Killing each other not for the pursuit of happiness but the pursuit of dead old white men

So we will turn on our brother and sisters and closest friend

Forced to live in the world’s capital with capitalist without any capital

So as I watch the world change before my eyes

It makes me realize that sometimes the truth is made out of lies

People twist facts and put on acts just to see what they can pull in and attract

Forced feed bullshit through a narrow tube that often clogs our passive of hope
Told to measure a yard with only a couple inches of rope
See we are given dreams but only get one night to see it
And then often get even less time to achieve it
See for many of us, one lifetime isn’t enough
Especially when you have it rough and are told “suck it up and just be tough”
In this world we are sold Rockwells and wedding bells
Told to take our daughters to ride the carousels
But for many of us to get this others have to end up in jail cells
Trying so hard to get their acceptation
Not seeing that we lose our need affection
Got us heading in the wrong direction
While all these actions scream out for attention
All these things make me want to ask questions
Has our generation’s dream been deferred? Or are we on a detour,
That leads to seashore, where we all will drown?
Have we accepted or turned our backs on our purpose as a generation?
Where have we gone since the end of the old segregation?
Do we even know what the purpose is? Sometimes I wonder if we even care
Each race that comes here, raises to another level so why have we been here longer then most but have nothing to show for it?
We say we don’t have plains or boats or even the Spanish connections
But we do have the choice to say no and make huge corrections
They don’t make us use the drugs or sell them to our neighbors next door
They not making us shop and buy everything from their stores
We need to stop pointing the finger and take a long look in the mirror
A lot of us would hate what we see and would be filled with terror
But that is you and if you don’t like that image, stop what the hell you doing and make a change
As a people there is nothing that we can’t accomplish so don’t ever think your goals are out of range
We have to start by being the true masters of our own destiny or we will continue to raise the mass destruction of our race and nation of people
They say no man is an island but as a people we are often isolated
So we must continue to fight the power so we don’t end up stagnated
If you don’t like the laws, rebel, it’s our right
If you don’t agree with the government, rebel, we are allowed to fight
Their forefathers gave us this option when wrong is being presented as right
So REBEL, REBEL, REBEL, REBEL, REBEL, from sun up
until the coming of the night

- D.F. Kawah

On this date in 1985 the Mary McLeod Bethune commemorative stamp was issued by the U.S. Postal Service as the eighth stamp in its Black Heritage USA series. Over her life Bethune was a educator, civil rights leader, and founder of both Bethune-Cookman College and the National Council of Negro Women. She was also a advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was head of his “Black Cabinet”.

On this date in 1770 Crispus Attucks became the first man killed during the Boston Massacre. Attucks was not only the first black, but first person to die in the cause of America’s freedom from Britain. Cripus was the first of over 5,000 other blacks who also fought in the American Revolution on the colonists side.

On this date in 1877 Garrett Augustus Morgan was born in Paris, Kentucky. Morgan was a inventor, scientist, and entrepreneur who is best known for inventing the belt fastener for sewing machines, the gas mask, smoke detector, and the automatic traffic signal.

On this date in 1932 Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born in Prospect Township, Johannesburg, South Africa. Her and her music were very instrumental in the anti-apartheid struggle. She was more proud of what she did as a civil rights activist then as a Grammy award winning artist. Because of all her anti-apartheid work her South African passport was revoked and she was not able to return there in 1960 for her mother’s funeral. In 1963, after testifying against apartheid before the United Nations, her South African citizenship and her right to return to the country were revoked as well. She has had nine passports, and was granted honorary citizenship of ten countries. Her marriage to Stokely Carmichael in 1968 caused controversy in the United States, and her record deals and tours were cancelled. The entertainment industry virtually blacklisted Makeba. According to one account, her record company never called her in to record again after the marriage. She and Carmichael eventually moved to Guinea in West Africa. She did not return to her homeland until 1990 after the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, over 30 year from her departure.

“When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you hear a man saying he wants freedom, but in the next breath he is going to tell you what he won’t do to get it, or what he doesn’t believe in doing in order to get it, he doesn’t believe in freedom. A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire or preserve his freedom.” – Malcolm X

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others? Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” – Martin Luther King, Jr”

On this date in 1867 Howard University which is located in Washington, DC, was chartered by Congress to be created. The new institution was named for General Oliver Otis Howard, a Civil War hero, who was both the founder of the University and, at the time, Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Howard later served as President of the university from 1869-74.