It was 1974. I was an inquisitive and playful curious boy of 11 yrs old who had just released my inner Beethoven at my weekly piano lesson. My face brimming with hope and eyes and a smile to light the world that you could read nothing but expectation all over it. A zeal for life was my aura and shadow that would affect everyone around me. Life could not be any better for this little boy with a mom and a dad and ok a sister to love on and be loved by.

On this brilliantly sunny and exceptionally warm day for early April in Central Ohio. The temperature was around 80 degrees and very humid. I remembered that after dinner those sunny skies were to grow dark and ominous. We where about to enter the night that would birth one of the worst tornado outbreaks in U.S. history at the time. Numerous funnel clouds and touched down tornados scattered themselves across our region. April 3^rd 1974 was the night of the Xenia, Ohio Tornado that was a half mile wide. The twister traveled approximately 30 to 32 miles   

The bright-eyed smiling little boy’s eyes grew saturated with tears that streamed down my face like Niagara falls. With every weather up date things seemed to be increasingly bleak. I was afraid. This was a paralyzing fear that would not loosen its grip on me for 4 to 5 years. For many years of my life this is what my memories of April were. My Fathers birthday was in late April to add some brightness to this personally frightening time.

A few years older and beginning to find severe weather more fascinating than frightening, in 8^th grade our teacher introduced a book for the class to read. It was entitled Across Five Aprils that showed the United States in its own frightening time named the Civil War and how a family navigated theses stratifying times that left brother against brother and many families torn like fabric.

Sadly in 2021 those same tares in the fabric of many families were equally damaged. As a veteran of my own April and racial struggles, I thought that it was time to not merely stand on the sideline with my personal blog about phantasmal unity and reconciliation, and watch all of the weather reports (News Stories.) It was time to do something more to dismantle systemic racism.

Three-Fifths Magazine was purpose to dismantle systems within our society which were hidden under the darkness those mechanisms by speaking truthful power to the implied power the held while hidden by darkness and the ignorance of blind of the trusting masses. There we were two males and two females Two white individuals a biracial person and myself African American. The work was hard as we researched and pealed back the onion skin of generations in the first year we gained a few more contributors (writers.) Then it became crystal clear that by the second April we were clearly on a mission to build a multi ethnic, multi gender and multi generational team and surround our self with a chorus of voices speaking truth from there unique perspective.

I had seen this picture before, “hotter than normal temperatures especially for the season.” This season of America, only 8 years removed from a two term Black President and the so called post-racial era. As the political climate began to change and old battlelines where more and more idealistically solidifying. Families where being torn apart by the ugliness of the Othering of America. “Othering is unique because it is not the end result, i.e., systemic racism, colorism, social determinants of health, the prison industrial complex, etc. Othering is the incendiary fuel that foments deep divisions and inequities.” April 2023 Theme Un-othering the Othering of America Three-Fifths Magazine article.

By the end of April 2024 the May edition boldly forecasted a storm was brewing, you could see it by checking out the weather updates (News Reports) as eloquently communicated in the May 24 article simply entitled Resilience. “With present-day Diversity Equity Inclusion (DEI) efforts on the brink of finding their place with reconstruction, civil rights, voting rights, and affirmative action, upon the scrap heap of history of past racial justice initiatives, Racial justice seekers, including marginalized communities of color, allies, and advocates must dig deep to reclaim that “We Shall Overcome” spirit of Resilience.” and the war was on. Three-Fifths Magazine was prophetically speaking, preparing and forecasting through these April events.

In November of 2024 a Cognitive inertia inundated America voted for project 25 and sweeping changes would take America in a different direction. In a single blow DEI, Affirmative Action, and great replacement fueled anti-immigrant terrorism, Voting rights and a host of other changes would prove the back lash was in full effect. Now, in 2026 those who say they proudly voted for this are hard to find. For the United States of America as a nation it is on us as the Backlash was solidified by a U.S majority vote in the 24 election. Yes, you experienced it all through the pages of Three-Fifths Magazine.

From the paralyzing fear of a child witnessing the ominous skies of a 1974 Ohio April, a fear that mirrored the “tears in the fabric” of a nation divided, to the “hotter than normal temperatures” of a politically charged America in 2024, this journey has shaped the very essence of Three-Fifths Magazine. Born from a commitment to dismantle systemic racism and offer a voice of clarity in an ambiguous world of racial bias, the magazine’s mission is firmly anchored in its five foundational pillars: Societal Reckoning, Racial Equity, Historical Perspective, Spiritual Insight, and the overarching goal of Building the Bridge Together. As its pages prophetically forecasted and navigated the “backlash” of 2025, guiding readers through the dismantling of DEI and Affirmative Action, Three-Fifths has consistently illuminated the path forward. It is through this cyclical understanding of historical perspective and the eternal hope inherent in spiritual insight—a hope that has seen us through personal fears and national divisions—that we find profound reassurance. This perspective allows us to whisper to every person, young and old, that even though “weeping may endure for a night, joy comes in the morning,” a message carried from a boy’s initial terror to a nation’s ongoing struggle, and now, through the unwavering voice of Three-Fifths Magazine.