Convenience Stores

What is the historical significance of the relationship between black men and convenience stores?  My father virtually banned me from them and monitored me closely as I went inside.  He would yell,  "Take your hands out of your pockets!"  They have been the site of beatings,  brutal armed robberies, and a refuge for homeless men looking for a handout or a second chance at life.

What has caused the strain between black men and the corner store?  Jim Crow undoubtedly played a role.   African Americans,  particularly black men,  received poor service, if at all,  which built resentment and a sense of caution about what to expect over the years.  A black man could have been killed or seriously injured for questioning the clerk or stepping out of line.

The unfair treatment continues today, with the best black male patrons treated like second-class citizens.  They are made the butt of jokes or chronically overcharged, known as "pulling prices out of the sky." A confrontation usually develops, with the consumer being misjudged or hauled off to jail by biased law enforcement.  In the end,  no one wins.

Do black men contribute to the problem?  Yes!  Some linger, sell drugs on store property, or harass store employees.  Others fight fire with fire instead of filing a report,  shopping elsewhere, or starting a business.

Nevertheless,  it may seem difficult for some to grasp that one group of Americans cannot shop without being harassed,  marginalized, or made to feel less than a citizen of the United States.  It happens frequently. I remember having a cash register slammed shut in my face by an angry white female store clerk after I questioned my purchase.  I lived to tell about it.  

The ugly history between black men and local store clerks has been years in the making, and that peaceful dialogue,  respect, and economic expansion can heal.

Harriet

Harriet Tubman is considered one of the bravest Americans to fight against slavery or rescue others from bondage. She escaped from slavery and returned to save others from cruelty in the South. 

Born into slavery in 1829 on Maryland's Eastern Shore, Tubman endured hardships, such as beatings, and a severe head injury when she was struck by a twenty-pound weight hurled at a runaway slave that affected her for life.  She also witnessed loved ones being sold downriver and dealt with the indignity of forced labor.

Tubman also could not determine one's lot in life.  She could not own land,  start a business, or vote. She was also forbidden to receive an education or simply enjoy family life,  which impacted Tubman and other slaves immensely.  After a showdown with her master over broken promises to free her,  she fled to the nearby free state of Pennsylvania, leaving behind her husband,  John Tubman,  and other family members whom she would return to get later.

While in the North,  she embarked on a mission to help other slaves.  She not only delivered anti-slavery speeches but also joined forces with noted Abolitionists Frederick Douglass and William Garrison.  She confided in them a plan to return and deliver others from the misery of involuntary servitude. One of her first missions involved rescuing family members who would reside with her in upstate New York.  

By the start of the Civil War,  the woman Moses had made as many as nineteen trips into slave territory,  escorting at least 300 slaves to safety in the Northeast and Canada as a conductor on the Underground Railroad,  which consisted of a system of back roads, waterways,  safe houses, and trusted allies that helped enslaved persons make it to freedom.

During this time,  Tubman aided the Union Army, which she hoped would one day free her people.  She served as a Union spy due to her hands-on knowledge of the South.  She led a raid on a Southern stronghold that brought about the freedom of nearly 700 slaves.  She became the first woman in American History to lead U.S. forces into Battle.

Tubman's humanitarian efforts continued after the war.  She bought land in Auburn,  New York, where she built a two-story home for family and friends.  In addition,  she established an infirmary and cabins for the destitute with money from her massive garden, and a small army pension to keep the mission afloat.  Later in life,  Tubman fought for women's Suffrage with contemporaries like Susan B. Anthony.

Tubman passed away in 1913 at the dawn of a new century.  A crowd of friends, neighbors, loved ones, and dignitaries turned out to pay tribute to an American hero who was laid to rest with full military honors.  Her story has been passed down from generation to generation and received top billing during the establishment of Black History Month in the 1970s.  Eventually,  her New York estate and birthplace in Maryland would become national parks.  

History Repeating Itself

My father uttered the words, "This ain't new."  He lived it during Jim Crow in the South when African Americans were denied their rights.  He dealt with angry patrolmen and other injustices similar of today.

We talked at length about what is happening in America today that resembles the past on one of my visits to my small hometown in South Georgia. He quickly reminded me that "this" isn't new.  He has seen it before.  He remembers the days of not being able to vote,  having to step off the sidewalk when whites approached, and as a grown man being forced to say "yes sir" to juvenile white boys.  He can also recalled the cruel beatings and lynching of innocent black men, women, and children without legal recourse or a chance to fight back in court.

My father has survived the economic injustice of the post-Civil Rights era.  Rents are sky-high in major cities and rural areas.  The average cost of a new home has also doubled since the housing crisis,  which puts the price of a modest three-bedroom home out of reach for many poor and middle-class Americans.  Like decades ago,  wages are again stagnant in urban areas,  with companies paying part-time wages for full-time work, as King said in Memphis.

Lastly, he endured the political upheaval of American-style apartheid.  Southern politicians campaigned proudly on segregationist platforms with little to no opposition from Northern liberals or conservative Republicans until the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.  It left millions of blacks off the voting rolls for generations and dashed the economic, educational, and social fortunes of African Americans.

I came into existence at the tail end of Jim Crow.  I cannot recall the harshness of the era.  My father sheltered us from its ugliness and atrocities.  But he and others of his generation remember it well.  Sadly,  they will not be with us long enough to tell the story of a shady past.  And those of us with no inkling of history will be shocked by the events of today.

Remembering Jimmy Lee Jackson

Most battles of the Civil Rights Movement occurred in rural communities across the South, where ordinary Americans put their lives on the line for peace and justice for all.

African American Army veteran Jimmy Lee Jackson was one of those brave citizens who sacrificed their lives for others.

Jackson,  who attended mass meetings in support of Civil Rights in the '50s and '60s, left Zion United Methodist Church in 1965 on a cold February night with 500 marchers in his hometown of Marion, Alabama, for the County Jail, where a civil rights activist was being held.  They had plans to sing hymns, pray, and return to their house of worship. Instead, they were encountered by a squadron of police and State Patrolmen, who beat them relentlessly with nightsticks as they retreated to their church and elsewhere for safety. (1) Law enforcement, who shot out street lights ahead of the march,  claimed the protesters were planning a jailbreak.

Jackson and his family found refuge in a black-owned business.  When spotted by police, the beatings continued. First, they attacked his elderly grandfather.  When Jackson's mother attempted to pull the officers off him,  she was beaten,  prompting Jackson to intervene.   He was knocked against a vending machine before being shot twice in the abdomen by State police.  He stumbled outside, where he collapsed on the ground.  

Friends transported Jackson to the segregated hospital miles away in Selma instead of the forbidden local white hospital, which may have saved his life.  Before succumbing to his wounds, Jackson recounted how he was beaten and shot before collapsing outside to the press or anyone who would listen.  Jackson's death prompted the Selma to Montgomery March and the passage of the Voting Rights Act as a fitting tribute to a man who not only attempted to vote but encouraged others to do the same.

Gettysburg Burial

The Battle of Gettysburg claimed the lives of thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers as the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. 

Months later,  President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the new Soldiers National Cemetary.  The president revealed,  "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but can never forget what they did here."

Black men were forced to exhume the graves of dead Union soldiers scattered throughout the battlefield and surrounding countryside to be reinterred at the new cemetery on Cemetary Hill, not far from where many of the bodies were first laid to rest.  Confederate soldiers who could be identified were shipped mainly to Virginia to be disseminated across the South. 

The men endured the heavy stench and possible disease of hastily buried corpses in "various stages of decomposition."  After completing the gruesome task,  they received little fanfare or compensation for their work, which resulted in little more than a footnote in history until now.

Their story is being told thanks to historians, ancestors, and black Civil War reenactors to America's youth and others who knew nothing about their contribution like me.  

Source: Michael E. Ruane of the Washington Post

Never Trumpers

I was shocked to hear a prominent Republican strategist urge Democrats on national television to pick a candidate with the best possible chance of defeating Trump in 2020 so that she and others could not only back him or her but sleep better at night knowing the country would be in safer hands.

She and like-minded Republicans represent the millions of never-Trumpers who would never compromise their morals or risk their good name backing him.  They Consider trump not their equal morally, spiritually, socially, or intellectually.  But most importantly,  they think of the president as a fraud or loser who is in it for himself. He has pissed off so many mainstream GOP officeholders with his wild antics and crazy policy stances that they can not stomach giving him the support he may need, like the radicals of their party for a second term. This level of infighting hasn't existed in the Republican Party since the election of 1912 when Teddy Roosevelt battled incumbent William Howard Taft tooth and nail for the party nomination.

As a result, top Republicans have decided to put their hope in the Democrats if it means dispelling a charlatan from office, getting the country back on track, and restoring the nation's standing as its best chance for 2024. They see Trump as having derailed what they built in foreign and domestic policy for generations or dismantling long-standing institutions in government and that four years of a competent Democrat can give the party a chance to regroup.

Though they despise him,  Never-Trumper's desire to dethrone the president in the next election will not be easy.  A record number of poor and rural whites voted for Trump in 2016, which pushed him over the top in states like Pennsylvania,  Wisconsin, and Michigan.  A chunk of white suburban female voters also supported the president despite his vicious attacks on female lawmakers and numerous allegations of sexual misconduct toward those of the opposite sex.  Moreover,  the president has gained traction among among black men, who feel pushed aside or marginalized by society and see the him as speaking their language.  If they and others back Trump the second time,  the opposition will not succeed. 

Their fight will not be with the Democrats in 2020 but with Trump and his backers.  They will risk the Supreme Court and their majority in the Senate to bring him down because they hate him just that much.

The Inspiring Lucy McBath

Who is Lucy McBath?  She is a trailblazer who beat the GOP establishment in Georgia.  She defeated incumbent Republican Karen Handle to become the first Democrat to represent the State's Sixth Congressional District since the Carter Administration.  As a black woman, she captivated voters with a heartfelt message of love and survival that transcended race and class in one of Georgia's most diverse districts.

The well-publicized death of her son propelled her into politics.  While sitting in a car with other young men at a Jacksonville, Florida, gas station in 2012,  he was shot to death by a middle-aged white man following an argument over loud music coming from her son's vehicle. He was found guilty of second-degree murder during his second trial.  Instead of burying her head in the sand,  she spoke out passionately against gun violence with other grieving mothers around the county, which included appearances at the White House on behalf of her late son and at the 2016 Democratic Convention, where she voiced support for Hilary Clinton.  Her activism culminated with her Congressional campaign in 2018.  She opposed the NRA and supported universal background checks for gun applicants.

She also spoke candidly about her battle with breast cancer as she made women's health a central part of her candidacy.  She came out in support of expanding Medicaid in Georgia to help fight chronic female illnesses.  She also backed Planned Parenthood, a woman's right to choose whether or not to have an abortion, and efforts to save rural hospitals across the State.  And like most Democrats,  she praised the Affordable Care Act, which she believes benefits all Georgians.

Finally,  McBath appealed to everyday citizens in the district she would come to represent in Congress,  who saw her as the neighbor down the street.  She fashioned herself as a routine Delta Airlines employee that many could relate to.  They also found common ground with her fight to overcome breast cancer and other personal issues that candidates shied away from.  It made her one of the people and clinched her victory in the tight race.

Whether or not she gets reelected in 2020,  she will have fulfilled her mission of love and care for others.  When her time in the national limelight does end,  she will return to her grassroots efforts of setting the record straight on the senseless violence that grips our beloved country.