I've Got The Music In Me...

                                                   “What we play is life.” –Louis Armstrong

“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 to art.” 

                                                            –Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker

“They hear it come out, but they don't know how it got there. They don't understand that's life's way of talking. You don't sing to feel better. You sing 'cause that's a way of understanding life.”

                                                                       –Ma Rainey

http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/guides/black_music_history_timeline.cfm - Black on Track~Charting African-American Music History

There are four core types of African-American music: gospel, blues, jazz and soul music:

Gospel music includes religious hymns that slaves began singing in the fields as they worked to help them pass the time and cope with their living conditions; 

Blues coupled the religious story-telling of gospel to the primal rhythms of drums and guitars – hence the reference of R&B music.  Early blues began in the south near the Mississippi delta, but was taken to different parts of the country by African-Americans who were seeking to escape racism and the poverty of the south;

Jazz is a uniquely American form of music that came to prominence around the turn of the 20th century, some argue earlier, and has it roots in the African-American communities of the South.  

Soul music is a combination of various elements of all three of the above types. 

Music is the universal language. It is calming, soothing, restorative, and comforting.  We use music for both joyous and solemn occasions – to celebrate; to mourn; to worship or just to relax.  As we continue to celebrate Black History Month, I have included on this entry those pieces of music which nurture my soul — ease a troubled day — heal a broken spirit — elevate a happy heart and just make me smile.  I hope you enjoy each selection.

http://youtu.be/EfGDvDGE7zk - Oh Happy Day! - The Edwin Hawkins Singers
http://youtu.be/lmGiu9JfbIs - Soon And Very Soon - Andrae Crouch
http://youtu.be/hAi34inTwjU - His Eye Is On the Sparrow - Shirley Caesar
http://youtu.be/ODmHMKfD_iY - Great Is Your Mercy - Donnie McClurkin
http://youtu.be/as1rsZenwNc - Precious Lord Take My Hand - Mahalia Jackson
http://youtu.be/w1GvAJjMS20 - Through It All - BeBe Winans
http://youtu.be/cGWHxgG0FA4 - John Lee Hooker - Please Don't Go
http://youtu.be/NvYmL5KsvYA - Mr. Bojangles - Sammy Davis, Jr.
http://youtu.be/esrihJQRiwM - At Last - Etta James
http://youtu.be/fsjFi4KkOZc - Mustang Sally - Wilson Pickett
http://youtu.be/SDkjHsuOuLc - Yesterday When I Was Young - Lena Horne
http://youtu.be/qkXYqUB-9NM - Every Time We Say Goodbye - Ray Charles & Betty Carter
http://youtu.be/9gytJemzNTM - Lonesome Valley - Mississippi John Hurt
http://youtu.be/ZOTTYTGv22k See See Rider Blues - Ma Rainey
http://youtu.be/fcAmwCnAChk - I'm a Man - Muddy Waters
http://youtu.be/Kh3XOl_G_qE - Good Times - Phoebe Snow
http://youtu.be/QRefymu_Nj8 - God Bless The Child - Whitney Houston
http://youtu.be/cT1YTkl0-NY - John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman - My One & Only Love
http://youtu.be/_l9V_AmB2b0 - My Lucille - B. B. King
http://youtu.be/XodEFGIObsk - Someone To Watch Over Me - Nancy Wilson
http://youtu.be/DYIqxDfg2bQ - Sweet Soul Music - Arthur Conley
http://youtu.be/dwyr40YbnWY - My Funny Valentine - Sarah Vaughan
http://youtu.be/JB2X5dfeTA4 - All Of Me - Count Basie
http://youtu.be/CI779D2tLyk - Cry Me a River - Ella Fitzgerald
http://youtu.be/zqNTltOGh5c - So What - Miles Davis
http://youtu.be/vg14HPuXLOU - After All - Al Jarreau
http://youtu.be/_eXO7hrq2AY - Absolutely Live - George Benson
http://youtu.be/CiVDzTT4CbE - Wild As The Wind - Nina Simone
http://youtu.be/UTORd2Y_X6U - All The Things You Are - Charlie "Bird" Parker
http://youtu.be/6zW_59nFO9U - Wishful Thinking - Earl Klugh [Discovered Him in college ♥♥♥]
http://youtu.be/6BvL-i--8Ws - C'est Si Bon - Eartha Kitt
http://youtu.be/AcwYEGdKto8 - You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine - Lou Rawls
http://youtu.be/ohW1RX0AA3U - Back On The Block - Quincy Jones [Full Album]
http://youtu.be/w6DQavhJUrk - No Ordinary Love - Sade
http://youtu.be/U5TqIdff_DQ - I Feel Good - James Brown
http://youtu.be/XS-BeP1Mb8I - The Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston
http://youtu.be/M8AtyaxgtOU - I'm Still In Love With You - Al Green
http://youtu.be/ypyiAT1RelU - Can't Get Enough of Your Love - Barry White
http://youtu.be/CU9Kg4pwu2k - Piano In The Dark - Brenda Russell
http://youtu.be/zcdDqTEgDwI - I Want You Back - The Jackson Five
http://youtu.be/Jzly6jrepRU - Papa Was a Rolling Stone - The Temptations
http://youtu.be/gGDgAaaMLjk - Someday We'll Be Together - Diana Ross & The Supremes
http://youtu.be/Rglxw5cbZWY - Stone Love - The Supremes
http://youtu.be/dXGa__ECvnM - Everybody Plays The Fool - The Main Ingredient
http://youtu.be/xroRNBvvF9M - Chain of Fools - Aretha Franklin
http://youtu.be/o49S0uyM3vY - You Really Got A Hold On Me - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
http://youtu.be/MhRbTsI4Aes - No Night So Long - Dionne Warwick
http://youtu.be/3JvkaUvB-ec - Everyday People - Sly & The Family Stone
http://youtu.be/VOXmaSCt4ZE - People Get Ready - Curtis Mayfield
http://youtu.be/gbO2_077ixs - A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke
http://youtu.be/v78-ftcqpNw - Midnight Train To Georgia - Gladys Knight & The Pips
http://youtu.be/PHq81T80x7k - The Jackson Five - Who's Loving You
http://youtu.be/dJm51jsRoo0 - You Make Me Feel Brand New - The Stylistics
http://youtu.be/BvsVVexIYtY - Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time - The Delfonics
http://youtu.be/xVYxKRXDT2I - Have You Seen Her - The Chi-Lites
http://youtu.be/wbGVh6p9aFI - Proud Mary - Ike & Tina Turner [This one is for my mother]
http://youtu.be/81bgy94vdRI - Me & Mrs. Jones - Billy Paul
http://youtu.be/l3QvYIx0mfQ - Aquarius~Let The Sun Shine In-The 5th Dimension
http://youtu.be/HeHiio1sTTI - A Song For You - Donny Hathaway
http://youtu.be/0jVMTydhx1Y - The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Robert Flack
http://youtu.be/fHjZQb-kGek - A Kiss To Build a Dream On - Louis Armstrong
http://youtu.be/B7sfs4gWI0E - When Will I See You Again - The Three Degrees
http://youtu.be/t4LWIP7SAjY - Lady Marmalade - LaBelle
http://youtu.be/S9uZOCEl7v0 - Tell Me Something Good - Rufus
http://youtu.be/LTf0I5f-yhQ The Closer I Get To You - Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway
http://youtu.be/PsRoXg5akks - Superstitious - Stevie Wonder w/Jeff Beck
http://youtu.be/pWv6Nh-6Eis - Old Friend - Phyllis Hyman
http://youtu.be/Gu2JBMNBbKo - A House Is Not a Home - Luther Van Dross
http://youtu.be/lnY5ThvmhaI - A Smile Like Yours - Natalie Cole
http://youtu.be/qaYLWSo4fYM - The Very Thought of You - Nat King Cole
http://youtu.be/zDlKb2cBAqU - I'll Be Seeing You - Billie Holliday
http://youtu.be/ytLsW2K7b1Y - I Don't Want To Fight No More - Tina Turner
http://youtu.be/LZ8ce4Jdp-Y - Billie Jean - Michael Jackson [Motown 25]
http://youtu.be/n3EzU7kMmec - Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me - Oleta Adams
http://youtu.be/x6QZn9xiuOE - Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye
http://youtu.be/7irzxzEGk6I - Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Diana Ross
http://youtu.be/0T4Gqnh11iE - If Ever You're In My Arms Again - Peabo Bryson
http://youtu.be/mkVQcZRoWMM All The Way - Jeffrey Osborne [King Curtis]
http://youtu.be/PFloePvOvXo - Your Song - Cissy Houston
http://youtu.be/PVcEz8jdcig - Soul Serenade - King Curtis
http://youtu.be/kjRo_CHSdt0 - Baby Can I Hold You - Tracy Chapman
http://youtu.be/ZbCXyL_xbkM - Thank You For The Years - Shirley Bassey
http://youtu.be/B4dl6JSf-bc - Three Times A Lady - The Commodores
http://youtu.be/Da-RjeCObyA - If You Asked Me To - Patti LaBelle
http://youtu.be/fgRyh9f5cOE - Natural Woman - Aretha Franklin
http://youtu.be/FkAGSuMOBqY - I've Been Loving You Too Long - Otis Redding
http://youtu.be/P29E7YYMD7o - Try A Little Tenderness - Otis Redding
http://youtu.be/yfSRovxLcAs Respect Yourself - The Staple Singers
http://youtu.be/SxCBu45HgjE - One In A Million You - Larry Graham
http://youtu.be/_NVVe1DkVsQ - Hot Fun In The Summertime - Sly and the Family Stone
http://youtu.be/c3q3AUp_-Ks - Celebrate Me Home - Donna Summer
http://youtu.be/H-kA3UtBj4M - What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
http://youtu.be/DUKaRpSMuAA - Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
http://youtu.be/EU4UTDrSwQc - Could It Be I'm Falling In Love With You - The Spinners
http://youtu.be/NIS4P8xbPtg - Let's Do It Again - The Staple Singers
http://youtu.be/rK3CGdyJBrI - Ain't No Woman Like the One I've Got - The Four Tops
http://youtu.be/QMNAAZk4Bgk - Then Came You - Dionne Warwick & The Spinners
http://youtu.be/3UNWThZ-kQU - No One - Alicia Keys
http://youtu.be/DW7oaNWo3mU So High - Usher
http://youtu.be/aKxrCs3P0TA - Irreplaceable - Beyonce
http://youtu.be/DsStH6K6omE - Just Another Day - Queen Latifah
http://youtu.be/ljpl0neGk2Q - Man In The Mirror - Michael Jackson
http://youtu.be/FWF_o-MnIAY - I Got The Music In Me - Thelma Houston
http://youtu.be/p65sBNxoLbA - If You Don't Know Me By Now - Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes
http://youtu.be/Dxeq1iYFY_w - Betcha Bye Golly Wow - The Stylistics
http://youtu.be/28HZKzpIUgw - Just To Be Close To You - The Commodores
http://youtu.be/Gs069dndIYk - September - Earth, Wind & Fire
http://youtu.be/UIt3dx4an9c - I'll Be There - Mariah Carey
http://youtu.be/3wZ_b_uUAdQ - You Are The Sunshine Of My Life - Stevie Wonder
http://youtu.be/fpEE6CgaL5s - I'll Always Love You - Whitney Houston
http://youtu.be/Ewf0TnM4eKo - Endless Love - Lionel Ritchie & Diana Ross
http://youtu.be/5EdmHSTwmWY - Saved The Best for Last - Vanessa Williams
http://youtu.be/uY3vgBzgYn4 - I'll Take You There - The Staple Singers [Close Your Eyes & Be Transported]

It's certainly not all of the glorious songs that I love, but it's a good collection of some favorites.  Enjoy & Blessings~

“We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you're doing so.”   

                                                                    –B. B. King

A Stroke of Grace

“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.” – Arthur Ashe

                                                           Arthur Ashe, Wimbledon-1975

For those of you who do not know the name Arthur Ashe, and I honestly cannot imagine that, let me say that he was a mild-mannered athlete who was gladitorial in his convictions.  He has always had a special place in my heart because he is a native son of Richmond, Virginia.  Born on July 10, 1943, Mr. Ashe set a stellar example during his lifetime, and he truly left the world a much better place than what it was in when he was born.  He left us on this day, 21 years ago at the age of 49 – much too soon!  I honor and remember him today as we continue to celebrate Black History Month.
When I was a young girl during the 70's, there were not many sports that I enjoyed watching on televison.  Tennis, however, was not among that list.  I adored the game, and I loved watching the greats: Billie Jean, Jimmy, Chris, John, Bjorn and then there was Arthur.  He was ranked number two in the world in 1975.  He was a black man too boot, and that was an unusual sight in the tennis world back in the 70's.
What I remember about watching Arthur Ashe play tennis, aside from the enjoyment of it, was that he always seemed calm  – even keeled.  Things didn’t rattle him.  He had a certain restraint about him that I found amazing, especially when certain calls made during a game were questionable.  Later, I learned that his coach trained him to be calm under pressure.  It served him well.
I remember when he played at Wimbledon.  It was a little over a month before my 12th birthday and a holiday weekend in our country.  The year was 1975.  The most notable thing about that weekend [July 5th] though was that he was playing Jimmy Connors for the title.  No black man had ever won it.  My father and I were glued to the television as we watched that Saturday.
The first two sets went by quickly as he put the pressure on. I think he took both of those sets in less than hour.  Jimmy Connors was NOT happy! I remember that vividly.  Curse words were muttered.  Connors rebounded in the third set and took that one – seven games to five.  But, it was that last set, when cool-as-a-cucumber, Arthur Ashe broke Jimmy Connor’s serve in the 9th game, I turned around and high-fived my father, knowing that he had it in the bag.  He took the match quickly after that — popping a winning volley over the net after he got a weak return by Jimmy Connors.  It was history in making, that game. It was a WOW moment! A black man had won Wimbledon – a first.
To his credit, Jimmy Connors stated in a very sportsman-like manner, “I couldn't find an opening. Whether I served wide balls, or kicks he was there. Everything he did was good: fine returns, short and long, and hard serves and volleys.”
In 1979, he suffered a heart attack.  Arthur was 36 years old.  As a result, he had quadruple by-pass surgery, followed by a second round of corrective heart by-pass surgery in 1983.  I think the only thing crueler than a heart attack that forces you into an early retirement, which occurred for him in 1980 from competitive tennis, is contracting H.I.V. from the blood transfusion you received during the by-pass surgery for said heart attack.  That’s what happened to Arthur.
He worked as an AIDS activist up to & throughout the last year of his life. He was a class act.  A statesman to the world of tennis. He was a man of composure and decency.  More importantly, he was a lesson in grace.
The world lost him to AIDS-related pneumonia 21 years ago today.  Nelson Mandela wrote to Arthur Ashe as his life's end was approaching. I believe Mr. Mandela’s words summed up best how many of us felt about him, “...I hope you feel my embrace...and that it serves to let you know that we love you and wish you well.”
Amen...

I’m attaching excerpts from a couple of articles here, because I could never say to you as eloquently what they state about Arthur Ashe — things that made him an important figure in history, and there is still more to say and know:

Sportsman of the Year
by Kenny Moore
From Sports Illustrated, December 21, 1992
If you’d like to read the entire article, please go here:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/features/1997/arthurashe/sport1.html

Arthur Ashe epitomizes good works, devotion to family and unwavering grace under pressure

In 1973, after years of trying, Arthur Ashe wrangled an invitations to play in the South African Open tennis tournament. He wanted to see for himself how the world might help press South Africa to ease its system of racial oppression, its apartheid. In Johannesburg he met a poet and journalist, a black man named Don Mattera. The South African watched when Ashe was confronted by young blacks who hissed that he was an Uncle Tom and told him that his visit only served to legitimize the racist white-minority government, which should be boycotted, made a pariah, until it abandoned apartheid. Mattera heard Ashe defend the use of sporting contacts to chip away at injustice. Allowing one black man to compete in the tournament had been a concession by the government, and, Ashe argued, "small concessions incline toward larger ones."
Mattera listened when Ashe cited Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass on how, since power surrenders nothing without a struggle, progress can come only in unsatisfactorily small chunks, and even the tiniest crumb must be better than nothing at all. The South African blacks shouted that Ashe didn't grasp the nature of the police state that bore down on them, that in South Africa his Reverend King would have been thrown into Robben Island prison with their Nelson Mandela. In the face of their seething anger, Ashe had the saintly temerity to warn that if they hoped to exert consistent moral pressure, their emotions were best kept controlled.
No minds were changed. Ashe, depressed by the prospect of standing helplessly on the outside while South African blacks suffered, asked Mattera if he, too, felt Ashe shouldn't have come. Mattera answered carefully, saying it was good to know that people in the rest of the world were concerned, but Ashe needed to understand the full extent of Soweto's misery.

A few days later the South African Bureau of State Security banned Mattera, meaning that he was declared invisible and inaudible. He could no longer publish, travel, enter a library or even speak with more than two people at a time. Imprisonment, he knew, might follow. After a final word with Ashe, Mattera went back to his tiny house, put his six children to bed, lighted a candle and wrote:

I listened deeply when you spoke
About the step-by-step evolution
Of a gradual harvest,
Tendered by the rains of tolerance
And patience.
Your youthful face,
A mask,
Hiding a pining, anguished spirit,
And I loved you brother —
Not for your quiet philosophy
But for the rage in your soul,
Trained to be rebuked or summoned. . . .

Mattera's words are an uncanny blueprint of Ashe, a man constructed to hold fast to reason however impassioned his world...

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0710.html ~ NYTimes Obituary

Nelson Mandela, Arthur Ashe, and the Transformative Power of Sports
by Bill Simons
To read the entire article, go here:

http://www.insidetennis.com/2013/08/nelson-mandela-arthur-ashe-transformative-power-sports/

***

Whimsical tennis paintings are delightful, but Mandela’s fateful connection with Arthur Ashe—the athlete who campaigned most strongly against apartheid—was a whole other matter.
For decades, anti-apartheid politics was intense and contentious. Should one follow the pleas of activists and the UN to isolate South Africa’s apartheid rulers by boycotting the nation or instead, should one say that art, sport, and economics have their own dynamic, above the fray and independent of politics? Many, like Paul Simon, the Supremes, McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, and Brad Gilbert, became involved in the harsh controversy.
At first, Ashe wasn’t even aware of the reach of apartheid, and he presumed he could play the South African Open. But his South African friend Cliff Drysdale quickly informed him that he wouldn’t even be allowed into a land where racial rules prevailed. In his book Days of Grace, Ashe recalls that another South African pro, Ray Moore, thought there just might be a way out of the morass. “I think,” Moore suggested, “There is one man in South Africa capable of leading my country out of this mess”
“Is he white?” Ashe asked.
“No,” Moore replied. “He is a black man, a lawyer imprisoned on Robben Island … His name is Nelson Mandela.”
“Mandela? I’ve never heard of him.”
“Well, you will,” Moore insisted. “In fact, I think he will become president of South Africa one day.”
Over time, Mandela and Ashe proved to have much in common. Both were renaissance thinkers with deep wells of calm, possessing a quiet reflective nature that allowed them to adeptly evolve, change course, master a range of challenges, and quietly inspire. And both shared a burning desire for justice that exceeded their deep appreciation of decorum. Over the years, both Mandela, from inside his jail cell, and Ashe, from outside and using his platform of fame, campaigned against apartheid.
Ashe would go through two phases. He began by fighting for years to get a visa to visit South Africa in order to be the first black to ever play the South African Open—on the condition that the stadium be open to both blacks and whites. From 1973 through 1977, Ashe would visit South Africa four times. There, while briefly integrating sports events, he “looked apartheid directly in the face, [and] saw the appalling WHITES ONLY and NONWHITES ONLY signs, the separate and drastically unequal facilities very much like those of my childhood in Virginia. I saw the sneer of superiority on the faces of many whites, and the look of obsequiousness, fatalism, cynicism, and despair on the faces of many blacks.”
Ashe’s trips, including his run to the final of the 1973 South African Open, were sensational happenings. While an angry few raged and called him an Uncle Tom, claiming his presence gave legitimacy to the apartheid regime, most saw him as a role model and beacon—a successful African-American in a black culture too familiar with failure.
Black writer Mark Mathabane said Ashe was “the first truly free black man” he had met, and wondered, “How could a black man play such excellent tennis, move about the court with such self-confidence, trash a white man, and be cheered by white people? …The more I read about the world of tennis and Ashe’s role in it, the more I began to dream of its possibilities. What if I too were someday to attain the same fame and fortune as Ashe? Would whites respect me as they did him? Would I be as free as he? The dreams were tantalizing.”
But the real world struggle to abolish apartheid was daunting and bloody. Amidst heated debates, Ashe became a fierce advocate for the international boycott of South Africa. Invoking Mandela’s position, he convinced the ATP to prohibit the creation of two new proposed South African tournaments. Ashe also moved to have South Africa banned from Davis Cup play, and convinced John McEnroe’s father to stop his son from playing a $600,000 exhibition against Bjorn Borg in Bophuthatswana, South Africa.
Then, in a move that Ashe felt probably cost him his job as Davis Cup captain, he took to the streets and participated in an anti-apartheid demonstration outside the UN, joining the likes of Coretta Scott King and Harry Belafonte as one of 3,000 demonstrators arrested outside of the South African embassy in Washington.
All the while, Mandela was reading Ashe’s writings and telling the world that, once he got out of prison, the first person he wanted to talk to was a tennis player—Arthur Ashe.
Eventually, when apartheid at last tumbled, Mandela told the world, “I stand before you not as a prisoner but as a humble son of a free people.” Soon after, New York City celebrated the triumph with a ticker-tape parade and a town hall meeting at City College. There the circle was completed. Ashe recalled the intimate moment:

“I watched [New York City mayor David Dinkins] go over to Mandela and whisper in his ear. I saw Nelson’s head raise abruptly, and he broke into a beautiful smile.
“Arthur is here?” he asked, with obvious surprise and delight.
“He’s right here,” David said, turning to me.
“Oh my brother,” Nelson said, looking straight at me. “Come here!”
He threw his arms around me and held me for a moment in a most affectionate embrace. He told me that in prison, he had read my three-volume work A Hard Road to Glory, about black American athletes.”

Ashe noted what so many felt, that for Mandela, “to have spent twenty-seven years in jail … to have been deprived of the whole mighty center of one’s life, and then to emerge apparently without a trace of bitterness, alert and ready to lead one’s country forward, may be the most extraordinary individual human achievement that I have witnessed in my lifetime.”
The connection between Mandela and Ashe had evolved into the most significant international bond ever between a politician and an athlete. After all, the two agreed that, as Mandela wrote, “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, the power to unite that little else has … It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”...

• Ashe was also an active civil rights supporter. He was a member of a delegation of 31 prominent African-Americans who visited South Africa to observe political change in the country as it approached racial integration. He was arrested on January 11, 1985, for protesting outside the Embassy of South Africa, Washington, D.C. during an anti-apartheid rally. He was arrested again on September 9, 1992, outside the White House for protesting on the recent crackdown on Haitian refugees.

• In 1973, Arthur Ashe became the first black pro to play in South Africa’s National Championships. Prior to his arrival, Ashe told the South African government that he would not play in front of a racially segregated audience and would not accept limitations on his free speech while in South Africa.

                                                                           Circa 1965

                                             Two GREATS: Arthur Ashe & Nelson Mandela

Amazing Fact: Did you know that after spending 27 years in prison, upon Nelson Mandela's release and prior to his visit to the United States, when asked if there was anyone who HE would like to meet, he replied, "Arthur Ashe."

• Ashe continued to work even though he was weak from the disease of AIDS. During his last ten months of life, he continued to help children. He also demonstrated to support Haitian refugees, continued to fight racial injustice and battled AIDS. He said, “. . . Living with AIDS is not the greatest burden I’ve had in my life. Being black is.” He said in his last speech given the week he died. He said further, “AIDS is killing my body, but racism is harder to bear. It kills the soul.”

“You come to realize that life is short, and you have to step up.  Don't feel sorry for me. Much is expected of those who are strong.” –Arthur Ashe, July 10, 1943-February 6, 1993

Black History Month

http://youtu.be/JkWZjTPlQhc  A Change Is Gonna Come~Sam Cooke

Today begins the annual observance in our country of Black History Month.  There has been much debate over the years as to why we need to designate a month to remember black history. It’s a fair question.  Even the actor, Morgan Freeman, is opposed to it.  He states, “I don't want a black history month.  Black history is American history.”  While I agree with part of Mr. Freeman’s thought that black history is American history, I don’t agree with his opposition to black history month — much as I admire and respect him.
When an entire race or class of people has been subjugated and oppressed for hundreds of years, I welcome the opportunity to have an annual celebration of–about–for those individuals who exemplified outstanding courage, intellect and leadership abilities in light of such opposition.  I wish we had a designated month where we celebrated women the whole month-long! But, I digress...
The idea of black history commemoration is not a new one.  Back in 1926,  historian Carter G. Woodson along with the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History proclaimed that the second week of February would be designated as “Negro History Week.” They selected this week because it coincided with the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.  The emphasis of this idea was to “encourage the coordinated teaching of the history of American blacks in the nation's public schools.”  As you can imagine, it was met with lukewarm response.  However, it did gain cooperative assistance from the  Departments of Education of three states and two cities: Delaware, North Carolina, and West Virginia as well as the city school administrations of  Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland.  That was enough for Woodson to continue to fight for the annual continuation of teaching the history of “Negro people”.   He contended that its teaching was essential “to ensure the physical and intellectual survival of the race within broader society.”  And, took it one step further by stating that, “If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated. The American Indian left no continuous record. He did not appreciate the value of tradition; and where is he today? The Hebrew keenly appreciated the value of tradition, as is attested by the Bible itself.  In spite of worldwide persecution, therefore, he is a great factor in our civilization.”
Within three years time, The Journal of Negro History, noted that “with only two exceptions officials with the State Departments of Educations of every state with considerable Negro population had made the event known to that state’s teachers and distributed official literature associated with the event.”  It is important to note that churches played a significant role in the distribution of literature associated with Negro History Week.  By 1929, it was met with a more positive response that led to the creation of black history clubs and more of an interest among teachers as well as the progressive white community.
The leaders of the Black United Students at Kent State University pushed for the expansion of the week to an entire month in February of 1969.  One year later, in February of 1970, the first Black History Month was celebrated at Kent State. Six years later, as part of our countries Bicentennial celebration, that informal expansion was officially recognized by the government.  In response, President Gerald Ford encouraged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
Which brings us to today. It’s the official start of Black History Month.  It always gives me pause. I stop and think about all of those African-American men and women who have left an indelible mark upon me in some way.  I think about the lessons they imparted and the example they set.  This month, my blog will honor those African-American men and woman who helped shape my world views .  It is a way to say “thank you”.  As Meister Eckhart stated, “if the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘thank you’, it will be enough.”  I hope it is.  They have been great teachers one and all.
The first African-American person to impact my life will be the last one I write about.  Some of you know who it is.  For those who don’t, let it be a fun game, if you chose to read the blog this month, try and figure it out. I’ll give you a hint: Railroad. ;-)
Back to lessons for a moment. When I was in college, I minored in English.  I took a course called “Women in Literature” which was focused on women writers and their works. It was a great course.  Our professor allowed us, as one of our assignments, to choose our own book to write a paper on. I won’t say that I’m a renegade, but I have been known to challenge a principle a time or two in my life if I felt strongly enough about it.  At the time, I was reading a book, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines.  I had seen Cicely Tyson on a talk show and they’d shown an old clip from the television movie [of the book] referenced above.  I remember watching that clip which I’ve attached here {by the way, troubled to learn of the poster’s depiction of real-life “white’s only” America in THIS day and age!}:

http://youtu.be/bVv1VR8OTfg Clip from Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

My jaw dropped as I watched that scene, and I wanted to know more about that story. {No, I had not seen the movie.} So, I went and got the book.  I submitted the book to my professor as MY pick for the paper I wished to write about.
She asked to speak with me after class at the beginning of the next session, and we went to her office when that session was over.  Slightly humored, she handed me my request.  There was no mark of approval on it.
“Miss Bosher,” she began.  “I appreciate your selection.  It’s a good work, however, this course, if you look at your syllabus is ‘Women in Literature’.” she informed. “All works are by women authors.”
I knew that.  Still, the course title left room for negotiation. I seized upon it.
I pressed my lips together and prayed that I didn’t come across as anything other than sincere.
“Dr. Pridgeon,” I began. “Why does the course structure limit us to authors instead of a remarkable female character in literature?”
She crossed her arm over her chest and rested her other arm upon it.  Her mouth rested upon her hand.  I recognized this move.  It was a signature one of my father’s when he was pondering something.  She stared at me.  I could tell she had no plausible answer at hand to my question.
The silence lasted for a minute.  I wasn’t certain if she thought the silence would unsettle me?  It did not.  I was trained by a master regarding that technique.  ALWAYS be still and comfortable in the silence.  Wait it out.  I did.
After a minute, she responded.  “The course was designed to teach students about remarkable female authors and expose them to their work,” she stated.
I nodded.  “I appreciate that,” I told her. “It’s the reason I took the course,” I admitted.
“Then,” she asked, curious. “Why would you submit a book that was written by a man?”
I told her of seeing the movie’s clip and being not only mesmerized but intrigued by the woman I had seen on my tv screen.  I told her that I’d never seen the movie, though I’d heard of it, but in that moment, I wanted to know the story of Miss Jane Pittman.
“Isn’t THAT an important objective in literature?” I asked.  “To want to KNOW the story of something because an interest has been sparked within you?”
Her eyes narrowed as she considered my question.  “Has an interest sparked within you?”
“I’m reading the book,” I told her.  “On my own — with a full course load. And, it’s AMAZING! I want to discuss it with someone. Won’t you give me that chance?”
“It’s highly unusual,” she replied.
“Some would say that about me,” I countered.
She smiled, took my paper, signed off on it and replied. “You may add me to that list.”
I smiled back. “Thank you. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.”
She nodded.
In case you’re wondering, I got an A on that paper with a comment beneath it that read, “You were true to your word. I was not disappointed!” {I always try to be true to my word.  It’s a little lesson about honor that my parents instilled.}
As you can imagine, in 1993, when Ernest J. Gaines came out with his book A Lesson Before Dying, I was all over it – even before Oprah picked it as her Book-of-the-Month club reading selection.  In Mr. Gaines’ eighth novel, he sets the drama in the 1940's.  It’s the story of a black man who is sentenced to death for a crime that he did not commit and his interaction with a teacher who counsels him as he awaits execution.  Beyond that nutshell overview and this quote, I will let you read it for yourself and I encourage you to do so, because Mr. Gaines is a masterful story teller.  MASTER–FULL! Yes. I wrote it that way on purpose. I will let it speak to you in however manner it does.  See for yourself below why I say it:
“My classroom was the church. My desk was a table, used as a collection table by the church on Sundays, and also used for the service of the Holy Sacrament. My students’ desks were the benches upon which their parents and grandparents sat during church meeting. Ventilation into the church was by way of the four windows on either side, and from the front and back doors. There was a blackboard on the back wall. Behind my desk was the pulpit and the altar. This was my school.”  –Lesson Before Dying, Ernest J. Gaines
Powerful.
As is this.  In 2005, Oprah Winfrey honored the important women in her life who had paved a way not just for her but for all of us.  It was called The Legends Ball.  I remember watching it and thinking what a blessing it was to be able to do something like that for those in your life who had meant something to you, as a means of saying “thank you.” It was a grand gesture – the stuff of....well, legends!  As part of that tribute, Oprah had asked one of her favorite authors to write a poem which was read to celebrate those legendary women.  I will never forget the chills that I had as I watched the “Young Uns” as Oprah called them, read that poem out loud.  I’ve thought a lot about that poem over the years.  It says SO much about “way-pavers”:

We Speak Your Names
by Pearl Cleage

Because we are free women,
born of free women,
who are born of free women,
back as far as time begins,
we celebrate your freedom.

Because we are wise women,
born of wise women,
who are born of wise women,
we celebrate your wisdom.

Because we are strong women,
born of strong women,
who are born of strong women,
we celebrate your strength.

Because we are magical women,
born of magical women,
who are born of magical women,
we celebrate your magic.

My sisters, we are gathered here to speak your
      names.
We are here because we are your daughters
as surely as if you had conceived us, nurtured us,
carried us in your wombs, and then sent us out
      into the world to make our mark
and see what we see, and be what we be, but better,
      truer, deeper
because of the shining example of your own
      incandescent lives.

We are here to speak your names
because we have enough sense to know
that we did not spring full blown from the
      forehead of Zeus,
or arrive on the scene like Topsy, our sister once
      removed, who somehow just growed.
We know that we are walking in footprints made
      deep by the confident strides
of women who parted the air before them like the
      forces of nature that you are.

We are here to speak your names
because you taught us that the search is always for
      the truth
and that when people show us who they are, we
      should believe them.

We are here because you taught us
that sisterspeak can continue to be our native
      tongue,
no matter how many languages we learn as we
      move about as citizens of the world
and of the ever-evolving universe.

We are here to speak your names
because of the way you made for us.
Because of the prayers you prayed for us.
We are the ones you conjured up, hoping we
      would have strength enough,
and discipline enough, and talent enough, and
      nerve enough
to step into the light when it turned in our
      direction, and just smile awhile.

We are the ones you hoped would make you
      proud
because all of our hard work
makes all of yours part of something better, truer,
      deeper.
Something that lights the way ahead like a lamp
      unto our feet,
as steady as the unforgettable beat of our collective
      heart.

We speak your names.
We speak your names...

Over the course of this next month, I’ll be writing about African-American men and women who embody the message of what Ms. Cleage’s poem convey’s. [I don’t think she’d mind that I expanded the sentiment to include men.]  I will speak their names with gratitude for making this world a better–brighter–more beautiful place because of their example.
I hope you join me as I celebrate them.