Utuado

 

This is Utuado, Puerto Rico after the storm

Este es Utuado, Puerto Rico después de la tormenta

 

 

 

This is Utuado during the storm 

 

Esto es Utuado durante la tormenta

  

Utuado at

Highway 10 & PR-111

My Fight is Over with Roger Ailes by Eddie Griffin

You may know I was very upset with Roger Ailes, if I might put it so kindly, before he died last week. Not only had he created this huge right-wing propaganda machine at FOX News, against which we had to tangle, and the fact that he used his influence and power to lord over the political arena, more egregiously he enticed pretty women into his employment to secretly exploit sexually behind closed doors and to gag and enslave them by a non-disclosure, confidentiality agreement--- meaning they were legally bound to keep silent about what happened to them in private at FOX.

 

I remember my FB postings about Roger Ailes and the cult of rich dirty old men, which included his friend Donald Trump. But some people chalked it off as locker room “boy” talk. Well now, the crown prince of rich dirty old men is dead, and I cannot just blasé over it without a word. But my upbringing taught me that “if you can’t say anything good about the dead, then don’t say anything at all.” I am not God and I cannot pass final judgment.

 

But there is something to be said, for sure, about this man who boasted to a potential prey “if you want to play with the big boys, you have to lay with the big boys.” Big Boy is now sleeping in his grave and nobody is laying with him. But the cult of dirty rich old men lives on, unabated by his death.

 

How did he die? That’s what I wanted to know. Did Old Roger do all these dirty things, get $45 million from FOX for going away quietly, and then make a sudden exit from this life scot free, without retribution or punishment? Then I noticed the Cause of Death was “Subdural Hematoma”. (A subdural hematoma is most often the result of a severe head injury, in fact “among the deadliest of all head injuries”. It reminds me of how close I came to death when I feel and broke my neck in May 2016)

 

At first report of Roger’s death, it sounded like Fake News. They say he fell on May 10, 2017. It did not make the news, until after he was pronounced dead a week ago, on May 18. What was happening during those eight days that the news did not report? And why couldn’t they save his life during that time?

 

Then I read the rest of my research on Subdural Hematoma--- Bleeding fills the brain area very rapidly, compressing brain tissue.

 

So I see, Roger fell and bashed his head and started bleeding on the brain. For eight days, his brain bled and his head swelled. Then I thought about his epitaph, written by his own hand in his 2013 book “Roger Ailes: Off Camera”. He wrote: “I’ve been prepared to face death all of my life. When it comes, I'll be fine, calm. I'll miss life, though. Especially my family.”

 

We miss Roger, too. My fight with Roger is over and I am calm, and even relieved that he is not lurking in the background waiting to launch another propaganda machine.

RE: Demoted officer: Fort Worth chief’s allegations ‘grossly inaccurate’

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article151976007.html

From the Perception of a Marion Brother:

 

There is a reason the Marion Brothers marched to the beat of a different drummer in the 1970s. We realized that inferior leadership make tactical errors, such as the one that led to the demotion of two African-American officer who were members of the command staff.

 

First: Who would have foreseen when FWPD Chief Joel Fitzgerald sent Deputy Chief Abdul Pridgen and Deputy Chief Vance Keyes to dig into the situation of Ms. Craig and her daughters’ arrest that these two trusted officers would wound up being put into the hot seat? Personally, I would have trusted no one else more than these two high-ranking African-American members of the FWPD Command Staff, due to the racist allegations against Officer William Martin.

 

But who could have foreseen their demotion? And who would have even asked them to jeopardize their jobs?

 

One thing I learned, as a Marion Brother, was to study a situation before reacting to it--- hence the difference between reactionaries and revolutionaries. There are always more interacting opposing forces in a contradiction. And if we do not correctly assess those forces, we will make mistakes in practice on how best to deal with those forces. (For example, while we were studying theoretical physics, we come to understand a postulate in the Theory of Chaos, that there is Order in Disorder. In understanding that, we could find order in the midst of natural chaotic forces inside a riot to make it where we could gain control over the situation. That was the key: Gaining Control and Mastery over Competing Forces).

 

On the other hand, lack of foresight is the hallmark of "Inferior Leadership". Most people have no idea about gaining control of a any situation, let alone a volatile situation. At best and at most, they do the same thing, the same way, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did half a century ago--- march and pray--- and expect a different result. Moreover, those who scream the loudest and protest the hardest have never been to jail. Ms. Craig and her daughters have. The rest of you need to show me your scars.

 

This is the reason Eddie Griffin told the protest organizers that “We got this”, and why I asked them to “Stand Down”. I felt that nobody understood Fort Worth better than I, and how to resolve problems with the police department. Inferior Leadership can only shake their fist at city hall and chant, “Burn it down.” And then they criticize me for not being militant enough.

 

I have heard it before, from Sandra Bland’s sorority sister: “Burn it down”. My advice to the youth in Ferguson, MO after the death of Mike Brown: “You are not militant enough.” And those who were too militant got entrapped in a police-crafted terrorist sing operation, and some arrested for their angry inflammatory rhetoric. This is why I don’t listen to Inferior Leadership. They are too inexperienced not to inflict wounds upon themselves and their followers. (Look at the Willie Lynch effect in the African-American community over this controversy, as destructive as playing Russian Roulette)

 

When people sent their problems to us, the Marion Brothers, we took ownership. We took control of the problem. The buck stopped with us. In taking control of the problem, we took responsibility for its solution. When you take control of the problem and responsibility for its solution, there is no scapegoating. Like the time when activists on the streets wrote to The Brothers in prison about the problem of elderly people buying and eating dog food during the 1970s, because it was cheaper. We did not complain to the government. We drafted a Community Survival Plan, with the concept of Block Gardens, to feed the elderly.

 

We never cried about one problem. While others cried about Police Brutality, the Marion Brothers declared it nothing more than a fair fight. And getting killed in the process was part of the risk that comes with the price of admission. Otherwise, we refused to be labeled a victim, and always found a way to win the fight. We understood the Law of Forces and the Theory of Chaos and found Order within Disorder, to shift the Balance of Power to our favor. (And some of them don't even know what I'm talking about)

 

To my friends who protest the loudest, but have never been to jail, there is no such thing as Unfair and Police Brutality. You either survive it or you don’t. If you survive it, then it was a Fair Fight. I can only empathize with the more delicate and fragile species, and those who have been publicly humiliated like Ms. Craig and her daughters. But don’t try to tell Eddie Griffin about pain. Whatever it is, it doesn’t hurt me anymore.

 

I was the man they tried to freeze to death, and nothing hurt like cold. I can tell you when I heard the crunch of frost forming on my eyeballs, one blink from freezing to death with my eyes wide open in a strip cell. They pushed my threshold for pain to the point where nothing hurt me again, not even a wounded pride. I can take a punch and turn the other cheek, because I became immune to pain. NO, I will not sob for myself, nor confess my pain to anyone but God in heaven.

 

So, give me a break. Disagree with your peers. Don’t disagree with a season warrior who earned the stripes of a 5-star general.

What to do about the Release of 6,000 Prisoners

Coming Soon: Release of 6,000 Prisoners

 

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is preparing to release roughly 6,000 inmates from federal prisons starting at the end of this month as part of an effort to ease overcrowding and roll back the harsh penalties given to nonviolent drug dealers in the 1980s and ’90s, according to federal law enforcement officials… The release will be one of the largest discharges of inmates from federal prisons in American history. It coincides with an intensifying bipartisan effort to ease the mass incarcerations that followed decades of tough sentencing for drug offenses — like dealing crack cocaine — which have taken a particularly harsh toll on minority communities.

 

COMMENTARY BY Eddie Griffin:

 

Although this is the largest discharges of inmates from federal prisons in American history, it has been a long time in coming. Since 2005, we have decried mass incarceration, because it robs our community of men and women who cannot rear a family or raise their children, leaving the burden upon grandparents, state and welfare agencies, and charities. Politicians now realize the cause of mass incarceration date back to the implementation of draconian sentencing guidelines, zero tolerance policies, and unfair criminal justice practices.

 

Therefore, this release will be an answer to our prayers to bring our children home, up out of captivity. While there is still remnant of the tough-on-crime regime, we realize that this move by the Obama administration will go a long ways in helping us rebuild our broken families. We want to make our family unit viable again in the decimated minority community. But, in order to do so, we must be prepared to receive them back into our community and assist them in reintegrating into society.

 

It is unfortunate that so many cities and states are unprepared to help these previously incarcerated persons (PIPs) make the transition back into society. We, in Texas, should be better prepared.

 

We began with a simple theory, which ran counter to popular notions. We believed that if PIPs were successfully reintegrated into society that we would reduce the rate of recidivism and began rebuilding our community, especially the black communities where one-in-three young black males are incarcerated, at some point in their lives. We only asked that society give our children a fair chance. Therefore, we began advocating for new legislation and fair sentencing guidelines. This resulted in the passage of the Second Chance Act and Fair Sentencing Act.

 

In 2006, Tarrant County created the Ex-Offender Re-entry Initiative, whose mission was:

To facilitate the collaboration of Tarrant County community groups, public health officials, treatment providers, educational institutions, legislators, human services groups, housing officials, workforce development groups, faith-based organizations, families, former inmates, victims’ advocates, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, courts and correctional agencies to develop a planning strategy for the effective reintegration of ex-offenders, thereby reducing recidivism, supporting victims and promoting public safety in Tarrant County.

 

The program proved so successful that other cities, like Dallas, began to emulate it. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice Reentry and Integration Division program is based upon our prototype. Now, after much hesitation, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has created its own Reentry Program, utilizing the same model but disconnected from the state’s reentry network.

 

There was a major shift in the purpose of incarceration, based upon the fact that most prisoners would eventually be release. And, if a support network is not provided for them, then they would be faced with the arduous task of finding a place back into society by themselves. The only beneficiary would be the prison system. Thus, it would be the only governmental agency paid to fail. This was the paradox that caused us to look upon a successful reentry model as a viable means of reducing crime, as well as the growing prison population, and for giving us an alternative to increased levels of incarceration.

 

We set up priorities, based upon the basic needs of PIPs reentering society. First and foremost, an ex-offender would need a copy of their birth certificate in order to get a social security card, without which they are unemployable. These documents are also necessary in order to get a driver’s license or a state-issued identification card in Texas. This priority does not change, regardless of city or state in which a man or a woman would be released.

 

Other individual needs include assistance in housing, employment, food, clothing, and a variety of mental health issues. Because Texas was in the forefront of recruiting a network of support services in these areas, we were able to simplify our means of accessing these services. Most services can be accessed by simply dialing 211 in Texas. The 211 system serves as a clearinghouse for all support services in the state of Texas, including those coming through the Criminal Justice.

 

The only problem with the 211 infrastructure is the fact that not all service organizations are listed. This is due to a lack of collaboration and coordination, because many social service organizations still work in silos, with each trying to reinvent the wheel. Nevertheless, a newly released inmate need only dial 211 in Texas to find assistance for accessing these services, although some ex-drug offenders will be hindered in getting food stamps and housing assistance because of existing laws, not to mention the problem of restoring their voting rights.

 

We also had to address the lack of education issue as an obstacle to successful reentry. Therefore, we helped create GED programs and vocational training programs inside the prison and provided entrepreneurial guidance upon release. We had to remove licensure restrictions in order that some could become licensed plumbers, electricians, and barbers.

 

To date, this is as simple as we could make it, except for the fact that many support agencies and non-profits are not incorporated in the network. For example, in Fort Worth, Texas, the Federal Bureau of Prisons utilizes Volunteers of America, as a Residential Reentry Center, which does not appear in the state’s master 211 system under the category of Criminal Justice along with other state-registered organizations. That is because the federal government does its own thing, and the state its own thing. But the solution to this lack of connectivity is to continue building the network and trying connect all resources.

 

Nevertheless, there is still one major area in Mental Health that experts have not been able to adequately address, and that is former inmate suffering from the “Arrested Development Syndrome”--- which is like the Rip Van Winkle effort or Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock syndrome. It is akin to taking a quantum leap from the past into the future, which usually results in a crash with the realities of the new world. As one writer noted, some prisoners due to be released by November 1, 2015 have never used a cell phone. Some will be using computers for the first time to seek employment. And even if they used these devices in the past, they will still be confronted with many new things that they will find challenging. (Here I speak of “challenge” as a degree of cognitive retardation and a lack of social skills). This is why we look upon computer literacy as one of the basic skill in navigating through the new world. Therefore, the reentry model must also take into account re-orientation and re-socialization, as legitimate mental health issues.

 

Mass incarceration is also proving to be untenable. In 2007, when we demonstrated that the majority of juvenile offenders should not even be incarcerated, the state began releasing massive number of juveniles and depopulating these detention facilities, which led to an eventual reduction in adult prison facilities.

Prevention strategies in the school-to-prison pipeline reduced the juvenile prison population by more than 2,000 in 2007, and resulted in the closure of 7 or 8 facilities because the cost of incarceration per capita had risen to nearly $90,000 per year. Likewise, Restorative Justice and Restoration strategies reduced the adult prison population in Texas. Now the Federal Bureau of Prisons is reporting a reduction of 8,426 inmates for the fiscal year of 2015.

It is an economic fact that for each redeemed prisoner, the per capita cost of incarceration goes up for the others. This trend has caused states to cut back on their prison budget.

 

In a memorandum issued by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prison, issued May 12, 2015, in anticipation of the immediate release of the 6,600 prisoners, to be followed by more (altogether about 30,000 inmates), the Justice Department called upon all Residential Reentry Directors to instruct their managers to work closely with community-based RRC contractors to accommodate these releases and “facilitates these offenders successful return to the community”.

 

eddiegriffin_basg@yahoo.com

Reducing Mass Incarceration- From Theory to Practice

Mass Incarceration was a term we created as a descriptive of a process. Too many young black men were going to jail and prison, leaving behind a void in the family structure. The biggest problem was father leaving their children behind. The burden of child support falls on others, namely mothers without their men, grandparents, charities, and state agencies.

 

As a child’s rights advocate, it is my job to look after the survival of these children, and all other children who are neglected and abused. From a sociological point of view this means the well-being of a child, from conception to viability, until the child is able to survive in society on their own. They call these “at-risk” kids because of environmental risks and challenges that these children must overcome before they can take their place in society.

 

Old School Revolutionaries, who have studied the risk factors in current society, build the necessary support systems as bridges over which these children can overcome their obstacles. The ultimate objective is to provide a strong foundation for the family, which entails the survivability of the mother, her child or children, and the reclamation of the absentee father. A strong family is the building block of our society and a participant in the governing and control of that society.

 

With this perspective, we focus upon the Child, Mother, and Father, as the basic unit of our society. As an Old School activist, I am member of the Strong Family and Community Services team of the Morningside Children's Partnership. We are into the second year of implementation of our Cradle-to-Career Initiative.

 

In homes where the fathers are MIA, the family unit is Mother and Child. Their basic needs include food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, and financial assistance (in lieu of the missing potential income of the absentee father). For this purpose, we began building a support network of social services to assist and guide mothers and children in accessing these resources. This system has since grown into a statewide network, now centralized and coordinated by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission through the 211 System. The Texas 211 hotline is free and available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and provides contact information to the following catalog of services:

 

Housing/Shelter

Crisis/Emergency

Aging/Disability

Employment

Income/Expenses

Health/Medical

Food/Nutrition

Legal Aid/Victims

Mental Health

Veterans

Criminal Justice

Child Care/Education

 

In order to address the specific problems facing young black men, from youth through fatherhood, we addressed the School-to-Prison Pipeline, the Criminal Justice System, Incarceration, and Post-Incarceration.

 

The starting point and the ending point are one and the same: How to help young men become good fathers. For this purpose, we created a local chapter of the Fatherhood Initiative, with a wealth of information and contacts in the “Dad’s Pocket Resource Guide”. A lot of the listed resources may also be accessed through the Texas 211 System.

 

The head of the School-to-Prison Pipeline begins inside the public school system. By tracking students going through the AEDP (disciplinary process), we can estimate the rate of Juvenile Delinquency in the FWISD. The Texas Education Agency provides an annual report on the number of disciplinary actions taken within the school system, but daily reports can be generated whenever necessary. This helps us to identify which schools or which students need an intervention strategy.

 

We have also worked with the Fort Worth Police Department and the Juvenile Courts to save as many young people as possible from incarceration. As of late, we have worked diligently to prevent our young black men from being killed by the police during confrontations.

 

We have worked collaborative with faith-based organizations and the Texas Parole Division to successfully reintegrate ex-offenders back into society. We developed a reentry strategy that has proven so successful that the state modeled its program after it. (See Texas Department of Criminal Justice Reentry and Integration Division).

Forgive the Confederacy for the Sins of Slavery

By Eddie Griffin

 

 

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AFTER the great War between the States, we do not need to blow up Stone Mountain to find consolation for the sins of slavery. When the bereaved daughter of Ethel Lance told the gunman in the South Carolina church shooting, “I forgive you”, it was finished. It was out of her hands, and into the hands of God.

 

Even Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He forgave, and he is the Son of God. Are we greater than he? Could we have done better ourselves? By virtue of a divine pardon, written in Ezekiel 18:20: The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son.

 

In order not to hold the descendants guilty for the sin of their forefathers, Eddie G. Griffin let it go, a long time ago. I truly believe they knew not what they were doing. To them, slavery was about property rights and the law of property, governed, and protected by the state. It never occurred to them that slavery was a sin before the eyes of heaven.

 

They never recognized the humanity of those they held in bondage, until the Confederacy was collapsing. Humbled by proximity of defeat… Appomattox less than a month away… They asked the slaves to help fight the Yankees, with permission of the owners, of course.

 

Robert E. Lee's General Orders #14 issued on March 23, 1865

Ethelbert Barksdale of Mississippi, in the Confederate Congress, introduced a bill granting Davis the power to accept black men as soldiers, but only with their masters' permission. Masters were also permitted, but not required, to emancipate slaves who completed terms of service in the Confederate army. After strenuous debate, and with the endorsement of General Robert E. Lee, the House of Representatives narrowly passed.

 

The contentious debates centered on the humanity of the Negro, whether he was more than a primitive savage, with intelligence barely above a baboon, and only capable of menial labor. In other words, was he not an inherently and genetically retard? Therefore, if they allowed the Negro to fight in the Confederate army, wearing the proud uniform of Dixie, then they must admit that they were wrong… wrong about the Negro… and everything else… including their whole system of slavery. But some senators were so hell-bent on this hierarchical ideology that it required two senators to change their votes for passage.

 

Thus, after passage of General Order #14 on March 23, 1865, it was left up to Maj, James W. Pegram and Maj. Thomas P. Turner to hastily put together the “Negro Brigade” of Confederate States Colored Troops, and throw them up in defense Richmond, while everybody else was evacuating. But it was too little, too late, because Gen. Robert E. Lee faced two titanic battle-hardened armies, converging on the capital city … One Black: XXV Corps, U.S. Colored Troops… One White: XXIV Corps.

 

By April 3, 1865, Lee was forced to evacuate Richmond. For the next six days, the Union army closed in the Army of Northern Virginia, and tracked them until Lee was finally cornered at Appomattox. By fate or by fortune, Col. Ulysses Doubleday, 2^nd Brig, 2^nd Div., XXV Corps USCT and Col. William W. Woodward, 3^rd Brig., 2^nd Div. XXV Corp. USCT, were sent into Appomattox on April 9, 1865, as part of Union forces sent to mop up the rest of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

 

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER the Great War between the States, in 1965, Eddie G. Griffin was a student at Arlington State College. We engaged in protest demonstration to bring down the Old Dixie flag that flew over campus. We were supported by one college professor, Dr. Alan Saxe. And, it was the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

 

The battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia was raised in the prominent and sovereign place of Old Glory. And every year when they celebrated Old South Week on campus, white students would pull out their great-grandfather’s old Confederate Civil War uniform, with their swords, and flags and hoopla over Dixie and the theme “The South Shall Rise Again.”

 

After a three-year fight, led by the Student Non-Violent Committee (SNCC), the flag came down, the college underwent a name change and reorganization (now University of Texas at Arlington), and the school’s mascot was changed from Rebels to Mavericks.

 

In retrospect, knowing now what I could not have known then, I should have pitied them. They celebrate what never was, and reenact what never happened. But a lie repeated often enough it becomes the truth in the mind of those who want to believe it.

 

IT IS EASIER TO FORGIVE when you know the truth. As Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” For with truth, comes the consolation of peace of mind. But to the liar, and “those who love a lie”, the biggest lie is the one that you tell to yourself. And, the saddest lie is the one you convince yourself is the truth.

 

The truth behind the Civil War is that the Dixie died, crushed by a humiliating defeat. And our forefathers, the U.S. Colored Troops, played a more prominent role in it than history gives them credit for. This is why, whenever they reenact the Confederate side of the War, knowing the truth themselves, they intentionally skip these key battles, simply because our Colored forefathers were the heroes… at Battle of Appomattox, the Battle of New Market Heights, and select battles in Petersburg-Richmond Campaign.

 

BUT IF, as they say, you can’t miss what you can’t measure, then how were we to know the truth if it were not in the history books, or how would we know what for to search, if there were no reference? This was ignorance and vexation of the spirit, when you are growing up in the Deep South, with the truth being hidden in the 1950s. It was not until the 1960s, when the Black Consciousness Movement ushered in a second Afro-Black Renaissance. We rediscovered the first Colored-Black Renaissance (c. 1900) and the writings of W.E.B. DuBois who, so happened to preserved the memory of the U.S. Colored Troops of the Civil War, and a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar entitled, “When Dey Listed Colored Soldiers”.

 

Up until then, we had nothing concrete, only old wives stories and folklore about black soldiers fighting in the Civil War. Otherwise, our forefathers in the Union Army were completely whitewashed… not only from the charades, parades, and reenactments of Civil War battles… but bleached from the books of history, and purposely ignored or distorted by Hollywood (in movies like Birth of a Nation, Gone with the Wind, and most recently Glory).

 

NEVERTHELESS, IT IS EASIER TO FORGIVE when you have the consolation of knowing that we won and they lost… to God goes the Glory… It was called, by some contemporary account, a “divine retribution”. President Abraham Lincoln was of the persuasion that it was Providence. I believe the same also, that it was the Will of God to “set the captives free”.

 

YET: What they said at the beginning is not what they said at the end about the beginning. So once again, they are changing the new history textbooks in our schools to suit their fantasies of what never was. And, as if it were not bad enough to whitewash the U.S. Colored Troops out of history to begin with, the revisionists are once again fabricating a new reason as to why the war was fought.

 

NOWADAYS, they are quick to point out that Lincoln did not start out to free the slaves.

 

In President Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address of March 4, 1861, he stated that he had no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. “I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”

 

Not that Lincoln was racist, as some distorters would have us believe, but that, at the time (1861) he would have said anything to keep the Union from falling apart, and slaveholding states following the secession steps taken by South Carolina, who had already seceded from the Union as early as April 26, 1852, some eight years before his election.

 

NOWADAYS, they would say that the War was fought over states’ rights and not over slavery. But Texas Articles of Secession accused the states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa of “deliberately, directly or indirectly” violating the 3rd clause of the 2nd section of the 4th article of the Constitution by not enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law within their borders.

 

It was a war waiting to happen. Not that the Emancipation Proclamation could free the slaves in Rebel states where it could not be enforced, but that the Proclamation only gave our forefathers a fighting chance to win it for themselves. Shortly after going into effect, by March 1863, the Union officially began recruiting Colored Troops.

 

AFTER concessions to truth, they now admit that there were more that the 54^th Massachusetts U.S.C.T., that there were about 180,000 black troops who served in the Union during the Civil War.

 

WRONG! It was the XXV Corps of U.S. Colored Troops that counted 178,895 black soldiers, but only after its reformation on December 3, 1864. These were the survivors of many prior battles brought together for the Petersburg-Richmond Campaign, which ended with the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, whose Army of Northern Virginia had dwindled to about 50,000 troops during the siege. This is what precipitated the Call-to-Arms for slaves by General Order #14. The Confederates had hoped to raise a force of 200,000 Colored Troops, by volunteerism or conscription. But the few that did take up arms made a miserable showing at Richmond before its evacuation on April 3, 1865.

 

After the Battle of Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865, thirty-nine black Confederate soldiers were among those who were paroled.

 

MAYBE, the War was a free-for-all, with everybody fighting for a different reason. One thing for sure U.S. Colored Troops were fighting to free their brothers and sisters from bondage. The regimental blue battle flag of the 6^th U.S.C.T. bore the slogan: Freedom for All… an angel with her wings hovering over a Colored soldier. The battle flags of other Colored units were of like motivation. The Call of Freedom,

 

To the victor goes the honor, whereas the vanquished put lipstick on pigs. Except that whitewashing history does not beautify the pig. Therefore, I say, “Let the dead bury the dead, and let the Confederacy have its heroes, and let Dixie mourn for its Lost Cause till Resurrection Day.” I should not begrudge them of their icons. Because I am reminded that if you pull on a thread, you unravel the whole suit, Dixie is in our DNA. With so many thousands of streets, schools, cities, parks, buildings, monuments, and counties named after Confederate heroes, even if it were possible to erase and rename them all, as some would suggest, we would no longer recognize where we live or where we are going.

 

Why have Pavlovian conniption, foam at the mouth, chase our tail, and bark at the moon, when we see Old Dixie waved in our face or come across the statue of a Confederate hero… like the bust of Gen. John Gregg sitting at the entrance of the courthouse in Longview, Texas, the seat of Gregg County, which was named in his honor in 1873… Didn’t he die at the Battle of New Market Heights on October 7, 1864, facing Gen. Charles Paine’s division of U.S. Colored Troops?

 

Here was a man, with no pre-war military experience, who was defeated in one battle after another, dethroned from his horse twice by a bullet to the neck, only to be resurrected and promoted time and again and finally being put in command of the famed Hood’s Texas Brigade called “the finest brigade of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. He, along with Gen. Martin Gary's dismounted cavalry brigade, was entrusted with the heavy fortified defenses at New Market Heights, which guarded the back door to the capitol city of Richmond.

 

Here he faced Paine's three brigades - commanded by Colonels John Holman, Alonzo Draper and Samuel Duncan, with the 6^th USCT Regiment and its blue battle flag being part of the Duncan Brigade.

 

CALL IT DESTINY: Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler recommended that Paine’s division lead the Union attacks… he believed blacks would fight as well as whites, and New Market Heights offered a perfect opportunity for the USCTs to prove their ability (Source: National Park Service)… The Battle of New Market Heights (Sept. 29-30, 1864) was another, in a string of suicide missions Colored Troops.

 

CALL IT LUCK: In a dense morning fog, the advancing troops came upon tangled, swampy ground, and the advance became very confused… only one division - Paine's USCTs - was able to get through the swamps, and of that division, only one brigade, Col Duncan's, advanced toward the Rebel works.

 

CALL IT TRAGIC: Upon clearing the swamps and leaving the other regiments tangled up in the rear, Paine's division came upon a double line of abatis - felled trees that defenders used to slow an advance. Soon, axe-wielding pioneers were cutting their way through when the Confederates opened fire. Duncan’s men had to lay their muskets aside in order to chop through heavy logs of obstruction. In doing so, John McMurray, Capt. of Co. D, 6th USCT, lost over 85% of his men before clearing a way for the next brigade to come through.

 

CALL IT BRAVERY: Sgt. Maj. Thomas R. Hawkins rescued the blue battle flag with one hand, while carrying Old Glory in the other. He survived the Battle of New Market Heights, only to die of his wounds in 1870, and posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

 

CALL IT PROVIDENCE: After losing over 50% of their men against Gen. John Gregg’s Texas Brigade, one by one they come through an open field, waded through a swamp, and charged up the hill of the enemy’s earthworks, and engaged them in hand-to-hand combat, until they were routed. The smaller army of U.S. Colored Troops overran the larger terrified Confederate forces, and opened the door to Petersburg and Richmond.

 

After Lee received the bad news on September 30, 1864, he immediately ordered Gregg to counterattack, thus sending him to his death.

 

On October 7, 1864, one week after losing the Battle of New Market Heights, General John Gregg was killed along the Charles City Road, near Richmond, Virginia, trying to lead a counterattack at the Battle of Darbytown and New Market Roads.

 

Responding to the loss of Fort Harrison and the increasing Federal threat against Richmond, Gen. Robert E. Lee directed an offensive against the Union far right flank on October 7. After routing the Federal cavalry from their position covering Darbytown Road, Field’s and Hoke’s divisions assaulted the main Union defensive line along New Market Road and were repulsed. Confederate Gen. John Gregg of the Texas brigade was killed.

 

THE END OF WHAT MAKES A HERO:

 

For the gallantry and valor, above and beyond the call of the duty, FOURTEEN of the U.S. COLORED SOLDIERS WHO FOUGHT THE BATTLE OF MARKET HEIGHTS received Congressional Medals of Honors from Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler, most on April 6, 1865… with Sgt. Maj. Thomas R. Hawkins receiving his posthumously in 1870.

 

FACT IS: They were never forgotten for the selfless sacrifice of over 50% of their men. Today, they are buried with double honors in our National Cemeteries, and their histories preserved by the National Park Service. And if that were not honor enough, Gen. Benjamin Butler created a special Butler Medal for the entire division that survived the crossing and turned the tide of battle, and hence the war, at New Market Height, opening the way to Richmond and Petersburg.

 

The Butler Medal, officially known as the Army of the James Medal, was named for General Benjamin F. Butler, who commissioned a medal to honor African American troops in his command for gallantry during the Battle of Newmarket Heights on September 29, 1864. The medal is silver, inscribed on the obverse with “Ferro Ilis Libertas Perveniet” and on the reverse with “Distinguished Courage Campaign Before Richmond 1864.”… The Butler Medal holds the distinction of being the only medal ever struck for black troops.

 

AFTER A HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS--- Eddie G. Griffin can forgive the Confederacy of slavery, because I find more consolation the of my forefathers, especially those from the XXV Corps who finished the job of freeing the last slaves in Texas… the 38^th U.S.C.T. who came through the Battle of New Market Heights to Petersburg on to Texas to free the last slaves in held in chattel bondage … deployed to Texas, May 24 and June 6, 1865… engaged at various points along the Rio Grande in the southern portion of the state, including Brownsville and Brazos Santiago, Galveston on the gulf coast, as well as at Indianola, Texas, now a ghost town at the bottom of the Gulf, like the lost city of Atlantis.

 

Listed below are 9 out of the 14 Medal of Honor winners and Butler Medal recipients:

 

Col. Alonzo Draper's brigade (5th, 36th, and 38th USCT)… Pvt. William Henry Barnes, Co. C, 38^th USCT, 1^st Sgt. Powhatan Beaty, Co. G, 5th USCT, Pvt. James H. Bronson, Co. D, 5^th USCT, Sgt. Maj. Milton Murray Holland, Co. C, 5^th USCT, 1^st Sgt. Robert A. Pinn, Co. I, 5^th USCT, Pvt. James Daniel Gardner, Co. I, 36^th USCT, Cpl. Miles James, Co. B, 36^th USCT, Pvt. James H. Harris, Co. B, 38^th USCT, and 1^st Sgt. Edward Ratcliff, Co. C, 38^th USCT.

 

IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM HENRY BARNES, who survived to reach Texas... the first among the three over top at New Market Heights… engaging the enemy in hand-to-hand combat, while bleeding from a shoulder wound, yet defying every bullet… walking over and through Gregg’s Texas Brigade… marching right into Petersburg… boldly coming into Texas to finish capturing the state, and freeing the last slaves on June 19, 1865, Juneteenth.

 

After all this, he dies, less than two years later, of tuberculosis in an Army hospital in Indianola on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1866. A marker in his memory was placed in San Antonio National Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas.

 

And so I forgive the Confederacy for the sin of slavery, in memory of my forefathers who fought their way to victory over slavery.