Experiencing History

Etta James, Singing the Songs People Need to Hear

2012-02-13T06:53:00.000-10:00

"My mother always told me, even if a song has been done a thousand times, you can still bring something of your own to it. I'd like to think I did that."

Etta James

Etta James (born Jamesetta Hawkins, January 25, 1938) was a singer whose style spanned a variety of music genres including blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, gospel and jazz. Starting her career in the mid-1950s, she gained fame with hits such as "Dance With Me, Henry", "At Last", "Tell Mama", and "I'd Rather Go Blind" for which she wrote the lyrics. James made a musical resurgence in the late 1980s with the album The Seven Year Itch. James released her latest studio album, The Dreamer, in November 2011.

"I sing the songs that people need to hear..." Etta James

James is regarded as having bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll, and is the winner of six Grammys and 17 Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame in both 1999 and 2008. Rolling Stone ranked James number 22 on their list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and number 62 on the list of the 100 Greatest Artists.

LIFE

Born Jamesetta Hawkins on January 25, 1938, in Los Angeles. As a child, Etta was a gospel prodigy, singing in her church choir and on the radio at the age of 5. When she turned 12, she moved north to San Francisco where she formed a trio and was soon working for bandleader Johnny Otis.

In 1954, she moved to Los Angeles to record "The Wallflower" (a tamer title for the then-risqué "Roll with Me Henry") with the Otis band. It was that year that the young singer became Etta James (an shortened version of her first name) and her vocal group was dubbed The Peaches (also Etta's nickname). Soon after, James launched her solo career with such hits as "Good Rockin' Daddy" in 1955.

After signing with Chicago's Chess Records in 1960, James' career began to soar. Chart toppers included duets with then-boyfriend Harvey Fuqua, the heart-breaking ballad "All I Could Do Was Cry," "At Last" and "Trust in Me." But James' talents weren't reserved for powerful ballads. She knew how to rock a house, and did so with such gospel-charged tunes as "Something's Got a Hold On Me" in 1962 and "In The Basement" in 1966. James continued to work with Chess throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. In 1967, James recorded with the Muscle Shoals house band in the Fame studios, and the collaboration resulted in the triumphant Tell Mama album.

James' work gained positive attention from critics as well as fans, and her 1973 album Etta James earned a Grammy nomination, in part for its creative combination of rock and funk sounds. After completing her contract with Chess in 1977, James signed on with Warner Brothers Records. A renewed public profile followed her appearance at the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. Subsequent albums, including Deep In The Night and Seven Year Itch, received high critical acclaim. She was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1993, prior to her signing a new recording contract with Private Records.
Later Career

With suggestive stage antics and a sassy attitude, James continued to perform and record well into the 1990s. Always soulful, her extraordinary voice was showcased to great effect on her recent private releases, including Blue Gardenia, which rose to the top of the Billboard jazz chart. In 2003, James underwent gastric bypass surgery and lost over 200 pounds. The dramatic weight loss had an impact on her voice, as she told Ebony magazine that year. "I can sing lower, higher and louder," James explained.

That same year, Etta James released Let's Roll, which won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. Her sons, Donto and Sametto James, served as producers on the recording, along with Josh Sklair. This team regrouped for her next effort,Blues to the Bone (2004), which brought James her third Grammy Award—this time in the Best Traditional Blues Album category. In 2006, James released the album All the Way, which featured cover versions of songs by Prince, Marvin Gaye and James Brown. She participated in a tribute album the following year for jazz great Ella Fitzgerald, called We Love Ella.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etta_James

http://www.biography.com/people/etta-james-9542558

Black Women in American Culture and History

2012-02-01T04:57:00.000-10:00

When Carter G. Woodson established Negro History week in 1926, he realized the importance of providing a theme to focus the attention of the public. The intention has never been to dictate or limit the exploration of the Black experience, but to bring to the public's attention important developments that merit emphasis.

For those interested in the study of identity and ideology, an exploration of ASALH's Black History themes is itself instructive. Over the years, the themes reflect changes in how people of African

descent in the United States have viewed themselves, the influence of social movements on racial ideologies, and the aspirations of the black community.

This year's theme "Black Women in American Culture and History" honors African American women and the myriad of roles they played in the shaping of our nation. The theme, chosen by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History urges all Americans to study and reflect on the value of their contribution to the nation.

http://asalh.net/

History of Black History Month

Carter G. Woodson

As a Harvard-trained historian, Carter G. Woodson, like W. E. B. Du Bois before him, believed that truth could not be denied and that reason would prevail over prejudice. His hopes to raise awareness of African American's contributions to civilization was realized when he and the organization he founded, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), conceived and announced Negro History Week in 1925. The event was first celebrated during a week in February 1926 that encompassed the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The response was overwhelming: Black history clubs sprang up; teachers demanded materials to instruct their pupils; and progressive whites, not simply white scholars and philanthropists, stepped forward to endorse the effort.

By the time of Woodson's death in 1950, Negro History Week had become a central part of African American life and substantial progress had been made in bringing more Americans to appreciate the celebration. At mid–century, mayors of cities nationwide issued proclamations noting Negro History Week. The Black Awakening of the 1960s dramatically expanded the consciousness of African Americans about the importance of black history, and the Civil Rights movement focused Americans of all color on the subject of the contributions of African Americans to our history and culture.

The celebration was expanded to a month in 1976, the nation's bicentennial. President Gerald R. Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” That year, fifty years after the first celebration, the association held the first African American History Month. By this time, the entire nation had come to recognize the importance of Black history in the drama of the American story. Since then each American president has issued African American History Month proclamations. President Obama issued the 2012 annual proclamation just yesterday...http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/01/31/presidential-proclamation-national-african-american-history-month-2012

And the association—now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)—continues to promote the study of Black history all year.

http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/about.html

Camilla Williams, An Octave Above

2012-01-31T20:08:00.002-10:00

Camilla Ella Williams was an American operatic soprano, and the first African American to have received a contract with a major American opera company.

A Woman of Firsts

In 1946 she was the first African American to receive a regular contract with a major American opera company and made her debut with the New York City Opera singing the title role in Puccini'sMadama Butterfly.
In April 1954 she became the first African American to sing a major role with the Vienna State Opera when she performed her signature part of Cio-Cio-San.
Williams was the first African American Professor of Voice appointed to the voice faculty of what is now known as the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 1977 and in 1984 was the first African American instructor at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China.
In 1995 she was an inaugural recipient of the National Opera Association's "Lift Every Voice" Legacy Award, honoring the contributions of African Americans to the field of opera and in 1996 was honored as Outstanding African American Singer/Pioneer by Harvard University.

Read Her Story

In 2011 her autobiography "The Life of Camilla Williams, African American Classical Singer and Diva" was published by The Edwin Mellen Press.

Hear Her Song

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camilla_Williams

January in Black History

2012-01-31T19:15:00.000-10:00

Each month we'll list daily black history notes for the month. Here's what happened in January in Black History.

On January 1 in Black History...…
In 1997, Kofi Annan of Ghana became the first black secretary of United Nations.
In 1916, first issue of Journal of Negro History was published.
In 1863, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
In 1956, Sudan was proclaimed independent.

On January 2 in Black History...
In 1954, Oprah Winfrey was born.
In 1915, John Hope Franklin was born.
In 1898, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander becomes the first African American to earn a Ph.D in economics is born in Philadelphia ,PA.
In 1831, "The Liberator", an abolitionist newspaper by William Lloyd Garrison, began publishing.

On January 4 in Black History...

1935, Boxer Floyd Patterson born

1937, Opera singer, Grace Bumbry was born, 1937

1901, C.L.R. James born

In 1920, first black baseball league, National Negro Baseball League organized

On January 15 in Black History...…
In 1929, Martin Luther King Jr was born.
In 1908, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority was founded.

On January 10 in Black History...

In 1915, classical conductor Dean Dixon was born.
In 1925, drummer, Max Roach, was born.
In 1938, baseball great, Willie Lee McCovey was born.
In 1864, Scientist and inventor George Washington Carver was born.

On January 20 in Black History...
In 2001, Colin Luther Powell became the first African-American Secretary of State.
In 1986, the first national Martin Luther King Jr holiday was celebrated.
In 1920, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. was founded.
In 1986, Ronald McNair, the first Black astronaut killed during a space mission, when the space shuttle "Challenger" met with disaster, which blew up shortly after take-off.

On January 25 in Black History...
In 1980, BET, Black Entertainment Television begins broadcasting.
In 1972, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm begins her campaign for President of the U.S.
In 1950, writer Gloria Naylor was born.
In 1851, Sojourner Truth addressed the first Black Women's Rights Convention in Akron Ohio.

On January 31 in Black History...
In 1919, Jackie Robinson was born.
In 1920, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity was founded.
In 1924, Etta Motten sings for President and Mrs. Roosevelt, becoming the first African-American to perform at the White House.
In 1962, Samuel L. Gravely becomes the first African-American to command a US warship.

SEE MORE HERE - http://experiencinghistory.blogspot.com/2011/01/january-in-black-history.html

Check out these sites are where I get many of the daily black history info: http://www.blackfacts.com/http://www.dayinblackhistory.com/
http://www.wikipedia.org

http://www.aaregistry.org

Honoring Heroes, Carl Clark

2012-01-28T04:38:00.000-10:00

On January 18, 2012, Carl Clark was finally recognized for his heroism in World War II.

Carl E. Clark, 95, never dreamed the day would come when he would be formally recognized for his heroism during World War II, let alone by the Navy's top official and in front of half a thousand people.

"This is overwhelming," the soft-spoken 95-year-old Menlo Park resident said after Navy Secretary Ray Mabus pinned the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal to his chest during a ceremony Tuesday at Moffett Field.

Clark, an African-American who served at a time when the Navy was segregated, had his reasons to doubt.

The steward first class' efforts to keep the USS Aaron Ward and its men from succumbing to a kamikaze attack were left out of the official battle record because of his skin color, according to U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, who championed the effort to recognize Clark.

"Today, we will add that final entry that has been missing for almost two-thirds of a century," Mabus said Tuesday, referring to the form that members of the military receive when they retire.

The USS Aaron Ward, a destroyer minelayer, was on picket duty near Okinawa on May 3, 1945, when 25 Japanese planes loaded with fuel and bombs swooped out of the clouds with deadly intent.

The impact of the first of six kamikaze pilots to strike the ship threw Clark against the ceiling of a passageway and fractured his collarbone. Despite the injury, he raced to his battle station.

"A broken collarbone could not break Carl's spirit," Eshoo said.

The nearly hourlong fight that followed was brutal, bloody and oddly personal. Clark saw the face of the second kamikaze pilot as he steered his plane into the ship's left flank, Mabus said.

Clark was alone at his station. The opening salvo had killed the rest of his eight-man damage control unit. Undeterred, he picked up a fire hose that usually required several men to operate and went to work.

Throughout the night, Clark put out fire after fire, including a smoldering ammunition locker.
An explosion there would have cracked the ship in half. He also carried many of his fellow crewmates to the aid station.

http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_19762528

Jimi Solanke, Master Storyteller

2012-01-02T07:44:00.001-10:00

"if you lose your the depth of your cultural perspectives as an artist, you have nothing to say.."

Jimi Solanke

Jimi Solanke was featured on today's episode of CNN's "African Voices." This 69 year old Nigerian Master Storyteller has been telling stories for decades.

He's a man of many voices, many faces, and many tales. Whether it's through music, dancing, or his art, Nigerian Jimi Solanke is a master of telling local folk stories. Success and fame came with two children's television shows - Storyland and African Stories - broadcast across Nigeria. Referred to fondly as "Uncle Jimi", Solanke also takes his acting into the rural villages to train aspiring artists. CNN told the story of 69 year-old Jimi Solanke, as told by Jimi Solanke, keeping his Yoruba culture alive. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.344443812239259.103481.204426449574330&type=3

November in Black History

2011-11-30T19:20:00.001-10:00

Each month we'll list daily black history notes for the month. Here's what happened in November in Black History.

On November 30 in Black History...
In 1912 Gordon Parks was born.

In 1924 Shirley Chisolm was born. Politician, educator, author and congresswoman, representing New York's 12th Congressional District for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to Congress. On January 25, 1972, she became the first major-party black candidate for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination (Margaret Chase Smith had previously run for the Republican presidential nomination) She received 152 first-ballot votes at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Chisholm

On November 29 in Black History...
In 1919, Dancer Pearl Primus is born.
In 1908, Civil Rights Activist, Adam Clayton Powell is born.

On November 28 in Black History...
In 1929 Berry Gordy is born.

On November 21 in Black History...
In 1851, Shaw University was founded.

On November 15 in Black History...
In 1979, Rosa Parks was awarded the Spingarn medal.

On November 12 in Black History...
In 1941, Opera singer, Madame Lillian Evanti, founds the National Negro Opera Company.In 1968, Sammy Sosa was born.
In 1977, Alex Haley was awarded the Spiingarn medal.

On November 6 in Black History...
In 1901, actress and singer Juanita Hall was born in Keyport, New Jersey.
In 1900, James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson composed "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing."
In 1746, Absalom Jones was born. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absalom_Jones

On November 3 in Black History...
In 1949, boxer Larry Holmes was born.
In 1992, Carol Mosely Braun, became the 1st African American woman elected to the United States Senate.
In 1964, A.W. Willis, Jr., was elected to the General Assembly making him the first black to hold this position.
In 1896, Hunter, J. H Portable Weighing Scales Nov. 03, 1896 Patent No. 570,533

On November 2 in Black History...
In 1983, the third Monday in January was designated as Martin Luther King, Jr. day. It was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.
In 1903, Maggie walker opens the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, VA.
In 1992, Carol Mosely Braun, became the 1st African American woman elected to the United States Senate.

On November 1 in Black History...
In 1951, Jet magazine was founded.
In 1945 Ebony magazine was founded.
In 1910, the first issue of "Crisis", the NAACP monthly magazine was published by WEB DuBois.
.

Check out these sites are where I get many of the daily black history info: http://www.blackfacts.com/ http://www.dayinblackhistory.com/
http://www.wikipedia.org

A Filmmaker is Born

2011-11-30T05:57:00.001-10:00

On this day in Black History...

In 1912, filmmaker Gordon Parks was born. Parks was a photographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist and film director. He is best remembered for his photo essays for Life magazine and as the director of the 1971 film Shaft.

He was the first African American to work at Life magazine, and the first to write, direct, and score a Hollywood film. He was profiled in the 1967 documentary "Weapons of Gordon Parks" by American filmmaker Warren Forma.

Parks was a co-founder of Essence magazine and one of the early contributors to the blaxploitation genre.

Parks himself said that freedom was the theme of all of his work, Not allowing anyone to set boundaries, cutting loose the imagination and then making the new horizons.

Parks' son, Gordon Parks, Jr. (1934–1979), directed blaxploitation films, including Super Fly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Parks

October in Black History

2011-10-31T18:46:00.001-10:00

Each month we'll list daily black history notes for the month. Here's what happened in October in Black History.

On October 31 in Black History...
In 1945, Educator, Booker T Washington was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.
In 1899, W.F. Burr patented the railway-switching device, Patent # 636,197
In 1893, football player, William Henry Lewis was named All-American.

In 1896, actor and singer, Ethel Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania. Waters was a blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.
Her best-known recordings includes, "Dinah", "Birmingham Bertha", "Stormy Weather", "Hottentot Potentate", "Am I Blue?", and "Cabin in the Sky", as well as her version of the spiritual "His Eye Is on the Sparrow". Waters was the second African American to be nominated for an Academy Award.
Her recordings, "Am I Blue", "Stormy Weather" and "Dinah", were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five yrs old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Waters

On October 27 in Black History...
In 1924, Ruby Dee was born, Ruby Ann Wallace in Cleveland, Ohio. http://experiencinghistory.blogspot.com/2011/10/happy-birthday-ruby-dee.html

On October 25 in Black History...

In 1892, L.F. Brown patented the bridle bit. 1892 Patent No. 484,994

In 1925, biochemist Emmett W. Chappelle was born. From 1950 to 1955 Chapelle served as an instructor of biochemistry at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. From 1955 to 1959, he was a research associate at Stanford University.

In 1958 Chappelle joined the Research Institute in Baltimore, a division of the Martin Marietta Corporation which was famous for designing airplanes and spacecraft. There, Chappelle discovered that even one-celled plants such as algae, which are lightweight and can be transported easily, can convert carbon dioxide to oxygen. This discovery helped to create a safe food supply for astronauts.

Chappelle went to work at Hazelton Laboratories in 1963 as a biochemist. In 1966, he joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, as a research chemist, and later became a remote sensing scientist, studying natural systems to improve environmental management. Chappelle retired from NASA in 2001. . Some of Chappelle's most interesting work was in the area of luminescence, which is light without heat. While designing instruments for the Mars Viking spacecraft, he became interested in bioluminescence, which is warm light produced by living organisms. Chappelle used two chemicals from fireflies which give off light when mixed with ATP (adenosine triphosphate), an energy storage compound found in all living cells. This could provide a method of detecting life on Mars.

Chappelle proved that the number of bacteria in semen can be measured by the amount of light given off by that bacteria. He also showed how satellites can monitor luminescence levels to monitor crops (growth rates, water conditions and harvest timing). Chappelle has been honored as one of the 100 most distinguished African American scientists of the 20th Century.

On October 24 in Black History...
In 1994, Dorothy Porter Wesley was presented with the Charles Frankel Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities
In 1948, - Activist Kweisi Mfume was born. In 1996 Mfume became president of the NAACP.
In 1935, "Mulatto", the first Black-authored (Langston Hughes) play to become a long-run Broadway hit, opens. http://experiencinghistory.blogspot.com/p/today-in-black-history.html
In 1964, Zambia proclaimed independence. The territory of what is now Zambia was known as Northern Rhodesia from 1911. It was renamed to Zambia on the occasion of its independence, in 1964. The new name of Zambia was derived from the Zambezi river (Zambezi may mean "God's river") which flows through the western region of the country.
Zambia ( /ˈ z æ m b i ə /), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north,Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west. The capital city is Lusaka, located in the south-central part of the country. The population is concentrated mainly around the capital Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt to the northwest.

Originally inhabited by Khoisan peoples, the region of what is now Zambia was reached by the Bantu expansion by ca. the 12th century. After visits by European explorers starting in the 18th century, Zambia became the British colony of Northern Rhodesia towards the end of the nineteenth century. For most of the colonial period, the country was governed by an administration appointed from London with the advice of the British South Africa Company.
On 24 October 1964, the country declared independence from the United Kingdom and prime minister Kenneth Kaunda became the first head of state. Zambia was governed by Kenneth Kaunda of the socialist United National Independence Party (UNIP) from 1964 until 1991. From 1972 to 1991 Zambia was a one-party state with UNIP the sole legal political party. From 1991 to 2002, Zambia was governed by president Frederick Chiluba of the social-democraticMovement for Multi-Party Democracy during which the country saw a rise in social-economic growth and increased decentralisation of government. Levy Mwanawasa was the third President of Zambia. He presided over the country from January 2002 until his death in August 2008. He is credited with having initiated a campaign to rid the country of corruption, and increasing standards of living from the levels left by Frederick T.J. Chiluba.
The World Bank in 2010 named Zambia as one of the world's fastest economically reforming countries. The headquarters of COMESA are in the capital Lusaka.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zambia

On October 23 in Black History...

Pele

In 1940, Edison "Edson" Arantes do Nascimento, best known by his nickname Pelé was born in Três Corações, Minas Gerais, Brazil,. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. In 1999, he was voted as the Football Player of the Century by the IFFHS International Federation of Football History and Statistics. In the same year French weekly magazine France-Football consulted their former "Ballon D'Or" winners to elect the Football Player of the Century. Pelé came in first position. In 1999 the International Olympic Committee named Pelé the "Athlete of the Century". In his career he scored 760 official goals, 541 in league championships, making him the top scorer of all time. In total Pelé scored 1281 goals in 1363 games.

In his native Brazil, Pelé is hailed as a national hero.He is known for his accomplishments and contributions to the game of football. He is also acknowledged for his vocal support of policies to improve the social conditions of the poor (when he scored his 1,000th goal he dedicated it to the poor children of Brazil). During his career, he became known as "The King of Football" (O Rei do Futebol), "The King Pelé" (O Rei Pelé) or simply "The King" (O Rei).

Spotted by football star Waldemar de Brito, Pelé began playing for Santos at 15 and his national team at 16, and won his first World Cup at 17. Despite numerous offers from European clubs, the economic conditions and Brazilian football regulations at the time benefited Santos, thus enabling them to keep Pelé for almost two decades until 1974. With Pelé within their ranks, Santos reach their zenith by winning the 1962 and 1963 Copa Libertadores, the most prestigious club competition in South American football. Pelé played most of his career as a centre forward. Pelé's technique and natural athleticism have been universally praised and during his playing years he was renowned for his excellent dribbling and passing, his pace, powerful shot, exceptional heading ability, and prolific goalscoring.Since his retirement in 1977, Pelé has been a worldwide ambassador for football and has undertaken various acting roles and commercial ventures. He is currently the Honorary President of the New York Cosmos. He is the all-time leading scorer of the Brazil national football team and is the only footballer to be a part of three World Cup-winning squads.

On October 15 in Black History...
In 1984, Bishop Desmond Tutu, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

On October 6 in Black History...
In 1895, W.D. Davis patented an improved riding saddle.

In 1917, Fannie Lou Hamer was born. Hamer was an American voting rights activist and civil rights leader.
She was instrumental in organizing Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the Vice-Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, attending the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in that capacity. Her plain-spoken manner and fervent belief in the Biblical righteousness of her cause gained her a reputation as an electrifying speaker and constant activist of civil

On October 3 in Black History...

In 1956, Nat King Cole became the first black performer (of his star power, that is) to host his own tv show. "For 13 months, I was the Jackie Robinson of television," wrote Nat King Cole in a revealing 1958 article for Ebony magazine. "After a trail-blazing year that shattered all the old bug-a-boos about Negroes on TV, I found myself standing there with the bat on my shoulder. The men who dictate what Americans see and hear didn't want to play ball." Black hosts had been tried before. Hazel Scott (in 1950) and Billy Daniels (in 1952) had each starred in a short-lived and variety show. http://www.classictvinfo.com/TheNatKingColeShow/
In 1949 - WERD, the first Black-owned radio station, opened in Atlanta. Jesse B. Blayton, Sr., was a pioneer African American radio station entrepreneur. Blayton founded WERD-AM in Atlanta, Georgia on October 3, 1949 making him the first African American to own and operate a radio station in the United States. http://neosoulcafe.com/news/african-american-first-first-black-owned-radio-station-werd-am-in-atlanta-ga/
In 1941 - Chubby Checker, singer, was born as Ernest Evans, in Philadelphia. Checker was best known for "The Twist" a hit song that soon became a style of dance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chubby_Checker

On October 2 in Black History...

Justice Thurgood Marshall

In 1967, Thurgood Marshall was sworn in, and becomes the first Black Supreme Court Justice.
In 1942, Bernice Johnson Reagon was born in Albany, Georgia. She became a vocalist, composer and historian. As an historian, she founded "Sweet Honey in the Rock."
In 1937, Johnny L. Cochran, Jr. was born in Shreveport, Louisiana.
In 1935, Robert H. Lawrence, Jr., was born. He became an astronaut and pilot. He was the first African American selected for space travel.
In 1898 - Otis J. Rene was born. Otis and his brother Leon established Exclusive and Excelsior Records in the 1930's. By the mid-1940's the brothers will be leading independent record producers whose artists will include Nat "King" Cole, Herb Jeffries, and Johnny Otis.
In 1865, North Carolina amends constitution forbidding slavery.
In 1800, Nat Turner, leader of major slave rebellion, born in Southampton County, Virginia.

On October 1 in Black History...

In 1952, Juanita James was born. She is a writer, who has been coined, "the gatekeeper of prose."
In 1960 - Nigeria was proclaimed independent
In 1962 - James Meredith started school, the first Black student at University of Mississippi... after 3000 federal troops quelled riots over his admission.

In 1991, Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell, art historian, becomes dean of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
In 1966 - Black Panther party founded in Oakland, California by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.

Check out these sites are where I get many of the daily black history info: http://www.blackfacts.com/ http://www.dayinblackhistory.com/
http://www.wikipedia.org

Happy Birthday Ruby Dee!

2011-10-27T04:50:00.000-10:00

"The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within - strength, courage, dignity."

Ruby Dee

On October 27 in Black History...

In 1924, Ruby Dee was born, Ruby Ann Wallace in Cleveland, Ohio. Dee, actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter,journalist, and activist, is perhaps best known for co-starring in the film A Raisin in the Sun (1961) and the film American Gangster (2007) for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Dee's love of English and poetry motivated her to study the arts. She attended Hunter High School, one of New York's first-rate schools that drew the brightest girls. While in high school, Dee decided to pursue acting. After graduation Dee entered Hunter College. There she joined the American Negro Theater (ANT) and adopted the stage name Ruby Dee. While still at Hunter College, Dee took a class in radio training offered through the American Theater Wing. This training led to a part in the radio serial Nora Drake. After college Dee worked as a French and Spanish translator. She knew, however, that the theater was to be her destiny.

In 1946 Dee got her first Broadway role in Jeb, a drama about a returning African American war hero. There she met Ossie Davis, the actor in the title role. They became close friends and were married on December 9, 1948. Dee made several appearances on Broadway before receiving national recognition for her role in the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story. Her career in acting has crossed all major forms of media over a span of eight decades, including the films A Raisin in the Sun, in which she recreated her stage role as a suffering housewife in the projects, and Edge of the City. She played both roles opposite Sidney Poitier. During the 1960s, Dee appeared in such politically charged films as Gone Are the Days and The Incident, which is recognized as helping pave the way for young African-American actors and filmmakers.

In 2007 the winner of the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album was tied between Dee and Ossie Davis for With Ossie And Ruby: In This Life Together, and former President Jimmy Carter. In 2003, Ruby Dee also narrated a series of WPA slave narratives in the HBO film Unchained Memories, according to IMDB. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2007 for her portrayal of Mama Lucas in American Gangster. She won the SAG award for the same performance. Dee was also inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and the Theatre Hall of Fame.

"God, make me so uncomfortable that I will do the very thing I fear."
Ruby Dee

In 1953 she became well known for denouncing the government's decision to execute Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for wartime spying. This experience helped Dee realize that racism and discrimination (treating people differently based on race, gender, or nationality) were not exclusively black experiences. Dee and Davis were involved in and supported several other civil rights protests and causes, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington.

Ruby and her husband, Ossie Davis collaborated on several projects designed to promote black heritage in general and other black artists in particular. In 1974, they produced The Ruby Dee/Ossie Davis Story Hour for the National Black Network. In 1981, they produced the series With Ossie and Ruby for the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). Dee found this work particularly satisfying because she got to travel the country talking to authors and others who could put the black experience in perspective. She believes that the series made black people look at themselves outside of the problems of racism.

In 1970 the National Urban League honored them with the Frederick Douglass Award for distinguished leadership toward equal opportunity. In 1999 Dee and Davis were arrested for protesting the fatal shooting of an unarmed West African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, by white police officers of the New York City Police Department.

With over 50 years of collaborative works with her husband, the never-acquiescent civil rights activist has shown her willingness to work for the benefit of others. From her arrest during the Amadou Diallo protest to celebrating her wedding anniversary by raising funds for small playhouse theaters, her battle for equal rights has clearly not reached its end.

http://www.ossieandruby.com/index.html

http://www.visionaryproject.org/deeruby/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Dee

http://experiencinghistory.blogspot.com/2011/03/raisin-in-sun-hits-broadway.html
http://www.notablebiographies.com/De-Du/Dee-Ruby.html

Langston Hughes' "Mulatto" Hits Broadway!

2011-10-24T05:27:00.000-10:00

On October 24 in Black History...

In 1935, "Mulatto", the first Black-authored (Langston Hughes) play to become a long-run Broadway hit, opens.

Written during the summer of 1930, Mulatto is Langston Hughes's first full-length play. It appears to have come to him quickly; its painful and melodramatic depictions of father-son conflict, the power of class and whiteness, the legacy of slavery, and the vicious oppression of African Americans in the South were all preoccupations taken up in his earlier work. Many commentators have noted Hughes's personal investment in his narratives of father-son conflict, and the metaphorical relation of miscegenated family and nation.

The play also seeks to correct the dramatic representation of lynching in such plays as the 1927 Pulitzer Prize-winning In Abraham's Bosom, by Paul Green, in which lynching is the inevitable and unchallenged-although not thereby justified-fate of Abe McCranie, the impetuous and irascible central character. The plots of the two works are similar in many ways, but in Hughes's play the black characters are articulate, rational, and courageous. Not usually understood as an antilynching play, Mulatto is set in Georgia and was written in a year when that state led the nation in lynchings. Cora's accusations that the Colonel is in themob seeking the son who murdered him speak eloquently to the horrifying internecine dimensions of Southern brutality. (In 1961, Hughes wrote regarding some revisions his editor, Webster Smalley, had proposed: "Mulatto might be left timeless, since they still behave like that in the backwoods of Georgia. In the big towns, of course, individual sitins like Bert's have grown to mass-sit-ins. Otherwise, no difference.")

Opening on October 24, 1935, at the Vanderbilt Theatre, Mulatto ran on Broadway for more than a year and toured for two seasons. The Broadway Mulatto was, however, greatly altered by the producer, Martin Jones, who sensationalized an already shocking story. Among other changes, in his version Sallie misses the train and is raped by Talbot in the final scene. No text for the Broadway Mulatto has surfaced.

The version of Mulatto printed here is dated by Hughes's covering remarks as 1942, although the copyright is given as 1932. The cover sheet reads: "from the short story 'Father and Son' in The Ways of White Folks. Original first version of 'Mulatto,' written at Hedgerow Theatre, Maryland Rose Valley, in which no girl is raped. That was added by Mr. Martin Jones for the Broadway production. Langston Hughes, Dec. 28, 1942." On the title page he adds, "This play might also be called 'The Colonel's Son.'" The comment about the short story is puzzling because "Father and Son" was most certainly written later than the play; however, Hughes did, at one point, recommend the short story to Martin Jones, to give him a better sense of the play. The manuscript is actually a photocopy of a typescript on which Hughes pasted minor revisions. The photocopy on which the changes are made is dated 1945 by the Beinecke Library. Internal evidence places the original as having been written between 1934 and 1938. This version differs from the version published in Five Plays by Langston Hughes in several ways, most notably in the last lines of the final scene. It is this version, probably minus the changes on this photocopy, that was the basis for several of the play's translations.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Plays-to-1942/Langston-Hughes/e/9780826213693

James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance.

Civil Rights Leader, Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth

2011-10-23T05:50:00.001-10:00

Rev Shuttlesworth in 2007

"I went to jail 30 or 40 times...for a good thing, trying to make a difference."

Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth

Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth, a former truck driver who studied religion at night, became pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., in 1953 and soon was an outspoken leader in the fight for racial equality. He survived a 1956 bombing, an assault during a 1957 demonstration, chest injuries when Birmingham authorities turned fire hoses on demonstrators in 1963, and countless arrests. In his 1963 book "Why We Can't Wait," King called Shuttlesworth "one of the nation's the most courageous freedom fighters ... a wiry, energetic and indomitable man." "When God made Bull Connor, one of the real negative forces in this country, He was sure to make Fred Shuttlesworth." Lowery said Wednesday.

"I didn't give a slap happy about what anybody thought about me"

Fred Shuttleworth in 2010

"My church was a beehive," Shuttlesworth once said. "I made the movement. I made the challenge. Birmingham was the citadel of segregation, and the people wanted to march."

Shuttlesworth was born March 18, 1922, near Montgomery and grew up in Birmingham. As a child, he knew he would either be a minister or a doctor and by 1943, he decided to enter the ministry. He began taking theological courses at night while working as a truck driver and cement worker during the day. He was licensed to preach in 1944 and ordained in 1948.

On December 25, 1956, unknown persons tried to kill Shuttlesworth by placing sixteen sticks of dynamite under his bedroom window. Shuttlesworth somehow escaped unhurt even though his house was heavily damaged. A police officer, who also belonged to the Ku Klux Klan, told Shuttlesworth as he came out of his home, "If I were you I'd get out of town as quick as I could". Shuttlesworth told him to tell the Klan that he was not leaving and "I wasn't saved to run." The next day, Shuttlesworth led 250 people in a protest of segregation on buses in Birmingham.

In 1957, he was beaten by a mob when he tried to enroll two of his children in an all-white school in Birmingham. In the early 1960s, Shuttlesworth had invited King back to Birmingham. Televised scenes of police dogs and fire hoses being turned on black marchers, including children, in spring 1963 helped the rest of the nation grasp the depth of racial animosity in the Deep South. Shuttlesworth participated in the sit-ins against segregated lunch counters in 1960 and took part in the organization and completion of the Freedom Rides in 1961.

Shuttlesworth(Left) with Abernathy and Dr. King in 1963

Shuttlesworth invited SCLC and Dr. King to come to Birmingham in 1963 to lead the campaign to desegregate it through mass demonstrations–what Shuttlesworth called "Project C", the "C" standing for "confrontation". While Shuttlesworth was willing to negotiate with political and business leaders for peaceful abandonment of segregation, he believed, with good reason, that they would not take any steps that they were not forced to take. He suspected their promises could not be trusted on until they acted on them.

One of the 1963 demonstrations he led resulted in Shuttlesworth's being convicted of parading without a permit from the City Commission. On appeals the case reached the US Supreme Court. In its 1969 decision of Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham, the Supreme Court reversed Shuttlesworth's conviction. They determined circumstances indicated that the parade permit was denied not to control traffic, as the state contended, but to censor ideas.

In 1963 Shuttlesworth was set on provoking a crisis that would force the authorities and business leaders to recalculate the cost of segregation. He was helped immeasurably by Eugene "Bull" Connor, the Commissioner of Public Safety and most powerful public official in Birmingham, who used Klan groups to heighten violence against blacks in the city. Even as the business class was beginning to see the end of segregation, Connor was determined to maintain it. Referring to the city's notoriously racist safety commissioner, Shuttlesworth would tell followers, "We're telling ol' 'Bull' Connor right here tonight that we're on the march and we're not going to stop marching until we get our rights."

Shuttleworth Statue, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

While Connor's direct police tactics intimidated black citizens of Birmingham, they also created a split between Connor and the business leaders. They resented both the damage Connor was doing to Birmingham's image around the world and his high-handed attitude toward them. According to a May 1963 New York Times profile of Shuttlesworth, Connor responded to the word Shuttlesworth had been injured by the spray of fire hoses by saying: "I'm sorry I missed it. ... I wish they'd carried him away in a hearse."

Similarly, while Connor may have benefited politically in the short run from Shuttlesworth's determined provocations, that also fit Shuttleworth's long-term plans. The televised images of Connor's directing handlers of police dogs to attack unarmed demonstrators and firefighters' using hoses to knock down children had a profound effect on American citizens' view of the civil rights struggle.

Shuttlesworth's activities were not limited to Birmingham. In 1964 he traveled to St. Augustine, Florida (which he often cited as the place where the civil rights struggle met with the most violent resistance), taking part in marches and widely publicized beach wade-ins that led directly to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1965 Shuttlesworth he was also active in Selma, Alabama, and the march from Selma to Montgomery that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In 1978, Shuttlesworth was portrayed by Roger Robinson in the television miniseries King.Shuttlesworth founded the "Shuttlesworth Housing Foundation" in 1988 to assist families who might otherwise be unable to buy their own homes. Shuttlesworth was was a key figure in Spike Lee's 1997 documentary, "4 Little Girls," about the September 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four black children. He also gained attention in Diane McWhorter's book "Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution," which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2002. On July 16, 2008, the Birmingham, Alabama, Airport Authority approved changing the name of the Birmingham's airport in honor of Shuttlesworth. On October 27, 2008, the airport was officially changed to Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport.

Shuttlesworth & Sen Obama

In 2007 Obama pushed Shuttlesworth's wheelchair across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma during a commemoration of the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march in which club-swinging troopers and deputies beat and turned back marchers at the Edmund Pettus bridge at Selma on March 7, 1965, an attack that became known as "Bloody Sunday" and helped galvanize national support for the voting rights movement. In November 2008, Shuttlesworth watched from a hospital bed as Senator Barack Obama was elected the nation's first African-American president.

On October 5, 2011, Shuttlesworth passed away at the age of 89 in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute announced that it intends to include Shuttlesworth's burial site on the Civil Rights History Trail.

When Rev. Shuttlesworth retired as the pastor of Greater New Light in 2006 at the age of 84, he said in his final sermon:

"The best thing we can do is be a servant of God...

It does good to stand up and serve others."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/us/rev-fred-l-shuttlesworth-civil-rights-leader-dies-at-89.html?pagewanted=all

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Shuttlesworth

MLK's daughter calls for a 'radical revolution of values':

2011-10-16T04:06:00.004-10:00

MLK's daughter calls for a 'radical revolution of values':

'via Blog this'

Ten of thousands of people have gathered on a beautiful fall day in Washington to witness the formal dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial that opened in August.
On Deadline will be liveblogging the event.
Update at 9:55 a.m. ET: Martin Luther King III calls for an end of "conservative policies that exclude people." "We must finally get rid of racism."
Update at 9:51 a.m. ET: King III praises the "occupy" economic movement that began on Wall Street, saying, "We must stand up for economic justice."

GALLERY: Photos from the MLK ceremony

Update at 9:48 a.m. ET: Martin Luther King III, King's song, says it is important "not to place too much emphasis on Martin Luther King the idol, and not enough on the ideals of Martin Luther King."

Update at 9:42 a.m. ET: She notes that her father was iactively involved in a poor people's campaign when he died. She says she believe thathe would be supportive now of protests by the poor and the unemployed. "I hear my father say: We must have a radical revolution of values and a reordering of our priorities in this nation. I hear my father say, as we dedicate this monument, we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society, to a person-oriented society."

Update at 9:39 a.m. ET: She also praises her mother, Coretta Scott King, for her work with King, particularly after his death, by continuing to his legacy. Her work, says Bernice , help make "most hated man in America in 1967 to now be one of the most revered and lovedmen in the world so that we might be able to build a monument in his honor. Thanks you, Mama, for your dedication, thank you for your sacrifice."

Update at 9:36 a.m. ET: Rev. Bernice King" says the day "is not just a celebration for African-Americans, but Americans and citizens around the world. No doubt today the world celebrates with us."

Update at 9:34 a.m. ET: Rev. Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., says, "It is a great time of celebration and the entire King family is proud to witness this day."

Update at 9:32 a.m. ET: USA TODAY's Carly Mallenbaum reports that spectators are looking for any sort of shade on the open lawn. Families sit in chairs with built-in canopies. Women sit beneath open umbrellas. One woman fans herself with an innovative device: A hand fan that turns into a straw hat.

Update at 9:29 a.m. ET: King's sister, Christine King Farris, refers to Obama, the first African-American president, and says, "All dreams cane come true and America is a place where you can make it happen."

Update at 9:20 a.m. ET: Gray spends much of his speech noting that residents of Washington D.C .do not, under the Constitution, have the right to vote. He calls on President Obama and Congress to end this "yoke of injustice" and "remove the shackles of oppression." The voting restrictions were put in place when the District of Columbia was created. The district does not have a voting representative in Congress.

Update 9:17 a.m. ET: Mayor Vincent Gray of Washington, D.C., says the memorial is "long overdue."

Update at 9:34 a.m. ET: In the crowd, the Free Martin Luther King Jr Memorial baseball caps fit all sizes of heads on Sunday, reports USA TODAY's Carly Mallenbaum. The white hats provided much-needed shade from a strong morning sun during the celebration event. Ruby Johnson, a 64-year-old retired Walmart employee from Danville,Va., disapproved of the free hat color choice ("I can't wear white after Labor Day!"), but was very much in favor of the MLK Memorial event. "I don't have to ride the back of the bus, because of him," she says of the civil rights leader.

Update at 9:11 a.m. ET: Gwen Ifill, managing editor of PBS' Washington Week addresses the crowd as master of ceremonies.

Original post: The striking weather is in sharp contast to the stormy weather driven by Hurricane Irene that forced a postponement of the ceremonies in August.

President Obama will be among those honoring the legacy of the civil rights leader during the four-hour program. Others who will appear include singer Aretha Franklin and poet Nikki Giovanni, who will poem In the Spirit of Martin.

Thousands of people began gathering at dawn at the memorial, which is not far from the Lincoln Memorial. Organizers say they expect as many as 50,000 people to attend today, USA TODAY's Melanie Eversley reports.

King's sister and two of his children are scheduled to speak. The choir from King's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta will sing.

"Although our plans have been scaled back, I am confident Sunday's event will be momentous," said Harry Johnson, head of the foundation raising money for the memorial.

He referred to the dedication as a "long-awaited moment in our nation's history."

Update 9:17 a.m. ET: Mayor Vincent Gray of Washington, D.C., says the memorial is "long overdue."

Update at 9:34 a.m. ET: In the crowd, the Free Martin Luther King Jr Memorial baseball caps fit all sizes of heads on Sunday, reports USA TODAY's Carly Mallenbaum. The white hats provided much-needed shade from a strong morning sun during the celebration event. Ruby Johnson, a 64-year-old retired Walmart employee from Danville,Va., disapproved of the free hat color choice ("I can't wear white after Labor Day!"), but was very much in favor of the MLK Memorial event. "I don't have to ride the back of the bus, because of him," she says of the civil rights leader.

Update at 9:11 a.m. ET: Gwen Ifill, managing editor of PBS' Washington Week addresses the crowd as master of ceremonies.

Original post: The striking weather is in sharp contast to the stormy weather driven by Hurricane Irene that forced a postponement of the ceremonies in August.

President Obama will be among those honoring the legacy of the civil rights leader during the four-hour program. Others who will appear include singer Aretha Franklin and poet Nikki Giovanni, who will poem In the Spirit of Martin.

Thousands of people began gathering at dawn at the memorial, which is not far from the Lincoln Memorial. Organizers say they expect as many as 50,000 people to attend today, USA TODAY's Melanie Eversley reports.

King's sister and two of his children are scheduled to speak. The choir from King's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta will sing.

"Although our plans have been scaled back, I am confident Sunday's event will be momentous," said Harry Johnson, head of the foundation raising money for the memorial.

He referred to the dedication as a "long-awaited moment in our nation's history."

Congratulations to 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Winners, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee

2011-10-07T10:04:00.001-10:00

The Nobel Peace Prize 2011 was awarded jointly to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 73, is Africa's first democratically elected female president(Liberia). Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the 24th and current President of Liberia. She served as Minister of Finance under President William Tolbert from 1979 until the 1980 coup d'état, after which she left Liberia and held senior positions at various financial institutions. She placed a very distant second in the 1997 presidential election. Later, she was elected President in the 2005 presidential election and took office on 16 January 2006 as the first and currently the only elected female head of state in Africa. Read more...

Leymah Roberta Gbowee, 39, is an African peace activist responsible for leading a women's peace movement that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. This led to the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia, the first African nation with a female president.

An article on Gbowee in O-The Oprah Magazine painted this backdrop:

"The Liberian civil war, which lasted from 1989 to 2003 with only brief interruptions, was the result of economic inequality, a struggle to control natural resources, and deep-rooted rivalries among various ethnic groups, including the descendants of the freed American slaves who founded the country in 1847. The war involved the cynical use of child soldiers, armed with lightweight Kalashnikovs, against the country's civilian population. At the center of it all was Charles Taylor, the ruthless warlord who initiated the first fighting and would eventually serve as Liberian president until he was forced into exile in 2003."

It's Our Art

2011-10-03T03:36:00.001-10:00

Watts Riot, by Noah Purifoy 1966

“Places of Validation, Art and Progression” opened at the California African American Museum on last Thursday September 29, 2011 as part of Pacific Standard Time , the museum-wide collaboration highlighting the birth of the Los Angeles art scene. their newest exhibition on display. This exhibit, on display from September 29, 2011, to April 1, 2012, takes viewers on a connected journey of
personal stories and creativity to discover the people and places throughout Los Angeles that
made it possible to experience the visual expression of African Americans in art during the
1940s – 1980s.

A video of interviews with the artists plays at the entrance of the gallery and sets the tone for the exhibit.

“It’s our art. It’s not anybody else’s art,” says painter Samella Lewis. “We have to validate ourselves if it’s going to be authentic. White folks tend to only validate in terms of their vision.”

Former civil rights activist, now senior lecturer of both African American studies and communication studies at UCLA, is one of three co-curators for the “Places of Validation, Art & Progression” exhibit. According to Von Blum, “Places of Validation, Art & Progression” aims to explore the history of the African American struggles and attitudes that resulted from being excluded from the mainstream art community in Los Angeles. The works in the exhibition span from figurative to political.

For more information on the California African American Museum visit

www.caamuseum.org or call (213) 744-7432. Admission is always free.

Read the press release.

http://www.intersectionssouthla.org/index.php/story/new_exhibit_opens_at_california_african_american_museum/

http://negroartist.com/negro%20artist/noah%20purifoy/pages/Noah%20Purifoy,%20Watts%20Riots,%201966,%20mixed%20mediums,%2036%20x%2050%20in_jpg.htm

September in Black History

2011-10-02T03:45:00.002-10:00

Each month we'll list daily black history notes for the month. Here's what happened in September in Black History.

On September 6 in Black History...
In 1988 - Lee Roy Young becomes the first African American Texas Ranger in the police force's 165 year history.
In 1978 - Foxy Brown was born.
In 1969 - Macy Gray was born.
In 1967 - Walter E. Washington was named Walter E. Washington commissioner and "unofficial" mayor of Washington, D.C. by President Lyndon Johnson.
In 1892 - George "Little Chocolate" Dixon betas Jack Skelly in New Orleans to win the world featherweight title. While some African American citizens celebrate for two days, the New Orleans Times-Democrat says, "It is a mistake to match a Negro and a white man ...to bring the races together on any terms of equality even in the prize ring"
In 1826 - John Brown Russwurm became the first Black to graduate college in America on September 6, 1826 at Bowdoin College. However, just 14 days before Edward Jones graduated Amherst College in Massachusetts.
In 1968, the Kingdom of Swaziland became independent. Swaziland is possibly unique in Africa as being 99% free of political violence. (One political death since independence.) http://www.welcometoswaziland.com/twpub/pag.cgi?m=history

On September 5 in Black History...
In 1960 - Leopold Sedar Senghor, poet, politician, was elected President of Senegal. Senghor was a Senegalese poet, politician, and cultural theorist who for two decades served as the first president of Senegal (1960–1980). Senghor was the first African elected as a member of the Académie française. Before independence, he founded the political party called the Senegalese Democratic Bloc. He is regarded by many as one of the most important African intellectuals of the 20th century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9opold_S%C3%A9dar_Senghor#Poetry
In 1916, Frank Yerby, novelist, O. Henry short story award winner was born.
1859, Our Nig by Harriet Wilson, the first novel published in the U.S. by an African American woman, is published. It was lost for years until reprinted with a critical essay by African American scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in 1983.
In 1899 - J. Ross patented the Bailing Press, Patent No. 632,539.
In 1895 - George Washington Murray was elected to Congress by South Carolina.
In 1846 - Secretary of the American Negro Academy, John W Cromwell was born.
On September 4 in Black History...

In 1960 - Damon Wayans was born.

In 1923 - George Washington Carver of Tuskegee Institute received the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's highest award, for distinguished research in agricultural chemistry.

In 1908 - Richard Wright was born.

In 1865 - Bowie State College was established in Bowie, MD.

In 1848 - Inventor and engineer, Louis Latimer was born.

In 1981, Beyonce Knowles was born.

On September 3 in Black History...
In 1895, Charles Houston, NAACP leader was born.

1n 1970, The first Congress of African Peoples was held in Atlanta, GA.

In 1990, Jonathan Rodgers became president of CBS's television stations division, making him the highest ranking African American in network television.

On September 2 in Black History...
In 1884, John Parker patents "Parker Pulverizer", U.S. Patent # 304,552 September 2, 1884 "Follower-Screw for Tobacco Presses." Official Gazette of the USPTO v.28, p.883.

Joseph Hatchet

In 1766 - Abolitionist, inventor, entrepreneur, James Forten was born in Philadelphia, PA.
In 1975, Joseph W. Hatchett was sworn in as first Black supreme court justice in the South in the twentieth century. An even more significant step in ending racial separation was Hatchett's reelection in 1976. He became the first black justice to be reelected to the Florida Supreme Court. In 1979, Hatchett resigned his position a Florida Supreme Court Justice in order to step into another first. In that year Hatchett became the first black justice admitted to a federal court of appeals in the south when he was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. When the 5th Circuit split in 1981 to form the 5th Circuit and 11th Circuit, Hatchett went with the 11th Circuit. He remained in this position until 1999 and served as Chief Justice of this body from 1996 to 1999. Hatchett now works as an of counsel attorney with Akerman Senterfitt in Tallahassee, Florida. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_W._Hatchett

Frank Robinson

In 1966 - Professional baseball player, Frank Robinson was named MVP of the American League. He played from 1956–1976, most notably for the Cincinnati Reds and the Baltimore Orioles. He is the only player to win league MVP honors in both the National and American Leagues. He won the Triple crown, was a member of two teams that won the World Series (the 1966 and 1970 Baltimore Orioles), and amassed the fourth-most career home runs at the time of his retirement (he is currently tied for eighth). Robinson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. Robinson was the first African-American hired to serve as manager in Major League history. He managed the Cleveland Indians during the last two years of his playing career, compiling a 186–189 record. He went on to manage the San Francisco Giants, the Baltimore Orioles, and the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Robinson

On September 1 in Black History...
In 1975 - Gen. Daniel James Jr. was promoted to rank of four-star general and named commander-in-chief of the North American Air Defense Command.

In 1867, Robert Freeman became the first Black person to graduate from Harvard Dental School.

Check out these sites are where I get many of the daily black history info: http://www.blackfacts.com/ http://www.dayinblackhistory.com/
http://www.wikipedia.org

Zambia Election Rejects Chinese Involvement

2011-09-29T03:37:00.000-10:00

The following article was in today's issue of The Atlantic:

Zambians have voted out president seen as closely aligned with China, which has sent thousands of workers and managers here and to other Sub-Saharan countries.

Michael Sata, President of Zambia

On the eve of Zambia's presidential elections last week, one of the most common tropes about the vote was to describe it as a referendum on China. For a long time now, Zambia has been at the leading edge of China's drive to expand its relations with the continent. Chinese have migrated to Zambia by the thousands, setting themselves up in mining, farming, commerce and small industry.

Although China is a latecomer to Zambia's decades-old copper industry, it has quickly established itself as an ambitious rival to "traditional" mining partners like Australia and South Africa. As almost everywhere in Africa these days, Chinese contractors are building highways, dams, and other large infrastructure projects. Zambia even boasts two Chinese-built special economic zones, and has recently allowed banking in the Chinese renminbi instead of the kwacha, dollar, or euro to facilitate trade with China.

But these are not the only developments that have set Zambia apart, or at least placed it ahead of the pack in terms of observable trends in its relations with China. Zambia was one of the first African countries where the role of China and of Chinese people in the country became an explicit and potent political issue. During the campaigning for elections in 2006 and 2008, the newly elected leader, Michael Sata, made a sport of baiting China, calling its businesspeople in the country "profiteers," not investors, and denouncing Chinese for "bringing in their own people to push wheelbarrows instead of hiring local people."

"Zambia has become a province of China," Sata thundered in one campaign rally back then. "The Chinese are the most unpopular people in the country because no one trusts them. The Chinaman is coming just to invade and exploit Africa."

Read the entire article here: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/09/in-africa-an-election-rejects-chinese-involvement/245832/

About Zambia:
The Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north,Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana andNamibia to the south, and Angola to the west. The capital city is Lusaka, located in the south-central part of the country. The population is concentrated mainly around the capital Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt to the northwest.

Originally inhabited by Khoisan peoples, the region of what is now Zambia was reached by the Bantu expansion by ca. the 12th century. After visits by European explorers starting in the 18th century, Zambia became the British colony of Northern Rhodesia towards the end of the nineteenth century. For most of the colonial period, the country was governed by an administration appointed from London with the advice of the British South Africa Company.

On 24 October 1964, the country declared independence from the United Kingdom and prime minister Kenneth Kaunda became the first head of state. Zambia was governed by Kenneth Kaunda of the socialist United National Independence Party (UNIP) from 1964 until 1991. From 1972 to 1991 Zambia was a one-party state with UNIP the sole legal political party. From 1991 to 2002, Zambia was governed by president Frederick Chiluba of the social-democraticMovement for Multi-Party Democracy during which the country saw a rise in social-economic growth and increased decentralisation of government. Levy Mwanawasa was the third President of Zambia. He presided over the country from January 2002 until his death in August 2008. He is credited with having initiated a campaign to rid the country of corruption, and increasing standards of living from the levels left by Frederick T.J. Chiluba.

The World Bank in 2010 named Zambia as one of the world's fastest economically reforming countries. The headquarters of COMESA are in the capital Lusaka.

Motto: One Zambia, One Nation

Anthem: "Stand and Sing of Zambia, Proud and Free"

Read more about Zambia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zambia

Colorless Night at the Emmy's

2011-09-19T04:47:00.000-10:00

Andre Braugher

Last night was my first time watching the Emmy's award show for several years. One thing that was shockingly apparent was the total lack of color throughout the night.

Out of all the African-American, Latino, and other minority actors and actresses on television, there were maybe 3 to 5 non-white presenters all night and the same if not fewer number of non-white actors and actresses were even just nominated. Not to take away from any of the winners this year, but is the academy really saying that the there was nooo more talent worthy of even being recognized???

Idris Elba had two nominations this year. Also nominated were Taraji P. Henson, Andre Braugher and Laurence Fishburne.

The Help was a GREAT movie!

2011-09-05T04:21:00.002-10:00

I saw The Help with Viola Davis and it was great! What on earth was all the criticism about?

Viola Davis gave an amazing performance as Abileen and Octavia Spencer's portrayal of Minnie was just brilliant. Cicely Tyson's role as Constatine was beyond words...how that woman can act just through her eyes makes you feel like you were right there in the movie.

Beyond the excellent performances of these actresses was the content of the story itself. These women were in impossible situations and while white and black people both try to glorify the times back then, some people were just as ugly and even worse than what was portrayed in The Help. To address some of the criticism by the Black community, yes there were many strong black women who did not need some white woman "coming to their rescue" and telling their story. There were also many black women who like Abileen, Minnie and Constatine that faced more than just being without work if they spoke out.

My maternal grandmother did housework in the South back in the 60's. She had a good friend, Miriam, that stopped by the her house one day after work. Apparently her boss, Miss Lilly, had some other white friends over and she went out of her way to impress them by talking horribly down to Miriam and talking about how bad the coloreds were to her friends in the presence of Miriam, while she was serving them. When Miss Lilly barked at Miriam to bring lemonade out for her guests....yep, you guessed it...Miriam added "a little extra" to it and enjoyed watching all those white women scoff at her as she served their lemonade and gulp it down like it was the best tasting drink ever.

So even though Miriam's spit in that lemonade was not as bad as what Minnie put in that chocolate cake...those black women back then had similar stories. Miriam had a household to feed and kids to raise and put through school. In the town she lived in, she could not afford to "sass back" at her boss and lose her job. But some of these same women would walk down to the jail in protest of some blacks that were imprisoned without cause. They would all walk down to the jails and pray and go back home. Or they would participate in sit-ins or rallies. Everyone found their own way of getting their story out.

In The Help, this was a portrayal of just one part of the story.

August in Black History

2011-08-31T17:13:00.000-10:00

Each month we'll list daily black history notes for the month. Here's what happened in August in Black History.

On August 31 in Black History...
In 1935, Frank Robinson, first black manager inmajor league baseball was born in Beaumont, Texas.

In 1979, Donald McHenry named to succeed Andrew Young as UN.

Pigeon Point in Tobago

In 1962, Trinidad-Tobago proclaimed independence. The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles. It shares maritime boundaries with other nations including Barbados to the northeast, Guyana to the southeast, and Venezuela to the south and west. Trinidad and Tobago is known for its Carnival and is the birthplace of steelpan, calypso, soca, and limbo.
Trinidad and Tobago gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1962. The presence of American military bases in Chaguaramas and Cumuto in Trinidad during World War II profoundly changed the character of society. In the post-war period, the wave of decolonisation that swept the British Empire led to the formation of the West Indies Federation in 1958 as a vehicle for independence. Chaguaramas was the proposed site for the federal capital. The Federation dissolved after the withdrawal of Jamaica and the government chose to seek independence on its own.[citation needed]
In 1976, the country severed its links with the British monarchy and became a republic within the Commonwealth, though it retained the British Privy Council as its final Court of Appeal. Between the years 1972 and 1983, the Republic profited greatly from the rising price of oil, as the oil-rich country increased its living standards greatly. In 1990, 114 members of the Jamaat al Muslimeen, led by Yasin Abu Bakr, formerly known as Lennox Phillip, stormed the Red House (the seat of Parliament), and Trinidad and Tobago Television, the only television station in the country at the time, and held the country's government hostage for six days before surrendering. Since 2003, the country has entered a second oil boom, a driving force which the government hopes to use to turn the country's main export back to sugar and agriculture.[citation needed] Great concern was raised in August 2007 when it was predicted that this boom would last only until 2018. Petroleum, petrochemicals and natural gas continue to be the backbone of the economy. Tourism and the public service are the mainstay of the economy of Tobago, though authorities have begun to diversify the island. The bulk of tourism visitor arrival on the islands are from Western Europe.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinidad_and_Tobago#Independence

On August 30 in Black History...

Roy Wilkins at the White House in 1868

In 1881, W.S. Campbell patents improved, self-setting animal trap.
In 1843, Blacks participated in a national political convention for the first time at Liberty party convention in Buffalo, New York.
In 1901, Roy Wilkins was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Wilkins was a prominent civil rights activist from the 1930s to the 1970s. Wilkins' most notable role was in his leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1955, Roy Wilkins was chosen to be the executive secretary of the NAACP and in 1964 he became its executive director. He had an excellent reputation as a spokesperson for the civil rights movement. One of his first actions was to provide support to civil rights activists in Mississippi who were being subject to a "credit squeeze" by members of the White Citizens Councils. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Wilkins

On August 29 in Black History...
In 1957, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first federal civil rights legislation since 1875. The bill established a civil rights commission and a civil rights division in the Justice Department. It also gave the Justice Department authority to seek injunctions against voting rights infractions.

In 1962, Mal Goode becomes the first African American television news commentator when he begins broadcasting on ABC.

In 1894, Sociologist ,E. Franklin Frasier was born.

In 1924, Dinah Washington was born.

In 1920, Jazz musician, Charlie "Bird" Parker was born in Kansas City.

In 1958 Michael Jackson was born.

On August 28 in Black History...

In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr gives his "I Have A Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

On August 20 in Black History...
In 1989 - The first National Black Theater Festival closes in Winston-Salem, N.C.

In 1964 - President Johnson signed Economic Opportunity Act

In 1944, Spingarn Medal presented to Charles R. Drew "who set up and ran the blood plasma bank in the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City which served as one of the models for the widespread system of blood banks now in operation for the American Red Cross."

In 1941, William Herbert Gray, III (Bill Gray) was born on this day.

In 1939, The National Negro Bowling Association was organized in Detroit, Michigan and Wynston Brown became its first president.

In 1856 - Wilberforce University was established in Ohio.

In 1831, Nat Turner, a brilliant minister and moody slave, led the first slave revolt of magnitude. The revolt was crushed, but only after Turner and his band had killed some sixty whites and threw the South into panic. After hiding out, Turner was captured on October 30...

In 1830 - First National Negro Convention took place in Philadelphia, chaired by Richard.

In 1619 -Twenty Africans arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, aboard a Dutch ship. They are the first blacks to be forcibly settled as involuntary laborers in the North American British Colonies.

On August 19 in Black History...

1989 - Desmond Tutu defied apartheid laws by walking alone on a South African beach.
In 1958, youth from the NAACP Council begins sit-ins at lunch counters in Oklahoma City. The Dockum Drug Store sit-in was one of the first organized lunch-counter sit-ins for the purpose of integrating segregated establishments in the United States. The protest began in July 1958 in Wichita, Kansas at the Dockum Drug Store, a store in the old Rexall chain, in which protesters would sit at the counter all day until the store closed, ignoring taunts from counter protesters. The sit-in ended three weeks later when the owner relented and agreed to serve black patrons.

Twenty-year-old Ron Walters, president of the local NAACP Youth Council, organized the Wichita protest together with his cousin Carol Parks-Hahn. Wichita was heavily segregated in the late 1950s, with schools segregated up to high school and blacks excluded from public accommodations. While working at a job in downtown Wichita, Walters went for lunch to a Woolworth's store, which would only serve blacks bagged lunches sold from one end of the lunch counter. Seeking to find a way to protest against the practice, Walters and his cousin Carol Parks-Hahn met with attorney Frank Williams, who described a sit-in by students at a California college who ended segregation at a campus restaurant by occupying it with students reading newspapers all day long. The protest was inspired by the actions of the Little Rock Nine and the earlier Montgomery Bus Boycott. The plan they developed targeted Dockum, a downtown store that was part of the national Rexall chain, which had a lunch counter that only served white customers, starting on July 19, 1958, with ten well-dressed and polite students seeking to place orders while sitting at the lunch counter. Parks-Haun ordered a Coca-Cola from a waitress, who served it to her but then pulled it back when she realized that "store policy was not to serve colored people". Students sat quietly all day at the counters, enduring taunts and threats from white customers. After three weeks, in early August, the manager came in and said "Serve them — I'm losing too much money". Historian Gretchen Eick called the Dockum Drug Store sit-in as setting "a precedent that really began what would be a very significant strategy — a strategy that would change the way business was done in the United States". Ultimately, all of the Dockum locations in Kansas were desegregated.

Though the Dockum sit-in had attracted little media attention, on August 19, 1958 in Oklahoma City a nationally recognized sit-in at the Katz Drug Store lunch counter occurred. The protest there was led by NAACP Youth Council leader Clara Luper, a local high school teacher, together with young local students, including Luper's eight-year old daughter, who had suggested the sit-in be held. The group quickly desegregated the Katz Drug Store lunch counters. Following the Oklahoma City sit-ins, the tactic of non-violent student sit-ins spread. The widely publicized Greensboro sit-ins began more than a year later at a Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina, starting on February 1, 1960, launching a wave of anti-segregation sit-ins across the South and opened a national awareness of the depth of segregation in the nation.

A 20-foot-long bronze sculpture first announced in 1998 at a cost of $3 million marks the site of the successful sit-in, with a lunch counter and patrons depicting the protest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dockum_Drug_Store_sit-in
http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=627&category=educationMakers

In 1791 - Benjamin Banneker writes letter to then secretary of state Thomas Jefferson. The letter showed the hypocrisy of slavery. After departing the federal capital area, Banneker wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson, who in 1776 had drafted the United States Declaration of Independence and in 1791 was serving as the United States Secretary of State. Quoting language in the Declaration, the letter expressed a plea for justice for African Americans. To further support this plea, Banneker included within the letter a handwritten manuscript of an almanac for 1792 containing his ephemeris with his astronomical calculations. In the letter, Banneker accused Jefferson of criminally using fraud and violence to oppress his slaves by stating:

“…Sir, how pitiable is it to reflect, that although you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of Mankind, and of his equal and impartial distribution of these rights and privileges, which he hath conferred upon them, that you should at the same time counteract his mercies, in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren, under groaning captivity and cruel oppression, that you should at the same time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others, with respect to yourselves.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Banneker#Letter_to_Thomas_Jefferson_on_racism

On August 18 in Black History...
In 1963, James Meredith, the first Black person admitted to the University of Mississippi, graduates from University of Mississippi, 1963. James H. Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights movement figure. He was the first African American student at the University of Mississippi, an event that was a flashpoint in the American civil rights movement. Motivated by the broadcast of President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address (which did not mention civil rights per se). Meredith decided to exercise his democratic rights and apply to the University of Mississippi. Meredith's goal was to put pressure on the Kennedy administration as to the issue. Meredith was married to Mary June Wiggins Meredith, now deceased.They had one daughter, Jessica Meredith Knight, and three sons: James, John and Joseph Howard Meredith. In 1989, the junior James Meredith (then 20) was sentenced to one year's house arrest for his role in a 1987 car crash in which two of his co-workers were killed and he suffered serious injuries. In 2002, Joseph Meredith graduated from the University of Mississippi as the most outstanding doctoral student in the School of Business Administration. Joseph had previously earned degrees from Harvard University and Millsaps College. James Meredith said of the occasion, "I think there's no better proof that White supremacy was wrong than not only to have my son graduate, but to graduate as the most outstanding graduate of the school...That, I think, vindicates my whole life." Joseph Meredith died in 2008 at age 39 of complications from lupus. At the time of his death, he was an assistant professor of finance at Texas A&M International University. He left behind a daughter, Jasmine Victoria. James Meredith currently lives in Jackson, Mississippi with his second wife, Judy Alsobrook Meredith. Meredith wrote a memoir of his days at the University of Mississippi entitled Three Years in Mississippi, published by the Indiana University Press in 1966, and also self-published several books.

On August 14 in Black History...

In 1883, Biologist and pioneer of cell division, Ernest E. Just was born. Just was a pioneering African American biologist, academic and science writer. Just's primary legacy is his recognition of the fundamental role of the cell surface in the development of organisms. In his work within marine biology, cytology and parthenogenesis, he advocated the study of whole cells under normal conditions, rather than simply breaking them apart in a laboratory setting. Ernest also assisted three Howard students (Edgar Amos Love, Oscar James Cooper, and Frank Coleman), in establishing Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Just was the subject of the 1983 biography Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just by Kenneth R. Manning. The book received the 1983 Pfizer Award and was a finalist for the 1984 Pulitzer Prizefor Biography or Autobiography

In 1968, Halle Berry was born. Berry is an American actress, former fashion model, and beauty queen. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming the first and, as of 2011, only woman of African American descent to have won the award for Best Actress. She is one of the most highly paid actresses in Hollywood and also a Revlon spokeswoman. She has been involved in the production side of several of the films in which she performed. Before becoming an actress, Berry entered several beauty contests, finishing as the 1st runner-up in the Miss USA Pageant (1986), and coming in 6th place in the Miss World Pageant in 1986. She made her film debut with a small role in 1991's Jungle Fever. This led to starring roles in The Flintstones (1994), Bulworth (1998), X-Men (2000) and its sequels, and as Bond Girl Jinx in Die Another Day (2002). She also won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress in 2005 for Catwoman and accepted the award in person—one of the few performers to do so.

In 1959, Ervin "Magic" Johnson was born. Johnson Jr. is a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA Draft by the Lakers. He won a championship and an NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in his rookie season, and won four more championships with the Lakers during the 1980s. Johnson retired abruptly in 1991 after announcing that he had contracted HIV, but returned to play in the 1992 All-Star Game, winning the All-Star MVP Award. After protests from his fellow players, he retired again for four years, but returned in 1996, at age 37, to play 32 games for the Lakers before retiring for the third and final time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Johnson

In 1914, Dr. Herman Branson, physicist and chemist, was born in Pocohantas, Virginia. Branson was an African-American physicist, best known for his research on the alpha helix protein structure, and was also the president of two colleges.

Check out these sites are where I get many of the daily black history info: http://www.blackfacts.com/ http://www.dayinblackhistory.com/
http://www.wikipedia.org

I Have A Dream

2011-08-28T17:17:00.004-10:00

On August 20 in Black History
In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr gives his "I Have A Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.
The March on Washington put much more pressure on the Kennedy administration to advance civil rights legislation in Congress. The diaries of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., published posthumously in 2007, suggest that President Kennedy was concerned that if the march failed to attract large numbers of demonstrators, it might undermine his civil rights efforts.In 2004, the Library of Congress honored the speech by adding it to the United States National Recording Registry. In the wake of the speech and march, King was named Man of the Year by TIME magazine for 1963, and in 1964, he was the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2003, the National Park Service dedicated an inscribed marble pedestal to commemorate the location of King's speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

Here is the full text of the speech:

"I Have A Dream"

"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_a_Dream

The US Surgeon General Stops By Hair Show

2011-08-22T18:08:00.002-10:00

US Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin, stopped by the International Hair Show in Atlanta, GA on August 21 to encourage black women to not let hair prevent them from working out.

Benjamin's office cited two studies that examined why fewer than 30% of minority women in the United States get the recommended level of exercise. The reasons were lack of time followed by "economic constraints, major life changes or traumas, safety issues, weather and environment, the hassle of personal care such as showering and keeping hair looking good," according to the American Journal of Public Health.

Why stop by the hair show? Well as most African-Americans can attest to, if you want to get the word out, stop by the barbershop or beauty salon. According to Ingrid Banks, professor of Black Studies and author of a forthcoming book on contemporary black beauty salon culture, "Barbershops and beauty salons are perhaps second only to black churches as institutions in the community."

Surgeon general: Hair shouldn't keep you out of gym – The Chart - CNN.com Blogs

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/06/24/bia.black.hair/index.html?iref=allsearch

A Tribute to Nick Ashford

2011-08-22T17:44:00.000-10:00

Nick Ashford, who along with wife Valerie Simpson helped set the gold standard for R&B duets, both as songwriters and performers, died of throat cancer Monday in a New Yorkhospital. He was 69.

Ashford & Simpson — you can't think of one without the other — penned and produced almost all of the '60s hits for Motown's Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, includingAin't No Mountain High Enough, You're All I Need to Get By, Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing and Your Precious Love. They also wrote hits for Chuck Jackson, The Shirelles, Maxine Brown and the Fifth Dimension.

Ray Charles' 1966 No. 1 R&B hit Let's Go Get Stonedwas their breakthrough record. They would later write and produce Diana Ross' biggest solo hits, including her signature Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand). They also wrote Chaka Khan's I'm Every Woman, which was later recorded by Whitney Houston.

Though they had initially performed together in 1964 as Valerie & Nick, after meeting a year earlier at Harlem's White Rock Baptist Church, they didn't fully break out as R&B stars until the late '70s and '80s with songs like Don't Cost You Nothing, It Seems to Hang On, Found A Cure, Street Corner and Solid. They generated excitement onstage with the tall, leonine Ashford trading harmonies with the sultry Simpson.

Ashford, who was born in Fairfield, S.C., and raised in Willow Run, Mich., had originally aspired to be a dancer.

The couple, who had been married since 1974, were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002. They recorded eight albums for Warner Bros., including four that went gold, five with Capitol and two independently. Their last album, 1996's Been Found, was a collaboration with poet Maya Angelo.

They continued to perform sporadically and frequently hosted events at their New York restaurant, Sugar Bar.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/obit/story/2011-08-22/Motown-songwriter-Nick-Ashford-dies/50098836/1

Black Economic Empowerment

2011-08-18T05:03:00.002-10:00

This past spring and summer, Experiencing History highlighted economic empowerment. Stay tuned as we expand our empowerment spotlights with a holistic focus for African-Americans.

Black Economic Empowerment

Every year the ASALH provides a theme for Black History Month in an effort to focus the attention of the public to certain issues that merit emphasis. Last year's theme was "The History of Black Economic Empowerment"

"to honor the African Americans who overcame injustice and inequality to achieve financial independence and the security of self empowerment."

President Barack Obama's

The following statement was published by the ASALH:

The need for economic development has been a central element of black life. After centuries of unrequited toil as slaves, African Americans gained their freedom and found themselves in the struggle to make a living. The chains were gone, but racism was everywhere. Black codes often prevented blacks from owning land in towns and cities, and in the countryside they were often denied the opportunity to purchase land. Organized labor shut their doors to their brethren, and even the white philanthropist who funded black schools denied them employment opportunities once educated. In the South, whites sought to insure that blacks would only be sharecroppers and day labors, and in the North whites sought to keep them as unskilled labor.

Pushing against the odds, African Americans became landowners, skilled workers, small businessmen and women, professionals, and ministers. In the Jim Crow economy, they started insurance companies, vocational schools, teachers colleges, cosmetic firms, banks, newspapers, and hospitals. To fight exclusion from the economy, they started their own unions and professional associations. In an age in which individuals proved unable to counter industrialization alone, they preached racial or collective uplift rather than individual self-reliance. The late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries witnessed an unprecedented degree of racial solidarity and organization.

In 1910, a group of dedicated reformers, black and white, gathered to create an organization to address the needs of African Americans as they migrated to the cities of the United States. The organization that they created a century ago became what we all know as the National Urban League. For a century, they have struggled to open the doors of opportunity for successive generations, engaging the challenges of each age. ASALH celebrates the centennial of the National Urban League by exploring racial uplift and black economic development in the twentieth century.

Read more about the National Urban Leage here: http://www.nul.org/

http://www.asalh.org/files/AA_History_Proclamation.pdf http://asalh.org/files/2010_Executive_Summary.doc

I Am Not a Quitter

2011-08-17T05:08:00.004-10:00

"I am not a quitter. I will fight until I drop. It is just a matter of having some faith in the fact that as long as you are able to draw breath in the universe, you have a chance."

Cicely Tyson

On August 10, 2011, Cicely Tyson, American model and actress noted for her vivid portrayals of strong African American women, was announced to be a 2011 Freedom award winner for Tyson was selected for her contributions to the arts. Danny Glover was also selected for his contributions in the realm of activism. Other special awards were also given to seven icons of the American civil rights movement: the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. C. T. Vivian, John Seigenthaler, Dolores Huerta, the Rev. James Lawson, the Rev. Samuel Kyles and the Rev. Ed King.

Cicely Tyson is the daughter of immigrants from the Caribbean island of Nevis and grew up in a devoutly religious household in Harlem. Discovered by a fashion editor at Ebony magazine, she quickly rose to the top of the modeling world. In 1957 she began acting in Off-Broadway productions. She had minor roles in a few feature films before her role as Portia in the film version of Carson McCuller's The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968).

Because she was committed to presenting only positive images of black women, Tyson did not have steady work in film and television. Her next notable role was as Rebecca Morgan in the popular and critically acclaimed film Sounder(1972), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for best actress. In 1974 she appeared in perhaps her best-known role, that of the title character in the television drama The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Her performance as the 110-year-old former slave whose life is depicted up through the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s won Tyson two Emmy Awards. Tyson took on supporting roles in the television miniseries Roots (1977) and The Women of Brewster Place (1989) and also in the film Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). She had a starring role in Hoodlum (1997). Most recently she appeared in Why Did I Get Married Too and also in, The Help which premiered in August 2011.

Tyson was honoured by the Congress of Racial Equality, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the National Council of Negro Women. In 1977 she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.

http://www.biography.com/articles/Cicely-Tyson-9512950