Standing On The Shoulders of Giants

Amen, Thomasena!!!

Those who do not know history are bound to repeat it.

KNowledge is POWER!!!

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has a movie that speaks on this topic the feature-length documentary On the Shoulders of Giants honors a group of sports pioneers who have been all but forgotten to time, and it celebrates the legacy of a magical game – and the shoulders that today’s players stand on. This story finds its footing in the rhythms of jazz, its roots in the Harlem Renaissance… and its voice in a group of players much too talented to be ignored.
Basketball today is a star sport, with the highly paid players, endorsements, and the fan base to prove it. But that wasn’t always the case. In the beginning, those who tried to make a living at it, black or white, had a hardscrabble life. But one immigrant from the West Indies, Bob Douglas, loved the new sport of basketball and was determined to make it profitable. To do this, he would not only have to fight for the game itself, but against the rampant racism that was determined to see him fail. His team, the New York Renaissance Big Five, affectionately known as the Harlem Rens, became the embodiment of a new attitude among African Americans who fought to be recognized for their abilities rather than for the color of their skin. They were the precursors to those brave men and women who, twenty years later, would found the Civil Rights Movement.

The story of the Harlem Rens blends almost seamlessly with the burgeoning popularity of a brand-new sound: jazz. Like jazz, the Rens were brash, young, strong, and black; all of which frightened the status quo. Which meant that, no matter how good they were, the Rens would not be given the opportunity to prove it by playing against a white team for a professional title. The best they could do was to finally arrange an exhibition game with a white powerhouse known as the Original Celtics. This pivotal game would have no official status but would show the world that the Rens – and African Americans in general – would no longer be ignored. And indeed, all of Harlem expected a win. The Celtics might be world champs, but the Rens – with jazz in their blood, and the moves to prove it – had an impressive win record.

Harlem expected a slaughter against their white opponents, and they got one: in reverse. The final score wasn’t even close. The Rens – the pride and the hope of Harlem – had lost. It was the Depression that began to turn things around, putting many basketball teams, black and white, on the road. The Rens, with their jazz-inspired moves, played the Original Celtics and other white teams, winning many more games than they lost. And though the constant contact turned former enemies – the Harlem Rens and the Original Celtics – into friends, racism was still a powerful nemesis. Bob Douglas’s goal, to have his team compete professionally against white teams, still seemed out of reach.
But in 1939, two mavericks decided to create the world’s first integrated professional basketball tournament. There had been other “world championships,” but what made this one closer to living up to its grandiose name was that this would be the first time both black and white teams would compete for a national title. Now the Rens would be forced to prove, once and for all, that they weren’t all talk: going up first against another black powerhouse, the Harlem Globetrotters, and then – if victorious – following that game with their first “official” contest against a white team: the previous year’s champions, the Oshkosh All-Stars. And nobody, but nobody, thought the Rens were ready.
Archival footage, innovative 3D graphics and reenactments, along with Interviews with celebrities and sports legends, all combine to tell the story of the greatest basketball team you never heard of – and of the heroes, both sung and unsung, who remind us that we are all standing On the Shoulders of Giants.
http://youtu.be/tGv5D-ZW4p0

By no means did I intend to imply that they were the only ones. We could make a list that will be unending. I was thinking the other day; we have so much history, it is impossible to cover it all. We may not agree on just what is the most important. Our youth are so deprived of this knowledge that any of it is good.

thank you, Irma. for trusting me with the treasures of Black History.

Actually, the one I have been thinking about is...Bessie Coleman. they called her Queen Bess. She was the first African-American--and the first woman--to earn a pilot's license. That was back in 1921 when aviation was dangerous and primitive. She had an amazing life--and like Phillis Wheatley, it was too short. She was killed when she fell out of an airplane.

Like Phillis Wheatley, she was a prodigy who came out of nowhere. She succeeded because of her personal determination and grit. Great story!!!

What do you think?

Yes, Bessie Coleman is one of a kind--and so few people know her story.

And how about your grandmother??? why don't you write about her?

Yes, Thomasena...and for me, that giant's name is always M-O-T-H-E-R / GRANDMOTHER( I can not say which one comes first though. (smile)

I do know Ida B. Wells is second on my giant list...

...and, some may be surprised at how high on the giant list I put President Thomas Jefferson. ...READ, STUDY...(smile)

@Thomasena, not to worry as "I" never could even think that you would ever do anything to try and limit our powers to learn, to teach in order to be come better , more secure as opened minded individuals. (smile)

@David, Thomasena always say it is best to study, investigate, ect....

sometimes we can be told our history and it be untrue or made to be lesss than the might and will of an individual to be all they really are. example...HARLEM REAISSANCE IN OUR TRUE ACTUAL HISTORY SHOULD HAVE NAMES OF THE CREATORS OF THIS MOVEMENT: JOSHPINE BAKER, JAMES BLAWIN, PAUL ROBERSON OF WE LOOSE TO MUCH FROM OUR BIA HISTORY...WE CAN EVEN MENTION ERTHA KITT HERE ALSO...THEY WERE REBELS WITH A CAUSE OF BEING WORTHY OF GETTING PAID AND RESPECTED FOR THEIR ART WHICH CAUSED A MOVEMENT HERE IN AMERICA...AFTER THESE GREAT GIANTS REJECTED AMERICA FOR PARIS...

THIS WE CAN NOT AFFORD TO ALLOW US TO DO AS IN OVER LOOKING HAVING IT CHANGED TO MAKE US LESS THAN THE GIANTS WE ARE AS A UNITED COMMUNITY...(SMILE)

...and, I could be wrong, but it is my personal belief that it was Mohammad Ali that brought in the era of Black American artist in all fields of entertainment / sports of them getting paid their full worth....forming their own cooperations, ect. (smile)

...now that i have gotten started I will repeat something I have said before that is not only taught by Rev. J. Wright, but is taught in BIA study music classes on how our brains work different than White brains and here is where Jazz comes in as a part of our history(from our point of view)...

WE INVENTED THE BIG BAN ERA AND IT WAS STOLEN FROM US LEAVING US ABLE TOPLAY BUT NOT STAY WHERE WE PLAYED NOR GET PAID FOR THE MUSIC WE CREATED MUCH LES THE CREDIT...

SO A FEW BLACK MUSICIANS IN NEW ORLEANS GOT TO GATHER AND FORMED A FORM OF MUSIC THAT WHITE PEOPLE COULD NOT DANCE TO NOR PLAY BECAUSE AGAIN WE HEAR DIFFERENTLY...THIS NEW REBEL MUSIC IS CALLED JAZZ. (SMILE)

WE HAVE SUCH A GLORIOUS, PROUD AND UNIQUE HISTORY BECAUSE WE ARE A UNIQUE PEOPLES. (S-M-I-L-E)

WE DO NOT DO STANDARD ANY THING AND THIS IS WHY WE DO NOT DO STANDARD ENGLISH NOR MUSIC...PAY THIS ATTENTION SOME TIMES.LOL...

I WILL SAY THIS THEN STOP TAKING UP ALL OF THE SPACE...THE NEXT TIME YOU ARE ON A DANCE FLOOR AS THERE IS NO WAY THAT WE AND THEY ARE HEARINIG THE SAME MUSICAL BEATS. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL (SMILE)

@RICH, i JUST HAD AN ANIPMY(MISSPELLED) GENERAL BENJAMINE O DAVIS WOULD BE THE PERFICT HISTORY FOR YOU TO LOOK INTO AS ANEXT BOOK AFTER YOU FENISH MS WHITNEY'S BOOK. IT WOULD BE EXCITING UNIQUE AND A HISTORICAL FIRST...LIKE A 20TH CENTURY FOLLOW UP OF ON THE WINGS OF THEWINE NON FICTION. SOUNDS LIKE A BEST SELLER TO ME. HOW ABOUT YOU BROTHER COWM.

Thanks Rich especially for not telling me to write it.lol...I am going to get around to writting that cook book, one dayloooooooooooooool (smile)

Queen Bess is just great also...

Great idea Rich, I tend to think of my grandmother each time I see a debte where senator Brown says that professor does not look Native_American. (smile)