Pow Wow in Washington, DC

Washington, the District of Columbia, originally uploaded by MarianDouglas.

A powwow in the Upper South as DC hosted the National Museum of the American Indian annual powwow. It was at the (new) MCI Center downtown.

Blogher conference, California

Techmart Santa Clara, originally uploaded by MarianDouglas.

We're getting ready to do the first Blogher - the conference of women bloggers.

16 tons: "Modern-day US Slavery" in Jacksonville, Florida

I can't stand hearing organisations go on about modern-day slavery in some foreign country. The same organisations hire no (0) Black Americans and have zilch interest in the realities and legacies of Black enslavement we live with right here in the Americas - whether it's Jamaica, Mexico or the USA. Now today CNN's reporting on a private "farm labor camp" in Florida where they found homeless Black Americans lured, trapped, forced to work, then held in debt to the same "farm labor camp."

And here's basically the same thing reported by journalist Ronnie Greene in a three-part series in Aug-Sept 2003.

Florida farmhands reap a harvest of poverty, pain and exploitation, by Ronnie Greene, Miami Herald, Aug 2003

Almost 50 years ago Tennessee Ernie Ford sang "Sixteen Tons".

SIXTEEN TONS

Written by the late Merle Travis; born, Ebeneezer, Kentucky

Some people say a man is made out of mud
A poor man's made out of muscle and blood
Muscle and blood, skin and bones...
A mind that's weak and a back that's strong
_________________
Chorus
You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
__________________
I was born one mornin' and the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal and
the straw boss said, 'well bless my soul!'
.....you loaded...

(Chorus)
__________________
I was born one mornin' it was drizzlin' rain
fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in a cane-brake by an old mama lion
can't no high-toned woman make me walk no line

(Chorus)
__________________
If you see me comin', better step aside
A lot of men didn't, a lot of men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't get you, then the left one will

(Chorus)
__________________
You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter don't you call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

'Sixteen Tons' ~ Elvis Presley Music

Frank Wills, Deep Throat and journalists at the service of ... truth??? "Moon of Alabama" blog

While almost everyone's talking about the significance of a fellow named Mark Felt who recently revealed himself as Deep Throat, I need to be one of the folks who gives props and respect to the late Frank Wills, a Black American. As a security guard in at a place called the Watergate in Washington, DC, Mr. Wills took a normally underpaid and largely thankless job and did it professionally. He did his work in a way that has forever changed U.S. and world history. He died several years ago at 52 in his native Georgia. I believe he's buried somewhere near North Augusta, South Carolina. On an unrelated yet provocative website called simply Moon of Alabama, "Billmon" posts an item related to our need for "full disclosure" by today's journalists... maybe the news equivalent of that Golden Fleece award that was given out by a member of Congress.

Moon of Alabama: Billmon: Memory Loss

"Blount Countians say racism must stop" - and I agree

I found this via the link for Appalachian Community Fund which links to SEP - the Southern Empowerment Project.

My Grandma Maude Gudger was born in Maryville in 1905. She later married a Nichols in Leavenworth, Kansas.

On the SEP site - "Blount County Tennessee: Spring 2005: Racist Threats Against Black Students in Schools, Vandalism Against Hispanic Business, Other Incidents. BLOUNT COUNTIANS SAY ENOUGH - THE RACISM MUST STOP!"

Southern Empowerment Project

Find Yourself ... Geobloggers.com

Here's a useful feature to find yourself and others in the mountains - or anywhere else. Geobloggers:

Geobloggers is "an intergration [sic] between flickr and google maps..."

"African Union & the African Diaspora" session, "Rebuilding Africa" conference, Kensington/Chelsea Town Hall, London, 16 Oct 2004

"African Union & the African Diaspora" session, "Rebuilding Africa" conference, Kensington/Chelsea Town Hall, London, 16 Oct 2004, originally uploaded by MarianDouglas.

This photo's a bit grainy. It was one of my first efforts with my iPAQ handheld pda. It's obvious to some of us there's a direct connection from Africa to the mountains and valleys of east Tennessee and western NC. Some of us are the connection from Africa to the Appalachian mountains. Last October, as part of the association of people of African descendant in Europe, we attended this interesting meeting and met African Union Ambassador Sophie Kalinde who's the AU representative in Geneva, Switzerland. She's there on the panel - on the right.