Daughter of Slave Casts Vote, Remembers Struggle

For 109-Year-Old Amanda Jones, a Vote Is More Than a Vote
By KIRAN KHALID
Oct. 31, 2008



http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6154173

At 109 years young, Amanda Jones can still remember when the idea of blacks having the right to vote was as far-fetched as the idea of desegregation.
Amanda Jones says she hasn't missed a presidential election since FDR.

Born in 1899, the former housewife and cleaning lady has lived in three centuries. They were three centuries of struggle from her father's oppression as a slave in Texas to her own battle for equality.

It was not just her race, but her gender that kept Jones from the polls. Women did not get the right to vote until she was 21 years old.

"I think it's very important that she got to vote in this election knowing all that she's seen and all that she's been through," Brenda Baker, Jones' granddaughter, told "Good Morning America."

The Aftermath

Video The Vote...

I live in California so I don't foresee this being a problem here with the presidential election because Barack Obama has such a big lead. It is highly unlikely for California to vote Republican in Presidential elections without a party candidate being from the state. I wanted to pass along this website and information for those of you who are in “battleground” states or areas where they have been instances of voter intimidation.

They want to record situations where people were not allowed to vote or intimidated into not voting. You can also be a driver, dispatcher or blogger, uploader/tech support check out:

www.videothevote.com


Sign up to Video the Vote and join a growing network of Americans working together to monitor and improve our election systems. We are concerned citizens, amateur videographers, voting rights activists, and filmmakers united by a commitment to strengthening democracy through citizen oversight. And we need your help:
Videographers - Get dispatched to cover problems in your area or go out and document on your own.

Dispatchers - Monitor the national voter hotlines and then send out videographers to get the stories.

Drivers - Help videographers get to where they're going.

Uploaders/tech support - Make sure volunteer videos get online and to the media as fast as possible.

Bloggers - Review volunteer footage and spread the word about the best clips.

ChurchBoyz Unleashed...

I have a friend. A brother who made transition this past Wednesday October 8. We performed together as a spoken word/vocal duo "BettaWayz".

It came about because of Jeffrey King, Executive Director of In The Meantime was celebrating his birthday and asked if I would share some poetry. I have a piece called "Idle Worship" that I thought would be perfect. I'd always wanted to perform it with a vocalist. The text of it is:

Idle Worship
By The Literary Masturbator™


He entered the edifice hoping to be saved

Wearing his best clothes to show the blessings of all his hard work

Praying at the altar for a savior

Hoping that would connect him to the divine


He drank of the cup and ate of the bread

The bar became his sanctuary

His place of refuge


A processional of toned bodies dancing in the spirit baptized the believer in trance like beats

and moved him to shout of the goodness

“The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!”


He was born again and gave 3 snaps

One for the father, one for the son, and one for the Holy Ghost


The club became his church

The DJ his minister of music

The bouncer the head usher

The vogueing queens the Pastor’s Aide committee


Trade was the truth – the gospel according to John, Gerald, Walter, Bernard, and Tyrone [Call HIM!!]


A choir of DL brothas offered an A selection of false hopes, a B selection of broken promises


At the benediction he left the temple with an angel he found leaning against the wall near the bathroom


Another type of worship service


Telling the saints,…Pray for me.

with Regi's and my creative collaboration we added vocals, harmony, and comedy to express the piece. Our duo was born and our friendship/brotherhood cemented.

We entered a spoken word contest about a week before the performance just to try out the material and placed first in Round 1. Unfortunately we didn't know there were 2 rounds so in the intermission I ran through some of the other pieces I had memorized and he added some vocals and we ended up 3rd overall. It was a testament to our ability to come together as separate artist.

I have performed with musicians and other poets but nothing has ever been like the bond with Regi and I. We were able to not see each other for a while but when we got together it was like we were with each other the day before. Even after I moved to the bay area I had him come and perform with me and it was as if we had never left each other.

Regi's heart was as big as his voice and if you ever heard him sing you would know that means it was gigantic. He flair for clothes and creative arts pushed others to places they didn't know they had inside of him. I will certainly miss him but as a believer in eternal life being continuing to speak of the people who inspire you, he is and always (All Ways) will be with me...

Elections, Assumptions, and Barack Obama...

For those of you who don't know and automatically assume. I am not a registered Democrat. I am registered in the Green Party. The reason I bring this up is because in this political season almost everyone assumes I am a Democrat and will be voting for Barack Obama.

Don't worry I certainly won't be voting for John McCain. But as a registered Green I do have the chance to vote for Cynthina McKinney and Rosa Clemente www.votetruth08.com The first party that has nominated two women (and two women of color) for President and Vice President. McKinney is a former Democrat representing Georgia who is famous or infamous for her run in with a security guard on Capitol Hill. Clemente is a Afro-Puerto Rican Hip Hop Activist from NY.

Some may wonder why I would even consider this choice. If you think about it. Obama will easily win the California electoral votes and other parties must have at least 2% of the electorate to remain viable in most states. It's also a choice I make on grounds that even though I am inspired by Barack's message of Change and inspired by his visions of Hope I keep coming back to the fact that the Democratic party even though more progressive than the Republican party it's still two sides of the same coin.

The other thing to take into consideration in this equation is the history of electing a man of African descent as President of the United States. Is that reason enough for me to do it? I think a lot of people will look to this as a sign that racism and prejudice no longer exists in this country and no matter who is President that is simply not true. I even had a friend who uses a website for dating and had gotten messages from white men telling him they were supporting Obama as if that proved how liberal and open minded they were.

I do think of my parents and how in their lifetime they never thought this would be possible. My mother is the daughter of a former sharecropper from Cottonplant, Arkansas who watched as her father was called "boy". To this day she will not let anyone refer to her as "gal".

At this point I haven't decided how I will vote and I am not even sure I will make it public. I have found this election season to be one of the most exciting and interesting of my entire adult life. I can't imagine how a first time voter would feel.

I support anyone's right to vote how they see fit whether I agree with their choice strongly (McCain/Palin) or not. I just don't think we should make assumptions of how or who someone should vote for...

1950s Jet Magazine on Homosexuality -DERELICTS, DEVIANTS AND BLACK HOMOSEXUALITIES: 1950'S JET MAGAZINE REDUX!

ARE HOMOSEXUALS BECOMING RESPECTABLE?

(Jet Magazine April 15, 1954) One of the best kept secrets on the campus of a southern Negro college was that a noted genius was overly fond of young boys and to protect the scientists reputation he was never left alone with tender youths. Likewise, a mid-western colored high school football coach is known for his winning teams - and his homosexual tendencies. Behind the scenes, some of America's most celebrated males have tripped the gay fantastic. This fact, further amplified by the recent discovery of some 1,100 homosexuals in the U.S. State Department has prompted the public to wonder if - by its own sanction - homosexuals are becoming acceptable. One of the most outspoken sex non-conformists on the American scene is Charles R. Brown, a 27 year old shake dancer and professional female impersonator. Brown attempted last year to go to Denmark for an operation that would make him 'a woman legally' so he could marry an Army sergent stationed in Germany.

Unlike Brown, noted lecturer Bayard Rustin, 41, who was a Committee on Racial Equality leader, denies homosexual tendencies, yet has been arrested several times on morals charges. He was jailed in California a year ago for allegedly committing a sex offense with two men in a car. Among other prominent Negroes whose strange sex lives are whispered conversation is a celebrated writer, a successful actor, a noted educator, two members of a nationally known quartet, a West Coast newspaperman, a classical pianist, a late boxing champion, several male choreographers and a now -deceased composer.

Dr. Alfred Kinsey, author of the two extensive studies on American sexual behavior, estimates that homosexuality has touched 37 per cent of U.S. males. The fact that so many flourish and are accepted by other mates is an indication of their almost casual acceptance in this country. Much of the problem of sex perversion is being bared on Broadway, where four plays dealing with homosexuality have reached the stage this season. Two of them, End As A Man and Tea And Sympathy, deal with sex deviation in prep schools. The others, Ladies Of The Corridor and The Immoralist, explore homosexuality in other phases of society. Many people are willing to treat members of the 'third sex' as victims of an illness that needs treatment rather than criminals who should be punished.

Such was the attitude of Detroit minister Prophet Jones when his valet, James Parker, 25 was placed on probation for soliciting a policeman for immoral purposes. Said the dapper Prophet: 'Psychiatrists said the boy liked men more than women but that's no grounds for arrest.'



IS THERE HOPE FOR HOMOSEXUALS? (JET MAGAZINE AUG 7, 1952)

Whether they walk with simpering hinged-hipped gait or hide their effeminate characteristics with baggy tweeds and smelly pipes, there are in the US today, 8 million males who prefer intimates with other males. Collectively, they present America with the biggest pychosexual problem of modern times because:

1. They cause dislocations in family life:
2. breed maladjusted inmates in jails.
3. like persons afflicted with a dread disease, bloat their number each year with by the planned seduction of innocents.

Despite the far-reaching significance of homosexuality, there are no U.S. societies dedicated to its prevention and cure. Yet ther are organizations interested in curbing every other malfunction of the human body and mind.

For years, such sexual deviates have been either amusing or just objects of pity to the mass public. No one thought of curing them. Recently, however, attention - and hope- have been given to possible cures for such social mavericks.

Homosexuality, a greek word meaning 'same sexualities' among all races and classes of people and even in some animals. It affects both men and women, and is perhaps the best recorded, but least studied sexual aberration in the world. It was accepted and respected by the Greeks, and the modern word for such deviates among females - Lesbian - comes from the Greek named island Lesbos, where the poetess Sappho, who preferred the love of other women, lived.

Greek men generally went through a period of pederasty and it was considered perfectly alright for a philosopher to embrace a lad. Male homosexuality cause the destruction of the biblical city Sodom, from which is derived the word sodomy, and the practice is condemned in Leviticus 18th Chapter, 22nd verse.

The Romans, however, did not take such views: Nero seduced men as well as their wives, and was in turn seduced by men. Ceasar, too, is said to have participated in such relations with Roman males.............

Since third sex feelings have their roots deep in the cloudy corners of the human mind, and since most homosexuals have taken the final step by the time they are 15 years of age, psychiatrists despair its cure.

It is admittedly impossible to cure such a person who has become 'satisfied'. These, psychiatrists say are men who........enjoy the hurts and barbs society gives them for their dereliction. Othen they feel a need to be punished and accepts society's slaps. Others over-compensate for their inadequacies by flaunting their sex sickness in much the same way that a circus freak displays a monstrous deformity.

In instances where confirmed homosexuals go to hospitals for cures they often are not 'cured' but are taught to live with their deviation and not feel guilty. They may be told that Shakespeare, Tchiakovsky, Gide and others are suffered their affliction........Archaic laws and inadequate scientific research into handling of perversion make it possible, however, for curable perverts to remain untreated, while incurable sex maniacs are allowed to roam freely through society.

Our Deepest Fear-Marianne Williamson

I was just speaking with a friend (yes you Anthony!!) about alot of things but one of the things that we kept coming back to was truth and how truth resonates. In that spirit of remembering I am always drawn to this quote by Marianne Williamson. It pops into my head occasionally to remind me of all that I have been through, am, and will be...







"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."


by Marianne Williamson from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles