By Dorothy Rowley
Special to the NNPA from The Washington Informer

In a letter to President Barack Obama, the National Coalition of Black Veterans Organizations (NCBVO) asks that during the celebration of Black History Month in February– a presidential proclamation be issued that elevates legendary Buffalo Soldier Col. Charles Young to the honorary rank of Brigadier General.

Col. Young was medically discharged from the US. Army on Jan. 22, 1917, but he was recalled in 1918 after riding 500 miles to demonstrate his fitness to serve on active military duty.

“We are firm in our belief that the honor we are seeking on his behalf was earned over a career that spanned more than thirty-two years of honorable service to our nation (1889 – 1922),” a portion of the letter dated Jan. 22, reads. “We are joined in this request by resolutions from the Commonwealth of Kentucky House of Representatives (the birth state of Colonel Young), the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, the Council of the District of Columbia and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.”

The letter, which was signed by NCBVO chairman Charles Blatcher III, goes on to state that “as the third Black cadet to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Young’s accomplishments were numerous.

“They included becoming the first Black military attache, the first Black Superintendent of a National Park, and the first Black soldier promoted to both the ranks of Lieutenant Colonel as well as Colonel. He also distinguished himself in command positions during the Philippine Insurrection and General Pershing’s Punitive Expedition. During the latter event, his courageous actions under fire resulted in the rescue of the 13th Cavalry. Colonel Young was the highest ranking African American in the military at the outset of the First World War and until his death in 1922.”

In alluding to action taken in 1956 by President Harry Truman, NCVBO further notes that this would not be the first time such a request was made.

“In 1925, Brigadier General William “Billy” Mitchell was court martialed, reduced in rank to colonel and discharged from the United States Army,” the letter continues. “He was charged with “conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline and in a way to bring discredit upon the military service. Ten years after his death in 1946, President Harry S. Truman posthumously promoted then Colonel William “Billy” Mitchell to the rank of Major General.”

California Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who will also be writing Obama on Young’s behalf, said in a statement that Black History Month is a “particularly fitting time” to bestow the posthumous honor on Young.

“Colonel Young was a true trailblazer; in a time when the obstacles he faced due to the color of his skin seemed insurmountable, his achievements were astounding,” Lee said.

“This is why I will be sending a letter to President Obama requesting a presidential proclamation promoting Colonel Young to the rank of Brigadier General.”

Special to the NNPA from the Atlanta Daily World

For several generations, leading historians, scholars and intellectuals have often times quoted and recited the following almost prophetic words written by Dr. W.E.B. DuBois in his classic The Souls of Black Folks (1903: “The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color-line.” The book had its greatest impact in the United States among Black and White Americans, but its influence also extended beyond America’s shores to the Caribbean islands and continental Africa.

According to an illuminating essay authored by Playthell Benjamin in Reconsidering the Souls of Black Folk (2002), French-speaking Black intellectuals such as the Haitian scholar Jean Price-Mars, the poet Leon Damas of Cayenne, and the poet/statesman Leopold Sedar Senghor who along with Damas is a founder of the “Negritude” literary movement testified to having been inspired and influenced by The Souls of Black Folk. In short, it can easily be seen as the most influential of the early texts that forged a sense of racial consciousness for African descendants in the diaspora.

But now, thanks to the deep persistent dedication and scholarly rigor of two academics, Carolyn Lobban and Asselin Charles, we have knowledge about another landmark and groundbreaking book written in 1885 by Haitian intellectual and anthropologist Joseph Antenor Firmin.

Firmin’s little known but masterful treatise, The Equality of the Human Races; Positivist Anthropology, was basically researched and published by the author to intellectually defeat scientific racism, racist writings and stereotypical views about modern racial humanity during the closing years of the 19th century.

Firmin’s pioneering and revolutionary book was written, in essence, to intellectually challenge and refute the pseudo-scientific claims of the so-called father of modern racism/White supremacy, Arthur DeGobineau, who’s four-volume work, The Inequality of the Human Races, was also written in French between 1853-1855.

Firmin’s scientific rebuttal was especially directed at the racist theoretical writings of DeGobineau whose work was the first to assert the racial superiority of Aryan peoples. It was also one of the earliest of the many influential texts to support and reinforce dangerous ideas about purported inherent Black inferiority. In The Equality of the Human Races, Firmin’s magnum opus, he powerfully and positively affirmed just the opposite idea. He wrote, “All men are endowed with the same qualities and the same faults, without distinction of color or anatomical form. The races are equal.”

As anthropologist Ashley Montagu, author of Man’s Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race, has noted, “It is a fact worth remarking that throughout the nineteenth century hardly more than a handful of scientific voices were raised against the notion of a hierarchy of races.”

Fortunately, for all of humanity past, present and future, Joseph Antenor Firmin was such a voice courageously raised in a herculean effort to eliminate negative racist ideology and mythology, and to bring racial healing and harmony to the global human family.

It is only fitting that as we inaugurate President Barack Obama, who happens to be another brilliant son of Africa, that we recall a prophetic prediction made by Antenor Firmin in his profoundly provocative book more than a century ago.

“Appearance to the contrary, this big country is destined to strike the first blow against the theory of the inequality of the human races. Indeed, at this very moment, Blacks in the great Federal Republic have begun to play a prominent role in the politics of the various states of the American Union. It seems quite possible that, in less than a century from now, a Black man might be called to head the government of Washington and manage the affairs of the most progressive country on earth….”

Antenor Firmin was indeed an intellectual trailblazer in the long line of scholars who have become part of what has been called the vindicationist school of great African thinkers.

Gershom Williams is currently editing a special edition of the Journal of Pan African Studies celebrating the intellectual life and scholarly legacy of J. Antenor Firmin. He can be reached at bennuinstitute@yahoo.com.

Special to the NNPA from the New York Amsterdam News

Jan. 22 (GIN)- The African Union has called on its member countries, the economic community and Africans on the continent and in the Diaspora to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the continental organization.

The AU Commission said that the actual date should be celebrated with cultural activities, debates, school contests and public enquiries.

As the Organization of African Unity, a regional group of 32 countries launched May 25,1963 in Addis Ababa, it aimed, among its many goals, to eradicate all forms of colonialism, especially in those states that had not yet won their independence or were minority-ruled. South Africa and Angola were two such countries.

But it drew criticism as an ineffective “talk, no walk” organization and called a “dictators’ club.”

It was reorganized on July 9, 2002 as the African Union with 54 countries.

Plans for the 50th anniversary celebrations will be submitted by AU Commission chairwoman Nkozasana Dlamini-Zuma, to the 20th summit of AU Heads of State and Government to be held on Jan 27 and 28 at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa under the theme “Pan-Africanism and Renaissance”.

By George E. Curry
NNPA Editor-in-Chief

WASHINGTON (NNPA) — Rejecting calls for him to move closer toward his Republican critics, a confident President Barack H. Obama kicked off his second term on Monday by making an impassioned plea for a more inclusive America.

“It is not our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began,” Obama said in his inaugural speech. “For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.

“Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity – until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.”

Obama’s speech represented a clear shift from four years ago when the newly-elected president optimistically thought that he could inject civility and common sense into Washington’s contentious politics. After being rebuffed by opponents who placed politics ahead of the interests of the country – including taking it to the brink of a self-inflicted financial cliff – President Obama boldly shifted gears Monday by sketching a progressive vision and signaling a willingness to fight for it.

“For now decisions are upon us and we cannot afford delay,” he stated. “We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect. We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be only partial and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years and 40 years and 400 years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.”

Obama, the nation’s first African-American president, was sworn in on the day the nation observed the annual federal holiday to honor the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was sworn in on a black leather traveling Bible used by King that was topped by a smaller one owned by President Abraham Lincoln. And he referenced both men as he declared Americans “are made for this moment.”

The direct link between the nation’s first Black president and the observance of King’s birthday underscores how far this country has progressed since the assassination of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) president and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1968.

Although King did not live to see the election of an African-American to the nation’s highest office, he predicted in 1964 that a Black would be elected president of the United States. In an interview with the BBC, King was asked to comment on a statement by then New York Senator-elect Robert F. Kennedy that it might be possible to elect a Black president in 40 years.

“I’ve seen levels of compliance with the civil rights bill and changes that have been most surprising,” King said. “So, on the basis of this, I think we may be able to get a Negro president in less than 40 years. I would think that this could come in 25 years or less.”

Obama’s election came 44 years after King’s statement and four years longer than what Robert Kennedy had envisioned. Standing in the shadows of a U.S. Capitol built by slave labor, Barack Obama expressed much more self-assurance Monday than he had four years ago.

“We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few,” the president said. “We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us at any time may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, these things do not sap our initiative, they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.”

The reference to a nation of takers was a direct rebuttal to Mitt Romney’s telling a group of donors that 47 percent of Americans are “dependent on government” and would “vote for the president no matter what.” Ironically, Romney received 47 percent of the popular vote in his losing effort against Obama.

The president indicated he plans to move the U.S. away from “perpetual war” and will take on tough issues such as immigration reform and climate change. Obama became the first president to link the 1839 Seneca Falls Convention for women’s rights, the 1965 Selma-Montgomery, Ala. voting rights march and the 1969 Stonewall movement that put gay rights center stage.

He said, “We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths –- that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.”

President Obama used “we the people” — the opening words of the U.S. Constitution — five times during his 18 1/2 minute speech.

Although attendance at the inauguration was expected to be half of the record 1.8 million four years ago, it appeared that Monday’s figures will probably exceed previous estimates. One official said there were probably more than 1 million in attendance on the National Mall. That would still rank ahead of 400,000 George W. Bush drew at the beginning of his second term and more than Bill Clinton’s 800,000 in 1993. Four years ago, Obama exceeded the then-record 1.2 million who saw Lyndon B. Johnson inaugurated in 1965.

After the inauguration, the Obamas led a parade procession that included 59 groups with 8,800 people from the Capitol approximately 1.6 miles down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. The president and the first lady exited their limousine near 9th Street, N.W. and walked for three blocks, returning the waves and cheers of excited onlookers, before returning to the motorcade.

President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and their families watched the remainder of the parade from the glass-encased official review stand in front of the White House facing Lafayette Park.

Later, they danced at two private balls in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, down from the 10 held in their honor four years ago. At each ball, they slow-danced as they were being serenaded by fellow Chicagoan Jennifer Hudson, who sang Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” a tune the president had belted last year at the Apollo Theater in Harlem to display his vocal talent.

As usual, all eyes were on First Lady Michele Obama as onlookers waited to see what fashion designer she would elevate to international attention. She surprised everyone by selecting Jason Wu, the same designer she used for the first inauguration. The first lady came on stage at the Commander-in-Chief’s Ball in a dazzling ankle-length ruby-colored chiffon dress.

Alicia Keyes was no fashion slouch, wearing a red backless dress as she played the piano and sang, “Obama’s on firrrrrre!”

Earlier, Beyoncé Knowles stirred the inauguration crowd with her rendition of the National Anthem. However, the The Times of London reported — and other news outlets later confirmed — that she lip-synced the National Anthem.

According to the New York Times, a spokesman for the Marine Band said it is routine for musicians to record music for the inauguration in case the weather prevents them from keeping their instruments in tune. The Times said Col. Michael J. Colburn, the band director, received orders from event organizers to use the backup track just before Beyoncé was scheduled to sing live.

“We don’t know why,” Sgt. Kristin duBois told the New York Times. “But that’s what we were instructed to do so that is what we did. It’s not because Beyoncé can’t sing. We all know Beyoncé can sing. We all know the Marine Band can play.”

The New York Times later updated its story after a different spokesman for the Marine Band said no one in the band had been in a position to know if Beyoncé had performed live. However, CNN confirmed earlier news reports that the singer had lip-synced the National Anthem.

Kelly Clarkson and all other program events were performed live.

On Monday, Obama became the second and probably last president to be sworn in four times. In 2009, Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts flubbed his lines at the official swearing in and do-over was completed the next day. This time, Roberts administered the oath of office in a flawless private ceremony Sunday because the Constitution requires the president to be sworn in on Jan. 20; he repeated it in the public ceremony on Monday.

Reciting his oath Monday, it was President Obama’s turn to make a slight error. Instead of “United States,” he said, “United Sta –.” It didn’t matter because the official oath had already been administered the day before.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected four times before presidents were limited to serving two terms, was the only other president to utter the presidential oath four times.

“… We, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it,” Obama said. “We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work; when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship. We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American; she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.”

As he prepared to leave the U.S. Capitol, President Obama stopped and turned around. “I want to take a look one more time,” he said. “I’ll never see this again.”