What's on the Mind of the Easterbaby?

"Although we've come to the end of the road, Still, I can't let go! It's unnatural, you belong to me, I belong to you. Come to the end of the road, Still, I can't let go, It's unnatural, you belong to me, I belong to you."  ~ End of the Road by Boyz to Men It's funny how this song popped into my head as I thought about the End of the Road for Jim Crow. Actually just the first line of the chorus. LOL! Then I read the whole chorus and thought, hmmmmm... there are folks who, knowing how UNNATURAL it is to hate a group of people b/c their skin color is different, just can't let it go. Now here we are in 2025, facing the same fight, fighting the same struggles b/c folks just don't want to let it go. 😑 As oppressive as the Jim Crow era was, it was also a time when many African Americans around the country stepped forward into leadership roles to vigorously oppose the laws. Memphis teacher Ida B. Wells became a prominent activist against Jim Crow law...

Rules, rules, and more rules! The Lord only gave Moses TEN COMMANDMENTS to share with the Israelites after they were delivered from Egypt. Later in the New Testament, Jesus said that all the Commandments could be summed up in TWO: 34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matt. 22:34-40) Now if two Commandments were good enough for Jesus then how did it come to pass that freed black people had to live under a slew of these ridiculous Jim Crow Laws. Clearly the Lord was not consulted when this was established. In fact, it sounds a littl...

As I mentioned in the previous posts, for the longest time, I thought Jim Crow was a person... an evil person who made up these oppressive laws against Black People. Isn't that something? A whole set of laws passed just to keep the now "free" black people in their proper place as 2nd class citizens (more like 22nd class citizens if you ask me). Jim Crow lasted through to the 1960s which means my parents, aunts, uncles, and other older relatives lived this life. So it's funny to me when people want to act like it didn't happen or that it happened so many years ago that we should forget. Naw, cause my mama done told me all about it and I believe my mama! She hasn't forgotten and neither will I.  Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system which operated primarily, but not exclusively in southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid-1960s. Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-black laws, it was a way of life. Under Jim Crow, African Americans...

When I first became really active on FB, I joined a group with many others with my ancestorial name, Springs. It's not that common of a last name for African Americans, so me and all the other Springs in this group claimed each other as "cousins." Springs is a variant of the English surname Spring which means "young" or living near a spring. I'm young at heart but never lived near a spring. 😁 I actually like the Irish meaning of the surname, "to stir" or "awaken". If I recall, someone in that FB group traced the Springs name to a plantation in South Carolina. Likely owned by a Springs who gave all his/her slaves their name. Because I like to think these enslaved Springs were STIRRED and AWAKENED, they escaped via the Underground railroad and somehow ended up in Ohio. Perhaps, they were part of the Great Migration from the South to the North. They weren't treated good by any means but I guess it was better than the South. Anyhoo, Ohio...

Although it wasn't his first movie, the first Spike Lee movie I watched was "School Daze". It was kinda revolutionary in my mind having this Black director with a movie on the big screen. Since his first movie, "She's Gotta Have It", Spike has over 20 movies exploring issues dealing with race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and other political issues. My personal favorite is, "Malcolm X" starring Denzel Washington, one of the few movies I've seen that stayed true to the book. You always know a Spike Lee movie b/c of his quirky habit of having his characters seem to float rather than walk in a paramount scene. Interestingly enough, Spike named his Production Company, "40 Acres and a Mule". I always thought that was merely slang for, Black folks wanting to be rich never understanding why 40 Acres and a Mule would mean rich. But when you learn your history, yo...

If you want to irritate, alienate, frustrate, and aggravate me INSTANTLY, all you have to do is bring up the fact that other races had slaves or that Africans sold other Africans into slavery. 😡 And if I wasn't a woman who was trying to get into heaven, I would probably respond with "WTF does that have to do with MY ANCESTORS and chattel slavery, beatings, rape, brutality, murders, injustice, separation on families that occurred once enslaved Africans were brought to this country???" So please don't say that to me, ok? Ok! I'm heaven-bound. I don't know why this part of history pricks at my soul so much. I definitely get why many African Americans say they get tired of slave movies and movies that capitalize on Black trauma. But this is the part of the story that has been skipped. In school, it went from Emancipation to Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. For years, I heard my mom talk about Jim Crow and I thought it was a person not a set ...

Lots of talk now about the Constitution and will it survive this current administration. Those joining the US Military, as well as Federal Employees take an oath to uphold the Constitution. It's been a while since I've read the whole thing (yes I've read it b/c I'm a READER and I needed to know what I was upholding). At that time, I had not watch the Documentary directed by Ava DuVernay entitled, 13th. If you haven't watched it, I suggest you do. This documentary gives a whole history behind the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and the impact to African Americans long after it abolished slavery... Or DID IT? 😐 Slavery did not end with the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation freed only slaves held in the eleven Confederate states that had seceded, and only in the portion of those states not already under Union control. The abolition of slavery was achieved when the Thirteenth Amendment w...

Somewhere in this picture is my maternal relative, Benjamin Walker. He served in the 135th Regiment of the US Colored Troops for the Union Army. His company was formed out of Goldsboro, NC. The regiment included nearly 1,200 men, whose occupations included, among others, farmer, laborer and shoemaker. Benjamin Walker was a farmer. Accustomed to hard work, they helped build roads out of wooden timbers through swamps and built bridges over rivers and creeks. The journey of the 135th took them to Washington, D.C., where they were the only colored troops to march in the famous Grand Review. The regiment continued its service and mustered out in Louisville, Ky. They were among nearly a quarter of a million black men who served in the Union army. MY ANCESTOR - MY HISTORY - I WILL NOT LET IT BE ERASED!  Black soldiers fought in the Revolutionary War and—unofficially—in the War of 1812, but state militias had excluded African Americans since 1792. The U.S. Ar...