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Monthly Archives: February 2024
Daddy Dearest
My father, a Native Southern Son, was born in the same month and year Negro History Week was established. Then, we were Negroes. Thirty-four years later, when I was born, we were still Negroes. When my father died at the … Continue reading
Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, ezwwaters, Family, Fatherhood, Fathers, Lest We Forget, race, raising black boys, Relationships, Slavery
Tagged 1960s, Black Arts Era, Civil War, Confederacy, Decisive Decade, Emmett Till, Fourth of July, Jim Crow, NOrth Carolina Governor Michael Easley, Richard Wright, Segregated South, Southland, The Ethics of Living Jim Crow, Virginia, War of Northern Aggression, World War II
3 Comments
From the American Revolution to the Black Arts Cultural Revolution
After the American Revolution, most of the defining moments in American history involve or revolve around Black people. Black folk were even involved in the American Revolution, fighting on both sides – the British promised Africans and the descendants of … Continue reading
Posted in Black patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, ezwwaters, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Growing Up, John F. Kennedy, Lest We Forget, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Nation of Islam, Patriotism, Poetry, Politics, race, Revolution, Slavery, Streets of Rage, urban decay, Urban Impact
Tagged 1619, 1619 Project, American Revolution, Boston Massacre, Camelot, Crispus Attucks, JFK, Larry Neal, RFK, The Black Arts Era
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Happy Valentine’s Day to African American Literature!
Since it is Valentine’s Day, I dare to say that I have an ongoing love affair with African American literature. And, once again, I am teaching African American Literature in the 20th Century for another college. (I previously taught it … Continue reading
Posted in Black patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, ezwwaters, Lest We Forget, Politics, race, Slavery
Tagged African American Literature, Amherst method, Andra Day, Black National Anthem, Black Poetics, Booker T. Washington, Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America -- An Anthology, Eurocentric, Henry Louis Gates, Herb Boyd, James Weldon Johnson, Larry Neal, Lift Every Voice and Sing, Robert L Allen, Some Reflections on the Black Aesthetic, The Black Arts Movement, The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, Three Negro Classics, Toni Morrison, Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The African American Presence in American Literature, Valentine's Day, Valerie A Smith, WEB DuBois
2 Comments
The Black Arts Movement
The theme for this Black History Month is African Americans and the Arts. For purposes of this blog, I’ll highlight the “Black Arts Era” (1960-1975). The Black Arts Era began at the very beginning of what Samuel F. Yette, influential … Continue reading
Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Education, ezwwaters, John F. Kennedy, Lest We Forget, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Murder, Nation of Islam, Politics, race
Tagged Black History Month, Decisive Decade, democracy, JFK, Larry Neal, Malcolm X, MLK, Muhammad Ali, RFK, Samuel Yette, The Black Arts Era
2 Comments
Happy Birthday to Black History Month!
Black History Month is nearly 100 years old! Granted, it began as Black History Week, on February 7, 1926, and didn’t become Black History Month until February 10, 1976. My father, a Native Southern Son, was born in the same … Continue reading
Posted in Black patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Education, ezwwaters, Fatherhood, Fathers, Growing Up, Lest We Forget, Patriotism, Politics, race, raising black boys, Revolution
Tagged Black History Month, Civil War, Frederick Douglass, Gerald Ford, Lost Cause, Miseducation of the Negro, MLK, Negro History Week, segregated U.S. Army, WEB DuBois, What is the Fourth of July to the Negro?, World War II
2 Comments
Black Fruit, Strange Fruit
My first book, the award-winning epic poem, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present, deals with the theme(s) of “the captivity, exploitation and suffering of Black people in America.” But not all of … Continue reading
Black History: “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud!”
My first three posts this Black History Month have invoked Carter G. Woodson, “the father of Black history,” and his seminal work, The Miseducation of the Negro, published in 1926. Most importantly, Woodson, the creator of Black History Month, gave Black … Continue reading
Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, ezwwaters, Lest We Forget, race
Tagged 1619 Project, Alexander Hamilton High School, Bach, Black history, Carter G. Woodson, Critical Race Theory, Diana Ross, IS 318, James Brown, Paul Robeson High School, PS 148, The Miseducation of the Negro, Touch Me in the Morning, W.E.B. DuBois
1 Comment
Correcting The Miseducation of the Negro
Carter G. Woodson’s seminal book, The Miseducation of the Negro, published in 1926, is a book Black folk should periodically revisit, perhaps every three years, ideally every year. If you are Black and you have not read the book, then … Continue reading
Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Education, ezwwaters, Lest We Forget, Politics, race, raising black boys, Slavery
Tagged 1619 Project, Aristotelian Logic, Aunt Jemima, Black History Month, Brown v. Board of Education, Candace Owens, Carter G. Woodson, Clarence Thomas, Classical Rhetoric, Compulsory Education Act (1852), General Grammar, Jim Crow, Nicholas Capaldi, Plessy v. Ferguson, Russell Sage College, The Art of Deception: An Introduction to Critical Thinking, The Miseducation of the Negro, Tribium, U.S. Senator Tim Scott, Uncle Tom
4 Comments
From The Miseducation of the Negro to Critical Race Theory
Carter G. Woodson, “the father of Black History,” wrote The Miseducation of the Negro in 1926. Woodson earned his PhD from Harvard University, and during his academic career served as the Dean of Howard University, an historically Black research university, established … Continue reading
Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, ezwwaters, Lest We Forget, race, Slavery
Tagged Billie Holliday, cancel culture, Carter G. Woodson, Civil War, Critical Race Theory, Day of the Rope, DEI, Harvard University, Howard University, Lynching, Miseducation of the Negro, Strange Fruit, Toni Morrison
5 Comments
Easy Waters 