Page 5 - Florida Sentinel 7-5-16 Online Edition

Editorials/Columns
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN
(USPS 202-140)
2207 21st Avenue, Tampa Florida 33605 • (813) 248-1921 Published Every Tuesday and Friday By
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHING Co., Member of National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)
S. KAY ANDREWS, PUBLISHER
C. BLYTHE ANDREWS III, PRESIDENT/CONTROLLER ALLISON WELLS-CLEBERT, CFO
GWEN HAYES, EDITOR
IRIS HOLTON, CITY EDITOR
BETTY DAWKINS, ADVERTISING DIRECTOR HAROLD ADAMS, CIRCULATION MANAGER TOYNETTA COBB, PRODUCTION MANAGER LAVORA EDWARDS, CLASSIFIED MANAGER
Subscriptions-$44.00-6 Months Both Editions: $87.00-Per Year Both Editions.
Opinions expressed on editorial pages of this newspaper by Columnists or Guest Writers, do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of The Florida Sentinel Bulletin or the Publisher.
Same Old Hollywood Jive
sakidgrowingupI never liked the character of Tarzan. There was
just something about the idea of a white guy and his wife living inside of an African jungle that never registered with me.
The old black and white movies with actor Johnny Weissmuller (who portrayed Tarzan) swinging on vines, making that annoying scream and beating up entire tribes of African warriors, in my eyes, seemed totally ridiculous. I re- member always thinking to my- self, "how is this even remotely possible?"
It wasn't until I was older and realized how the movie in- dustry used films to promote ideals and push agendas did I fi- nally understand what the
Tarzan epic was truly about. I discovered that, at its core, it was nothing more than a not-so- subtle attempt to further the cause of white supremacy.
Just as the stories of Super- man and Thor are thinly veiled metaphors that represent sons of god who were sent to Earth to save mankind, Tarzan is the quintessential embodiment of the belief that white men can conquer and have dominion over any land or race of his choosing. His limitless power, apparently, even makes the most ferocious of animals bend to his will.
Now, in 2016, this dated propaganda is being repackaged and re-released for an entirely new generation. Textbook sub- liminal programming brought
to you by your local IMAX the- ater.
In this latest incarnation they've even added a new twist. It seems, at least according to the trailers, that Samuel L. Jackson has been cast as some kind of sidekick to the so-called "ape-man." The irony of this pairing being that they've now produced a version where the Black man in the movie will probably know less about his ancestral home than the white man he's following.
In the end this stands as yet another example of Hollywood's old guard continuous attempt to introduce old ideologies into the minds of new age free thinkers. Whether or not they succeed at poisoning this future crop, like they have so many in the past, will depend solely on how much longer we feel inclined to keep forking over money to support their bull----.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Company. You can TEXT C.B., II, at (+18133080849).
POSTMASTER: Send Address Change To: Florida Sentinel Bulletin,
P.O. Box 3363 Tampa, FL 33601 Periodical Postage Paid At Tampa, FL
C. Blythe Andrews 1901-1977 (1945)
C. Blythe Andrews, Jr. 1930-2010 (1977)
Frederick Bailey’s Fifth Of July Speech
t was one of the warmest days in Rochester, New York’s
history . . . or maybe, it simply seemed that way for a young Black man who (1) had a bounty on his head since he was a runaway slave, and (2) had a lump in his throat be- cause of what he was about to do. Frederick Bailey (aka Fred- erick Douglass), on July 5, 1852, was about to address a white audience on the importance of the Fourth of July. Following is some of what he said.
Said Douglass, “He who could address this audience with- out a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have... (But) allow me to ask... what have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? For the present, is it enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race? Is it not astonishing that, while we are plowing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are read- ing, writing and cyphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers; that while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises... living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and above all, confessing and worship- ping the Christian’s God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men?!”
The audience was stunned. Almost two centuries and one Black president later, the audience is still stunned.
In truth, many Americans still cannot believe that the sons and daughters of slaves could speak so well and come so far. Yet, even with a Black man in the White House, our struggle still continues.
Therefore, reread the words of Frederick Douglass and on this July 4th recommit yourself to voice and vote. For, there is still a bounty, but it is on our heads.
Newton Knight (1831 – 1922): The Free State Of Jones
omewhere between truth,
fiction, myth and legend lays the true story of the recently released film Free State of Jones, which chronicles the life of Newton Knight, a poor Re- publican Mississippi yeoman (family) farmer who led a guer- rilla rebellion against the Con- federacy during the Civil War and who declared loyalty to the Union.
Described by historians and his descendants as both a “saint” and a “sinner,” Knight is a con- troversial figure portrayed as “noble,” “pious,” and “refusing to fight for a cause he did not be- lieve in (slavery), as well as “ma- nipulative,” “treacherous,” and “outlaw.”
In fact, some family mem- bers called him a traitor to the Confederacy and disapproved of his marriage to a Black woman, his grandfather’s former slave Rachel.
Jones County, Mississippi, Knight’s birthplace, is approx- imately 92 miles southeast of Jackson and had a slave popula- tion of 12 percent, the smallest of any other county in that 82 county state.
Consequently, during the Mississippi secession debate, citizens voted 374 to 24 for anti- secessionist John Hawthorne Powell and pro-secessionist M. Bayless.
Meanwhile, Knight and 125 (more or less) white men who were Confederate Army desert- ers and former slaves formed a band known as the “Knight Company” and launched guer- rilla war tactics against the con- federacy, hoping to form the Free State of Jones in Jones County during the height of the Civil War.
Anti-secessionists were angry because the Confederate government passed a Twenty Negro Law which enabled rich plantation owners to avoid mili- tary service if they owned 20 or more slaves.
Moreover, the farmers were angered by the “exorbitant and crippling tax collections” by the Confederacy which resulted in many of the farmers losing their property and their families going hungry.
More than 14 skirmishes took place between Knight and the Confederacy, in some of which Knight was able to con- fiscate food and crops and re- turn them to the farmers. Attacks against the Confederacy were launched from various hid- ing places in the swamps around Jones County.
Continuous harassment of Confederate government offi- cials and the killings of tax col- lectors by Knight and his company resulted in the over-
throw of the Confederate gov- ernment in Jones County in 1864. They notified General William T. Sherman that they were declaring its inde- pendence from the Confederacy.
During Knight’s anti-seces- sionist skirmishes, Rachel Knight helped Knight and his men by bringing them food and helping them to hide, which ul- timately led to their forming a relationship.
After the Civil War (Recon- struction), Knight was placed in charge of distributing food to Jones County residents and as- signed to a Union regiment (all- Black 1st Mission Regiment) that defended free Blacks from Ku Klux Klan violence.
In the mid 1870s Knight separated from his first wife and married Rachel Knight, his son Matt, married Rachel’s daughter Fannie, and Knight’s daughter married Rachel’s son.
Even though the marriages were illegal (except between 1870 to 1880), they formed a small mixed-race community in Southeastern Mississippi, where Knight and Rachel had sev- eral children.
In 1876, Knight deeded 160 acres of land to Rachel, which made her one of the very few Black land owners in Mississippi during that era. Knight and Rachel both lived well into their 80s and are buried to- gether in an all-Black cemetery, which was the burial ground for slaves and their sympathizers.
Perhaps, Newton Knight was no John Brown, but he should hold a place of honor in the saga of Black history in America. Harrambee!
Another ‘Make America White Again’ Billboard
isten. Just when you think you’ve heard it all, along
comes someone else to remind you that situations can always get wackier. We were constantly aware of what Don- ald Trump was insinuating by his slogan “Make America Great Again,” with a not-so-veiled implication toward mak- ing America once again what it supposedly was under white leadership.
However, a Tennessee Congressional candidate recently kicked inaccuracy and racial demagoguery up a notch and trumped Trump when the candidate posted a billboard on the side of a highway in Polk County, Tennessee.
United States Congressional House candidate Rick Tyler not only posted the billboard, but was quoted as saying he be- lieved “a majority of the people in the county like it.” What did they like? They favored “making America white again!” Good Lord!
Even though Tyler’s billboard has since been torn down due to the response of nearby residents, the independent, self-styled “pastor’ and businessman has a website that fea- tures a picture of the White House surrounded by Confeder-
ate flags.
In fact, Tyler was quoted as saying his billboard “reflects my call for America to return to
the 1960s, Ozzie and Harriet, Leave It to Beaver (1950s television series) time when there were no break-ins, no violent crime, and no mass immigration.”
Anyone who knows American History should remind Tyler that mass immigration began the moment after Christopher Columbus arrived in America. They should also remind Tyler that “reverse immigration” never works because America will NEVER be what it never was: a pure-white society.
In fact, statistics predict by 2044, white Americans will become a minority. Here’s hoping race-hate will become a minority, also.
TUESDAY, JULY 5, 2016 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5
S
I
L
A