By Ralph E. Moore Jr.
The AFRO American Newspaper has blessed me with a column for over a year as of Oct. 2. The year before that, I was a freelance writer for the newspaper and AFRO.com. It has been my absolute pleasure to share my info and opinions with curious readers. And it is my honor to work for such an historic news source that covered African Americans when White owned news institutions did not. And it is still a primary news source for Blacks in Baltimore and elsewhere. Some white folks read the AFRO, too.
So, I enjoyed a recent look back over the year and was reminded this is what I wrote:
My favorite column was ‘St. Jim Crow’ published and posted on Dec. 9.
It was my first attempt at showing that the Catholic Church’s sordid and sinful history, as the largest institutional practitioner of racial segregation in the United States, remains segregated today in some respects in church life. The fact that there are no Black saints from the United States recognized and respected by the Church–despite Catholic Church enslavements, segregations (exclusions and separations) by race and silence on mass poverty and mass incarcerations–is appalling.
My St. Ann churchmates and I are demanding that the church respect us, as they routinely respect White people, by honoring our ‘Saintly Six’: Mother Lange, Father Tolton, Mother DeLille, Mr. Toussaint, Ms. Greeley and Sister Bowman. So, we are going to Rome to discuss it with Pope Francis, once we raise our fares and get on his schedule. We will try to convince him it is wrong now, so it must be fixed now.
Other favorite columns were sports related.
Sports history is more interesting to me than individual sports themselves: the determination, the talent, the lengths athletes must go to overcome starting out as ordinary people who practice and never give up on their dreams to be the best. They win so racism, sexism and homophobia be damned.
I wrote a column about tennis great, Althea Gibson, just as Serena Williams was retiring from the sport where she established herself as the “greatest of all time.” They knew each other, communicated with and cheered for each other. The past and the present came together in their careers and in my column on Sep. 9.
I also wrote about Pele, the world’s greatest soccer player, as the planet was wrapped up in watching the biggest sports tournament in the known universe, The World Cup. The two best players in this year’s greatest soccer match, Kylian Mbappe of France versus Lionel Messi of Argentina would have been outmatched if they had played against Pele. I wrote about them all in my 12/18/22 column.
I’ve written about superb Negro League ball players and little-known managers who held teams together and extracted greatness from the men who played for them. Those stories can be found in the archives under my full name at AFRO.com.
I urge all who read my column to purchase an online or print edition of the AFRO American Newspaper for a relative, a friend or a neighbor. The AFRO has been and remains a gift to Baltimore. And it’s still here after 130 years, established in 1892.
If you haven’t read the AFRO in a while, or you’ve never read it, check it out! It is still a great news source after all these years produced by many talented staff members, committed to a weekly quality product.
Happy New Year to everyone, see you in 2023!
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The post The Moore Report: A year in review: looking back on my 2022 columns appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers .
