Featured

History According to Simon Rutledge: Master Historian Teaches on NYC Streets

Published

6 years ago

December 29, 2017

Street Historian Simon Rutledge (left) speaks to passersby on the streets of New York City at the corner of 96th and Broadway.

On any given day, businessman, Simon Rutledge can be seen addressing a crowd on the streets of New York City. At the corner of 96th and Broadway, he pours out fountains of information – from politics to slavery to the African pyramids, Rutledge offers his knowledge in the informal setting. In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the city, while selling his wares he engages everyday people in conversations that challenge their thinking – in the form of verbal history according to Simon Rutledge. Before he knew it he had a following.

“I’ve had diplomats and people from Wall Street say, they never understood certain concepts until I put it in just the right framework,” explained Rutledge from his home in New York with wife, Shirley of 52 years.

By connecting these historical dots, Rutledge at the age of 73, helps people understand that the demonizing and mistreatment of black people began with the Papal Bull, a public decree issued by the pope of the Roman Catholic Church. According to Rutledge, the pope decreed people of color as second-class citizens centuries ago. “When you dehumanized a person, you can justify any type of treatment toward that person. This has carried on to the modern day attitude that African American’s face today. “If you can justify that a person is less than, you can justify any mistreatment or indifference toward them. “The police department feels since we are outside the human race they have a right to kill us. That’s the reason why historically at every cross burning, house burning, lynching, law enforcement was always there.”

He also discussed the frenzy behind the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, a group of bills that helped quiet early calls for Southern secession—and a new law that forcibly compelled citizens to assist in the capture of runaway slaves. “Abolitionists nicked nicknamed it the “Bloodhound Law” for the dogs that were used to track down runaway slaves.”

Rutledge also cited the Dred Scott decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857, ruled that a slave, Dred Scott, who had resided in a free state and territory (where slavery was prohibited) was not thereby entitled to his freedom. “This ruled that African Americans were not and could never be citizens of the United States; It basically said a Black man has no right that a white man has to respect. Nothing has changed it just evolved.”

Born in 1944, Rutledge says his interest in history was sparked as a young boy growing up in the small coastal town of Georgetown, South Carolina, a city where “the First Lady Michelle Obama’s ancestors are from, a town that exported rice, and people did not live very long.”

“I witnessed people working in the rice fields all day and night. They were worked to death and I wanted to understand to them. How did this arrangement come about where one group of people hardly worked and had everything, while others worked themselves to death and had nothing?”

By reading, Rutledge says it took him all over the world causing him to question every thing; like how areas of the Caribbean and Africa become nation states under countries as small as Belgium. “How do people who had nothing now control 87% of the earth including countries as vast and rich as the Congo?”

Simon Rutledge meets Post News Group publishers Paul and Gay Cobb on the streets of New York City.

Rutledge says even the cell phone industry relies on Africa. “The Katanga Mining Corporation in Congo’s Katanga Province, produces refined copper and cobalt which are raw materials used to make components of the cell phone. Much of the world is operating off the Congo’s wealth and natural resources. The banks off the Nile River can feed all of Africa because it’s the longest

running river in world, 4000 miles long.”

Some of Rutledge’s findings are quite shocking, but put systemic racism into perspective. “It’s never discussed that the skin of Black people was used to make lamp shades and pocket books. Even the first erected skeleton was of a black man who was murdered and boiled. The Jews never discuss that prior to Hitler killing the Jews, he killed the Africans first, because Germany had a large black population also.”

From the IQ Test to the Emancipation Proclamation, Rutledge is filled with historical facts accumulated through years of research. “The very first IQ test came out of Germany in a Hitler Camp. They were trying to decide who to kill (exterminate). This is what prefaced the SAT and testing for special education. Also, after the Emancipation Proclamation 500,000 mixed people were born. It was black women having white men’s babies.”

While Rutledge never went to college or business school but learned the diesel engine industry. On Wall Street he owned a parking lot, a trucking firm and a grocery store. “I learned that nobody is going to take care of you and I now encourage young men to go to a trade school. They don’t need to go to a 4- year school and accumulate $200,000 in student loans. A true education is a farmer who teaches kids to farm and make a living. Then he can send them to college to bring up their intellect, speak well and read well and problem solve.”

Rutledge says Trump, just like some president’s post-slavery is here to push back all the laws and protections to undermine “our progress.” “In the preamble of the constitution it says that slavery will be abolished in the private sector but will always be a part of the penal system.”

With over 2 million Black men in the penal system that is now very privatized and prison labor is producing products for Fortune 500 companies, Rutledge advises Black people to recognize their worth.

“Everybody knows our worth except for us. Your critical thinking is key. Any man that invades your country, changes your name, strips you of your culture and kills millions and transfers millions around the world, have them work for hundreds of years and give them no land – what makes you think these people will be fair to you now?”

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Related Topics:Historian New York City Simon Rutledge

Up Next

Warriors Create Winning Ways at Oracle Arena and McClymonds High

Don't Miss

‘Wall of Change’ Probationers Get Emotional Salute

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

WOMEN IMPACTING THE CHURCH AND COMMUNITY

Published

21 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Juanita Matthews

Sister Juanita Matthews

55 Years with Oakland Public School District

The Teacher, Mother, Community Outreach Champion, And Child of God

Juanita Matthews, better known as “Sister Teacher,” is a walking Bible scholar. She moved to California from the great state of Arkansas in 1971. Sister Teacher has a passion for teaching. She has been a member of Bible Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church since 1971. She followed her passion for teaching, and in 1977 became the lead teacher for Adult Class #6. Her motto still today is “Once My Student, Always My Student”.

Beyond her remarkable love for the Lord, Sister Teacher has showcased her love for teaching by working for the Oakland Unified School District for 55 years, all but four of those years spent at Emerson Elementary and Child Development School. She truly cares about her students, making sure they have the tools/supplies needed to learn either at OUSD or Bible Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church.

She’s also had a “Clothes Closet Ministry” for 51 years, making sure her students have sufficient clothing for school. The Clothes Closet Ministry extends past her students, she has been clothing the community for over 50 years as well. She loves the Lord and is a servant on a mission. She is a loving mother to two beautiful children, Sandra and Andre. This is the impact this woman of God has on her church and the community.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Bay Area

Vivian Coit, 98

Vivian Coit, a proud Dallas, Texas native made her way to the great state of California in 1943. She was a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great grandmother.

Published

21 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Vivian Coit

Celebrating A Life Well Lived

Sept. 15, 1925 ~ March 30, 2024

Vivian Coit, a proud Dallas, Texas native made her way to the great state of California in 1943. She was a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great grandmother.

In her 98 years, she had various jobs – San Francisco Naval Shipyard, elevator operator, housekeeping, a salesclerk, and supervisor for the United States Postal Service. After 27 years of service with the United States Postal Service, she retired with numerous commendations. She was a lifetime member of the National Council of Negro Women. and a devoted member of the Washington/Lincoln Alumni Association of Dallas, Texas.

On April 20 at 10:00 a.m., a life well-lived will be celebrated at Beebe Memorial Cathedral CME Church, 3900 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA under the leadership of Rev. Antoine Shyne.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Commentary

Opinion: Surviving the Earthquake, an Eclipse and “Emil Amok.”

Last Friday, a 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook New York City, reported as the “biggest earthquake with an epicenter in the NYC area since 1884” when a 5.2 quake hit. A bit bigger. The last quake similar to Friday’s was a 4.9 in 1783.Alexander Hamilton felt it — 241 years ago. That’s why New Yorkers were freaking out on Friday. They were in the room where it happens.

Published

21 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

In New York City, the eclipse was about 90 percent visible. Good enough for me. Though a full solar eclipse is a celestial rarity, blockages of any sort aren’t generally celebrated. My one-man play is about growing up with the eclipsed history of American Filipinos and how I struggle to unblock all that.

By Emil Guillermo

I’m a Northern Californian in New York City for the next few weeks, doing my one-man show, “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host, Wiley Filipino, Vegan Transdad.”

I must like performing in the wake of Mother Nature.

Alexander Hamilton felt it — 241 years ago.

That’s why New Yorkers were freaking out on Friday. They were in the room where it happens.

And it just doesn’t happen that often.

Beyonce singing country music happens more frequently.

When I felt New York shake last week, it reminded me of a time in a San Francisco TV newsroom when editors fretted about a lack of news an hour before showtime.

Then the office carpeting moved for a good ten seconds, and the news gods gave us our lead story.

On Friday when it happened in NYC, I noticed the lines in the carpeting in my room wiggling. But I thought it was from a raucous hotel worker vacuuming nearby.

I didn’t even think earthquake. In New York?

I just went about my business as if nothing had happened. After living near fault lines all my life, I was taking things for granted.

Considering the age of structures in New York, I should have been even more concerned about falling objects inside (shelves, stuff on walls) and outside buildings (signs, scaffolding), fire hazards from possible gas leaks, and then I should have looked for others on my floor and in the hotel lobby to confirm or aid or tell stories.

Of course, as a Californian who has lived through and covered quakes in the 4 to 6 magnitude range, I tried to calm down any traumatized New Yorker I encountered by taking full responsibility for bringing in the quake from the Bay Area.

I reassured them things would be all right, and then let them know that 4.8s are nothing.

And then I invited them to my consoling post-Earthquake performance of “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host…”

It was the night of the eclipse.

ECLIPSING THE ECLIPSE

For example, did you know the first Filipinos actually arrived to what is now California in 1587? That’s 33 years before the Pilgrims arrived in America on the other coast, but few know the Filipino history which has been totally eclipsed.

I was in Battery Park sitting on a bench and there was a sense of community as people all came to look up. A young woman sitting next to me had a filter for a cell phone camera. We began talking and she let me use it. That filter enabled me to take a picture of the main event with my iPhone.

For helping me see, I invited her and her boyfriend to come see my show.

Coincidentally, she was from Plymouth, Massachusetts, near the rock that says the year the Pilgrims landed in 1620.

In my show she learned the truth. The Pilgrims were second.

History unblocked. But it took a solar eclipse.

Next one in 2044? We have a lot more unblocking to do.

If you’re in New York come see my show, Sat. April 13th, 5:20 pm Eastern; Fri. April 19, 8:10 pm Eastern; and Sun. April 21st 5:20 pm Eastern.

You can also livestream the show. Get tickets at www.amok.com/tickets

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He does a mini-talk show on YouTube.com/@emilamok1. He wishes all his readers a Happy Easter!