Tomorrow, I will celebrate my 68th birthday and I can truly say that even with all of my life setbacks I am overwhelmed by my life comebacks. I was born with some birth defects that could’ve disabled me in my life and also could’ve caused me to not give my all in my life. But, I learned through my struggles that my God-given disabilities were not even close to matching or surpassing my God-given abilities. If that is going to be my epitaph then so be it. Because I have overcome quite a bit to reach this 68th birthday. I was born in 1954 when a person of my color was still being denied the rights of a person born white. I was 9 years old when Medgar Evers was murdered a quarter of a million people marched on the Mall in Washington DC and 4 little girls were murdered in a church in Birmingham, I was 10 years old when the Civil Rights Bill was passed, 11 years old when Malcolm X was murdered and the Voting Rights Bill was passed, I was 14 years old when Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered and cities of America burned. I voted for the first time in 1972 for George McGovern for President. I voted twice for Barack Obama and became disillusioned when his Administration dropped droned missiles in Africa. I have been honored for sales performance in corporate America, I was at one time the top performer in sales for a Fortune 500 Billion Dollar Company. My professional career involved placing instructional materials in schools that assisted millions of children to learn to read and learn mathematics. Just when I thought I had reached a level of excellence God tested me and took all that I had acquired from my successes from me. But God left me with my ability to make a difference and I choose to bring my image of universal black literacy awareness to the communities that suffer in word darkness every day. So I created the Blackman Read Aloud Hour Project to illuminate literacy and the sharing of our black historical experience six days a week. I don’t get paid to do this but I do it because God send me this dream and I plan to do what he asked until I pass on. If you want to support my project feel free to send your donations to my Cash App ($readingaloud) all the funds are used solely to support the program.

In the quest to ensure that "white American supremacy" is no longer on the extinction list the Supreme Court walked back Section 4 of the Civil Rights Bill ruling that it was unconstitutional by a majority vote of 5-4 a few years ago. Thus opening the door for states to implement policies that potentially repress the voting rights of people of color. Now the Supreme Court has set its sight again on affirmation action by allowing the justices to hear the case of Harvard University's use of race for admission purposes. Walking back on fought for constitutional rights is certainly par for the course for this Supreme Court. How a woman chooses to have control over her body parts is in jeopardy with this current course of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court's attempt to give human living qualities to large corporations to influence government policies and federal, state and municipal elections in this nation was allowed by a previous Supreme Court ruling. More and more power is being taken away from the many in favor of the increased power of the few. All of these actions by the Supreme Court seem to be directed at maintaining white supremacy and erasing the advancement of people of color. Although a future Roe vs. Wade's potential adverse ruling isn't exactly in that category it is a dramatic step in the direction of the loss of individual rights. America isn't even close to being a colorblind society and this court is guaranteeing that date is further and further away from becoming a reality. The current makeup of the court will make it increasingly impossible to develop a society where the content of one's character will ever override the racism and bigotry one receives by the color of his or her skin.

On that historic day in August 1963, before Dr. King revealed his vision for America, his Dream For America, Dr. King talked about a check returned marked "insufficient funds" related to constitutional equality and economic equity in American society. As I continue to bound my reading project “The Blackman Read Aloud Hour Project” to the sermons, letters, and philosophy of Dr. King during January 2022. This question continues to disturb me about the treatment and condition that is facing Americans of African Descent in 2022.

Why are we as a black community still engulfed in a situation that bounds us to this circumstance?

Yes, this nation elected a President of African Heritage in 2008 and re-elected that President in 2012 supposedly shepherding in an era of a colorblind society, a society where the content of a man or woman’s character not the color of a man or a woman’s skin would be the measuring rod but which we determine that individual’s value. Well, that election was an illusion and we were deluded to believe that change was on the horizon. Deluded to believe that King’s beloved community was indeed an American possibility. I believe totally in my soul that if Dr. King’s spirit were to be conjured back he would ask with firm deliberation why black people almost 60 years later from that day in 1963 still sit encased in that circle of insufficient funds in both equal and economic rights? Dr. King would ask why we as black Americans after fighting so hard for voting rights and gaining them supposedly in 1965 marching backward in the area of political quality and engagement in 2022. Dr. King would ask what happened to his efforts to eliminate poverty in this nation. What happened, and why didn’t our black community leaders not follow through with the Poor People’s Campaign that he dedicated himself to before his assassination? Dr. King would wonder why the economic gaps have significantly widened between those who have and those that don’t? Dr. King would ask how is it acceptable that so many Americans can seemingly look away from the fact that 42 million people in this nation go unclothed and unfed every night in this nation? Dr. King would ask how is it acceptable that more black males are incarcerated in American prisons now than the number of blacks who were held in servitude before the Civil War. Dr. King would surmise that equality in rights has not progressed but rather it has regressed since 1963.

This month’s commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. on The Blackman Read Aloud Hour Project gives me no great relief that these troubling situations will be solved any time soon. Also, know that the conjured spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is restless because his beloved community isn’t close to being in sight.

When you understand the economic harm that was created by this nation's government to deny Black Americans the right to accumulate wealth. You cannot deny that Americans of African descent are long past due for that outstanding check to be disbursed. Reparations paid by an American Government guilty of unwarranted abuses of power aren't a gift to Black Americans they are a natural right to fulfill the economic gap created by those criminal activities perpetrated by the American Government to put the boot of economic oppression on the Black Americans will a willful and unlawful intent.

#reparationsnow
#insufficientcheck
#wealthdenied