TIM HAYES'

Some of you will know of what I speak…..most of you won’t …You have skin of the darkest hue. You have been conditioned to believe that there are no people on the planet as ignorant and ugly as you. You live in a part of the world built on the blood and corpses and the muscle of your people. You are taught from the cradle to the grave that people who look and think like the people who used to own you are the rightful kings and queens of the earth. You learn to hate the darkness of your skin….despise the kind of hair you have.. Every where you look there are signs telling you you can’t come in …or you are not wanted…People are free to murder you and easily get away with it. You develop a culture where the worst insult a person can say is “YOU BLACK”. You even come to think maybe this is normal. Then one day you become aware of a person with what could very well be the most beautiful face you have ever or maybe will ever see. The society you live in uses her to sell clothing …a stunning beautiful clothes hanger. But she is the darkest of Black..and although totally African her beauty simply can not be denied . Soon she begins to wear her hair in it’s natural state. Little dark girls slowly begin to take on this “natural” hair style. “She is beautiful , Black and her hair is natural….I can be too”..Cicely Tyson let a “Jeannie Out of the Bottle” that could not be put back in ..She taught a whole generation that not only was our skin beautiful …but our hair…the hair of a great people was a wonderful thing..She left modeling and dared to take on the theater , film and television..blazing a trail each and every time, and she was not just good looking she brought excellence.. It was like God put her here during the civil rights movement ..just to show us what we could be…And she was not a “Diva” …sucking the air out of every room she is in and jealous of any other performer NO..She put out her hand and encouraged more than one generation of little black girls …little brown girls and young performers of every persuasion to be proud ..to work hard…and make a way for the people coming next. She didn’t just let them name a school after her…she made sure she was a part of the lives of all the students and supported them when they went out into the world ..Cicely was bigger than just a movie star…she was a People Builder…who came into our lives just when we needed her..There are so many people talking about her that I don’t need to number her works…I think it’s what she meant to us that is more important..Rest Cicely Tyson….job well done

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Cordy Tindell Vivian (July 30, 1924 – July 17, 2020) a giant who walked among us..This loss hurts..Cordy Tindell Vivian was born July 30, 1924..He was one of those people who you heard about long before you ever met him ..and I remember well the first time I met him at a “Young Peoples brigade” meeting in 1964.in Atlanta…I expected him to be kind of scary..and not very approachable ..nothing was farther from the truth..He had a wonderful laugh..and a joke all the time..The main thing about “CT” as we all called him was he had a profound understanding of the moment..The time we were in ..and almost always defended the place of young people in the movement..He knew that just getting a civil rights bill or when we got the voting rights act that the struggle would still have a long way to go and what we did in that time would not just define the movement…but define us as people for the rest of our lives. I was about 15 when he told me that Hosea Williams was going to make sure some teens from Atlanta would be at the march in Selma in March of 65.the one that became known as
Bloody Sunday…”CT” always made sure we knew why we were there…what was at stake and that anybody with the “brains god gave a chicken” would be afraid ..but that we were in this not just for us but for any children we might have..Few of those early giants took as much time to get young people to understand what our participation in the movement meant as CT. Years later when we set up the Free Breakfast Program with the Black Panther Party in Atlanta..CT was there on the first day..mainly to make sure people knew that there would be no lack of love between the different arms of the movement..and that he was proud of me…In 1969 that meant the world to me .I last saw him in 1996 when I was in Atlanta to bury my mother ..He knew my mother from her work in the fifties with the “March of Dimes”..You may not have known his name ..but we still feel the results of his work today..Cordy Tindell Vivian (July 30, 1924 – July 17, 2020) a giant.

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What “boomers” know ( and guess what ?..we were much more radical , anti-racist, and activist than most of today’s “Millennials” ) that many people have forgotten. We have been here before..as much change as we built with our organizing and demonstrating in the 1960s..the forces of power used the fact that there was rioting, burning and destruction in the cities as a call to arms for conservative and reactionary forces..when the election of 1968 happened..Richard Nixon a man who could teach Trump a WHOLE LOT about being a fascist .appealed to what he called “the great silent majority” to go to the polls in armies..to stop the fear. Nixon won that election..BIG TIME..We found out later that looting can catch on like a sickness…all it takes is one or two people to break a window , and the masses get set off..the worse the times are..the easier ..just like lighting a fuse..and even ordinary people could get “looting” fever..years later we find that many times the people who struck that match ..worked for Nixon.and sometimes even the Klan…Nixon called himself the “Law and Order” candidate..guess who is using the same tactic??..Trump..and many of us are playing right into his hands…Like I say all the time..”nothing is new under the sun”..and the nation is getting “played” again…with an “old trick”….just an old head talking.

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One of the silliest things about many people on the left today is the use of the word “woke”. One would think that this means one is “awakened” in thought and able to see past the various “propaganda” efforts of the “powers that be” and see racism, white supremacy, and imperialism for what they are. What this term today most often means is that a person is not “awake” to anything, just carrying on a new mantra that does not “rock the boat” I say this because not just on “facebook” but in the real world where I get to talk to a much larger audience ..calling yourself a “black nationalist” is as far as many of our people will go in terms of joining the fight for freedom and equality. Many love to quote Malcolm X who for much of his life considered himself that..The true arch of Malcolm’s life shows that he actually “out grew” nationalism and in his own words he said to me in January of 1965. “Nationalism is a good way to awaken the consciousness of oppressed people but if you stay in that place too long it leads to stagnation and a type of tribalism” Malcolm became truly dangerous to the power structure when he made this “Revolutionary” leap..I’ve never forgotten that. Marc Lamont Hill represents a big step in black activists bringing meaning to the term “woke”..none of us are free until all of us are free..when we say that we mean our sisters and brothers suffering under brutal occupation and Apartheid .The people of Palestine should have our total support…there is NOTHING anti-Semitic about calling for fair and just treatment of the oppressed..regardless of who the enemy is..But many people are quick to ask what right does a black man have to speak on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict ? As a long time truly “woke” activist and a person imprisoned and tortured in an Israeli prison ..I know that we don’t just have a right to speak up for Palestine ..but an obligation to..What the Marc Lamont Hill situation is, is a chance to stand with a brother who is truly walking in the footsteps of Malcolm..we should all be supporting him…if you need to know more here is one of many articles I read last night..https://www.nbcnews.com/…/marc-lamont-hill-fired-cnn-after-…

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I had a lot of things to deal with Saturday and really did not get the facts about the murders in Pittsburgh until early in the evening. But after listening to the radio, and watching TV coverage and some newspaper coverage..I’m sorry but all I can think of now is the sad editorial I wrote the day after the election in 2016. Just about everything I feared then is coming to pass. The forces of hate have been emboldened by the Trump victory..of course they came for Black people first, Trump got harsher..those who have always hated felt like they could get away with more..racists stood up rather than stayed in the slime..Trump and his minions got harsher..they came for women, you see what happened with the SCOTUS hearings..Trumps legions got bolder..they came for the “LGBTQQ” community..Trump’s rhetoric grew worse, They came for brown people and immigrants. Just last week I had a meeting with Jewish people who voted for Trump..and were still going to vote Republican in Bucks county Pennsylvania..They literally thought I was being unfair saying that Trump’s speech was making people who hate us AND them come out of the shadows..sometimes I actually hate it when I’m right..I’m not going to go into all the things that happened to get Trump elected…and all the people whose actions made this happen..but I am staying “on message” the road to getting rid of this “hate mongering” begins with getting out the vote in November…mourn ..have vigils..do what you need to ..then get off your ass and get as many people to the polls as you can.

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Well..it’s been over a week since we lost Aretha, and a lot has been written by a lot of people ..some who actually understood her, some who didn’t have a clue..some who were touched by her..and many who pretended to be. I waited because wanted to dwell on her life a bit. Talk to some people I’ve known over the years..see how they felt.. I wanted to find the right words to say what Aretha meant to me..as well as what she meant to a whole generation. What I mean by that is this generation of Black people who were born and raised in the twenty to thirty years after WW II.  She literally stood for everything we began to understand and to become in those years..Aretha was born not in her beloved Detroit but in the “Jim Crow” south …Memphis Tenn.. Being born in ’42 she was a little older than some of us..but  she rode that train of hair relaxers and “skin tone” creams.. Rosa Parks and Martin..wigs and hair dye .of Stokely and Black Power..Viet Nam and All Power to the people right along with us. It’s true Aretha probably was the greatest singer of the later half of the 20th century..in much the same way as Ethel Waters..(who in her day had song writers waiting in block long lines to get her to sing their music) was to another generation..But what made Aretha different is not just the fact that some publicity person named her the “Queen” of Soul. But by becoming a part of all the change and seeming empowerment , and the new pride we had in just being Black Americans…for the very first time..embracing our new love of African ancestry..Aretha didn’t just live up to being the Queen of soul….she defined it …..herself. When civil rights workers needed her ..she was there…but that was safe. When many Black women were reluctant to wear natural hair and African influenced garb on stage or TV Aretha would strut her stuff with pride..causing many others to do the same..When Black Revolutionaries needed the “Queen” she was there…and for anybody else in show business that would have been a risk…when Aretha talked about her support of Angela Davis, record company people reminded her of Paul Robeson..another generations “super nigger” who stepped out of his place ..and how his career was destroyed ..according to Jerry Wexler  her Atlantic records mentor..Aretha said “come on with it”…something sisters and brothers in the hood used to say when threatened “back in the day” she had no fear….Yes Aretha knew she had influence but she also seemed to know when to use it..and when not to..even saying the she knew the term “diva” was really a sexist insult for being a “bitch”..something most singers of her generation didn’t even understand.. but in later years she would admit “sometimes I can get my diva on….but I earned it”..Her life  her career was a celebration of the joy and pride we gained as African Americans after centuries of being treated as well as behaving like third class citizens in our own country..oh yeah and the “respect”…not just the kind Otis Redding sang about …but the kind only another woman understood..There won’t be another Queen..because the times she lived in had as much to do with Aretha owning that title as anything else…and those times were unique…Aretha was not JUST the Queen of soul ..she also had messages for abused women and single mothers… women of all colors and cultures..well it took me a while to find the right words…rest in peace Aretha, “Detroit Diva”..or “Tennessee songbird”…Queen of Soul

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