Rudder Media - Home of the African American Family Keepsake Journal

01/15/2024

In honor of Dr. King The African American Family Keepsake Journal is on sale. Purchase with coupon code: HonorMLK.

01/02/2024

Happy New Year. Happy 2024. We at Rudder Media declare this year to be the year of Family Communication. We will be encouraging you to talk to each other and to learn about each other! Just start.

11/21/2023

Our big offer is finally here. Purchase the PDF veersion of the journal and get 25% off now and 25% off the printed version coming in 2024. Use code: THANKFUL.
https://payhip.com/b/rJdZX

03/21/2023

On This World Poetry Day.

Nikki-Rosa
BY NIKKI GIOVANNI
childhood remembrances are always a drag
if you’re Black
you always remember things like living in Woodlawn
with no inside toilet
and if you become famous or something
they never talk about how happy you were to have
your mother
all to yourself and
how good the water felt when you got your bath
from one of those
big tubs that folk in chicago barbecue in
and somehow when you talk about home
it never gets across how much you
understood their feelings
as the whole family attended meetings about Hollydale
and even though you remember
your biographers never understand
your father’s pain as he sells his stock
and another dream goes
And though you’re poor it isn’t poverty that
concerns you
and though they fought a lot
it isn’t your father’s drinking that makes any difference
but only that everybody is together and you
and your sister have happy birthdays and very good
Christmases
and I really hope no white person ever has cause
to write about me
because they never understand
Black love is Black wealth and they’ll
probably talk about my hard childhood
and never understand that
all the while I was quite happy.

Nikki Giovanni, “Nikki-Rosa” from Black Feeling, Black Talk, Black Judgment. Copyright © 1968,

03/21/2023

01/26/2023

The Black mirepoix: onion, garlic, bell pepper and celery.

01/07/2023

Remembering some who inspired me.

01/05/2023

Losing family and gaining clarity.

11/25/2022

“They always talk about Daniel Pratt and what he accomplished, but how did he accomplish that? Whose back did he accomplish that on? Whose shoulders was he standing on?” said Robinson.

BECAUSE OUR HISTORY IS USUALLY OMITTED, YOU NEED TO - WRITE YOUR BLACK HISTORY

A once-abandoned cotton gin factory with history tied up in slavery is being renovated into apartments in Prattville, Ala.

11/23/2022

Teach your children your history. Let them know what you experienced. WRITE YOUR BLACK HISTORY.

Joy-Ann Reid shared a post on Instagram: "Ron Desantis, Glenn Youngkin and the other neo-confederate governors don’t want you to know this history. Learning it anyway is the best revenge. ". Follow their account to see 6048 posts.

11/14/2022

This is great for those whose ancestors are from North Carolina. WRITE YOUR BLACK HISTORY!!

The North Carolina State Capitol is seeking community input through a series of listening sessions as the historic site prepares to launch a new digital humanities initiative, currently titled “From Naming to Knowing: Uncovering Slavery at the North Carolina State Capitol.” The project names ove...

11/13/2022

https://www.yahoo.com/video/artist-michelle-browder-soon-open-202300617.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAIwJnKI5Lu061dC3TzzWBFqaRj4KITeSg4s4c-7epexcQrraPM_2Sjdi4TKjW5NL7ghdwWa6ylqpn601F7nm7PHQY0nrC8NrwmLtYwB_0ZoVuy3WRJZ2TdJpBcXbN3hX4bl8IEfZQvbAvdhpgaqmHqeGJ3oFYAadBzmVttitYLL6

After unveiling her groundbreaking monument last Mother’s Day, artist Michelle Browder is expanding upon her work around the “Mothers of Gynecology,” with the opening of a museum and clinic built in their honor.

11/08/2022

Although this was in September, the importance of reminding US to be prepared is critical. In times of emergencies WE are usually more adversely impacted. Please protect the legacy of your family by being prepared.

11/06/2022

On November 5, 1968 Shirley Chisholm became first Black woman elected to Congress, representing Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY. She would go on to run for President in 1972. She was a powerhouse and made many significant contributions to our country. "Unbought and Unbossed"

11/04/2022

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/elkins-thomas-1818-1900/
Elkins’ work as a medical examiner may have motivated his next and most well-known invention – an apparatus aimed at improving refrigeration of “articles liable for decay” such as “food, or human corpses.” Approved on November 4, 1879, the device included a covered trough or container kept at low temperature by the continuous circulation of chilled water or other cooling fluid through a series of metallic coils. Keeping the bodies of the recently deceased cool posed major challenge in the 19th century, especially in cities, and Elkins’ invention was a marked improvement over other longstanding techniques. In 1880, the New York Agriculture Society awarded Elkins a certificate of “highest merit” for this idea.

An inventor, abolitionist, and trained medical professional, Dr. Thomas Elkins played a significant role in supporting the Underground Railroad in Albany, New York during the 1840s and 1850s. He also made an important contribution to the development of refrigeration techniques, and patented several....

11/03/2022

It is terrible when you have made a significant contribution and there is very little information about you. On this day in 1896 J.H. Hunter, an African-American inventor, patented the weighing scale. It was patent number 570, 533. I can't find a photo of him. I can't find any info about his life. Please, please.

11/03/2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEIVzWCRSg8&list=RDEM6OAn_EgNYeNqyOtg95QTVA&start_radio=1
On this National Stress Awareness Day enjoy some stress relief with Black Violin

Black Violin's new single "A Flat" off of their highly anticipated Sophomore album "Classically Trained" produced by Infamous. Video was directed by ...

11/02/2022

Today is National Author’s day and Family Literacy Day. Here are some suggested reading material: Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine and Kadir Nelson. Black people Invented Eveything by Dr. Sujan Kumar Dass.

09/19/2022

"A lot of young people don't know what's appropriate. They are not learning from the elders so they are not getting cultural and family values passed on" - A wise woman. This is one of the reasons for the journal.

09/14/2022

Learn about Lewis Latimer
LATIMER
Lewis Latimer (1848-1928) was an African-American inventor, electrical pioneer and patent expert.

After 11 years working as a patent lawyer for inventors such as Alexander Graham Bell (working on the telephone) and Hiram Maxim (in his United States Electric Lighting Company), Latimer started to work with Edison General Electric in the late 1880s as a patent expert (see from the five minute-mark in the video lewislatimerhouse.org/about/ ).

In 1890 he published a book on the Edison system and the development of the incandescent light by Edison, called “Incandescent Electric Lighting: A Practical Description of the Edison System” ( here ).

The website for the museum based in his old house says Latimer “invented the carbon filament, a significant improvement in the production of the incandescent light bulb” ( lewislatimerhouse.org/about/ ).

The website for Lemelson-MIT, which awards prizes to inventors in the United States, goes into more detail, saying: “Edison’s light bulb used a carbonized bamboo filament, which unfortunately burnt out rather quickly. Latimer created a way to make the carbon filament more durable by encasing it in cardboard.” (here)

Latimer filed a patent for the process for efficiently manufacturing the carbon filament in September 1881. The patent can be seen here here . Edison’s patent for his lightbulb, seen here , was granted around one and a half years earlier in January 1880 ( here ).

Latimer also supervised the installation of public electric lights throughout New York, Philadelphia, Montreal and London (see here and here ). His other patented inventions included the first toilet for railroad cars and a forerunner of the air conditioner ( here ).

Lewis Howard Latimer (1848-1928) was an African-American inventor, electrical pioneer, and a son of fugitive slaves. With no access to formal education, Latimer taught himself mechanical drawing while in the Union Navy, and eventually became a chief draftsman, patent expert, and inventor.

09/06/2022

Can you believe that the Tignon law was really intended to stop White men from being attracted to Black women? Fortunately we know how to get around roadblocks and restrictions. Nothing stifles our creativity.
Write Your Black History

09/01/2022

To change the future, he had to know the history. Kudos to him. May God protect him.
Know your family history. Record your story for future generations.

After the mayor of Enfield, North Carolina, ordered the bulldozing of a local Confederate monument, he's been the target of a state investigation and racist hate mail. But he says the experience is also part of a new chapter in his life as a community organizer and activist.

08/22/2022

"Cooking, for Ms. Emily, is about sharing history — and, as she says in her book, food is one of the most important ways we take care of each other. "
Yes. Sharing our food traditions is important. There is space for that in the African American Family Keepsake Journal.

Emily Meggett has spent decades caring for her community and family with her delicious, traditional Gullah Geechee food from South Carolina. Now, she's sharing that cuisine with the world.

08/10/2022

This is part of Black history in our country. Enjoy and be encouraged.

Support Blacksdahistory (https://bit.ly/2P3OarZ)

08/03/2022

Making Coffee and making History in Memphis.
Make your Black History and Write it down.

The founder of Memphis-based Cxffeeblack is on a mission to highlight the lack of racial diversity in the coffee industry through music, education and cups of joe.

07/26/2022

On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order banning segregation in the Armed Forces. Was there anyone in your family that served during those times? Do you have a record of their experience? This video tell of some of the men who served in the segregated armed forces.
Please Write your Black History so your family stories can be passed on to the next generation.

Before the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, racial segregation was an unfortunate fact of life - even in the U.S. military. Sgt. Todd Hunter tel...