2 Posts on the Way

Yesterday was a little crazy and I missed my post. Instead of forcing two people out and not doing either one real justice, I'm going to introduce one person and a provide a little extra information that came as a result of this person. So 2 posts today but they are slightly different than usual.

John Punch

John Punch was a servant of Virginia planter Hugh Gwyn, a wealthy landowner, a justice, and a member of the House of Burgesses, representing Charles River County. In 1640, Punch ran away to Maryland with two of Gwyn's European indentured servants. All three were caught and returned to Virginia. On July 9th, the Virginia Governor's Council, which served as the colony's highest court, sentenced both Europeans to have their terms of indenture extended by another four years each. However, the Council sentenced Punch to serve for the remainder of his life. In addition, the council sentenced the three men to thirty lashes each.

This court decision played an important significance in the establishment of a legal acceptance for slavery. This case is the first legal sanctioning of lifelong slavery and the first legal distinction between Europeans and Africans made in the colonies. This made it a key milestone in the development of the institution of slavery in the United States. For this reason, John Punch is considered the first official slave in the English colonies.

In July 2012, Ancestry.com published a paper suggesting that John Punch was a twelfth-generation grandfather of President Barack Obama on his mother's side, on the basis of historic and genealogical research and Y-DNA analysis. Punch's descendants were known by the Bunch or Bunche surname. Punch is believed to be one of the paternal ancestors of Ralph Bunche, the first African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Emily Perez

Emily Perez was born in Heidelberg, West Germany on February 19, 1983 to African American and Hispanic parents. Perez graduated high school in 2001 in the top 10 of her class. After graduation, she enrolled in the United States Military at West Point. There she became the highest-ranking African-American female cadet in the history of West Point serving as Corps Commander Sergeant Major. While at West Point, Perez ran track, outrunning most of the men, and directed a gospel choir. Following graduation in 2005, she was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the US Army.

Lieutenant Perez was deployed to Iraq in December 2005 as a Medical Service Corps officer. Shortly before shipping out to Iraq, she flew cross-country to be a bone marrow donor for a stranger. During her time in Iraq, Perez headed a weekly convoy as it rolled down treacherous roads, filled with bombs and bullets, near Najaf, Iraq. In September 2006, she was leading a platoon during combat operations south of Baghdad when a makeshift bomb exploded near her Humvee.

During her time in the military, Lieutenant Emily Perez was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraq campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, and the Combat Action Badge. After her death, she was awarded the NCAA Award of Valor. Lieutenant Perez has a grave placed in West Point Cemetery.

My Impossible List

I think we've all created those old bucket list, whether in school or on Facebook, but I never got around to anything on my list. I honestly don't know where it is at this point. I recently ran across this thing called the impossible list. I read Thomas Frank's impossible list and I just knew I needed to make one. It encourages you to take action on your goals now versus some time in the future like the old bucket list does. It is also better than the bucket list in that it is an ever-evolving list. Each goal builds on itself so you're always challenging yourself to complete the next goal. One thing Tom has on his that I really like is the "Last 5 Completed Goals" section. It's a reminder of the last goal that was completed and when. This will definitely help push me to get started on a new goal. Don't want to have too much time between completed goals!!

Current Focuses:

• Master’s Degree 

• Hapkido Skills – Started 3/20/2017

• Calisthenics

• Water – Started 3/20/2017

• Daily Workout – Started 3/20/2017

• Travel Goal 

Last 5 Completed Goals

• Visited the Bahamas (May 2016)
• Went to Carolina Rebellion (May 2015)
• Graduated from College (June 2010)

Fitness/Health Goals

• Run a mile

• Try Calisthenics as a primary workout method

• Do a handstand

• Do 100 push-ups in a single set

• Do 10 pull-ups in a single set

• Drink a 2 liters of water every day for 30 days in a row

Professional Goals

• Find a job in the forensic accounting or auditing field

• Pass the CFE Exam

• Pass the Financial section of the CPA exam

• Pay off my student loans 

Habit Goals

• Do a workout 100 days in a row – Skill: Fitness

• Meditate for at least 3 minutes 100 days in a row – Skill: Mental Focus

• Read 25 pages (non-school related) a week for 3 months in a row – Skill: Intelligence

• Write 100 words (non-school related) a week for 3 months in a row – Skill: Writing 

Creative Goals

• Start playing the saxophone again

• Learn how to play the piano

Skill Goals

• Become fluent in a foreign language
• Korean

• Spanish

• Obtain a badge on Codecademy

• Obtain a badge on Khan Academy

• Learn Hapkido
• Improve Punching Skills:
• Practice jab-cross-hook-uppercut combination daily for 30 days

• Improve Kicking Skills:
• Roundhouse Kick, Double Roundhouse Kick, Tornado Kick, Back Kick combination

• Improve Falling Skills:
• 20 high jumps a day until May belt test

• Vertical Cat Roll

• Improve Self Defense Skills:
• Knife Defense

• Improve Grappling Skills:
• 20 bridges a day until May belt test

• Receive Black Belt 

Crazy Goals

• Skydive

• Go scuba diving

• Climb a mountain

• Do the CN Tower Edge Walk

• Visit a bee farm 

Events to Attend

• Burning Man

• Running of the Bulls

• The Northern Lights

• Music Festival (Carolina Rebellion: May 2, 2015)
• Two Festivals

• Mardi Gras

• Brazilian Carnival

• Chinese New Year celebration

• New York Giants game at home

• See Dwayne Wade play 

Travel Goals

• Visit an Asian Country

• Visit an European Country

• Visit an African Country

• Visit a South American Country

• Visit an Oceanian Country

• Visit a North American Country (includes Central America but not the US) (Bahamas: May 9, 2016)
• Two Countries

• Visit Antarctica

• Visit every state in the US

• Complete the NASA Passport to Explore Space 

Life Goals

• Graduate from college (June 2010)
• Receive master’s degree 

• Seriously invest into retirement account

• Help someone achieve a goal

• Donate to a charity yearly (time, money, etc.)

• Travel to at least one new city, state, or country every year

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

In 1963, the United States was in racial unrest. Nationwide outrage was sparked by media coverage of police actions in Birmingham, Alabama, where attack dogs and fire hoses were turned against protesters, many of whom were in their teens or younger. Martin Luther King, Jr., was arrested and jailed during these protests, writing his famous letter from Birmingham City Jail, which advocates civil disobedience against unjust laws. Dozens of additional demonstrations took place across the country, from California to New York, leading up to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

The March on Washington represented a coalition of several civil rights organizations, all of which generally had different approaches and different agendas. The "Big Six" representatives were James Farmer, of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); Martin Luther King, Jr., of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC); John Lewis, of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); A. Philip Randolph, of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; Roy Wilkins, of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); and Whitney Young, Jr., of the National Urban League.

President John F. Kennedy originally discouraged the march for fear that it might make Congress vote against civil rights laws in reaction to a perceived threat. Once it became clear that the march would go on, however, he supported it. Various labor unions also supported the march.

Outright opposition came from two sides: white supremacist groups, who were obviously not in favor of any event supporting racial equality, and some civil rights activists who felt it presented an “inaccurate, sanitized pageant of racial harmony;” Malcolm X called it the "Farce on Washington".

On August 28, 1963, an estimated quarter of a million people, about a quarter of whom were white, marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, in what turned out to be both a protest and a communal celebration. Some travelling from the South were harassed and threatened on the way to the march. The heavy police presence turned out to be unnecessary, as the march was civil and peaceful. The march was extensively covered by the media, with live international television coverage.

Bayard Rustin was instrumental in organizing the march. He hired off-duty police officers as marshals, bus captains to direct traffic, and scheduled the podium speakers. In his closing remarks, Rustin stated the demands of the march were “the passage of meaningful civil rights legislation; the elimination of racial segregation in public schools; protection for demonstrators against police brutality; a major public-works program to provide jobs; the passage of a law prohibiting racial discrimination in public and private hiring; a $2 an hour minimum wage; and self-government for the District of Columbia”, which had a black majority.

The event included musical performances by Marian Anderson; Joan Baez; Bob Dylan; Mahalia Jackson; Peter, Paul, and Mary; and Josh White. Charlton Heston; representing Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando, Diahann Carroll, Ossie Davis, Sammy Davis Jr., Lena Horne, Paul Newman, and Sidney Poitier; read a speech by James Baldwin.

The speakers included all of the "Big Six" civil-rights leaders (James Farmer, who was imprisoned in Louisiana at the time, had his speech read by Floyd McKissick); Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish religious leaders; and labor leader Walter Reuther. The one female speaker was Josephine Baker, who introduced several "Negro Women Fighters for Freedom," including Rosa Parks.

The two most noteworthy speeches came from John Lewis and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lewis and the SNCC were a younger, more radical group than Dr. King's. The speech he planned to give, circulated beforehand, was objected to by other participants; it called Kennedy's civil rights bill "too little, too late," asked "which side is the federal government on?" and declared that they would march "through the Heart of Dixie, the way Sherman did" and "burn Jim Crow to the ground, nonviolently." In the end, he agreed to tone down his speech, but even the revised version was still strong, stating:

“They’re talking about slow down and stop. We will not stop. All of the forces of Eastland, Barnett, Wallace, and Thurmond will not stop this revolution. If we do not get meaningful legislation out of this Congress, the time will come when we will not confine our marching to Washington. We will march through the South; through the streets of Jackson, through the streets of Danville, through the streets of Cambridge, through the streets of Birmingham. But we will march with the spirit of love and with the spirit of dignity that we have shown here today. By the force of our demands, our determination, and our numbers, we shall splinter the segregated South into a thousand pieces and put them together in the image of God and democracy. We must say: “Wake up America! Wake up!” For we cannot stop, and we will not and cannot be patient.”

Dr. King's speech is one of the most famous speeches in American history. He started with prepared remarks, saying he was there to "cash a check" for "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," while warning fellow protesters not to "allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force." But then he departed from his script, shifting into the "I have a dream" theme he'd used on prior occasions, drawing on both "the American dream" and religious themes, speaking of an America where his children "will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." He followed this with an exhortation to "let freedom ring" across the nation, and concluded with:

“And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.’”

The March is credited with propelling the US government into action on civil rights, creating political momentum for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The cooperation of a Democratic administration with the issue of civil rights marked a pivotal moment in voter alignment within the US. The Democratic Party gave up the Solid South, its undivided support since Reconstruction among the segregated Southern states, and went on to capture a high proportion of votes from blacks from the Republicans.

Roy Wilkins

Roy Wilkins was born on August 30, 1901, in St. Louis, Missouri. After his mother died when he was 4 years old, he and his siblings went to live with his aunt St. Paul, Minnesota. Wilkins enrolled at the University of Minnesota, majoring in sociology and journalism. He worked various jobs to support his way, including an editor for the university newspaper and the African-American periodical The St. Paul Appeal. Wilkins graduated from the school in 1923.

Wilkins moved to Kansas City in 1923, taking an editorial position with the Kansas City Call. He was confronted with the ferociousness of Jim Crow laws. He decided to engage in activist work, watching politicians who were known for their overt racism, He eventually moved to New York in 1931 to serve as assistant to Walter White, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Working with the group's strong anti-lynching efforts, Wilkins also went undercover to observe and take part in the horrible job conditions African Americans worked under as part of a federally funded river initiative in Mississippi. His Mississippi Slave Labor report was instrumental in producing change for the workers.

By the mid-1930s, Wilkins had succeed W.E.B. Du Bois as editor of the NAACP's Crisis magazine, which Wilkins ran for a about 15 years. Later on, he was one of the key players in getting the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case to the Supreme Court, whose ruling declared public school segregation illegal. In 1955, Wilkins was voted in as the NAACP's executive secretary, later known as executive director.

Wilkins continued his work as a pivotal figure in the Civil Rights Movement. He believed in achieving social equality through legislation and Constitutional backing, and during speeches, urged African Americans to embrace US citizenship. He went on to become an advocate of black-owned bank lending power and met with various US presidents, including John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, to advocate on his constituency's behalf.

Wilkins was also an instrumental figure in Congress' passing of the Civil Rights Acts and the Voting Rights Act, and was one of the key leaders in organizing the historic March on Washington. In 1968, he also served as chair of the U.S. delegation to the International Conference on Human Rights. But Wilkins was wary of the more militant Black Power Movement, and was accused by some of having too conciliatory a tone. After being asked to step down by some within the organization and initially refusing, he retired from the NAACP in 1977.

Roy Wilkins died on September 8, 1981, in New York City, due to kidney failure and heart issues. He received many awards and honors during his lifetime. In 1964, he was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP and in 1967, Wilkins was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Lyndon Johnson. In 1992, the University of Minnesota created the Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Human Justice.

James Peck

James Peck was born December 19, 1914 in Manhattan. His father was a wealthy clothing wholesaler who died when Peck was 11. Peck was a social outsider at Choate, an elite Connecticut prep school, in part because his family had only recently converted from Judaism to Episcopalian. In 1933, he enrolled at Harvard. At Harvard he quickly gained a reputation as a campus radical, shocking his classmates by bringing a black date to the freshman dance. Peck stated that his mother "referred to Negroes as 'coons'" and he chose to defy her and his classmates. He dropped out of school at the end of his freshman year when "his alienation from his family and the American establishment was complete".

Peck devoted himself to organizing work and journalism on behalf of pacifist and social justice causes. During World War II, he was a conscientious objector and an anti-war activist, and consequently spent three years in jail. While in prison, he helped start a work strike that eventually led to the desegregation of the mess hall.

Peck was released from prison in 1945, and immediately joined protests to grant amnesty to WWII conscientious objectors. He worked with the Amnesty Committee in organizing protests and writing press releases. On May 11, 1946, he joined the largest amnesty protest, 100 people at the White House while prisoners carried out hunger strikes. The activists outside the White House wore black-and-white prison outfits to represent those remaining in prison. In June 1947, the group staged a "mock funeral" in front of the White House. Pallbearers dressed in formal attire and carried a coffin marked "justice."

In the late 1940s, Peck became increasingly involved in issues of racial justice, joining the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) as a volunteer. In 1961, Peck and 15 other volunteers traveled South in the Freedom Rides. He was arrested on May 10, 1961 in Winnsboro, South Carolina, for sitting in “an integrated fashion” at a lunch counter. On May 14, he was on the second Trailways bus leaving Atlanta, Georgia for Birmingham, Alabama. The first bus, a Greyhound, left an hour earlier and was burned in a firebombing in Anniston, Alabama. The Trailways bus pulled in at the terminal in Anniston and eight Klansmen boarded and assaulted the Freedom Riders.

Later, in Birmingham, Peck was one of the first to exit the bus, into a crowd of Klansmen who, with the organizational help of Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner, were waiting for the Freedom Riders. As described by a CBS reporter at the time:

"Toughs grabbed the passengers into alleys and corridors, pounding them with pipes, with key rings, and with fists. One passenger was knocked down at my feet by twelve of the hoodlums, and his face was beaten and kicked until it was a bloody pulp. That was Jim Peck's face."

Peck was severely beaten and needed 53 stitches to his head. It took more than an hour for Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth to find an ambulance willing to take Peck to the all-white Carraway Methodist Hospital, where staff refused to treat him. He was later treated at Jefferson Hillman Hospital.

Peck was now recognized as a white civil rights hero. He traveled around the nation representing CORE in speeches, and gained even more attention for the Movement on June 5, when he confronted President Truman about his recent remarks denouncing the Freedom Riders, making Truman seem behind the times in racial justice. At Peck's suggestion, a Route 40 Freedom Ride project was launched by CORE in December 1961, resulting in half the restaurants desegregating along Route 40 in Baltimore. He was one of the main leaders for the Project Baltimore campaign, which led to more restaurants desegregating. And that summer, he was one of the leaders for the Freedom Highways campaign, which sought to integrate highway restaurants in North Carolina.

Following the Freedom Rides, Peck became good friends with William Lewis Moore, a white civil rights worker who became a martyr for the movement after he was shot and killed in the south during his solo Freedom March in 1963. When Moore was killed, Peck delivered the eulogy at his funeral, and then gave the opening speech on May 19, when several dozen activists continued the march from where Moore was shot down. After the walkers were arrested and taken to jail, Peck and others marched to the jail singing Freedom songs.

On August 2, 1963, Peck was one of 30 people arrested for performing a sit-down in the street, while protesting the discriminatory state policies for the construction of the Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. On October 20, he spoke about the racist policies in front of 700 demonstrators at a New York City rally. On August 28, 1963, Peck represented CORE at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He then traveled to Bowie, Maryland, to picket the discriminatory housing policies. On April 22, 1964, Peck was one of the leaders for CORE's campaign at the opening day of New York's World Fair, protesting the discriminatory policies held by most companies sponsoring the Fair. More than 300 demonstrators were arrested on the Fair's opening day, including Peck, James Farmer, Bayard Rustin, and Michael Harrington.

In March 1965, Peck represented CORE at the march from Selma to Montgomery. He spoke as a CORE representative that day. When Peck returned home after the march, he personally funded Martin Luther King's campaigns, especially his 1968 Poor People's Campaign. When Dr. King was assassinated in April 1968, Peck honored him by traveling to Memphis on April 8 to join 40,000 other demonstrators in marching in support of the Memphis Sanitation strike that Dr. King had supported prior to his death. After the Memphis March, he traveled to Atlanta for Dr. King's funeral, which concluded with 50,000 demonstrators marching over four miles. In May 1969, he joined Coretta King and Ralph Abernathy in Charleston, South Carolina, to support black nurses on strike.

In 1975, Gary Thomas Rowe Jr. testified that he was a paid FBI informant in the Klan, and that on May 14, 1961 the KKK had been given 15 to 20 minutes without interference by the police. Peck filed a lawsuit against the FBI in 1976, seeking $100,000 in damages. In 1983, he was awarded $25,000, and by this time was paralyzed on one side after a stroke.

James Peck continued civil rights activism into the 1970s, until his stroke. By 1985, he had moved into a nursing home in Minneapolis, where he died on July 12, 1993, at age 78.