Tag Archives: World War II

Rereading Richard Wright’s Black Boy

Posted on July 12, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

When I first read Richard Wright’s Black Boy more than 40 years ago when I was a teenager, little that I knew about literature, I thought the writing was superb. I was doing a little writing then and thought Wright … Continue reading →

Posted in being a teenager, Black patriotism, crime, Family, Fatherhood, Fathers, Growing Up, raising black boys, Relationships, Slavery | Tagged Black Boy, Confederacy, Confederate flag, Nashville TN, New South, North Carolina, Richard Wright, Segregation, Strange Fruit, Virginia, World War II | 1 Comment

Daddy Dearest

Posted on February 22, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

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

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 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

Virginia on My Mind

Posted on August 19, 2023 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

There is something that keeps drawing me back to Virginia. Although my father was born in North Carolina, he grew up in Virginia and returned there in 1946 after he was discharged from the segregated U.S. Army. He was drafted … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, ezwwaters, Family, Fatherhood, Fathers, Genealogy, Growing Up, race, Slavery | Tagged 1960s, Bath County, Decisive Decade, Native Southern Sons, North Carolina, Red Summer, Segregation, Virginia, World War I, World War II | 1 Comment

Remembering My Father as I Remember Maceo Snipes, Black Veteran, Shot to Death After Voting in Georgia Primary — July 18, 1946

Posted on July 19, 2023 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

As a teenager my father, a Native Southern Son (NC and VA), was drafted to serve in the segregated U.S. Army during World War II. Shortly after he was honorably discharged from the Army in 1946, he moved to Brooklyn, … Continue reading →

Posted in Black patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, crime, ezwwaters, Family, Fatherhood, Fathers, Growing Up, Lest We Forget, Murder, Politics, race, raising black boys, Relationships | Tagged Maceo Snipes, Segregation, The Black Vote, World War II | Leave a comment

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 Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, crime, Growing Up, John F. Kennedy, Justice Chronicles, Lest We Forget, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Patriotism, Politics, raising black boys, Revolution, Slavery, Streets of Rage, urban decay, Urban Impact | Tagged Atomic Bomb, Black Codes, Black Power, Camelot, Confederate States of America, Critical Race Theory, Culture Wars, Great Society, Hiroshima, internment of Japanese Americans, James Brown, JFK, LBJ, Little White Lies, MLK, Nagasaki, Pledge of Allegiance, RFK, richard nixon, Segregation, Slave Codes, Slavery, Thirteenth Amendment, war on crime, World War II | Leave a comment

The South Won the War of Northern Aggression?

Posted on June 13, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Imagine a visitor from another planet, say Mars, is touring the Southern states and is in modern day Virginia. The Martian makes its way to Jamestown, which he finds both interesting, and puzzling. It has familiarized itself with 200 years … Continue reading →

Posted in race, Slavery, Streets of Rage | Tagged 1619, BlackLivesMatter, Civil War, CNN, Confederacy, Confederate Monuments, Confederate States of America, Confederate Way, CSA, General Douglas MacArthur, Robert E. Lee, War of Northern Aggression, World War I, World War II | 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 being a teenager, Black patriotism, James Baldwin, Justice Chronicles, juveniles, Lest We Forget, Martin Luther King, police involved shooting, police-involved killing, Politics, race, raising black boys, Relationships, Revolution, Slavery, Streets of Rage | Tagged "If We Must Die", 1619-2019, 1919 Race Riots, 1960s, America's Original Sin, Barbados, Beaumont, Burn baby burn!, Decisive Decade, Dr. King, Ellis Island, MLK, North Carolina, Original Sin, Panama, Panama Canal, peculiar institution, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., The Fires This Time, Virginia, World War I, World War II | Leave a comment

The Massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church: A Year Later — Lest We Forget!

Posted on June 22, 2016 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Recently I read a piece in the AARP Bulletin, the June 2016 issue, on the Charleston Massacre: A Year Later, “The Long Road to Forgiveness.” As a student of history, I almost always think that we don’t remember what we … Continue reading →

Posted in crime, ezwwaters, Martin Luther King, Uncategorized | Tagged AARP Bulletin, African Methodist Episcopal Churches, AME, Black Freedom, Brooklyn, Charleston Massacre, Denmark Vesey, Dylann Roof, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Gabriel Prosser, Hasidim, James Michener, Jr., Nat Turner, Rev. Betty Deas Clark, Rev. Martin Luther King, The Black Church, The Final Solution, The Holocaust, The Source, Violence against the Black Church, violence in American history, World War II | Leave a comment

REVIEW OF “JAILHOUSE JOURNALISM: THE FOURTH ESTATE BEHIND BARS”

Posted on July 13, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Not much has been written about the history of the prison press. Indeed, until now, according to James McGrath Morris, the author of Jailhouse Journalism: The Fourth Estate Behind Bars, the only book was The Penal Press by Russell Baird. … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Life Sentences, Reentry, Uncategorized | Tagged Alfred Andersch, Billy Sinclair, Board of Pardons, Charles Chapin, concentration camps, Der Ruf, Erle Stanley Gardner, Forlorn Hope, Fort Philip Jearney, Frank Moore, free press, Great Red Scare, Gruppe 47, Hans Werner Richter, Idea Factory, Industrial Workers of theWorld, Iowa State Penitentiary, Jailhouse Jurnalism: The Fourth Estate Behind Bars, James McGrath Morris, Japanese-Americans, Jesse James Gang, Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners' Labor Union, Karl Arndt, Leaves from a Lifer's Notebook, Mumia Abu-Jamal, New York's Evening World, Ole Lindquist, Pell v. Procunier, postward Germany, POWs, Presidio, Prisoner of War Special Projects Division, Procunier v. Martinez, reeducate, Relocation Camps, Russell Baird, Saturday Review, Sing Sing, The Angolite, The Farm, The Penal Press, Thornburg v. Abbott, Tom Runyon, Turner v. Safley, Wilbert Rideau, William Keteltas, Wobblies, World War II, Younger Brothers | Leave a comment

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