in 1968 Change came...

James Brown & Muhammad Ali in 1968
by Robert Stegstacke

1968 was the year Black Americans were given full citizenship. Because of an inability to properly negotiate for Power with Power, or the ability, the willingness to ask the right questions of self, first; our freedom was given piecemeal and the option to keep slavery intact was not challenged. Every 25 years our citizenship is up for a vote. Are a people free whose freedom was given to them? - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: MANHOOD

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. flanked by Rev. Ralph Abernathy (r) & Bishop Julian Smith (l) marching on Memphis, Tenn. in support of black sanitary public workers on March 28, 1968

MANHOOD 1968


Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Bishop Julian Smith marched on Memphis, Tenn. in support of black sanitary public workers on March 28, 1968 with the race music of Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf filling the energetic assertions of Black manhood, and the strong wild feminine powers of the Mahalia Jackson’s of the time, and the deep blues sung by sharecroppers in the deep South. Music fueled passions and strengthened convictions in the face of white hatreds and resistances to the cold inevitable changes circulating in the center of the torrential rains of Black pain and activism. Central to the calls for freedom and desegregation was manhood, Black Manhood.

African Manhood is complex stories present day youth are unaware of. If our children are aware often there is no emotional connection to stories of men not allowed to be men. What it is like to be unable by law to protect your family is an insurmountable hurdle in life. It evokes a rage without a voice. It is very close to the hollow rage and impotence today’s child support system creates within fathers declared to be absent parents who are attached to their children’s spirits and well being. ©Gregory E. Woods

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr's Poor People's Campaign

In 1968, King organized the "Poor People's Campaign" to address issues of economic justice. The campaign's aim was to get Congress to sign a bill allowing economic aid to be given to the poorest communities of the United States.

In 1968, King organized the "Poor People's Campaign" to address issues of economic justice. The campaign's aim was to get Congress to sign a bill allowing economic aid to be given to the poorest communities of the United States. In 1968 I wasn’t old enough to be poor or become rich, but on my own I was struck by how little I knew about money. The voices in my head about money astounded me and riddled me with fears unrecognizable to me. Many mornings when I was a young husband I awoke with dread and deep gnawing feelings of losing everything and living in abject poverty. It was a daily battle. Despite the comforts of my privileged upbringing I’d picked up a proverb from a story that copulated with the times and the feelings of under served people lumped together in dead in jobs. Assemblies like this created a force in perpetual motion, a dark energy form over generations a simple white candle and a prayer will not diminish.


Financial literacy is not the gift of American public schools. That being said I think all the efforts of ending poverty are pantomime. Very slowly after one agonizing year after another my ignorance of finance realized the wars against poverty were baseless absurd assertions. If financial illiteracy is the staple of public education the strategies needed to arise out of poverty will never well up within the collective and individual genius of poor people. They will always be bound by ignorant maxims, and hear, in their heads, the same stories that dictate behavior around money that keeps them poor and frustrated with their lot.

Millions and millions of dollars were allocated for the war on poverty. Where did that money go? If it didn’t go into education it made someone rich and others remained poor by design... ©Gregory E. Woods