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 Location: "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Registered:: March 08, 1999
Posts: 46460
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JULIE DASH - Producer/Writer/Director (born October 22, 1952 -Julie Dash was born and raised in in Long Island City, Queens, New York; she has toured nationally and internationally with her work, and she has received numerous awards since embarking on her film career. With the debut of "Daughters of the Dust" in January 1992, Julie Dash became the first African American woman to have a full-length general theatrical release in the United States. "O" magazine included 'Daughters" among it's 50 Greatest Chick Flicks, and in 1999, the twenty-fifth Annual Newark Black Film Festival honored Julie and her film "Daughters of the Dust" as being one of the most important cinematic achievements in Black Cinema in the 20th century. December 2004, The Library of Congress placed "Daughters of the Dust" in the National Film Registry; "Daughters of the Dust" joins 400 American films preserved as a National Treasures. Ms. Dash recently directed a short film designed to screen for a very long time at The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Museum in Ohio. The HD production of, "Brothers of the Borderland is not only a feast for the eyes, viewers also feel the spray of river water, they feel pulsating wind, and experience the smell of the deeps woods in the museum's environmental theater. "Brothers of the Borderland" is total sensory experience, playing every twenty-minutes during museum hours for the next four years. Ms. Dash also directed the NAACP Image Award winning CBS Network Television Movie, "The Rosa Parks Story" the winner of The Family Television Award, The New York Christopher Award, and Angela Bassett received an Emmy Nomination for her performance as "Rosa Parks." For the 55th Annual Directors Guild Awards, Julie Dash was nominated for her Outstanding Directorial Achievement on "The Rosa Parks Story," and she became the first African American woman nominated in the category of Primetime Movies Made for Television at The Directors Guild of America. Her long form, dramatic narrative films include: "Love Song," an MTV original feature starring R&B singers Monica, Tyress and TLC's Chili; "Incognito," a romantic thriller staring Richard T. Jones, Vanessa Williams, Phil Morris, Ron Glass with Rodger Guenveur Smith; and the ENCORE/StarZ3 "Funny Valentines" starring Alfre Woodard, Loretta Devine and C.C.H. Pounder. She wrote and directed an episode of "Women" for ShowTime Cable Network, as well as "Sax Cantor Riff", HBO's "Subway Stories" for Producers Jonathan Demme and Rosie Perez. Ms. Dash has a book published by The New Press, and a novel published by Dutton-Signett Books. She is currently working on a romantic trilogy for Dutton-Signett Books. She has directed Music Videos with musical artists including Raphael Saadiq with Tony, Toni, Tone; Keb 'Mo, Peabo Bryson, Adriana Evans, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Tracy Chapman's "Give Me One Reason," which was nominated for MTV's Best Female Vocalist, 1996. Her critically acclaimed short film "Illusions", a drama set in Hollywood 1942, won the 1989 Jury Prize for Best Film of the Decade, awarded by the Black Filmmakers Foundation. Ms. Dash earned her M.F.A. in Film & Television production at UCLA; received her B.A. in Film Production from CCNY, and she was also a Fellow at the American Film Institute's Center for Advanced Film Studies, the AFI conservatory at Greystone Mansion. When not working on her projects, Ms. Dash is a frequent lecturer at many of the leading universities across the United States. |
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Location: Wherever I may be.
Registered:: October 15, 1999
Posts: 24648
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Dr. Patricia Bath, ophthalmologic surgeon, inventor, and activist for patients' rights, was born in Harlem, New York in 1942, the daughter of Rupert Bath, an educated and well-traveled merchant seaman, and Gladys Bath, a homemaker and housecleaner. They were loving and supportive parents who encouraged their children to focus on education and believe in their dreams and ideas.
Thus Bath developed a love of books, travel and science. She excelled at school and began to show her aptitude in biology in high school where she became editor of the Charles Evans Hughes High School's science paper and won numerous science awards. In fact, she was chosen in 1959 at the age of 16 to participate in a summer program offered by the National Science Foundation at Yeshiva University. She gained notoriety when, while working at Yeshiva, she derived a mathematical equation for predicting cancer cell growth. One of her mentors in the program, Dr. Robert O. Bernard, incorporated her findings into a paper he presented at an international conference held in Washington, D.C., in 1960. Following this experience, Bath won a 1960 Merit Award from Mademoiselle magazine, completed high school in just two and a half years, and entered New York's Hunter College to study chemistry and physics. She earned a B.A. from Hunter in 1964. From there Bath went to medical school at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Bath finished her M.D. in 1968 and returned to New York as an intern at Harlem Hospital, followed by a fellowship in ophthalmology at Columbia University from 1969-70. During this time Bath began to notice differences among the patient population in hospitals she had worked in. At Harlem Hospital, where there were many African American patients, nearly half were blind or visually impaired. But at Columbia Eye Clinic, the blindness rate was markedly lower. She conducted a study documenting her observation that blindness among blacks was nearly double the rate of blindness among whites. She concluded that this was largely due to many African Americans' lack of access to ophthalmic care. With this finding Bath established a new discipline known as Community Ophthalmology, now studied and practiced worldwide. She also helped bring eye surgery services to Harlem Hospital's Eye Clinic, which has since helped to treat and cure thousands of patients. From this point on, Bath's list of firsts continued to grow. She became the first African American resident at New York University where she finished her medical training in 1973. Meanwhile she also married and had a child, while completing a fellowship in 1974 in corneal and keratoporosthesis surgery. Bath moved to Los Angeles that year with her daughter to join the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Charles R. Drew University as assistant professor of surgery and ophthalmology. In 1975, Bath became the first African-American woman surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center and the first woman faculty member at the UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute. In 1976, she co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness (AIPB), an organization that aims to "protect, preserve, and restore the gift of sight" for all persons, regardless of race, gender, age or income level. In 1981, Bath conceived of the invention for which she has become famous -- the Laserphaco Probe, a surgical tool that uses a laser to vaporize cataracts via a tiny, 1-millimeter insertion into a patient's eye. After using the Laserphaco Probe to remove a cataract, the patient's lens can be removed and a replacement lens inserted. Cataracts are cloudy blemishes that commonly form in people's eye lenses, especially in men and women over the age of sixty. Eventually, cataracts can lead to blindness. Typically these have been treated with a somewhat harsh, perhaps risky, traditional surgical procedure, but Bath's innovative device employs a faster, more accurate and minimally invasive technique. Her idea was very advanced for its time, thus it took more than five years for her to perfect the concept and apply for a patent. She received her first patent for the device in May, 1988, followed by another in December, 1998. She holds four U.S. patents in all for innovations related to the Laserphaco, in addition to international patents from Japan, Canada and several countries in Europe. The Laserphaco Probe has been used overseas since 2000, but is still being tested for safety by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States. In 1983 Bath was named chair of the Ophthalmology Residency Training Program, which she also co-founded, at Drew/UCLA. Bath was the first woman in the country to hold such a position. She was elected to the Hunter College Hall of Fame in 1988 and named Howard University Pioneer in Academic Medicine in 1993. Also that year, Bath retired from the UCLA Medical Center and she became the first woman to be elected to the Center's honorary medical staff. She continues to advocate telemedicine, direct the AIPB, and dedicate time to her lifelong passion"”the prevention, treatment and cure of blindness. [February 2005] |
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Location: "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Registered:: March 08, 1999
Posts: 46460
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Alonzo Adams - Black Romantic ArtistAlonzo Adams His pallette is dominated by the earth tones favored by Rembrandt and the American artists he admires, giving his work a poetic, pensive quality. His professional goal is to keep integrity in art, and his personal ambition is to hang in the world's great art museums alongside the masters he reveres. For today, he remains engaged in portraying contemporary black lifestyles, inspired by everyday sights and sounds that deserve immortality in a constantly changing world. Alonzo Adams' work has been featured in solo exhibitions at major public and private venues in the East, including Howard University and the Russell Senate Building in Washington, D.C., Rutgers University, Dow Jones and Uptown Records in New York. He has received commissions from Merrill Lynch, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Motown, Ortho Pharmaceutical, Absolut Vodka and Black Enterprise, among others . His works hang in the collections of Bill Cosby, Andrew Young, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Earl Graves, Maya Angelou, Patti Labelle, Jasmine Guy, Eddie Murphy and Senator Bill Bradley. Browse and enjoy the great African American Art work from one of Today's most collected African American Artists, Alonzo Adams. Source |
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DonRaja Location: SugaRi diL
Registered:: October 07, 2004
Posts: 61962
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Rt. Excellent Nanny of the Maroons
 Nanny of the Maroons stands out in history as the only female among Jamaica's national heroes. She possessed that fierce fighting spirit generally associated with the courage of men. In fact, Nanny is described as a fearless Asante warrior who used militarist techniques to fool and beguile the English. Nanny was a leader of the Maroons at the beginning of the 18th. Century. She was known by both the Maroons and the British settlers as an outstanding military leader who became, in her lifetime and after, a symbol of unity and strength for her people during times of crisis. She was particularly important to them in the fierce fight with the British during the First Maroon War from 1720 to 1739. Although she has been immortalized in songs and legends, certain facts about Nanny (or "Granny Nanny", as she was affectionately known) have also been documented. Both legends and documents refer to her as having exceptional leadership qualities. She was a small wiry woman with piercing eyes. Her influence over the Maroons was so strong that it seemed to be supernatural and was said to be connected to her powers of obeah. She was particularly skilled in organising the guerrilla warfare carried out by the Eastern Maroons to keep away the British troops who attempted to penetrate the mountains to overpower them. Her cleverness in planning guerrilla warfare confused the British and their accounts of the fights reflect the surprise and fears which the Maroon traps caused among them. Beside inspiring her people to ward off troops, Nanny was also a type of chieftainess or wise woman of the village, who passed down legends and encouraged the continuation of customs, music and songs that had come with the people from Africa, and that instilled in them confidence and pride. Her spirit of freedom was so great that in 1739, when Quao signed the second Treaty (The first was signed by Cudjoe for the Leeward Maroons a few months earlier) with the British, it is reported that Nanny was very angry and in disagreement with the principle of peace with the British which she knew meant another form of subjugation. There are many legends about Nanny among the Maroons. Some even claim that there were several women who were leaders of the Maroons during this period of history. But all the legends and documents refer to Nanny of the First Maroon War as the most outstanding of them all, leading her people with courage and inspiring them to struggle to maintain that spirit of freedom, that life of independence, which was their rightful inheritance. Like the heroes of the pre Independence era, Nanny too met her untimely death at the instigation of the English sometime around 1734. Yet, the spirit of Nanny of the Maroons remains today as a symbol of that indomitable desire that will never yield to captivity. Source |
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Location: "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Registered:: March 08, 1999
Posts: 46460
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Derek Walcott - Nobel Prize LaureateDerek Walcott was born January 23, 1930 in Castries, Saint Lucia, Windward Islands, West Indies. He graduated from the University College of the West Indies and was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to study American drama in 1957. Presently, he divides his time between Trinidad and Boston and teaches Drama and Poetry in the English Department at Boston University. Mr. Walcott founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop in 1959 as the Little Carib Theatre Workshop. It grew from a group of actors doing improvisations and scenes to an important repertory company presenting his plays as well as those of other Caribbean and international playwrights. He founded the Boston Playwrights' Theatre shortly after he accepted a professorship at Boston University which presents original works by local, national, and international playwrights. Mr. Walcott has organized an exchange program between his Boston Playwrights' Theatre and the Trinidad Theatre Workshop. His plays have been produced by the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Negro Ensemble Company, the American Repertory Theatre, the Guthrie Theatre, among others. His stage adaptation of Homer's Odyssey was staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1993 before sold out London audiences. His achievements are many, including numerous awards for his verse as well as his drama. In 1969, Mr. Walcott received an O'Neill Foundation-Wesleyan University Fellowship for playwrights. In 1971, Dream on Monkey Mountain received an Obie for the most distinguished foreign play. He was awarded the Guggenheim award in 1977, the American Poetry Review award in 1979, the Welsh Arts International Writer's Prize in 1980, the Queen's Medal for Poetry in 1988, and the W.H. Smith Prize in 1991. He was awarded a five year Mac Arthur Fellowship in 1981. In 1992, Mr. Walcott won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Recent work includes a volume of poems called The Bounty and a collaboration with Paul Simon on a musical named The Capeman. Professor Education: St. Mary's College, St. Lucia; University College of the West Indies Teaching and Research Interests: Poetry and drama writing. Selected Publications: The Bounty. (1997); The Odyssey stage adaptation (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1993); Omeros; The Arkansas Testament; Collected Poems; Midsummer; The Fortunate Traveller; Remembrance and Pantomime; The Star Apple Kingdom; Sea Grapes; Another Life; Dream on Monkey Mountain & Other Plays; The Gulf; The Castaway and Other Poems; In a Green Night; Epitaph of the Young; 25 Poems Honors, Grants, and Awards: Nobel Prize for Literature (1992); MacArthur Fellow Derek Alton Wolcott West Indian poet and playwright is the first black to receive the $1.2 million Nobel Prize for Literature 1992. He won for poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment. Born Jan. 23, 1930, Castries, Saint Lucia , one of the Windward Islands in the Lesser Antilles. Walcott is of mixed black, Dutch, and English descent. He currently is a professor in Boston University's English Department. Residence: Trinidad and Boston Source |
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Location: "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Registered:: March 08, 1999
Posts: 46460
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The Art Of Aubrey WilliamsMy first reaction to Aubrey Williams' painting was, I believe, to simplify its problematic to that of the 'modern art movement' it was most obviously linked to abstract expressionism, and to the glaring injustice that Williams' work was ignored and invisible in the country - Britain- where be has lived for nearly 40 years, as if it could not be compared with the work of his 'English' contemporaries. Both reactions were not wrong, and it's important to stress that Aubrey Williams' is a modern, mainstream art and not an 'ethnic', 'neo-traditional' or'local' expression. But only gradually have I become aware of the complexity of the context in whicb his painting has developed, and of his particular journey. When Aubrey Williams was born and grew up in Guyana, it was still a British colony. The whole economy was dominated by the sugar industry and one company, -Bookers McConnel & Co.- owned everything effectively running the country as an extension of the British Government. Although Williams drew and painted from an early age, the whole first part of his life until he left Guyana for Britain, was spent as an agricultural officer. He supported and aided the local farmers who, despite being cheated and exploited, were determined to work outside the British estates. "Guyana was coming out of colonial bondage. It was a boiling cauldron...." His activities were too much for the colonial administration which eventually banished him to work in the remote Northwest rain forest area of the country. What he took as a personal tragedy became in fact one of the great formative influences in his life, since he got to know there, and to live among, an Indian tribe, the Warrau. "My language of expression completely changed. In fact, it was there, that for the Arawaks - (1978). first time I disovered myself as an artist. Before that, it was a11 amateur activity.It was only after I came into contact with the Warrau that I knew what I would do with my life.... My interest in pre-Columbian culture was intensified as a result of living there. When I heard the Indians talking about colour and form, I started to understand what art really is." A painter with a direct practical knowledge of the natural environment of his country, with political experience of a moment of great historical change, with a deep curiosity about the (pre-Columbian) culture of the continent, and a memory - a human, affective one of a people for whom life and art were completely interconnected, it was with these experiences, among others, that Aubrey Williams came to Europe in 1952 and began working in the 'mainstream of modern art'. He exposed himself to the most exciting art of time, abstract expressionism - Pollock especially, but also Kline, Newman, Rothko, De Kooning. Later, the scope and scale of his abstract painting was greatly expanded by a very personal dialogue with another source which be was pre-occupied with for at least 12 years, the music of Dimitri Shostakovich (a dialogue involving, most likely, both 'structure' and 'emotion'). Even the Shostakovich paintings, however, incorporated in many canvases the pre-Columbian themes and motifs which have run through all of Aubrey Williams' work. Moongazer - (1971). The question of how he treats these sources and the possible meanings in his particular way of treating them, must occur to anyone looking attentively at his paintings. The relics of vanished civilizations today belong to the world of museums and books, and the various probings of which the science of archaeology is capable. Aubrey Williams is as dependent on these as anyone else (even though, when he lived with the Warrau he found they were still using the old artifacts in their rituals), but his historical relationship to such traces is the opposite of the European's. He is not borrowing or 'using' them but in a sense 'reawakening' them, within the context of his painting, by fusing them both with his lived experience of the nature and landscape of Latin America in all its specificity and difference, and with his perception of the modern world. His painting has many affinities of feeling with that of the Mexicans- Rivera, Orozco, Tamayo (although Williams belongs to a later moment in the evolution of modern art than the Mexican muralists - abstract expressionism with its 'individual mark of human presence' -he has also himself painted murals in Guyana as part of the movement of Guyanese independence and cultural self - assertion. He has always maintained certain links with the role of the artist as visual educator and organizer for a people). The affinity is one of environment, culture, also of history."It's the smell of old blood," in Williams' stark phrase,"It's the smell of the presence of the Conquistadors..." It registers the violent shock of a colonialism, a loss, which still continues today in a new form. Although the pre-Columbian motifs receive a tremendous vibrancy in Aubrey Williams' paintings, they are also fragmented, agitated, breaking up in a catastrophe of violent destruction. It is as if they were simultaneously, and in a way which can't be separated, signs of identity and of anxiety, within the firm expressivity of the gesture and the swirling suggestiveness of soft colour, Williams sets up a dialectic between construction (which often appears in the guise of glyphs, emblems or symbolic forms) and chaos. The relationship between them is ambiguous. Is the human construct threathened with extinction by forces beyond its control? Or are the forces necessary, like the sun, to its revitalization and growth? Either, or both! In using the language of the 'cosmic' we are also alluding to the social and political, in referring to the ancient, we also mean the contemporary. If Williams, in his treatment of Mayan motifs, has re-asserted the brilliance of his own history in the present, he has also looked back from the present - in particular from his often stated pre-occupation with the seriousness of today's ecological crisis - to find a warning in the sudden self - extinction of that same Mayan people. It may be futile to try to explain painting. But it is also true that merely to name a motif in Williams' painting as 'pre-Columbian' or Mayan does not suggest the complicated life it leads in its changed form within his work, where it moves between past and present, between natural and artificial beauty, between excitement and warning. To grant Aubrey Williams' paintings their enigma only awakens one to links with the actual, contemporary world. (From the catalogue prepared for Aubrey Willams' exehibition in Japan, May 9-15, 1988, by Guy Breth, before Williams' untimely death.) SOME OF WILLIAMS' WORKS - IN THE GUYANA NATIONAL COLLECTION Moongazer - 1971 Masacuraman -1971 White Lady - 1971 Ting Ting - 1971 Cosmic Clouds No. 1 - 1971 Cosmic Clouds No.3 - 1971 Abstract - 1969 Carib - 1978 Machunaima to the Arawacks - 1978 Revolt - 1960 Timehri Rock Drawing - 1967 El Dorado - 1958 Cacique - 1976 Guyana - 1964 Source Aubrey Williams (born 1926 in Georgetown, Guyana - died 1990)...was a prominent artist and art lecturer in the United Kingdom. Williams was educated and worked in the Civil Service. During service in the North West jungle of Guyana he lived for two years with an indigenous tribe, the Warrau, which became one of the formative influences of his life. Hearing the Indians talking about colour and form, Williams "started to understand what art really is". Much of his work came from his involvement in the work of South American Indians, and these visual and cultural influences are an evident preoccupation of Williams' early work. In 1954 Williams settled in Britain where he studied briefly at St Martin's School of Art. He started showing his work in numerous exhibitions throughout the 1950s and the early 1960s. Aubrey Williams was one of the founding members of the Caribbean Artists Movement (1966-72) and had a pioneering role in the development of black visual culture in Britain, which was to have an inestimable influence on the British art scene for the next fifteen years. Williams exhibited and lectured extensively maintaining studios in Jamaica and later Florida. Aubrey Williams Gallery |
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Location: "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Registered:: March 08, 1999
Posts: 46460
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Michelle Robinson-Obama - January 17, 1964 -Profile of a possible Black First LadyMichelle Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is Vice President for Community and External Affairs for the University of Chicago Hospitals and wife of U.S. Senator Barack Obama. Michelle Robinson was born into a working-class African American family from the South Side of Chicago. She graduated from Whitney Young High School in 1981. She majored in sociology at Princeton University, graduating cum laude in 1985, and obtained her Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1988. Following law school, she was an associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin. Subsequently, she held public sector positions in the Chicago city government as an Assistant to the Mayor and Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development. In 1993 she became Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, a non-profit organization encouraging young people to work on social issues in nonprofit groups and government agencies. Mrs. Obama began work for the University of Chicago Hospitals in 2002, after previously serving as the founding director of the University's Community Service Center (beginning in 1996). She was promoted to her current position in May 2005. In May 2006, Essence magazine listed her among "25 of the World's Most Inspiring Women." She currently serves on the board of TreeHouse Foods, Inc. She married Barack Obama in 1992, and they have two daughters, Malia (born 1999) and Sasha (born 2001). Barack "Barry" Hussein Obama, Jr.: August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His name Barack means "one who is blessed" in Swahili. He was raised in Hawaii and Indonesia. Quote On being a political wife: "It's hard, and that's why Barack is such a grateful man." In an ABC interview, Michelle said that "Barack didn't pledge riches, only a life that would be interesting. On that promise he's delivered." She also said as part of the division of labor in their house, Barack did the grocery shopping. Barack makes it a priority to be home every weekend from Thursday to Sunday. Barack and Michelle return most every Christmas to Hawaii where his grandmother and sister still live. Michelle, in 2004, about Barack running for the U.S. Senate: "I said, 'I married you because you're cute and you're smart, but this is the dumbest thing you could have ever asked me to do." Michelle, about fidelity in their marriage: "I never worry about things I can't affect, and with fidelity ... that is between Barack and me, and if somebody can come between us, we didn't have much to begin with." In 1989, Michelle was working at a downtown law firm and assigned the role of advisor to a summer associate from Harvard, Barack Obama. He didn't have much interest in corporate law, but did have a lot of interest in Michelle! She said "she fell in love with him for the same reason many other people respect him; his connection with people." Princeton undergrad, Harvard Law School alum, corporate vice president and mother of two young girls-Michelle Obama's professional and personal résumé already is impressive. And since she could be the next First Lady, let's take a look at her. To her friends, Michelle Obama seems to manage public and private pressures with effortless poise. She is intimately involved with her husband's work, reading drafts of his major speeches and tweaking his big ideas and little punctuation choices alike, reports Newsweek. She has been his link to African America, its civil-rights movement and its power elite. Those ties came in handy when her husband, then a state senator, ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004, where he faced a primary dominated by some of the Democratic Party's most powerful political families. Barack Obama won, thanks to the support of influential black business leaders, some of whom had closer ties to his wife than they did to him. An old boss of Michelle Obama's, Valerie Jarrett, chair of the Chicago Stock Exchange, was among the most powerful black women in Chicago and served as finance chair of Barack Obama's campaign, reports Newsweek. A native of Chicago's predominantly black south side, Michelle Obama always has been a creature of discipline, decorum and determination. Her résumé is as impressive as her husband's. She is a 1985 cum laude graduate of Princeton University, a 1988 graduate of Harvard Law School, a former associate dean at the University of Chicago, and currently a vice president at the University of Chicago Hospitals. Michelle Obama sits on six boards, including the prestigious Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and Tree House Foods. "As far back as any of us can remember, she was very bright," her brother, Craig Robinson, who preceded his sister at Princeton to become its fourth-highest-scoring basketball player, told the Chicago Sun Times. Michelle Obama was raised in a one-bedroom apartment on the top floor of a classic Chicago brick bungalow, now surrounded by a chain-link fence, in South Shore. Her bedroom actually was the apartment's living room, which had been converted with a divider down the middle, allowing her to share it with her brother until an addition was built. Her father died in 1990, but her mother still lives there, behind burglar-proof wrought-iron doors and secured windows, poised above a hedge of clipped yews. As a young lawyer, she initially brushed off advances from her future husband because they worked at the same firm-he was a young intern, she was a young associate. A reporter, visiting her Chicago home in 2004, noticed a to-do list for her two daughters, Malia, 8, and Natasha, 5, that included time for "play." She is in bed most nights by 9:30 and rises each morning at 4:30 to run on a treadmill. Michelle and Barack Obama live today in a $1.65-million Georgian revival Kenwood mansion surrounded by a tall wrought-iron fence. The couple chose to keep their children in Chicago following Barack Obama's election to the U.S. Senate. "We made a good decision to stay in Chicago, to remain based in Chicago, so that has kept our family stable," Michelle Obama told the Chicago Tribune. "There has been very little transition for me and the girls. Now he's commuting a lot, but he's the grown-up. He's the senator. He can handle it. That's really helped in keeping us grounded." Barack Obama Website |
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I am too poor to pay attention Registered:: February 10, 2006
Posts: 11486
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"SARAH GOODE"the first black female patten holder. A desk that converts to a bed.
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Location: "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Registered:: March 08, 1999
Posts: 46460
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Sarah E. GoodeSarah E. Goode was born into slavery in 1850. She was the first African American woman to be granted a patent by the U.S. Patent and Tradesmark Office for her invention, the cabinet bed, on July 14, 1885. Freed at the end of the Civil War, Goode moved to Chicago and became an entrepreneur. As owner of a furniture store she noted that city apartment dwellers often had little space for beds. She conceived the design of what we know today as the "hide away" bed. She described the design as "a folding bed" whose hinged sections were easily raised or lowered. When not in use as a bed, Goode's invention could also be used as a desk. |
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Location: "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Registered:: March 08, 1999
Posts: 46460
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GUYANA'S SHINING STAR GEORGE G.M. JAMESBy HANDEL ANDREWS Sometimes in the glorious history of ideas, a great thinker is defined by one work. Francis Bacon is best known for his "Novum Organum; Herbert Spencer for "First Principles"; Thomas Hobbes for "Leviathan." George G.M. James' magnus opus is "Stolen Legacy." I will attempt to show why his great book is so important in black thought. BACKGROUND Born in British Guiana (now Guyana) sometime during the latter half of the Nineteenth Century to Rev. Linch and Margaret James, he wrote the best-known book on the African origins of Western philosophy. After completing elementary and secondary schooling in his native land, he went to England to further his studies. He earned B.A., B.T., and M.A. degrees from Durham University, where he was a candidate for the D.Litt. Further post-graduate work at Columbia University earned him a PhD, most likely in the Classics. He also earned a teaching certificate in the State of New York to teach mathematics, Latin and Greek. His university tenures were extensive. He served as Professor of Logic and Greek at Livingston College in North Carolina for 2 years. For ten years he was Professor of Languages and philosophy at Johnson C. Smith College at Charlotte, North Carolina. His teaching career ended at the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff, a black institution. He died under mysterious circumstances the same year his "Stolen Legacy" was published. Apparently one afternoon he left his job and friends and was later found dead in Nashville, Tennessee. Since no biography of Dr. James exists, the truth of his death might never be known. It is disgraceful that his native Guyana has never paid tribute in any way, shape or form to this, her native son. It is more disgraceful that the University of Arkansas, a black institution, does not have a certificate on its walls acknowledging his tenure. It is even stranger, extremely perplexing, that "Stolen Legacy" was written during Dr. James' tenure at that university, but there is no copy of the book in its library. STOLEN LEGACY The Public Library in Georgetown, Guyana, contained copies of Plato's "Symposium", but no copy of ˜Stolen Legacy", written by a Guyanese. When I was studying philosophy, George G. M. James' name was never mentioned and I only discovered his book after college. Why did I not hear about him or his book? Why do European scholars vilify "Stolen Legacy" at every count? Because it dared to question the usual assumptions about the origins of much of Western thinking, and prove that black people were not as dumb as we were told. To quote Prof. Ben Jochannan, "If you ever dare to read the works of George G.M. James, you will never again be the same as before you did. He stands at head of the line with Akhenaten, Ramesis, St. Augustine, Terrence, and so many others who heeded the warning, ˜Man know thyself.'" This is great praise from one of the great scholars of African influences in Western philosophy. DR. JAMES' THESIS Dr. James argues that Greek philosophy and the mystery systems of Greece and Rome were stolen from Egypt, and he challenges the notion that civilization originated in Greece. His thesis in "Stolen Legacy" is that, "The Greeks were not the authors of Greek philosophy, but the people of North Africa, commonly called the Egyptians." He painstakingly documents the African origins of Graeco-Roman philosophical thought. He writes, "The term Greek philosophy, to begin with, is a misnomer, for there is no such philosophy in existence. The ancient Egyptians had developed a very complex religious system called the Mysteries, which was also the first system of salvation." European arrogance and its notion of the white man's burden rests on the assumption that Greece invented philosophy, the arts and the sciences. Dr. James challenged the foundations of Judaism and Judaeo-Christianity, "Stolen Legacy," Pages 177-178 assert that the statue of the Egyptian goddess Isis with her child Horus in her arms is the origin of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus in her arms. He also contends that, "All the great religious leaders from Moses to Christ were initiates of the Egyptian Mysteries." Dr. James also tells us that in his "Timaeus", Plato says that aspirants for mystical wisdom visited Egypt for initiation and were told by the priests of Sais, "You Greeks are but children" in the secret doctrine, but were admitted for information enabling them to promote their spiritual advancement. AFRO-CENTISM Dr. James has been called an Afro-centrist, derived from Afro-centrism, a derisive term, that is used to describe a historical approach that argues that European scholarship has largely neglected or denied the intellectual contributions of Ancient African on their civilization and formulated " a generally European-centered model of world civilization and history." Instead of complimenting historians like Prof. James and Dr. Ben Jochannan for their sterling contributions to our understanding of world history, many scholars denigrate them. For example, in "Not Out Of Africa", Mary Lefkowitz argues that Afrocentrism is an excuse to teach myth as history. But Dr. James' and the claim of others that ancient African intellectual traditions were the basis of European intellectual traditions is not myth, but withstand the scrutiny of history. In "James revived", Prof. Ben Jochannan quotes from "Ruins of Empire" by Count C.F. Volney, an eighteenth century French academic ˜of the highest esteem", page xvii: "There (speaking of Egypt) a people now forgotten discovered while others were yet barbarians, the elements of the arts and sciences. A race of men now rejected for their black skin and wooly hair founded on the study of the laws of nature those civil and religious systems which still govern the universe." Dr. James' Importance Dr. James, Prof. Yoef A.A. Ben Jochannan and others of their views teach us the truth about our ancestors. The achievements of Kimet (Africa is the derisive European term ) are startling to this day. Dr. James and others point to Kufu's Great Pyramid (even if Eurocentrists deny Nefertiti and Cleopatra as being black, they accept that Kufu was black), the Grand Lodge at Luxor, the Pyramid Texts, the Kimetian Book of the Dead, the Kimetian Mystery Systems as examples of African genius. When European scholars state that the Great Pyramid of Giza was built 2,000 years before the Common Era, Dr. James and others prove that it was built 8,000 years earlier. When European teachers told us that Africa was "the dark continent", he and others proved that it was the only continent of light. Indeed, men like Dr. James should be enshrined in the Intellectual Hall of Fame for those who dare expose the lies that Europe had told for so long. Conclusion Dr. George G.M. James was born in British Guiana but he belongs to the world. The movement he started was to show how Africa was the cradle of civilization and the origin of European enlightenment. To date no biography of Dr. James exists. I hope that someone will commence research and publish a book on him. It is long overdue in the name of Black History. |
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Registered:: April 25, 2004
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Television Programming for Black History Month
NBC Feb. 20: "Little Richard." NBC original movie stars Leon, Garrett Morris and Carl Lumbly in a biographical account of the rock 'n' roll icon. Robert Townsend directs! . Feb. 16: "Great Performances" presents "Aida's Brothers and Sisters: Black Voices in Opera." Documentary salutes African American opera stars, including Sissieretta Jones, an ex-slave who performed for four U.S. Presidents. Feb. 16: "Nadro." Documentary about the African artist. Feb. 17: "Ellis Marsalis: Jazz is Spoken Here." This special profiles jazz great Wynton's father, who also happens to be a pianist, teacher and role model. Feb. 18: "I'll Make Me a World: A Century of African- American Arts." Parts 3 and 4 take a look at racial barriers being broken. Feb. 21: "A Walk through Harlem with David Hartman and Historian Barry Lewis." An exploration of New York's most famous neighborhood. Feb. 21: Ralph Ellison's "King of the Bingo Game." A dramatic adaptation of Ellison's short story. Feb. 23: "Black Women On: The Light, Dark Thang." This documentary explores racial prejudice in the Black community from the female perspective. Feb. 24: "Great Performances" presents "Dance in America: A Hymn for Alvin Ailey." Dancer/choreographer Judith Jamison and performance Artist Anna Deavere Smith pay tribute to Ailey. Feb. 25: "I'll Make Me a World: A Century of African-American Arts." The last two parts profile African-American artists from the 1960s to the present. Feb. 27: "All God's Children." A documentary on the alienation of the gay community. Feb. 27: The Kennedy Center Presents: "A Tribute to Muddy Waters, King of the Blues." Billy Dee Williams hosts; Bo Diddley, Phoebe Snow, Peter Wolf and others perform. Feb. 28: "The America Experience" presents "John Brown's Holy War." Joe Morton narrates this documentary about Brown's crusade against slavery. BET The Black Entertainment Television Channel celebrates Black History Month with "A Century Rich in Color," a special collection of films, premieres and original documentaries. Coretta Scott King and her daughter, director Yolanda King, will serve as guest hosts. Check local listings for full schedule and times. E! ENTERTAINMENT Feb. 21: E! Offers profiles and biographies on some of the most talented faces in show business. "Uncut," a series of personal interviews, will feature the stories of personalities like Morgan Freeman, Wesley Snipes, Debbie Allen and Quincy Jones. "Celebrity Profile" will feature Della Reese, Danny Glover and others. "Mysteries & Scandals: Paul Robeson" reveals how the American government destroyed this actor's reputation after he began fighting for the rights of African American people. HGTV Feb. 20: "Return to Harlem." Ossie Davis narrates this special, which examines the new number of African Americans who are creating a Harlem renaissance. HISTORY Feb. 16: "The Black Cowboys." Danny Glover hosts this look at African American cowboys. Feb. 18: "The Underground Railroad -- Part II" Feb. 19: "The Talented Tenth." A look at five prominent African American families. Feb. 19: "Shaka Zulu." Acclaimed miniseries. Feb. 20: "The African Burial Ground: People and Politics." Part 3. Feb. 22: World premiere. "20th Century with Mike Wallace: South Africa : Free at Last." A look at the history of South Africa. Feb. 23: World premiere. "History's Mysteries: Discharged Without Honor -- Brownsville." A look at the 1906 discharge of an entire Black infantry unit after a midnight raid on Brownsville, Tex. Feb. 26: "Black Georgetown Remembered," and the world premiere of "Murder in Memphis: Unanswered Questions," a look at the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. Feb. 27: "The African Burial Ground: An Open Window." Part 4. Feb. 29: "Frederick Douglass," and "Royal Federal Blues," the story of the United States Colored Troops. SHOWTIME Showtime presents a number of original films as well as four short films by up-and-coming African American film makers, plus a theatrical film by poet Maya Angelou. Feb. 20: "The Wishing Tree." Alfre Woodard stars as a lawyer who returns to her hometown and reconnects with her roots. Blair Underwood co-stars. Feb. 27 at 8 p.m.: "Down in the Delta." Maya Angelou directs Alfre Woodard, Al Freeman, Esther Rolle and Wesley Snipes. TBS TBS offers a month full of movies and an awards show pegged to Black History Month. Highlights include: Feb. 22: "Ghosts of Mississippi." Alec Baldwin and Whoopi Goldberg star in the story of the trials dealing with the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers. Feb. 23: "To Kill a Mockingbird." Gregory Peck and Robert Duvall star in this classic about racial prejudice in 1930s Alabama. Feb. 25: "In the Heat of the Night." Sidney Poitier stars as a Philadelphi a homicide expert wrongly accused of murder in Mississippi. Feb. 26: "Glory." Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington star in this story of America's first unit of Black soldiers. Feb. 26: "The Trumpet Awards." Debbie Allen and Kweisi Mfume host this honors show, which salutes African American achievements in diverse fields. Bryant Gumbel and Smokey Robinson are among the honorees. TCM Turner Classic Movies celebrates Black History Month every Sunday in February. Some highlights: Feb. 20: "The Long Ships," starring Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier; and "The Defiant Ones," starring Tony Curtis and Poitier. Feb. 21: "King Solomon's Mines," starring Paul Robeson. Feb. 27: "Princess Tam Tam," starring Josephine Baker. Feb. 28: "The Jackie Robinson Story," starring Jackie Robinson and Ruby Dee. TNT Feb. 16: "Whatever Happened to Michael Ray?" The true account of the rise and fall of basketball great Michael Ray Richardson. |
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Location: Wherever I may be.
Registered:: October 15, 1999
Posts: 24648
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Marc Matthews is a writer who was born in Guyana in the 1940s. He received, he reports, "a mid Victorian education" at Queen's College, Georgetown.
He worked as an operator, producer and presenter on Radio Demerara; as a scriptwriter and documentary researcher/ presenter for Guyana Broadcasting Service as a tutor in drama at the Cyril Potter Teachers Training College. In the 1960s he was in London as a freelance reporter, involved with the UK Black Power movement and alternative theatre productions. He was closely involved with the Caribbean Artists Movement, being, along with Linton Kwesi Johnson, one of the most prominent younger poets to come out of CAM. Unlike Johnson, Marc Matthews's pioneering role as a nation language performance poet has not been properly recognised, probably because his roots and material were always more Guyanese than Black British. Similarly, because of its nature as live theatre rather than as published scripts, his important work, first with fellow Guyanese Ken Corsbie in Dem Two, then in All Ah We, which added John Agard and Henry Muttoo, has largely vanished from the record, if not the memory of those who witnessed them. Only Matthews's record Marc-Up (1987) survives as a record of those days. As the tyranny of the Burnham years worsened, Marc Matthews settled in the United Kingdom, though he made one attempt to return to live in Guyana after the return of democratic government in the 1990s. In 1988, he won the Guyana Prize for his first collection of poetry Guyana My Altar (Karnak House, 1987). (Kairi in Trinidad had produced an early unbound pamphlet of Matthews, Eleven O'Clock Goods, in 1974). |
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Location: "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Registered:: March 08, 1999
Posts: 46460
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CHECK THE AMERICANA ENCYCLOPEDIA, HE IS LISTED AS THE BELOW FACTS STATES. YOU NEVER GET TO OLD TO LEARN! WOW!
A "Black" Man, A Moor, John HansonSource Was the First President of the United States! 1781-1782 A.D.??? George Washington was really the 8th President of the United States! George Washington was not the first President of the United States. In fact, the first President of the United States was one John Hanson. Don't go checking the encyclopedia for this guy's name - he is one of those great men that are lost to history. If you're extremely lucky, you may actually find a brief mention of his name. The new country was actually formed on March 1, 1781 with the adoption of The Articles of Confederation. This document was actually proposed on June 11, 1776, but not agreed upon by Congress until November 15, 1777. Maryland refused to sign this document until Virginia and New York ceded their western lands (Maryland was afraid that these states would gain too much power in the new government from such large amounts of land). Once the signing took place in 1781, a President was needed to run the country. John Hanson was chosen unanimously by Congress (which included George Washington). In fact, all the other potential candidates refused to run against him, as he was a major player in the revolution and an extremely influential member of Congress. As the first President, Hanson had quite the shoes to fill. No one had ever been President and the role was poorly defined. His actions in office would set precedent for all future Presidents. He took office just as the Revolutionary War ended. Almost immediately, the troops demanded to be paid. As would be expected after any long war, there were no funds to meet the salaries. As a result, the soldiers threatened to overthrow the new government and put Washington on the throne as a monarch. All the members of Congress ran for their lives, leaving Hanson as the only guy left running the government. He somehow managed to calm the troops down and hold the country together. If he had failed, the government would have fallen almost immediately and everyone would have been bowing to King Washington. In fact, Hanson sent 800 pounds of sterling silver by his brother Samuel Hanson to George Washington to provide the troops with shoes. Hanson, as President, ordered all foreign troops off American soil, as well as the removal of all foreign flags. This was quite the feat, considering the fact that so many European countries had a stake in the United States since the days following Columbus. Hanson established the Great Seal of the United States, which all Presidents have since been required to use on all official documents. President Hanson also established the first Treasury Department, the first Secretary of War, and the first Foreign Affairs Department. Lastly, he declared that the fourth Thursday of every November was to be Thanksgiving Day, which is still true today. The Articles of Confederation only allowed a President to serve a one year term during any three year period, so Hanson actually accomplished quite a bit in such little time. Six other presidents were elected after him - Elias Boudinot (1783), Thomas Mifflin (1784), Richard Henry Lee (1785), Nathan Gorman (1786), Arthur St. Clair (1787), and Cyrus Griffin (1788) - all prior to Washington taking office. So what happened? Why don't we ever hear about the first seven Presidents of the United States? It's quite simple - The Articles of Confederation didn't work well. The individual states had too much power and nothing could be agreed upon. A new doctrine needed to be written - something we know as the Constitution. And that leads us to the end of our story. George Washington was definitely not the first President of the United States. He was the first President of the United States under the Constitution we follow today. And the first seven Presidents are forgotten in history. Does OBAMA know this? |
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Location: "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Registered:: March 08, 1999
Posts: 46460
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Derek WilliamsDerek Williams was a founder member and former principal of Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH). He was also a member of the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica . He trained at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and the Harkness House for Ballet Arts in New York City . He created several roles and appeared in much of DTH's Balanchine repertoire for which he won international acclaim... For his role in Agon, the Times wrote '(Williams)...dances with more convincing a style than anyone else outside Balanchine's own New York City Ballet'. In 1972 Derek danced in the newly-created Concerto for Jazz Band and Orchestra by Arthur Mitchell and George Balanchine. In 1974 he performed in the Royal Variety Command Performance at the London Palladium for HRH Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and in Norway for King Olaf V. In the same year he danced in the DTH Studios for HRH the Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon during their USA visit. He had outstanding success with his first Broadway appearance in Your Arm's Too Short To Box With God. He is highly respected on an international level as a choreographer and teacher of contemporary jazz and classical ballet. In autumn 1988 Derek became Artistic Director of his own company in Grenoble, France. He has also created works for Rosella Hightower's Jeune Ballet International, Northern Ballet Theatre (NBT), Ballet Central, Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD), London Studio Centre, the Arts Educational London Schools and for Union Dance Company, of which he was also Associate Artistic Director. He was appointed a lecturer at NSCD. In 1996 he was co-choreographer of the Festival Valtice and performed his own choreography for the opera Vampyr in the Czech Republic. He also created and performed his solo in the Folkwang Fest der Künste in 1999 in Germany. As a guest teacher he has worked for DTH, New York Theatre Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, NBT, Rambert Dance Company, Phoenix Dance Company, Centre National de Danse Contemporaine d'Angers, Lyon Opera Ballet, the National Ballet of Prague, the Macedonian National Theatre and in 2000 Ballet Nacional de Caracas. Currently he is a Professor of Dance at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, Germany . From this base he has guested with Susanne Linke and the Bremer Tanz Theater, the Schiller Theater NRW, Stätischen Bühnen Münster, the Palucca Schule and the Prinzregenten Theater München. DANCE: HARLEM THEATER'S 'OTHELLO' The Dance Theater of Harlem, which has one more week at the City Center, presented its newest bill Thursday night - the company premiere of John Butler's ''Othello'' and the season's first performances of ''Frankie and Johnny'' and ''Troy Game.'' Because a new cast in ''Concerto Barocco'' completed the evening, it could be called one of those programs with something for everybody. On the other hand, it could also be called a program muddled in its taste and artistic direction. For the most part, the Dance Theater of Harlem has had a fabulous season, with more than isolated success in its several company premieres. There have been no world premieres. It is precisely because the company's directors have turned, this season, to other companies' works rather than the creation of their own that one would expect their choices to be rigorous and justified. ''Othello,'' in Mr. Butler's schematic superficial version, has little to justify it on purely artistic grounds and the company dances it poorly and awkwardly. By the same token, Robert North's ''Troy Game'' has now evolved into so fey and camp a beefcake parade that the dancers themselves should take a look at what they are doing. This program, then, gave little hint of how high the artistic standards of Dance Theater of Harlem actually are. The Bach-Balanchine ''Concerto Barocco'' is conceivably George Balanchine's greatest work. For some reason, however, it is the one Balanchine ballet that this Balanchine-oriented company has never been able to pull off consistently. Yvonne Hall, in the second section, for instance, never lifted her leg high enough to perform a complete arabesque after Derek Williams slid her forward. These half-performed movements and bad body placement marred the performance in general, although the corps was disciplined. Mr. Williams was an adequate partner and Judy Tyrus, like the ensemble, tended to shift her weight off-center at the wrong time. Do fine points like this matter? They do when they transform the work, and they certainly did in ''Othello,'' in which many details of the choreography seemed to be missing. Mr. Butler's trio, set to Dvorak's Othello Overture, has been seen here with Montreal's Grands Ballets Canadiens and the Contemporary Chamber Ballet of Caracas. In neither case did it produce much of an impression. The Canadians at least allowed us to see all the choreography, particularly the strong diagonals that one remembers from other productions. Instead, the work broke up into duets, danced variously by three people. Virginia Johnson was ill at ease as Desdemona, forced into gauchely performed lifts by Donald Williams. Sulpicio Mariano's Iago and Mr. Williams flew upward excitingly in unison, but the dramatic motivation of their own duets was not apparent. Performed at its best, ''Othello'' can be seen as an attempt to capture the essence of a drama. In this rendering, the result was oversimplification. Only the final melodramatic strangling sent the audience into paroxysms of approval. Tom H. John was responsible for the new metal-sculpture set. The happy note on the program was struck with ''Frankie and Johnny,'' the famous 1938 poster-art ballet by Ruth Page and Bentley Stone. The company's dancers still give it a realistic approach rather than the period-piece treatment that its cartoon nature deserves. Nonethless, they are fine in their own way, with the work's structure carrying the action along. Ingeniously, this classic look at American low-life is built around a suite of social dances in Jerome Moross's wittily ironic score. ''Sidewalk Stomp'' introduces a brownstone brothel and its denizens. The clients jump up and down the stairs, feet together. Mr. Williams as Johnny uses a bannister as a partner. Stephanie Dabney's sizzling Frankie lopes along for a duet with her lover in the ''Frankie and Johnny Blues''; ''Beer Parlor Rag'' and ''Bartender's Rag'' introduce stylized social dances and Lowell Smith's bartender, who tells Frankie her man is a-loving up Yvonne Hall's Nellie Bly. Frankie beats her breast in ''Frankie's Tunes'' and does Johnny in to the ''Fox-Trot Murder.'' A group of syncopated pallbearers ushers in the ''Funeral Parlor One-Step.'' In all, a perfectly crafted ballet. |
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DonRaja Location: SugaRi diL
Registered:: October 07, 2004
Posts: 61962
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Robert L. JohnsonRobert L. Johnson is the founder, chairman and CEO of Black Entertainment Television (BET). He is also the majority owner of the the Charlotte Bobcats of the National Basketball Association. Johnson grew up in Illinois and earned a graduate degree in international affairs from Princeton University. In the early 1970s Johnson found himself in Washington, D.C. during the early expansion of cable television. After a few years as a lobbyist for the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, Johnson borrowed money to start his own cable brand, BET. Launched in 1980, it was profitable within five years. In the early '90s BET became the first African-American-controlled company to be traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1998 Johnson bought it back and then sold it to Viacom, pocketing a reported $1.5 billion himself and retaining his position as chairman and CEO. Since then Johnson has continued to expand and diversify the BET brand, and in 2003 he became the owner of a new National Basketball Association franchise, the Charlotte Bobcats. Extra credit: NBA legend Michael Jordan joined Johnson as a part-owner of the Charlotte Bobcats in 2006. Source |
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Brinsley Dan Forde - founding member of reggae band Aswad.
(born 1952 in Guyana) Brinshley Forde is best known as one of the founding members of the reggae band, Aswad (Arabic word for "black"). Brinsley, said to be the first young black actor on British television, had been a child actor in the children's television series, Here Come the Double Deckers. He also starred as 'Wesley' in the popular British sitcom Please Sir! and also in the feature film spin of the series in 1971. In 1980 he starred in the film Babylon (directed by Franco Rosso), as "Blue" - a disenfranchised black youth who deejayed on a South London reggae soundsystem. Other television and movie appearances to his credit include: "Leo the Last", "The Georgian House", "Diamonds are Forever", "Soul Vibration (VH1) Soul on Soul", "Goodbye Charlie Bright", "To Sir, with Love(Tv)", "David and Goliath", "The Magnificent Six and 1/2", and "Black Silk". Brinsley Forde - Filmography --------- His radio programme on 6 music "Lively Up Yourself" came to an end last spring only to give way for his new show " Brinsley Forde's Dubplate Bashment". He is also a member of the Rastafari movement. |
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Sol Raye - 1934 - 2006
 http://www.thestage.co.uk/images/pics/12492.jpg Guyanese singing legend and actor Sol Raye died on March 31, 2006, at the age of 60 (suffered prostate cancer). As Sol's musical director, record producer, arranger and friend, I am very sad to see the passing of such a fine artist and one of the real characters in show business. Born Neville Marshall-Corbin in Guyana, South America in 1946, Sol moved to England and studied acting at LAMDA. He appeared in several seasons with the English Stage Company at the Royal Court before taking up singing full-time. Blessed with a voice that sounded identical to Nat King Cole's, he won a record-breaking nine times on ITV's Opportunity Knocks, which resulted in his first recording, Not Nat (EMI). Other bestselling recordings included Mona Lisa, How Sweet It Is, Checking Out and Come Home Love. He performed a tribute to Nat King Cole cabaret in the US, Africa, Australia and Scandinavia to great acclaim and in 1971 appeared in The Song Festival of Two Worlds in Portugal, which he won with the Tony Hatch song, When We Are Free. In 1985 he directed and produced, A Nightingale Sang, a TV tribute to Nat King Cole at the Savoy Hotel in London. The guest of honour was Cole's widow Maria Cole and the performers appearing were Nina Simone, Will Gaines and Danny Williams. Sol's acting credits included a long-running role in the C4 sitcom Desmond's, Runaway Bay (YTV), Jericho (Old Vic), Jack of Spades (Everyman, Liverpool), Genet's The Blacks (Royal Court) and The Decameron at the Roundhouse. His love of life and his enthusiasm was boundless and he was a pleasure to work with over the years. by John Hawkins, The Stage Newspaper Some of Sol Raye's music can be purchased from Guyana Music Showcase This message has been edited. Last edited by: <gtsweet>, |
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GNI Consumer Price Watcher Location: Richmond Hill, New York,USA
Registered:: July 02, 2003
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Review on Arts WEB Dubois - the Pioneer Black American Revolutionary Intellectual by Eddi Rodney... Mirror Feb 18th, 2007
Throughout the modern world system, and definitively in all class society, there is no more esteemed, highly respected and even revered anti-racist and intellectually advanced campaigner, than the man who many consider to be the 20th century's first Pan-Africanist. William Edmund Burghart Dubois, who was born in Massachusetts, USA in 1868, could be considered a ˜product' of the Black Reconstruction movement that ostensibly objectified the establishment of a Negro middle and capitalist class. The name Dubois is common in parts of France and even in the French Outre-Mer (Overseas Departments). It may well be that WEB Dubois's fore-parents originated from France or Haiti. It would be interesting for the historians to determine whether so or otherwise if this has not already been clarified. Forceful Advocate of Negro Equality His early experiences of American racism and prejudice differed marginally from that of Martin Luther King, whose father was relatively well placed materially. However, Martin Luther King was able to study for the doctorate in religious philosophy, largely as a consequence of the intellectual prowess of Dubois, despite the prevailing climate of Jim Crow, and the discrimination practiced against Negro communities and those Whites who comprised genuine supporters for Black equality under the American Constitution. According to a Third World Guide publication published in 1987, "WEB", as his supporters often described him, "became a forceful advocate of Negro equality" based on the creation of genuinely mass-based organisations. His higher education began in a real sense at Harvard University. He graduated in 1905. This was a period before the arrival in America of many if not all of the soon to be famous European philosophers, scientists and economists, who fled waves on anti-sxmitism in Europe, most of all that of the Nazi Terror, and emigrated to the United States. According to the same Third World Guide source, "While teaching History and Sociology at the University of Atlanta, Georgia, he founded the Niagara Association, which was later to become the National association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)." Dubois developed a capacity to reason and re-interpret the essentials of the American historical dialectic. His social praxis remains unsurpassed even today. He has certainly had his peers (CLR James - The Black Jacobins Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (New York) Random House and E. Frazier, The Black Bourgeoisie (New York), but what set him almost on a pedestal, was his founding of organisations - the Niagara Association not only created subjective conditions for the NAACP but also enable other émigrés active in American academic institutions, to seriously debate the country's history and emergence as a leading industrial power, in the years prior to and following the First World War (1914-1918). Many Arab, Japanese, Indian and Chinese as well as African students who were domiciled in the United States, chose to follow the example "WEB" had provided, and they organised themselves into "culture Study Circles". These organisations were in fact modelled on the legendary "Dubois Clubs"; and it may well have been during this period, that Dr Kwame Nkrumah, who was studying in America, became virtually, a "Dubois Africanist". The NAACP and Beyond: Dubois and the Marxist Alternative In his famous intervention, presented to the First Pan African Congress held in London during 1900, Dubois was absolutely convincing to his colleagues. He argued that the Negro People of the World should be independent; that the London Conference should support the anti-racist struggles everywhere, and that there were linkages between the fight against white supremacy in America and that of oppressed, colonial populations the world over. The London Conference was held more than a decade before the NAACP was formed in 1909. And even the Paris Pan African Congress, held in 1907, predated the formation of the NAACP. One begins to consciously grasp elements of WEB Dubois's intellectual prowess, his profound critique of American politics and social development, only by studying his writings. His several books, including the Philadelphia Negro, The Souls of the Black Folk and Black Reconstruction, were to become almost standard texts of reference for generations of American scholars. Interestingly, Dubois not only analysed the problem confronting America as that of the "colour line", but he recorded how this contradiction had developed through slavery, the Civil War and the emergence of segregation as a device used by the American ruling class. Dubois also had a great impact on those West Indian leaders such as Norman Manley and Eric Williams as well as Cheddi Jagan. He often wrote articles supportive of West Indian independence. There is an interesting episode involving Dubois, Ghana's Independence and the attempts by imperialist colonial interests to prevent both Dubois and Jagan from travelling to the Accra celebrations in 1957, that should be recounted. In his West On Trial, Jagan describes the sequence or events that unfolded after both himself and Forbes Burnham had been invited by Kwame Nkrumah to attend Ghana's Independence ceremonies. "When I arrived in London. I found all the flights to Ghana had been booked. At the last moment I was fortunate enough to step into the plane seat which was reserved for Dr Dubois; he had been prevented from leaving the U.S. to attend the celebration." (Jagan Cheddi, 1971: 184) This incident clearly illustrates the kind of solidarity which WEB Dubois espoused as an anti-racist and Pan-Africanist, as well as a revolutionary politician. It should be recalled that his internationalism was profoundly influenced by his remarkable intellectual attributes. Dubois was indeed one of the great Black Men of all time. He joined the Communist Party of the US in 1961 as an expression of support for the struggle against the Truman Doctrine, and the scourge of anti-Soviotism, anti-communism. Dubois died aged 95, in Ghana during 1963, after a lifelong battle for the poor, the oppressed and the working people of the world. |
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Location: "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Registered:: March 08, 1999
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Monte LynchEngland Monte Alan Lynch May 21, 1958, Plaisance, East Coast, Demerara, British Guiana Played for teams England, Gloucestershire, Guyana, Surrey Right-hand batsman In 1988, against West Indies at Edgbaston, Monte Lynch made his England debut - and was run out second ball after being sent back by his captain, Mike Gatting. It didn't get much better - Lynch made 2 and 6 in the next two games and was not picked again. England won though, by six wickets, the first of eight victories in nine one-dayers at home to West Indies. Lynch was a hard-hitting and popular middle-order batsman who thrilled and frustrated in equal measure. He upset many supporters by joining the first unofficial tour of South Africa by West Indies in 1983-84, and the three-year ban which resulted coincided with the best form of his career. His hopes of a comeback after 1988 were dashed when he missed almost all of the 1989 season after injuring a leg playing football, and as Surrey rebuilt he found himself increasingly marginalised, although as popular as ever with the supporters (his benefit in 1991 raised £107,000). He moved to Gloucestershire in 1994 and retired at the end of the 1997 season. He now deals in cricket equipment and continues to play club cricket in Surrey. |
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ELIZABETH JENNINGS
A black woman refused to give up her seat on a bus. She was brutally attacked and thrown off...and she took the case to court. Rosa Parks? No. Her name was Elizabeth Jennings. It happened in New York City, downtown on the corner Pearl and Chatham Streets. At least that's where it started. It was on a Sunday, July 16, 1854. Elizabeth Jennings lived 100 years before Rosa Parks. She was a 24-year-old schoolteacher on her way to the First Colored Congregational Church on Sixth Street and Second Avenue where she was to perform as the organist. Most people don't realize how long buses have been around. The first route began on 4th Avenue in 1831. In the early years, there were two ways to travel--omnibuses and railroad cars. Both were pulled by horses. The omnibuses were cheaper. The railroad cars, larger and heavier, had more entrances and exits, moved on fixed tracks, and were more comfortable. In the 1830s, New York City barely reached 14th Street, but it was growing. By the 1850s, Manhattan stretched to 59th Street and there were car tracks on most the major avenues, from First to Eighth. This created a dilemma for African American New Yorkers. In the 1830s and early 1840s, African Americans didn't use public transportation. The driver decided if you could ride or not, and African Americans weren't welcome. With the motto "walk," community leaders suggested using other means. Bucking the segregated system was also dangerous. Drivers carried whips and used them to keep African Americans off. Threats of legal retaliation were laughed at. By the late 1840s, there were special public buses on which African Americans could ride. They had large "Colored Persons Allowed" signs on the back or in a side window. But these vehicles ran infrequently, irregularly, and often not at all. Just as Rosa Parks was involved in the civil rights movement of her day, Elizabeth Jennings was part of a movement in her day too. Such notable black New Yorkers as her father Thomas Jennings, the Rev. J.W.C. Pennington, the Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, the Rev. Peter S. Ewell, Peter Porter, and a host of others were in the movement to end this discrimination. Like Rosa Parks, Elizabeth Jennings won a landmark local judicial decision. Here's how the New York Tribune reported the Jennings incident in a February 1855 article: "She got upon one of the Company's cars last summer, on the Sabbath, to ride to church. The conductor undertook to get her off, first alleging the car was full; when that was shown to be false, he pretended the other passengers were displeased at her presence; but (when) she insisted on her rights, he took hold of her by force to expel her. She resisted. The conductor got her down on the platform, jammed her bonnet, soiled her dress and injured her person. Quite a crowd gathered, but she effectually resisted. Finally, after the car had gone on further, with the aid of a policeman they succeeded in removing her." The African American community was outraged, and the following day there was a rally at Jennings' church. A letter she had written telling her account of the incident was read aloud: "Sarah E. Adams & myself walked down to the corner of Pearl & Chatham Sts. to take the 3rd Ave cars," she wrote. She described how the conductor, thought to be one Edwin Moss, and the driver had attacked her. "I told him [Moss] I was a respectable person, born and raised in this city, that I did not know where he was from and that he was a good for nothing impudent fellow for insulting decent persons while on their way to church." "Then," Jennings continued, "the (police) officer without listening to anything I had to say thrust me out and tauntingly told me to get redress if I could. I would have come up [to the rally] myself but I'm quite sore & stiff from the treatment I received from those monsters." Jennings sued the company, the driver, and the conductor. Messrs. Culver, Parker, and Arthur represented her. Arthur was Chester A. Arthur, then a novice 21-year-old lawyer and future President of the United States. This law firm was hired because it had demonstrated some talent in the area of civil rights the year before. Jennings was well off and well connected. Her father, Thomas Jennings, was an important businessman and community leader who had associations with Abyssinian and St. Phillips, two major African American churches. As a tailor, he held a patent on a method for renovating garments and maintained a shop on Church Street. He and others who had been involved in the fight to end transit discrimination helped raise money for Jennings' lawsuit. News of the trial reached all the way to San Francisco, where an African American group called the Young Men's Association passed a resolution condemning Jennings' treatment. In 1855, Judge Rockwell of the Brooklyn Circuit Court ruled in Jennings' favor, stating that: "Colored persons if sober, well behaved and free from disease, had the same rights as others and could neither be excluded by any rules of the Company, nor by force or violence." Elizabeth Jennings claimed $500 worth of damage. The majority of the jury wanted to give her the full amount, but, as the Tribune put it, "Some jury members had peculiar notions as to colored people's rights." They eventually agreed to give her $225, and the court added 10 percent plus her expenses. Within a month of the Jennings decision, an African American named Peter Porter was barred from an Eighth Avenue rail car. He too sued and the company settled out of court. From then on, African Americans were allowed to ride on rail cars on an equal basis. The Rev. J.W.C. Pennington was an important force in the New York movement for equality in public transportation, although he suffered one of the few anti-discrimination losses after Jennings' breakthrough when he brought suit against the Sixth Avenue Rail Company. However, by 1860 Pennington was able to advise the community that the First, Second, Third, possibly the Fourth, and certainly the Eighth and Ninth Avenue lines were open to all. At the outbreak of the civil war, this discriminationary practice had finally ended. "I feel like this is an issue for young people. History is something they should carry with them," says Sue Ortega, who directs a small art school and presently has a "Harmony in the Community" mural at 91st & Columbus. "It's important for them to know that real, everyday people had a lot to do with the struggle to make life in this city better." Elizabeth Jennings taught in the city's African American schools in the 1850s and 1860s, probably in African Free School #5 and then in the New York City public school system. As Mrs. Elizabeth Graham, she once again made a mark on our history, this time as the result of a tragedy. In July 1863, a resolution was passed allowing wealthier New Yorkers to buy their way out of the Civil War draft. An angry white mob rioted over a four-day period. More than 70 blacks were lynched. Many were killed, including Jennings' young son. As the riot continued to swirl around them, Elizabeth Graham and her husband, helped by a bold white undertaker, fearlessly managed to get their boy to Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn for a proper burial. The Rev. Morgan Dix of Wall Street's Trinity Church read the burial service. SOURCE |
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Location: "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
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MARY ANN SHADD (1823-1893)Daughter of a black agent in the Wilmington underground, the Quaker-educated teacher moved to Canada, where as a writer and editor she preached permanent emigration from the States. NAME: Mary Ann Shadd Cary DATE OF BIRTH: October 9, 1823 PLACE OF BIRTH: Wilmington, Delaware DATE OF DEATH: 1893 PLACE OF DEATH: Washington D. C. FAMILY BACKGROUND: Mary Ann was the eldest child of thirteen children born to Harriet and Abraham Shadd, established leaders in the free Black community. Her father was a key figure in the Underground Railroad and a subscription agent for William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator. As a child, Mary Ann witnessed slavery and the dedication her family had to freeing slaves. Mary Ann Shad married Thomas F. Cary of Toronto in 1856. They had two children, Sarah and Linton. They lived in Chatham, Canada where Mary worked at her paper and taught school. Thomas died in 1860. EDUCATION: At the age of ten, the Shadd's moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania where Mary attended a Quaker School for the next six years. This experience influence dMary later in life, whereby she returned to this location and opened a school for Black children in 1840. Later, she also taught in New York City and Norristown, Pennsylvania. ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Mary Ann Shad Cary is noted for her attacks on slavery and promotion of self-reliance. Her gift of writing in a both elegant and targeted way attracted readers to her ideas. She preached against those who took advantage of freed slaves and tried to teach these slaves how to be self reliant. In 1850 the Fugitive Slave Law was passed and Mary and her brother, Isaac, emigrated to Canada with the rest of the American Black exodus. In Canada, Mary founded a racially integrated school in Canada with the support of the American Missionary Association. At this time she joined abolitionists Mary and Henry Bibb to fight against exploitive antislavery agents known as "begging agents." She simultaneously criticized Black Southern ministry and other Blacks who did not teach intellectual growth and self reliance to other Blacks. In 1852 she wrote "Notes on Canada West" which pursuaded American Blacks to come to Canada. After the decline of her paper, Mary moved to Washington D.C. and served as a recruiting officer for the Union Army, promoting Black nationalism. In Washington, Mary established a school for Black children and attended Howard University Law School; she became the first Black female lawyer in the United States when she graduated in 1870. As a lawyer she worked for the right to vote and was one of few woman to receive the right to vote in federal elections. She organized the Colored Women's Progressive Franchise in 1880 which was dedicated to women's rights. QUOTE: "Self-reliance Is the Fine Road to Independence." From the paper which served as her voice and in which she served as editor, publisher, and investigative reporter, Provincial Freeman. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Rhodes, Jane. Mary Ann Shadd Cary: the Black Press and Protest in the Nineteenth Century. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998. Breaking the ice [videorecording]: The Mary Ann Shadd story. Dir. Sylvia Sweeney. First Run/Icarus Films, 1997. |
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UK Correspondent Registered:: November 03, 2003
Posts: 22192
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Michael's romances attract unhealthy interest, writes Christian Cotroneo
Feb 22, 2007 04:30 AM To help mark Black History Month, the Star recounts the life of Michael Van Cooten, who rose from a difficult childhood to become a community leader as publisher of Toronto's Pride News. The story so far: Michael is being raised in 1960s Guyana by his grandmother and uncle. His mother is mostly absent, his father a mystery. Cursed with especially dark skin in a culture that absorbed "shadeism" from its roots in slavery, he's teased as a "black bastard." The first time Michael Van Cooten got a girl pregnant, his mother managed to wrest him away from a forced marriage. He was, after all, only 15. The second time, about a year later, was deadly serious. This girl was engaged to another man. In Guyana of the 1960s, that kind of development could get someone killed. So his mother, Matilda Van Cooten, quietly fixed her a homemade concoction that induced early labour. After the deed was done, she led her boy to the toilet and made him peer down – at what might have been. "I want you to look at this," she said, forcing him to gaze upon the terrible wages of his mistake. "Never, ever again, put anyone in the situation where they have to do this." Having grown up without a father, Michael should have known better. But he was handsome, athletic, and smart as a whip – even if he never could outsmart a whipping. Guyana was home to a thin strip of bamboo called a wild cane – and there were few more staunch believers in its child-taming merit than a certain principal at Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic School. After morning prayers, he addressed the school – classes shared a single room – and called the children to the stage, like the condemned to the gallows, while the master of ceremonies detailed their crimes. If it was to be a bamboo strip across the hand, Michael would try to flick his exposed digits away just in time. If it was a spanking, the boy tried padding his pants with textbooks – a deception that invariably earned him a double measure. Walking the streets of Georgetown, however, Michael found unlikely inspiration in the young men standing around on corners, in yards and on stoops. Their idling ways, or liming, as it was called, only fuelled the boy's academic ambitions. "I will never, ever be like that," he vowed. So he studied harder. He ran faster – becoming, in fact, the school's best 100-metre sprinter. And high jumper and long jumper. He was getting good at gardening too, thanks to his Uncle Claude, who set the boy to work plucking weeds. Claude Thorne could be a severe master, determined to instill a strong work ethic in the boy he helped raise – and a healthy disdain for mediocrity. He fancied Michael would come to work at the Guyana Telecommunications Corp. some day and blaze his way up the corporate ladder. While his uncle nurtured his ambition, his beloved grandmother, who also lived in the Robb St. house, tended his spirit. Michael prayed with her, wrapped bandages around her swollen leg, and pressed her body where it ached from arthritis. He felt he was healing her. In return, Grandmother shielded Michael from the realities of being dark-skinned in a society that favoured people from the lighter side of the skin spectrum – and from the feeling that maybe his colouring was the real reason his mother had sent him away when he was 3 months old. Michael was, after all, the middle child of three children with three different fathers. He was also the darkest. Eventually, his mother and little brother would come to live with Michael and his grandmother, but for many years, there was a seething undercurrent to their relationship. By the time he was 19, Michael was a senior technician at the phone company, running a Georgetown satellite branch servicing government and corporate offices. Uncle Claude was officially in charge, but it was more of an "on-call" situation, with Claude spending much of his time among friends and a friendly game of cards or two. About then, the Brothers Incorporated started hitting town. Michael founded the group, recruited a secretary and drummed up a motto: "All for One. One For All." Mostly it was a fanciful title for a few fast friends who lifted weights, played ping-pong and partied together. Mornings, they jogged along the seawall, past the old forts and cannons helmed by Dutch soldiers centuries ago. The air was so sweet, deep breaths were intoxicating. They kept their bicycles polished for tours of the realm. Michael made no pretense of dating just one girl, often having a gaggle in circulation. There was Hazel, a high-school principal 10 years older, who would teach him lifelong lessons from her bed. Hazel's mother always seemed standoffish. Was it the age difference? As it turned out, something much more menacing. While Michael was zooming about town on Hazel's moped, someone else was watching. One night a limousine pulled up in front of Hazel's house while she sat on the porch chatting with Michael. She ran out, exchanged words with the person and returned, flustered. "Who was that?" Michael asked. After some time, she said, "There's a guy that I'm going with. He's married. He bought the moped for me." "Who's the guy?" It was the second most powerful man in the country – a politician. Days later, a co-worker approached Michael with a message from that man. "The young lady that you've been going to see on Forshaw St. – don't go back there any more," the man said. "You're riding the moped he bought his woman. You're screwing his woman. He's getting a little pissed about this. He could take action." "What kind of action?" "If you continue, you'll find out." But Michael didn't so much quit Hazel as expand his repertoire. Pam was another young beauty. And she had her own house – even if Michael found that detail a little strange. What, in fact, did she do for a living? Uncle Claude, summoning his nephew, would answer that question. "You're quite the ladies man, aren't you? "I got a call from one of the engineers at the telecom that you're going with a woman he would like to go with." Claude had also heard from the second most powerful man in the country, regarding the dalliance with Hazel. "But it's the last call that concerns me," he continued. "Are you seeing a young lady called Pam?" "Yes, but how would you know that?" "Were you there three Wednesday nights ago?" "Yes." "Were you there Friday night? And were you there last Tuesday?" "Yes. How did you know all of this?" "You're being watched. And all of this stuff is being recorded. You're stepping on the prime minister's toes. I suggest you stop seeing that one because he's a serious man. I love you dearly, and I'm saying drop that one." A week later there was an even more urgent message, from a family friend. "I want you to book your flight to Canada and get the hell out of this country in two weeks." |
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Location: "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Registered:: March 08, 1999
Posts: 46460
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Jermain Wesley Loguen(circa 1813-1872)"No day dawns for the slave, nor is it looked for. It is all night"”night forever," said this fugitive, son of his Tennessee master and a slave woman. Underground agent and ordained minister, he helped 1,500 escapees and started black schools in New York State. Text excerpted from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC July 1984 Jermain Wesley Loguen was born February 5, 1813 into slavery in Tennesee. His mother was a slave, his father owned her. Loguen escaped in 1834 to St. Catherine's Ontario. After spending a few years in Canada, he moved to Rochester in 1837 before he enrolled in Beriah Green's Oneida Institute. In 1840, he married Caroline Storum of Bustin, New York. Loguen moved to Syracuse shortly afterwards, but he spent three of the next few years at Bath and two in Ithaca, as an AME Zion minister. Caroline may not have moved to Syracuse until 1847 or 1848, when Jermain Loguen bought property at the corner of East Genesee and Pine Streets. In 1848, Loguen purchased about one-half acre of land on the north side of the Genesee Turnpike at the corner of Pine Street for $800 from Joseph and Sarah Chapman on Block 224, Lot 1, "excepting and reserving thereout a piece at the southeast corner of forty feet wide on the Turnpike road, and fifty feet wide of the same width on which the school house was built." Loguen was active as a school teacher, and he may have purchased the property next to the school house to promote his educational work. Probably, a house already existed on this property, since the price was relatively high. At some point, the Loguens added an apartment for freedom seekers. An obituary for Sarah Loguen Fraser noted that this home "was a station on the 'underground railroad,' and the basement was fitted with bunks and other equipment for care of runaway slaves." In 1860, Loguen was assessed $1500 for a lot on this corner, 108 feet x 150 feet, with house and barn. Most houses in the neighborhood at the time were assessed for $300-$400, so the Loguens' home was substantially larger than many of the surrounding houses. Jermain Loguen sold this lot in 1870 to H.W. Clarke. Jermain Loguen noted in his autobiography that he was not dependent on his work as a teacher and minister to support his family." He drew his own money from the bank," he wrote, "and bought him a house and lot, and became, and has continued, a freeholder and tax paying citizen. Real estate rose in value in his hands, and by industry and care, his early investments made him not rich, but in good credit." Perhaps he was using money brought into their family by Caroline Storum Loguen. In fact, he seems to have been a land speculator, as well, as suggested by the deeds. Between 1848 and 1870, Loguen purchased at least thirteen properties in Syracuse. He sold most of them, some of them to other African Americans. Only one of these properties may possibly be extant, the building on the northwest corner of Walnut and East Fayette. Loguen owned three lots on this corner. Is it possible that this building combines two of the buildings that stood on this corner? (See attached list of properties that Loguen acquired and map of locations.) In 1855, the couple had six living children at home, Latiecha, aged 13; Amelia, aged 12; Garret, aged 7; Marinda, aged 5; William, aged 3; and Mary, aged 1. Corydon Williams, a forty-six-year-old African American painter from New York lived with them, as did Catharine Williams, twenty, born in New England, and Maranda Storum, Caroline's sister, thirty-six years old. Loguen became a school teacher, an AME Zion minister and later bishop, an abolitionist lecturer, and chief agent of the Underground Railroad in Syracuse. As Stationmaster of the Underground Railroad in Syracuse, Loguen published in the local newspapers his calls for aid to fugitives from slavery, as well as an account of how he spent the money received. In 1851 along with Unitarian minsiter Sam May, Loguen helped to arrange Jerry Henry to escape. But Loguen was indicted for his part in the Jerry rescue. He fled to Canada as well, but later returned. While most of these people remain unidentified, a few specific examples have been recorded. On Christmas Eve, 1855, six freedom seekers left Oak Hill plantation in Loudon County, Virginia. Two of them were captured, but the remaining four (Barnabas and Mary Elizabeth Grigby, Frank Wanzer, and Emily Foster) confronted their pursuers with guns and managed to escape across the Maryland-Pennsylvania line to freedom. William Still, who kept the main underground railroad station in Pennsylvania, bought them tickets on the train to Syracuse, New York, where Rev. Loguen officiated at the wedding of Frank Wanzer and Emily Foster. All four went to Auburn, Rochester, and St. Catherine's, Ontario. His was reported to be the most openly operated station in the state, if not the country. As Milton Sernett noted in North Star Country, Syracuse became known as "the great central depot" of the underground railroad in New York State, the "Canada of the North," and Loguen was called the "Underground Railroad King." It is estimated that about 1500 fugitive slaves passed through his home on their way to freedom. He told his amazing and inspirational story in his autobiography, The Rev. J.W. Loguen as a Slave and as a Freeman, published in Syracuse in 1859. Jermain W. Lougen died in 1872. CHILDREN In 1869, Amelia Loguen married Lewis Douglass, son of Frederick Douglass, in the Loguens' home. Marinda S. Loguen, later called Sarah, graduated from the Syracuse University College of Medicine in 1876, one of the first African American women in the country to become a doctor. After working Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington, D.C., she went to Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo, where she married Charles A. Fraser and lived until 1897. She returned to Syracuse and bought a house on Westcott Street, where she lived for four years. She died in June 1933. (Post-Standard, June 14, 1933) Gerrit Smith Loguen became an artist. Mary Loguen married James Cromwell, a Syracuse barber.) reference: Gates ; Hunter narrative; Hunter - captives; Loguen; additional references: New York Daily Tribune, 1 October 1872; San Francisco Elevator, 5 October 1872; Benjamin Quarles, Allies for Freedom: Blacks and John Brown (New York, 1974), 39-44, 65-66, 73-75; idem, Black Abolitionists, 66-67, 154, 188; DAB, 11:368-69. JOSIAH HENSON (1789-1883) So trustworthy a slave that his owner made him an overseer, Henson, while transporting slaves to Kentucky, resisted others' efforts to free them all. Harriet Beecher Stowe attributed a similar episode to Uncle Tom in her novel. Henson eventually escaped to Canada, led others to safety, and traveled as abolitionist and businessman. Josiah Henson, a true abolitionist. . . June 15 Josiah Henson *This date marks the birth of Josiah Henson in 1789. He was an 18th century Black abolitionist. The first anti-slavery law in Canada was passed in 1783 by then Ontario. For the next 68 years it is estimated that 50,000 Blacks entered Canada for safety & freedom. One of them was Josiah Henson, a former slave from Kentucky. During his lifetime, three masters owned Henson. Henson started preaching to raise money in the hope of buying his freedom. His master took the money that Josiah had earned, and then raised the price of Henson's freedom to one thousand dollars. He returned to his master's plantation, after a plot to secretly sell Josiah fell through, where he informed his wife of his plan to escape. Soon after he, his wife, and their four children escaped to Canada. On their journey to freedom the Henson family struggled through sickness, wolves, and starvation. The Underground Railroad and a tribe of Native Americans assisted the family along the way. Finally on October 28, 1830, after many hardships they reached freedom. He stayed in Canada only a short time before he decided to get involved with the Underground. Henson made several trips and led over two hundred slaves to Canada. During his time in Canada, Josiah Henson started the Dawn Institute in Chatham, Ontario, a refuge for fugitive slaves where they were taught trades to support themselves and their families. When Henson went to the World's Fair in London, he became the first ex-slave to be granted an audience with Queen Victoria. He is also believed to be the model for Uncle Tom in Harriet Beecher Stowe's antislavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Josiah Henson was a true hero and humanitarian during the time of the Emancipation Proclamation. |
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Location: "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Registered:: March 08, 1999
Posts: 46460
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Registered:: September 25, 2002
Posts: 786
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So when she actually barn...? |
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Location: "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Registered:: March 08, 1999
Posts: 46460
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Posted
JOSIAH HENSON (1789-1883)So trustworthy a slave that his owner made him an overseer, Henson, while transporting slaves to Kentucky, resisted others' efforts to free them all. Harriet Beecher Stowe attributed a similar episode to Uncle Tom in her novel. Henson eventually escaped to Canada, led others to safety, and traveled as abolitionist and businessman. Josiah Henson, a true abolitionist. . . * He was an 18th century Black abolitionist. The first anti-slavery law in Canada was passed in 1783 by then Ontario. For the next 68 years it is estimated that 50,000 Blacks entered Canada for safety & freedom. One of them was Josiah Henson, a former slave from Kentucky. During his lifetime, three masters owned Henson. Henson started preaching to raise money in the hope of buying his freedom. His master took the money that Josiah had earned, and then raised the price of Henson's freedom to one thousand dollars. He returned to his master's plantation, after a plot to secretly sell Josiah fell through, where he informed his wife of his plan to escape. Soon after he, his wife, and their four children escaped to Canada. On their journey to freedom the Henson family struggled through sickness, wolves, and starvation. The Underground Railroad and a tribe of Native Americans assisted the family along the way. Finally on October 28, 1830, after many hardships they reached freedom. He stayed in Canada only a short time before he decided to get involved with the Underground. Henson made several trips and led over two hundred slaves to Canada. During his time in Canada, Josiah Henson started the Dawn Institute in Chatham, Ontario, a refuge for fugitive slaves where they were taught trades to support themselves and their families. When Henson went to the World's Fair in London, he became the first ex-slave to be granted an audience with Queen Victoria. He is also believed to be the model for Uncle Tom in Harriet Beecher Stowe's antislavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Josiah Henson was a true hero and humanitarian during the time of the Emancipation Proclamation |
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