JUSTICE SEEKERS TEXAS MEDIA RELEASE

What an Honor.

Diversity and 'The Longest Day"

As a student of film and movie history, I present this is the most egregious act against historical accuracy and blacks in the context of the what we know as not real history, but 'Hollywood History.' 

Not a single black soldier was shown in the D-Day invasion of Normandy beach as presented in this picture. Not one.Whether by design an intent or sloppy oversight, the result is the same.  The film was presented as a 'docu-drama' which added greater weight to what was left out.  The Department of War indicates over 1700 black men arrived on the beaches that morning...but, not according to producer Daryl Zanuck's vision of the events. How do you write 1700 men out of history? Well, you start by not having black writers or producers--which are sine qua non for beginning to address Hollywood's diversity problem.

Here is some real history about black in WWII.

1. The 761st tank battalion fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

2. The 93rd infantry fought in the Pacific

3. Black soldiers served in segregated units (supply, engineering.)

4. Black soldiers worked the famous 'Red Ball Express/666th quartermaster  on the infamous "Hell's HighWay."

5. Black paratroopers served in the 555th battalion.

6. Blacks served at Omaha Beach in the 320th 'Negro' Barrage Ballon Company.

7. Black served as WAVES, WACS and SPARs.

8. Blacks fought with Canadians in non-segregated units. 

9. Blacks served in construction units and built the Alaska Highway.

10. Blacks flew as part of the Tuskegee Airman program.

11. Blacks nurses served in England from 1944 onward.

Sadly, few people remember these accomplishments. What is remembered is movies like, 'The Longest Day.'

Can Someone Explain WHY Emmett Till had to DIE?

"If you have to get on your knees and bow when a white person goes past, do it willingly." -Mamie Till

“I hated the white people who did it, but I hated the Negroes even more for not fighting back. I hated them all.”- Former Resident of Money, Mississippi

"It seems like nothin' good ever happens up on Choctaw Ridge...and now Billie Jo Mcallister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge." -Bobbie Gentry

My son Ryan, received a college scholarship to play football in Mississippi. We went over to Jackson to sign his 'LOI'. It’s ironic that my son lived in Mississippi. My Dad—who pastored a Pentecostal church for 27 years-- said that if Christ returned to Earth and was in Mississippi he just have to ‘take his chances with salvation because he would never again set foot in the Magnolia State.’ Maybe it had something to do with Emmett Louis Till.

A history lesson: Mr. Till, a fourteen year old Chicagoan, was visiting Money, Mississippi in the summer of 1955. As the story goes, on a dare from one of his friends, he said “hey baby” or whistled at a girl as he was leaving Bryant’s Grocery Store and Meat Market. The angered and offended young woman told her family—that tragic decision set actions in motion ending Mr. Till’s life.

On the night of August 28, 1955, good ol’ boys from the town dragged Mr.Till from his home, beat him until he was unrecognizable, shot him in the head with a .45 caliber weapon, affixed a 75-pound cotton gin fan to his neck, and hurled his body from a bridge into the swift current of the Tallahatchee River. (Yes, Billie Jo McAllister’s bridge!) His body was found three days later. His funeral on 6 September 1955, drew attention from as far away as France.

Every black man older than 40 knows the name, Emmett Till. I learned of Mr. Till’s plight long before the names Jackie Robinson, Malcolm X, and Fredrick Douglass entered my consciousness. What kind of people could do this to a young boy? What kind of place would allow this to happen—and then, acquit the killers after just 67 minutes of deliberation--offering righteous indignation that were even be charged. He was just a nigga’, after all.

No wonder my Dad refused to return to Mississippi. He didn’t even want his remains buried there. But Malcolm X’s family house was burned down in Omaha, Nebraska…far North of the Mason-Dixon line. It leaves me wondering: Was it the place or the people?
Sarajevo, at one time, was a cultural and artistic flashpoint of Europe. It was full of cafes, bookshops, hard-working people and progressive thought. The Olympics, for god’s sake, were in Sarajevo. Then, the pot of race, religion, and ethnicity started to boil…the killing started. What is Sarajevo today? How is it a better place? Did people make the place evil, or did the place make the people do evil things. I just wonder.

Mississippi is beautiful. As Ryan and I walked the tree-lined campus, and soaked up the beautiful Mississippi evenings, I had a jarring flashback to Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner. What a confluence of evil, in a place that seems so full of old world charm…do the people bring the evil, or is there something in the air, water or soil that causes good people to go bad. Things were going nicely for Adam and Eve until they ate from the tree. How does this descent into evil occur?

Do you just don’t wake up one morning and say to your friend, “Ok, the next colored teenager that talks to any girl gets a goddamn cotton gin fan wrapped around his black neck and tossed in the Tallahatchee river, got it?”

Long ago, I gave up believing that people were fundamentally good. One can choose to be a good individual, but the drag of our selfish, self-centered, ‘me-first approach to the world’ ultimately prevails. What other explanation exists for beating a young boy until he was barely recognizable, then tying a cotton gin fan around his neck?

There is a park in South L.A. where I used to play basketball. Back then it was called, Manchester Park. I had just finished one of my 500-shot routines, trying to pattern my game after Oscar Robertsons’. As I reached the North end of the park, three guys stopped me. They were from a gang called the “Park Boys,” a collective that would ultimately fold into a sect of the Hoover Crips. They beat me until the blood ran from my nose. And then, they stopped. I was on my knees, trying to get up, and and old lady pushing a grocery cart from ABC market stopped and looked at me. She didn’t say anything, but shook her head and kept going. I stumbled to my feet and touched my cheekbone as it was starting to bruise and swell. I thought: “Why are they doing this to me?”

Did Emmitt Till ever ask that question while he was getting beat? I wish there were some way—like in the film Minority Report—that I could watch this crime take place… through some sort of hidden time machine/security camera device. What were Emmitt’s final words? Did he plead with this crew of racist savages to spare his life? Why, at some point, didn’t one of the murderers say, “Enough, the boy has learned his lesson.” Surely, talking to a white girl doesn’t mandate being thrown in the river. Was there no decency in any of these men? Were they bereft of all humanity and goodness? But maybe there was just something in the air that day. Or, maybe there is something in the water and soil of Money, Mississippi: Like Emmitt Till’s blood, for starters.

When I look into his soft, reflective eyes of Emmitt Till I am reminded that he, too, was a black prince. One whose life ended because of reasons that are, without question, inexplicable... I am forever saddened at the death of this boy. Think of the unfullfilled dreams that sank to bottom of the river with his broken body.

The world is an evil place. We delude ourselves when we think it isn’t. And, the people in Money should have never stood for this.

Rethinking the Meaning of 'Juneteenth'

Juneteenth was problematic for me. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed on 23 Sept 1863, but the word did not get to Texas until 1865. This ensured nearly two extra years  of slavery for Texas blacks.

Slavery in Texas has a complicated history. Almost more than any other location in the CSA, whites stood against slavery. Despite that nine of every ten Texans came from the South, the great Sam Houston opposed the extension of slavery. Houston became governor of Texas in 1859 running on a pro-union/anti-slavery platform.

At the beginning of the Civil War, the Texas legislature put the vote for secession to the people. It is interesting to note that the vote was for secession, but not for joining the Confederacy. Houston had no faith in the Confederacy and refused to swear allegiance. He was removed from office.

After the firing on Fort Sumpter, the 2700 Federal troops in Texas were made prisoners-of-war. By 1862 there was an unpopular draft. Many union supporters took their families and moved to the north to either fight for the union or evade the draft.  Others hid out and were joined by the numerous deserters from the rebel army.  By the summer of 1863, just before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, so many Texas soldiers were deserting the army that General Magruder contacted the governor and asked for his direct intervention to stop the number of men who were simply walking away. Denton and Wise counties become home to so many deserters that people loyal to the Confederates became terrified at the influx of pro-union supporters. 

In Cooks Country, 40 white men were hanged for being union sympathizers. 

The last battle of the Civil War was fought on 13 May 1865 at Palmito Beach (near Brownswille.) Men from both races died in this battle, some from the ‘Colored’ regiment.  The undisputed  irony is that these men died for no cause as General Lee had surrendered at Appomattox six weeks earlier.  It was at this battle that many Texans first learned of Lee's capitulation.

The sphere and circumstances of life are devalued during war. Humanity is diminished. Everyone suffers.

I see Juneteenth differently. 

The Juneteenth Holiday is beyond color,  holding a level of symbolism for every person in the State. It represents a day of closure-- a day from which everyone could finally move forward and shape a different future with a focus on peace and prosperity....a new hope.

Cotton, Capitalism and the documentary," LaLee's Kin"

The second principle of Capitalism is to control wages, salaries and benefits. One cannot plunder if labor costs are steadily rising — and plunder is a consequence of capitalism. It’s just who get to do the plundering.

With this in mind, we plunge into the documentary, LaLee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton. I watched it thinking: “Man, what great archival footage they have of Mississippi in the 1930s.” 

LaLee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton, made by the great Albert Maysles is stunning filmmaking. The first time I watched the picture I came in about 1/3 of the way through. Naively, I thought the film a historical piece about Mississippi sharecropping-- circa 1940s. I dropped my coffee cup on the living room floor upon realizing this was from 2001.

The story follows LaLee Wallace, a 62-year old grandmother living in West Tallahatchie County, one the poorest areas in the U.S.

Sharecropping. Still.

After reconstruction, there was a halcyon period where blacks had some political power. To say it was short-lived, is an understatement. The rise of the KKK and black codes hastened the demise. As the ‘Negro’ of the late 18th century came to realize that political power was D.O.A., they turned to the labor unions. In the South, ‘Negroes’ were excluded from unions because of race. Although, in some instances, brickmasons, plasterers, painters and carpenters founded their own unions.

Booker T. Washington believed ‘skilled labor’ was the future for race. For every one lawyer or doctor, there were hundreds of jobs for skilled, trained blacks.  This, he believed, is where advancement of the race held its best opportunity.
 

In the manufacturing North, advancement was also tough. 'Negroes' learned trade and serve apprenticeships but there were no unions to accept them, no great industrial class willing to employ them and no banks to make business loans to sustain or support them in forming their own enterprises.

In the best Orwellian dialectic, we seek to eradicate a robust discussion of slavery from U.S. History--or, at least dilute it. There is a symbiotic relationships between cotton, slavery and the disenfranchisement of black persons in America. I am not saying there is anything that can be done about today--but, it must be acknowledged.

Mississippi has a dark and desolate past—a placed haunted by the ghosts of senseless murders, lynching and sadness. There are no lynchings and murder in LaLee’s Kin, but there’s a lot of sadness. What happened to LaLee’s ‘American dream?'

How did she end up living a sharecropper’s life in 2001 that was thematically identical to a sharecropper’s life in 1901? Surely, this can’t be what Booker T. Washington had in mind when he advocated for the 'Negro' to be content in his or her position.

LaLee’s Kin – to a U.S. audience—causes people to ask: “Is this really the United States?” Well, it is—for many people. The stardust left by the American dream is sawdust for those who live in poverty.

We can never face the long term impact of our history until we face the impact of slavery and cotton. LaLee Kin is a movie that accomplishes that.

Rear Window -- Even when you're alone, someone is looking.

The loneliness lays a veneer over the murder. 

There is something savage and aching about the loneliness in Rear Window. It’s less about death--although someone dies, but more about life and how inexplicable it often is. Rear Window resonates even more today because technology has made us less contemplative with more access to more stuff but less connection with real persons. Loneliness does not depend on death, yet death follows the lonely, advertising for them to rush headlong to the balcony and toss themselves over. Or, as is Hitchcock’s way, find someone to do it for you.

Loneliness shines light on the cracks in our self-sufficiency. We are not nearly as secure as think. Technology has made us accept mediocre relationships.

The unspoken joke is that only in the movies could a beauty like Lisa Carol Fremont (played by Grace Kelly) throw themselves at a stiff like L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart)  and he ‘can’t make up his mind whether he’s interested in her or not.” I’ve always found this amusing. Another way Hitchcock, toys with us.

There isn’t much humor in Rear Window. It’s dark...filled with anguish. It is about the loneliness and alienation that stalks us. It about how we crave acceptance and companionship, yet see it elusively slip just beyond our grasp.

Yes, there is a murder in Rear Window--but the murder is of less importance than what we learn about the characters—and, ourselves. Rear Window withstands multiple viewings because of the intricate nuances that permeate his work. It stands above “Vertigo” and “North by Northwest” because it unravels the voyeuristic tendencies that lives inside each of us…and, how those tendencies turn us inward, drawing us more into ourselves making us more vulnerable to the effects of alienation. Rear Window is not a cautionary tale—unless, of course, you live in an apartment complex with nosy neighbors and have a penchant for murder.

It's hard to save your own soul.

Duvall's 'The Apostle," is a movie I've seen more than 30 times. Duvall wrote it, directed it, produced it and wrote the checks. For that reason alone, it's worth seeing.  There is a lot going this picture. It reminds me of the way I grew up.

Without regard to one's position on the still smoldering embers that is Liberation Theology, one must admit that  confronting Jesus Christ, wherever this occurs, is transformational.

Christianity creates dissonance because  its belief system is devoid of middle ground. Christ corroborated this: , "I will spit the lukewarm out of my mouth." (Revelations, 3:16.) The middle ground is Christianity's dead zone, an  abyss from which all  should flee.  With this in mind, I reflect on  The Apostle. The film drives a telescopic lens into the touchpoint between a man and his quest to know God.  It is of no surprise that classic Pentecostals are gaining adherents in Latin America and Africa.

Latin and African cultures connect with the expressiveness  --the verbal release, if you will-- at the core of the Pentecostal Experience.  Liberation theology seeks this expressiveness--but, through acts of service to others.

The main character (Apostle E.F.) lives in a world--a Pentecostal galaxy --  where liberation is expressed  through acts of service to God. Simply stated, this means saving souls.

Robert Duvall-- a gift to anyone who loves movies -- directs Miranda Richardson, the late Farrah Fawcett, Billy Bob Thornton and, of course, himself, to muted, flawless performances.

This films unravels the paradoxical threads of Christianity— that hungry quest for knowing, that desire for meaning and the quixotic, uneven balancing of time versus eternity. The Apostle  is filled with characters yearning  to avoid the abyss. In this film no one takes the middle ground because they see it for what it is: as a transparent fallacy. 

The universe does not balance all things.

Did I say how much I love this film?