Fisk University Jubilee Singers

The Fisk Jubilee Singers are vocal artists and students at Fisk University in Nashville, TN., who sing and travel worldwide.  The original Jubilee Singers introduced ‘slave songs’ to the world in 1871 and were instrumental in preserving this unique American musical tradition known today as Negro spirituals.  They broke racial barriers in the US and abroad in the late 19th century and entertained Kings and Queens in Europe. At the same time, they raised money in support of their beloved school.

In 1999, the Fisk Jubilee Singers were featured in Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory, a PBS award-winning television documentary series, produced by WGBH/Boston.  In July 2007, the Fisk Jubilee Singers went on a sacred journey to Ghana at the invitation of the U.S. Embassy. It was a history making event, as the ensemble traveled to Ghana for the first time and joined in the celebration of the nation’s Golden Jubilee, the 50^th  independence anniversary.

In 2008, the Fisk Jubilee Singers were selected as a recipient of the 2008 National Medal of Arts, the nation's highest honor for artists and patrons of the arts. The award was presented by President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush during a ceremony at the White House.  The Fisk Jubilee Singers continue the tradition of singing the Negro spiritual around the world. This allows the ensemble to share this rich culture globally while preserving this unique music. 

Black History - Our History

Thank You Ms. Horne

 

"I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept," she once said. "I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked."  Lena Horne

 

Legendary Lena Horne died today (May 9, 2010) at the ripe age of 92.  How wonderful is it to live for 92 years through it all.  Life is full of so much opportunity that we do not take advantage of especially in the Black community.  We lack pride as a culture and do not always recognize the struggle that was endured for our well being.  We do not always listen to the words of ALL of those before us.  We do not take the time to educate ourselves about being black (african american, colored, negro). 

"I was always battling the system to try to get to be with my people.
Finally, I wouldn't work for places that kept us out ...
it was a damn fight everywhere I was, every place I worked,
in New York, in Hollywood, all over the world,"
she said in Brian Lanker's book

"I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America."

I was lucky, as many of my generation was, in having a man like Dr. King in our lives. He came at a time that we needed to take a long look at each other and see how similar we were.  Every color I can think of and nationality, we were all touched by Dr. King because he made us like each other and respect each other. 

I remember the day Dr. King died. I wasn't angry at the beginning. It was like something very personal in my life had been touched and finished.

"I wouldn't trade my life for anything," she said,

"because being black made me understand." Lena Horne

Happy 100 Rosa Parks!!!

I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.

Divided We Are - Willie Lynch

I thought this was the most appropriate time for ALL OF US to re-read, remember and NEVER FORGET, the speech given by Willie Lynch a slave owner who over 300 years ago devised a plan to help keep Black people divided...
 

Gentlemen: I greet you here on the bank of the James River in the year of our lord, one thousand seven hundred and twelve. First , I shall thank you, the gentlemen of the of the colony of Virginia, for bringing me here. I am here to help you solve some of your problems with slaves. Your invitation reached me in my modest plantation in the West Indies where I have experimented with some of the newest and still the oldest method for control of slaves. Ancient Rome would envy us if my program is implemented. As our boat sailed south on the James River, named for our illustrious KING JAMES, whose BIBLE we CHERISH, I saw enough to know that our problem is not unique. While Rome used cords or wood as crosses for standing human bodies along the old highways in great numbers, you are here using the tree and the rope on occasion. I caught the whiff of a dead slave hanging from a tree a couple of miles back. You are losing valuable stock by hangings, you are having uprisings, slaves are running away, your crops are sometimes left in the fields too long for maximum profit, you suffer occasional fires, your animals are killed, Gentleman,...You know what your problems are; I do not need to elaborate. I am not here to enumerate your problems, I am here to introduce you to a method of solving them. In my bag, I have a fool proof method for controlling your slaves. I guarantee everyone of you that if installed it will control the slaves for at least three hundred years.

 

My method is simple, any member of your family or any OVERSEER can use it. I have outlined a number of differences among the slaves, and I take these differences and make them bigger. I use FEAR, DISTRUST, and ENVY for control purposes. These methods have worked on my modest plantation in the West Indies, and it will work throughout the SOUTH. Take this simple little list of differences and think about them. On the top of my list is "AGE" but it is only there because it starts with an "A"; The second is"COLOR" or shade; there is INTELLIGENCE, SIZE, SEX, SIZE OF PLANTATION, ATTITUDE of owner, whether the slaves live in the valley, on a hill, east or west, north, south, have fine or coarse hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give you an outline of action- but before that, I shall assure you that DISTRUST IS STRONGER THAN TRUST, AND ENVY IS STRONGER THAN ADULATION, RESPECT OR ADMIRATION.

 

The black slave, after receiving this indoctrination, shall carry on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands. Don't forget you must pitch the old black VS. the young black males, and the young black male against the old black male. You must use the dark skinned slaves VS. the light skin slaves. You must use the female VS the male, and the male VS, the female. You must always have your servants and OVERSEERS distrust all blacks, but it is necessary that your slaves trust and depend on us. Gentlemen, these kits are your keys to control, use them. Never miss an opportunity. My plan is guaranteed, and the good thing about this plan is that if used intensely for one year the slave will remain perpetually distrustful. -WILLIAM LYNCH-1772

 

The letter above is one of the major problems of the African-American race today.  We as a race must start somewhere in learning our problems what better place than the document that started the destruction of our MOST POWERFUL RACE!!! We must do our part and utilize the opportunities we have - VOTE!!!

 

What are your thoughts?

Black History: Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin

Franklin’s music and civil rights involvement cannot be separated for it was through music, which Franklin was able to reach out to so many and empower those who had felt so long oppressed.  Aretha Franklin first became connected with the civil rights movement through her father, Reverend C.L. Franklin. Rev. Franklin was an influential preacher who traveled the country as well as recorded a weekly sermon for the radio station, WLAC, which reached sixty-five percent of the African-American population. It was these same tours that Aretha would begin her singing career. Rev. Franklin would also introduce Aretha to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. starting a lifelong friendship between the two.  Franklin was not actively heading demonstrations or participating in sit-ins, but she was able to do her part and use her talent to help the movement. She would numerous times perform at rallies with the King, lending her voice and fame to pull in crowds.  Her own sense of pride and her dignified stance, she represented the new black woman of the late 1960s.  Franklin’s own sound and present were enough to reflect the ideas of the movement and were what caused her to become a notable figure in the cause.

It was Franklin's soulful sound, which would become the driving anthem of the civil rights movement or as poet Nikki Giovanni, who is also a Fiskite, put it “the voice of the civil rights movement, the voice of the black America".

In 2008, Franklin was honored as MusiCares "Person of the Year", two days prior to the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, where she was awarded her 18th career Grammy. Franklin was personally asked by then newly-elected President Barack Obama to perform at his inauguration singing "My Country 'tis of Thee". In 2010, Franklin received an honorary music degree from Yale University.

In 1966, 24 year-old Aretha Franklin struggled at Columbia Records. Had she quit searching for a better fit, her career could have been over. That same year, she went to Atlantic and found not only success, but her true voice. Columbia, which couldn't decide to truly believe in her or her music, conveniently began releasing (and continues to release) her music from its vaults after her success at Atlantic.

Lesson: DON'T GIVE UP! YOUR VOICE MAY BE THE VOICE OF THE CENTURY!

Black History: Fisk! My Alma Mater

I have mentioned it before but let me firmly state that I am so proud that I am a product of an HBCU.  Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community.  There are 105 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the United States today, including public and private, two-year and four-year institutions, medical schools and community colleges. All are or were in the former slave states and territories of the U.S. except for Central State University (Ohio), Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, Lewis College of Business (Detroit, Michigan), Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), Wilberforce University (Ohio), and now-defunct Western University (Kansas). Some closed during the 20th century due to competition, the Great Depression and financial difficulties after operating for decades.

Fisk University is a historically black university founded in 1866 in Nashville, Tennessee to educate newly freed slaves of all ages, Fisk University -- originally known as the Fisk Free Colored School -- would eventually become a premiere liberal arts institution. The school owes it origins to both the hunger of ex-slaves for formal education and the missionary zeal of a group of Northern whites raised in abolitionist families who dedicated themselves to the education of African Americans. At a time when recently freed blacks were establishing makeshift schools all over the South (making do with abandoned buildings and untrained teachers) the opening of Fisk in Nashville was greeted with tremendous excitement. Within the first four months of the school's existence, Fisk enrolled nine hundred students.  The world-famous Fisk Jubilee Singers started as a group of students who performed to earn enough money to save the school at a critical time of financial shortages. They toured to raise funds to build the first building for the education of freedmen. They succeeded and funded construction of the renowned Jubilee Hall, now a designated National Historic Landmark.

·         Fisk University is one of four Historically Black Colleges and Universities to earn a tier one ranking on the list of Best National Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2011 edition of Best Colleges by U.S. News and World Reports. Of the 1,400 institutions ranked nationwide, only 246 institutions earned tier one status.

·         Fisk is on Parade Magazine's "A List" for colleges and universities who offer both a Bachelor's and Master's degree.

·         In 2010, the Washington Monthly ranked Fisk 29th among America's Best Liberal Arts Colleges.

·         According to the Princeton Review, Fisk University is one of America's 373 Best Colleges & Universities.

Happy Juneteenth!!!

Juneteenth

Celebrates the liberation of black American slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865

On June 19, 1865, the Union General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Tex., to inform inhabitants of the Civil War's end two months earlier. Two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.  It is said that Granger read the contents of the  General Order Number 3 stating: The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere. 

June 19th—which was quickly shortened to "Juneteenth" among celebrants—has become the African-American addendum to our national Independence Day, for, as Juneteenth jubilees remind us, the Emancipation Proclamation did not bring about emancipation, and the prevailing portrayal of Independence Day ignores the ignominious incidence of slavery entirely.

The state of Texas is widely considered the first U.S. state to begin Juneteenth celebrations with informal observances taking place for over a century; it has been an official state holiday since 1980. It is considered a "partial staffing holiday", meaning that state offices do not close, but some employees will be using a floating holiday to take the day off. Schools are not closed, but most public schools in Texas are already into summer vacation by June 19th. Its observance has spread to many other states, with a few celebrations even taking place in other countries.

As of June 2011, 39 states and the District of Columbia have recognized Juneteenth as either a state holiday or state holiday observance; these are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

HAPPY JUNETEENTH!!!

Black History Facts for February 4

Today in Black History for February 4th


Selected Black Facts for February 4

1. 1996 - J.C. Watts becomes the first Black selected to respond to a state of the unioun

J.C. Watts becomes the first Black selected to respond to a state of the unioun address.



2. 1986 - A stamp of Sojourner Truth is issued

A stamp of Sojourner Truth is issued by the U.S. Postal Service



3. 1971 - National Guard mobilized to quell rioting in

National Guard mobilized to quell rioting in Wilmington, North Carolina. Two persons killed. Until the 9th.



4. 1969 - MPLA begins armed struggle in Angola

MPLA begins armed struggle against Portugal in Angola.



5. 1913 - Birth Place of Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama



6. 1913 - Birthday

Rosa Parks is born on this day



7. 1913 - Rosa Parks (born Roas Louise McCauley) was born on this day.

Rosa Parks (born Roas Louise McCauley) was born on this day.



8. 1794 - France abolishes slavery.

France abolishes slavery. The nation will have a lukewarm commitment to abolition and will, under Napoleon, reestablish slavery in 1802 along with the reinstitution of the "Code noir", prohibiting blacks, mulattoes and other people of color from entering French colonial territory or intermarrying with whites.

http://www.blackfacts.com/

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH