In the late 19th and early 20th centuries when Ida B. Wells lived, she was an anti-lynching crusader who wrote about the terrorism and oppression Black folks lived under in America, a place where racism still functions as a well-oiled machine. Racism is so ingrained in our cultural make-up; even AI systems in search of alien life must undergo DEI training to work against our own inherent prejudices and discrimination practices. If history hasn’t been truthful enough, and the on-going and indiscriminate shooting of Black boys hasn’t been cruel enough, Ralph Yarl’s shooting will take its seat alongside similar racial shooting incidents as a “normal” node in American history. And accordingly, the human rights work Wells took up in her living days, like Harriet Tubman before her, marches on with other freedom fighters.
What is America to a Black boy? Langston Hughes searched for an America that cared for him and his people. He dreamed of a nation truly beholden to the words that captured principles rooted in a new humanity, and that all men are truly created equal. The truth of the matter is that America was never going to be America to him when he so eloquently captured with poetry, a broken heart and a broken promise to a people: “O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, but opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe. There’s never been equality for me, nor freedom in this homeland of the free.”
And so we must ask America as Hughes did in 1935: Who are you that mumbles in the dark? Tell the world what America is to a Black boy.
In a 1939 song, Billy Holiday sang of lynching’s as strange fruit hanging from Poplar trees. Even so, the beautiful melancholy melody escaping her soul didn’t turn America’s hate for her sun-kissed children, instead anti-lynching laws sat shelved for more generations to bear witness to the callousness being inflicted upon Black souls, symbolically speaking of our worth without words. What is America to a Black boy, indeed.
This question is as old as the slave trade that trafficked millions of Africans to European and Native American shores. From Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey to Malcolm X, Black people have consistently sought compromise and solutions to remove barriers that deliberately obstruct their salvation in America. Imagine burning down Black Wall Street, denying Black people an education and basic human rights, all while declaring, E Pluribus Unum.
As we prepare the nations’ soil for future crop to grow, the question before the next harvest must be answered to stop the spread of this strange fruit we call racism. What is America to a Black boy, is the question. James Baldwin found his answer and salvation in Paris back in 1948, but considering the American market in 2023 and navigating our societal changes like the insincerity and hypocrisy of racial justice, one can easily conclude that America to a Black boy is the shooting of Ralph Yarl, a sweet 16 year-old kid stereotyped as a scary Black man.
What is America to a Black boy is answered in accidentally ringing a door bell of the wrong address and getting shot in the head for it. What is America to a Black boy is demonstrated in the nearly 100 years it took for Congress to make lynching a crime by finally passing the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act. What is America to a Black boy is witnessed with the assassinations of our Black leaders, holding true to the American promise that sicced J. Edgar Hoover—whose name still adorns the FBI building—on Black people to “Prevent the rise of a messiah” who could unify and electrify the black movement.
What is America to a Black boy is expressed with chokeholds, stop and frisk tactics, a knee to the neck, no-knock warrants, deliberate economic barriers to retard upward movement, health and human services without Black fathers in the home, and blatant inequality in every sector of our American lives and culture. Today, being carefully Black in America requires more than being Woke, The Green Book or even knowing your place in common society; it is also knowing the sting of America’s spiked tongue outside of the home and familiar Black spaces.
We are living in biblical times. But just like Moses led his people to freedom, we too shall find our way to a new Canaan and the promised lands revealed in the dreams and hopes of our ancestors. The racial shooting of Ralph Yarl, a high school honor student and aspiring musician who hopes to attend Princeton, is a stark reminded that America remains the pioneer on the plain where Black people continue to seek a home where true freedom reigns and their children can live in peace.
When state delegates reached The Three-Fifths Compromise in 1787, our subjugation was emblematically absolute, paving the way for reparations for former White slave holders, the formation of the KKK, and the birth of Jim Crow and Slave Codes. Today, Black people continue to live in a quasi freedom loving land that turned its back to their needs, and their children into dangerous stereotypes. The disrespect of African Americans runs so deep; Donald Trump ran on a platform to “Make America Great Again” and won.
The 1963 March on Washington wasn’t about a Black man’s dream. It was about reaching tangible reparations in many forms, including jobs and freedom. The call was also for racial equality and a more just society. Clearly, we still have mountains to climb because the unjustified fear and loathing in an old White man’s heart when a Black boy rang his door bell by mistake, is homegrown American-made racism. And when more than half of the country voted to “Make America Great Again,” refuse to see the wrong in flying Confederate flags and calling for the return of the “good ol’ boy” days, how can this country honestly envision a better future and build out the blue print of a shared humanity.
America to a Black boy is the enduring folklore of a troubled and weary people, one that is constantly being created and recreated to suit new situations. It is the cyclical nature of history and the ugly truth of racism. Despite the many opportunities to loosen the grip on hate and intolerance, racist Americans refuse to budge. Even so, and regardless of any demands or sway of a nation, America can only be America when Black boys are valued, not feared.
Jay Mills is the founder of Ebony Green Society, she is a cannabis content creator, author, performing artist, community organizer and educator. She is the host of Pass The Jay Podcast. Jay is a cannabis industry pioneer. She is the first Black woman to manage a cultivation center on the east coast. She is the founder of The Green Life Learning Center, an international cannabis education company specializing in professional employee training standards for cannabis businesses. After some time in the herbal and holistic wellness industry and working at a DC medical dispensary she decided to focus on expanding her work, by creating opportunities for others and educating the community about the growing cannabis industry and all its uses. A powerful and deeply loved green leaf may just be the path to building generational wealth for Black folks, and Jay Mills wants to show you the way there.
To learn more about Jay Mills, her upcoming events and programs see info below:
Ebony Green | info@onlyebonygreen.com | 202.670.6867 | 712 H St. NE, Suite 1403 Washington, DC 20002 | IG @therealjaymills
Jay Mills answers ePa Live: Question Of The Day
Jay Mills is a cannabis industry pioneer as the first Black woman to manage a cultivation center on the east coast.
Atibon is an award-winning actor and performer who lives in Brooklyn. His body of work includes films like FBI (2018), Fade to Black: The Trigger Effect (2013) Gabriel (2014), and Mountains. His passion for his Haitian culture and heritage led to the creation of Vodounchild and Brooklyn Loves Haiti merchandize you can purchase on Etsy. His new film, Mountain, is about a Haitian demolition worker who is faced with the realities of redevelopment as he is tasked with dismantling his rapidly gentrifying neighborhood.
Atibon Nazaire Answers ePa Live: Question Of The Day
Atibon Nazaire on his career as an actor and his new film, Mountain.
The Africa Wealth Report is the definitive guide to Africa’s wealth and luxury sector, published annually by Henley & Partners — the global leader in residence and citizenship by investment— in partnership with wealth intelligence firm New World Wealth. The report provides a comprehensive review of private wealth in Africa, including high-net-worth-individual, luxury, and wealth management trends, as well as expert insights on investing in Africa, the investment migration sector, and economic mobility on the continent.
Investing in Africa
Africa — despite its many challenges, own goals, misperceptions, and negative international press — is undoubtedly open for business in 2023.
Known as the continent with both the youngest and fastest growing populations means that Africa naturally holds the greatest potential for investment prospects. Additionally, having the dubious honor of also being the poorest continent opens a myriad opportunities in terms of investment growth potential but, most importantly, magnifies the power of impact investing, especially for investors who have this as a focused investment strategy.
When jogging through my neighborhood at sunrise, I often see backyard signs pledging allegiance to a sacred political principle which my neighbors hold dear. The backyard signs communicate what the neighbors want others to think that they care about. However, these signs do little to promote in practice the cause they highlight. The signs are posted because they represent a popular opinion within the community. They would not be posted in a community with a different set of values, to avoid the risk of controversy. Ironically, it is the other community that needs convincing, and where the sign would serve the purpose of engaging in a dialogue to improve the world.
A 2020 Morning Consult poll found that a quarter of adults without children say climate change is part of the reason they didn’t have children. Given the rest of our industrial activities, their choice has little impact on suppressing climate change, akin to the impact of becoming vegan on saving endangered species. But these decisions make people feel and look better within their like-minded communities.
Later in my day, I see many of my colleagues on the academic campus using popular slogans to express their loyalty to trendy principles. The spectacle reminds me of the uniform we used to wear at elementary school to hide our actual socioeconomic backgrounds. This is all good, except that when it comes to the hard work necessary for fulfilling these same principles by actually helping real people, the same colleagues are nowhere to be found.
What is the virtue inherent in `virtue signaling’? Clearly, it is the pleasure of communicating the beauty of ideas that aim to repair a broken world. But without turning them into action, the beautiful ideas resemble an engine that lacks transmission. A car’s transmission is essential for turning the engine’s power into motion on the road. The engine by itself only makes noise.
Why is it then that action is rare? Obviously, because it requires hard work as well as coming up with an effective implementation strategy on how to make a difference.
Over the past decade I had the privilege of serving simultaneously as director of the Institute for Theory and Computation, chair of the Astronomy department and founding director of the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University. The reason I agreed to serve on all three leadership roles as once, was to improve my environment. They demanded sacrifice of my precious research time. Those who know me would testify that there is nothing more enjoyable for me than being fully immersed in creative scientific work, of which administrative distractions are the foe. But at some phase in my career, I realized that I cannot rely on others to do what needs to be done, and so I welcomed this opportunity to promote excellence and diversity. Most of my leadership efforts were invested in supporting students, postdocs and junior faculty of all backgrounds. The reason was simple: my own upbringing was unprivileged and I knew how difficult it is to make it up the academic ladder. I felt committed to helping fledgling scientists achieve success irrespective of where they started. Helping real people required hard work, unlike `virtue signaling’.
To protect their privacy, I cannot mention the dozens of individuals I was fortunate to help during my leadership roles over the years, but my home office is filled with “Thank-You” notes from all of them. The backyard signs of my neighbors serve a different purpose. These offer a shortcut to feeling better.
Unfortunately, `virtue signaling’ also appears in scientific research because of peer pressure. For example, astrobiologists will lobby for the search of bio-signatures on the surface of Mars, but will shy away from promoting an unapologetic disruptive approach in looking for them. None of the past NASA missions to Mars employed a microscope or added a drop of water in-situ to Martian soil in order to check for any signs of dormant life that might be awaken. The adopted approaches provided a safer path for avoiding controversy, such as the claim by former NASA engineer Gilbert V. Levine who served as the principal investigator Labeled Release experiment on NASA Viking missions to Mars, and explicitly argued in a Scientific American essay in 2019 that he is convinced we already found life on Mars in the 1970s.
Similarly, astrobiologists plan to invest billions of dollars in the search for primitive life in exoplanet atmosphere over the coming decades, but do not allocate even a percent of these funds to the search for intelligent life. To avoid controversy, they regard techno-signatures as risky relative to bio-signatures even though the one biosphere we know, here on Earth, has both.
The pattern repeats farther down. SETI scientists who searched for radio signals unsuccessfully for seven decades mention peripherally the search for technological objects near Earth as an alternative. However, when it comes to analyzing actual data on the anomalous geometry and non-gravitational acceleration of the first reported interstellar object `Oumuamua or the high material strength of the first two interstellar meteors, they join forces with the conservative mainstream of astrobiology and dismiss upfront a possible technological origin without engaging in any further research. The Galileo Project aims to repair this attitude by following the scientific method and seeking new data on anomalous objects near Earth.
In another context, fundamental physics aims to explain reality, yet the mainstream of theoretical physics was engaged for four decades in developing abstract concepts of string theory and the multiverse with no experimental sanity checks. In this community, `virtue signaling’ is to argue that engaging with real experimental data is an option for a physicist, akin to the proposal that the job description of a plumber could include the option of fixing plumbing issues in the Metaverse for the community of subscribers who put Metaverse goggles on their head.
Scientific `virtue signaling’ admits loyalty to the mainstream while whispering — but not pursuing — disruptive innovation, in order to avoid controversy. It offers an easy path of least resistance for scientists to remain popular within the groupthink. It avoids the hard work required to improve on what we know. Herd mentality sometimes masquerades as `open-mindedness’ when it lacks action to change the world.
Artificial intelligence (AI) systems like GPT-4 are trained to imitate humans. As such, they mirror society and are already showing biases and discrimination against various groups of people. By reflecting our image, AI provides a reality check as to the limited effectiveness of `virtue signaling’. Here’s hoping that AI mirrors will bring awareness to the discrepancy between our wishful thinking and the reality surrounding us, so as to trigger action.
The unfortunate nature of `virtue signaling’ is that it does not represent a sincere attempt to repair the world. On occasion, it can lead to the opposite outcome by pushing back against individuals who are actually engaged in an honest effort to promote a change, because they upset the status-quo and create controversy. These individuals are not as popular as `virtue signaling’ advocates. But they carry the actual virtues that others are signaling.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s — Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). He chairs the advisory board for the Breakthrough Starshot project, and is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial:The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021. His new book, titled “Interstellar”, is scheduled for publication in August 2023.
Raynard Jackson, a Republican political consultant, lobbyist, and radio host who has served on the presidential campaigns of George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. Jackson is a native of St. Louis, MO, and is one of the most sought-after conservative speakers in America. He is a frequent public speaker to college students, political & business groups and churches. Jackson has worked on numerous Republican U.S. Senate, gubernatorial, and congressional political campaigns.
He is the president and CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, a lobbying firm based in Washington, D.C. He is a staunch supporter of former President Donald J. Trump and has criticized his critics, including liberal political pundits Joy Reid and Don Lemon, claiming they have done more to hurt Black people than Trump.
Raynard joined ePa Live to discuss the ramifications of the indictment of Trump and gave his predictions about the next presidential election.
Raynard answers ePa Live question of the day:
Raynard Jackson on the ramifications of indicting a former sitting U.S. president:
Raynard Jackson on Tennessee’s House of Representatives expelling two Democratic lawmakers for leading gun control demonstrations from the House floor. Republicans accused the three Democratic lawmakers of bringing “disorder and dishonour to the House”:
Raynard Jackson discusses the 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court election held on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, to elect a justice to the Wisconsin Supreme Court for a ten-year term. Janet Protasiewicz prevailed in the state’s highly consequential contest for the Supreme Court, which will now be likely to reverse the state’s abortion ban and end the use of gerrymandered legislative maps:
The 2024 presidential election is already shaping up to be one of the most heated political races in American history. Raynard Jackson, Republican political consultant, lobbyist, and radio host offers his predictions on ePa Live:
Harvard Professor and leading Astrophysicist, Avi Loeb joined the show from Cambridge, MA. In addition to being a Harvard Professor and Best-Selling Author, Dr. Loeb is leading The Galileo Project: In Search of Technological Interstellar Object, a $2.2 million dollar expedition to retrieve a possible Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon or UAP called Oumuamua that crashed near Papua New Guinea nearly a decade ago. Oumuamua could be a product of extraterrestrial technology. Dr. Loeb also writes about Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems. His recent piece on Medium dives into future risks of AI and the legal ramifications of its use and place in society.
“Extraterrestrials could be out there and the only way to find out is by searching for their relics through our telescopes, is the approach taken by the Galileo Project.” – Dr. Loeb
Dr. Loeb, is director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Dr. Loeb answers the question of the day:
A conversation about the future risks and benefits of AI with Harvard Professor and leading Astrophysicist, Avi Loeb:
We call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.
PUBLISHED
March 22, 2023
AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity, as shown by extensive research[1]and acknowledged by top AI labs.[2]As stated in the widely-endorsedAsilomar AI Principles,Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources. Unfortunately, this level of planning and management is not happening, even though recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control.
Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks,[3]and we must ask ourselves:Shouldwe let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Shouldwe automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones?Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us?Shouldwe risk loss of control of our civilization? Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders. Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.This confidence must be well justified and increase with the magnitude of a system’s potential effects. OpenAI’srecent statement regarding artificial general intelligence, states that“At some point, it may be important to get independent review before starting to train future systems, and for the most advanced efforts to agree to limit the rate of growth of compute used for creating new models.”We agree. That point is now.
Therefore,we call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4. This pause should be public and verifiable, and include all key actors. If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium.
AI labs and independent experts should use this pause to jointly develop and implement a set of shared safety protocols for advanced AI design and development that are rigorously audited and overseen by independent outside experts. These protocols should ensure that systems adhering to them are safe beyond a reasonable doubt.[4]This doesnotmean a pause on AI development in general, merely a stepping back from the dangerous race to ever-larger unpredictable black-box models with emergent capabilities.
AI research and development should be refocused on making today’s powerful, state-of-the-art systems more accurate, safe, interpretable, transparent, robust, aligned, trustworthy, and loyal.
In parallel, AI developers must work with policymakers to dramatically accelerate development of robust AI governance systems. These should at a minimum include: new and capable regulatory authorities dedicated to AI; oversight and tracking of highly capable AI systems and large pools of computational capability; provenance and watermarking systems to help distinguish real from synthetic and to track model leaks; a robust auditing and certification ecosystem; liability for AI-caused harm; robust public funding for technical AI safety research; and well-resourced institutions for coping with the dramatic economic and political disruptions (especially to democracy) that AI will cause.
Humanity can enjoy a flourishing future with AI. Having succeeded in creating powerful AI systems, we can now enjoy an “AI summer” in which we reap the rewards, engineer these systems for the clear benefit of all, and give society a chance to adapt. Society has hit pause on other technologies with potentially catastrophic effects on society.[5] We can do so here. Let’s enjoy a long AI summer, not rush unprepared into a fall.
We have prepared some FAQs in response to questions and discussion in the media and elsewhere. You can find themhere.
Black West Point Cadet Brutally Beaten by White Students Days Before Graduation
In the early hours of the morning on April 5, 1880, Cadet Johnson Whittaker, one of the first Black students in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, was brutally beaten by white cadets while sleeping in his barracks. Three white cadets ambushed Cadet Whittaker, slashed his head and ears, burned his Bible, threatened his life, and then left him in his underwear, tied to the bed and bleeding profusely.
Born enslaved in South Carolina in 1858, Cadet Whittaker received a congressional appointment to the U.S. Military Academy in 1876. For most of his time at West Point, Cadet Whittaker was the only Black cadet at the institution; he endured social exclusion and racial terrorism perpetrated at the hands of white cadets and faculty alike. Twenty-three Black cadets attended West Point between 1870 and 1890, but due to the violent discrimination that they faced, only three graduated. Cadet Whittaker would later testify that he had “read and heard about the treatment that [Black] cadets received there, and expected to be ostracized.”
After Cadet Whittaker reported to West Point administrators that he had been attacked, the institution opened an investigation into him and declined to hold his white attackers accountable. Administrators instead claimed that Cadet Whittaker had staged the attack to get out of his final exams, and in May, a West Point court of inquiry found Cadet Whittaker guilty of that charge. He was forced to take his final exams while incarcerated and withstand court-martial proceedings in New York City where the army prosecutor repeatedly referred to Black people as an “inferior race” known to “feign and sham.”
In January 1881, Brigadier General N.A. Miles affirmed Cadet Whittaker’s conviction and authorized him to be expelled from West Point, dishonorably discharged from the military, and held for continued imprisonment. Cadet Whittaker’s case was ultimately forwarded to President Chester A. Arthur for approval, and, a year later, President Arthur issued an executive order overturning the conviction based on a finding that military prosecutors had relied on improperly admitted evidence. By the time of President Arthur’s intervention, Cadet Whittaker had been incarcerated for nearly two years; even after his conviction was overturned, West Point reinstated Cadet Whittaker’s expulsion, claiming he had failed an exam.
Johnson Whittaker went on to work in several professional fields and raise a family, including several generations of descendants who served in the U.S. military. In 1995, more than 60 years after his death, Mr. Whittaker’s heirs accepted the commission he would have received upon graduating West Point. At the ceremony, President Bill Clinton remarked: “We cannot undo history. But today, finally, we can pay tribute to a great American and we can acknowledge a great injustice.”
To learn more the racial discrimination and violence Black service members and veterans have faced in the U.S. military, explore EJI’s report, Lynching in America: Targeting Black Veterans.
Portrait of Cadet Whittaker at the court-martial proceedings. (Library of Congress)
Reparations is the making of amends for what a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged. The act of repairing something. Reparations for Slavery: The application of the concept of reparations to the victims of chattel slavery and their descendants.
When did you first realize that your life was marginalized? For me it began in September 1985 when I entered the school St. Pius X in Bowie, MD. At 8 just before my 9th birthday in the 4th grade my classmates would not pass me anything the teachers handed out to be passed out to the class. At recess I sat by myself receiving endless amounts of stares and fingers pointed my way. I couldn’t understand what I did to be treated this way except for the fact that I looked different. The difference being the kinkiness of my hair, the highly melanated skin I possessed and the NWDC dialect I spoke. This was my 1st experience of what hate felt like. This was just the beginning of 4 years of being called a Nigger and being told to go back to Africa almost every day. It really trips people up when I say I was witness to a cross being burned in a neighbor’s yard off Mitchellville Road. I never really understood why these individuals who looked differently from me were filled with so much hate and anger. At that age I didn’t understand the violent nature of chattel slavery or have the knowledge I have now of the truth about my ancestor’s enslavement.
Now in high school I’ve had the opportunity to do many projects and write plenty essays dealing with American history. I was intrigued by the actions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks because that’s who we learned about during Black History Month every February. I did wonder who the other leaders for the plight of our culture were because how is their only 2. This curiosity had me pulling out our Britannica Encyclopedia sets and search for all the black people I could find. It was like my summer project every Summer. I read about Bob Marley which led me to learn about the Rastafarians. I learned about the Black Panther Party of Self Defense and the first mention of reparations. I was very intrigued by Huey Newton, Fred Hampton, Eldridge Cleaver, Assata Shakur, Bobby Seale and their willingness to uplift our community. Because I attended private school and lived in a nicer home with a pool in the back yard, I didn’t see the inequalities, inequities or being marginalized until I became homeless at 17 years old. Having to repeat a 2nd year of 12th grade I signed up to take the elective African American Studies at Largo High School. This is the course that helped shape the Freedom Fighter I am today. I learned about Kemet, more detailed facts about chattel slavery and the activist that fought hard for the little bit of freedoms we currently lived with. From 18 years old to now at 46 I’ve been requesting and demanding reparations.
In 2011 I began the journey via Ancestry.com to trace my roots. I come from a broken family, broken home, no relationship with either of my grandfathers, barely saw my Paternal Grandmother, I remember seeing my Maternal Grandmother once, saw my mother 2 times before I turned 18 and didn’t know much about anyone from her side of the family. It all came crashing down reading through the microfilm to see my ancestors amounted to an age, sex and skin tone- black or mulatto. I then began to ask myself why we have to pay for this service. This information was stolen from us by the individuals who stole, enslaved and imprisoned us. The demand for Reparations was spewing out at every turn. Still falling upon deaf ears.
In August 2019 The New York Times released a series of articles called the 1619 Project. It was intriguing to read about real stories of the past that have lead us to how we are living today. In 2020 after George Floyd and Breyanna Taylor were murdered I can feel a shift in the environment that I hoped would cause our residents to pause and really see what is going on here in America. We are still living marginalized, enslaved, not respected and suffering emotionally, mentally, educationally and financially from the effects of Chattel Slavery. Nikole Hannah Jones I thank you whole heartedly for the work you put in on this project full of factual stories of our people that has been washed away by our enslavers.
The case of Reparations:
Have you heard of Henrietta Wood? Henrietta Wood was born into slavery in Northern Tennessee approximately 1819. After 30 years of enslavement the wife of her enslaver Jane Cirode, registered Henrietta as a freed slave in 1848. After 9 years living free, the daughter and son in law of her former enslaver wanted to recapture her for profit. They hired Deputy Sheriff Zebulon Ward from Covington, Kentucky to kidnap Henrietta and sell her. Wood was captured by Ward conspiring with Wood’s employer to bring her on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. Henrietta spent 1 year imprisoned at slave pen in Lexington, Kentucky. Due to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 Woods could not defend herself by trial or by testimony on her behalf. An innkeeper who felt empathy for Henrietta filed on her behalf. After 2 years her claim was unsuccessful due to her freedom paperwork being burned in a fire on Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1855 Woods was sold to the son of the former Governor of Mississippi Gerard Brandon.
Henrietta Wood, won the first reparations lawsuit.
When the Union Army Arrived to free the slaves after the Civil War, Brandon took his slaves to Texas to escape. Henrietta remained enslaved to Gerard until she signed an employment contract with the Brandon family in 1869. Not too long after Henrietta returned to Ohio with her son Arthur. In 1870 Henrietta began the process to sue the Brandon Wood family. After 8 years Wood vs Ward was litigated, and Wood was awarded $2,500 of the $20,000 restitution requested by her attorney Harvey Myers in 1879. This is the largest award given for slavery reparations. Henrietta moved to Chicago to be with her son Arthur Simms and used the restitution money to help afford his enrollment to Union College of Law, now Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. Arthur practiced law for approximately 62 years in Chicago.
Belinda | Slavery and Remembrance
Have you heard of Belinda (Royal) Sutton? I hadn’t either until the 1619 Project introduced me to her. Belinda Royal was born in Ghana, Africa in 1712. She recalls smelling spice and seeing mountains living a joyful life full of love with her parents prior to her captivity and enslavement. At 63 years old after being abandoned by her enslaver she filed a petition with the help of her attorney to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts requesting an income from the estate of her former enslaver in 1783. Her testimony describing the happy times with family back home in Africa contradicted the assumption that slaves were happy in their captivity. With that realization she won her claim and was awarded 15 pounds and 12 shillings annually ~$17.98. Through further research it was found that she had to fight continuously for that award to be honored and paid. After a decade of missed inconsistent payments and further petitions here is her petition in 1793:
The Petition of Belinda an Affrican, humbly shews: that seventy years have rolled away, since she on the banks of the Rio de Valta, received her existence – the mountains Covered with spicy forests, the valleys loaded with the richest fruits, spontaneously produced; joined to that happy temperature of air to exclude excess; would have yielded her the most compleat felicity, had not her mind received early impressions of the cruelty of men, whose faces were like the moon, and whose Bows and Arrows were like the thunder and lightning of the Clouds. – The idea of these, the most dreadful of all Enemeies, filled her infant slumbers with horror, and her noontide moments with evil apprehensions! – But her affrighted imagination, in its most alarming extension, never represented the distress equal to what she hath since really experienced – for before she had Twelve years enjoyed the fragrance of her native groves, and e’er she realized, that Europeans placed their happiness in the yellow dust which she carelessly marked with her infant footsteps. – even when she, in a sacred grove, with each hand in that of a tender Parent, was paying her devotions to the great Orisa who made all things – an armed band of white men, driving many of her Countrymen in Chains, ran into the hallowed shade! – could the Tears, the sighs and supplications, bursting from Tortured Parental affliction, have blunted the keen edge of Avarice, she might have been rescued from Agony, which many of her Country’s Children have felt, but which none hath ever described, – in vain she lifted her supplicating voice to an insulted father, and her guiltless hands to a dishonored Deity! She was ravished from the bosom of her Country, from the arms of her friends – while the advanced age of her Parents, rendering them unfit for servitude, cruelly separated her from them forever!
Scenes which her imagination never conceived of, – a floating World – the sporting Monsters of the deep – and the familiar meetings of the Billows and the clouds, stove, but in vain to divert her melancholly attention, from three hundred Affricans in chains, suffering the most excruciating torments; and some of them rejoicing, that the pangs of death came like a balm to their wounds. Once more her eyes were blest with a Continent – but alas! How unlike the Land where she received her being! Here all things appeared unpropitious – she learned to catch the Ideas, marked by the sounds of language only to know that her doom was Slavery, from which death alone was to emancipate her – What did it avail her, that the walls of her Lord were hung with Splendor, and that the dust troden underfoot in her native Country, crowded his Gates with sordid worshipers – the Laws had rendered her incapable of receiving property – and though she was a free moral agent, accountable for her own actions, yet she never had a moment at her own disposal!
Fifty years her faithful hands have been compelled to ignoble servitude for the benefit of an Isaac Royall, until!, as if Nations must be agitated, and the world convulsed for the preservation of the freedom which the Almighty Father intended for all the human Race, the present war was Commenced – The terror of men armed in the Cause of freedom, complelled her master to fly – and to breathe away his Life in a Land, where, Lawlless domination sits enthroned – pouring bloody outrage and cruelty on all who dare to be free.
The face of your Petitioner, is now marked with the furrows of time, and her frame bending under the oppression of years, while she, by the Laws of the Land, is denied the employment of one morsel of that immense wealth, apart whereof hath been accumilated by her own industry, and the whole ugmented by her servitude.
WHEREFORE, casting herself at your feet if your honours, as to a body of men, formed for the extirpation of vassalage, for the reward of Virtue, and the just return of honest industry – she prays, that such allowance may be made her out of the Estate of Colonel Royall, as will prevent her, and her more infirm daughter, from misery in the greatest extreme, and scatter comfort over the short and downward path of their lives.
Two parts of Belinda’s account need to be interpreted rather than read literally. First, she wrote that she was captured as a twelve-year-old girl by “an armed band of white men.” In fact, although Europeans sometimes kidnapped Africans on the coast, they were unable to go inland to capture slaves. It was African raiders and warriors from other areas that captured slaves and sold them to European slave traders on the coast in exchange for weapons, ammunition, rum (including New England and Medford rum), and other commodities. By substituting white men as her captors, Belinda (or Prince Hall, the abolitionist who is thought to have helped her) may have been arguing a case by placing moral responsibility where it ultimately belonged: on white Europeans and North Americans who initiated the Atlantic slave trade and profited most from it.
The second part of Belinda’s account of her childhood home that requires interpretation is her statement that she was captured in the sacred grove of “the great Orisa who made all things.” “Orisa” is the term for “deity” among Yoruba speakers far to the east, in present-day Nigeria. Although some Yoruba deities were adopted by people further west, including Ewe- speaking peoples, these people gave deities the name “vodun.” Other Ewe deities are known as “tro” or “trowo.” The term “orisa” did not travel with them, and is unknown in the Volta region. The origin of the name “orisa” is a mystery. It may be that either Belinda or Prince Hall knew people who had been taken from a Yoruba-speaking area. By describing a god “who made all things,” Belinda or Prince Hall may have wished to emphasize that Africans have civilizations and religious ideas that are worthy of white Christian Americans’ respect.
This petition to the court was a reminder to the Northern Colonies that slavery existed during the American Revolution. It challenged the stereotype of the submissive slave and represented a new strategy to end slavery.
Callie House was a leader of the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association, one of the first organizations to campaign for reparations for slavery in the United States.
How about Callie House? I honor Callie House who was born a slave in Ruthersford County, in 1812. At 36 years old she founded the National Ex-Slave Mutual Bounty and Pension Association in 1897. She along with Isiah Dickerson traveled to former slave states to encourage joining the organization. With many participants throughout the states the organization was eager to petition Congress for a bill that would grant payments (reparations), mutual aid for burial expenses. Their grass roots advocacy grew a membership to the hundreds of thousands formerly enslaved residents all over the country. This growth was unwanted by the government, and they used 3 agencies to find a way to stop this movement. The Federal Bureau of Pensions, The Department of Justice and the Post Office Department worked together to spy on the organization looking for anything they could find to end this uprising. On September 1899, The Post Office Department issued a fraud order, without evidence, making it illegal to send mail, cash or money orders. Callie resisted by invoking the 1st, 14th and 15th amendment as well as hiring an attorney. Congress rejected the petition as if it were to not be taken seriously and postponed it indefinitely. House heard of the rejection and reminded the Commissioner that the Constitution granted residents the right to file grievances of redress.
When Dickerson passed in 1909 Callie became the leader of the MRB&PA and organizer. The restrictions from the Post Office Department placed constraints on the organization in the coming years. In 1915 House decided to take her petition to the courts. Johnson vs McAdoo was a class action lawsuit filed in US Federal Court requesting reparations for slavery in the amount of 68 million dollars. This amount was cotton tax money collected from 1862 to 1868 and held by the U.S. Treasury Department. A former slave H. N. Johnson led the charge as the Plaintiff against U.S. Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo. The United States Supreme Court denied the claim agreeing with the decision of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia. To date this was the 1st litigation hearing regarding reparations for American Chattel Slavery in US federal court documented.
Honoring a local champion in Maryland fighting to create a Reparations Commission is County Council Member Wanika B. Fisher esq. In 2020 Delegate Wanika Fisher along with 45 other Delegates sponsored House Bill 1201 the Harriet Tubman Community Investment Act to establish a Reparations Commission for African Descendants of Chattel Slavery in Maryland. The bill was referred to committee after 1st reading along with HB0121 the previous year. In 2022 Delegate Fisher along with 27 other Delegates sponsored House Bill 0594, this bill was also referred to committee after 1st reading. On Wednesday March 1st, 2023 House Bill 0875 sponsored by Delegates McCaskill, Ruth, Addison, Charkoudian, Crutchfield, Kaiser, Lopez, Phillips, and White will be presented at 1pm. House Bill 0409 sponsored by Delegate Acevero will also be heard. These bills, again, will establish a State of Maryland Reparations Commission. I will submit this as my testimony on my family’s behalf as a Descendant of Chattel Slavery in Maryland.
I am LaWann Stribling, born LaWann Pendleton to parents Warren Pendleton and Narvest Thomas Pendleton. I’ve been on an 11-year journey to trace my family heritage via Ancestry.com. Tracing my paternal side, I learn that my Grandmother Eleanora Pendleton Bailey, born in Washington DC, parents are Henry Pendleton born in Washington DC 1910 and Eleanor E. Taylor Pendleton born in New Jersey approximately 1910. My Great Grandfather Henry’s parents are James Pendleton born in Accomack County Virginia 1869 and Great Great Grandmother Ida Smallwood Pendleton born in Maryland 1885. Her parents my Great Great Great Grandparents Sarah Garner Smallwood born in Calvert Maryland 1867 and Henson Smallwood born in Maryland 1864. The 1870 census has Harris Lot Charles Maryland listed for the residence. By 1890 they were living in Petersville MD, moved to Washington DC in 1894 and back to Petersville MD in 1900. By 1937 they were living in Frederick MD. Henson’s parents Hanson Smallwood born 1839 and Eliza Sinkfield 1844, my Great Great Great Great Grandparents were born in Maryland. My ancestors were farm hands, laborers, oystermen and servants enslaved in Charles County MD, Petersville, Frederick MD, Accomack County, Va, Madison Orange, Va, North Carolina and Florida. We deserve everything our ancestors built. The ability to have this service free of charge to search for your ancestors should be included with reparations!
Searching through Slavery files in Maryland I find a relationship between 2 families that owned slaves who were also law makers. According to Branson Cook Geneology, “Robert Hanson and Bayne Smallwood were among the General Assembly delegates who considered Acts involving impositions on negroes, imported liquor and Irish servants. One of the goals was to see to it that a minimal number of Irish papists (Catholics) were allowed to live in Maryland. This illustrates that some of our forefathers were quite prejudice against certain races and religions, even though the Constitution, the Federalist Papers and other founding documents argued for equality of both. Of course, these Acts in Maryland were taking place about 30-35 years before the Revolutionary War, and the delegation was still loyal to the British Crown. It is also possible that they were simply following the desires of the British Crown and may not have believed in this sort of lawmaking. At least one thing is certain – general public opinion began to change before the ratification of the Constitution, with the exception of attitudes toward slaves. Slavery was still alive and well for more than a century after these Acts were considered. Census records in 1790 and 1800 show that both the Hansons and Smallwood’s had quite a few slaves. One such person, Hoskins Hanson, had 32 slaves recorded in the 1790 Charles County census. (Hoskins was the probable first cousin of Mary).
1790 CENSUS (semi-alphabetical)
Henry M Hanson Not Stated, Charles, MD 1790 (1-0-0) 7 slaves – Image 13
In closing it is my opinion that every Descendant of Chattel Slavery is owed reparations. Addressing the foundations of why I am still living paycheck to paycheck after over 30 years of being employed is essential for reparative justice. I come from generations of brokenness and found myself homeless and alone on my 17th birthday. I had my 1st child at 18 years old, raised him in a single parent household with no community or family support. He is 27 now and asked me why didn’t I set him up for his future? He is comparing his life to the lives of some of his peers who grew up in a nurturing, supportive and financially stable home environment. The effects of Chattel Slavery, Post Reconstruction, Jim Crow Laws, Redlining Communities, Marginalized Banking and Education and The War on Drugs have created generations of poverty, generational trauma, curses, ptsd and lost hope. Reparations will begin to repair the effects of over 400 years of unimaginable living conditions. Reparations would provide a way for families living in disenfranchised environments to afford a way to provide a better education, better living arrangements, better choices in food and health care as well as freedom in the class hungry society.
“Now the old men are folding their arms and going to sleep and the young men are Wide Awake.” – William H. Seward (1860)
The term “Woke” may be wearing new clothes and taking on different meanings today, depending on which side of the political isle you’re claiming, but being “Woke” or “Wide-Awake” isn’t a new term or ideology. As a matter of fact, “Woke” has traveled a long way to meet the social media degenerates, I mean, generation intent on spinning the term to fit whatever cultural and political warfare they’re fighting from their keyboards and computer screens.
Historian and Curator Jon Grinspan captured some of the early movements of the Wide-Awakes in his piece for the Journal of American History titled, “Young Men for War”: The Wide Awakes and Lincolns 1860 Presidential Campaign:
The Wide Awakes were against slavery when they marched with torches to galvanize Lincolns presidential campaign long before the Neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen and other white supremacists marched through Charlottesville over 5 years ago bearing torches and terrorizing folks with chants of “Blood and soil” and “Jews will not replace us.”
Staying “Woke” has also been part of African American discourse, similar to how the Green Book was used as a guide for Black people to travel safely across America, the term was used to encourage vigilance against the onslaught of white oppression and domestic terrorism.
The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American young men accused of raping two white women aboard a southern railroad freight train in northern Alabama in 1931. The case, which lasted more than 80 years, helped to spur the Civil Rights Movement and helped to inspire several prominent activists and organizers, including being the inspiration behind To Kill a Mockingbird, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee.
The landmark legal cases begotten from the Scottsboro Boys incident didn’t just deal with racism but the right to a fair trial. If you’re “anti-Woke” like the Chloroformers, whose opposing aim was to put the Wide Awakens asleep, you should consider this piece of America history before you rally behind the likes of a misguided and ill-informed Florida governor intent on killing truth simply because it goes against the blatant lies that feed his hate for the awaken ones who refuse to be silenced in the face of oppression, gender dysphoria and, or white supremacy.
The Scottsboro Boys collectively served more than 100 years in prison. This historical fact cannot be taken lightly. Black folks in America must be Woke in order to survive the permeating racism and discrimination that maintains its choke-hold on our nation.
When Lead Belly sang about the incident in his song titled “Scottsboro Boys” he encouraged Black folks to “Stay Woke” in the aftermath of the injustice.
It’s never too late to become a proud member of the Wide Awake Club because all people deserve to feel good in the world.
