Reflection on NHD

The reason that I was interested in doing the Black Mafia for my NHD Project was because the Black Mafia was from my neighborhood. My family also knew a lot of the Black Mafia members; it’s surprising though because I couldn’t get anyone that was in the Black Mafia to conduct an interview with me. This was because they were ashamed of what they did and they were scared as well. Before I started doing research I already knew some things about the Black Mafia, all I knew was that they terrorized my neighborhood, and gave no mercy.

The most important resource that I used had to be the book that was written by Sean Patrick Griffin called Black Brothers Inc. Sean Patrick Griffin, a former Philadelphia cop turned academic, reveals how the gang was founded in 1968 by the hulking Sam Christian, who gathered around him a ferocious crew of gunmen. They ruthlessly eliminated rivals and were soon carrying out "hits" for the Black Muslims, who ultimately controlled political and street power in many neighborhoods. Another source that I used was Bet’s American Gangster, a documentary that was done about the Black Mafia. The problems about this topic were that I didn’t have a lot of sources to begin with, but the resources that I did have were used wisely.

The reason that I chose to do a documentary was because I’m very good with computers and I thought it would be kind of fun to create a documentary for the first time. In my past I created exhibits and they didn’t look very good. If I chose to do a paper I would have been to stressed. To create my documentary I used clips from bet’s American Gangster: Black Mafia and used videos from Getty Images. At the time when I was almost done my documentary my entire documentary got deleted, but I didn’t quit I restarted my whole documentary and it came out better than it was before.

This year’s theme was “Conflict and Compromise” and it wasn’t very hard for me to connect my topic to the theme. Philadelphia's 'Black Mafia' was a self-named, finite group of individuals who organized crime in predominantly African-American sections of the city beginning in the late 1960s. The group began as an extortion-centered organization and opted sometime in late 1970 or early 1971 to become, in essence, the extortion arm of the Black Muslims. Several spectacular crimes contributed to its growing reputation for violence. The Black Mafia was changing though especially after its leaders Ronald Harvey and Sam Christian were arrested. On December 31st 1973 the mob decided to celebrate with its very own New Year’s Ball. Soon after this event this organization was giving themselves a new meaning and a new name. so after this adoption of new meaning and new name, they weren’t actually causing the murders they were stopping them.Creating this project was an honor and has went down as one of the greatest projects that I have ever created.

Maya Angelou

Born as Marguerite Ann Johnson, April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Maya Angelou is an American poet, memoirist, actress and an important figure in the American Civil Rights Movement.In 2001 she was named one of the 30 most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal.Maya Angelou is known for her series of six autobiographies, starting with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, (1969) which was nominated for a National Book Award and called her magnum opus. Her volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die (1971) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.daughter of Bailey,a doorkeeper and naval dietician, and Vivian, a nurse and realtor ( maiden name, Baxter) Johnson.Maya's brother Baily Jr. gave her the nickname Maya and she got her last name from a divorced husband Tosh Angelou.Angelou is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary black literature and as a remarkable Renaissance woman. She began producing books after some notable friends, including author James Baldwin, heard Angelou's stories of her childhood spent shuttling between rural, segregated Stamps, Arkansas, where her devout grandmother ran a general store, and St. Louis, Missouri, where her worldly, glamorous mother lived. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a chronicle of her life up to age sixteen (and ending with the birth of her son, Guy) was published in 1970 with great critical and commercial success. Although many of the stories in the book are grim, as in the author's revelation that she was raped at age eight by her mother's boyfriend, the volume also recounts the self-awakening of the young Angelou. "Her genius as a writer is her ability to recapture the texture of the way of life in the texture of its idioms, its idiosyncratic vocabulary and especially in its process of image-making," reports Sidonie Ann Smith in Southern Humanities Review.Angelou also taught modern dance at Habima Theatre, Tel Aviv, Israel, and the Rome Opera House, Rome, Italy. Appeared in Porgy and Bess on twenty-two-nation tour sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, 1954-55; appeared in Off-Broadway plays Calypso Heatwave, 1957, and The Blacks, 1960; produced and performed in Cabaret for Freedom, with Godfrey Cambridge, Off-Broadway, 1960; University of Ghana, Institute of African Studies, Legon-Accra, Ghana, assistant administrator of School of Music and Drama, 1963-66; appeared in Mother Courage at University of Ghana, 1964, and in Meda in Hollywood, 1966; made Broadway debut in Look Away, 1973; directed film All Day Long, 1974; directed her play And Still I Rise in California, 1976; directed Errol John's Moon on a Rainbow Shawl in London, England, 1988; appeared in film Roots, 1977. Television narrator, interviewer, and host for Afro-American specials and theatre series, 1972. Lecturer at University of California, Los Angeles, 1966; writer in residence at University of Kansas, 1970; distinguished visiting professor at Wake Forest University, 1974, Wichita State University, 1974, and California State University, Sacramento, 1974; professor at Wake Forest University, 1981--. Northern coordinator of Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1959-60; appointed member of American Revolution Bicentennial Council by President Gerald R. Ford, 1975-76; member of National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year. Now at the age of 79 Ms.Angelou is now making special apperences at african-american events, the latest event was the groundbreaking of the African Burial Ground on October 5, 2007.

my thoughts on porn

Some people say pornography is the use of the human body to sexually arouse the viewer,if this is a good thing i totally disagree. I disagree Because the human body is not supposed to be used in any way, because when we use a person, we are reducing his or her dignity from that of a person to that of an object. Just think about it, If a person regularly used pornography, he would be so “sexually charged” up (laugh out loud) that he would need to release it somewhere. First, it would be masturbation, but because these feelings of pleasure lead to addiction, and addiction is a progressive disease, more is required than before to obtain the same sexual high previously experienced. The person would therefore seek out more thrilling ventures to meet his need for sexual pleasure. Hopefully it won't lead to raping someone.

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