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.

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]

Alonzo Adams - Black Romantic Artist

Alonzo 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

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

Derek Walcott - Nobel Prize Laureate

Derek 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

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The Art Of Aubrey Williams

My 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

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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

Michelle Robinson-Obama - January 17, 1964 -Profile of a possible Black First Lady

Michelle 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

"SARAH GOODE"the first black female patten holder. A desk that converts to a bed.

quote:

Originally posted by bird:
"SARAH GOODE"the first black female patten holder. A desk that converts to a bed.

Sarah E. Goode

Sarah 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.

GUYANA’S SHINING STAR GEORGE G.M. JAMES

By 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.

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.

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).

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 Hanson

Source

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?

Derek Williams

Derek 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.

Donald Cotton
- invented propellants for nuclear reactors - 1939

Physical and Nuclear Chemistry

Donald Cotton, the technical lead for nuclear chemistry research and development at the Department of Energy, plans, manages and evaluates research and development on reactor materials and chemistry carried out in DOE national laboratories. He identifies the breeder reactor needs of less-developed nations, an assignment which has taken him to several European states.

Dr. Cotton first worked as a physical chemist at the Naval Propellant Plant at Indian Head, Maryland. From there he moved to the Marine Engineering Laboratory in Annapolis where he worked on the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels and invented a microwave absorption technique for measuring solid propellant burning rates. Later he researched liquid state chemistry and liquid gas propellants.

His career extended beyond the laboratory. For 2 years Cotton was science editor for Libratterian Books, presenting scientific and technical subjects to lay readers.

Cotton's degrees in physical chemistry include an M.S. from Yale University and a Ph.D. from Howard. He has lectured at Universities in Africa and South America, has patents to his credit, and has written many scientific papers.

George Crum: Inventor of Potato Chips

The potato chip was invented in 1853 by George Crum. Crum was a Native American / African chef at the Moon Lake Lodge resort in Saratoga Springs, New York, USA. French fries were popular at the restaurant and one day a diner complained that the fries were too thick. Although Crum made a thinner batch, the customer was sill unsatisfied. Crum finally made fries that were too thin to eat with a fork, hoping to annoy the extremely fussy customer. The customer, surprisingly enough, was happy - and potato chips were invented!

Crum's chips were originally called Saratoga Chips and potato crunches. They were soon packaged and sold in New England - Crum later opened his own restaurant.

William Tappendon manufactured and marketed the chips in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1895. In the 1920s, the salesman Herman Lay sold potato chips to the southern USA (selling the chips from the trunk of his car). In 1926, Laura Scudder (who owned a potato chip factory in Monterey Park, California) invented a wax paper potato chip bag to keep the chips fresh and crunchy - this made potato chips even more popular.

Robert L. Johnson

Robert L. Johnson is the founder, chairman and CEO of Black En