Faced Down, William Monroe Trotter

William Monroe Trotter, Never Forget

William Monroe Trotter his life and times
William Monroe Trotter could’ve lived a life divine
William Monroe Trotter was a truly educated man
Attained Phi Beta Kappa, Mr. Trotter was a Harvard man
William Monroe Trotter could’ve chase the bucks
William Monroe Trotter could’ve not given two fucks about blacks down on their luck
William Monroe Trotter lived a life of faced downs
William Monroe Trotter faced down bigots in Niagara and started a movement
William Monroe Trotter faced down the lies and started The Guardian
William Monroe Trotter disagreed with laying down your buckets, faced down the Wizard
William Monroe Trotter faced the Klan and fleshed out the hate behind Birth of a Nation
William Monroe Trotter faced down a racist in the White House named Wilson
William Monroe Trotter faced down Jim Crow
William Monroe Trotter faced down the color line, those who he knew weren’t color blind
William Monroe Trotter faced down almost every black man’s struggles
William Monroe Trotter took the pain of racism clearly
William Monroe Trotter never could face down defeat
William Monroe Trotter never understood why blacks were beat
Maybe that why William Monroe Trotter died face down on a Boston street



The exceptional work of Boston publisher Monroe Trotter continued with his journal The Guardian. William Monroe Trotter so frustrated with the lack of movement on racism took this personally. So personally that he took his own life on his birthday.
So join me this morning to remember one of William Monroe Trotter's most outstanding achievements his work to conceive a movement with a band of black brothers, The Niagara Movement on his date of birth as well as the date he went to eternal rest.

Bobby Hutton, Never Forget

Bobby Hutton was America’s lost martyr
Although those cops who pulled the trigger
Simply saw another dead nigger
Bobby was considered the first
First one in the Panther Party
First one in the car loaded up to face oppression
First one on the steps in Sac Town
Coming straight from Oak Town
This black brother had the skills to control downtown
Bobby showed up armed to the T
Showed White Americans no stepin fetchit glee
Bobby wasn’t no King, nor was he an X
But damn if Bobby Hutton didn’t understand how white folks stacked the deck
Followed Huey P and the other Bobby
Damn Little Bobby was hardcore
Straight up gangster but damn if this brother was even more
That’s why two days after King was killed
The plot to take out Bobby Hutton was the white cops biggest score
So April 6 is when they got him
Stuck him down in cold blood
That’s why we should never forget Little Bobby Hutton
Because just because the white cops pulled the trigger
Bobby Hutton was so much more than a another dead nigger.

The next selection on The Blackman Read Aloud Hour Project is Defying Dixie the story of the civil rights movement from 1919 to the 1950s'. The readings will take place on Facebook Live at 6:00 PM EST.

The Wizard of Tuskegee
Celebration of the 165th birthday of Booker T. Washington by reading the speech he gave one year after his famous cast your bucket speech at the Atlanta Exposition. Booker T. Washington was invited to speak at Harvard University. I decided that certain aspects of that speech were still relevant 125 years later. You see our history need never be a black mystery.