On Day 2 retelling the horrific murder of Frazier Baker and his 1-year-old daughter who was shot and killed in 1898 simply because Lake City, South Carolina white residents didn't want a black man handling their mail. Today, we recount the state and federal investigations that proceeded the murder of this federal employee. Understanding that had not Frazier Baker been a federal appointee, the murder investigation would've ended with the state inquest. You see in 1898 every black man, woman, and child in the south were living under the iron fist of segregation. Thus killing a black person by a white mob was simply a standard operating procedure for white southerners who felt that the targeted black person stepped out of line.

If you want to read the entire horrid tale of the public execution of Postmaster Frazier Baker in Lake City, South Carolina online simply visit www.thecruelwar.com. Today's reading will focus on The Investigation of the Post Office Lynching of 1898. It will include both the state's limp investigative attempt at securing justice for the family of Frazier Baker, as well as the federal investigation that actually leads to some indictments of prominent white citizens of Lake City. The reality of this situation is that reparations are in order for descendants of every black man, woman, and child who not only lived under putrid conditions in slavery but also similar conditions after slavery. Atonement is due for White America. Unless that atonement debt is paid this nation will never live up the creed that was supposedly established during the Second Founding of America after the Civil War.
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Over the next 4 days,​ I have read and recorded an article that appeared in February​ 2017 on a website www.thiscruelwar.com that detailed the murder and lynching of a Frazier Baker who was nominated by President William McKinley to be the postmaster of a small town, Lake City, South Carolina. It was a mob murder taken out against Frazier Baker simply because of the color of his skin. Had Frazier Baker been white he would have been able to perform the duties required of this federal appointment. However, Frazier Baker wasn't white and thus he and his family were targeted for a violent act sought to kill Baker and send a message to other blacks in Lake City as well as the other black residents in South Carolina. The message was simply this, stay in your place and dare not think you have any sense of equality. The message was similar to the many messages that our ancestors faced after the Civil War and Black Reconstruction.

Today's Session: The Dead Father Fell’ – Lynching Frazier Baker, A Black Postmaster (1898) Day One

Wilma Rudolph was born June 23, 1940 in Clarksdale, Tennessee.

In Rome during the 1960 Olympics Wilma Rudolph defied the odds and obstacles that life had already placed before her. She was born with bone ailments at birth so restrictive that she had to wear braces to strengthen her bones and joints. So even before she put on her track cleats Wilma Rudolph had physical obstacles she had to overcome. Overcome them Wilma Rudolph did and she eventually ended up on the famous Tennessee State Tiger Belles track team. The team that was coached by the famous Ed Temple. Ed Temple was selected to be the United States Women’s Track and Field Coach at 1960 Olympiad in Rome, Italy. Ed Temple’s secret weapon was the beautiful, cat quick Wilma Rudolph.

It was the 1969 Rome Olympics that featured a young black man from Louisville, Kentucky who would go on to worldwide fame later in his professional career, Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay). However, it was Wilma Rudolph who stole the show in Rome. Some say her world class performance in the birthplace of the Olympics was one of the greatest if not the greatest performances by any female in the Olympic history. Miss Wilma Rudolph was deemed a magnificent black queen of exceptional talent on the international tracks she ruled with athletic excellence. The Italians called her La Gazelle Nera (“The Black Gazelle”) while the French called he La Perle Noire (“The Black Pearl”). Bigoted Whites folks in her home nation of America simply called Wilma Rudolph that fast nigger girl. Well, let’s say Wilma Rudolph was great beyond reproach in many of our black homes after her performance in Rome in 1960.

This poem was written to salute Wilma Rudolph on her birthday

The memory is so clear of the black gazelle streaking down the track
This black ebony goddess born with Mercury’s wings
Once Wilma’s legs started to churn the black track’s surface was surely about to burn
Wilma was said to be the french version of a precious black pearl
However in her own country Wilma treatment by White America was consistently stern
Yet that didn’t stop Wilma from getting all the gold in Rome she earned
You see Wilma was never too shy but Wilma was definitely fly
Racial hatred couldn’t make Wilma break down or cry
If you ever spoke to Wilma she place you on a natural high
You see even off the track Wilma Rudolph’s grace never allowed her to feel be out of place
Wilma never was shook
Wilma’s pride was never took
Wilma’s life indeed was an open book
That why Wilma Rudolph’s life still deserves a second look
You see Wilma knew victory couldn’t be achieved without some struggle
Wilma Rudolph could truly fly
Wilma’s soul now is in heaven riding high
This Black Goddess born with Mercury’s wings now looking over black girls future dreams

#theblackblogger

Why Reparations #2
Broken Promises
Illusions of a Republic
You're Free!

In 1865, our ancestors were unshackled from the legal system of institutional slavery. In 1865, slavery was abolished with the ratification of the 13th Amendment. In 1868, the 14th Amendment was ratified which shaped our ancestors' rights and privileges of citizenship. In finally in 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified which provided our black male ancestors' the right to vote. Within 12 years of the ratification of the 13th Amendment and within 7 years of the 15th Amendment those sacred constitutional amendments known as the Civil War Amendments begin there a downward slope to invisibility in this nation supposedly conceived​ on the belief that all men regardless of color, creed, or religion were equal.

After the heated election of 1876 in which the two candidates couldn't determine a winner via the Electoral College. In a smoke-filled room, white Republicans (so-called freedman's protectors) sold our ancestors' constitutional rights down the river of renewed oppression. In order to maintain control of the White House. Those Republicans agreed to allow the southern Democrats (former Confederate rebels) to regain power in the southern states. They did this by removing all protective union forces that were allocated to protect the recently freed slaves from the former rebel states of the Confederacy. They basically were saying explicitly to the former white slave owners you're free now to do want you need to do to reestablish white supremacy. At that period of time, more than 95% of our black ancestors lived below the Mason-Dixon Line. So, with the installation of President Rutherford B. Hayes into the White House in 1877. Those cherished Civil War Amendments were given a death blow that would last for almost another century.

Rutherford B. Hayes, once said the following; “he serves his party best who serves the country best”. Then Rutherford B. Hayes proceeded to take away all those elements of security entrusted in the federal government to protect people of color freed from slavery just a decade earlier. Did Hayes not consider people of color part of this great union? Was he serving their interest when he allowed the wolves of racial hatred back into that barnyard before the barnyard was secured or repaired? That's why history tells us that reparations are indeed a sacred right for our black communities today. Because of the many acts of violence, oppression, discrimination, deprivation that was released because of the decision made in that smoke-filled room in the winter months of 1877. Why reparations? Because reparations isn't a gift to the black descendants of that tragic decision. It is the sacred obligation to make hold peoples who were deliberately erased as equal citizens in a nation supposedly pledged to protect them.​

Our BLACK communities are struggling to build strategic effective BLACK readers. We need those BLACK FOLKS learning to read on a daily basis. If we as a black community understand the importance of reading in the process of building tomorrow's leaders. We will then encourage in every black household elevating the literacy experience.

BLACK READERS
ARE INDEED BLACK LEADERS PAST, PRESENT, & FUTURE THAT'S WHAT BLACK HISTORY HAS TAUGHT US. SO PICK UP A BOOK TODAY AND START BUILDING AND REBUILDING OUR BLACK COMMUNITIES. THE ONLY AMMUNITION WE TRULY NEED IN OUR COMMUNITY IS CONSCIOUS INTELLECTUAL AMMUNITION. IT'S HARD TO FIRE A GUN AT YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IF YOU HAVE AN OPEN BOOK IN BOTH OF THOSE HANDS.