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Above is an image of published Volume 1 of
WITHOUT US, NO U.S.®: HYPOCRISY AND STOLEN WEALTH: THE FACTUAL CASE FOR REPARATIONS FOR THE DESCENDANTS OF THE ENSLAVED AFRICAN AMERICANS – THE FOUNDING LABORERS.
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The book can be purchased for $13.95 paperback, $27.95 hardcover and $9.99 ebook.
The following excerpt of abridged Chapter 3 is representative of one of the themes of the book:
Volume I-Chapter 3 (Abridged)
FOUNDING LABORERS® GET NO “THANK YOU”
A grandmother sent her four-year-old grandson to take something to a woman neighbor a few doors away. He returned and she asked him if he had delivered it. He said “Yes, Grandma, and she did not even say ‘thank you!’ ” Similarly, the African American Ancestors, the “Founding Laborers®,” did so much for this country. Without them. there would be no U.S. as we know it today. Yet, a “thank-you” has never been given to them!
Honor should be given to the African Americans who labored to help in such a very significant, meaningful way to build the United States of America. Every United States citizen and everyone benefiting from the United States’ economy and other privileges and opportunities of the United States owe a great debt to our Founding Laborers®. It is time to acknowledge and pay that debt. In fact, the time is long overdue!
What has actually been done about African Americans in the United States of America? On behalf of the Govemment of the United States, no one has ever said “thank you” to the enslaved African Americans or their descendants. On behalf of the Government of the United States, no one has ever given an official apology for the wrongs inflicted on the enslaved African American Ancestors or their descendants. Africans were captured in Africa and brought to America to provide free labor (and often forced sexual relationships). They gave birth to children, often mulatto children, who were enslaved and contributed further to the wealth of their enslavers…
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BLACK LIVES MATTER:
REPARATIONS OWED
1. Black Lives Matter. Black lives are the lives of human beings.
Black lives are precious.
2. Imagine the thirteen American colonies with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and the other Founding Fathers but WITHOUT our enslaved African American Ancestors.
3. There would be no United States of America in its present form WITHOUT our enslaved African American Ancestors.
4. The United States of America would not be the economic power it is today WITHOUT the wealth created by the very valuable unpaid, forced labor of our enslaved African American Ancestors.
5. The Black Lives of our enslaved African American Ancestors should be elevated to the high place they deserve in the history of the United States of America—a high place equal to the high place of the Founding Fathers.
6. The Government of the United States officially should apology to the enslaved African American Ancestors and to their descendants.
7. The Government of the United States should say “Thank you” to the enslaved African American Ancestors and to their descendants.
8. The Government of the United States should, on behalf of the enslaved African American Ancestors and their descendants, pay Reparations to their descendants.
6/14/20
Brief Information About Family History
A. Family Trips to Alabama in the 1940’s
- Until I was about 12-years-old (1949), some of my family members – usually two carloads – went to Alabama to visit my maternal grandmother and some of my aunts and uncles on both sides of my family who lived in Alabama. Most of the family my age and older were born in Alabama. Also two of my brothers were born there. In fact, one was a baby when we moved from Alabama to Ohio. My youngest brother is the only sibling born in Ohio.
- Hotels and public restrooms were segregated. We took our food with us and we had to stop and go to the bathroom outside on the side of the road. There were no interstate highways then. We started out following US route 42 south, then I think it was 31W and 11. The trip took more than 24 hours. When the adults had to stop to sleep and rest, they had to take turns sleeping so that someone could keep watch while we were parked on the side of the road.
- I remember seeing Black men dressed in black and white stripped clothing working in chain gangs on the roads. They were prisoners.
B. It Has Not Been All That Long Since Legal Slavery Ended (Sometimes persons erroneously say slavery ended so long ago that Reparations should not even be discussed.)
- The 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified December 6, 1865; it outlawed slavery.
- The 14th Amendment was ratified July 9, 1868; it gave citizenship to our recently freed ancestors, and had due process of law, equal protection, and other provisions.
- The 15th Amendment was ratified February 3 or 17, 1870; it gave the right to vote to our recently freed male ancestors.
- Following is some information on my one grandmother, my siblings, and my nieces and nephews showing the year born and/or the number of years they were born after the end of legal slavery: grandmother 1884, 19; father, 45; mother, 53; my sister 70; myself, 72; one brother 73; one brother 75; one brother, 78; nine nephews and nieces No. 1, 90; No. 2, 96; No. 3, 96; No. 4., 100; No. 5, 104; No. 6, 105; No. 7, 105; No. 8, 106; and No. 9, 110.
- As you can see, it was not until 1965 until one of my immediate family members – my fourth nephew – was born at least 100 years after the end of legal slavery in the United States. It was only 72 years after the end of legal slavery when I was born!
- Incidentally, my paternal Great-Grandfather Jerry Whigham, born during the time of legal slavery in the United States, was a minister and co-founder of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Womack Hill, Alabama, in 1887. (See Churches of Choctaw County, Alabama, compiled 1980.) Some years ago, a friend of my father’s, said that he was personally acquainted with Rev. Jerry Whigham, that he was a very good preacher, and that one time some white persons were going to harm him and he preached to them and they let him go.
Adapting a sentence from the Declaration of Independence to the present-day situation in the United States of America, the following sentence seems appropriate: “A leader whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the leader of a free people.”
The following direct quote from a part of the Declaration of Independence is instructive:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
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Enslaved African Americans Were The Ultimate Patriots
Our enslaved African American Ancestors were the ultimate patriots! A “patriot” is a person who loves and loyally or zealously supports his or her own country. Our enslaved African American Ancestors literally gave their lives and liberty to establish this country — the United States of America. Theirs was a lifelong commitment. Theirs was literally a “work commitment the death.”
Our enslaved African American Ancestors were the Founding Laborers® of the United States of America. They should be elevated to the high place — equal to the Founding Fathers — they that deserve in the history of the United States of America. Every American should recognize, understand, and appreciate the indispensable role our enslaved African American Ancestors played in the making and saving of the United States of America.
As set forth in Chapter 4 of WITHOUT US, NO U.S.-Volume 1, The Hypocrisy Is Stifling®. The first two paragraphs state, in part:
We have lived under hypocrisy so long that generally we might not I recognize it when it is occurring. In the author’s mind, the crack in the Liberty Bell represents the hypocrisy upon which this nation was founded: a land of freedom stating that “all men are created equal” (meaning white people) while at the same time holding thousands of black people in unspeakably cruel slavery. The United States of America was founded upon racism. The United States of America was founded upon the deprived liberty of African Americans.
The word hypocrisy means “a pretending to be what one is not… especially, a pretense of virtue.”
Concerning the barbaric inhumanity of slavery in the United States of America, the, book Twelve Years A Slave, Narrative of A Citizen of New York, Solomon Northrup, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, Rescued in 1853, From A Cotton Plantation Near Red River in Louisiana, was a true story written shortly after the events described in the book. It gave us graphic information about the brutality of slavery. The picture below of “Whipped Peter” Gordon documents the cruelty of the beatings of enslaved persons, as shown by the stripes on his back from numerous whippings he received during slavery. “Whipped Peter” Gordon served as a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War.
FREEDOM OF ENSLAVED AFRICAN AMERICANS
- First—remember—Throughout the period of legal slavery, every enslaved African American had a God-given right to be a free human being.
- On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to become effective January 1, 1863. That Proclamation stated: “That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”
- On June 19, 1865, “Juneteenth”, federal troops, led by Union Army General Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to ensure that all enslaved persons knew that they were freed and that they were actually freed.
- On December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified. It abolished legal slavery. Section 1 states: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Section 2 states: “Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
THE STATUE OF LIBERTY
OFFICIAL NAME: “LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD”
A little known fact is that the Statue of Liberty was originally designed as a monument to the abolition of slavery.
At the Statue’s feet is the most telling of anti-slavery symbols – broken shackles which signify the release from bondage.
The Statue of Liberty was originally designed as a monument to the abolition of slavery. The idea for the statue originated with Edouard De Laboulaye, France’s foremost abolitionist and founder of the French Anti-Slavery Society.
Anti-slavery symbols are· used throughout the statue, such as the mosaic tablet featured prominently in Lady Liberty’s left hand. Mosaic tablets also appeared in the symbol for the American Anti-Slavery Society. In that symbol, there were two goddesses-liberty and religion; the goddess of religion cradled a mosaic tablet with the verse John 8:32 “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
At the statue’s feet is the most telling of anti-slavery symbols broken shackles which signify the release from bondage. Most people do not realize that the broken shackles lay at the feet of the Statue of Liberty because they cannot be seen from the ground or from the observation deck. The only way that they can be seen is by an aerial photograph or by flying over the Statue.
On October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty was inaugurated in New York Harbor. The day was declared a public holiday. President Grover Cleveland was there to accept this token of French friendship. Edouard De Laboulaye was not there because he had died three years before his vision was completed: But at the ceremony, De Laboulaye’s original anti-slavery message lived on in speeches made at the inauguration. Several of the principal speakers made very pointed references to the abolition of slavery. This would be the last time Lady Liberty would be openly associated as a symbol of freed slaves.
EDUCATION
What is the value of education? Is it worth anything?
Why was it a crime to teach our enslaved African American Ancestors to read and write during the time of legal slavery in the United States of America? Why did some of our enslaved African American Ancestors insist upon learning to read and write in spite of the extremely cruel punishment they endured?
Here are two examples of horrific cases:
(1) A five or six-year-old enslaved boy was caught trying to learn his alphabet so that he could learn to read his Bible. The overseer called all the field hands together and made them watch while he beat the boy severely and burned his eyes out. He told them to let this be a lesson to them that they had no right to learn to read.
(2) An enslaved woman was caught reading and using a finger to point to the words as she read. As a punishment, the finger she was using was cut off. Later she was again caught reading using another finger to follow the words. (This author was unable to find out what happened the second time she was caught.)
After the way our Founding Laborers® suffered to become educated, all of us have a duty to become educated. You do not have a right to be ignorant. Do you know that “Getting Good Grades Is Acting Black”?
[ “You Have A Duty To Become Educated” Click Here ]
[ “Getting Good Grades Is Acting Black” Click Here ]
An example of a person who successfully taught himself to read and write was Frederick Douglass. Initially, the wife of his enslaver began teaching him, but when his enslaver found out and became very angry, he forbade her and she stopped teaching him.
Frederick Douglass then thought of clever ways to learn. He understood that KNOWLEDGE IS POWER! He became very well educated and became one of the greatest living orators of all time.
Frederick Douglass realized that the enslavers knew that they could not keep an educated people enslaved. SIMILARLY TODAY, those in power know that they cannot consistently oppress an educated people. One of the most serious traps that some of our Black Youth fell into a few years ago is countered by the realization that GETTING GOOD GRADES IS ACTING BLACK!
Please remember: KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!
“Therefore my people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge …. ” Isaiah 5:13.
WHOSE COUNTRY IS THIS? WITHOUT US, NO U.S.® :
African Americans are Citizens of the United States
(Common Law Copyright by Daisy G. Collins-Russell)
We African Americans are citizens of the United States of America. We are entitled to all the rights and privileges of citizens of the United States of America, just as all citizens are. This is our country. This is the country of all Americans.
To persons who say they have “to take back their country”—I ask “back from whom?”
Enslaved African Americans (from whom present-day African Americans are legally entitled to inherit) literally gave their lives and liberty to establish this country—the United States of America. Our African American Ancestors were the ultimate patriots. “Patriotism” means “… loyal…support of one’s own country….” What more can one do than to work tirelessly to establish a country and literally give his or her life and liberty for the country? That is what enslaved African Americans did! They were the “Founding Laborers®” of this country!
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ABOUT US
This website pertains to History, Reparations, and Slavery.
HISTORY is an account of the beginning of time to the present.
REPARATIONS has as one of its most important bases the fact that our Founding Laborers®, our African American ancestors, played a major role in building the wealth that contributes to the present-day economic wealth of the United States of America. However, because they were never paid for their labor, payment should be made to their descendants.
SLAVERY in the United States of America resulted when our African ancestors were captured from their homes in Africa, brought to America on the brutally cruel Middle Passage, held in bondage and forced to become our Founding Laborers® under the cruelest, most barbaric system of slavery in the history of humanity.
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WHY THIS WEBSITE
Because we need to give honor and respect to OUR AFRICAN AMERICAN ANCESTORS, THE FOUNDING LABORERS® of the United States of America, who contributed so much to the wealth of the United States of America.
History is important because it got us to the place we are at today. Please help your children and grandchildren to understand this.
We talk a lot about the Founding Fathers, who enslaved our African American Ancestors, the Founding Laborers®. WE MUST RECOGNIZE OUR FOUNDING LABORERS® AS THE HUMAN BEINGS THEY WERE, LIVING THEIR LIVES AS BEST THEY COULD UNDER SOMETIMES UNBELIEVABLY CRUEL CONDITIONS.
We must stop the historical discriminatory treatment of our African American Ancestors, the Founding Laborers® of the United States of America. We should learn about their daily lives and the hardships they endured to make it possible for us to live as well as we live today.
WE SHOULD HONOR AND RESPECT OUR FOUNDING LABORERS®.
We must remember that they were human beings, not objects to be bought and sold like animals and advertised for sale along with hound dogs and other animals.
We have to re-evaluate and re-think many of the historical facts we think we know. We need to know accurate history. For example, we need to know that even though Founding Father Thomas Jefferson said that black people were inferior to white people in body and mind, he fathered seven children by Sally Hemings, a woman he held in slavery. Sally Hemings was the half-sister of Thomas Jefferson’s deceased wife, Martha. This means that she was the aunt of Thomas Jefferson’s children he fathered with his wife Martha. This means that Thomas Jefferson’s black, enslaved woman, Sally Hemings, was related to all of his children!
Another one of many, many extremely important facts in Black History: African American Soldiers have played a very significant role in all major wars involving Americans. Starting with the Revolutionary War—a large number of Black Men served in George Washington’s Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. One author stated that George Washington won the Revolutionary War with an army that was more integrated than any American military force until the Viet Nam War, which was about 200 years later.
THE ESSENTIAL ROLE OF AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE FORMATION OF THE UNITED STATES
Without the free labor of the enslaved Africans, the economic wealth of the United States of America would not be what it is today. A “thank you” is long overdue. We thank George Washington and the other “Founding Fathers” for their contributions to the building of this country. We never have and we still do not thank our “Founding Laborers®.” Thankful appreciation for the benefits received should be given to our “Founding Laborers®.” Their contributions have a very high value. Our “Founding Laborers®” should be valued and esteemed.
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Think, Pray, Respect, Study, Quiet Time, Meditate, Learn, Study, Vote.
THE HYPOCRISY IS STIFLING®
While Congress was adopting the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, Thomas Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers were holding in bondage our “Founding Laborers®” in one of the most inhumane, cruel, degrading system of slavery in the history of the world. Thomas Jefferson wrote lofty words that “all men are created equal” and “they are endowed by their Creator” with the “rights…[of] life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Yet he and the other Founding Fathers bought and sold our African ancestors as if they were animals. The Hypocrisy Is Stifling®.
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THE HYPOCRISY IS STIFLING® CONTINUES
The late Edward R. Murrow reportedly once questioned his interviewee by saying: “Have you no shame?” Senator Joseph Welch reportedly once asked “Have you no sense of decency….?” These questions need to be put to many persons frequently in the news today. President Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama have been very good citizens. They have worked hard and have demonstrated very good family values. Yet they are being disrespected by many in shameful, unprincipled, disgraceful ways.
The Hypocrisy Is Stifling® with regard to the people attacking President and Mrs. Obama.
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WITHOUT US, NO U.S.® — Volume 2
THEN AND NOW:
BLACK HISTORY COMPARISONS
BY:
ATTORNEY DAISY G. COLLINS
WITHOUT US, NO U.S.® —Volume 2, THEN AND NOW: BLACK HISTORY COMPARISONS
Volume 2 of WITHOUT US, NO U.S.® was self-published a few years ago. Plans are to revise and publish it in the future. A few copies of the present version are available for $10, including shipping. Click here for table of contents and for ordering information.
Following are some of the pictures from Comparison No. 1 of 134-year-old formerly enslaved Mr. Charlie Smith and his 70-year-old son Mr. Chester Smith.
PICTURES OF MR. CHARLIE SMITH
Formerly Enslaved, 134 Years Old
September 1976. Bartow. Florida
Comparison No. 1.A.
PICTURES OF MR. CHESTER SMITH
70 Years Old, Son of MR. CHARLIE SMITH
Formerly Enslaved, 134 Years Old
September 1976. Bartow, Florida
Comparison No. 1.A.
PICTURES OF MR. CHARLIE SMITH
Formerly Enslaved, 134 Years Old, and His Son
MR. CHESTER SMITH, 70 years Old
September 1976. Bartow, Florida
Comparison No. 1.A.
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CALL TO ACTION
I am so sad about what my enslaved African American Ancestors had to endure. I am so sorry they suffered so much. I recognize and appreciate their strength, hard work, perseverance, and their knowing how to survive. I do know that I am a part of them. They are a part of me. To the extent possible, I must do something to vindicate them, the Founding Laborers®. They must be recognized for the extraordinary persons they were.
Two things I can do are to remember them and to honor them. Another thing I can do is to make them proud by being the best person I can be. I can become educated and continue to learn throughout my life. I can help others to become productive individuals.
Everyone is encouraged to do at least one thing—even if it is to make one or more calls to encourage a student to stay in school or to encourage a person to register to vote and to vote at every election.
Danny Glover once said something to the effect that he cannot save the entire planet, but he can help the six children he is helping. In other words, we can each do what we are able to do. EVERYONE SHOULD DO SOMETHING!
Please take six or more actions of your own choice within thirty days of now.
Why are there so many efforts to keep people of color from voting? The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2042, people of color will become the “majority,” more than half the population of the United States. By 2050, 54 percent of the USA population will be people of color. Non-colored people will be the USA “minority.” Perhaps some are trying to prepare for a possible attempt to institute an apartheid system in the United States. PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE REGISTERED TO VOTE AND THAT YOU VOTE IN EVERY ELECTION! PLEASE ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO DO SO! (Do not assume persons are registered to vote—ask them. We should make this a part of our daily conversations.)
[ Read More – Call To Action Summary ]
[ Read More – Call To Action Full Plan ]
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James Weldon Johnson – Lift Every Voice and Sing
Lift every voice and sing,
‘Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as The list’ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the Rolling sea.
Sing a song
full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song
full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun
of our new day begun,
Let us march on ’til victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast’ning rod,
Felt in the day that hope
Unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place on which our fathers sighed?
We have come
over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come,
treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
‘Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam
of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus
Far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet
stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts
drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.