What’s the purpose of Black History Month? (Rucka)
Black History Month is great. I’m using it as an opportunity to highlight black educators, authors, thinkers and business success stories. Those people are marginalised even within that movement. (Mark)
Frederick Douglas — political power secondary to self-empowerment. (Mark)
Civil Rights movement has lost its way. (Mark)
I’m for any month that makes us more conscientious. (Mark)
The original movement was a mixed bag with regards to individualism. (Rucka)
Civil Rights went down the road of political empowerment — the consequence is the creation of a political establishment, but the success doesn’t necessarily improve the lot of those in the lowest economic realms of black society. (Mark)
Even MLK had marxists in his corner who were pressing him towards some form of collectivism as a solution. (Mark)
MLK himself may have had some marxist tendencies. (Rucka)
Read The Self-made Man — Frederick Douglas. (Rucka)
The name Douglas chose for himself was inspired by a poem from the Scottish Enlightenment. (Rucka)
Read The Life and Times of Frederick Douglas too. He was a spokesperson for the abolition movement, which was a dangerous thing for an escaped slave to do at the time. Abolitionists in England, where he visited, purchased his freedom. (Mark)
Douglas’s second wife was a white woman. In the 1880s, it was a risk marrying outside your race. (Rucka)
He went against the grain if that’s what his soul told him was the right thing to do. (Mark)
From Douglas’s autobiography, it was clear how deeply he understood the damage, to the slaves and the owners too. (Mark)
