the gist of freedom podcast nov 2013

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A'Lelia Bundles, Granddaughter of Madam C.J. Walker, the First Self-Made Female Millionaire in History Sunday, November 6 6pm.

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A'Lelia Bundles is a busy woman. After spending 30 years in an executive career with ABC and NBC news, gaining an Emmy award as a producer, Bundles is now focused on producing the story of her life. That is, the extraordinary lives of her ancestors Madam C.J. Walker and A'Lelia Walker. Both were culturally influential in their day and changed the landscape of the black American experience for those who followed. Through her current work as President of the Madam Walker/A'Lelia Walker Family Archives, and through her work on several non-profit boards, A'Lelia Bundles is carrying on her family's legacy of cultural involvement, and cultural change. Please tune in to hear the interview, and call in to speak to Ms. Bundles, on Sunday, November 6 at 6pm.

In A'Lelia's latest book “Madam Walker Theatre Center: An Indianapolis Treasure,” she turns her attention to the storied Indiana Avenue building that bears her great-great grandmother’s name. The four-story, 48,000-square-foot Madame Walker Theatre Center was completed in 1927, eight years after Walker’s death.In nearly 130 pages, ($21.99, Arcadia Publishing), Bundles shares rare images from the family archives, highlights of the theater’s history and pictures from local photographers such as John Hurst.

A’Lelia Bundles is president of the Madam Walker/A’Lelia Walker Family Archivesand author of On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker, the award-winning, New York Times bestselling biography of her great-great-grandmother. After a 30-year career as an executive and Emmy award winning producer with NBC News and ABC News, she now devotes her time to writing and serving on nonprofit boards. She is president and chair of the board of the Foundation for the National Archives and a trustee of Columbia University. An accomplished and engaging public speaker, she has delivered keynote addresses at dozens of events, book festivals and conferences including Harvard University, London City Hall, the National Archives and on all the major television and radio networks including ABC, NBC, CBS, BBC, PBS and NPR. Her most recent book, Madam Walker Theatre Center: An Indianapolis Treasure, was published in October 2013. She currently is at work on the first comprehensive biography of her great-grandmother, A’Lelia Walker, whose Harlem Renaissance parties helped define that era.

A’lelia BundlesThe Gist of FREEDOM The Gist of FREEDOM

A History about Black Resorts & Amusement Parks

Suburban Gardens Amusement Park provided seven acres of recreational haven for the region’s African Americans from 1921 to 1940.

The park was located at 50th and Hayes Streets, NE, in the Deanwood neighborhood near the National Training School for Women and Girls, and featured a roller-coaster, Ferris wheel, swimming pools, games of chance, and picnic rounds.

Other Historically Owned Black Resorts

Fox Lake, Angola, Indiana~ was also a recreational destination for young African Americans who lived within driving distance. They came to swim at the beach, dance and socialize. During World War II, black troops stationed at Baer Field in Fort Wayne were invited to the resort during their free weekends. Numerous annual

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meetings of black fraternal organizations, churches and alumni groups were also held at the resort.

Fox Lake provided black families with a place of their own where they could escape the heat of the cites and enjoy the pleasures of summertime activities. The historic district contains 32 relatively modest lake cottages, most of which were constructed before World War II.

Fox Lake was the first and only resort catering to black families established in Indiana, and one of only a few in the Midwest. Similar resorts had been developed previously around lakes in Michigan, which offered numerous amusements and big-name entertainment. In 1924, a group of white businessmen purchased land along the south side of Fox Lake, and established the Fox Lake Land Company that developed and then subdivided the land to sell to black families.

By the mid-1930s a dozen cottages had been built on randomly scattered lots, which were initially rented until all were sold within a few years. The original farmhouse on the property was converted into a small hotel, a barn was renovated into a restaurant and dance hall, and a bathhouse and pier were constructed (none of which remain today). Word of mouth about the community was spread by the land company and early property owners, who were anxious that the resort succeed and touted the joys of this tranquil oasis where African Americans were welcome. Other black families began buying lots and constructing their own cottages and rental properties throughout the 1930s. Most Fox Lake vacationers came from Indianapolis, although many others came from Toledo, Detroit, Chicago, and further cities, as well as smaller Indiana towns such as Marion and Fort Wayne.

1. Highland Beach, MarylandFounded by Charles Douglass in 1893; summer home of elite blacks from Washington, D.C. including Blanche K. Bruce, John Mercer Langston, Robert and Mary Church Terrell, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and later, E. Franklin Frazier and Robert Clifton Weaver (first sec. of HUD). Remains active today.

The Gist of FREEDOM The Gist of FREEDOM


2. Gulfside Assembly, Waveland, MississippiFounded in 1923 by Bishop Robert E. Jones of ME Church of New Orleans. Summer campground and resort for generations of African Americans living in the Gulf states and Deep South. Hosted meetings of SNCC and other civil rights organizations during 1960s. In decades following desegregation, it struggled to survive and was forced to sell hundreds of acres to meet high property taxes. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, it was eyed by coastal real estate developers, who worked with local officials to acquire and redevelop the property. Follow-ing Katrina, Gulfside has struggled to rebuild and its future remains uncertain.

3. American Beach, FloridaFounded in the 1930s by a black-owned insurance company. Flourished from the 1940s to the 1960s, as numerous black professionals purchased lots and built summer cottages there. In recent decades, it has experi-enced a steady erosion of its property base, as landown-ers have been pressured or forced to sell to developers. Today, it’s a shell of its former self, surrounded on both sides by large-scale hotels and resorts. It was the subject of an excellent film, “Sunshine State” and the book, “American Beach.”

4. Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard, MassachusettsBlack settlement in Oak Bluffs can be traced to the 1890s, but the site took off in the 1930s and 1940s, and remains the summer home of elite black professionals across the U.S., including Spike Lee, Henry Louis “Skip” Gates and Vernon Jordan.

5. Idlewild, MichiganThe areas was founded by a pair of white developers from Chicago in the 1910s who sought to capitalize on the growing demand by middle-and upper-class African Americans in Chicago, Detroit and Indianapolis for summer vacation resort of their own. Today efforts are underway to revitalize the quiet, aging community of mostly year-round residents.

6. Freeman Beach, Wilmington, North CarolinaFamily-owned farms here were converted into a com-mercial resort in the 1940s. The beach thrived as a

summer destination for working blacks denied access to segregated beaches in coastal towns. The area experi-enced a decline after massive hurricanes in the 1950s, along with efforts by local politicians and developers to drive them out of business. Currently, it is the subject of a lawsuit that aims to force the displacement of the Freeman family and the liquidation of its assets as a result of its status as heirs property.

7. Sag Harbor, New YorkThe area began attracting black vacationers from Brook-lyn, N.Y. in the 1940s, particularly the historic Eastville community. In the late 1940s, black professionals and intellectuals began to purchase land and build summer home there. Today the area attracts well known politi-cal, sports and entertainment figures, and is the subject and title of a 2009 book by Colson Whitehead.

8. Bruce’s Beach, near Los Angeles, CaliforniaBeach was one of the few beaches in Southern Califor-nia in the early 1900s that was open to African Ameri-cans. Charles and Willa Bruce built a black beach resort there, the only resort in Southern California that allowed Blacks. The City of Manhattan Beach condemned Bruce’s Beach and forced out the black community in the 1920s and 1930s. The City Project organization worked with Bernard Bruce, the grandson of the beach’s founder, to change the name of the ocean front park back to Bruce’s Beach in 2007.

9. Buckroe Beach, Bay Shore and Mark Haven, VirginiaBuckroe Beach, near Hampton, Va., is a historically Black Beach and an important venue for various festi-vals that attract African Americans. Other Virginia legacy beaches founded or frequented by African Ameri-cans include Bay Shore and Mark Haven.

10. Gullah Sea Islands, Coast of Georgia and South CarolinaThe region consisting of broad islands and flat coastal plains extending miles inland called “Lowcountry” was originally inhabited by Native Americans and became home to African slaves and their descendants. The terms “Gullah Islanders” or “Gullah People” describe descen-

dants of African slaves born on these islands.

Learn more about the history of Deanwood on the Deanwood Heritage Trail sponsored and supported by Cultural Tourism DC. http://www.deanwoodxdesign.com/post/25926007445/suburban-gardens-amusement-parkDiscover - or see with new eyes - this traditionally African American enclave in Far Northeast when you follow A Self-Reliant People: Greater Deanwood Heritage Trail. Fifteen poster-sized street signs combine storytelling with historic photographs and maps to transport you back to the days before Deanwood was Deanwood.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thegistoffreedom/2013/02/04/african-american-resorts-fox-lake-angola-indian

"A'Lelia Bundles- "Interesting little piece of history about A'Lelia Walker's involvement with a group of investors who hoped to build a private black resort in Croton-on-Hudson,New York" Click here to view the documentary's trailer. http://vimeo.com/17979794 "

Harlem ZionistsHarlem chronicler JAMES VANDERZEE photographed the congregation with the Star of David and bold Hebrew lettering identifying their presence on 135th Street and showing Rabbi Ford standing in front of the synagogue with his arms around his string bass, and with members of his choir at his side, the women wearing the black dresses and long white head coverings that became their distinctive habit and the men in white turbans.

Ford, Arnold Josiah (23 Apr. 1877-16 Sept. 1935), rabbi, black nationalist, and emigrationist, was born in Bridgetown, Barbados, the son of Edward Ford and Elizabeth Augusta Braithwaite. Ford asserted that his father’s ancestry could be traced to the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria and his mother’s to the Mendi tribe of Sierra Leone. According to his family’s oral history, their heritage extended back to one of the priestly families of the ancient Israelites, and in Barbados his family maintained customs and traditions that identified them with Judaism (Kobre, 27). His father was a policeman who also had a reputation as a “fiery preacher’ at the Wesleyan Methodist Church where Arnold was baptized; yet, it is not known if Edward’s teaching espoused traditional Methodist beliefs or if it urged the embrace of Judaism that his son would later advocate.


The Barbary pirates were a band of Moorish brigands that were protected and encouraged by the coastal cities of Northern Africa, including Algiers, Tunis, Djerba and Tripoli.

Not only did they plunder the cargo of merchant ships, but they took all of the Christian passengers hostage, and either ransomed them, or sold them as slaves.

Piracy in the Mediterranean had existed since time immortal, but the first real wave of Barbary piracy came at the time that the Moors were driven from Spain in 1492, and Spanish vessels and coastal cities were their first targets. As they became more powerful and brought the Moslem governors of North Africa under their control, they became a greater threat to all of Europe.

The real scandal regarding the Barbary pirates was not the corsairs themselves, but rather the toleration and support they received from the great naval powers of Europe, during the 17th and 18th centuries. Instead of launching a naval crusade against the Barbary nations, they paid them tribute so the pirates would prey on the ships of smaller and weaker nations rather than those of the great powers. Even the American government, in its very early years paid tribute to the pirate kings.

After the United States won its independence in the treaty of 1783, it had to protect its own commerce against dangers such as the Barbary pirates. As early as 1784 Congress followed the tradition of the European shipping powers and appropriated $80,000 as tribute to the Barbary states, directing its ministers in Europe, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, to begin negotiations with them. Trouble began the next year, in July 1785, when Algerians captured two (slave?) American ships and the dey of Algiers held their crews of twenty-one people for a ransom of nearly $60,000.” (Gawalt)

Treaty of Peace and Friendship, with additional article; also (Slave?) Ship-Signals Agreement. The treaty was sealed at Morocco with the seal of the Emperor of Morocco June 23, 1786 (25 Shaban, A. H. 1200), and delivered to Thomas Barclay, American Agent, June 28, 1786 (1 Ramadan, A. H. 1200). Original in Arabic. The additional article was signed and sealed at

Moorish Zionist Temple of the Moorish Jews, West 137th Street, Harlem, 1929.Photographed by James Van Der Zee

Morocco on behalf of Morocco July 15, 1786 (18 Ramadan, A. H. 1200). Original in Arabic. The Ship-Signals Agreement was signed at Morocco July 6, 1786 (9 Ramadan, A. H. 1200). Original in English.

Eventually the Europeans sent a squadron to defeat them. Soon after America took the lead, France and Britain joined in, and by the 1830, the pirate coast became a colony of France.

Several black religious leaders were experimenting with Judaism in various degrees between the two world wars. Rabbi Ford formed intermittent partnerships with some of these leaders. He and Valentine started a short lived congregation called Beth B’nai Israel. Ford then worked with Mordecai Herman and the Moorish Zionist Temple, until they had an altercation over theological and financial issues. Finally, he established Beth B’nai Abraham in Harlem in 1924. A Jewish scholar who visited the congregation described their services as “a mixture of Reform and Orthodox Judaism, but when they practice the old customs they are seriously orthodox” (Kobre, 25).

In 1928, Rabbi Ford created a business adjunct to the congregation called the B’nai Abraham Progressive Corporation. Reminiscent of many of Garvey’s ventures, this corporation issued one hundred shares of stock and purchased two buildings from which it operated a religious and vocational school in one and leased apartments in the other. However, resources dwindled as the Depression became more pronounced, and the corporation went bankrupt in 1930. Once again it seemed that Ford’s dream of building a black community with cultural integrity, economic viability, and political virility was dashed, but out of the ashes of this disappointment he mustered the resolve to make a final attempt in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government had been encouraging black people with skills and education to immigrate to Ethiopia for almost a decade, and Ford knew that there were over 40,000 indigenous black Jews already in Ethiopia (who called themselves Beta Israel, but who were commonly referred to as Falasha). The announced coronation of Haile Selassie in 1930 as the first black ruler of an African nation in modern times raised the hopes of black people all over



the world and led Ford to believe that the timing of his Ethiopian colony was providential.

Ford arrived in Ethiopia with a small musical contingent in time to perform during the coronation festivities. They then sustained themselves in Addis Abba by performing at local hotels and relying on assistance from supporters in the United Sates who were members of the Aurienoth Club, a civic group of black Jews and black nationalists, and members of the Commandment Keepers Congregation, led by Rabbi W. A. MATTHEW, Ford’s most loyal protégé. Mignon Innis arrived with a second delegation in 1931 to work as Ford’s private secretary. She soon became Ford’s wife, and they had two children in Ethiopia. Mrs. Ford established a school for boys and girls that specialized in English and music. Ford managed to secure eight hundred acres of land on which to begin his colony and approximately one hundred individuals came to help him develop it. Unbeknownst to Ford, the U.S. State Department monitored Ford’s efforts with irrational alarm, dispatching reports with such headings as “American Negroes in Ethiopia—Inspiration Back of Their Coming Here—‘Rabbi’ Josiah A. Ford,” and instituting discriminatory policies to curtail the travel of black citizens to Ethiopia.

Ford had no intention of leaving Ethiopia, so he drew up a certificate of ordination (shmecha) for Rabbi Matthew that was sanctioned by the Ethiopian government in the hope that this document would give Matthew the necessary credentials to continue the work that Ford had begun in the United States. By 1935 the black Jewish experiment with Ethiopian Zionism was on the verge of collapse. Those who did not leave because of the hard agricultural work, joined the stampede of foreign nationals who sensed that war with Italy was imminent and defeat for Ethiopia certain. Ford died in September, it was said, of exhaustion and heartbreak, a few weeks before the Italian invasion. Ford had been the most important catalyst for the spread of Judaism among African Americans. Through his successors, communities of black Jews emerged and survived in several American cities.

Ford’s parents intended for him to become a musician. They provided him with private tutors who instructed him in several instruments—particularly the harp, violin, and bass. As a young adult, he studied music theory with Edmestone Barnes and in 1899 joined the musical corps of the British Royal Navy, where he served on the HMS Alert. According to some reports, Ford was stationed on the island of Bermuda, where he secured a position as a clerk at the Court of Federal Assize, and he claimed that before coming to America he was a minister of public works in the Republic of Liberia, where many ex-slaves and early black nationalists settled.

When Ford arrived in Harlem around 1910, he gravitated to its musical centers rather than to political or religious institutions—although within black culture, all three are often interrelated. He was a member of the Clef Club Orchestra, under the direction of JAMES REESE EUROPE, which first brought jazz to Carnegie Hall in 1912. Other black Jewish musicians, such as Willie “the Lion” Smith, an innovator of stride piano, also congregated at the Clef Club. Shortly after the orchestra’s Carnegie Hall engagement, Ford became the director of the New Amsterdam Musical Association. His interest in mysticism, esoteric knowledge, and secret societies is evidenced by his membership in the Scottish Rite Masons, where he served as Master of the Memmon Lodge. It was during this period of activity in Harlem, he married Olive Nurse, with whom he had two children before they divorced in 1924.

In 1917 MARCUS GARVEY founded the New York chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association [UNIA], and within a few years it had become the largest mass movement in African American history. Arnold Ford became the musical director of the UNIA choir, Samuel Valentine was the president, and Nancy Paris its lead singer. These three became the core of an active group of black Jews within the UNIA who studied Hebrew, religion, and history, and held services at Liberty Hall, the headquarters of the UNIA. As a paid officer, Rabbi Ford, as he was then called, was responsible for orchestrating much of the pageantry of Garvey’s highly attractive ceremonies. Ford and Benjamin E.

Burrell composed a song called “Ethiopia,” which speaks of a halcyon past before slavery and stresses pride in African heritage—two themes that were becoming immensely popular. Ford was thus prominently situated among those Muslim and Christian clergy, including GEORGE ALEXANDER MCGUIRE, Chaplain-General of the UNIA, who were each trying to influence the religious direction of the organization.

Ford’s contributions to the UNIA, however, were not limited to musical and religious matters. He and E.L. Gaines wrote the handbook of rules and regulation for the paramilitary African Legion (which was modeled after the Zionist Jewish Legion) and developed guidelines for the Black Cross Nurses. He served on committees, spoke at rallies, and was elected one of the delegates representing the 35,000 members of the New York chapter at the First International Convention of Negro Peoples of the World, held in 1920 at Madison Square Garden. There the governing body adopted the red, black, and green flag as its ensign, and Ford’s song “Ethiopia” became the “Universal Ethiopian Anthem,” which the UNIA constitution required be sung at every gathering. During that same year, Ford published the Universal Ethiopian Hymnal. Ford was a proponent of replacing the term “Negro” with the term “Ethiopian,” as a general reference to people of African descent. This allowed the biblical verse “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hand to God,” (Psalm 68:3) to be interpreted as applying to their efforts and it became a popular slogan of the organization. At the 1922 convention, Ford opened the proceedings for the session devoted to “The Politics and Future of the West Indian Negro,” and he represented the advocates of Judaism on a five-person ad hoc committee formed to investigate “the Future Religion of the Negro.” Following Garvey’s arrest in 1923, the UNIA loss much of its internal cohesion. Since Ford and his small band of followers were motivated by principals that were independent of Garvey’s charismatic appeal, they were repeatedly approached by government agents and asked to testify against Garvey at trial, which they refused to do. However, in 1925, Ford brought separate law suits against Garvey and the UNIA for

failing to pay him royalties from the sale of recordings and sheet music, and in 1926 the judge ruled in Ford’s favor. No longer musical director, and despite his personal and business differences with the organization, Rabbi Ford maintained a connection with the UNIA and was invited to give the invocation at the annual convention in 1926.

Several black religious leaders were experimenting with Judaism in various degrees between the two world wars. Rabbi Ford formed intermittent partnerships with some of these leaders. He and Valentine started a short lived congregation called Beth B’nai Israel. Ford then worked with Mordecai Herman and the Moorish Zionist Temple, until they had an altercation over theological and financial issues. Finally, he established Beth B’nai Abraham in Harlem in 1924. A Jewish scholar who visited the congregation described their services as “a mixture of Reform and Orthodox Judaism, but when they practice the old customs they are seriously orthodox” (Kobre, 25). Harlem chronicler JAMES VANDERZEE photographed the congregation with the Star of David and bold Hebrew lettering identifying their presence on 135th Street and showing Rabbi Ford standing in front of the synagogue with his arms around his string bass, and with members of his choir at his side, the women wearing the black dresses and long white head coverings that became their distinctive habit and the men in white turbans.

In 1928, Rabbi Ford created a business adjunct to the congregation called the B’nai Abraham Progressive Corporation. Reminiscent of many of Garvey’s ventures, this corporation issued one hundred shares of stock and purchased two buildings from which it operated a religious and vocational school in one and leased apartments in the other. However, resources dwindled as the Depression became more pronounced, and the corporation went bankrupt in 1930. Once again it seemed that Ford’s dream of building a black community with cultural integrity, economic viability, and political virility was dashed, but out of the ashes of this disappointment he mustered the resolve to make a final attempt in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government had been



encouraging black people with skills and education to immigrate to Ethiopia for almost a decade, and Ford knew that there were over 40,000 indigenous black Jews already in Ethiopia (who called themselves Beta Israel, but who were commonly referred to as Falasha). The announced coronation of Haile Selassie in 1930 as the first black ruler of an African nation in modern times raised the hopes of black people all over the world and led Ford to believe that the timing of his Ethiopian colony was providential.

Ford arrived in Ethiopia with a small musical contingent in time to perform during the coronation festivities. They then sustained themselves in Addis Abba by performing at local hotels and relying on assistance from supporters in the United Sates who were members of the Aurienoth Club, a civic group of black Jews and black nationalists, and members of the Commandment Keepers Congregation, led by Rabbi W. A. MATTHEW, Ford’s most loyal protégé. Mignon Innis arrived with a second delegation in 1931 to work as Ford’s private secretary. She soon became Ford’s wife, and they had two children in Ethiopia. Mrs. Ford established a school for boys and girls that specialized in English and music. Ford managed to secure eight hundred acres of land on which to begin his colony and approximately one hundred individuals came to help him develop it. Unbeknownst to Ford, the U.S. State Department monitored Ford’s efforts with irrational alarm, dispatching reports with such headings as “American Negroes in Ethiopia—Inspiration Back of Their Coming Here—‘Rabbi’ Josiah A. Ford,” and instituting discriminatory policies to curtail the travel of black citizens to Ethiopia.

Ford had no intention of leaving Ethiopia, so he drew up a certificate of ordination (shmecha) for Rabbi Matthew that was sanctioned by the Ethiopian government in the hope that this document would give Matthew the necessary credentials to continue the work that Ford had begun in the United States. By 1935 the black Jewish experiment with Ethiopian Zionism was on the verge of collapse. Those who did not leave because of the hard agricultural work, joined the stampede of foreign nationals who sensed that war with Italy was imminent and defeat for Ethiopia

certain. Ford died in September, it was said, of exhaustion and heartbreak, a few weeks before the Italian invasion. Ford had been the most important catalyst for the spread of Judaism among African Americans. Through his successors, communities of black Jews emerged and survived in several American cities.

Further ReadingKing, Kenneth J. “ Some Notes on Arnold J. Ford and New World Black Attitudes to Ethiopia,” in Black Apostles: Afro-American Clergy Confront the Twentieth Century, Randall Burkett and Richard Newman, eds. (1978).Kobre, Sidney. “Rabbi Ford,” The Reflex 4, no. 1 (1929): 25-29.Scott, William R. “Rabbi Arnold Ford’s Back-to-Ethiopia Movement: A Study of Black Emigration, 1930-1935,” Pan-African Journal 8, no. 2 (1975):191-201.

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Fort Mose

Nearly 150 years before President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, there was a settlement of freed Blacks living in Florida in a walled city called Ft. Mose (pronounced mo-say). At that time, Florida was a Spanish Territory and the American Colonies were British slave-holding territories.

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Seminoles' lawsuit that seeks a share of the $56 million the United States government paid the Seminoles for reparations.

To win their suit against the U.S. government, the Black Seminoles must prove they owned land in Florida. The story of the Black Semi-noles is complex and controversial. Often it's misunderstood. The Seminoles themselves were a distillation of as many as 36 tribes. Osceola, the bold and dashing Seminole leader for whom the Florida State University mascot was named, was half Scottish and half Creek Indian, and married a Black Seminole.

Enslaved blacks escaped to Florida Blacks were in Florida before the Seminoles. In the late 1600s, Africans who escaped Carolina planta-tions and dodged slave hunters through danger-ous Indian country gained freedom by crossing the St. Mary's River, an international border that divided Spanish and British colonial terri-tory.

This was one of the first underground railroad tracks. So many fled here that, in 1693, the Spanish settlement at St. Augustine began freeing the runaway slaves if they agreed to convert to Catholicism and protect the northern border from the British, according to Jane Landers, author of Black Society in Spanish Florida. By 1738, these former slaves formed the first free black community in North America - Gracia Real de Santo Teresa de Mose - better known as Fort Mose. Soon, the Indians followed. They were the remnants of the most resistant tribes, the Creek, Hitichi, Yamasee and Miccosukee, Indians who had been fighting the Europeans for centuries. Together they became known as the Seminoles. The term first appears in the mid-1700s and is believed to come from the Spanish word meaning "runaway" or "secede." Like the Spanish, the Seminoles harbored runaway slaves. Although most blacks

were technically governed by Seminole chiefs, they were free in every other way. They were armed. Most lived in their own villages and, as a kind of tax, gave corn to the tribe.

They taught the Indians to build homes, tend livestock and speak English and Spanish. "I don't think some modern U.S. audiences can get that neither the Spaniards nor the Seminoles nor the blacks themselves considered them slaves - only the Americans did," Landers said. They became farmers, ranchers, cowboys, interpreters, hunters, traders and warriors. Some lived short, brutish lives as outlaws, raiding plantations, recruiting blacks, and trading in contraband. Others farmed and traded, building peaceful relations with Indians, slaves, and former mas-ters. Intermarriages were common.

Black SeminolesForty-five minutes west of Walt Disney's make-believe history, archaeologists dig for real artifacts. Hunched over a shallow, square excavation, they search for Peliklakaha, the largest Black Seminole village, in Fort Mose known to historians, a place where different cultures joined in a fight for freedom more than 200 years ago. Until now, say University of Florida archaeologists, Peliklakaha existed only in the writings of military leaders and a painting commissioned by the U.S. general who had burned it down.

Archaeologists hope to unearth clues that documents can't provide, secrets about the life of a hidden people. They hope Peliklakaha will reveal whether the inhabitants developed a unique lifestyle with their new status as free people in Florida.

"The story of the Black Seminoles is a tremendous story about a successful effort by slaves gaining their freedom before the Civil War," said Delray Beach archaeologist Bill Steele, who discovered the site in 1993. "That's why Peliklakaha is so significant.

"The dig could establish a new focus in archaeology on cultures that combine African and Native American influences, said Terry Weik, the UF graduate student heading the excavation. It could also bolster the Black



"We don't have time to spend a lot of money on whiskey

and big parties and a lot of stuff, and we aren't giving

money to the basic causes that confront us now.

It will be an indictment on the Negro if it is revealed that

we spend more money on frivolities than we spend on the

cause of freedom and justice.

And I've been in situations.. .I've seen us in many of our

social groups, our

fraternities and our

Masonic and our

Elks

and what have you,

spending more money on frivolities than we spend on the

cause of

freedom and justice!

I remember one year that a certain fraternity assembled with

other fraternities and spent

in one week $500,000 [sic] on whiskey!

That's what the paper reported.

Negroes spend more money in one week, just a handful,

in one week

than the whole Negro race spent that whole year for the

NAACP and the United Negro College Fund.

Now that's tragic.

That's tragic, my friends.

We've got to get a sense of values.

Now you don't like some of these things I'm saying.

You're not saying amen too much

right through in here, but I'm saying things that I think are

basic for us.

Things that are basic. Not only that, we must continue to

develop

wise,

courageous, and

sincere

leadership.

This is a need all over the South and all over the nation. We need

leaders who are sincere.

Leaders of integrity.

Leaders who are intelligent.

Leaders who [avoid] the extremes of

hot- headedness and

Uncle Tomism.

Leaders who somehow have the vision to see the issues and have the

courage to stand there.

Leaders not in love with money, but in love with

humanity.

Leaders not in love with publicity,

but in love with justice.

Oh, this is the great need of this hour.

As I look out... over our nation, God has given

many of you talent.

God has given many of you

economic resources,

and he's given you

educational resources.

And this is the challenge and an opportunity of the hour to use

these things to furnish leadership for our nation in this hour.

Let none of us become so high on the intellectual, the economic

ladder, or any of these particular ladders, that we become separated

from the

problems that the masses of people confront. Let us discover that we

will never get into the Promised Land until all of us get there

together.

1615

*Listen to Dr. King's Speech on The Gist of Freedom http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thegistoffreedom/2011/01/14/freedom-riders

"We kill each other too much. We have to face

that. We have to face that.

Our crime rates are still too high. We've got to

face that.

We don't have to have a Ph.D. ...or an M.A.

degree or an A.B. degree. We don't have to

have a lot of money to be good and honest and

moral and upright.

And Let us start now and sit down by the

wayside and pull down the curtains of our lives,

and the shades, and look at ourselves and say,

"Can we improve ourselves here?"

Martin Luther King, Jr's Speech at Bennett College 1958

"FINANCE YOUR FREEDOM!"

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United States Black Senators

As we celebrate the swearing in of our 9th African American United States Senator, former Newark, NJ Mayor, Cory Booker let's reflect on our journey.

The United States Senate has a long history of producing historic leaders, but has featured only eight African-American members. The following eight U.S. Senators (photo Senators & Representatives) set a number of political and social milestones spanning the Reconstruction and beyond.

List of Eight United States Senators

Hiram Revels Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first African American senator in 1870. Born in North Carolina in 1827, Revels attended Knox College in Illinois and later served as minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland. He raised two black regiments during the Civil War and fought at the battle of Vicksburg in Mississippi. The Mississippi state legislature sent him to the U.S. Senate during Reconstruction where he became an outspoken opponent of racial segregation. Although Revels served in the Senate for just a year, he broke new ground for African Americans in Congress.

Revels was the first African-American to serve as a state senator, representing Mississippi. Revels was elected by the Mississippi State Senate to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat, which was abandoned by Albert G. Brown when Mississippi seceded from the Union during the Civil War.

Revels was greeted in Washington by two days of debate about his seating in the Senate. Southern Democrats staunchly opposed Revels' admission into the Senate because of the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, which stated that African-Americans were property rather than citizens. Since the 14th Amend-ment was ratified in 1868, two years before Revels was elected to the Senate, Democrats argued that Revels could not fulfill the nine-year citizenship requirement and, therefore, could not legally assume the position of senator. Their argument was ruled invalid after a decision that the Civil War and Reconstruction amendments overturned Dred Scott.

William "Mo" CowanThe appointment of Massachusetts Senator William "Mo" Cowan on February 1, 2013 marked the first time that two African Americans have served simulta-neously in the United States Senate.

Tim ScottAppointed to the Senate on January 2, 2013, Tim Scott became the first African American since Recon-struction to represent a Southern state in the Senate.

The First Colored Senator and Representatives, in the 41st and 42nd Congress of the US. Top standing left to right: Robert C. De Large, M.C. of S. Carolina; and Jefferson H. Long, M.C. of Georgia. Seated, left to right: U.S. Senator H.R. Revels of Mississippi; Benj. S. Turner, M.C. of Alabama; Josiah T. Walls, M.C. of Florida; Joseph H. Rainy, M.C. of S. Carolina; and R. Brown Elliot, M.C. of S. Carolina. Lithograph by Currier and Ives, 1872. (Photo: The Library of Congress)

Barack ObamaBarack Obama Elected to the United States Senate in November of 2004, he took the oath of office and became the fifth African American to serve in the Senate on January 3, 2005.

Roland W. Burris Barack Obama Appointed to the Senate on December 31, 2008, Burris filled the vacancy caused by the resignation of Barack Obama.

Carol Moseley BraunCarol Moseley Braun Elected on January 3, 1993, also became the first African American woman ever to serve as U.S. Senator

Edward Brooke Edward Brooke The first African American elected to the Senate by popular vote, Edward Brooke of Massa-chusetts served two full terms, from 1967 to 1979.

Blanche K. BruceAt the dawn of the Civil War, Bruce escaped slavery and traveled north to begin a distinguished career in education and politics. Elected to the Senate in 1874 by the Mississippi state legislature, he served from 1875 to 1881. In 2002, the Senate commissioned a new portrait of Bruce, now on display in the U.S. Capitol.

The framers intended the Senate to be an independent body of responsible citizens who would share power with the president and the House of Representatives.

To balance power between the large and small states, the Constitution's framers agreed that states would be repre-sented equally in the Senate (2) and in proportion (3/5th Clause) to their populations in the House of Representa-tives. Further preserving the authority of individual states, they provided that state legislatures would elect senators.



The Gist of Freedom host, ILYASAH SHABAZZ, AUTHOR, PUBLIC SPEAKER AND ACTIVIST

U.S. Senator Menendez, Host ~ Black History Celebration @ First Baptist Church Lincoln Gardens (Pastor Deforest Soaries), Reading "The Gist of Freedom is Still Faith" and Posing next to The Gist of Freedom Black History Exhibit February 26,2012


the gist of freedom podcast nov 2013

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