Remembering Dr. Bill Rogers

Historian, activist, and educator; Dr. William Rogers was a hero in seeking, illuminating, and sharing the TRUTH about Black/African greatness and achievement! It took me a few days to acquire the emotional […]

Remembering Dr. Bill Rogers

Historian, activist, and educator; Dr. William Rogers was a hero in seeking, illuminating, and sharing the TRUTH about Black/African greatness and achievement!

It took me a few days to acquire the emotional stamina to listen to the three-hour podcast honoring the life of Dr. William Rogers.  The podcast was produced by Time for an Awakening under the Black Radio umbrella, of which Dr. Rogers was integral. The Black Radio network includes podcasts by and for African Americans.  

The tribute to the (our) fallen hero, activist, and educator featured comments from throughout the diaspora, securing Dr. Rogers’s legacy through the many lives he impacted. 

When I finally immersed myself in the tribute following his recent death, I frequently put it on pause to collect myself. Not just because the accolades and praises were duplicitous, but many sparked memories of the great historian and Griot, eliciting a tear or two. 

I first met Bill (he had yet to obtain his doctorate) when he accepted a position at the Community Journal over three decades ago. 

His primary responsibility was to create and coordinate a Black business directory, which like many of our initiatives, was an innovative project to empower our community. It was premised as a tool to keep Black dollars in the community. 

As Dr. Rogers explained, if a Black dollar touches three Black hands before exiting our community, it would not only stabilize our economic base but significantly impact employment and self-determination. 

From Bill’s perspective, the project was a piece of the puzzle; it was about nation-building and Black empowerment. 

Such was the essence of Bill Roger’s life mission—research and history to support our independence and the destruction of apartheid. 

That goal required our educators to strip away the onion of His-story, the propaganda and brainwashing process used to indoctrinate and pacify the ‘field slaves.’ 

Bill spent his adult life researching, analyzing, educating, filling in the gaps, and providing an Africentric platform to stand upon. 

Sitting around the ‘tribal campfire’ with Bill Rogers was an enriching experience. It was a life-altering session that opened minds and hearts. 

Often he would unlock the floodgates of emotionalism when he went into detail about the horrors of American slavery, including the rape of women, men, and children, the torture of those who resisted, and the psychological damage that has carried over into today’s generation in the form of PTSD. 

The noted historian spoke of African Antiquity, our influence throughout the diaspora (the global majority), and the worldwide struggle we find ourselves in today. 

As a highly regarded instructor in the Africology Department at UW-Milwaukee, he often encouraged his students never to accept his statements at face value but instead to conduct their own research to validate or discard. 

Prepare, he often said, to stand your ground, to validate your statements, and to challenge with references the paradigm that holds us in bondage. 

His ‘classroom’ wasn’t restricted to the UWM campus. Over the years, he found the strength to teach and preach in venues small and large, from coffee tables to auditoriums. 

I recall a roundtable of activists focused on the false history fed to our children in government settings.  Someone mentioned a ‘student’ of Dr. Roger’s confrontation with a teacher illuminated the historian’s impact. 

During a so-called Black History Month lesson at a middle school, an 

African American student objected to the teacher’s assertion that Abraham Lincoln was the great emancipator, freeing the slaves for humanitarian reasons. 

The student not only questioned that characterization of Lincoln and offered as a rebuttal Lincoln’s September 19, 1858 speech in which he declared himself racist and a proponent of White Supremacy. 

Much to the amazement of his fellow students, the young brother recalled Roger’s lecture. He revealed the emancipation proclamation was, in fact, a military tactic since it only freed slaves in Confederate states. Those giving the White House a new coat of white paint remained in chains. 

The young brother also upset the teacher when he ‘revealed’ President Lincoln called a meeting with Black leaders to seek their endorsement of a plan to send all Africans to a colony in South America. They left the White House angered and frustrated. 

The White teacher responded as expected, sending the manchild to the office and threatening a suspension. The student demanded the presence of his parents, who in turn would invite Dr. Rogers to the class. 

The threat of providing keys to the chains of ignorance was enough to force the eduacracy to relent. 

As I heard, the manchild transferred to a charter school the following semester. I wish he would have stayed, further challenging the false indoctrinations in terms of what is being taught and the assumption that our children are victims of a false narrative. 

The incident also illuminated the need to control the institutions impacting our lives and our children. 

My late son benefitted from Dr. Roger’s teaching. A recognized teacher in his own right, he was teaching fifth grade at the Young Leaders Academy when he died in an auto accident. 

I arranged to serve as a teacher’s aide for the remainder of the school semester. As such, I invited Dr. Rogers as a guest speaker. He was surprised that the students had deemed themselves the ‘Kids of Kemet’ and could recite from ‘textbooks he had provided to hundreds before. 

Dr. Roger left the classroom with a broad smile, confident that the seeds of self-discovery and empowerment had taken root and that he had contributed in a small way to their germination. 

Since ‘retirement,’ Dr. Rogers used his ‘free’ Time to educate in similar venues, ranging from pre-school to high school. His podcast provided the platform for his college-level ‘course. ‘ 

Bill taught from a broad spectrum of materials, contrasting accepted textbooks against credible documents from throughout the diaspora. From Henry Louis Gates to John Henrik Clarke, DuBois to Ben-Jochannan, Bill’s resources provided a historical paradigm through which to see ourselves and the world. 

When appropriate, he acknowledged White sources (‘if it’s white, it must be right’) to authenticate. While he was amused by that reference, he understood how many of us have been led to believe only white ice gets cold. 

Thus, his teaching often started with the discovery, by white anthropologists of the first human, in Africa. The researchers named her ‘Lucy,’ little realizing their discovery would provide fodder undermining Black relevancy and biblical tenets. 

If Lucy (who Dr. Bill posited should more appropriately have been named ‘La Quisha’) was discovered 60,000 years before the biblical story of creation, what does that mean for our place in ‘his-story’? If we were first created in God’s image, does not it hold that essence of White Supremacy is based on a lie? 

During the latter stages of his life, Bill boldly ventured into the controversial area of theology, holding workshops on the origins of Western Christianity and how His story provided a false narrative of what we accept as religious truth. 

On that important subject, he provided intriguing quotes from ‘Black Christianity’ proponents, including Frederick Douglass and even the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (whose sermons often conflicted with traditional Baptist tenets). 

Spirituality is central to Black life (and death). Dr. Rogers preached from the gospel of Black Liberation Theology, dismissing Western church doctrine that used a tainted interpretation to advance White Supremacy while justifying slavery and racism. 

As a Black Nationalist, Dr. Rogers opened thousands of eyes to the lost truth and cultural realities that maintain shackles around our minds. 

Much to the disdain of members of the ‘Negrocracy,’ he questioned disingenuous methodologies and ineffectual paradigms that make us renters instead of buyers, front seat bus passengers instead of transportation owners. 

During the tribute, several Milwaukee proteges explained how they benefitted from his empowering interpretations. Intrinsic was evidence of how White Supremacy fuels the ignorance of the naive, paving the way for dysfunctional families, violence, and apathy. 

By the way (and in case you missed its reference), during one of our discussions eons ago, he/we coined the phrase ‘Negrocracy.’ It is a noun used to categorize those Black elected officials who put political party before the people, civic rights organizational leaders who allow ‘missionaries’ to drive the freedom bus, and ‘chosen leaders’ who profit from our poverty. 

And let’s not forget the expensive car-driving preachers who collect ‘insurance payments’ (tithes and offerings) by offering congregants a place in heaven. 

The Negrocracy continues to control our movement, some unknowingly believing their acceptance in corporate America reflects a ‘new America.’ 

Many erroneously believe I coined the noun. In truth, I merely expanded upon Bill’s concept. 

I did create a secondary meaning for ‘neckbone,’ establishing the concept of Neckbonology, which Dr. Bill found an intriguing–albeit humorous–concept that he used on occasion. 

Dr. Rogers laughed about both words during a conversation last year as he bestowed upon me the title of ‘sub-chief’ and Griot. 

He said I passed his courses and expanded upon basic concepts. 

My life’s mission, he said, was to educate and inform. To wake the sleeping masses and to symbolically open the eyes of the blind. 

Most recently, Dr. Bill and I talked about his potential involvement in doing an anthology of my columns written during my 40 years at this publication. 

He explained how a similar template was used for Carter G. Woodson’s ‘Miseducation of the Negro.’ 

He also offered his assistance in updating my 2000 book, ‘Not Yet Free at Last.’ 

That opportunity was introduced following a show I was featured on to discuss Black empowerment in its many configurations, including the school choice movement, of which he was a strong supporter. 

Advanced by the late Polly Williams as a tool to tear down the walls of educational apartheid, the school choice movement, Dr. Rogers believed, epitomized the Black empowerment movement, even if it did fall short of his vision for a nation within a nation. 

While it remains viable and one of the few mechanisms taking us closer to our end goal, he also recognized how dishonest or unqualified leadership tainted the program and the existence of Black run schools. 

When last I talked with Bill, we discussed my appearing on a podcast about abortion. In truth, I hesitated as I remained conflicted. But Dr. Rogers saw the current abortion controversy through historical prisms, introducing the seeming age-old clash between Western and Black Christianity and Old vs. New Testament beliefs. 

I don’t believe Dr. Williams was a Christian, per se. If he was, he would be more attuned to NewTestament teachings than the Old. 

That characterization also applied to many 20th-century Black leaders, including Dr. King, a seminary-trained Baptist minister, who, later on, found himself in conflict with his father’s teachings. 

Indeed, Bill’s most controversial teachings posited that Old Testament scripture was strikingly similar to Kemetic spirituality, which predated it and included a trinity, virgin birth, and (42) commandments (Maat). 

I won’t delve into that classroom. Suffice it to say, I agreed with Dr. Bill’s definition of spirituality as our relationship with the Supreme Being, whether called God, Nyame, or Allah. 

He viewed Black life through a prism that distinguishes us from all other ethnicities. He traced our journey from our beginnings as the true chosen of Nyame (God). As such, it should not be surprising that our ancestors introduced monotheism and the sciences to the world. 

Dr. Rogers spent most of his adult life filling in the gaps from Amenhotep to Garvey, from King to the “symbolism of Obama.” 

His value can not be understated, and he leaves for us, his students and friends, the responsibility to question, interject and educate. 

Dr. Williams Rogers replaced Malcolm X’s ‘ballot’ with the ‘book.’ 

From his lessons, I introduced the adage that: ‘a people who accept a false history live a life of lies.’ 

Bill’s mission and legacy were to bring truth to light, reflect on our past, and illuminate our path. 

He was the torch in our hands. 

Hotep.