Once, there proudly strode down the sacred streets of Harlem, three brilliant, black brothers.  Slightly different in age and height and hue, clearly they could not claim the same biological father but they both claimed, clung to, and served the same spiritual mother.

It was that “mother” who had caused them to travel from both the southern parts of the country and the hemisphere to meet, eventually, in Harlem, “the black capital of the world”.  There, they learned from, broke bread with, and influenced the thoughts and actions of each other.  And their influence, both individually and collectively, spread like wildfire throughout the country, the hemisphere, and the world.

The oldest and lighter-, practically white-skinned of the three spoke with a booming voice and a flaming tongue.  Hailing from South Carolina, his mind was laser sharp and his pen was lightning fast.  A dedicated labor union man, a devout atheist, and a noted self-taught scholar, using both the dual swords of his tongue and his pen, he used his many talents to remind the world of and to teach it the often untold, accurate and noteworthy story of his people - African (Black) people - from time immemorial to the present. 

Born in 1907 and deceased in 1993, his boundless love for his people and the truth, resulted in his penning such noteworthy works as A Guide to the Study of African history:  Directive Lists for Schools and Clubs and An Introduction to African Civilizations with Main Currents in Ethiopian History (1934 and 1937, respectively, as co-authored with his mentor Dr. Willis Nathaniel Huggins of Selma, Alabama), Ethiopia and the Origin of Civilization (1939) and Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth (1941), Introduction to African Civilizations (1970) and Man, God, and Civilization (1972), The African Origin of Christianity (1981) and Was Jesus Christ a Negro (1984), Christianity Before Christ (1985) and Ages of Gold and Silver and Other Short Sketches of Human History (1990), his last book, among others.

Clearly, just that short list, alone, of his many written works, indicates that here was a man who more than casually courted controversy and left a virtual library of his own works behind to show the world “truth crushed to earth shall rise again.”  And his name?  It is none other than the late but great, noted historian, lecturer, and teacher, John Glover Jackson - often called “John G. Jackson,” for short.

It was he who greatly influenced another “John”, the “middle” brother of the three brothers mentioned earlier.  This “John” hailed from Alabama, traveled to Georgia at a very young age, then finally made a home and name for himself in Harlem.  Like the “John” before him, he, too, was greatly self-taught and very active in writing, scholarship, and activism.  It was John G. Jackson that persuaded this John - John Henrik Clarke - to put his literary talents to much better use by writing, recording, and interpreting history more and writing poetry less.  With the help of such people as John G. Jackson, the noted Afro-Puerto Rican bibliophile Arthur Schomburg (one of Clarke’s primary mentors), Dr. William Nathaniel Huggins, and world-famous, prolific, and highly-influential black historian J. A. Rogers, among others, Clarke rose to international heights to become “the doyen of Black studies”.  Not having officially gained an education past the eighth grade, he was a voracious reader and great listener, a fast learner and a world traveler with a sharp mind, a sharper tongue, and an even sharper pen. 

Like his mentor John G. Jackson, he would rise to become a noted and controversial college professor, writer, and lecturer.  Yes, he even continued to write poetry.   Despite not being as “formally-trained” as many of his colleagues, he often wrote and published more essays and/or books than many of them and frequently brought them to their knees with facts during both private and public debates.

Wise and witty, honest and humble, soft- but well-spoken, and intelligent and insightful, Clarke, knowingly or unknowingly, has influenced generations of thinkers - near and far, rich and poor, African and European and otherwise - by both his words and deeds, which include counseling various African and Caribbean heads of state (like Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah) and even his close friend Malcolm X, for whose speeches he often conducted the historical research.  Interestingly enough, it was reportedly in Clarke’s living room where Malcolm’s plans for the Union of Afro-American Unity were laid. Among his many students, if not flat out fans, is the African American, Hollywood actor and martial artist Wesley Snipes, who produced a film about Clarke shortly before his death.  Entitled John Henrik Clarke:  A Great and Mighty Walk, it provides virtually unrestricted access to the thoughts, words, and deeds of this world-renown scholar-activist and the active role that he, others, and Africa, and her (1) billion plus children worldwide, as a whole, have played in history.

Born in 1915 and deceased in 1998, like his older “brother” John G. Jackson, John Henrik Clarke, too, would leave behind a large literary legacy.  He did so by serving as the author, contributor, or editor of 24 books and by writing and being published often in scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers as well as presenting papers at scholarly conferences.  Some of his newspaper writings include a 1957, multiple-part series entitled “Famous African Chiefs’ for the historic African American newspaper the Pittsburgh Courier and “Harlem: A Brief History of the World’s Most Famous Black Community” as published in 1976 in the historic black newspaper the New York Amsterdam News.  His magazine articles can be found in such black publications as Essence and his scholarly essays fill the pages of such noted journals as the Journal of Negro Education, the W. E. B. DuBois-established Phylon and The Black Scholar:  The Journal of Black Studies and Research. 

Clarke’s books and pamphlets, by far, may have garnered him the most attention.  According to the John Henrik Clarke Africana Library website for Cornell University, where Clarke once taught, they include such titles as Rebellion in Rhyme, both his first book and a book of poetry, that was written in 1948 and:

That leads, of course, to the youngest of the three brothers.  Not only is he a direct descendant of continental Africans but he is also the only of the three who still lives and breathes, making his home, as always, in Harlem.  By nationality and ethnic descent, he could be called an Ethiopian, the Greek word for Africans who were encountered with a “sun-burnt face”.  By religion, he could be called, as he once called himself, a “Jew,” with some using the derogatory name “Falasha” (broken vessel) or the more positive Beta-Israel. The Ethiopian Jews, are some of the oldest practitioners of Judaism in the world and are being greatly discriminated against in Israel, where, for decades, many have migrated.  As this brother, a member of Beta-Israel, has pointed out repeatedly in his lectures and his over (40) books, like We, the Black Jews:  Witness to the “White Jewish Race” Myth, according to biblical scholars and even Jewish rabbis themselves (see Rabbi Morris N. Kertzer’s noted book What is a Jew?) a “Jew” is not a race but someone who believes in or takes part in the religion of Judaism and can be of any color, race, and/or ethnic background. 

By training and experience, he could be called an Egyptologist, a historian, a lecturer and a teacher.   In fact, since the 1940s, if not before, he has led countless, predominantly African/Black groups to tour what he describes as the real “Holy Land” - Africa, but most especially Egypt.   Once a Harlem street corner speaker, as was John Henrik Clarke, if not Jackson, he, much like his “brothers” before and during his time, traveled the globe in search of first-hand knowledge concerning the truth about Africa and her children’s role in history from its very beginning to the present day. His many books on various subjects within that area attest to his many astounding findings.

Those books, many written in the distant past but still influential and selling well, include such titles as his 1970 work African Origins of Major “Western Religions" and his classic and best known work Black Man of the Nile and His Family, which was originally published in 1972. 

Other books of note that he has written include:

And just who is this man?  He is none other than the youngest and the longest living of the three brothers.  He is Harlem’s and the (1) billion plus member African World Family’s own Yosef Ben-Jochannan, affectionately called “Doc Ben”.  Recently, he reached his 89th birthday, a major milestone, and is still fighting for the physical, mental, spiritual and economic liberation of all die-hard members of the African World Family - both born and yet unborn. 

Fight on, Doc Ben.  Fight on!  For untold decades you have left your definitive mark on the world, even when it has done its best to ignore, diminish, and/or take credit for the original ideas that have come from you.  Fight on, sir, just as your brothers John G. Jackson and John Henrik Clarke and others, sisters, too, have done before you.  You three, you three “Harlem Knights”, have planted positive, ever-blossoming seeds within the hearts, minds, and souls of your people that will, in time, make you proud - if not now, then later - of yourselves and the many sacrifices that you have made in the service of our great cultural and spiritual Mother-Africa.  Though maybe not as well as you and your brothers and countless unnamed others, many of us will carry forward the torch, the all-seeing eye of historical truth, earthly justice, and present and future harmony and liberation for the entire African World Family.

Now, as for those who would deem such men as these as being less than men or less worthy of note because of their heart-felt thoughts, words, and deeds that were, and in the case of Doc Ben, are firmly rooted in the untold life experiences of these men, I must remind you that they rose from the ranks of the working class and by steel-spined motivation, became world-renown self-taught scholars and teachers, lecturers and writers, and trustworthy and dedicated community activists.  Their lives were not dedicated to hate but to love - love for the truth no matter how ugly it is or on whose side it falls.  Although they questioned religion, they do so because they had seen how all too many people in all too many times and places in history had disfigured and misused religion for their own selfish gains.  And when it came to words, they truly were three of the greatest wordsmiths ever to have graced the planet.  From them, who often cited etymology or word history, one learned that the word “slave” comes from the name for a European or white group known as the ‘Slavs”, that the word “Egypt” comes from the Greek name for that part of Africa, which was originally called by the Africans themselves “Kenneth” or “Mt”, meaning “the Black Land” and the people were called “Emitters”, meaning “black people.”  Further, they taught, and, as with most, if not all of what they learned and taught and continue to teach their students, can easily be verified by doing a diligent search for the information at your neighborhood public library or even by surfing the web. The word “Semitic” is not a racial term but a linguistic term.  In fact, linguistically, there are at least three languages in existence that are dubbed "Semitic”.  They are Hebrew, Arabic, and Amharic.  Interestingly enough, Amharic is spoken in the homeland of Doc Ben’s Father - Ethiopia.

BC Columnist HAWK (J. D. Jackson) is a priest, poet, journalist, historian, African-centered lecturer, middle school teacher and part-time university history instructor. Click here to contact HAWK.