In elementary school when your skin is dark and your nose is broad and your hair is kinky, your peers don’t think your life matters. So you find sanctuary in the library. No one beats you up, no one calls you names, you read. And you discover how much there is that you don’t know and you can find it in a book. A teaching career, a military career, an artist’s career, medical technical career, African history, philosophy, literature, world travels. Information made his life matter. Charles made his life matter. Charles Henri Tuggle, 80
Information Made His Life Matter
Charles is part of Hunters Point Shipyard Artists in San Francisco California. Examples of his work are available here. www.shipyardartists.com
A current exhibit of his work is available at the site of a group of 10 Black artists who are with Hunters Point Shipyard artists. Black on Point www.blackonpointsf.org/charles-tuggle
In elementary school when your skin is dark and your nose is broad and your hair is kinky, your peers don’t think your life matters. So you find sanctuary in the library. No one beats you up, no one calls you names, you read. And you discover how much there is that you don’t know and you can find it in a book. A teaching career, a military career, an artist’s career, medical technical career, African history, philosophy, literature, world travels. Information made his life matter. Charles made his life matter. Charles Henri Tuggle, 80
Information Made His Life Matter
Charles is part of Hunters Point Shipyard Artists in San Francisco California. Examples of his work are available here. www.shipyardartists.com
A current exhibit of his work is available at the site of a group of 10 Black artists who are with Hunters Point Shipyard artists. Black on Point www.blackonpointsf.org/charles-tuggle
Our African Ancestor’s sacrifices will matter! Only when we have economic and political power!
Life in Slavery
Charles Ball was born as a slave in the same county around 1781. He was about four years old, when his owner died. To settle the debts, his mother, several brothers and sisters and he himself were sold to different buyers. His first childhood memory recorded in the book is his being brutally separated from his mother by her buyer: “Young as I was, the horrors of that day sank deeply into my heart, and even at this time, though half a century has elapsed, the terrors of the scene return with painful vividness upon my memory.”[3]
By way of inheritance, sale and even as a result of a lawsuit, he is passed on to various slaveholders. From January 1, 1798 to January 1, 1800 he is hired out to serve as a cook on the frigate USS Congress. In 1800, he marries Judah. In 1805, when his eldest son is 4 years old, he is sold to a South Carolinian cotton planter, thus separated from his wife and children who had to remain in Maryland.
In September 1806, he is given as a present to the newly wedded daughter of his owner and has to relocate to Georgia to a new plantation. Shortly afterwards, after the sudden death of the new husband, the new plantation, together with the slaves, including him, is rent out to yet another slaveholder, with whom he builds up a relationship of mutual trust. He becomes the headman on the new plantation, but suffers from the hatred of his master’s wife. In 1809, when his dying master is already too weak to interfere, he is cruelly whipped by that woman and her brother. After that, he plans his escape, which he puts into practice after his master’s death. Travelling by night to avoid the patrols, using the stars and his obviously excellent memory for orientation, suffering terribly from hunger and cold, not daring to speak to anybody, he returns to his wife and children in early 1810.
War of 1812 Chesapeake Flotilla service
Charles Ball also served in the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812. In 1813, Ball had enlisted in Commodore Joshua Barney‘s Chesapeake Bay Flotilla and fought at the Battle of Bladensburg on August 24, 1814. An excerpt from his account of the battle, which was a resounding defeat for the Americans:
“I stood at my gun, until the Commodore was shot down, when he ordered us to retreat, as I was told by the officer who commanded our gun. If the militia regiments, that lay upon our right and left, could have been brought to charge the British, in close fight, as they crossed the bridge, we should have killed or taken the whole of them in a short time; but the militia ran like sheep chased by dogs.”[4]
African ancestry
According to Ball’s autobiography, his grandfather was a man from a noble African family who was enslaved and brought to Calvert County, Maryland around 1730.
The 1837 edition dedicates three pages (Pages 22–24) to the description of his religion as the old man explained it to his young grandson. This description has some similarities with Islam, but there are also differences, so it is not clear, if his grandfather was Muslim or not. Other Africans whose religion Ball mentions, are explicitly called “Mohamedans” (p. 165).
The precepts of that religion are contained in a book a copy of which is kept in each house, implying that the grandfather’s African society had a high degree of literacy, whereas Charles Ball is illiterate. This may be worth mentioning because contemporary apologetics of slavery often claimed that Africans had been “civilized” by slavery.[2]
Historical Document Charles Ball’s narrative: Fifty Years in Chains 1836
There are mobilizers and there are organizers. The demonstrations you have seen and participated in for George Floyd here and across the globe have been successful mobilization events. What is needed now is grassroot organization.
The map on the left are the communities in Spokane where this discussion needs to take place. Suggestions of what you can do in your community are at this link: Mobilizing to Organizing
Sunday June 7, 2020 started off at 10:30 am with meditation and yoga exercises at the Red Wagon. At 2:00 pm the NAACP had one of the largest outside rallies in Spokane’s history. The tone of this rally was set by Kurtis Robinson, Kiantha Duncan, and Le’Taxione. Kurtis Robinson welcomed a large standing crowd at the Lilac Bowl. Kiantha Duncan followed asking everyone to sit down on the grass and center themselves. She had three messages that she wanted to deliver to three groups of people. She thanked all who showed up to nonviolently express their outrage and disappointment with police brutality throughout the country. If there were those who came looking for trouble with signs with hateful speech, she wanted them to take those signs and sit on them. Then she called upon all law enforcement agents to obey the law and treat all demonstrators with respect and human dignity. My observation was that there were no visible signs of law enforcement. Le’Taxione told the audience that he was not speaking to make anybody feel good, he was there to express his strong objections to brutality and the status quo. But he made it quite clear he and the youth he brought would not allow anybody to hijack this peaceful demonstration. If so, they would be escorted out of town. These photographs bear witness to the unified desire that everyone should receive equal justice.
After your demonstrations at the Red Wagon or City Hall you could:
Ask 5 of your new or trusted friends for their email addresses and mobile phone numbers so you can set up a meeting regularly via Zoom to discuss strategies and planned measurable actions. Assign someone to send information about the measurable actions you plan to info@4comculture.com so they can be shared at the website 4comculture.com. Hopefully when the city opens up and you can have meetings in public places such as coffee shops you will be able to have these discussions face-to-face.
If you can find 4 people that will accompany you to an arterial in your neighborhood each could stand on a corner displaying their signs for an hour or more
Walk up and down the block or cul-de-sac where you live with your sign and handout sharing why you march and what others can do to help. This is something you can do alone.
Stand in front of the house you live in with your sign and have a discussion about why you march with anybody that will join you. Have two socially distant chairs nearby.
Being Black I am always visible! I am asking you to shed your invisibility.
History Lesson On Organizing
Kwame Ture: Converting the Unconscious to Conscious
The deadline for registration has been extended to Tuesday, October 8th for the 2nd Washington State People of Color Legislative Summit (POCLS).
Community leaders of color across Washington are cordially invited to join us on Saturday, October 12th, 10am-4pm at one of nine locations. The purpose of the summit is to hear from and connect POC communities leaders and legislators of color to build solidarity and mobilizing capacity across the state for issues that are of highest priority to our collective communities of color. Further updates:
Spokane location: Spokane Falls Community College Buyilding 30 room 212 3410 W Fort George Wright Dr. Spokane WA 99224
You are welcome to invite POC community leaders you know to register for this event. Snacks and refreshments will be provided at each location. All locations have parking and are ADA accessible. This statewide summit will have separate meeting rooms sited at college campuses around the state, virtually joined together using “Zoom” video conferencing. Each site will have a lead facilitator and staff to provide support and ensure a productive conference. If you have any questions or comments, please contact the project manager at jenny.chang@leg.wa.gov.
Below are photos from the People of Color Coalition Candidates Forum Sept 28 at East Central Community Center.Photographs By Robert Lloyd
Duaa Williams organized this summit held at The Carl Maxey Center on September 28 2019 to bring the formerly incarcerated together with the communities they are still a part of. The goal is to bring “humanizing and fellowshiping” into the incarceration system, as NAACP President Kurtis Robinson said in an interview on KYRS radio:
Homelessness is a national issue. This photo was taken in Washington DC September 2017.
This point-in-time count is a snapshot of people who are homeless in Spokane, counted by local teams on one night in January, a statistic that is limited by a variety of factors and not considered the complete picture. Because more homeless people were in shelters, and fewer were outside in hard-to-find places, it was easier to get a count, according to McCann and city officials. That might apply particularly to the chronically homeless, who are more likely to use emergency shelters.
In particular, the city’s super-tight rental market – with an estimated vacancy rate of 0.7 percent – makes it very hard for people to find affordable housing and pushes the homeless numbers upward. Nearly 500 people are qualified for federal housing vouchers but can’t find a place to use them in town, said Dawn Kinder, the director of the city’s Community, Housing and Human Services Department.
This year’s count showed:
1,090 homeless individuals, an 11 percent increase over last year. Eighty-seven percent of all people counted were in shelters. Around three-quarters of those were in emergency shelters, and one quarter were in transitional housing.
Rev. Walter Kendricks, Pres. of SCAR (Spokane Community Against Racism)
Cecily Wright, Chairwoman of the Spokane County Republican Party, invited James Allsup, alt-right provocateur and member of Identity Evropa, to speak before Republican legislators and office holders at a Northwest Grassroots meeting in the Spokane Valley. The Rev. Walter Kendricks MC’d a demonstration at the Spokane County Courthouse where speakers expressed their disapproval and to asked for the resignation of these Republican politicians. The demonstrators also condemned all those who invited him, listened to him, and did not walk out or stand up against white supremacists and their message.
“We cannot podcast, livestream, or tweet our way to victory,” said Allsup. “We can only change consciousness so much before we have to start changing the political infrastructure.”
This change, according to Allsup, started with taking over vacant seats in Republican offices. “The Republican party is comprised largely of white, aging, baby-boomers,” he said. “And as baby-boomers age out, the positions they hold will become vacant all throughout society and somebody will have to fill them.
This doesn’t just include elected offices but state representatives, county commissioners, precinct officers, and county party chairs as well. Allsup himself was a precinct officer; he said it takes up about five hours of his time per week.”
For all the publicity alt-right groups receive for cross burnings and tiki-torch protests, their ultimate goal is to become invisible, inserting themselves into the mainstream political process. Groups like I.E. adopt the business casual uniforms of polo shirts and khakis, and have strict rules against using “vulgar language” or mentioning “divisive topics” like National Socialism or the Third Reich. The rule prohibiting “vulgar language” states that “in order to foster a more positive culture for our people’s future, the use of crude and unbecoming language is not permitted. This includes, without limitation, excessive cursing, and any use of vulgar racial epithets.”
