Dr. Carter G. Woodson understood the need for Black people to be able to think and do for ourselves. Education was the tool, the vehicle which would allow Black people to regain our rightful heritage and begin to tell our own story, from our perspective. Even today only a handful of Blacks have accepted this wisdom and even fewer are working to apply it on a daily basis. So I’m glad you’re reading this. It was Woodson who said, "The large majority of the Negroes who have put on the finishing touches of our best colleges, however, are all but worthless in the uplift of their people." Well…

As we move through this month one thing is clear. Black people need major uplift and it’s going to take our own people to do the heavy lifting. As the economic crisis continues to permeate through the world, Blacks in America are at great risk to be targeted for additional predatory schemes. We have seen how major financial institutions targeted “financially unsophisticated” Blacks and entire urban neighborhoods for their newly created loans and wiped out millions in generational wealth from the Black community while earning a handsome profit for the banking institutions and their senior executives. Many of these same banks still refuse to make fair loans to African Americans.  In education, a Black mother, Kelley Williams Bolar, recently spent nine days in jail while trying to secure equal education for her children in a predominately white school district in Ohio. And in terms of jobs, the Black unemployment rate, according to the latest jobs report is 86% higher than that of whites in America. It will get worse before it improves. And there are numerous other battlefronts on which to engage in this righteous struggle for equality, justice and economic and psychological freedom.

This brings us back to Woodson and thankfully those brothers and sisters who are in the small minority of Blacks who ARE valuable in the uplift of their people. Whether they have the finishing touches of our best colleges, or the sandpaper polish of the inner-city streets – there is a growing national cadre of Blacks who are focused on the business of uplifting our people in 2011 and beyond. They are working to organize, mobilize, and monetize our communities in ways that are beneficial. They’re online, offline, and in some places where you might be surprised to find them. These are our modern day Black History makers. You will find many of them discussed right here in The Bond Report.  Check out our sponsors, visit our web links, read and apply the content you’ll find in our articles. It is through your active engagement, at whatever level you’re willing to commit, that we benefit individually and collectively. Let’s make our history a never ending story.

Peace,

Norm