[ISSUE TWENTY-TWO]
Dr. Jamye Coleman Williams:
A Passion for Education and Justice
By Alice Bernstein in The Tennessee Tribune
Dr. Jamye Coleman Williams, educator, activist, and leader in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, is a vibrant, contemporary woman who has fought for equality in education and civil rights 1) as an educator for over 48 years in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); 2) as a civil rights activist in the 1950s-60s; and 3) in the AME Church.
Writing about Jamye Williams’ life and work, I’ve thought often about this principle, central in Aesthetic Realism, “All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves.” I respect the way she is trying to put together the opposites of erudition and passion, bravery and caution, courage and sympathy.
In her address at Harvard, she expressed pride in having taught the humanities to thousands of students at five Historically Black Colleges and Universities, four of which are AME colleges and being part of their educational experience. She urged the students present, so fortunate in their access to knowledge, to “combat the obstacles to parity in education for African Americans.” When Jamye Williams says “Thank God for the black college,” it is a statement that takes in her whole life, and it is meant!
Read the complete article as published in the Tennessee Tribune.
Eli Siegel's Poem about Martin Luther King Has
What
Bob Zellner—& America—Are Hoping For
As we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King and his courageous opposition to racism and economic injustice, I want people to know a great poem by Eli Siegel, founder of Aesthetic Realism: "Something Else Should Die." It was written on April 4, 1968, a few hours after the news broke that Dr. King had been assassinated, and I believe it expresses what America, and every person in our troubled world, is hoping for:
A Poem with Rhymes
In April 1865
Abraham Lincoln died.
In April 1968
Martin Luther King died.
Their purpose was to have us say, some day:
Injustice died.
Abraham Lincoln, as Dr. King himself recognized, wanted the murderous injustice of slavery to end. He considered The Emancipation Proclamation, written in his own handwriting, "the central act of my administration and the great event of the 19th century."
Martin Luther King is loved for his bravery, sincerity, and enormous energy in fighting for the social and economic rights of people of all races, and against America's vicious, unjust war in Vietnam, saying:
What would it mean for injustice to die? I think it would mean every person--world leaders and private citizens--honestly answering this question Mr. Siegel asked, "What does a person deserve by being a person?"--and wanting to be a means of every person getting what he or she deserves. Along with good food, a home, education, and a job that is useful and paid fairly, I believe every person deserves to be seen fairly, ethically, as having feelings as deep and as real as
our own.
All of us at the Alliance are proud to be a means of preserving history, some of which might never have become known, and of encouraging people everywhere to study Aesthetic Realism's scientific, kind, urgent explanation of the cause and answer to racism. To learn more about our work, visit the links on this page.
With best regards,
Alice Bernstein, Director
by Bishop Frederick C. James, shown at left: "I'd like to say what's in my heart. What this nation needs is more caring across ethnic lines. I think our nation and the world needs what Eli Siegel, the great founder of Aesthetic Realism, the philosophy of life in America and the world, teaches. It's certainly in harmony with the great religious scriptures and the heart of all faiths across this globe." Read the full story 
