– “Make A Joyful Noise!” By Kathryn Baker Kemp is available in print and e-book formats. –

Chicago, IL (February 20, 2012) — Kathryn Baker Kemp, a Chicago resident, is a retired music director, administrator and educator. She traces the journey of gospel music from its indigenous roots in Africa to the genres shaped by enslaved Africans and their descendants in America. Dr. Kemp, a licensed minister, has witnessed the power of gospel music and its message throughout her life.
Make a Joyful Noise!: A Brief History of Gospel Music Ministry in America tells the story of the resiliency of an African American people who worshipped their God with praise and thanksgiving – even in the midst of brutal oppression – through music. This book shows how music – gospel music in particular – has been a vehicle utilized over the years by people of African ancestry as a personal treasure, an expression of joy, a call for freedom, and a source of release despite oppression, Jim Crow laws, segregation, and racism.

The legacy of Dr. Thomas A. Dorsey and Rev. James Cleveland is honored through the gospel organizations they founded. The National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, Inc., the first gospel organization, was founded by Professor Thomas A. Dorsey, and the Gospel Music Workshop of America, Inc., was founded by Rev. James Cleveland, a mentee of Dr. Thomas Dorsey.

Part One of the book concludes with discussions of the future of gospel music and references some major secular events that highlight its widespread appeal. Interviews with evangelists, composers, songwriters, musicians, gospel artists, ministers of music, and members of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, Inc. express the richness of this heritage in Part Two of this work.

Make A Joyful Noise! is a valuable resource that provides first-hand accounts of the impact and importance of gospel music to America.

For more details about the book, visit www.joyfulnoisepress.com
PRESS CONTACT:
Kathryn B. Kemp
joyfulnoise121@sbcglobal.net
773-741-5106

Uplift, Inc., the Madison County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and the Epsilon Kappa Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., presented the 2011 Winter Benefit Gala on December 30, 2011, at Plantation Commons in Madison, MS. During the event, the Salvation Army received a $2000 donation to benefit their ongoing public service efforts for the Jackson Metro area. Captains Jessie and Ken Chapman were in attendance to receive the check on behalf of the Salvation Army, which was presented by Dominick Riley; EKK Basileus of Omega Psi Phi, Dr. David Marion; 7th District Representative of Omega Psi Phi, Daphne Monix Higgins; President of Madison County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Cheryl Turner; Southern Regional Director Delta Sigma Theta, Katrina B. Myricks; Gladys Peters; and Dr. Jennifer Riley. Over 170 guests attended the benefit gala, which included dinner, dancing, and live entertainment.

JANS – At its annual awards dinner on December 3rd, 2011 in Aurora, CO, the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA) honored Christopher B. Epps, Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, as the outstanding Director of Corrections for 2011.

The award is presented annually to recognize the outstanding ASCA member, and that member’s dedication and achievements. ASCA established the award in 1992, to celebrate Michael Francke’s contribution to the field of Corrections and his support of ASCA. In 1989, while Director of the Oregon Department of Corrections, Michael Francke was murdered as he left his office in Salem.

In 1991, a former Oregon inmate was convicted of his murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Morris Thigpen, Director of the National Institute of Corrections and recipient of the first Francke Award in 1992, announced the award noting that Commissioner Epps has had a distinguished career in corrections spanning close to 30 years.

Mr. Thigpen described him as a visionary who knows how to project his ideas in order to achieve them, adding that his deep commitment to public service has made a positive difference for the state, his many professional affiliations, the corrections community and countless other organizations.

Mr. Thigpen said Chris’ biggest fan is his Governor, Haley Barbour. The Governor’s nomination letter indicated that he has worked closely with Commissioner Epps on many major issues – including the challenging fiscal issues that every agency has been facing – and called him an “intelligent, honest decision-maker and problem-solver.”

He recognized him as someone who has demonstrated exceptional accomplishments in the field of corrections as well as service to the community. Governor Barbour further noted, “…his leadership style has ensured improved management of the state’s prison system…creating a safer environment for rehabilitation of inmates and for staff to work [in].”

Chris began his correctional career in 1982 as a correctional officer and worked his way up through the ranks in various positions including Disciplinary Hearing Officer/Investigator, Corrections Case Manager, Corrections Case Management Supervisor, Director of Treatment Services, Deputy Superintendent/Chief of Security, Director of Offender Services/Treatment, Director of Records, Chief of Staff, Deputy Commissioner of Community Corrections and Deputy Commissioner of Institutions.

Chris is currently serving in his tenth year as Commissioner for the Mississippi Department of Corrections, the longest serving Commissioner in the State’s history. Drawing on lessons he learned as he moved up the chain of command, he has successfully guided his agency to tighter fiscal control and shepherded legislation to better manage and slow the growth of the state’s inmate population despite having the second-highest incarceration rate in America.

Mr. Thigpen said that from the beginning of his career, he recognized the importance of sound correctional practices and really valued every aspect of correctional management that contributes to a safe organization – both for staff and offenders. This commitment has continued to grow over the course of his career. As Commissioner, Chris Epps has:

• Partnered with local Sheriffs’ Association and the National Institute of Corrections to host the state’s first ‘Objective Classification Training Workshop,’ bringing together sheriffs, chiefs of police, and jail administrators to participate in a comprehensive workshop in identifying risk factors and special needs of offenders;

• Administered a self-improvement program for incarcerated fathers to assist them in connecting with their children and supporting their reentry efforts;

• Achieved 100% ACA accreditation across all state correctional facilities, resulting in the coveted Eagle Award;

• Secured federal funding to enhance a statewide victim notification system, making the system more user-friendly and easy to access by victims of crime;

• Established an annual Commissioner’s Golf Classic event to raise money for an employee relief fund – an event that has raised over $100,000 to date;

• Opened a compassionate care unit, featuring palliative beds for inmates who require end-of-life care;

• Implemented a plan for reimbursement of medical providers at the Medicaid rate, saving the DOC over $6 million in 2010 alone; and

• Reduced recidivism from 34% in 2005 to 28% in 2011, resulting in cost avoidance of millions of dollars per year for the Department.
During Commissioner Epps’ tenure, the longest running civil rights case of Gates v. Collier was permanently dismissed by the state’s District court. The dismissal included an acknowledgement of the state’s strides in the area of inmate treatment and agency-wide ACA accreditation.

Having actively participated in the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA) for close to a decade, Commissioner Epps has exhibited leadership and dedication to the organization serving on 6 of ASCA’s 12 committees, served as ASCA Treasurer in 2010 and has served as ASCA’s Vice President since January of 2011. His participation in other professional organizations includes: serving as an ACA auditor; being elected as treasurer of both ACA; being appointed to serve on the Correctional Peace Officers Foundation National Board of Directors; and recently being elected to serve as the 112th President of ACA.

While ASCA has been vigorously seeking to overcome the problem of cell phones in prisons, Commissioner Epps has stepped up as a national leader among his peers by becoming the first in the U.S. to use an advance managed access system to intercept contraband cell phone signals, thus preventing illegal cell phone usage by inmates.

Vowing to immobilize state inmate use of contraband cell phones, Chris Epps initiated Operation Cellblock last September at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, with plans for future implementation at the state’s other prisons. Commissioner Epps’ leadership in this endeavor has been a definitive turning point in the ongoing struggle to prevent illicit use of cell phones in American correctional facilities.

As a result of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, legislation was passed establishing the Mississippi Wireless Communication Commission (WCC). Appointed to the commission by Governor Haley Barbour in 2005, Commissioner Epps serves as Chairman. Through Commissioner Epps’ leadership of the WCC, a Mississippi Wireless Information Network (MSWIN) system was established, allowing Mississippi officials and first responders to communicate quickly and effectively in times of crisis.

Due to Commissioner Epps’ meticulous management style, the MSWIN system was 18 months ahead of schedule and on budget, paying dividends for Mississippi during emergency operations such as the tornadoes that occurred in 2010 and 2011 and the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

Commissioner Epps has been a leader in the war on drugs in Mississippi and even more so in his own community. Appointed to the Drug Court Advisory Committee by the Chief Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court, Chris Epps has been a member of the committee since its inception in January 2004.

Commissioner Epps has worked diligently to establish drug courts around the state and expand treatment efforts. During his administration, drug court programs in the state of Mississippi have grown from seven to thirty-nine. With a strong belief that intervention can help break the cycle of drug-related offenses, he has worked to have these offenders supervised, rehabilitated and treated locally so they can support their families and not become a burden on society.

Commissioner Epps is passionate about helping the citizens of Mississippi, and his efforts to do so reach far beyond his daily responsibilities as Commissioner. From Chambers of Commerce, Rotary and church groups, to grade schools and universities, just to name a few, Commissioner Epps is routinely called upon to share his wisdom, success and message.

His presentations on “How to Save Our Youth” have become so popular, that he commits to at least one monthly, often expending his personal time to this endeavor. Over the last year, Chris Epps has carried his message to more than 16 different audiences. Through his conviction, dedication and leading by example, he has made a positive impact on Mississippians of all ages.

Chris Epps’ accomplishments in the field of corrections, his outstanding service to the state and the local community, active participation in ASCA, and his integrity, diplomacy and competence all illustrate how truly deserving he is to be honored with the 2011 Michael Francke Award.

Several community efforts worked hand and hand over the past few months to get residents registered to vote in the upcoming Nov. 8 election. Oct. 8 was the deadline to vote in the General Election. Among those who had great success in reducing voter apathy were State Rep. Alyce Clarke of Hinds County and Unity Caucus, a local human rights group with emphasis on young adults. Clarke is shown registering Chiqula Cooke at her church, Cade Chapel M.B. Church back in September, and Unity Caucus members Roosevelt Yarbrough, Kathy Sykes, Stephanie Parker-Weaver and Ivory Phillips strategize on getting those they registered to vote to actually go to the polls on election day and fully participate in the political process. (Advocate photos: Alice Thomas-Tisdale)

By Barbara Harris

Jackson Advocate News Service

Reprint June 19, 2003

There has been many a summer of discontent in the 394 years (official U.S. history books, first slaves arrived in 1609) that African Americans and their descendants have inhabited this country. It should be noted that the reference to the summer of 1964 is not meant to underscore any other time of hardship, oppression or inhumanity endured by Black people throughout modern history.

However, for 44 days in 1964, Black Mississippians and other caring individuals across the nation hoped against hope that three civil rights workers who disappeared on June 21, the first day of summer, would be found alive. It was not to be. On Aug. 4, 1964 — 39 years ago — the badly decomposed bodies of James Earl Chaney, 21, Michael Schwerner, 24, and Andrew Goodman, 20, were found beneath an earthen dam about eight miles south of Philadelphia in Neshoba County.

The plight of the three young men has been the subject of several film and television productions, including “Mississippi Burning” and “Murder in Mississippi.” Schwerner and Goodman, both white, were from New York; Chaney, who was Black, was from Meridian. The three men met as volunteers for COFO, the Council of Federated Organizations, an umbrella for several civil rights groups.

The late Dr. Aaron Henry, longtime state NAACP president and state legislator, was the Mississippi coordinator for COFO. These young volunteers had undertaken the task of providing literacy, voter education and voter registration assistance to economically and politically disenfranchised Blacks in Mississippi through Freedom Schools, generally held at local churches.

It is widely believed that Schwerner had been a target of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan from the time he arrived in Mississippi several months earlier in January. Chaney was soon added to the hit list, while Goodman had arrived in Mississippi only a couple of days before their disappearance and may have had the misfortune of just being with the duo at the time.

“At the time, the Klan had three ways of dealing with ‘agitators,’ — beatings, bombings and eliminations,” explained Ben Chaney, James Earl Chaney’s younger brother. “No action would be taken on eliminations without state approval.” Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman left Meridian around noon that Sunday to survey the ruins of the recently Mt. Zion Church in Philadelphia.

They had planned to return by 9 p.m., but never did. Prior to their disappearance, the three men had been detained at the Neshoba County Jail and released. Prosecutors contended that several Klansmen, including the sheriff and at least one of his deputies, later intercepted the trio and shot them to death. During the almost six weeks of intensive searching, state and federal authorities dragged rivers and swamps, Mississippi native Vern E. Smith wrote in a 1994 Emerge magazine article, pulling nine African American bodies from murky waters across the state, but none were the right ones.

Finally, an “anonymous” informer revealed the location of the bodies — beneath a dam on Old Jolly Farm — for $30,000 in federal reward money. Nineteen men faced charges ranging from murder to conspiracy to murder. Yet, it was more than three years before the verdict was returned on Oct. 20, 1967. Found guilty of federal civil rights violations were deputy sheriff Cecil Price and Billy Wayne Posey of Neshoba County; Alton Wayne Roberts, Jimmy Arledge and Jimmy Snowden of Meridian; and Sam Bowers Jr.

All the men appealed their convictions, but lost and served time in federal prisons. On Dec. 29, 1967, federal Judge Harold Cox sentenced Sam Bowers and Alton Wayne Roberts to 10 years; Cecil Price and Billy Wayne Posey to six years; and Jimmy Arledge, Jimmy Snowden and Horace Doyle Barnette to three years each. James Jordan, said to be one of the trigger men, pleaded guilty in a federal court in Atlanta and received four years. Eight others, including Sheriff Lawrence Rainey, were acquitted.

Notorious Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen and two others received mistrials. Although authorities claim all the convicted served time, it is unclear when or how much time. According to Ben Chaney, Sam Bowers served three and one-half years of his 10-year sentence. However, none of the defendants were ever tried by the State of Mississippi for their involvement in the murders.

Ben Chaney has been asking Mississippi authorities for more than 20 years to pursue state murder charges against the killers. Thousands of pages of FBI documents appear to contain the evidence necessary for murder convictions, but had never been examined by the state. “State officials said in 1964, they didn’t prosecute because the FBI didn’t turn over evidence,” Chaney explained, “but FBI officials told me the evidence was available but prosecutors never requested it.”

In 2000, Attorney General Mike Moore told reporters his office had been looking into reopening the case. However, former Neshoba County deputy Cecil Price, who was rumored to be a key witness for the state, has since died. It is unknown if any other living witnesses exist. “For the past eight months or so, our office and the local district attorney have been doing a review of the case, going over about 40,000 pages of FBI documents,” Moore said at the time.

“The statute of limitations on murder never ends,” Chaney said. “The Justice Department has released the transcripts from the federal convictions. We have reviewed the transcripts, completed the report and turned them over to our lawyers.” After 39 years, attacks on the three civil rights workers continue in Mississippi. A memorial to James Earl Chaney has been desecrated more than two dozen times in recent years, Ben Chaney said.

By Earnest McBride

Jackson Advocate Contributing Editor

Questions still linger about some half-century-old crimes in Mississippi. “Seven people who faced federal conspiracy to deny civil rights or other charges… related to the murders of the three civil rights workers in Neshoba County, Mississippi, are still living,” says John Gibson, executive director of the Arkansas Delta Truth and Justice Center.

“Why was only Edgar Ray ‘Preacher’ Killen prosecuted by Mississippi on state charges?”Fifty other known Mississippi murders are suspended in limbo without  prosecution, Gibson concluded from his unstinting investigations. Today, he and a wide network of civil rights inquiring minds meeting June 18-19 in Meridian and Neshoba County want to know:

“What about the others?”More than anything else, though, the continuing cry for justice in the grisly murder of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman on June 21, 1964, is the singular most stirring call to Mecca that beckons true believers to undertake the pilgrimage to Neshoba County every year.

Two commemorations in Neshoba

Movement avatars like Diane Nash and John Steele, whose civil rights bona fides and direct link to the martyrs’ legacy remain unquestioned after 47 years, and hundreds of others returned again this year to honor their late comrades under the banner of the Annual Mississippi Civil Rights Martyrs Memorial Service and Conference.

Yet they and the dwindling body of civil rights veterans whose footprints were stamped forever on the coarse and resistant soil of Mississippi  nearly 50 years ago are not too anxious to throw open the holy gates to a  newer generation of devotees.Nash, the most recognizable face and the guiding spirit of the Freedom Riders and the voting rights activists of the 1960s, and Steele, a child of the movement as it evolved in Neshoba and the Martyrs’ committee chairperson today, questioned the reason for scheduling a second conference for Neshoba over the same weekend as their own.

Steele, 57, was the 12-year-old portrayed in Mississippi Burning, Steele was the last to turn out the lights at Mt. Zion Church in Longdale before the Klan bombed it. He says that as chairman of the Martyrs’ commemoration, he has reached out to as many veterans of the civil rights movement as possible to commune with them and to pursue justice for the murdered men.

The organizers of the First National Conference on Civil Rights that met in Neshoba June 19-21, however, are quick to dispel any suggestion that they are not as legitimate and devoted to honoring the civil rights legacy as others with a manifest interest in the field. Philadelphia, MS, Mayor James Young and University of Georgia Sociology Professor Keith Parker, both Neshoba County natives, were nine-year-old elementary school classmates at the time of the 1964 murders.

They have avowed that they, as hometown achievers, were consumed with a passion to build a noteworthy monument for those who fought and died for black rights in Neshoba, something that would attract scholars and civil rights devotees from across the nation and around the world. After young’s election as city’s first black mayor in 2009, and with Parker’s organizational talent and many contacts among scholars, they began developing the plan for the First National Conference on Civil Rights for June 2011.

Theirs is not an arm of the state-sanctioned, five-year civil rights commemoration, whose honorary host is Governor Haley Barbour, they emphasize.“We started talking about things we should do together to help Mississippi’s Philadelphia,” Parker said in an interview on the last day of the conference. “The National conference was designed to complement the Martyr’s Conference. Everything we did was in concert with ongoing activities in Philadelphia.

“I have been fortunate to receive a lot as a result of the hard work, the tears and I suspect the death of those who came before me. So whatever I can do to give back, or create opportunities for young people, I’m committed to it. “Any income from this conference will be given to the local Boys and Girls Clubs,” Parker said. “Our goal is to involve the Boys and Girls Clubs from throughout Mississippi  in our efforts. Our aim is to provide young people with information about going to college, about getting a job, and about surviving high school. People are going to say things, without having a conversation with Mayor Young or me.

I want people to look at our body of work over a period of time and then they can make their own decisions about whether we are trying to profiteer from the experience of others, or whether we are trying to create or expand opportunities for young people, who are the  real beneficiaries.

Mayor supports all Civil Rights events

Mayor Young actually participated in three separately sponsored activities over the weekend, speaking at the Martyr’s event Saturday and then spearheading some of the activities at the First National Conference on Civil Rights. “Nobody has a monopoly on civil rights,” he said.

“I think we fail when we say that only this particular table can talk about it, when it’s so much broader than this table. No, this conference was not designed to interfere with or take anything away from the other sponsoring groups.”  “We tried to include  those who were there at the time and knew these guys who were in the fight. That’s why Rev. Charles Johnson of Meridian was the keynote speaker at our Sunday Services. That in itself was a sign that we’re inclusive. We want to make it an annual event. We’re building it as a place to come and talk. Our standpoint is, why have this national conference take place outside the most volatile historical area in our country? “We must avoid any kind of stigmatized separation.

We can all work together, because we need each other. There are advocates on all sides. We are all advocates for justice. Some are advocates for civil rights. They’re basically the same. That’s why I  participate in all of it.”

Choctaw r

The National Conference was co-sponsored by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, whose resort facilities housed most of the conference events.

Tribal Chief Beasley Denson, said that the longsuffering Choctaws “faced a situation that was no different” from that of the black people’s struggle for civil rights in Mississippi. The Choctaws helped the Europeans in their early settlements, but wound up losing most of their land and resources to them as the balance of power shifted to the Europeans.“At one point in time,” Denson said, “we came near to losing ourselves as a tribe, because the only way we could exist here in the state was to exist as citizens of the state of  Mississippi and not to exist as a tribe.”

The tribe was granted legal status by the United States only in 1945. Denson presented Tougaloo College with a special Miko award for Civil Rights and Social Justice for its critical role in the civil rights movement in Mississippi. Tougaloo College President Beverly also conducted a session on the college’s relationship to the movement.

Scott Sisters Speak

The recently released former state prisoners Jamie and Gladys Scott and their mother, Mrs. Evelyn Rasco,  were given special honors at the Martyrs group meeting in the Longdale Community in Neshoba County. “We are here today to honor Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner,” Gladys Scott said. “If it hadn’t been for our brothers and sisters back in the struggle, we couldn’t be here today. We’re going to keep on fighting for the rest of the ladies and gentlemen back there in prison. We’re going to keep on fighting for our rights and get a full pardon.

And hopefully we’re going to march with y’all and help y’all do what y’all got to do to make this a better world.”Jamie Scott, who is scheduled for a kidney transplant in November, reflected on the 16 years she and her sister spent in prison on a spurious robbery charge. “I just spent 16 years and 32 days of my life incarcerated for a crime,,, God in Heaven knows I didn’t commit. But it was because of the color of our skin and the color of a dollar bill. “It’s been a long time coming, and still there’s a long fight ahead

.“I tell everybody everywhere I go, ‘slavery ain’t dead in Mississippi; It’s called the law.’ Keep up the fight, keep up the good work.“   Alabama Attorney Valerie Hicks-Powe, the attorney representing the family of Frederick Germaine Carter, the man found hanging from tree in Greenwood last year, reminded the crowd gathered at the Neshoba County Courthouse of their duty to vote.“We complain about what’s happening in our community and we complain about what the proverbial ‘they’ are doing to us,” owe said. “But the people who fought so hard—-Freedom Summer—-to give us the right to vote would be turning over in their graves if they knew how few of us are actually exercising that right now. . What you can do today…is leave here and make sure that the people with whom  you communicate understand the right to vote and the importance of the right to vote.”The schedule for the 2012 National Conference on Civil Rights has been set for June 17-19 in  Philadelphia, MS.

By Barbara Harris

Reprint June 17, 2003

Despite the numerous screen productions, discussions and writings on the African American slave experience, little is said in the mainstream media about the dehumanizing life led by women and children in bondage and the breakdown of the family unit.Nevertheless, much of the violent tendencies and amoral behavior now exhibited by both descendants of slaves and descendants of slave owners are seemingly inbred.

In addition, the “divide and conquer” doctrine used by slaveholders perhaps gave rise to practice of being an “Uncle Tom” that emerged in the decades following emancipation.“Northerners know nothing about slavery. They think it is perpetual bondage only. They have no conception of the depth of degradation involved in that word, SLAVERY; if they had, they would never cease their efforts until so horrible a system was overthrown,” states the inscription on the story of Harriet Ann Jacobs (1813-1897),

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861.It was conventional wisdom in the South that the best way to get a good house servant was to raise one. Often, children were taken from their parents to sleep in the Big House as well as to eat, work and play there. Their families were replaced by the families of their owners, with their position in those family clearly defined.In many ways, children who were taken into the house were fortunate.

Certainly they ate better and had better clothing and more comfortable working conditions than children in the field. Some became “pets” of the slaveholding family and developed what could, without much of a stretch, be called friendships.At the same time, both children and adults who served in the house were on call 24 hours a day. They had not a moment that was completely their own. And they were in no less danger of violence than a field hand.

In the house, as in the field, discipline was swift and often cruel.Southern plantations had their share of sadists, too. Without the constraints of law or social disapproval, these people, both women and men, were free to commit extremes of physical violence on even the youngest slaves, especially when they were separated from their families. Indeed, owning a slave could make a good person, or at any rate, an ordinary person, bad.Children who were house servants also missed out on the support and camaraderie of the slave quarters, with its powerful sense of community.

That was no small loss. To enslaved Americans, community meant survival   — emotional, psychological, and often physical survival.They were under constant assaults from the white world, which did everything it could to make them “good slaves.” A good slave, obviously, is not a healthy, secure, self-possessed person. Self-respect was a treasure to be cherished in the quarters.It was a quality that parents worked hard to instill in their children and that the slave community encouraged in all its members. Separated from that atmosphere, a child was vulnerable to all sorts of attacks on his or her self-worth.Another skill mastered by enslaved women was protection of the inner person.

A black mother taught her daughter to develop two faces. She was to seem accommodating and tract-able to the slaveholder, smiling and ready to please. At the same time, she was to have a secret place inside herself full of self-respect.Janie might learn at the end of a whip to call a white baby “Master Henry,” but there was a part of her that could laugh at the silliness of it or be contemptuous or angry or whatever would keep her own sense of self intact.

As daughters got older, of course, there were other lessons to be taught. Even very young girls were subject to sexual abuse from white men. This was a reality black parents faced from the moment a girl baby was born.There was no real defense against it, but black mothers counseled their daughters in modesty and dignity, in the hope that those qualities might provide some protection. They also taught them lessons of guile and trickery.

There was nothing dishonorable in deceiving the slaveholder.Indeed, the ability to overcome force by the use of wits was a highly valued one in the slave community. Certainly, if a girl could protect her sexual integrity, anything was justified.Childhood, for most slaves, lasted only a few years. During those years, they played as other children do.

They jumped rope and climbed trees and played games. And then, in a heartbreakingly short time, they went to work.Some enslaved children began to do small chores when they were four or five. By seven, many slave children were working regular hours. Most 10-year-olds were considered “hands.” Girls usually began working at an earlier age than their brothers, and they shifted from the jobs accorded children to their adult jobs earlier as well.Slave children did a number of jobs.

Both boys and girls were enlisted for childcare. Mothers, of course, worked all day.On a small plantation, the slaveholder’s wife might care for the babies and the toddlers, with help from slightly older children. Other places, a slave who was too old for field work might be assigned the child care duties, again with the help of children of seven or eight.

On some plantations, children of that age took care of their younger brothers and sisters alone.Children, of course, are not the best caretakers of other children.OF KITH AND KIN: LIFE AS A SLAVEBy the American Revolution, 20 percent of the overall population of the 13 colonies was of African descent. The legalized practice of enslaving blacks occurred in every colony. The economic realities of the southern colonies, however, perpetuated the institution, which was first legalized in Massachusetts in 1641.During the Revolutionary era, more than half of all African Americans lived in Virginia and Maryland.

Most of these blacks lived in the Chesapeake region, where they made up 50 to 60 percent of the overall population. The majority, but not all, of these African Americans were slaves. In fact, the first official U.S. census, taken in 1790, showed that 8 percent of the black populace was free.Whether free or slave, blacks in the Chesapeake established familial relationships, networks for disseminating information, survival techniques and various forms of resistance to their condition.The institution of slavery was shaped and defined by the formal processes of the government and the courts. The governor, his council and the House of Burgesses legislated the terms of slavery.

Initially, the English extended laws regulating indentured servants and apprentices to apply to slaves. In practice, however, African slaves endured harsher punishments and restrictions.From 1640 to 1662, customary law and some specific legislation clearly established the beginnings of Virginia’s slave society, making servitude for life the common condition for all newly arrived Africans.Beginning in the 1660s, the slaves’ status was defined by statutory law, which decreed that the status of a child was determined by the condition of its mother. During the following decade, more laws were enacted that reinforced or more clearly defined earlier laws, tightened controls on the movement of the black populace, or set punishments for infractions of the law.By the 1730s, more laws were established that tried to ease whites’ mounting fears of slave uprisings.

The law became increasingly restrictive over the course of the 17th and early 18th centuries. Its terms dictated a system of rigid social control — slaves were denied basic rights such as personal choice, legal marriage and freedom of movement.“The slaves in this colony are never married, their lords thinking them improper subjects for so valuable an institution,” offered Philip Vickers Fithian, a tutor to the Robert Carter family.

Manumissions were ex-tremely limited until after the Revolution, and severe punishments could be handed down to slaves who disobeyed the rules.Free blacks were also increasingly denied many of the rights accorded to free white men, such as owning guns, holding indentured servants, intermarrying with whites, testifying as witnesses in court against white men, or holding offices of any kind.

At the same time, they were obliged to pay more in taxes than comparable white families.The history of the African American family is a story of a struggle to rebuild stable family institutions to fill the emotional, cultural and spiritual void created when African people were torn from their homelands.Despite the detachment from homelands and the legalities of slavery, black men and women continued to form unions, joining together in marriage ceremonies. Although many of these couples lived apart from one another, many traveled great distances at night to visit their loved ones.

This “night-walking,” a family institution born of necessity, employed a network of foot trails that became physical landmarks of the family ties that bound together the black community.Enslaved Africans succeeded in establishing families, extending kin connections, and forming networks with those at other plantations. These kinships and networks also included free blacks. The world blacks made for themselves helped to mitigate the isolation and debasement of the slave system.

Africans and their American-born descendants developed their own system of social relations in the quarters and a semiautonomous culture that borrowed from both African and English ways.The practice of a distinctive culture that whites could not entirely control afforded African Americans some small measure of power over their lives and encouraged slave solidarity. In addition, these enslaved Africans were able to affect daily living conditions and relationships with their masters. Slave children learned these rudiments of survival from their elders through storytelling, games and song.

By Earnest McBride

JA Contributing Editor

Eminent scholar and historian Manning Marable’s spirit opted to depart the present world just one day before the author’s supposedly greatest work was announced for general release. He was 60.The New York Times reported that Marable had been hospitalized with pneumonia in March. Yet his long battle with sarcoidosis (a disease affecting lung, liver and lymph glands) had led him to get a double-lung transplant last July.Best known for his weekly news column, “Along the Color Line,” that appeared in more than 400 publications worldwide, Marable was about to introduce what his publisher’s touted as the “definitive” work on one of the nation’s most famous black leaders. “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention” is that final work and has whetted the interest of scholars around the world. The book was released for general sales three days after Marable’s death.The scholar known for his devotion to people’s causes as well as to the historical importance of the people he was studying embraced black history as a legitimate and necessary field of study. He spent 20 years researching and writing his Malcolm X book, his last, and perhaps greatest, work.Marable’s work places and scholarly fields of play included some of the nation’s most prestigious institutions. He began his professional career as a senior research associate in Africana Studies at Cornell University in 1980. Two years later, he began work as history and economics professor at Fisk University, where he also served as the director of the Race Relations Institute. At Colgate University in 1983, Marable founded and directed the Africana and Latin American Studies program, a job that presaged much of the work that he began 10 years later at Columbia University, where he became the founding director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies. He was at Columbia at the time of his death.Manning was frequently heard to say that he did not just make an effort to write history or have friends. He rather “cultivated” both, he said on the Tavis Smiley Show in February, 2006.“I’ve cultivated with Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of Medgar Evers,” he said. ‘Medgar had the toughest Civil Rights job in the United States, being the field secretary of the NAACP in Mississippi for nearly a decade.”Manning co-authored with Myrlie Evers the best-selling “The Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero’s Life and Legacy,” published in 2006. Manning viewed Medgar as one of the greatest men of his generation with an impact on the world no less impressive than the most eminent geniuses, scientists or change agents of his time.  “He (Medgar) was at the time of his death one of the three or four most influential figures on Earth. His speeches were read by millions, had been memorized by millions of people.”Manning’s genuine and deep admiration for Medgar led to his being selected as the first lecturer for the newly-developed Medgar Evers Institute in 1998. His speech was delivered at Millsaps College, one of the few white institutions that allowed its students to freely join in the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi without fear of recrimination.While the Institute faded into obscurity in subsequent years, Marable retained his “cultivated” relations with the Evers family and the civil rights cause.Of the 20 books that he published in a career spanning nearly 40 years, besides those cited earlier, the most well-received by the reading public were “Speaking Truth to Power,” “How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black  America (1983),” “Living Black History,” and “Black Liberation in Conservative America (1997).” Two friends from the contemporary world of “race” work are Benjamin Chavis, Jr., and Benjamin Todd Jealous, both having attained the most recognizable seat in civil rights activities, the presidency of the NAACP.“Manning,” said Chavis, National NAACP president for 1993-1994, “was not only a great analytical historian of the plight of African people all over the world, and in particular here in the United States, but also my long-time friend and comrade, who was a diligent, consistent, thought-provoking visionary and champion of the liberation of the oppressed.“It is interesting that today too many of us still get too nervous whenever we hear the word ‘race’ used. It is as if some of us are ashamed to admit that our struggle against racism and class discrimination still exists…. I have personally known Manning Marable for more than 30 years. He had a passion for the truth unabridged. Manning Marable was a freedom fighter who used his skill as a historian to present the truth to people who cried out for a better quality of life.”Marable made many lasting contributions to the NAACP efforts to desegregate American society, Jealous said. “Dr. Marable brought one of the keenest intellects of our age to the contemporary conversation on race in America,” Jealous said. “As an academic, he was never afraid to speak his mind, and as an activist, his words carried the gravitas of a published author. His life was dedicated to the struggle, and he will be sorely missed.”Marable was born May 13, 1950, in Dayton, Ohio. He died in New York City on April 1.Dr. Marable is survived by his wife of 15 years, Leith Mullings, three children and two stepchildren.

JANS – Dr. Maribel Mojica, research assistant professor in agricultural economics, recently presented a paper entitled “Examining the Impact of Human Capital on Employment and Income in Mississippi” at the 50th Southern Regional Science Association Annual Conference held March 23 – 27, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The paper, co-authored with Dr. Whittaker, professor in agricultural economics, explores the role of human capital and how it matters in creating jobs and increasing incomes, and, furthermore, how human capital development can be promoted to further the dimensions of economic growth. The main objective of the study is to empirically investigate the contribution of human capital towards employment and income growth in Mississippi. Data for the 82 counties in Mississippi drawn from several sources were used in the empirical analysis. Models of endogenous growth were specified to test the impact of human capital variables to changes in employment and per capita income using appropriate regression techniques. The results are useful to policy makers in evaluating the effectiveness of human capital development in achieving economic growth. The outcome of the study may also help in the development and improvement of education policies and the incentive system regarding human capital accumulation. During the conference, Dr. Mojica also discussed/ reviewed a scientific paper entitled “Human Capital Drift up the Urban Hierarchy: Veterinarians in Western Canada” by Dr. M. Rose Olfert, et.al from the University of Saskatchewan. The study concluded that the location choices of veterinarians are in part labor supply choices rather than only the imperatives of labor demand. Rural economic development is one of Dr. Mojica’s research interests as she investigates how human capital and entrepreneurship impacts the economy. She works closely with Dr. Whittaker in several areas of research pertaining to economic development, global food security and food distribution.

JANS – Joshua Coleman and Robert C. Harris, both Department of Agriculture students, attended the 2011 USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum “Today’s Strategies & Tomorrow’s Opportunities” as a part of the USDA Student Diversity Program, held on February 24-25, in Arlington, Virginia.Coleman and Harris were recommended by faculty and submitted essays on the topic “Agriculture as a Career.” They were selected out of 90 applicants from across the United States, and were among 24 students representing land-grant universities, Hispanic serving institutions and American Association of State Colleges of Agriculture and Renewable Resources Institutions.While attending the forum, the students heard Tom Vilsack, secretary of Agriculture, and Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, speak.“We attended the forum to learn more about the current state of agriculture and what the future holds for all agricultural sectors,” said Harris and Coleman concluded, “The forum was of great educational and informational value that truly establishes agriculture as the hope of the future.”