race and blackness that I was only starting to understand.
We all know the comedian Mo'NIQUE from the Queens of Comedy, BET show host, countless funny movie and just Mo'NIQUE being Mo'NIQUE. According to NewsOne, she may be the first Black Woman to be on late night tv.....Mo’Nique, the bold, charismatic comedian and actress, can pinpoint exactly when she started to fall out of love with late-night television.It happened in the spring of 1994, when Arsenio Hall, the man who broke the genre’s color barrier, walked away from his popular syndicated show.
“When Arsenio left late-night, so did I,” she recalls. “I just hated to see him go. When you watch television, you want to see people who look like you.”
Starting tonight, Mo’Nique will do her part to make that happen by hosting her own hour-long blend of talk and variety. “The Mo’Nique Show” is set to air Monday through Friday on BET, and she’s promising it will be a blast.
“We want you to feel good. It’s a party, baby,” she purrs. “When you’re done watching, you’re going to go to bed with a smile on your face. We’re setting you up to have the sweetest dreams possible.”
That’s a rousing mission statement, indeed. But Mo’Nique won’t be the only one looking to bring a fresh look to a late-night scene long ruled by white guys. Also adding some color are Wanda Sykes and George Lopez, who launch their own programs in early November.
Far as far back as I came remember, every pope has been a old, white and um did I mention old. According to BlackVoices, we might have a chance to get a brother in there, well an African brother....
Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson of Ghana is playing an important part in a three-week meeting at the Vatican on the role of the Catholic Church in Africa.
At a news conference Monday, Turkson was asked whether he thought the time was right for a black pope, particularly following the election of President Barack Obama.
Turkson replied: "Why not?" He argued that every man who agrees to be ordained a priest has to be willing to be a pope.
He noted that, with Obama and the previous U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan, there have been several blacks in positions of global leadership.
He said "If God would wish to see a black man also as pope, thanks be to God."
Reagan Gomez! We know her from tv shows, KING magazine and other ways that shows off her beauty, but now its time we she shows off her mind. Recently, she said down to write an emotional blog on GlobalGrind.com about an emotional topic...Beauty & Brains....**Global Grind Exclusive**
So, watching the video of Derrion Albert getting killed on the street got me thinking….Are our young Black men an "endangered species"? I’ve heard that before. But now that I’m a mother, it takes on a whole new meaning. And if that’s the case, who or what, is the cause of the downfall? Sadly, I think we all know the answer to that question.
A lot of people woke up the day after the election and saw that, their problems were the same. And with the rise of unemployment, and the cost of everything going up, and the staggering number of single mothers, we’re seeing the end result. Our kids are pissed off and frustrated. Momma is working 2 and 3 jobs, struggling to keep it together, and kids are left on their own. This isn’t a new problem. We know this. But the fact that this took place, in Chicago, says a lot. But then again, crime in Chicago is nothing new. Before, or after the election.
I’m a mom now. My daughter is two. No parent ever wants to get the call that Derrion’s mom, and countless other mothers have gotten. My father is a forensic pathologist for the city of Philadelphia (another high crime city), and murder is such a real problem in our community. Do we know who started the fight? Does it matter? I know what I saw on the tape. When you’re in that rage, it’s all, emotional. You just wanna fight the closest thing to you. And most of the time, it’s someone who looks just like you. And guess what? They’re going through the same thing you’re going through. I feel like, we, as a society, put so much pressure on women in general. Especially, BLACK and HISPANIC women. But when it comes to single mothers, are we doing enough? I don’t know if Derrion’s mom was a single mom, but I know the numbers. Are we doing enough??
Is Derrion going to be the “Neda” to the plight of the young black man in America? The countless other “Derrions” have gone unnoticed. When do we do our part? And what exactly does that entail? I don’t know. But while we continue to blog about the latest “Phat Ass” or latest “Celeb Jump Off” more and more mothers are getting that call.
I want to commend Nas for blogging about this. Maybe now it’s time for more "Black Celebrity Men" to do the same. I know a lot of them reach out and give back. Probably more than we know.
But is it time to do more? And should it be their responsibility? I don’t know. But I do know, if you’re the parent of a teenage black or brown male, you can use all of the help you can get, making sure your child makes it to adulthood. Yes, this is America. Obama is in office. We tell our kids, they can be whatever they want to be with hard work, and determination. We tell our kids, they can make anything happen. We tell our kids they can solve all of the world’s problems. Maybe it’s time, our kids start telling us the same thing.
Jesse Jackson and Minister Louis Farrakhan are attending the funeral of a Chicago teen beaten to death on his way home from school. Shout out to GlobalGrind for the story...CHICAGO — Civil rights Jesse Jackson and Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan are attending the funeral of a Chicago teen beaten to death on his way home from school.
Farrakhan on Saturday called 16-year-old Derrion Albert "a special young man." Jackson said "children deserve safe passage to school."
Officials say Albert was walking to a bus stop after school when a group of teens attacked him during a street fight late last month.
Cell phone video footage shows Albert being kicked and hit with splintered railroad ties. Four teens are charged in his death.
President Barack Obama has said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who once led Chicago Public Schools, will travel to Chicago to talk with local officials.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
CHICAGO (AP) — Civil rights leaders, including NAACP president Benjamin Todd Jealous, are expected to attend the funeral of a 16-year-old Chicago teen whose beating death was captured on camera.
The funeral service for Derrion Albert will be held Saturday on Chicago's South Side. He was fatally beaten by a group of teens outside a community center late last month.
Cell phone video footage taken by a bystander shows a group kicking and hitting Albert with railroad ties after he left school.
Four teens have been charged in the death. They're being held without bond.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson is also expected to speak at the funeral.
When read this post I was...well...kinda speachless. I mean who would have thought that there would be a web browser specifically targeted and man for black folks. I mean this is crazy....shout out to NewsOne for the story....
Blackbird, the custom browser for African-Americans that debuted in 2008, launched a new version for Mac computers today. Previously available only for PCs, the browser already has a quarter of a million users.Blackbird Official Site...Blackbird aims to offer a distinctively Black internet experience, and provides one-click access to a number of destinations of interest to its audience. The browser, which is built on top of the Mozilla Firefox interface, integrates email and social networking, points users toward Black-oriented news and video websites, and can optimize Google searches so that Black websites are pushed to the top of the results. It also includes job-searching tools and links to community service initiatives.
The Blackbird browser is free, supported by sponsors and advertising revenues.
