Racism: Same story, different day
The Friday Flashpoints!
"That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history." Sir Aldous Huxley, British author of "Brave New World."
***The latest Jobs Report, released early this morning, shows a net of 476,000 new jobs in January—great news for an American public that is concerned about the impact of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 on the American workforce.
With nearly nine months left until election day, the simple truth is that for Democrats to maintain the House and not lose ground in the Senate this fall, the economic numbers had better be tight for the next two quarters or, history has shown that the all too critical Independent voters will trend towards the party that does not occupy the White House (hint-the GOP).
Stay tuned…
***Today is the fourth day of Black History Month and, right on cue, the silliness from the sick sycophantic simpletons continues; this week, Dr. Eric Mackey, the Alabama Schools Superintendent, testified before members of the Alabama House Education Policy Committee that his office has fielded numerous complaints that the annual Black History programs across the state are tantamount to Critical Race Theory being taught in public schools. Quote: “I had two calls in the last week that they’re having a Black History Month program and they consider having a Black history program CRT...having a Black history program is not CRT," Dr. Mackey said.
Dr. Mackey is right—what the real issue is that the modern day Know Nothings don't want their ignorant offspring to learn anything about people, places, and events that aren't white or Eurocentered. Which is why public and private school teachers across America must continue to teach these facts anyway, to "lift the veil of ignorance” from the masses, to paraphrase another legendary Alabaman, Tuskegee Institute founder Booker T. Washington!
***Keeping it in Dixie land, yesterday, Mississippi GOP Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill into law authorizing medical marijuana in the state, this after objecting to legalizing marijuana for years.
While such is a wise move when considering that medicinal marijuana is pumping billions of dollars into state coffers—while helping patients with chronic pain and lost appetites to endure, there’s still something quite perverse to me that marijuana isn't legal for recreational uses as well. Just last week, Makayla Bryant, 21, a former cheerleader and honors graduate student at Florida A&M University, was killed in a hail of gunfire allegedly because she was caught in the middle of a set up to rob about $650 dollars worth of marijuana.
My strong suspicion is that if recreational marijuana sales become legal, not only would billions in tax revenue exponentially increase for state and local governments, but the shadowy aspects of the drug trade that often leads to robberies and murders would abate as well…
Black History Hobbservation
Paul Williams, popularly known as the "Architect of the Stars," was born in 1896 and spent his childhood being educated in private schools in Los Angeles before attending the University of Southern California, where he studied Engineering and eventually became the first black member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
Williams mastered a technique of upside down drafting which allowed white customers during segregation to consider his designs without having to sit next to a Black man. Said Williams about his clientele, "In the moment that they met me and discovered they were dealing with a Negro, I could see many of them freeze." Still, there is much irony in the fact that for years, restrictive covenants prevented him from purchasing homes in the very neighborhoods that he helped develop.
During the course of his career, Williams designed over 2,000 homes, including those of Franks Sinatra, Lucille Ball and her husband Dezi Arnaz, Nat King Cole and Tyrone Power. Williams's imprint can be seen throughout Los Angeles as he designed landmarks such as the Jet Theme building at Los Angeles International Airport, the Los Angeles County Courthouse, Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverley Hills and the mansion that currently belongs to Barron Hilton that was featured in the opening credits of Aaron Spelling's "Dynasty II: The Colby's", which was a popular spin-off to "Dynasty" in the mid-1980's.
Williams, who was awarded the NAACP's prestigious Spingarn Award in 1953, died at the age of 85 in 1980 and is interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery next to his wife, Della, who died in 1996.
Black College Feature
This Black History Month, each day I will feature one of America's top HBCUs. Next up: Clark Atlanta University!
Clark Atlanta Facts
Founded: Clark Atlanta University (CAU) was formed in 1988 upon the merger of two prestigious HBCUs—Clark College and Atlanta University.
Atlanta University was founded on September 19, 1865 by the American Missionary Association with assistance from the Freedman's Bureau—only five months after the end of the Civil War. Initially a grammar school, by 1870, the school had become a university and for the next 60 years, would educate blacks in a number of disciplines, including education and sociology. Among its early 20th Century professors was Dr. W.E.B. Dubois, the famed sociologist and longtime editor of the "Crisis" magazine—the official publication of the NAACP.
Clark College was founded in 1869 by the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). It was named for Bishop Davis W. Clark, the first president of the Freedman's Aid Society and an MEC bishop. In 1883, the school formed the Gammon Theological School to train Methodist ministers, and over the next 70 years, the College focused exclusively on undergraduate education in a number of liberal arts disciplines.
In 1930, Atlanta University began to focus exclusively on graduate studies and during the next three decades, it would strengthen ties with Clark, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Morris Brown College and the Interdenominational Theological Center, the latter of which subsumed Clark's Gammon religion school. Collectively, these HBCUs form what remains collectively known as the Atlanta University Center.
Mottos: “I’ll Find a Way or Make One” (Atlanta University); “Culture for Service” (Clark College)
Academics: The largest school in the AUC, Clark Atlanta is a co-ed, predominantly Black University that offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in over 40 disciplines at the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels. The University is noted for producing top notch journalists, and for its Schools of Arts & Science, Business, Education, and Social Work.
U.S. News & World Report has consistently ranked CAU among the Top 20 HBCUs and in 2015, Princeton Review listed the University as one of the "Best Southeastern University." The University also hosts the prestigious Phi Kappa Phi, Alpha Kappa Mu and Golden Key Honor Societies.
Mascot: Panthers
Colors: Red and Black
Conference affiliation: SIAC
Famous Alumni:
Civil Right leaders James Weldon Johnson, Hosea Williams and Ralph Abernathy; Television producer and director Kenya Barris; author Pearl Cleage; model Eva Pigford; politicians Marvin Arrington and Rep. Major Owens; journalist Jacque Reid, and ESPN host/writer Bomani Jones; NAACP leader Walter Francis White, Henry O. Flipper, the first Black graduate of West Point; educators Marva Collins and former Tennessee State and Jackson State President James Hefner; R&B singer Bobby V, actor Emmanuel Lewis.
Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a wonderful weekend!
What a sentence: “Williams mastered a technique of upside down drafting which allowed white customers during segregation to consider his designs without having to sit next to a Black man.” Somehow, for me, this cuts to the heart of so much.
Thanks for another excellent read❤️