~Today 100 yr Anniversary of Matt Henson/Peary Artic Expedition...Happy Bday Sidney Poitier!

Legendary African-American Arctic explorer Matthew Henson was born into poverty, ran away from home and went to sea at age 12. Yet he grew up to become a famous American hero whose long term partnership with Robert E. Peary allowed them to discover the North Pole in 1909.
Today Matthew Henson is remembered as a truly remarkable and well loved man; one who helped others, never spoke unkindly or harbored anger, was enthusiastic, and highly skilled in many disciplines. When men were starving and no food could be hunted, Henson declared he would find game - and he returned with fresh meat to keep them alive. When others could not go on, he carried them home. When even the indomitable Peary felt they were going to die he gained courage when he looked at Matthews face.

Henson's partnership with the Inuit people contributed to the astounding success of the 1909 North Pole expedition. The Inuit people made a legend of Henson, whom they called "Matthew the kind one." However, what should have been a glorious public reception was turned into a bitter nightmare of controversy when hoaxer, con artist, and later Federal Prisoner # 23118, Dr. Frederick Cook, claimed he reached the Pole a year earlier. The public was bitterly confused and divided by Dr. Cook for several months until Cook's lies became his downfall. Permanent damage had been done to the honor of the 1909 expedition team.



The public of 1910 had no place for an African-American hero; so Henson was never given the recognition he earned through the 18 years and 7 highly dangerous, difficult Arctic journeys he endured with Peary. His rewards and recognition came gradually. In the 1930's he was made a member of the New York Explorers Club of which Peary had once been the President. All the other famous explorers knew how valuable Matt had been at the North Pole. Freuchen, Stefansson, MacMillan, Bartlett and others kept close friendships with him.



also today....

a Special happy Bday to Actor Sidney Portier




Sidney Poitier Biography (1927- )

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RELATED WORKS

* Films
* 1955 The Blackboard Jungle
* 1958 The Defiant Ones
* 1963 Lilies of the Field
* 1967 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

» More works

Actor, director. Born February 20, 1927, in Miami, Florida. Born prematurely on the high seas en route to Miami, Poitier grew up in The Bahamas. His youth was filled with delinquency, and his parents eventually sent him to live with his brother in Florida in 1941. Poitier served a short stint in the United States Army before moving to New York to pursue an acting career.

A student at the American Negro Theater in New York City, Poitier appeared on stage and in films before making his Hollywood debut in 1950. Cast mainly in supporting roles, he won an Oscar for Lilies of the Field (1963). The win marked the first Oscar awarded to a black actor and made Poitier cinema's first African American superstar, one who consciously defied racial stereotyping. Handsome and unassuming, he brought dignity to the portrayal of noble and intelligent characters, including Philadelphia detective Virgil Tibbs in In the Heat of the Night (1967). Other notable films include The Defiant Ones and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967).

Poitier, Sidney (1927- )


Related Works

* Films
* 1955 The Blackboard Jungle
* 1958 The Defiant Ones
* 1963 Lilies of the Field
* 1967 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
* 1967 To Sir, With Love
* 1967 In the Heat of the Night
* 1970 They Call Me Mister Tibbs!
* 1971 The Organisation
* 1988 Shoot to Kill
* 1988 Little Nikita
* 1992 Sneakers
* 1997 One Man, One Vote
* 1997 The Jackal
* Director
* 1972 Buck and the Preacher
* 1977 Uptown Saturday Night
* 1980 Stir Crazy
* 1990 Ghost Dad

...I had the pleasure of reading this great book "The measure of a man" last year..please find the time to pick it up...you will be humbled and enlightened....




Be Golden

~Egyptian Lovers...

found this photo online of a sphinx with the nose intact...this would be the first time ive ever seen an actual photo...

Brooklyn Museums Flickr


It was exciting to finally see an undesecrated sphinx

Be Golden

40th anniversary of Mlk Jr's Last Speech & Assassination

ironically, he was assassinated the very next day....




His eyes did see the glory, the FBI did see the shooter...?

At 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, a shot rang out. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who had been standing on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN, now lay sprawled on the balcony's floor. A gaping wound covered a large portion of his jaw and neck. A great man who had spent thirteen years of his life dedicating himself to nonviolent protest had been felled by a sniper's bullet.

Violence and controversy followed. In outrage of the murder, many blacks took to the streets across the country in a massive wave of riots. The FBI investigated the crime, but many believed them partially of fully responsible for the assassination.




Respect the Architect

Be Golden

The Assassination of Malcolm X...the 21st of Feb 1965

'May 19, 1925 Malcolm Little is born in Omaha, NE.


1929 The family's Lansing, MI, home is burned to the ground.


1931 Malcolm's father is found dead on the town's trolley tracks.


1946 Malcolm is sentenced to 8-10 years for armed robbery; serves 6 ½ years at Charlestown, MA State Prison.


1948-49 Converts to the Nation of Islam while in prison.


1953 Changes name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X and becomes Assistant Minister of Nation of Islam's Detroit Temple.


1954 Promoted to Minister of Nation of Islam's New York Temple.


1958 Marries Sister Betty X in Lansing, Michigan.


1959 Travels to Middle East and Africa.


1963 Nation of Islam orders Malcolm X to be silent, allegedly because of remarks concerning President Kennedy's assassination.


March, 1964 Malcolm X leaves the Nation of Islam and starts his new organization, Muslim Mosque, Inc.


May, 1964 Starts the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), a secular political group.


February 14, 1965 Malcolm X's home is firebombed.


February 21, 1965 Malcolm X is assassinated as he begins speaking at the Audubon Ballroom, New York.









Be Golden

Happy Frederick Douglas day...and oh yeah,Valentines day

'The soul that is within me no man can degrade".
-Frederick Douglass






Frederick Douglass (February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American abolitionist, editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer. Called "The Sage of Anacostia" and "The Lion of Anacostia", Douglass is one of the most prominent figures in African American history and a formidable public presence. He was a firm believer in the equality of all people, whether black, female, Native American, or recent immigrant. He was fond of saying, "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."




oh yeah happy valentines day




Be Golden

In Honor of Afrikan History Month...plus two of januarys bdays Tubman and Robinson

Langston Hughes born (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist. Hughes is known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance.





One of my favorite poems by L. Hughes

Minstrel Man by Langston Hughes

Because my mouth
Is wide with laughter
And my throat
Is deep with song,
You do not think
I suffer after
I have held my pain
So long?

Because my mouth
Is wide with laughter,
You do not hear
My inner cry?
Because my feet
Are gay with dancing,
You do not know
I die?





"The Moses of her people"
born January 29th 1819/1920





..




Harriet Ross was born into slavery in 1819 or 1820, in Dorchester County, Maryland. Given the names of her two parents, both held in slavery, she was of purely African ancestry. She was raised under harsh conditions, and subjected to whippings even as a small child. At the age of 12 she was seriously injured by a blow to the head, inflicted by a white overseer for refusing to assist in tying up a man who had attempted escape.

At the age of 25, she married John Tubman, a free African American. Five years later, fearing she would be sold South, she made her escape.








born January 31st 1919


..



According to a poll conducted by Jimmie Fidler in 1947, Robinson was the second most popular man in the country, behind Bing Crosby. [32]

In 1976, his home in Brooklyn, the Jackie Robinson House, was declared a National Historic Landmark

In March 1984, President Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded Robinson the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Dorsey High School, in Los Angeles, also named the football stadium they play in after the late Robinson.

The homes of the Daytona Cubs, Jackie Robinson Ballpark, and the UCLA Bruins Baseball team, Jackie Robinson Stadium, are named after Robinson.

The Chicago Public School system has named an elementary school after Jackie Robinson. It is in the Kenwood neighbourhood in Chicago's south.[33]

In 1987, Major League Baseball renamed the Rookie of the Year Award the Jackie Robinson Award in his honor.

On April 15, 1997, Jackie Robinson's #42 was retired by Major League Baseball, meaning that no future player on any major league team could wear it. Players wearing #42 at the time, some of whom said they did so as a tribute to Robinson, were allowed to continue wearing it, thereby grandfathering the number's retirement. The last player currently wearing the number is New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.

In 1999, he was named by Time Magazine on its list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.[34]

In 2000, he ranked number 44 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

On October 29, 2003, the United States Congress posthumously awarded Robinson the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award the Congress can bestow. Robinson's widow accepted the award in a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda on March 2, 2005.

At the November 2006 groundbreaking for a new New York Mets ballpark, Citi Field, scheduled to open in 2009, it was announced that the main entrance, modeled on the one in Brooklyn's old Ebbets Field, will be called the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. Additionally, Mets owner Fred Wilpon said that the Mets and Citigroup would work with the Jackie Robinson Foundation to create a Jackie Robinson Museum and Learning Center in lower Manhattan, as well as fund scholarships for "young people who live by and embody Jackie's ideals."[35]

On August 20, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced that Jackie Robinson will be inducted into the California Hall of Fame this December 5, 2007 located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento.

Chicago fun fact 1

WELCOME TO CHICAGO....FOOL!

This starts on the basis that I thoroughly believe that Chicago is the best city and everytime I find out a interesting fact I have to share....So, with that said.....One of the cities worst and once most infamous Housing projects,Cabrini Green,was actually named after Americas First saint Mother Cabrini (Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini)...How different saying or even thinking about Cabrini Green feels, knowing a Saint helped build orphanages here and then went on to be named after it....I wonder what she would think of the plight in the projects?

"...Mother Cabrini was not a strong person physically, but she had a great inner strength. She had an unbending belief and trust in God. Throughout her life and in all her many undertakings, she always knew that God would provide for her and the many schools, hospitals, orphanages, and missions which she founded.

In 1909 Mother Cabrini became an American citizen. Mother Cabrini died in Chicago on December 22, 1917. Her remains are laid to rest in Mother Cabrini High School at 701 Fort Washington Avenue New York, New York. It is now a place of pilgrimage.

Mother Cabrini was beatified in 1938 and canonized a saint in 1946.

During her life, Saint Frances Cabrini founded sixty-seven schools, hospitals, orphanages, and missions, one for every year in her life."

Brooks

Idol maker, Idol Breaker Extraordinaires

Disclaimer:I am not interested in converting or swaying anyone in a religious fashion, I am personally intrested in Iconoclastic behavior as it relates to World History...
...I had the pleasure of seeing one of these during a trip to Rome in 2000.....




(taken from Suzar website)


"The Black Madonnas originally all had Africoid features before most of them were destroyed by iconoclasts. When they were replaced, the artists retained the dark skin color but, not being familiar with real Afrikans, gave European features to the paintings. In cases where originals have survived, you may witness Africoid features on Mary and her child Jesus, such as the Black Madonna of Nuria, Spain ..called "the Queen of the Pyrenees." Russia's remarkable legacy of Black Madonnas and other Christian icons of dark skin is evidenced in the book, Russian Icons by Vladimir Ivanov, including the feature story of the Spring 1994 issue of Russian Life magazine, graced with a Black Madonna on its cover."




Brooks B Golden...are my only instructions

columbus the great genocider

Date: Oct 12, 2006 10:45 AM

>

The Great Columbus Day Farce



Why Columbus Day should NOT be a celebrated holiday



Another Columbus Day is coming near. And, as with every Columbus Day for the past 4 years, I ask myself ..why do we celebrate a man who was no more than a murderer?.. Columbus sparked many a great western ideal. Capitalism, science as a religion, the establishment of a global monoculture, the enslavement of other races, the destruction of the environment, the eradication and abuse of life, and the genocide of America..s indigenous people are just a few of those ideals. If these are the ideals that he sparked, then why should we celebrate a power-hungry man, no better than Hitler?

History has always been a powerful storyteller, but not accurate. Often, accounts of injustice, stories of war, and genocide disappear for the people need to validate their position. History is written by the victors, the ones who carry out the genocide, the leaders of the conquest. Lies are sold as truth, and the truth is buried and forgotten. The truth has been erased and rewritten by generations of killers, ignorant accomplices, and speechless victims.

Even modern historians identify Columbus.. conquest as the birth of racism. Columbus.. journey was fueled by greed, the betterment of his people over others (and not the betterment of themselves as a people), and a desire to convert all peoples to Christianity. The conquest was the birth of an international slave trade, the start of the factory system of labor, and the death of an ancient way of life.

Columbus was obsessed by the idea that he could sail to India, and he spent years arguing for someone to finance his voyage. Columbus, whose religious convictions are often not taken into account, promised the king and queen of Spain that he would convert the ..heathens.. to Catholicism and use their gold to fund their holy war with the Muslims. Besides believing that all people should be Catholic, he wrote in his diaries that he believed the world was destined to end in 1650.

15th century Spain has been described by medieval scholars as ..a culture of death... The unbalance in the monarchal government led to a contentious society. Milton Melton described Columbus.. world in his book ..Columbus and the World Around Him.. as:

..Not many children lived to maturity. Landowners punished poachers. Health care was non-existent. The frequent wars promoted organized violence on a large scale. People were killed casually in quarrels, for cheating in gambling, over malicious gossip, in drinking bouts, and in urban riots...

These descriptions are tribute to Columbus and his successors who successfully duplicated the land they left in the new land.

There were about 100 million people in the new land, as compared to the approximately 60 or 70 million people in Europe. It has been found difficult to describe these natives though, for they had been destroyed too quickly, and what was written about them was written by the ones doing the killing.

The first culture which Columbus came in contact with were the Tainos. The Europeans described the Tainos as primitive, but the Tainos lived in small, clean huts, practiced sustainable agriculture, and they bathed often, three things that were not seen much in Europe. The two records of their meeting contradict and clash as violently as the cultures. On October 12, 1492, Columbus wrote ..The people are as naked as their mothers bore them, but well-dispositioned... He went on to say, ..they are a people who can be made free and converted to our Holy Faith. They ought to make good and skilled servants...

In a book written by Columbus.. son Ferdinand Columbus, a skirmish between the ..Indians and the Christians.. is described as a lesson intended to strike fear into the hearts of the natives.

Columbus.. most vocal critic, Fray Bartholome de Las Casas, wrote in his book, ..The Devastation of the Indies.. how Spaniards:

..Laid bets as to who, with one stroke of the sword, could split a man in two. They took infants from their mothers and threw them into the rivers, roaring with laughter. They burned captives alive, and, because on few and far between occasions, the Indians justifiably killed some Christians, the Spaniards made a rule among themselves that for every Christian slain, they would slay a hundred Indians...

As usual with governments, an investigation was begun, and the acts of the conquistadors had been made illegal, but little changed in the practice.

Columbus was made the first governor of the Indies, but was replaced and arrested in 1495 for inept administration. His successor, Nicolas de Ovando, continued Columbus.. way of governing. His first acts as governor were to massacre 85 Cubans and begin to trade slaves across the ocean from Africa to the Americas. For many years, the story of Columbus was ignored. Then, in 1792, the U.S. celebrated his acts while searching to justify it..s own history.

The life of Columbus changed the world drastically, his ways of greed, murder, and corruption still live on today in governments throughout the world. The culture he destroyed may never be realized for it..s beauty and spirituality. The earth is still bleeding from the destruction he began. Only time will tell us whether the human race will age gracefully, or continue the cycle that Columbus began. Do not celebrate Columbus Day if you believe (and I should hope that you do) that genocide, racism, slavery, and the destruction of the earth is wrong.

Brooks