The real-life Django:

The legendary

African-American

Wild West marshal

who arrested 3,000 outlaws

and killed 14 men

• Bass Reeves was born a slave in 1838 and later broke from his owner to live among Native Americans

• Reeves became a Deputy U.S. Marshal in 1875 at the age of 38

• During his 32-year career as a Deputy Marshal he arrested 3,000 felons, killed 14 men and was never shot

 

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 19 January 2013

Bass Reeves, one of the first African Americans to become a Deputy U.S. Marshal west of the Mississippi River, could have been an inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s fictional character Django.

Reeves, who was born a slave, arrested 3,000 felons, killed 14 men and was never shot throughout his 32-year career as a federal lawman.

The fearless solider was born into slavery in 1838 in Crawford County, Arkansas, and eventually broke from his owner, George Reeves, to live among the Creek and Seminole Indians.

Real-life Django: Bass Reeves, born a slave, later became a Deputy U.S. Marshal and arrested 3,000 felons and killed 14 men

Appointment: Reeves became a Deputy U.S. Marshal in 1875 at the age of 38, after 'Hanging Judge' Isaac C. Parker was made the federal judge of Indian Territory

During his time with them, he learned their customs and languages and became an adept territorial scout.

Reeves later procured his own land in Van Buren, Arkansas, where he married his wife, Nellie Jennie, built an eight-room house with his bare hands, and raised ten children as the first black settler in the region.

He became a Deputy U.S. Marshal in 1875 at the age of 38, after ‘Hanging Judge’ Isaac C. Parker was made the federal judge of Indian Territory. Under President Ulysses S. Grant, Parker appointed Confederate Army General James Fagan a U.S. Marshal and ordered him to hire 200 deputies.
 

Among them was Reeves.

Fagan knew of the former slave, his ability to negotiate Indian Territory and his ability to speak their languages, and so Reeves was named the first black Deputy Marshal west of the Mississippi.

In that role he was authorized to arrest both black and white outlaws.

Legendary soldier: Reeves was authorized to arrest both black and white outlaws

Over the years Reeves gained a reputation for persistence, fearlessness. incredible marksmanship and the ability to outsmart lawbreakers, according to historical records.

In 1882, Reeves arrested outlaw Belle Starr for horse theft. According to some accounts, Starr turned herself in when she heard that the legendary Reeves was looking for her.

In 1889, after Reeves was assigned to Paris, Texas, he went after the Tom Story gang for their infamous horse theft operation.

Reeves reportedly waited along the route that Tom Story used, and surprised the gang leader with an arrest warrant.

Story panicked and drew his gun, but Reeves shot him dead before Story could fire.

The rest of the Tom Story gang disbanded and were never heard from again.

Fictional Reeves? Actor Jamie Foxx, right, plays Django, a character very similar to Reeves, in Quentin Tarantino's new movie 'Django Unchained'

Reeves later killed two of the murderous Brunter brothers and arrested the third.

In 1887, the black Deputy Marshall was arrested himself and charged with murdering his posse cook, William Leach.

Brought to trial before Judge Parker, Reeves testified that he shot Leach by accident while cleaning his gun, and was acquitted.

Reeves later became became an officer of the Muskogee, Oklahoma, police department at the age of 68. He died of Bright's disease on January 12, 1910, at the age of 72.

'Bass Reeves', a fictionalized film of the lawman’s life and military career was produced and released by Ponderous Productions of San Antonio, Texas, in 2010.

Actor Morgan Freeman has spent more than five years attempting to get the story of Reeves to the big screen, according to the film news site IndieWire.com.

Open land: As a Deputy U.S. Marshal, Reeves patrolled 75,000 square miles of Indian Territory

32-year career: Reeves retired from Federal service in 1907

 

envoy

You'll Want To

'Concern' Yourself With What

Ahmed Sirour Is Doing

Butta  |  02/01/2013  

February is here, and that means that Valentine's Day is right around the bend. The lover's "holiday" will be celebrated with bouquets of flowers, boxes of chocolates, expensive dinners, adult beverages and clothing-optional activities by many of you who are reading this. But if there's one thing that anyone who dare calls themselves a SoulBouncer better have at the ready on this day is some sexy music to get the mood oh-so-right. That's where Ahmed Sirour comes in with his latest project, This Would Be a Love Song​.​.​.​ If Only I Could Sing. This brand new EP is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, February 12th just in time for the 14th. This project follows the release of his The After 2am Sessions LP last year and picks up where that album left off but with a twist -- This Would Be a Love Song​.​.​.​ If Only I Could Sing features Sirour on the mic as well on the music. Ahmed is sharing his poetry in spoken word form on this five-track EP and you can check out his verses and flow on the first single "To Whom This Will Concern." If you're surprised that Ahmed is also a poet, then you shouldn't be because according to him he was a poet before he was a musician, so this EP takes him full circle and back to where he found his passion for the arts. Passionate is exactly what this track is as he melds his words with his music in a sensual but tasteful manner. This Would Be a Love Song​.​.​. is available for pre-order now on Bandcamp and includes two bonus instrumentals for those who order now. If you need a soundtrack for this Valentine's Day, then you may have just found it. But remember -- Ahmed is just providing the assist, it's up to you to slam dunk.

[Photo: E. Michelle]

<a href="http://ahmedisthemusic.bandcamp.com/track/to-whom-this-will-concern">To Whom This Will Concern by Ahmed Sirour</a>

Searching For Rick James

 

Chappelle’s Show is one of the most important comedy series in television history. This is not up for debate.

It had a superficial humor for everyone to enjoy, but was intelligently designed with a cutting underbelly—subversive humor at its finest.

However, there is one particular sketch that has always left me a bit conflicted.

On February 11, 2004, we tuned in as our favorite show premiered the fourth episode of its second season. We were introduced to “Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories – Rick James”

Now, I don’t need to belabor the point. We know the sketch, the (in)famous one-liners, and most importantly, the wholly articulated argument as to why African-Americans should have, under no circumstances, been given money. I’m not here to contest the hilarity of said bit. I open-hand smacked at least three kids the next day at school (I remember two of the three screaming, “Who is Charlie Murphy?!”). That sketch was an instant classic.

But on what would have Rick James’ 65th birthday, all I can think about is that one time when the poet Rashid hit us with the thought-provoking couplet,

“Why ain’t Rick James remembered for classic hits?
Why do we remember Rick for smackin’ a b—-h?”

From there, we’re left asking ourselves, “What will be the enduring legacy of Rick James?”

Seriously. When our children discuss “Rick James,” will they know him as the the perennial hitmaker or the drug-fueled cautionary tale?

Who he really is, I believe, lies somewhere in between.

I remember hearing “Ebony Eyes” for the first time. Great song. But what stuck with me the most were the accompanying visuals, featuring the R&B legend Smokey Robinson.

As with most things of the 80s, the music video is incredibly quiche, positing the two as pilots of some sort, braving an oncoming storm. Left at home are their respective female counterparts. And this is where it gets interesting.

Now, when Smokey leaves home, he hugs his wife and son—the consummate “family man.”

Flash to Rick.

Now, he’s in bed with an equally undressed, intentionally unidentified woman. Entangled in a lustful embrace, Rick opts to leave his partner with le baiser amoureux.

When the collective is reunited, after a brief stay on Gilligan’s Island, James, collar ajar, is shown as the cigarette-smoking musician who wears his sunglasses at night, barely acknowledging the existence of anything beyond the sheet music in front of him. Meanwhile, Smokey, wearing his finest turtleneck, plays the background, probably whispering endearing thoughts to his wife, just like a real R&B singer’s supposed to. I don’t think the juxtaposition was by accident.

That’s how Rick James was presented. But who was he really?

I suppose he’s somewhere between the mawkishly expressive balladeer (“Fire and Desire”) and the sonic encapsulation of our carnal desires (“Give It To Me Baby”), all of which can coexist on the exact same album (Street Songs, 1981).

And that’s why “Mary Jane” is such a great record. It is Rick James. You have to understand, when I first hear this as a child, my earnest reaction was something like “Man, this is pretty cool record. He REALLY loves Mary Jane!”

See, I thought Mary Jane was just a girl from around the way. It was not until my teenage years that I—with innocence far gone—realize that the apple of his eye was actually ground and tightly bound (but not too tight), for another type of consumption. The subversive genius of Rick James.

He is, was, and will always be a ghetto (life) rock star. There’s no changing that. The caricature displayed on that infamous sketch is not definably Rick, but most certainly captures a very real part of who he was, a part that defined him musically.

Rick James was the complicated product of an 80s urban landscape. His features—the luxurious hair and glamorous outfits—embodied much of the androgynous sensibilities of the era. But his demeanor, as if to purposefully contradict his appearance, was aggressively wild, unbridled by any outward “femininity.” Forget the clothes, Rick James was raised in the streets and never let us forget it. He was the personification of passionate decadence and it fueled every aspect of his life—personally and artistically.

When I tell my children about Rick James, I will show them the sketch, but only when they’re ready.

First, I have to introduce them to a man that reinvented the black music paradigm—fusing punk, funk, and soul to create something rebellious beyond belief. He is an icon. No matter what people say, they can never take that away from him.

That’s Rick James.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Written By: Paul Pennington

 

Call for Romance Fiction Manuscripts

 

Ankara Press is devoted to publishing easy-to-read, purse-size romantic fiction titles with African settings, storylines and characters.  The idea is getting young people to read by introducing them to short, snazzy, fast-paced stories about the life they live or yearn to live.  The stories will be engaging, and above all, they will allow women to see the best version of themselves in print. These purse-novellas will be issued at regular monthly intervals.

Women of all ages have always enjoyed romance. They ask for it in their movies, their music, from their lovers and in their books.  But in Africa, they have had to find it in the pages of Western series like Mills and Boon, Silhouette and other Harlequin titles. It is time that the continent’s rising consumer class gets romances that reflect the complexity of their modern lives. 

 

What Ankara Press Wants?

Strong, original voices to write romance novels for the African market.  Do not send stories that simply recreate traditional romances. Most of these reflect abuse and dominance which are merely tolerated in the real world. Ankara Press wouldn't want that.

 

Send romances in which strong, capable female characters meet handsome, charming men who are secure in their identities and respectful of a woman’s choices.
The novels should be 40,000 – 45,000 words long  (they should not exceed this word limit) and should be divided into about 10-15 chapters.

 

The main character should be an African woman between 20-30 years old who comes from a middle or lower-middle class background, and who because of her intelligence, ambition and hard work has a bright future ahead of her.  The heroine’s love interest should be an African man. He is attractive and successful in his own field.

 

The novels should be set in an urban environment. They can feature international locales, but a real (not fictionalised) African city should be where the primary story takes place.

 

The plot should be fast-paced and entertaining. It should focus on the development of a central romantic relationship while the heroine struggles to realize her ambitions. 

 

The novels should be written in the third person, preferably from the point of view of the heroine. Other points of view may be employed to add depth and insight to the narrative, but should be used sparingly. 

 

Authors are advised to keep sub-plots to a minimum. Interesting minor characters are welcome, but they should not dominate the story.

 What Ankara Press Will Not Accept.

Profanity, explicit sex scenes, religious or ethnic intolerance are not acceptable. There can be a strong physical attraction between the heroine and her Mr. Right, but it should not be the focus of their relationship. They can sleep together during the course of the novel, but if they do, it should be done tastefully and they must practice safe sex at all times or be able to discuss it. 

 

How to send your submission

 

Email a 500-word synopsis outlining the characters and the plot of the novel and attach the first 3 chapters of your story as a Word document. Be sure to pay attention to punctuation, spelling and grammar before submitting your sample.
Please include your name (aliases and pen names will only be considered once the manuscript has been accepted), the title of the book, your phone number and email address on a separate cover page.

 

 

If you have an existing work you want to adapt, please send a synopsis along with a chapter of the work as your submission. All finished manuscripts will be paid for on our acceptance of a completed manuscript.

 

To email your sample and synopsis or for further information, please contact Chinelo Onwualu at: AnkaraSubmissions@gmail.com.

 

 

International Reporting

Fellowship Program for

Journalists of Color/Minority Journalists

(2013 Bringing Home the World | US)

Deadline: 8 February 2013

Sponsored by the Ford Foundation, with additional funding from the Brooks and Joan Fortune Family Foundation, the Scripps Howard Foundation and the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation

Over the years, journalists of color have had few opportunities to work as foreign correspondents. That’s especially the case in today’s media environment, with sharp cutbacks by many news outlets in their international coverage. At the same time, communities of color rarely receive coverage of global issues that directly affect their lives, from the migration of jobs overseas to wars fought by minorities serving in the U.S. military. This program aims to level the playing field, sending well-briefed journalists of color overseas to report on important issues that resonate in their communities.

In our increasingly globalized world, the International Reporting Fellowship offers journalists of color based in the U.S. the opportunity to play an important role in covering international developments. The fellowship builds on the participants’ skills and confidence in traveling abroad for global stories, making them more competitive in the newsroom. And their reports will also bring fresh perspectives of the world to U.S. audiences.

ICFJ launched the fellowship in late 2010 with eight journalists who were selected based on the quality of their story proposal in their application. The eight fellows reported from nine countries. They published and broadcast their stories in major news outlets such as The Christian Science Monitor, TIME.com and National Geographic's website that, in all, reach nearly 100 million people. An online compendium of their work can be found here.

In 2012, ICFJ selected ten journalists for the fellowship. They worked in more than 10 countries, including Mexico, Pakistan, China and Brazil, and contributed stories to both their media outlets in the U.S. and to the Fellows' Tumblr blog.

Prior to the Fellows' overseas travel, ICFJ holds an intense orientation in Washington, D.C., to prepare the them for their foreign reporting work. Each fellow is also paired with a mentor who provides guidance throughout the program. The Fellows’ reporting assignments last up to two weeks, depending on the destination and other factors. While overseas, the Fellows blog about their experiences and also share tidbits about their reporting assignments on social media including Twitter and Facebook.

Upon their return from abroad, fellows are expected to complete their stories and publish or broadcast them.

The International Reporting Fellowship is giving journalists of color the skills they need to become future leaders in the field. They have an unprecedented chance to explore issues beyond U.S. borders, enriching their experience as professional journalists. And they will bring the fresh perspectives needed on foreign affairs, religion and other topics in an increasingly complex world.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries: lwajert@icfj.org

For submissions: via the online application page

Website: http://www.icfj.org

 

Submit > Emerging Writer's Contest

The 2013 Emerging Writer's Contest is open to writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry who have yet to publish a book. The winner in each genre will be awarded $1,000.

 

The contest is currently OPEN! 

Please submit your work now at our online submission manager.

SIGN UP to get contest alerts and updates 

Since 1971, Ploughshares has been committed to promoting the work of up-and-coming writers. In the spirit of the magazine’s founding mission, the Ploughshares Emerging Writer's Contest will recognize work by an emerging writer in each of three genres: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Literary work first published in Ploughshares has been cited in the Pushcart Prize volumes more frequently than any other literary journal and is regularly featured in Best American anthologies. The magazine has an international readership and is widely distributed throughout the United States.

You can read some of the winning submissions from past years here.

Eligibility:

We define an “emerging writer” as someone who has yet to publish a book, including chapbooks, eBooks, and self-published works, in any of the content genres: creative nonfiction, poetry, or fiction. No book should be forthcoming before April 15th, 2014, the date when the Winter issue will be off the stands.

If you are currently affiliated with Ploughshares or Emerson College, as a reader, student, staff member, or faculty member, please do not submit. Also, if you might have such a relationship with Emerson before April 15th, 2014—for example, if there is a chance that you will be attending the Emerson MFA program in the coming year—please do not submit.

Contest Rules:

• Entries will be accepted via our online Submission Manager ONLY between February 1 and April 2. The Submission Manager will open to entries at noon EST on February 1, and will close to entries at noon EST on April 2.

• Sorry, no entries via email or mailed in hard copy will be considered for the contest.
  
• Submitted work must be original and previously unpublished in any form.
  
• Fiction and nonfiction entries should be under 6,000 words.

• Poetry entries should contain 3-5 pages of poetry. For poetry, we will be reading both for the strongest individual poem and the general level of work, and may choose to publish only some of the winner's submitted poems. 
  
• Writers are allowed to submit only one entry to the contest, per year.

Entry Fee & Subscription Options:

• The entry fee for the contest of $24, payable by Visa or MasterCard through the online Submission Manager, includes a 1-year subscription to Ploughshares (beginning with the Spring 2013 issue and ending with the Winter 2013-14 issue). Current subscribers (through the Winter 2013-14 issue) may submit for free.

• Select the type of entry/the type of subscription you would like to receive from the "genre" drop-down menu on the submission form.                  

                       Emerging Writer, regular rate, print subscription
                       U.S. print subscription.

                       Emerging Writer, regular rate, digital subscription
                       U.S. and international digital subscriptions. Files (.mobi, .epub, PDF) delivered by email.

                       Emerging Writer, current subscriber (through Winter 2013-14)
                       Subscribers current through the Winter 2013-14 issue.
                       Don't know when your subscription expires? Contact pshares@pshares.org

                       Emerging Writer, Canada/Mexico, print subscription (add $10)
                       International print subscriptions in Canada/Mexico.
                       This $10 surcharge covers the additional cost of shipping.

                       Emerging Writer, other international, print subscription (add $30)
                       All other international print subscriptions.
                       This $30 surcharge covers the additional cost of shipping.

Publication:

The winning story, essay, and poems will be published in the staff-edited Winter 2013-14 issue of Ploughshares, and each writer will receive $1000.

 

Go to the online Submission Manager

Hiwot Adilow: My Name 

01/28/2013

“You shouldn’t treat a breath as carelessly as this.”
— Hiwot Adilow

*

*

IF GOD WAS A WOMAN

in my home, in between the 2nd and 4th worlds,

where women seem to be most obviously oppressed,
we congregate.

when our husbands leave to be men without us
we cry to allah/elshaday/ yesus-cristos/ and the sky
and pull our veils and our hair and we pray.

we inquire…then we scream
like only circumcised/abused/raped/ beaten/and living
women can do,
“why are you he?”
“why does everyone forget sarah and mary and sheba
and penelope and nefertiti?”
“why were they hidden from every woman who cannot
read?”
“why can’t every woman read?”
“why must we pretend to not know them…”
“why are you he?!”
where is the respect for she?
we cry.

from beneath the pile of broken women and damp
cheekbones
a young girl rises and asks,
“what if god were a woman?”
“if god were a woman i’m sure she’d have a clitoris.”
“if god were a woman my husband would not be
teaching my daughter to hate herself.”
“if god were a woman they’d call her a whore. she’d
be beaten –”
“for what?”
“for whatever you were flogged for.”

for walking in the dark alone
for having her ankles show
for loving a man her family didn’t choose
for loving a woman
for saying no
for saying anything
for saying everything

“if god was a woman she would be married to the sun;
though she is greater than him
he is the one that shines…
she made the sky he lives in
everything he has, she gives him.
but the sun is the one that the world appreciates.
think of all the times we’ve forgotten god.”

we count them.
ten times for each of our sons and the way they will
forget that they first loved a woman.

the second time our sons break a woman open
instead of looking to her for life
they’ll end up consuming it from her
slowly
burning away her being with the way they see fit to shine.
god is a woman, she is among us, and she is crying.

*

Hiwot Adilow is the 16-year-old Philadelphia-born daughter of Ethiopian immigrants. She is involved in the Scribe Video Center’s Documentary History Program for Youth and is the founder and a coach of her school’s slam poetry team, and has preformed countless times with the Philly Youth Poetry Movement since first becoming involved with them in 2010. She uses her work to help her navigate through her identities and her environment. She hopes her work will help her better understand the communities she belongs to and her relationships to them while also helping others do the same.

Melissa Harris-Perry Buries

The Lead Story

on National Wave of

Public School Closings

 

Thu, 01/31/2013  

 

By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

When print or broadcast news outlets grab a compelling story, only to distract attention away from what the public needs to know, that's called “burying the lead.” That's what Melissa Harris-Perry did in her Jan. 26 segment on whether the nationwide wave of public school closings were “racist” or not.

 

Melissa Harris-Perry devoted an eight minute segment of her January 26 MSNBC show to the question of whether the current wave of public school closings, indisputably concentrated in poor black and brown communities across the nation, was racist. She had four panelists on the segment, only one of whom seemed connected to and knowledgeable about the issue, a New York City parent.

They batted the thing around, and all pretty much agreed that it was a dirty shame, a tragic waste closing hundreds of public schools in places like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, destructive to most ideas of community, and that yeah, it probably was indeed racist. Harris-Perry called it an “epidemic” of school closures. She noted that neighborhoods identify especially with their high schools, and closing them violates the integrity of communities.

Both Harris-Perry and the NYC parent activist brought up the proliferation of high-stakes tests which judged urban teachers and students as “failing” thus providing some of the immediate justification for the school closings, though this was something the discussion passed over rather than dwelled upon. The NYC activist declared that she and the Save Our Schools Coalition intended to be in DC during the coming week to press for recognition of the fact that school closings were racist, ask for a meeting with the president and for a national moratorium on school closures.

What Harris-Perry and her panelists failed to do was explain exactly ---- or even vaguely --- what's causing these racist school closures that are wrecking communities. Labeling them “racist” describes only a single symptom of the “epidemic” while telling us nothing about its cause. The host and panelists didn't mention the Obama administration's signature Race To The Top Program even once. For a show whose Twitter handle is #nerdland, this is a pretty significant omission.

The fact is that high-stakes testing is being forced upon states and school districts by the Obama administration as part of its Race To The Top Program. RTTT awards funding to states and school districts on the basis of four criteria --- (1) school transformations and (2) school turnarounds, in which large numbers of staff are fired and “run the school like a business consultants brought in to tie teacher salaries tightly to test scores, (3) school restarts in which public school facilities are handed over to charter operators, and (4) school closings. RTTT guidelines were written in the first place by consultants from the Eli Broad, Walton Family, Gates, and other self-interested foundations which have spent tens of millions promoting charter schools and educational privatization.

Harris-Perry is far too intelligent not to know that Obama's Race To The Top policies are deliberately, not accidentally driving the wave of school closings, or that President Obama is deep in the pocket of the charter school sugar daddies. She knows too that there are deep connections between the money spent on the warfare state and bank bailouts and the money available to support public education. And she's well aware that nobody's career has ever been harmed by supporting the policies of a sitting president, no matter how vile (or even racist) those policies might be.

The black political class, based as it is on the fiction that it “represents” an underprivileged minority defined by race, is perfectly willing to entertain a shallow discussion of whether school closings are “racist.” But explaining to her audience where the pressure for high stakes testing, for school closures, for teacher firings, for turning public schools into profitable low-cost holding tanks are coming from --- if it means disagreeing with the First Black President, it ain't gonna happen.

If corporate school reform was something Republicans and Democrats disagreed on --- if elected Republicans were doing it and elected Democrats were against it, Melissa Harris-Perry might see fit to focus real intellectual wattage on the subject, and truly inform her audience. She and her guests have no trouble cackling at evil Republicans. But when the evil is bipartisan, and a black Democrat in the White House, her career is more important than the truth. She knows the microphone and the audience ain't hers either, it's MSNBC's. If she doesn't tow the line, maybe they'll give Michael Eric Dyson a show instead, he'll know how to stay in his lane.

Like boxers instructed at the beginning of every fight to “protect yourselves at all times”, MHP knows her obligation is to protect the Democratic party elite, and the president, and to protect millions of voters who supported Barack Obama and his party from knowing what they really voted for. In this case that meant drawing attention away from the charter school profiteers and sugar daddies, and their intimate ties with this president, his secretary of education, and a whole layer of Democratic and often black politicians. So where the lead story on school closings should have on what's causing the public school closings, who's pushing and profiting from the public school closings, who is resisting those forces and how we can stop school closings and protect public education, Melissa Harris-Perry buried that lead. She just pronounced it all a hot racist mess, and hosted a rambling and pointless discussion about an “epidemic” without pointing to preventions, treatments or cures. What a waste.

Bruce A. Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report and a member of the Georgia Green Party. He lives and works in Marietta GA, and can be reached at bruce.dixon(at)blackagendareport.com.

 

__________________________

Why America's Prep Schools

Aren't Following

Arne Duncan's

Public School

Education Reforms