Open Letter To The Republican Party

Open Letter To The Republican Party

The 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation

Republican President Abraham Lincoln played the “Race Card” to win …

This classic commentary on the Emancipation Proclamation, “Abe Lincoln’s Last Card; or, Rouge et Noir” (Red and Black), created by Englishman John Tenniel for the London Punch (a British weekly magazine of humour and satire, Volume 43, October 18th, 1862, p. 168.), was inspired after the London Times stated that Lincoln had played his “last card” in issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. Notice that Lincoln is a bit pudgy around the waist, suggesting that he is out of shape and not fit to fight. Also notice Lincoln’s hair is in points, suggesting the horns of a devil. Apparently the London Punch viewed the Emancipation Proclamation as the gesture of a wily but weary and desperate gambler driven to engage his last resource. ¹

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Emancipation Proclamation

“In his heart of hearts he loathed and hated slavery …” — Frederick Douglass ²

Republican President Abraham Lincoln considered the Emancipation Proclamation to be the heart and soul of his legacy: “I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper. If my name ever goes into history it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.” ³ — Abraham Lincoln, Thursday, January 1st, 1863

Fearing the Emancipation Proclamation would be received as the desperate act of a Commander-In-Chief losing the war, Secretary of State William Seward asked the president to wait for a Union victory before issuing the order.⁴ Two (2) months later, when Union troops rejected Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s invasion of Maryland at Antietam Creek on September 17th, 1862, Lincoln saw his opportunity.⁵ On September 22nd, 1862, President Lincoln issued his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation,⁶ giving the South one hundred (100) days to reverse their rebellion or face losing their slaves. On both sides of the Missouri Compromise Line, Lincoln’s order was condemned and cursed as a usurpation of property rights (i.e., the right to own and sell slaves) and a calculated effort to start race war.⁷ Nevertheless, when the South refused to relent, President Lincoln, kept his word and issued the final Emancipation Proclamation on Thursday, January 1st, 1863.⁸ With this unnumbered Executive Order,⁹ President Lincoln took a definitive stand on the most contentious issue in American history and clearly redefined the Union’s goals and strategy. By playing the “Race Card” President Lincoln sounded the death knell for both slavery and the confederate resistance. Still the President wasn’t done. Please notice how skillfully Lincoln chose his words in the final version of the Emancipation Proclamation in an effort to affect only those states still in rebellion as of Thursday, January 1st, 1863 ¹⁰ and at the same time shape the framing of the Civil War’s end game document (i.e., the 14th Amendment to United States Constitution).

Playing The Race Card In 1863

It Was Not About Racism. It Was About Winning!

“Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder, and bullets in his pockets, and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States.” ¹¹ — Frederick Douglass

In 1857, Hinton Rowan Helper (1829-1909), a rabid racist and the son of a western North Carolina farmer, published one of the most controversial books ever written about slavery. In his book entitled “The Impending Crisis of the South,” Helper argued that slavery was incompatible with economic progress. Using statistics drawn from the 1850 census, Helper maintained that the North was growing far faster than the South and that slavery was the cause of the South’s economic failure. Helper believed slavery doomed the South because it was inefficient, wasteful, degraded labor, inhibited urbanization, thwarted industrialization, and stifled progress.¹² Not only did slavery choke commerce and malign manufacturing, it also impacted the South’s ability to fight the war. As the slave population increased, so did the demand for the human resources (i.e., fighting men), financial resources (i.e., gold) and natural resources (i.e., land) to manage the very real threat of an internal rebellion from a very hostile slave population. This is clearly seen in the decennial census tables below.¹³

As the slave population increased, so increased the inevitability of the North’s victory and Lincoln knew it. President Lincoln had finally come around to understand what Frederick Douglass was advising and knew all along (i.e., that Black slaves had “a deeper interest in the defeat and humiliation of the rebels than all others.“).¹⁴ So in an effort to win the war, seize the moral high ground and slow down the momentum the property rights advocates in the North were building up for the South, Lincoln played the Race Card, executively ordered the Emancipation Proclamation, enlisted, equipped, empowered and earnestly encouraged former slaves to fight for the North and in little more than two (2) years won the war.

Open Letter To The Republican Party

I’m Hearing The GOP Is Dead In Black America

“By abandoning their owners, coming uninvited into Union lines, and offering their assistance as laborers, pioneers, guides, and spies, slaves forced federal soldiers at the lowest level to recognize their importance to the Union’s success. That understanding traveled quickly up the chain of command. In time, it became evident even to the most obtuse federal commanders that every slave who crossed into Union lines was a double gain: one subtracted from the Confederacy and one added to the Union. The slaves’ resolute determination to secure their liberty converted many White Americans to the view that the security of the Union depended upon the destruction of slavery.” ¹⁵ — Ira Berlin

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It’s The Fortieth (40) Year Since Roe And Doe

In The 150th Year Since The Emancipation Proclamation

“The Emancipation Proclamation, one of the most important documents in the nation’s history, led to the greatest freeing of people in history until the liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe in World War II.” ¹⁶ — Rick Moriarty

It’s clear, the Emancipation Proclamation redefined the war, altered end-game goals, immediately freed thousands of slaves in Union held territories of the South and offered freedom to all slaves as the Union Army pushed deeper into the South towards the Confederate capital in Richmond, Virginia.¹⁷ It’s clear the Emancipation Proclamation shrewdly stayed the hand of foreign powers such as Britain and France who were considering supporting the South, but reconsidered because of the North’s victory at Antietam, as many in Europe were against slavery and many more were reluctant to intervene on the side of a lost cause.¹⁸ It’s clear that the Emancipation Proclamation set the stage for improved race relations in the nation (i.e., the passage of the Thirteenth (13th) Amendment to the United States Constitution that formally abolished slavery),¹⁹ Reconstruction in the South ²⁰ and laid a sure foundation (Isaiah 28:16) for the Fourteenth (14th) Amendment to the United States Constitution that passionately, purposefully and resolutely established PERSONHOOD.²¹ It’s clear that maintaining an increasing slave population, managing desertions, defeats and casualties, and mooring morale while fighting a foe whose numbers were increasing from the inrush of former Black slaves was more than an impending crisis for the South. It’s clear that President Lincoln’s cabinet of advisors did not initially support the Emancipation Proclamation.²² It’s clear that emancipating the slaves was not unanimously supported in the North as the Honorable William Allen, the Democratic Representative from Ohio vehemently argued against a bill calling for the use of Negro soldiers in his speech to the House of Representatives on Monday, February 2nd, 1863.²³ Congressman Allen argued that such legislation would “destroy the relation of MASTER and SLAVE in the slaveholding States” ²⁴ and that Lincoln’s Republican Party “has presented for the admiration of the American people the Negro in nearly every attitude which it was thought might win popular favor, and the last act in the great ‘drama’ is the Negro playing soldier.” ²⁵ It’s clear that even in the North, racism was alive and well. Yes, it’s clear that the Emancipation Proclamation was the “signature moment” of President Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party’s legacy. However, it’s also very clear that as of Sunday, January 1st, 2013, we’ve entered both the forieth (40) year of legalized abortion and the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and thus far the Republican Party has done NOTHING to celebrate or draw attention to its illustrious history. I wonder why? With more than fifty-five (55) million lives lost to legalize abortion thus far.²⁶ With the ratio of United States abortions to battle deaths in all United States wars being eighty-four (84) to one (1) in favor of abortions.²⁷ With over fifty-six (56) trillion dollars of total United States Gross Domestic Product (GDP) lost to abortion since 1967.²⁸ With an estimated four hundred (400) trillion dollars of United States Gross Domestic Product (GDP) lost by the year 2040 if abortion continues.²⁹ With seventy-one percent (71%) of the Hispanic vote, seventy-three percent (73%) of the Asian vote and ninety-three percent (93%) of the Black vote going to Democratic President Barack Hussein Obama II.³⁰ With College Republicans abandoning their Party’s platform planks on abortion,^31,32 contraception (i.e., abortifacients),³³ same-sex marriage³⁴ and on record applauding Planned Parenthood’s rebranding and public relations offensive against life at conception as “especially effective with young people, leading many of those who self-identify as Pro-Life to support the abortion giant.³⁵ With a recent survey finding nearly half of those college-aged being completely unaware that Planned Parenthood (the largest abortion provider in the entire world) performs abortions.³⁶ I cannot help but wonder why the Republican Party has not learned from the 1st Republican President of the United States ³⁷ and realized that playing the Race Card by enlisting, equipping, empowering and earnestly encouraging Black Americans to fight for the eternal and transcendent values of Life and Liberty in its platform is the empirical road to victory. Hmmmmm … now that I think of it, there have been seventeen (17) Republican Presidents of the United States since Abraham Lincoln. Hmmmmm … perhaps, it’s really just a small wonder why the The Republican Party hasn’t celebrated the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation thus far after all. ^38,39 Hmmmmm … maybe, if I’m honest with myself, I really don’t have to wonder why. Maybe I know why. Maybe we all do.

Brothers, we need to talk.

Reference(s):

01. Rufus Rockwell Wilson, Lincoln in Caricature, “ABE LINCOLN’S LAST CARD; OR, ROUGE-ET-NOIR” October 18, 186, History Gallery (http://bit.ly/11xQ4ff).
02. Frederick Douglass, “Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings”, Philip S. Foner, Yuval Taylor, Chicago Review Press, April 1st, 2000, p. 621 (http://bit.ly/12EBKIw).
03. Abraham Lincoln, “The Emancipation Proclamation”, by Daniel J. Vermilya, Antietam National Battlefield (http://1.usa.gov/S3TKnv).
04. Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, “Emancipation Proclamation Draft” (http://bit.ly/11V0d4C).
05. Antietam Creek, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/11unE59).
06. American Originals, “Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, 1862” (http://1.usa.gov/b8BmkI).
07. Seth Kaller, “An Evolving Stance on Emancipation” (http://bit.ly/118zt5v).
08. Emancipation Proclamation, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/QO4AJg).
09. List Of United States Federal Executive Orders, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/Sb70Yi).
10. American History, “Abraham Lincoln: The Emancipation Proclamation 1863”, University of Groningen – Humanities Computing (http://bit.ly/12kIkCw).
11. Civil War Defenses of Washing | District of Columbia, “The United States Colored Troops and the Defenses of Washington”, National Park Service (http://1.usa.gov/sGN3X9).
12. Hinton Rowan Helper, “The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It”, Electronic Edition, 1829-1909, Documenting the American South, Copyright 2004 by the University Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, all rights reserved. (http://bit.ly/zPI6Vi).
13. John Joseph Lalor, SLAVERY, Cyclopaedia of Political Science, Political Economy, and of the Political History of the United States, vol. 3 Oath – Zollverein [1881], Online Library of Liberty, A project of Liberty Fund, Inc. (http://bit.ly/xCDm31).
14. Frederick Douglass, “Selected Addresses of Frederick Douglass: An African American Heritage Book”, p. 55. (http://bit.ly/14V3TFT).
15. Seth Kaller, “The Myth of Non-Emancipation” (http://bit.ly/12kKMc8) via Ira Berlin, American historian, a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland (http://bit.ly/12EFGJ9).
16. Rick Moriarty, “Historic Lincoln document that changed America coming to Syracuse” (http://bit.ly/PFjRPx).
17. Ibid., Seth Kaller, “The Myth of Non-Emancipation”
18. Civil War Trust, “10 Facts About The Emancipation Proclamation” (http://bit.ly/15idIAQ).
19. Mark Whittington, “The Emancipation Proclamation Turns 150 Years Old” (http://yhoo.it/14V75Bo).
20. Reconstruction Era, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/13tTzEi).
21. The Human Life Review, “Human at Conception: The 14th Amendment & the Acquisition of Personhood” 2007 Summer (http://bit.ly/14V7i7m).
22. Ibid., Civil War Trust
23. Library of Congress, “Historical Analysis and Interpretation: William Allen’s Speech” (http://1.usa.gov/11utIKI).
24. Ibid., Library of Congress
25. Ibid., Library of Congress
26. Dennis M. Howard, “The Abortion Index”, The Movement for a Better America, Inc. (http://bit.ly/9FPAN1).
27. Ibid., Dennis M. Howard
28. Ibid., Dennis M. Howard
29. Ibid., Dennis M. Howard
30. Daniel Greenfield, “One Graph That Shows Which Party Really Looks Like America”, November 13th, 2012 (http://bit.ly/12j154o).
31. Kirsten Andersen, “College Republicans to GOP: Back off Planned Parenthood, Contraception, Same-Sex ‘Marriage'”, LifeSiteNews.Com (http://bit.ly/12Gb22f).
32. 2012 Republican Party Platform, “The Sanctity and Dignity of Human Life“, Republican National Committee (http://bit.ly/QPSjnO).
33. 2012 Republican Party Platform, “Supporting Federal Healthcare Research and Development“, Republican National Committee (http://bit.ly/PZPrZ2).
34. 2012 Republican Party Platform, “Preserving and Protecting Traditional Marriage“, Republican National Committee (http://bit.ly/RWa4c5).
35. Kirsten Andersen, “College Republicans to GOP: Back off Planned Parenthood, Contraception, Same-Sex ‘Marriage'”, LifeSiteNews.Com (http://bit.ly/12Gb22f).
36. Kristan Hawkins, “SFLA Releases Poll Results on Young People, Abortion, and the 2012 Election”, Students for Life of America (SFLA), June 22nd, 2012 (http://bit.ly/KZHYVQ).
37. Who’s Who Republican Presidents, “Republican Presidents of the United States” (http://bit.ly/MWS8pf).
38. Associated Press (AP), “Bible Backed Slavery, Says A Lawmaker“, The New York Times, May 10th, 1996 (http://bit.ly/10cgc4g)
39. Associated Press (AP), “Slavery Slip Costs State Senator” The Victoria Advocate, May 13th, 1996 (http://bit.ly/11zrgDD).

Open Letter To Black America: The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks

Open Letter To Black America

The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks

For the first time in history, human cells are replicated, outside the body …

Henrietta Lacks’ cells (i.e., “HeLa” cells) were essential in developing the polio vaccine
and were used in scientific landmarks such as cloning, gene mapping and in vitro fertilization. ¹

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Henrietta Lacks

[ George Otto ] “Gey [ pronounced Guy ] took any cells he could get his hands on — he called himself ‘the world’s most famous vulture, feeding on human specimens almost constantly.'” ² — Rebecca Skloot

Henrietta Lacks (Monday, August 1st, 1920–Thursday, October 4th, 1951) was a poor Black American tobacco farmer and mother of five children, from southern Virginia who contracted cervical cancer at the age of thirty (30) and died from the same cancer at the age of thirty-one (31).³ In 1950 the great-granddaughter of slaves walked into the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland complaining of abnormal bleeding.⁴ Soon Henrietta Lacks was being treated for cervical cancer at Hopkins. While under anesthesia, Dr. Lawrence Wharton, Jr. (the “Hopkins Surgeon On Duty” that morning), without her knowing and entirely unrelated to her treatment, took a piece of her cancerous tumor and literally sent it down the hall to fellow scientists who (without success) were trying to grow human cells in culture.⁵ For years, scientist had been trying to keep human cells alive in the laboratory to no avail,⁶ but all of those years of utter futility were about to come to an end. The missing element and the most critical tool in testing was here at last. No one knows why, but Henrietta’s cells would not die.⁷ In the Tissue Culture Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, laboratory scientist George Otto Gey (again pronounced Guy) cultured and created an immortal cell line for medical research.⁸ Today, this is very well known as the HeLa cell line. Henrietta’s cells were essential in developing the Polio Vaccine and used without exception in far-reaching, ground breaking and cutting edge scientific landmark research such as Molecular Cloning (i.e., the replication of recombinant DNA molecules within host organisms), Genome Mapping (i.e., the creation of a genetic map assigning DNA fragments to chromosomes) and In Vitro Fertilization (i.e., IVF or the process by which an egg is fertilized by sperm outside the body in a laboratory).⁹ For the next sixty (60) years, HeLa cells were both inexhaustible and indispensable to advances in medical science.¹⁰

The Demand For HeLa Cells

“I’ve tried to imagine how she’d [ Henrietta Lacks ] feel knowing that her cells went up in the first space missions to see what would happen to human cells in zero gravity, or that they helped with some of the most important advances in medicine; the Polio vaccine, Chemotherapy, Cloning, Gene Mapping, In Vitro Fertilization.”¹¹ — Rebecca Skloot

The demand for the HeLa cells was unprecedented. Once Henrietta’s cells were put into mass production, HeLa cells have been mailed to scientists around the world for “research into cancer, HIV-AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances and incalculable other scientific pursuits”.¹² Scientists have grown some twenty (20) tons¹³ of Henrietta’s cells and there are virtually eleven thousand (11,000) patents involving HeLa cells.¹⁴ According to Sarah Zielinski HeLa of the Smithsonian.com, “HeLa cells were the first human biological materials ever bought and sold, which helped launch a multi-billion dollar industry.”¹⁵ According to Jab Abumrad, host and creator of the award winning radio show Radiolab, “the cells from this one tumor [i.e., Henrietta Lacks’ cancerous tumor] would spawn a multi-billion dollar industry and become a foundation of modern science leading to breakthroughs in Gene Mapping, Cloning and Fertility and helping to discover how viruses work and how cancer develops (among a million other things).”¹⁶ According to Michael A. Rogers, author, futurist and columnist for MSNBC.com, “the growth of HeLa by a researcher at the hospital helped answer the demands of the 10,000 who marched for a cure to Polio shortly before Lacks’ death.”¹⁷ According to award-winning writer, journalist and teacher Rebecca Skloot, author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks“, Henrietta’s cells “were the first cells ever commercialized. HeLa cells are still the most widely used cells in the world. You cannot overestimate how important HeLa cells have been.”¹⁸

Henrietta’s Family Lacks

“Everybody always saying Henrietta Lacks donated those cells. She didn’t donate nothing. They took them and didn’t ask. What really would upset Henrietta is the fact that Dr. Gey [ George Otto Gey ] never told the family anything — we didn’t know nothing about those cells and he didn’t care. That just rubbed us the wrong way. I just kept asking everybody, ‘Why didn’t they say anything to the family?’ They knew how to contact us! If Dr. Gey wasn’t dead, I think I would have killed him myself.”¹⁹ — Bobbette Lacks

“I almost feel raped, like the family feels raped … they did it, nobody told it.”²⁰ — Bobbette Lacks

David “Day” and Henrietta Lacks had five (5) children, Lawrence Lacks. Elsie Lacks, David “Sonny” Lacks, Jr., Deborah (Lacks) Pullum and Zakariyya Bari Abdul Rahman (born Joseph Lacks).²¹ Understanding that David and Henrietta’s family lived in abject poverty most of their married lives.²² Understanding that Zakariyya, one of her sons, was homeless and living on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland.²³ Understanding that Henrietta’s middle child Sonny, was one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000.00) in debt after bypass surgery.²⁴ Consider this: The family whose wife and mother’s cells changed medical history forever, literally giving birth to a multi-billion dollar industry, cannot afford medical insurance. Okay, let’s really get the picture. No medical coverage. No money. No help. No answers. No recognition and in Zakariyya’s case, No place to stay. However and perhaps the most difficult cross to bear was the fact that their mother (until 2010), was buried in an unmarked grave.²⁵ Although the family believes Henrietta was buried within a few feet of her mother’s gravesite in “Lackstown” (a rural part of Clover in Halifax County, Virginia), her exact burial location is still not known. Perhaps, at this point, the Lacks family will never know.²⁶

Henrietta’s Story

It’s Not About Racism, Bioethics Or Money

“On Monday, February 5th, 1951, after Jones got Henrietta’s biopsy report back from the lab, he called and told her it was malignant. Henrietta didn’t tell anyone what [ Howard W. Jones, Jr., M.D. ] said, and no one asked. She simply went on with her day as if nothing had happened, which was just like her — no sense upsetting anyone over something she could deal with herself.”²⁷ — Rebecca Skloot

YES! The HeLa cells line proved to be the holy grail of mid-century biology, providing scientists “a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation” (Isaiah 28:16, KJV) for countless medical breakthroughs. YES! The Henrietta Lacks story raises very important issues surrounding science, bioethics, race relations, economic class, poverty and even personhood. YES! The Johns Hopkins Hospital claims they never sold HeLa cells, but clearly the same cannot be said for a multitudinous number of medical supply companies. YES! HeLa cells or products made from HeLa cells sold anywhere from $200 to $10,000 a vile ²⁸ and YES! even today, HeLa cells are still the most widely used cells in the world. YES! The Henrietta Lacks story shines a bright light on the very dark truth that her family could not afford health care insurance to treat the diseases their mother’s cells were used to cure. Moreover, let’s be very clear. The Henrietta Lacks story IS NOT ABOUT human tissue culturing being bad. The truth is without HeLa cells life saving advances such as HIV|AIDS testing, basic drugs and all vaccines would not exist. The Henrietta Lacks story IS NOT ABOUT racism and|or racist White American scientists abusing a poor Black American woman. The truth is Johns Hopkins was born on a tobacco plantation in Anne Arundel County Maryland where his father later freed his slaves in 1807, nearly sixty (60) years before the Emancipation Proclamation ordered by Republican President Abraham Lincoln on Thursday, January 1st, 1863.²⁹ The truth is Hopkins was an abolitionist, philanthropist and entrepreneur who made his enormous wealth as a banker and grocer selling his own brand of homemade whiskey.³⁰ The truth is Johns Hopkins never married, never fathered children and just before his death, generously donated seven (7) million 1873 dollars ($7,000,000.00) to start a school of medicine to help those who could not pay for their medical care.³¹ The Henrietta Lacks story IS NOT ABOUT HeLa cells being immortal and scientists being good. The truth is that HeLa cells are not immortal,³² scientists are fallen and fragile human beings and sometimes even with the very best of intentions, things can and do go wrong. Be that as it may and notwithstanding any of the above, what the Henrietta Lacks story IS ABOUT inspires and impels. The Henrietta Lacks story IS ABOUT a beautiful Black American woman who loved her husband, served her family, met crippling cancer with calm and composure and conquered the cold, cruel and callous circumstances of her day with courage. In the end and in the light of my faith in Christ, the Henrietta Lacks story IS ABOUT the eternal efficacy of truth, in a sinful world. Because after all is said and done, the Henrietta Lacks story is a resurrected record, that once was lost, but now is found.

Open Letter To Black America

“We need to remember, that over sixty (60) years ago, a man that could today be called the father of modern day eugenics, proposed that population control clinics be concentrated in minority neighborhoods. And now today, the vast majority of Planned Parenthood clinics are located in our neighborhoods. Are we really so naive to believe that this is all a coincidence? We all know that drugs, alcohol and tobacco are devastating, especially in the Black community. We know that the BIG CORPORATIONS target us with the ads and marketing campaigns. And yet, we don’t notice that PLANNED PARENTHOOD is doing the very same thing? We need to pay attention to the fact, that in the 1960s, when we as African-Americans began to demand our civil rights, for the first time in American history, there began a wide spread cry in our government for legalized abortion. Was that coincidence too? Or could it be, that when we said we would no longer sit on the back of the bus, a place was being reserved for us down at the abortion clinic?” ³³ — Alveda King, Niece of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.

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Henrietta’s Story Is Clear

So What’s Wrong With Us Today?

What the Henrietta Lacks story makes so very, very clear is that in the 1950s Black Americans were being used without our knowledge to create life and make money for others. However, by 1966 Mississippi added an exception for rape using the American Law Institute (ALI) model penal code.³⁴ By 1967 abortion on demand became legal in Mississippi, Colorado, North Carolina and California based on exception arguments (i.e., permanent mental or physical disability of either the child or mother, rape, incest and the life of the mother).³⁵ By 1973, just six (6) years later, thirteen states had passed laws based on the American Law Institute abortion model and finally the United States Supreme Court (USSC) would declare abortion on demand during all nine (9) months of pregnancy to be a federally protected constitutional right of women.³⁶ By 2008 sixty-seven (67) percent of Black American pregnancies would be unintended.³⁷ By 2011 Planned Parenthood (the leading abortion on demand provider in the world today), would receive over half a billion dollars in government grants and reimbursements from tax-payers.³⁸ By 2012 abortion on demand would take more Black American lives in four (4) days than the Ku Klux Klan could lynch in eighty-six (86) years.³⁹ What’s more today, Black American women who account for thirty (30) to thirty-five (35) percent of all abortions in the United States of America would suffer three times (3x) the risk of an early preterm birth (EPB) and four times (4x) the risk of an extreme preterm birth (XPB) as non-Black American women.^40,41,42 YES! While Henrietta Lacks story makes it clear that in the 1950s Black Americans were being used to create life, sustain life, heal and advance life, Henrietta’s story also makes it easy to see that Black Americans are being used with their knowledge today by BIG ABORTION (funded by BIG GOVERNMENT), to end our own lives and still make money for others. BLACK AMERICA, are we really so blind that we can’t see the handwriting on the American Eugenics Society’s ⁴³ wall? Are we really so blind that we can’t see today what our foreparents ^44,45 could clearly see yesterday? I gotta ask, what’s wrong with us?

Brothers, we need to talk.

Reference(s):

01. Ron Claiborne and Sidney Wright IV, “How One Woman’s Cells Changed Medicine” ABCNews (http://abcn.ws/cTnrbj).
02. Rebecca Skloot, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, p.30. (http://bit.ly/11ypUIa).
03. Henrietta Lacks, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/Zv4WG).
04. Rebecca Skloot, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, p.27. (http://bit.ly/18Iqs4J).
05. Ibid., p.33. (http://bit.ly/11yr06Q).
06. Jim Axelrod, “The Immortal Henrietta Lacks”, CBSNews (http://cbsn.ws/11g8xgm).
07. Ron Claiborne, “Legacy of Life”, YouTube: “Henrietta Lacks Family” ABCNews (http://bit.ly/17hIahm).
08. Lucey B.P., Nelson-Rees W.A. and Hutchins G.M., “Henrietta Lacks, HeLa Cells, And Cell Culture Contamination.” PubMed.gov (http://1.usa.gov/13faflt).
09. Sarah Zielinski, “Henrietta Lacks’ ‘Immortal’ Cells”, Smithsonian.com (http://bit.ly/by9bRs).
10. Ewen Callaway, “Most Popular Human Cell in Science Gets Sequenced”, Center for Genetics and Society (http://bit.ly/11yu4j8).
11. Rebecca Skloot, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, p.2. (http://bit.ly/13fdxVD).
12. Merdis Hayes and Matthew Mcwhorther, “Medical Apartheid: Bad Medicine”, August 19th, 2010, OurWeekly.com (http://bit.ly/15w3wEw).
13. Henrietta Lacks, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/Zv4WG).
14. Liz Hunt, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: a bittersweet legacy”, The Telegraph (http://bit.ly/aXP7hO).
15. Sarah Zielinski, “Henrietta Lacks’ ‘Immortal’ Cells”, Smithsonian.com (http://bit.ly/by9bRs).
16. Rebecca Skloot, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks [Paperback]” Amazon.com (http://amzn.to/17Q3xaw).
17. Henrietta Lacks, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/IQKiyd).
18. Jim Axelrod, YouTube: “Henrietta Lacks Galerie Myrtis CBS Sunday Morning” (http://bit.ly/1aUriua).
19. Rebecca Skloot, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, p.169. (http://bit.ly/18IwZwf).
20. Jim Axelrod, YouTube: “Henrietta Lacks Galerie Myrtis CBS Sunday Morning”, (http://bit.ly/1aUriua).
21. Henrietta Lacks, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/Zv4WG).
22. Ibid., Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/18IxqXm).
23. Rebecca Skloot, “Skloot Chapter Summaries, Part III – Immortality”, Class-y Writing (http://bit.ly/14asmtH).
24. Jim Axelrod, YouTube: “Henrietta Lacks Galerie Myrtis CBS Sunday Morning” (http://bit.ly/1aUriua).
25. Denise M. Watson, “After 60 Years Of Anonymity, Henrietta Lacks Has A Headstone”, (http://bit.ly/bz6LVf).
26. Henrietta Lacks, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/14atU6X).
27. Rebecca Skloot, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, p.31. (http://bit.ly/17hTvOo).
28. Jim Axelrod, YouTube: “Henrietta Lacks Galerie Myrtis CBS Sunday Morning” (http://bit.ly/1aUriua).
29. John Hopkins, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/bQCzV2).
30. Idid.
31. Ibid.
32. Dianne N. Irving, Ph.D., “Re: Code name HeLa” Message to the Walter Hoye. September 17, 2012 1:18:12 P.M. (PDT), Quote: “First, when the term “immortal” is used, it is not meant literally. And over time the cells — any cells — in culture media change characteristics, even have genetic mutations and known to turn malignant if passed in culture too many times and for too long a time. So if you were to take the HeLa cells used today and compare them with the first few batches of HeLa cells — or with those still part of Henrietta Lacks at the time — there would be tremendous differences.” Dr. Irving also writes for LifeIssues.net (http://bit.ly/tLE8zB).
33. Alveda King, “Alveda King (Maafa21)” (http://bit.ly/15uF1Xv).
34. National Right to Life Committee, “Abortion History Timeline” (http://bit.ly/18ICBGS).
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid.
37. Guttmacher Institute, “Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States” (http://bit.ly/99dVdw).
38. Caroline May, “$542.4 million in government grants and reimbursements from 2011 to 2012” (http://bit.ly/ZztFBH).
39. The Tuskegee Institute, “Lynchings: By State and Race, 1882-1968” (http://bit.ly/eJ5Zvd) and Lynching, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/LlRoA).
40. Guttmacher Institute, “Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States” (http://bit.ly/99dVdw).
41. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “2009 Abortion Surveillance” (http://1.usa.gov/T6gz7H). Please note that the CDC report is based on abortion data for 2000-2009 and excludes data from California, Delaware, Maryland, and New Hampshire.
42. Guttmacher Institute, Note: “17.7% of all abortions are performed in California, that’s more than any other state in the United States of America” (http://bit.ly/11QeYuT).
43. American Eugenics Society, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/hkJYVL).
44. SaySumthn’s Blog, “R.I.P. Samuel Yette , Black Journalist Fired From Newsweek After Authoring A Book Exposing Eugenic Plans To Limit The Black Population” (http://bit.ly/eTCAvM).
45. Samuel F. Yette, “Obituary: Samuel F. Yette, Influential Newsman, First Black Washington Correspondent For Newsweek Magazine” (http://bit.ly/ZGEnrj).

Memorial Day Issue: “Martyrs of the Race Course”

Memorial Day Issue

“Martyrs of the Race Course”

On May 2nd, 1865 The Charleston Daily Courier Published This Report …

“This was the first Memorial Day [Monday, May 1st, 1865]. African Americans invented Memorial Day in Charleston, South Carolina. What you have there is Black Americans recently freed from slavery announcing to the world with their flowers, their feet, and their songs what the war had been about. What they basically were creating was the Independence Day of a Second American Revolution.” ¹ —  David W. Blight ^{[See Notes]}

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In April 1865, when the outcome of the War between the States was crossing over from fate to fact, Union troops entered the city of Charleston, South Carolina, where four (4) years before the war had begun. While the White residents sympathetic to the antebellum lifestyle of the South had abandoned the city of Charleston, the Black residents of Charleston remained to honor, celebrate and welcome the troops from the North, which by the way included the 21st United States Colored Infantry Regiment that arrived first and accepted the surrender of the city of Charleston.² As time would later tell, the celebration of newly former slaves on Monday, May 1st, 1865, the first “Decoration Day,” would later become our Memorial Day.

Remembering The Sacrifice

“Our Presidents, Governors, Generals and Secretaries are calling, with almost frantic vehemence, for men. “MEN! MEN! SEND US MEN!” they scream, or the cause of the Union is gone … and yet these very officers, representing the people and the Government, steadily, and persistently refuse to receive the very class of men which have a deeper interest in the defeat and humiliation of the rebels than all others.” ³ — Frederick Douglass

On May 22nd, 1863, the United States War Department issued General Order Number 143 which established a “Bureau of Colored Troops” to recruit Black American Civil War soldiers to fight for the Union Army. Black American Civil War soldiers fought in the infantry, cavalry, light and heavy artillery units and served as engineers for the Union Army.⁴ Sergeant Major Christian Fleetwood⁵ and Sergeant William Harvey Carney ⁶ were both Medal of Honor ^{[See Notes]} recipients. Sergeant Carney served with the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. On Saturday, July 18th, 1863, Sergeant Carney fought in the Second Battle of Fort Wagner in Charleston, South Carolina, where one (1) year, nine (9) months and fourteen (14) days later the first Memorial Day celebration would take place.⁷ Despite being wounded several times, Sergeant Carney fought his way across the Confederate line and made his way back to the Union line in a one-man, life or death campaign to recover and return the unit’s United States Flag.⁸

Rank and Organization: [Click Here] “William Harvey Carney, Sergeant, Company C, 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry. Place and date: At Fort Wagner, [ Charleston, South Carolina ], July 18, 1863. Entered service at: New Bedford, Mass. Birth: Norfolk, Va. Date of issue: May 23, 1900.” 9 Medal Of Honor Citation: [Click Here] “When the color[ed] sergeant was shot down, this soldier grasped the flag, led the way to the parapet, and planted the colors thereon. When the troops fell back he brought off the flag, under a fierce fire in which he was twice severely wounded.” 10

After returning the flag to another survivor of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry, Sergeant Carney said: “Boys, I only did my duty; the old flag never touched the ground!” ¹¹

A Critical Reflection

“The concept that the population must ‘remember the sacrifice‘ of U.S. service members, without a critical reflection on the wars themselves, did not emerge by accident. It came about in the Jim Crow period as the Northern and Southern ruling classes sought to reunite the country around a political mourning, which required erasing the ‘divisive‘ issues of slavery and Black citizenship. These issues had been at the heart of the struggles of the Civil War and Reconstruction.” ¹² — Ben Becker

On the calendar we understand Memorial Day to be a federal holiday which occurs every year on the final Monday of May where we remember the men and women who gave their lives in military service to our country with picnics, road races, commencements, and baseball double-headers. What many do not know is that Memorial Day is the former Decoration Day. The first Decoration Day¹³ was originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War by former Charleston, South Carolina slaves. In an effort to honor and remember the sacrifices of colored Civil War soldiers, Black Americans conducted a series of commemorations to publicly share what the end of the Civil War meant to communities of color. However, if little is known about the origin of Memorial Day then even less is known about the origin of Decoration Day and its impact on American politics today. With the reality of freedmen and freedwomen boldly refusing to forget where they came from in the public square, it became expedient for the Northern and Southern power brokers to drop “divisive” social issues such as Radical Reconstruction, Black American citizenship and consequently their constitutional equality (i.e., legally protected “personhood”) enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment ^{[See Notes]} in order to restore both financially and politically profitable relationships.¹⁴ By Monday, March 5th, 1877 the “Compromise of 1877” or as Black Americans call it “The Great Betrayal!“^15,16 was a reality and the White and wealthy supremacists had found a way to erase the past and in the process a principal piece of Black History perished.¹⁷

Celebrating Memorial Day

What Does It Really Mean Today?

“While historians have gone a long way to expose the white supremacist history of the Civil War and uncover its revolutionary content, the spirit of the first Decoration Day — the struggle for Black liberation and the fight against racism — has unfortunately been whitewashed from the modern Memorial Day” [celebrations].¹⁸ — Ben Becker

Celebrating Memorial Day, in its original spirit, means addressing “divisive” social issues not dropping them. It means remembering those who died fighting for freedom and equality among the most vulnerable in the past, by rededicating ourselves to do the same for the most vulnerable among us in the present. It means realizing the term person in the Fourteenth Amendment affords everyone (from the moment of their biological beginning as a human being created in the image of God, to the senior citizen facing end of life decisions, to the disabled war veteran), constitutional equality where all are protected by love and by law as citizens of the United States of America. It means reviving in the public square the old landmarks of faith, family and freedom that both anchored and animated the first Decoration Day since the 1860s. It means honoring those who fought for truth and justice in their day by exposing error and injustice in our day. It means reclaiming biblically defined righteousness in the midst of enemy territory like the former Charleston slaves did by memorializing Union soldiers in the midst of the very cradle of the Southern Confederacy. It means revisiting the painful power of our past to release, reset and recalibrate our moored, maligned and muzzled moral compasses in the present. It means retaking what the enemy has stolen by refusing to surrender to polls, politics and past performance in order to pursue principles. It means we recommit ourselves to the truths we hold to “be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”¹⁹ It means recognizing the reality of humanity’s fallen spiritual condition and regarding the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as mankind’s only hope for redemption. It means running the same race the “Martyrs of the Race Course” ran by fighting the good fight and finishing the course set before us by faith.²⁰

Brothers, we need to talk.

Note(s):

· David W. Blight is Class of 1954 Professor of American History at Yale University and Director of the Gilder-Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition. Blight was the Class of 1959 Professor of History at Amherst College, where he taught for 13 years. He has won major historical awards, including the Bancroft Prize and the Frederick Douglass Prize. ↩

· The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. On Wednesday, May 23rd, 1900, Sergeant William Harvey Carney would be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. As a soldier in the United States Colored Troops, Carney was the first Black American to perform an action (1863) for which a Medal of Honor was awarded. See “List of African-American Medal of Honor Recipients“, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/YMq67J). ↩

· On Thursday, July 9th, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) of the United States Constitution (one of the Reconstruction Amendments) was adopted. Section 1 states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” When interpreting the the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and consequently the constitution itself, the key word here is person(s). See “Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution”, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/12ZWfvx) ↩

Reference(s):

01. David W. Blight, Lecture: “To Appomattox and Beyond,” (http://bit.ly/MIMwkC).
02. David W. Blight, Video: “The First Decoration Day” || By: David W. Blight, Yale University (http://bit.ly/11mcaQL).
03. Frederick Douglass, Douglass Monthly V (August 1863) p. 852 (http://bit.ly/LE18SR).
04. “Military history of African Americans in the American Civil War“, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/XQVGnH) and “United States Colored Troops“, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/16lltt8).
05. “Christian Fleetwood“, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/140lprP).
06. “William Harvey Carney“, Medal of Honor Recipients, Civil War, U.S. Army Center of Military (http://1.usa.gov/e8bc4V).
07. “Second Battle of Fort Wagner“, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/aVqyck).
08. “William Harvey Carney“, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/2TP6vF).
09. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. “Boys the Old Flag Never Touched the Ground“, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/16lmzoP).
12. Ben Becker, “The revolutionary origins of Memorial Day and its political hijacking: A day celebrating Black liberation utilized for white supremacy”, Editor for the Newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (http://bit.ly/LE18SR).
13. David W. Blight, “The First Decoration Day” (http://bit.ly/ce3jtO) and Video: “The First Decoration Day” || By: David W. Blight, Yale University (http://bit.ly/11mcaQL).
14. David W. Blight, “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory” (http://bit.ly/Zbkfv8). Quote: “With time, in the North, the war’s two great results — Black freedom and the preservation of the Union — were rarely accorded equal space. In the South, a uniquely Confederate version of the war’s meaning, rooted in resistance to Reconstruction, coalesced around Memorial Day practice.” (“Race and Reunion,” p. 65).
15. “American President: Key Events in the Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes” (http://bit.ly/110BlZi).
16. Walter B. Hoye II, “The Compromise of 1877: The Republican Party Preferred Power!” (http://bit.ly/K13YAe).
17. op.cit., Ben Becker (http://bit.ly/LE18SR).
18. Ibid.
19. “United States Declaration of Independence“, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/3MG14R).
20. 2nd Timothy 4:7, King James Bible “Authorized Version”, Cambridge Edition (http://bit.ly/113J5vw).