Declaration of African American Males As An Endangered Species In the Americas

The father is the life giver and blesses the children.

The African American male is the Light (Sun) of African American people, which are a new race of people forged from the genetic pool of every major race. Without his Light, we as a people are doomed to extinction as a species on earth. We will go the way of the dinosaur and other extinct species of life. A crisis now ensues as African American males are under the threat of extinction and actions must be taken forthwith to repel these forces and rekindle the spirit, mind, emotion and body of African American males in a spirit of love and thanksgiving for their endurance on Planet Earth.

This crisis is caused by the following:

1. Unplanned conception. The lack of planning at conception causes needy souls, rather than productive and highly evolved souls to be born into the world. This is a result of ignorance as it relates to the basic science of human reproduction and conscious conception.
The LunaQueen System, developed by Helen L. Bevel addresses the need for a method for females to gain total consciousness of their body, emotions, mind and spirit. Her two books Unique, The Divinely Feminine Art of Using A Female Charting Calendar and The Journey From Lunatic To LunaQueen provides calendars and charts for obtaining consciousness.

2. Ignorance of gestational care during pregnancy. During the fetuss gestational period in the womb, the utmost care must be taken to assure the mother the best nutrition, health care, comfort, peace of mind and nurturing for the sake of the soul to be born and the mother whose quality of care directly affects the infant.
Since ancient times, it has been known that the child in the womb adopts impressions from its surroundings and the behavior of its mother, and also starts learning things. This fact has now been confirmed by modem science. The health of the parents is directly responsible for the health of a child. Not only their physical health, but also their psychological and spiritual health affects the child in the womb. The surrounding environment, the food, the activities, in fact everything the mother is exposed to during pregnancy directly affects the child. Dr. Bhate The mental/physical state of the mother is very important in the formation of the body of the incarnating spirit. It is highly recommended that the mother be supported and nurtured from conception during this time of inner growth. Her thoughts, feelings, emotions, and nutritional state create the body of the individualizing ego, as well as being a determining factor in the psychological make-up of the indwelling spirit. She is creating through the genetic inheritance of the father, along with her psychological attitude, the body of the newborn. Da Vid, MD Medical Director, The San Francisco Medical Research Foundation

3. Unhealthy birthing procedures. Its all about machines, blood tests, ultra-sound, bright lights and the high-tech environment of the delivery room where mothers are surrounded by people they dont know
The birth trauma can be particularly devastating to the child energetically. During delivery, the child is being removed from the physical and energetic embrace of its mother for the first time. Those births in which the child is physically taken away from the mother right after birth are most disruptive, because the child is alone outside the aura of the mother. When removed more than 20 centimeters from the mother, the child is outside the protective umbrella of the mother's etheric aura. When the child is within the mother's etheric aura, there is unconscious rhythmic flow of love and emotional energy from mother to child. If the child is taken outside the mother's etheric aura, it loses contact with the mother emotionally. When the child is removed more than two and a half meters from the mother, the child loses contact on the mental level as well because the child is outside the mother's mental aura or mental field. Painful things happen to nearly all of us early in life that get imprinted in all our systems which carry the memory forward The Nonviolent Right To Vote Movement Almanac Available at: lulu.com 505

making our lives miserable. It is the cause of depression, phobias, panic and anxiety attacks and a whole host of symptoms that add to the misery. We have found a way into those early emotional archives and have learned to have access to those memories, to dredge them up from the unconscious, allowing us to re-experience them in the present, integrate them and no longer be driven by the unconscious. For the first time in the history of psychology there is a way to access feelings, hidden away, in a safe way and thus to reduce human suffering. It is, in essence, the first science of psychotherapy. Dr. Arthur Janov, Primal Therapy Excerpted from an article by Djehuty Ma'at-Ra, Home Birth vs. Hospital Birth, http://www.dherbs.com/articles/home-birth-vs-hospital-birth-410.html

4. The lack of breastfeeding and bonding. Breastfeeding is the means by which children receive supreme nourishment and bond to the mother. The nutritional value of breast milk has been well documented. Breastfeeding allows the infant to bond with the mother and thus feel secure, loved and valued.
Lack of Bonding = Attachment occurs when bonding fails to take place at birth. It can also occur at any point where there is a breakdown in the ongoing sequence of bonding's that make up our development. He cannot perceive subtle or intuitive signals that are the precursors of physical experience and is always aware only after the fact. He is, you might say, locked into hindsight. He reacts to stimuli, since by the time he has registered and processed an event, the time for response to that moment is gone. He compensates by trying to anticipate, predict, and control events in the outer world. Learning is a process of movement from that which is known into that which is unknown. The bonded person can make such a movement because his orientation is based on the non-physical realm of relationship that underlies and comes before all physical events. So any event fits the bonded state and can call forth a response as opposed to a reaction. Bonding provides a capacity to flow with events on a pre cursive level. The attached person attempts to analyze the upcoming event ahead of time, predict the probable outcome, and try to enter into the flow to alter it on behalf of a supposedly preferable outcome. Since attachment behavior is always aware after the fact, this intellectual meddling is disruptive, always too late to alter what has taken place, and gets in the way of what should take place next. From Magical Child To Magical Teen, A Guide to Adolescent Development, Joseph Chilton Pearce, Online chapter, http://innerself.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5905

5. Ignorance of early childhood development. The parents lack of knowledge about infant brain development and growth contributes to creating an environment that perpetuates the criminal and insane mindset. The Better Baby Institute and The Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential, founded by Dr. Glenn Doman, has pioneered research and education in the area of early childhood development and education. 6. Lack of a brotherhood founded on truth. Men need each other on their journey of manhood. Yet the mask that is so often present to hid the self-doubt and feelings of rejection creates a lie that falsifies who he really is. This false self causes males to blame others for their shortcomings rather than bring them self to a place where they can share the dark secrets of their physical insecurities, or

inhibitions about money and work, or worry and anxiety over the future. These things lock males into a selfmade prison and keep the world out for fear of rejection. And misunderstanding. Males need to be nakedly honest with them self and each other. Males need authentic relationships and this can only come about when they dare to unlock the door to the man cave, exit and risk being vulnerable with other males, especially about their identity as a male. The problem is its not as easy to find a trusting brother, or a loving father figure, who is willing to hear your stuff and respond in love and with compassion. Also there is the fear of being labeled gay if a male gets to close to another male.
Consequently, men lack true depth in brotherhood with their own gender group. John J. Higgins wrote, Men today are incapable of true openness that would express itself in a genuine communion. Rather, they have substituted or adopted unauthentic and illusory relationships in place of such communion(Thomas Merton on Prayer). A movement toward the deep restoration of the American masculine heart and soul will be led by those who are willing to trust other men to walk their journey with them, intimately and nakedly. Solomon says in one of his writings, Two are better than one. If one falls down, his friend can help him up(Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 NIV). I have found that the type of walking and helping between men that Solomon describes requires gut-wrenching honesty and strength to admit fears, unveil hidden shame, and come clean with secret mistakes. It is through this genuine level of friendship that God teaches us the tangible meaning of loyalty and loving devotion to Him. 506 The Nonviolent Right To Vote Movement Almanac Available at: lulu.com

The German theologian and teacher, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in The Cost of Discipleship, said it best, There is no truth towards Jesus without truth towards man. Untruthfulness destroys friendship, but truth cuts false fellowship to pieces and establishes genuine brotherhood. Jared Faria, The Guys Guide To Manhood

7. The stud mentality and breeding farms. This is inheritance form slavery, that has locked males into the physical plane and the sexual act as the only release of life force energy. The stud breeding system was an extensive system that rivaled the breeding of horses, cows, chickens, dogs and pigs. In slavery people are looked at as things to be owned and sold.
Among the Negro slaves the most enviable position was that of the stud. Now here was someone that all the males wanted to be, and all the women wanted to give birth to. The stud had the fortune of being given the best food, the best sleeping quarters, and most of all, he got to have sex with all the females (his mother, his sister, his daughter, aunts, cousins and those from other plantations). Slavery destroyed the natural affection and love that can exist between a male and a female and replaced it with lust. The stud was the envy of all slaves, for not only did he go around creating babies, but he didnt have to take any responsibility for the care of them. To this day the irresponsibility promoted by the stud exists among African American men as they create babies without any sense of fatherhood responsibility. (Excerpt from, The Nonviolent Right To Vote Movement Almanac

8. Alien educational structures and patterns. African American people are a different breed than European Americans. Yes we are both human beings, but just as ducks and chickens are both birds, they would not go to each other for the education of their young for obvious reasons. Thus the present educational institutions are drowning our children because it is alien to them and the form it takes is the new enslavement the overcrowded penal institutions.
From birth the African American youth is not directed towards institutional consciousness. That is our youth have no knowledge, respect, or appreciation for the administration and development of institutions (the church, government, business, clinic, home and school), as a means for looking after their health, interest, rights and needs and how to transfer threat knowledge into practical solutions to problems. The present educational policies were developed during the period of segregation, when African Americans were not expected to be socially responsible. Because of the lack of opportunity and interest in running these institutions, youth lose their motivation and emerge from school unable to read a court order, do an adequate job as an employee and are unable to venture into business opportunities. Reverend James L. Bevel, Architect of the Nonviolent Right To Vote Movement

9. Archaic institutional constructs. Institutions that derive from European American imperialism, capitalism, white supremacy and racism are crippling our children, because they are alien to us, and do not address our basic and specific needs. In addition they are all built on violence and the animalistic system called the pecking order. 10. Lack of positive masculine interaction in childhood. The African American male child is inundated with female energy from conception to puberty. Many families are headed by females with no male intervention, the first teachers are females, the first school administrators are female, and the first strong male most young males meet is the policeman who will surely kick his butt and put him in check. This is both wanted and hated by the young male. And then the prison provide a male bonding experience that locks him into recidivism. 11. Lack of coming of age ritual. Not having a definite time when adulthood is entered into as structured by lessons that would allow the child to become a principled adult, cause the person to remain dependent and immature. It sounds like this; what I want, what I like and dislike.
In her book, Cutting the Ties That Bind, Dr. Phyllis Krystal states, When the young person is about to enter the world as an adult, the early ties to the parents need to be severed so that the youth is free to develop as an independent individual. When these ties remain uncut beyond the age of puberty, an unhealthy situation develops where the child, whatever his age, is either too dependent on one or both parents and therefore is incapable of expressing his own true personality She provides a simple ritual that any person regardless of age can use to cut the ties to parents.

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12. Low self-esteem Having been under sever stress from the cradle to the grave, the African American male has inherited his mothers low self-esteem and his esteem is constantly bombarded in institutions and the environment.
No one can be integrated, no one can function harmoniously, no one can think clearly and effectively about the deep issues of life who is oblivious to the internal signals, manifested as feelings and emotions, rising from within the self-organism. Most of us have been encouraged to deny and repress who we are, to disown our feelings, to disown important aspects of the self, almost from the day we were born. The road back to selfhood usually entails a good deal of struggle and courage. Nathaniel Braden, Ph.D., The Psychology of Self-Esteem

13. High stress with no outlet. The average African American male, young or old do not know how to effectively relieve stress which leads to a lot of problems. 14. Lack of emotional balance. Constant bombardment of female energy which is primarily toxic emotions (negative attitudes, fear, anger, hate, revenge, criticism, putdowns, should have, could have, didnt, out bursts, rage, contempt) leaves the male imbalanced and shunning his emotions which he never learns to know and thus gain control of. As a result he acts out what he knows from his exposure to excessive female toxic emotional energy, which is alien to him.
It was discovered over 5000 years ago in ancient China that our bodies have meridians or pathways through which energy flows. It was also observed that during an imbalance or blockage in the flow of energy within the meridians, it causes different types of emotional disturbances coupled with their corresponding mental issues or problems. Through the work of several researchers over the past ten to twenty years, including Dr. Roger J. Callahan (Thought Field Therapy, TFT) and Gary Craig Creator of The Emotional Freedom Technique, EFT), the reverse has been found to be equally true, meaning that when the energy in the meridians is brought back into balance, then emotions are then integrated and restored to their previous state of balance. As difficult to believe as this is, every dis-empowering negative belief or context that we hold has a connection to a corresponding imbalance in our energy system together with a negative emotion. By correcting the imbalance in the energy system, the emotion and the negative belief are released at the same time.

15. Stagnate unhealthy DNA and RNA patterning from ancestral and present day slavery experiences. Slavery left an indelible mark on the DNA and RNA of African American males. This can be healed through a process of erasure, using various energetic healing modalities. 16. Inadequate dietary practices. The slave diet was composed of left overs and the most unhealthy food preparation and cooking practices. We continue to carry on these unhealthy traditions without revision and have not made health a primary objective. 17. Trauma from various experiences (birth, childhood, puberty, young adulthood and adulthood). Being hollered at as a child, told no constantly, whipped, bullied, gang raped, put in prison, sent to the army, etc. are traumatic experiences that are left to fester. These problems unhealed perpetuate the sickness and is passed on like a contagious virus. 18. Lack of spiritual principles. Life is governed by spiritual principals which are the weapon of choice to fight principalities and spiritual wickedness. Not having these principals has left the African American males defenseless. We fight not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities of powers, spiritual wickedness in high places. Therefore put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand the fiery darts of evil. Out on the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace.

Some of these principles are: Love, truth, justice, joy, peace, power, light, vitality, health, excellence, mercy, generosity, progress, empathy, faith, harmony, unity, equality courage, honor, integrity, compassion, freedom, success, meekness, reason, purpose, divinity, humility, wealth, responsibility, respect, majesty, innocence, compassion, balance, patience, understanding, beauty, endurance, awareness, order, strength, action, wisdom, forgiveness, honesty, meekness, growth, confidence, splendor, magnetism, humility grace, spirit, will, optimism, wonder, perfection, fruitfulness, rest,
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reverence, serenity, silence, force, bliss, prudence, temperance, leadership, form, mastery, attention.
19. Perverted and mis-directed sexual energy. All manner of sexual perversions have flown out of the African American males enslavement in the Americas. Some of these include, incest, rape, the stud mentality, homosexuality, bestiality and promiscuity. The lost of sperm through constant ejaculation strips the male body of important nutrients and has led to a health crisis with a rise in prostate cancer. The ancient art of sexual kung fu or tantra teaches a better way of achieving fulfillment, health, and creative wholeness through sex. 20. Fear of women. Not knowing the female species, males have been operating from ignorance which causes them to be fearful. As a result a gender war ensues which is not necessary, when truth and knowledge are put in the equation. Few males will admit that they fear women, however this fear can be traced to the Biblical myth of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Males can overcome the fear of women by engaging in a principled relationship with a principled female who knows herself and does not compromise herself to get along with anyone. This of course is initially frightening to a male because he is so use to living from the animalistic relationship structure of the pecking order, "whereby females are considered beneath him. It is the struggle to overcome his tendency to get angry, express violence and demean and denigrate the female that will allow him to come to self-respect and self-love, for in truth he possesses a feminine interior that longs to be acknowledge, recognized and respected. Once this takes place he can operate as a whole being that possesses character and integrity. In addition he will not be able to be manipulated or swayed by any female to do anything less than love in the process of living. In nature the yin and yang, masculine and feminine forces find harmony, balance, peace and equilibrium and sets the standard for creating I-Thou relationships of equality and is the only true role model to follow. 21. Ignorance of healthy mating practices. Slavery left a void as it relates to healthy mating practices. Thus we attempt to imitate other races whose practices sometimes work for them and sometimes not. We have yet to research what works best for us. 22. Lack of spiritual grounded ness. Without being grounded in nature energetically, one is like a leaf blowing in the wind. Chi Gong teaches one how to be grounded and thus effective. 23. Lack of economic grounding in nature. Void of an economic base that is rooted in nature, the African American male remains a second class citizen. All of basic and essential needs come directly from nature (food, clothing, shelter, energy, transportation, communication and tools). For these we are dependent others. This is akin to being locked up in a cage at the zoo, waiting to be fed. Free people feed themselves directly from nature. As a result there is never a need for compromise. 24. Lack of adequate natural health care and maintenance. Natural health care consists of foods that heal, nourish and cleanse all systems of the body. The Health pak from Rainforest herbs provides this perfectly as males eat from the living garden. 25. Non-scientific child rearing practices. So often African American people imitate and engage in child rearing traditions passed down from slavery. Thus beating children, hollering, cursing at them, denigrating them and punishing them is simply a re-enactment of slavery. These actions are demeaning and leave boys and girls with fractured self-esteem, self-doubt and feelings of rejection. How often do mothers and fathers whip children and then demand that they dont cry? This is heartless as they are being taught to bottle up their emotions, which they grow into adulthood doing, and thus not having outlets for the release of stress.
Based on interviews with the mothers of about 3,000 children, researcher Murray Straus of the University of New Hampshire found that corporal punishment is counterproductive, resulting in more antisocial behavior by children in later years. The more spankings a child received at the beginning of the study, the higher level of antisocial behavior at the end, according to the researchers.

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Antisocial behavior was defined as cheating, lying, disobedience at school, breaking things deliberately, not feeling sorry after misbehaving or not getting along with teachers. The study found that the higher levels of antisocial behavior were independent of other traits that could affect that behavior, such as a family's socioeconomic status and the amount of support parents give their children. Researcher Murray Straus of the University of New Hampshire In a new study published in Pediatrics, researchers at Tulane University provide the strongest evidence yet that children's short-term response to spanking may make them act out more in the long run. Of the nearly 2,500 youngsters in the study, those who were spanked more frequently at age 3 were much more likely to be aggressive by age 5. "Frequent spankings, may have a negative impact on sex development. Because of the proximity of the sex organs, a child may get sexually aroused when spanked. Or he may so enjoy the making up that follows the punishment that he will seek suffering as a necessary prelude to love. There are many adult couples who seem to need a good fight before a good night. Dr. Haim G. Ginott, child psychologist. Between Parent and Child (1966)

26. Lack of manhood principles. The attempt to assimilate within an alien culture that has consistently threatened to destroy manhood. How many roads must a man walk down before they call him a man, the answer my friend is blowing in the wind. Manhood is built on principles that are rooted in nature, not something that is blowing in the wind.
The missing factor is a shared common definition and purpose of man and a shared knowledge of how man lives according to definition and attain their individual and collective purpose through institutional development and administration. Reverend James L. Bevel, Architect of The Nonviolent Right To Vote Movement 1965

27. Ancestral health problems. We have inherited the illness and weaknesses of our ancestor who were enslaved. They had the worse diet and thus their bodies were weakened. We have inherited these and built upon them by continuing to practice their eating and living habits which were perverted by slavery. Likewise we have inherited their mental and emotional illnesses. 28. Fear of annihilation for expressing strong values. With the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X), fear was implanted in the hearts of African American males. The fear that standing up and speaking the truth and doing what is right for the community would lead to death was implanted. As a result they have shirked their responsibility and compromised to be safe and seek to only protect individual family members at the expense of the community. 29. The African American females contribution to the destruction of the African American male. Negative mental attitudes and toxic emotions are out contribution. When we are expressing fear, anger, revenge, hate, jealousy, envy, covetousness, guilt, shame, resentment, distress, agony, misery, remorse, sorrow, frustration, hurt, doubt, dread conceit, arrogance, unhappiness, ungratefulness, cowardice, selfishness, worry and the scorned woman syndrome we strike a blow at the self-esteem of African American males. The lack of a sisterhood rooted in principle creates an inability to create interdependently institutions that would protect ourselves and our offspring and allow us to develop prospering communities. We carry on cold-wars with each other and devalue each other, leaving all of us vulnerable to disease, crime, and exploitation. 30. The European contribution to the destruction of the AA male. European Americans have consistently and repeatedly worked to destroy the manhood of people of African descent. First by the act of kidnapping, enslaving, torturing, murdering, raping, forced labor, denial of an education, denial of the right to vote and the intent and deliberate purpose of creating a subhuman being. These actions applied to other races have destroyed and created their extinction. These actions have crippled, perverted and hindered African American people from developing and need to cease forthwith.
The following is a example. To the Negro of the state was issued a warning that the Democrats were preparing, through means of the constitutional convention, to shape the election law to their own needs and then the policy of crushing out the manhood of the Negro citizens is to be carried on to success. J. S. McNeilly, History of the Measures Submitted to the Committee on Elective Franchise, Apportionment, and Elections in the Constitutional Convention of 1890,in Mississippi Historical Society, Publications, VI (1902), 132.

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31. Exposure to European male symbols of divinity, power and success. The constant exposure to European images of the Christ is crippling to the African American males psyche. It also perpetuates the myth of white supremacy. No self-respecting Jewish person would have a picture of Hitler in their synagogue or home. Beyond religious symbols are those of media tycoons and heroes( Rambo, Donald Trump, James Bond, etc.) African American males are not exposed to strong, intelligent, thoughtful, creative and emotionally mature males like Dr. George W. Carver, W. E. B. Dubois, Booker T. Washington or the Black Christ and Madonna. This trend is very detrimental.
Although the present cultural environment that works against the natural function of human life has contributed much to our peculiar behavior as a people, and as individuals, I believe our behavior owes more to that peculiar past experience behind us. It owes more to the ugly pages of history and the enslavement of the African-American man. This odd way of behaving is seen in our choices. Where in history have you ever read of people treated the way we were by their superiors, then when they gained their freedom, walk arm in arm with the people who mistreated them. We even joined their religion, the same religion that was used to justify our enslavement. We accepted their concept of God, even though that concept does not admit our race. We walk into their religious houses, accept their concept of God, bow, pray and kneel before the images that they have which don't admit our image, our ethnicity nor our race. ...why doesn't he (the Whiteman) show that common image of man rather than the image of a Whiteman. You may ask, "What is the common image?The common image first of all is that we have a good nature, a nature to rise up to the higher life and higher principles toward excellence. Imam Warith Deen Muhamad, Founder of the Committee To Remove All Images That Depict the Christ

32. Mothers punishing fathers by denial of interaction and authority in their sons life. Females who feel or experience rejection by males who are the father of their sons, often seek to punish them by denying them access to their children and get the courts to support them in this. This hurts the child and the father and leaves a void that nothing can fill. Children give males a sense of purpose when they have authority in their lives and are seen as more than money givers. African American boys need their fathers or strong mentors in their life if they are going to succeed in life. Fathers teach them things that mothers know nothing about, because she is not a male. 33. Lack of work initiatives that develop a work ethic. With in many households the only work that a young male has to do is take out the garbage or mow the lawn and sometimes wash the dishes. These tasks never allow a male to really learn to work and develop a work ethic. A work ethic provides a sense of purpose. Just like long distance runners and athletes reach a point of what is called the second breath, a work ethic is learned from engaging in intense work in conjunction with other males. It is in this process that a male comes to know himself and is able to develop the inner resources to better himself and become responsible. 34. Constant exposure to weak, silly, emotionally toxic females. A male can rise no higher than the females he surrounds himself with. Too often males who base their manhood on sexual conquest seek out females who are easy to bed, and who have no self-esteem, making them easy to exploit. This backfires on them because they never develop mental toughness and emotional mastery leaving them easy prey for those who would exploit them. It has been said that 95% of the causes for males being incarcerated has to do with a woman. It is a truth that if a mother is enslaved that she cannot but pass on a portion of her enslavement to her children both male and female. We can see this trend in how so many boys raised in single family homes with mothers and no fathers have adopted the prison trend of drooping pants "which was born out of the prison experience. In prison males are not allowed belts because they can use them as weapons or to hang themselves. Now this prison trend has become a dominant trend among none incarcerated males. Thus the dominant culture is now influenced by the prison culture. Females seek things from males for proof of love and commitment and when African American males are economically unprepared to purchase things they may resort to theft leading to prison time. Jealousy plays a huge role in the dynamics that lead to incarceration as males compete for females and females create situations to stir up jealousy.
For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3 In this scripture we are told of women who are weak and silly and thus capable of being captured (enslaved) because of their The Nonviolent Right To Vote Movement Almanac Available at: lulu.com 511

lusts. They learn but they never come to a knowledge of truth. It is these women who are the mothers of an enslaved race of people.

Men's minds are raised to the level of the women with whom they associate Alexander Dumas
35. The culture of violence and enslavement. Many of us forget that we were taught the belief that blacks were created inherently inferior, and that this was passed on from generation to generation. Slave masters fostered this teaching and said that we were Ham's children, and that Ham was cursed for laughing at his father's nakedness. We have been taught that a curse was put on Ham's children, and they were cursed to be black and servants. It was this teaching that was used to justify the enslavement of our ancestors. After having experienced cultural setbacks that this and other teachings has created to the extent of the social devastation in the life of the African-American, we must work on concerns that point to the establishment of a individual and collective philosophy of life, that fosters a sacred and divine unity that is liberating to all people. Nonviolence sees problems and solutions. Nonviolence sees ignorance and the illness it creates as the only enemies, thus healing and education are active components of a nonviolent culture. The present violent based, co-dependent society, locks African American males in the penal system at a high rate, which can be contributed to the aftermath of slavery, its traumas and its aftermath. Punishment creates liars, irresponsibility and guilt. Prisons are no more than trauma producing factories. In addition prisons foster sexual violence and homosexuality amongst African American males because the natural sex drive is perverted, given there are no male female interactions allowed. As a result of incarceration African American males bring back to the family and community, trauma and perverse sexual practices that are passed on to youth who are easily exploited. This creates a culture of violence.
African American males need mental and emotional therapy to heal from the harshness and cruelty of a society that devalues and attempts to destroy them. They need clinical initiatives that seek to repair the damage done and restore them to their Divine state of Being, which is Love.

36. Lack of character development education. The development of character is essential to attaining and maintaining high self-esteem and self-worth. It allows a person to value them self and thus others beyond mere physical attributes. The following quotes attest to what great minds have always known about character, and for some reason it has been left out of education.
I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character that is the goal of true education. Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. Character is power. Booker T. Washington, American educator (1856-1915) Americanism is a question of principles, of idealism, of character: it is not a matter of birthplace or creed or line of descent. Theodore Roosevelt, adventurer, politician and Nobel Prize-winning 26th U.S. president (1858-1919) To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned mans character one must judge it by the standards of his time, not ours. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), American humorist, author and journalist (1835-1910) Since the things we do determine the character of life, no blessed person can become unhappy. For he will never do those things which are hateful and petty. Aristotle, Greek philosopher (384-322 B.C.) Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character. Henry Clay, statesman, orator, politician (1777-1852)

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Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character. Albert Einstein, Swiss-American mathematician, physicist and public philosopher (1879-1955) Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike. Theodore Roosevelt, American adventurer and 26th president (1858-1919) To exercise good character daily is to be morally fit for life. Karen Hartz, CC! coordinator, CHARACTER COUNTS! in Caroline County Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. president (1809-1865) What a mans mind can create, mans character can control. Attributed to Thomas Edison, American inventor (1847-1931) The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops no, but the kind of man the country turns out. Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, philosopher and poet (1803-1882) Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will. Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian prime minister (1889-1964) Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved. Helen Keller, American social activist, public speaker and author (1880-1968) In a president, character is everything. A president doesn't have to be brilliant. He doesn't have to be clever; you can hire clever. You can hire pragmatic, and you can buy and bring in policy wonks. But you cant buy courage and decency, you cant rent a strong moral sense. A president must bring those things with him. He needs to have, in that much maligned word, but a good one nonetheless, a vision of the future he wishes to create. But a vision is worth little if a president doesn't have the character the courage and heart to see it through. Peggy Noonan, 20th century American author, speech writer for U.S. President Ronald Reagan With all the power that a president has, the most important thing to bear in mind is this: You must not give power to a man unless, above everything else, he has character. Character is the most important qualification the president of the United States can have. Richard Nixon, 37th U.S. president (1913-1994) Every person in America has done or said something that would keep him or her from being president. Maybe a nation that consumes as much booze and dope as we do and has our kind of divorce statistics should pipe down about character issues. P.J. ORouke, 20th-century American humorist and essayist Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd American President (1882-1945) [Because power corrupts] Societys demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases. John Adams, American Founding Father and second U.S. president (1735-1826) Character is the only secure foundation of the state. Calvin Coolidge, 30th American president (1872-1933) The best index to a persons character is (a) how he treats people who cant do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who cant fight back. Abigail van Buren (Pauline Esther Friedman), American newspaper advice columnist (1918-2002) The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out. Baron Thomas Babington Macauley, English historian and statesman (1800-1859) Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wing, and only character endures. Horace Greeley, American journalist and educator (1811-1872) The proper time to influence the character of a child is about a hundred years before hes born. William R. Inge, American playwright (1913-1973) The Nonviolent Right To Vote Movement Almanac Available at: lulu.com 513

If we want our children to possess the traits of character we most admire, we need to teach them what those traits are and why they deserve both admiration and allegiance. Children must learn to identify the forms and content of those traits. William J. Bennett, author and former U.S. Secretary of Education (b. 1943) The last, if not the greatest, of the human freedoms: to choose their own attitude in any given circumstance. Bruno Bettelheim, Austrian-born American psychologist and writer (1903-1990) When wealth is lost, nothing is lost. When health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost. German proverb A man's character is his fate. Heraclitus, Greek philosopher (c. 540-c. 475 B.C.) Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character. Albert Einstein, Swiss mathematician, physicist and public philosopher (1879-1955) Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny. Unknown A slave shows his true character, not while he is enslaved, but when he becomes a master. Jewish proverb Examine what is said, not the person who speaks. Native American proverb Laws control the lesser person. Right conduct controls the greater one. If there is beauty in character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world. Chinese proverb You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. Chief Seattle (1784-1866) of the Duwamish, Suquamish, and allied Native American tribes If you damage the character of another person, you damage your own. Yoruba proverb

Other causes must be researched and documented. Every effort must be made to resurrect the African American male and protect him from all hurt, harm and endangerment, while providing him with unlimited natural health care and assistance to heal from the trauma, stress and threats of the violent society at all cost.

To support further research of those actions that foster the destruction of the African American male, please send a $1 or more donation to the following.

This Is A Call To Action By

SHE
She Heals & Educates 652 E. 89th Place Chicago, IL 60619 sheawakening@yahoo.com
Sponsored In Part By

The Institute for the Study & Advancement of Nonviolence

http://almanac nonviolentstudy@gmail.com
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VOICES OF THE BROTHERHOOD

A PASSION FOR EXCELLENCE & FREEDOM
The following pages of quotes are from African American males who against all odds have etched out a semblance of excellence in their chosen field. We have endeavored to present uplifting and inspirational quotes that can provide the foundation for a life of achievement for any male or female who would endeavor to obtain character, greatness, distinction, honor and dignity. Though the road may be long and the obstacles many, the following males who are descendants of Africans enslaved in the Americas, have trod the road less travelled and overcome insurmountable odds to provide a beacon of light for those who would follow. Though they may have stumbled and fallen, yet their excellence shines bright and cannot be denied. May their struggles and achievements not be in vain. May their mother and father be blessed. May their tribe increase.
The choice is not between non-violence and violence, but between non-violence and non-existence. Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. A nation that spends more on military than on social programs and education is morally bankrupt. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Dont wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope. Change will not come if we wait for some other time. We are the ones weve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. President Barack H. Obama Nguzo Saba Seven Principles of Kwanzaa 1. UMOJA (Unity) 2. KUJICHAGULIA (self-determination) 3. UJIMA (Collective Work & Responsibility) 4. UJAMAA (Cooperative Economics) 5. NIA (Purpose) 6. KUUMBA (Creativity) 7. IMANI (Faith) It is Martin King who taught that a real moral struggle seeks to win partners, not to leave victims. Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga In life we dont get what we want, we get in life what we are. If we want more we have to be able to be more, in order to be more you have to face rejection. Farah Gray, Self-made millionaire at age 14, 1984-Present Success is measured by the impact I make everyday. Entrepreneurship can begin at any age. I committed to my dream at the age of nine, and was a millionaire by age 16. Ephren W. Taylor II, 1982-Present All that glamour builds up a false sense of ego. It's not needed. I'm already happy with who I am. My job is just to get on the podium. Shani Davis, Olympic Speed Skating Gold Medalist, 1982-Present Everything negativepressure, challengesis all an opportunity for me to rise. Kobe Bryant, 1978-Present If you can't laugh at yourself, then who can you laugh at? Dont force your kids into sports. I never was. Its the childs desire to play that matters, not the parents desire to have the child play. Fun. Keep it fun. Tiger Woods, 1975-Present Excellence is not a singular act but a habit. You are what you do repeatedly. Shaquille ONeal, 1972-Present Believe in something Believe in yourself Turn adversity into ambition Now blossom into wealth. Tupac Shakur, 1971-Present

I will not lose, for even in defeat, theres a valuable lesson learned, so it evens up for me. Remind yourself. Nobody built like you, you design yourself. JZ, 1969 - Present

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Successful people do more than talk, we act on our ideas and find out how to execute them. Omar Tyree, 1969-Present Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you. Greatness lives on the edge of destruction. Will Smith, 1968-Present Pursue your passion all the way. The thing you are most passionate about will bring the greatest rewards in life. Maurice Ashley, Intl Grandmaster of Chess, 1966-Present Nonviolence is a way of life that will guarantee peaceful coexistence in the future and the eventual goal of a demilitarized region. Congressman Jessie Jackson, Jr., 1965 Present I have always been motivated by a strong keen desire for true independence and a sense of achievement. If you have a core set of values like family, hard work, trust, these will stay with you even when you have difficulties. Reginald Lewis, TLC Beatrice Intl Food, 1965-1993 My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength. Michael Jordan, 1963-Present If you enter the world knowing you are loved and you leave the world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with. Children show me in their playful smiles the divine in everyone. This simple goodness shines straight from their hearts and only asks to be lived. There's a Mother's Day and there's a Father's Day, but there's no Children's Day. It would mean a lot. World peace. Let us dream of tomorrow where we can truly love from the soul, and know love as the ultimate truth at the heart of all creation. Michael Jackson, 1958-2009 Enlightenment is the goal of human life, for the individual and for the race. Enlightenment is awakening to the presence of God as the One-in -all and All-in-one and then expressing that non-dual realization in every aspect of your existence. Simply put, enlightenment is God-realization, i.e., making God real in the totality of your being. Dr. Mitchell E. Gibson, 1959 Present Black people were stripped of an identity when brought here, and it's been a quest since then to define who we are. Our greatness, our talent has never been the question. It's been a matter of grappling for control over what we do. It is really important that young people find something that they want to do and pursue it with passion. I'm very passionate about filmmaking. It's what I love to do. Spike Lee, 1957-Present Judgment of the people in the situation is not helpful. How can you help them is the question. The key ingredient to any kind of happiness or success is to never give less than your best. Russell Simmons, 1957Present Most important, if you love someone, tell him or her, for you never know what tomorrow may have in store. Walter Payton, 1954-1999 Elie Wiesel says that the greatest evil in the world is not anger or hatred, but indifference. If that is true, then the opposite is also true: that the greatest love we can show our children is the attention we pay them, the time we take for them. Maybe we serve children the best simply by noticing them. Do you see law and order? There is nothing but disorder, and instead of law there is the illusion of security. It is an illusion because it is built on a long history of injustices: racism, criminality, and the genocide of millions. Many people say it is insane to resist the system, but actually, it is insane not to. I spend my days preparing for life, not preparing for death I believe in life, I believe in freedom, so my mind is not consumed with death.

Its with love, life and those things. In many ways, on many days, only my body is here, because I am thinking about whats happening around the world.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, 1954Present

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I made a commitment to completely cut out drinking and anything that might hamper me from getting my mind and body together. And the floodgates of goodness have opened upon me - spiritually and financially. Denzel Washington, 1954-Present Consider the boy with the droopy pants. To talk about wearing a particular set of clothes as a right is demeaning to the bloody struggles for such basic rights as the vote and an unsegregated education. But the illusion that all desires are rights continues its insidious spread. 1. Our duty to be civil toward others does not depend on whether we like them or not. 2. Civility requires that we sacrifice for strangers, not just for people we know. 3. Civility has two parts: generosity, even when it is costly, and trust, even when there is risk. 4. Civility creates not merely a negative duty not to do harm, but an affirmative duty to do good. 5. Civility requires a commitment to live a common moral life, so we should try to follow the norms of the community if the norms are not actually immoral. 6. We must come into the presence of our fellow human beings with a sense of awe and gratitude. 7. By encouraging us to see even those with whom we disagree as full equals before God, civility enables us to hold the respectful dialogues without which democratic decision-making is impossible. 8. Civility reminds us that in a democracy all our actions must meet the test of morality, and that our ability to discipline ourselves to do what is right rather than what we desire is what distinguishes us from animals. 9. That self-discipline, in turn, enables us to resist the tendency of the values of politics and the market to swallow all of social life. 10. Our adherence to standards of civil behavior serves as our letter of introduction to our fellow citizens, thus helping us to build community. 11. By treating each other with the respectful civility that our shared createdness requires, we help make bearable the many indignities and frictions of everyday life. 12. Civility assumes that we will disagree; it requires us not to mask our differences but to resolve them respectfully. 13. Civility requires that we listen to others with knowledge of the possibility that they are right and we are wrong. 14. Civility requires that we express ourselves in ways that demonstrate our respect for others. 15. Civility requires resistance to the dominance of social life by the values of the marketplace. Thus, the basic principles of -generosity and trust- should apply as fully in the market and in politics as in every other human activity. 16. Civility allows criticism of others, and sometimes even requires it, but the criticism should always be civil. 17. Civility discourages the use of legislation rather than conversation to settle disputes, except as a last, carefully considered resort. 18. Teaching civility by word and example is an obligation of the family. The state must not interfere with the familys effort to create a coherent moral universe for its children. 19. Civility values diversity, disagreement, and the possibility of resistance, and therefore the state must not use education to try to standardize our children. 20. Religions do their greatest service to civility when they preach not only love of neighbor but resistance to wrong. Stephen Carter, 1954 Present, Carter's Laws of Civility

You cant lead the people if you dont love the people. You cant save the people if you dont serve the people. Dr. Cornell West, 1953-Present In the pursuit of opportunity and success, we all need a greater adherence to principles and values in guiding our behavior and actions. I owe a great part of my success in business to a simple, personal philosophy: I believe you can be the most determined competitor, totally focused on winning, which I am, but you can do it with integrity, grace, and always treating people with respect and dignity. Kenneth Irvine Chenault, 1951 - Present What is important what I consider success is that we make a contribution to our world. To THINK BIG and to use our talents doesn't mean we won't have difficulties along the way. We will--we all do. If we choose to see the obstacles in our path as barriers, we stop trying. "We can't win, "we moan. "They won't let us win. Dr. Ben Carson, 1951-Present A leaders private and public life should be similar. Swami Krishnapada, 1951-2005 Humanity is but a brief flicker in the history of the earth. The scale of the universe is unimaginably vast in as compared to what we are on the earth. Are we capable of being technological and not destroy ourselves? Gibor Basri, 1951 Present Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there. Stevie Wonder, 1950-Present No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. Gil Scott-Heron, 1949-Present

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I think segregation is bad, I think it's wrong, it's immoral. I'd fight against it with every breath in my body, but you don't need to sit next to a white person to learn how to read and write. Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot. I don't believe in quotas. America was founded on a philosophy of individual rights, not group rights. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, 1948 You cant have civilization between a group of people who are not civil. Our greatest natural resource is not oil, wind power or trees, but rather the single greatest natural resource in the world is our youth. Bhagwan Ra Africa, 1948-Present I can do something besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My greatest resource is my mind. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 1947-Present The wise man listens while he speaks so he learns as her speaks. You can tell you what to do, but will you make you obey you in the things that are good for you. -Yusuf Ali El, 1947 - Present One should begin by examining within self in order to find true corrective action to a problem that is threatening the mental, physical and spiritual existence of Man, He and She. High Priest Kwatamani, 1946-Present Growing up Black and poor in America is clearly a challenge. But it's a challenge, which can be overcome as many have already done. Robert L. Johnson, 1946-Present I feel that the most important requirement in success is learning to overcome failure. You must learn to tolerate it, but never accept it. Reggie Jackson, 1946-Present As long as the colored man looks to white folks to put the crown on what he says, as long as he looks to white folks for approval, then he wont find out who he is and what hes about. August Wilson, Jr., 1945-2005 Dont gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold. The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth is acquired, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively. Bob Marley, 1945-1981 Now consciousness, what is consciousness? Consciousness is being aware of one's surroundings, recognizing the existence, truth or fact of something; being aware of the very moment, the very instant that you are in; being aware of how you affect the human social, political, and natural ecology you are a part of and how it affects you. Consciousness is being informed and instructed through your groups peculiar culture on the effects of the varied ecologies on your immediate and distant ancestors, and to be aware of their interpretation of that experience. Professor James Small, 1945Present Other peoples opinion of you does not have to become your reality. Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else. Les Brown, 1945-Present When our young people know that there are no limits to their potential in the world of manufacturing, communication, physics, chemistry or the science of the human mind, then those same young Black minds, will recreate these fields of human endeavor with the same incomparability as on the basketball courts we create the athletic genius of Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson. Human beings are unable to be about the serious business of living and building societies if they feel compelled to always clown or entertain others. People do not take you seriously if you don't take yourself seriously. A sense of humor brings necessary balance to an organized life, but a life of humor blinds one to life. Dr. Naim Akbar, 1944-Present One important key to success is self confidence. An important key to self confidence is preparation. Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. My potential is more than can be expressed within the bounds of my race or ethnic identity. Arthur Ashe, 1943-1993

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Culture is to people as water is to fish, invisible, pervasive and essential. Professor Wade Nobles, 1943-Present Many people have serious academic degrees but cannot find a job, and sadly their degrees are so limited that they cannot even think about how to create a job for themselves. Haki R. Madhubuti, 1942Present He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life. If you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything. Champions arent made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision. Muhammad Ali, 1942-Present When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. Jimi Hendrix, 1942-1970 My fear was not of death itself, but a death without meaning. Huey P. Newton, 1942-1989 Small wonder our national spirit is husk empty. We have more information but less knowledge. More communication but less community. More goods but less goodwill. More of virtually everything save that which the human spirit requires. So distracted have we become sating this new need or that material appetite, we hardly noticed the departure of happiness. The most important office in a democracy is the office of citizen, and it is a responsibility we all have, but we cant practice this office until we become informed. Randall Robinson, 1941Present This racism is scattered, diffused throughout the whole of America, grim, underhanded, hypocritical, arrogant. There is one place where we might hop it would cease, but on the contrary, it is in this place that it reaches its cruelest pitch, intensifying every second, preying on body and soul, it is in this place that racism becomes a kind of concentrate of racism: in the American prisons. Men who have never received and have had little occasion to express the love theme or original goodness respond in a very significant manner to that real, spontaneous, gratuitous kindness. Those feelings that find no expression in desperate times store themselves up in great abundance, ripen, strengthen and strain the walls of their repository to the utmost; where the kindred spirit touches this wall it crumblesno one responds to kindness, no one is more sensitive to it than the desperate man. George Jackson, Soledad Brothers, 1941-1971 A man must be willing to die for justice. Death is an inescapable reality and men die daily, but good deeds live forever. Why does the Black man say, 'freedom is doing what I want to do!' and why is it that every thing he 'wants to do' enriches the European? When we get into social amnesia - into forgetting our history - we also forget or misinterpret the history and motives of others as well as our motives. The way to learn of our own creation, how we came to be what we are, is getting to know ourselves. It is through getting to know the self intimately that we get to know the forces that shaped us as a self. Therefore knowing the self becomes a knowledge of the world. A deep study of Black History is the most profound way to learn about the psychology of Europeans and to understand the psychology that flows from their history. Ultimately, intelligence must be defined in terms of the degree in which it solves YOUR PROBLEMS. The nature of education today prepares you to solve THEIR PROBLEMS and not your own. That's why you study THEIR books, you go to THEIR schools, you learn THEIR information, THEIR language, THEIR styles, THEIR perceptions, so when you come out of school you can do a humdinger of a job solving European problems, but you can't solve your own. And then you DARE call yourself "intelligent?C'mon. That's the height of stupidity. The African American community, especially, should vastly overhaul and reconstruct its educational orientation toward knowledge of the Motherland. It must realize that its own economic salvation is coterminous with or tied to that of Africa's. It must invest money and human resources in Africa's development and perceive its economic prosperity as its special responsibility and mission Dr. Amos Wilson, 1941-1995 The first need of a free people is to define their own terms. I knew that I could vote and that that wasn't a privilege; it was my right. Every time I tried I was shot, killed or jailed, beaten or economically deprived. Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael), 1941-1998 I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the odds.

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As I develop and serve, be patient. God is not finished with me yet. If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it. In many ways, history is marked as 'before' and 'after' Rosa Parks. She sat down in order that we all might stand up, and the walls of segregation came down. Reverend Jessie Louis Jackson, 1941-Present The only thing youre taking out of here is your spirit and your soul, so we need to be conscious to develop that part of ourselves, because were all spiritual creatures. Smokey Robinson, 1940-Present The last thing Dr. King said to me was, The next movement we will have is to institutionalize and internationalize nonviolence. Sometimes the psychological wounds you get from conditions (segregation, discrimination) takes longer to heal than the physical wounds. Some are permanently scarred by that. We are still getting the residual affects from their older sister and brothers and parents. We are moving towards a nonviolent society, and now we must develop the tools to make this possible. Dr. Bernard LaFayette, 1940-Present We should not go through this world without making it a better place because we were here. Martial Art Grandmaster James A. Jones, Jr., 1940Present Most blacks are unaware of the psychological trauma resulting from more than 350 years of racial oppression. Even in the so-called post-racial era African Americans still wrestle with the black inferiority complex in the face of white privilege. Media manipulation, propaganda and destructive societal norms have persuaded many that black men are unreliable and thus inferior. Black women and children have been taught that they are safer in white controlled environments. Stripped of all self-esteem, slaves clung to the one possession that always mystified, tantalized and angered whitestheir sexuality. Black females became sexual objects and black men Mandingo studs. Blackness and hyper-sexuality became inseparable concepts. Entertainers often promote depictions of blacks that are based on hyper-sexual violent, self-destructive and demeaning stereotypes that date back to slavery. These powerful media images are just as influential today as they were more than 350 years ago. White-on black injustice angers blacks more than black-on-black violence. We should be just as concerned about the injustices we heap on each other as we are with the negative way whites treat us. Before and after slavery, blacks were conditioned to believe that whites were mentally, morally and culturally superior. Due to media messaging, African slaves and their descendants have accepted this myth as truth. Woven into the black American experience is an abnormal embrace of inaccurate stereotypes created to justify slavery. Damage to our psyches, inherited from societal brainwashing, compels us to accept buffoonery and cling to anything that appeals to our emotions, lightens our mental pain and teaches us to laugh at our own denigration. Tom Burrell, 1939 Present If you cannot find peace within yourself, youll never find it anywhere else. Marvin Gaye, 1939-1984 Science is not something you have to go to a laboratory to do. Life is a lab. Walter E. Massey, 1938 -Present You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it. The essence of childhood is play. William Bill Cosby, 1937-Present I dont know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. The events which transpired five thousand years ago; Five years ago or five minutes ago, have determined what will happen five minutes from now; five years From now or five thousand years from now. All history is a current event. Whoever controls the images, controls your self-esteem, self-respect and self-development. Whoever controls the history, controls the vision. Dr. Leonard Jeffries, 1937-Present

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Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence. General Colin Powell, 1937-Present The new science of humaculture is a tool for reversing the effects of slavery by dismantling the culture that produces poverty, crime, racism, hatred and ineffective education. Dr. Nkosi Ajanaku, 1936 Present You don't fight racism with racism, the best way to fight racism is with solidarity. You can jail a revolutionary, but you cannot jail the revolution. "We don't hate nobody because of their color. We hate oppression! Bobby Seale, 1936-Present In a nuclear age we cant afford to be violent, we must be nonviolent. Dr. Otis Moss, Sr., 1935-Present Respect commands itself and can neither be given nor withheld when it is due. The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less. Eldridge Cleaver, 1935-1998 "You can not make yourself whole again by brooding one hundred percent of the time on the darkness of the world. We are the light of the world. Ivan Gladstone Van Sertima, 1935-2009 A man is either free or he is not. There cannot be any apprenticeship for freedom. Thought is more important than art. To revere art and have no understanding of the process that forces it into existence, is finally not even to understand what art is. Amiri Baraka, 1934 - Present I never doubted my ability, but when you hear all your life you're inferior, it makes you wonder if the other guys have something you've never seen before. If they do, I'm still looking for it. I'm hoping someday that some kid, black or white, will hit more home runs than myself. Whoever it is, I'd be pulling for him. Hank Aaron, 1934Present You must recognize that the way to get the good out of your brother and your sister is not to return evil for evil. If education doesnt bring out what God has put in you for his glory then youre not being properly educated. Education frees you to master yourself. Black leadership has to recognize that principles more than speech, character more than a claim, is greater in advancing the cause of our liberation than what has transpired thus far. Happiness comes when a person understands their purpose for existence and then they fulfill that purpose. And when one ful lls his or her purpose in life, the soul is satisfied. That soul has unspeakable joy. Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, 1933-Present Achieving excellence will clearly be a matter of will, not a matter of discovery. We must not bring shame on ourselves and upon our descendants. We must bring light to the world again. Asa G. Hillard, IIINana Baffour Amankwatia II, 1933-2007 Freedom is to move in our intellect to a greater vision, a greater purpose, to a greater responsibility until we are comfortable with ourselves in our life and in our purpose on this earth. "If we (Black America) become Independent Thinkers, we can make a contribution. "Man means mind and woman means the womb of mind Freedom is to move "in our intellect to a greater vision, a greater purpose, to a greater responsibility until we are comfortable with ourselves in our life and in our purpose on this earth. It's a natural requirement, the life of every human being that their intellect be liberated. Imam W. Deen Mohammed, 1933-2008 Violence is a tool of the ignorant. Flip Wilson, 1933-1998 Greatness occurs when your children love you, when your critics respect you and when you have peace of mind. Quincy Jones, 1933-Present

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If it wasn't for Abe Lincoln, I'd still be on the open market. Just being a Negro doesnt qualify you to understand the race situation any more than being sick makes you an expert on medicine. Civil Rights: What black folks are given in the U.S. on the installment plan, as in civil-rights bills. Not to be confused with human rights, which are the dignity, stature, humanity, respect, and freedom belonging to all people by right of their birth. Richard Dick Gregory, 1932-Present There is not enough magic in a bloodline to forge an instant, irrevocable bond. James Earl Jones, 1931-Present Don't judge yourself by others' standards, have your own. And don't get caught up in the trap of changing yourself to fit the world. The world has to change to fit you. And if you stick to your principles, values and morals long enough, it will. Berry Gordy, Jr. 1929-Present We must keep in mind that we are not yet 200 years out of slavery and that every effort has been made to destroy Black leadership. James R. Forman, 19282005 The Negro will make the gift (a transformed society) when he accepts himself completelyhis hair, his skin color, his nose formation, his emotions, his everything. A zest for life, a creative capacity for taking hard knocks and transcending them, is a way of life which can save a people who have lost the capacity to enjoy themselves and others because of a Faustian obsession with money and power. Lerone, Bennett, 1928Present The role of art isnt just to show life as it is, but to show life as it should be. Harry Belafonte, 1927-Present Everyday I find something creative to do with my life. Dont play whats there, play whats not there. Miles Davis, 1926-1991

My music is the spiritual expression of what I am my faith, my knowledge, my being When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hang-ups I want to speak to their souls. All a musician can do is to get closer to the source of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws. There is never any end. There are always new sounds to imagine. New feelings to get at. And always there is a need to keep purifying these needs and sounds so that we can really see what we've discovered in its pure state, so we can see more clearly what we are. In that way, we can give those who listen to the essence, the best of what we are . John Coltrane, 1926-1967 We proved that we could fly airplanes and do any other job that needed to be done in the military. We showed the whole concept of segregation is a farce. It's not the color of your skin that matters; it's your ability to do the job. Dr. John Driver, Tuskegee Airman, 1925 - 2007 We declare our right on this earth, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day. Our objective is complete freedom, justice and equality which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary. Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today. When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you hear a man saying he wants freedom, but in the next breath he is going to tell you what he won't do to get it, or what he doesn't believe in doing in order to get it, he doesn't believe in freedom. A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire, or preserve his freedom. You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his Freedom. El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X), 1925-1965 I decided in my life that I would do nothing that did not reflect positively on my father's life. Sidney Poitier, 1924-Present Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. James A. Baldwin, 1924-1987 It takes radical love to defeat radical evil. Reverend C. T. Vivian, 1924 - Present

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There is nothing noble in being superior to somebody else. The only real nobility is in being superior to your former self. Support the strong, give courage to the timid, remind the indifferent, and warn the opposed. Whitney M. Young, 1921-1971 If you pray for one thing, let it be for an idea. Percy Sutton, 19202009 I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born. Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line. Charlie Parker, 19201955 It is important for young people to be exposed to as many areas of learning as possible so that they can decide what they want to do. Dr. David Blackwell, 1919-2010 To succeed, one must be creative and persistent. Failure is a word I dont accept. Dream small dreams. If you make them too big, you get overwhelmed and you don't do anything. If you make small goals and accomplish them, it gives you the confidence to go on to higher goals. You spend so much time in your profession it ought to be something you love. John H. Johnson, 1919-1972 I may be helping to bring harmony between people through my music. Get me well so I can get on television and tell people to stop smoking. Nat King Cole, 1919-1965 Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life. You can kill a man but you can't kill an idea. A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. Jackie Robinson, 1919-1972 Dipped in chocolate, Bronzed with elegance, Enameled with grace, Toasted with beauty. My Lord, she is a Black Woman!

The absence of sex in Western thought shows that bankruptcy of the West. . . . At the same time, in every society, the religious teachings of that society start with a sex story because sex is the basis of man's life. Without sex there is no human life. . . . My mother and father, were it not for sex, could not have produced me. Thus I am the biological creature of sex and the Gods that made me are my mother and father. . . . As far as I'm concerned, the chamber of God is the woman's body. I relate everything back to her because through her, my race is. Dr. Yosef Ben Jochannan, 1918-Present I find in being black, a thing of beauty; a joy; a strength; a secret cup of gladness. Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change - it cannot only move us, it makes us move. Ossie Davis, 1917-2005 ...education has but one honorable purpose, everything else is a waste of time, that is to train the student to be a proper handler of power. You have to make a distinction between an organized religion and a spiritual way of life. You start building a nation by creating the things that are essential to your existence. Dr. John Henrik Clarke, 1915-1998

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When I discover who I am, Ill be free. Power doesnt have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting, self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it. American is woven of many strands. I would recognize them and let it so remain. Our fete is to become one, and yet many. This is not prophesy, but description. Ralph Ellison, 1914-1994 The battles that count are not the ones for the gold metals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles within all of us, thats where its at. Find the good. Its all around you. Find it, showcase it and youll start believing in it. We all have dreams, but in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort. Jessie Owens, 1913-1980 When I say I love Eastland, it sounds preposterous--a man who brutalizes people. But you "love him or you wouldn't be here. You're going to Mississippi to create social change--and you love Eastland in your desire to create conditions which will redeem his children. Loving your enemy is manifest in putting your arms not around the man but around the social situation, to take power from those who misuse it--at which point they can become human too Bayard Rustin, 1912-1987 The guy who takes a chance, who walks the line between the known and unknown, who is unafraid of failure, will succeed. Gordon Parks, 1912-Present "My own opinion was that blacks could best overcome racist attitudes through achievements, even though those achievements had to take place within the hateful environment of segregation." General Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr., 1912 - 2002 Violence is a personal necessity for the oppressed. It is not a strategy consciously devised. It is the deep, instinctive expression of a human being denied individuality. Richard N. Wright, 1908-1960 In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute. A good teacher must be able to put himself in the place of those who find learning hard. Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the poser to control mens minds. Today's Constitution is a realistic document of freedom only because of several corrective amendments. Those amendments speak to a sense of decency and fairness that I and other Blacks cherish. Jurist Thurgood Marshall, 1908-1993 Freedom is an internal achievement rather than an external adjustment. A man's respect for law and order exists in precise relationship to the size of his paycheck. In my preaching the shafts are ever aimed at the brainwashed horde. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, 1908-1972 No matter how hopeless the situation is, youve got to continue to struggle. You might lose, but if you dont struggle you certainly wont win. John G. Jackson, 1907-1993 Excellence of performance will transcend artificial barriers created by man. Dr. Charles Drew, 1904-1950 We must fight as a race for everything that makes for a better country and a better world. We are dreaming idiots and trusting fools to do anything less. Ralph Bunche, 1904-1971 Negro school is obsolete. The need today, is far greater. It is worldwide understanding based on the concept of brotherhood. Nowhere is there a university designed and equipped [so well] to make this ambitious aim a reality. Horace Mann Bond, 1904 1972

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I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes, but I laugh, and eat well, and grow strong. Tomorrow, I'll be at the table when company comes. Nobody'll dare say to me, "Eat in the kitchen, then. besides, They'll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed I, too, am America. Langston Hughes, 1902-1967 What we play is life. We all do 'do, re, mi,' but you have got to find the other notes yourself.

There is no such thing as 'on the way out' as long as you are still doing something interesting and good; you're in the business because you're breathing Louis Armstrong, 1901 - 1971 The talk of winning our share is not the easy one of disengagement and flight, but the hard one of work, of short as well as long jumps, of disappointments, and of sweet success. Roy Wilkins, 1901-1981 Idealism is like a castle in the air if it is not based on a solid foundation of social and political realism. If a man is not faithful to his own individuality, he cannot be loyal to anything. I feel that my own good country robbed me of the chance for some of the great experiences that I would have liked to live through. I would forever fight to keep hope alive. Percy Levon Julian, 1899 -1975 We must join with the tens of millions all over the world who see in peace our most sacred responsibility. Through my singing, acting and speaking, I want to make freedom ring. Maybe I can touch peoples hearts better than I can their minds, with the common struggle of the common man. To be free, to walk the good American earth as equal citizens, to live without fear, to enjoy the fruits of our toil, to give our children every opportunity in lifethat dream which we have held so long in our hearts is today the destiny that we hold in our hands. Paul Robeson, 1898-1976 The lack of knowledge of self is a prevailing condition among my people here in America. Gaining the knowledge of self makes us unite into a great unity. Knowledge of self makes you take on the great virtue of learning. Mere belief counts for nothing unless carried into practice. A nation can rise no higher than its woman. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, 1897-1975 I encourage young Black undergraduates to pursue mathematic studies at the graduate level. Dr. Elbert F. Cox, 1895 - 1969 At best, race is a superstition. What seems to have escaped the generality of writers and commentators is that all three forms of government are identical in having regimented life from top to bottom, in having ruthlessly suppressed freedom of speech, assembly, press and thought, and in being controlled by politicians. The politician being the only class in society that is charlatan enough to offer a cure for everything if elected to office. On the horizon loom a growing number of iconoclasts and Atheists, young black men and women who can read, think, and ask questions, and who impertinently demand to know why Negroes should revere a God who permits them to be lynched, Jim-crowed and disfranchised. George S. Schuyler, 1895 - 1977 Every man and woman is born into the world to do something unique and something distinctive and if he or she does not do it, it will never be done. The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not disgrace to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim, is a sin. He who starts behind in the great rice of life must forever remain behind or run faster that the man in front. Benjamin E. Mays, 1894-1984

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Rules For Living

1. Save a part of all you earn and pay yourself first. 2. Establish a reputation at a bank. Save at an established institution and borrow there. Stay away from loan sharks. 3. Take no chances with your money. A man who can't afford to lose has no business gambling. 4. Never borrow anything that, if forced to it, you cant pay back. 5. Don't get bigheaded with the little fellows. 6. Don't have so much pride. 7. Find a need and fill it. Successful businesses are founded on the needs of the people. 8. Stay in your own class. Never run around with people you can't compete with. 9. Once you get money people will give you money. 10. Once you reach a certain bracket, it is very difficult not to make more money. Money is no good unless it contributes something to the community, unless it builds a bridge to a better life. Any man can make money, but it takes a special kind of man to use it responsibly. When you get you a good wife, you love her. A.G. Gaston, 1892-1996 The Negro people of America have cut our forests, tilled our fields, built our railroads, fought our battles, and in all of their trials they have manifested a simple faith, a grateful heart, a cheerful spirit, and an undivided loyalty. Now they have come to the place where their faith can no longer feed on the bread of repression and violence. They ask for the bread of liberty, of public equality, and public responsibility. It must not be denied them. I know the dark delight of being strange. The penalty of difference in the crowd. The loneliness of wisdom among fools . . . If a man is not faithful to his own individuality, he cannot be loyal to anything. If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed in vain; then even the monsters we defy. Shall be constrained to honor us though dead! Claude McKay, 1890-1948 Western civilization, Christianity, decency are struggling for their very lives. In this worldwide civil war, race prejudice is our most dangerous enemy, for it is a disease at the very root of our democratic life. Dr. Mordecai Johnson, 1890 1976 A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess. Justice is never given; it is exacted and the struggle must be continuous for freedom is never a final fact, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political and religious relationship. A. Philip Randolph, 1889-1979 Up, you mighty race, accomplish what you will. Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men. God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God be our limit and eternity our measurement. When God breathed into the nostrils of man the breath of life, He made him a living soul, and bestowed upon him the authority of "Lord of Creation.He never intended that an individual should descend to the level of a peon, a serf, or a slave, but that he should be always man in the fullest possession of his senses and with the truest knowledge of himself. The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself but the ends you serve that are for all, in common, will take you into eternity. A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots. Marcus Garvey, 1887-1940 For generations the Negro has been the peasant matrix of that section of America which has most undervalued him, and here he has contributed not only materially in labor and in social patience, but spiritually as well. The South has unconsciously absorbed the gift of his folktemperament. In less than half a generation it will be easier to recognize this, but the fact remains that a leaven of humor, sentiment, imagination and tropic nonchalance has gone into the making of the South from a humble, unacknowledged source. Alain Locke, 1886 - 1954 Life is spent to build the temple of perfected man. Uplift fallen humanity through the five divine principles of Love, Truth, Peace, Freedom and Justice. Money does not make the man and clothes do not make the man. It is character and free national standards that make the man. Noble Drew Ali, Moorish Science Temple of America, 1886-1929

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Negro authors, once they free their art of the necessity of furnishing the means of life, will drop the stereotypes into limbo with the assurance that real art will finally create in their readers a demand for honest treatment of every gradation of Negro life. Show me a population that is deeply religious, and I will show you a servile population, content with whips and chains, contumely and the gibbet, content to eat the bread of sorrow and drink the waters of affliction. Take up the Black Man's burden--Send forth the worst ye breed, And bind our sons in shackles To serve your selfish greed; To wait in heavy harness Be-deviled and beguiled Until the Fates remove you From a world you have defiled. Take up the black Man's burden--Your lies may still abide To veil the threat of terror And check our racial pride; Your cannon, church and courthouse May still our sons constrain To seek the white man's profit And work the white man's gain. Take up the Black Man's burden--Reach out and hog the earth, And leave your workers hungry In the country of their birth; Then, when your goal is nearest, The end for which you fought Watch other's trained efficiency Bring all your hope to naught. Take up the Black Man's burden--Reduce their chiefs and kings To toil of serf and sweeper The lot of common things: Sodden their soil with slaughter, Ravish their lands with lead; Go, sign them with your living And seal them with your dead. Take up the Black Man's burden--And reap your old reward; The curse of those ye cozen, The hate of those ye barred From your Canadian cities And your Australian ports; And when they ask for meat and drink Go, girdle them with forts. Take up the Black Man's burden--Ye cannot stoop to less. Will not your fraud of "freedom" Still cloak your greediness? But, by the gods ye worship, And by the deeds ye do, These silent, sullen peoples Shall weigh your gods and you. Take up the Black Man's burden--Until the tail is told, Until the balances of hate Bear down the beam of gold. And while ye wait remember The justice, though delayed Will hold you as her debtor Till the Black Man's debt is paid. Hubert H. Harrison, 1883-1927

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To enslave a man, then dope him to make him content! Do you call THAT a solace? . . . The honest fact is that the greatest hindrance to the progress of the Negro is that same dope that was shot into him during slavery. . . . The slogan of the Negro devotee is: Take the world but give me Jesus, and the white man strikes an eager bargain with him. . . . Another fact is there are far too many Negro preachers. Religion is the most fruitful medium for exploiting this already exploited group. Ethiopians, that is, Negroes, gave the world the first idea of right and wrong and thus laid the basis of religion and all true culture and civilization. The doctrine of inequality is emphatically a science of white people. It is they who invented it. J. A. Rogers, 1880 - 1966 Love is the answer At least for most of the questions in my heart Why are we here and where do we go And how come it's so hard It's not always easy and sometimes life can be deceiving I'll tell you one thing It's always better when we're together. Jack Johnson, 1878-1946 "If you can be the best, then why not try to be the best. Garrett Morgan, 1877 - 1963 The educational system of a country is worthless unless it revolutionizes the social order. Philosophers have long conceded, however, that every man has two educators: 'that which is given to him, and the other that which he gives himself. Indeed all that is most worthy in man he must work out and conquer for himself. It is that which constitutes our real and best nourishment. What we are merely taught seldom nourishes the mind like that which we teach ourselves. It may be well to repeat here the saying that old men talk of what they have done, young men of what they are doing, and fools of what they expect to do. The Negro race has a rather large share of the last mentioned class. The confidence of the people is worth more than money. Carter G. Woodson, 1875-1950 I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, when his wing is bruised and his bosom sore; when he beats his bars and he would be free, it is not a carol of joy or glee, but a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core. The Lord had a job for me, but I had so much to do, I said, "You get somebody else--or wait till I get through.I don't know how the Lord came out, but He seemed to get along: But I felt kinda sneakin' like, 'cause I know'd I done Him wrong. One day I needed the Lord--Needed Him myself--needed Him right away, And He never answered me at all, but I could hear Him say Down in my accusin' heart, "Nigger, I'se got too much to do, You get somebody else or wait till I get through. Paul Lawrence Dunbar, 1872-1906 My friends made fun of me, they thought it was foolish of me to anticipate success in a field in which so many men before me had failed, but I went on fighting the opposition of my adversaries and the indifference of my friends, and I emerged victorious but battle-scarred. No greater glory, no greater honor, is the lot of man departing than a feeling possessed deep in his heart that the world is a better place for his having lived. Robert Sengstacke Abbott, 1870-1940 Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime. The power of the ballot we need in sheer defense, else what shall save us from a second slavery? Playing the man included a resolve to stand straight, look the world squarely in the eye, and walk to my work with no shuffle or slouch to refuse to cringe in body or in soul, to resent deliberate insult, and assert my just rights in the face of wanton aggression. W. E. DuBois, 1868-1963 As I stood there on the top of the world and I thought of the hundreds of men who had lost their lives in the effort to reach it [North Pole], I felt profoundly grateful that I had the honor of representing my race. I think I'm the first man to sit on top of the world. Matthew Henson, 1866 1955

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Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater. Since new developments are the products of a creative mind, we must therefore stimulate and encourage that type of mind in ever way possible. When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world. When I was young, I said to God, God, tell me the mystery of the universe.But God answered, that knowledge is for me alone. So I said, God, tell me the mystery of the peanut.Then God said, well, George, that's more nearly your size. Dr. George Washington Carver, 1864-1943 Anything is possible, when it is done in love, and everything you can do should be in love or it will fail. Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, 1856-1931 The highest test of the civilization of any race is in its willingness to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate. Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company. One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him. Booker T. Washington, 1856-1915 I believe I can do anything if I try. Granville T. Woods, 1856 - 1910 "I do not care how dark the night; I believe in the coming of the morning. Dr. Joseph Charles Price 1854-1893 He said little if anything to us. Off the record, he said everything that ever was of value or worth. Courage, dignity, endurance, integrity, intelligence. It is difficult to imagine a priority of human values which he did not demonstrate, and all under the circumstances configured to suppress and devalue. Edward Bouchet, First African American Doctorate , 1852-1918 It is rather hard to be accused of shiftlessness and idleness when the accuser closes the avenue of labor and industrial pursuits to us. It is an undisputed fact that the negro vote in the State of Alabama, as well as most of the other Southern States, have been effectively suppressed, either one way or the other--in some instances by constitutional amendment and State legislation, in others by cold-blooded fraud and intimidation, but whatever the method pursued, it is not denied, but frankly admitted in the speeches in this House, that the black vote has been eliminated to a large extent. George Henry White, 1852 1918 Ebon Venus Let others boast of maidens fair of eyes of blue and golden hair! My heart like need is ever true turns to the maid of ebon hue. I love her form of matchless grace. the dark brown beauty of her face. Her lips that speak of loved delight Her eyes that gleam as stars at night. Oer Venus let them rage, Who sets the fashion of the age; Each to his taste, but as for me, My Venus shall be ebony. Lewis Latimer, 1848-1928 It is our hope and expectation that there will rise up men, aided by institution and culture, imbued with public spirit, who will know how to live and work and prosperhow to use all favoring outward conditions, how to triumph by intelligence, by tact, by industry, by perseverance, over the indifference of their own people, and how to overcome the scorn and opposition of the enemies of the race It is sad to think that there are some Africans, especially among those who have enjoyed the advantages of foreign training, who are blind enough to the radical facts of humanity as to say, Let us do away with our African personality and be lost, if possible, in another race. Preach this doctrine as much as you like, no one will do it, for no one can do it, for when you have done away with your personality, you have done away with yourselves. Your place has been assigned you in the universe as Africans, and there is no room for you as anything else. SOME OF THE ELEMENTS OF A GENUINE AND PERMANENT PROGRESS. FIRST. There must be the desire for better. This desire implies a recognition of imperfection-- a knowledge of deficiency. It is unnecessary to point out that all the backwardness everywhere, in all departments of life, and among all peoples, is owing, as a rule, to lack of desire for improvement. SECOND. The desire will avail nothing, if there be no movement. When the prodigal son came to himself, realized that is, his condition, and the intense desire for a better state of things was awakened in his soul, he said, I will arise and go to my father, and he arose and went. There is

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little use in the most ardent prayers, and even in the exceeding bitter cry, if there is no movement. THIRD and an essential element of permanent progress is righteousness. Movement on the wrong course is worse than standing still. There is a general righteousness and specific righteousness. There is a righteousness for a business man- not merely a spiritual righteousness, but what might be called a temporal or a secular righteousness or rightness. The successful man of business is he who is endowed with certain peculiar gifts - a sense of order, of the value of time, a presence of mind in difficulty, a power of seeing the thing to be done at the proper time, insight into the relations of different kinds of wealth. These are the qualities which have filled this land and Europe with the magnates of riches. This is a bettering of the outward conditions. But the elements of usefulness and permanence are lacking where the man of money has no proper idea of his possessions, when he uses them only for himself - only to get on - only to push forward his family or his friends: with no larger aim for the interests of the community and when he has advanced in years he will have wearied old age, magnificence and splendor in his outward surroundings, but no largeness of heart-- forgotten, and justly forgotten, the day after his death. When the orator says that to the Caucasian race humanity is indebted for religion, for literature, for civilization, he is speaking with the inexactness not of the historian, but of the politician. Everybody knows that the basis of the civilization and literature of present day was on the Nile and not among the Caucasian race - not on the Ilissus, the Tiber, the Rhine or the Thames, but on the rivers of Ethiopia. There were only two steps between Egypt and modern Europe - Greece and Rome. Greece took not only civilization and literature but even religion from Ethiopia. Such were the wonderful developments of civilization and literature and religion in that country, that the early poets and historians of Greece, unable to understand such marvelous indigenous growth attributed it to the direct interference of the gods, who they affirm went every year to feast with the Ethiopians. To those who are just entering life; upon whom the freshness and joy of youth still rest, I would say, life is fleeting and it is hardly worth while to follow anything but that which makes for the up building of humanity. Fill your life with love and righteousness, with meekness and peacemaking, with humbleness of heart, with faithful work for God and man. Edward Wilmot Blyden, 1832-1912 If you want the civilization of a people to reach the very best elements of their being, and then, having reached them, there to abide, as an indigenous principle, you must imbue the womanhood of that people with all its elements and qualities. Any movement which passes by the female sex is an ephemeral thing. Without them, no true nationality, patriotism, religion, cultivation, family life, or true social status is a possibility. In this matter it takes two to make one-mankind is a duality. The male may bring, as an exotic, a foreign graft, say of a civilization, to a new people. But what then? Can a graft live or thrive of itself? By no manner of means. It must get vitality from the stock into which it is put; and it is the women who gives the sap to every human organization which thrives and flourishes on earth. Let our posterity know that we their ancestors, uncultured and unlearned, amid all trials and temptations, were men of integrity. Those too impressed with material things cannot hold their place n the world of culture; they are relegated to inferiority and ultimate death. Strive to make something of yourself; then strive to make the most of yourself. Rev. Alexander Crummell, 1819-1898 I thank my God, that through a long life of hardship and adversity, I have ever been free in both mind and body: and have always raised my voice on behalf of my enslaved countrymen. Reverend Robert Wedderburn, 1762-1835 I was born a slave, but nature gave me the soul of a free man. Toussaint L'Ouverture, 1743-1803 Presumption should never make us neglect that which appears easy to us, nor despair make us lose courage at the sight of difficulties. I am of the African race, and in the color which is natural to them of the deepest dye; and it is under a sense of the most profound gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. The color of the skin is in no way connected with strength of the mind or intellectual power. Benjamin Banneker, 1731- 1806 Those of you who can read I must beg you to read the Bible, and whenever you can get time, study the Bible, and if you can get no other time, spare some of your time from sleep, and learn what the mind and will of God is. Jupiter Hammon, 1711 1806 We have designed a beautiful book entitled Inspirational & Wisdom Says of African American Men. It is available online at http://lulu.com

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YOUTH BILL OF RIGHTS

For parents, teachers and other adults.
1. 2. Stand by me, not over me. Give me the feeling that I am not alone in the world, and that I can always count on you when I am in trouble. Make me feel that I am loved and wanted. I want to love you, not as a duty, but because you love me, and I thus learn what love is. Make me a priority in your life and schedule outings and activities that I can share and that I can enrich my life by. Educate me by being affectionately firm. You really will achieve more with me through patient teaching than by punishment or preaching. Say "no "when you feel you must, but explain your rules, dont merely impose them. Most of all be consistent and not wishy washy. If you are confused about what you want from me, why shouldnt I be confused about what I give you. Bring me up so that I will not always need you. Teach me how to take on responsibility and become independent of you. I will learn faster and better if you will let me question you, your ideas and your standards. I want a chance to prove what I can do as soon as I am ready to give proof. Don't hold me back by a false love that over-protects and paralyzes. Don't act shocked when I do things I should not. It is going to take me time to learn how to grow into life properly. All of Gods children have problems. That doesnt mean were all problem children. Don't treat me like I am inferior. I doubt ourselves enough without your confirmation. Predicting failure wont help us to succeed. We need support, nurturing and encouragement from you. Say "Nice Work "when I do something really well. Don't hold back the praise when I deserve it. Thats the way to spur us on. Show respect for my wishes even if you disagree with them. You teach respect, when you give respect. Respect for you will flow naturally from your respect for me. "What you are, speaks louder than your words." Get the slave out of you. Slavery has lasted long enough. It has destroyed families, communities and nations. This culture of master and slave is antiquated and a dead-end system of dysfunctional relationships. It is predicated on fear of scarcity and the illusion that we can control others when we cant control one cell of our own body. Transform your fears into love, and take the time to eradicate the slave. I represent freedom. Don't impose your slave mentality and systems on me. Its time for a change. See Ajanaku Basic Research. Give direct answers to direct questions. Don't give me more than I ask for or can understand. When you don't know, say so, but find someone who does know, so that my question can be answered. Sometimes I run into serious emotional difficulties. Should that happen, obtain professional counseling for me. It isnt always easy for me to understand myself or know just what I need. Thats why there are specialist in personal adjustment and vocational selection. Treat me as a person in my own right. Children are people, not carbon copies of grown-ups. Treat all young people in your care fairly; that is, as of equal value to yourself. That is how I will learn to respect the rights of other people and to treat them fairly. If I reject your religion, be sure to teach me principles. You can teach me to be a good person by instilling principles in me. Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you, "is a principle that permeates all religions, as do love, truth, justice, peace, and principles can be taught in public schools. Make me feel that our home belongs to me. I am at least as important as the furniture. Don't protect "things "at my expense by making me feel like an intruding bull in a china shop. Don't laugh at me when I use the word "love.The need to love and be loved starts early (and never ends.) Help me to develop a healthy self-esteem, so that I love myself, and thus magnetize genuine love to me for a healthy partnership. Treat me as junior partners in the firm. Democracy starts at home. If you want me to be a worthy successor to you, take me into your confidence, and let me help manage our family, school and community. Decisions that will affect our whole future should be made with me, not for me. I should at least be heard as to the kind of future I want. Make yourself an adult fit for a child to live with. Prove to me "it isnt so "that parents are the worst persons in the world to have offspring, or that teachers are precisely the people least-suited to teach. Show me that home and school are not simply places where young people learn how to get along with disagreeable adults. I am a gift to the world. Prepare me to lead my life, not yours. Find out what I aspire and am capable of doing and being. Dont force me beyond my capacity or make me become what you want me to become. Help me set realistic goals and successfully achieve them. School should be a place that instills a love of learning and a healthy lifestyle. Loading me with homework so that I don't have a life outside of school makes me hate learning and school. Making me sit for hours in school, acclimates me to a sedentary lifestyle that is against my health, because it leads to heart disease. Movement is natural and not hyperactivity. I dont need drugs to sedate me, I need people who know my authentic needs, protect my health, facilitate my interest and protect my rights. Are you listening? Help me develop financial independence and stability. Teach me a work ethic and how to earn and use money wisely and set financial goals. I need a career, a profession and institutional development skills. The Nonviolent Right To Vote Movement Almanac Available at: lulu.com 531

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21. Show interest in what I am doing. Even though by your standards my activities may not be important or interesting, don't reduce them in my eye by your indifference. 22. Let me make my own mistakes. To make wise decisions takes experience. That means I have to try somethings for myself. I can only learn from my own action not yours. 23. Learn to understand me from my point of view. Your perspective is just that, yours. Remember the saying, walk a mile in another shoes. Apply that to me. I am not you so learn to empathize with me. 24. Teach me to know myself first. Know Thyself! Help me to gain self-knowledge so that I can know others. 25. Don't treat me like adults only when I break the law. As a child I learn from adults. I have no determination of whom or where, I grow up or what values I am taught. If I am taught to be a criminal, give me the necessary healing therapies to help me overcome my ills. I am a child and I don't have the right-to-vote and elect judges, and other public officials, so why treat me like an adult only when I break the law? 26. Learn how to communicate and listen. Listening is a art that facilitates communication rather than arguments. Communication is a science and has rules. Teach me to do more than just talk. My words should reflect intelligence, meaning and purposeful living. 27. I need both of my parents. Don't let your disagreements interfere with my relationships with each of you. Your problems are just that, your problems, don't use me to punish each another. 28. Change those institutions that no longer work in my interest. Don't be so stuck on the way things were, that you cant change institutions that fail me. My generation is different from yours so create institutions that fulfill my needs, protect my rights, facilitate and maintain my health and foster my interest. 29. When you are emotionally or mentally ill, get help. Don't allow your inferior feelings to make you operate from a supremist point of view (Im right because I pay the bills, am older, male, my mother, etc.) Be willing to at least examine the possibility of youre being incorrect, and gain the courage to correct yourself. Learn EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) www.emofree.com 30. Don't assume that you know what I am doing or being. Ask questions, get answers and then come to your conclusion, based on facts. 31. Love means discipline. Don't let your guilt for not having planned my birth, be the reason you let me run wild. I need you to discipline me as a child, so that others who have no love or commitment to me will not harm me later in life. Let your discipline be just, loving and reasonable. 32. Don't be afraid to admit when you are wrong. Perfection comes with correcting error, so don't act like you are always right and look down on me. So be perfect in correcting your errors. 33. I need fun and companionship. Help me share my interests and happy feelings with groups of friends. Give me time to be with them and make them welcome when they come to visit. 34. Learn how to be a good parent. Parenting does not come naturally, so take the time to learn to be a successful parent by taking classes. 35. Don't be toxic to me, by perpetuating your fears and lies. If you are afraid of bugs, snakes, dogs, people, etc., have the courage to admit that you are fearful and that their is not something wrong with the thing you fear but with you, and seek the knowledge you need to overcome your fear. "Fear is the abandonment of the supports offered by reason.Book of Wisdom This way I can grow up with my natural curiosity and desire to learn intact. 36. TV is not an adequate substitute for good parenting. Too much TV, like too much of anything (except love) is a detriment. The library is a much better resource. Also activities that allow me to exercise my body and release energy. 37. End the "pecking order.The pecking order is an animalistic means for defining value, based on adopting an animal social structure. As a child, I am always at the bottom of your pecking order and that sets me up to be a bully or bullied. Learn nonviolence and commit to developing I-Thou relationships based on equality, where everyone is valued and deserving of respect, and justice. 38. Don't make me ashamed of my natural sexual feelings. Sex is natural. Teach me by precept and example how to maintain sexual integrity in harmony with the true purpose of sex. Help me to understand and develop a healthy sexual attitude grounded in love, self-respect and healthy self-esteem. Protect me from sexually perverted people who would destroy my innocence and development. 39. I need a functional home. A house is not a home. A home is an incubator for the development of healthy individuals. Home is a principled institution founded on the science of biology, love and goodwill. Take the time to invest in its development for it is the foundation of all sane societies. 40. Your and previous generations social, relationship and environmental grade is an F. You have failed at developing a healthy functional society. You have failed at developing loving relationships. You have failed at maintaining a healthy and balanced ecology. What are you going to do about this? Business as usual is not acceptable. You have to change your foolish ways, now! 41. Fertility Literacy Education is of paramount importance. Provide me with an education that begins with the science of how I got here and how to get others here. Primary choices can only be made when I have knowledge. I don't have to be in a position where I have to react to a failure to plan conception when I am fertility literate. 2006 SHE www.lunaqueen.angelfire.com

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AN APPEAL FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ONE

We, the students of the six affiliated institutions forming the Atlanta University Center Clark, Morehouse, Morris Brown, and Spelman Colleges, Atlanta University, and the Interdenominational Theological Center have joined our hearts, minds, and bodies in the cause of gaining those rights which are inherently ours as of the human race and as citizens these United States. We pledge our unqualified support to those students in this nation who have recently been engaged in the significant movement to secure certain long-awaited rights and privileges. This protest, like the bus boycott in Montgomery, has shocked many people throughout the world. Why. Because they had not quite realized the unanimity of spirit and purpose which motivates the thinking and action of the great majority of the Negro people. The students who instigate and participate in these sit-down protests are dissatisfied, not only with the existing conditions, but with the snail-like speed at which they are being ameliorated. Every normal being wants to walk the earth with dignity and abhors any and all proscriptions placed upon him because of race or color. In essence, this is the meaning of the sit-down protests that are sweeping this nation today. We do not intend to wait placidly for those which are already legally and morally ours to be meted out to us at a time. Today's youth will not sit by submissively, while being denied all of the rights, privileges, and joys of life. We want to state clearly and unequivocally that we cannot tolerate in a nation professing democracy and among people professing democracy, and among people professing Christianity, the discriminatory conditions under which the Negro is living today in Atlanta Georgia supposedly one the most progressive cities in the South. Among the inequalities and injustices in Atlanta and in Georgia against which we protest, the following are outstanding examples: (1) EDUCATION: In the Public School System, facilities for Negroes and whites are separate and unequal, Double sessions continue in about half of the Negro Public Schools, and many Negro children travel ten miles a day in order to reach a school that will admit them. On the University level, the state will pay a Negro to attend a school out of state rather than admit him to the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, the Georgia Medical School, and other tax-supported public institutions. According to a recent publication, in the fiscal year 1958 a total of $31,632,057.18 was spent in the State institutions of higher education for white only. In the Negro State Colleges only $2,001,177.06 was spent. The publicly supported institutions of higher education are inter-racial now, except that they deny admission to Negro Americans. (2) JOBS: Negroes are denied employment in the majority of city, state, and federal governmental jobs, except in the most menial capacities. (3) HOUSING: While Negroes constitute 32% of the population of Atlanta, they are forced to live within 16% of the area the city. Statistics also show that the bulk of the Negro population is still: a. locked into the more undesirable and overcrowded areas of the city; b. paying a proportionally higher percentage of income for rental and purchase of generally lower quality property; c. blocked by political and direct or indirect restrictions in its efforts to secure better housing. (4) VOTING: Contrary to statements made in Congress by several Southern Senators, we know that in many counties in Georgia and other southern states, Negro college graduates are declared unqualified to vote and are not to register, (5) HOSPITALS: Compared with facilities for other people in Atlanta and Georgia, those for Negroes are unequal and totally inadequate. Reports show that Atlanta's 14 general hospitals and 9 related institutions provide some 4,000 beds. Except for some 430 beds at Grady Hospital, Negroes are limited to the 250 beds in three private Negro hospitals. Some of the hospitals barring Negroes were built with federal funds.
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(6) MOVIES, CONCERTS, RESTAURANTS: Negroes are barred from most movies and segregated in the rest. Negroes must even sit in a segregated section of the Municipal Auditorium. If a Negro is hungry, his hunger must wait until he comes to a "colored "restaurant, and even his thirst must await its quenching at a "colored "water fountain. (7) LAW ENFORCEMENT: There are grave inequalities in the area of law enforcement. Too often, Negroes are maltreated by officers of the law. An insufficient number of Negroes is employed in the law-enforcing agencies. They are seldom, if ever promoted. Of 830 policemen in Atlanta only 35 are Negroes. We have briefly mentioned only a few situations in which we are discriminated against. We have understated rather than overstated the problems. These social evils are seriously plaguing Georgia, the South, the nation, and the world. WE HOLD THAT: (1) The practice of racial segregation is not in keeping with the ideals of Democracy and Christianity. (2) Racial segregation is robbing not only the segregated but the segregator of his human dignity. Furthermore, the propagation racial prejudice is unfair to the generations yet unborn. (3) In times of war, the Negro has fought and died for his country; yet he still has not been accorded first-class citizenship. (4) In spite of the fact that the Negro pays his share of taxes, he does not enjoy participation in city, county and state government at the level where laws are enacted. (5) The social, economic, and political progress of Georgia is retarded by segregation and prejudices. (6) America is fast losing the respect of other nations by the poor example which she sets the area of race relations. It is unfortunate that Negro is being forced to fight, in any way, for what is due him and is freely accorded other Americans, It is unfortunate that even today some people should hold to the erroneous idea of racial despite the fact that the world is fast moving toward an integrated humanity. The time has come for the people of Atlanta and Georgia to take a good look at what is really happening in this country, and to stop believing those who tell us that everything is fine and equal, and that the Negro is happy satisfied. It is to be regretted that there are those who still refuse to recognize the over-riding supremacy of the Federal Law. Our churches which are ordained by God and claim to be the houses of all people, foster segregation of the races to the point of making Sunday the most segregated day of the week. We, the students of the Atlanta University Center, are driven by past and present events to assert our feelings to the citizens of Atlanta and to the world. We, therefore, call upon all people in authority State, County, and City officials; all leaders in civic life ministers, teachers, and business men; and all people of good will to assort themselves and abolish these injustices. We must say in all candor that we plan to use every legal and non-violent means at our disposal to secure full citizenship rights as members of this great Democracy of ours.
LONNIE C. KING, JR. WILLIE MAYS President of Council For the Students of Atlanta University JAMES FELDER President of Student Government Association For the Students of Clark College MARION D. BENNETT President of Student Association For the Students of Interdenominational Theological Center DON CLARKE President of Student Body For the Students of Morehouse College MARY ANN SMITH Secretary of Student Government Association For the Students of Morris Brown College ROSLYN POPE President of Student Government Association For the Students of Spelman College

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