"Senseless murders; senseless acts of hate; you can't replace a human spirit taken away by human rage; a piercing bullet that takes another black talent away from our human stage; who fathers the fatherless; who loves the motherless; who died today in a senseless act of human rage; just another black person no longer performing on life's human stage."
#theblackmanwhoreadsaloud
Today the Blackman Who Reads Aloud takes back 37 years to the day that Satchel Paige, the greatest pitcher who ever played professional baseball passed away in Kansas City, Missouri.
I salute the great Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher who holds every conceivable record a pitcher can hold over his 41-year career. Can you imagine any other pitcher at the age of 59 plowing down a Boston Red Sox team in 3 innings with just 28 pitches? Well, Satchel Paige achieved that feat in his last appearance on a major league baseball diamond. To say that Satchel Paige's greatest years were played in obscurity due to the racist segregationist policy of the white baseball owners of the major leagues. He may have been pitching in the backwoods of America, the inner cities of America but Satchel Paige was a one-man drawing truly capable of filling stadiums across this nation. So on the date of his death, I present a read-aloud session written by Larry Tyre on the life of Leroy "Satchel" Paige the greatest baseball player of all-time.
Jonathan Pitts
Baltimore Sun
September 25, 2018
"Lynching is American history, and for us to recover from that violence and terror, we all have to know that history and we all have to talk about it."
Bryan Stevenson, founder of the nonprofit behind the National Memorial for Peace and Justice
“These black lynching victims were human beings who deserved the same dignity anyone should get, whether it’s the president of the United States or the person who comes to change the tire on your car,” he says. “Learning about them and naming them helps speak to their significance as persons who lived in the U.S.A.”
Christopher Haley
People tend to think something as terrible as lynching must have happened long ago and far away. But it took place right here.
Nicholas Creary, a history professor at Bowie State University
“Better to take an honest look at history, no matter how painful it might be rather than suppressing it,” he says. “That’s the only way we’ll be able to understand where each other is coming from, feel like a community, and make progress.”
Kirkland Hall Princess Anne Resident
I will continue to read our black history aloud in hopes of engaging those are truly unable to access it or to comprehend with this essential knowledge. In addition, it is my responsibility to use the gifts that God provided me to the best of my abilities. One of the tools is the gift of being a fluent reader. So continue to join me each as I attempt to bring the goal of universal black literacy to every black community in this nation.
#theblackmanwhoreadsaloud
June 6, 1966
53 years ago today James Meredith started his one-man march against fear from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi little did James Meredith know that something was lurking in the weeds. Racist Hate, James would end up in a Memphis, Tennessee hospital by the end of the day with a life-threatening shotgun wound from buckshot. The Associated Press actually put out news reports that evening that indicated that James Meredith was murdered on that highway on Tennessee-Mississippi border.
What started off as an inconsequential march by one black man, James Meredith. Ending up being one of the most historic civil rights marches in the annals of American history. You see once James Meredith was taken out of the picture due to the shooting on June 6, 1966. The following organizations took over the march and thus changed the dynamics and direction of this direct assault on Mississippi black injustice. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference lead by Martin Luther King Jr, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee lead by Stokley Carmichael and The Core Of Racial Equality lead by Floyd McKissick took the directional lead of this march. It was deemed to be the final successful march of the civil rights era.
The March Against Fear dawned a new day in the struggle for black equality because it was the march that awoke a new militancy by young blacks when Stokley Carmichael changed the entire narrative from peaceful non-direct protest to the demand for Black Power in the small Mississippi town of Greenwood. That speech and the call and response shook the very fiber of the white and the middle-class negro populace. It changed what was peaceful and acceptable to youthful voices of change who were no longer willing to love without militant action. During the march, there was a direct assault on the marchers by the full force of the state of Mississippi's law enforcement department that was categorized as vicious and unyielding.
Yet the march proved to be successful because it awakened African Americans not only in Mississippi but across the entire nation. From this march, the energies were formulated to the founding of The Black Panther Party for Sel-Defense, and also this march engaged young black men and women to directly confront the American system for massive and corrective change. Yet, we also must be honest, it also engaged the white massive power structure to plot a plan to utterly destroy any efforts of Black America to change the dynamics of seeking the equality that was so urgently needed in our black communities throughout the nation. Within 2-3 years, Martin Luther King Jr. would be murdered in a Memphis, Tennessee motel, Stokley Carmichael's voice would be diminished, The Black Panther Party's efforts for united defense would be severely diminished, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's ability to lead the Poor People's Campaign in Washington DC would be considered a complete failure. The institutions of white supremacy would have prevailed due to the strategies plotted out at the end of the 1966 March Against Fear. So, when you look at our history it is important to understand the importance of both dates and actions. June 6, 1966, was the beginning of the end of the era of civil rights. Since that date, blacks have failed to gain complete traction in our struggle for equality.
This is the most important session I could produce this afternoon. This fact-based session details the research behind the read-aloud, reasons and rationale on why the read-aloud is so effective, and finally, I will also detail so many issues that are reflected in our black communities because of the presence of black illiteracy. Did you know this fact that this current generation is less educated than the previous generation? So that is why everyone who has a connection to the social network and is concerned about black progress should connect our communities to The Blackman's Read Aloud Hour. Share this learning video with educators, business leaders, communities leaders, fraternal and sorority organizations and everyday folks. We must collectively address this reading deficiency that exists amongst our black men immediately. Otherwise, we stand the chance of falling behind and never catching up. The world will not stand in place for us it will continue to evolve while we continue to stagnate. Change the story and the narrative by becoming engaged in addressing and eliminating the problem of black male illiteracy. The strategy of the read-aloud is great for anyone ages 3-85 so join me every day.