Columns

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived his life serving others. Following his example, millions of Americans serve on Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.

Of the Five Tribes, the Cherokees were the largest holder of Africans as chattel slaves. By 1860 the Cherokees had 4,600 slaves. Many Cherokees depended on them as a bridge to white society. Full-blood Indian slave owners relied on the blacks as English interpreters and translators.

Forget New Year’s Resolutions, how about a recipe for a peace-filled life? 1. Take a 10-30 minute walk (run) every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant. 2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Talk to God about what is going on in your life.

All of us are ready for a new year. Goodbye 2020, Hello 2021. A new start. An end to the Covid-19 Pandemic. All of us by now have seen friends and family hit or even now struggling with this deadly virus. Many of us have struggled with friends who never did accept that it was anything serious.

Some things have not changed much since Wiley Post crashed his airplane 80 years ago and killed not only himself but famous Oklahoma humorist, actor, statesman and genuinely good guy Will Rogers.

Langston University Langston University (formerly Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University) is the only historically African American college still operating in Oklahoma. However, many schools of higher learning catered to blacks residing in the state.

Lydia Ann (Taylor) Dunjee was born March 13, 1846 and would have been 83 years old when she died. She and her family, born freemen, were of the Old Dominion, Virginia. She was reared by a white family of Taylors, for she was one of a large family of three sons and seven daughters.

This will be the last issue of the newspaper in 2020 and I am sure most of you will join me in being glad to see it go. Lots of good things have been hidden by the virus epidemic but the damage done to our nation as a whole will be felt for a long time.

My friend and I were walking from the Saturday Matinee to find my parents, when I spotted a man leading a horse. “Boy, look at that horse,” I said. “Isn’t he a beaut?” “He sure is. Maybe he’s for sale. Go ask.” I’d been horse shopping for a month or more. My old horse had been put out to pasture.

Many of us have played Secret Santa over the years but here may be the best “Secret Santa” of all…. During the winter of 1971, young Larry Stewart from Mississippi was at the end of his rope. The college dropout was out of work and out of money.