Ida Wells-Barnett, predecessor of Rosa Parks reads news..

inspiCourage note!

to Ida Wells- Barnett 1862- 1931

Marian Wright Edelman
Whoever said anybody has a right to give up?

Martin Luther King, Jr.
If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.
The Trumpet of Conscience

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
Maya Angelou


Dear Ida Wells- Barnett,


I write regardless of the years that have passed since you were born and died. Your
dates are 1862- 1931. You are American. You made change happen because you preceded Rosa Parks in refusing to be mistreated in May 1888 when you were asked to give up your train seat in what they called the white section. You were removed by force and sued and you won the circuit court, but the judgement was reversed by the Tennessee Supreme Court! You used your pen to fight racism and you wrote, “I felt that one had better die fighting injustice… than die like an animal in a trap!”
Ida, the world honors you to this very day. I congratulate you! It is a great thing we have advanced so much in communication! I can Google your name and find out a lot of things, almost feel your heart and see your mind. It is almost possible to live through centuries with reading and internet. But I have to tell you a sad thing and I do not know how this will inspire us but it will make us think! We still have racial, tribal (this word and negative ethnicity bother me but I have no other) tensions. We have problems being just- I really like your struggle for it was about justice for all and not just color- to people and we base it on color or language differences! People do not see black in white still … or white in black. Humans are very careful about whether is black or white or if one has a mixture. Differences are welcome if they are preferred for beauty and so on... but when they are used for injustice.. you cannot be happy. And just to imagine that before you other people fought against slavery (18th Century)! It is getting real boring!
I wanted to tell you about the last story I read in this regard! You will not like our headlines even today and the realities are subtler than headlines. You see, the other day we read about Sallie Sanders who got keys 40 years later for a house unjustly taken from her. Her parents were not there to enjoy this. They were dead already. How sad!

Woman Gets House Keys 40 Years Later
Judge: Hamtramck Violated Rights Of Blacks In City
POSTED: Monday, January 18, 2010
UPDATED: 7:26 pm January 18, 2010
HAMTRAMCK, Mich. -- Part of a discrimination case that started in the 1960s was settled Monday when a woman was given the keys to a new home in Hamtramck.
"It was justice denied," said 6th Circuit U.S. Appeals Court Judge Damon Keith.
"I call it Black removal," said Keith. "They would go into black neighbourhoods, completely wipe it out and then didn't try to relocate them."

Just imagine that Ida! But I must keep my focus on justice! And struggle for it! So, I keep reading about courage! Below and above are some quotes I liked.

Yours,
Philo Ikonya

inspiCourage note

Marian Wright Edelman
Whoever said anybody has a right to give up?

Martin Luther King, Jr.
If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.
The Trumpet of Conscience

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
Maya Angelou