Martin Luther King — American Dreamer

Martin Luther King — American Dreamer

by H.B. London
We need to reach beyond our grasp and trust God for that which might seem impossible. We need to dream.

More Than a Dream

More Than a Dream

by Greg Asimakoupoulos
Every year, Andre Allen, the pastor of Second Baptist Church in Wheaton, Ill., travels to schools and churches in the greater Chicago area in an attempt to bring the message of Martin Luther King, Jr., to life. Allen’s rendition of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is so realistic that if you closed your eyes, you’d almost think you were standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. But his impassioned impersonation isn’t the only thing that resurrects dead words from the pages of a history book.

A Tribute to Rosa Parks: Mother of Civil Rights (1913-2005)

A Tribute to Rosa Parks: Mother of Civil Rights (1913-2005)

by Kim Flynn
Rosa Parks died in her home in Detroit, Mich., Oct. 24, 2005, of natural causes. Her non-violent protest mobilized the black community, which helped end racial segregation in America.

The Father of Black History

African American Pastors

The Father of Black History

Anonymous

Dr. Carter G. Woodson

In 1926, Carter Godwin Woodson, a Harvard Ph.D. graduate, founded Black History Week. He was born December 19, 1875, in New Canton, Virginia. His parents were newly freed slaves, and Dr. Woodson was the oldest of nine children.

He worked in the local coal mines to help support his family. At age 17, he and his family moved to Fayette, Virginia. A young man of intense motivation, Dr. Woodson taught himself the basic fundamental school subjects.

At age 20, he was able to enter high school full-time, and earned his diploma in less than two years. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1907 and Master's degree in 1908 from the University of Chicago.

After years of study, Dr. Woodson realized the contributions of Black Americans must be documented and taught. He believed that "if a race had no recorded history, its achievement would be forgotten and, in time, claimed by other groups."

As a result, from 1926 to 1975, America celebrated Black History Week, which included Feb. 12 and 14. This week was chosen because Abraham Lincoln and the abolitionist, Frederick Douglas, were born on those days. During America's Bicentennial Celebration in 1976, Black History Week was expanded to include the entire month of February to provide more time for programs and observances.

It was not Dr. Woodson's goal to rewrite history through the medium that has now come to be known as Black History Month, but to explode the myth that Black Americans had no part to play in the framing of our nation's history.

"We should not dim one bit the luster of any star in our firmament. Let no one be so thoughtless as to decry the record of the makers of the United States of America. We should not learn less of George Washington, 'First in War, First in Peace, First in the Hearts of his Countrymen;' but we should learn something also of the three thousand Negro soldiers of the American Revolution who helped to make this 'Father of the Country' possible.

"We should not cease to pay tribute to Abraham Lincoln as the 'Savior of the Country;' but we should ascribe praise also to the 178,975 Negroes who had to be mustered into the service of the Union before it could be preserved and who, by their heroism, demonstrated that they were entitled to freedom and citizenship." For more click here

Article copyright © 2005, Focus on the Family.

All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

BLACK REVOLUTIONARY ERA PATRIOT Wentworth Cheswell

BLACK REVOLUTIONARY ERA PATRIOTWentworth Cheswell(1746-1817)
David Barton - 02/2009

At WallBuilders we strive to “present America’s forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on our moral, religious, and constitutional heritage,” so Wentworth Cheswell (sometimes Chiswell or Cheswill) is a perfect subject for our attention.

He was the grandson of black slave Richard Cheswell (who early gained his freedom and in 1717 and became the first black to own property in the colony of New Hampshire); and he was the son of Hopestill Cheswell, a notable homebuilder who built the homes of several patriot leaders, including John Paul Jones and the Rev. Samuel Langdon. Wentworth was named after the famous Wentworth family, from whom came several state governors, including Benning Wentworth – the governor at the time of Wentworth’s birth.

In 1763, Wentworth began attending an academy in Byfield, Massachusetts (30 miles from his home), where for four years he received an extensive education, studying Latin, Greek, swimming, horsemanship, reading, writing, and arithmetic.

In 1767, he returned home and became a schoolteacher, also marrying Mary Davis (they eventually had 13 children – 4 sons and 9 daughters). At the age of 21, he had already become an established and educated property owner and a stalwart in his local church, even holding a church pew.

The following year, Wentworth was elected town constable – the first of many offices he held throughout his life. Two years later in 1780, he was elected town selectman (the selectmen were considered the “town fathers” of a community). Other town offices in which he served included seven years as Auditor, six years as Assessor, two years as Coroner, seven years as town Moderator (presiding over town meetings), and twelve years as Justice of the Peace, overseeing trials, settling disputes, and executing deeds, wills, and legal documents. (View an 1813 document signed by Cheswell as justice of the peace.) For half a century – including every year from 1768 until 1817 – Wentworth held some position in local government.

In addition to his civic service, Wentworth was also a patriot leader. In fact, the town selected him as the messenger for the Committee of Safety – the central nervous system of the American Revolution that carried intelligence and messages back and forth between strategic operational centers. Serving in that position, Wentworth undertook the same task as Paul Revere, making an all-night ride to warn citizens of imminent British invasion.

In April 1776, he signed a document in which he pledged, “at the risk of . . . live and fortune,” to take up arms to resist the British, and in September 1777, he enlisted in a company of Light Horse Volunteers commanded by Colonel John Langdon (Langdon later became one of the 55 Founding Fathers who drafted the U. S. Constitution, then a framer of the Bill of Rights, and later the New Hampshire governor). Langdon’s company made a 250-mile march to Saratoga, New York, to join with the Continental Army under General Horatio Gates to defeat British General Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga – the first major American victory in the Revolution.

After returning from Saratoga, in the spring of 1778, Wentworth was elected to the convention to draft the state’s first constitution, but some unknown event prevented his attendance.

Wentworth also served as Newmarket’s unofficial historian, copying town records from 1727 (including the records of various church meetings) and chronicling old stories of the town as well as its current events. Additionally, having investigated and made extensive notes on numerous artifacts and relics he discovered in the region around Newmarket, he is considered the state’s first archeologist. Therefore, when the Rev. Jeremy Belknap published his famous three-volume History of New Hampshire (1784-1792), he relied on (and openly acknowledged) much information he gleaned from Wentworth.

In 1801, Wentworth helped start the town library to preserve and disseminate useful knowledge and virtue. His commitment to providing helpful information is not surprising, for not only had he become a school teacher in 1767 but in 1776 he was elected as one of five men to regulate and oversee the schools of Newmarket.

In 1817, in his 71st year of age, Wentworth succumbed to typhus fever and was buried on the family farm, where other members of his family were later buried. In fact, when his daughter Martha died (his last surviving heir), her will provided that any members or descendants of the family could forever forward be buried on the farm. Unfortunately, that family graveyard long lay in disrepair, but in recent years friends and family have managed to restore it.

The legacy of Wentworth Cheswell is a lasting one: a patriot, teacher, and church leader; an historian, archeologist, and educator; a judge and official elected to numerous offices (he is considered the first black American elected to office in America). He is truly one of our forgotten patriots but he is a laudable example for all Americans – a hero worth remembering and honoring during Black History Month.

Sources:

William C. Nell, The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, With Sketches of Several Distinguished Colored Persons: To Which is Added a Brief Survey of the Conditions and Prospects of Colored Americans (Boston: Robert F. Wallcut, 1855), pp. 120-121.

Sidney and Emma Nogrady Kaplan, The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, Revised Edition (Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1989), pp. 200-202.

Thomas Truxtun Moebs, Black Soldiers-Black Sailors-Black Ink: Research Guide on African-Americans in U.S. Military History, 1526-1900 (Chesapeake Bay: Moebs Publishing Company, 1994), pp. 226, 259, 280.

In Honor of Black History Month

In Honor of Black History Month

"I have one great political idea. . . . That idea is an old one. It is widely and generally assented to; nevertheless, it is very generally trampled upon and disregarded. The best expression of it, I have found in the Bible. It is in substance, "Righteousness exalteth a nation; sin is a reproach to any people" [Proverbs 14:34]. This constitutes my politics - the negative and positive of my politics, and the whole of my politics. . . . I feel it my duty to do all in my power to infuse this idea into the public mind."

~ The Rev. Frederick Douglass

As February is set aside to remember and honor the numerous contributions of blacks throughout American history, we want to offer 25% off the Black History products in our store! Be sure to visit www.wallbuilders.com today!

Martin Luther King & Obama

THE FOUNDATION

"Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters." --Samuel Adams

INSIGHT: MLK

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.' ... I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. ... And if America is to be a great nation this must become true." --Martin Luther King Jr.

Historian Shelby Steele observed, "There is an awful lot of conservative sentiment in black America, but at the moment, the party line is ruthlessly enforced." Indeed, some of King's chief lieutenants, like Jesse Jackson, tolerate no dissension from their liberal ranks now. They have abandoned King's dream, and aligned themselves with political and social agendas obsessed with color at the expense of character.

Black conservatives of national stature, such as Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powel, Ward Connerly, Michael Steele, Jesse Lee Peterson, Alan Keyes, Don Scoggins, Alvin Williams, Ken Blackwell, Thomas Sowell, Star Parker and Walter Williams are routinely castigated by the Black Supremacists, as "Uncle Toms" and "puppets." Yet these are the men and women who really understand King's central message about character.

Today, president-elect Barack Hussein Obama will be waxing eloquently about King's legacy. But it is worth noting that prior to his murder in 1968, Martin King went to Obama's hometown of Chicago to meet with Mayor Richard Daley, father of the current Windy City Don. Chicago was a hotbed of racial hatred under Daley, and not much has changed.

King observed of that enmity, "This is the most tragic picture of man's inhumanity to man. I've been to Mississippi and Alabama and I can tell you that the hatred and hostility in Chicago are really deeper than in Alabama and Mississippi."

Chicago was not only a denizen of racial hatred but the violent black supremacist movement was born there. King said, "Those who are associated with 'Black Power' and black supremacy are wrong."

It is in that very racial hatred and hostility in which Obama has been steeped, particularly by mentors such as Jeremiah Wright.

At King's funeral, one Bible passage, Matthew 5:9, summed up his life's mission: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God."

Obama was not stewarded by peacemakers.

Finally, irrespective of one's conclusion about Martin Luther King's proper place in history (given the historical account of his personal integrity and character), the two texts cited below (from The Patriot's Historic Documents section) are well worth reading -- for each of them proclaim truth.

"I have a dream"

"Letter from a Birmingham jail"