| All rights reserved. Copyright 2008 by The Black Think Tank |
Our logo is a "cylinder tangential to
a sphere. It is the only case where
the equality between the height of
a cylinder and the diameter of the
circle at the base, which is also that
of the inscribed sphere, is of
particular interest. This figure is the
one that Archimedes chose as an
epitaph, because as he said, it
represented his “most beautiful
discovery." Diop contended that
Archimedes had (somewhat in the
tradition of Christopher Columbus)
discovered; something that had
existed long before it was
discovered "an established
theorem discovered 2,000 years
before him by his [African]
predecessors."
-- from Cheikh Anta Diop's
Civilization or Barbarism: An
Authentic Anthropology.
(Translated from the French by Yaa-
Lengi Meema Ngemi, Edited by
Harold J. Salemson and Marjolijn
de Jager, Lawrence Hill Books,
1991, p.242. First published by
Presence Africaine, Paris, 1981).
a sphere. It is the only case where
the equality between the height of
a cylinder and the diameter of the
circle at the base, which is also that
of the inscribed sphere, is of
particular interest. This figure is the
one that Archimedes chose as an
epitaph, because as he said, it
represented his “most beautiful
discovery." Diop contended that
Archimedes had (somewhat in the
tradition of Christopher Columbus)
discovered; something that had
existed long before it was
discovered "an established
theorem discovered 2,000 years
before him by his [African]
predecessors."
-- from Cheikh Anta Diop's
Civilization or Barbarism: An
Authentic Anthropology.
(Translated from the French by Yaa-
Lengi Meema Ngemi, Edited by
Harold J. Salemson and Marjolijn
de Jager, Lawrence Hill Books,
1991, p.242. First published by
Presence Africaine, Paris, 1981).
The Black Think Tank was founded on
January 21, 1979, by individuals who had
been at the center of the late 1960s birth
and battle for black studies. The Black Think
Tank pioneered a Black Male/Female
Relationships movement, including "black
love" (Kupenda groups, Kupenda being
Swahili for 'to love') designed to help our
people learn to love again, to feel loved, to
love ourselves and, therefore, one another,
inasmuch as we already know how to hate
one another. The Black Think Tank then
issued The Call and was the catalyst for the
contemporary Rites of Passage movement
for African-American boys in the popular
manual, Bringing the Black Boys to
Manhood: The Passage, which promulgated
lectures and workshops nationally and
internationally, including in promulgated
lectures and workshops promulgated
lectures and workshops nationally and
internationally, including in London and the
Caribbean islands. Related books of
importance and influence followed quickly:
The Endangered Black Family and The
Miseducation of the Black Child. The Black
Think Tank is here by grim necessity and
popular demand. We, as a people, can see
clearly now that the old ideas have not
worked, and some that might have worked
have yet to be tried. Our leaders have
argued back and forth for decades lost
forever over the many good thoughts and
corollaries of Marcus Garvey, Booker T.
Washington, and W.E.B. DuBois, but have
never really implemented either one of
them.
We must continue to be receptive to the
insights and strategies of the anointed and
renowned among us, past and present, but
now is the time to penetrate and jump-
start the wisdom of the people, the
unsung, unseen and unheard, those
Langston Hughes once dubbed the
"misbred, misread, and misled." Thus,
Langston anticipated the words of his
fellow alumnus of Pennsylvania's Lincoln
University, Kwame Nkrumah: "Go back to
the people; live with them, learn from them,
love them. “Start with what they know,
build on what they have, for the people
may be the best thing that you will ever
have.”
This is where the Black Think Tank comes in,
dedicated to forging a facility to tap into
and foment the undying enthusiasm of our
race to think and grow free.
January 21, 1979, by individuals who had
been at the center of the late 1960s birth
and battle for black studies. The Black Think
Tank pioneered a Black Male/Female
Relationships movement, including "black
love" (Kupenda groups, Kupenda being
Swahili for 'to love') designed to help our
people learn to love again, to feel loved, to
love ourselves and, therefore, one another,
inasmuch as we already know how to hate
one another. The Black Think Tank then
issued The Call and was the catalyst for the
contemporary Rites of Passage movement
for African-American boys in the popular
manual, Bringing the Black Boys to
Manhood: The Passage, which promulgated
lectures and workshops nationally and
internationally, including in promulgated
lectures and workshops promulgated
lectures and workshops nationally and
internationally, including in London and the
Caribbean islands. Related books of
importance and influence followed quickly:
The Endangered Black Family and The
Miseducation of the Black Child. The Black
Think Tank is here by grim necessity and
popular demand. We, as a people, can see
clearly now that the old ideas have not
worked, and some that might have worked
have yet to be tried. Our leaders have
argued back and forth for decades lost
forever over the many good thoughts and
corollaries of Marcus Garvey, Booker T.
Washington, and W.E.B. DuBois, but have
never really implemented either one of
them.
We must continue to be receptive to the
insights and strategies of the anointed and
renowned among us, past and present, but
now is the time to penetrate and jump-
start the wisdom of the people, the
unsung, unseen and unheard, those
Langston Hughes once dubbed the
"misbred, misread, and misled." Thus,
Langston anticipated the words of his
fellow alumnus of Pennsylvania's Lincoln
University, Kwame Nkrumah: "Go back to
the people; live with them, learn from them,
love them. “Start with what they know,
build on what they have, for the people
may be the best thing that you will ever
have.”
This is where the Black Think Tank comes in,
dedicated to forging a facility to tap into
and foment the undying enthusiasm of our
race to think and grow free.
Studies in
Black Male Female
Relationships
This in from The CV Drum
“The monthly news beat and photo
album of African-American
communities in America
Drumbeat 1: "Dr. Julia Hare’s
latest book
The Sexual and Political Anorexia
of the Black Woman: The Pain Guts
and Glory of the Black Woman
First Edition 2008
Black Think Tank Books
San Francisco
CLICK HERE TO GET IT NOW!
Drumbeat 2: "No disrespect to
stellar research synthesizers
withletters behind their names like
Cornel West, Ph.D., and Skip Gates,
Ph.D., reports the Drum, "but my
money is also with those researchers
who can also “make it plain” for the
masses, in addition to “talking shop”
in the academy. This skill is also
what made giants like Carter G.
Woodson, Dr. Carlton Goodlett and
Flo Kennedy,J.D. stand out and be
loved in many African com munities.
Dr.Julia Hare is from that mold.Rather
than pull from a few press releases.
That came across my desk in recent
months about Dr.Hare’s book, I am
briefly focusing exclusively on why
this book should be a must read for
those interested In transdisciplinary
and African-centered scholarship,
which are about re-empowering the
women warriors in our communities
(which also means re-empowering
the entire community)."
"Transdisciplinarity is about the
understanding of the present world,
which cannot be accomplished
in the framework of traditional
disciplinary research. Plain and
simple, add this excellent book to
your personal or professional
library." -- CV Drum
CVDrumnews@gmail.com
Black Male Female
Relationships
This in from The CV Drum
“The monthly news beat and photo
album of African-American
communities in America
Drumbeat 1: "Dr. Julia Hare’s
latest book
The Sexual and Political Anorexia
of the Black Woman: The Pain Guts
and Glory of the Black Woman
First Edition 2008
Black Think Tank Books
San Francisco
CLICK HERE TO GET IT NOW!
Drumbeat 2: "No disrespect to
stellar research synthesizers
withletters behind their names like
Cornel West, Ph.D., and Skip Gates,
Ph.D., reports the Drum, "but my
money is also with those researchers
who can also “make it plain” for the
masses, in addition to “talking shop”
in the academy. This skill is also
what made giants like Carter G.
Woodson, Dr. Carlton Goodlett and
Flo Kennedy,J.D. stand out and be
loved in many African com munities.
Dr.Julia Hare is from that mold.Rather
than pull from a few press releases.
That came across my desk in recent
months about Dr.Hare’s book, I am
briefly focusing exclusively on why
this book should be a must read for
those interested In transdisciplinary
and African-centered scholarship,
which are about re-empowering the
women warriors in our communities
(which also means re-empowering
the entire community)."
"Transdisciplinarity is about the
understanding of the present world,
which cannot be accomplished
in the framework of traditional
disciplinary research. Plain and
simple, add this excellent book to
your personal or professional
library." -- CV Drum
CVDrumnews@gmail.com
| A Conversation with the Father of Black History Carter G. Woodson We are now in the final week of Black History Month. Allow us to introduce to some and present to others the father of Black History Month. Once upon a time, in the late nineteenth century, there lived a black boy in the cornfields of Virginia. He was the son of former slaves in a poor family of nine children with little hope for advancement until his father heard they were building a high school in Huntington, West Virginia and moved his family there. And so it was that at the age of twenty, with hardly any formal education, Carter G. Woodson became a belated student at the Frederick Douglass High School. Proving to be a quick study, Carter G. had graduated from high school by the time he was twenty-two, but weary of working in the coal mines where he felt despised by whites and looked down on by blacks, he bravely entered a liberal Christian college in Kentucky named Berea, the first college in the South to admit students of every race and both genders on an equal basis, while charging no tuition from that day to this. Today Carter G. Woodson is one of the college’s most revered alumni. In fact, one of us (Dr. Julia Hare) has keynoted Berea’s Annual Carter G. Woodson Weekend. Interestingly, Woodson attended Berea at first for only two years (until it closed its doors to blacks). He then enrolled at the University of Chicago but returned to Berea when it reopened its doors to blacks. Then, armed with a bachelor’s degree in literature, he taught for a United States government sponsored program of education in the Philippines before returning for graduate study at the University of Chicago, which would not recognize his degree at Berea, forcing him to get another bachelor’s degree before the master’s at the University of Chicago. Not to be outdone by Berea, the University of Chicago includes Carter G. Woodson (as well as Nathan Hare) on its official website as among approximately 150 “Notable Alumni” living and dead. After leaving Chicago, Carter G. Woodson went on to become the second black person to receive a Ph.D. in history at Harvard. W.E.B. Dubois, with whom Woodson would later collaborate informally in the building of Crisis magazine, had been the first to do so. By then Carter G. Woodson had arrived at the categorical recognition that something was missing in the education of black people at every level in American society. He saw vividly both the visible and hidden consequences of what he regarded as the tragic fact that “the role of his own people in American history and in the history of other cultures was either being ignored or misrepresented.” According to Wikipedia, Woodson “recognized and acted upon the importance of a people having an awareness and knowledge of their contributions to humanity,” and set out immediately on a mission and what would become the making of the legacy known to us today as “Black History Month.” We are privileged indeed to converse with Prof. Woodson. across the generations of our oppression in America, on the occasion of Black History Month. Nathan and Julia Hare: Prof. Woodson, what a pleasure and a privilege it is to have a few words with you. Your invention of “Black History Week” remains one of the most influential and cherished accomplishments of our people in America, and we are happy to inform you that it is now “Black History Month.” We’ve never actually met you before, but we studied your writings in high school. One of your books was the text for a course in “Negro History” at the Toussaint L’Ouverture High School in Slick, Oklahoma in the days of Jim Crow segregation, and your good works and wise words were often on the tongues of teachers at Tulsa’s Booker T. Washington High School, now a predominantly white magnet school called “Washington” (as if in George Washington, because the white kids didn’t want to go to a school named after Booker T.). So you can see, Dr. Woodson, that the struggle continues. We have read that you wanted black history taught in our schools and communities every day. Why were you so concerned about black history and what drove you on to give it such an important and irrevocable place in American society and the world? Why is black history so important? Prof. Woodson: If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world and it stands in danger of being exterminated. The Hares: Could you teach on that for a moment Dr. Woodson? CLICK HERE to CONTINUE CONVERSATION By Nathan and Julia Hare, *"A Conversation with the Father of Black History, (a front page feature continued on page 2, reprinted from the SUN REPORTER , Volume 65, Number 8, February 25, 2010, pp. 1-2. Contact: Phone: 415-671-1000. Fax: 415- 671-1005. Email: sunreporter@sbcglobal.net ************ |
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Black Studies
What's New?
Something Old
Something New
Seventeen lonely years after its original
publication, what appears to be an
emerging Black Think Tank underground
classic (The Miseducation of the Black
Child) is noted a "bestseller" by Essence
magazine, along with such as "The Willie
Lynch Letters" by William Lynch and
Kashif Malik Hassan-el, "Dreams From My
Father" by Barack Obama, and The
Mis-Education of the Negro by the late
great Carter G. Woodson.
Touted in the coveted paperback
nonfiction category,The Miseducation of
the Black Child competed with books
initially published in hardback to make
the rounds of mainstream libraries and
media reviewers before morphing into
paperback on "the Great White Way." By
contrast The Miseducation of the Black
Child came straight out of The Black
Think Tank, based on living lessons
learned by individuals who have taught
in the public schools of the District of
Columbia, Chicago and San Francisco,
fueled by clinical observation as well as
academic and informal interaction with
late 1960s college student activists,
community and street intellectuals at
Howard University as well as the
battlegrounds of the strike for black
studies at San Francisco State, creatively
applied to overhauling the public
schools and educating every black man,
woman and child.
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