Old School Blues

Obama is coming

Tue, 13 May 2008 07:00:00 -0500

I guess I am filling your minds with too much politics lately. I apologize.

So I'll just tell you this quickly and move on. Sen. Barack Obama is 150 delegates from securing the Democratic Party's nomination for president, according to his campaign.

Congressman Donald Payne of New Jersey is among the latest super delegate to dump Sen. Hillary Clinton and switch his support to Obama.

It looks like Obama is going to make his way to Florida next week.

Florida's three black members of Congress Alcee Hastings of Miramar, Kendrick Meek of Miami and Corrine Brown of Jacksonville announced their support for Clinton early on. Do you think any of them will change their minds and come over to the Obama side?

Holler back.

Obama: The ability to take a punch

Mon, 12 May 2008 07:00:00 -0500

As the Grateful Dead used to say, "It's been a long strange trip" for Barack Obama.

He is all but the Democratic nominee. Super delegates, like state Rep. Dan Gelber of Miami, are moving out of the undecided category to supporting Obama. More will follow Gelber in the coming days.

Along the way, Obama has survived a bunch of stuff thrown at him that didn't stick. We haven't seen Teflon like that since Ronald Reagan was in the White House.

Surviving Rev. Wrong to win North Carolina and barely lose Indiana was a sign of Obama's ability to take a punch and remain standing.

He overcame bowling for votes and being charged with elitism. He was not black enough and then too black. He was too soft and would not fight back. He was full of hope but had no substance. Minister Louis Farrakhan is supporting him.

But one thing Barack Obama is that the other candidates are not: he is as honest as a politician can be. Not buying into the gasoline tax holiday pushed by Hillary Clinton and John McCain was a gutsy thing to do.

That was a real sign that Obama is willing to tell the American people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.

When Jesse Jackson ran campaigns in 1984 and 1988, he often shouted "Keep hope alive," We just didn't know that he was talking about the 2008 Democratic nominee.

Holler back.

Republican fodder for recruiting black voters

Fri, 09 May 2008 07:00:00 -0500

By now you've probably seen or heard about the video in which Mickey Kantor, a Clinton operative, calls poor whites in Indiana "white n------."

A black Republican source sent me this mass email. He wrote:

"I present to you a very disturbing video of bigotry and classism. After reviewing it twice, just to make sure you heard correctly, then tell others that the “Big Tent” of the Republican Party welcomes all with dignity and honor…if you remain unsure, then ask yourselves “How could the working poor and people of color ever expect a better outcome when their leadership is being advised and directed by those who are possessed by bigotry and classism…the antithesis of what it means to be American…"

Black voters generally support Democratic candidates and give that party nearly 90 percent of its voters, especially for presidential candidates. This has been true since 1964 when black voters overwhelmingly supported Lyndon Baines Johnson over Barry Goldwater, who opposed the Civil Rights Act.

But the Republicans don't have a Barack Obama this year. I think we have officially established that Bill Clinton's brother card has been pulled. Hillary Clinton never got a sister card. And John McCain, well, we won't even go there. Didn't he oppose the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday?

Black people in the U.S. voted Republican until 1936. They switched over to Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal politics and they never abandoned the Democrats, although in most Southern states they could not vote for a Democratic candidate in the primary until the late 1940s.

If you are a black Democrat would you consider joining the Republican Party?

What do you think about the Cantor video?

If you are a black Republican are you considering voting for Obama?

And given that the media pundits have declare the race for the Democratic nomination over, should Hillary Clinton drop out before the next primaries?

Holler back.

The Loving couple created Loving Day

Thu, 08 May 2008 07:00:00 -0500

Mildred Jeter Loving, 68, a black woman whose refusal to accept Virginia's ban on interracial marriage led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1967 that struck down similar laws across the country, died of pneumonia Friday at her home in Milford, Va.

Mrs. Loving and her late husband Richard, a white construction worker, went to the Washington, D.C. from their home in Virginia to get married. When they returned to the state, they were in violation of the law. Interracial marriages were not permitted in Virginia, a state that would later use "Virginia is for lovers" as a promotion for tourism.

The Lovings created :oving Day on which interracial couples celebrate. TThere are 4.3 million interracial couples in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

TIn 1958, when then-17-year-old Mildred Jeter and her childhood sweetheart, Richard Loving, a 23-year-old white construction worker, drove 90 miles north to marry in the District, she was already pregnant with the first of their three children.

When they returned to Central Point, Va., between Richmond and Spotsylvania, to set up their home, someone called the law. Caroline County Sheriff R. Garnett Brooks rousted them from their bed at 2 a.m. in July 1958 and told them the District's marriage certificate was no good in Virginia.

He took them to jail and charged them with unlawful cohabitation. They pleaded guilty, and Caroline County Circuit Court Judge Leon M. Bazile sentenced them to a year's imprisonment, to be suspended if they left the state for the next 25 years.

"The Lovings moved to Washington in 1959 but didn't like . They didn't like urban life and eventually returned to their rural roots.

Five years later, while visiting her mother, they were arrested again for traveling together. Loving, who had been following the 1964 civil rights legislation, wrote a letter to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to find out if the new law would allow the couple to travel freely. The couple was referred to the American Civil Liberties Union and assigned an attorney, Bernard S. Cohen. "

The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court and its ruling made laws that didn't allow blacks and whites to mary unconstitutional.

So in this case love or Loving, conquered all.

May Mildred Jeter Loving rest in peace

These Highwaymen paint

Wed, 07 May 2008 07:06:00 -0500

WLRN Channel 17 brings viewers a new PBS documentary program that tells the story of a unique art world phenomenon that took root in the mid-20th century in the Jim Crow South.

The Highwaymen: Legends of the Road pays tribute to an unlikely group of black landscape painters, at least one of them is a woman, that emerged from the American South in the 1950's and 60's took to the road to sell their paintings since segregation locked them out of selling their works in white owned art galleries.

The show airs ton Channel 17 tonight at 7 p.m. It is scheduled to be shown again Saturday at 10:30 p.m. and again on Sunday at 2 p.m.

In 1994 a savvy art buyer re-discovered their art, which had been forgotten in the 1970’s and 80’s, and labeled the group of black artists, "The Highwaymen". The title stuck, creating an art
world identity that fueled their popularity and the value of their art.

The men formed a loose knit cooperative of artists and door to door salesmen and started mass producing decorative landscape paintings of Florida. The artists churned out the paintings in assembly line fashion and the salesmen packed them in their cars to sell to businesses and home owners all over the South.

It is estimated that collectively the artists may have produced as many as 200,000 paintings and they sold every one.

The Highwaymen: Legends of the Road details the journey and profiles the three remarkable men A.E. Bean Backus, Harold Newton and Alfred Hair, who initiated it.

The one-hour documentary features exclusive interviews and never before seen images and paintings that were once exiled to attics and trashcans.

It captures the momentous struggles of African-Americans and embraces the art community in such a way that is appealing and mesmerizing for history buffs and artists alike.

Watch it and then you know what to do:

Holler back.

What is the black church?

Tue, 06 May 2008 07:00:13 -0500

What is the black church?

That is the question now that white people have heard bites of sound from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. We have heard this kind of rhetoric from other ministers most of our lives, if the preachers is engaged and atuned to the real world.

Read Eric Deggans' take on scrutiny.

It is not a secret that black preachers speak up and speak out about injustice because the black church was sanctuary, a place where we could say what we felt without reprisal. Black preachers were paid by black people and did not have to fear for their jobs. Therefore, they were freer than wage slaves to take up the cause.

That goes back to slavery times. Liberation theology always has been a part of socially conscious black preachers' utterances from the pulpit. It was part of the 1960s civil rights movement but it didn't start in the 1960s. It was black power long before Stokely Carmichael screamed the phrase.

But I drift. What is "the black church?" as the Rev. Wright has cited recently.For one, there is not one black church. There are many with different and distinct characteristics that make them what they are. The black church is not one dimensional.

The black church is a church like any other. It feeds the hungry. It praises God. It sings hymns. It teaches children. But it is a church like no other because of the unique needs and concerns of its congregation.

It must deal with issues of race, culture and class. Those issues are tied into sermons about faith, praise and hope. And in some black churches that gets emotional and in others it comes down like a gentle rain.

The blkack church could be Baptists or Catholics; could be non-denominational or Methodists; or even Episcopalians or Church of God or Seven Day Adventists. It could be sanctified, tamerine patting worshipers or saxophone blowing Christians who praise the Lord by honoring John Coltrane's music. Or it could be the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan calling on Allah.

So if anybody tries to tell you about "the black church" run the other way fast, it could be the devil.

Holler back..

Raised right

Mon, 05 May 2008 07:00:00 -0500

I got an Old School upbringing.

I could party like hell on Saturday night. Church was a given on Sunday. I had to pray for forgiveness and all the sins I had committed the week before. At least for the ones Granny Evelyn didn't beat out of me.

I grew up in the United Methodist Church. It wasn't very united. 11 a.m. Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in the United States. My church was all black and we had the nerve to have towo black Methodist churches. They finally merged when I was in high school.

Now I proudly go to an Episcopal church that is ethnically diverse. I get Caribbean flavor, a dip of Latino, a dash of European. a hint of Asian, a shake of African and it blends into one of the most interesting worship services I've ever been a part of.

Last Sunday I was a waiter at a high tea and fashion show at St. Benedict's in Plantation.
Me, at a high tea, imagine that. I pulled my buddy, Richard Shankweiler into being a waiter, too. Shankweiler is a Bible scholar and a true character.

If he wasn't around I'd have to invent him. He's a white guy who kids me about being black and writing about black people. He also claims minority status in our church. I think all white people should have the experience of being a minority in some aspect of their life. It's good for the soul.

All this integration talk reminds me of a story in the Atlanta Journalism-Constitution about a white attorney who roomed with Michelle Obama at Princeton and how her racism colored their initial meeting.

I experienced integration (my father was in the Army) before I experienced segregation. When my father was transferred to Kaiserslautern, Germany, I spent the fourth grade at Church Street School, an all black school.

I was taught that I was as good as anyone else, but not better. I've always taken that to heart.

In hindsight, I appreciate my upbringing.

My mother taught me responsibility. My Granny Evelyn taught me love. My Granny Mamie taught me politeness. Granddaddy Richard taught me to respect all and fear none. Cousin Bill taught me the importance of being a giver, not a taker. Uncle Lee taught me the birds and the bees and being respectful of women. Cousin Arnold taught me street smarts and how to drink good liquor. Cousin Toby taught me the importance of laughing.

With the exception of my mother, all of them have joined the ancestors. They and others helped raise me right.

From whom did you learn life lessons that remained with you?

Holler back.

Journalism found me

Fri, 02 May 2008 07:00:00 -0500

I spent the summer before my senior year of college preparing for for my term as president of Black United Students. I was the BUS driver, as presidents of the organizations were often called.

Most of my cabinet members also stayed in Huntington, W.Va., that summer. I planned to leave my foot print on Marshall University. Little did I know my summer was the most important one of my life. It set me on a career path that I had no idea was coming.

I met Julie Williams, a sophomore journalism student from the University of Kansas. She was an intern reporting at the local morning newspaper and lived in a dorm on campus. I had always been fascinated by newspapers, especially its coverage of black people, black issues and the black community.

So I began to quiz her on a regular basis about journalism. She also interrogated me about BUS and my plans for the organization and how I was going to help other black students at Marshall.

I agreed to be interviewed for a story against the wishes of my cabinet, who believed the white press was not be trusted. But Julie is black, I protested.

She wrote a fine story. But connected to it was a story about black militancy on college campuses. I got death threats as a result. I called the editor John McMillan's house with a new found friend. He promised coverage of BUS. And during the fall semester we got stories in the paper to the chagrin of several deans and Marshall's president.

It was not to last. McMillan,got transferred to an Oregon newspaper but called me before he left to urge me to come down and meet Don Hatfield, the editor of Huntington's afternoon paper, to talk about a job as a reporter.

I didn't know Hatfield. So I didn't follow up.

The next semester I was working behind the scenes on a campus television show hosted by the BUS adviser Dwight Wilson, who also was a Quaker minister.

When Dwight became ill on a day on which the show was taped, he insisted I host the show.
Among the guest that day was Hatfield, who remembered my name and asked me why I had not called or come to see him.

That was fate.

We set a date to meet, but the night before my interview my apartment building caught fire and burned up everything I owned except for the clothes on my back.

I went to the interview anyway.

"Didn't you forget something?" Hatfield asked immediately.

I didn't have a resume. I didn't have writing samples. I had nothing but news for him.

"They burned up," I told him. That was equivalent to saying "the dog ate it," Hatfield chided me.

"You're a big-time newspaper editor," I said. "Don't you know about the big fire on Fourth Avenue? I lived in the building."

"So why are you standing here talking to me?" he asked. "We're an afternoon newspaper. Go talk to my reporter."

I told my story to a John Koenig. It was a front-page tale. It landed me a summer internship at the Huntington Advertiser.

That's why I tell people who ask how I became a journalist that journalism chose me. It was a matter of so many fateful encounters that I was meant to be a reporter.

I've never regretted not going to law school.

Today I am in New York presenting a project a bunch of us worked on called New South Florida. I'm making the presentation at Columbia University. It is an honor that our stories were selected. It is humbling for me, a guy who majored in English, to be among so many good newspaper people.

Holler back.

May has been very good to me

Thu, 01 May 2008 07:00:00 -0500

It's May and I'm getting restless. It has happened every May of my life since I can remember.

It's starting to get too hot to sit in un-airconditioned classrooms. Baseball season has started and I'd like to be out of school (you can read that as work) to see some day baseball games.

May has always been a good and lucky month for me.

I went on my first date with my wife in May. I won my first journalism award in May. It was the Landmark Award for Excellence in News Reporting in 1977. I was a rookie reporter who lucked out on a story/ When I go back and read the stories, I think they stink.

May is the month of the Kentucky Derby, my favorite horse race. I've been to a number of Derbies. The best one for me was 1985 when Spend A Buck took the roses. I was right there at Churchill Downs in the infield, full of mint julips.

It was a gathering of good friends, all of us in newspaper journalism. Walter T came from Minnesota. Tom came from New York. Alice from Washington. Gayle came from Los Angeles. And Uncle Merv cooked those famous ribs on his grill Louisiana style, So good, they didn't need any sauce.

That's such a wonderful Old School memory.

Yeah, May is my month now that I think about it. May is the month this blog started last year.

I dig blogging as much as I love the month of May.

What's your best month?

Holler back.

Old School Hall of Fame: Luther

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:00:07 -0500

This is a case for Luther Vandross as the singer who put more lovers in the mood than any soul singer in history, including Barry White.

Nobody did it better than Luther. You don't even have to say his last name. People know who you're talking about.

Not only did Luther sing love ballads. But his songs were sung at weddings. "Here and Now" comes to mind. No Luther songs were sung at my wedding. Luther was still early in his career. So my wife chose Stevie Wonder's "Ribbon in the Sky."

But if I had held out a couple more years, there is no doubt a Luther song would have taken center stage at our nuptials.

My wife, Chandra, is such a big Luther fan, owning every CD he ever made, I am going to let her make the Luther list today.

But before I do, did you know that Luther was the lead singer in a group called Change and had a hit with "Glow of Love."

He also sang background on David Bowie's "Young Americans."

Luther joins Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Curtis Mayfield in the Old School Blues Hall of Fame.

Who's next?

Holler back.

Race in the news: Wright and wrong

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:00:00 -0500

What is it about juries and judges that allow them to let police officers off the hook for murdering black males?

Three New York police officers fired off 50 bullets at Sean Bell after he left his bachelor party last year. Bell is the nephew of University of Miami basketball coach Frank Haith.

No weapon. No drugs. No prior record. Bell was 23. Shot to death in a hail of police bullets on his wedding day.

Who is going to protect us from the supposed protectors?

Here's something else racial to talk about.

Barack Obama is still having to answer for his preacher, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and that ain't right.

Wright gave a speech to the Detroit NAACP Sunday night that was brilliant. He announced to the media that he was not a candidate for office but that he has been "running for Jesus" for a long time and will continue to do so.

Wright's speech was so electrifying that a friend of mine called me up and demanded that I listen to it. He was sure CNN would show it again. He was right. CNN showed it and analyzed it.

There was one piece of idiotic analysis by a professor who missed the whole point of Wright's speech. Wright's theme was "different is not deficient" as he explained how academic research showed African people, when learning, focus on the subject (the teacher) while Europeans focus on the object (the book).

He discussed linguistics and language and said no one in the United States really speaks English. We speak American, Wright said. He mocked John F. Kennedy's pronunciation of "ask" and said no one told any Kennedy they spoke bad English like they did with black children.

Wright also pointed out that many people are trying to rethink how we look at difference.

The professor thought the speech hurt Obama and that Wright was selling his book that comes out this fall.

I think it was great for Americans who are confused by the continuous loop of sound bites on cable television about Wright to see the man in full context. I know those who are locked into Hillary Clinton won't change their minds about Obama's pastor but I love the exposure Wright is getting.

The Funkadelic Factor media fascination with Wright makes many black Americans laugh. The Funkadelic Factor is what occurs when white Americans learn something about black America that we have known and experienced for a long time.

Just shows you how much farther we have to go to come together, to understand our differences and appreciate them. It's called mutual respect..

Click on this take on the Wright situation.

Which brings me to one final point about the Democratic Party and self-destruction.

I have changed my mind on a Obama-Clinton ticket. They have to run together now. There's been too much bitterness created between them that has alienated supporters in each camp.

You've got white women over 40 who back Hillary, saying they won't vote for Barack in November. You've got black supporters of Barack who won't come out if Hillary is the nominee.

Democratic leaders likely will have to force the ticket to come together at the convention in August. Otherwise, John McCain will be president. The Democrats have done almost everything wrong in a campaign that should have been smooth sailing to the White House.

What do you think about a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton ticket?

Holler back.

The black male report

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:00:00 -0500

My brother-in-law Willis and I were wondering around a expo several years ago. Venders were hawking all kinds of stuff, including t-shirts with all kinds of black slogans.

You remember: "It's a black thing. You wouldn't understand"? How about "Before there was any history, there was black history"? And my favorite: "Being black isn't easy, but it sure feels good."

A t-shirt stopped Willis and me cold. It read: "Danger. Educated black man." We both bought t-shirts.

For decades now I've heard how black men are an endangered species, that we are en route to becoming extinct. I heard D.L. Hugley on radio a few weeks ago talking about 26 species disappear daily from the earth. That could happen to black people. In the early 1990s, a San Francisco preacher held a conference on Death of A Race.

The state of Florida is studying black males. In fact, it has been gathering information about us for more than a year. The study focuses on education, health, incarceration, foster care and other areas. They are trying to figure out why we are doing so poorly and how they can turn the dismal statistics about us into better outcomes.

Mentoring programs like Sen. Fredrica Wilson's 5000 Role Models of Excellence are being recommended for replication in every county in the state by 2012. Literacy is on the agenda and the 100 Black Men's Reading 4 Success program has benn singled out as a program to be modeled.

I'm glad the state is legislating for positive solutions. I just wish it was putting some money behind this initiative. Black people pay taxes, too.

At least the legislature is giving the Council on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys the power to raise private money to fund the programs.

What do you think about black men doing so poorly that the government is studying them and wants to create programs to help them turn their lives around?

Holler back.

Swanee River revisionist history blues

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:00:09 -0500

The Florida Senate passed a bill on Thursday keeping Swanee River as the official Florida state song. They will rewrite the racist lyrics in an attempt to forget the "darkies" but will they get rid of the black dialect, too?

What riles me most about The Old Folks at Home is the notion that black people were happy being slaves and longed to return to the plantation serving Massa YT. My blood boils just listening to that line of argument.

Why do we have to listen to such fallacy at official state functions? Because it is history, as some of you have posted on this blog the past few days? Give me a break. It is just another reason why I have yet to feel comfortable in this state I have lived in now for almost seven years.

Steven Foster, the songwriter, never stepped foot in Florida. He purposely misspelled the name of the river. What kind of respect is that? Floridians have a low standard for a state song.

So, keep singing the Swanee River Revisionist History Blues, Floridians. And while you're doing that, wave your Confederate flags, bring out your black lawn jockey statues, and give us a good ol' rebel yell.

After singing Swanee River, why don't you sing Dixie, too ..in black face?

And kiss my grits.

Holler back. .

Needed: A new rating system for movies

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:00:00 -0500

The star system for rating movies is too Old School to matter anymore.

With so many ways and venues to see a film, reviewers should tell us consumers what we really need to know. Is it worth paying full price for the big screen version at the theater?

If so, it must be a five star movie. But since that system is out of date. I propose a picture of a movie house or theater.

If it's not worth paying full price but interesting enough to see give it a "wait until it goes out of the main theaters and into the senior discount places. That's four stars: worth paying for but not full price. The symbol is a picture of an elder.

A three-star movie is one you rent from Netflix or Blockbuster. It will entertain you on your home television screen. Picture of a DVD.

A two-star movie is worth watching on cable, HBO, Starz, Showtime. But use a picture of a cable.

A one-star movie is wait until it comes on free television. Replace the star with a picture of a television set.

In recent weeks, I have been to the movies. My wife and son got free passes at Muvico and we used them to see Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns. It was good. Tyler Perry is growing on me. I still don't like that Madea character. His next movie is Madea Goes to Jail. I will probably go but I am going to wait for it to go to the cheap seats.

Meet the Browns is a see it at full price on the big screen movie. Or for those of you who like a star-system 5 stars.

I waited for The Bucket List to go to the cheap seats movie house. But it was worth paying full price. I tend to resent the salt-pepper buddy movies but Jack Nicholson is such a great actor. Despite my personal bias of Morgan Freeman, he is on his acting game in the movie.

The story line is great. It will surprise you at the end. It made an Old School guy like me want to create a bucket list. If you are too young to know what that is, don't worry about. Just move on because I am moving on.

I am not thinking about dying. I'm thinking about changing the movie reviewing system. Whhat do you think of my revamped way of rating movies?

Holler back.

Rediscovering old soul music

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:00:00 -0500

I like New Birth.

You remember that soul music group that had a string of hits in the early and mid-Seventies. Songs like It's Been Such A Long Time, Wildflower and the album Birth Day? .

But my all-time favorite New Birth song is Until It's Time for You to Go, a mellow slow jam classic that rarely got radio play because it wasn't a single.

I was reminded of the group recently when Hot 105 played their version of Wild Flower. I was in college at the time.

I have a friend who says that for anybody the best music is what they heard between the ages of 15 and 25. For me that would be 1969 to 1979.

While my eclectic music tastes extend to funk, sweet soul, a little country, a lot of jazz, and a heavy dose of rock. much of what I like fits in the parameters of the 10 years from 15 to 25.

I have my favorites but it's nice to hear a song on the radio that I had forgotten about. Nice to hear a song that brings back a memory.

Tell me a secret or a memory that an old song brings to mind.

Holler back.