MLK Day does not tell the full story of Civil Rights and Slavery

Monday January 21 is Dr. Martin L. King Day (MLK Day). Have you noticed that it is no longer Dr. Martin L. King Day but MLK Day in the media?  The month of February is Black History Month. What does all this mean to you? It will depend on who you are, what school system you learned under, and what you know about your own personal history. 

My daughter Stephanie asked her son age 7 who Martin Luther King was and this is what he said. "He was a guy who got shot because he helped brown people get their civil rights." While he is learning this, people's civil rights are being taken away by the Patriot Act, Stand Your Ground Laws, and Corporate Labor Policies.

About 8 years ago, I was working in the US Post Office near Harrisburg, Pa. We were working 12 hour days, for 6 days each tour. It just happened that my tour was up at a point where I would have MLK Day off.  I did not think nothing of it because to me like many other Black people, it is just a day off that I was going to get anyway. A White man that I worked with did not see it that way. He follows a religion called, “If it is not for me, stop them!” He went to the managers and complained that I was given special favors because I was getting a national holiday off. He got all up in my face complaining to me and at first I had no idea what he was talking about. They made me work a few more days without a break just to satisfy this White man who thought that I was getting some favor. This and a few more things that this man did persuaded me to call this man outside.

 One group of people looks at another group of people as one unit. For example, I hear many Black people talk about White people like they think the same and do the same things. Many Black people think that all White people have money or can get money when they need it.  I know White people that feel that all Black people are uneducated and they all came from Africa. At times I am treated that way. But when they find out that I am more educated than they are, they get threatened.  One White person told me, “Why don’t you go back to Africa?” My reply, “You mean western North Carolina? My people lived there for over 5,000 years.” That was enough to confuse the ignorant punk.

The reason why the states and federal government taught their version of history in public schools is to give everyone one common reference point in time. Everyone should believe the same thing about their past. In the governments version, they were always right. That way if the government wants to reference this past to get you to do something in the future, they can. The history does not have to be true.  It just has to be in line with what they want you to believe.

When I went to school, we were taught that all Black people came on slave ships from Africa. Only a few came as free people and they landed in the Northeast colonies. We did not learn that the War Between the States was fought over the direction of the US economy. Northerners wanted to work for a living. But how can they, when the corporations can bring in 100 slaves to do the work for less. They told us that the war was fought to free the slaves.   It was fought mainly over labor laws and the cost of goods and services.  Slavery was just the labor issue that triggered the war.  If it was over slavery then Northerners would have welcomed ex-slaves as equals.  They never told us that Citibank got its start in business by trading slaves in the south. In fact, you will not find in public history books the fact that corporations were involved in Chattel Slavery in America.

Branches of my ancestry, the Cherokees have lived in this area of North America for 5,000 years. 





The first Amanda Ann Porter lived in Louisa County, Va. (not Spotsylvania County as reported before) before the Civil War, before she was enslaved.

The second Amanda Ann (Williams) is dressed in red and black attending to her grandson. Her grandmother on her father's side (Thomas Mongomery Porter III) was Mary Yeager. Mary was a White women.



CHUCK YEAGER

Chuck and Thomas Mongomery Porter III, Mary's son look very similar. Tom's wife Clara Porter is at his side.

Mary Yeager is related to Chuck Yeager. On October 14, 1947 Chuck flew the Bell X-1 becoming the first American to break the sound barrier. 



Amanda Ann Williams III

My youngest daughter’s name is “Amanda Ann Williams III.”  She went to Central Dauphin High School in Pennsylvania. She gave a report on her Native American ancestry. She is named Amanda Ann Williams III because she is the third Amanda Ann. The first Amanda Ann lived as a little girl in the County of Louisa, Virginia before the civil war. She lived in a Manahoic Indian Village.  Virginia law before the civil war stated that any Indian that could be caught can be sold into slavery. Killing an Indian in Virginia was not against the law. Amanda’s people have lived on that same land for thousands of years but when the Europeans came, they had no rights. A group of Whites came in and killed all the men in the village and took the women and children as slaves. They sold Amanda Ann to a White man named Noel Smith. Noel had children by Amanda. My ex-wife was born as Amanda Ann Porter three generations later. My daughter was born in the late 1980s as the third Amanda Ann.

After my daughter gave her presentation, her teacher turned to her and said you are not Native American. Next time talk about your African ancestry. This shows what basket her teacher puts people of color. If you have brown skin you came from Africa.

Good thing my daughter knew her personal history. Here is the reason why your family genealogy is important to your family. Without it, other people will tell you who your leaders are and what to think about your past.  Here is why many people of color have self-esteem problems. They don’t know their past so they cannot build on it to create a future.  

My oldest brother William J. Williams III has uncovered evidence showing that my side of the family have branches associated with people living within the red circle between Benin and Nigeria in Africa. 

It has been almost 200 years from the time the first Amanda Ann Porter was a little girl to her  descendants Daniel and David Tulloch. Amanda Ann Porter lived in the stone age. She traveled no more than a few miles from her village when she was a free little girl. The Tulloch brothers have already mastered the art of international travel and the use of computer systems. We are talking about family advances in 7 generations.  

From the stone age to the space age

Generation 0 -- Noah Smith, the slave breader and captured Indian woman Amanda Ann Porter lived to be 91 years old.

Events: Federal sponsored removal of all Native American civilization east of the Mississippi River. Virginia state enslavement and killings of Native Americans for labor and land. 

Generation 1 -- Tom Porter born 1839 -- died 1932 married Mandy Fry

Events:  The division of the United States and the War Between the States.  The defeat of the Confederate States of America and reconstruction of the Southern States. Over running and taking of Indian land west of the Mississippi River. The Spanish American War increasing the US Empire to include the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. World War 1 and the rise of the KKK as a local, state, and federal political power.

  Generation 2 -- Tom Porter II born 1883 died 1928 married Mary Yeager born 1888 died Oct. 15, 1960.

Events:  The rise of Hitler and the NAZIs. The rise of the war lords in Japan. The rise of the fascist in Italy. World War II started and ended with the defeat of the axis powers. The United States becomes the major world super power in the world.  The sound barrier was broken by Mary’s relative Captain Chuck Yeager. The atomic and electronic age began.  

 
Generation 3 -- Tom Mongomery Porter III born March 17, 1914 died May 17, 1998 Married Clara Lee Ellis born January 9, 1924 died April 28, 2012. Clara claimed to be part Shawnee Indian from West Virginia.

Events:  The United States and the USSR fight over control of Europe and Asia. This is called the cold war. The first of these wars was fought in Korea. At the height of the cold war, civilization almost came to an end with the possible nuclear war over Cuba.  Man landed on the moon. Native Americans families started to divide along color lines as they move out of Native American lands into cities. Light skin Indians passed as White while darker skin Indians passed as Negro.  People of African descent and mix African/Indian/White descent started to move to the cities. The draw to the cities was the demand for labor in the mills and factories. People of color started to look down on their relatives left behind on the farms as backward people. Neighborhoods were segregated by race and in many places by ethnic groups.  Negros segregated themselves by color; light, brown, and dark.

 
Generation 4 -- Amanda Ann Porter born 1953 married Darnell L Williams born 1951.

Events:  This is the age of civil rights. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is the symbol of the civil rights movement.  The United States has out stripped its supply of oil and needed a new source of oil. They turned to the Arabs, a brown skin people who found that they were not treated as equals in the United States. It was feared by Industry that they will turn to the USSR as business partners. The Jews who lost over 6 Million people by the NAZIs needed an allie in America and found this allie in the civil rights movement.   This contributed to the down fall of the KKK and segregation in America. Among the Negros, color segregation started to diminish. Discrimination in labor, housing, and education started to decrease. More interracial  families came into being. The Negro community became then Black, then the Afro-American, and finally the African-American community. Then the Communist Scare collapsed and in its place came the Islamic Scare. Cries of reverse discrimination came from the White community and reversals of economic and political power started taking place.  Corporations started moving their business to other countries, taking their high paying jobs with them.  The African American community started a decline economically as well as politically. Vietnam was a political disaster but later became an economic success.  

Generation 5 -- Youngest daughter Amanda Ann Williams III born 1988.

Events:  After consolidating its empire, the United States was ready to expand its influence and power once again in the world. They expanded its military and moved into the Middle East, invading Iraq and Afghanistan. These new wars were based on alleged attacks by Islamic extremist who want to destroy the United States. In the process of fighting these terrorist, civil rights in America was taken away. After 9/11, the Patriot Act was passed which allowed the government to hold anyone without due process.  The “Stand Your Ground” law allows the public to shoot anyone that they feel   have been threatened. This has been used mostly against unarmed young African American men.  The indiscriminate shooting of young African American men by city Police in such places as Pittsburgh, Pa. is another blow to the civil rights movement.      

Generation 6 -- Stephanie and Damine's children -- Daniel born 2005 and David Tulloch born 2008.   

Events:  Due to the need for economic and political expansion around the world, the United States is experiencing the worst economic depression since the 1930s. The infrastructure of the country is falling down. To get a good job in the United State, people need a high technical education. Even with that, if you have any type of police record or a bad credit rating, you still may not get a good paying job. The first interracial President took office. Government and corporation hold records on all country men and women. The short sightedness of government leaders putting the mentally ill in the streets has back fired into shootings of men, women, and children. Foreign workers and immigrants from Asia became targets of hatred and discrimination.  An age has started where no man, woman, or child will be safe.       

Let's see if you understand moving forward in history. Answer these questions;

1.       Do you help your children with their homework and at the same time move them in the direction that their aptitude should take them so that they may enter a profession 10 to 20 years from now?

Helping with homework and teaching your children the basics before they go to school are ideal. But you should also be on the lookout for your child’s aptitude and encourage them in that direction. They may change and do something else but at least they will not be drifters.     

2.       Do you believe that your children should find their own way in life as an individual?

People who believe in “individualism” are condemning their children and future family members to a life of drifting.  Individualist in society will be picked off by the people who just say “no” to everyone’s thoughts and ideas.  As an individual, your child will become just the average “Joe” on the street. You never see the upper class do anything alone. They move as a unit. This is why families control large corporations that control large areas of the country.

3.       Do you and your mate believe that you should give future unborn children a bases for starting their lives by you and your mate not smoking or drinking? Should you look for a mate that can advance your future family in a way that you would like?  

Smoking can and in most cases will cause your children and grandchildren to live in poor health. Drinking may cause health problems as well. But more than likely your over drinking actions may cause your children or grandchildren to become irresponsible. Children imitate actions of family members.  

Civil rights history is important but not as important as your family’s history in relation to where you want to take your family in the future.