Jennifer Hudson - Big, beautiful breakthrough

"Never, ever, ever give up, and don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something," said Hudson, crediting her mother with nurturing talents in her that she didn't know she had. "If they tell you that you can't do it, it's because they can't dream as big as you."

Jennifer Kate Hudson (born September 12, 1981) is an Academy Award winning American actress and singer. She first gained notice as one of the finalists on the third season of the FOX television series American Idol. She went on to star as Effie Melody White in the 2006 musical film Dreamgirls, for which she won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and a SAG Award.

Growing up on the south side of Chicago IL, Jennifer started singing in the church choir at the age of seven. For Jennifer, emoting inspirational gospel is the cornerstone of her beginnings as a talented singer, "the church is my favorite place to sing. My first solo was "Must Jesus Bare The Cross Alone." She attributes her vocal ability to her dear late maternal grandmother, Julia Kate Hudson, who was an avid churchgoer and also sang in the choir. Throughout grammar and high school, Jennifer cultivated & showcased her talent by participating in a host of local talent shows and musicals. During this time she also performed at various clubs, weddings and benefits in Chicago and surrounding areas.

In the Fall of 2002 Jennifer successfully auditioned for one of the Disney Cruise ships and landed her first major role as "Calliope", the head muse on the "Disney Wonder" line the ran from February 2003 through August of 2003 Jennifer loved her time performing on the ship and considers herself a member of the Disney family and was thrilled to be able to do what she loves to do, stating, "singing for thousands of people, and to be paid to do this, it’s amazing!." Taking a leap of faith, Jennifer consciously decided not to renew her contract with Disney; instead she flew to Atlanta to audition for the Fox hit reality show, American Idol: Season 3 in August 2003.

Amongst 70,000 hopefuls Jennifer was a stand out choice as a top 12 competitor. She wowed the idol judges and viewers spanning across the globe with great performances of classic songs by icons such as Aretha Franklin & Whitney Houston. As judge Randy Jackson’s Wild Card pick, Jennifer’s journey with American Idol accelerated her to the 7th position. Viewer response to her early departure was quite controversial and unprecedented and sent shockwaves across America as well as unleashing a torrent of criticism about the idol voting process. During her time in the "Top 12", she received high praise from some of music’s biggest industry legends. Sir Elton John was quoted as saying she was "the best of the lot". The deep, rich, powerful, classic texture of Jennifer Hudson’s voice continues to touch everyone that hears her sing. In response to hearing Jennifer’s incredible range during the competition preparation for his very own classic, "Weekend In New England" Barry Manilow stated "My catalog of songs requires that you have range, you cannot do what Jennifer is doing, she takes it to a whole other level.". Movie director Quentin Tarentino was also enchanted by hearing Jennifer’s powerful rendition of the Whitney Houston song "I Have Nothing" from the mega hit soundtrack "The Bodyguard". Quentin states "Hudson takes on Houston and WINS!" Although Jennifer did not win the idol crown she left an indelible mark on the music industry and viewers across the world. After the show ended the top 10 finalists embarked on a 48 city tour and Jennifer received critical praise for her performances from many of the local newspapers covering the event. Being voted off was an initial disappointment but reaction to her departure yielded much unprecedented coverage that includes a duet with Barry Manilow on "On Air With Ryan Seacrest" who also invited her to sing on tour with him, heavy spotlighting from Entertainment Tonight & other entertainment news intrigued to interview Jennifer as well as a guest spot on David Letterman’s Top 10 List. Of her idol experience Jennifer has this to say, "I have learned a lot," she said. "It's been the biggest experience of my life. "It's just a blessing from God to just be able to use my talent to make my living - to be on American Idol and be on stage."

Post "Idol" life for Jennifer Hudson has been very rewarding. She has performed at several important benefit concerts, including a performance in the hit Broadway musical "Hair". Jennifer makes it no secret that she has a strong interest in the stage and has received rave reviews from established stage performers after her stand out delivery of "Easy To Be Hard", which she has recorded for an ensemble cast HAIR benefit album, due for release in early 2005. Ms. Hudson was also invited to perform at an event in her hometown along side such notable acts as Destiny’s Child, Kanye West and others. Jennifer debuted an original song entitled "Stand Up", which has since been strongly supported & requested on radio and has already created a buzz on the internet.

With a 6 octave range, Jennifer has been compared to legendary voices such as Patti Labelle, Whitney Houston, and Jennifer Holiday. What you heard from Jennifer on American Idol was only a sliver of her vocal ability. Listeners should be excited to hear what she has to offer. She is currently recording her debut CD. Jennifer’s voice is a throwback to powerful old school performers. Back when singers could sang. There is a duality in Jennifer’s voice that listeners will find very pleasing. She has the prowess to deliver an old soul classic but can just as easily woo you with a big power ballad that made many of today’s musical stars famous. Fans will be pleased to know that Jennifer has been very involved and hands on in the process of recording and writing her long awaited CD, targeted for a release date of spring/summer 2005. Who needs the title of the American Idol when you have a legend in the making? Stay tuned.

How it all started....!

The idea of an International Women's Day first arose at the turn of the century, which in the industrialized world was a period of expansion and turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies.

On 8 March 1857, women working in clothing and textile factories (called 'garment workers') in New York City, in the United States, staged a protest. They were fighting against inhumane working conditions and low wages. The police attacked the protestors and dispersed them. Two years later, again in March, these women formed their first labour union to try and protect themselves and gain some basic rights in the workplace.

On 8 March 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter work hours, better pay, voting rights and an end to child labour. They adopted the slogan "Bread and Roses", with bread symbolizing economic security and roses a better quality of life. In May, the Socialist Party of America designated the last Sunday in February for the observance of National Women's Day.

Following the declaration of the Socialist Party of America, the first ever National Woman's Day was celebrated in the United States on 28 February 1909. Women continued to celebrate it on the last Sunday of that month through 1913.

An international conference, held by socialist organizations from around the world, met in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1910. The conference of the Socialist International proposed a Women's Day which was designed to be international in character. The proposal initially came from Clara Zetkin, a German socialist, who suggested an International Day to mark the strike of garment workers in the United States. The proposal was greeted with unanimous approval by the conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, including the first three women elected to the parliament of Finland. The Day was established to honour the movement for women's rights, including the right to vote (known as 'suffrage'). At that time no fixed date was selected for the observance.

The declaration of the Socialist International had an impact. The following year, 1911, International Women's Day was marked for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. The date was March 19 and over a million men and women took to the streets in a series of rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded the right to work and an end to discrimination on the job.

Less than a week later, on 25 March, the tragic Triangle Fire in New York City took place. Over 140 workers, mostly young Italian and Jewish immigrant girls working at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, lost their lives because of the lack of safety measures. The Women's Trade Union League and the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union led many of the protests against this avoidable tragedy, including the silent funeral march which brought together a crowd of over 100,000 people. The Triangle Fire had a significant impact on labour legislation and the horrible working conditions leading up to the disaster were invoked during subsequent observances of International Women's Day.

As part of the peace movement brewing on the eve of World War I, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February 1913. Elsewhere in Europe, on or around 8 March of the following year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with their sisters.

With 2 million Russian soldiers dead in the war, Russian women again chose the last Sunday in February 1917 to strike for "bread and peace". Political leaders opposed the timing of the strike, but the women went on anyway.
The rest is history: Four days later the Czar of Russia was forced to abdicate and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote. That historic Sunday fell on 23 February on the Julian calendar then in use in Russia, but coincided with 8 March on the Gregorian calendar used by people elsewhere.
Since those early years, International Women's Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike.

In December 1977 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace. Four global United Nations women's conferences have helped make the demand for women's rights and participation in the political and economic process a growing reality.

In 1975 the UN drew global attention to women's concerns by calling for an International Women's year and convening the first conference on women in Mexico City. Another convention was held in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1980.

In 1985, the UN convened a third conference on women in Nairobi, Kenya, to look at what had been achieved at the end of the decade.

In 1995, Beijing hosted the Fourth World Conference on Women. Representatives from 189 different countries agreed that inequalities between women and men has serious consequences for the well-being of all people. The conference declared a set of goals for progress of women in various areas including politics, health, and education. The final document issued by the conference (called the "Platform for Action") had this to say: "The advancement of women and the achievement of equality between women and men are a matter of human rights and a condition for social justice and should not be seen in isolation as a women's issue."

Five years later, in a 23rd special session of the United Nations General Assembly, "Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century" reviewed the progress the world has made towards achieving the goals set out by the Beijing conference. This conference has come to be known as the "Beijing +5" conference. Delegates found both progress and perservering obstacles. The delegates made further agreements to continue carrying out the initiatives of the 1995 women's conference.

Some misinformed folks might think that women's equality benefits mostly women, however, statistical studies have shown that for every one-percentile growth in female secondary schooling it results in a proportionate 0.3 percent growth in the economy. Yet girls are often denied an education in the poorest countries that would benefit the most from their overall economic growth. Unpaid labor (especially in countries in Asia and Africa - such as hours spent working in the fields, fetching water and gathering wood for cooking etc., to feed their families are not even factored into the equation), while their menfolks sit and argue about clan politics and the virtues of FGM.

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, born 21 April 1926) is Queen of sixteen sovereign states, holding each crown and title equally. However, she is more directly involved with the United Kingdom, where the Royal Family resides, and the Monarchy is historically indigenous.

Reign 6 February 1952 to present
Coronation 2 June 1953
Predecessor George VI
Heir Apparent Charles, Prince of Wales
Consort Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Issue
Charles, Prince of Wales
Anne, Princess Royal
Prince Andrew, Duke of York
Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
Full name
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor
Titles
HM The Queen
HRH The Duchess of Edinburgh
HRH The Princess Elizabeth
HRH Princess Elizabeth of York
Royal house House of Windsor
Royal anthem God Save the Queen
Father George VI
Mother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Born 21 April 1926 (age 80)
Mayfair, London
Baptised 29 May 1926[1]
Buckingham Palace, London

Apart from the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II is also Queen of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, and Saint Kitts and Nevis, where she is represented by Governors-General. The sixteen countries of which she is Queen are known as Commonwealth Realms, and their combined population is 128 million.

Elizabeth became Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Ceylon upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952. As other colonies of the British Empire (now the Commonwealth of Nations) attained independence from the UK during her reign, she acceded to the newly created thrones as Queen of each respective realm so that throughout her 55 years on the throne she has been Monarch of 32 nations, half of which either moved to different royal houses, or became republics. (See also Former Commonwealth Realms.)

She is presently the world's only monarch who is simultaneously Head of State of more than one independent nation. In legal theory she is the most powerful head of state in the world, although in practice she personally exercises very little political executive power.

Elizabeth also holds the positions of Head of the Commonwealth, Lord High Admiral, Supreme Governor of the Church of England (styled Defender of the Faith), Lord of Mann, and Paramount Chief of Fiji. Following tradition, she is also styled Duke of Lancaster and Duke of Normandy. She is also Commander-in-Chief of the Armed forces of many of her Realms.

Her ancestry includes not only British sovereigns but also a wide range of Royal Houses, some of them tracing back to Antiquity.

Her Life

Castellani House shows Deepa Mehta’s Water for International Women’s Day

Castellani House is marking International Women’s Day with the showing of ‘Water’, a film by Indian-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta, on Thursday March 8th next, at 6pm at the National Gallery.

The film was short-listed for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the recent 2007 Academy Awards in Los Angeles, submitted as the official entry from Canada, drawing glowing reviews from the international print and broadcast media, including Time magazine, Variety and the Toronto Sun.

Set against the background of Mahatma Gandhi’s rise to prominence in 1938 colonial India, the film explores the fate of Indian women destined to a life of seclusion and poverty on the death of their husbands, through the stories of child bride Chuyia and a beautiful young widow, Kalyani, who falls in love with a young follower of Gandhi.

While making the film in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh in 2000, fierce protests from political and religious organisations escalated into mass protests and burning of the film sets. Despite attempting to make changes in the script to appease official concerns, local authorities halted the film on its eventual first day of filming with an order to cease production. Though offered accommodation by other Indian states, Mehta eventually restarted her film four years later in Sri Lanka, giving the project a different title.

The film stars Lisa Ray, Seema Biswas and Bollywood leading actor John Abraham. Running time is 1 hour and 56 minutes. The public is cordially invited to attend this event.

Roza Shanina - 1924–1945

Roza Yegorovna Shanina (Russian: Роза Егоровна Шанина, 1924 – January 28, 1945) was a Soviet sniper during World War II. She was responsible for 54 confirmed kills, including 12 enemy soldiers during the Battle of Vilnius.[3] [4]

Shanina had light brown hair and blue eyes.[5] After attending Arkhangelsk Teacher's Training College, she became a mentor in the kindergarten. Then she voluntarily joined the Vsevobuch and later the Central Female Sniper Academy in Podolsk. On June 22, 1943 Shanina enlisted in the Red Army and on April 2, 1944 joined the 184th Rifle Division, where a separate female sniper platoon was formed. Once, upon receiving a battalion commander's order to immediately return to the rear, Shanina replied "I will return after the battle".[6] The words later became a title of the book From The Battle Returned by Nikolai Zhuravlyov. Shanina died in a battle near the khutor of Rikhau. Her battle diary and several letters have been published. Streets in Arkhangelsk and in the settlements of Shangaly and Stroyevskoye were named after her.

Shanina had four brothers, but only one survived the war.

Notes and references
^ Awarded on June 18 and September 22, 1944 respectively.
^ Awarded on December 27, 1944.
^ SniperCentral.com.
^ Russian: Овсянкин, Е. И. История АПК.
^ A-Z.ru.
^ (Russian) Молчанов, П., Журавлёв, Н. Подснежники на минном поле

dove how bout mrs c? today would ah been she hubby birthday - she crying still

After Making History at Six Years Old, Ruby Bridges Hall is Still a Quiet Force for Change
Date: Monday, March 05, 2007
By: Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com

Most people recall their first day at school fondly.

There may have been some slight trepidation at the beginning, as they worried about making friends or whether the teacher would be nice. Usually, things went well and by the end of the day, all concerns and fears were gone.

Ruby Bridges Hall’s first day at William Frantz School in New Orleans was monumental, but she was just a six-year-old girl who, in the midst of confusion, thought it was Mardi Gras at first.

“There was a large crowd of people outside of the school. They were throwing things and shouting, and that sort of goes on in New Orleans at Mardi Gras,” Hall told Charlayne Hunter-Gault in a PBS interview in 1997. “I really didn’t realize until I got into the school that something else was going on. Angry parents at that point rushed in and took their kids out of school … My mother and I (sat) in the principal’s office. And we sat there all day because we were not able to go to class because all of this was going on. So I actually didn’t attend class to the very next day.”

Hall, then Ruby Bridges, had just become the first black pupil to integrate an elementary school in the United States.

quote:

Originally posted by villo:
dove how bout mrs c? today would ah been she hubby birthday - she crying still

...you know she rates high in my book, please give her my love.

Rosalind McLymont

Born in Guyana, she came to the United States in 1965, later living in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1973 to 1980. She lives in Valley Cottage, N.Y., with her husband and three of their children.

Rosalind Kilkenny McLymont is editor in chief of The Network Journal, a magazine for black professionals and business owners, and a partner in McLymont, Kunda & Co., with her husband, Fritz-Earle St. Elmo Mclymont -- former director of the Port Authority of New York's export consultancy. Together they manage as strategists, international trade and business development research projects, handling everything from regulations to hands-on import/export of product such as coffee, sneakers and cigars. The company is now based in Jamaica, NY .

Former managing editor of The Journal of Commerce, Rosalind McLymont is an award-winning journalist, she handles writes and edits content for A - Z International Associates and has a master’s degree in journalism from New York University, a bachelor’s in French from the City College of New York, a certificate in Spanish language and literature from the University of Madrid, and a black belt in Tai Chi from Ming’s Tai Chi Academy.

Rosalind Kilkenny McLymont’s First Novel Catapults Readers from America to Africa and Back was released in April 2006.

Margaret Bourke-White 1904 -1971

NAME: Margaret Bourke-White

BIRTHDATE: June 14, 1904

BIRTHPLACE: The Bronx, New York

FAMILY BACKGROUND: Her father, Joseph White, was of Polish-Jewish background. He was an inventor and an engineer. He believed in equality in education and opportunity for all his children. Margaret's mother, Minnie Bourke, was of Irish-English ancestry and was a loving and nurturing mother. Minnie was completing her college degree at the time of her death. Margaret was married twice; once to Everett Chapman, when she was but 18 years old; and to Erskine Caldwell, the writer, in 1939, after they had worked together. They divorced in 1942.

EDUCATION: Margaret Bourke-White attended several universities throughout the United States while pursuing a degree in Herpetology (the study of reptiles). They included Columbia University in New York, the University of Michigan, Purdue University in Indiana, Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and she received her degree in 1927 from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.

Margaret began to study photography as a hobby while a very young woman. She developed the styles and techniques that she needed for various formats on her own. Her father was also somewhat of a camera enthusiast and he exposed her to the wonders of the photographic lens as a youngster.

DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Margaret Bourke-White is a woman of many firsts. She was a forerunner in the newly emerging field of photojournalism, and was the first female to be hired as such. She was the first photographer for Fortune magazine, in 1929. In 1930, she was the first Western photographer allowed into the Soviet Union.

Henry Luce hired her as the first female photojournalist for Life magazine, soon after its creation in 1935, and one of her photographs adorned its first cover (November 23, 1936). She was the first female war correspondent and the first to be allowed to work in combat zones during World War II, and one of the first photographers to enter and document the death camps. She made history with the publication of her haunting photos of the Depression in the book You Have Seen Their Faces, a collaboration with husband-to-be Erskine Caldwell. She wrote six books about her international travels. She was the premiere female industrial photographer, getting her start in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Otis Steel Company around 1927.

PLACE OF DEATH: Connecticut

DATE OF DEATH: August 27, 1971

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Books by Margaret Bourke-White
You Have Seen Their Faces (1937; with Erskine Caldwell)
North of the Danube (1939; with Erskine Caldwell)
Shooting the Russian War (1942)
They Called it "Purple Heart Valley" (1944)
Halfway to Freedom; a report on the new India (1949)
Portrait of Myself (1963)
Dear Fatherland, rest quietly (1946)
The Taste of War (selections from her writings, edited by Jonathon Silverman)

Books about Margaret Bourke-White:
For the world to see: the life of Margaret Bourke-White by Jonathon Silverman (1983)
Margaret Bourke-White: a biography by Vicki Goldberg (1986)
The Photographs of Margaret Bourke-White edited by Sean Callahan (1972)

WEB SITES:
National Women's Hall of Fame
Margaret Bourke-White: A Photographer's Life by Emily Keller - information about the book with excerpts and material on Bourke-White's life
Review by Elsa Dorfman - of Vicki Goldberg's Margaret Bourke-White: A Biography
Filmpicker.com: Photography Greats: Margaret Bourke White
Margaret Bourke-White @ Gallery M: Biography
Photo-Seminars Hall of Fame - Margaret Bourke-White

QUOTE: Work is something you can count on, a trusted, lifelong friend who never deserts you.
- Margaret Bourke-White

Eliza Bryant (1827-1907) - African-American founder of the The Cleveland Home for Aged Colored People.

Eliza Bryant

BIRTHDATE: 1827

BIRTHPLACE: North Carolina

EDUCATION: Unknown

FAMILY BACKGROUND: Parents, Polly Simmons, a slave, and her master. In 1848 Polly Simmons was freed and moved north with her family, purchasing a home in Cleveland, Ohio with funds from her master.

DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Eliza Bryant was active in the movement to welcome and assist African Americans to the Cleveland area, particularly those moving from the southern states. Through this work she learned of the special needs of elderly blacks left alone due to slavery. Existing facilities denied access to African Americans and so, Bryant, with the aid of Sarah Green and Lethia Flemming, began the work of establishing a home for aged blacks around 1893. In January, 1895 a board of trustees was named and the Cleveland Home for Aged Colored People opened on August 11, 1897. Bryant married and had several children.

DATE OF DEATH: May 13, 1907

PLACE OF DEATH: Cleveland, Ohio. She is buried in Woodland Cemetary.

Iranian women struggle for equality
By Frances Harrison
BBC News, Tehran

~~ My husband would beat the child and throw him aside

In the days before International Women's Day, 33 women were arrested in Tehran for peacefully protesting outside a court building. Eight of them were subsequently released.

Those detained include many of the big names of Iran's women's movement, who are calling for an end to discriminatory laws against women.

It is not hard to find women who have been caused great suffering by the law as it stands.

"This is my son just after he was born," say Forugh, looking through old photo albums in the tiny apartment where she lives alone.

Ali Reza is now seven and Forugh has not been able to see him for many months. When she separated from her husband the judge gave him custody of their child.

"From the moment he came home my husband used to start shouting until he left again," she remembers. "So many times it ended in a physical beating".

She says Ali Reza would come to her defence: "'Don't do anything to my mum,' he'd say. But he would beat the child and throw him aside".

Painful separation

The judge said Forugh could see Ali Reza for up to 12 hours a week, but they had to meet in a police station. It frightened the child so much she gave up.

Now Forugh's ex-husband does not let them meet and even prevents them talking on the phone.
Forugh is worried about the damage it has done to Ali Reza.

"One time he came to see me after some months and I asked him: 'Do you feel bad that I separated from your father and you are far away from me?' He said: 'No. I could see how much daddy was bothering you'". Forugh breaks down in tears.

Her story illustrates how the laws in Iran are weighted against women: the father automatically gets custody of a boy over two years of age or a girl over seven.

Forugh lost her child and got no financial support from her ex husband.

Fighting for justice

There are those trying to change things.

Parisa is approaching total strangers on the street and talking to them about the legal status of women.

She is collecting signatures for a petition asking for the repeal of Islamic laws that discriminate against women.

The campaign has struck a chord with many Iranian women like Mahnoush who are fed up with being second class citizens.


The judges do not consider the value and dignity of women. It's disgusting.
Shima

Mahnoush has just signed the petition and explains why: "I am protesting that in any instance I am considered only half a man... maybe I am more effective than a man so why should my rights be half his".

Her friend Shima has also signed because she says she has seen lots of women suffer, even her own mother when she divorced.

"The right to divorce is really ridiculous. I have seen women go and say their spouse is a drug addict and the judge says stay with him, at least he can support you. The judges do not consider the value and dignity of women. It's disgusting."

Surrounded by fear

Parisa is nervous being filmed collecting signatures.

She thinks plain clothes police are filming us from a parked car nearby even though she only arranged the meeting point at the last minute.

Some of her colleagues have been arrested while campaigning.

Parisa believes the authorities see them as a threat.


"Officials don't want to listen to the women's movement because they think it's something that's come from the west," she explains.

She says the interesting thing is the rich, westernised women are less supportive of the campaign to change discriminatory laws than the poor and more conservative women.

Parisa thinks it is because less well off women cannot afford good lawyers when they run into trouble.

1,000,000 signatures

The one million signature campaign to change the law began with a peaceful protest last June in one of Iran's biggest squares.

Women activists sat on the grass and sang feminist songs.

Within minutes the police beat them and started firing tear gas and mace spray.

More than 70 people were arrested. Among them 20-two-year old student Delaram Ali who is now on trial.

"I am charged with acting against national security, disturbing public order and doing propaganda against the system, and having connections to illegal opposition groups," explains Delaram.


Officials don't want to listen to the women's movement
Parisa

She says she spent three days in solitary confinement in Evin Jail after the police injured her hand in the protest last June.

Delaram is being defended by Iran's best known woman lawyer, Shireen Ebadi who won the Nobel peace prize for her human rights work.

Mrs Ebadi says Iranian law allows peaceful protests, that it is the police not the demonstrators who should be prosecuted for their violent action.

"We filed a complaint against the police. Unfortunately although 10 months has passed no representative of the police has come to reply to the complaint in spite of being asked to attend many times," she explains.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6426087.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6426087.stm

Published: 2007/03/07 17:35:42 GMT

© BBC MMVII

Women Marchers Attacked at Inauguration

1913: Women Organize Parade to Disrupt Inauguration, Onlookers Harass and Attack Marchers

When Woodrow Wilson arrived in Washington, D.C., on March 3, 1913, he expected to be met by crowds of people welcoming him for his inauguration as United States President the next day.

But very few people came to meet his train. Instead, hundreds of thousands of people were lining Pennsylvania Avenue, watching a Woman Suffrage Parade.

Organizers of the parade, led by suffragists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, planned the parade for the day prior to Wilson's first inauguration in hopes that it would turn attention to their cause: winning a federal suffrage amendment, gaining the vote for women.

Five to eight thousand suffragists marched from the U.S. Capitol past the White House. Most of the women, organized into marching units walking three across and accompanied by suffrage floats, were in costume, most in white. At the front of the march, lawyer Inez Milholland Boissevain led the way on her white horse.

In another tableau, Florence F. Noyes wore a costume depicting "Liberty". She posed for photographs with other participants in front of the Treasury building.

Of the estimated half million onlookers watching the parade instead of greeting the President-elect, not all were supporters of woman suffrage. Many were angry opponents of suffrage, or were upset at the march's timing. Some hurled insults; others hurled lighted cigar butts. Some spit at the women marchers; others slapped them, mobbed them, or beat them.

The parade organizers had obtained the necessary police permit for the march, but the police did nothing to protect them from their attackers. Army troops from Fort Myer were called in to stop the violence. Two hundred marchers were injured.

The next day, the inauguration proceeded. But public outcry against the police and their failure resulted in an investigation by the District of Columbia Commissioners and the ousting of the police chief.

More than that, the sympathy generated even more support for the cause of woman suffrage and women's rights. In New York, the annual woman suffrage parade in 1913, held on May 10, drew 10,000 marchers, one in twenty of whom were men. Between 150,000 and 500,000 watched the parade down Fifth Avenue.

Black Women Sent to the Back of the March

Ida B. Wells-Barnett, the journalist who led an anti-lynching campaign beginning in the late 19th century, organized the Alpha Suffrage Club among African American women in Chicago and brought members with her to participate in the 1913 suffrage parade in Washington, D.C.

Mary Church Terrell also organized a group of African American women to be part of the suffrage parade.

But the organizers of the march asked that the African American women march at the back of the parade. A constitutional amendment for woman suffrage, the object of the parade, would have to be ratified by two-thirds of the state legislatures after garnering two-thirds votes in both the House and Senate.

In the Southern states, opposition to woman suffrage was intensified as legislators feared that granting women the vote would add even more black voters to the voting rolls. So, the parade organizers reasoned, a compromise had to be struck: African American women could march in the suffrage parade, but in order to prevent raising even more opposition in the South, they would have to march at the back of the march. The votes of Southern legislators, in Congress and in the state houses, were possibly at stake, the organizers reasoned.

Mary Terrell accepted the decision. But Ida Wells-Barnett did not. She tried to get the white Illinois delegation to support her opposition of this segregation, but found few supporters. The Alpha Suffrage Club women either marched in the back, or, as did Ida Wells-Barnett herself, decided not to march in the parade at all.

But, as the parade progressed, Wells-Barnett emerged from the crowd and joined the (white) Illinois delegation, marching between two white supporters. She refused to comply with the segregation.

This was neither the first nor the last time that African American women found their support of women's rights received with less than enthusiasm.

Militant Suffragists Split Over Strategy

Alice Paul saw the March 3, 1913 suffrage parade as an opening volley in a more militant woman suffrage battle.

Alice Paul had moved to Washington, D.C. in January of that year. She rented a basement room at 1420 F Street NW. With Lucy Barns and others she organized the Congressional Committee as an auxiliary within the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). They began to use the room as an office and base for their work to win a federal constitutional amendment for woman suffrage.

Paul and Burns were among those who believed that state-by-state efforts to amend state constitutions was a process that would take too long and would fail in many states. Paul's experience working in England with the Pankhursts and others had convinced her that more militant tactics were also needed to bring public attention and sympathy to the cause.

The March 3 suffrage parade was designed to gain maximum exposure and to draw attention which would normally be given to the Presidential inauguration in Washington.

After the March suffrage parade put the issue of woman suffrage more prominently into the public eye, and after the public outcry over the lack of police protection helped increase public sympathy for the movement, the women moved ahead with their goal.

In April, 1913, Alice Paul began promoting the "Susan B. Anthony" amendment. It was introduced into Congress on March 10, 1914, where it failed to get the necessary two-thirds vote, but drew a vote of 35 to 34. A petition to extend voting rights to women had been first introduced into Congress in 1871, following the ratification of the 15th Amendment extending voting rights regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The last time that a federal bill had been submitted to Congress, in 1878, it had been defeated by an overwhelming margin.

In July, the Congressional Union women organized an automobile procession (automobiles still being newsworthy, especially when driven by women) to present a petition for the Anthony amendment with 200,000 signatures from around the United States.

In October, militant British suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst began an American speaking tour. In November elections, Illinois voters approved a state suffrage amendment, but Ohio voters defeated one.

By December, the NAWSA leadership, including Carrie Chapman Catt, decided that the more militant tactics of Alice Paul and the Congressional Committee were unacceptable and that their goal of a federal amendment was premature. The December NAWSA convention expelled the militants, who renamed their organization the Congressional Union.

The Congressional Union, which merged in 1917 with the Women's Political Union to form the National Woman's Party (NWP), continued to work through marches, parades and other public demonstrations.

After the 1916 Presidential election, Paul and the NWP believed that Woodrow Wilson had made a commitment to support a suffrage amendment. When, after his second inauguration in 1917, he did not fulfill this promise, Paul organized 24-hour picketing of the White House.

Many of the picketers were arrested for picketing, for demonstrating, for writing in chalk on the sidewalk outside the White House, and other related offenses. They often went to prison for their efforts. In prison, some followed the British suffragists' example and went on hunger strikes. As in Britain, the prison officials responded by force-feeding the prisoners. Paul herself, while imprisoned at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia, was force-fed. Lucy Burns, with whom Alice Paul had organized the Congressional Committee in early 1913, spent perhaps the most time in prison of all the suffragists.

Their efforts succeeded in keeping the issue in the public eye. The more conservative NAWSA also remained active in working for suffrage. The effect of all the efforts bore fruit when the U.S. Congress passed the Susan B. Anthony amendment: the House in January 1918 and the Senate in June, 1919.


Source

Sally Hemings (1773-1835)

DATE OF BIRTH: c.1773

PLACE OF BIRTH: Virginia

DATE OF DEATH: c. 1835

PLACE OF DEATH: Virginia

Sally Hemings, whose given name was probably Sarah, was the daughter of Elizabeth (Betty) Hemings and, John Wayles, Thomas Jefferson's father-in-law. She became Thomas Jefferson's property as part of his inheritance from the Wayles estate in 1774 and came with her mother to Monticello by 1776. As a child she was probably a "nurse" to Jefferson's daughter Mary (slave girls from the age of six or eight were childminders and assistants to head nurses on southern plantations.)

Sally Hemings and Mary Jefferson were living at Eppington -- residence of Mary's aunt and uncle -- in 1787, when Jefferson's long-expressed desire to have his daughter join him in France was carried out. Fourteen-year-old Sally and eight-year-old Mary crossed the Atlantic Ocean to London that summer. They were received by John and Abigail Adams, who wrote that Sally "seems fond of the child and appears good naturd." Jefferson's French butler, Adrien Petit, escorted the two girls from London to Paris.

It is not known whether Sally Hemings lived at Jefferson's residence, the Hotel de Langeac, or at the Abbaye de Panthemont, where Martha (Patsy) and Mary (Maria) Jefferson were boarding students. Jefferson, who had expressly asked that someone who had had smallpox or been inoculated against it accompany his daughter to France, soon had Sally inoculated by the famous Dr. Robert Sutton. While in Paris, she undoubtedly received training -- especially in needlework and the care of clothing -- to suit her for her position as lady's maid to Jefferson's daughters. She was occasionally paid a monthly wage of twelve livres (the equivalent of two dollars).

Sally Hemings was certainly acting as Martha Jefferson's attendant in the spring of 1789, when Patsy began to "go out" in French society (increased expenditures for clothing for both Patsy and Sally reflect this). When booking accommodations on the Clermont for the return to America, Jefferson asked that Sally's berth be "convenient to that of my daughters."

After the family's return to Virginia in 1789, Sally Hemings seems to have remained at Monticello, where she performed the duties of a household servant and lady's maid (Jefferson still referred to her as "Maria's maid" in 1799). Sally's son Madison recalled that one of her duties was "to take care of [Jefferson's] chamber and wardrobe, look after us children, and do light work such as sewing."

There are only two known descriptions of Sally Hemings. The slave Isaac Jefferson remembered that she was "mighty near white. . . very handsome, long straight hair down her back." Jefferson biographer Henry S. Randall recalled Jefferson's grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph describing her as "light colored and decidedly good looking."

Sally may have lived in the stone workmen's house (now called the "Weaver's Cottage") from 1790 to 1792, when she -- like her sister Critta -- might have removed to one of the new 12'x14' log cabins farther down Mulberry Row. After the completion of the south dependencies, she apparently lived in one of the "servant's rooms" under the south terrace (Thomas J. Randolph pointed it out to Randall many years later).

Sally Hemings was never officially freed by Thomas Jefferson. It seems most likely that Jefferson's daughter Martha Randolph gave Sally "her time," a form of unofficial freedom that would enable her to remain in Virginia (the laws at that time required freed slaves to leave the state within a year). Madison Hemings reported that his mother lived in Charlottesville with him and his brother Eston until her death in 1835.

According to Jefferson's records, Sally Hemings had four surviving children. Beverly (b. 1798), a carpenter and fiddler, was allowed to leave the plantation in late 1821 or early 1822 and, according to his brother, passed into white society in Washington, D.C. Harriet (b. 1801), a spinner in Jefferson's textile shop, also left Monticello in 1821 or 1822, probably with her brother, and passed for white. Madison Hemings (1805-1878), a carpenter and joiner, was given his freedom in Jefferson's will; he resettled in southern Ohio in 1836, where he worked at his trade and had a farm. Eston Hemings (1808-c1853), also a carpenter, moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, in the 1830s; there he was a well-known professional musician before moving about 1852 to Wisconsin, where he changed his name (to Eston Jefferson) along with his racial identity. Both Madison and Eston Hemings made known their belief that they were sons of Thomas Jefferson.

The descendants of Thomas C. Woodson (1790-1879) carry the strong family tradition that he was the firstborn child of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Woodson, who does not appear in Jefferson's records, left Greenbrier County, Virginia, for southern Ohio in the early 1820s. He was a successful farmer in Jackson Country.

--Lucia C. Stanton, Monticello Research Department, November 1989, revised October 1994.

A brief report of the Hemings-Jefferson Controversy, containing a bibliography of primary and secondary sources, is also posted on this site.


BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Bear, James A., Jr.. "The Hemings Family of Monticello," Virginia Cavalcade 29. 1979.

Betts, Edwin Morris, ed. Thomas Jefferson's Farm Book. 1953. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1953.

Brodie, Fawn M. Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History. New York: Naughton, 1974

Dabney, Virginius. The Jefferson Scandals: A Rebuttle. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1981.

Woodson, Byron W. A President in the Family : Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and Thomas Woodson. Westport: Praeger, 2001.

Willye White (January 1, 1939 - February 6, 2007)

She was an American athlete who competed mainly in the long jump and 100 metres.

She competed for the United States in 5 Olympic Games, winning her first Olympic medal in 1956 by placing second in the long jump. She then competed in the 1960 Olympics, 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan in the 4 x 100 metres (where she won the silver medal with her teammates Wyomia Tyus, Marilyn White and Edith McGuire), the 1968 Olympics and 1972 Olympics.
She was a 16-year-old sophomore in high school when she won a silver medal in the long jump in the 1956 games in Melbourne, Australia. It marked the first time an American woman ever won a medal in that event. She won her second silver medal in 1964 as a member of the 400-meter relay team in Tokyo. In all, she was a member of more than 30 international track and field teams and won a dozen Amateur Athletic Union long jump titles in her career, according to USA Track & Field, which inducted her into its hall of fame in 1981 -- one of her 11 sports hall of fame inductions. In 1999, Sports Illustrated for Women named her one of the 100 greatest women athletes in the 20th century.

Born in Money, Mississippi., and raised by her grandparents, she picked cotton to help her family earn money, while at the same time competing in sports. A longtime Chicago-area resident, she credited her experience as an athlete with allowing her to see beyond the racism and hatred that surrounded her as a child.

“She grew up before the civil rights movement and overcame all the hurdles she had as an African-American woman,” said Donna DeVarona, an Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer who was friends with White since the two met in 1960 in Rome.

White, a longtime Chicago-area resident, credited her experience as an athlete with allowing her to see beyond the racism and hatred that surrounded her as a child.
“Before my first Olympics, I thought the whole world consisted of cross burnings and lynchings,” she was quoted as saying by Sports Illustrated for Women.

“The Olympic movement taught me not to judge a person by the color of their skin but by the contents of their hearts,” she said. “I am who I am because of my participation in sports.”
After her athletic career ended, White coached, lectured and served as president of the Midwest chapter of the U.S. Olympians for 12 years. She also helped raise money for the underprivileged, founding the Willye White Foundation in Chicago to help children.

“She raised money for kids in housing projects so that they could go to school,” DeVarona said. “For all the struggles she went through she always gave back, she was always ... campaigning for equal education, equal rights.”

White died of pancreatic cancer at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, according to Sarah Armantrout, a longtime friend who was with White when she died.

QUOTATION: I was nervous, so I read the New Testament. I read the verse about have no fear, and I felt relaxed. Then I jumped farther than I ever jumped before in my life.

Joanne Rowling, OBE (born July 31, 1965)

Ms. Rowling is an English fiction writer who writes under the pen name J. K. Rowling. Rowling is the author of the Harry Potter fantasy series, which has gained international attention, won multiple awards, and sold over 325 million copies worldwide. In February 2004, Forbes magazine estimated her fortune at £576 million (just over US$1 billion), making her the first person to become a US-dollar billionaire by writing books. Rowling earned US$75 million in 2005. In 2006, Forbes named her the second richest female entertainer in the world, behind talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

Joanne Rowling was born in Yate, northeast of Bristol, South Gloucestershire, England on 31 July 1965. Her sister Dianne (Di) was born at their home when Rowling was 23 months old. The family moved to the nearby village Winterbourne when Rowling was four where she attended St Michael's Primary School, later moving to Tutshill, near Chepstow, South Wales at the age of nine. She attended secondary school at Wyedean School and College. Rowling was good with languages, but did not excel at sports and mathematics. There are numerous Welsh references to places, things and people in Harry Potter, which could be attributed to her time in Chepstow.
In December 1990, Rowling’s mother succumbed to a 10-year-long battle with multiple sclerosis. Rowling commented, “I was writing Harry Potter at the moment my mother died. I had never told her about Harry Potter.”
After studying French and Classics at the University of Exeter (she had previously applied to Oxford but was turned down), with a year of study in Paris, she moved to London to work as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International. During this period, while she was on a four-hour delayed-train trip between Manchester and London, she had the idea for a story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry. When she had reached her Clapham Junction flat, she began writing immediately.
Rowling then moved to Porto, Portugal to teach English as a foreign language. While there, she married Portuguese television journalist Jorge Arantes on 16 October 1992. They had one child, Jessica, who was named after Rowling’s heroine, Jessica Mitford. They divorced in 1993 after a fight in which Jorge threw her out of the house.
In December 1994, Rowling and her daughter moved to be near Rowling’s sister in Edinburgh, Scotland. Unemployed and living on state benefits, she completed her first novel. She did much of the work in the Elephant House café whenever she could get Jessica to fall asleep. There was a rumour that she wrote in local cafés to escape from her unheated flat, but in a 2001 BBC interview Rowling remarked, “I am not stupid enough to rent an unheated flat in Edinburgh in midwinter. It had heating.”

Harry Potter books

In 1995, Rowling completed her manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on an old manual typewriter. Upon the enthusiastic response of Bryony Evans, a reader who had been asked to review the book’s first three chapters, the Fulham-based Christopher Little Literary Agents agreed to represent Rowling in her quest for a publisher. The book was handed to twelve publishing houses, all of which rejected it. A year later she was finally given the greenlight (and a £1500 advance) by editor Barry Cunningham from the small publisher Bloomsbury. The decision to take Rowling on was apparently largely due to Alice Newton, the eight-year-old daughter of the company’s chairman, who was given the first chapter to review by her father, and immediately demanded the next. Although Bloomsbury agreed to publish the book, Cunningham says that he advised Rowling to get a day job, since she had little chance of making money in children’s books. Soon after, Rowling received an £8000 grant from the Scottish Arts Council to enable her to continue writing. The following spring, an auction was held in the United States for the rights to publish the novel, and was won by Scholastic Inc., who paid Rowling more than $100,000.

Rowling has said she “nearly died” when she heard the news. In June 1997, Bloomsbury published Philosopher’s Stone with an initial print run of only one-thousand copies, five-hundred of which were distributed to libraries. Today, such copies are each valued at between £16,000 and £25,000. Five months later, it won its first award, a Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. In February, the novel won the prestigious British Book Award for Children’s Book of the Year, and, later the Children’s Book Award. In October 1998, Scholastic published Philosopher’s Stone in the US under the title of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: a change Rowling claims she now regrets and would have fought if she had been in a better position at the time.

In December 1999, the third Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, won the Smarties Prize, making Rowling the first person to win the award three times running. She later withdrew the fourth Harry Potter novel from contention to allow other books a fair chance. In January 2000, Prisoner of Azkaban won the inaugural Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year award, though it narrowly lost the Book of the Year prize to Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf.

To date, six of the seven volumes of the Harry Potter series, one for each of Harry’s school years, have already been published and all have broken sales records. The last three volumes in the series have been the fastest-selling books in history, grossing more in their opening 24-hours than blockbuster films. Book six of her series earned The Guinness World Records Award for being the fastest selling book ever. The sixth book of the series sold more copies in 24-hours than The Da Vinci Code sold in a year. (The Da Vinci Code was the best-selling book of the previous year.)

Rowling has completed the seventh and final book of the series. Its title was revealed on December 21, 2006 to be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. On February 1, 2007, Rowling announced on her website that its release date was to be July 21, 2007. Rowling wrote on a bust in her hotel room at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh that she had completed the seventh book in that room (652) on 11 January 2007; this was confirmed to be authentic by Rowling's and the hotel's representatives. In February 2007, Neil Bayer, a lawyer with Rowling's literary agency, announced that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will not be released as an e-book. Rowling has not allowed the first six Potter stories to be released as e-books and has no plans to change that for the seventh and final work.

On June 26, 2006, Rowling revealed that in the final book of the Harry Potter series at least two characters will die, one of whom may be Harry himself. Authors Stephen King and John Irving asked Rowling not to kill off Harry in book seven during a press conference, but Rowling remained ambiguous regarding Harry’s fate.

In June 2006, the British public named Rowling “the greatest living British writer” in a poll by The Book Magazine. Rowling topped the poll, receiving nearly three times as many votes as the second-place author, fantasy writer Terry Pratchett. In July 2006 Rowling received a Doctor of Laws (LLD) honorary degree from University of Aberdeen for her "significant contribution to many charitable causes" and "her many contributions to society".

Harry Potter films

In October, 1998, Warner Bros. purchased the film rights to the first two novels for a seven-figure sum. A film version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was released on November 16, 2001 and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on November 15, 2002. Both were directed by Chris Columbus. The June 4, 2004 film version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was directed by Alfonso Cuarón. The fourth film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was directed by yet another new director, Mike Newell. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is in post-production and is scheduled to be released on July 13, 2007. David Yates is the film's director, and Michael Goldenberg is its screenwriter, having taken over the position from Steven Kloves. Half-Blood Prince is in pre-production, and is scheduled for release on November 21, 2008. No director has been announced, although it has been confirmed that Kloves will return to screenwrite it.

Nothing has been announced regarding the film version of the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

In contrast to the treatment of most authors by Hollywood studios, Warner Bros. took considerable notice of Rowling's desires and thoughts in their attempt to bring her books to the screen. One of her principal stipulations was the films be shot in Britain with an all-British cast, which has so far been adhered to strictly. In an unprecedented move, Rowling also demanded that Coca-Cola, the victor in the race to tie-in their products to the film series, donate $18 million to the American charity Reading is Fundamental, as well as a number of community charity programs.

The first four films were scripted by Steve Kloves; Rowling assisted him in the writing process, ensuring that his scripts did not contradict future books in the series. She says she has told him more about the later books than anybody else, but not everything. She has also said that she has told Alan Rickman (Snape) and Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) certain secrets about their characters that have not yet been revealed. Steven Spielberg was approached to direct the first film, but dropped out. The press has repeatedly claimed that Rowling played a role in his departure, but Rowling stated on her website that she has no say in who directs the films. Rowling's first choice for the director of the first Harry Potter film had been Monty Python alumnus Terry Gilliam, being a fan of Gilliam's work. Warner Bros. studios wanted a more family friendly film, however, and eventually they settled for Chris Columbus.

After Harry Potter

Harry Potter has made Rowling a well known and a very successful author, but after Rowling finishes the final Harry Potter book, she plans to continue writing. Rowling declared, in a recent interview, that she will most likely not use a new pen name as the press would quickly discover her true identity.

In 2006, Rowling revealed that she had completed a few short stories and another children's book (a "political fairy story") about a monster, aimed at a younger audience than Harry Potter readers.

She is not planning to write an eighth Harry Potter book, but has suggested she might publish an "encyclopedia" of the Harry Potter world consisting of all her unpublished material and notes. Any profits from such a book would be given to charity.

Charity

In 2001, the UK fundraiser Comic Relief asked three bestselling British authors, (Rowling, cookery writer and TV presenter Delia Smith, and Bridget Jones creator Helen Fielding), to submit booklets related to their most famous works for publication. For every pound raised, a pound would go towards combatting poverty and social inequality across the globe. Rowling's two booklets, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages, are ostensibly facsimiles of books found in the Hogwarts library, and are written under the names of their fictional authors, Newt Scamander and Kennilworthy Whisp. Since going on sale in March, 2001, the books have raised £15.7 million ($30 million) for the fund. The £10.8 million ($20 million) raised outside the UK has been channelled into a newly created International Fund for Children and Young People in Crisis. She has also personally given £22 million to Comic Relief.

Rowling has contributed money and support to many other charitable causes, especially research and treatment of multiple sclerosis, from which her mother died in 1990. This death heavily affected her writing, according to Rowling. In 2006, Rowling contributed a substantial sum toward the creation of a new Centre for Regenerative Medicine at Edinburgh University. For reasons unknown, Scotland, Rowling's country of adoption, has the highest rate of MS in the world.

In January 2006, Rowling went to Bucharest to raise funds for the Children's High Level Group, an organization devoted to enforcing the human rights of children, particularly in eastern Europe.

On August 1-2, 2006, she read alongside Stephen King and John Irving at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Profits from the event were donated to the Haven Foundation, a charity that aids artists and performers left uninsurable and unable to work, and the medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières.

[/i]Her name[/i]

Rowling's surname is pronounced like "rolling" (IPA: /rəʊ.lɪŋ/). Her full name is "Joanne Rowling", not, as is often assumed, "Joanne Kathleen Rowling". Before publishing her first volume, Bloomsbury feared that the target audience of young boys might be reluctant to buy books written by a female author. They requested that Rowling use two initials, rather than reveal her first name. As she had no middle name, she chose K from her grandmother's name Kathleen, as the second initial of her pseudonym. The name Kathleen has never been part of her legal name. She calls herself "Jo" and claims, "No one ever called me 'Joanne' when I was young, unless they were angry."

Current life and family

In 2001, Rowling purchased a luxurious 19th century estate house, Killiechassie House, on the banks of the River Tay, near Aberfeldy, in Perth and Kinross, Scotland.[57] Rowling also owns a home in Merchiston, Edinburgh, and a Georgian house in London, on a street where, according to The Guardian, the average price of a house is £4.27 million ($8 million), possibly including an underground swimming pool and 24-hour security.

On 26 December 2001, Rowling married Neil Murray, an anaesthetist, in a private ceremony at her home in Aberfeldy. Their son David Gordon Rowling Murray was born on March 3, 2003. Shortly after Rowling began writing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, she took a break from working on the novel to care for him in his early infancy. Rowling's youngest child, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray, to whom she dedicated Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was born in January of 2005.

Honours

In June 2000, the Queen honoured Rowling by making her an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

In early 2006, the asteroid (43844) Rowling was named in her honour.

In May 2006, the newly-discovered Pachycephalosaurid dinosaur Dracorex hogwartsia, currently at the Children's Museum in Indianapolis, was named in honour of her world.

There is a housing development in Bristol, near to her childhood hom