Two Popes Praying To The Black Madonna

Today, two popes of the Catholic Church, living at the same time in Rome, were praying to a Black Madonna in the Vatican, together, before the press. Times have changed but the reality remains the same. There is a historic power in praying to THE BLACK MADONNA too.

The image below is stock of the room where the historic prayer session happened, forgiveness and truth in action.  

The dynamic author Dr. Leroy Vaughn, MD, MBA, Historian, Humanitarian and Honorary Nigerian Chief, in his powerful book BLACK PEOPLE AND THEIR PLACE IN WORLD HISTORY, tells the truth-story in the chapter "After Christ' he has an image of this statue of Saint Peter that stands at the Vatican too. 

BLACK PEOPLE AND THEIR PLACE IN WORLD HISTORY, tells the truth-story about the Black Madonna in the chapter "After Christ" pg 56-58 .pdf and paperback:   

THE BLACK MADONNA

Isis was a Black African goddess of Nile Valley civilizations whose worship eventually diffused to most of the ancient world. Isis was worshiped by the Nubians well over 300 years before the first Egyptian dynasty.  The Egyptians then gave the Isis religion to Greece, Rome, and western Asia. Gerald Massey says that the religious records of all the world’s religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity are nothing more than copies of the religious records of the Black goddess Isis, her son Horus, and her husband Osiris. For example, Horus was the first child born from a virgin mother's immaculate conception, and he was said to have walked on water just as Jesus later did. The Black goddess Isis is also credited with resurrecting Osiris after he was murdered.

The first "Black Madonna and Child" statutes and portraits were of Isis and Horus, and these were taken throughout the world by the Roman Empire. When other religions became more popular, these statues were not destroyed, but simply had their names changed. In India, Isis and Horus became Maya and Buddha in Buddhism or Devaki and Krishna in Hinduism. The Chinese called Isis Kwa-yin, and the Japanese changed the name to Kwannon.

In his 1985 book entitled "The Cult of the Black Virgin", Ean Begg was able to identify over 450 images of a Black virgin and child in Europe with over 190 statutes in France alone. J. A. Rogers says that Paris was actually named for Isis because Para-Isis means "Place of Isis." He also says that Note Dame means "Our Lady" and that the cathedral is nothing more than an enlargement of the original Isis temple.

Millions of pilgrims visit the Black Madonna shrines annually because they are believed to possess magical powers, although the statues are now called Mary and Jesus. It is believed that only the Black statues are magical and all pilgrimages stopped whenever the statues were painted white. The Black Madonnas have been credited with healing towns of plagues, bringing dead babies to life, making infertile women pregnant, and saving nations during wars. Many crutches have been left at the feet of the Black Madonnas, who presumably gave their owners the power to walk. One of the most devoted pilgrims of the Black Madonna shrine in Poland was Pope John Paul II. He prayed to her image while recovering from his gun shot wound. She is credited with thousands of documented miracles including saving Poland from Russia in 1769. In 1968 alone, the Black Madonna shrine in Poland received over 66,000 thank you letters for healing and other miracles. Pilgrims frequently leave gold watches and rings at the feet of the Black Madonnas in appreciation.

Church literature absolutely refuses to acknowledge any association of Black Madonnas with Africa. Church officials claim that the Madonnas are Black because of smoke from candles and from dirt and old age. Church officials would never admit that the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans made pilgrimages until 536 A.D. to the Isis temple at Philae, Egypt to seek the same miracles that current pilgrims seek from the Black Madonna shrines. Isis was recognized as a supreme miracle and magic worker and is also credited with teaching mankind the art of curing disease. Isis was able to restore life to the dead as she did with her husband Osiris and later with the infant Horus, who was brought back to life after he was killed by a scorpion's sting. Isis was the goddess of corn and grain, water and navigation, and even clothing. She was also called a divine granter of salvation for souls of mankind. The ancient Black Egyptians acknowledged Isis as the source of all their prosperity, including the Nile River.

Isis worship was so strong in Europe that Roman citizens ignored Emperors Augustus and Tuberous, who outlawed Isis worship and persecuted her priests. Emperor Caligulia finally bowed to public pressure and re-established the Isis worship. Emperor Justinian caused an unsuccessful armed insurrection in 536 A.D., when he ordered all Isis temples permanently closed.

Religion in general (and the cult of the Black Virgin Madonna in specific) is yet another example of the many elements of civilization and civilizing ideas which were brought from Africa into Europe.

BLACK PEOPLE AND THEIR PLACE IN WORLD HISTORY

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THE BLACK MADONNA BIBLIOGRAPHY

Begg, E. (1985) The Cult of the Black Virgin. New York: Penguin Books.
Budge, E. (1969) The Gods of the Egyptians. New York: Dover.
Doane, T. W. (1882) Bible Myths. New York: Truth Seeker Co.
Grabar, A. (1968) Christian Iconography. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Jameson, M. (1876) Legends of the Madonna. Boston: Osgood and Co.
MacQuitty, W. (1976) Island of Isis. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Morey, C.R. (1958) Christian Art. New York: Norton.
Patrick R. (1972) Egyptian Mythology. London: Octopus Books.
Rogers, J. A. (1967) Sex and Race. New York: Helga Rogers Publishing
Snowden, F. (1970) Blacks in Antiquity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Van Der Merr, F. (1967) Early Christian Art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Van Sertima, I. (ed.) (1984) Black Women in Antiquity. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Witt, R. (1971) Isis in the Graeco-Roman World. Ithaca, NY: Cornell.

Lynching, Black People - Cyber Reading by Maida Jones

When I heard the news of the murder of Trayvon Martin, I thought, what would Ida B. Wells do? If you do or don't know who Ms. Wells was, check out the reading above by Maida Jones from the book Black People And Their Place In World History.  This dynamic, insightful book is by Dr. Leroy Vaughn, MD, MBA, Historian, Honorary African Chief. Like Marcus Garvey said "Truth crushed to earth shall rise again."

The cold blooded murder, as revealed on the 911 tapes, friend and neighbors reports, of Trayvon Martin are only the latest in America's bloody history of lynching innocent people in the name of creating and maintaining racism in America. 


This situation is really a shame. When citizens are asked what would have been the arrest procedure if the racial identities of the two men involved were reversed, not an awakened soul in America responded, 'nothing different would have happened.' Yet, 'Where's The Outrage?  It is the most telling, though unintended admission of the understanding of the depth of racism we pretend not to know about. It is a sickness that must be rooted out now at the cause, the best way to solve any problem.


This situation, the execution of Trayvon Martin, demands volumes more than justice. This situation demands change at our most fundamental levels.  Who Are We? What Have We Done? How Do We Make Things Better For All?

The more we understand history, the easier it is to not repeat the mistakes of the past.  To the family, friends and supporters of Trayvon Martin, through the intense pain, thank you for your heroic actions. He is this century's Emit Till.

The bibliography and text are also posted below from the book, Chapter, After 1865 - pages 134-139. The book's $10 .pdf is available at Lulu, the paperback available at Amazon  

LYNCHING

Linkable books from Amazon.com

Adams. R. (1969) Great Negroes: Past and Present. Chicago: Afro-Am Publishing Co., Inc.

Appiah, K. & Gates, H. (eds.) (1999) Africana. New York: Basis Civitas Books.

Aptheker, B. (ed.) (1977) Lynching and Rape: An Exchange of Views. American Institute for Marxist Studies.

Aptheker, H. (1951) A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States. New York: Citadel Press

Bennett, L. (1975) The Shaping of Black America. Chicago: Johnson Publishing Co.

Bennett, L. (1988) Before the Mayflower. New York: Penguin Books.

Davis, M. (1982) Contributions of Black Women to America. Columbia, South Carolina; Kenday Press.

Duster, A. (1970) Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Franklin, J. & Meier, A. (eds.) (1982) Black Leaders of the Twentieth Century. Chicago: University of Illinois Press

Franklin, J. (1988) From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Lerner, G. (ed.) (1973) Black Women in White America. A Documentary History. New York: Vintage Books.

Low, A. & Glift, V. (eds.) (1983) Encyclopedia of Black America. New York: Neal Schuman Publishers.

Sally, C. (1993) The Black 100. New York: Carol Publishing Group.

LYNCHING

Lynching is defined as mob execution, usually by hanging, without the benefit of trial and often accompanied with torture and body mutilation.  The usual scenario included a mob of up to 5,000 White men attacking a single, defenseless Black man and executing him for a crime he was never convicted of or even charged with in most cases.  Lynching is considered one of the most horrific chapters in African American history and is only exceeded by slavery in cruelty and savagery toward another human being.

Lynching Statistics

Years	Whites	Blacks	Total
1882-1891	751	732	1,483
1892-1901	381	1,124	1,505
1902-1911	77	707	784
1912-1921	50	554	604
1922-1931	23	201	224
1932-1941	10	95	105
1942-1951	2	25	27
1952-1961	1	5	6
1962-1968	2	2	4
Totals	1,297	3,445	4,742

Ironically, the term “lynch” is derived from the name of Charles Lynch, a Virginia planter and patriot during the American Revolution, who directed violence toward White British loyalists.  After the Civil War and emancipation, lynching became almost synonymous with hanging and torturing African American males.  Between 1882 and 1930 more than 3,300 Black male victims were hanged, burned alive, castrated, and mutilated by mostly southern White mobs who have never faced any charges for these criminal acts.  Coroners and law officials typically attributed the murders to “parties unknown.”  Most historians and sociologists agree that mob executions was really about social control and to maintain the status quo of White superiority and had little to due with crime control.

Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) could easily be called the mother of the anti-lynching movement.  She was the first of eight children born to slave parents in Holly Springs, Mississippi.  After emancipation, she attended several schools run by northern Methodist missionaries including Rust College.  In 1879, after the yellow fever epidemic claimed the lives of both her parents, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee with the younger children and accepted a teaching position.  Because of her great concern for racial injustice, Wells was invited to write for a local church paper.  As her fame increased, she was asked to contribute to several Baptist newspapers.  She eventually became editor and partner of the “Free Speech and Headlight” Baptist newspaper.

In 1892, the brutal lynching of three close friends in Memphis started Ida B. Wells on a militant, uncompromising, single-minded crusade against lynching from which she would never retreat.  Her three friends committed the crime of opening a grocery store, which successfully competed with a White grocer directly across the street.  For the crime of becoming too “uppity”, a large White mob took the three proprietors from their grocery store, tortured and killed them.  Ms. Wells wrote angry editorials in her newspaper encouraging Blacks to leave Memphis if possible and to boycott White businesses, which left several White companies including the newly opened streetcar line on the verge of bankruptcy.

Ida B. Wells decided to launch her anti-lynching movement on several fronts.  She first wanted to explode the myth that lynching was primarily to protect White women from rape by Black men.  She published detailed statistics on lynching, which demonstrated that less than one-fifth of the victims of lynch mobs were even accused of rape by their killers.  She said that racist southern White mobs “cry rape” to brand their victims as “moral monsters” and to place them “beyond the pale of human sympathy.”  She wrote that while Southern White men raped Black women and children with impunity, they considered any liaison between a Black man and a White woman as involuntary by definition.  She pointed out that children produced by White-Black relationships were called “mulatto” from the Spanish word for mule because racist Whites believed that mixed-race children, like the offspring of donkeys and horses, were an inferior breed that could not reproduce.  When Ms. Wells suggested in print that White women were often willing participants with Black men, a large White mob destroyed the presses of her newspaper and would have killed her had she not been visiting friends in New York.  Thomas Fortune invited her to stay in New York and write for the “New York Age”.  She was also allowed to exchange the circulation list of the “Free Speech” for a one fourth interest in the “Age” and immediately began to write a series on lynching.

The second approach of Ida B. Wells in her anti-lynching movement was to appeal to the Christian conscience of powerful non-southern Whites.  She published two pamphlets (“Southern Horror” in 1892 and “A Red Book” in 1895) in hopes that extensive statistical analyses of lynching would clearly point out that the southern rape fantasy was merely “an excuse to get rid of Negroes who were acquiring wealth and property.”  She pointed out that the same lynch mob that killed a Nashville Black man accused of visiting a White woman left unharmed a White man convicted of raping an eight year old girl.  Since Ms. Well’s viewed lynching as primarily an economic issue, she hoped that economic pressure from the “ruling-class Whites” could produce southern social change.  She began a lecture tour in the Northeast in 1892 and in 1894 she lectured in England where she helped organize the British Anti-Lynching Society.  Ms. Wells was able to effect a curtailment of British investment in the South by suggesting that this could influence American sentiment.  In 1895, Ida B. Wells toured the northern and western states organizing American anti-lynching societies.

Ida B. Wells told African Americans that her analysis of mob violence suggested that it abated whenever Blacks exercised “manly self-defense.”  In “Southern Horrors” she suggested, “a Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every Black home.”  She also told Blacks that they must retaliate with their economic power.  She urged Blacks to boycott White businesses or to migrate to Oklahoma since Black labor was the industrial strength of the South.  She said: “The more the Afro-American yields and cringes and begs, the more he has to do so, the more he is insulted, outraged, and lynched.”

Since Southern courts would not punish lynching participants, Ms. Wells lobbied for legislation that would make lynching a federal crime.  In 1901, Ida B. Wells met with President William McKinley and pressed for his support with anti-lynching legislation.  However, she could not get McKinley or Theodore Roosevelt to support an anti-lynching bill that was introduced in Congress in 1902.  As one of the founding members of the NAACP in 1909, she made her anti-lynching campaign including anti-lynching legislation among the NAACP’s highest priorities.  The NAACP investigated specific incidents and published national statistics on lynching in an attempt to sway public support to put a stop to lynching.  In 1918, the NAACP was able to get Republican Congressman Leonidas Dyer to introduce a bill that subjected lynch mobs to a charge of capital murder for their actions.  The Dyer Bill passed in the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate because southern Democrats never allowed the bill out of committee.  Congressman Dyer re-introduced the bill each year for the next ten years, but it never again passed either house.

As a result of the life-long crusade of Ida B. Wells against lynching, she became the inspiration for organizations throughout the country that opposed lynching.  For example, The American Civil Liberties Union, The Commission on Interracial Cooperation, and The Communist Party of the United States all played a role in the anti-lynching campaign.  Ironically, White middle class Southern women for whom lynching was suppose to protect, formed the Jessie Daniel Ames Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching in 1930.  In honor of her legacy, a low-income housing project in Chicago was named after Ida B. Wells in 1941; and in 1990, the U.S. Postal Service issued an Ida B. Wells commemorative stamp.  The “militant,” “uncompromising,” “outspoken,” and “fearless” Ida B. Wells can surely look back upon her life as a genuine success in helping to end one of the most horrific chapters in African American history.


End of book text. 


For more information on Black history you can obtain a copy of Dr. Vaughn's book for $10 in .pdf format at Lulu, the paperback available at Amazon  

Yes Dr. King, Blacks Have A Place In The Present & Future

MLK Day Cyber Birthday Card  from the Computer Underground Railroad, J. Nayer Hardin, Founder, Conductor. 


This MLK Day we are celebrating when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. thanked Gene Roddenberry and Nichelle Nichols for their work done on the television series Star Trek. Dr. King noted how the series did something evolutionary for its day. The 60's science fiction television program showed Black people in the future as a vital part of the team. 


The card is based on selected readings from the book BLACK PEOPLE AND THEIR PLACE IN WORLD HISTORY by Dr. Leroy Vaughn, MD, MBA, Historian combined with historic material from Nichols and Dr. King.


"It was in Star Trek that Nichols gained popular recognition by being one of the first black women featured in a major television series not portraying a servant; her prominent supporting role as a bridge officer was unprecedented. During the first year of the series, Nichols was tempted to leave the show, as she felt her role lacked significance; however, a conversation with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., changed her mind. She has said that King personally encouraged her to stay on the show, telling her that he was a big fan of the series. He said she "could not give up" because she was playing a vital role model for black children and young women across the country, as well as for other children who would see African Americans appearing as equals.[5][6][7] It is also often reported that Dr. King added that "Once that door is opened by someone, no one else can close it again." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichelle_Nichols 

Yes Dr. King, we have a place in the future. For example, the creator of the personal computer, IBM's Dr. Mark Dean.  It's in Dr. King's honor that a new community based computer training to bridge the digital divide has begun in South Central Los Angeles, the same style the railroad did in the 1990's in NYC where over 3,000 folks became computer literate.


You were right Dr. King that folks were integrated into a burning house, however, it's because everyone is needed to put out the moral and physical fires evil has started.  Only truth can set us free.


This presentation of cyber readings is in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King's 2012 birthday. They are from the Black history book BLACK PEOPLE AND THEIR PLACE IN WORLD HISTORY by Dr. Leroy Vaughn, MD, MBA, Historian 


HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING!  I'VE RESTARTED THE COMPUTER TRAINING DONE IN HARLEM, THIS TIME IN SOUTH CENTRAL LOS ANGELES!


Enjoy.

Black People And Their Place In World History - Black Nationalism

From the book

BLACK PEOPLE AND THEIR PLACE IN WORLD HISTORY
by Dr. Leroy Vaughn, MD. MBA, Historian
Chapter 20TH CENTURY
Section Black Nationalism 
(pages 198-201)  

 

BLACK NATIONALISM

Black Nationalism is defined as “a complex set of beliefs emphasizing the need for the cultural, political, and economic separation of African Americans from White society.”  The philosophy of Black Nationalism is a direct response to racial discrimination and the overt hostility of White society toward anyone of African descent.  Black Nationalist beliefs were strongest during slavery and again with Marcus Garvey at the beginning of the 20^th century.  Since most Black Nationalists believed that White society would never treat African Americans fairly, they demanded a territorial base either in Africa or in America, completely governed by Black men.

As the philosophy of Black Nationalism expanded, Black pride, solidarity, and self-reliance became issues just as important as the demand for a territorial base.  For example, in the 18^th century, Boston’s free Blacks demanded that Crispus Attucks, the first to die in the American Revolution, become a symbol of African American contributions to the Revolutionary War.  Crispus Attucks Day (March 5th) was celebrated for decades before it was replaced by July 4t^h.  During the 19^th century, Paul Cuffee, the richest Black man in America, employed only African Americans to demonstrate their ability to the skeptical White world.  In the 1920’s, Marcus Garvey demanded distinctly Black standards of beauty and refused any advertisements in his newspaper “The Negro World” for hair straighteners or skin whiteners.  He insisted on highlighting the accomplishments of Blacks throughout the world and that Black people chose Black heroes.  He even demanded that Black churches depict all religious figures as Black, including Jesus Christ.

During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, many young Blacks became impatient with its slow progress and passive non-violent philosophy and again embraced Black Nationalism.  Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) soon had most Black youths proclaiming the slogans “Black is Beautiful” and “Black Power.”  Bobby Seale and Huey Newton founded the “Black Panther Party” in 1966 and advocated militant self defense in addition to Black Nationalism.  Elijah Muhammad (a former Garveyite) and Malcolm X emphasized religious justification for racially separate enterprises, especially in business.  When the young Black leaders of the Civil Rights Movement looked for the “Father of Black Nationalism,” they chose a name that history had almost forgotten: Martin Robison Delany. 

Martin Robinson Delany (1812-1885) was a highly intelligent, well-educated Black Nationalist with an immense and outspoken love for his people.  Delany strenuously rejected the notion of Black inferiority and proposed emigration rather than the continuous submission to racial humiliation by White society.  Although his father, Samuel Delany, was a slave, Martin was born free because his mother, Pati Peace Delany, was free.  The Delany children mastered reading and education so quickly that West Virginian Whites became threatened and forced them to move to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1822.  In 1831, Martin completed the Reverend Lewis Woodson School for Negroes and later completed enough medical study in the offices of abolitionist medical doctors to make a comfortable living as a medical practitioner.  In 1850 he became the first Black admitted to Harvard Medical School but was asked to leave after one year because Dean Oliver Holmes considered him a “distraction to education.”

Martin Delany hated slavery and while still practicing medicine, he published the “Mystery,” the first Black-owned newspaper “West of the Alleghenies.”  He published his abolitionist newspaper from 1843-47 and when finances forced him to close, he joined Frederick Douglass as coeditor of the newly founded “North Star.”  Delany demanded liberty for Blacks as a human right.  He also exhorted Blacks to elevate themselves by becoming skilled workers and landowning farmers.  Martin Delany emphasized Black self-reliance through education, independent thought, and self respect.  He felt that Blacks would only gain “the world’s applause” by obtaining wealth through successful businesses.

When Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, Delany gave up all hope that this country would ever ameliorate the condition of his people.  He moved his family to Canada and became a full time advocate for emigration to Africa.  Delany organized three emigration conventions (in 1854, 1856, and 1858).  In July 1859, Martin Delany sailed to western Africa and on December 27, 1859, he signed a treaty with the king of Abeokuta (Nigeria).  The treaty “permitted African Americans associated with Delany to settle in unused tribal lands in exchange for sharing their skills and education with the Yoruba people.”  Happy with his African treaty, Delany then sailed for Britain to obtain financial support.

In London, Martin Delany was able to convince cotton dealers and philanthropists that Christian colonies in Africa could easily compete with slave cotton from the South.  Delany helped found the “African Aid Society,” which agreed to lend two thirds of the money needed by the first group of settlers who were expected to leave the U.S. in June 1861.  Unfortunately, before the first settlers could leave, the Civil War began, and Delany decided to cancel the first group’s departure.

After four years of bloodshed, Martin Delany was able to convince President Lincoln to allow him to recruit an all Black army with Black officers, which would terrorize the South by arming all slaves and encouraging them to fight for their own emancipation.  Delany was commissioned as a Major in the Union Army, the first Black field officer, but the war ended before he could implement his plan to arm all slaves.  After the war, Delany was labeled as a “race agitator” for telling freed slaves to “trust only Blacks” and “to break the peace of society and force their way by insurrection to a position he is ambitious they should attain to.”

African Methodist Episcopal Church (A. M. E.) Bishop Daniel Payne wrote that “Delany was too intensely African to be popular…had his love for humanity been as great as his love for his race, his influence might have equaled that of Fredrick Douglass.”  Martin Delany’s emphasis on race pride and self-reliance and his stressing of the importance of “elevating the race” clearly makes him the “Father of Black Nationalism.” 

BLACK NATIONALISM BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Adams, R. (1969) Great Negroes: Past and Present. Chicago: Afro-Am Publishing Co. Inc.

Appiah, K. & Gates, H. (eds.) (1999) Africana. New York: Basis Civitas Books.

Asante, M. & Mattson, M. (1991) Historical and Cultural Atlas of African Americans NY: Macmillan Pub. Co.

Bennett, L. (1975) The Shaping of Black America. Chicago: Johnson Publishing Co.

Bennett. L. (1988) Before the Mayflower. New York: Penguin Books.

Delany, M. R. (ed.) (1996) The Condition, Elevation, Emigration.. Black Classic Press; Reprint edition

Franklin, J. & Meier, A. (ed.) (1982) Black Leaders of the 20th Century. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Franklin, J. (1988) From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans, New York: Alfred A Knopf.

Griffith, C. (1975) The African Dream: Martin R. Delany and the Emergence of Pan-African Thought.

University Park: Pennsylvania State University.

Litwack, L. & Meier, A. (1988) Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century. Chicago: Univ. of IL Press.

Low, A. & Clift, V. (eds.) (1983) Encyclopedia of Black America. New York: Neal Schuman Publishers.

Moses, W. (1988) The Golden Age of Black Nationalism, 1850-1925. New York: Oxford University Press.

Moses. W. (ed.) (1996) Classical Black Nationalism: From Am. Rev. to Mar. Garvey. NY: NY Univ. Press.

Sally, C. (1993) The Black 100, New York: Carol Publishing Group.

 PHOTOGRAPHIC CREDITS

 198, MARCUS GARVEY STOREFRONT WINDOW, SIGNS IN THE WINDOWS OF A MARCUS GARVEY CLUB IN THE HARLEM AREA CREATED BY GORDON PARKS. SOURCE, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

198, MALCOLM X AND MARTIN L. KING SMILING, THE LIBRARY OF SISTER SOMAYAH KAMBUI,  CRESCENT ALLIANCE SELF HELP FOR SICKLE CELL, LOS ANGELES, CA

199, MALCOLM X WITH A GUN AT THE WINDOW, ON THE LOOK OUT FOR MEMBERS OF THE NATION OF ISLAM, PHOTOGRAPH BY DON HOGAN CHARLES

200, MARTIN ROBINSON DELANY AFTER THE CIVIL WAR "1847B. MARTIN R. DELANY MOVES FROM PITTSBURGH TO ROCHESTER IN ORDER TO FOUND WITH AND WORK WITH FREDERICK DOUGLASS ON A NEW PAPER, NORTH STAR, PRINTED IN THE BASEMENT OF MEMORIAL AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL ZION CHURCH, A FLOURISHING CENTER FOR "UNDERGROUND" ACTIVITIES. SOME LOCAL CITIZENS WERE UNHAPPY THAT THEIR TOWN WAS THE SITE OF A BLACK NEWSPAPER, AND THE NEW YORK HERALD URGED THE CITIZENS OF ROCHESTER TO DUMP DOUGLASS'S PRINTING PRESS INTO LAKE ONTARIO. GRADUALLY, ROCHESTER CAME TO TAKE PRIDE IN THE NORTH STAR AND ITS BOLD EDITOR. STARTING THE NORTH STAR MARKED THE END OF HIS DEPENDENCE ON GARRISON AND OTHER WHITE ABOLITIONISTS. THE PAPER ALLOWED HIM TO DISCOVER THE PROBLEMS FACING BLACKS AROUND THE COUNTRY. DOUGLASS HAD HEATED ARGUMENTS WITH MANY OF HIS FELLOW BLACK ACTIVISTS, BUT THESE DEBATES SHOWED THAT HIS PEOPLE WERE BEGINNING TO INVOLVE THEMSELVES IN THE CENTER OF EVENTS AFFECTING THEIR POSITION IN AMERICA. [ROLLIN]," THE LIBRARY OF DR. LEROY VAUGHN, MD, MBA, HISTORIAN

Richard Allen and the A.M.E. Church - From Book Black People... Vaughn

Bishops of the A.M.E. Church

From the book
BLACK PEOPLE
AND THEIR PLACE IN WORLD HISTORY
by Dr. Leroy Vaughn, MD, MBA, Historian, Honorary African Chief

 . 

After1775 - Richard Allen and the A.M.E. Church

The African Methodist Episcopal Church (A. M. E. Church) was one of the first Black organizations dedicated to Black self-improvement and Pan-Africanist ideals. The A. M. E. Church was also distinguished by its commitment to political agitation, Black education, and social activism. The interest in education initially culminated in the founding of Wilberforce University in 1863, as the first Black college founded by Blacks. Numerous other A. M. E. Colleges soon followed.

A. M. E. pastors were also responsible for numerous lawsuits against public school segregation, which eventually led to the 1954 case: “Brown vs. Board of Education.” During the Civil Rights movement, the A. M. E. Church was very active, and in addition to a pragmatic gospel, the church addressed the housing, welfare, and unionization issues of new immigrants to northern cities. However, nothing more completely captures the spirit and embodiment of the A. M. E. Church than its founder and first bishop, Richard Allen.

Richard Allen was born into slavery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 14, 1760 and shortly thereafter his entire family was sold by a Philadelphia lawyer, Benjamin Chew, to a Delaware plantation owner, Stokely Sturgis. Although the slave master was unconverted, he allowed Richard Allen to attend Methodist meetings. In addition to their antislavery beliefs, Allen was especially impressed by their emphasis on a simple set of virtues including honesty, modesty, and sobriety and converted to Methodism at age 17. By age 20, Allen was able to convert his slave master and to convince him that slave holding was wrong. Allen was allowed to buy his freedom for $2,000 by working a variety of odd jobs over the next five years. Once freed, “Allen traveled widely on the Methodist circuits, preaching, holding prayer meetings, and giving religious counsel to groups of White and Black Christians in the small towns and rural settlements of Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York.” While in Philadelphia, Allen was asked by the elders at St. George Methodist Church to preach to their Black members. After the Black membership increased dramatically, Richard Allen determined that his calling was to minister to the “uneducated, poor, and un-churched community” and that he could best reach them in a separate Black church. However, the White Methodist elders ridiculed the whole idea with “very degrading and insulting language.”

St. George’s Black membership became so large that the church was forced to build a new seating gallery. When church authorities demanded that Blacks sit in the rear of the gallery, Allen and others decided they had been insulted enough: “We all went out of the church in a body and they were no more plagued with us.” The Black Methodists agreed to purchase a blacksmith shop and to move it to a lot Allen had purchased with his own savings. Carpenters were hired to make the building suitable for church meetings and on April 9, 1794, Bishop Asbury dedicated the structure as “Bethel African Church.” Bishop Asbury also ordained Allen as the first Black Methodist deacon and within four years the Bethel membership increased from 45 to 457 members. Richard Allen’s success was the inspiration for many other Black Methodist groups to form African Methodist Churches throughout the Northeast especially in New York, Delaware, and Maryland.

Since Bethel African Church was still under White Methodist ecclesiastical jurisdiction, White Methodists sued for legal control of Bethel, but in 1807 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in Allen’s favor. In 1816, Allen organized a national convention of Black Methodists, since many of them had similar White Methodist challenges. The convention delegates resolved that the churches they represent “should become one body under the name ‘African Methodist Episcopal Church’ in order to secure their privileges and promote union and harmony among themselves.” Richard Allen became the new denomination’s first Bishop and retained that title until his death in 1831.

Richard Allen dedicated his entire life toward uplifting his fellow African Americans. He felt that true Christians had to stretch out their hands beyond the circle of family and friends “to comfort the poor neighbor, the stranger, the widow, and the orphan.” He helped establish the Free African Society, the Bethel Benevolent Society, and the African Society for the Education of Youth “in order to support one another…from a love to the people of our complexion whom we behold with sorrow.” Bethel Church became the scene of numerous Black conventions to discuss the abolition of slavery and racial discrimination, and Richard Allen was commonly recognized as the leader of free Northern Blacks. Allen also published “An Address to Those Who Keep Slaves” in which he attacked slavery and the arguments for it.

Allen spent the final years of his life vehemently opposing the American Colonization Society, which Whites organized in 1817 to support the emigration of free Blacks from America to Africa. The American Colonization Society argued that free Blacks would have to leave this country to find true freedom, since the Fugitive Slave Act allowed any White person to call a free Black a fugitive slave. Since African Americans could not testify in court and therefore could not defend themselves, they had to find someone White who could speak in their behalf or they would become enslaved. Richard Allen himself was once called a fugitive slave, but fortunately, he was so famous that he not only won his case but had his accuser thrown into jail for three months. The American Colonization Society also argued that African Americans could help civilize and convert their less fortunate African brothers. However, Allen angrily responded that American Blacks could not convert or civilize anyone since they were mostly illiterate and uneducated themselves. He felt the real purpose of the colonizationists was to expel the most vociferous opponents of slavery. Allen told the American Colonization Society: “We will never separate ourselves voluntarily from the slave population in this country; they are our brethren and we feel there is more virtue in suffering privations with them than fancied advantage for a season.”

Richard Allen propelled the A. M. E. Church to the center of Black institutional activity during his lifetime. Allen’s life, as much as his sermons, remained an effective example for the future leadership of the A. M. E. Church. Moreover, his leadership direction is responsible for the continued proliferation of A. M. E. membership throughout the 19th and 20th century, which today boasts a total of over three million members.