The first words out of the mouths of the first African kidnap victims was never written down. It probably was more of an anguished cry of one who felt forsaken in the eyes of God, rather than words anyway. The depth of that particular pain is beyond the reach of words.

From that time on African Americans have gone as far as risking their own lives in order to write down their story. Until relatively recently, reading and writing were crimes punishable by broken fingers, chopped off hands, or chopped off heads. Even the time honored tradition of oral storytelling ( the griot ) was not allowed to exist in this land of the two-legged leeches. They were brought here to bring forth profits, not to bring forth prophets. Greed is good. Greed is god.

Communication was kept at a minimum, at all cost. Some of the 'founding fathers' went so far as to put an iron bit into the mouths of these helpless people. A 'Mandingo muffler', Bushman braces. Men, women, boys and girls. Shut em' up. NO COMMUNICATION ALLOWED!

"All done in darkness will eventually be seen in the light." A Bible passage, interesting. The Bible was the first book that most Africans read on their road to literacy. Literacy of course is one of the first stops on the road to freedom. "The truth shall set you free", is also in the Bible. As soon as Black people were literate, they started telling the truth. The truth in this case was not very pretty. Lovely, ugly or wretchedly repugnant ... the truth set us free.

Phyillis Wheatley, Martin Delaney, Josiah Henson and many others brought out the pain of this sinful slave system on paper. No one did this feat with more power and eloquence than Frederick Douglass did in his autobiography. The truth was told and the truth hurt, but also it healed. That truth gave justification for the abolitionist mind set, which finally led to freedom.

From Douglass, the next cross carrier on the way to Calvary was Marcus Mosiah Garvey. May peace be upon him. Many of the truthful things that he said caused his followers to be beaten and murdered. The father of Malcolm X was overcome by the strength of this man's message. He paid the ultimate price. The truth in Garvey's words can be seen today in the sad lives that most Black people lead.

The Harlem Renaissance was a period of huge growth in African American literature. Artists such as Langston Hughes, Arna Bontempts, Zora Neal Hurston, James Weldon Johnson and Countee Cullen led the field of distinguished writers. Other than Hughes, the most outspoken, fearless, truth spewer was Richard Wright. His confrontational style is something to be admired, hopefully duplicated. He wrote the truth and he wanted the reader to feel it the way that he felt it. He felt outrage at this system and it's destruction of Black people. He fought back with words and he was an ass kicking man of God if there ever was one.

Among the authors worth mentioning since Wright are James Baldwin, Ernest Gaines, Amiri Baraka, Ralph Ellison, Lucille Clifton, Alex Haley, Ismael Reed, Nikki Giovanni, Trey Ellis, Robert Hayden, Sister Souljah, Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison. In 'Beloved', Ms. Morrison made us face some horrible truths about the American Holocaust. Not just stats and numbers. She brought the truth down to a personal level that any human could relate to. Heart level. Heartbreaking.

Now unchained, some authors would rather forget that they are Black and are thrilled when their writing reflects their 'colorlessness'. Yuk! Jewish people never forget, hell, why should we? We must continue to tell the truth as fearlessly as Garvey, Wright, Douglass and Morrison have done in the past. From that truth we will gain inner strength. From that inner strength and with the blessings of the One True God, finally, we will be free.