Part 13: Uncle David lesson to his children about their Blackness!

Uncle David Brown Served After World War II

After World War II people of color was fed a lot of propaganda about who they are. Many groups had a motive for telling people of color that they are all from Africa. 


The Civil Rights Organization

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) wanted to create a group of people that they could help them champion for civil rights. Liberals wanted a group that could help them vote for liberal and socialist government policies such as voting for all and rights for everyone. Blacks wanted to increase its group to fight for jobs for colored people. 

Therefore, the increasing amount of people coming from the south and from the country was the ideal people to change from who they our to Black or African Americans. This new group can be used to get concessions from the US Government for it own agenda, not for the people's of color.

In the 1970s, I joined the NAACP thinking they were for getting economic power to people of color by taking over corporations. I was informed that this is a "civil rights" organization. They deal with politic and the law of the land.

Later, I can see that the leaders of the NAACP was taking money for memberships but behind the scenes, they were selling out people of color in employment, police services, and business. They did more to protect organizations who discriminate against people of color. 
    
  http://reimaginerpe.org/18-2/nittle

Unemployment

https://www.aclu.org/report/driving-while-black-racial-profiling-our-nations-highways

Driving while Black

http://www.msnbc.com/politicsnation/1-in-10-americans-still-support-discrimination#52522

1 in 10 still support discrimination against 

African-Americans on religious grounds

******


Here is Mark Brown's own words about what his father told him about who we are!

Mark and Vida

*****

Here is a message from my Uncle David E. Brown, Lucy's son to his children.

In the mid and late 1960's, my father, David E. Brown began telling me and my sisters that we should not call ourselves "Black" or "African American." In his mind we were just "American" and "Indian." I was offended. 

My cousin "H Rap Mark"

I recall that once my baby sister, Lori was confused. She came home from elementary school one day asking my mother, "What color am I?" My father and I bickered that issue up till his death. Though my skin color was light, I insisted that "I was "Black." Racial identity and "Black pride" were the key phrases and elements in  Black communities nationwide as well as where I lived. I didn't assimilate it, I was part of it. I related to the Black community because I was Black., though in school sometimes I wasn't "black" enough through the eyes of my " brothers and sisters" and I was "to black" from the "others." Nobody ever mentioned being part of the stereotyped "Tonto" image. That was considered "shameful." 

Though born in the projects I was raised in a ethnically diverse neighborhood. I was, in the 2% from grammar through high schools. In other words, "we" were the few. On a daily basis the national news reported urban riots all over the northeast and the Midwest regions, murders of key Black political, spiritual and revolutionary leaders and the socioeconomic plight of "us." 


I recall after the assassination of King telling myself, "Memphis is one place I will never visit." I was 14 years old. Ironically, I've lived in Memphis for the past almost 40 years. I am now 61. It wasn't much better locally where I experienced de-facto racism as well. On the radio we listened and bought the music of James Brown and Curtis Mayfield who exemplified the importance of being "proud." I admired organizations like the Black Panthers and SNCC. Yes, we were receiving those important messages from our families about the value of education and accomplishment, but were also relying on social media to validate our future success. 

My Dad had a "nice" grade of hair, was brown skinned, had the thick nose and looked like a "native," just like his mother, my Grandmother, Lucy Brown. Unfortunately, he also suffered from (stereotypical or not) a native trait: a biological deficit in metabolizing alcohol.  

I didn't necessarily fit the image of a "native." For all Indians are brown, have big noses, have long "good" hair, ride horses in the west and shoot arrows. In aging I learned that I am a product of my environment and a lot of what I learned showed my ignorance and stupidity. Because of that I grew to understand that there is also a "rainbow coalition" among natives just as Blacks or African Americans (whatever you prefer.) 

With additional personal research and talking with family members, I am now able, willing to recognize and accept fully who I am. I am also a proud native, and my spiritual belief is that all life was originally created on the continent of Africa. It doesn't matter if the chicken was first or the egg or if I am ethically more of this or more of that. In spite of, I am also, and proud to be "human," and an "individual."

Written By Mark Brown, 

License Master Social Worker (LMSW)

Part 12: Aunt Dr. Jackie and Uncle David Brown wedding

Aunt Dr. Jackie and Uncle David Browns Wedding at 

First Baptist Church of Steelton on 

158 Adams Street, Steelton, Pennsylvania

In the picture above are: Grandfather John Brown, Grandmother Eliza Lucinda Blue Brown, Uncle David Brown, Aunt Jackie Jones Brown PhD, and John and Wilma Jones., her parents.

My cousin Mark Brown and my aunt Dr. Jackie Jackson, PhD.

Thanks to Mark Brown, the first picture above is the only picture that I have with my grandparents. 

Starting with Lucy and John, their descendants stopped naming their children after the ex-slaves and others born in the 19th century. That was a serious break from our past ancestors. Eliza Lucinda and John had 5 children;

1. Jean Brown Williams married William J. Williams II. They had 4 children

2. Alice Brown Franklin married David Franklin. They had Yvonne and Donald

3. John Brown married Phoebe King and had Terri.

4. David Brown married Dr. Jackie and had three children

5. Agnes Brown married Walter Hughes and had 4 children

Their grandchildren went totally radical with their children's names. The reason why is because of three things. 

One is that they wanted to show their independence from their ancestors. 

Two, the influence of this so called race idea started to take hold in the family. 

Third, fear! Keep in mind, it was legal to kill native as late as 1920. So why would our ancestors "rock the boat?"  So while my grandparents descendants was fighting to call themselves some group name, the parents said nothing and looked the other way.  

I was the only one that named one of my children after an ancestor, not my mother's family but my wife's ex-slave ancestor, "Amanda Ann Williams III" (after ex-slave, Amanda Ann Porter).  My Uncle John was named after my grand father, not by any John Brown that may have been in the family.   

Why did it take hold? Because of the way our ancestors was being treated. We started feeling the hatred of the "Jim Crow" days and a need to be part of a group. Our ancestors were not fighting "Jim Crow" and they did not defend themselves and who they were as Natives. They stayed out of sight and kept their mouth shut. So people in my generation believed the propaganda of the Intelligentsia and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Do you notice that it has "colored people" in the name? They never changed it to Black.   

If you fill out a form for a job, hospital, or a dentist, One question is on the form that makes little sense, "Race." 

What is Race?

What is Race? When some people use the “race” they attach a biological meaning, still others use “race” as a socially constructed concept.  It is clear that even though race does not have a biological meaning, it does have a social meaning which has been legally constructed.

Caucasion:
Skull: Dolicephalic(Long-Head),High forehead,Little supraobital development.
Face: Mainly Leptoproscopic( Narrow)Sometimes Meso- or even Euryproscopic, Neither Facial nor alveolar prognathism occurs except among some archaic peoples.
Nose:Long,narrow,high in both root and bridge.

Mongoloid:
Skull: High incidence of Brachycephaly(Short Round Head)
American Indians while Mongoloid are often Dolicephalic.
Foreheads slightly lower than that of the Caucasoid.
No Supraobital development.
Face: Wide and short, projecting cheek bones, Prognathism rare. Shovel shaped incisors common especialy in Asia.
Nose: Mesorine(Low and Broad in both root and bridge.

Negroid:
Skull: usually Dolicephalic, a small minority are Brachycephalic.
Forehead most often high, little supraobital development.
Face: Leproscopic (to a much lesser degree than the Caucasion), Prognathism common in most Negro populations.

Nose: Low & broad in root and bridge with characteristic depression at root.  

Race does not exist, Nationality does  

So the US Government, the Intelligentsia, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) created and supported these divisions to divide people into groups for their own purposes. The public just went along with this government project. 

The local state or federal Governments can and will treat people one way or another based on how the leaders feel about classes of people. 

Before 1920, Natives were treated worst. So Natives passed for Black. 

Click on the link below:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/09/09/poll-blacks-whites-agree-police-treat-blacks-differently/71918706/

Poll: Blacks, whites agree police treat blacks differently

  

When I was hired by Pennsylvania Blue Shield in Harrisburg, I put down that I was a Native. They called me at my desk and told me that I mistakenly check the wrong box. I could not be what I told them that I was and they demanded that I change it.

Amanda went to CD High School and gave a presentation about her family. Her teacher told her that she should tell the truth about her family.  

*******

What races do these three people belong? 

Is she Caucasion?

Is she Mongoloid?

Is she Negroid?

All three pictures are Amanda Ann Williams III. She is a Cherokee Native by nationality. She proves that there is no such thing as Race.  

Part 11: The Technology of its Time

Darnell L Williams and baby Stephanie

What the last generation don't know.

In my family in the early 20th century, many of my family pushed back against people who studied technology. I had an Uncle in the 1930s who knew something about creating radios. He was so good that RCA offered him a job. He did not take it because his family and relatives talked him out of it, according to one relative that I talked too.

When I was about to get into the computer field, people tried to talk me out of it. My father told me that by the time I get trained and ready to work, computer programmers would be a "dime a dozen."

But this goes on in all generations mostly because the last generation don't know what is about to happen in the next generation. 

My daughter Stephanie was about to go into the study of Law. She had a Batcher's degree in Criminal Justice and we were looking at Law Schools. At that time, a person coming out of law school could make over $85,000 per year. Then she decided to do something else. I was upset.

But then the law market collapsed. I started meeting people who graduated from Law School. They could  not get employment in the field at all. When they did, it was for $26,000 per year. 

Darnell Williams in his first Computer Programmer Job.

My daughter was making more than that and now makes three times more than me at the height of my career. Stephanie has an MBA instead of a Law Degree.

     

Stephanie Ann Williams Tulloch

Technology changes every 4 years. You can see this in the car industry. When the US Car Industry thought that they cornered the world in the car market in the 1970 and 1980s, the world passed them up. The world runs on technology. If you can operate, build, engineer, and program the latest machines, you will never go hungry. However, you must change with the technology to stay fruitful.    

Amanda Ann Williams Whyte

With 

Amanda Ann Williams III

When little Amanda was 4 years old, she could not see herself doing anything other than modeling. For the next 22 years, this is what she concentrated on. 

*****

You can see the changing of technology in the Automobile Market as the last 100 years past.       



1920s Model T Ford

This is the type of car that Eliza Walk and George Blue had when they drove from Stony Point to Steelton to see my grand parents. 



1930s cars


1940s Plymouth



1950s car

I believe this is the car that I first remembered my parents having when my mother took us to Steelton from West Mifflin to see my grand parents. 



1965 Ford Mustang

I wanted my father to buy this car when I was a teenager. He ignored me. 



1970s Mercedes SL



1980s

I hated this car and the public seem to agree with me. 




1995 Plymouth Neon

I bought my daughter Amanda Ann Williams III this car.



2000s Corvettes

2016 LINCOLN MKX

Now we will see what type of car Daniel and David buys in the future. 

Part 10: The William and Jean Brown Williams Marriage

First Baptist Church, 158 Adams Street, Steelton, Pennsylvania. 

From left to right; Uncle David Franklin, Aunt Alice Franklin, Williams J. Williams II, Jean Brown Williams, Willie T Williams, Mrs. Williams



As we left off talking about the Williams Family, Williams J. Williams II (Willie) and his mother traveled around the country on Eastern Star Business. His family settled in Homestead Pa. because William J Williams, his father, received a job in the Sanitation Dept. After his father died, he and his mother traveled to Philadelphia on Eastern Star business. While coming back through Harrisburg, they stopped at First Baptist Church in Steelton.  

William J Williams, they called him Willie

My parents met in the late 1930's at the church in Steelton. They wrote back and forth for almost 2 years before they decided to get married. The William J Williams II and Jean Brown Marriage is the first marriage since Eliza Thorne in this family line wed outside of Free Union Baptist Church. They were married in First Baptist Church on 158 Adams Street,  in Steelton back in the early 1940s before World War II.    

Willie had it hard, coming up in the Great Depression. He worked in the "CCC" Camps created by President Roosevelt for a time. Most of his life, he was afraid of another depression so he worked two or more jobs even if he did not have to do so. Him and my mother built their home by hand. He worked in the Post Office at night and rose to supervisor before retiring in the 1970s. He started an Electric Company in the 1950s called Williams Electric Service and wired many house by day in Allegheny County. 

Working around the clock for more than 25 years caused him to age quickly and die at age 57 years old. 

William J. Williams II a few years before his death. 

From Top to Bottom, Left to Right, Wyndell, William J Williams III (Hypo) Williams J Williams II (Willie), Jean Brown Williams, Renee Williams Hoy, Darnell L Williams.  Darnell L Williams was named by Nanny who got the name from a 1950s baseball player.

I am going to take that thing and cement it in the side walk!

Lucy threatened my father!

Eliza Lucinda Blue Brown -- 

Picture provided by Mark Brown

When my mother and father had me, my grandmother Lucy came up from Steelton to help with me, the new born.  My other grandmother Susie had already died. When she came up the street, she saw my father and called him over. She said, "Willie, come here. If you have any more children, I am going to pull that thing out your pants and cement it into the crack in the sidewalk."

I don't know if she was serious or not. When Wyndell my youngest brother was born by mistake according to my mother, she did not come up with a bag of cement.  Wyndell was their fourth child. But my Grandmother and Grandfather had 5 children. So why complain about having only 3 at that time?

The Dinner Blow Up

My grandmother was a lot of fun. However, she had her serous side. When my mother was growing up and was having dinner with her parents, my mother farted at the table. That did not sit well with my grandmother. My grandmother stood up and my mother knew what that meant. My mother ran for the side door while my grandmother picked up a chair. Jean, my mother  ran down the steps as Lucy throw the chair at her. She missed and the chair broke up into small pieces on the steps.

Martha Lee Came to Down for some fun!

When I was 7 years old, Martha Lee Tyree came to Steelton from Brown Town now part of Stony Point.  She got with David Brown (Uncle David) and together they like to cut up.  Lucy told Martha to be in by midnight because that is when she locks all the doors.  Cousin Martha decided that she was coming in at 2:00 AM.  The screen door was locked so she took out her Switch Blade knife and cut the screen open.

My Grandmother was hot the following morning. My cousin was on her way back to Stony Point the next day. I don't think she ever came back.  In the mid 1980s, Martha Lee and I  had a good time laughing about that. Martha Lee was surprised that I remember this over 25 years later.

My Pressure Cooker Went Boom!

My greatest moment with my grandmother is when we went to her house for thanksgiving. She was cooking in the kitchen when the Pressure Cooker blew up. I ran into the kitchen and all I saw was Green Beans all over everything including the ceiling. She never used that Pressure Cooker again.     

Part 9: The Story of Calob Kindle and Evelina Young

What I did not know until my father died was that my Grandmother was on her second marriage when she married my Grandfather William J. Williams. She had the man that I called "Uncle" by her first marriage. 

My second shock: I did not know that the woman that I called Nanny was not married to "Uncle" until recently in their relationship. They lived a hard and dangerous life. I do not know if the Great Depression and World War II had anything to do with it or not.   



Lucinda and David Young had Evelina Young in January 1910 in Stillmore, Mississippi. David Young was a White man. That is why Evelina (Born January 1910 and died in the 1980's) was high Yellow. I asked my aunt how can your father be white when Mississippi had laws against interracial marriage? She told me that they could do whatever they wanted back in the woods.   

 Caleb Kendell (Uncle, born in Sept. 1895, died December 1972) worked in the Homestead Brick Yard for a short time. My father got him that job. He quit. 

 

My family likes to hide things. I hate it. 

What my parents did not know is that Evelina Young and Caleb Kendell did for a living was professional gambling.  They specialized in card games, Bid Whist, 5 card and 7 card poker. They held card parties late at night. What if the people they cleaned out got hostile? Then they would go for their guns. 

Bid Whist is a partnership trick-taking game that is very popular among African Americans. It is played with a standard 52 card deck plus 2 jokers, for a total of 54 cards. The two jokers must be distinct: one is called the big joker and the other is the little joker. There are 4 players consisting of two teams of two; each player sits opposite their partner. The game starts with each team at zero, and the object of the game is to reach a score 7 or more points, or force the other team to go negative 7 or more points. Points are scored by bidding for and winning tricks, which in this game are called books.

http://www.pokernews.com/poker-rules/

In this link above, you can learn how to play Poker. 



Three Years Old Darnell Williams


Me, the baby card shark! 

I, Darnell L Williams (Born 1951 in Glen Hazel, Pittsburgh, pa)  was about 4 years old when Nanny taught me how to play cards. I went home and showed my mother what I have learned. My mother blew up. She told my father and my father told my Uncle. That was the end of my card playing for some time. Nanny took care of me while my parents built our house in West Mifflin, Pa. Well that was the end of that!  

Just remember, your child like me will pick up habits from your baby sitters without you knowing about!

Part 8: The Williams Family

The State of Alabama, the home of Sussie Cribbs of Columbus 

My father's family had  a harsh life. If any Africans are part of the Williams family, chances are they came from Benin, a nation in present day West Africa. I do not consider DNA Test evidence of who people are. People and nations move all over the world. For example, Ethiopia was on the coast of the Indian Ocean, 2,000 years ago. Today that is Somalia. West of Somalia is Ethiopia.  So from that, your evidence dealing with DNA becomes less true as time goes on.  

Since the test that Williams J Williams III (Hypo) took matches DNA from the nation of Benin data base of the last 300 years, I must say that this says something in relation to evidence.  

The Slave Trade

The best-known triangular trading system is the transatlantic slave trade, that operated from the late 16th to early 19th centuries, carrying slaves, cash crops, and manufactured goods between West Africa,Caribbean or American colonies and the European colonial powers, with the northern colonies of British North America, especially New England, sometimes taking over the role of Europe.  The use of African slaves was fundamental to growing colonial cash crops, which were exported to Europe. European goods, in turn, were used to purchase African slaves, which were then brought on the sea lane west from Africa to the Americas, the so-called Middle Passage.

A classic example is the colonial molasses trade. Sugar (often in its liquid form, molasses) from the Caribbean was traded to Europe or New England, where it was distilled into rum. The profits from the sale of sugar were used to purchase manufactured goods, which were then shipped to West Africa, where they were bartered for slaves. The slaves were then brought back to the Caribbean to be sold to sugar planters. The profits from the sale of the slaves were then used to buy more sugar, which was shipped to Europe, restarting the cycle. The trip itself took five to twelve weeks.

The first leg of the triangle was from a European port to Africa, in which ships carried supplies for sale and trade, such as copper, cloth, trinkets, slave beads, guns and ammunition.  When the ship arrived, its cargo would be sold or bartered for slaves.

On the second leg, ships made the journey of the Middle Passage from Africa to the New World. Many slaves died of disease in the crowded holds of the slave ships. Once the ship reached the New World, enslaved survivors were sold in the Caribbean or the American colonies.

The ships were then prepared to get them thoroughly cleaned, drained, and loaded with export goods for a return voyage, the third leg, to their home port, from the West Indies the main export cargoes were sugar, rum, and molasses; from Virginia, tobacco and hemp. The ship then returned to Europe to complete the triangle.

Slave Trade in Alabama

   

As American slavery evolved, an elaborate and enduring mythology about the inferiority of black people was created to legitimate, perpetuate, and defend slavery. This mythology survived slavery’s formal abolition following the Civil War.

    

Since slaves were relatively cheap, coming to Alabama from Africa and the Caribbean, the slave owners could bring in slaves, working them around the clock until they die of over work. Then the owners would just say "Next" and bring in new slave workers and start the process all over again. 


Each State Slavery Laws were different. Alabama was one of the worst states for slaves. My mother's side of the Family in Virginia was better for workers but even they attacked and killed Natives Americans and took children into slavery.

http://www.eji.org/files/Slavery%20in%20America.pdf

The Montgomery Slave Trade

Coming out of the "Trail of Tears"

The ancestors of William J Williams was  Cherokee. His people were removed in the removal process called the "Trail of Tears." Here, the US Army moved the Cherokees as a nation, at gun point, to Oklahoma for resettlement.

Most people who may know about the  "Trail of Tears," may not know about the next removal.  The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 was the first land rush into the Unassigned Lands. The area that was opened to settlement included all or part of the present-day Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne counties of the US state of Oklahoma. The land run started at high noon on April 22, 1889, with an estimated 50,000 people lined up for their piece of the available two million acres (8,000 km²).

The Unassigned Lands were considered some of the best unoccupied public land in the United States. The Indian Appropriations Bill of 1889 was passed and signed into law with an amendment by Illinois RepresentativeWilliam McKendree Springer, that authorized President Benjamin Harrison to open the two million acres (8,000 km²) for settlement. Due to the Homestead Act of 1862, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, legal settlers could claim lots up to 160 acres (0.65 km²) in size. Provided a settler lived on the land and improved it, the settler could then receive the title to the land.

Great Grand Father James Williams left Oklahoma and took his family to Houston Tx. He got a job fishing. One night as James came home from work, the KKK shot and killed him in cold blood. 

President Coolidge stands with four Osage Indians at a White House ceremony

The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, also known as the Snyder Act, was proposed by RepresentativeHomer P. Snyder (R) of New York and granted full U.S. citizenship to America's indigenous peoples, called "Indians" in this Act. While the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution defined as citizens any person born in the U.S., the amendment had been interpreted to restrict the citizenship rights of most Native people. 

The act was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on June 2, 1924. It was enacted partially in recognition of the thousands of Indians who served in the armed forces during World War I.

Picture of Black Indians

Great Grandfather James Williams 

When James was killed around 1912, it was legal to kill him. He had no rights just like many natives in the United States at that time. Here is why it was better to be registered in the US as a NEGRO than a native. At least Negroes had some legal protection. 

My Grandfather William J Williams(Born 1880; Died 1929) married my Grandmother Susie Cribbs and lived in Houston for about a decade after the death of James Williams. She was an officer in the Eastern Stars. For the Eastern Stars, she traveled around the country doing Eastern Stars work.    

After the death of my aunt (Small Child) in Houston due to "Yellow Fever" moved. It was hard to make a living after World War I ended. They finally ended up in Homestead Pa., after my Great Grandfather landed a job with the Homestead Sanitation Department on the garbage Truck. In the 1920's, Sanitation Workers made minimum wage, not like today. My Aunt Nanny said that he looked like he just came off the reservation. 

   

My father was born in Houston, Tx. (Born Oct. 1916; Dead 1974) and moved to Homestead with his parents. They helped many of Susie's people move to Homestead from the deep south.