JayKnight Life: Running, Reviews, Photos

    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.      

       Every  time I start  a black History month project there's one story that grabs my imagination, heart and soul. West parish Street in Durham is one of those stories.       That was home to what became known as the "Black Wall Street." Black-owned businesses lined this street in the early decades of the 1900's.          Think about that for just a moment. Imagine what it was like to live in a Jim crow south where certain rest rooms, water fountains, movie theaters and parks weren't good enough for a whole race of people-- yet, in Durham North Carolina a "negro" could own a bank, insurance company, grocery store, drug store and become and entrepreneur.       Yes, Durham was the "Capital of the Black Middle Class."              I don't think we've lost this spirit of entrepreneurship in this country let alone Durham. There are still a few who are holdin...

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...

There's one thing I've learned about writing about gas prices all these years. Gas prices have always followed trends. In the summer you expect to pay more as demand went up. Demand goes down in the Winter. But for years, the trends from year to year remained steady and not peaking over $1.50 until after the dawn of the new millennium. Day in and day out, as we face this current gas crisis I'm always looking for new angles. Let's be honest, we've exhausted just about every angle there. But, this is interesting to me. The Department of Energy has been keeping tabs on gas prices since 1983. Yes, I am older than this survey. Go ahead, let the old man jokes begin. Fault me for having a short term memory, but one dollar gas prices seem like a far and away dream. I feel like I've been paying $2 and $3 for gas forever now. But, really when you look at this chart we have had it good for years. Some how even with summer and winter driving and prici...