Top 16 Black-Led Cities You Should Know | Black Meccas in America - Magnetik Allah

What would a self-determined Black community look like if we could build it from scratch today? 

In this visionary conversation, Magnetic of the Black Round Table presents his animated concept "The Seven Cities of Amorica" - a modern-day Wakanda where Black excellence isn't just permitted but celebrated. Picture seven interconnected cities, each with specialized functions: Bastet the capital, Amaru for agriculture, Ella Baker for education, Khalid for defense, Shabazz for athletics, Teknala for technology innovation, and Atenegus for spiritual development. It's not fantasy - it's a powerful reimagining of what naturally happens when communities create spaces aligned with their own cultural values.

The conversation then maps America's 16 Black Meccas - cities where we've historically invested our cultural capital, built businesses, and created thriving communities despite systematic opposition. Starting with the East Coast hubs of New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, the DMV, and North Carolina, the hosts share both historical insights and personal experiences that bring these cultural centers to life.

Philadelphia's rich Black history includes the MOVE organization (bombed by their own city government), visible Moorish influences in architecture, and vibrant Muslim communities. The DMV area represents what was once proudly called "Chocolate City," where even the KFC serves collard greens and sweet potato pie. We hear about North Carolina's Durham Black Wall Street, Georgia's cultural dominance, and the often-overlooked Black cowboy heritage of Texas.

This episode challenges us to reconsider our relationship with geography and history. Instead of prioritizing trips to Paris or Rome, what if we toured these 16 Black Meccas to connect with the landmarks, businesses, and cultural institutions our ancestors built

Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast
Welcome to the Fit, Healthy and Happy Podcast hosted by Josh and Kyle from Colossus...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Chapters

• 16:09 [Ad] Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast
• 16:55 (Cont.) Top 16 Black-Led Cities You Should Know | Black Meccas in America - Magnetik Allah

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

what's going on? Everybody is ron brown lmt, the people's fitness professional, alongside magnetic of the black round table. Peace to the god. I did. I muted your mic because you asked me to, but I put you back on. Peace, peace, peace, peace. Lord, how you be.

Speaker 2: 0:29

Man, I'm wise and civilized family. I was hearing about that story and it happened in New York, but we're going to keep it on the good foot. But I was a little worried about y'all, you know.

Speaker 1: 0:40

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that thing that happened in Manhattan. I didn't find out about it until you told me. Yeah, cause I try to keep my mind away from this society.

Speaker 2: 0:54

I hear you.

Speaker 2: 0:56

I'm not really in the society like that yeah, good, cause you don't need to be in. There's too much wild stuff going on. So you know it's good to see you't need to be, and there's too much wild stuff going on, so you know it's good to see you family, good to see you man, good to good to be black at you, and here on nyp, talk shizzle. Yes, sir, about to give you this piece the seven cities of america. This one is like. It's like a sketch of, uh, my image of how our independent black cities will eventually look in the future, something that's kind of inevitable because these things oil and water is going to naturally separate itself. Likewise with people who don't really see eye to eye Right.

Speaker 1: 1:40

Indeed. So you want me to play that now? Yes, sir, all right, let it rip indeed. So you want me to play that now?

Speaker 3: 1:44

yes, sir, all right many foundational black americans grew tired of the inner cities. From the inherent racism of the hiring policies to the poor schools, all of these factors combined had made the black inner city unbearable for the black family. Prior to this, blacks had forced the black inner city unbearable for the black family. Prior to this, blacks had forced the Republican Party and Democratic Party to agree to reparations. This was done to quell the growing tide of disillusionment to America's endemic racism towards FBA. By this time, over 85% of America's population was black, according to the Depth of Commerce one-drop rule, a rule which had significantly expanded the black population in America while shrinking the white population Population and power. By this time, foundational black Americans occupied over 60% of the armed forces and 33% of the high-ranking officers. America conceded to this based upon a conclusion that most of America's business community agreed upon Inner City Stimulus Fund. This was the fact that Reparations is an inner city stimulus fund which would benefit all the businesses within the inner city as well as foundational black Americans.

Speaker 3: 2:53

A group of 14,400 picked up and moved to a county called Lowndes County, alabama. After five years, the county was renamed Amorica, the primary capital city of this county being Bastet Bastet, seeking to reap the reward denied for centuries and to enjoy a newly found wealth. We quietly reconnected ourselves to the land. Amorica became the first of many metropolitan, economic, cultural centers for Afro-Asiatics in America. Bastet was a city of 1600. All of Bastet's citizens were highly skilled and many of Bastet's observers referred to it as the real Wakanda or the return of Rosewood. Many of the baby boomer generation were afraid to live in such a place Due to all the rumors and the lies told about Amorica. Amorica's GDP produced more money than all of the other counties, regions of America and states combined. So the anti-black racists, who by this time numbered less than 6% of America's population, used caution and discretion when dealing with Amorica.

Speaker 3: 3:51

Half of the world's top-leading engineers and agriculturalists lived in Bastet. The most highly skilled engineers and agriculturalists that the world had seen were all concentrated into seven companies located in Bastet, america. Anything they wanted to grow, they grew. Anything that the agriculturalists couldn't grow, the engineers built Plants that were thought extinct were strengthened through the masterful crossbreeding of plant species. All the machines were upgraded to a higher, cutting-edge standard of engineering, created out of a non-centralized energy source, which was overabundant Energy source, much of it was drawn from the magnetism found in the waters of the Atlantic Enough magnetic ore to power all nine planets. For a millennium, 25 African countries had their embassies in Amorica. Their diplomats spent more time in Amorica than they did in their own countries. Amorica even had an observer status within the AU.

Speaker 3: 4:42

Amorica, being a seat of foundational Black American diplomacy, had a lobby with friendships in all walks of life. This lobby was known as the Black Freedmen's Bureau. This is the story of their lives, their families and their stories of resilience in doing what Rosewood, black Wall Street and so many other Black towns only dreamed about Self-determination. Amorica dreamed about Self-determination. Amorica the money that the melanated mind made Amaru. The second most populated city of Amorica is called Amaru. Amaru is populated by a black agricultural society of planters and farmers. Amaru is founded in the tradition of George Washington Carver, the agricultural engineer and innovator. Amaru was founded to assure that all seven counties of Amorica have all of the necessary agricultural support needed to sustain them, and this they did. Many of the black farmers from all over the diaspora came to assist this endeavor, to compose and build the Black Planter Party, a group of activists from all over the world who taught poor communities advanced farming and hydroponic systems of irrigation. Many of these men and women had worked with Colonel Mouma Gaddafi to irrigate the dry deserts of Libya. Many of the blacks from South America had come, and about 35% of Amaru was of black Brazilian descent. People who were disappointed and dissatisfied with the mistreatment and racism which was normalized into Brazilian culture, had come to join onto the minds and the cooperative spirit of growth and enrichment within Amaru.

Speaker 3: 6:08

Amorica, ella Baker, was the third city of the seven cities of Amorica. Ella Baker was a renowned civil rights activist who united the movement and guided many freedom writers and civil rights activists. Ella Baker was a city comprised of 170 universities and 20 trade schools. These schools attracted and trained the finest minds within every field, founded upon the principles of cooperation and interdisciplinary study. All of the city's schools produced geniuses, trendsetters and adopters. Slackers and underachievers steered far away from the universities within the city of Ella Baker, the two primary institutions being Muhammad Ali and Queen Mother Moore. These two schools taught the teachers who educated all seven counties. Not only did they do it, but they did it with pride, appreciation and genuine love in honor of Mother Ella Baker. This is why we call universities such as those Alma Mater our other mother. Imagine an entire city dedicated and focused on education, the development of the mind, a city in which the sole goal is to remember the black mind. This is the reality of Ella Baker, one of the black cities of Amorica.

Speaker 3: 7:15

The city of Khaled Khaled was the fourth city of Amorica, a city designed like the immune system of the body, a necessary component to any society, designed to detect potential viruses and agents of disorientation within the seven cities. Many agencies existed within this city infrastructure, intelligence, the army, the air force and the navy. Nevertheless, they operated as one body to keep all potential threats to Amorica at bay. Amaru made certain that Khalid was well stocked with the highest quality of foods to feed each of these units and to provide them with the highest level of health and fitness, as well as mental health. Khalid not only trained the best all-around full-service specialists, but they also taught community emergency preparedness to the whole of Amorica.

Speaker 3: 7:58

The fifth city Shabazz. The fifth city was the city of Shabazz, a city dedicated to training the best athletes in the world. Shabazz did not participate in all sports, only specified fields of track, tennis, boxing, basketball, soccer, pool and golf. Each one had a sports center built to house its events, one in each of the seven cities to drive inner city commerce. Shabazz has a huge airport. To facilitate the ever-growing tourist visitors that frequent the Shabazz Games within the seven cities, many of them held within the city of Shabazz, usually championship games are held in nearby cities. Gambling was also facilitated here in Shabazz. This was for the purpose of raising money to fortify the emergency fund.

Speaker 3: 8:41

The sixth city is called Teknala. Teknala designs, makes and manufactures all of the tech that powers America. Teknala is made up a system of tech labs. These tech labs use all organic materials to produce their tech, using the electromagnetic energy of the air around us. The engineers of Teknala learned to harness this force into a means to power cities. They used this force as a source of inexhaustible energy, also to make batteries, which brought energy to places where it was not. Technala made products that the world had always dreamed of but lacked the imagination and the cooperation to achieve. The productiveness which America had always boasted was finally truly achieved within the seven cities of Amorica. Absent was the Negro naysayers and white supremacists who had sabotaged so many efforts like this one. This was a replacement to the displacement that was a normalcy of most black life in America.

Speaker 3: 9:32

The seventh city was Atenegos, a city of enlightenment and spirituality, a city which all of the world's true spiritual systems were present. Here they formed a national council of elders. Atenegus attracted spiritualists from all seven cities and brought them together to exchange notes. They respected each other's paths and never sought to convert each other. Regardless of their disagreements, they saw value within each walk of spirituality and knew its place within the many bricks which comprised God's kingdom. Atenegus could foresee spiritual corruption and disturbances, so they used their insight to restore balance and mahat wherever it was disturbed or disrupted. Religion was not discouraged. It was further developed, strengthened and fortified. Each religion was encouraged within its conviction to humanity's development. These people never separated themselves in person or in identity from the communities that they served. Many times they served as vision holders and natural healers to instruct people in self-medicine, self-healing and cell regeneration.

Speaker 2: 10:53

Okay, thank you.

Speaker 1: 11:17

All right, all right, that was, that was.

Speaker 3: 11:19

Hold on a second, oh hold on Hold on a second.

Speaker 1: 11:24

All right, this, this is your idea of these seven cities. So like can you break this down? And who made those beats right there?

Speaker 2: 11:35

um, let me see who made them beats. Man, it was a, it was a, it was a few fellas, but I think, um, I think, mainly most of those beats was by umofi Cooks. Yeah, kofi Cooks, he's the producer that I work with. He does a lot of hot stuff, you know. Y'all check him out, rock with him. You know, yeah, yeah, but you know I like the beats because it went with the flow of the images and stuff. Right, of the images and stuff. We always kind of talk about this but rarely do you see images, real images, of how this would look. This is something I don't know. If you've been following in the news, I think it's Arkansas. They're talking about doing their separate little white conclave and whatnot.

Speaker 1: 12:22

I heard about that. I saw that online.

Speaker 3: 12:25

I can see.

Speaker 2: 12:27

Yeah, I mean, they've tried that before. I'm not salty or nothing, but some people say that it could easily turn into a Klan enclave, where it just turns into something else. I don't know, but I know whenever we tried to do this, we were always kind of stomped out, flooded out, shot out, bombed out. You know, still we still move forward and build family, community, commerce. You know we still move forward to do that because that's the only way you can live. You know, but this was, this is something that I kind of see as inevitable, because certain things just separate. Certain things just go their separate ways. They don't have nothing to do with hate, it's just. You know, that's just what people do. People want to be around their own and whatnot. And we're kind of reaching a time where people really want to be around their own. You know, they don't want to have to deal with all that.

Speaker 2: 13:20

You live in New York, which is like what they call a multicultural city, with all that. You live in New York, which is like what they call a multicultural city. Sometimes that's cool, but OK, if you're in a multicultural city, let's consider this what cultural rules are we going by? The black ones, the Asian ones, the Italian ones, the you know Senegalese ones, the Ghanaian ones that you know. That's a lot of different norms and standards you're dealing with. So sometimes, when people want to go back to their own, accept their own and be their self, eat the food that they people eat, be in the vibration that their people hold, that's why people do stuff like this.

Speaker 2: 13:56

It don't have nothing for us. It doesn't have anything to do with hating anyone or separating, because we know wherever we go, there's always going to be some white folks mixed up in it. You know, somehow, some way, you know just saying man, you know, but it should be a place, even if it is where there was white people there. If it's our place, it needs to be a place that we control. You know where we control the water and the resources, etc. You know the housing because, um, it's not working. The other way, it's really not. I mean, no matter what nobody say, it's clearly not working on a large scale. Might be working for a small percentage of people, but for most of us it's not working Exactly, exactly, so so I want to talk about the 16 black Meccas livable cities black Meccas livable cities Okay.

Speaker 1: 14:45

So let's build upon that. First off, I want to go into the that seven Amorak video Seven cities of Morica.

Speaker 2: 15:00

Yes, sir.

Speaker 1: 15:00

Yeah, of Amorica, right Now. This is just an idea that you came up with right Now. This is just an idea that you came up with right. These are like cities that you came up with. I think that was great man. That was so like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, very creative and you know that was well thought out, that was well thought out you know, check the guard out 16 Black Meccas. Let's put this up here 16 Black Meccas.

Speaker 2: 15:32

Yeah, I do a lot of animated type of stuff because people need images, man, sometimes to go with ideas. You know it helps them to really make things real. And also I do it for the babies, so it's something that the babies can watch and enjoy and, you know, see what our future should look like.

Speaker 1: 15:48

Right Indeed, check out his YouTube. A lot of great videos there, great information, great graphics, beats. It's entertaining. Check it out. So let's build this. So let's build up on the 16 black Meccas, and from here we're going to start with the East Coast. First off, what made you say, what made you put them in that context, like 16 black Meccas? What makes it 16 black Meccas?

Speaker 2: 17:00

I'm sure there's more black meccas than 16, okay, but I wanted to pick the primary ones from out of the regions in which we're in. And I'm sure you'll notice, if you look at the regions that we're in, when you look at the population of black people in America, or foundational black Americans, it's usually coastal cities, you see right. Americans, it's usually coastal cities, you see right, it's like. You know Georgia, alabama, miami, down in that region, the five black belt states and whatnot usually coastal cities. You know, east Coast, the South, the coast of the South, the West Coast, and then, of course, the Midwest. You know, and those are the four regions and there's four black Meccas within these.

Speaker 2: 17:43

Now, when I say black Meccas, I'm not saying every, all black people live here, but what I'm saying is these are places in which we put commerce, culture, family you know what I mean and invested a lot of energy into making these places pop to where not only we could eat off of it but other people eat off it too as well. You know, yes, sir, I kind of, I kind of drew the idea. I want to make a visual version when I came up with this. You know, I want to give like an idealistic version of a modern day. And then the Green Book. You know, updated Green Book. I was trying to update that and kind of walk people through this. This is how you know saying this. You know, once upon a time, this is where we were, but we're still here. But we need to develop these places and gain back control of these places, because I wouldn't say we've had all the control, but we were the engine of most of these cities. You know, yeah, and still are.

Speaker 1: 18:43

Right. So let's start with the East Coast. New York, New Jersey, that's number one. Two is Philadelphia. You forgot Connecticut okay.

Speaker 2: 18:52

Well, we got a which. Where would you say so? Connecticut is pretty much philadelphia, though, right I really told you.

Speaker 1: 18:59

You know what I? I can't even answer that question because I don't. I never really thought about it, but all I know is uh, okay, new york and connecticut, they're right there yeah, indeed, and the connecticut is really a like a connector.

Speaker 2: 19:13

Uh, if you look on the map that connects the East Coast to the Midwest, yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:21

You know. So there's like certain connector cities too that connect the regions Because, like I said, there's four regions. You know, you're talking about the East Coast and we're talking about New York. New Jersey, that's one Mecca. Philadelphia, iac, connecticut, too, the DMV, that's one Mecca, philadelphia, I had Connecticut too, the DMV, that's three. And then the North Carolina.

Speaker 2: 19:41

You know, and these are, like you know, the places where I mean, when you go there, first of all, you're going to see a lot of black landmarks, whether they be high schools, museums, people's houses, businesses. You know you're going to hear about a lot of historical Black stuff. Whether you want to run into it or not, is part of the design of the city, of the makeup of the cities. There was stuff. When I came to New York I mean, it was just like I'd been to New York a few times, but sometimes I would go on a specific tour where I'm just looking at restaurants and places I saw so much stuff.

Speaker 2: 20:19

I was standing next to the what was it? The Harriet Tubman statue, there's like real close to the Apollo and stuff, and me and my family was standing right there and it was, you know, it felt really good to see that type of stuff, these type of icons. They represent us in our struggle. You know, icons that represent us in our struggle, you know, and I feel like at some point we need we should do a tour of these cities where you know, instead of going to paris and rome, etc. No, I go to the 16 black meccas and go on a tour of your, the history of your people got you.

Speaker 1: 20:50

Yes, sir, I like that. Yeah, paris and all those places are more commercialized, just like European designer brands and designer brands and what else? Foreign cars. Look at that, check this out, check this out. We like to design a European brand. Right, we like to go to.

Speaker 2: 21:23

Paris, the German cars.

Speaker 1: 21:25

Right, we like to go to Paris. Yo, what's going on we?

Speaker 2: 21:29

don't want to go and look at our meccas that we built out of blood, sweat and tears, man, we was French, out of slavery and we built a lot of these towns, you know. So it's like, well, how did they do that? No matter what nobody want to say, and even if somebody don't believe it, black people have a very special I'm talking about foundational Black Americans specifically have a very special magic about them where we can do things that look impossible but make them look easy. You see, yeah, and that's why so many people hate us.

Speaker 2: 22:00

Because you look at what Michael Jordan does, how he does walks on air and turns around and does a 360, does his taxes, calls his wife, you know, sends a shout out to his homie in the bleachers and then dunks it. You know, just like it's nothing. They have stories of Jack Johnson when he'd be fighting, he'd be with his white woman that's in the crowd. He'd be like, hey, baby, what round? You want me to knock this guy out in? Knock him out in the third. He'd come to the third. Blah, blah, blah. Okay, let's go. So you know, that's a part of our get down man, making the impossible look easy.

Speaker 1: 22:36

Right, we got Boom Seven Mile. I guess that would be Detroit. I don't know if that's Detroit. If that's Detroit, say what's up Detroit, peace to Detroit. If that's Seven Mile, I'm thinking that's Detroit. What do we have on high fashion? And besides Off-White, off-white, I think what do we have on high fashion besides Off-White, off-white? I think Off-White is the only thing we have. Right, what's up D-Mecca in the building Detroit D-Mecca? We got Asbury Park, allah's Paradise. I Divine Clark, peace to the God Park, allah's Paradise. Our Divine Clark, peace to the God Allah's.

Speaker 2: 23:19

Paradise. Allah's seen and heard everywhere. Indeed.

Speaker 1: 23:24

So to take it back to New York, new Jersey art inspired fashion. Piece of art inspired fashion. We're going to. We take it to East Coast, new York, new Jersey. You forgot the Connecticut. We got to throw Connecticut in there okay. Connecticut. I'm writing it down come on. Connecticut, philadelphia and North Carolina. What? Okay, we already know New York. As far as you know, black history is so, so deep man.

Speaker 3: 24:02

When you go to the.

Speaker 1: 24:03

Harlem Renaissance. You can go to Schaumburg Center. You can go to Central Park Law School in Mecca.

Speaker 2: 24:11

Law School in.

Speaker 1: 24:11

Mecca. There's so much history in new york like a lot of people don't know even about westchester county and its roots with harriet tubman, and like westchester county has so much black history is.

Speaker 1: 24:27

I'm just discovering this, you know I'm saying in fact this is, in fact, this is one of the uh um inspirations to do this podcast is to show people how much black history New York actually has, aside from just the five boroughs. People just focus on the five boroughs. There's so much more going on besides the five boroughs, but so I mean we could go on and on about New York, new Jersey, as far as black history. I'm sure it's steep. I don't know a whole lot. I do know this, though I know the new Black Panthers are out there. I know a large 5% are out there, and I know for a fact Nobu Juali, newark, new Jersey.

Speaker 2: 25:13

Oh okay, I didn't know that. I mean you know New Jersey. Oh okay, I didn't know that. Yeah. I mean, you know, new Jersey is like a lot of the stuff that got squeezed out of New York ended up there. You know, I know there's a very strong black Muslim population there. You know, from the nation, like you say, there's plenty of gods up in that piece and just Islam, muslims as well.

Speaker 1: 25:35

There's a lot of just oh my God For.

Speaker 2: 25:37

God's sake.

Speaker 1: 25:38

Yeah, it's ridiculous.

Speaker 2: 25:39

Oh, my God. I mean, I've never seen so many Muslim restaurants or restaurants that cater to Muslim people, except for when I went there. You know, Even the Philly Steak and Cheese Joint with the foot-long sandwich that's as long as your arm, you know they sandwich that's as long as your arm.

Speaker 1: 25:57

I didn't see no hog up in there. We're talking about Philly right now. Philly, as far as black culture, is just off the chain.

Speaker 2: 26:05

That's where I went, that's where I was staying. Man, I loved it. I wanted to move to Philly. Me and my family was walking through Philly at night through the park, man, no problem, Nobody bothering us. You know it was lovely man, it was beautiful. Yeah, I said, man I like this.

Speaker 1: 26:21

Philly gets a lot of bad press. Philly gets a lot of bad press, but Philly does have beautiful parts and a deep, deep culture and going back, it has a deep Moorish culture as well.

Speaker 2: 26:35

Yes, sir, I felt it when I was there. I felt it by the way, and then, okay, now this is something that was being discussed to me. Okay, If you look at the Andinka symbols, okay, go through Philly and look at the black iron rod man on the different houses. I feel like the slaves were leaving us little messages and innuendos that they were here. Through that, if you look, it's the most beautiful. I like architectural art, family. I really like architecture when it's done well. But you can see our peoples how they wrote their name into the architecture of Philly. Just looking at the iron rod bro, and just the cities and the way the doors are shaped. Seattle don't got that, because Seattle was built way later. You know what I mean in the 18s. You know what I mean late 1800s. Philly is beautiful man, it's a beautiful city and I can see our people's handwriting and fingerprint on the design of Philly.

Speaker 1: 27:33

Yeah, Black on black. What's up? Black on black Islam, black on black Peace, god Islam, shalom, hotel, peace. So now Philadelphia. I could go on and on about all.

Speaker 2: 27:46

Yeah, we got to talk about move, we got to remember, we got to give them a shout out oh man, move.

Speaker 1: 27:53

Yeah, wow, you took it back.

Speaker 2: 27:55

You took it back, I know you was a shorty God, but I know you remember that.

Speaker 1: 28:01

I was a kid but I learned about honestly. I learned about move through the new Black Panther Party. I learned about that through the new Black Panther Party. I don't know if Shaka Shakur or Divine Allah either showed me the movie or told me to watch it. I forgot one or the other. But I learned about the move through those brothers and that group was basically killed off pretty much right.

Speaker 2: 28:35

They were killed off. A bomb was dropped upon them because they just wanted to live separately and naturally and they didn't want to send their kids to schools and whatnot.

Speaker 3: 28:44

And.

Speaker 2: 28:44

Wilson Good, they say. I think he was the governor, mayor or governor, something like that. Some type of Negro politician dropped the bomb on them and you know, the slogan that we heard was that Wilson good is no good. And there was marching through the streets saying that Paramafrica. She came here, she talked to one of the colleges I went to and, man, it was just a heavy story, man, the whole way it happened, man, when they went to court and everything, man, the whole way it happened, man, when they went to court and everything. Very powerful story, but very compelling because it shows you the uh, just the strength, man, and the resilience of our people when they really want to do something and demonstrate and make a point. You know, that really stayed in my heart. You know a whole lot. You know the brother, john africa, the sister, pam africa, and one thing that people don't know, philly, another part of Philly, is a brother named Mumia Abu-Jamal. Right, he was there. He was a kid at the time when the move stuff was going on, but he became a journalist.

Speaker 1: 29:46

Pardon me, Paul, I got to say peace to the people. Peace Amber Hill L Islam. Islam Amber Hill L. Okay, I'm loving the topic. The culture has to know this type of information is vital, Indeed.

Speaker 3: 29:59

Peace Now. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 30:07

You know. So, philly, nevertheless, man, when I went there, I was just, I was really touched. I could feel the energy of move. I could feel the energy of the touched. I could feel the energy of MOVE. I could feel the energy of the Muslims. I could feel the energy of the nation. I could feel the energy of some of the Black founders who ran from slavery and came there. You know, I could feel the energy of the Black soldiers who fought to unify the keep the union together, you know, and they fought to bring our people off of plantations. I felt it all there, man, it was, it was powerful and it was me and my family walking through there. You know, we was there for my godfather's. He got his PhD, so we was there for you know.

Speaker 2: 30:44

For that I went to a black Masonic temple. That was actually in Jersey, you know. But out here is real Mason-y. Okay, they go all the way into it, but out there, the Masonic Temple is just like a building that black people be chilling at. You know, I'm just saying. You know what I mean. It's a part of the community. People don't be tripping or nothing. They're like oh yeah, we're at the Masonic Temple. Yeah, yeah, you know my uncle is such and such. Oh yeah, my great so on the East Coast I noticed there's a strong Masonic, black Masonic contingent. It's different from the white Masonic contingent so I don't ever leave that out. I don't take that for granted, because a lot of Masons helped to get our people that were in the Underground Railroad and helped to get a lot of our people out of slavery. If you don't know that, go study that history y'all Very important history. You know White Masons too, hell too, not just Black Masons, white Masons too. You know, right, right.

Speaker 1: 31:43

Now, if we go to DMV, we're talking about DC, maryland, virginia right, so DC.

Speaker 2: 31:52

When I think about stuff, we could talk about Benjamin Banneker. We could talk about the slaves that built the white house, I mean dc chocolate city. We could talk about howard howard right. Oh, it's so cold when I went. You ever been to dc?

Speaker 1: 32:09

I used to go out there. I used to be there every summer. Okay, okay, so use this in the house music.

Speaker 2: 32:14

Yo, when I went to dc god back back in the day, I was out there with my godbrother. We was out there with Kwame Ture at the all-African anti-Zionist front. Okay, I go to the KFC. I mean, I'm from Seattle, bro. You get regular KFC corn on the cob, some gravy, et cetera. They had greens at the KFC. They had candy yams at the KFC. All the fixings and the mixings, the good potato salad, that don't taste funny. It was so, man, I was, I was, I was loving it. Man, I wanted to. Man, I'd never seen nothing like that at KFC, bro. That blew my head off and I knew I was in a chocolate city, you know, yeah. And then the sister who was serving me the food had a gold tooth in the front of her mouth. I was like, man, I could get some sweet corn on the cob. She was like, yeah, sugar, I could get some sweet potato pie. She was like, yeah, honey. I said, man, this is flat. She was like, mm-hmm, DC, you know.

Speaker 1: 33:15

I said man, this is flat. She was like mm-hmm, yeah, dc, you know DC. I used to go there every summer. Well, my grandmother and my grandfather they lived in. They're from New York but they moved in their later years to Capitol Heights in Maryland, which is not too far from DC. My aunt, catherine Brown, she was like a big pastor out there in DC, so we were always going Maryland DC, maryland DC. My cousins living in DC.

Speaker 2: 33:51

Oh, you got a kinfolk today, bro.

Speaker 2: 33:54

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can pull up any day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can pull up any day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, damn, that's what's up and that's what I noticed family, not to cut your wisdom, but I noticed that, if you start really looking, most of us have kinfolks in all of these 16 cities. That's why I picked these cities. Most of us have folks. You got to look and you got to dig on both sides of your family, but you'll see that you got some family in most of these cities, even if you don't know who they are and they don't know you.

Speaker 1: 34:24

You know, yeah, indeed, dc reminds me of Philly.

Speaker 2: 34:30

Yeah, me too. Me too, Because it's flat. Only problem with being in the DMV is mainly black. It is, ooh, all you see is black face on both sides. Only only only thing that bugged me out I couldn't tell when I was in DC, maryland or Virginia. They're like, oh, we don't. We're in Maryland now. Oh, we have Virginia. Oh no, we back in DC Cause we, we drive, and I'm like man Okay, all right. Oh no, we're back in DC because we drive, and I'm like man, okay, alright, man, it's just all one city, basically, you know what I'm saying. Cross the street.

Speaker 1: 35:02

To me, dc and Maryland look like completely different to me.

Speaker 2: 35:07

I feel like y'all must know your way around. You know what I think because I've been going out there every summer since I was a kid.

Speaker 1: 35:18

I kind of know how it goes or whatever, but Virginia, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie right here. Honestly, what I know about DC, Maryland and Virginia are not too many. It's a lot of black history. There's some other stuff too. It's a lot of black history.

Speaker 2: 35:36

It's a lot of black history. There's some other stuff too. Let's keep it above Other stuff.

Speaker 1: 35:40

Yeah, Virginia was the spot to go to at a certain point in the 90s. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, so that's not. You know it's not for the show, but you know what I'm saying. I mean, if you want to be real about it, those are the hot spots for you know. Yeah, exactly, I can see that. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 36:04

I can see that you know what.

Speaker 1: 36:06

Matter of fact DMV in North Carolina Right.

Speaker 2: 36:15

Yeah, that's another aspect of it. That's kind of how most of us got to know these cities, because we was going city to city dropping off packages, picking up packages. But now that we're older we see there was something else that the universe wanted us to see For sure.

Speaker 1: 36:32

For sure. Now, what do you know about North Carolina as far as black history is concerned?

Speaker 2: 36:40

Let me see. Well, since I'm not from that part of the world, you know, I just there's certain things that I study that I will find, but what I found found about North Carolina. But this is where a lot of the union battles were fought. Union versus the Confederate battles were fought to draw the lines. The Union wanted it, the Confederates wanted it, and it was a very important place that they fought over and the people who saved the day.

Speaker 2: 37:05

If you look into it, I'm, you know, doing a little bit more research, but the research I found was saying that the black soldiers held the line there and a lot of the other soldiers had ran away because they couldn't. You know, let's keep it above the confederates was whooping the unions but, bruh, they was tearing them out the frame. They was tearing them out the frame and until, uh, abraham lincoln brought us into the war, they was losing the war and but one of the main pivotal battles that they say happened was in north carolina and it was mostly black soldiers, you know, they held the line and this is where it kind of carved into people's head oh, these guys are serious, these ain't just some slaves with guns, you know. But yeah, and that was something I studied at the University of Washington in an old, dusty book. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 37:52

Um, other than that, north Carolina, I don't. I can't really say. I know there's a strong black community out there and they say there's a lot of black businesses out there that work with each other and you know, do you know exchange, but other than that, I don't really know a whole lot about it. I know there's a lot of basketball players from there, right From North Carolina State.

Speaker 1: 38:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean a couple rappers and things like that. But you know I don't want to offend nobody from North Carolina because I'm pretty sure they wouldn't know the black history out there. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, what name of battle? What name of the battle? They're asking about the battle that. What is the name of the battle I asking?

Speaker 2: 38:36

about the battle. That, what is the name of the battle? I, I am sorry y'all, um, I gotta go. You know, look at my notes and whatnot, but they, this is something that stuck out in my head. You know what I mean because my sister lives in north carolina right now. You know I'm a during black wall street, wilmington as well. Okay, there we go. Thank you, sister Amber. Yes, durham, nc. Black Wall Street, wilmington. I mean, once we start talking about these places and the people who are from there kind of plug in, they can really give us a deeper history, because I'm not from there. So I don't want to try to tell the story, act like I know. You know what I mean. I've been through there.

Speaker 1: 39:12

I never really stopped and whatnot, but I definitely felt a strong black presence there and hella, black people didn't ask me to come and move there, man, I'd be like no, you know you know if, if I had to move anywhere, it would have to be uh, uh, I'm going to say if it was on the East coast, if it was on the East coast, if it was on the East Coast, it's going to have to be. If I had to move on the East Coast, which I wouldn't want to stay on the East Coast. I love East Coast though.

Speaker 3: 39:46

Born and raised.

Speaker 1: 39:47

East Coastian, if you want to call it that, but New Jersey. I would have to go there, depending on where in Philadelphia, dc I love DC For sure. Maryland for sure, virginia for sure, that whole line. I rock with the whole line because the thing about the DMV in North Carolina it has that there's a lot of land, a lot of land.

Speaker 2: 40:21

And the restaurants, man, the food out there most of it is ooh, staggler man, I mean Black Power Salute word. I ain't going to lie, east Coast had me eating good man. Everywhere I went I was eating good yeah.

Speaker 1: 40:34

Now let's go to the South Tulsa, oklahoma, texas. You have Detroit, michigan there on the south.

Speaker 2: 40:41

Oh, my bad, that should be in the Midwest yeah, yeah, it's. Oklahoma, actually Texas, new Orleans and Mississippi and Georgia and Alabama. Those are the four. So Texas, oklahoma.

Speaker 1: 40:54

Oklahoma, Mississippi and Alabama.

Speaker 2: 41:00

New Orleans and Mississippi and Georgia and Alabama. Yeah, some people might know this, some people might not, but most of that stuff was actually all Georgia at one point, but they divided it up if I have, I want to move down south.

Speaker 1: 41:16

if I have to, if, like I would, I want to move down south, like like, eventually, like I want to, you know, kind of like I want to go back and forth down south in New York, down south in New York. You know that's my, that's my plan later on. But what do you know about? About these states though? Black history states.

Speaker 2: 41:42

Though black history, um, the specific black history man, um, I think, uh, new orleans, I know, was founded by a brother I don't necessarily know his name, I ain't gonna lie to you uh. But georgia, um, let's see, when I was doing doing a knowledge to georgia, and it was in 1526 when he came there, you know, and people don't really know a lot about the Georgians man, particularly the Cherokee and the Blackfoot, who really founded and grounded that man. They don't really talk a lot about that. They talk about the railroad, you know. You know how Georgia was the head of the South, the king of the South, and whatnot, but they don't talk about the railroad. You know how Georgia was the head of the South, the king of the South, and whatnot, but they don't talk about people like Lucas Vasquez de Allens of 1526. My family is actually from Georgia, my mother's side.

Speaker 2: 42:31

Atlanta, georgia, you know. So that city is so rich with his. I mean, you just drive through there. Just the whole city is a black monument to historical. You know, atlanta is so black that it kind of meshes out whatever is white that's around In Atlanta. That's the black mecca of the, I would say, of the South.

Speaker 1: 43:12

The sister, amber Hill, said Durham is and that's North Carolina is almost 40% back.

Speaker 2: 43:20

Wow, and a lot of those people that I noticed that some of them used to be in DC moved to New York, some from New York moved back. To excuse me, nc, you know what I said. Yeah, people, you find a lot of people in New York that's from there, or a lot of people that left New York and went back to North Carolina, you know.

Speaker 1: 43:43

So yeah, yeah, that's what I know about that as well. Like it's same thing with Atlanta, a lot of people from New York are going to. Atlanta. Yes, sir, you know.

Speaker 2: 43:55

I looked at my watch when I was in Atlanta. It was on East coast time, so yeah.

Speaker 1: 44:00

Exactly, exactly. So now let's talk about Texas.

Speaker 2: 44:07

What about Texas? They say Texas might be reaching close to New York, getting close to New York and has almost the most. I think, if not, as there now it's real close, but it has probably the most black people. You know, one of the biggest black cities in the United States, man, you know, and a lot of people have moved from Los Angeles to Texas. A lot of people have moved.

Speaker 2: 44:37

Black cowboys were not necessarily settled there, but a lot of them moved there, you know, because texas was like the new west. The old west was georgia, but the new west became, as they expanded, became texas. So a lot of the people they brought there was like the, you know, the black cowboys and whatnot, because people don't really explain this to us. Well, ok, when you said in this time period about, you know, after slavery and whatnot, white people were not the settlers because people were mad at white people for coming and colonizing a lot of the Indian and black areas. So people were trying to keep them out. Plus, they weren't good farmers, ok, they weren't good cattle herders, except, I'm not trying to diss white folks, but I'm just keeping it a book. That's why Europe wasn't that successful when they had to come here. So people weren't looking forward to that. A lot of Indians were pushing them out. The only people who could come in and settle these places was Blacks. Because we spoke the native language, we spoke, you know, english. We spoke our own language and people don't and texas is a really good example of this that a lot of the texas what do they call them? Rangers I'm not gonna tell you this they was black. They was black, bro, because only black people could really go to and fro and through the native, you know territories and through the black territories, white folks, a white man came up. He might have got his head blown up. That's just how that went. Now it's not all of Texas, but this is just a lot of the South, and in certain parts of Texas you know that were developed by these black pioneers who went in there I don't exactly remember where. Uh, what's the brother's name? Uh, best, bass reeves, but I'm pretty sure he was down in that area, man, if not living there as a, a marshal, going in, capturing people and bringing them to justice. And, um, a lot of them were white supremacists who were just rogue, who thought, just because they were white, that they could do whatever they want to. But you know, when I think of Texas, I think of these black rangers and I think of people like Bas Reeves man and the work that they did.

Speaker 2: 46:50

I think also people like what do they call it? The lady who delivered the mail? What was the sister's name? Stage coach Mary. So prior to you know now, it was a sister named stage coach Mary used to deliver the mail. Now she's. She's delivering the mail through, you know, redneck, tobacco chewing, crackerjack places, you know. So it wasn't an easy job like it is now. It ain't an easy job now, but it definitely wasn't an easy job like it is now. It ain't an easy job now, but it definitely wasn't an easy job back there, but she always got people their mail and she became a standard for postal delivery. You know, coming from out of the South and in rough areas, you know. So that's what I think of when I think of Texas, and I also think of people like what is?

Speaker 2: 47:35

What is the brother's name? What is his name? Deadwood, dick, deadwood Dick Y'all look him up, man. He was a very, very well-known, one of the first people to really ride, jump on a steer and wrestle it to the ground, and he kind of made his way out of slavery. Doing that, all those rodeo tricks that we see, a lot of those came from Deadwood Dick. Yeah, a lot of those came from Deadwood Dick. Yeah, a lot of those came from. I mean, I think his real name was Nat Love, though, but he had a book about him called Deadwood Dick, in which they say you know, a lot of the stories came from him. So yeah.

Speaker 1: 48:11

Got you, okay, okay. So now we're talking about Texas. Do you have South carolina in there, um?

Speaker 2: 48:22

I put south carolina with north carolina, but I put north carolina, you know, but I put, I kind of coupled those two together. Um, south carolina, oh we, we took the gullagichi, gullagichi man. There you go, exactly that's exactly where I was going, and there's so much culture and there's so much music, particularly that move from South Carolina to New York, you know what I mean. I think the father was from South Carolina, right? I'm not sure? Yeah, that's what they said, him and Bumpy Johnson was from there. And then they made their way up to new york. Um, when I went through there, hey, it was some real I wanted to stay longer because the restaurants was really good, but, um, you know, it looked like, I don't, you know, it looked like a black town that was once thriving but they pulled all the tax money out of it, father.

Speaker 1: 49:14

You said the father, like the father. I thought you. I thought you was talking about somebody else. No, the father. Yeah, yeah, I think it's no. No, no, no, no, no. The father's from Danville Virginia. Oh, danville, virginia, Okay, okay, pardon me, pardon me, yeah, if I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 2: 49:39

Okay, I guess it was Buffy Johnson. You know, I guess it was Buffy Johnson. And you know, from my understanding, I guess that's a place where a lot of the slaves came from, you know, were brought to, first brought to, and then they dispersed them out from there. So you know, it has a lot of that early um colonial history and whatnot. You know, I can't really name any landmarks like that because I didn't really stay there. But you know, we know that is one of our black meccas. If you go through there, black people will treat you good and you'll feel at home right, right.

Speaker 1: 50:12

Yeah, we forgot to talk about that. The father's from virginia danville come on, come on.

Speaker 2: 50:18

I don't know how we forgot that. Yeah, for real man.

Speaker 1: 50:22

My bad, it's so good. Now we're going into. What do we have? I love this topic, man. What do we have?

Speaker 2: 50:31

Rich man, let's jump to Midwest, you're making me see right now.

Speaker 1: 50:38

We need a tour, we need a tour like you said. Like you said, peace, god of Law, divine God of Law, we need a tour man. We don't have no tours.

Speaker 2: 50:51

That's exactly a tour that takes you through all the landmark places and houses and schools and streets in these different cities. Right, I'm one of those people. I'm going to do it myself. I would always go to all the landmark stuff when I went to these places and it's just astounding, man, if you really really start peeling back the layers and you start places, you'll just roll by and you'll think that's just a random place. Nah, man, that was the old mosque, n-o-i mosque. That was the old mosque. You know, I must. That was the old bpp headquarters right there. Oh, that was where the uni hey used to meet. You know, we got to talk about things like this. You know what I mean. These are important things. This is what make these the 16 black meccas and make us locked into this land. You know right yes, sir, indeed.

Speaker 1: 51:37

So now, uh, we're talking about. Do you know anything about the Gullah? First of all, my grandfather, his bloodline. They come from South Carolina, the Gullah Geechee Peace to my family, peace to my family.

Speaker 2: 51:50

Peace to the Gullah Geechee yep.

Speaker 1: 51:52

Yep, now when it comes to do you know anything else about South Carolina?

Speaker 2: 52:03

No family. I just know it's a really excellent food there. Um, like I said, a lot of the slaves you know came in through there and were dispersed to other places. One of the first places where you know some of us came to uh, like you said, gulagichi. Other than that, you know, and I, bumpy Johnson, and a lot of New York people come from South Carolina. Yeah, got you.

Speaker 1: 52:26

We have a few minutes I want to talk about. Did you speak on New Orleans already? Let's see New Orleans, because New Orleans has a Huge Well, let's see New Orleans Because New Orleans has a huge.

Speaker 2: 52:42

Well, let's, ok, let's, let's expand a little bit with, say, louisiana. I know that what you will call it, h Rapp Brown was from there. H Rapp Brown is from there. Brother Troy of the nation was from there. They busted into his mosque and you know, you know how they go in Louisiana was whooping on people unannounced, and this brother was whooping on, whooping on, did not stop fighting until the end. Then they brought him to court and the brother was loud, he was just bold and black, the bold black God. He stood up and a lot of people don't know about these strong, resilient black people who some of them might call themselves red bones, some of them might call themselves creole.

Speaker 2: 53:23

They're still black people to me. You know, um, I ain't gonna even talk about this. What they call the french quarters no, no, no, we ain't talking about that. That's the white people part. They say you know of it, but, uh, you know the black part. Um, let me see what is. What is? What is that that? I know there's like a little black haven down there you know what I mean where everybody goes when you come to new orleans and you get them po boys, the red light district is there.

Speaker 2: 53:49

Um, you can smoke what you want to smoke about the louisiana purchase right, which was caused by the ha Haitians whooping on France, and then it forced France to sell all of that to America. You know.

Speaker 1: 54:06

Yeah, right. So what else? What else, huey P.

Speaker 2: 54:10

Newton is from Louisiana. Huh, you say who I said Huey P Newton is from.

Speaker 1: 54:16

Louisiana. Huey P Newton is from Louisiana. Huey P Newton is from Louisiana. I did not know that. Yeah, his father was a preacher.

Speaker 2: 54:20

Yeah, I mean, look at him, he looked like a. You know, he looked like a red bone type. Yeah, but we forget about, we forgot about the voodoo, the hoodoo, the hoodoo out there. Yeah, that's, that's. You know, that's all really, but it's really expressed and highlighted down there, right, and that's a very like I said, it's a part of our people's magic. We run from it, we shun it, but we got to embrace our magic, for sure, For sure.

Speaker 1: 54:49

What else? What other Oklahoma man and you know what Oklahoma?

Speaker 2: 54:59

That's black Wall Street. Yeah, that's where the Gap Band is from and this was one of the hubs of commerce. When we talk about a black mecca, where there was multiple businesses and there was independent and could do his own thing, that was Oklahoma. That was Oklahoma, you know. They came in like Philly, just like they did move, they dropped a bomb on you know, black Wall Street. You know, because a lot of the black soldiers that came back from World War One, they was poking their chest out.

Speaker 2: 55:31

It's like hey man we want to be treated just like everybody else. We want to put our lives on the line, you know, and people didn't like that. We went and put our lives on the line, you know, and people didn't like that, and you know. You know the rest.

Speaker 1: 55:44

You know the rest, right, but regardless, black people are still there, still doing their thing Still.

Speaker 2: 55:55

So now we finish up with the South. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got that we got the South.

Speaker 1: 56:00

So what I want to do now is pause that and then the next time we come on, we speak on the Midwest West Coast and finish off with that. Okay.

Speaker 2: 56:13

Let's do that Might have to take a little pause, family, because I got a real nice special surprise for the next show. Man, where it's my brother, who's from Ghana, ok, who built a school in Ghana and was one of the folks who introduced me to Kwame Ture, to Willie Mucasa Ricks, very powerful brother man, and his school is doing very well. He's turned out a lot of of doctors, lawyers, upstanding people, man, you know. So I want to bring him on and introduce y'all to him in the next one, you know, and then we'll, then we'll come back and then, you know, revisit the meccas, the one after that. But this is going to be a real special one.

Speaker 2: 56:52

He's writing a book too, you know, and very powerful book, very important book. But his story in general is, to start, the true story of a Pan-Africanist who learned here. God is, you know, he went to Howard, he was a student of Kwame. He's a student of Haley Jarema, the brother who wrote what's that movie called Sankofa, okay, yeah. And then he went back home to Ghana, you know, got with the accruements and whatnot and built a really nice Pan-Africanist school. So you know, I wanted to bring him on here and, you know, let him talk to y'all and let y'all get to you know, meet this brother, because you have people like Umar who've been saying they're going to build a school for like 20 years, right, and I, I haven't seen it. I'm you out there, so maybe you saw it, but this brother really did it.

Speaker 2: 57:43

Okay. I mean, it's like looking for jesus, like did you see him? No, no. So this brother really did it indeed, yeah, well on that.

Speaker 1: 57:51

On that note, thank you for coming out this evening to talk about 16 black meccas. We got through through the East coast to South. Now we've got to go Midwest and West coast, but we're going to take a pause. We're going to take a pause and he's going to introduce the guard. Magnetic is going to introduce someone else to the PSO. See y'all in the next one for the BRT black round table, not next week but the week after the following week, that Wednesday at 7. Pm. Thank you for coming out. Thank you for supporting the platform. I really appreciate you, g. I appreciate you as well, sir.

Speaker 2: 58:25

Lovely topic, lovely show, indeed Peace to the family.