Today, The Blackman Who Reads Aloud continues his personal journey through the recollections of our enslaved ancestors with the story of Bill Austin. Mr. Austin was over 100 years old at the time of this interview. He didn't know his exact age or his date of birth but the story he told verified the length of time he was held in bondage.
Today, The Blackman Who Reads Aloud reads the recollections of Edward Lycurgas who was born after emancipation but is remembering the stories his father told him of enslavement and also the stories of being a freedman during slavery.
Saturday, August 28, 2021, 66 years will have passed since Emmitt Till was brutally lynched in Money, Mississippi for nothing more than being caught black in America. On that same day August 28, 2021, 58 years will have passed since a quarter of a million folks marched for equality, jobs, and freedom on this nation's sacred grounds of supposed democracy and freedom for all except those born black in America. How long? Yes, how long must we continue to wait for justice for all Black Americans to roll down like a mighty stream. Or is the continuous drip, drip, drip of racial oppression all Black Americans in this nation going to receive? We can wait no longer for the notes due for labor rendered without pay to be paid. The reparations that are due will bring a decent level of equity to the black communities across this nation. Wait, no longer can we wait, it's simply been far too long of a wait. King asked for the insufficient check to be made sufficient 66 years ago on August 28, 1963. That was his reality, his ultimate dream and it's time for the United States of America to make right what has been historically wrong since the inception of this nation's beginnings since those 20 or so negroes stepped onto those Virginia shores from the slave ship The White Lion.
The Blackman Who Reads Aloud continues his personal journey reading the recollections of our ancestors who were held in bondage by the cruel institution of American human enslavement. Today, Mack Mullen's recollections are read. Mack Mullen was held in bondage in Americus, Georgia but he was interviewed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1936. Mack Mullen was about 75-78 years old.
The journey continues as The Blackman Who Reads Aloud visits the recollections of our formerly enslaved ancestors. Today, we visit Randall Lee's interview which took place in 1937 as a part of the Florida Slave Narratives, The Federal Writer's Project. Mr. Randall didn't know the exact day or year of his birth but by his memories, he was about or close to 77 years of age on the day of this interview.