On June 28, 1928, at the 11th Annual National Meeting of the NAACP, the very first meeting that was located in the state of California, a young black woman from Portland, Oregon stepped to the microphone, she was chosen to follow W.E.B. Dubois and Beatrice Morrow Cannady didn't disappoint the contingents attending the conference. Beatrice was an aspiring lawyer who resided in Portland, Oregon. This was a period just some 63 years after the end of the Civil War, and only 6 years after women received the right to vote. Black Americans were still suffering from the effects of Jim Crowism as well as other methods of oppression. Yet on this evening, Ms. Cannady spoke of the need to motivate and encourage the education of our black youths in our community.

Ms. Cannady understood the power of expanding the intellectual consciousness of our black children. She also understood that our black sisters held in their hands and minds the power to bring true change in our black communities. It was her purpose to provide a roadmap that would deliver strategies to achieve that goal. You should pay particular interest to her words on education and literacy of our black youth. It is indeed our responsibility to ensure that we have the duty to ingrain the knowledge necessary for our young brothers and sisters to respect their history. The reason why I focus so much on literacy is that the roadmap to black consciousness hasn't changed much from 1928 to 2019. We still need to develop children like that young black boy in that California classroom who was able to educate his classmates because of his mother's drive to shape his mind to be a strategic thinker.

In today's salute, I bring to the forefront, Beatrice Morrow Cannady, who provided a lifelong model to achieve progressive black thinkers able to change the dynamics of our future leaders.​

Today is the 147th Birthday of Paul Laurence Dunbar, who was born June 27, 1872. Although Paul Laurence Dunbar only lived for 33 years after his birth in Dayton, Ohio. Paul L. Dunbar's life was one of many incredible achievements. He managed to befriend some pretty impressive individuals like the Wright Brothers whom he met during his early Dayton, Ohio years. He also became a protege of Frederick Douglass who supported his career endeavors until Frederick Douglass's death in 1895. He was also a great poet who was the first nationally recognized African American poet in this nation.

Go to any major city, even some very small rural towns and you will find the memory of Paul Laurence Dunbar being recognized most likely in a school building. This reading is a small collection of Paul Laurence Dunbar's poems. The Blackman Who Reads Aloud acknowledges the greatness of Mr. Dunbar today, as we should every day. Paul believed in the ability of his race to achieve intellectual excellence. So in the spirit of that belief, I will dedicate this evening's Blackman Read Aloud Hour to the creative magnificence that embodied Paul Laurence Dunbar.​

Today, I conclude reading the online history of the destruction of the legacy of Frazier Baker. Frazier Baker appointed Postmaster in Lake City, South Carolina in 1898 by President William McKinley. Because the white residents of that small town of 300 people didn't want their mail handled by a black man. Frazier Baker was publically lynch, shot and burned alive along with his 1-year-old daughter Julia. Today I will conclude reading the story of what happened to Frazier Baker's remaining offspring and his wife Luvina after the trial that allowed the guilty parties to walk free.

Please join me as I read about the final details of a family that was utterly destroyed financially, physically and emotionally due to the actions of that white mob in Lake City in 1898. If you want to view the entire story please visit www.thecruelwar.com to read all four postings. This is a snapshot of how literally 10's of millions of our ancestors were destroyed by a white supremacist system bent on the annihilation of a race of people in this nation. That is the reason why reparations aren't a gift to the descendants of those crimes but are in actuality a sacred right due for the enormous damage done to a specific race of people. Just as Martin Luther King Jr. stated so eloquently in 1963, a check was written by funds were never paid. Because the check had always been stamped insufficient funds to Americans of African Descent.​

Today on Part Three of the series about the murder of Postmaster Frazier Baker of Lake City, South Carolina in 1898. We focus on the federal trial that occurred in Charleston, South Carolina. The complete series appears in the website www.thecruelwar.com which details the events on the day of the public lynching of Frazier Baker as well as the events that proceeded this act of cold, calculated murder.

This wasn't an unusual happening related to the public lynching of black Americans in southern towns. The only difference is that an actual trial took place to possibly convict those in the white mobs responsible. Had not Frazier Baker been a federal appointee his murder would've been cataloged alongside the thousands of other public lynchings of our black ancestors and recorded as deaths by means of persons unknown? The reality is that although a public trial took place the guilty parties walked out of that Charleston, South Carolina courtroom free as angry birds while the legacy that was Frazier Baker was totally destroyed without anyone receiving a hint of retribution or reparations.

Why do black descendants of this cruel system deserve reparations? Because of the fact that it is the only viable solution to gain any sense of honor for all the losses our black race has suffered.