Features

the

Men of the Tenth Inc. Teaching the Truth to the Youth

Mastering Chess Twelve-year-old African-American student and Bronx native Justus Williams was named the youngest black national chess masters champion in the country. Nicknamed the “Lebron James of chess,” Williams’ chess-playing skills have taken him to Brazil and Canada. He is not alone in his victories, however. Two other black 12-year-olds - Joshua Colas and James Black Jr. - joined Williams as masters champions, but Williams’ victory was the first. The young black chess masters have competed against champions ranging in age - up to over 50 years old. Williams’ interest of the game began in the third grade. After going for football, he was encouraged by his mother to consider the game of chess. He joined the Bronx Bombers Chess Team and would soon be a certified champion. In less than three years, Williams became one of the highest-ranked elementary students in the country. Williams’ remarkable strides in the game have not come cheap. He attends the U.S. Chess School in Texas among the country’s best chess players. He and his family are set to arrive in Brazil this week for the World Youth Chess Championship, and next month, they are expected in Greece. The award-winning player requires a private coach who charges $100 an hour to remain competitive. Williams’ family works to find sponsors for his training or must provide for his expenses out of pocket. Williams spends his free time working with the “Dare to Be Different”

campaign for kids, encouraging them to seek out stimulating hobbies.

Decoded There is an expanded edition of Jay-Z’s book.

Did You Know? Before Obama there were people like John Mercer Langston

Race Relations A message from Harvard’s first Black Ph.D graduate.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 2

THE MEN OF THE TENTH INC. WINTER 2012

2

Read an Exclusive Annotated Lyric From the New

Expanded Edition of Jay-Z’s Decoded By Amanda Dobbins

Decoded, Jay-Z's 2010 memoir-slash-lyric-guide, earned rave reviews from even the toughest critics for its densely packed musical annotations layered with personal reflections. Last year, Jay told Vulture that a more straightforward autobiography ("the mysterious Black Book") still might be germinating, but in the meantime, we can offer you a first look at the new paperback edition of Decoded (coming out November 1), which includes Hova's insights on several songs not previously included in the hardcover edition. Below, a sampling of his breakdown of "Lost One," off 2006's Kingdom Come; click on the footnotes to read his commentary.

It’s not a diss song, it’s just a real song / Feel me? // I heard motherfuckers saying

they made Hov / Made Hov say, “Okay so, make another Hov”[1] / Niggaz wasn’t playing they day role / So we parted ways like Ben and J-Lo / I shoulda been did it but I been in a daze though / I put friends over business end of the day though / But when friends, business interests is they glow / Ain’t nothing left to say though / I guess weforgot what we came for / Shoulda stayed in food and beverage / Too much flossing / Too much Sam Rothstein [2] / I ain’t a bitch but I gotta divorce them / Hov have to get the shallow shit up off him / And I ain’t even want to be famous / Niggaz is brainless to unnecessarily go through these changes / And I ain’t even know how it came to this / Except that fame is / The worst drug known to man / It’s stronger than, heroin/ When you could look in the mirror like, “There I am” / And still not see, what you’ve become / I know I’m guilty of it too but, not like them / You lost one // Lose one, let go to get one / Left one, lose some to win some [You lost one] / Sorry I’m a champion, sorry I’m a champion / You lost one // I don’t think it’s meant to be, be / But she loves her work more than she does me / And honestly, at twenty-three / I would probably love my work more than I did she / So we, ain’t we / It’s me, and her / ’Cause what she prefers over me, is work / And that’s, where we, differ / So I have to give her / Free, time, even if it hurts [3] / So breathe, mami, it’s deserved / You’ve been put on this earth to be / All you can be, like the reserves/ And me? My timing in this army, it’s served / So I have to allow she, her, time to serve / The time’s now for her / In time she’ll mature / And maybe we, can be, we, again like we were / Finally, my time’s too short to share / And to ask her now, it ain’t fair / So yeah, she lost one // Lose one, let go to get one / Left one, lose some to win some [Oh yeah, she lost one] / Sorry I’m a champion, sorry I’m a champion / You lost one // My nephew died in the car I bought [4] / So I’m under the belief it’s partly my fault / Close my eyes and squeeze, try to block that thought / Place any burden on me, but please, not that lord / Time don’t go back, it go forward [5] / Can’t run from the pain, go towards it [6] / Some things can’t be explained, what caused it? / Such a beautiful soul, so pure, shit / Gonna see you again, I’m

THE MEN OF THE TENTH INC. WINTER 2012

3

sure of it / Until that time, little man I’m nauseous / Your girlfriend’s pregnant, the lord’s gift / Almost lost my faith, that restored it [7] / It’s like having your life restarted / Can’t wait for your child’s life, to be a part of it / So now I’m childlike, waiting for a gift / To return, when I lost you, I lost it // Lose one, let go to get one / Left one, lose some to win some [Colleek, I lost one] / Sorry I’m a champion, Colleek, you’re a champion / I lost one /

1 I recorded this song after a professional breakup, when a lot of things were being said about who was responsible for my success and how things would go in the future now that our initial team had broken up. I owe a lot of my success to a lot of people, but ultimately, no one made me. This is the kind of lie that people get told all the time, sometimes in romantic relationships, sometimes in their professional lives: that somehow who they are is a result of other people’s investment in them. It’s vital to resist that or you risk losing yourself; as I say in another song, Remind yourself / nobody built like you / you design yourself. 2 Sam Rothstein is a character in the movie Casino. In the film he pretended to be the “food and beverage” manager of a casino, while running the operation for the mob behind the scenes. The movie turns when Rothstein makes an appearance on television and starts drawing publicity for himself, a shift into the limelight that destroys everything he’d worked for. 3 These lines are about trying to have a real, serious relationship with another ambitious professional. In a lot of ways, this is the flip side of the songs in my catalog like “Big Pimpin’,” where women exist almost completely as predators or objects. This is about how difficult it is to respect a lover as an autonomous human being, with separate needs and goals and timelines than yours. It’s one of the hardest things about a real relationship of equals. But it’s worth it. 4 My nephew Colleek died in a car accident while driving the car I bought him for his high school graduation. 5 This echoes the sentiment in another song mourning a loved one lost in a car crash. In “Lucifer” my fantasy is to reverse the crash / reverse the blast / reverse the day / and there you are. Here I force myself to avoid that fantasy and come to grips with the truth, that time only moves forward, no matter how painful it is. 6 The only way through such searing pain is to “go towards it,” to allow ourselves to feel it, to reckon with it, and, eventually, to let it go.

7 Just when you’re on the verge of giving up hope and losing faith, the universe reveals unexpected consolations. My nephew’s girlfriend was just a couple months pregnant when he died, which none of us knew, maybe not even him. But the son she gave birth to looked just like his father, like Colleek reborn. The last verse is the most powerful example of the paradox of the song’s chorus, that even the greatest loss holds the possibility of redemption.

THE MEN OF THE TENTH INC. WINTER 2012

4

John Mercer Langston earned his place in history as the first Black elected to public office in the United States, when he was elected an Ohio township clerk in 1855. He went on to

become an elected U.S. Congressman, educator, lawyer, diplomat, and freedom fighter for Black causes. Langston was born in Louisa County, Virginia, the son of Capt. Ralph Quarles, a white plantation owner; and Lucy Langston, a slave of Black and Indian descent. When he was only five years old, both of his parents died; and the responsibility for caring and educating him was placed on Col. William D. Gooch, an intimate friend of Langston’s father. He attended public school in Chillicothe, Ohio, where he came under the influence of George B. Vashon, the first Black graduate of Oberlin Ohio College, who encouraged him to attend Oberlin. There Langston received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in 1849 and 1852. While there, he also studied theology. As late as 1852, he favored emigration by Blacks from the U.S., but he later believed in the ultimate success of an integrated society. His ambition to be a lawyer was temporarily prevented by law schools, which would not accept Blacks. Therefore, he learned the legal profession from Judge Philemon Bliss of Elyria, Ohio, who discovered a quirk in the law that qualified Langston to be “classified” a white man. Accordingly, he passed the bar exam and was admitted to the Ohio Bar in September, 1854. One month later he married Caroline M. Wall, a student at Oberlin College, with whom he had one daughter and three sons. Langston, in 1864, was elected president of the National Equal

Rights League, and he promoted the importance of the Black vote. From 1868 to 1869, he was inspector general of the Freedmen’s Bureau and was especially active in supporting Black educational opportunities. His Black suffrage activities put him in direct conflict with Booker T. Washington, and the NAACP-both whom Langston dismissed as being out-of-step with the Black movement. He also made history when he was appointed the first dean of Howard University’s Law School, which he had helped organize in 1869. After leaving Howard in 1876, Langston favored Republican Party politics; and this brought him to the attention of President Rutherford B. Hayes, whose candidacy Langston supported. In 1877, President Hayes made him the minister-resident and consul-general to Haiti and charge d’affaires to the Dominican Republic. He held these posts until 1885 and proved an able representative of the U.S. Upon returning to the United States, he served as president of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute from 1885 to 1888. Under his leadership, the institute grew and improved. With a well-earned reputation among Blacks and Whites, Langston chose Virginia as the state from which to make a serious political bid, and he announced his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives. Langston finally was seated by a vote of the U.S. House of Representatives and 51st Congress on September 23, 1890. While in the House, he proposed a bill calling for an industrial university for Black youths. He criticized the harassment of Black votes in the South and, although he only served for six months, his place in history was secured. Langston failed in his bid to be reelected to the 52nd Congress and refused to accept a draft to run for the 53rd Congress, preferring instead to spend the remainder of his life lecturing on education, politics and economics. Before his death, from a stroke in 1897, he published some of his best speeches in Freedom and Citizenship. He also recorded the events of his diverse life in an autobiography, From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capital.

DID YOU KNOW?

Race Relations W.E.B Dubois

It is not enough for the Negroes to declare that color-prejudice is the sole cause of their social condition, nor for the white South to reply that their social condition is the main cause of prejudice. They both act as reciprocal cause and effect, and a change in neither alone will bring the desired effect. Both must change, or neither can improve to any great extent. The Negro cannot stand the present reactionary

tendencies and unreasoning drawing of the color-line indefinitely without discouragement and retrogression. And the condition of the Negro is ever the excuse for further discrimination. Only by a union of intelligence and sympathy across the color-line in this critical period of the Republic shall justice and right triumph.

(Excerpt from The Souls of Black Folk, 1996)

The Men of the Tenth Inc.

750 Faile Street Suite 2E Bronx, New York 10474

THE MEN OF THE TENTH INC. WINTER 2012