Man-Up: A Plan for the Spiritual and Organizational Retooling
Of Black America

By Ricky Spann LTC US Army

As a black man in America, Ricky Spann sees the need for African American males to unite and provide leadership for the inner-city youth in America. Actions speak louder than words, and complaining about the problems in inner cities is no longer an option.

In basketball and in life, crying foul exposes our weaknesses and does not get us anywhere. It's time to determine solutions without violence and stop blaming others for the current state of affairs. Self-governance with political and economic actualization is needed to help African Americans serve the community and to facilitate more influence on the global scene. While assistance can be obtained from others, black men must do most of the heavy lifting in their own communities to defeat the enemies of any society: crime, poverty, and illiteracy.

Spann proposes a formal, organized body of African American leaders, named the Black Strategic Alliance (BSA), to promote unity and prosperity among African Americans and help them increase their contributions to society by creating jobs, training workers, preparing leaders, and securing more government positions at local, state, federal, and global levels.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 25, 2008
• ISBN: 9780595918881

Ricky Spann LTC US Army

Born in Detroit, Ricky Spann currently residing in Hampton, Virginia has a bachelor?s degree from Eastern Michigan University and a master?s degree from the University of Phoenix. He served in the United States Army for twenty-five years as an intelligence officer before retiring in 2005. Spann is married with two children Desmond and Rico.

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Copyright © 2008 by Ricky J. Spann

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ISBN: 978-0-595-47624-4 (pbk)

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ISBN: 978-0-595-91888-1 (ebk)

I dedicate this book, Re-Tooling of Black America Man-Up, to my Mom, Mrs. Betty Spann and Brother Bobby ‘Big-Bob Spann whose crossing over to the other side has served as motivation and inspiration to me to live God’s divine purpose in spite myself. The reason I have dedicated this book to them when in addition to them and countless others I have received such love and support is their unrelenting faith they had in me.

Throughout my fifty years in this realm of time I have tried in everyway to avoid the calling of a supernatural God. Each time I tried to run from service they would very lovingly guide me back to the light. In addition to my mentor and father, Bobby L. Spann I owe all I have and all that I am to these loved ones.

I love you guys!

Not only have they been there to lift me up when I fell but they have also been there to rebuild me when the pressures of the world surrounded me. It is in them that I learned the meaning of agape love. I was honored, and continual in the case of my father, by their love and spirit. Mom and Big Bob rest assured that dad is still here ensuring that your unending love is not in vain he continues to motivate and encourage me.

Special Thanks to my God-daughter Nakeia Bradley-Ervin

But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.

—Jesus [Luke 22:26]

Contents

Introduction

An Op en Letter To My Brothers

Lil’ Johnny Needs Us More Than Ever

The Meaning of Man-Up

Why The Time Is Now

Notes on Language and Humor

The Charge for Black America

1 Re-Gutting: What’s Holding Us Back

Overcoming the Legacy of Slavery

God’s Plan for Us

Our Problem, Our Solution

Forgive Thine Enemy

Stop Wasting Time

Ending the Cycle of Poverty

The Solution Starts With Us

The Rule of Success

Mentoring the Next Generation

Move, Mo-Fo!

2 Re-Fitting: Changing the Way We Think

The Power of Positive Thinking

Ten Reasons Per Day

Ten Paragraphs Per Day

Ten Thoughts Per Day

3 Re-Casting: The Community as Foundation

Aligning with God’s Divine Vision

Parental and Tribal Responsibility

A Parent’s Duty

Rap Dreams and Learning From Our Children

The Role of Black Spirituality

A Plan for Survival

Jonah’s Story

Men in the Home

The Role of Women

What About our Spiritual Leaders?

Protecting Our Image

Teaching the Responsibilities of Manhood

Fatherhood

Black Masculinity and Sex

Making Peace With The Hip-Hop Heroes and

Athletes

4 Re-Casting: The Path to Social, Economic, and Political Self-Governance

Education First: Formal Education and Curriculum

Reform

Organizing for the Future of Black Communities

Creating Economically Viable Communities

Economics and Entrepreneurship

Coalition-Building

Honoring our Heroes

Bill Cosby, We Need You!

5 Re-Working: The Black Strategic Alliance Plan

The Core

Black Strategic Alliance Organizational Leadership: The Governing Circle

The Leadership of the Black Strategic Alliance

Step 1: Form the Inner Circle

Step 2: Elect An Interim Leader

Step 3: Select and Appoint Staff

Step 4: Conduct strategic Planning

Step 5: Finance the BSA

Step 6: Research and Development

Step 7: Joint Structure with Pre-Existing Civic

Groups

Step 8: Assemble an Organizational Charter

Step 9: A New Concept for a New Approach

Step 10: Leverage the Parties

Step 11: Identify the Enemy

Step 12: Develop and Execute the Plan

Afterword

APPENDIX A Sample Membership Charter

APPENDIX B Interim Leadership Structure

APPENDIX C Works Used

Introduction

An Op en Letter To My Brothers

Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Ricky Spann, and I am a Black man in America. I am a husband, a father and a grandfather. I was also a Lieutenant Colonel in the military, and spent twenty-five years of my life working in the military with Tactical, Operational, and Strategic Intelligence Forces. I have lived in many different countries, states, and communities, and wherever I was, I made it my duty to contribute my time and skills to benefit my friends and neighbors. But no matter where life took me, I always had an unquenchable desire to go back to my hometown of Detroit, Michigan and give back to the Black community where I was raised.

As you may already know, the population of Detroit is over eighty percent Black. It’s a blue-collar city, and it has some very serious social and economic issues—among them a lack of support for small businesspeople, a crumbling educational system, and a failure to provide viable opportunities for its poor, under-served residents. I first became aware of Detroit’s problems when I was a high school student. After I got my diploma, I wanted to stay and make a positive impact while I was young and had the energy. However, at that time there were no good career opportunities for young, Black professionals. So when I graduated from college, I did what many Black Americans did—I followed the money. In my case, I joined the military. It afforded me the opportunity to develop professionally and get paid to do it. Still, as I loaded up my family and our belongings into a trailer and moved out of state, I vowed that I would return to give something back to my hometown.

After a long career in the Armed Forces, I retired and convinced my wife that we needed to return to my neighborhood so I could dedicate myself to making a difference. I turned down several lucrative job offers in other locations and returned to Detroit to attempt to rescue my cancerous city.

In 2005, I ran for Detroit City Council under the motto Spann Can and made a good-faith effort to campaign for the betterment of the community. I quickly realized that despite my good intentions, my would-be constituents weren’t ready for my vision for change. It simply wasn’t my time. I lost the election—and that experience alone is a book within itself. But I did learn that our people are looking for leadership and that competent leaders are scarce.

Lil’ Johnny Needs Us More Than Ever

My next vehicle of choice was to go into the gut of the problem—the troubled school system in our inner city neighborhoods—and take back our children. I signed on to teach Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) at Northern High, a public school located in the North End section of Detroit. The mission of the JROTC program is to motivate young people to become better citizens. As a career military officer, I felt I was more than qualified for the task. After all, I had trained soldiers for years.

The retiring JROTC instructor who pre-briefed me told me that my batch of recruits, who he collectively referred to as Lil’ Johnny, were anxiously awaiting me with much excitement, angst and consternation. The instructor did not know if Lil’ Johnny would like me or if I would like him. Whatever this opportunity had in store for me, I was extremely excited about this chance to finally give back and make a significant difference.

I looked Lil’ Johnny in the eye and told him that I was glad to be there and that all his problems would be solved. Lil’ Johnny looked me right back in the eyes and said, Welcome home, sir! and then commenced to wear my rear-end out! Lil’ Johnny jumped off in my rear-end so tough that I only lasted a little better than a year in the JROTC program.

Lil’ Johnny pulled up with a dump truck full of the problems, neglect, and spiritual emptiness he had experienced and heaped every ounce of it on me all at once. He told me that while I was preparing for a war overseas, he has been on the front lines of another kind of war right here at home. Lil’ Johnny said that he has been fighting all of his life with no relief in sight. Lil’ Johnny asked why had I, an educated, socially-conscious Black man, gone away when my community needed me the most?

I asked Lil’ Johnny who or what the enemy was, and he went on to explain that everything and everyone was his enemy. He said his mother and father had enlisted in the Crack Cocaine brigade years ago and have been missing in action ever since. His peers attack him because they are also in despair and cannot see a way out. Lil’ Johnny is angry because the Black men that should have stayed in the community and served as his role models and protectors got their degrees and moved to the suburbs to hide and focus on their own families!

Poverty gained a stronghold in Lil’ Johnny’s community and has no intention of letting go. The school system, which should be his safe haven, is just as unsafe as the streets, so Lil’ Johnny has to identify with a gang so he can get some love and protection from his boys. He wears his pants sagging because he has to blend in with his peers; he says he will be beat senselessly and possibly killed for betrayal if his boys find out he is trying to get out of the hellhole they are all trapped in. He cannot demonstrate any behavior that will show his intelligence or embarrass his enemy. He does not dare excel in class, because when he gets into the hallway, the wannabe thugs will pick him apart.

Lil’ Johnny said he cannot trust adult Black men to save him, because when we get into our cars and go into the suburbs, he has to fight his way back to school through an unsafe and unrelenting neighborhood war zone. The Black men who would make the best role models for Lil’ Johnny have been gone for so long that he has to reach out to broke-down Brothers and crackheads for guidance and insight.

Lil’ Johnny has had few, if any, positive Black male role models and virtually no positive support system within his own neighborhood. He acknowledges that the drug dealers, alcoholics, and his mother have attempted to give him top cover, but they had long ago succumbed to the effects of urban warfare.

His mother is on her second or third fiancée in a year. What kind of role model could these men possibly be? Lil’ Johnny wanted to know how he could trust Black men, when every two or three months, one is exiting his mom’s bed, deserting him and his siblings, and further disrupting his family dynamics, and in the middle of all of that, the few poor male role models Lil’ Johnny had left occasionally threw him a tidbit of street wisdom which may have sharpened his hood survival skills but offered no hope for the future.

The enemy—Lil’ Johnny’s peers—have made it so hard for Lil’ Johnny that it has almost become illegal for him to try to learn and excel. Adults have failed the Lil’ Johnnies of the world, and they no longer have faith that their elders will be there to help them.

When I heard about all of the burdens Lil’ Johnny was carrying around, I was so moved that I was brought to tears. Lil’ Johnny began to cling to me; he latched onto me like I was his savior. I embraced Lil’ Johnny and realized that I had failed him. I tried single-handedly to adopt