About Rumble Inc.
ABOUT RUMBLE: At the time Rumble was being conceived an Album entitled Truth is On Its Way, featuring Nikki Giovani and the New York Community Choir, had just been released. Nikki was saying things like “I Can Fly Like a Bird in the Sky”… It Is Well With My Soul… Peace, Be Still… Let These Rumbling Be Still. It was while listening to this album that I chose the name Rumble for our literary organization. But our name is not about a rumble. It’s about the subtle unsettling feelings that we, as an ethnic group feel in our gut. It’s about the need for a catharsis. So, that being the case, the function of Rumble Inc. is to serve as an instrument that reshapes negative perceptions and assumptions about what is real, what is valuable, and what is worth achieving. Its mission is to give rise to new conversations and possibilities in our Black community. RUMBLE, INC, like a chameleon, is constantly changing color, shape, and form. It is a living entity. I have devoted my time, my talent and given my love to Rumble, Inc. Indeed it too is my child
MAJOR MILESTONES
June 1973 – We launched a newsletter entitled “Rumble,” Breaking the Shackles of Colonialism. Rumble focused on penetrating analysis of conditions, trends, issues and events that impact people of African heritage. Subject matter included local police practices; travail in Zimbabwe; rape and the Black woman; interviews with Freedom fighters; fiction, poetry, drama and art as well as the role of diet on our health. Our organ served an audience beyond the Sacramento community. It was avidly read by scholars, political leaders, cultural innovators and political activist thought the United States. We even traded issues with the The Women’s Section of the ANC South African Journal entitled “Voices of Women.” The Schomburg library subscribed to RUMBLE as well as Cookman College.
Attorney Legand Clegg from Compton California wrote: “Your newsletter, Rumble, is magnificent. – Vanguard in Black Journalism for California. It is a pity that more Black organs of information are not as frank and factual about the international state of Black affairs as you are. Keep up the good work. There should be a Rumble in every home. January 1981
1977 – Rumble Literary Round Table: Once a month a small group gathered at Grace’s home to peruse the literary works of mind stretching books. Each participant was asked to determine the significance of the book to their own personal life and to grasp the author’s underlying assumptions and message. Works included Native Son by Richard Wright. The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Black Reconstruction by W.E.B. DuBoise. The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams. The Slave Community by John Blassingame. Clotel by William Wells Brown. The Blacker The Berry by Wallace Thurman. And Dr. Byron Skinner’s dissertation, “The Double V: The Impact of World War II on Black America. Dr. Skinner led the discussions. ”Rumble Round Table’s first year of operation was indeed a success. it is true, we disagreed on certain interpretations of the Black experience, but then we all learned from each others points of view. The 1977-78 season was a rich experience. I therefore look forward to the next season,” was his assessment of our first year.
1979- Rumble Leadership Service Award. On a rainy afternoon over 200 person gathered at Cosumnes River College to celebrate and pay tribute to local community leaders. This was Rumble’s first Leadership Service Awards. Our Leadership Services Awards were perhaps our most significant event… because in identifying and honoring our leaders, we honor and value the best of ourself. Recipient honorees were Attorney Nathaniel Colley, regional counsel for the NAACP. Los Rios Community College Board Trustee Dr. George Stewart for his dedicated work in education on the Los Rios School. Professor Michael Gates for his two award-winning plays at CSUS. Brother George Smith of Del Paso Heights, for his community activism and service. Blanch Hill for her service in the Oak Park Community. Performing Artist Pamela Melvin Kay for her contribution in dance and her work with young dancers. Tyrone Netters received the Youth Leadership Service Award for his organizing efforts in the campaign to get the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Bakke decision. And our local artist Bob Burge received the Visual Arts Award. Keynote speaker Gertrude Wilks, Mayor of East Pala Alto drew several standing ovations. Mrs. Wilks, founder and executive director of Nairobi Day School in East Pala Alto said, the public school system” has messed up our children so bad they can’t read at all. The problem is too much integration and not enough education,” she said. She called on the Black community to “keep up the fight, because the struggle really does continue.” She challenged Black men to join Black women in developing community education programs to replace public schools.
1989- An Evening With Dr. Robert E. Fullilove. Rumble, Inc. gathers a group of local African Americans on a week night in January 1989 to explore with guest speaker Dr. Robert E. Fullilove the possibility of using a unique program that was being administered at University of California, Berkeley as a model for implementing a local literary program. This Berkeley program grew out of a graduate student’s research for his doctoral dissertation. He posed the question: Why do some students defy the odds? Students whose profiles spell doom and destruction have unqualified successes in their academic careers. Why do these students succeed in instances where others fail? His attempt to answer this question led him to develop a unique highly successful program that assisted African American students to excel in freshman calculus at the University of California Berkeley. After the successful operation with a handful of students, an expanded program was created in 1978-79 and administered by the university’s Professional Development Program. Carter-Douglas wanted to use this program as a model for a local literary program. Dr. Fullilove said it could be done if I could mobilize the community.
1979- We sponsored a Black Assertive Workshop facilitated by Dr. Donald Cheek. Dr. Cheek had just published a book entitled Assertive Black…Puzzled White which presented a positive program for developing Black self-assertion and positive and personal effectiveness. Dr. Cheek was a counselor and professor of psychology at California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo. At that time he and s wife were raising five children and developing an organic farm on fifty acres on central coast of California.
1979- In November 1979 Rumble and BASS, Black Advocates for Social Services, co-hosted “Moving Toward Black Solidarity” in downtown Sacramento at Ellis 925 L Street. Persons participating in the dialogue included Chester Johnson, president of BASS, Grace Douglas, editor of RUMBLE, Otis Scott, with the Sacramento Area Black Caucus and Lester Riggins.
1980- Rumble, Leadership Service Awards. Our keynote speaker was Dr. Donald Cheek. Recipients receiving awards included Asa G. Hilliard, dean of the school of education at San Francico State University; Mel Assagai, staff writer for the Sacramento Bee. Adrian Woodfork, a producer and program host for KCRA Television, Mark Teemer, artist and instructor from Fresno California; Margaret Marks; and Otis Scottt, head of Afro-American studies at California State University, Pastor Ephraim Williams of the St. Paul Baptist Church in Sacramento; Debbie Lewis a student at Valley High.
1981- Rumble Leadership Service Award: Keynote Speaker Professor Locksley Geoghagen, Scholar of African/Jamaican Ancestry. Recipients included Dr Howard Harris; Adrian Woodfork; Dr Carl Mack; Civic Leader Sylvia Spencer. She was called a one woman affirmative Action Program for the Black Community; Michael Benjamin and his wife Dorothy; Neville M. Bowen was one of the local motivating force behind the January 15, Martin Luther King Day March.
1988 Published: The Griot: An anthology of African Necromancers
2010- Launched the rivercityGriot Hetitage Series: Carter G. Woodson spoke to what happens when an ethnic group is cut off from its ancestral history and culture and is forced to see itself through the eyes of others. Dubois wrote about it in the Souls of Black Folks. Ralph Ellison in the Invisible Man. Tony Morrison in The Bluest Eye. Ivan Van Sertima called it the “colonization of our mind and imagination.”
Arthur Alfonso Schomburg said our history can restore what slavery took away. It can “yield for us the same values that the treasured past of any peoples affords.” Asa Hilliard said knowledge of one’s ancestral history gives one a strong sense of worth and belonging. It is the bases for group power.
These series focus on the Black infrastructure.
SEE: The Rivercity Griot TIMELINE and The Rivercity Griot Heritage Series.