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Page 14 May 2014 The AC Phoenix From Whence We Came By Rodney Sumler [continued from page 1 ] co-sponsored a 2 day Slave Dwelling Project event, featuring Joseph McGill, the founder of www.slavedwellingproject. org. McGill travels the US, dressed in a Union Soldier's uniform and spending nights in slave dwelling. He has stayed in 60 slave dwellings and encourages the owners to preserve these historic dwellings. Kudos again to the history club at McMicheal High School and MARC. It was a very surreal experience and feel ing for me to be standing outside a very primitive structure crudely built for hu man beings that were treated like pre cious "live stock." My slave ancestors worked from sun up to sun down, like an imals in the fields, working tobacco and what ever else the master told them to do. That included the women providing pleasure for the master at any time and to increase his number of slaves. Some of them were sold like cattle. My family's slave dwelling was a one room log cabin about 12'x 12'with an opening for a door. It has a dirt floor, the toilet was the woods outside. There were no windows. In one corner, a crude 10 steps ladder was built adjacent to and against the log wall leading up to a small crude attic, with a tin roof. I prayed and thanked Jehovah for helping and blessing my ancestors to survive this place, this life style. How did they endure the cold winters and very hot summers? How did they deal with the holes and cracks in the log walls? How did they en dure, so many people living and surviving in such a space, such a place? There were no lights; no windows, no bath rooms, no "out house", no heat and air, no computers, no telephones, no radio and no TV. My ancestor were very tough. The women in my family were some strong black black women. It brought tears of Joy to my eyes, when I looked around and realize, my family survived this inhuman ity to man. I thought about how some of the women in my family were treated like domestic animals.They had babies and some were taken away from them and sold like "pit bull" puppy dogs. The "smoke house" where meats were cured was a log dwelling that was big ger and better than the slave dwelling. It was about 30 yards from the housing for slaves and about 10 yards from the slave owners house of logs. When I first arrived at the old farm, I thought the master's house was a renovated slave dwelling. As I assessed the appearance of the house of the owners of my ancestors, they weren't very wealthy. It appeared to me that they were rather poor whites that could only afford to own slaves. They didn't have a plantation. Before the presentation of the program and the announcement of the names of people who volunteered to spend the night in the McCollum Slave Dwelling, we enjoyed a traditional slave meal of collar greens, pinto beans, fat back meat skins, mesh corn bread and honey and turtle soup stew. My cousin Maurice ate my portion of the turtle soup stew. The Black McCollums want to especially thank Jonathan Williams, a teacher at Mc Micheal High School and the history club adviser for bringing the White McCollums and Black McCollums together. One More Time. "We ARE family" I enjoyed this experience with some of the McCollum family, Nancy Wright Green, president of our family reunion committee, Chenita Barber Johnson, our family historian and Maurice Barber, the family chaplain. The McCollum family re union is the 11th, 12th and 13th of July at Piney Groove recreation center. Saturday, July 12th, there will be a dinner cruise on Lake Norman. For more information, Mc Collum Family members should contact Nancy Wright Green at 336 655 6483 Looking Beyond Donald Sterling By Raynard Jackson Raynard Jackson By now, everyone knows the story of Los Angeles Clipper's owner, Donald Sterling's banishment from the National Basketball Association (NBA) for his rac ist comments captured on audio tape last month. What Sterling said was totally stupid and insulting. PeriodI I don't think there is any disagreement from anyone on that issue. In the past, I have been very critical of professional athletes for their unwillingness to take a public stand on any controversial issues. You can argue whether the NBA players were aggressive enough in their protests, but at least they did protest. The Sterling issue was so bizarre that even Michael Jordan publi- cally denounced him. You're talking about miraclesi For a generation of athletes who have no idea what real sacrifice is all about, they made me proud. Yes, they know about sac rifice relative to playing their sport (playing through pain and injury); but they have yet to show a willingness to give up their sport, even temporarily, to take a principled stand on anything - until now. When I think of professional athletes taking a principled stand in sports, I think of people such as Muhammad AN, Jim Brown,Tommie Smith, John Carlos, Curt Flood, or Spencer Haywood. So, to find out that these NBA players told the commissioner of the NBA in no uncer tain terms that they were prepared not to play In their upcoming playoff games if Sterling were not permanently banned from the game and he was barred from ongoing ownership of the Clippers; this, indeed, was a historic moment for today's athlete. This Sterling situation was about racism, bigotry, and hate; no question about it. Relative to the Black community, there is an issue being overlooked: An alarming rise in the number of people and organizations who have contracted laryngitis when it comes to issues of racism, bigotry, and fair ness involving the Black community. But like fools, many in the Black community take up the cause of every other group as their own and then get absolutely no reciprocity when Blacks are treated unfairly. The Human Rights Campaign is supposed to be the homosexual version of the Na tional Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)—standing up for the equal and fair treatment of those who are homosexual. The National Council of La Raza is supposed to be the Hispanic version of the NAACP—fighting for the equal and fair treatment of Latinos, The National Or ganization of Women (NOW)—is the largest organization of feminist activists in the U.S. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU)—an organization of 2.1 million mem bers united by the belief in the dignity and worth of workers and the services they pro vide and dedicated to improving the lives of workers and their families and creating a more Just and humane society. I went to each of these groups'websites and none had issued one statement regarding the Sterling issue since it first broke. Not one word, not one sentence. Yet, liberal Black groups such as the NAACP lose their minds when someone says something con sidered insulting to homosexuals; or against amnesty for illegals; something deemed mi- sogynlstic towards women; or In opposition to increasing the minimum wage. In fact, many of these Blacks spend more time supporting amnesty for illegals than they do issues devastating the Black com munity, like double digit unemployment. Black women constantly take on the bat tle for affirmative action for white women who are the biggest beneficiary of the program. Many of the workers at sports stadiums are Black and also members of SEIU. All these groups claim to stand for fair ness and equality for all, but somehow they never seem to be able to verbalize any support when the Black community is treated unfairly. What Sterling said was an affront to all Americans, not Just Blacks. If these groups hold themselves out to be the moral bea con of America; how then can they selec tively show moral outrage when bigotry and racism rears its ugly head? This type of behavior from other groups towards Blacks has been a consistent oc currence; and the main reason Is weak leadership within the Black community. These groups all know that these media appointed Black leaders will carry their water for them and will never ask or de mand anything in return. These groups, with their words, claim to be in solidarity with the Black community; but with their actions, they show that they have little regard for the Black community. The only difference between them and Donald Sterling Is that Sterling at least was man enough to say how he felt. Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a Washington, D.C.-based public rela tions/government affairs firm. He can be reached through his Web site, www.ray- nardJackson.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @raynard 1223. HA" DEAL with the FACT that YOUR LIFE Morning by Morning New Mercies I See. (AlexHail«34
The AC Phoenix News (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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