Remembering Bishop Desmond Tutu, The Moore Martyrs, and the lethality of Covid-19
The Monday Musings!
***Upon the passing of Bishop Desmond Tutu yesterday, my Morehouse classmate and Kappa Brother, Rev. Malone Smith, provided the following epitaph on his Facebook page: “His Lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25 verse 23, King James Version
Indeed!
Lest we forget that the Archbishop, who turned 90 this past October, was a leading voice for non-violent resistance to South Africa’s racist apartheid movement and because of his efforts, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. While encomiums in his memory will be written and professed the world over for the next few days, I choose to honor his life with a few lines from 18th Century Scottish poet Robert Burns:
"An honest man here lies at rest, The friend of man, the friend of truth; The friend of age, and guide of youth: Few hearts like his, with virtue warm’d, Few heads with knowledge so inform’d: If there’s another world, he lives in bliss; If there is none, he made the best of this."
Requeiscat in Pace, Bishop Tutu!
***With the Omicron variant of Covid-19 surging, I once again implore my readers to wear K/N95 masks, wash your hands regularly, and remain socially distant (in as much as you can) in the days ahead.
With the world barely a month away from marking the second anniversary of this plague, I share the sentiments of my five-year-old nephew, “J,” who loudly opined last week, "I'm tired of Covid!" What's worse is that I’m sick of seeing folks on TV, or up and down my social media timelines, acting like Covid is no big deal as they skin, grin, and share air (and spittle) like the Coronavirus has just up and disappeared!
Please do better, my friends...
American History Hobbservation I
124 years ago today, the first Black College football game was played between Livingston College and Biddle University (now Johnson C. Smith University) at Livingstone in Salisbury, North Carolina. Biddle won the game 4-0 (at that time a touchdown was 4 points). Below is a photo of Dr. William L. Metz, the starting fullback for Biddle University in that game.
Lest we forget!
American History Hobbservations II
On December 25, 1951, 70 years ago, Florida NAACP leader Harry T. Moore and his wife, Harriet, were killed when a bomb planted by the Ku Klux Klan exploded at their house on Christmas Day.
Mr. Moore, an alumnus of both Florida Memorial College and Bethune Cookman College, rose to prominence in the 1940s as the leader of the Florida State Conference of Branches of the NAACP. Mrs. Moore, also a Bethune Cookman graduate, was a popular school teacher near their home in Mims, Florida.
As to the latter, one of Mrs. Moore's former students, Paij Bailey, noted how her mentor made no complaints about the then standard Jim Crow era practice of used books being handed down from white public schools, as she supplemented her lessons with her own books about freedom fighters like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth; read aloud articles and poems from Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, and provided copies of the latest Ebony magazine articles to inspire her young Black students.
As to the former, Mr. Moore was indefatigable in his efforts to stamp out racism in Jim Crow Florida, and he drew the ire of the Florida Ku Klux Klan for his efforts to register Black voters; his investigating the lynching of Willie Howard, a 15-year-old Black boy who was killed near Live Oak, Florida for allegedly writing a love letter to a white girl in 1944; his investigating the notoriously racist Sheriff Willis McCall, the man who was so brutal to the "Groveland Four" Black arrestees in 1949 that some historians believe that his acts served as the template for later (and more infamously racist) "law enforcers" like Birmingham, Alabama's Chief Eugene “Bull” Connor, and Albany, Georgia's Sheriff Laurie Pritchett.
Mr. Moore's work earned him the title of "The most hated Black man in Florida,” but eschewing fear, Moore stated that, “Every advancement comes by way of sacrifice. What I am doing is for the benefit of my race.”
As the Moores prepared for Christmas in 1951, a firebomb ripped through their residence and Mr. Moore died en route to the only Black hospital in the region (located in Sanford, Florida—over 30 miles away). Mrs. Moore, tragically, succumbed to her injuries nine days later at the very same hospital…Mr. Moore was 46 years old…Mrs. Moore was 49.
Legendary Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes, upon learning of the Moore assasinations, penned the following lines:
"When will men for sake of peace and for democracy, Learn no bombs a man can make Keep men [and women] from being free? And this he says, our Harry Moore, as from the grave he cries: No bomb can kill the dreams I hold, For freedom never dies!"
Amen!
The Hobbservation Point is still on break for the holidays but as promised, we will check in a time or two during break when news or a historical milestone warrants :)
Now back to your break! But thank you for the word on "Arch" 💙
Rest in peace Mr. & Mrs. Moore. 🙏