The Blackman Who Reads Aloud Hour Project
The Radical King
All Labor Has Dignity
Martin Luther King Jr.
March 18, 1968

If not for black labor in this nation America would not be America in any way, shape, or form. If not for black labor America would not has risen to the heights of prosperity it has experienced over the past​ 400 years. If not for black labor the economic​ and governmental institutions that are prospering today would not be in any position to be successful. If not for black labor the southern states of this nation would have been locked into a calamity of economic depression. If not for black labor. So on this Labor Day 2019, I go back to March 18, 1968, and read the words from a speech that Dr. Martin Luther King gave on the Dignity of Labor to an audience filled with Memphis, Tennessee's sanitation workers. In a little less than 3 weeks, Dr. King would be murdered. The hope for an economic redress for the black economic plight that was being suffered by millions of poor people ended with that bullet on April 4, 1968. Now in 2019 we still struggle for the dignity of labor in this nation. However, we must remember this significant fact without black labor America would not be America.​

I'm wondering how all these black athletes playing for primarily white institutions feel about whipping up on our historically black institutions? I mean do they really have any historical dismay about running up the scores on these black institutions? I know why historically black institutions are placed into the position of taking these early season whippings. The schools take the whippings for a day game check period. The percentage of the number of competitive games is almost nil. I watched a little of Howard University playing the University of Maryland this afternoon. The score is 56-0 after the second quarter. Howard University has only gotten one first down the entire first half. Even though Howard University has the MEAC 2018 Player of Year behind center Caylin Newton, brother of NFL QB Cam Newton. It's utterly ridiculous that our black institutions are forced to play in these debacles.

Just a few weeks ago noted sports reporter Chris Broussard asked that the top black athletes reconsider spending time at these primarily white institutions. Chris indicated that these athletes would be better served attending the historically black colleges and universities. My question is will either the black athletes and their parents, many of whom attended HBCU will ever listen to that call to action? If the nation's top black athletes actually attended HBCU's you think that these early schedule ass-kickings that the primarily white institutions whip on our historically black institutions would actually be scheduled? In our black history before racial integration ended the ultra-athletic competitiveness of our historically black colleges and universities. Professional scouts were stationed at these HBCU's looking for the talented players who would eventually star in the professional leagues. 26 HBCU players ended up in Canton's Professional Football Hall of Fame.

So the argument that attending HBCU by the top black athletes would minimize their opportunities to get visibility and recognition is ludicrous. Talent will be identified by professional scouts whether it be on the football fields or the basketball courts. The stands may not seat 80,000 people but the possibility exists that 40,000 fans of more will show up on our historically black colleges and universities. In addition, with so many stadiums in major cities can you image Thursday and Saturday football games featuring schools like North Carolina A&T versus Southern University with the 100 of the top 2500 black athletes playing for these schools. You could see a renewal of games like Grambling vs. Morgan State with Morgan featuring the top 50 players from the DMV versus Grambling featuring the top 50 players from Louisana. I mean you don't think that sports networks wouldn't feature these games as primetime events?

In 1954 our black colleges and universities began to get neglected in the not only the classrooms but the tickle became a downpour of talent leaving those institutions. We have hardly gained economically from the integration of this nation. The theme of Trump's followers is MAGA well I say that the theme of black athletic renewal is BBBAE, Bring Back Black Athletic Excellence. No longer should we have to be sacrificial lambs to these primarily white institutions. We can rebuild our black colleges and universities athletic programs so that the revenue gained from media coverage will allow for better athletic facilities and financial donors. Aren't we tired of being shown the door at the early ass whippings? Why do we have to act as if these primarily white institutions are doing our black colleges and universities a favor by giving us a check for an annual ass-kicking? If these games become truly competitive do you think these primarily white institutions would schedule these games? Of course not, because behind these ass-kickings is the racist premise of we'll play you as as as you don't win a single game. It's time to seriously stop this madness. We've been disrespected enough in this nation. No reparations, no social equality, police brutality, mass incarceration, economic deprivation, stop it, let's change the story, change the script, all our young black athletes have to do is make a conscious decision to not be used as tools of embarrassment again.

The Blackman Read Aloud Project
Roy Wilkins
The Clock Will Not Be Turned Back

In the 1950s' and 1960s' black leadership for the struggle for civil rights comprised of the Big Four Organizations, the NAACP, Urban League, CORE, and SCLC. Some will say the Big Six if you include SNCC and the National Organization of Negro Women. The leaders were Roy Farmer (CORE), Whitney Young (Urban League), Dr. Martin Luther King (SCLC), Dorothy Height (National Organization of Negro Women), John Lewis (SNCC) and the leader of the most powerful organization Roy Wilkins (NAACP). These leaders met on a monthly basis to establish strategies and procedures in the struggle to attain civil and equal rights for peoples of color in this nation.

Today, we celebrate the 118th birthday of Mr. Roy Wilkins, who was followed Walter White as the Executive Director of the National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People. Roy Wilkins served in that capacity of Executive Director for the NAACP for 22 years from 1955 through 1977. During that period of time, Roy Wilkins shepherded the NAACP through some of the most critical struggles for civil rights in this nation. Roy Wilkins was a strict integrationist. Roy Wilkins felt that only through integration would colored people in this nation gain any level of civil or equal rights.

Although looking back through 20/20 hindsight many people in our communities of color may now question the actions and strategies of the NAACP in relationship to the goal of racial integration. No one should ever question the grit, determination, willpower or desire of Mr. Roy Wilkins to expend every ounce of his energies seeking equality for colored people of this nation.

62 years ago in October 1957, Roy Wilkins gave a speech that is just as relevant in 2019 as it was in 1957. As many in our nation are calling for a return to the bygone days of white supremacy. Roy Wilkins told an audience of white and black people that the clock of racial injustice and racial neglect would not be turned back. That same message should be on the lips of every American today. This nation can ill afford to make the same mistakes of divisiveness and racial hatred that tore this nation apart. We must begin to truly mend the fences of the racial divide and create a nation of antiracists committed to the goal of a unified society.

In 1957 Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was next to Rev. Martin Luther King, the most recognized civil rights leader in the nation. In October of that year, he addressed the Commonwealth Club of California five weeks after mobs in Little Rock, Arkansas, attempted to prevent nine black students from entering Central High School. The defiant governor, Orval Faubus, called on Arkansas National Guard troops to keep the students out, but President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to protect them. The school had been desegregated by a court order resulting from a 1954 landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education. Wilkins spoke on the crisis facing not only black Americans but the future of the United States during the Cold War. So America understands​ that even in these dire times of racial conflicts. When some people are actually contemplating turning back the historical clock on our freedoms and liberties. This will never happen because black people of sound minds and hearts will awaken and not allow any rollback on justice. This I firmly believe. However, we must ensure that our children READ, READ, READ, LEARN, LEARN, LEARN to ensure that they understand what battles our ancestors have been fought and won. So that those battles need not be fought again.​

Marvin Gaye & The Black Blogger

Whoa, ah, mercy, mercy me
Oh things ain't what they used to be, no no
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and east

Whoa mercy, mercy me
Oh things ain't what they use to be
Where did all the ice-cold glaciers go
Never heated polar caps are now untapped
Puttin' entire landmasses undersea

Whoa mercy, mercy me,
Oh things ain't what they used to be, no no
Fires burning on virgin soil
Caused by mankind's need to burn more oil

Whoa mercy, mercy me,
Oh things ain't what they used to be, no no
Floods are raging
It seems everywhere the earth is rapidly aging

Whoa mercy, mercy me,
Oh things ain't what they used to be, no no
Mankind's hate of mankind needs no staging
Building walls while humanity falls

Whoa mercy, mercy me,
Oh things ain't what they used to be, no no
Oil wasted on the oceans and upon our seas, fish full of mercury

Ah, oh mercy, mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no
Radiation underground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying
Oh mercy, mercy me

Mercy, mercy me
Things ain't what they used to be
What about this overcrowded land
How much more abuse from man can she stand?

Mercy, mercy me
Things ain't what they used to be
Lead paint on walls
Lead in the water that we drink
Now the children fall


Whoa mercy, mercy me,
Oh things ain't what they used to be, no no
Ocean reefs are now forever asleep
Wasn't the earth mankind's to keep
So why does it seems our leaders are asleep
Selling nature's beauty on the cheap
Oh mercy, mercy me