Dr. Jamye Coleman Williams: A Passion for Education & Justice

Dr. Jamye Coleman Williams, educator, activist, and leader in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, shown above right with her husband, Dr. McDonald Williams, and the Alliance team, was the guest speaker on March 2nd
at Harvard University’s Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations. At age 97, Dr. Williams is a vibrant, contemporary woman who has fought for equality
in education and civil rights. Dr. Williams’ rich life has been spent opposing injustice in many important ways. In her talk she discussed her work 1) as an educator for over 48 years in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); 2) as a civil rights activist in the 1950s-60s; and, 3) in the AME Church.    Link to story

A South Carolina Story about Hope
As South Carolina was enduring terrible flooding and continuing rains, I tried to reach many friends my colleagues and I have made over 15 years, to say how much they mean to us and to offer encouragement. When I finally reached revered A.M.E. Bishop Frederick James (now 93) in Columbia, I was relieved to hear that he and his wife are faring well. Then I gingerly asked how his dear, unfinished Rosenwald School building in Prosperity, SC had fared.    Link to story

A Broadway Journey against Racism--Philip Rose & A Raisin in the Sun
Link to article.

(l-r) David Cogan, Lorraine Hansberry, Lloyd Richards, Philip Rose, and
Sidney Poitier.

Remembering Brooklyn Congressman
Major R. Owens (1936 - 2013)
I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Congressman Major R. Owens on Monday, October 21st.  In thinking of his legacy, I feel proud to be among millions of Americans who are grateful
for the life and work of the Congressman. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 until retiring
in 2007. While he represented Brooklyn's 11th District, his dedication to
education, civil rights, anti-poverty, and people with disabilities--to mention
only a few crucial matters--helped to make our entire country kinder and more just. He will be truly missed! 
     As a journalist, Aesthetic Realism Associate, and historian of civil rights, I met Major Owens beginning in 2000, at conferences and workshops on education, health care, labor, and civil rights, in Washington, DC and in New York City. When, in 2005, Lyn Miller-Lachmann, Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review, asked me to interview Mr. Owens in relation to the fact that he was the only member of Congress who was also a librarian, I welcomed the opportunity. My interview took place at his Brooklyn Congressional office on Utica Avenue. 
      "Congressman Major Owens: Literature from Shakespeare to Rap," appeared in MultiCultural Review and was soon taken up by newspapers and journals around the country. (See link to the article below.) The article includes a quote from his rap against proposed cuts in Head Start and other health and education programs. He became known as 'the rappin rep.' "The Nation Needs Your Lunch" is an instance of the justice he was fighting for and his feeling for people young and old. It begins:
          Kids of America
         There is a fiscal crunch.
         This great nation
          Now needs your lunch
         To set the budget right.
In a near time I'll say more about Congressman Owens, including about the educational performance event in 2010 presented in his honor at Medgar Evers College (CUNY) in Brooklyn: "The People of Clarendon County"--A Play by Ossie Davis, & the Answer to Racism!
            Link to the story.

Tuskegee Airman Dabney Montgomery
and The Force of Ethics in Civil Rights                 
This new article is by David Bernstein, writing as cameraman for the oral history project. Mr. Bernstein movingly describes the interview with Mr. Montgomery in relation to what he learned from Eli Siegel and Aesthetic Realism about what it means to be fair to the suffering of other people.
            Link to the story.

Envisioning Emancipation and the urgent question:
how should we see people?                 
A new book from Temple University Press, published in honor of the Emancipation Proclamation's 150th anniversary, provides an opportunity for everyone to address this urgent question, still raging in America: How should we see other people?
            Link to the story.

Poetry, the Emancipation Proclamation, and Dr. Martin Luther King
                
January 1, 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, stating that “all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State . . . shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” In 1968, with enormous respect for Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Eli Siegel expressed what America and every person in our troubled world is hoping for, in "Something Else Should Die: A Poem With Rhymes." What would it mean for injustice to die?
            Link to the story.

Honoring Unsung Heroes in Somerset, NJ - Link to the Story

Link to an Article Rediscovered -
Benedict College Luncheon Highlights Works of Alice Bernstein