Sometimes I feel like at important times in our current period of confusion and sometimes community delusion. We need to hear the words of the intellectual giants of our African American past. It to me is called back up to the door and uplifts my soul history. Well, on this day I felt the need to be aboard my ship of consciousness the words of Zora Neale Hurston. I live in Florida now and I feel a strong kinship to this remarkable woman. Who's brilliance was hidden away during her life and had to be discovered after her passing. Why? Simply because of the color of her skin and hatred that consumed a Jim Crow White America that ignored almost every aspect of African American genius. Zora Neale Hurston cut against the grain of normalcy. Zora wanted so much more for our communities than what white society had offered. Zora bucked the Brown vs. Board of Education decision because she didn't feel the need to kowtow to society standards regarding integration. Listen to Zora’s writing about the awareness of her identity beginning at 13 and maturating through the years.

By Michael Guasco
SMITHSONIAN.COM
SEPTEMBER 13, 2017
The BLACKMAN WHO READS ALOUD
OUR ANCESTORS CAME LONG BEFORE AUGUST 20, 1619​, AND THAT'S A FACT

The Misguided Focus on 1619 as the Beginning of Slavery in the U.S. Damages Our Understanding of American History. The year 1619, the first supposed date enslaved Africans were brought to Jamestown is drilled into our students’ memories, but overemphasizing this date distorts that history. Today, across this nation many will hear and read of the story that August 20, 1619,​ was the date that 20 Angolan​ men and women left a Dutch ship to enter the colony of Jamestown. Thus beginning the horrific institution of slavery in what became the United States. However, that isn't the whole story in it's entirety. Because peoples of African descent were traveling to this new world long before 1619. They came as captives from European nations. Today I will read an article that details that covered up history.

Benjamin Banneker excelled at excellence he was a gift to the humanity of mankind. Those who looked at color first may have been fooled into ignoring his genius. However, those who looked past color marveled at Benjamin Banneker's astounding intellectual abilities. The shame was that it was more of the latter who ignored his greatness. On August 19, 1791, Benjamin Banneker wrote a letter to the​n Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson outlining the ills of forced​ servitude, or American slavery. Today, The Blackman Who Reads Aloud revisits the day 228 years ago today that ancestor Benjamin Banneker​ sent the letter to be delivered to Thomas Jefferson. The inequality of black illiteracy is that so many of our brothers and sisters are blocked from learning about our black history because of the inability to read. We must engage our communities to erase the negative​ impact of black illiteracy. I know that Benjamin Banneker was a Blackman​ who read aloud, the question I ask today is are you expanding your knowledge base and reading. Or are you depending on the media to elevate your thinking? Your African American ancestors can teach and arm you quite a bit with the knowledge of the challenges that they faced.