EMMETT TILL’S ACCUSER COMES CLEAN AFTER ALL THESE YEARS…

Well, it is Black History Month.   And I really can’t remember when this actually took place… the year when a young 15 year old youth went south to Mississippi from Chicago, to spend the summer with relatives in the south.

http://nypost.com/2017/01/27/emmett-tills-accuser-admits-it-was-all-a-lie/

In looking back at a newspaper article on the story, I see where it took place in 1955.  The summer Emmett Till went to spend what was to be his lastsummer visiting those cousins, and an aunt and uncle down south.  Because somewhere during that visit in August 1955 it was said
that Emmett took certainly liberties with some white woman.  He got out of place… he crossed that divide that colored and white were not to cross… because he was just being a young innocent kid… unaware of the do’s and the don’t of the then… and maybe still in some parts of the south.

Supposedly young Emmett while in this woman’s family store had told the white woman how he had dated a woman just like her up in Chicago.   And upon leaving the store it was said that young Emmett Till gave that woman 1 of those big long whistles, that men did back in that time when they thought a woman was beautiful… somewhat of a wolf call or something.

It was that story of Emmett Till which always colored me and my thoughts about how when you leave home… if you lived north of the Mason/Dixon Line… how you should behave very differently if you were to go down south.

Something like how you had to remember when you crossed that line …that Mason/Dixon Line going into the south, that you were no longer in the north… or in your little Northern town or big city, like Chicago or Detroit.   And how remembering this… that this ‘black and white thang’ could possibly save your life.

I recall once just we had crossed that line 1 summer on 1 our many drives south to visit my grand mother in the south, that once we pulled up to a motel where my mother sent me out to go inside and ask how much it would cost to get a room?

An occasional stop at a motel to freshen up used to be a habit of my family sometimes while we were making the more that 20 hour trip down south to Florida.  But this particular day as I almost was about to reach for the door leading into the motel office, out came running two black boys… or teens… something I couldn’t really tell how old they were as they came running through that door shouting back to me, ‘Get of of here!  Go!  Go!’

I immediately ran back to our car and reported to my mother and father what those 2 boys had told me as they had whizzed pass me and shouted for me to get out of there.

Suddenly, my mother started screaming at me to get in the car… and she started hollering they ain’t gonna take my sons.   ‘They ain’t gonna take my sons.’

Boy, I had never seen anything like it or ever heard my mother react in such a way.  But years later I understood.

At that time my brothers were young kids… maybe 10 or 11 or something like that.  But my mother having grown up in the south… my being a Jamaican had grew up in Jamaica so he had not really experienced any that Jim Crow stuff of the deep south.  But my mother knew it well.   And she knew that it would not matter to white folks that my brothers had not robbed or done whatever those 2 boys had done… but that they were black and that in of itself would have been enough for my young brothers to have been taken …in place of the real crooks or whatever they were who had come running out of that motel office.

I do not think we ever again stopped at another motel in all the years we continued to travel back and forth to Florida after that.

For years, I think that up until this very point I had always felt that Emmett Till  should have been told how to behave, and carry himself while down there in the south.  I always thought it was his mother’s fault for not sitting him down, and telling him how to behave down there when it came to being around white folks.   It was the typical blaming that many people do when they blame the dead for being dead.  Like some people blame Trayvon Martin for being out late… or out in the rain in that white neighborhood when he got shot and killed.

I thought that way because I  was stupid.  I was  blind.  Ignorant of the fact that many times it just didn’t matter what we did do or not, irregardless there was a very likely could still come up dead

He was a kid.   And you could have told him something a thousand times, and would you believe you wouldn’t have to tell him it again… as we all do when it comes to talking to our children?
Emmett Till did not live in the south.   Nor was there any reason for me to believe that what had been said regarding that story had been true.   For you see, evidently I had believed something inappropriate must have been done for those white men to go in the middle of the night seeking this young boy, regarding something something he had said and/or done.

That is the irony of it.  How readily we eat up the things we see or hear.

It had been a lie.   It had all been a lie.   And because some white woman had lied on her son, Mrs. Till was forced to go down to Mississippi and collect the bloated remains of her young teen age son, her only child… I think… and bring him back to Chicago in order to bury him.

Years later after Emmett Till had been viciously murder by a group of white men in the middle of the night, after going to his relative’s house and demanding that they send him out to them or they would burn them out and all up in their home.

How could that woman possibly live with herself after that?

Years later, I moved to Chicago and while working as a church secretary for a pastor by the name of Dr. A. L. Reynolds, Jr.,  I was told something by Dr. Reynolds, who pastored Sixth Grace United Presbyterian Church, at Cottage Grove and 35th Street, on the South Side.

Dr. Reynolds 1 day came into the office and for some reason began telling a story, of how he had had to run away from his home, which had been back in Arkansas.   The reason he had to pick up and get out of there he told me, was because some white woman wanted him and he didn’t want her.   That is exactly how he put it.   He said, ‘she wanted me.  But I didn’t want her.  So, I had to leave.’   Because I did not want her to lie on me.   Because in those days a white woman could say a black man raped her and they (meaning the other white people… mostly men) would kill him.

So, Dr. Reynolds said he got of Arkansas as quickly as he could.

And he said he left Arkansas running because he didn’t want her to tell a lie on him.

Through the our history in this country many black people have found it necessary to get up and get out of town in the middle of night, headed north or to other points unknown.  Because they were afraid of some type of bad consequence which might take hold upon them… or befall them due to a lie… or some white person wanting something that belonged to them.

It comes to mind that even in Biblical text Abram lied.  He was forced to lie when he and Sarah went to enter Egypt.   And he became afraid that the king… otherwise known as Pharaoh… would want his wife, Sarai…as she was then before being renamed by God Sarah.   Because the Bible says she was fair and goodly to look upon.

So, Abram felt that he would be killed by Pharaoh.   So, therefore, told Sarai that they should say that he was her brother rather than her husband.

The end of this story is that Pharaoh and the people of his kingdom are overtaken by what the Bible calls a ‘great plague.’   Pharaoh questions Abram and asked him why he had not told him that the woman, Sarai… was his wife?

We come into the 21st Century now, some more than 60 years later and now we hear that the white woman who had told her husband and his white buddies, that Emmett Till had whistled and spoken to her… a white woman inappropriately… that she had lied.

All that pain and heartbreak … tears shed had been over a lie.

A young boy was pulled and dragged out into the dark of night… tortured and beaten …then partially burned and thrown into the river… to be found days later a bloated beyond recognition dead decomposing body.   Because that woman lied.   And now …I guess on her death bed… or on her near death bed she tells the truth… that she lied about the whole thing.
How did that woman do that… when she knew what the consequences for any black man would be?

She knew what times she lived in.   But just did not care.  She told that lie knowing that some out of control white drunken men were going to go and find them a white boy, and have what they called ‘have some fun.’    While they enjoyed torturing him and beating him…and eventually killing him.

How did this young boy respond?

Can you imagine what was going through his mind and heart… scared beyond his wits…
kicked…slapped…punched… stomped… cut… lit on fire…

And all because some white woman thought it nothing to lie on him.   And me thinking years later that it had been his fault… because nobody every trained him properly how to behave around white folks.

This reminds me of how I hear black commentators on television now when they are talking about black men being shot and killed by white police officers.   Everybody saying they should have kept their hands on the dashboard… or where they could be seen… or not moved too quickly… etc… etc… etc….

Blaming the victim because racist people still abound….

Well, God bless… It was sleeting a little bit this morning.  But I hope it is nice and warm
where you are.  Have a good day all… and remember it’s BLACK HISTORY MONTH.   “pass it on…” http://www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2017

Add a comment February 8, 2017

BISHOP EDDIE LONG… WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

Well, by now I take it that you know I must have seen the video or come across something which has alerted me considering this new controversy circling around Bishop Eddie Long.

Yes, as a matter of fact a few weeks ago I came across the YouTube video posted by the Bishop… or someone telling everyone that he was alright, but had started this new health kick or some kind of diet.  But honestly to tell you the truth as I watched him… and paid great attention to his body language and facial expressions…

Well, to tell you the truth he looks like a man who has either consumed himself with alcohol or become an addict.

I know…. I know you probably don’t want to hear this.  Some of you really do still believe and trust in the Bishop.   But he is a man who is greatly troubled.  And the demons which possess him do not seem to have finished with him yet.

I hate to see people brought down.   Or shamed before everyone.  But when I look at those boys whom he groomed into homosexuality… and think about how he claimed he was ‘David facing Goliath’ when it came to his legal battles with them over their abuse.   I feel sorry…  for them all… all the way around.  Really.

I clearly understand how a demonic spirit can enter into your body and attack you… bringing you into submission IF YOU ARE NOT FULLY EQUIPPED to fend off such attacks through the Holy Spirit.

Unless you are FULLY EQUIPPED with the Spirit of the Lord… the devil will steal your mind.  And don’t sit there and think that he won’t do it… nor that it can’t happen to you.  Because it can.  Even to me.   Yes, it can… if I were not equipped and believed fully in God.  And that God is able to keep me through all things… if I desire to be kept.

There is this thing that we must all understand… and that is ‘in order to stand and fight off the devil you better be fully prepared for the battle.’  We are not told as Christians that we must have on ‘the WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD’ for no reason.   Without God’s amour… His protection…  we too can become easily overtaken by demonic spirits.  And when these spirits get a hold of you… when they enter into your body… and get into your spirit… they are not easily shaken.

We all need the power of God truly working within us in order to bring us out of such attacks.  But… and it is a big BUT.  But if we become captivated by the lure of the sin that is trying to entangle us then we loose.   You cannot fall prey to such attacks, and the attraction to the evil doing that you begin to operate within it… for you will get lost in it.   As we see how that thing took a hold of Bishop Long.   One day out marching against homosexuals… while entering those spirits within his own flesh.  And it over took him.

For the most part Bishop Eddie Long has long been recognized as a prosperity preacher.  I will be 1 of the first to tell you… and not me alone… that God truly endowed him with the word.   But he went astray… and got into all that prosperity mess.

Once Long got into the prosperity teachings and doings… he was lost.  He got turned around and lost his focus.   His god became mammon… riches.   You cannot serve both God and the lure of riches. You will either love the 1 and hate the other.

Therefore, the lust of money then made him more susceptible to any other spirit that would attach itself to him.  Hence, the spirit of homosexuality came calling upon him.

Thus, Long began to open up facilities to house boys from which a chosen few were picked for his sexual grooming… to fill his desire to interact with them on a less than religious manner…  as a perpetrator… a sexual deviant.  A grown man seeking to delight himself sexual among young boys.

So, these young boys came into his range where he had access to them… could ‘father’ them into a seemingly caring relationship where what he was doing appeared to them … and I guess all who were near as a harmless religious relationship among him and them… the boys.    As Long did not take sexual advantage of them physically… per what the boys/now grown young men claimed in their law suits against him.  But he did do touchy and feelly things… things that excited and brought about certain urges… which Scripture has called ‘unnatural.’   Creating longings and desires within the young boys…  which when you see them you can clearly see the damage that was done.   They were groomed like cattle …or a horse for a certain kind of thing… a certain kind of behavior.    And that ‘thing’ … in my opinion when I look at their videos and pictures of those young boys turned to young men… that ‘thing’ stole their manhood.

Now, fast forward to Eddie Long  today after having paid out some $9 million plus to these young men whom he had doctored up and touched… and groomed in his special way to be his select stable… to feel whatever demonic fantasy that was going on in his head.

Today it appears that the demons have chased him down.  Long looks broken… as broken as a drunk on the street (I hate using such terminology as it is not how I view people or ever speak of them… but for the purpose of this blog and the message I’m trying to convey, it is the only way I can get you to really see what I’m talking about.  So, please forgive my terminology when speaking or classifying anyone here)

Yes, Bishop appears a broken man in this video below.  And unlike Pastor Zachary Timms… I do see where possible drugs or alcohol may be playing a factor in his life.

That which loosing all that money and some of his congregation could not do… I now believe his conscience is making up for it… sadly.   Such a gifted man at 1 time in the Lord.  And look how he let the devil use him… and now I believe he is truly paying for it mentally and physically… and it is ironic.

The irony is how much he worked to build up his body… and what was an apparent love of his physique.   To now be dwindled down to almost nothing… half a man.   A tormented man it seems.

I pray he find a way back to the Lord.   As we serve a God who is long suffering and forgiving.   But to have taken his position as a spiritual leader and have turned it into an artful predator, using the house of the Lord as his playground… might be something that God will not forgive… as He did not forgive Eli when it came to his sons.

I just read that Bishop Long is now on a medical sabbatical after revealing to his church that he is facing some health challenges.  Repentance is the only cure.  A true and real pouring out of his heart

UPDATE:  Yesterday morning… Sunday, January 15, 2017…  it was reported that Bishop Long passed.   I will not comment or speculate as to my thoughts further on this matter.  It is sad all the way around …for all who were effected and involved.

I pray peace and resolution to the minds and souls of the young then boys drawn into this scandal.  And that God call them out that they may be saved from the perverse thing and things which have and are happening to them.  Because this now is their choice to chose to live or die in that mess.

Well, God bless… and thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” http://www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2016

Add a comment September 10, 2016

MUHAMMAD ALI… GONE AND I DOUBT THAT ‘THE GREATEST’S’ FLAME WILL EVER BE FORGOTTEN… OR GO OUT… and ORLANDO GAY CLUB KILLINGS…

Well, even his illness Muhammad Ali managed to avoid having passed long ago.   For sure

LOUISVILLE, KY – JUNE 09: Muhammad Ali’s second wife Khalilah Camacho-Ali (L), his fourth wife Lonnie Ali (C), and daughter Laila Ali (R), holding a grandchild, attend an Islamic prayer service at the Kentucky Exposition Center on June 9, 2016 in Louisville, Kentucky. The Jenazah service was held for the four-time world heavyweight boxing champion, who died on June 3 at age 74. A procession and memorial service are scheduled for Friday. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

some will say he fought a great fight… and perhaps his greatest was out side the ring fighting Parkinson.

I really do not know many people who have had the staying power of Muhammad Ali when it comes to battling the disease of  Parkinson.   And I guess 1 can say Ali fought and won because he managed, regardless of all the shaking… to keep his humor and be able to see the world in a light that most of us have no idea of… and the blessings we all have who do not have to battle to live or do for ourselves.

FILE – In this Oct. 1, 1975, file photo, spray flies from the head of challenger Joe Frazier as heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali connects with a right in the ninth round of their title fight in Manila, Philippines. Ali, the magnificent heavyweight champion whose fast fists and irrepressible personality transcended sports and captivated the world, has died according to a statement released by his family Friday, June 3, 2016. He was 74. (AP Photo/Mitsunori Chigita, File)(AP6_4_2016_000105A)

I will never forget when Ali stood before the cameras and said because he did not believe in killing people based upon his religious belief… he, therefore, refused to be drafted and go to war, and fight in the Vietnam war.  That action caused many who hated this young black kid, who was so skillful in the boxing ring to get the ammunition to really go after him.  But though that action did color his earlier boxing achievements… and ended up with his title being taken from him, Muhammad Ali never let that stop him from being  the regal sportsmen he continued to be until the day he died.

Another time I will never forget is when Ali during his time from being not allowed to box by the U. S. government… came to visit our college campus.  He was in our Black House… the black student organization building… and he came to talk to us.  I cannot remember what Ali talked about… as all I can remember about that day was that there were a number of us black students in the our Black House that day… and Ali took a hundred dollar bill and bought McDonald’s for all of us.  This may not sound like much to you but to a whole bunch of mid-afternoon starving college students it was something truly great.  We were ecstatic that this great boxer was on our campus and we had a chance to  meet him 1 on 1.  Could not get home quick enough to tell my daddy… who was a major Muhammad Ali fan.

Those of us who were fortunate enough to witness Ali from the

Mohammed Ali

beginning until his end can truly say that he was indeed ‘the greatest of all times.’  No other box has bought to the prize ring the kind of interest and excitement of an Muhammad Ali fight… which was always colorful and full of rhythms such as, ‘Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.’   Or give us a thrill like the ‘Thriller in Ma’nilla.’

Not many have lived to see the greatest basketball player of all times... Michael Jordan.   Or the greatest female sister tennis players of all times… Venus and Serena Williams.  Or the greatest base ball players of all times… Hank Aaron.  The greatest golfer of all times… Tiger Woods.   Or the greatest female vocalist of all times… Whitney Houston… and the greatest entertainer of all times… Michael Jackson.  And Muhammad Ali the greatest heavy weight boxer of all times… from the Olympics into the professional boxing ring.  And what a gift for trash talking

The winners of the 1960 Olympic medals for light heavyweight boxing on the winners’ podium at Rome: Cassius Clay (now Muhammad Ali) (C), gold; Zbigniew Pietrzykowski of Poland (R), silver; and Giulio Saraudi (Italy) and Anthony Madigan (Australia), joint bronze. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

…until 1 day God shut all that down… but did not take his life until now.

Yes, he was pretty.   No boxer prettier… or sharper or more on point than Ali.  And an Ali fight was guaranteed to be exciting and filled with the unexpected.

Watching the funeral on the television and seeing all the religious leaders seated on the stage at Ali’s funeral, and being fully aware of Ali’s own religious beliefs… I could not help but think, ‘If you serve anything other than the 1 and only living God, and his son Jesus… than you can belong to as many religion groups as you want, and be the very best person in the world and never make it to heaven.’

It is my hope that Muhammad Ali’s last and fight battle was 1 he also won… and came to professed that Jesus is Lord, and not a lower prophet under Allah.

Odd how that massive and very powerful man was never stopped by any of his opponents,  who were also big strong  massive heavy weight men with plenty of strength.   But having

U.S. boxing great Muhammad Ali poses during the Crystal Award ceremony at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 28, 2006. REUTERS/Andreas Meier/File Photo

suffered so many head injuries brought about a disease that ‘the greatest’ wrestled with for a very long time… and now probably never was overcome by it… but by age instead.  And he went out of here smiling at the ripe old age of 74…smiling because he defeated Parkinson too… but could not overcome age though many have tried.

One thing is for sure …Foreman… Frazier… and all the rest would never be nothing if there had not been an Ali, who allowed them the privilege to claim into his ring…

Well, God bless… and hope you have a beautiful weekend this weekend.  But as I close I cannot help but think about the terrible chain of events that took place in Orlando just this week.

After over a hundred people were shot and more than 50 killed it is insane to me to hear any pastor or supposed religious man laughing and stating from his pulpit that the cold blooded murder who shot and killed those people should have killed everybody who was in that gay club?

I have wonder what Bible are people studying from?

What manner of doctrine are they reading where it says, ‘God hated homosexuals enough to want them all dead.”   If that were the case I am more than sure that God even back in Biblical times surely would not have stopped with merely Sodom and Gomorrah… especially since it is widely known as recognized as almost customary for such things as that among men in Greece during that time.

There is no way that this Orlando gay night club shooting should not be classified as a ‘hate crime’ irregardless of the ethnic background of the shooter and his religion… because this crime was perpetrated solely against the gay men in that club for reasons of hate… due to their sexuality … perhaps because he found them to be attractive… and of interest to his sick perverted sexual desires, which to the shooters ethnic group were both against his religion and ethnicity.   Whom himself frequent that club trying to date many of those men… and met up with Hispanic gay men over the internet.   And there can be denying that this all came about just as we entered into June, which is gay pride month.

Our God has not given unto us the spirit of hate… or hate mongering.   But of love.  Biblical scripture tells us that we are to love one another as we lover ourselves… this comes without conditions or any special exemptions.

http://www.advocate.com/religion/2016/6/14/baptist-pastor-who-cheered-orlando-murders-isnt-alone

I’m off my band wagon for now.   But I pray that God sincerely touch every heart and change ever deprived mind that seeks to do evil.

Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” http://www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2016

/news/190704_muhammad_ali_remembered_during_islamic_funeral_prayer_service/

Add a comment June 18, 2016

MASSACRE IN CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA… an issue of RACISM or TERRORISM…

It would be hard to not write anything about what happened Wednesday night at a what would have

Worshippers gather to pray in a hotel parking lot across the street from the Emanuel AME Church following a shooting Wednesday, June 17, 2015, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

normally been a quite little Church Bible study session.  But it was anything but quite… and the consequences were high.

Upon first reading about this story in a posting on Facebook by 1 of my cousins… I, of course, like her was immediately touched by it.

In the wake of so many police abuse and mis-killings of black folk… and now this???

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/17/white-gunman-sought-in-shooting-at-historic-charleston-african-ame-church/

When I saw a picture of the boy… or young man if you like…  I could not help but feel sorry for him.  Just 21 years young and his life is over.  And I knew that the energizing force within him… hatred… had been breast fed him since he was a baby.

You do not grow up feeling anger and hatred towards a whole group of people… because they are different from you… EXCEPT it is something you have been fed with all of your life.  And then for his 20th or 21st birthday his father bought him a gun and put it in that boy’s hand… baiting him to do what he did on Wednesday night.  It was a set-up… a set-up to fail… to be subdued or killed because he had been bred to be a mad-dog killer.

How does anyone do that to their child?

How do you teach your child to hate a certain group of people so much that you… his parent’s destroy HIS life.  You created him to be a killer… and kill he did.  And now one way or another he will be killed.

But you parent’s don’t blame it upon the victims he so viciously slayed in cold blood… or try to put it on a teacher or a school system… or even upon this country… because that is what seems to have been the problem.  You taught him to blame everybody else.

What a shame.

What a horrific tragedy and profound lost of good decent hardworking people… who appear to have only showed him kindness.  And with open arms allowed him to partake in their Bible study… while he sat there studying them… plotting how he was going to kill them and who he would take out first.

Was it an act of ‘terrorism’ or was it out and out ‘racism’ that motivated such an inhumane act?

Oh, I understand how the Klu Klux Klan tried to terrorize black folk.  I understood the sheets over their heads… trying to play like they were ghost.  I even understand the burning of crosses upon the land of black folks… trying to pretend that they were doing some kind of holy work.  But it was all done in the name of ‘racism.’  And that is exactly what the out and out murder of 9 black folk who had never met him before… never talked to him before… had never seen him before was all about.  He murdered them…

1. Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41, was the church’s pastor and a South Carolina state senator.
2. Depayne Middleton Doctor, 49, sang in the church choir, the Charleston newspaper reported.
3. Ethel Lance, 70, worked for 30 years at the church, a relative told the Post and Courier.
4. Susie Jackson, 87, a longtime church member, was Lance’s cousin, the newspaper reported.
5. Cynthia Hurd, 54, was branch manager of the St. Andrews Regional Library, just a few miles from the church where she was killed.
6. Tywanza Sanders, 26, was a 2014 graduate of Charleston’s Allen University.
7. Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45, was a church pastor and high school track and field coach, according to the Post and Courier.
8. Myra Thompson, 59, was an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
9. Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., 74, who died at a hospital, was a retired pastor from another Charleston church.

…9 innocent people whose only crime according to Dylann Roof, the young 21 year old murder… was that they were black.  Guilty of rapping and murdering people… taking jobs from white folks… and no good to society etc.  etc. etc. all those things that backward thinking white parents teach their children when they teach them how to hate other people… just for being…..

Truly sad…

Well, God bless…. I pray for every family and for all mankind.

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2015

Add a comment June 19, 2015