Primary Sources, Black History

Enjoy The Gist of Freedom's Special Michael Jackson Memorial Show with Siedah Garret, "The Woman Behind The Man In The Mirror!" Siedah is and, first and foremost, the singer composer of the internationally recognized, self -reflective anthem "Man In The Mirror," Immortalized by Michael Jackson (and her) on 1987's 'Bad" album. On that same project, Garrett also sang the chart-topping first single, "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," a duet with Jackson. Watch the Interview YOUTUBE.com/TheGISTofFREEDOM  

  A Tribute to Langston Hughes~ Harlem Artists, Derrick McQueen and Nora Cole unearthed a few wonderful poems written by Langston, Listen as they bring Langston's love for Harlem Alive! Nora Cole ~ Veteran performing artist, writer, director and adjunct. Has performed on Broadway, off- Broadway, nationally and internationally. Tours two solo shows, Voices of the Spirits in my Soul, based on family slave history in Kentucky and Olivia’s Opus, An Autobiographical Ode to Adolescence. Most recently revived the role she originated in Rinde Eckert’s Obie Award winning and Drama League nominated, And God Created Great Whales off-Broadway. Derrick McQueen is presently a Ph. D. Candidate he completed M. Div. with a focus on Theology and the Arts at Union. He earned his B.A. in Theatre Arts at Drew University in 1987. Derrick has performed in the Cape May Jazz Festival and tours the country for East Lynne Theatre Company in “Paul Robeson Through His Words and Music”. Derrick is also on the path for ordination in the

  Freedwoman, spy Mary Elizabeth Bowser VS.  Confederate Spies  ~    Author Francis Hamit to be interviewed on The Gist of Freedom, June 3rd, by Michael Coard   Francis Hamit, author of the Civil War spy thrillers, "The Queen of Washington" and "The Shenandoah Spy" will be interviewed oby guest host Michael Coard, Francis Hamit, author of the Civil War spy thrillers, "The Queen of Washington" (ISBN 9781595951717) and "The Shenandoah Spy"  (ISBN 9781595959027)  Mr. Hamit's books are about the Confederate Secret Service and the women who were its most effective agents.  So far he has written about Belle Boyd and Rose Greenhow.  The books are part of a larger fact based narrative that is a fictional treatment of the Confederate Secret Service and its role in the larger conflict.  It is an attempt to reframe the accepted myths that have grown up around that conflict.    Mr. Coard is a frequent guest host on the Gist of Freedom, and the co-creator of the "Avenging The Ancestors" web site.   Mr. Hamit's books are

  A Real Memorial Day Treat on The Gist of Freedom! Listen to actress, Eileen Miller, as she reenacts the story of Mary Elizabeth Bowser, a freed slave who courageously posed as a slave and stole the Confederates' War plans while working in the Confederate White House.  Black abolitionist female spy, Mary Elizabeth Bowser. When it comes to espionage, Mary Elizabeth Bowser has to be considered one of the best spies our country has ever had. Her activities during the Civil War helped the Union Army and was a key reason for the fall of Richmond. In 1995 she was inducted into the National Military Intellegence Hall of Fame. Noting Mary went to a Quaker school for Negros in Philedelphia for schooling. Having the same abolistionist leanings as Van Lew, with her help, Mary was able to secure a position in the home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. There, she took on the persona of Ellen Bond, an ignorant, somewhat slow-witted servant to Varina Davis, the wife of Davis. In her position as an illiterate h

"Enslaved Africans and free blacks exhibited enormous self-agency in colonial America. James H. Johnston has captured this through the life of Yarrow Mamout and his descendants. This exceptional man was a Muslim and a slave for forty- four years, who earned enough money, to buy a house in 1800 in Georgetown, then as now a very rich place. Mamout’s story is of Islam, in early America, of slavery in Washington, D.C the nation’s capital and of the role free Blacks played to free their sisters and brothers."—Maurice Jackson, author of Let This Voice be Heard: Anthony Benezet, Father of Atlantic Abolitionism The most comprehensive account of Mamout's life (and that of his descendants) is in James H. Johnston, From Slave Ship to Harvard: Yarrow Mamout and the history of an African American Family (Fordham University Press, 2012); see also Johnston's "Every Picture Tells a Story: A Narrative Portrait of Yarrow Mamout" (Maryland Historical Magazine, Winter 2008, pp. 416-431).  

Celebrate Malcolm X's 87th Birthday with his daughter, author ILyasah Shabazz, Growing Up X with The Gist of Freedom host Dr. Weldon McWilliams.   Then join the Shabazz family with Harlem's Tristate communities and celebrate Brother Malcolm X at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem on Fri., May 18, 5 to 9 p.m. The Shabazz family and the recently revived Malcolm X Foundation will host a daytime block party on Sat., May 19 to both honor and celebrate El-Haj Malik El Shabazz’s 87th birthday, declaring “May 19 as Malcolm X Day!” The event will be held at West 165th Street, between Broadway (Dr. Betty Shabazz Way) and St. Nicholas Avenue, commencing at noon and ending at 5 p.m. The annual program immediately continues at the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, located at 3940 Broadway (between West 165th and West 166th streets).Vendors will be offering books, merchandising, food, music and education-based products. The event will celebrate Malcolm X with poetry, speeches and celebrations. L

Langston Hughes ...See More Listen to Langston Hughes in his own words  and "Simple" Read by Ossie Davis On The Gist of Freedom Blog Talk Radio Podcast produced by Lesley Gist Langston Hughes SIMPLE read by OSSIE DAVIS I cannot truthfully state, as some novelists do at the beginning of their books, that these storeis are about "nobody living or dead." The facts are that these tales are about a great many people- although they are stories about no specific persons as such. But it is impossible to live in Harlem and not know at least a hundred Simples. Fifty Joyces, twenty-five Zaritas... or reasonable facsimiles thereof....Usually over a glass of beer, [Simple] tells me his tales, mostly in high humor, but sometimes with a pain in his soul as sharp as the occassional hurt of that bunion oh his right foot. Sometimes, as the old blues says, Simple might be laughing to keep you laughing, too...Langston Hughes  Margaret Danner is also an outstanding Black Poet, From Chicago. Margaret was an assistant ed

Sunday at 8pm on The Gist Of Freedom ~ Lynne M. Jackson, Dred Scott's Great-great granddaughter, shares what family research has revealed in the last five years that amazed living family members. The famous slave's goal, whose freedom suit was a major catalyst for the civil war, was all about family. Listen Lynne M. Jackson live on The Gist of Freedom, Blog Talk Radio with attorney activist Michael Coard WWW.BlogTalkRadio.com/TheGISTofFREEDOM www.blogTalkRadio.com/BlackHISTORY

Slavery By Another Name- with Attorney Activist Michael Coar

  Tonight on The Gist of Freedom  learn more about this historical and fascinating photo with John Franklin, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture's  (NMAAHC) specialist on Emancipation Day.   Survivors~ Four Formerly enslaved centenarian Women ~In 1916 they gathered at an Emancipation Celebration in Washington, DC. Annie Parram, 104; Anna Angales, 105; Elizabeth Berkeley, 125; and Sadie Thompson 110. From the Library of Congress. — at Washington, DC.     http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thegistoffreedom/2012/04/19/1916four-centenariansex-slaves-celebrate-emancipation-day#.T5B4NE23o5o.facebook

Betty Brooks and The National Black Memorabilia Show - The National Black Memorabilia & Collectible Show will be Saturday and Sunday, April 21-22, 2012 at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds, 16 Chestnut Street, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. This is located in the Greater Washington, DC area. Show hours are Saturday, 10 am - 7 pm, and Sunday, 10 am - 5 pm.  For more information or vendor space reservations, call (301) 649-1915, e-mail Ljohnsonshows@aol.com or view the website www.johnsonshows.com. Follow us on Twitter/ShowPromoter.

  Join Karen Byrd of  Natural Girls United Dolls  on The Gist of Freedom Blog Talk Radio show WWW.BlogTalkRadio.com/TheGISTofFREEDOM. Natural Girls United is an online store that provides customized dolls and dolls from my collection that have features, skin tones, hair styles and textures that reflect that of the African American & Multi-cultural community. My company centers on helping children, women and men of ethnic communities to help build their self-esteem and sense of self-worth. The Natural Girls United doll project is something that I hope will help to bring a positive view of what ethnic beauty is. There is a serious need for our young girls to be able to have dolls that look like them. It is something that affects their self-esteem, confidence, and how they few themselves. It is important that they have images around them that reinforce that positive message that their beauty is wonderful. Each day that we show them that they matter, is a day that is a step in the right direction.  Karen Byr

  Tonight on The Gist of Freedom Author and journalist Herb Boyd will discuss the book he wrote in response to a controversial book about Malcolm X. Mr. Boyd stated he found as many as 25 significant errors in the book, some of which he described as "absolutely egregious". In response, Chicago Black publishing imprint Third World Press released  "By Any Means Necessary Malcolm X: Real Not Reinvented" By Herb Boyd, Ron Daniels, Maulana Karenga and Haki R. Madhubuti in October of 2011.

The Sumner Post originally served as home for the local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic, an interracial Civil War veterans' organization. With a national membership of 500,000. GAR was as important in its time as the American Legion. Join historic Preservationist Leslie Raimond and The Gist of Freedom Host and Filmmaker, Gary Jenkins for a candid conversation about GAR and one of it's restoration projects. For more information on the GAR building and plans for its future, or to contribute to its restoration, see www.kentcountyartscouncil.org/gar.html or call Ms. Raimond at 410-778-1149. The national organization accepted members of both races. Built by Frank and Jesse Duyer in 1908, is one of two black GAR buildings still standing. At best estimates, some 400 black soldiers from Kent County served with the Union army during the Civil War. The funds will be used to purchase and restore the early 20th-century building at 206 S. Queen St. that was once a meeting place for black Civil War veterans fr

Harriet Tubman Day of Commemoration March 10, 2012- Courtsey “Freedom or die a slave!,” declared  Harriet Tubman (1819/20-1913) who freed herself and 300 others from enslavement in the mid-19th century.  Tubman’s legacy resounds today in the lives of heirs who move unrestricted and make choices with few constraints.  The statue is the brainchild of former Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields.  Omoye Cooper of Albany, NY and Elizabeth Fulcher-Rankin of Brooklyn are co-chairs of the Black Women’s Leadership Caucus, Inc. (BWLC) host organization which was formed in 1999 during a meeting at the Tubman Homestead in Auburn, NY of women and men involved in the history of the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman. Alison Saar, sculptor was also present. Currently, the group is producing a short documentary about Harriet Tubman, featuring interviews with  descendants, historians and and distinguished educators, including  Adelaide Sanfor, former Vice Chancellor, NYS Board of Regents. Open to the public.

Join Guest Host, Attorney Activist, Michael Coard, Sunday at 8pm on The Gist of Freedom, as he talks with Investigative filmmaker Keith Beauchamp. Beauchamp, the producer of the documentary, The murder of Emmett Till, examines recent suspicious hanging deaths in his television show The Injustice Files. Were they modern-day lynchings? Watch The Injustice Files, Tuesday at 8pm!

Join Dr. McWilliams and  award-winning television news anchor Cheryl Wills on The Gist of Freedom show www.BlogTalkRadio.com/BlackHistory Tuesday January 17th at 8pm. When Ms. Wills discovers that her Great-great-great grandfather, Sandy Wills, was a runaway slave who joined the historic fight for freedom in the American Civil War, she embarks on an gut-wrenching search to learn more about the courageous ancestor who demonstrated the same courage that she knew in her beloved father, an intrepid New York City firefighter, who died when Cheryl was thirteen, and who never knew his family s notable legacy. Told with deep love and a brow-raising honesty, Die Free stretches from Haywood County, Tennessee, in the 1860s to New York City in the twentieth century. Cheryl shares the unvarnished truth about the Wills' family roots, ever entwined in passion, music, and faith. Cheryl also exhumes the spirit of her great-great-great grandmother Emma Wills, an illiterate lionhearted widow, who was discriminated against as sh

Tonight we proudly present to you The Roots of Silicon Valley, with Soledad Obrien's CNN documentary The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley, Presented by Navarrow Wright Co-Founder (Russell Simmons) The Global Grind. You're Invited to Attend a discussion of the historical origins of Blacks contributions to technology. View The D.C. Screening Slide-SHOW This is an incredible opportunity to meaningfully celebrate Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday Weekend at a historical venue, The Belmont Mansion in Philadelphia with the founder and operator, Mrs. Audrey Johnson-Thonton!  View The D.C. Screening Slide-SHOW Panelist include, Activist Attorney Michael Coard and Technical Media Personality,Stephanie Humphrey  

  Join  Attorney Activist Micheal Cord and Senator Eric Adams on The Gist of Freedom ~ As a Captain in the NYPD, Adams during his 20-year career in law enforcement, co-founded 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement. 

  Ginger Baine-Miller President and CEO · http://www.john142vets.org Nonprofit organization serving homeless and at risk veterans through advocacy housing and supportive services.