JayKnight Life: Running, Reviews, Photos

On February 8th, 2014, I awoke with a desire to witness something big happening in Raleigh-- and no it wasn't the Krispy Kreme challenge (in which some 7-thousand runners participated.)      One year ago, I missed what local NAACP leaders call HKonJ (Hundreds of Thousands on Jones Street), but this year I didn't want to miss it. Apparently, I wasn't alone. Tens of thousands of people packed the streets surrounding the Historic Shaw University.  And so we gathered and waited under overcast skies right in front o Estey Hall- where, in 1873, black women occupied the first female dorm on a coed campus in the country. The air was cold but the smiles were warm out in front of the historic   Leonard Medical School  where african American doctors and pharmacist have studied and filed in and out since 1881. At that time it was the only placket where a black man could fulfill his dream and purpose to become a doctor or pharmacist. 

    Saint Augustine's was founded in 1867 by the Episcopal Church to educate black teachers.     I'm told that the University chapel was built in the Gothic Revival style.. with stones quarries by the school's first students.      Also located on the campus is the shell of the St. Agnes Hospital and Training School for Nurses.     It was built to provide care for and by African Americans living in the community.      

St. Augustine's University    Happy African American History month. A few years ago, I was inspired to do some digging into my state's history and went on an African American history tour in Connecticut. I learned about a lot of things.. Like the fact that there was almost an HBCU built in New Haven. But local businessmen and city leaders fought it for fear that the young African American men would mingle with the white women at Yale University.      You could look back at our history and get down and depressed. You could feel sad for those who went through such horrors. But, I try to see the hope in the images and stories. I see hope for the future. because look how far we've come... and how far we could go.      Now that I'm living in North Carolina, I'm literally surrounded by the history of our ancestors. I was also surrounded by it in the Northeast,.. but I just had to dig a little deeper to find that history.   ...

OK, So for a moment I'd like to divert attention away from the pictures that I take of my family and travels. So, somehow I ran across this article in the Huffington post . I clicked on the link to the Library of Congress Flickr page and probably spent a couple of hours just looking at these n amazement. onto something that I ran across recently.   This collection has than 16-hundred images from Pre-World War II America. (clicking one of the pictures will take you to the Flickr page) I wasn't sure what I was looking for when I opened up the Flickr Collection.. but I was amazed. I guess you can say that i love history. That might be one reason why I like to take pictures and blog. All of this becomes part of history. It's more so evident from this time period because of the amount of pictures that were taken. Today we can take a picture with our phone, DSLR, compact camera, iPad, or Computer and post them instantly for everyone to see. There is something more...