Why does the slave ever love? Why allow the tendrils of the heart to twine around objects which may at any moment be wretched away by the hand of violence?
Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Ann Jacobs writing as Linda Brent

People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.
“Stranger in the Village” from Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

I win the fight, I never die and I always get the girl at the end of the picture.
Fred Williamson, actor

There’s a lot of truth in a joke.
Grandma Carrie

These quotes and their sources reflect my thoughts about Quentin Tarantino’s new film “Django Unchained.” And that’s pretty much all I have to say about the film. Read into it what you want.

Tonight is Watch Night, New Year’s Eve – – “in anticipation of the day of Freedom on January 1 when the Emancipation Proclamation became the law of the land.” Tomorrow’s the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Speaking of films, here’s a video about the Emancipation Proclamation I produced years ago for the Humanities Council of Washington, DC’s public access series featuring the late historian Walter Hill (1949-2008), an archivist at the National Archives and Records Admiministration. The original copy of the Emancipation Proclamation is on display now at the National Archives until tomorrow, January 1.

Free your mind!