This post is dedicated to the memory of # MartinLutherKing Jr., who was murdered in Memphis,Tn on this day in 1968

What you are reading on thise blog on this day.

Bummer, I'm Banned Again!

Awkward Anal's of American Politics on Labor Day

RedEyes version of how did we get here and where do we go from here.

What EYE am reading on this blog on this day.

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.

Welcome to my world, a very personal diary

Ain't gonna let nobody turn  us around

#RestoreTheVRA

#MartinLutherKing

EYE Shall Return

EYE understand the fear #AYearWithoutTamir #JordanDavis #EricGarner #MikeBrown #JFK

Timothy Loehman, who immediately killed #TamirRice on first sight, was never arrested or charged. #YearWithoutTamir pic.twitter.com/5rZmdQakL8

— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) November 22, 2015

EYE was in the second grade on 11.22.1963 when the principal announced over the intercom President Kennedy had been shot. I didn't find out he died until I got home. The days that followed were very sad, I remember feeling sorry for Carolyn, John John, and Jackie Kennedy. I also remember being  afraid for the leaders who tried to help African Americans. Sure enough, then came the assassinations of Martin Luther King,Jr, and Robert Kennedy . 

My ancestors lived through 400 years of torture/slavery, my generation lived through domestic terrorism/Jim Crow, my children are living through Trayvon Martin, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Jordan Russell Davis,Renisha McBride and other victims of senseless violence.

Just saying #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/2wDOnFJlwL

— Anon Trip (@Anontrip) November 23, 2015

First Donald Trump came for the Muslims

The GOP is at a crossroads that will define its party for years. They can nominate Trump, a man who has demonized American minority groups, or choose someone who truly embraces American values. But if Trump is the Republican presidential nominee in 2016, they will have made it clear to America that the Grand Old Party is no longer the party of Lincoln, but the party of hate.

You think? 

Guns don't kill people....

Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

"I want them to see what they've done" Jacqueline Kennedy

I was in the second grade on 11.22.1963 when the principal  announced over the intercom  President Kennedy had been shot. I didn't find out he died until I got home. The days that followed were very sad, I remember feeling sorry for Carolyn, John John, and Jackie Kennedy. I also remember feeling scared for the leaders who tried to help African Americans.  Sure enough, then came the assassinations of Martin Luther King,Jr, and Robert Kennedy Jr. 

My ancestors lived through 400 years of torture/slavery,  my generation lived through domestic terrorism/Jim Crow,  my children are living through Trayvon Martin, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Jordan Russell Davis, Renisha McBride and other victims of senseless  violence.

In June 1963, President Kennedy promoted civil rights as the governor of Alabama blocked integration of the University of Alabama.

“Today, we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free,” the president said in a speech. “And when Americans are sent to Vietnam or West Berlin, we do not ask for whites only.”

 Will we ever live in the land of liberty and justice for all, or is it just a slogan?  Time will tell the truth.

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord"

Today's Must Reads

Personal Memories of 43 Years Ago

The content of our character

Martin Luther King, Jr. Links I Like~link inserted

Happy 81st Birthday Dr. King

Personal Memories of 43 Years Ago

I remember the evening of April 4, 1968, like it was yesterday. I was in my bedroom doing my homework when I heard my mother scream "Oh My Lord No"! We ran to the living room and watched TV in horror.

I remember thinking, "not again", referring to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. We watched the replay of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I've Been to the Mountain Top Speech". We watched as a young minister we knew personally shook Dr. King's hand after he finished the speech.

I remember my youngest sibling proclaiming "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last" in front of the television.

I didn't want to go to school the next day but my parents made me. I was one of 12 African American students in a student body of about 500. I remember walking into the predominately white high school on April 5, 1968, to find the students and most of the faculty members celebrating the death of Dr. King with a Pep Rally complete with hundreds of Confederate Flags waving and the band playing Dixie. Some of my classmate's fathers  were members the Alabama National Guard bragged their fathers were going to Memphis to kill some N's. I remember being glad when the school day was finally over.
I will be glad when this day is over because it still feels like yesterday.

Just after 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. is fatally shot while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The civil rights leader was in Memphis to support a sanitation workers' strike and was on his way to dinner when a bullet struck him in the jaw and severed his spinal cord. King was pronounced dead after his arrival at a Memphis hospital. He was 39 years old.
In the months before his assassination, Martin Luther King became increasingly concerned with the problem of economic inequality in America. He organized a Poor People's Campaign to focus on the issue, including an interracial poor people's march on Washington, and in March 1968 traveled to Memphis in support of poorly treated African-American sanitation workers. On March 28, a workers' protest march led by King ended in violence and the death of an African-American teenager. King left the city but vowed to return in early April to lead another demonstration.

On April 3, back in Memphis, King gave his last sermon, saying, "We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop...And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land."

One day after speaking those words, Dr. King was shot and killed by a sniper. As word of the assassination spread, riots broke out in cities all across the United States and National Guard troops were deployed in Memphis and Washington, D.C. On April 9, King was laid to rest in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to pay tribute to King's casket as it passed by in a wooden farm cart drawn by two mules.

On the 43th anniversary of that terrible and tragic day in our history, let's not forget why Dr. King was in Memphis in the first place. He was there fighting for economic justice for trash collectors in the city of Memphis. Fighting a battle for people who were downtrodden, overlooked and spit on by a city, and the white power structure that ran it.