Welcome to Black HerStory Month! We are Black Women Rising Across the Diaspora!
Celebrating the Women Warriors of the Civil Rights Movement!! Long Live the Revolution!!
Fannie Lou Hamer ~~ One of the Queen Mothers of The Civil Rights Movement
I know that this weekend Americans are celebrating the Birthday and Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. but I want to focus on the Mothers of the Civil Rights Movement in America. Many Americans have no idea about these great African American Women who risked life and limb for the freedoms we now all enjoy and some take for granted. They endured jail under harsh conditions and were often beaten within an inch of their lives just because they wanted to register to have the Right to Vote! Seems shocking but in terms of American History these protests, marches and speeches took place a scant 50 or 60 years ago. As I have heard some of the elders say, We Stand on the Shoulders of Giants. Fannie Lou Hamer is one of those Giants.
“God will not have his work be manifest by cowards,”- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Fannie Lou Hamer – “I Don’t Mind My Light Shining”
Fannie Lou Hamer – “We’re On Our Way”
Fannie Lou Hamer – “Until I am Free You are Not Free Either”
Fannie Lou Hamer : At the 1964 Democratic National Committee
As most of my readers know by now I’m not a woman who holds her tongue. I’m bold, brash, outspoken and unafraid. I call things as I see them. A Revolutionary, Activist and Outcast all wrapped into One! I’m beholden to no man save the Lord God. Real Life. Real Talk. Grown Folks speech. Where do I get my Fierceness from?
I have neither chick nor child. Thelma Palmer Varner
I’m Free, Black & 21. Edward G. Palmer
Deborah all you need to do in this life is Stay Black, pay taxes and die. Edward G. Palmer
I also remember all the stories from my mother Mable Elizabeth Palmer, Grandmother Hattie Finney Banks, Maternal Aunts Helen James and Gladys Young; Paternal Aunts Helen Palmer Garcia and Thelma Palmer Varner of what it was like to be Black during the early part of the 20th Century. Jim Crow at it’s worst. Now there is a resurgence of hatred against People of Color and those who follow faiths outside Christianity. Yes History does repeat itself. The Tea Party, Christian Identity Movement, American Nazi Party, Klu Klux Klan, Fox News are all wearing the same White hoods under their three piece designer suits.
Back in 2014 when I turned 55 I entered the Council of Elders. I take my position and responsibilities seriously. I cannot and will not stand idly by while people are persecuted, harassed and bullied simply for the color of their skin. I believe everything happens for a reason. God, the Universe, Lord, Jehovah or Creator places us in certain situations to see what we will do, how we will react and will we really Live our Christianity or whatever faith you follow. As the Bible says, Faith without works is dead.
So as the expression goes if you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen! Okay So you know what’s coming next!! Get Ready!!
Whose Flag? The flag that ignited the Trail of Tears and condemned my Native American Ancestors far from their Promised Land?
The Flag that ignited Manifest Destiny and stole, robbed, cheated and raped millions of Indigenous peoples to broken treaties, destruction and death.
The Flag that ignited the slave ships of the Middle Passage where my African Ancestors were kidnapped from the Motherland. Denied their heritage. Their religion. Their customs and traditions. And what of those thrown overboard as so much excess baggage. Or the others who jumped rather than condemn generations to slavery and Jim Crow.
The Flag that ignited the Dred Scott decision telling us we are only 3/5ths of a man? Where are we in the signing of the Declaration of Independence? Do you see any Native or African Americans in those paintings? Not even any women! So do we salute a flag, a symbol of colonialism, slavery, Jim Crow and racism? Since we were not included by the Founding Fathers most of whom were slave owners?
Do we honor a flag that forced my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents to get off the sidewalk when white people approached? Get to the back of the bus. Settle for sub-standard schools and housing. Forced sterilization which was done throughout the Southern Bible Belt states.
The flag of Dixie-crat racist Strom Thurmond whose death revealed the Black Daughter he had kept hidden for nearly 70 years?
Read the story of Fanny Lou Hamer one of the Mothers of the Civil Rights Movement.
What of our white Sisters and brothers like Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner up to and including Heather Heyer? White Americans who fought evil and lost their lives. Does the flag represent them?
Does this flag represent the two Indian engineers who were murdered or the Chinese doctor who was dragged from his airplane seat?
Did that flag represent the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
What of the Japanese Americans who were stripped of all their worldly goods and sent to camps just because they resembled the enemy? And By the Way who is our enemy?
What of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama–a church with a predominantly black congregation that served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders where Four young girls were brutally killed.
What of the the nine who were murdered last year in South Carolina during a Bible study by one whom they welcomed as a fellow Christian but who turned out to be a demon.
Tell me again why I should put my hand over my heart or in my case salute since I am a U.S. Army Veteran for this flag. This flag who denied my Korean War Veteran Dad who was in uniform and hungry. Who tried to get a hot dog and the white man said we don’t serve Niggers?
Tell me why this flag and this country whom my Great, Great Grandfather William Henry Halstead who fought in the Civil War still denies it’s promise to me and all his descendants?
Did and was this flag the covering for the slave master who barged into my Great, Great, great, great Grandmother’s slave cabin late at night and forced himself on her?
Did and was this flag the covering and excuse for the Married Redneck Drill Sgt coming to my barracks and calling my name after hours?
Tell me again why we honor this flag and why does this cloth not live up to it’s promise to ALL Americans?
This is Well Worth a ReBlog for Black History Month Feb. 2017!! Celebrating the Women Warriors of the Civil Rights Movement!! Long Live the Revolution!!
Fannie Lou Hamer ~~ One of the Queen Mothers of The Civil Rights Movement
I know that this weekend Americans are celebrating the Birthday and Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. but I want to focus on the Mothers of the Civil Rights Movement in America. Many Americans have no idea about these great African American Women who risked life and limb for the freedoms we now all enjoy and some take for granted. They endured jail under harsh conditions and were often beaten within an inch of their lives just because they wanted to register to have the Right to Vote! Seems shocking but in terms of American History these protests, marches and speeches took place a scant 50 or 60 years ago. As I have heard some of the elders say, We Stand on the Shoulders of Giants. Fannie Lou Hamer is one of those Giants.
“God will not have his work be manifest by cowards,”- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Fannie Lou Hamer – “I Don’t Mind My Light Shining”
Fannie Lou Hamer – “We’re On Our Way”
Fannie Lou Hamer – “Until I am Free You are Not Free Either”
Fannie Lou Hamer : At the 1964 Democratic National Committee
As most of my readers know by now I’m not a woman who holds her tongue. I’m bold, brash, outspoken and unafraid. I call things as I see them. A Revolutionary, Activist and Outcast all wrapped into One! I’m beholden to no man save the Lord God. Real Life. Real Talk. Grown Folks speech. Where do I get my Fierceness from?
I have neither chick nor child. Thelma Palmer Varner
I’m Free, Black & 21. Edward G. Palmer
Deborah all you need to do in this life is Stay Black, pay taxes and die. Edward G. Palmer
I also remember all the stories from my mother Mable Elizabeth Palmer, Grandmother Hattie Finney Banks, Maternal Aunts Helen James and Gladys Young; Paternal Aunts Helen Palmer Garcia and Thelma Palmer Varner of what it was like to be Black during the early part of the 20th Century. Jim Crow at it’s worst. Now there is a resurgence of hatred against People of Color and those who follow faiths outside Christianity. Yes History does repeat itself. The Tea Party, Christian Identity Movement, American Nazi Party, Klu Klux Klan, Fox News are all wearing the same White hoods under their three piece designer suits.
Back in 2014 when I turned 55 I entered the Council of Elders. I take my position and responsibilities seriously. I cannot and will not stand idly by while people are persecuted, harassed and bullied simply for the color of their skin. I believe everything happens for a reason. God, the Universe, Lord, Jehovah or Creator places us in certain situations to see what we will do, how we will react and will we really Live our Christianity or whatever faith you follow. As the Bible says, Faith without works is dead.
So as the expression goes if you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen! Okay So you know what’s coming next!! Get Ready!!
F.E.A.R ~~ False Evidence Appearing Real
We hide behind that Wall of Silence thinking if I’m just quiet enough I can slip under the radar. They won’t see me. I can hide and everything will be alright not knowing or not caring that Silence = Death.
We’ve become a society of trained apathetic circus clowns who when the powers that be say jump we ask how high. If we shuck and jive continually bowing down to the institution plantation head clowns. If we kiss their ass long enough perhaps we will be permitted the privilege of being allowed to slave another day.
Reduced to a mass of sniveling groveling cowards we’ve sold our birthrights for the few crumbs that drop from the Overseers table. We rant and rave against Trayvon Martin, Ferguson, Staten Island and other atrocities but back away from the injustice in our own backyards. Completely ignoring all the weapons within reach, easily at our disposal. All we have to do is pick them up use them but instead we say it’s not happening to me so I’m safe. Safe for how long? Who guarantees that you’ll magically be released at the age of 62 or now 66? There are no outside saviors. It’s you that will make a difference. Do you really think that by ignoring the cries of others that evil, harm, & wickedness won’t come your way? You’re living in a glass bubble. And why post scriptures of peace, love and redemption without acknowledging that even Jesus got angry and threw the money-changers out of the Temple. But No we mix idly among thieves, robbers, rapists, stalkers tethered to electronic mind numbing devices entranced by technological marvels ignoring the mud and filth accumulating on our clothes while building empires in the sand. Yes the brainwashing has been completed successfully and the new slave masters smile from on high.
My Grandmother Eva Sophronia Gordon Palmer
My Grandfather William J. Palmer with some of his children in Mt. Morris aka Marcus Garvey Park
Espiritu en Fuego/A Fiery Spirit 