The Overcome A Black Passover

Peter W. D. Bramble Ph.D.

Description

“The Overcome”, a liturgy of black remembrance modeled on the Jewish Passover. The awesome history of the passage since capture in Africa invites comparison with the Hebrew exodus and even the Holocaust. Instead of recoiling from the hypercharged distinctions on both sides, scholars might do well to follow the lead of Father Bramble and of Julius Lester...”
“The Overcome”, a liturgy of black remembrance modeled on the Jewish Passover. The awesome history of the passage since capture in Africa invites comparison with the Hebrew exodus and even the Holocaust. Instead of recoiling from the hypercharged distinctions on both sides, scholars might do well to follow the lead of Father Bramble and of Julius Lester...”
Twenty-one years have now passed since the Civil Rights Movement was consummated in the death (sacrifice) of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King was concerned about this question: "Where do we go from here?" He addressed that issue in economic and political terms in 1967. This book is also concerned about that very question. Where do we go from here? But its answer is different, in the first instant.
I believe that the first move out of the "crossroads" or dilemma that is suggested by this question about direction must be essentially conceptual. For there is no lack of programs, activities or even money in the black communities of America. We have enough of those. The lack resides elsewhere and the solution, as this book will indicate, is rather simple. But, it does not reside in programs, economics or things material. It is a "conceptual" solution that is needed and that will be offered in this book.
This book is not written to become one among many others that treat black problems, but it is written with the intent that it will serve to change the character and stature of blacks the world over. It seeks to change character, not by changing the name blacks are called or call each other one more time, but by simply adding to the repertoire of black thinking certain essential concepts that are missing—concepts about triumph, winning—the Overcome.
Some would immediately think that this book is simply playing with words. Wrong. One cannot think without concepts. Concepts are more than words alone. They carry descriptions, prescriptions, imperatives, conditions, etc. with them, whether spoken or not.
For example, to tell someone you love that the "roads outside are icy" gives more than a simple description. There is a silent imperative, a command if you will, to be careful in walking or driving. And anyone who understands the true meaning of icy roads would immediately pick up the hidden imperative. In like manner, when through this book I declare the Overcome for blacks worldwide, I am not simply changing the lyrics of a good and popular hymn or song: "We Shall Overcome."
After we establish the Overcome, a black Passover, the character of the black man and woman will change forever. They will now be known as men and women who overcome whatever is negative in their lives or community. The Overcome then becomes a character trait. It is not about money (in the first instance. it will be consequently), but about black propensities, predispositions, tendencies, habits and character. All the missing victory sub-concepts relevant to the black man must now be plugged into the matrix of the super-concept of the Overcome.
The black preacher and other leading change agents will need to offer saving content to the black Overcome, ideas that are already present in the community, but which cannot take root until they are incorporated in the shared value of the society. The Overcome will "collect and hold." will interpret and pass on the successes, winnings, triumphs, victories, large and small of the community. The Overcome, which must be celebrated yearly, on April 4 (around Passover and Easter on the day our primary martyr was sacrificed), will guarantee that as other more creative minds get to work on this redeeming concept of the Overcome.
The black Overcome like the Jewish Passover marks the beginning (not the end) of a victorious walk into the future.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Overcome
• African-American history
• Slavery
• History

Informations

• Publié par: iUniverse
• Date de parution: 26 février 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781663245410
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE OVERCOME A BLACK PASSOVER
 
 
 
 
 
Peter W. D. Bramble, Ph.D.
 
 
 



THE OVERCOME A BLACK PASSOVER
 
 
Copyright © 2023 Peter W. D. Bramble, Ph.D.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
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Drawing by James Earl Reid, Sculptor
 
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4540-3 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4542-7 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4541-0 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023902200
 
 
iUniverse rev. date:    10/04/2023


DEDICATION/ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work is dedicated to the many people who made it possible. To my wife Joy, and our children, Cara and David, who allowed me to write while abdicating household chores. To my mother, Margaret, who taught me, without knowing it, the real meaning of The Over come.
To Baltimore’s Saint Katherine of Alexandria Episcopal Church in Baltimore and its members who suffered 30 years ago through the development of the concepts with countless sermons on the issue and who often misunderstood the content and its very intent. Many thought it was an appeal to material overcoming. Some still cannot understand that the only overcoming that has value is conceptual and spiritual. It takes one “over” when all else is withd rawn.
Very special thanks go to my teacher and mentor, Professor Paul L. Holmer of Yale Divinity Sc hool.
He taught me how concepts function within a language. The convincing analogy about “icy roads” communicating more than a description and carrying heavy imperatives came off his lips and rested on my mind so that, in turn, I could make the move from the introduction of The Overcome concept to the imperative to lead lives in The Overcome mood. Professor Holmer influenced me greatly, and I truly thank him as I dedicate this book to him!
I also thank Paul F. Evans, of Baltimore, my friend and the publisher of the 1989 first edition of this book, for his help throughout every stage of the previous edition of this project and for his help in the second edition. I also thank Charles Lowder, the graphic designer, for his continuing assistance and in preparing this edition for further editorial work toward subsequent publication by iUniverse of Bloomington Ind iana.


EPIGRAPH
We have over come.
We have over come.
We have overcome t oday.
Oh ! Oh!
Deep in our hearts, we know for sure.
We have overcome t oday.


ABOUT PETER W. D. BRAMBLE
The Reverend Canon Peter W. D. Bramble is a retired black Episcopal priest now residing in Maryland. He served as Rector of St Katherine of Alexandria Episcopal Church in Baltimore from 1976 to 1997 and as Rector and Pastor of St Mark’s Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, New York from 1997 to 2015. St Mark’s was at the time the largest black Episcopal congregation in the United St ates.
Bramble is a graduate of Codrington College, Barbados, the Yale Divinity School and the University of Connecticut from where he received a Ph.D. degree in the Philosophy of Education in 1976. Father Bramble was one of the principals who initiated uniforms in the Public Schools of Baltimore. The project was highlighted in many major news media including TIME, NEWSWEEK, and various national TV prog rams.
Known by some as the ‘done deal man’ and labelled by The Baltimore Sun as “The Entrepreneurial Priest,” Bramble developed high rise apartments for the elderly at Baltimore’s PennNorth Plaza and in East New York, Brooklyn. He also acquired the largest Day Care Center in Baltimore, established the BATGO program to re-direct troubled youth away from the Criminal Justice System by providing them Housing, educational opportunities and job apprenticeships. That program was established over 25 years ago and still serves young people in Baltimore, Mary land.
In 1986, Canon Bramble with his wife Joy started THE BALTIMORE TIMES NEWSPAPER featuring “positive stories about positive people.” This was developed to balance out the negative vibes fed to blacks in multiple forms: they lived pathology, heard about it on radio, saw it on Television and read it in the local papers. There being no media for conveying, positive stories, The Baltimore Times was established and was so well received that the company went on to publish similar TIMES papers in Annapolis, Baltimore County, Prince George’s County and the Shore Times on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Today, only The Baltimore Times and The Annapolis Times are publi shed.
Dr. Bramble in the late 1980’s and early 1990s Published his first book: THE OVERCOME: A BLACK PASSOVER. In the book he argues for the introduction of major victory concepts into black life, something he believes must occur before blacks can overcome their various pathologies. He believes that victory concepts must be present in the thinking, hoping, talking and doing of blacks in order to enable blacks to become OVERCOMERS of the negativities that plague their story telling and their li ving.
Father Bramble later developed THE OVERCOME RITE with re-enforcing songs by people who heard Dr. Bramble speak. It is through that rite that he seeks to install THE OVERCOME as the collective victory that blacks can celebrate together. He dares to claim that the Civil Rights Movement, crowned by the death and consequent elevation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., must be seen as that which holds the collective victories that must be re-interpreted in positive ways and celebrated much as the Jewish people celebrate their Passover. He also thinks April 4, the day on which Martin Luther King Jr. was sacrificed for his people should become OVERCOME DAY!
In 1989, The Baltimore Black Academy of Arts and Letters named Father Bramble the “Living Legend in Reli gion.”


CONTENTS
Pre face
Introduc tion
What others are saying about The Over come
Chapter 1The Need for a Black Overcome/Pass over
Chapter 2Black Liberation Thinking: What It Does
Chapter 3Claim the Ghetto and Build Life-Saving Institut ions
Chapter 4Black Liberation: More Than Consciousness Rai sing
Chapter 5Dr. King’s Death and Elevation: The Symbol of the Over come
Chapter 6The Overcome Unites All Blacks: Christians, Muslims, and Rastafar ians
Chapter 7Concept Analysis: Key to Black Liberation Thin king
Chapter 8Liberation is a Capacity Con cept
Chapter 9Language, Form of Life, and Black Convent ions
Chapter 10Some Concluding Rem arks
Append ices


PREFACE
W hy reissue a book thirty years after its original publica tion?
Thirty years ago, the spirit of the times elevated the Civil Rights Movement, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who taught us that going forward, all people should be judged by “the content of their character and not the color of their skin.” That was perceived to be the closing argument of the Civil Rights Movement. No one at that time conceived that in thirty years the mantra: “to judge people by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin” would be cancelled with the introduction of a new doctrine being propagated known as “Critical Race Theory” (CRT), which claims the very opposite of what the icon of the Civil Rights Movement lived, taught, and died to estab lish.
The Overcome: A Black Passover was written to install into the thinking of blacks the fact that what they had fought for through the struggles of their foreparents had now been accomplished. All that was needed now was a new logic, a new way to interpret the fights (struggles) in such a way as to claim victory. CRT does the opposite. It directly cancels Dr. King’s message and in effect claims that there has been no progress over the years. Nothing has been achieved after all these years of struggle and fighting for equality because CRT claims that blacks effectively are, because of their black skin which is an immutable characteristic, forever locked into an inferior status when compared to whites whom they claim have special white privileges. CRT locks blacks into a permanent state of victim hood.
The attempt to crystalize into history the interpretation of the black experience in such a way as to make blacks eternal “undercomers” or victims, despite the great achievements of blacks over the years, cannot be allowed to stand. A new way of interpreting what came out of centuries of black struggles must be presented. No sensible race has ever interpreted their lives and struggles in such a way as to make them eternal losers. Rather, they interpret the facts of their history in a way to make them victorious in the end. Blacks are blessed with so many victories that can confirm their new status as Overcomers of the worst atrocities that could have been inflicted on a people. In the overcome story, we do not diminish the atrocities. As a matter of fact, however bad they are currently described, we want to suggest that these hurts could be 1