Category Archives: Uncategorized

Love and Freedom

Love and Freedom This month we celebrate two of the most valued aspects of human existence: love and freedom.  Valentine’s Day (observed in remembrance of St. Valentine) focuses our collective attention on romantic love.  We traditionally celebrate this holiday on February 14, by offering those dearest to us acts of love and devotion usually in the form of something sweet and beautiful: candy, flowers, poetry, sentimental cards, etc. February is also Black History Month.  This month is filled with events...

Read more
Uncategorized Updated: February 14, 2017

Black Abolitionist Archive – the Canadian connection

Communication holds together the people within a defined social structure.  Slavery as a social institution in the early years of this country, kept people isolated.  The practice of using human beings as chattel was brought to the Americas as a matter of course in the early years of its colonizing.  At that time, no one seemed to pay much attention to the idea that there was something very wrong with this practice.  Soon, however, communication in the form of abolitionist...

Read more
Uncategorized Updated: February 9, 2017

1908 Construction of the Old Gym

Every once in a while, I come across things that have not seen the light of day in probably a hundred years. Nobody here  knows about it and maybe nobody cares. But back in 1908, somebody cared enough to take a picture and that should count for something. It’s not like today when just about anyone with a cell phone will take a picture of anything and probably should NOT take a picture at all of somethings! The following pictures...

Read more
Uncategorized Updated: February 1, 2017

University of Detroit Gun Club

Back in the late 1940′s, the University of Detroit had a Gun Club. It was originally founded in 1937, but it was discontinued until after the war in 1948. Understanding the fine points of marksmanship and the mechanics of a wide variety of firearms was the primary aim of the club. The 1949 Titan rifle team would participate in competition with other schools. ” In these matches the teams fire from four positions: prone, sitting, kneeling and offhand. Five men...

Read more
Uncategorized Updated: January 23, 2017

The Inauguration of a University President

While the world will be watching as the United States inaugurates Donald Trump as the President of the United States, I thought I would take a moment to review what went on when the University of Detroit Mercy inaugurated its most recent president, Antoine Garibaldi in 2012. Family, friends, faculty, board of trustees, alumni and all the local dignitaries came together to celebrate the university’s heritage and reaffirm its mission to the community. It turned out to be a very...

Read more
Uncategorized , Updated: January 18, 2017

“Old Winter has Come Again, Alack”

“Old Winter has Come Again, Alack” One of the best topics for conversation when nothing else is on the table for discussion is the weather.  Weather discussion offers you an endless supply of metaphor, an easy connection between strangers (who doesn’t enjoy talking about the weather?), and a huge area for opinion of one sort or another. It also offers a great way to ease into heavier subjects, such as poverty and the misery of the poor. During the 1800s,...

Read more
Uncategorized Updated: January 10, 2017

1968

1968 Close your eyes and for a few moments, take a quick trip with me back to 1968.  Could you visualize it?  Even if you were born after this time, the history of the ’60s is a pretty dominate part of the story of social culture.  Colorful time, wasn’t it?  The Vietnam war was in full swing, people young and old were taking to the streets to protest an unjust conflict, Nixon was about to become the 37th president, and...

Read more
Uncategorized Updated: January 6, 2017

The Merry Christmas Time, 1860

The Merry Christmas Time  There are only three small entries in the Black Abolitionist Archive associated with Christmas, so I chose this one. While this holiday was important to an enslaved people learning about the celebration of this Christmas story from the periphery of the Christian families who enslaved them, the way they celebrated this holiday was different. The celebration of any special occasion during this time was focused on Church, prayer, thankfulness, and finding joy where they could. On...

Read more
Uncategorized , Updated: December 12, 2016

Ethics Bowl

Every year the University of Detroit Mercy students take part in a national contest named “Ethics Bowl” The Ethics Bowl is inspired by TV’s College Bowl, but modified rules adapt the game to the subject of ethics. In Ethics Bowl, a moderator poses questions to teams of three to five students. Questions may address ethical problems on classroom topics (e.g. cheating or plagiarism), personal relationships (e.g. dating or friendship), professional ethics (e.g. engineering, law, medicine), or social and political ethics...

Read more
Uncategorized Updated: November 17, 2016
Page 3 of 2512345...1020...