(July 5, 2008) Soldier Boy Grip Comic & Commentary...

(c) R2C2H2 Tha Artivist/Ronald Herd II

Memo To Spike: Right War, Wrong Battle

Recently, accomplished filmmakers Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood got into a Hollywood tussle and dust up over the supposed accuracies or supposed inaccuracies of Eastwood's latest award winning WW 2 flicks, "Flags of Our Fathers" & "Letters From Iwo Jima"...

I am not going to regurgitate what was said word for word by these Film making Titans with egos too big to put in Special Collector DVDs...

You can find much commentary detailing the entire debate online...

However, I would have to give Clint Eastwood the benefit of the doubt on this one...Eastwood is a person who is known as a true supporter of the preservation of Black people's contributions to American culture and heritage (after all he did the films "Bird", a biopic about jazz hero Charlie Parker, and executive produced the wonderful "Straight No Chaser" documentary about jazz great Thelonious Monk)...Also Clint Eastwood, an enthusiastic and vocal supporter of live jazz, produces the highly acclaimed annual Monterey Jazz Festival which draws tens of thousands of devotees from around the world to appreciate America's Classical Music up close and personal...

Anybody who has been alive the last 30 years knows Spike's unique contributions to film history, Black culture and heritage as well...His movie "Mo Better Blues" is in my opinion one of the best jazz movies ever made and also counts among his finest works along with "Malcolm X" and "Do The Right Thing"...It would have been nice to see his version of the biopic "Bird"...

It is a known fact that Hollywood makes a hefty profit distorting history..."The Birth Of A Nation" anyone???

Especially when it comes to Westerns and War movies, movie genres that Clint Eastwood's true legacy and acclaim as an actor and director is built on...

So this shouldn't be a surprise...But I will give Clint the benefit of the doubt this time around for the following reasons...

Right War, But Wrong Battle & Movie...

Spike Lee is actually 10 years too late in his accusations...He should have attacked another great filmmaker, Steven Spielberg, for the same thing he accused Clint of doing: whitewashing history...

In his film "Saving Private Ryan", the first 30 minutes of the film portrayed the D-Day landing or the Normandy Invasion, a pivotal turning point for the Allied Forces in WW2... Spielberg left out any presence of Blacks in the historical event unless you count Vin Diesel (???)...This is a gross misrepresentation of history...For a film which was critically acclaimed for its "realism" it wasn't so realistic after all...

1.2 million African Americans served in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War 2...Many of those brave soldiers including my grandfather, Arthur "Soldier Boy Grip" Taylor, were on Normandy Beach getting shot at along with their White comrades...Another native son of Mississippi, future Civil Rights Movement Hero Medgar Evers, was also present braving hell home and abroad "to make the world safe for democracy"...

It's like the same thing when people or "experts" said how "realistic" Mel Gibson's "The Passion Of Christ" was as if they were there to witness the Crucifixion of Jesus...Although that movie was depicted in a place where you will find dark people of color, there were hardly any people in the movie that were darker than the color of the sand...Hmmm...

Where was Spike 10 years ago??? Where was the outrage??? Maybe because he didn't have his own WW2 movie coming out then as he does now...Hmmm...

So is this just a smart pr move by Spike Lee??? Regardless, this incident raises some great points that we should all consider and never forget...Also it makes one realize that it is important to tell your own stories, if one doesn't want to be just another marginal or invisible footnote in His-Story...

For More On The Adventures Of Arthur 'Soldier Boy Grip' Taylor Please Visit http://www.soldierboygrip.blogspot.com/

Buy Soldier Boy Grip Gear Now @ http://www.cafepress.com/r2c2h2

(6/28/2008) Soldier Boy Grip Comic & Commentary Of The Week...

(c) By Ronald Herd II a.k.a. R2C2H2 Tha Artivist

Dems And Repubs Are The Same When It Comes To The Race Question...
Tha Artstorian Writes...

Welcome Ye All Faithful As Well As Ye All Fickled!!!

We are witnessing in the year of our Lord 2008 a miracle of sorts: An electable (BY WHITESTREAM STANDARDS) Black Presidential Candidate...Many of us in the colored nether regions are welcoming Barack Hussein Obama's bid as a breath of fresh cool minty air or as a Marshall Plan relief package 400 years in the making...However, some of us in Negroland (and rightfully so) are wary of why a person of color would want to represent such a racist and hypocritical country such as our United Snakes of Amerikkka...

Those who are not wiling to go along to get along due to their line of questioning have been in some cases considered and relegated to Uncle Toms, Aunt Tomasinas, Race Traitors, and Judases...In spite of such slander (undeserved in many cases) these "muckrakers for truth" have courageously (or foolishly perhaps) refused to give in to the Change Fever Epidemic sweeping the nation...They refuse to sip on the Obamade or Sizzurp which appears to have gotten the nation high and tipsy with revisionist history and false hopes...

My thing is this, why are people so pressed to think Obama should be different from any other White man that occupied and currently occupies arguably the most powerful office in the world???

Name me one President who has done something to morally correct the historical wrongs in this nation without being forced to by a segment of committed citizens...

"The White Man's President"

Frederick Douglass once said that Power Concedes Nothing Without A Demand...

It was Bro. Fred who demanded Lincoln to use newly free Black men in the Union Army...It was Bro. Fred who called Lincoln 'The White Man's President' at the President's funeral and reminded those in attendance that Lincoln was slow in coming around to ending slavery and its expansion into the frontier...

It was the Black Suffrage Sympathizer John Brown who bled the fields of Kansas and who willing sacrificed himself and his sons upon the Altar Of Armed Revolution For Black Liberation... By doing so John Brown became John The Baptist With A Gun...It was he initially not the other white man, Pres. Lincoln, who helped initiate the war between the states to bring her closer to a more perfectly dysfunctional union...It was Brown not Lincoln who must be given the credit for making the emancipation of the slaves possible...

Although Lincoln thought slavery was morally wrong, he did not feel that African Americans were the equals of White men...He even stated that he would have kept them slaves if it would have preserved the Union...

Woodrow Wilson, The Trojan Horse President

In 1912, Black folks voted in overwhelming numbers to put the Governor of New Jersey, former President of Princeton University and Favorite Son of the South Woodrow Wilson into the White House...

Even before faith based money got involved, many Blacks were already giving their votes away to the most undeserving bidders and masters of their demise I mean destiny...Well known Black leaders such as Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, William Monroe Trotter and Ida B. Wells Barnett were singing and stomping the praises of the academic and elitist Dixiecrat Wilson on Sunday mornings in Black Churches throughout the land...They even stated that Woodrow WIlson was the Presidential Messiah, the next coming of the Lincoln, the new Black President...

However, Woodrow being the fox and racist that he was, betrayed the Black vote and re segregated the federal government and city of Washington D.C. (which remained that way until the Truman & Eisenhower Presidencies)....He even endorsed the KKK movie, Birth Of A Nation...Supposedly at a special White House screening arranged by Thomas Dixon (his John Hopkins University classmate and author of The Clansman, the inspiration for the movie), Wilson showed his approval of the film by stating "It is like writing history with lightning; my only regret is that it is all so terribly true."...

In 1914, Pres. Wilson told the New York Times, "If the colored people made a mistake in voting for me, they ought to correct it."

When a delegation of blacks led by William Monroe Trotter came to the White House to correct their mistake in voting by protesting Wilson's Jim Crow tactics, Wilson told them that "segregation is not a humiliation but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen."

After debating the President face to face for 45 minutes about his stance and hypocrisy on race relations, Trotter was banned from the White House...

Be wary indeed of the folks who occupy the White House...

Make Me Do It!!!

Years later the great Black labor union and civil rights leader A. Phillip Randolph went to the White House as a dinner guest of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's to voice his grievances about the state of Black folks in America...Randolph was told by Pres. Franklin Roosevelt that what he said was absolutely true...But FDR also said that if he wanted 'change' that Randolph and his colleagues will have to 'force' or make the President do so through actions and not just words...

Well in 1941, A. Philip Randolph along with Bayard Rustin and A.J. Muste organized and planned the first proposed March on Washington to protest job discrimination in the military industries...In order to stop the march from happening, Roosevelt's hand was 'forced' to sign into law Executive Order 8802 a.k.a. The Fair Employment Act...

Once again FDR did so not because it was the morally right thing to do, but because it was the politically expedient thing to do...

So let this serve as a lesson to all of us that true change doesn't happen from the top down but rather the bottom up!!!

Be the change you want to see in the world and make it happen!!!

For More On The Adventures Of Arthur 'Soldier Boy Grip' Taylor Please Visit http://www.soldierboygrip.blogspot.com/

Buy Soldier Boy Grip Gear Now @ http://www.cafepress.com/r2c2h2

Happy Life Affirmation Day Soldier Boy Grip...Tha Artivist Salutes...

Dedicated To The Ancestor Arthur Taylor Sr. a.k.a. Soldier Boy Grip

(June 20, 1923-August 12, 2005)

Soldier Boy It Was A Blessing To Know You For 25 Of Your 82 Glorious Years...I just wanted to let you know that you left a living legacy in the hearts and memories of everyone that you knew and loved...Your legacy will continue to grow as long as there are good, decent and caring people around...You helped me to see the positive in every situation and the good in all people...You made me realize that true forgiveness and gratitude does a worthy life makes and not just a one time act...You also taught me that to be truly humble is to be a great and an enthusiastic servant to humanity...

Soldier Boy Grip you were a Master Griot spinning tales expertly balanced with hyperbole and facts about your youth and young adulthood...Providing me and others with true wisdom for the ages...A truly humble and kind man who never met a stranger...A man whose integrity pertaining to providing for his family could never be questioned...

If you were here right now you would probably be tripping about the fact that a Black man is about to become President of the United States, the same United States that told you that your first name was "Nigger", middle name "Boy" and last name "John"...That told you and your people, while you were in full uniform fighting to liberate the world from tyranny, that you all had to settle for learning how to live with the chains of inequality in your own home country...

And yet you soldiered on...

When the Doctor @ the Kennedy V.A. Hospital in Memphis told you that you were lying about the seriousness of your injuries sustained from fighting the hell twins known as Hitler and Jim Crow, you angrily and righteously replied that they took the best years of your youth away from you!!!

But you also knew that patience is a virtue with limitless rewards...And so you patiently waited for 10 years after the 2nd Great War to collect your severance pay for being 100% disabled in body yet not in spirit...

And still you soldiered on...

Your generation's sacrifices made our present and future possible Soldier Boy Grip!!!

A man who lived with flaws and imperfections, but yet was truly perfect in his intentions for caring for others...

It was a pleasure to get to truly know you the last 5 years of your amazing life...You were more than a grandfather, you were my father and best friend...Your accessibility gave me the confidence to strive and at times awkwardly manifest the most ridiculous of my schemes and dreams...Your non-judgmental nature provided me the space to be myself in a world where someone is always trying to control and manipulate the will of others...

Thank you for letting me bask in the sunlight of your brilliance and generosity...

Thank you for not letting bitterness rob you of your kind and gentle spirit...

Thanks for always being there!!!

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. salutin' you on your Life Affirmation Day Soldier Boy Grip!!!

For More On The Adventures Of Arthur 'Soldier Boy Grip' Taylor Please Visit http://www.soldierboygrip.blogspot.com/

Buy Soldier Boy Grip Gear Now @ http://www.cafepress.com/r2c2h2

A Hero For All Times

I wrote this essay about my grandfather in 2001 for an online contest...I re-edited this essay for a little more clarity, but I hope the true spirit and intent in which I wrote this paper about my honorable and beautiful grandfather a.k.a. Soldier Boy Grip comes through none the less...

WHO IS YOUR TRUE HERO???

My true hero is my grandfather, Arthur Taylor, Sr.... About two years ago my grandfather received several medals, not including the Purple Heart which he should have also gotten, that he earned while serving in the U.S. Army during World War II...It was presented to him by the young U.S. congressman (and current U.S. Senate hopeful), the generous and kind Harold Ford, Jr....This crowning achievement was the result of my mother's hardwork and dilligence in obtaining the documents necessary in securing these military honors. That day was surely one of the happiest in my grandfather's long, steady and storied life.

My grandfather was actually drafted into the army when he was around nineteen or twenty years of age...Being a Black farmboy from Mississippi he did not know too much about the world beyond the dusty country roads and large cotton plantations he and his family of brothers were used to working...The only other ways he would venture out beyond the rural world he knew was by viewing the moving pictures show or listening to the radio.

At first when his draft notice came my grand father, like many other unsuspecting and unassuming youths forced to take on a larger role and responsibility in the adult world surrounding them, was scared and worried to be taken from a place of some comfort and familiarity and put in an environment completely alien and due to the factors of war hostile and indifferent to a foreigner...However, his fears of worry and anxiety transformed into a sense of purpose and duty when he started to feel that it was his responsibility to respond to action when his country called.

Ironically, even though my grand father and millions of other young people were fighting to eradicate the systems of oppression brought on by Hitler's nazism and Mussollini's fascism there were still practiced and legalized forms(Jim Crow) of racism supported by whites in the South as well as in the Northern parts of the U.S. Despite this home atrocity my grandfather and his colleagues reasoned that if they helped win the battle of hatred and oppression overseas that the spirit of kindness, goodwill, and patriotism of their acts could transcend the barriers and obstacles of human predjudice and racism in their homeland. This is a great quality that I admire in my grandfather, the ability to to take the worst of a situation and make it work to the best of his advantage. Even though racism was very blunt and prevalent during his time in the U.S. Army he did not let the society at large's ignorance and handicaps hinder him from doing what he thought was the right thing which was to serve his country honorably with all the energy his small body yet big heart could muster and spare.
I often love talking to my grandfather about those times in his youth when he was making the world safe for democracy. He would often tell me about the good times in between the battles that he had all the while meeting and interacting with some of the most intriguing and unique people to ever graced the planet. He would often tell me of the first time he heard Lester Young , Duke Ellington, Billie Holliday among other jazz icons play at weekend dances. His face would literally beam with amusement and nostalgia when he would reenact the first time he met Louis Armstrong in the v.a. hospital or when he personally ask the Brown Bomber himself, Mr. Joe Louis, tips on how to become a better boxer...My grandfather was also a very gifted baseball infielder...He used to spend much of his free time playing baseball and even had an encounter or two with baseball great Jackie Robinson who also served during the war...A white major league pitcher by the name of Ewell Blackwell told my grandfather he was good enough to be a professional ball player...He was even going to sign with Mr. Robinson's Negro Leaugue baseball team, The Kansas City Monarchs...Unfortunately, my grandfather received serious head and back injuries during the war and was unable to fulfill this dream.
The reasons why my grandfather earned those medals were the facts that he participated in the battles that were the significant changing points in the war...He stormed the beaches of Normandy ( D Day)as well as fought it out at The Battle of the Bulge...He was even promoted to the rank of sergeant for his exploits and bravery on the field of battle...Although he lost his rank due to reasons still unclear as well as racially motivated, he still pledged allegiance to the U.S. and fought a good fight under its flag.

In conclusion I would like to say above all else my grandfather is a very compassionate man...It takes a compassionate person to be willing to risk their life to make a difference and help their fellow human being...It takes a compassionate person to see beyond the failings and faults of others and see the common humanity and good in everyone...It takes a compassionate person to pursue a goal with all his/her heart and to see it through regardless of the outcome...Most importantly it takes a compassionate person to forgive their debtors and enemies in order to come together for an universal yet unfulfilled call for freedom, liberty, and justice for all. Even though my grandfather was born into sharecropper's poverty he was still richly saturated with love to spread around...If to whom much is given much is expected then my grandfather already won all bets by being willing to be loved and give love back in return.

Anybody But Blacks...

The George Stinney Jr. Case:An Amerikkkan Travesty

The Travesty of the George Stinney Jr. Court Case:

On June 16, 1944, George Stinney Jr. became the youngest person put to death in the history of 20th Century Amerikkka:

It's hard to find any info about the Stinney case. Alot of the info presented is very against any argument that George Stinney may have been innocent because he was railroaded by the Jim Crow practices of the Amerikkkan South. For example, his white court appointed lawyer 'failed' to tell Stinney and his family that he could have filed for an appeal to delay the execution for at least one year to gather support, evidence and monies in order to defend his life in a proper way…By his lawyer failing and/or refusing to tell him of his rights his human and civil rights were violated…The only advice the family did receive was to leave town before their relative was put to death in order to avoid any mob revenge. His trial lasted a total of 3 hours from opening statement to jury verdict and he was dead less than two months later. This trial basically went undetected by both national and world news because the world was at war and the Allied Forces just invaded Normandy on June 6, 1944 ...The fact or assumption that this was just another dead Black Nigger accused of killing two defenseless beautiful and innocent White daughters of the Amerikkkan South didn't help matters either.

Here are some more places where you can find info on the George Stinney,Jr. case:

http://www.soundportraits.org/on-air/youngest_executed/
http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/young/child/1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Stinney

http://www.floridasupport.us/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48&sid=141d14bbad79b4fcd66c543bb713ce04

A Study of the history of executions in the Amerikkkan South includes the Stinney case and some others of note as well:

http://users.bestweb.net/~rg/execution/regional_studies_south.htm

GAYS IN THE MILITARY ACCORDING TO SOLDIER BOY GRIP

I once asked my grandfather did they have gays serving in the military during his time in the service…He told me in his matter of fact yet casual tone, "Yeah fella we did"…Then I asked him were they "flaming" or very opened and public concerning their sexual orientation and he told me without hesitation that a few were openly honest with their same sex preferences, but at the same time these few openly gay soldiers were not intimidated by anyone easily because they knew how to defend themselves being that they were highly skilled in the martial arts and rifle marksmen…Knowing that info first hand my grandfather said that few people in their right mind ever dared to mess with them if at all…He also said some of the gay soldiers worked in the Army cafeteria and kitchen which would have provided another incentive not to mess with them because like my mom always tell me you never want to harass the people that fix your food...The moral of the story: JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE CAN BAKE A CAKE DOESN'T MEAN IT WOULD BE A PIECE OF CAKE TO WHUP THEIR A**!!!

A 'SOULDIER' BEFORE MARTIN AND ROSA

Alabama Remembers Black Soldier's Defiance
By AMANDA THOMAS, Associated Press Writer

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Five years before Rosa Parks launched a bus boycott by refusing to give up her seat to a white man, a uniformed black soldier balked at an order to board a bus through a back door and paid with his life.

Yet the 1950 police shooting of Pfc. Thomas Edwards Brooks had largely been lost to history until it was brought up again during the events marking the 50th anniversary of the boycott and in a new book about the historic protest.

Now the case is getting the kind of attention boycott veterans say is long overdue.

"A lot of this stuff that went on on the buses will never really be known except among the black people who quite often felt there was nothing that could be done," said Nick LaTour, son of boycott organizer E.D. Nixon. "This is the kind of thing that had gone on through the years that led up to the people saying, 'This was enough.'"

Harassment of black bus riders had gone on for years before Parks' famous defiance on Dec. 1, 1955. And sitting in the back of the bus was just one of the indignities blacks faced.

Under the segregated system in the 1950s, they were forced to pay the driver at the front, then go to the rear of the vehicle to board. Brooks, a 21-year-old soldier who got on a Montgomery bus on Aug. 12, 1950, made the mistake of entering through the front door instead of the back.

According to the account by Donnie Williams and Wayne Greenhaw in their book, "The Thunder of Angels," Brooks refused to get off the bus and board again from the back. The confrontation escalated and a policeman struck him on the head with a billy club and pulled him down the aisle to the front door.

Quoting witnesses, both white and black, the authors say Brooks shook free, pushed the officer and driver aside, and bolted out the door. The officer shouted "Stop!" then shot Brooks, who stumbled, fell and died, the authors say.

E.D. Nixon, a civil rights activist who would later help organize the yearlong boycott, drove to the police department that night, demanding to know what happened. After being told that Brooks was killed by a law enforcement officer who was protecting himself in the line of duty, Nixon filed a complaint.

The official response was that the shooting was unavoidable, according to Williams and Greenhaw.

State Rep. Alvin Holmes, a veteran black political activist in Montgomery, is pushing for a statue or marker to be erected as part of the 50th anniversary, which will culminate Dec. 21, the official end of the boycott in 1956.

Authors Greenhaw and Williams agree that Brooks is particularly deserving of such an honor.

"This man gave up his life for all of us just as if he were in a war on foreign land," said Williams, who spent years researching the boycott. "He was a soldier and was willing to give up his life in a war for us. He was also a soldier in another way — a civil rights soldier — and he did die for us all."

RE-INTERPRETING HIS STORY FOR JUST US SAKE

To listen to the audio of the author Alice Kaplan's interview with NPR please click on the following link: NPR Interview






The crimes were rape and murder, and the punishments ranged from lengthy prison sentences to a date on the gallows. Many of the hangings were in public, town criers summoning villagers to gather around.

Alice Kaplan has written a book, "The Interpreter," about black and white men who did heinous things in the European theater during World War II.

It is a tale about a Jim Crow Army with strict racial mores. She seeks to show that white men who committed similar crimes received less severe punishments, especially when it came to the meting out of death sentences.

Hers is not the usual chatter about the Greatest Generation.

"Some of the reaction to the book has been, 'Why are you stirring up these bad memories?' " Kaplan says.
She answers: "Why should we refuse to remember the effects of segregation?"

It was the numbers that stunned her: Seventy American soldiers were convicted and executed in Europe between 1943 and 1946. Blacks made up 8.5 percent of the Army at the time and yet were almost 80 percent of those who swung from the gallows.

Kaplan's is not a book about heroes or gallantry, with the exception of French writer Louis Guilloux, who interpreted on behalf of the Army for French witnesses during some of the trials. Guilloux -- the interpreter of the title -- would later write a novel, "OK, Joe," about his experiences at the trials.

"I'm not arguing the innocence" of the black soldiers who were executed, Kaplan says. "I'm arguing against the system that encouraged violence and let white soldiers get off for similar crimes."
She is a Duke University historian and a Francophile. American racial history had never fascinated her until she came upon the history of the black soldiers who had been tried and executed.

At Duke, Kaplan says, her white students talked about the Greatest Generation in glowing terms. Her black students, however, shared stories of segregation and lynchings that had been passed on to them by parents and grandparents. "It really helped change my perspective on race," she says.

There are stories within stories.

In 1944, Louis Till, a black soldier stationed in Europe, raped and murdered a white woman, for which he was convicted and hanged.
In 1955, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black youth, was kidnapped in a small Mississippi town, beaten, shot in the skull, then dumped in a river -- all for allegedly whistling at a white woman.
Emmett Till was the son of Louis Till.

"There were people who wanted Europeans to believe that black men had tails between their legs and were these savages," says Clenora Hudson-Weems, a University of Missouri at Columbia professor and author of "Emmett Till: The Sacrificial Lamb of the Civil Rights Movement."

The Shakespearean narrative of the Till family isn't widely known now, but it was not always so, says Hudson-Weems. "During the time of the Emmett Till trial, the Klan brought up the father -- and what happened to him overseas -- and tried to make the claim that young Emmett was just a rapist like his father."

Kaplan says she didn't originally set out to probe the issues of race in the Army.
Some years back, a friend had given her a copy of Guilloux's novel. Kaplan, who also teaches Romance studies and is fluent in French, became so enamored of the book that she set about translating it. (It was published here in 2003.)
She also wondered how much of Guilloux's tale was fact masquerading as fiction. She wanted to track down the real cases.

Despite name changes, Kaplan tracked down two narratives that coincided with Guilloux's text: the story of James Hendricks, a black man hanged for shooting a white farmer and sexually assaulting his daughter, and that of George Whittington, a white officer who shot and killed a French Resistance fighter outside a bar and was acquitted.

Two stories and two lives to tell the entire saga of race and crime in World War II. "I guess they call it micro-history," Kaplan says, "where you go to a moment and then move out into the larger picture."
Guilloux himself becomes an endearing figure in Kaplan's book. He was a struggling writer who nearly starved to death during the Nazi occupation, and then found himself in the employ of the U.S. Army. "He loved the officers he worked with, yet he was appalled by apartheid," Kaplan says. "He couldn't believe that a liberating Army was working along the lines of segregation."

Kaplan believes Guilloux's outsider status gave him added insight. "He asked naive questions that only an outsider can ask: 'Is this a court only for black men?' "
Kaplan believes the Army -- grappling with segregation while liberating Europe -- did not wish to have Europeans question its commitment to justice concerning crimes against Europeans. "The hangings were public relations events," says Kaplan. "They were showing the civilians that the U.S. Army meant business."

"We mirrored society, and society was segregated. There were certain elements of racism and that carried over into the military," says Thomas McShane, director of national security legal studies at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa.
"African Americans were more apt to receive death sentences than whites," McShane says. He blames part of the inequities on the fact that the military never had enough lawyers on hand to handle courts-martial.

Elizabeth Hillman, a military historian who has taught at the Air Force Academy and now teaches at Rutgers University, says the decision-making process when it came to trying cases in World War II was often different for black and white soldiers. "A prosecutor gets to decide which cases are to be prosecuted. And during wartime that discretion is very broad." She adds: "We can't pretend that race wasn't a part of the decision-making process when it was decided what cases were to be prosecuted and which ones weren't."

In Hillman's estimation, Kaplan's book "forces us to reckon with racism -- and the poor quality of justice soldiers experienced during World War II."
One of Kaplan's subjects, Hendricks, was born in North Carolina in 1923 and spent some of his youth in the Washington area. On an August night in 1944, Hendricks, who had been drinking, began banging on the door of Victor Bignon and his family, who lived in the French countryside. The family refused to open the door. Hendricks raised his rifle and fired one shot and then another. The second round killed Bignon. His family fled to a nearby farmhouse, where the Bignon daughter, Noemie, fought off a sexual assault by Hendricks. U.S. military personnel arrested him a short while later.

Her second figure of study, Whittington, a decorated white Army captain, met Francis Morand at a bar in western France. Drinks and chatter led to some curiosity as to why Morand spoke in such a heavy German accent. Whittington imagined him a German spy. Morand, in fact, was a fighter for the French Resistance. Later that night, outside the bar -- there were no eyewitnesses -- Whittington shot Morand dead.

"The public relations issue with French allies," writes Kaplan, "in the Whittington affair was potentially even thornier than in the Hendricks case. The black quartermaster private had killed a respected local farmer, but Whittington had killed a Special Air Service paratrooper, the creme of the Resistance, in a sector of Brittany where the Resistance was sacred."

But through shrewd legal maneuvering and using his respected credentials -- "privilege," says Kaplan -- Whittington was acquitted.

"How do you draw a line between an act of war and an act of murder?" says Kaplan. "What I was trying to do in juxtaposing these two cases is show how powerful a thing privilege can be: officer privilege, white privilege." She goes on: "This isn't a book about innocent victims. It's more complex than that. It's the kind of story people deal with when they're talking about the disproportionate death sentences between blacks and whites."

Legacy vs. Perception

Here's a beautiful message from a dear friend of mine, A.J., concerning my grandfather and his passing...Although she did not know my grandfather, she knew his spirit!!!:-) PLEASE LET'S REMEMBER TO ALWAYS TREAT EACH OTHER WITH REVERANCE AND RESPECT REGARDLESS THE SEASON!!!

Sounds like I missed out by not knowing Arthur Taylor.
By your description, he is one of those people that
inspires me to continue living my life basically the
way I am living it right now. When I doubt myself, I
remember people like that and I know that it is ok not
to have all the answers. Lately, I feel like my
responses to other people's or even my own questions
are all " I don't know yet." Sometimes other's or
society's responses don't make me feel very good- or I
allow them to affect me negatively. It is definitely
scarey to not know. However, I have also seen the
people that claim to know all the answers for
themselves and others from the littlest thing to the
biggest thing and it really makes me not want to be
like them!

I would much prefer that your grandfather was
president, along with probably 75% of the country if
they knew him. I say 75 because that covers at least
the 1/2 that didn't vote for Bush and then the 25
covers the others that if they knew him, might be
persuaded to risk voting for someone other than the
typical politician. I mean, if it always has to be an
old man in office, wouldn't it be nice to have someone
who has gained wisdom rather than prejudice and a
narrow mind from their life experience? There are
plenty of people that would be better than Bush, but I
guess I'm saying that with more people like your
grandfather in positions of power politically or
economically or whatever you want to call it, it seems
like it could spread a wave of positivity throughout
the world, not just the U.S. or washington. Obviously,
the president doesn't run the country, but in general-
it would just be great to have a total shift in values
and leadership to see on the news. The kind of stuff
that you were talking about as qualities of your
grandfather and the way he saw things makes me feel
like why does it have to be so hard for people to
accept simple concepts on a national level- like just
seeing the good and positive potential in all people-
or shit you learn in kindergarten like don't start a
new mess of toys till you clean up the one you started
already- just simple simple stuff that people let
things like greed and self-righteousness or whatever
other things people do to complicate things into our
country and world today. I know that is just the way
the world is and I don't have any hopes for changing
it on a large scale- there is always going to be
corrupt- or at least, what I think of as corrupt and
unethical people- but sometimes it is just nice to
think of things being a different way.

ON MEETING GEN. DAVIS : “I AIN’T COLORED LIKE THE REST OF YOU FELLAS, I AM A DIFFERENT TYPE.”

MY GRANDFATHER ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS RECALLED TO ME THE STORY OF HOW HE GOT TO MEET GEN. BENJAMIN DAVIS, SR., THE FIRST BLACK GENERAL IN U.S. MILITARY HISTORY…IN 1940, HE WAS APPOINTED BRIGADIER GENERAL OF THE U.S. ARMY BY U.S. PRES. FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT…

THE APPOINTMENT WAS CONSIDERED AN UNPOPULAR MOVE BY MANY IN THE U.S. AND CREATED A LOT OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL PROTEST AND CONTROVERSY FOR MANY WHITE AMERICANS…

HOWEVER TO MANY BLACK AMERICANS LIKE MY U.S. SOUTHERN BORNED AND RAISED GRANDFATHER , THEY SAW GEN. DAVIS AS A SOURCE OF PRIDE AND INSPIRATION AND A MIRACLE WHO WAS A BEAUTIFULLY FORMED ROSE THAT GREW OUT OF THE SEEMINGLY IMPENETRABLE CONCRETE OF UNITED STATES A.K.A. JIM CROW RACISM , INEQUALITY AND SEGREGATION…GEN. DAVIS WAS COLIN POWELL BEFORE THERE WAS A GEN. POWELL!!! 

BEFORE GEN. DAVIS WAS MADE A GENERAL HE OVERSAW THE NEW YORK 15TH NATIONAL GUARD UNIT IN HARLEM DURING THE 1930S…THE NEW YORK 15TH NATIONAL GUARD UNIT BY THAT TIME WAS KNOWN BY ITS LEGENDARY NICKNAME ‘THE HARLEM HELLFIGHTERS’, A NAME GIVEN TO THE ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF THE UNIT BY THE FRENCH BECAUSE THEY SERVED BRAVELY, PROUDLY AND FOUGHT FEROCIOUSLY IN WORLD WAR ONE , NEVER LOSING AN INCH OF GROUND OR FELLOW SOLDIER TO ENEMY CAPTURE…

A NATIVE OF WASHINGTON. D.C. , GEN. DAVIS WAS A CAREER SOLDIER’S SOLDIER SERVING HIS COUNTRY HONORABLY AND WITH DISTINCTION FOR SEVERAL DECADES AT HOME AND ABROAD…

GEN. DAVIS HAD A SON NAMED BENJAMIN DAVIS, JR. AND LIKE HIS NAMESAKE HE WAS AN EXCEPTION TO THE RULE AS WELL…BENJAMIN DAVIS, JR. WAS JUST THE FOURTH BLACK GRADUATE OF WEST POINT AND THE FIRST BLACK GRADUATE OF THE 20TH CENTURY…HE WENT ON TO COMMAND THE ELITE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, A LEGENDARY ALL BLACK AIRPLANE FIGHTER/ ESCORT SQUADRON WHICH NEVER LOST A BOMBER PLANE TO ENEMY FIRE DURING WORLD WAR TWO…

FOLLOWING IN HIS FATHER’S ENORMOUS FOOTSTEPS, DAVIS, JR. BECAME GENERAL DAVIS,JR., THE SECOND BLACK GENERAL IN U.S. MILITARY HISTORY AND THE FIRST BLACK GENERAL IN U.S. AIR FORCE MILITARY HISTORY…I GUESS GREATNESS MUST HAVE BEEN IN THE GENES!!!

ONE DAY, GEN. DAVIS, SR. CAME TO A BASE MY GRANDFATHER WAS STATIONED AT TO REVIEW THE TROOPS…MY GRANDFATHER AND OTHERS LIKE HIM MUST HAVE GOTTEN A THRILL OUTTA OF SEEING WHITE FOLKS, ESPECIALLY RACIST ONES, SALUTE A COLORED OR BLACK MAN BECAUSE HE WAS CONSIDERED THEIR SUPERIOR AND THEREFORE THEY WERE REQUIRED BY MILITARY LAW TO TREAT HIM AS SUCH AND EVEN CALL HIM ‘SIR’…YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS WAS AMAZING CONSIDERING THE FACT THAT IT WAS NORMAL AND ACCEPTED FOR A BLACK MAN TO BE CALLED ‘A BOY’ IN AMERICAN SOCIETY AT THAT TIME REGARDLESS OF HIS AGE OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS!!!

WHEN HE MADE HIS WAY TO THE BLACK TROOPS HE TOLD THEM WITHOUT HESITATION THAT HE WASN’T COLORED LIKE THEM AND THAT HE WAS A DIFFERENT TYPE OF COLORED…NO ONE SAID A WORD WHEN HE WAS INSPECTING THEM, BUT WHEN HE LEFT MANY OF THE BLACK SOLDIERS THAT WERE PRESENT DURING HIS TALK WERE VISIBLY UPSET AND ANGRY THAT HE WOULD SAY WHAT THEY CONSIDERED TO BE A VERY DETRIMENTAL AND HURTFUL REMARK…A FEW WERE EVEN CALLING GEN. DAVIS A SELL-OUT AND A UNCLE TOM…

HOWEVER, SOME OF THE SOLDIERS WHO WERE A LITTLE BIT QUICKER ON THEIR FEET IN TERMS OF WIT REASONED WITH THE OTHERS THAT MAYBE WHAT THE GENERAL MEANT WAS THAT HE WAS THE ONLY COLORED OR BLACK GENERAL IN THE U.S. ARMED FORCES WHICH IN TURN MADE HIM A DIFFERENT TYPE OF COLORED MAN, MEANING ONE WHO HAD GREATER MILITARY RANK AND AUTHORITY…MANY, NOT ALL, BLACK SOLDIERS ACCEPTED THIS INTERPRETATION OF THE COMMENT AND ONCE AGAIN PUT GEN. DAVIS BACK ON HIS HERO WORSHIP PEDAL…

LESSON: LOOK BEYOND THE WORDS, TRY TO READ WHAT WASN’T SAID INSTEAD OF WHAT WAS SAID!!!

Black Tails: War, Sex And Race

It has been a well known ( sometimes not acknowledged) fact that during both World Wars I and II that the U.S. government went out of their way to ensure that interracial dating and courting would not occur between Black American soldiers and White European women. The U.S. military in collaboration with some European governments issued propaganda to spread rumors to suggest that Black American male soldiers were half human and half ape/monkey...They even went so far as to suggest that these Black American soldiers possessed monkey tails under their uniforms!!! By promoting these vicious and unfounded lies the guilty parties thought that they would scare White European women from seeking these "savages"...But like the old saying goes curiosity is what killed the cat and in this case that is what literally happened!!! Some Black soldiers even stayed behind in Europe after both wars to live with these White European women, eventually getting married and/or creating and/or raising children!!! While the allied forces were occupying France, my grandfather even met a Black American man from St. Louis who lived in France ever since he came over as a soldier during World War I...He had a beautiful White French woman as his wife and several beautiful children and they all lived in a beautifully furnished home in the heart of Paris!!! THE LESSON: NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF JUNGLE FEVER!!!

A PROCLAMATION FOR SOLDIER BOY GRIP BY U.S. CONGRESSMAN HAROLD FORD, JR.

A PROCLAMATION FOR SOLDIER BOY GRIP BY U.S. CONGRESSMAN HAROLD FORD, JR.


A Proclamation that
Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. gave in honor of my
grandfather's service in the military.


Congressman Ford was instrumental in
getting some of my grandfather's medals from World War II and he
personally presented them to him. The Honorable U.S. Rep. Harold Ford, Jr.
is a bright and shining star and I really believe
that his future name is: United States Senator, Harold
Ford, Jr.!!!


The Proclamation reads as follows:



United States House of Representatives


PROCLAMATION

BY

Congressman Harold Ford, Jr.

Resolution

WHEREAS, it is with deepest sympathy that I join with
the citizens of the Memphis and Mid-South region in
paying final tribute to Mr. Arthur Taylor, Sr. as he
concludes this earthly sojourn to take up residence in
that great kingdom of peace, and

WHEREAS, though we are deeply saddened by the
departure of this spirited soul, we must find the
strength to celebrate the life and legacy of Mr.
Arthur Taylor, Sr., whose memory shall radiate for
years to come within our hearts and minds, and

WHEREAS, Arthur Taylor, Sr. was committed throughout
the scope of community life. He honorably served in
World War II as a member of the 3rd Army's legendary
"Red Ball Express" which supplied Allied Forces with
ammunition, food and oil while moving through enemy
fire in post D-Day Europe. Through his service, he
exemplified the very best of the human spirit and
helped to encourage many to greater heights of service
and responsibility, and

WHEREAS, our community has gained much through the
dedication of Mr. Arthur Taylor, Sr. He embodied
integrity, compassion, and honesty; creating a legacy
for his family and all whose lives he touched.

NOW, BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED, that I, HAROLD FORD,
JR., Member of Congress, most Humbly submit that this
resolution be provided to the family of the deceased
on this 19th day of August, 2005, having set my hand
and caused the great seal of the Congress of the
United States to become affixed here in Memphis,
Tennessee.



Harold Ford, Jr.
Member of Congress

On Meeting The Prezident @ Club Alabam in La La Land

In his youth my grandfather was an avid lover of music…He preferred blues and jazz…He was also very knowledgeable about the history of the music as well…Engaging my grandfather in conversations about jazz and blues music was like taking a crash course in jazz/ blues history 101…NOT ONLY DID HE KNOW ABOUT THE HISTORY, BUT HE EXPERIENCED A LOT OF THE HISTORY FIRST HAND AS WELL…When my grandfather was stationed at Camp Young out in the southern California desert (the same Camp Young where Gen. Patton trained his 3rd Army tank battalion), he and his comrades would often commute to Los Angeles to have a good time…You could often find them as well as countless other Black folks on legendary Central Avenue Street in the heart of Black Los Angeles…The 1940s was the time that Be Bop not Hip Hop was the youth culture of the day…Young men instead of wearing baggy jeans, corn rolls, bandannas, baseball caps, throwback jerseys and t-shirts would wear baggy suits known as zoot suits with two toned shoes , conked hair and sometimes topped off with flamboyant hats with equally distinguished feather…Instead of dogs, men were called ‘cats’ and to be a hep cat was to be a cool and suave individual, an innovative trendsetter…Central Ave was a jazz mecca and hotbed, it was the west coast version of 52nd Street in New York…The only major difference between the two was that the businesses thriving on Central Ave were owned and operated by financially successful Black entreprenuers unlike The Street (52nd Street) which was run and operated by White business interests including La Cosa Nostra a.k.a. the American Mafia…Some successful businesses on Central Ave included the Dunbar Hotel, one of the earliest and most successful Black owned and operated hotels in the country; Jack’s Basket Room (Jack’s Chicken Basket) and The Showboat, late night restaurant and jazz venues owned and operated by the incomparable Jack Johnson, the first Black Heavweight Boxing Champion; and Lincoln Theater which was called ‘The West Coast Apollo’ after the famous Harlem Theater in New York, it was at one time the largest venue for Black entertainment in the west and was one of the first movie theaters for African Americans in the country which also featured some of the best acts in jazz including Duke Ellington to Charlie Parker… Authentic jazz first appeared in the Los Angeles area in the early nineteen teens and 20s when legendary New Orleans musicians such as King Freddie Keppard, Kid Ory and Jelly Roll Morton came out to the west coast to capitalize off the commercial novelty of jazz music in that particular part of the country…The first stop for many of these jazz legends was the section of Black Los Angeles which eventually became known as Central Ave…Many movie stars such as Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Mary Pickford, and Gloria Swanson frequented the night spots of Black Los Angeles to hear ‘the real hot jazz’…Central Ave was definitely sizzling…By the 1940s The Club Alabam was not only one of the most famous jazz/dance clubs on Central Avenue, but in the entire United States!!! All the top jazz acts from Art Tatum to the Count Basie Band would perform at this fabled venue on a regular basis…My grandfather told me on his first visit to Club Alabam that he planned to see the very popular Nat King Cole Trio…However, upon his arrival and to his displeasure the club announced that the Nat King Cole Trio would not be performing tonight and that Lester ‘Prez’ Young, a tenor saxophonist and Count Basie Band Alum, will be performing in their place…My grandfather wondered who in the hell was this Lester Young cat…Although both were native sons of Mississippi ( my grandfather was born in Como and Lester was born in Woodville) and my grandfather liked Count Basie’s music, he never heard of this Lester cat before…Lester Young was one of the greatest jazz musicians that ever lived period…His unorthodox light, airy, floating tender tenor sound earned him many critics, enemies, admirers and imitators, including among them the great Charlie ‘Yardbird’ Parker who basically taught himself how to play saxophone by listening to and memorizing Lester Young’s records and seeing him perform with the Basie Band at such venues as the Reno Club in Parker’s hometown of Kansas City…From the get go Lester Young was always an individualist….He wore his trademark pork pie hats and his trench coat’s length went to his ankles; The Prez held his saxophone at an extremely high and unorthodox angle when he played; His vocubalury was also very original and personalized…He referred to everyone, including men, as ‘ladies’, he called White people ‘grays’ and when he encountered bigoted and racist people he would say a phrase like ,"I feel a draft"…The eccentric jazzman also walked sideways in small steps and was a prolific chronic weed smoker as evidenced by his sleepingly hypnotic beautiful green eyes …He earned the nickname ‘Prez’ from ‘Lady Day’ herself the great Billie Holliday…Ironically, it was Lester who gave Billie the name ‘Lady Day’ and she named him ‘Prez’ because Lester was her favorite saxophonist and she considered him to be the best or "President of the tenor saxophonists"….However his election to that title for most of his career has been in debate by many in the jazz world…For example, when he replaced saxophone legend Coleman Hawkins (a favorite of my grandfather’s), whose sound was more robust and "macho" sounding, in the Fletcher Henderson Band, many of the band members chastised and criticized Lester for having such, at that time in the early 30s, an ‘un-tenor’ sound…Many preferred Chu Berry, another exceptional tenor who was closer to Hawkins in sound…Even Fletcher’s wife took Lester down to her basement to listen to Coleman Hawkins’ records to get him to sound like "The Bean" (Hawkins), but to no avail…Lester confidently and defiantly stated that "he (Hawkins) sounds fine, but it ain’t me"… So Fletcher Henderson, who saw Lester’s potential greatness, let the future Prez go on his way, but told everyone in the band that Lester could easily outplay every body and that the young brilliant saxophonist was going to be a great one…Lester fulfilled the prophecy…But fast forward to my grandfather, who didn’t or probably didn’t cared to know about Lester’s professional struggles…All he wanted to hear was great dance music, preferably of the Nat King Cole variety…My grandfather was still suspect and suspicious of Lester’s credentials until he heard the first verse of "Lester Leaps In"…Ever since that time my grandfather was a fan of the Prez, probably the only president of anything that he actually truly liked!!!

To learn more about historic Central Ave. please visit the following link:

Central Avenue

The Holocaust and Black Germans

My grandfather had a remarkable memory...He could recall things with such vividness and clarity that it seemed that the events happened just yesterday when in actuality they were 60 plus years ago yesterday!!! The comic panels above actually describes a true story concerning my grandfather's first encounters with the German concentration camps known in many circles as the Nazi Death Camps...At first my grandfather expressed to me that when he and his colleagues first heard rumors about these death camps that were supposedly efficient and prolific in their extermination of human life, they really didn't think anything about them...They thought of the death camps more as rumors and exaggerations than solid fact...When he encountered the camps for the first time he learned that fact can profoundly be more detrimental, sinister and tragic than fiction...My grandfather saw the lowest depths of inhumanity, human suffering and misery all in his first glaze upon a concentration camp...It was basically hell on earth...He recalled the emaciated dead, dying and the living dead, the people who were so traumatized and shell shocked by their experiences that their pscyhe basically transformed their entire existence into a zombie like state and trance...He told me of the human ovens, the dead stacked up like piles of wood, the gas shower stalls, all the things that people normally talk about when they talk about the Holocaust...He and several of his colleagues were assigned to find two S.S. officers who disgusted themselves as Holocaust victims and were hiding in one of the concentration camps...My grandfather relayed to me the fact that he felt that the assignment was relatively easy considering that one, the real Holocaust victims were more than eager in pointing out the culprits (for obvious reasons) and two, the S.S. officers look too healthy and well fed meaning that they sorely stood out among the rail thin malnourished souls who they themselves ill-fed and mistreated...The only abuse the S.S. officers suffered was the consumption of three square meals a day.

Many people often just associate the Holocaust with the genocide of Europe's Jews...Although the Nazis killed an estimated 6 million Jews, the Nazis also killed an estimated 6 million more people of different nationalities and creeds including homosexuals,Gypsies, mentally and physically handicapped individuals, Jehovah witnesses, and yes Black Germans!!! The following is a review of a documentary about Black Germany's experiences in the Holocaust and WW2...The review offers some excellent points on the subject and I am sure that the documentary is even more insightful.The ‘Black’ Experience in the Holocaust



http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/othersrv/isar

1. ... the horrific experiences of Black people in Nazi Germany are virtually ignored. These experiences are brought to light in a documentary film entitled Hitler's Forgotten Victims (Afro-Wisdom Productions). The film uses interviews with survivors and their families as well as archival material to document the Black German Holocaust experience; it also explores the history of German racism, suggests links between German colonialism and Nazi policy, and examines the treatment of Black prisoners-of-war.

2. Hitler's Forgotten Victims reveals that sterilization programs for Blacks had been instigated by Germany's most senior Nazi geneticist, Doctor Eugen Fischer ...

3. This film shows that Nazi obsession with racial purity and eugenics was provoked and intensified in 1918, following Germany's defeat in the First World War. ...

4. Hitler's Forgotten Victims shows that ... 400 mixed-race children were forcibly sterilized in the Rhineland area alone by the end of 1937, while 400 others just disappeared into Hitler's concentration camps.

6. While many Blacks may have considered themselves lucky to escape Nazi persecution, even via forced sterilization, Hitler's Forgotten Victims recalls that early on, Hitler had announced plans for more complete eradication of unwanted populations. In a speech in Bresau in 1932, for instance, he had ordered all Africans, Jews, and other non-Aryans to leave Germany or go into concentration camps. According to this documentary, however, the majority of Blacks in Germany could not heed Hitler's warning as they were German citizens with German passports and had no where else to go. A fair number escaped to France, but many attempted to return to the former German colonies that had been taken over by the League of Nations in 1920. The British colonial authorities then administering the newly named South-West Africa, however, would not allow Black Germans refugee status on the grounds that they had fought for Germany in the First World War.

7. My only criticism of Hitler's Forgotten Victims is that it does not give enough insight into the lives of Black Germans who resisted Nazi Germany, such as Black activist Lari Gilges, who founded the Northwest Rann--an organisation of entertainers that fought the Nazis in his home town of Dusseldorf--and who was murdered by the SS in 1933, the year Hitler came to power. The film does, however, attend to the way various parts of the entertainment industry, such as film studios and touring ethnic shows like the Hillerkus Afrikaschau circuses, provided at least temporary refuges from Nazi persecution.

8. Interestingly, by 1940 these operations were taken over by the SS, who considered them racially unacceptable and converted them to serve their own racist propaganda purposes. For instance, Propaganda minister Josef Goebbels realized that in order to spread the Nazi Gospel of white Aryan supremacy, he needed to exploit the most popular entertainment medium of the time--German feature films. Propaganda pictures such as Kongo Express, Quax in Africa, and Auntie Wanda from Uganda were made to present Germany as an enlightened, benevolent colonial power. Thus, even under Nazi control, the film industry provided a certain amount of protection for Black Germans. As Black actor Werner Egoimue explains, "We had an agent then, who had all the addresses of Black people in Berlin. The Reich's Chamber of Commerce was in touch with him, and when they were casting a film, it was fun--inside the studio. Outside the door you could be arrested. But inside you were as safe as in a bank."

9. Hitler's Forgotten Victims also presents the experience of Black POWs. The Nazis segregated Black prisoners from the rest of the camp population for extra special treatment of the fatal kind. Often, in what was a breach of the Geneva Convention, Black prisoners were denied food and assigned highly dangerous jobs. Footage never aired before shows Black soldiers and civilians scavenging for scraps of food in garbage heaps at the Hemer POW camp near Dortmund in Northwest Germany. No one knows how many Black people died in the camps at the hands of the SS guards, producer Moise Shewa says, because Jews were demarcated as Jews, but Black people were demarcated by nationality.

10. Although there does not seem to be a huge amount of documented evidence concerning the Black experience in German concentration camps, the film does provide compelling glimpses of how the Nazis treated their Black victims. It presents visual testimony, such as the art of Black American painter Joseph Nassy, who was working as a sound engineer in Brussels before his arrest by the Gestapo, which portrays the harsh realities of concentration camp life. It also presents oral testimony, such as that from Johnny William. Born to an African mother and a white French father, William was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to the Neugengamme concentration camp near Hamburg. "There were 5 or 6 of us," he explains. "As soon as we arrived at Neugengamme, we were immediately separated from the white deportees by the SS. They considered us to be sub-human beings like animals, chimpanzees."

11. Hitler's Forgotten Victims also recalls the impact made by Black inmates on other inmates. A case in point is Johnny Voste, the Belgian Resistance fighter who was arrested in 1942 for sabotage in the tow of Malignes, near Antwerp, and was deported to Dachau. The film's interview with Wily Sel reveals that "Johnny got the possibility to organise boxes of vitamins and gave them to all his friends and buddies he had there. The survivors will say he saved our lives at that moment because it is true. The main technique to survive in the concentration camps was to like to live, not to die, to say 'No, you can't have my life: I will fight for it.'"

12. Without doubt, Hitler's Forgotten Victims is a documentary that should not be forgotten. It makes clear that the 'special treatment' of Blacks should be acknowledged as an important part of the Holocaust. Sadly, the Nazi victimization of Blacks has remained unacknowledged by every German government since 1939. One simple reason for this convenient amnesia is that--...--there is relatively little shocking celluloid evidence showing specifically how Blacks were with. The film corrects this historical gap by relying mainly on survivor and family narratives.

13. The 'lack' of evidence heretofore may explain why German authorities have consistently refused to meet compensation claims launched by Black survivors, their relatives, and victim's families. Further, most German Black people were stripped of their nationality to the Nazis, making it extremely difficult for them to claim reparations as citizens of the German state. As German MP Bernd Reuter stated, "After the war it was difficult to come up with proof that one was stateless but had been German." One hopes this film will help force the German Government to acknowledge the Black experience at the hands of the Nazis and to compensate Black Germans. One also hopes that the distribution and viewing of this film will make people everywhere realize the hydra-headed nature of the Nazi racist imaginary and its atrocious practices.
> >
UK Title: Hitler's Forgotten Victims. Screened on England's Channel Four, October 2, 1997.
USA Title: Black Survivors of the Holocaust. To be screened on the Family Channel
As a courtesy, when you cross-post or forward, we'd appreciate it if you mention that you received the info via the BRC-NEWS list. Thank you.]

http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/othersrv/isar

Baseball And The Law

The following is my response to U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander’s refusal to sign the anti-lynching resolution and his reasons…Please feel free to read his statement by clicking on the following link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/23/AR2005062300492.html



I agree with Lamar to a degree, but isn't he one of the people that helped start the movement of the privatization of the prison industry in the United States and guess who makes up more than a adequate percentage of the prison population...If he and others really want to help Black folks then there a few significant things that can be done...First of all they need to change these lopsided drug and gun possession laws that got so many of our men and women in jail...This isn't just a Republican thing either...For example because of the crack/coke policy that he wholeheartedly supported the Black President Bill Clinton is responsible for having more Black people behind bars during his tenure as Pres. than any other president in history. Many people do not know that in post-Civil War America many Black men were framed for crimes to help build this country's railroad system (think John Henry who was a actual Black man from New Jersey), that Black dock workers used to be given cocaine for free and legally by White business interests that controlled the country's seaports and waterdocks so that they could work longer and faster without taking any breaks...This was common practice less than 100 years ago. Finally reparations (including financial) is needed for Black Americans… It is sad to me that people, including Black folks laugh at this but we actually did the job that nobody, including Mexicans wanted to do which is our ancestors built this mighty Superpower we call the U.S. for "free"...The Jews and Japanese got their money for crimes committed against them during WW2, and it was common practice for the U.S. government to pay foreign countries such as Italy, Mexico and China financial compensation for immigrants lynched in the U.S… Many people do not understand the psychological, economical and sociological damages done by lynching...Many Blacks were not lynched for 'raping' white women, but for owning successful businesses, many acres of fertile and valuable land, or exercising their rights as U.S. citizens...In other words they were killed because they dared to be successful, prosperous and treated like citizens in a republic that they helped build from the ground up. In reality it is sad that the two Mississippi Senators would not let their voices be heard...After all Mississippi led the nation in lynching from the late 1870s well into the 20th Century...Many people do not know that Mississippi has the largest number of Black elected political officials in the nation yet 75% of the state's prison population is Black...Who said lynching is dead??? My thoughts.

R2C2H2

p.s.

If you want to learn about true anti-lynching heroes please read something by or about the great Ida B. Wells-Barnett, the late legendary Walter White or the former late U.S. Rep.George White...You should also read Soledad Brother and Blood In My Eye by the late great George Jackson which deals with the lynching of Black souls in the prison industry and what can be done to combat the process...One more book is Carnival of Fury by the late William Ivy Hair which deals with the New Orleans Race Riot of 1900 and the real-life folk hero Robert Charles…If you need to find your respective senators’ contact info please visit http://www.senate.gov/ …The following are the 20 U.S. Senators who did not sign the anti-lynching resolution the first time around:

19 Republicans and 1 Democrat

1.) Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

2.) Robert Bennett (R-UT)

3.) Christopher Bond (R-MO)

4.)Jim Bunning (R-KY)

5.)Conrad Burns (R-MT)

6.)Saxby Chambliss (R-GA

7.)Thad Cochran (R-MS)

8.)Kent Conrad (D-ND)

9.)John Cornyn (R-TX)

10.)Michael Crapo (R-ID)

11.)Michael Enzi (R-WY)

12.)Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

13.)Judd Gregg (R-NH)

14.)Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

15.)Trent Lott (R-MS)

16.)Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

17.)Richard Shelby (R-AL)

18.)John Sununu (R-NH)

19.)Craig Thomas (R-WY)

20.)George Voinovich (R-OH)

Baseball, The Babe and Race

My Grandfather (Arthur 'Soldier Boy Grip' Taylor) was an avid baseball fan...In his younger days he was also an exceptional baseball player...My grandfather was a defensive specialist who played left field, but who also played every position in the infield abundantly well...He possessed large hands with long fingers and strong wrists...He could hit for average as well as power on occasion...During World War 2 while stationed in Georgia, my grandfather played for an all African American baseball team known as the Black Crackers of northern Georgia...They mostly played other Black baseball teams from Georgia and other southern states including Tennessee, Alabama and South Carolina...I am not sure if they were also the legendary Black baseball team known as the Atlanta Black Crackers...Ironically both teams had similar histories being that both teams weren't officially part of the historical Negro Leagues as we know them today...On occasion these all Black teams would play all-White teams composed of army soldiers from the army base that my grandfather was also stationed at...Throughout my grandfather's tenure as a soldier the army would put together all-Black teams and all-White teams to play against each other...My grandfather said that the Black teams would win way more than their share of these games leaving the White ball players frustrated and disgusted...One of these soldier ballplayers, E.B. Blackwell, was an exceptional White Major League baseball pitcher who had a stellar career playng with such teams as the New York Yankees and Cincinnatti Reds respectively. He suggested that my grandfather try out for the major leagues being that the Brooklyn Dodgers just signed Jackie Robinson (who also was a U.S. army officer) to play in the all-White major leagues...E.B. thought that my grandfather was skilled and talented enough to make an impact on any team for the better...A scout for the Negro Leagues' Kansas City Monarchs (Jackie Robinson's old team) wholeheartedly agreed with Blackwell's judgement and he offered my grandfather a tryout with the Monarchs as soon as the war was over...Unfortunately my grandfather was 100% disabled from his service so his dreams of playing baseball for a living died on the battlefield, but not his passion for the game...My grandfather followed baseball religiously for the rest of his life and was a true fan of Negro League baseball in particular his eventual hometown team, the Memphis Red Sox...My grandfather's favorite baseball player, from the Negro Leagues, was the legendary 2nd baseman Piper Davis, possibly one of the if not the greatest second baseman to ever play the game...He also got a chance to see the great Willie Mays when he was a youngster playing with the Birmingham Barons and Roy Campanella who eventually became a brilliant and phenomenal hitter and catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers during the 1950s.

Soldier Boy On Race Relations Courtesy Of Menelik The Roach

SOLDIER BOY GRIP ON DISCIPLINE

The following are samples of my comic strip,"The Adventures of Soldier" Boy Grip...The comic strip is based on and inspired by the life of my maternal grandfather, Arthur 'Soldier Boy Grip'Taylor who served during World War 2 as a member of the legendary Red Ball Express, a unit of mostly African American Army truck drivers that delivered supplies including food, oil and ammunition while dodging sniper bullets and enemy bombs to the rapidly advancing Allied forces in Europe post D Day led by General Patton and the 3rd Army...The strip is a combination of a number of sources including my grandfather's own brilliant photographic recollections of serving in the Army as well as documentaries and books about the war...I also found inspiration in pop culture sources such as the play and movie A Soldier's Story,the movie The Dirty Dozen,the comics Boondocks and Beetle Bailey,Langston Hughes' Jesse B. Semple short stories, and the t.v. shows M*A*S*H,Sanford and Son, Hogan's Heroes among others...The purpose of my comic strip is to shine light on racial relations at that time (the 40s), to show that some 'band of brothers' were not always welcomed by their country as heroes let alone citizens...Another reason I created the comic strip was to pay tribute to the many Black men and women (including my beautiful grandfather),who did their jobs efficiently and honorably regardless of the societal mess they had to endure...For example, although my grandfather was 100% disabled from the war, he did not began to receive his veterans' pay until 1955,10 years after the war ended!!! He also did not receive all his medals as well, but my mom fought tirelessly eventually contacting the offices of our U.S. congressman (Rep. Harold Ford, Jr.) who helped to get several of his medals which he presented to my overjoyed grandfather in 1998...I also wanted to make people aware of certain historical Black figures who figured prominently during that time period, but some nevertheless are not well known by our younger generation...People such as Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson,Dr. Charles Drew, George Stinney Jr.,Gen.Benjamin Davis Sr.,Gen. Benjamin Davis Jr.,Mary McLeod Bethune,A. Phillip Randolph,the Scottsboro Boys,war hero Dorie Miller, Marian Anderson,Paul Robeson,and musician Lester'PREZ' Young among other notables will be featured from time to time...Hopefully through this effort people will get inspired to research history and learn more about the 1.2 million Black men and women that served in World War 2 and the other contribution Blacks have made in the past and continue to make in the present...Please feel free to e-mail or post if you have any questions or comments...ALL IMAGES ARE THE COPYRIGHT PROPERTY OF R2C2H2/RONALD CORTEZ HERD II

Artistically and Blacklistically yours,

R2C2H2