My blog is my responsibility to ensure that our stories aren’t covered or carpeted by society ignorant of power of our African American ancestors.

On a warm Saturday evening, the trackless railroad secured it’s very first passengers and the flight towards freedom amongst those captive slaves began. Some of those humanity tracks of freedom would be hidden in some plain site; other freedom tracks hidden in the murky mist of America’s swamps and darkened forests. Yet each freedom track was linked one to another until the final stop on that dangerous journey ended with the sounding of freedom’s bell.  African American slaves had been rebelling and escaping from bondage ever since the very first chain was placed on their bodies.

We must understand this essential fact our most distant dark ancestors were born free, and captured, then shackled and sent off to a foreign land far away from all that was familiar to them. Once on that path these proud people were beaten and subjected to the evils of enslavement. Their past cultures were forcibly and physically taken from them by cruel and unusual acts of extreme punishment. Yet they still kept within them that hope for a flight towards freedom. Even though the lands were unfamiliar to them. The common denominator was the North Star that shone brightly in the skies giving them hope of returning to the lost past days of freedom and delight.

So today, on June 30, 2020, we celebrate the 233rd anniversary of the Underground Railroad.  Without this incredible system of travel conceived in liberty and dedicated to the thought that truly all men, women, boys, and girls of darkening hue were equal in the sight of One God; to any other person on this land. Though enslaved in America, a supposed country of unlimited liberty and justice that dedicated thought was directed towards white men only. Who knows just how long our people would have remained enslaved and subjected to the terrors of bondage without these invisible tracks of freedom?

Thank God almighty for Harriett Tubman, whose courageous actions on the railroad to freedom led over 300 of her brothers and sisters to the land of freedom’s glory. Had not Frederick Douglass, he, himself a passenger on the freedom train railroad; once freed Frederick Douglass managed aspects of this glorious venture as a conductor on one of the final stops to freedom. Thomas Garrett, a Quaker, whose religious convictions found just cause to risk community standing as well as his own life to support this railroad of glory. William Still, whose work in Philadelphia was essential to the success of the Underground Railroad. Mr. Still, is even referred to as the Father of the Underground Railroad. So many more names could be written about who risked life and limb both black and white men and women who simply made up their minds that slavery was an admonition to the God they worshiped. 

So each of them we honor today, as “The Black Blogger” salute the anniversary of the Underground Railroad. We no longer have the need to lay in wait for freedom in darkened corners, or murky marshes, or in cold basements, or root cellars. Today, we as a nation of people of color can now work in the light of dawn’s day to finally gain the equality that our ancestors sought. They had so many trials and tribulations but were guided by that bright North Star towards freedom against the oppressive chains of slavery.  We should never take for granted what was done for us by those heroes who traveled by moonlight. And we certainly must always put these warriors on the highest plateaus of historic recognition. For without them we certainly would’ve suffered more pain and oppression from those who only aim was to steal and blanket any chance of ancestors having visions of free thought.  God Bless and Happy Anniversary to the Underground Railroad, and those tracks of freedoms are still etched into the annals of American History.

Until those black youths who are dreamless, hopeless, and in so many cases loveless comprehend that black love matters then and only then will black lives matter to them. We must teach them beyond the classrooms, beyond the bright white history books that our lives are as majestic as every other race. Each day I read I look to recover just one life and then another. For this Blackman who reads aloud everyday feels that our history holds the answers to our ultimate salvation. That’s why we must redefine the knowledge shared with truths not lies and unmask those lies that were purposely place to destroy our communities internally. Stokely didn’t write this I did but I was motivated by Stokely to live a committed life.

#blacklovematters
#unmaskhistoricalliesandbreatheagain