Last night was a special night in the African American community. Everyone was anxious to see if Mo’Nique would win the Oscar, so it was my thought that evryone would be glued to the 82nd Annual Oscars.
Not so in Tampa, Florida. Chrisette Michele was scheduled to perform at the Tampa Performing Arts Center as the headliner. Opening for Michele was Laura Izibor. Morgan who was unable to see them at the 9:30 Club a few weeks ago wasn’t about to miss this event. So he booked a flight from Washington, D.C. and scored front row tickets.
Morgan wasn’t alone in Ferguson Hall. Despite the annual Oscar party a few blocks away at the old Tampa Theater, the Tampa crowd who came out in droves did not disappoint the two female artist. From all the head bobbing, hand clapping and body rocking they were not disappointed either.
The Nigerian-Irish, Laura Izibor came out the gate singing from her CD Let the Truth Be Told. The crowd took to their feet when she sang Don’t Stay, and before her closing number From My heart To Yours she received a bouquet of roses from a very young fan who appeared to be around seven years old. Izibor brought on so much energy, that after her performance the crowd stormed the booth outside to purchase her CD.
Izidor left the crowd wanting for more, and Chrisette Michele gave it to them.
Showing her comedic side, the Epiphany girl sang some high energy joints from her CD entitled Epiphany. Working the crowd with one liners she showed why she will be a mainstay in not only the music business but the entertainment industry.
In the middle of her act, she allowed Melissa and Jeremy to interact with the crowd with some hits from her contemporaries as she changed from the stylist jean wearing girl to the sophisticated gown wearing lady.
Shoeless, Chrisette proceeded to entertain the crowd who forgot that they had seats with her salsa dancing and scat singing. At one point she engaged the audience in a scat contest. The audience which ranged in age from 25 to over 65 wasn’t shy about their participation.
It was apparent why Morgan jumped on that plane from D.C. Chrisette posseses a signature voice, identifying her individual sound and style. Like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaugh, Billie Holiday, Betty Carter, Dinah Washington, and of course Little Esther Phillips, women who came before and open up the doors for the 27 year old, Chrisette Michele utilizes her voice like a fine tuned musical instrument.
We have only seen the tip of the iceberg as to the talent of Chrisette Michele who has a promising future in the entertainment industry.
Why? It all boils down to individuality which has been missing from the music industry for some time now. This is evident in the excitement of Sade’s return after a ten year absence.
For the last couple of decades, the profit seeking music industry filled itself with sampling recording artist who either sang or rapped about boring bling bling material things, leaving a serious void for lyrical and musical content of substance.
Chrisette and Laura who also has her own style(and she too will be a mainstay), has joined an emerging list of women like Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, India Irie, Alicia Keys, Corrine Bailey Rae, Sade, Norah Jones, Mary J. Blige and Beyonce who has put the music back into the music.
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The film ‘Precious’ starring Gabourey Sidibe, Mariah Carey, Mo’Nique earned $100,000 per screen during opening weekend.
“Precious” is a brutal story of one girl’s horrific struggles with familial abuse, rape, teenage pregnancy and the claustrophobic hopelessness that has invaded her life earned $100,000 per screen during opening weekend.
In addition, the film starring Gabourey Sidibe, Mariah Carey, Mo’Nique has garnered several awards. Mo’Nique won an acting prize at Sundance for her role as Precious’ mother. The film itself, won the top award at Sundance
Sidibe said that her life was already changing. The 16-year-old, who had never been in a movie before, couldn’t even imagine what would happen when the film hit theaters. As she told MTV News in August, people she ran into on the street often had a hard time separating her from her character.
“They’ll start to talk to me in a more careful tone or be really wary of me,” she explained. “They’ll want to coddle me or they see me in the street and they’ll want to hug me and rub my back and tell me everything will be OK. But it’s cool, I like hugging.”
Mo’Nique also won the golden globe for best supporting actress.
As to the Independent Spirit Awards, “Precious” swept every category for which it was nominated, including directing honors for Lee Daniels as well as best screenplay by a first-time writer for Geoffrey Fletcher. Sidibe won best actress for “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” playing an illiterate teen pulling herself out of an abyss of neglect and abuse. Mo’Nique earned the supporting-actress honor as the girl’s loathsome mother. Mo’nique also snatched the SAG (screen actors guild) award.
As you can see Comedian-turned-dramatic-actress Mo’Nique has been dominating the supporting-actress categories this year for her ‘Precious” performance and topped it off tonight by taking home the coveted Oscar at the 82nd academy awards show. Mo’nique was up against Penelope Cruz for “Nine,” Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick for “Up in the Air” and Maggie Gyllenhaal for “Crazy Heart.” making it a top contender tonight at the 82nd academy awards show.
The film which was also up for best actress with Gabourey Sidibe and Lee Daniels for the best-directing honors recevied Oscar gold for best adapted screenplay. That honor with to Geoffrey Fletcher. It is also nominated for best picture, and Best film editing.
“The Princess and the Frog,” starring Anika Noni Rose was nominated in the best animated feature film category.
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The focus of King’s non-violent efforts had been on the south. This of course did not provide any relief for the African Americans who had migrated from the south to get away from the Jim Crow laws. The migration did not relieve them from discrimination.
Tensions boiled in the tenantment slums and this became evident in August 11, 1965 in the Watts section of Los Angeles when the riots broke out.
Dr. King traveled to Watts to establish and maintain peace. Upon his arrival, King found that his non-violent techniques were not welcomed. The Watts protesters had chosen M Malcolm X’s philosophy by any Means Necessary.
Malcolm X who had broken away from the Nation of Islam in 1964 was believed to be leaning towards the non-violence philosophy. However, a barrage of assassin’s bullets cut Malcolm down on Feb 21, 1965 inside the Audubon Ball room in Harlem.
Dr. King who continued to maintain his philosophy of non-violence prepared to take his techniques to the North. He chose Mayor Richard daily’s Chicago.
In Chicago, Dr. King experienced violence like he had never experienced in the south.
Back in the south, James Meredith took it upon himself to protest the physical violence faced by African Americans for exercising their voting rights by staging a one-man march against fear. Meredith was wounded by a sniper’s bullet.
After he recovered, Martin Luther king Jr. and Stokely Carmichael joined him on his pilgrimage from Memphis Tennessee to Jackson Mississippi.
Martin Luther King Jr. realized that it was imperative to address poverty and the Vietnam War. On April 4, 1968, King himself was struck down by an assassin’s bullet. Within one month, Robert Kennedy would meet the same fate.
Curtis and Mariah were saddened by the assassination of the three men and their admiration for them were evidenced by the framed photos Mariah maintained in their living room.
The riots, which broke out all over, the nation as a result of the King’s assassination was very disturbing to Mariah and Curtis.
On April 5, 1968 hundreds of Bennett college students gathered at the courthouse for a Memorial service for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Thousands gathered for a service at A&T ’s gymnasium. A riot broke out when 2 white men in a station wagon fired into a crowd of blacks. Police, national guardsmen and students engaged in shootings that end up
wounding 2 police officers and injuring 6 protesters. A&T president, Lewis Dowdy scheduled an early spring break.
One month later, the African American community decided to join the poor peoples campaign established by King and his SCLC organization before his untimely demise.
On May of 1968 the citizens both black and white joined together and held a peaceful march in Greensboro to demonstrate their support of King’s non-violent campaign on the issue of economic justice for impoverished Americans.
On March 25, 1969, Curtis passed away from cancer. He was 81 years old. Mariah, Agnes and Thomas were now living without Curtis in their house located within a mile of A&T’s campus.
Beverly, Mariah and Curtis’ granddaughter was now enrolled as a freshman student at A&T. The daughter of Curtis Jr., and Alice Webb Bailey, had entered the freshmen class with Ronald McNair.
In May just two months after Curtis’ death a riot broke out on the campus. The tension setting off the riot arose over local Dudley high school administration’s failure to recognize the Claude Barnes write in candidacy for student body president.
Barnes was considered subversive and his name was therefore not allowed on the ballot. The student body decided to elect him as president through write in. The administration struck down the results of the election causing students to protest. The students were met with physical force and jailed. The protest combined with inequality issues spilled over
to the college campus.
Willie Grimes a sophomore student at A&T and a member of the ROTC was shot and killed. Grimes death c used things to spiral out of control. The city was placed on curfew for two days.
The Dudley disturbance also spilled over to the Junior High school located across the street from the all black Dudley.
Beverley’s sister was enrolled at Lincoln Junior High School. Valerie was in her journalism class along with Debra Lee. They were both writers for the school’s newspaper, The Lincoln Echo.
On August 18, 1974, Mariah died. Before her death, she got to see one granddaughter graduate from A&T and another enter the all black university. She got to see her grand children integrate the public schools.
She also witnessed white flight as black began to move into white neighborhoods. Her daughter Marie moved into an all white neighborhood. Beverley had married and she and her husband purchased their first home in Woodmere Park one door down form Sandra Hugh, Greensboro, first Black television personality. Beverly and Sandra had lived around the corner from each other growing up. Other childhood neighbors included N BA player Bob McAdoo, and
NFL player Vince Evans.
Woodmere Park, would experience white flight as more African Americans moved in. What Mariah as well Curtis would not see was the shooting of innocent unarmed protesters in the all Black Morningside homes by Klansmen in November 1979.
They would not see their granddaughter graduate from Bennett and becoming involved in Stem cell research at the prestigious Baylor Medical Center.
They would not see their granddaughter become a lawyer and family historian.
They would not see their great grandson become a medical doctor.
They would not see their great granddaughter establish her own blood bank consulting firm.
They would not see the erosion of the black neighborhoods as a result of middle class
blacks moving into white neighborhoods.
They would not see the crime and decay of the black neighborhood as a result of a drug epidemic.
They would not know of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
They would not see the black vote making a difference in the election of public officers.
They would not see a black run for the Presidency o f the U.S.
They would not see Ron McNair take his place as the second black astronaut to venture into outer space on the space shuttle-the same space shuttle that would take his life two years later.
They would not see Debra Lee become the CEO of BET network. A network established by black for blacks.
They would not see cell phones or the Internet or black billionaires.
Nor would they see Greensboro and Society Hill elect their very first black mayor.
And most importantly, they would not have the pleasure of experiencing Obama mania which led to the election of America’s first black President, something they never would have dreamed of because they were born in the era of racial etiquette.
Racial etiquette hasn’t quite disappeared but there is hope in our future.
I’m Yvette Freeman.
Thank you for taking this journey in the exploration of the Bailey, Bonaparte and Wilson family from slavery to Obama on Febone1960.net Black History Calendar.
Please continue to join us throughout the year because Black History is American History and we experience it 365 days of the year.
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1963 was a very prominent year for the Civil Right s struggle.
Jessie Bailey was just one out of numerous young African Americans in the Unites States who took to the street protesting in a non-violent manner the segregation practices in the south.
The violence encountered by the non-violent protesters in Birmingham, Alabama prompted President John F .Kennedy to propose a Civil Rights bill. A, Phillip Randolph who had organized the black Pullman porters along with Bayard Rustin organized a march on Washington.
African Americans all over the United States emerged on our Nation’s Capitol and heard
Martin Luther King, Jr., give his famous I Have A Dream Speech.
African Americans returned from Washington re charged in their quest for freedom. On
September 15, 1963, a cloud darkens that enthusiasm as a result of a bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. There had been many bombing
Throughout the movement b but this one was the most despicable crimes of the Civil Rights movement. Four young girls attending Sunday school Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carol Robertson and Adie Mae Collins ages eleven through fourteen were killed when a bomb exploded at the Church. Twenty others were injured. The Church was a center for civil rights meetings and just a few days earlier, the courts had ordered the desegregation of Birmingham schools.
The violence did not stop there. On November 22, 1963 the civil rights movement received a severe blow, when President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in
Dallas, Texas.
Jessie Bailey thought she was fighting against segregation in Greensboro N.C. Little did she know that her actions would lead to the United States Supreme Court ordering the re-opening of the schools in Farmville, Virginia in 1965, so that her unknown relatives could receive an education.
Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter retired after suffering a stroke in 1962. Lead by Hugo
Black, the United States Supreme Court ordered Prince Edwards’ county schools to reopen in 1965. In writing the opinion for a unanimous Court, Black stated that the time
for mere deliberate speed had run out and that the phrase can no longer justify denying
these children their Constitutional rights.
Following upon P resident Kennedy’s recommendation, President Lyndon Baines Johnson over-came southern resistance and achieved the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Passed under the Interstate Commerce clause, the Act prohibited discrimination in public facilities, government and employment. It abolished the Jim Crow laws of the south and made it illegal to compel segregation of the races in schools, housing, and hiring.
In 1964, the world would learn about another despicable act carried out by cowards
hiding behind white hooded bed sheets. On June2 1,1964,three political activists were murdered outside Philadelphia, Mississippi for their participation in the voter registration of blacks.
The killing of James Chaney, a 2l years old black man from Meridian, Mississippi,
Andrew Goodman, a 20 years old anthropology student from New York, and Michael
Schwerner, a 24 years old Jewish social worker also from New York occurred one day
After the three men arrived in Mississippi after attending a week long training in regards
to black voter registration strategies.
The three men were on route to Longdale to inspect the ruins of black civil rights active
Church destroyed by arson when they were pulled over for an alleged speeding violation.
They were released after being held for several hours, and Chaney the driver was fined.
After a $25,000.00 reward w as offered, the FBI found their bodies two months later just
6 miles southwest of Philadelphia, Mississippi. Goodman and Schwerner had each been shot in the heart, while Chaney had been shot three times following a severe beating.
On June21, 2005 on the 41st anniversary of their murders an appropriately named Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of three counts of manslaughter.
This atrocity coupled with the unprovoked attack on March 7, 1965 in Selma, Alabama
by state troopers on peaceful marchers on route to the state capitol as they crossed the
Edmund Pettis Bridge and the beating death of James Reed a catholic priest by white
Supremacist persuaded the President and Congress to overcome southern legislators
Resistance to effective voting rights legislation.
President Johnson signed into law on August 6, 1965, the voting rights act that applied a nationwide prohibition against the denial or abridgement against the right to vote based on literacy test. Although the act did not prohibit poll taxes, the U.S. Supreme Court held poll taxes to be unconstitutional under the 14th amendment.
100 years after the Civil war, 100 years after the signing of the emancipation
Proclamations, southern Blacks through a horrendous civil rights struggle finally regained the civil and political rights they had obtained through Congress during the reconstruction era.
The clip was narrated by radio journalist, Robert Lorei.
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With minutes to go before his exclusive negotiating window was to close, Michael Jordan, the legendary NBA hall of famer struck a deal late Friday night to buy the controlling interest of the Charlotte Bobcats. The deal places the six-time NBA champion in charge of the money-losing team in his home state of North Carolina.
Current owner Bob Johnson announced in a statement that he’s agreed to sell the Bobcats to Jordan, who has been a part-owner running the team’s basketball operations since 2006. Jordan has been running the team’s basketball operations.
The purchase price and details of Jordan’s ownership group – called MJ Basketball Holdings LLC – weren’t immediately available. A spokeswoman for Johnson and a spokesman for Jordan said neither man was available for comment early Saturday.
The sell must still be approved by the league’s owners.
Jordan was in competition with former Houston Rockets executive George Postolos, who also had an ownership group together to buy the team. However, according to Postolos Jordan had the exclusive right to buy the club until just before midnight Friday night.
Just like in his playing days, Jordan hit another last-second shot – reaching a deal minutes before the deadline.
“I remain committed to becoming an NBA owner, and I’m glad that Michael will continue to bring his talent to the sport and the league,” Postolos said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. “He’s very, very committed.”
It will end Johnson’s stint as the first black majority owner of a major professional sports team. Jordan becomes another black owner in another milestone for the Hall of Famer, but one that comes with many challenges.
Jordan, a five-time NBA MVP and 14-time All-Star, has made millions lending his name to sneakers, apparel and other items. Now he’ll begin a completely different role, trying to make the Bobcats a winner, and the franchise and Charlotte’s downtown arena profitable.
After paying $300 million for the expansion team that began play in 2004-05, Johnson has accumulated about $150 million in debt and the team is expected to lose tens of millions this season as they struggle to draw fans and find sponsorships.
Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, shook up management several times before recruiting Jordan to be a minority investor while giving him the final say on all basketball decisions.
Jordan, who turned 47 this month, has had a unique role with the Bobcats. General manager Rod Higgins runs the day-to-day basketball operations and Jordan has rarely attended practices or games, or worked on the marketing side of the operation.
Jordan has had some missteps – drafting the disappointing Adam Morrison No. 3 overall in 2006 – but he was also able to lure Hall of Famer Larry Brown to become coach at the beginning of last season.
Jordan and Brown have made seven trades involving 21 players since the start of last season. The November acquisition of Stephen Jackson from Golden State has helped Charlotte get into playoff contention in the Eastern Conference.
But attendance has still lagged, and Jordan has been criticized in Charlotte for rarely being seen – despite his iconic status in the state.
Jordan grew up in Wilmington, N.C., led North Carolina to the 1982 national championship with a last-second shot, then remained one of the state’s favorite sons when he starred with the Bulls.
Jordan’s first stint as an NBA executive came with the Washington Wizards, where he was roundly criticized for drafting Kwame Brown with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 draft.
He changed roles when he returned briefly as a player, then was fired by owner Abe Pollin in 2003 when he tried to return to his role running the basketball operations.
No one will be able to fire Jordan after he takes control of the Bobcats, and it’s likely the team will not change much in the front office.
Jordan’s close friend, Fred Whitfield, is team president, and Higgins was Jordan’s hire.
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