The Mis-Education of the Negro: 1933-2008 by ALTON H. MADDOX JR.
Amsterdam News
Seventy-five years ago, this month, Dr. Carter G. Woodson published “The Mis-Education of the Negro.” It is a repair book on extirpating the legacies of slavery which have given rise to the maintenance of the badges of slavery. If Dr. Woodson were alive today, Blacks would readily refer to him as a prophet.
Like most experts in a field, his knowledge was acquired through experience. Dr. Woodson learned that the most prominent achievement on his resume was also his most salient disability. He said, “I advocate a more realistic and practical approach in education. It took me over thirty years to get over my Harvard education.”
April 1950 was a bad month for the Black world. Three intellectual giants died during this month. These transitional men, through their works, were models of excellence and they left us with visionary blueprints necessary to navigate Jim Crow minefields.
This group included the educational architect for revolutionizing the Black mind, the legal architect for combatting Jim Crow in the United States and the medical architect of blood plasma. These men, respectively, were Dean Charles Hamilton Houston, Dr. Carter G. Woodson and Dr. Charles Drew.
Despite the verbal warfare that has erupted over the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, “Negro History Week” has failed to pique our historical interests beyond 7 days in February. Obviously, “Negro History Week” should be a matter of concern of Congressmen Charles Rangel and John Lewis, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, and Robert Johnson, current owner of the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats.
None of these men have made Dr. Woodson proud and they should revisit a course in logic. For example, Mayor Young argues that former President Bill Clinton is blacker than Sen. Obama because President Clinton has bedded down more Black women than Sen. Obama.
That argument could be used to expose Thomas Jefferson’s sexual promiscuity but its conclusion would still be a fallacy. Throughout our existence in North America, white men have been able to treat Black women like sex toys with impunity. What is Mayor Young’s position on Tawana Brawley?
Cong. Rangel argues that it is “absolutely stupid” for Sen. Obama to claim that Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Cong. Rangel is supporting Sen. Clinton’s claim which belittles the role of Dr. King in securing voting rights legislation in 1965.
Assuming arguendo that Cong. Rangel is correct when he argues that it was President Lyndon B. Johnson, and not Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., who meritoriously signed the legislation, he would, nonetheless, have to concede that it was signed with the blood of millions of Blacks starting with Crispus Attucks and continuing beyond the assassination of Malcolm X.
Sadly, it took 178 years for Blacks to simply secure voting rights and, afterwards, Blacks are still treated as “heathens” under the U.S. Constitution. The American Revolution was fought under the mantra of “no taxation without representation.” New Hampshire has a more poignant motto: “live free or die.” Neither phrase applies, positively, to Blacks.
Blacks have failed to perceive the difference between political representation and political presence. Voting only guarantees political presence. It took an armed revolution for whites, with assistance from free Blacks, to secure political representation for themselves.
If Alexander Hamilton returned to New York today, he would swear that slavery was still in effect. Politically and economically, Blacks are still at the bottom of the barrel. Illegal immigrants enjoy more rights than Blacks who have been given no credit for their contributions to this nation.
By distinguishing freedom from slavery, Hamilton argued, “In the former state a man is governed by the laws to which he has given his consent, either in person or by his representative; in the latter, he is governed by the will of another. In one case, his life and property are his own; in the other, they depend upon the pleasure of his master.”
In slavery, we went to the cotton fields and returned to the slave quarters. Today, we simply go to the polls and return to the “hood” penniless. No Black effort is afoot to secure political power. We enjoy no more political rights today than we did in slavery. This is termed the “Illusion of Inclusion.”
Thurgood Marshall always maintained that his greatest legal victory was Smith v. Allwright and not Brown v. Board of Education. The Supreme Court had to address the constitutionality of Texas’ white primary system, which barred Blacks from selecting political candidates.
The Supreme Court, in 1944, overturned Grovey v. Townsend, decided in 1935, because only two of the justices in Grovey were still on the court in 1944. Grovey had ruled that the rules of a political party fall outside the purview of state action which implicates the Fourteenth Amendment. Thus, a political party was free to engage in racial discrimination. Grovey is back in effect. See the primary rules in 2008.
Despite Supreme Court precedent, the white primary still exists today. Whites in Iowa and New Hampshire select the Democratic presidents of the United States. Bill Clinton failed to win either Iowa or New Hampshire in 1992, but he still became the standard bearer of the Democratic Party. This was the sole exception. A victory in New Hampshire usually manufactures a standard bearer for the Democratic Party.
Despite the ruling in Smith v. Allwright, the white primary continued in South Carolina until 1948 when J. Waites Waring, a federal district court judge in South Carolina, ruled it unconstitutional. Gov. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina saw the handwriting on the wall and he became a “Dixiecrat.”
“Pitchfork” Ben Tillman had rewritten the state constitution in 1895 to exclude the Black vote. His political heirs still reside in South Carolina. Judge Waring would later create the legal rationale in Brown v. Board of Education. Ultimately, white supremacists gave him a one-way ticket out of South Carolina. He and his wife fled to New York.
These white supremacists will reappear on January 26. South Carolina was the site of the “Hamburg Massacre” and played a key role in disenfranchising Blacks in the presidential election of 1876, which ultimately placed Blacks under the jurisdiction of the KKK. Unreliable voting machines will be in play in South Carolina on January 26. Where are election monitors when we need them?
The white media reported that Sen. Clinton won the Democratic caucuses in Nevada although Nevada gave Sen. Obama the most convention delegates. This is like the white media reporting that Sen. Al Gore won the White House in 2000 despite his loss to Gov. George W. Bush in the Electoral College. Unfortunately, the U.S. Constitution permits the white media to practice racial discrimination in reporting the news.
Black leaders have steered us back into Jim Crow. Forty-five years ago, our leaders were Revs. King and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and Min. Malcolm X. Today, our leaders are Revs. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Floyd Flake. This is evidence that we have moved backwards from a gerontocracy. There is no substitute for talent.
The federal government has not only tampered with our history and culture but also our reproductive system. A reproductive system which has successively given us David Walker, Nat Turner, Martin Delaney, Marcus Garvey and Elijah Muhammad is now out of order. It stopped functioning completely after Brown v. Board of Education.
Whites have a winning formula for staying on top. Blacks have a losing formula for staying at the bottom of the totem pole. As a matter of law, whites embrace the doctrine of stare decisis. This means that they must follow the teachings of their ancestors.
As a matter of racial accommodation, Blacks summarily reject the teachings of their revered ancestors. It would be impossible for Black leadership to start behaving like Callie House, Denmark Vesey, Henry McNeal Turner and Monroe Trotter among others.
Religion also explains our plight. Blacks embrace a pagan ethic which elevates self-preservation over racial sacrifice. Whites, on the other hand, are urged to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the race. Black preachers advocate personal happiness by preaching JOY. This means putting Jesus first, others next (whites) and yourself last. This will ensure Black JOY.
Thus, Blacks behave like crabs in a barrel. The First Amendment shortchanges the right of Blacks to enjoy religious freedoms. There is an interracial cohabitation between the Black church and the white state. This is paganism.
Only a working knowledge of history can connect our past with the present and pave our future. It starts with the teachings of Ptahhotep. We have gone from the “best and the brightest” to the “dumbest and the dullest.” No “Black Messiah” is on the horizon. Let’s start February with a yearning for learning our history.
The “Thriller in Manila II” was held in Myrtle Beach, SC on Dr. Martin L. King Day. It harbored neither the principles of non-violence nor resembled the Wiley College debating team. Sen. Clinton, who was playing the dozens, was in the ring while Bill Clinton was in her corner. Sen. John Edwards was on the ropes. Don King was MIA.
Jan. 30 UAM’s weekly forum at the Elks Plaza, 1068 Harriet Tubman (Fulton Street) nr. Classon Ave. in Brooklyn at 7:30 p.m. Take the “C” train to Franklin Ave.
Feb. 6 Dr. Leonard Jeffries will be the keynote speaker at UAM’s weekly forum at the Elks Plaza. For further information call United African Movement at 718-834-9034.
See: www.reinstatealtonmaddox.net for “KKK and the Jena 6,” “Couch Potatoes,” “UAM - UNIA As a Model,” and “The Black Vote is Worthless.”
