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Cover Story: ‘A Season at Canaan’ Thomas Johnson plans to continue the traditions of a historic Harlem church
By g.r. mattox
On the last day of April 2006, the Rev. Dr. Thomas D. Johnson Jr. was installed as the fourth pastor of Harlem’s historic Canaan Baptist Church. The installation ceremony capped a week of celebratory services in his honor. Dr. Johnson succeeds ministerial legend Reverend Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, author, ethnomusicologist and onetime Chief of Staff to Dr. Martin Luther King, who served as pastor of Canaan for half of the church’s existence — 37 years.
A Shepherd's Corner:
The Race Card in The 21st Century: Crying Wolf
By Rev. Reginald T. Jackson
In November of last year Jon Corzine was elected the 52nd Governor of New Jersey. He received over 90% of the African American vote. Since his election to the United States Senate in 2000 when he won by only 3% over his Republican opponent he has enjoyed overwhelming support from the African American community. Because of this there is a feeling among African American leadership and the African American community that he “owes us” or at the least should be supportive of issues important to our community. This feeling is not only appropriate, but also long overdue. Far too often in the past we have given our support to candidates, largely Democrats, who have gotten our votes and then not delivered for us.
FROM THE HEART:
You never know
By Rosemary Sinclair
Life is full of uncertainties. The prospect of terrorism, as well as constantly evolving fatal viruses and diseases keep us wary and on edge. We never know what evils lurk around the corner. I would not want to try to function in today’s world without faith in an intelligent higher power to maintain order in a universe careening toward disaster. Christ’s presence in my life has given me a calmer approach toward living, even in the midst of catastrophes and crises that abound around the world.We never know what new trauma life might hand us and it would be a miserable existence to constantly be looking over one’s shoulder for the next assault.
My View: Imitated…never duplicated
Celebrate Black Music Month
By Rev. Theresa Nance Pastor of
The Church By The Side Of The Road
108 Hoover Ave., Passaic, NJ.
They sang in the fields. They sang on the chain gangs. They sang in the churches. They sang in the bars. And because Black America has brought a myriad of music to these shores, America, rightfully so, has deemed it appropriate to dub June “Black Music Month.”
THE WAY AHEAD:
By Mwandikaji K. Mwanafunzi
Portia Lucretia Simpson-Miller is neither eight years old nor likely to reign as the first female prime minister of Jamaica for 31 years, but at age 60, she does sound determined to do right in the LORD’S sight. In her inauguration speech she repeatedly glorified the Most High and expressed reliance in Him.
Booker Transition Team Leader: Hope Salesman at the Helm
By Sandra L. West
Every political body employs a transition team teader at this juncture. Mayor Sharpe James appointed savvy Gustave Heningburg of Greater Newark Urban Coalition to head his group in 1986. The actual count of NIT membership is in the hundreds, but there is a smaller group of honorary chairs and chairs, including former Newark mayoral hopeful David Blount and Marc Morial, the former mayor of New Orleans and the current president and CEO of the National Urban League, who will act as advisors.
Book Review: (Real Men Cook: Rites, Rituals, and
Recipes for Living by K. Kofi Moyo)
By Kam Williams
"Increasingly, African-American men in particular are often portrayed as criminals, drug addicts, absentee fathers, and jailbirds. Seldom are they depicted as defenders, providers, helpmates and companions. This picture is flawed. It fails to recognize the millions of everyday men who strive constantly to make their world, and the world at large, a better place.
That's part of why I, with my wife, Yvette, founded Real Men Cook. It is a crusade to build families and celebrate the Real Men who are often overlooked for their great deeds, mentoring, coaching, and doing their best against the odds of urban life. The Real Man is a man who loves his family, adores his children, enthrones the women in his life, and cherishes his friends.
Some might ask why we chose something like cooking. W.E.B. DuBois once said, 'The Negro race, like all others, is going to be saved by its exceptional men.' It is my belief that we are more likely to find that salvation over a plate of tantalizing food, cuisine that feeds our bodies, souls, spirits, and communities with a nutritional value that can neither be underestimated nor accurately measured."
From The Publisher's Desk:
The African American Cultural Commission
Saving Our Own Community
Hopelessness and despair continue to plague vast numbers of African Americans who have not benefited from the gains of the Civil Rights struggle. Poverty, crime, joblessness, school dropout rates and disease are spiraling. Massive incarceration of Black males, the breakdown of the family and an ever-growing number of our children in the foster care system show no signs of abating. Add to this, an entrenched corporate media cartel’s relentless and unholy war that targets the very souls of our children. Negative lifestyles, antisocial behavior, debasement of culture and defamation of the African American character and image are packaged and sold as fashionable.
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