Commentaries/Opinions

When I first became active in the Civil Rights Movement as a teenager in Youngstown, Ohio, January 1^st was always a very important day in the Black community — not because it was the first day of a new year, but it was Emancipation Day. Every year the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and the local Chapter of the NAACP would host a major program commemorating the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863.  This was celebrated as a momentous occasion because with a stroke of a pen, President Lincoln freed enslaved Africans from bondage.  Certainly a just cause for celebration! What was never noted in the Emancipation Day Programs was that the Proclamation did not “free” all of the 4 million enslaved Africans.

 One of the greatest triumphs of the Black Power, Black Nationalist and Black Consciousness movements  of the 60’s and 70’s was the widespread embrace of the Nguzo Saba,  The Seven…

August is a momentous month in the history of the African world. August 17th marks the birthday of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, arguably the greatest mass organizer in the…