Wynton Marsalis official web site

I was born on July the 4th 1978. It gives me the distiguish honor to be the first on this forum to recognize that four months after my birthday,, on the fourth day of November, 40 years after Dr. King was shot, the 44th president of the United States is the descendant of a people that came to this country as slaves.

Sold by our brothers, rejected by our country we were given NOTHING in return for the blood, sweat and tears that watered this great democracy. We are people that went from slaveship to ownership, from oppression to progression.

The blood of my ancestors cries out in rejoice. It was not with hate or with bullets, but through love exhibited to us by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I remember looking into Coretta Scott King's eyes went I went to Spelman, I remember playing a piece that was dedicated to Marches in Selma, I remember being called nigger for the first time. I remember and rejoice the good and the bad, because we have overcome.

Speak the names of the matrys so they can be remembered on this day. Honor those who came before us both black and white. Here is a list add to it:

Crispus Attucks
Medgar Evers
Emmitt Till
4 Little Girls in the Birmingham Church Bombing
Dr. King
Harriet Tubman
Rosa Parks
James Powell
Ezell A. Blair Jr.
David Richmond
Joseph McNeil
Franklin McCain
John Carlos
Tommy Smith
John Lewis
Jim Zwerg

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In this historic day.......CONGRATULATIONS, CONGRATULATIONS, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!.......
This is a day of acknowlegment and full of deep feelings of proud and hope for ALL of you.......
God bless you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.........
A day of infectious joy for everybody.........
In difficult and troubled days as these we are living nowadays.........we can/desire/and need very much to share and borrow a little bit of your sucess, proud and hope; and trust that in other places in this world change is also possible; there is still a long way for everybody in everyplace of this world can feel the way you do......but if you COULD may be in other places...we can also.......
Wish this is just the great start of an even better future for everybody.

GOD BLESS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
All the best.
C.

Every minute, the magnitude of this sinks in a little bit more. However,Barak Obama is not the descendants of african american slaves, but the son of a 'white' mum and black african dad.

Lets hope that those who have faced oppression with love continue to do so, and those of all complexions who exhibit hatred and pessimism, for whatever reason, can take the example of those who have chosen to pursue the higher ground,and mend the error of their ways.

Peace and Love

Prodigal

Dear everybody out there,

You don't know me personally. I'm an anonymous white man, 52 years of age, living in a small European country, who likes black music for over 40 years now, from James Brown to John Coltrane, from Sam Cooke to …
When I was 16 I made a school paper on Dr. Martin-Luther King. I had his speech on a vinyl record, I knew it by heart more than any prayer… At the age of 17 my paper was about Angela Davis and the Black Panther Movement… I didn't know much about politics, it was just gut feeling about what felt wrong and what felt right in the world as I knew it, "I would rather be a plant, than a child on this land"…

Today and throughout my life, John Coltrane's music is more spiritual to me than any religion…

So today I remember:
John Coltrane's "Alabama", Billie Holiday's "strange fruit", Marvin Gaye's "what's going on", Charles Mingus' "beneath the underdog", Max Roach's "We Insist! Freedom Now Suite", Archie Shepp's "Attica Blues", Duke Ellington's "Black, brown and beige" Wynton Marsalis's "Blood on the fields", Miles Davis's "J.J. Johnson", Charlie Haden's "Liberation Music",
and endlessly more…, all those people whose music and life tales told me about what it means that the colour of ones skin DOES matter, without pretending to even beginning to understand what that means in daily life…

Today I remember all those, made famous by history or unknown and forgotten, who could not live this moment of change. Today I think of every coloured person on this planet, and every white personwith joy in my heart, without being blind for the many changes yet to come to make this world a better place for each and every human being. A black man made the whole world a better place to live in.

So let's remember Rodney King instead of "Joe the plumber", Rosa Parks instead of Sarah Palin…

Freedom and "brotherhood", which is solidarity between rich and poor, coloured and white etc... is the only way to achieve real "equality"

Tenderising, indignation and perseverance are leading to change. Together we can!

Marc

Prodigal you are so right, lol. What an astute observation. But since the white man can't claim him he is one of ours for sure, ROFL. Based on the one drop rule for blacks he is a brother, through and through.

Dr Wahoo,

We're all brothers in the eyes of our lord and saviour jesus christ and i certainly hope that this great event heralds the beginning of an era when such notions as those expressed by the one drop rule become well and truly things of the past!

ta

I so whole heartedly agree, Prodigal. In Christ there is no slave or free, Jew or Gentile, black or white. The only one drop rule that we only need to acknowledge is the blood of Jesus Christ. One drop of his blood can wash all our sins away. I know I can get a little intellectual sometimes, but on a real deep personal level it is nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ for me. I feel lot of African Americans forget that is was our walk with Christ that allowed us to get over. Jesus, not Muhammad or Buddah was with us when we marched and bleed for our freedom. History is nothing but prophesied fulfilled and as Revelation 12:11 we can overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. Black American History is about submitting to the will of God and allowing love not hate to overcome racism or any other kinds of schisms.

Like your Jesus...the great Allah and Muhammad preach a love for all humanity too.

Man when i saw that Obama won i cried. Just thinkin about evrybody who didnt get to see the day that an african american would some day be the president of the united states. I had in mind my idol Louis Armstrong but thought about all the civil rights activists in our history. I also cried knowing that America has come along way. I love This Country!!!