Enlightened Free Thinking Nubian Kings And Queens

Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. was born on April 2, 1939 in Washington D.C. to Marvin Gay, Sr., a preacher, and Alberta Gay, a housewife and school teacher. Gaye was the second eldest of Gay Sr.'s children and the third overall of six. He had two sisters: Jeanne and Zeola, and three brothers: Michael Cooper, Frankie Gaye, and Antwaun Gay. Michael Cooper was from his mother's previous relationship while Antwaun was born as a result of his father's extramarital affairs. Marvin Gaye’s childhood can be characterized by developing an early love of music in the face of an abusive relationship with his father. Marvin Gaye’s introduction to music began by singing in his father’s church choir when he was only three years old. He expanded his musical abilities by learning how to play the piano and drums. Gaye was encouraged to pursue a professional music career after a performance at a school play at age 11, singing Mario Lanza's, 'Be My Love'. His home life consisted of ...

Andraé Edward Crouch, was born on 1 July, 1942, in  Los Angeles, California . Crouch’s 70's legacy is one of the richest in the gospel genre, yet he has never appealed to the music’s purists. The conservative elements in gospel music have seen his incorporation of rock n roll showmanship and riffs as inappropriate at best, and blasphemy at worst. A gifted singer, songwriter and keyboard player, Crouch undertook a traditional apprenticeship by playing piano and singing in church. For son-of-a-preacher man Andrae, 'playing church' was a childhood equivalent of playing cowboys and Indians. By the age of eight brother and sister were amusing themselves with a pie tin for a tambourine and a commode for a platform. The games came to an abrupt end when one particularly exuberant 'service' ended with the commode breaking! At nine Andrae was converted through the preaching of his father. He remembers, "I sat there in the audience listening. When he gave the...

Few details are known about the birth of Onesimus, but it is assumed he was born in Africa in the late seventeenth century before eventually landing in Boston. One of a thousand people of African descent living in the Massachusetts colony, Onesimus was a gift to the Puritan church minister Cotton Mather from his congregation in 1706. Onesimus told Mather about the centuries old tradition of inoculation practiced in Africa. By extracting the material from an infected person and scratching it into the skin of an uninfected person, you could deliberately introduce smallpox to the healthy individual making them immune. Considered extremely dangerous at the time, Cotton Mather convinced Dr. Zabdiel Boylston to experiment with the procedure when a smallpox epidemic hit Boston in 1721 and over 240 people were inoculated. Opposed politically, religiously and medically in the United States and abroad, public reaction to the experiment put Mather and Boylston’s lives in danger despite r...

Dayton, Ohio, August 7, 1865 To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jordon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the ...

St. Augustine Catholic Church of New Orleans was the first black church in Louisiana and the first black Catholic church in the United States. In the 1830's a group of free African-American New Orleanians began organizing to create a Catholic church in Tremé, a historically black and multicultural New Orleans neighborhood. With the blessing of Antoine Blanc, the first Archbishop of New Orleans, the parish was founded in 1841 and the first ceremony was held there on October 9, 1842. A group of white Catholics, angered that a Catholic church aimed at black New Orleanians was to be built, began a campaign to purchase pews in an attempt to outnumber the black parishioners. This effort was unsuccessful, as free blacks still greatly outnumbered whites. Additionally, reputedly a first in American history, black members pooled resources to purchase pews for slaves. In 2005 hurricane Katrina devastated the Archdiocese of New Orleans financially. Although St. Augustine was relatively...

W. R. Pettiford was born on his father's North Carolina farm in 1847. In his youth he worked for a tanner, then returned home to run the farm. In 1868, art the age of 21, Pettiford, who was then serving as a clerk in the Baptist church of Rocksboro, realized he had been called to spread the Gospel. By 1877, Pettiford's theological studies had led him to Selma University, where he became a member of the school's pioneer faculty. As an instructor, Pettiford was remembered by students and co-workers alike as a well-spoken, patient man who taught the advantages of hard work by example. He was also one of the most successful fundraisers the University ever had. After marrying Della Boyd of Selma, Pettiford left professorship for a pastor's duties at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Soon the Baptist pastor saw that many black workers employed in the area needed financial as well as spiritual advice. In 1890, the progressive clergyman organized the Ala...

Sisters and brothers, here's the original author of the famous church song "Amazing Grace." Amazing Grace is a song that is sung in every "Black" church that I know of. Plus, a few white churches here in Mobile, Alabama. A certain part of the song was high lighted when it was pointed out to me and that part of the song was "saved a wretch like me."  No one that I know is a wretch. Think about it. How many of you consider yourselves and call yourselves a wretch? Google's definition of the word wretch is "an unfortunate or unhappy person." As melanated people we breath life into the words that we speak. Unfortunately, a lot of us say things without thinking first. The New Webster's Dictionary And Thesaurus of the  English Language defines the word: wretch n. a person in great misfortune, a contemptible or wicked person, wretch-ed adj. miserably sad of exceedingly poor quality, construction etc., contemptible, causing or characteri...