AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH

                                 African-American History Month

Part I

As a Native-African-Irish –American, I am proud to share some of my thoughts about my country’s slave history and state of our nation today. President Abraham Lincoln said, “No man is good enough to govern another man without the others consent…there can be no moral right of one man making a slave of another.”  Yet, the crucial and critical history of America is entangled in the use of force to do exactly that, enslave others.

My great-grandfather, Cyrus Weldon, was born on a slave plantation in Alabama in 1843. In 1865, he was set free and later married a Choctaw Indian woman from Mississippi named Jayne. They moved to Texas and worked on a horse ranch just south of Dallas. My grandfather, Webster, was born there in 1881. Because of racial hatred and the destruction of their property by angry Europeans they eventually moved to Boley Oklahoma. Oklahoma means “land of the Red Man’ which was Indian Territory. The Indians embraced former slaves and their families who were escaping from monstrously harsh treatment by the displaced angry people of European descent who had lost their lands and property during the Civil War. In 1913, my father was born in Boley, the first major Negro city that Booker T. Washington referred to as a shinning example of what Negros could do to survive on their own, and my mother, the unacknowledged daughter of an European-American, was born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma in 1916. The 1930 Depression forced them to move to California where I was born.

To put things in prospective, one must understand that 1600 British America was used as a prison colony under the doctrine of “Transportation.” If one was convicted of a crime in England, they were given transportation to the prison colony to serve out their time as indentured servants. Upon completion of time-served, they were granted land and tools. The wealthy class of England was granted large parcels of land in the colony by the King. The wondering merchant classes obtained rights to establish trading post a long the eastern seaboard. Some religions found their way to the colony to freely practice their religion.

Over time, the Indians near the colonies and across the plains would be slaughter and removed from their lands for the sake of progress and European expansion. The need for labor was enormous in order to expand the wealth of the traders and the land owners. The introduction of African slavery was the answer just at it was used in England and other parts of the world. The former criminals, some Indians, some free Africans and the land gentry would use this labor to become wealthy and create a legend of superiority in their own minds.

Part 2

Slavery has always existed in the world and is still used as an economic tool today.

The most intriguing thing about American slavery is the use of color as a badge of slavery and the various methods used to keep the slaves in captivity. Denying their humanity one hand, and covering up sexual relationships with them on the other hand creating the greatest conflagration on humanity that created a nation of hypocrites and cruel segregation practices to support the denials. This life style and economic system was the foundation of America for almost 300 years. The still waters of that system still run deep. Review the 1850-1860’s Census to see population in America at that time.

After the Civil War in the 1800, a war of brothers fighting brothers over economic advantages and disadvantages of slavery, the former slaves and slave owners were thrown to a boiling pot of hatred, cruelty, and struggle. The losers of the war lost their lands and wealth and would used any means necessary to survive on what land was left. It was the pure destruction of their human spirit and somebody was going to pay for it throughout eternity. The payback for those losses would fall upon the former slaves, the Indians, their off-spring.

The greatest threat was the slave’s sexuality and every possible step was taken to contain it or destroy it. Through the use of Black Codes (municipal codes) racial controls were imposed that would protect them from sexual contact with the new citizens, as decreed by the United States Constitution under the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments, (no slavery excepts for crimes, citizenship in the United Sates, and the right to vote) because the idea of accepting the slaves as brothers and sisters would be an abomination though the reality was most of the slaves had European blood running in their veins.  

These Amendments were never in enforced until the beginning of the 1960s though they were put in the Constitution in 1868 by the winners of the Civil War. That’s the irony of unsettled racial hatred in modern times, the former slaves would never be accepted has equals because the losers were never in favor of the new economic arrangement. The wound was too deep and it would be passed down to each generation by the former slaves and former slave owners. 

Part 3

During this African American History month we can reflect on the progress that has been made and how each new generation is finding ways to coupe with or accept all people as brothers and sisters regardless of the color of their skin and the different cultural experience they have faced over the years.

To have an African-European American as the President of the United States is surely a significant symbol of progress. Yet, in the economic trenches of competition and the awesome wealth disparity in the American population today, the badges of slavery can still be heard in the various politically correct code words that the describe the indifference and concern about race relations in America.

Since the Civil War, the 13^th Amendment has been the sole tool use to commit a large segment of the African- American male population into prison and that solution is only getting worst. It is unfortunate and sorrowful that my generation had suffered through the morass of violence and hatred during the 1960s because our minds are forever inflicted with how racial hatred can take the human soul into the abyss of darkness.

Our perception of reality is always smitten with those memories and at times it difficult to see the good in all nationalities. But as my mother use to say, if it wasn’t for the good people of European decent our country would never have survived the onslaught of bigotry, hate, and anger by those who cannot let go of the past and that includes the descendants of former slaves and former slave owners. The vinegar of resentment and superiority runs deep in their veins and there is no hope for them. The new generation of Americans will have to solve the quagmire in the melting pot. With the influx of new immigrants, whether legal or illegal, they are adding an interesting ingredient into the mix. With no understanding or appreciation for America’s birth and history, they will provide something new and different. It’s unclear what it’s going to be but I know my children will be a part of it and it’s going to be awesome! Peace.