Comments on: Humbling Response

By: george curley

george curley — Sun, 02 May 2010 12:55:45 +0000

Such a gloomy morning in West Al. It is May 5 2010. The anniversary of the disaster. I know for myself, although I had very little direct info on the happening, I get misty eyed thinking especially of my Dad sitting on the bridge and waiting on his brother Jim. Mr Carradine has set up a display at the West Jefferson school through Thur. of this week.. I have a copy of a ballad written at the time. I found it in a 1917 Atlas. Although mimeographed it is legible. Mr Carradine found a photo of my Uncle who was about 18 and had been working in the mine for years. Not so much for those relatives, but we are losing our Country to ones who have no concern for the prices paid by our forefathers. Speak up. Gerorge

By: George Curley

George Curley — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:21:53 +0000

While these deplorable facts remain to haunt us, Rest assured that many whites as well as free blacks were involved in the similar situations. My father was on the river bridge in 1910 at Palos Mine when the explosion killed 90 + people including a mailman and another small boy on the same bridge. My father went to work in the mines at twelve years of age. He probably was employed here also. So many of the men had come from England to Pennsylvania to B’ham
to more of the same old same old they had in the dank pits in England. They also were victims of the Molly McGuires who followed them here. I think your research and literary work is of immense value,but while off the subject, the other participants regardless of race were victims also. I have original news reports of segregated morgues at the site. Black women were allowed to identify their relatives but it was considered improper for the white women to identify their mates.

By: voguishchic

voguishchic — Tue, 05 May 2009 04:29:14 +0000

wow. so informative. keep up the good work.

By: Larry

Larry — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:29:38 +0000

To George Abruzzese i leave you this quote from George Santayana ” Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ” Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Can you tell the Jews to forget the Holocaust? If you are ashamed of the past, face it and accept it in order to overcome your shame and you will be free……

By: Michael Luce

Michael Luce — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:29:56 +0000

I have just spent the last twenty four hours reading your book. Today, on Father’s day, I have regaled my children and a number of friends with the new historical truth…It is always exciting to learn new twists to the story of the world, but it is horrible for America and American historians to have perpetuated the myths of the south and of Thomas Dixon, as fact…it is even more horrible that America allowed neo-slavery to develop and be maintained. I guess they didn’t know about this slavery in the south…as the Germans never knew about the extermination camps! Let us see what reaction this work gets, it took us years before the destruction of Native Americans was admitted into curriculums…and this may be as tough a part of American history as there can be to tell.

By: Jean Hays

Jean Hays — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:30:12 +0000

I have just finished listening to your talk, Slavery by Another Name, given on 3-31-08 and rebroadcast today 6-14-08 on c-span. I am so thankful you did this work although sickening as it must have been to you it was as I see it a revelation ment to be for our nation’s road to healling and health. My we all ask for God’s mercy, forgiveness and strength to do the work we must continue to do.

By: Phillip M. Johnson

Phillip M. Johnson — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:31:05 +0000

You made an assertion that the involuntary slavery of African-Americans ended during the 40′s. I beg to differ. I met an “individual” from S.C. whom was interned at such a camp during the 70′s or 80′s in N.C. He escaped and later returned to S.C. He would further state that upon his return to S.C., during the early morning hours, he spotted the “slave catchers” from the camp looking once again for unwitting prospects to take back to N.C. Until I heard you discuss this particular fact on the Tavis Smiley Show, I didn’t believe it. But now I do. He told me this “now verified truth” last year in 2007. Upon my return to S.C., their have been a myriad of “hidden truths” that have been unearthed. Keep up the good work.

By: Oliver R. Hunter. Esq.

Oliver R. Hunter. Esq. — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:30:28 +0000

Thank you so much Mr. Blackmon for giving voice to all those men and women who endured this “re-enslavement” that many of us today find difficult to reconcile with the notion that we live in a “democracy”. I often recall the stories of my father about the harsh life of sharecropping in Southwest Georgia during the 1920s and 30s. I think for years I have had an outline of what life was like for blacks during that era, but you did so much with your book to help color it all in for me. I am just beginning the book, but from the very first page I found it absolutely compelling. Without yet having finished the book, I am encouraging friends and colleagues to get your book and to host book discussions/parties in our homes to help facilitate the racial healing so many of our leaders talk about. Again, THANKS !!!

By: Ron Strauss

Ron Strauss — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:30:46 +0000

Douglas, your excellent book shines a bright light into a dark corner of human behavior. The roots of neoslavery you describe spring from prejudice and ethnocentrism, and economics and politics. Good economic and political outcomes to the perpetrators helps stimulate and ‘institutionalize’ the practices described by you. Prejudice and ethnocentrism enables us to ‘dehumanize’ and demonize others. The U.S. government condoned and supported policies that created economic and social neoslavery well after WWII in the form of, for example, real estate and banking practices. These practices made it difficult for certain minorities to build economic wealth based on real estate when compared to white Americans in similar economic circumstances; thus limiting minority members’ ability to become self-employed, as well as supporting a continuation of geographically segrated society. Slavery is alive and well throughout much of the world today in the form of indentured workers, child ‘soldiers,’ kidnapped sex workers, etc. It respects no lines of color or ethnicity. It is a disease of the human soul that reflects a failure of morals and imagination. The cure? Respect yourself, and then treat others as you would like to be treated.

By: frank

frank — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:31:21 +0000

Mr. Abruzzese’s voice rings similiar to that voice of those tragically ancient minds who condone the enslavement of freemen. Mr. Abruzzese and his sentiments would be familiar to those who gave similiar justification for the crimes committed by the Third reich in Nazi germany.