Tangipahoa Parish Youth Civil Rights Tours to Memphis, TN and Washington, D.C.

Amite Summer Camper in Mark, Mississippi, The Home of
Wagon Mule Train
Photo Credit: Walter C. Black, Sr.

Amite,LA--This pass summer the Tangipahoa Youth Ambassadors and the Amite Summer Campers had an opportunity to learn more about the civil rights struggles by touring some of the civil rights historical landmarks from Mark, Mississippi the birth place of the Wagon Mule Train to Memphis, Tennessee, were Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated on April 4, 1968. When Dr. King announced the Poor People's Campaign, to address poverty in America. He envisioned caravans of poor people of color from all over the United States gathering on the mall in Washington, D.C., with hopes to eradicate poverty. The wagon Mules Train would be comprised of mule-drawn wagons rather than buses, vans and cars. The Mule Train set off from Marks, Mississippi on May 13, 1968 and headed east across northern Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. On June 13 after several delays and mishaps along the way the Mule Train arrived in Atlanta. From Alexandria VA, crossing the Potomac River and on in to Washington, D.C.

Sponsored by Nurturing Our Roots Fine Arts Gallery and TCOJC Apostolic Ministries with Pastor Junious Buchanan, the youth took to the road to learn about their history. It was the first visit to National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee for some of the campers. They actually stood on the balcony were Dr. King was murdered. Once inside the museum they learned about civil rights activists like Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks and other women pioneers who changed the course of history for African Americans.

Summer Campers on the Civil Rights Tour
Photo Credit: Walter C. Black, Sr.

While riding on the bus to tour the historical places the youth campers and Tangipahoa Youth Ambassadors, listened to Dr. King speeches. They was taught by tour guide Antoinette Harrell the importance of their civil rights. They learned the difference between civil rights and human rights. They also read and discussed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The campers watched the movie "Roots" on the tour. They saw the cotton gins, and shanties in the Mississippi Delta. 

They experience holding up signs to protest for justice. They held up signs seeking justice of Trayvon Martin, the young man who was murdered by George Zimmerman in Florida. On the bus you see their little minds working and thinking about this entire experience. Some of them asked questions.

Several of the Tangipahoa Youth Ambassadors went on to Washington, D.C. to commemorate the 50th Anniversary March on Washington, D.C., While traveling on bus for more than eighteen hours they read books and took notes about the civil rights movement. Discussing what they thought it was like to have too ride on the back of the bus and being discriminated against because of the color of their skin. They learned about peonage and sharecropping and what these two words meant and how it affect the lives of many poor people both black and white throughout the deep south.

Katelyn Jones standing up for her voting rights
Photo Credit: Walter C. Black, Sr.

They had the opportunity to meet civil rights activist Julian Bond. Bond later served as the head of he Southern Poverty Law Center and of the NAACP.  The youth ambassadors also met  Marc Morial, an American political and civic leader and current president of the National Urban League. To their surprise they met Roland Martin an American journalist and syndicated columnist with Creator Syndicate and author. He was the commentator for TV One and the host of News One Now. He was also a CNN contributor and later he joined the Tom Joyner Morning Show as senior analyst.  The ambassadors got an interview with BET News to talk about the project that they are work on in Webb, Mississippi.

A very special thanks to Glyniss Vernon Gordon, Pastor and Mrs. Chante Buchanan, Bobby J. Ginn, Antwan Blossom and all the other volunteers, a very warmhearted thank you House on Rock Church in Amite, La., for donating the bus.

Tangipahoa Youth Ambassador reading the Life

Story of Martin Luther King, Jr. 

The Original Civil Right Bus

in Washington D.C.

Marc Morial, President of the National Urban League

Tangipahoa Youth Ambassadors with Roland Martin

LaDesha Lee being interviewed by Joyce Jones 

BET Correspondent 

Tangipahoa Youth Ambassadors with

Civil Right Activist Julian Bond

Photo Credit: Walter C. Black, Sr.



http://www.bet.com/news/national/2013/08/29/we-are-the-dream-faces-of-the-future.html

http://tangipahoaafrican-americannews.com

Elder Frank Harrell, Sr." Daughter Keeping His Legacy Alive"

Terri Harrell Jackson and her grandson

Elder Frank Harrell, Sr., was a man who really love serving the All Mighty Heavenly Father. He and his lovely wife aunt Sadie are the proud parents of seven beautiful girls and one son to carry his name on. As a child I spent a week or two in the summer with my first cousins in New Orleans. One week with my aunt Catherine  and family and a week with uncle Frank and his family. I enjoyed spending time with all of my cousins. 

Spending time with my uncle Frank and aunt Sadie left me with fond memories of the good old days. Uncle Frank taught me so many value lessons that I apply to my life too this very day. In my home I only had brothers to play with, so being in a house full of girls was so exciting to me. I really enjoyed being around Terri, their third daughter,  because she laughed a lot just like me. She was kind of a daddy's girl I would say. "Wherever her daddy went she wanted to be there in his footsteps."

Terri is a person who really cares about family and she practice living the lessons her father taught her. She is not only beautiful on the outside, but she is also beautiful on the inside. Just recently she and her husband became the proud grandparents of a handsome grandson. I don't have to say anymore,  they are spoiling him with love.

It's the way she carry herself that makes me proud of her.  She is admired by so many people who know her.  She works hard to stand on the foundation that her father taught her in his teaching. Her dad and our grandparents would be very proud of her. Just recently she shared some family photographs of our grandmother's brother Alex Richardson and his family. She posted pictures of our grandmother's sister Rosabell Richardson Moore as well. Some of those photographs that she posted uncle Alex and aunt Rosa grandchildren and children had never seen before.

Terri lights up a room with her radiance of beauty and smile. Her love for her three children, grandson, mother, sister, brother, nieces and nephews is never-ending. 

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow in Amite, Louisiana During the 60's

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Amite,LA--All over the United States people are preparing to celebrate the life works of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by hosting a weekend of services and events on Monday; January 20th. For some who fought, protest and march for social change, it's about remembrance. In 1968, I was living in Amite, Louisiana when Dr. King was assassinated. I remember my grandmother Josephine crying when she got word that Dr. King was assassinated, she turned on the television and we watched the news. At that time we had what you called a party phone line, which meant that you could easily pick up the phone to make a call and someone was on the lines. The phone lines were tied up with people talking about Dr. King being assassinated. 

During that time in Amite, Louisiana, Jim Crow was live and well. I hated going to town with my grandmother because she was made to say "yes mam", and "no sir" to white people and sometimes to young white people younger than herself. We were not allowed to go in certain places and had to wait  until all the white people was served first.

I remember the older people talking about the KKK and how they were burning crosses in the yards of African American people in Amite, La and surrounding areas. Up to this day people in Amite, Louisiana doesn't like to talk about the racism that they experienced. Places like "Nigger Alley" the "Nigger Window" and the Jim Crow Theater.

Mrs. Alma Harrison Vernon at a School Board Meeting

My brothers and I was part of the first integration of the schools in Amite, La.,  all four of us was retained that first year like so many other African American students in 1969. I can speak first hand of the mistreatment that I received from my white teacher. Like so many other African American students we had no one to tell or talk too. 

Although my uncles and cousins were fighting in Vietnam, we were fighting back home for equality and our civil rights. As a child I never visit the public library, movie theaters and other public places that was segregated by the Jim Crow laws. I remember my mother coming home from work  very angry and upset that she was called a "nigger" by a man named Mr. Cobb who owned a second hand store. My great uncle Alex Richardson came out to my mother's home to help address that matter.  

Protest and March in Washington, D.C.

My cousin Adam and his friends were walking home from a football game and when a car with young white men came along and tried to run over them. They had to hide out in the ditch to keep from being attacked or run over by them. 

Several people in my family organized to protest for jobs at several of the local stores, Jo-Ann Frazier, Deloris Harrell-Washington, and Adam and Glyniss Gordon protest for jobs at some of the local stores in Amite, La.  During a conversation with my childhood friend Doris Lloyd she shared with me some of the racist acts that took place in Holden, LA.  She said that one of her friend's Mrs. Albin who lived in Holden, LA told her that when African Americans marched and protest in Holden, white men would lay down on the  buildings in town with assaults weapons ready to  shoot the protestors.

The civil rights movement was the first of the 1960s-era social movement produced one of the most important American social activists of the 20th century. African Americans had to sit on the back of the public buses, they were refused services in hotel and restaurants, and still went to racially segregated schools. Even in the segregated schools we got the hand me down books from the Tangipahoa Parish School Board.

I still get the feeling that both African Americans and white people people in Tangipahoa Parish don't want to embrace a conversation, lectures or discussion on this topic. To this very day this conversation is avoided even in our own homes. 

Many of our parents was working as house maids, nannies, and handy men, drivers and gardeners in many of the white homes in Amite, LA., Life was difficult in many of the rural towns in the 50s and 60s. Up until now, many things still haven't changed. 

After returning home in 2005, although somethings has changes, there is still a lot of things that remains the same. There is a social and economic segregation in Tangipahoa Parish. Although we have several African American elected officials, African American working in clerical positions on a local level. We are still social and economically disfranchised. There are a very few black owned businesses in the entire parish from the south to north end of the parish.

The Northshore Black Elected Officials Coalition and Association of St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington Parishes, had taken on the task of identifying and addressing critical needs including, economic development, criminal and civil justice, education, youth leadership, transportation and faith-based outreach.