No Peace for the Wicked

Normally, I can barely think about Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life, let alone listen

to it, without breaking down in tears and discontinuing the thought or play all together.

I played that album TO. DEATH. when my beloved was one and two years old. We would sing some of the songs together in our one bedroom, first floor apartment in East Orange, New Jersey. Perhaps his favorite was All I Do. When it was time, I would give him the floor, and he would belt out his tiny toddler voice right along with Stevie, “BABEEE!”

When others remember my son, they recall the five- or eight-year-old running around the masajid or helping at our restaurant; the boyish teen they ran with, causing just enough mischief to have fun yet not get caught; or the passionate young man turned leader who was gearing up to lead his people out of oppression, the youth into a bright and productive future.

I grieve them all. Separately. Together. Each moment that I am asleep or awake.

The seconds-old newborn placed upon my bare chest who greeted the world by lifting his head and looking only at me before quickly returning to sleep, exhausted from twelve long hours of labor; the five-year old praying at my side as I taught him how to worship The One Great Soul, with his face to the ground as the prophets of old had done; the six-year old who proudly completed his first book about a hippopotamus becoming president; the thirteen-year old I had to release so that he could travel to the other side of the world for an education I could not provide; the teen (justifiably) filled with anger and angst that I struggled with so we could find a balanced relationship together; the twenty-something who finally found his purpose; the man, father, and leader who had finally become convinced that education was where he could be most useful (to my absolutely glee), deciding to return to school to finish the last few semesters towards a degree, as he worked as an assistant professor at the prestigious college where he had become invaluable during the past several years, and would become a full-fledged professor (something we planned to do together).

He/they were/are all my children.

When I see the murderer and conspirators who befriended then betrayed him, smiling and living life as if no heinous wrong has been done… I am reminded:

There will be no peace for the wicked.

May Creator right all wrongs, in this world and the next, and welcome my beloved son into the most beautiful Jannah Firdous. Amin.

Sabr

in patience, i await The One

in Whose Hands lies all affairs

i am steadfast in remembrance

offering charity and prayers

my hands work diligently

toiling, to pass the time

my trust is firm in Al Mumit

and so retribution will soon be mine.

have not you heard duas of women

who cry out in pain and stress;

grieving mothers who have been wronged

forced to carry on, oppressed

reach the ears of Ar Rahman, Most Great

Corrector of Evil Deeds?

you may disbelieve in my Al Adl

but The Truth will supersede.

thirty-one years of my investments

stolen away with hugs and smiles…

my rage remains incessant

there’s a debt to pay for my sweet child!

i will not turn the other cheek

did you believe that i was weak???

Sabr will manifest what is rightly due;

The Justice that i seek.

Lincoln's Compensation Emancipation

On this last day of February – America’s official month to learn alllll there is to learn about Black people of this land, past, present, and yet to come- I am writing this short post about one of this nation’s most beloved and celebrated presidents. The Great Emancipator himself, President Abraham Lincoln.

Inaugurated as the sixteenth Commander-in-Chief, Lincoln was born in Kentucky early in 1809 to illiterate working-class parents. His mother died when he was quite young, and he shuffled from place to place until he finally settled in Illinois as a young man. In 1832, he lead soldiers in Black Hawk's War, a bloody battle between the United States and Sauk Indians (lead by Chief Black Hawk shown below) over a land dispute, as the Natives had been pushed westward from the state just the year before then went back fighting.

I remember reading about "Honest Abe" as a child and being impressed by him. I read a book which elucidated that he was essentially self-taught because he only attended school a total of less than one year. However, he went on to become a lawyer then eventually the President of the United States. I do not think I knew anything about him "freeing the slaves" at that point nor emancipation at all. I was more wonderstruck that he had not gone to school, choosing, I supposed at the time, to stay home and read books. I felt we were kindred spirits of a sort because I often missed school, too, and stayed home devouring nearly any publication I got my hands on. In retrospect, that is possibly when I got the notion to homeschool, though I had no idea that was an option at the time. But I digress...

For the past 158 years the ending of (most) American chattel slavery has been attributed to Abraham Lincoln. That is true. However, whether or not he did so because he saw the practice as a hellish institution, or because he simply wanted to keep the Union from crashing and burning- or both- has been the butt of debates since way back then.

Whichever way you look at it, whatever side of the fence you reside, documentation shows that not only was Lincoln not fully on board with ending slavery straight out the gate, he was actually not very keen on Black people in general though they he did believe everyone should get paid for any work they did. Initially, he tried to appease both southerners (slave owners) and northerners (mostly abolitionists and anti-slavers) by proposing a compensation emancipation. I know what that sounds like, but no, the compensation was not for the enslaved, it was for owners. The President offered them $300 for every enslaved person set free, but they were not having it.

"...Why should they leave this country? This is, perhaps, the first question for proper consideration. You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word we suffer on each side. If this is admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated..." A. Lincoln 1862

He further offered $100,000 for the colonization of free and soon-to-be-free Blacks elsewhere- first siting Central and South America then sending a few hundred to an island near Haiti where many starved to death. Finally, he settled on Liberia, where thousands had already voluntarily moved in previous years, but most Black Americans left behind vehemently refused. One outspoken opponent of relocation was Frederick Douglass.

"This is our country as much as it is yours, and we will not leave." F. Douglass

As we well know, in time the Emancipation Proclamation was brought to fruition, drafted and signed by Abraham Lincoln, and most Blacks were technically set free- though let us not forget that nearly 200,000 colored troops fought in the Civil War for their own freedom and that of their people themselves, so it was not strictly all due to Abe. Those warriors included at least one of my own ancestors, Joseph Franklin Brown.

Born in Maryland, my 3x great-grandfather and his wife, Jane, self-emancipated themselves, and made their way to East Smithfield, Pennsylvania in Bradford County. It is important to know that Pennsylvania emancipated Blacks in 1856, and multiple free-Black communities had thrived there for many years, though not without racial prejudice. The town where my grandparents settled was not far from Athens, Tioga Point, which was on the Underground Railroad. According to the 1860 United States census they were living in East Smithfield with one child. Ten years later presented four more children, one being named David who grew up to raise my great-grandmother, Elna Williams nee Brown, who raised me.

Father Joseph escaped then returned to the South years later in order to fight for those who had not been able to obtain what he and his family were able to: their right to the freedom Creator had already bestowed upon them. According to his head stone, he was a soldier in the 12th Regiment, Heavy Artillery US Colored Troops. I have to say, something about that fills me with pride, confirms that I am part of a mighty lineage that does not submit to oppression.

Though I do not normally acknowledge February's Black History status because, frankly, I find it at least as ridiculous as I would a 28-day period acknowledging white history, I thought today I would take advantage, share a little information many of you may not have known. Plus, I wanted to publicly give homage to those who fought and, in many instances, died so that we could live, free.

May Allah grant all of those who gave their lives for the people Jannah Firdous. Amin.

M.

Power to the people.

Resources and further reading:

It Has To Start Somewhere (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 5. (umich.edu)

A LOOK AT LINCOLN: Lincoln and Slavery (lsu.edu)

Address on Colonization to a Committee of Colored Men (Chapter 17) - Lincoln (cambridge.org)

FREDERICK DOUGLASS'S “FOURTH OF JULY” SPEECH (1852) (sdsu.edu)

Frederick Douglass Project: 5th of July Speech | RBSCP (rochester.edu)

Prelude to Disaster: The Course of Indian-White Relations Which Led to the Black Hawk War of 1832 on JSTOR

The 12th Regiment, Heavy Artillery U.S. Colored Troops is Formed - African American Registry (aaregistry.org)

The African-American Odyssey text, Pearson Publisher