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Essence
Member
01-12-2002
| Thursday, February 26, 2004 - 6:54 am
February 25: 1869 Fifteenth Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote sent to the states for ratification. 1964 On this day, the Kentucky boxer known to all as Cassius Clay, changed his name to Muhammad Ali as he accepted Islam and rejected Christianity. 1966 Andrew Brimmer becomes the first African American governor of the Federal Reserve Board when he is appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
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Essence
Member
01-12-2002
| Thursday, February 26, 2004 - 6:58 am
Gordon Parks
Gordon Parks is a creative genius, an award-winning photographer, writer, and film maker. All told, Parks published 12 books, including three autobiographies. He is a composer of orchestral music and film scores, plus he wrote a ballet, Martin, about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In his many endeavors Parks further earned a reputation as a renaissance man. He was the first African American photographer to work at Life and Vogue magazines, and the first African American to work for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration. Additionally, Parks was the first African American to write, direct, and produce a film for a major motion picture company. His film The Learning Tree was among the 25 films placed on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1989. Parks in his 1990 memoir, Voices in the Mirror, admitted that, "I've liked being a stranger to failure, since I was a young man and I still feel that way. I'm still occupied with survival; still very single-minded about keeping my life moving — but not for fame or fortune." Gordon Parks rose from a childhood of poverty in a segregated society, yet he never exploited his background as vindication for poor performance. Likewise he refused to bow to convention. He excelled in multiple artistic fields, and he used his creative talents to better the world around him. He was born Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks on November 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kansas, to Andrew Jackson and Sarah Ross Parks. Parks, the youngest of 15 children, described his parents as hard working, always providing, and God fearing people who were forgiving, compassionate, and active models of love. Parks attended a segregated elementary school, and in high school the school he attended was integrated, although it maintained exclusive and discriminatory policies toward black students. African American students were barred from attendance at social functions and from participation in sports. The school further dismissed any aspirations beyond the menial for its children of color. Yet Parks maintained in Voices in the Mirror that he was "taught how to live honorably and how to die honorably." Parks's mother died when he was 16, an event that changed his life and catapulted him into the world unexpectedly. He moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, to live with his sister and her family, but he had altercations with her husband. After a brief period, Parks was evicted by his brother-in-law and found himself thrust upon his own resources, homeless in a cold Minnesota winter, with very little money. For nearly a week he spent his nights riding the trolley line from St. Paul to Minneapolis and back again. Parks, who demonstrated some musical talent even as a youngster, eventually acquired a job playing the piano nightly in a brothel for tips. He held the job for two years. Then, in 1929, he got a job as a busboy. Parks wrote of those times in his memoir; he said that he worked in a "Minnesota club as a busboy in the day, and [as] a general lackey at night." He nurtured a desire to succeed, and he became an avid reader at the club's library. However, he was forced to seek employment again and to quit high school when the "panic and depression [the Great Depression]" set in. Parks resumed his employment as a bordello pianist. There, he once said of himself, "[T]he music I fed them was filled with my mood, and it seemed to soothe their souls. Friends began calling me 'Blue,' because of the blues I played." One of the numbers frequently requested of Parks was "No Love," a song that he composed after an argument with his future wife. Parks moved to Chicago for a brief while, but he returned to St. Paul where a white band leader, Larry Funk, heard Parks play his composition "No Love." Funk was taken by the music. He not only played the song on national radio, but he also invited Parks to join and travel with the band. Parks accepted the offer, and he stayed with the group until 1933 when the band dissolved in New York. Parks once again was jobless and broke. He soon joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, but he left that employment in 1934 and returned to Minneapolis. Upon his arrival he worked as a waiter, but he wished to promote his song writing. The following year, he took a job once again as a pianist and he used the opportunity to showcase his own tunes. In time he became a waiter on the North Coast Limited, a transcontinental train, which to him represented the "Minnesota Club on Wheels." It was on this job, while riding the train, that he was inspired to become a photographer. Develops Talent for Photography Parks's interest in photography was triggered while leafing through magazines one day, on a run on the North Coast Limited. He related his experience in Voices in the Mirror wherein he explained that he found one article in particular with photographs of migrant farm workers. The pictures, taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration, depicted "stark, tragic images of human beings caught up in the confusion of poverty...." The images, he went on to write, "saddened me." He began to read more about photography and to visit art museums, to study the works of others. Ultimately it was a newsreel of the Japanese bombing of the U.S. gunboat Panay, by photographer Norman Alley, that affected Parks the most. After viewing the film he was "determined to become a photographer." Three days later, he bought his first camera: a $7.50 Voightlender Brilliant. Parks said, "[The camera] was to become my weapon against poverty and racism." Parks's first photographs immediately attracted the attention of the Eastman Kodak Company, which sponsored a showing of Parks's pictures in the company show windows. Parks studied art and learned to capture and to convey powerful images with his camera. Because of his work on the North Coast Limited, he frequently found himself in Chicago during layovers on train runs between Minneapolis and Chicago. Whenever he was in Chicago he occupied himself by taking photographs of the people and the tenements of the city's south side. The pictures were reminiscent of the ones of migrant workers that had inspired him earlier, and the subject of the Chicago tenements developed into a particular favorite of Parks. Those early pictures foreshadowed what was to become his documentary style, a style that would mature remarkably soon after, when Parks relocated from St. Paul to become a full-time resident of Chicago. While still in Minnesota Parks approached Frank Murphy, the owner of a women's store in St. Paul, about displaying some photographs in Murphy's store windows. Parks had seen some pictures in Vogue, and he wanted to try his hand at fashion photography. Murphy agreed to display Parks's pictures which were eventually seen by Marva Louis, wife of Joe Louis — heavyweight boxing champion of the world. She urged Parks to move to Chicago where he could profit not only from her encouragement but also from her well-connected lifestyle and her involvement with the South Side Community Art Center. Parks's itinerary in Chicago included "photo shoots" of Chicago's wealthy society matrons, as well as visits to the south side slums, where he captured many poignant moments with his camera. In 1941 Parks's eloquent depictions of Chicago's poor earned him a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship. He was the first photographer to be so honored. For his fellowship Parks was apprenticed for one year to Roy Emerson Stryker at the Farm Security Administration in Washington, D.C. Parks was appalled at the bigotry and racism that permeated the bureau, and he set about to document the conditions with his camera. He took one particularly memorable photograph of Ella Watson, a poor, black, government charwoman, posed against the U.S. flag with broom and mop in hand. The Farm Security Administration was later absorbed by the Office of War Information, and Parks was assigned to Selfridge Field in Michigan to cover the newly formed 332nd Fighter Group — a squadron of black pilots. Parks resigned from federal employment in 1944 and moved to New York City. In New York he applied for work with Harper's Bazaar and was rejected because of racial prejudice. With the intervention of a fellow photographer, Edward Steichen, however, Parks secured casual-ware assignments for Glamour magazine. Six months later he received an assignment with Vogue. While freelancing at Vogue, Parks joined Roy Stryker's photography team at Standard Oil Company in New Jersey. Parks's work with Standard Oil involved photographing corporate officials, and he was also assigned to develop a documentary series on rural America. Privately, Parks created a photographic essay on gang life in Harlem, and he used this piece, which focused on a young gang leader named Red Jackson, to secure a position on the staff of Life in 1948. Parks remained with Life until 1972. During that time he completed over 300 assignments. He used his art to document poverty in Harlem and Latin America, as well as the 1960s black civil rights movement in the United States. He did articles concerning the Black Panthers (a militant civil rights organization), the Ingrid Bergman-Roberto Rosellini love affair, Broadway shows, personalities, fashion, and politics. Some of Parks's works from those years include "Crime Across America", and the "Death of Malcolm X". Phil Kunhardt Jr., then an assistant managing editor at Life, told Smithsonian magazine of Parks at that time: "[A]t first he made his name with fashion, but when he covered the racial strife for us, there was no question that he was a black photographer with enormous connections and access to the black community and its leaders. He tried to show what was really going on there for a big, popular, fundamentally conservative white magazine." Kunhardt further concurred with Malcolm X's autobiography: "Success among whites never made Parks lose touch with black reality." Gordan Parks Biography
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Thursday, February 26, 2004 - 9:43 am
The Golden Thirteen
TOP ROW: John Walter Reagan, Jesse Walter Arbor, Dalton Louis Baugh, Frank Ellis Sublett MIDDLE ROW: Graham Edward Martin, Charles Byrd Lear, Phillip George Barnes, Reginald E. Goodwin BOTTOM ROW: James Edward Hair, Samuel Edward Barnes, George Clinton Cooper, William Sylvester White, Dennis Denmark Nelson In January 1944, the naval officer corps was all white. There were some one hundred thousand African American enlisted men in the Navy, however, none were officers. In response to growing pressure from American civil rights organizations, the leaders of the Navy reluctantly set about commissioning a few as officers. Sixteen black enlisted men were summoned to Camp Robert Smalls, Great Lakes Training Station in Illinois. All had demonstrated top-notch leadership abilities as enlisted men. Seizing the moment, these young men worked as a team to complete their studies and, thereby, charted the course of equal opportunity in the Navy for all succeeding years. During their officer candidate training, they compiled a class average of 3.89, a record that has yet to be broken. Although all passed the course, in March 1944, thirteen of the group made history when they became the U.S. Navy's first African-American officers on active duty. Twelve were commissioned as ensigns; the thirteenth was made a warrant officer, and later proudly styled themselves "The Golden Thirteen." They were often denied the privileges and respect routinely accorded white naval officers and were given menial assignments. In World War II, they served with distinction on board Navy ships and shore stations until the end of the war. Each surviving member can claim exceptional success in his chosen civilian profession, whether as an educator, businessman, lawyer, judge, or political leader. The Golden Thirteen continued to provide strong support for the Navy's recruitment and equal opportunity efforts throughout the intervening years. Only one of the Golden Thirteen made a career of the Navy, and he opened still more doors to black officers. The other members of the group made their marks in civilian life after World War II. Today, the Navy salutes the thirteen black officers who were the cutting edge of equal opportunity progress. Their abilities, performance, courage, and tenacity made a difference and constitute worthy examples for all those who pass through the Recruit Processing Facility, named in their honor, to become sailors in the United States Navy. The Golden Thirteen
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Thursday, February 26, 2004 - 10:02 am
Captain Frederick C. Branch, Ret.
Frederick C. Branch had his eye on a commission. He was qualified and the requirements didn't mention race. All he needed was a recommendation. "They told me to shut that blankety-blank stuff up about being an officer," said Branch. "You ain't going to be no officer." He began his distinguished military career at Montford Point Camp and served with the 51st Defense Battalion in the South Pacific. His first breakthrough came when as a PFC, he was selected to attend the Navy's V-12 program at Purdue University where he made the Dean's List. He subsequently attended the 16th Platoon Commander's Class in Quantico, Va. After graduation from college he stood out as the only Black in a class of 250 officer candidates. LT. FREDERICK C. BRANCH BECAME THE FIRST BLACK COMMISSIONED OFFICER IN MARINE CORPS HISTORY ON NOVEMBER 10, 1945. This was a significant milestone in the then 170 year history of the Marine Corps. At one time, he was the commanding officer of an all-White platoon. He had received the rank of captain when he was released in 1952. On July 9, 1997, the Marine Corps first Black officer was honored when he returned to Quantico as the guest of honor for the dedication of the newly remodeled Academics Building named in his honor. His strong inspirational desire to achieve never was forgotten by the Marines. This was the reason the base's academics building was named in his honor. Captain Branch established a well earned reputation for all things military. His fame has grown, and he has set the course for African-American officers to follow. Gen. Frank E. Petersen, Ret.
In 1986, Frank E. Petersen became the Marine Corps' first African American three- star general when he received the rank of Lieutenant General. He had also made history more than 30 years earlier by becoming the Corps first African-American pilot. He would later earn many military decorations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Meritorious Service Medal, and the Purple Heart. General Petersen was the first black marine aviator to command a marine attack squadron in combat (Chu Lai 1966-1967). His retirement as the Commanding General of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command at Quantico, Va., in 1988 completed a saga that began in 1950 when he decided to join the Navy. His career had been brilliant. He was the senior ranking aviator in the Marine Corps as well as the senior ranking naval aviator. These distinctions earned him the respective titles of "Silver Hawk" and "Grey Eagle." When he retired in 1988 as a lieutenant general, Frank Petersen had witnessed and participated in the historic changes in racial elations within the Marine Corps and the U.S. military in general. The Men of Montford Point
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Reiki
Member
08-12-2000
| Thursday, February 26, 2004 - 10:17 am
Thanks for posting the story about the black inventors. I've read that before too and have always enjoyed it. It's a nice reminder of how it takes different people from different cultures to make our world work the way it does.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Friday, February 27, 2004 - 8:59 am
When I read biographies of the following woman, I cried for her and with her. I will copy the shorter biography, but please read the longer one. Myrlie Evers-Williams
Civil rights leader Myrlie Evers-Williams is perhaps best remembered as the widow of Medgar Evers, the Mississippi state field secretary for the NAACP who in 1963 was gunned down in the driveway of his home in Jackson. In the years since the assassination and two hung juries that left the accused gunman, white supremacist Byron De la Beckwith, a free man, Mrs. Evers has continued to wage a lonely war to keep her husband’s memory and dreams alive and to bring his killer to justice. Her diligence eventually paid off when Beckwith was brought to trial for a third time and finally, in 1994, was found guilty of the murder of Medgar Evers, more than 30 years after the crime. Myrlie Beasley was born March 17, 1933, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. In 1950, she enrolled at Alcorn A&M College, where she met Medgar Evers, an upperclassman and Army veteran. She left school before earning her degree, and they married on Christmas Eve, 1951. After Medgar was named the Mississippi state field secretary for the NAACP in 1954, Myrlie became his secretary and together they worked to organize voter registration drives and civil rights demonstrations. As prominent civil rights leaders in Mississippi, the Everses became high-profile targets for pro-segregationist violence and terrorism. In 1962, their home in Jackson was firebombed in reaction to Medgar’s organized boycott of downtown Jackson’s white merchants. The violence reached its worst point the following year, when Medgar was gunned down by a sniper in front of his home. On the evening of June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy in a televised speech had pleaded for racial harmony and had announced his plan to submit new civil rights legislation to Congress, a plan which infuriated many segregationists. At about 12:30 a.m. on June 12, Medgar had just pulled into the driveway after a long day of work, when a shot from a 30.06 military rifle hit him in the back. The rifle was recovered about 150 feet from the scene of the shooting, and on its scope were found the fingerprints of its owner, Byron De La Beckwith, a 42-year-old fertilizer salesman and an outspoken opponent of integration. Though he publicly denied any involvement with the shooting, he made it clear that he was glad it had happened. He was indicted for the murder, but in two separate trials, the all-white juries deadlocked and he was set free. Mrs. Evers and her three children moved to Claremont, California, where she enrolled at Pomona College and began working toward her bachelor’s degree in sociology. In 1967, she co-wrote a book about her husband, For Us, the Living, with William Peters, and she continued to make numerous personal appearances on behalf of the NAACP. In 1968, she earned her degree from Pomona College, and in 1975 she married Walter Williams. In 1988, she was the first black woman to be named to the five-member Board of Public Works by Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, where she helped oversee a budget of nearly $1 billion. She also kept up pressure to retry the case of her first husband’s assassin, and in the early 1990s, she convinced prosecutors in Mississippi to reopen the case. Aiding the prosecution were new witnesses willing to testify against Beckwith and Myrlie’s own copy of the original trial transcript, since the official one supposedly on record had been removed some time earlier by the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, a secret organization that from 1956 to 1973 had been charged with maintaining the racial status quo. On February 4, 1994, Beckwith was found guilty by a jury consisting of eight African Americans and four whites. The 73-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2001. In 1995, the same year her second husband died of prostate cancer, Myrlie Evers-Williams became the first woman to chair the NAACP, a position she held until 1998. In 1999, she published her memoirs, Watch Me Fly: What I Learned on the Way to Becoming the Woman I Was Meant to Be, which charts her journey from being the wife of an activist to becoming a community leader in her own right. —John B. Padgett Mississippi Writers Page Biography For her fight for equality and civil rights, Evers-Williams has garnered numerous awards, including the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus Achievement Award and the League of Women Voters' Woman of Honor Award. The NAACP recognized her with an Image Award for Civil Rights and she received the state of California Woman of the Year Award. She has received honorary doctorates from Pomona College, Medgar Evers College, Spelman College, Columbia College, Bennett College, Tougaloo College, and Willamette University. CNN.com story Longer Biography from the Gale Group
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Essence
Member
01-12-2002
| Friday, February 27, 2004 - 2:19 pm
February 27: 1869 Congress adopted the 15th constitutional amendment, making it illegal for the US or any single government to deny or abridge the right to vote "on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude." 1872 Charlotte Ray graduates from Howard Law School. She is the first African American lawyer in the U.S. 1984 After a long bitter struggle the state of Virginia enacts a bill making Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday a holiday. 1988 Figure skater Debi Thomas becomes the first African American to win a medal (bronze) at the winter Olympic Games.
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Essence
Member
01-12-2002
| Friday, February 27, 2004 - 2:23 pm
Maya Angelou
Name originally Marguerite (some sources say Marguerita) Johnson; surname is pronounced "An-ge-lo"; born April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, United States; daughter of Bailey (a doorkeeper and naval dietician) and Vivian (a nurse and realtor; maiden name, Baxter) Johnson; married Tosh Angelou (divorced c. 1952); married Paul Du Feu, December, 1973 (divorced); children: Guy Johnson. By the time she was in her early twenties, Maya Angelou had been a Creole cook, a streetcar conductor, a cocktail waitress, a dancer, a madam, and an unwed mother. The following decades saw her emerge as a successful singer, actress, and playwright, an editor for an English-language magazine in Egypt, a lecturer and civil rights activist, and a popular author of five collections of poetry and five autobiographies. In 1993 Angelou gave a moving reading of her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at Bill Clinton's presidential inauguration, an occasion that gave her wide recognition. Hear Ms Angelou at the Million Man March Angelou is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary black literature and as a remarkable Renaissance woman. She began producing books after some notable friends, including author James Baldwin, heard Angelou's stories of her childhood spent shuttling between rural, segregated Stamps, Arkansas, where her devout grandmother ran a general store, and St. Louis, Missouri, where her worldly, glamorous mother lived. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a chronicle of her life up to age sixteen (and ending with the birth of her son, Guy) was published in 1970 with great critical and commercial success. Although many of the stories in the book are grim, as in the author's revelation that she was raped at age eight by her mother's boyfriend, the volume also recounts the self-awakening of the young Angelou. "Her genius as a writer is her ability to recapture the texture of the way of life in the texture of its idioms, its idiosyncratic vocabulary and especially in its process of image-making," reports Sidonie Ann Smith in Southern Humanities Review. "The imagery holds the reality, giving it immediacy. That [the author] chooses to recreate the past in its own sounds suggests to the reader that she accepts the past and recognizes its beauty and its ugliness, its assets and its liabilities, its strengths and its weaknesses. Here we witness a return to the final acceptance of the past in the return to and full acceptance of its language, the language a symbolic construct of a way of life. Ultimately Maya Angelou's style testifies to her reaffirmation of self-acceptance, [which] she achieves within the pattern of the autobiography." Author, poet, playwright, professional stage and screen producer, director, and performer, and singer. Taught modern dance at Habima Theatre, Tel Aviv, Israel, and the Rome Opera House, Rome, Italy. Appeared in Porgy and Bess on twenty-two-nation tour sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, 1954-55; appeared in Off-Broadway plays Calypso Heatwave, 1957, and The Blacks, 1960; produced and performed in Cabaret for Freedom, with Godfrey Cambridge, Off-Broadway, 1960; University of Ghana, Institute of African Studies, Legon-Accra, Ghana, assistant administrator of School of Music and Drama, 1963-66; appeared in Mother Courage at University of Ghana, 1964, and in Meda in Hollywood, 1966; made Broadway debut in Look Away, 1973; directed film All Day Long, 1974; directed her play And Still I Rise in California, 1976; directed Errol John's Moon on a Rainbow Shawl in London, England, 1988; appeared in film Roots, 1977. Television narrator, interviewer, and host for Afro-American specials and theatre series, 1972. Lecturer at University of California, Los Angeles, 1966; writer in residence at University of Kansas, 1970; distinguished visiting professor at Wake Forest University, 1974, Wichita State University, 1974, and California State University, Sacramento, 1974; professor at Wake Forest University, 1981--. Northern coordinator of Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1959-60; appointed member of American Revolution Bicentennial Council by President Gerald R. Ford, 1975-76; member of National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year. Above excerpted from information under copyright by Gale Research. aalbc Maya Angelou homepage
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Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Friday, February 27, 2004 - 8:07 pm
Toussaint L'Ouverture (1743 - 1803) was one of the leaders of the Haitian slave revolt of 1791 and a major figure in the struggles that followed. Toussaint was reputed to be of the western African Arradas tribe. His father, Gaou-Guinou, had been brought to Saint-Domingue and sold to the Count de Breda, Toussaint was the eldest son and his date of birth is given as either May 20 or November 1 (All Saints' Day procuring the name Toussaint), he took the surname Breda from his owner. De Breda was relatively humane and happy to encourage Toussaint to learn to read and write. He was already a noted horse rider and herbalist before his subsequent military and political career. He married a woman called Suzan and they had a son, named Placide. Though it was not widely known during his lifetime, Toussaint was in fact a free man by the time of the great slave uprising he would eventually help lead. He was freed from slavery at about the age of 33 and colonial records show that he leased a field of about 15 hectares with 13 slaves to grow coffee. At the time of this lease he was still unable to sign, or write, though he would learn these skills before the revolution The French Revolution of 1789 had a powerful impact on the island. Inspired by the new philosophies the French proclaimed the Rights of Man to include all free men. When this promise was withdrawn under pressure from the plantation owners it sparked widespread slave risings. Toussaint did not participate in the campaign of Vincent Ogé, a wealthy free man of color whose attempt to claim voting rights for this group in October 1790 was brutally crushed. But he became an aide to Biassou in the insurgency of August in the following year. He rose rapidly, the black army proved to be surprisingly successful against the fever ravaged and poorly led European troops. In 1793 Toussaint briefly allied with the Spanish and gained the nickname L'Ouverture which he adopted as his surname. Later that year the British occupied most of the coastal settlements of Haiti including Port au Prince. In 1793 representatives of the French government offered freedom to slaves who would join them as they struggled to defeat white counter-revolutionaries and fight the foreign invaders. On February 4, 1794, these emancipation orders were ratified by the Revolutionary legislature in Paris, now largely Jacobin, which abolished slavery throughout all territories of the French Republic. In early May, 1794, Toussaint left the Spanish and joined the French army, bringing thousands of black soldiers with him. Under Toussaint's increasingly influential leadership, this French army of black, mulatto, and white soldiers defeated the British and Spanish forces. The British withdrew from Haiti in 1798, the army of Toussaint had won seven battles in one week against the British in January. In 1799 Toussaint invaded Saint-Domingue's southern peninsula and defeated the mulatto general André Rigaud, his last major rival for power in the colony. The Spanish were defeated in 1800 and Haiti was declared independent in 1801. When Napoleon came to power in France, he began to work with colonists to return France's Caribbean territories to their earlier profitablity as plantation colonies. Denying that he was trying to reinstate slavery, Napoleon's brother-in-law Charles Leclerc attempted to regain French control of the island in 1802. Toussaint was invited to negotiate a settlement. Attending a meeting under safe conduct he was seized and shipped to France, where he died in captivity in the Fort de Joux in Jura. link
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Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Friday, February 27, 2004 - 8:18 pm
SAMUEL RAY DELANY, JR. (b. April 1, 1942, New York, N.Y., U.S.), African-American critic and science-fiction novelist whose highly imaginative works address racial and social issues, heroic quests, and the nature of language. Delany attended the Bronx High School of Science, and in the early 1960s, City College of New York (now City University of New York). His first novel, The Jewels of Aptor, was was written when he was nineteen and published in 1962. His subsequent trilogy, The Fall of the Towers, was completed while he was still twenty-one. The Ballad of Beta-2 was published in 1965... Babel-17 (1966), which established his reputation, has an artist as the protagonist and explores the nature of language and its ability to give structure to experience. Delany won the science-fiction Nebula Award for the book, as he did for The Einstein Intersection (1967), which features another artist-outsider and addresses issues of cultural development and sexual identity, a theme more fully developed in the author's later works. Further Nebula Awards came for short fiction in both 1967 Aye, and Gomorrah… (1968) and Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-precious Stones (1969). In 1970 and 1971, Delany and then wife, well-known poet Marilyn Hacker, edited a quartly, QUARK, of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Dhalgren (1975), until recently, considered Delany's most controversial novel, is the story of a young bisexual man searching for identity in a large, decaying city. The main character of Triton (1976) undergoes a sex-change operation, and in this novel the author examines bias against women and homosexuals. His critical writings, such as The Jewel-Hinged Jaw: Notes on the Language of Science Fiction (1977) and The American Shore (1978) earned him the Science Fiction Research Association's Pilgrim Award. Delany's Neveryon series [Tales of Neveryon (1979); Neveryona; or, The Tale of Signs and Cities (1983); Flight from Neveryon (1985); and The Bridge of Lost Desire (1987)] is set in a magical past at the beginning of civilization. These tales concern power and its abuse, while taking up contemporary themes (including such topics as AIDS). His complex Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand (1984) is regarded as a stylistic breakthrough for the author. Heavenly Breakfast () catalogues Delany's adventures in the 1960s Greenwich Village of Manhatten. In 1988, Mr. Delany published a memoir, The Motion of Light in Water. His most recent books are the novels They Fly at Ciron (1993) and The Mad Man (1994), and Silent Interviews: On Language,Race, Sex, Science Fiction, and Some Comics (1994), a collection of written interviews. Delany's latest book, Bread and Wine : An Erotic Tale of New York City, can be ordered at the link. In 1988, Samuel Delany accepted a position at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he has been teaching as professor of Comparative Literature. In 1995, Delany was the University of Minnesota's Winton Scholar and Edelstein-Keller Visiting Writer in the Program in Creative Writing, Department of English. He currently teaches creative writing and literary theory at Temple University in Philadelphia. link
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Essence
Member
01-12-2002
| Saturday, February 28, 2004 - 12:20 pm
February 28: 1704 Elias Neau, a Frenchman, opened school for Blacks in New York City. 1778 Rhode Island authorized the enlistment of slaves into the Revolutionary Army, this was against the orders of General George Washington, who had issued an order prohibiting the enlistment of any Black, free or slave. 1859 Arkansas legislature required free Blacks to choose between exile and enslavement. 1967 PFC. James Anderson, Jr. became the first African American Marine to earn the Congressional Medal Honor. On this day, during a battle in Viet Nam he deliberately threw himself on a grenade to save his comrades.
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Essence
Member
01-12-2002
| Saturday, February 28, 2004 - 12:24 pm
Tuskegee Syphilis Study American medical research project that earned notoriety for its unethical experimentation on black patients in the rural South. The project, which was conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) from 1932 to 1972, examined the natural course of untreated syphilis in black American men. The subjects, all impoverished sharecroppers from Macon county, Alabama, were unknowing participants in the study; they were not told that they had syphilis, nor were they offered effective treatment. It is estimated that more than 100 of the subjects died of tertiary syphilis. In 1932 the PHS decided to conduct research to test whether syphilis caused cardiovascular damage more often than neurological damage, and to determine if the natural course of syphilis in black men was significantly different from that in whites. In order to recruit participants for its study, the PHS enlisted the support of the prestigious Tuskegee Institute (see Tuskegee University), located in Macon county, Alabama. A group of 412 infected patients and 204 uninfected control patients were recruited for the program. The original study was scheduled to last only six to nine months. From the start the study was on shaky scientific and ethical ground. The subjects were not told that they had syphilis or that the disease could be transmitted through sexual intercourse. Instead, they were told that they suffered from "bad blood," a local term used to refer to a range of ills. Treatment was initially part of the study, and some patients were administered arsenic, bismuth, and mercury. But after the original study failed to produce any useful data, it was decided to follow the subjects until their deaths, and all treatment was halted; penicillin was denied to the infected men after that drug became available in the 1940s. The researchers maintained the terms of the study, making arrangements to withhold treatment for subjects who had moved out of the county or had been called into the armed services, in direct violation of legislation that mandated the treatment of venereal disease. The study finally came to an end in 1972 when the program and its unethical methods were exposed in the Washington Star. A class-action suit against the federal government was settled out of court for $10,000,000 in 1974. That same year the U.S. Congress passed the National Research Act, requiring institutional review boards to approve all studies involving human subjects. The Encyclopedia Britannica Guide to Black History
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Saturday, February 28, 2004 - 1:40 pm
I'm not sure if this was already posted or not but here goes.... 50th Aniversary: Brown v. Board of Education May 17 marks the anniversary of the case that broke "separate but equal" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- George C. E. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, James M. Nabrit (l-r) in front of the Supreme court, after winning Brown v. Board of Education. The Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., case was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954. Linda Brown was denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka because she was black. When, combined with several other cases, her suit reached the Supreme Court, that body, in an opinion by recently appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren, broke with long tradition and unanimously overruled the "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson, holding for the first time that de jure segregation in the public schools violated the principle of equal protection under the law guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Other important Supreme Court cases in African American History Dred Scott Case Plessy v. Fergusson Regents of the University of California v. Bakke Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger Responding to legal and sociological arguments presented by NAACP lawyers led by Thurgood Marshall, the court stressed that the "badge of inferiority" stamped on minority children by segregation hindered their full development no matter how "equal" physical facilities might be. After hearing further arguments on implementation, the court declared in 1955 that schools must be desegregated "with all deliberate speed." RELATED LINKS Milestone Cases in Supreme Court History Earl Warren Thurgood Marshall Affirmative Action Integration Civil Rights Jim Crow Laws Black Codes Reconstruction Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site Restricted in application to de jure (legally imposed) segregation, the Brown rule was applied mainly to Southern school systems. After strong resistance, which led to such incidents as the 1957 Little Rock, Ark., school crisis, integration spread slowly across the South, under court orders and the threat of loss of federal funds for noncompliance. The Brown decision gave tremendous impetus to the civil-rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and hastened integration in public facilities and accommodations. Segregation maintained by more subtle and intractable forces, however, has remained an important element in American society. De facto school segregation, caused by residential housing patterns and various other conditions rather than by law, has been attacked by the busing of students and other mechanisms. The landmark decision is commemorated by the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka. brown vs board of ed
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Saturday, February 28, 2004 - 1:47 pm
I don't watch hockey (I do like the jerseys though) but I came across this article and thought it was interesting.... Icing the Stereotypes Black hockey players in a traditionally white sport by Michael Morrison and Chris Frantz -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anson Carter played for the Boston Bruins during the 1999-2000 season. When Anson Carter was ten years old, his life was much the same as most of the other boys growing up in his Scarborough, Ontario, neighborhood. He went to school, came home, and played hockey. As he continued to play, advancing rapidly through his local leagues and on to Michigan State University, he began to stand out for two reasons. One, he was almost always the best player on the ice, and two, he was black—a rarity in hockey. Carter was the second-leading scorer for the Boston Bruins in 1999–2000, was traded to the Edmonton Oilers in 2000, and then to the New York Rangers in 2003. He was one of 13 black athletes in the NHL in 2003. It's a number that may seem low (given the 600+ players in the NHL today) but it still represents a noticeable increase in what has always been thought of as a "white" sport. According to league reports, only 18 black players reached the NHL between 1958 and 1991. While racism certainly played some role in keeping the figure to a minimum, it may have been more a function of the demographic makeup of Canada. In 1971, Canadians made up over 95% of the NHL, and only .02% of all Canadians were black. Today, the black population in Canada has increased to 2%. In addition, the United States, with a much higher black population than Canada, now contributes approximately 15% of all NHL players while Canada produces just over 60%. Fulfilling All Roles Recently retired goaltender Grant Fuhr is considered to be the most successful black player in the history of the sport. The backbone of the Wayne Gretzky-led Edmonton Oilers of the late 1980s, Fuhr currently stands in sixth place in all-time wins for goalies and is a sure-thing for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. His success has paved the way for other black goalies like the Columbus Blue Jackets' Fred Brathwaite and the Carolina Hurricanes' Kevin Weekes, now starting in net for their respective clubs. Along with Carter, black forwards Jarome Iginla from Calgary and Mike Grier from Washington have both become offensive leaders on their teams. Iginla finished second in Rookie of the Year voting in 1997, won the 2002 Art Ross Trophy (scoring), and in 2003 made history when he became the first black team captain. Grier has a reputation around the league for his scoring touch and hard hits. Speaking of hard hits, there is also a growing legion of black players that, to be blunt, have become known more for what they accomplish with their fists, rather than with their sticks. Edmonton's Georges Laraque, Philadelphia's Donald Brashear, and Colorado's 6-6, 235-pound giant Peter Worrell have all become valuable commodities as their teams' enforcers. As Carter told Sports Illustrated in October 1999, "Black players are scorers. Black players are checkers. Black players are enforcers. Black players are tough, stay-at-home defensemen. We have different roles on a hockey club. Black players are bringing different things to the table, which means that black players are the same as everyone else." In the Beginning . . . Willie O'Ree became hockey's version of Jackie Robinson on Jan. 18, 1958, when he made his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins. Despite being legally blind in his right eye (due to an errant puck that felled him two years earlier - a trait he kept secret), O'Ree rocketed through juniors and the minors, and reached the pinnacle of the hockey world. He played just two games with the Bruins that year, was sent down to the minors for the following two, and didn't come back to the NHL until 1961, when he returned for a 43-game stint. Through it all, he was met with an endless stream of verbal abuse. "Racist remarks were much worse in the U.S. cities than in Toronto and Montreal," said O'Ree. "Fans would yell, 'Go back to the south' and 'How come you're not picking cotton.' Things like that. It didn't bother me. I just wanted to be a hockey player, and if they couldn't accept that fact, that was their problem, not mine." O'Ree scored an uninspiring four goals and 10 assists in 1961. And that was that. While he continued to forge a respectable career mostly in the Western Hockey League (twice winning the scoring title), he never returned to the NHL. And unlike baseball, where Jackie Robinson's breaking of the color barrier cleared a path for thousands of black ballplayers to follow, no other black athlete played in the NHL until 1974, when Mike Marson was drafted by the Washington Capitals. Diversity in the NHL To its credit, the NHL has taken an active role in promoting diversity throughout the league. Each player is required to enroll in a diversity training seminar before the beginning of each season. Trash-talking is an ugly side effect of almost all athletic competition, but the league has made it clear through suspensions and fines that any racially-motivated verbal abuse will not be tolerated. The league has also recently brought O'Ree back into the limelight, making him the Director of Youth Development for the NHL/USA Hockey Diversity Task Force, a non-profit program designed to introduce children of diverse ethnic backgrounds to the game of hockey. Hockey is an expensive sport to play, with full equipment packages costing hundreds of dollars. In 1997, the NHL and USA Hockey developed the Used Equipment Bank, designed to encourage people to donate their used equipment to economically disadvantaged youths. Carter has also been instrumental in trying to give inner city youths more access to the sport. As a Bruin, he sponsored a program, "Carter's Corner" in which he purchased six tickets for each Bruins home game (matched by the club) for distribution to youth groups in the Boston area. Grier believes the professional black players are role models for youth. "If any of the black players have success," says Grier, "kids will want to emulate us." hockey
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Saturday, February 28, 2004 - 11:31 pm
Granville T. Woods
Born: April 23, 1856 Died: January 30, 1910 Birthplace: Columbus, Ohio Granville T. Woods dedicated his life to developing a variety of inventions relating to the railroad industry. To some he was known as the "Black Edison, both great inventors of their time. Granville T. Woods invented more than a dozen devices to improve electric railway cars and many more for controlling the flow of electricity. His most noted invention was a system for letting the engineer of a train know how close his train was to others. This device helped cut down accidents and collisions between trains. Granville T. Woods literally learned his skills on the job. Attending school in Columbus until age 10, he served an apprenticeship in a machine shop and learned the trades of machinist and blacksmith. During his youth he also went to night school and took private lessons. Although he had to leave formal school at age ten, Granville T. Woods realized that learning and education were essential to developing critical skills that would allow him to express his creativity with machinery. In 1872, Granville T. Woods obtained a job as a fireman on the Danville and Southern railroad in Missouri, eventually becoming an engineer. He invested his spare time in studying electronics. In 1874, Granville Woods moved to Springfield, Illinois, and worked in a rolling mill. In 1878, he took a job aboard the Ironsides, a British steamer, and, within two years, became Chief Engineer of the steamer. Finally, his travels and experiences led him to settle in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he became the person most responsible for modernizing the railroad. In 1888, Granville T. Woods developed a system for overhead electric conducting lines for railroads, which aided in the development of the overhead railroad system found in cities such as Chicago, St. Louis, and New York City. In his early thirties, he became interested in thermal power and steam-driven engines. And, in 1889, he filed his first patent for an improved steam-boiler furnace. In 1892, a complete Electric Railway System was operated at Coney Island, NY. In 1887, he patented the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph, which allowed communications between train stations from moving trains. Granville T. Woods' invention made it possible for trains to communicate with the station and with other trains so they knew exactly where they were at all times. Alexander Graham Bell’s company purchased the rights to Granville T. Woods’ "telegraphony," enabling him to become a full-time inventor. Among his other top inventions were a steam boiler furnace and an automatic air brake used to slow or stop trains. Wood’s electric car was powered by overhead wires. It was the third rail system to keep cars running on the right track. Success led to law suits filed by Thomas Edison who sued Granville Woods claiming that he was the first inventor of the multiplex telegraph. Granville Woods eventually won, but Edison didn’t give up easily when he wanted something. Trying to win Granville Woods over, and his inventions, Edison offered Granville Woods a prominent position in the engineering department of Edison Electric Light Company in New York. Granville T. Woods, preferring his independence, declined. Patents Issued to Granville T. Woods About.com Biography
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Essence
Member
01-12-2002
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 10:22 am
February 29: 1940 On this day, Hattie McDaniel known for her supporting roles became the first African American to win the Oscar Award for her role as 'Mammy'in the movie 'Gone With The Wind'. Not only was she the first African American to receive this award, but the was the only woman to have received it until Whoopi Goldberg received the same award for her role in the movie 'Ghost'.
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Essence
Member
01-12-2002
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 10:28 am
Dr. Mae Jemison
Born the youngest of three children, Mae C. Jemison is the child of Charlie and Dorothy Jemison, a maintenance worker and schoolteacher from Chicago Illinois. She graduated from Morgan Park High School in 1973. She continued her education and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University in 1977, while also fulfilling the requirements for a Bachelor of Arts in African-American Studies. She attended medical school and received a Doctor of Medicine degree from Cornell University in 1981. While in medical school she traveled to Cuba, Kenya and Thailand, providing primary medical care to people living there. Dr. Jemison served in the Peace Corps, from January 1983 to June 1985. She was stationed in Sierra Leone and Liberia, West Africa as the area Peace Corps medical officer. There she supervised the pharmacy, laboratory and medical staff. She provided medical care, wrote self-care manuals, developed and implemented guidelines for health and safety issues. She also had contact with and worked in conjunction with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on research for various vaccines. In 1985, after returning from the Peace Corps, Dr. Jemison secured a position with the CIGNA Health Plans of California as a general practitioner in Los Angeles, California. There she began attending graduate classes in engineering and applied to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for admission to the astronaut program. In 1987, her application was accepted as an astronaut candidate; Mae Jemison became one of the fifteen candidates accepted from some 2,000 applicants. Dr. Jemison successfully completed her astronaut training program in August 1988, becoming the fifth black astronaut and the first black female astronaut in NASA history. In August 1992, SPACELAB J was a successful joint U.S. and Japanese science mission, making Mae Jemison the first black woman in space. The cooperative mission conducted experiments in materials processing and life sciences. Mae Jemison is outspoken about the impact of technical advances in the black population, and encourages African Americans to pursue careers in science and engineering. Dr. Jemison is based at NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
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Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 10:49 am
Since Black History Month is drawing to a close today, I'd like to thank everyone who took such time and effort to post such inspiring and educational information for us all to learn from. Clearly it has been a labor of love. I sincerely hope this thread can stay active throughout the year and we can continue to benefit from the lessons of the African American experience. They are early in the process of building a Museum of African American History in Indianapolis, and I will keep you posted on how it is developing. Thank you again.
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Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 1:16 pm
I hope I didn't aleady post something about Phyllis Wheatley. If I did, please forgive me. I am posting two sources because there isn't a really good one on the web that captures her very well.
Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784) was kidnapped from Africa and sold in the Boston slave market in 1761, so the true year of her birth will always be a mystery. She was bought by Susanna Wheatley, a woman of some means, and welcomed more as a new member of the Wheatley household than as a slave. Phillis was precocious and quickly learned English and Latin. She began writing when she was still only a young girl, and her earliest surviving poem was written in 1767, when she was twelve or thirteen. She was formally freed by the Wheatley family when she was about twenty but remained with them until her marriage to John Peters, a free black man, in 1778. At the same time, she tried newspaper advertisements to solicit enough subscribers to publish a collection of her poems, but when skepticism over her racial background made this impossible, Susanna Wheatley arranged for the poems to be published in London in 1773. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral is the first book known to be published by an African American. There were at least four printings of the book in London the first year, but the publication sold poorly in Boston, again because of resistance to Wheatley's race. She was trying to gather enough subscribers for a new collection when she was suddenly taken ill and died in 1784. link Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) is widely recognized as the first African-American author ever published. The young girl was brought from Africa to Boston as a slave in 1761 at the age of seven, and bought by a tailor, John Wheatley. She received an extensive education within the home of the family that owned her, and began writing poetry at about the age of 13. In his preface to Wheatley's Collected Works, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. writes: Sometime in 1772, a young African girl walked demurely into a room in Boston to undergo an oral examination, the results of which would determine the direction of her life and work. Perhaps she was shocked upon entering the appointed room. For there... sat 18 of Boston's most notable citizens. Among them were... John Hancock, who would later gain fame for his signature on the Declaration of Independence. At the center of this group was His Excellency, Thomas Hutchinson, governor of Massachusetts... Why had this august group been assembled? Why had it seen fit to summon this young African girl, scarcely 18 years old, before it? The group of "the most respectable Characters in Boston," as it would later describe itself, had assembled to question closely the African adolescent on the slender sheaf of poems that she claimed to have "written by herself." We can only speculate on the nature of the questions asked to the fledgling poet. Perhaps they asked her to identify and explain -- for all to hear -- exactly who were the Greek and Latin gods and poets alluded to so frequently in her work. Perhaps they asked her to conjugate a verb in Latin or even to translate randomly selected passages from the Latin, which she and her master, John Wheatley, claimed that she "had made some Progress in."... We do know, however, that the African poet's responses were more than sufficient to prompt the eighteen august gentlemen to compose, sign and publish a two-paragraph "Attestation," an open letter "To the Publick" that prefaces Phillis Wheatley's book and that reads in part: We whose names are under-written, do assure the World, that the Poems specified in the following Page, were (as we verily believe) written by Phillis, a young Negro Girl, who was but a few Years since, brought an uncultivated Barbarian from Africa, and has ever since been, and now is, under the Disadvantage of serving as a Slave in a Family in this Town. She has been examined by some of the best Judges, and is thought qualified to write them. ...Without the published "Attestation," Wheatley's publisher claimed, few would believe that an African could possibly have written poetry all by herself. As the 18 put the matter clearly in their letter, "Numbers would be ready to suspect they were not really the Writings of Phyllis." (Wheatley, 1988, vii-ix). The challenges to the credibility of Wheatley's authorship of Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral did not end with its publication, however. As late as 1784, Thomas Jefferson would write,Misery is often the parent of the most affecting touches in poetry. Among the blacks is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry.... Their love is ardent, but it kindles the senses only, not the imagination. Religion, indeed, has produced a Phyllis Whately[sic]; but it could not produce a poet. The compositions published under her name are below the dignity of criticism. (Quoted by Julian D. Mason, Jr., in his introduction to Wheatley, 1966, p. xliii). link
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Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 1:28 pm
Sarah Vaughan: The Reason for the Word "Sassy"
b. Sarah Lois Vaughan, 27 March 1924, Newark, New Jersey, USA, d. 3 April 1990, Los Angeles, California, USA. Although she was not born into an especially musical home environment (her father was a carpenter and her mother worked in a laundry), the young Sarah Vaughan had plenty of contact with music-making. As well as taking piano lessons for nearly 10 years, she sang in her church choir and became the organist at the age of 12. Her obvious talent for singing won her an amateur contest at Harlem's Apollo theatre in 1942, and opportunities for a musical career quickly appeared. Spotted by Billy Eckstine, who was at the time singing in Earl "Fatha" Hines' big band, she was invited to join Hines' band as a female vocalist and second pianist in 1943. Eckstine had been sufficiently impressed by Vaughan to give her a place in his own band, formed a year later. It was here that she met fellow band members and pioneers of modern jazz Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Recording with Eckstine's band in 1945, full as it was of modern stylists, gave her a fundamental understanding of the new music that characterized her entire career. After leaving Eckstine, she spent a very short time with John Kirby's band, and then decided to perform under her own name. In 1947 she married trumpeter George Treadwell, whom she had met at the Cafe Society. Recognizing his wife's huge potential, Treadwell became her manager, as she began a decade of prolific recording and worldwide tours. She began by recording with Miles Davis in 1950, and then produced a torrent of albums in either a popular vein for Mercury Records, or more jazz-orientated material for their subsidiary label EmArcy. On the EmArcy recordings she appeared with Clifford Brown, Cannonball Adderley and members of the Count Basie band; these remain some of her most satisfying work. By the 60s, as Vaughan rose to stardom, her jazz activity decreased slightly, and the emphasis remained on commercial, orchestra-backed recordings. It was not until the 70s that she began to perform and record with jazz musicians again on a regular basis. Vaughan performed at the 1974 Monterey Jazz Festival and made an album in 1978 with a quartet consisting of Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, Ray Brown, and Louie Bellson. The following year she recorded the Duke Ellington Song Book, on which a large number of top jazz players appeared, including Zoot Sims, Frank Foster, Frank Wess, J.J. Johnson, and Pass. In 1980 she appeared in a much-heralded concert at Carnegie Hall, and returned to the Apollo to sing with Eckstine in a show recorded and broadcast by NBC-TV. She recorded an album of Latin tunes in 1987, and around this time appeared in another televised concert, billed as Sass And Brass. With a rhythm section featuring Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Billy Higgins, as well as a collection of trumpeters including Dizzy Gillespie, Don Cherry, Maynard Ferguson, and Chuck Mangione, she proved herself still a musical force to be reckoned with. Tragically, she died of lung cancer in April 1990. Sarah Vaughan won the Esquire New Star poll in 1945, the Down Beat poll (1947-52) and the Metronome poll (1948-52). She also sang at the White House as early as 1965; Vaughan's name was synonymous with jazz singing for two generations. Gifted with an extraordinary range and perfect intonation, she would also subtly control the quality of her voice to aid the interpretation of a song, juxtaposing phrases sung in a soft and warm tone with others in a harsh, nasal vibrato or throaty growl. Her knowledge of bebop, gained during her time with Eckstine's band, enabled her to incorporate modern passing tones into her sung lines, advancing the harmonic side of her work beyond that of her contemporaries. Her recordings will continue to influence vocalists for many years to come. Vaughan probably ranks as a close second only to Ella Fitzgerald in terms of influence, vocal range and sheer, consistent brilliance. link
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Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 1:44 pm
Charles Waddell Chesnutt, 1858-1932
Essayist, folklorist, short-story writer and novelist, Charles Chesnutt was the first African-American writer to receive widespread serious attention during his lifetime as a literary artist, and was considered one of the major fiction writers of his era. After teaching for several years in Charlotte, and in Fayetteville at the State Colored Normal School (now Fayetteville State University) he moved north and passed the bar examination. After establishing a successful legal stenography firm, he began writing. Initially the author of humorous sketches and essays on social issues, he published his first short story at the age of twenty-nine in The Atlantic, even then one of the most prestigious magazines in the country. Contemporary William Dean Howells called Chesnutt's short stories "works of art," written by one who had "sounded a fresh note, boldly, not blatantly." Although Chesnutt lived most of his adult life in his native Ohio, his childhood and early manhood were spent in North Carolina, primarily in Fayetteville. Eastern North Carolina serves as the setting and the source of his most important works. His best known book, The Conjure Woman (1899) is a retelling of seven African-American slave folk tales from the Cape Fear region. Five of the nine stories in The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line (1899) are set in and around Fayetteville, as is The House Behind the Cedars, a 1900 novel. Both deal with the problems confronting those of mixed race. The Marrow of Tradition (1901), based on the Wilmington race riot of 1898, and The Colonel's Dream (1905), set in Reconstruction-era Fayetteville, address the hopeless situation of blacks in a white society. During his own lifetime, Charles Waddell Chesnutt was recognized as a pioneer in treating racial themes. Throughout the years that he was writing and publishing, he continued to operate a successful business and to participate in programs dedicated to social justice. In 1928, he was awarded the Spingarn Medal for "pioneer work as a literary artist depicting the life and struggles of Americans of Negro descent, and for his long and useful career as scholar, worker, and freeman." The Fayetteville State University Library is named for Chesnutt; a State Highway Historical Marker marks where he taught in Fayetteville, North Carolina; and in Cleveland, Ohio, a street and a school are named for him. [Note: Chesnutt is one of my favorite writers and one of the newly-canonized African American writers. The Library of America, the "keepers of the gate" in American literature, recently published a volume of his collected works, but if you have to limit your reading to one novel, read The Marrow of Tradition; if you have to limit it to one story, read "The Wife of His Youth."]
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 10:42 pm
Pearl Bailey
(1918 – 1990) Never formally trained in music, Pearl Bailey credited her love of music to growing up in a "Holy Roller" evangelical church where her father was the minister. In her early career in amateur shows and nightclubs she developed her throaty style, embellished with asides and ad libs. Pearl Bailey sang with bands, later on stage and in films. The all-black version of Hello, Dolly! is one of her best-known roles; she played that role from 1967 to 1969 and in a later revival. Pearl Bailey was a frequent guest on television variety shows and had her own show on ABC in 1970-71. At age 67, Pearl Bailey graduated from Georgetown University with a bachelor's degree in theology. In 1968, 1971, 1973 and 1989 she published books on her life, cooking, and educational experiences. In 1975 Pearl Bailey served as a special ambassador to the United Nations and in 1988 received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Pearl Bailey was married three times. The last marriage, to drummer Louis Bellson, lasted 40 years. Together they adopted a daughter and a son. About.com Bio The Women's International Center presented Pearl Bailey with it's Living Legacy Award in 1989 One of my favorite Pearl Bailey quotations: A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive. Having been alive, it won't be so hard in the end to lie down and rest. Pearl Bailey was a gifted artist and humanitarian, whose performing career spanned all mediums. She began as a singer and dancer in her father’s Pentecostal church at the age of three. A childhood ambition to teach was side-railed in 1933, when she won an amateur contest at Philadelphia’s Pearl Theater. Bailey quickly dropped out of school to join the vaudeville and nightclub circuits of Pennsylvania and Washington DC. She began to work with Big-Band orchestras in the early 1940s, and toured with the USO from 1941 until the year of her death. Her acting career began in 1946, when she starred in the Broadway musical St. Louis Woman, a role that netted her an award for best Broadway newcomer. The following year the first of her films, Variety Girl, was released. A television career beginning in the 1950s led to her own ABC series, The Pearl Bailey Show, in 1970-71. Bailey also authored six books. Bailey was honored by the Screen Actors Guild in 1978 for “outstanding achievement in fostering the finest ideals of the acting profession,” and by the Women’s International Center in 1989 for her active support of human rights around the world. Other awards and honors include a Tony Award for her title role in the all-black cast of Hello Dolly in 1967; a 1970 appointment as America’s “Ambassador of Love” by President Richard Nixon; and the Medal of Freedom, presented by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. Bailey served as Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations under the administrations of Presidents Ford, Reagan and George Bush. Pearl Bailey returned to school in 1978, and received a bachelor’s degree in theology from Georgetown University at the age of sixty-seven, as well as an honorary doctorate degree from the school. Norfolk VA, Walk of Fame bio
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Secretsmile
Member
08-19-2002
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 10:54 pm
DO NOT CLOSE THIS THREAD just because it's the end of the month, it's a great thread!
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Mware
Member
09-14-2001
| Monday, March 01, 2004 - 7:42 am
To all of you who have contributed biographies or other information to this thread, thank you. Over the past 29 days, I have learned a lot about some very interesting people, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to have done so.
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Essence
Member
01-12-2002
| Monday, March 01, 2004 - 9:33 am
I'm happy to see that people got something out of this thread. I've learned a lot myself doing this research. I'll continue to post daily facts, biographies, and anything else I might find that is interesting, but it may not be on a daily basis.
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