Black History Fact Of The Day

Red, Black & Green Elsie Law LogoRuth Carol Taylor became the first African-American flight attendant in the United States. She is also a registered nurse and a journalist. In 1955, she graduated from the Bellevue School of Nursing.

On February 11, 1958, she was on a flight from Ithaca to New York City as America’s first Black stewardess. Approximately six months later, she was forced to resign from her flight attendant job due to her marital status. When she got married, she violated a rule that demanded that flight attendants remain single. Carol Taylor later admitted she only had interest in being a flight attendant to combat racism which said that she couldn’t before she was Black.

In 1977, Carol Taylor returned to nursing. She also created the “Racism Quotient,” a test to measure racist attitudes. Also, in 1985, she penned, “The Little Black Book: Black Male Survival In America.”

[Bibliography: BlackPast.org]

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Quote Of The Day

“You’ll never see the follow-up stories about lottery winners. Why? Because then you would see that, in nine cases out of ten, all that money destroys people’s lives. People see what’s on the outside, and guys like myself make it look so wonderful and so desirable, and the average person doesn’t even realize that it’s all just a facade. It’s a mirage, a myth we created, while on the inside we may be torn apart and dying of emotional starvation.

I sometimes think of it like an actor coming onto the set in some ratty old studio. His life may be terrible, and everything around him in his real life is filthy and dirty, but he comes out into the lights and somebody says, ‘Action!’ What the public sees is all smiles and enthusiasm and happiness, but then, when the lights go off, it’s just another broken down person who spends every waking hour in a living hell.” -Deion Sanders

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Black History Fact Of The Day: The First Black-Owned Hospital

Red, Black & Green Elsie Law LogoIn addition to performing the first successful open heart surgery, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams co-founded the first African-American controlled hospital in the United States. The pioneering Provident Hospital, which was located on Chicago’s South Side, was also the first training facility for African American nurses in America. The hospital was said to have an extremely high success rate for the recovery of its patients.

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TODAY IS BUY BLACK FRIDAY

PLEASE PASS THIS ON! (EACH ONE TEACH ONE OR TWO!) THIS IS PHASE ONE ON HOW WE CAN HELP TO STRENGTHEN & EMPOWER OUR COMMUNITY:
The 2008 not guilty verdict in the Sean Bell case evoked outrage, emotion, and debate. It is not an anomaly that the police officers involved in the Sean Bell slaying were acquitted of all charges on all counts in State Supreme Court. I could run out of ink printing the names of people who have been victimized by the inaptly named justice system.

The American justice system has been especially terroristic towards the African American community. Many community members can cite historic and personal accounts to prove this. Therefore, it would be foolhardy (at the least) to turn to a system that has methodically oppressed us, and request that they free us. We can only free ourselves through extreme discipline and intelligent planning.

As a community we have been too compliant with leaders who organize ineffective, delayed reactions. The only strategy that can save us in this last hour is one that calls for a collective code of conduct that will be conducive to improving the conditions of our community, and shifting the paradigm of how we are treated by outside entities. The first step of this code of conduct should be based on economics.

The old adage of “money talks,” still reigns true in the new millennium. Any political scientist worth his or her library card will tell you that: “Economic powerlessness equals political powerlessness,” and conversely “economic power equals political power.” This means that if we continue to allow our wealth to be extracted from our community, we will remain impotent.

The power of the collective “Black Dollar” is often discussed. However, that power has been left unchanneled. Today is the day to change that. A one-time boycott is not going to bring long-term change and respect to our community. Our community has launched boycotts before. Our success and ascension will be based on what we consistently do. For this reason, we should initiate “BUY BLACK FRIDAYS.”

BUY BLACK FRIDAYS is a small step towards our community acquiring power via controlling our economics. Every Friday, people who acknowledge the injustice and oppression that the African American community has been consistently subjected to should do one of the following:

Option #1: Spend $0 on Friday
Option #2: Spend no more than $10 on Friday
Option #3: Only Shop at Black Businesses on Friday
[PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ABOVE OPTIONS CAN & SHOULD BE EXERCISED ON A DAILY BASIS. However, we can all at the very least focus on Fridays. This way we can take a collective stand and build our collective discipline. Please remember that this is only Phase 1!].

To the people who are tempted to label “BUY BLACK FRIDAYS” as racist, I say this: In the big scheme of things, this is about right & wrong, justice & injustice. The African American community is a strong, proud community that has endured the brunt of America’s iron fist. We must stop the pounding. I feel that any fair-minded individual will concur, and join in.

ANY business that is privileged to enjoy the support of the African American community MUST return that support.

I thank you in advance for your effort and dedication.

-Elsie Law AKA Starface

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