Black History Year Weekly Digest

Here are the daily quotes/facts from our Black History Year Facebook Application for the past week:

Feb 15: In 1777 Morocco became the first country to publicly recognize the United States, and it remains one of America’s oldest and closest allies in the Middle East and North Africa. Formal U.S. relations with Morocco date from 1787 when Congress ratified a Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the two nations.  Renegotiated in 1836, the treaty is still in force, constituting the longest unbroken treaty relationship in U.S. history, and Tangier is home to the oldest U.S. diplomatic property in the world.

Feb 16: Slavery is never abolished, slavery is transformed. Now it is computerized. Only the slave can destroy slavery. And you cannot destroy slavery by becoming a part of your slave master’s culture incubator. -Dr. John Henrik Clarke

Feb 17: Religion was used for control on slave plantations. A book consulted by many planters was the Cotton Plantation Record and Account Book, which gave these instructions to overseers: “You will find that an hour devoted every Sabbath morning to their moral and religious instruction would prove a great aid to you in bringing about a better state of things amongst the Negroes.”

Feb 18: When the missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the missionaries had the Bible. They taught us to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened our eyes, they had the land and we had the Bible… Jomo Kenyatta

Feb 19: The community’s concern with the election and appointment of Black political figures helps it to maintain false hopes that their attainment of office will significantly resolve its problems. The activities of Black politicians, given the current inadequacy of social organization and economic resources, harmfully distract the Black community’s attention from recognizing and eradicating the true causes of its problems and the remediation of its powerlessness. -Dr. Amos Wilson

Feb 20: Many of the problems we suffer today are because we do not see ourselves as a nation. We complain about how we are segregated from everybody else, how we are not a part of the mainstream, how we are not a part of the economy, how we are shut out from the government and the political process. If we are not apart of these things and yet these things are what define a nation, then we are not a part of the American nation! We are in effect a de facto nation, but we are afraid to recognize it. If we looked at ourselves as a nation we’d see many of the reasons why we are where we are as a people. -Dr. Amos N. Wilson, Afrikan-Centered Consciousness Versus the New World Order