Tag Archives: Martin Luther King Jr.

The Black Arts Movement

Posted on February 8, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

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 Education & Teaching, Politics & Public Affairs | Tagged Black Arts Era, Black History Month, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Decisive Decade, democracy, John F. Kennedy, Larry Neal, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali, murder, Nation of Islam, Robert F. Kennedy, Samuel Yette | 2 Comments

Happy Birthday to Black History Month!

Posted on February 7, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

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 Education & Teaching, Politics & Public Affairs, Race, History & American Society | Tagged Black History Month, Black Patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Civil War, fathers, Frederick Douglass, Gerald Ford, Growing Up, Lost Cause, Martin Luther King Jr., Negro History Week, patriotism, raising black boys, segregated U.S. Army, The Miseducation of the Negro, W. E. B. Du Bois, What is the Fourth of July to the Negro?, World War II | 2 Comments

The Pledge of Allegiance, Little White Lies, and All that Jazz!

Posted on March 7, 2023 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

It has been more than 50 years since I was in elementary school in the New York City public school system, yet I remember, word for word, the “Pledge of Allegiance.” At this time, I thought nothing of it, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Politics & Public Affairs, Race, History & American Society, Streets of Rage | Tagged 13th Amendment, Atomic Bomb, Black Codes, Black Power, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Camelot, Confederate States of America, Critical Race Theory, Culture Wars, Great Society, Growing Up, Hiroshima, internment of Japanese Americans, James Brown, John F. Kennedy, Little White Lies, Lyndon B. Johnson, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Nagasaki, patriotism, Pledge of Allegiance, raising black boys, Richard Nixon, Robert F. Kennedy, Segregation, Slave Codes, Slavery, urban decay, war on crime, World War II | Leave a comment

The King is Dead — Long Live the King!

Posted on April 4, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I can’t let this day pass without saying something about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr! In the Decisive Decade (the 1960s), Black leader after Black leader was assassinated, but this is the assassination that made it into my … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics & Public Affairs, Religion, Streets of Rage | Tagged Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Martin Luther King Jr. | Leave a comment

The “new” Jim Crow is as old as the Union

Posted on March 7, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Ever have a “Eureka!” moment? During my legal research in the early 1980’s, I came across something that, beyond a reasonable doubt, confirmed what people had been talking about without much evidence, beyond the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics & Public Affairs, Race, History & American Society | Tagged 13th Amendment, Alexis de Tocqueville, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Brown v. Board of Education, Democracy in America, Emancipation Proclamation, Gustave De Beaumont, hyperincarceration, Martin Luther King Jr., Mass Incarceration, Michelle Alexander, On the Penitentiary System in the United States and Its Application in France, Slave Codes, Slavery, The New Jim Crow | Leave a comment

A Bigger By Any Other Name

Posted on February 22, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Bigger Thomas, although a fictional character, haunts the imagination of white folk. Richard Wright’s Native Son, where we meet Bigger Thomas, was published in 1940. Benjamin Mays, in eulogizing the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 28 years later after … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Literature & Cultural Criticism, Streets of Rage | Tagged Aaron the Moor, Bigger Thomas, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Frantz Fanon, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., murder, Native Son, Othello the Moor, raising black boys, Richard Wright, Shakespeare, The Black Wall Street, Titus Andronicus | 1 Comment

Me and Malcolm X’s Murderer

Posted on February 21, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On this day in American history, Malcolm X was murdered. I was four years of age. Fourteen years later, I would meet Malcolm X’s killer. The first thought that crossed my mind: He, Thomas Hagan, is unremarkable. And then: What … Continue reading →

Posted in Family, Memory & Personal Essays, Religion | Tagged Alex Haley, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Decisive Decade, Five Percent Nation, Growing Up, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., murder, Nation of Islam, raising black boys, Samuel Yette, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Thomas Hagan | Leave a comment

“Final” Touches on The Black Blood of Poetry

Posted on August 19, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Early this morning I put the “final” touches on my title poem, “The Black Blood of Poetry.” I wasn’t going to post it, but it is timely, and I’d rather not wait until the collection is published to put this … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics & Public Affairs, Streets of Rage | Tagged "I can't breathe!", #AllLivesMatter, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, BlackLivesMatter, Blood in My Eye, Emmett Till, Fred Hampton, George Floyd, James Baldwin, James Chaney, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, murder, Nation of Islam, Ossie Davis, Poetry, raising black boys, Soledad Brother, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, Sonny's Blues, The Black Blood of Poetry | 1 Comment

ABRACADABRA! Or Notes on the War on Crime, Redux

Posted on June 11, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In 1989 I wrote an award-winning essay, “ABRACADABRA! Or Notes on the War on Crime.” In it I mentioned those magic words crimefighting politicians would utter as the solution to the “crime problem”: “more police, more prisons, longer prison terms.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Criminal Justice & Punishment, Justice Chronicles, Politics & Public Affairs, Streets of Rage | Tagged Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Bill Clinton, crime, Derek Chauvin, Donald Trump, George Floyd, George H.W. Bush, hyperincarceration, Loic Wacquant, Martin Luther King Jr., Mass Incarceration, police involved shooting, raising black boys, Ronald Reagan | Leave a comment

The Fires This Time

Posted on June 5, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Last year, 2019, we marked 400 years since Africans were brought to Virginia and America’s “peculiar institution” took root. Since then, in the annals of American history, there has been systematic oppression and brutality against the descendants of Africans in … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Politics & Public Affairs, Race, History & American Society, Streets of Rage | Tagged "If We Must Die", 1619-2019, 1919 Race Riots, 1960s, America's Original Sin, Barbados, Beaumont, being a teenager, Black Patriotism, Burn baby burn!, Decisive Decade, Ellis Island, James Baldwin, juveniles, Martin Luther King Jr., North Carolina, Original Sin, Panama, Panama Canal, peculiar institution, police involved shooting, raising black boys, Relationships, Slavery, The Fires This Time, Virginia, World War I, World War II | Leave a comment

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