Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 950

The Lost Voice of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner

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text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Times;">The Lost Voice of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner </span></i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;">by Andre E. Johnson | <b><i>HuffPost BlackVoices</i></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;">I have just returned from the <a href="http://www.asalh.org/">Associ... of the Society of African American Life and History (ASALH) </a>where I had the opportunity to present work on Bishop Henry McNeal Turner as part of my on going effort to reclaim the prophet voice of Turner. After presenting my paper, "Cry in the Wilderness: (Re) Claiming the Prophetic Voice of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, a person shared her "testimony" of attending Henry McNeal Turner High School in Atlanta, but not knowing who Bishop Turner was. She knew that he was a "black man," but as she remembered, no one talked about who he was or why people deemed it was important enough to name a school after him. Even upon graduation in 1966 from the school, in which her class presented a bust of Bishop Turner to the school, she and her classmates still did not know who the Bishop was.<br /><br />As she continued her story, she only discovered who the Bishop was when in Washington DC and wearing a Turner High class reunion shirt, she so happened to walk into a black owned bookstore. Upon entering the store, the owner greeted her by saying, "So you are from Atlanta." Puzzled, the women asked, "how did he know that?" and he responded, "your shirt, you went to Turner High and the only Turner High school I know is in Atlanta. Yeah, Bishop Turner was a bad man." The woman looked startled and asked, "So, do you know who this man was?" The owner responded, "of course I do." The women said that he then begin to offer her a history of the Bishop and to tell her why he was so important.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><br />After "discovering" who Bishop Turner was, the woman continued to share her frustration in trying to find material on him. She looked everywhere for information on Turner but only finding "snippets" of information here and there. One of the reasons she attended our session was because she wanted to hear more about the elusive Bishop that supposedly was so important during his time, yet, she could find only snippets of information. In addition, she also shared with us that she is a member of the AME Church and even at her church; she did not hear much on Bishop Turner.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><br />When she finished, I shared with her and the rest of the audience, (who by the way, was glad that she mentioned not knowing Turner because several others did not either), that this story is not surprising. Since I started to work on Turner, I have heard this story before. For a person whose public career lasted over sixty years; one that took him from working along side enslaved people to Senior Bishop of the AME Church, one whose literary archive is massive, one would have thought much more would have been done on Turner. Therefore, her question to me was a simple one--"why haven't we heard more of Bishop Turner?"</span></span></div><a name='more'></a><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><br />I believe the answer to that question is three fold. First, while Turner's literary archive is massive, it has also been scattered. In short, outside of the small collection at the <a href="http://www.howard.edu/msrc/">... Library</a> in Washington DC, there is no one place that has a Turner collection or a place that has the "Turner Papers." I attempt to address this problem by collecting and publishing the writings of Turner titled, <a href="http://theforgottenprophet.blogspot.c... Literary Archive of Henry McNeal Turner (Mellen Press)</a>. I am thankful for Mellen because they were the only publisher interested in publishing everything I found on Turner--a collection of text, as is, and without commentary, so that others who have an interest in Turner could finally read his words. I have completed two volumes already, <a href="http://theforgottenprophet.blogspot.c... African American Pastor Before and During the American Civil War, Vol. 1 (2010)</a>and the <a href="http://theforgottenprophet.blogspot.c... Letters, Vol. 2 (2012).</a> Vol. 3, titled An African American Pastor During Reconstruction is due in 2013.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><br />The second reason I tie to the first--there has not been much in the way of publication about Turner. In short, history just has not been kind to Turner. Unlike his more famous contemporaries, Frederick Douglass, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Ida B. Wells, (who ASALH remembered this year with a plenary), Booker T. Washington and others, works on Turner is scant. So scant in fact, that in our session at ASALH, I rattled off from memory the <a href="http://theforgottenprophet.blogspot.c... scholarship on Turner</a>.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><br />There also however, may be another reason for the lack of Turner scholarship. As I argued in the<a href="http://theforgottenprophet.blogspot.c... Prophet: Bishop Henry McNeal Turner and the African American Prophetic Tradition,"</a> near the end of his life, Turner was what I call, a "pessimistic prophet." While Turner advocated for emigration, he also knew that African Americans were not disposed to go--the ones who could afford it did not want to and the ones who would have gone could not afford to go. Therefore, Turner quickly became the "prophet" to poor and marginalized African Americans and his prophetic venom spewed on everyone--including "middle-class" African Americans who resided in what he called the "safety" of the North. In short, with his prophetic denunciations against America, the church, and African Americans, many people simply became tired of Turner and his chronicling of the abuses of African Americans; especially in the face of African American rhetoric that proclaimed that African Americans were moving forward and doing well just a generation out of slavery.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><br />When Turner died in 1915, the last twenty years of Turner life had been one were he adopted a pessimistic prophetic persona--and quite frankly, no one wanted to hear Turner or remember him as someone to admire. For example, while other African Americans tried to find some hope in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plessy_v... decision</a>, Turner declared in an editorial, "Sackcloth and Ashes for the Negro." While other African Americans supported the country in its imperialism campaigns at the end of the nineteenth century, Turner denounced it and said that if any African Americans fight in these wars "they ought to be hung." While African Americans were still beholden to the Republican Party, took broke ranks in 1900 and supported the Democrat nominee William Jennings Bryan. While other African Americans celebrated the country and the progress African Americans made, Turner constantly and consistently reminded them about the lynchings and mob violence that were still taking place all over the country, called the American flag a dirty and contemptible rag and damned the country to hell (yeah, before Jeremiah Wright).<br /><br />As I will argue in the follow up book to <i><span style="font-family: Times;">Forgotten Prophet</span></i> tentatively titled, <i><span style="font-family: Times;">Bootlicks, Spittoon Lickers, Scullions, and Fool Negroes: The Pessimistic Prophecy of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner</span></i>, Turner's positions and proclamations did not fit the integrationist model that surfaced during this time. Therefore, African Americans and even the AME Church, who Turner embarrassed continually, decided to marginalize his work, writings, and record. However, this should no longer be the case and I invite others to join me in this reclamation project.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;">***</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Andre E. Johnson is the Dr. James L. Netters Professor of Rhetoric and Religion and African American Studies at Memphis Theological Seminary. He is also Senior Pastor of Gifts of Life Ministries in Memphis, Tennessee and blogs at <a href="http://rhetoricraceandreligion.blogsp... Race and Religion</a>. He is the author of the forthcoming <a href="http://theforgottenprophet.blogspot.c... Forgotten Prophet: Bishop Henry McNeal Turner and the African American Prophetic Tradition" (Lexington Books)</a> and is currently editing the works of Bishop Turner under the "Literary Archive of Henry McNeal Turner" (Edwin Mellen Press). Follow him on Twitter @aejohnsonphd</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com...' alt='' /></div>

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Published on October 08, 2012 20:18

Wyclef Jean Discusses New Memoir & His 'Caesar Complex'

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Published on October 08, 2012 18:17

Filmaker Ava Duverney on the Making of 'Middle of Nowhere'

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Published on October 08, 2012 18:07

Left of Black S3:E4 | ‘Revolutionary’ Black Women & the Musical Life & Death of a Chocolate City

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} </style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Left of Black S3:E4 | October 8, 2012</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">‘Revolutionary’ Black Women & the Musical Life & Death of a Chocolate City</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Left of Black</span></i></b><span style="font-family: Times;">, host and Duke Professor <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Mark Anthony Neal</b> is joined via Skype by <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Professor Lakesia D. Johnson</b>, author of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Iconic: Decoding Images of the Revolutionary Black Woman</span></i><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"> (Baylor University Press) and longtime Washington, D.C. based journalist, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dr. Natalie Hopkinson</b>, author of </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City</span></i><span style="font-family: Times;"> (Duke University Pres, 2012).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">***</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://leftofblack.tumblr.com/"&... of Black</a> is a weekly Webcast hosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the <a href="http://jhfc.duke.edu/">John Hope Franklin Center</a> at Duke University.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">***</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Episodes of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Left of Black</b> are also available for free download in @ <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/l... style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: blue; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">iTunes U</span></b></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com...' alt='' /></div>

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Published on October 08, 2012 17:32

Diva Tripping: Why Nikki’s Rap on Mariah Plays Badly for All of Us

Diva Tripping: Why Nikki’s Rap on Mariah Plays Badly for All of Us by Stephane Dunn | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)Think I'm playin? Think this sh*t is a f*cking joke? Think it's a joke? . . . Say one more disrespectful thing to me, if you say one more disrespectful thing to me -- off with your head—Nikki Minaj [off screen about Mariah Carey]Maybe it’s just about the ratings. Behind the scenes drama, real or made up, can derail or propel a television show to new heights. Like it or not, the Kardashians keep reminding us of this. Popular culture has always loved to see girls playing or working badly together whether over men or first diva bragging rights. We can watch reruns of the catfights between Crystal and Alexis on the old Dynastytelevision show to see how much it delights in it. Some epic diva to diva tensions have played out in black popular music culture. Remember Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown and Lil’ Kim and Faith Evans and the imagined or real tensions between Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston?The recent Nikki Minaj rant on Mariah Carey may keep American Idol lovers holding their breaths until the new season premiere and attract new viewers – more young women of color in particular, but it’s unfortunate for those young women and all of us. It’s time we have some real talk about the meanings and representation of the Diva. ‘Diva’ came to signify a larger than life talent and performer. Now it doubles for another word – the ultimate diss one woman or man can give another or call a troublesome or out of control female egomaniac [think Scarlet O’ Hara]: bitch. At different times in American culture, the “B’ word has challenged and perpetuated the use of its literal meaning [female dog] to demean women. Some early-70s feminists embraced the identity as a defiance of patriarchal authority or a refusal to play by the established gender hierarchy and the rules of so-called proper feminine behavior. The word was a staple in black action movies where badd ass heroes and underworld kings owned stables of women. The women jockeyed over number one ‘ho’ status hurling ‘bitch’ at each other while snatching wigs off and clawing each other. There was also Pam Grier’s Foxy Brown, which flipped the script by presenting a real “badd Bitch’ who got to turn the tables on all the crooked men and fight off a lot of jealous ‘bitches’ in between.Later, there was Lil ‘Kim and rapper Foxy Brown’s duel over baddest ‘Bitch’ bragging rights and the emergence of pop songstresses who could ‘sang’ that became reigning divas. But the term got so watered down, it lost that special implication of a phenomenal vocal talent and career.On cable and network television these days, ‘bitch’ is thrown around as a term of endearment, a proud self-title, and an ultimate diss—no bleeps and gasps. ‘Diva’ can be tagged to anybody on the charts or off who is famous and having beef with somebody else famous, causing too much trouble, or famously getting into trouble, or any sista living large within fame and fortune who demands that things be her way or no way. Mariah has certainly long been deemed ‘Diva’ for reasons worthy of applause and critique. Clearly, ‘diva’ and ‘bitch’ have become sides of a same coin, each perpetuating tired notions about women we’ve at times challenged and resisted. On the behind the scenes tape, Nikki lays down the battleground for a full-on ‘diva’ vs. ‘bitch’ war with herself behaving like a diva and at the same time embodying the ‘I’m the real Badd Bitch’ persona in part defined by Lil Kim and Foxy Brown.In rap music, lyrics about shooting have been metaphors in lyrical battles and references to a real violent street mentality as well as lived experiences of violence. Nikki has denied bringing a gun into her rant about Mariah. The alleged statement was not caught on tape or overheard by everyone. Nikki was probably letting off some steam in the style emblematic of the culture she reps. Maybe there has been some real troublesome diva-tude from Mariah that riled her up. Regardless, how and what Nikki did say, ter ‘bitch’ and ‘her fucking highness’ should cause us serious pause. How has ‘diva’ become interchangeable with ‘bitch’ with both being used to disrespect women or demonize femininity?Audiences, especially those most impressionable, young girls and boys, will tune in to witness some real drama between the divas they want to be like. Unfortunately, they won’t all be consciously checking the possible distance between the real thing and the performance. Neither will a lot of grown folk who cringe at the “N” word but don’t think twice about calling somebody the “B” word.
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Stephane Dunn, PhD, is a writer and Co-Director of the Film, Television, & Emerging Media Studies program at Morehouse College. She is the author of the 2008 book, Baad Bitches & Sassy Supermamas : Black Power Action Films (U of Illinois Press), which explores the representation of race, gender, and sexuality in the Black Power and feminist influenced explosion of black action films in the early 1970s, including, Sweetback Sweetback’s Baad Assssss Song, Cleopatra Jones, and Foxy Brown. Her writings have appeared in Ms., The Chronicle of Higher Education, TheRoot.com, AJC, CNN.com, andBest African American Essays, among others. Her most recent work includes articles about contemporary black film representation and Tyler Perry films.
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Published on October 08, 2012 13:10