Black Life

I know this truth to be self-evident: The gentle face, the dewy eyes, the beatific presence of the unnamed madonna among the rare 19th-Century photos in the collection of Jackie Napoleon Wilson belong to my grandma Hattie; to someone's Aunt Betty; to someone else's mother, May. This tintype, circa 1860, is believed to be the earliest existing image of a married African-American mother with her sleeping child. What it is not is "idealized."

I must express my great disappointment in the reelection of Judge Karlin. My disappointment and anger extend to my people in the black community who did not take the time and effort to vote to ensure this unqualified individual did not continue to hand down decisions that are unfair and unjust. I ask what does it take for this community to get motivated? As a new resident of Los Angeles County, I watched in horror and disbelief when Judge Karlin sentenced the Korean grocer to five years' probation for the killing of Latasha Harlins.

This is a trauma center. . . . When the Lord sends somebody here to be treated, everything's got to stop. --the Rev. Donald Clay The wide sweep of Central Avenue around 113th Street is quiet on this clear, sunny, Sunday morning. No signs of life are evident along the row of Watts storefronts, where New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church sits between B&B Cafe ("Coldest beer in town") and Alonso's Wrought Iron.

You can see it in their eyes--anger, hurt and frustration. The psychic scar of slavery marks each of the faces pictured in a display at the Museum of the Confederacy. "Before Freedom Came," an exhibit on American slave life, takes the visitor on a walk through courage, creativity and the triumph of the human spirit. The exhibition is described as the country's most comprehensive documentation of Southern black life in the days before the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln's proclamation of freedom.

This is a place where Baptist hymns, African music--and sometimes dancers--commingle with traditional ceremony. Where people clap to the music if they wish, applaud the choir, and feel free to say "Amen." Where red, black and green African-American freedom flags hang over the altar on either side of a crucified Christ, and the flag colors are repeated on the altar cloth. Where a portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., painted by associate pastor Rev.

Singular and imposing, Black Mountain's dark, chaparral-covered bulk heaves into the sky over Rancho Penasquitos, Sabre Springs, and Rancho Bernardo. The cluster of microwave antennas bristling on top testifies to the mountain's importance in line-of-sight electronic communication, and suggests how inclusive a summit view you get from there in really clear weather.

Pastor Kenneth J. Flowers: The black church congregation was traditionally made up of mostly women. Many black men felt the church was weak. They couldn't deal with "Love your neighbor and your enemy." They thought that meant you were being a wimp. So a lot of men stopped coming. In the last year, I've wanted to reach out to the African-American male. I started gearing my seminars to supporting and uplifting the black male. Now the major new membership is made of young black males from 18 to 20, up to 34 and 40. One ex-gang member joined in April.

It's got singing, dancing, a sparkling Duke Ellington score and a history marred by racism and violence. Fifty years after "Jump for Joy" was last seen on a theatrical stage, a small theater company in Chicago has lovingly revived the long-lost musical about black life in America, and viewers are cheering.

With her astounding decision that the killing of Latasha Harlins warranted not a single day of jail, Judge Joyce A. Karlin is destined to become the Anita Faye Hill of the California judiciary, with a stunned public forever wondering what motivated her in the most public controversy of her career. There the similarity ends. Hill, whose testimony highlighted an important issue, put her personal reputation and professional future on the line for a cause she believed in.