Islamic roots in ancient Egypt - Bro. Rafiq

The Islamic roots are from Kemet (Egypt). Presented by Rafiq Bilal Bin Djiang Gan was a well-known civil rights activist who dedicated his life to fighting injustice and inequality for people of color in America.








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You Saved Me (Blacks & Marriage)

With African American marriage numbers at an all time low and African American divorce numbers at an all time high the hopes of positive, lasting, relationships look bleak until now. Executive Producers Lamar and Ronnie Tyler bring real married couples to the screen to chronicle the greatest love stories ever told. These real couples explain how their marriages had a direct impact on their lives. Featuring candid and transparent looks inside of the hardships, trials, and ultimate success stories of these amazing couples. YOU SAVED ME offers an unprecedented look inside of real relationships and what is required to sustain them.

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From Slavery to Sainthood

In 1886, at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, a young man who had been born a slave was ordained a priest. His name was Augustine Tolton and he was the first black Roman Catholic priest in the United States.

(From: Celebrating Priesthood - Father Augustine Tolton) By Gerry Curran

On a clear night in 1862, a 29-year-old slave woman with her two young sons and 20-month-old daughter, bolted the Stephen Elliot plantation in Brush Creek, Missouri, where she’d lived since 1849. Her destination for now was Hannibal, about five miles distance. From there, in a leaky rowboat, with bullets whizzing overhead from Confederate soldiers, she frantically rowed across the great Mississippi River to Illinois—a free state. For that slave woman, Martha Jane Tolton, it would mean freedom but for one of her sons, Augustine, it would mean even more. He would become, despite a maze of major obstacles, the first pure-blooded black Roman Catholic priest in the U.S.Born in Kentucky, Martha Jane Chisley was already a second-generation Catholic, being baptized in infancy as was the custom of slave-holding Catholics. She would be part of a human dowry upon the wedding of Susan Mannings to Stephen Elliot. Immediately following the reception, the couple, with slaves in tow, headed for their new home, a farm in Missouri, also a slave state. Adjoining the Elliot farm was one owned by the Hager family, also Catholic. It was here Martha Jane met another slave, Peter Paul Tolton, who worked in the plantation’s distillery. A relationship developed and eventually they received permission from the Hager and Eliot families to marry in the Church.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124895104

In the spring 1851, Peter and Martha Jane were married by Father John O’Sullivan at Saint Peter’s Church in Brush Creek. In consenting to the marriage, it was agreed that the couple would live on the Eliot plantation but Peter would remain the property of the Hagers. In addition, any children born of this union would become property of the Elliots. From the marriage came Charley in 1853, Augustine, 1854, and Anne, 1859.Though Peter Tolton had been a slave of the Hagers since he was a child, he still desired his freedom. Following the federal surrender of Fort Sumter in 1861, he escaped and enlisted in the Union army. Martha Jane understood.

A year later, she and her children made their own escape.The little quartet eventually made it to Quincy, Illinois, a town about 20 miles north of where they landed. It had a population of about 14,000, of which about 300 were black. Martha Jane made arrangements to stay with another black woman, a Mrs. Davis, and found a job at the Harris Tobacco factory at Fifth and Ohio Streets [also referenced as the Wellman and Dwire Tobacco Company]. Her two sons were hired as "stemmers," preparing the tobacco by trimming stems. They worked 10-hour days, six days a week for 50¢ per week. Mother Tolton, as she came to be known, attended the local Catholic church, Saint Boniface. The pastor was Father Herman Schaeffermeyer.

Though the 2,000-member parish was predominantly German, the Toltons were, for the most part, accepted or at the very least, tolerated. The parish school was yet untested. Mass was celebrated in Latin but the epistles, gospel and sermon in German and then translated into English by Fr. Schaeffermeyer. Young Augustine would learn the German language through this process. During the winter months the tobacco factory was closed, and in 1865, Augustine and Anne became the first black children enrolled at St. Boniface School.

When parishioners heard of it many threatened to withdraw their support of the church. Not surprisingly, the Tolton children endured hostility from other students as well. Staying only a month, Mother Tolton removed them from St. Boniface School. Augustine continued to work at the tobacco factory, eventually working his way into the grading and sorting room. The work was easier and his pay was raised to $3 a week. Despite his earlier moral lapse in not standing up to his parishioners, Fr. Schaeffermeyer became a life-long friend of the Toltons.

In the winter of 1868, Mother Tolton enrolled her children in an all-black school, later known as Lincoln School, a state-maintained institution of dubious academic quality. Even in a school surrounded by his own, he was harassed and taunted, mainly because of his gawkiness and lack of a father. (Peter Paul Tolton had died of dysentery in a St. Louis hospital during the war. It is not known whether he ever saw combat.) Young Augustine, 14, would stay with it, and eventually won over his tormentors. He became one of the school’s best students.Augustine met another person, one of many in his life, who was interested in his future: Father Peter McGirr of St. Peter’s Church in Quincy. Fr. McGirr, from Ulster in Northern Ireland, went on a sick call to Mrs. Davis’ house, where the Toltons were still staying in 1868. After speaking with Augustine, Fr. McGirr arranged to have him attend St. Peter’s School. When white parishioners complained to Fr. McGirr about a child attending St. Peter’s, he would either ignore them or lecture them on the equality of all people. Augustine never had any problems with any of the students.

Augustine learned his Latin and became an altar boy. At the same time Mother Tolton moved to a brick shed behind a livery stable, close to St. Peter’s church and school. Though a bright student at 16, he was still woefully behind in his studies. Consequently, he received special before- and after-class tutoring from the nuns. He graduated with distinction from St. Peter’s in 1872, at the age of 18.Now the question was, what was he to do with the education? Fr. McGirr asked Augustine if he ever thought of becoming a priest, to which the young man responded very positively. He applied at Saint Francis Monastery in Teutopolis, Illinois. Their reply: he did not qualify. So Augustine headed back to the tobacco factory where he was now making cigars at $9 per week and also serving as the church’s custodian.

St. Boniface had a new pastor, Father Francis Ostrop and was assisted by Father Theodore Wegmann. Fr. Ostrop set up a course of study for Augustine patterned after that at St. Francis Solanus College in Quincy. Fr. Wegmann would teach the course to Augustine. Meanwhile, over at St. Peter’s, Fr. McGirr found a reply from the local bishop to an earlier letter regarding Augustine. Basically, the letter said “Find a seminary which will accept a Negro candidate. The diocese will assume the expenses.” Unfortunately, the point was moot, as the three priests had written every seminary in the U.S., all of which responded “We are not ready to accept a Negro as a candidate for the seminary.” Augustine, or ‘Gus’ as he was now known, was 20 and in his twelfth year of employment at the tobacco factory.An unexpected transfer of Fr. Wegmann found Gus in northeastern Missouri studying under a priest friend of Fr. McGirr’s. It turned out an utterly disastrous year with a well-meaning but alcoholic priest for a tutor and Gus working in a saloon, cleaning up the place after closing. So it was back to Quincy.

Upon his return to Quincy, Gus started working at the J.L. Kreitz Saddle factory in Quincy making saddles and horse collars. He also took back his job as church custodian. Fr. Ostrop found another tutor for him in the chaplain at the local Catholic hospital. After several months, Gus started a new job making $12 a week at Durhold and Company, a soda firm. Another bit of good fortune occurred: St. Francis Solanus College (now Quincy College) accepted Gus, who would start in the fall of 1878. In addition, he had three priests to tutor him. One of them, Father Michael Richardt, would be another pivotal person to his future.Concerned about the lack of religious education among his own people, Gus took on the unofficial role of lay minister at St. Boniface. He discovered several years earlier that St. Boniface had purchased a Lutheran church and used it for a school. After St. Boniface built a new school, the former Protestant church lay vacant. Gus received permission from the pastor of St. Boniface to establish a Sunday school for children in the vacant church. With the assistance of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, a day school was also started. Over time, it grew to become St. Joseph parish.Still, Gus, now 25, was no closer to his goal of entering a seminary than five years earlier. A plea to the newly-founded Josephite Fathers in England, whose ministry was directed at American ex-slaves, eventually proved a dead end. He began pestering his mentors on the subject. Following a long talk with Fr. McGirr, Gus was sadly reminded of the situation for blacks in 1879 America. However, the discussion did end on a positive note. Fr. McGirr told him of the local bishop’s upcoming trip to Rome the following week and the bishop would plead Gus’s case to the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda College. Gus’s spirits soared.

After a seemingly interminable amount of time, Fr. Richardt showed Gus a letter received from the local bishop. Though the bishop tried his best, the letter said, he was unable to obtain admission for Gus to the Propaganda College. The letter added that he should wait until the Josephite Fathers opened a seminary in the U.S. Knowing that to be a pipe dream, Fr. Richardt began his reserve plan and appealed directly to the superior general of the Franciscan order in Rome. The Cardinal Prefect—who’d just turned down the bishop’s plea—was also a personal friend of the superior general.Fr. Richardt mailed the superior general a long, well-crafted letter to plead Gus’s case. For Gus, the time was agony. For about two months, he just moped along, until one day he was notified of his acceptance for priestly preparation at the Propaganda College in Rome.On Sunday, February 15, 1880, with a sizable crowd at the Quincy station to see him off, Gus boarded the train that took him to Hoboken, N.J. From there he would board the Der Westlicher for a 12-day voyage to Le Havre, and then, by train, with various European layovers, to Rome. He arrived in the Eternal City on Wednesday, March 10, 1880.

Within nine days, Gus and his 70 or so fellow seminarians were invested in the uniform of the Collegium: A black soutane with red sash and black biretta with a red tassel. He found his classmates to be from all corners of the globe. The discrimination and prejudice he experienced in the U.S. was not found in the Collegium. Though occasionally lonely, he felt very comfortable in his new situation. Later, as Father Tolton, he would recall that the happiest times of his life were as a seminarian. Very soon, his fellow seminarians addressed him as Gus or ‘Gus from the U.S.’ and he adjusted well to seminary life. During this time he also mastered the accordion and would play old Negro spirituals for his classmates. On non-school days he would wander around Rome and sketch some of the Eternal City’s more than 600 churches. In spring 1886, Gus’s seminary days were coming to an end. He’d passed all the requisite courses and taken all the oaths for each of his six years of study. All that remained was ordination, The day before his ordination, he tried to find out his first assignment. Anyone who knew him, from the clergy in Quincy to his seminary classmates and instructors at the Collegium, assumed he would be sent to Africa as a missionary. This was not to be. To everyone’s surprise, he was being sent back to Quincy. Alhough an assignments committee had agreed that Augustine Tolton would go to Africa, the prefect of the Collegium, Giovanni Cardinal Simeoni, overruled them and said America didn’t have any black priests, though they were needed — but Americans will see one now.

Gerry Curran is a Southern California based writer who was born in Chicago and raised on the South Side. His work has appeared in Nostalgia Digest. Gerry served in the Marine Corps, and is now happily retired with his wife, Vicki. He spends a lot of time studying Chicago's history.

Additionals:

March 18, 2010
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter
"Augustus Tolton, who went on to become the first black Catholic priest in America, is now a candidate for sainthood, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced Wednesday. Cardinal Francis George plans to appoint a "historical commission" to gather the facts about the Chicago priest's "heroic virtues." The pope ultimately can declare someone a saint following a process that includes attributing two miracles to the candidate."

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/religion/2109871,CST-NWS-saint18.article

Additional Information:

http://www.southloophistory.org/people/tolton.htm

http://home.catholicweb.com/spc/files/Augustus_Tolton.pdf

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The Imani Foundation

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Afrolatinos - The Untaught Story

We often regard the Latino community as one being divided by nationality, but racial politics within the community can divide as well.While many Latin communities have embraced the Afro-roots of specific cultural forms such as art, music, dance and food, few have openly connected that heritage to its deeper history. Likewise, Black citizens within many Latin communities feel a similar disconnection. Enter Renzo Devia, an award-winning U.S.-born television producer and director of Colombian heritage, whose documentary, AFROLATINOS, seeks to bring focus to the complex and varied experiences of Black communities throughout South and Central America.

This is the official trailer of the Documentary series AFROLATINOS. This documentary is scheduled to air in late 2011. It will educate on the African Diaspora in Latin America and celebrate the AfroLatino culture. Please check out AfroLatino.tv for more info. The production company is CreadorPictures.tv

English Trailer for AfroLatinos The Documentary from Renzo Devia / Creador Pictures on Vimeo.

Afrolatinos “The Untaught Story” is a documentary television series independently produced by Creador Pictures, LLC. The program will illustrate history and celebrate the rich culture of people in Latin America of African descent. From the story of how and when slaves came to Central and South America to identity issues that still exist in the Hispanic community today. There are an estimated 200 million Afro-descendants in Latin America but the majority of them do not have political or economic power. This documentary takes you on a journey to meet Afrolatinos throughout Spanish and Portuguese speaking nations and an exploration and appreciation of their culture.
The documentary follows the African Latin experience from the slave trade in the early 1500’s and touches on the Cimarron (Palenque) communities, as well as the controversial theory of the African presence in ancient America.
It also looks at contemporary Afro-Latin communities and explores the notions of African identity and the various ways embracing African identity is beginning to impact politics, economics and culture in Latin America. According to Creador, “Of all the issues that are affecting their way of life the main issue is the exclusion of a community of people based on the color of their skin. We interview people from the U.S to Argentina about issues such as image (this idea of good hair, bad hair), interracial marriages, racism, oppression, exploitation and Afrolatinos consciousness plus much more.”
Creador strives to project positive, dynamic images of Latinos on television and has made it his mission to educate people on the Afro-Latino culture toward a goal of unification and empowerment.
View more about the AfroLatinos documentary
Listen to the Roots of AfroLatin music
This information is pulled from Ebony Magazine
(http://ebonyjet.com/culture/film/index.aspx?id=16636)

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The Imani Foundation

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Black to the Bible - Rev. Jeffrey A. Johnson

Rev. Jeffrey A. Johnson Jr. preaches/teaches his Black to the Bible Vol. 1 - "The Biblical Black Presence." The lecture/sermon contains historical information and Biblical doctrine supporting the presence of African people and people of African descent in the standard cannonized Bible. This file is the first sermon/lecture in an educational four part series. Hit http://www.easternstarchurch.org for more information about Rev. Jeffrey A. Johnson Jr. or call 317-591-5057 to purchase this lecture legally.

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. The views expressed in the media presented on this site are not necessarily the views and opinions of the Imani Foundation, our members, staff, or sponsors. Find us on FACEBOOK under the name "The Black Improvement Movement".

How Dare She Smile - Beautiful Struggler

I feel for Gabourey Sidbe. In what should be one of the most shiny, happy times of her life- both a film and TV project on the horizon, two laps around the talk show circuit and, oh yeah, an Oscar nod- she’s popping up in newspapers and blogs daily (even weeks AFTER the Oscars) because of her weight.

Ok. We get it. She’s big. Not average American woman big. Not “Jessica Simpson, how DARE you let yourself get to be a size 4, you cow!” big. She’s actually quite large. It’s not up for debate. So, is it to say that Sidbe should not spend any time in the public eye until she has rid herself of her hideous bigness? Instead of being so bubbly and effervescent, perhaps she should walk around with her head bowed or tell everyone how she’s planning to lose weight soon. I mean, how DARE she be big and happy at the same time? Doesn’t she know the rules?

For years, whenever a large woman has been embraced as ‘big and beautiful’, there is always the same reaction: By promoting the idea of big and beautiful, we are encouraging women to be obese. We are saying it’s okay. We are promoting an unhealthy lifestyle. This is troubling on many levels. Sidbe’s health is a topic of conversation for her and her doctor; while it’s not unreasonable to speculate that her size may lead to future health problems, the cigarette and starvation diets that keep a lot of other starlets thin will do the same thing. But because Sidbe’s health challenges haven’t lent themselves to looking like the Hollywood ideal, then it’s okay to diss her.

I lost a ton of respect for Jamie Foxx after hearing this recent clip from his radio show, in which he mocked Sidbe, Mo’Nique and the film Precious. I suppose great talent does not a class act make, but I (foolishly) would have expected more from him:

From the comments: “LMAO this was funny as hell. Now watch all these black women come out and get mad. Hurt fellings and all lol…Now is time to hear all the black women cry and whine. Ready get set GO.”

The irony here is that surely some of the writers and commenters going so hard on Sidbe are overweight or even obese themselves. Because the actress is so big, someone can be a size 20, look at her and say “I ain’t THAT big! That’s TOO big!” I’d wager that some folks that are used to being on the other side of the weight talk are relieved to have someone else to look down upon.

I’ve never read an interview in which Sidbe stated that she liked her size or preferred it to others. She simply seems to be happy in her own skin, which is a tremendous feat considering the number of people who are so quick to point to both her size and her complexion and judge it quite differently. It was her co-star Mo’Nique who made a career of “big and beautiful” and “skinny b!tches are evil“; and she laid herself open to criticism of glorifying obesity by doing so, until she adopted a healthier lifestyle and admitted that big women need to work out and eat right too*. There’s nothing wrong with “big and beautiful” and I don’t think telling women they won’t be beautiful until AFTER they have handled their weight issues promotes this healthy lifestyle critics are allegedly encouraging. Shaming people into submission rarely works.

Morbid obesity is not usually the product of “Ooh, girl, I just rather eat cake than exercise“. Most folks never consider that an obese person may have binge eating disorder, which is more common than both anorexia and bulimia. Possible causes for binge eating include depression, stress and using food as a coping mechanism (“emotional eating”)- issues that are quite common in the Black community and amongst young women of all races. As much as we need to discuss obesity in the Black community and the country at large, there is no reason to make this young woman the face of the conversation. Most of us have had large women in our lives in some capacity; did you ever reject your grandmother’s hugs because she was just TOO fat? Did you refuse to go to your larger homegirl’s parties because she was just TOO big? Were you unable to pay attention to your Sunday School teacher because she was SO big?

I never once read an article stating that Biggie, Big Pun or Fat Joe was too big, or that they were setting a bad example for their audience (Pun’s weight was only a topic of discussion after he began his public attempts to slim down and in the wake of his passing). However, all three men incorporated their sizes into their names and their lyrics AND made a point of letting you know that all the pretty little vixens were vying for their big bodies. That, to me, seems far more like glamorization than Sidbe playing a role that highlights how hard life can be for obese women and simply being a happy woman off screen.

I’m not saying that Sidbe isn’t ‘too big’ or that she shouldn’t consider some lifestyle changes. I’m saying that she doesn’t deserve to be the face of Black women and their issues with obesity. Furthermore, I resent the idea that she should not be allowed to travel the earth as happily and as peacefully as others because of her size. Should she choose to do something about it, that’s wonderful, but is she supposed to stop living in the meantime? Treating Sidbe like some sort of leper does nothing to help her get healthier; it’s just cruelty dressed up as concern. There shouldn’t be public ownership of women’s bodies just because they are in the public eye. I hope her self-image is as strong as it seems to be in interviews, because I don’t know many people who are strong enough to deal with what she’s had to face in these past few months.

*-Plenty of big women work out and eat well, but do recall Mo’Nique’s standup from about 10 years ago, okay? She wasn’t speaking to the healthy big girl side of the game.


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Wrestling through the struggles

Two Black high school wrestlers, one blind and one with no legs, discover the meaning of true friendship.

If you are receiving this correspondence via email and are not able to view the accompanying video please visit http://www.blackimprovementmedia.blogspot.com/ to watch the video described in the above text or visit this link: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4372243 . The views expressed in the media presented on this site are not necessarily the views and opinions of the Imani Foundation, our members, staff, or sponsors. Find us on FACEBOOK under the name "The Black Improvement Movement".