Historian Held Mirror to the American Paradox Called Race

By Sr. Correspondent,  D. Kevin McNeir

One of my most memorable interviews was with an African-American chronicler of history - Dr. John Hope Franklin. In fact, having a conversation with one of America's preeminent historians was tantamount to sitting at the feet of a learned griot - the great storytellers of history from the Motherland.


 

For not only did he dedicate the majority of his life to research, reflection and the retelling of our story, but as one of the most influential historians of black America, Franklin was and will always be one of our greatest intellectual treasures - an avatar of the travails of 20th century life itself. Franklin, 94, died on Wednesday, March 25 of congestive heart failure at Duke University Hospital in Durham, N.C. He is best known for his groundbreaking 1947 text, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. But during his career which began at Fisk University and would end at Duke University, he would publish hundreds of academic articles and 16 books that focused on Southern history and African American life. Born January 2, 1915 in Rentiesville, Oklahoma, Franklin graduated from Fisk University in 1915, earned a master's degree by the age of 21 and was awarded a doctorate in history in 1941 from Harvard University. And while he was clearly a proud husband, father and African-American man, to refer to him simply as a Black historian would be to minimize the impact and significance of his work.

"My challenge was to weave into the fabric of American history enough of the presence of Blacks so that the story of the United States could be told adequately and fairly," he said. And so before and certainly since the publication of his seminal text, continuously updated since its 1947 release and with over three million copies printed to date, Franklin has been about sharing the real deal about America and its greatest challenge: the paradox of race.

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Elizabeth Johnson Harris was born in Augusta, Georgia, in 1867 to parents who had been slaves.

 

 

	Elizabeth Johnson Harris: Life Story
Online Archival Collections Special Collections Library, Duke University
Her 85 page handwritten memoir provides glimpses of her early childhood, of race relations, of her own ambivalence about her place as an African-American in society, and of the importance of religion and education in her life. This on-line collection includes full text of her memoirs as well as several of her poems and vignettes that were published in various newspapers during her lifetime.
Click here to visit the archive

by Isabel Cowles

Toni Morrison grew up in a house of African-American storytellers and loved books. After earning a masters degree in English, she taught for many years. At the age of 35, Morrison decided there was a book she wanted to read but had yet to find—so she wrote it herself. A prolific career ensued, with Morrison winning both the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes for her fiction.

 

Toni Morrison, née Chloe Anthony Wofford, was born on Feb. 18, 1931, the second of four children. Her parents, George and Ramah Wofford, moved to Ohio after growing up in Georgia. Her father was raised in a sharecropping family, but wanted to shield his own family from the segregation that prevailed in the south. Morrison was raised in a house full of art and culture where fairy tales, ghost stories, myth and music prevailed. Storytelling was a Wofford family tradition among the adults and children. The importance of listening and narration helped form Morrison’s understanding of the world and inspired her love of reading.

Her parents encouraged her intellectual curiosity and during her adolescence, Morrison became engrossed by classic literature including the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy and Jane Austen. She graduated from high school with honors and attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. While in college, Morrison changed her name from Chloe to Toni (after her middle name), to make it easier to pronounce. While in college, Morrison was part of the Howard Repertory Theatre, which allowed her to travel throughout the South and witness black America firsthand. In 1953, Morrison graduated from Howard and enrolled in a graduate program at Cornell University. She graduated with a Master of Arts two years later, having submitted a thesis on Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner.

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In 1997, PBS produced a ground breaking interview with the amazing Angela Davis. She reveals great incite into the black political world. The passage of time has not dulled the sharpness and perceptiveness of her comments.

 

Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944, in Birmingham, Alabama) is an American political activist and university professor who was associated with the Black Panther Party for Self Defense and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Davis was also a notable activist during the Civil Rights Movement, and a prominent member and political candidate of the Communist Party USA. In recent years, she no longer identifies as a Communist, but rather a democratic socialist, and is currently a member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. Date of birth: January 26, 1944 (1944-01-26) (age 65) Place of birth: Birmingham, Alabama, USA Movement: Civil Rights Movement, Marxism, Feminism, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, prison-industrial complex abolition, Frankfurt Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund Major organizations: Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, Critical Resistance, Black Panther Party for Self Defense Alma mater: Humboldt University of Berlin (GDR), University of California San Diego, University of Frankfurt (magna cum laude), Brandeis University Influences: Herbert Marcuse, Karl Marx, Huey P. Newton, Jean-Paul Sartre She first achieved nationwide notoriety when a weapon registered in her name was linked to the murder of Judge Harold Haley during an effort to free a black convict who was being tried for the attempted retaliatory murder of a white prison guard who killed three unarmed black inmates. Davis fled underground and was the subject of an intense manhunt. Davis was eventually captured, arrested, tried, and then acquitted in one of the most famous trials in recent U.S. history. Davis is currently a graduate studies Professor of History of Consciousness at the University of California and Presidential Chair at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She works for racial and gender equality, and for gay rights and prison abolition. She is a popular public speaker, nationally and internationally, as well as a founder of the grassroots prison-industrial complex-abolition organization Critical Resistance. Source: Wikipedia

INTERVIEWER: Your mentor, Herbert Marcuse once back in '58, as I recall, said that one of the things that would happen as blacks made gains in the civil rights movement was that there would be the creation of a black bourgeoisie and that's certainly been one of the things that's happened as we look back from the vantage point of 1997. How do you see the role of the black bourgeoisie in the continuing struggle? DAVIS: Actually we've had a black bourgeoisie or the makings of a black bourgeoisie for many more decades.... if we look at one of our great leaders, W.E.B. Du Bois, he was associated with a very minuscule black bourgeoisie in the 19th century so this is not something that is substantively new although the numbers of black people who now count themselves among the black bourgeoisie certainly does make an enormous difference. In a sense the quest for the emancipation of black people in the US has always been a quest for economic liberation which means to a certain extent that the rise of black middle class would be inevitable. What I think is different today is the lack of political connection between the black middle class and the increasing numbers of black people who are more impoverished than ever before.

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Abraham Lincoln: The Great Emancipator

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

 

	Abraham Lincoln with friend and fellow abolitionist Sojourner Truth
From the first days of the Civil War, slaves had acted to secure their own liberty. The Emancipation Proclamation confirmed their insistence that the war for the Union must become a war for freedom. It added moral force to the Union cause and strengthened the Union both militarily and politically. As a milestone along the road to slavery's final destruction, the Emancipation Proclamation has assumed a place among the great documents of human freedom.
National Geographic Feature February 10, 2009
The Emancipation Proclamation	Click on the document to read the entire text

Black, African, Caribbean LGBT achievers recognized during Black History Month

Toronto: Recipients of the 2009 Queering Black History initiative were announced today by Egale Canada and Stop Murder Music (Canada). The initiative recognizes the creative dedication and achievements of Black, African and Caribbean queers in Canada.

“The initiative increases the visibility and presence of Black, African and Caribbean queers in Canada,” says Akim Adé Larcher , Founder of Stop Murder Music (Canada) “It’s the first of its kind in Canada and I’m proud to announce it during Black history month.”

Stop Murder Music (Canada) also recognizes the support of the Community One Foundation in making this initiative possible.

 

 

2009 Queering Black History Recipients Trey Anthony Douglas Stewart Alexis Musanganya Monica Forrester Angela Robertson Nik Redman   Trey Anthony is the award-winning playwright of da Kink in my Hair. Critics have referred to Anthony as “The Oprah of the Canadian theatre scene”! Anthony is also the Executive Producer, Co-creator, and Writer of Global Television’s hit television show “da Kink in my Hair,” which includes the first black lesbian kiss (Episode 108) ever to be broadcast on primetime television. Musanganya is a thirty-five year-old Rwandan-Canadian who has been living in Montréal for the last ten years. He works as a Webmaster for the office of Public Consultation in Montréal. In 2004, Musanganya founded Arc en ciel d’Afrique, which is an LGBT community organization that connects LGBT immigrants of African and Caribbean origin living in Québec.

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By Tracy Gibson
Edited by D. Kevin McNeir

Bayard Rustin (March 17, 1912 - August 24, 1987) was an African-American civil rights activist whose name has become synonymous with the quest for justice, freedom and equality. Later in life he became an advocate for gay and lesbian causes but would suffer constant attacks because of his sexual orientation.


 

Before his death he said, "Twenty-five, thirty years ago, the barometer of human rights in the United States were black people.
That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regard to human rights is now those who consider themselves gay, homosexual, lesbian."
The West Chester, PA native graduated from West Chester High School before matriculating at Wilberforce University in Ohio and later, Cheyney State University in Pennsylvania where he was a standout on the debate team and a gifted vocalist. He was, however, asked to leave Cheyney in the winter of 1936 for misbehaving.

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By Correspondent, Victor Kerney

Los Angeles - For the first time in years, the Black LGBT community marched at the 24th Annual Martin Luther King Day Parade in South Central, Los Angeles.

After the disastrous Prop 8, three LGBT groups: Here To Stay Coalition, National Black Justice Coalition and The Jordan/Rustin Coalition got together and decided it was time to put a face to the LGBT community of color.

 

Yardenna Aaron, founder of Here To Stay Coalition, knew something had to be done. “People needed to see that we are here and we care about our community,” she said. “Our visibility is very important on this historic day.” Once the group was approved to march, they immediately sent information out from their websites, inviting any and everyone to join them for this historic event. Once I saw the invitation, I knew I had to be there. During the parade, we realized the significance of each step we were taking. We were telling the Black community that yes; there is a Los Angeles Black LGBT community. We are just like you and we are not going anywhere. However, as we marched, a few of us became a bit nervous as much as excited. “I realized that I was coming out to my people, and that frighten me and inspired me at the same time,” a fellow marcher stated. The crowd showed nothing but love for us. Thousands of people were able to see and hear us as we walked roughly two miles from Crenshaw to Western Avenue down Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. I can’t tell you how the smiles and cheers just encouraged everyone to move on. Of course there were some people who were not happy to see us, but the interesting part was how the crowd around them responded. Many people chastised the ‘haters’ and quickly turned it around. Many of us were moved by this gesture. This was truly a momentous event. We hope we inspired others to take a stand and possibly join us next year.

By Randal Maurice Jelks
History News Service

It was a momentous day in 2007 when the ground breaking for the monument to Martin Luther King, Jr., occurred. Erecting a monument for Martin Luther King, Jr. on the National Mall in Washington will honor a great American. However, when it is built the powerful message that King delivered to his contemporaries will be diluted by effusive rhetoric obscuring historical reality.

 

The reality is that Martin Luther King held revolutionary ideals rooted in the 18th-century vision of freedom and equality and grounded by a Christian theological vision of social justice. With these ideals, he and his fellow civil rights workers intentionally created national discomfort in cities, north as well as south, throughout the 1960s. Holding true to his principles is what compelled him to take a deeply reflective antiwar stance in the era of the Vietnam War. King articulated the great revolutionary hope that human beings might one day live in a world of individuality, mutuality and respect.

King's ideals were also derived from a human rights tradition rooted in the long fight against slavery. He recognized that many before him had paved the way for him and his contemporaries to take up the fight for freedom and equality. He felt duty-bound to keep antiracist protests and democratic freedoms alive in the United States even as the forces of Cold War geopolitics were distorting them in the greater part of the world, in the name of political freedom. We should all be mindful that King carried on the tradition of African American political activism that believed in the promise of democracy more deeply than the original framers of the Constitution had intended. His abiding faith in those ideals cost him dearly.

He sacrificed his life to continuous political struggle. His dream sometimes became a nightmare and was met with frustrated reactions that at times were vitriolic, scornful and violent. These responses were sanctioned by law and held in place by custom. It is sad to recollect that most of the American public, either because of fear or complacency, accepted the forms of inequalities that had been heaped upon racial minorities in our country as though they were ordained by God. King, however, sustained a utopian vision of what life could be like for all Americans and people around the world if national leaders and common citizens alike exercised our political will for the common good.

King and his generation did not fully succeed in their efforts to eradicate poverty and end racial disparities in the United States. Nevertheless, they broke the yoke of America's version of racial apartheid, which makes the United States a better country today than at the time of his death nearly 40 years ago. The lesson the King memorial must call to mind when it is unveiled, lest it become merely another sculpture depicting a great person long dead, is that every generation must wage a political struggle to sustain and gain its democratic freedoms.

By Ocean Morisset

I was asked by the Curators at the Leslie Lohman Gallery in SOHO to participate in their upcoming exhibition: Imaginary Portraits, Gay Lovers in History, which opens November 18, 2008 from 6-8pm. While I assumed there would be a healthy amount of artwork depicting lovers from Ancient Greece, the Romans, and even Asian lovers throughout history, I was challenged with coming up with something compelling that was distinctly Africentric.

A quick search on the Internet yielded fascinating information about the Azande Warriors, a tribe of North Central Africa.

 

I was awe-struck when I learned that Homosexual marriage was an Azande traditional practice! According to extensive research and fieldwork by the British Anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard, the Azande date back to the early 1600's in southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Unmarried Azande warriors routinely took on boy-wives, who would be between the ages of twelve and twenty. They would purchase these boys in exchange for spears, and their bond would be publicly acknowledged. The boys did not cook, but would fetch cooked food, and would perform other services for their husbands. In return, the husbands gave the boy-wives pretty ornaments, and he and the boy addressed one another as "my love" and my "lover". Interestingly enough, the Azande expressed disgust at the mention of anal penetration, so sex was had in between the boy's thighs.

Who knew?? I certainly didn’t! I set out to find my models for the shoot that would accurately depict a portrait of the man/boy-wife relationship of an ancient Azande Warrior. One of the models (Kobi), I had already known, but I put a call out on Craigslist looking for the young boy-wife "character", and got quite a few responses before settling on Jhaye. Both Kobi and Jhaye were the perfect match to how I had envisioned the African features of the models and the overall "look" and mood of the image. The shoot took place in a non-descript section of Central Park on a chilly September day, as we quickly approached the submission deadline. The models were troopers for posing wearing only loincloths in the wind and chilly weather, all for the sake of art! Thanks you guys!!!

The exhibition runs from November 18th thru December 20th. Note: There will also be paintings, drawings, installations and other art including photography, reflecting this theme, by various artists at this group exhibition. Imaginary Portraits, Gay Lovers in History The Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation 26 Wooster Street, New York, NY 10013 (Between Grand & Canal) Hours: 12 Noon - 6pm, Tue - Sat Closed: Sun & Mon & all major holidays Phone: 212-431-2609 Fax: 212-431-2666

Sojourner Truth, an abolitionist, women’s rights activist, emancipated slave and itinerant evangelist, became arguably the most well known 19th Century African American woman. Born Isabella Baumfree around 1791, from a young age, this enslaved girl was bought and sold several times by slaveowners in New York.

Sojourner Truth

She married an enslaved man named Thomas, and together they had five children. On July 4, 1827, the New York State Legislature emancipated her, and she moved with her son to New York City, where she worked as a live-in domestic. She became involved in a religious cult known as the Kingdom, whose leader, Matthias, beat her and assigned her the heaviest workload.

The turning point in Truth’s life came on June 1, 1843, when she adopted a new name, Sojourner, and headed east for the purpose of “exhorting the people to embrace Jesus, and refrain from sin.” For several years, she preached at camp meetings and lived in a utopian community. She also toured the public speaking circuit on behalf of abolition and women’s rights, and in 1851, she gave her infamous “Ain’t I A Woman” speech at a Women’s Rights Convention. The plight of freed slaves then caught her attention, and she championed the idea of a colony for freed slaves in the West, where they would have a chance to become self-supporting and self-reliant. She lived her later years in a Spiritualist community in Harmonia, Michigan.

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African American Jack Johnson, defeated Canadian Tommy Burns in 1908 in the World Boxing Championship. This initiated the quest to find a "Great White Hope" to defeat Johnson. James Jeffries, a leading white fighter, came out of retirement to answer the challenge. Johnson won their fight on July 4, 1910.

 

News of Jeffries's defeat ignited numerous incidents of white violence against blacks. However, black poet William Waring Cuney captured the exuberant African American reaction in his poem, "My Lord, What a Morning":

O my Lord
What a morning,
O my Lord,
What a feeling,
When Jack Johnson
Turned Jim Jeffries'
Snow-white face
to the ceiling

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From the Washington Post, Jun 15, 2005,

As an African American, Richard Bingham has always felt some ambivalence about the Fourth of July.So when he learned six years ago about Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when the last U.S. slaves were notified of their independence, he hosted a party to share food, fellowship and history with his neighbors in Prince George’s County. He’s repeated it each year since.

They grilled meat, a tradition started in Texas, where Juneteenth originated. They prayed over shackles and chains provided by a historian friend for ancestors who had been enslaved. Bingham dramatized “The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro,” Frederick Douglass’s impassioned commentary on the hypocrisy of the holiday.

That small gathering has grown into Prince George’s first countywide celebration this year of Juneteenth Independence Day, a once-obscure commemoration that has spread to more than two dozen states and a national program today that is expected to draw thousands to the Lincoln Memorial.

“The Fourth of July was America’s independence day, not ours,” said Bingham, 50, of Landover, a trainer with the Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commission. “It wasn’t until almost a century later that the nation finally realized that ‘We need to let these folks be free, too.’

“Juneteenth Day,” he added, ” is our independence day.”

A combination of the words “June” and “nineteenth,” Juneteenth was born out of a spontaneous celebration that erupted June 19, 1865, when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger landed in Galveston, declared U.S. sovereignty over Texas and officially notified the state’s 250,000 slaves that they were free. That was 30 months after President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation.

The anniversary, traditionally celebrated on the third Saturday of the month, is now observed formally in 17 states, and several others have recognized it through gubernatorial proclamations or legislation, officials said. Texas made it a paid state holiday in 1980. New York Gov. George E. Pataki (R) last year signed a law establishing Juneteenth Freedom Day. The District passed legislation in 2003 recognizing Juneteenth. Maryland and Virginia do not formally recognize it, though celebrations are planned in Alexandria, Montgomery County and Southern Maryland.

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By Mary Perez

It was 45 years ago Thursday,  Medgar Evers was assassinated outside his Jackson home just hours after leaving the Coast, and soon after, President Kennedy gave a televised speech on civil rights.

Evers, the field agent for the Mississippi NAACP, was on the Coast a day earlier, planning a wade-in with Dr. Gilbert Mason for June 16, 1963. They hoped the protest would lead to blacks being allowed access to Mississippi's public beaches.

Evers was shot shortly after midnight on June 12 as he got out of his car and dragged himself to the back door of his home, where he died in front of his wife and three children.

"Every year this time," said Robert L. Stepney, who fell quiet before remembering the anniversary of his friend's death. He thinks about Evers, his college roommate for three years, and said, "You don't have many good friends."

The two met at Alcorn State University, where Evers went after serving in an all-black Army regiment in Europe during World War II. Evers was a quarterback on the football team and Stepney was his favorite wide receiver.

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By Justin Smith, Sr. Corespondent

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother, Louise Norton Little, was a homemaker occupied with the family's eight children. His father, Earl Little, was an outspoken Baptist minister and avid supporter of Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. Earl's civil rights activism prompted death threats from the white supremacist organization Black Legion, forcing the family to relocate twice before Malcolm's fourth birthday.

 

Regardless of the Little's efforts to elude the Legion, in 1929 their Lansing, Michigan home was burned to the ground. Two years later, Earl's body was found lying across the town's trolley tracks. Police ruled both incidents as accidents, but the Little's were certain that members of the Black Legion were responsible. Louise suffered emotional breakdown several years after the death of her husband and was committed to a mental institution. Her children were split up amongst various foster homes and orphanages.

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The first African-American Marine in recorded history was a slave known as John Martin or "Keto," who served during the American Revolution. Recruited into the Continental service without his owner's knowledge in April 1776, Martin served aboard the brig Reprisal until October 1777, when the ship sank off the banks of Newfoundland, losing the entire crew save the cook.

Breaking a tradition of 167 years, the U.S Marine Corps started enlisting Negroes on June 1, 1942. The first class of 1200 Negro volunteers began their training 3months later as members of the 51st Composite Defense Battalion at Montford Point. Photo from the collection of the National Archives.

Two other Marines identified as "Negro" were listed in the Continental Marines, and at least 10 other African Americans served as Marines in states' navies. There were probably others whose race was nor identified.

Following the Revolutionary War, African Americans were barred from enlisting in the Marines. It would take more than 160 years for a U.S. President to bring on another revolution: the beginning of the end of racial discrimination in military policy.

By the start of World War II, African Americans were being admitted into the Army and Navy in segregated units. On June 25, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 8802, which established the Fair Employment Practices Commission and created a policy of non-discrimination in all branches of the service.

On April 7, 1942, the Secretary of the Navy announced that the Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps would soon allow Blacks to enlist, and later specified that a battalion of 900 Blacks would be formed by the Marine Corps.

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In the roll up to potentially electing the first African American President, it is import to review how we got there. Holding high office in the United States government has been illusive for African Americans. In all of U.S. history there have only been 5 black Senators and never more than one in the Senate at a given time.

 

Hiram Revels

Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first African American senator in 1870.  Born in North Carolina in 1827, Revels attended Knox College in Illinois and later served as minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland.  He raised two black regiments during the Civil War and fought at the battle of Vicksburg in Mississippi.  The Mississippi state legislature sent him to the U.S. Senate during Reconstruction where he became an outspoken opponent of racial segregation.  Although Revels served in the Senate for just a year, he broke new ground for African Americans in Congress.  (Photo: Library of Congress)

Blanche K. Bruce

Born into slavery in 1841, Blanche K. Bruce spent his childhood years in Virginia where he received his earliest education from the tutor hired to teach his master's son.  At the dawn of the Civil War, Bruce escaped slavery and traveled north to  begin a distinguished career in education and politics. Elected to the Senate in 1874 by the Mississippi state legislature, he served from 1875 to 1881. In 2002, the Senate commissioned a new portrait of Bruce, now on display in the U.S. Capitol.  (Photo: Library of Congress)

 

Edward Brooke

The first African American elected to the Senate by popular vote, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts served two full terms, from 1967 to 1979. Born in Washington, D.C. in 1919, Brooke graduated from Howard University before serving in the United States Army during World War II.  After the war, he received a law degree from Boston University. During his Senate career he championed the causes of low-income housing and an increased minimum wage, and promoted commuter rail and mass transit systems. He also worked tirelessly to promote racial equality in the South.  (Photo: Senate Historical Office)

 

Carol Moseley Braun

Some called 1992 the "Year of the Woman." More women than ever before were elected to political office in November of that year, and five of them came to the U.S. Senate.  Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois not only joined that class on January 3, 1993, but also became the first African American woman ever to serve as U.S. Senator.  During her Senate career, Moseley Braun sponsored progressive education bills and campaigned for gun control. Moseley Braun left the Senate in January of 1999, and soon after became the U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand, a position she held until 2001. Moseley Braun ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2004. (Photo: Senate Historical Office)

 

Barack Obama

Barack Obama (D-IL)

Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4th, 1961. He received his earliest education in Hawaii and Indonesia, and then graduated from Columbia University in 1983. He moved to Chicago in 1985 to work for a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods. In 1991, Obama graduated from Harvard Law School where he was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. He served in the Illinois state senate from 1997 to 2004. Elected to the United States Senate in November of 2004, he took the oath of office and became the fifth African American to serve in the Senate on January 3, 2005.

 

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New book shows irony how the Nation's capital was built by slaves

By Neil Foote

The nation is riddled in debt. Elected officials are split among party lines, blaming each other for the inefficiencies of government. Racial politics are at the heart of the on-going debate about the future of the country. The public is disillusioned by the ‘back room' politics driving decision-making.

Sound familiar? That was 1790. Just 14 years after the Revolutionary War, this ‘great' nation was struggling with many of the same issues it is now. In his newly published book, "Washington, The Making of the American Capital" (Amistad/HarperCollins Publishers Imprint, 27.95, 384 pp) author Fergus M. Bordewich offers an insightful, thorough and ironic picture of America.

As the nation chooses what is likely to be its first African-American Democratic presidential nominee and potential president, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) would be making history in many ways. He would move full-time into a city that once was a bustling city for slave trade, and live in a house built by slaves.

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While somewhat bizzare, Akhenaten was one of the most influencial, significant Pharoahs.

Controversial in death as in life, Akhenaten was first known as Amenhotep IV. He was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. He is especially noted for attempting to compel the Egyptian population in the monotheistic worship of Aten, although there are doubts as to how successful he was at this. Never the less, to some scholars Akhenaten is considered the father of the western concept of monotheism... the worship of one god.

He was born to Amenhotep III and his Chief Queen Tiye and was their younger son. Akhenaten was not originally designated as the successor to the throne until the untimely death of his older brother, Thutmose.

Amenhotep IV succeeded his father after Amenhotep III's death at the end of his 38-year reign, possibly after a short coregency lasting between either 1 to 2 years. Akhenaten's chief wife was Nefertiti, made world-famous by the discovery of her exquisitely moulded and painted bust, now displayed in the Altes Museum of Berlin, and among the most recognised works of art surviving from the ancient world.

The appeal of the Amarna period

Some people are drawn by interest in Akhenaten himself or his religion, others by a fascination with the unusual art which appeals strongly to the tastes of modern viewers and provides a sense of immediacy rarely felt with traditional Egyptian representation. The radical changes Akhenaten made have led to his characterisation as the 'first individual in human history' and this in turn has led to endless speculation about his background and motivation; he is cast as hero or villain according to the viewpoint of the commentator.

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By Alex Dominguez

BALTIMORE - Akhenaten wasn't the most manly pharaoh, even though he fathered at least a half-dozen children. In fact, his form was quite feminine, which has puzzled experts for years. And he was a bit of an egghead.

Dr. Irwin Braverman, a Yale University physician who analyzed images of Akhenaten, has a new theory on why. He'll be presenting his findings at an annual conference Friday at the University of Maryland School of Medicine on the ailments and deaths of historic figures.

The female form was due to a genetic mutation that caused the pharaoh's body to convert more male hormones to female hormones than needed, Braverman believes. And Akhenaten's head was misshapen because of a condition in which skull bones fuse at an early age. The pharaoh had "an androgynous appearance. He had a female physique with wide hips and breasts, but he was male and he was fertile and he had six daughters," Braverman said. "But nevertheless, he looked like he had a female physique." Braverman, who sizes up the health of individuals based on portraits, teaches a class at Yale's medical school that uses paintings from the university's Center for British Art to teach observation skills to first-year students. For his study of Akhenaten, he used statues and carvings.

Akhenaten (ah-keh-NAH-ten), best known for introducing a revolutionary form of monotheism to ancient Egypt, reigned in the mid-1300s B.C. He was married to Nefertiti, and Tutankhamun, also known as King Tut, may have been his son or half brother.

Egyptologist and archaeologist Donald B. Redford was interested in Braverman's findings and looked forward to the conference but said he currently supports an older theory. He believes that Akhenaten had Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder marked by lengthened features, including fingers and the face.

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