What's on the Mind of the Easterbaby?

Who remembers the HBO series, Lovecraft Country? It was a weird mix of horror, scifi, drama, and history! It was entertaining and I watched until the end. Even though, it provided lots of history of Black people in this country, I feared that all the other fictional chaos & strange shenanigans would take away from the fact, that they were indeed sharing black history. For instance, how African American military was treated here after having served this country, the tragic story of Emmitt Till, and Sundown Towns to name a few. In the first episode, the main characters got caught after sunset in a sundown town and the racist sheriff and his deputies set out to lynch them... all for "driving while black" after dark. Wish I could say, this was only a story from the television show, but nope, Sundown Towns were and in some areas of the country, still a reality. (BTW - the deputies were killed by monsters... so there's that! 😁) Between 1890 and 1968, thousands of towns acr...

"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...