"It is not a person's fault because they succeeded. It is a person's fault if they failed. And so this is why I don't understand these (Occupy Wall Street) demonstrations and what is it that they're looking for."

- Republican Presidential Candidate Herman Cain

If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody he's traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Gospel Great Marion Williams Sings If I Can Help Somebody

Angela Farris Watkins teams up again with illustrator Eric Velasquez on a children’s book, My Uncle Martin’s Words for America, that masterfully explains the importance of Dr. King to children who have grown up without a clue as to what is a “Negro” section of a bus or public place. They both also created My Uncle Martin’s Big Heart. 

CNN apologized for playing the song “Fantastic Voyage” which includes the N-word during a short newscast about a 103-year-old Black grandmother who still drives.

 

 

• Harry Belfonte Quips that Prayers Are Not for Herman Cain
  

• Solid as Barack by Ashford and Simpson
  

• How Well Do You Know Your Mitt Romney? (Video on His Many Stances on the Issues)
  

• President Obama: "I'm with Ronald Reagan":

The President noted a certain well-known Republican who agreed it was "crazy" that certain tax loopholes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary:

“You know who this guy was? Wasn’t a Democrat. Wasn’t some crazy socialist. It was Ronald Reagan. It was Ronald Reagan. Last time I checked, Republicans all thought Reagan made some sense. So, the next time you hear one of those Republicans in Congress accusing you of class warfare, you just tell them, I’m with Ronald Reagan.”

• Immigration: Effective Deportations Up

Nearly 400,000 people were deported from the United States in the past fiscal year, the largest number in the history of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, the government announced Tuesday.

Overall in fiscal year 2011, immigration officials said, 396,906 individuals were removed. Of these, 216,698, nearly 55%, had been convicted of felonies or misdemeanors. That's an 89 percent increase of criminals from three years ago, the enforcement agency said.

And then when, even after the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act passed, African Americans still found themselves trapped in pockets of poverty across the country, Dr. King didn’t say those laws were a failure; he didn’t say this is too hard; he didn’t say, let’s settle for what we got and go home.

Instead he said, let’s take those victories and broaden our mission to achieve not just civil and political equality but also economic justice; let’s fight for a living wage and better schools and jobs for all who are willing to work. In other words, when met with hardship, when confronting disappointment, Dr. King refused to accept what he called the “isness” of today. He kept pushing towards the “oughtness” of tomorrow.

The Presidents Full 20-minute Remarks



 

Press TV: Islamic Heritage Museum Combats Islamophobia
 

Hank Willis Thomas: Strange Fruit exhibit features visual reminders of how American society has commodified Black bodies and made them essentially spectacles and souvenirs.

One of Thomas’ images show a Black basketball player dunking into a hangman’s noose. Another show a farmer in a cotton field imposed on a football facing off with a football player.

Thomas appears and lectures at the Corcoran Monday, November 28 at 7p. Thomas’ exhibit ends Monday, January 16, 2012. Though normally closed, the Corcoran will open and admission will be free on Dr. King holiday.

Also, closing on King Day is Gordon Parks: Photographs From the Collection. Closing Sunday, February 12 is the more publicized, but less provocative 30 Americans exhibit.

Also, read: Not About a Salary, but a Racial Reality: The NBA Lockout in Technicolor

Hank Willis Thomas, And One, 2011. Digital C-print, 96 x 50 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, © Hank Willis Thomas.  (top)


Hank Willis Thomas, From Cain’t See in the Mornin’ til Cain’t See at Night, 2011. Digital C-print, 30 x 96 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, © Hank Willis Thomas. (bottom)

Kankakee River Sandhill Crane Tour
Metro Chicago-Gary
Sun, Oct. 23
12:00p (CST) to Dusk
Ryan Chew at (312) 823-3384

Grant-Seeking Basics for Artists
Hamiltonian Gallery
1353 U Street, NW
Washington, D.C.
202-332-1116
Wed, Oct. 26, 6:30p
RSVP

YES!
That was Port Of Harlem Contributor C.R. Gibbs Providing Historical Commentary on
WUSA-TV (CBS) -Washington
During the Station's Coverage of the
King Memorial Dedication

Tuesday, November 1, 2011, 4p
Greenbelt Branch
Benjamin Banneker, Surveyor, & the African Roots of His Science
C.R. Gibbs



Wednesday, November 2, 2011, 7p
Woodridge Branch
African American Heroines of the Civil War
C.R. Gibbs

A Passion for Living
Us Helping Us Awards Ceremony
Arena State
1101 6th Street, SW
Washington, D.C.
Dec. 3, 2011, 6p-9p
$12