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News, views and events detailing the Black presence in the Americas.

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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The devil wears military boots

Mark Doyle writes for the BBC News about Father Elkin Nazrallah, a priest in Riosucio, Colombia, who is not afraid to speak out about how the wealthy have used the excuse of guerrilla fighting in the country to steal land from the poor:

"Father Elkin's devil was a paramilitary group led by businessmen and landowners - and, to my astonishment and admiration, he was not afraid to say so, quite openly, to the BBC.

"The right-wing paramilitaries said they were fighting left-wing rebels on behalf of the government. But the Catholic priest of Riosucio said the truth was rather different.

" 'These unscrupulous businessmen said they were fighting the rebels. But that was just their way getting into the area - their way of throwing the black population, and the other poor people around here, off their land,' the priest said.

" 'Massacres started taking place - we don't know why or how. But they caused the black people and the other poor farmers to flee from their farms.'

" 'The justification from the paramilitaries was that they had to chase the rebels but the result was the illegal expropriation of the peoples' farms by this group of unscrupulous businessmen,' Father Elkin said."

12:13 pm edt 

Monday, October 5, 2009

Negro League survivors reunite in Atlantic City for Pop Lloyd weekend

Jerry Izenberg wrote a column for the Associated Press that talked about an Atlantic City, New Jersey reunion for former members of the Negro League baseball Newark Eagles:

"These 11 who will gather in Atlantic City for Pop Lloyd Weekend are the keepers of a flame of conscience that reminds us that Lloyd and Rube Foster and Josh Gibson and Leon Day and Cool Papa Bell and Ray Dandridge and so many others didn't "just" play the game.

"Pop Lloyd, for whom this reunion weekend is named, was a ballplayer, a superstar in the 1920s and early ‘30s and a manager in every country where baseball was played - except on that slice of America's diamonds that remained lily white.

"It didn't matter where you played him. As a shortstop, it wasn't black baseball that referred to him as the Black Honus Wagner. It was white baseball. But the men who played in the Negro Leagues figured that was all right because in their heart of hearts, they believed that Wagner was the White Pop Lloyd."

2:40 am edt 


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