Condoleezza Rice Is a Hole In One

I have golf clubs, but I am not golfer.  It is expensive, frustrating, and takes a long time to play.  I do not have to master my leisure activites, but I want them to be fun.  I have not generally had fun when I have played golf.

If Tiger Woods had not came along, I probably would not have ever paid attention to golf.  Before Tiger, I would immediately turn the channel.  Now, I at least listen and/or watch to see how he is doing.  As a result, I at least know the names of the tour's top players.

Although I am generally indifferent to the various golf country clubs, including revered Augusta National Golf Golf in Augusta, Georgia, I am glad they stepped into the 21st century and started accepting female members.  Their first choice - Condoleezza Rice - is a fine selection.  I may not agree with her politics, but she has the credentials, whatever they may be, to be a member of this "exclusive" club.

Breaking Ground: The National Museum of African-American History and Culture

President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and former-First Lady Laura Bush attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the National Museum of African-American History and Culture ("NMAAHC"), which is set to open 2015 as the 19th Smithsonian museum.  In preparation for its opening, the museum has collected over 20,000 artifacts, including but not limited to Harriet Tubman's shawl, Nat Turner's Bible, and an airplane flown by the Tuskegee Airmen.

The NMAAHC is the first African-American museum sponsored by the government of the United States.  It will sit on a five-acre site in Washington, D.C.  Click HERE for more information. 

Amongst Kings

I have come to have a greater appreciation of Martin Luther King, Jr.  His personal restraint and advocacy for nonviolence is amazing and inspring because it transcends time.  It would have been easier and frankly, justifiable to retaliate, but King (and his followers) looked beyond their personal brutalization and stayed focus on the purpose behind nonviolence - equal rights and equal treatment.  These ideals seem so common now, but during his life they were radical.  This notion shocked the national conscious.  This desire sparked rage.  This dream caused death.  How was it possible for black and white, men and women, to live as equal?

This radical idea and vision of America was not original to King.  Instead, it was that of Thomas Jefferson and the framers of the constitution, who cavalierly promised that America would be a place where "all men are created equal".  I say cavlierly promised because the drafters did not intend to enforce this bedrock principal of our democracy.  Instead, they allowed the bastardization of this progressive principal.

King through nonviolence made America examine the hypocrisy in its founding and forced our country to live up to its potential and honor its promise.  King was more than a dreamer.  He was a doer.

The Doer

Martin Luther King, Jr. was more than a dreamer.  He was a doer.  Let us not just celebrate his dream.  Let us celebrate his accomplishments.  In the words of King, "We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope."

Resurrection of Spider-Man

Spider-Man was one of my favorite superheroes growing up because when he wasn’t crawling the skyscrapers of Manhattan, he was your typical teenager.  As Peter Parker, the secret identity of Spider-Man, he had to balance the complexities of the high school hierarchy, strike a balance between part-time work and school, and make time to chase and ultimately catch the high school hotty.  Spider-Man was also different from other superheroes because no matter how often he saved New York City, the city never fully accepted him and J. Jonah Jamison of the Daily Beagle labeled him a public enemy (he’d be a terrorist today). 

Earlier this summer Marvel killed off Spider-Man in their ultimate universe.  They gave him a heroic death as he once again saved the city.  Earlier this week, Marvel announced that starting in September; they’ll be a new Spider-Man in the ultimate universe.  The new Spider-Man is not Peter Parker.  He’s Brooklynite teenager named Miles Morales, who’s half-Black and half-Hispanic.  This will mark the first time in history that a person of color will don the red and blue spider costume.

As a person of color and Spider-Man fan, I’m excited to see how the “new” webslinger in action.  I hope Marvel doesn’t take the cheap route and make him the “Black” Peter Parker, but rather develop him into his own person by giving him a distinct personality and background with his own motivations for wanting to be Spider-Man.  With great powers, comes great responsibility.                    

William Tillman, I'll Keep My Freedom or I'll Give You Death

Chris Carola, a writer for the Associated Press has a great story about William Tillman, an African-American merchant cook and steward who worked aboard the S.J. Waring.  Carola writes that during the early parts of the Civil War, a Confederate raid ship named the Jefferson Davis, seized the S.J. Waring in the Atlantic Ocean.  Five confederate sailors boarded the S.J. Waring and attempted to sail the ship to a southern port.  The rebels told Tillman that once they returned south, they would sell him into slavery.  Tillman, a free man by birth, replied hell no and staged a one-man, no surrender revolt. On July 16, 1861,  he killed three of the rebel pirates and tossed their bodies overboard.  Tillman then threatened to kill the two remaining sailors if the didn't assist him in sailing the ship to a northern port.

According to Carola's article, Tillman gain notarity for this one-man revolt.  P.T. Barnum hired him to work in his New York museum where he told audiences of his daring tale of survival and how he single-handedly battled "pirates" off the Atlantic Ocean and killede three of them in less than eight minutes.  Additionally, a court awared Tillman $6,000.00 for saving the Waring from sure destruction.

Special thanks to Chris Carola for writing a wonderful story.  Please click HERE to read Chris Carola's story.

Atlanta Black Crackers, Circa 1920

BHP – Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr.

Eric Holder, Jr. is the 82nd and current Attorney General of the United States and the first African-American to hold the position. Holder grew up in the Bronx and obtained his Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor from Columbia University. Prior to starting his tenure as Attorney General, he’s worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and judge of the Superior Court of Columbia, and the Office of the Attorney General

Mildred Loving Dies

Mildred Loving, a black woman, is the matriarch of American interracial marriages. Loving and her husband Richard, a white man, challenged Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage. In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld their right to marry. The ruling struck down laws banning racially mixed marriages in at least 17 states. The court ruled in a unanimous decision, holding “There can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the equal protection clause.”

Mildred and Richard got married in 1958 in Washington, but when the returned to Virginia, they were arrested for violating the law. They plead guilty to charges of “cohabitating as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth.” They avoided jail time by agreeing to leave their home state of Virginia. They eventually moved to Washington.

Once in Washington, they launched their legal challenge to the law by writing to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who referred the case to the American Civil Liberties Union and the case eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

I remember reading about the Loving case in Constitutional law class, but now that Swamps and I married, it takes on a whole new meaning because it’s easy to forget that 50 years ago we wouldn’t have been able to marry because we’re of different races. The Lovings paved the way for us to get married hassle free (relatively speaking). Although they’re probably in heaven with all our great freedom fighters, I want to thank you for standing up for the notion that love and marriage is really color blind.

An Original Black Panther

Accidental or not, but Black Panther for Self-Defense cofounder Bobby Seale spoke at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, whose mascot happens to be the panthers. Seale founded the group in October 1966 with Huey P. Newton. Seale was an engaging speaker who shared intimate details on why and how he and Newton founded the Black Panther Party. It’s hard to believe that both became so influential at such a young age.

The Black Panthers developed a Ten Point Program:

1. Power to determine the destiny of our black and oppressed communities.
2. Full employment for our people.
3. An end to the robbery by the capitalists of our black community.
4. Decent housing, fit for the shelter of human beings.
5. Decent education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. Education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society.
6. Completely free healthcare for all black and oppressed people.
7. Immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people, other people of color, all oppressed people inside the United States.
8. An immediate end to all wars of aggression.
9. Freedom for all black and oppressed people now held in U.S. federal, state, county, city, and military prisons and jails. Trials by a jury of peers for all persons charged with so-called crimes under the laws of this country.
10. People want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and people’s community control of modern technology.

Emancipation Day

Today marks the yearly celebration of Juneteenth. It commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on September 22, 1862l; became effective on January 1, 1863; the day-to-day lives of most slaves, especially those in Confederate controlled Texas, were not effected because the slaves were not notified of the proclamation and there was no one to enforce the declaration.

The slaves in Galveston, Texas were finally notified of their freedom on June 19, 1865 after the arrival of Union General Gordon Granger and his 2,000 federal troops. General Granger was able to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation and the slaves were finally set free.

Juneteenth is an official holiday in Arkansas, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, Alaska, and California.

Racial Profiling

Racial Profiling is any police or private security practice in which a person is treated as a suspect because of his or her race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion. Profiling occurs when police investigate, stop, frisk, search, or use force against a person based on such characteristics instead of evidence of a person's criminal behavior.

BHP - Sen. Barack Obama

(born August 4, 1961, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.) American politician who became the third African American, and the first African American male Democrat, to be elected to the U.S. Senate after the end of Reconstruction (1877). Obama's father, Barack Obama, Sr., was originally a goatherd in Kenya; he won a scholarship to study in the United States and eventually became a senior economist in the Kenyan government. Obama's mother, S. Ann Dunham, grew up in Kansas. Raised in Hawaii and Indonesia, Obama received a bachelor's degree from Columbia University (1983) and a law degree from Harvard University (1991), where he was the first African American to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review. After receiving his law degree, he moved to Chicago, where he had earlier been a community organizer. He became active in the Democratic Party and lectured on constitutional law at the University of Chicago. He also worked as an attorney on civil rights issues. In 1996 he was elected to the Illinois Senate. In 2004 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, defeating Republican Alan Keyes in the first U.S. Senate race in which the two leading candidates were African Americans. Obama's memoir, Dreams from My Father (1995), details his life.

Copyright © 1994-2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

BHP - Sammy Davis, Jr.

(born December 8, 1925, New York, New York, U.S.—died May 16, 1990, Los Angeles, California) American singer, dancer, and entertainer.

At age three Davis began performing in vaudeville with his father and uncle, Will Mastin, in the Will Mastin Trio. Davis studied tap dancing under Bill “Bojangles” Robinson but never received a formal education. After serving in the U.S. Army he became the central figure of the Mastin Trio, not only singing and dancing but also playing trumpet, drums, piano, and vibraphone; moreover, he was an accomplished mime and comedian. He encountered virulent racial prejudice early in his career, but he endured to become one of the first African American stars to achieve wide popularity.

Along with his extremely successful nightclub career, Davis was a popular recording artist, and he was successful on Broadway in Mr. Wonderful (1956) and in a 1964 revival of Clifford Odets' Golden Boy, and in films, including Porgy and Bess (1959) and Sweet Charity (1969). He also appeared in a series of motion pictures with friends such as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, including Ocean's Eleven (1960), Sergeants 3 (1962), and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964). Davis wrote two autobiographical books, Yes I Can (1965) and Why Me? (1989).

Copyright © 1994-2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

BHP - Black Comic Book Superheroes

To begin with, the history of black superheroes is not easily assembled since early on, much of the work was not reported on. There aren't volumes of books out there on the subject, and even if you look at historical books put out by major publishers - the coverage on their own black superheroes is sparse at best.

Also, companies prefer to sweep any negative and stereotypical characters from their past under the rug in order to preserve their images today. Therefore, the search for early black superheroes turns up more negative images than anything else. The history as a whole needs to be looked at in order to fully appreciate the black superheroes being created today. By the 1940's both Marvel and DC Comics were enjoying major popularity as their fantastic images made their way into the hands of kids everywhere. Black superheroes wouldn’t appear until much later. Much like the movie industry - racism directly impacted black comicbook characters who were cast in background roles or as “uncle tom” sidekicks.

Marvel’s first black superhero was named “Whitewash” (the name speaks for itself). Whitewash was a character drawn in full blackface fashion who appeared in the 1940's war comic "Young Allies". Created for comic effect only, Whitewash was portrayed as a helpless bufoon whose only purpose was to provide laughs as he fell into one dire situation to another. Full of the stereotypes you would expect to see at that time in American history, negative black comic characters were all too commonplace. Black superheroes were also subject to the negative perceptions of the artists drawing them at the time and therefore a parallel can be made to struggle for equality in America. Marvel’s Black Panther appeared in 1966 (Fantastic Four #52) and wouldn’t gain his own title until 11 years later (how's that for affirmative action?).

Followed by DC’s Black Lightning and Marvel’s Luke Cage, poster children for the entertainment industry’s Blaxploitation of the 70’s. The progress of blacks in comics has an undeniable link to our society's racial issues and I ask you to keep this in mind as we delve into the offensive nature of some of the characters. In recent years, many African American artists and comics publishers have taken it upon themselves to create and explore more black superheroes.

With many more black artists drawing, and new black superheroes being created everyday, black heroes are on the rise. Over time, their success will only help to broaden the minds of those who take the time to read and enjoy them. In conclusion, if you know artists that are creating comics, buy their books and support black superheroes!

Information provided by the Museum of Black Superheroes.

BHP - Affirmative Action 3 of 3

Opposition to affirmative action in California culminated in the passage in 1996 of the California Civil Rights Initiative (Proposition 209), which prohibited all government agencies and institutions from giving preferential treatment to individuals based on their race or sex. The Supreme Court effectively upheld the constitutionality of Proposition 209 in November 1997 by refusing to hear a challenge to its enforcement. Legislation similar to Proposition 209 was subsequently proposed in other states and was passed in Washington in 1998. The Supreme Court also upheld a lower-court ruling that struck down as unconstitutional the University of Texas's affirmative action program, arguing in Hopwood v. University of Texas Law School (1996) that there was no compelling state interest to warrant using race as a factor in admissions decisions. Afterward there were further legislative and electoral challenges to affirmative action in many parts of the country. In 2003, in two landmark rulings involving admissions to the University of Michigan and its law school, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the constitutionality of affirmative action, though it ruled that race could not be the preeminent factor in such decisions as it struck down the university's undergraduate admissions policy that awarded points to students on the basis of race.

Copyright © 1994-2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

BHP - Affirmative Action Part 2 of 3

By the late 1970s the use of racial quotas and minority set-asides led to court challenges of affirmative action as a form of “reverse discrimination.” The first major challenge was Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (5–4) that quotas may not be used to reserve places for minority applicants if white applicants are denied a chance to compete for those places. Although the court outlawed quota programs, it allowed colleges to use race as a factor in making college admissions decisions. Two years later a fragmented court upheld a 1977 federal law requiring that 10 percent of funds for public works be allotted to qualified minority contractors.

The Supreme Court began to impose significant restrictions on race-based affirmative action in 1989. In several decisions that year, the court gave greater weight to claims of reverse discrimination, outlawed the use of minority set-asides in cases where prior racial discrimination could not be proved, and placed limits on the use of racial preferences by states that were stricter than those it applied to the federal government. In Adarand Constructors v. Pena (1995), the court ruled that federal affirmative action programs were unconstitutional unless they fulfilled a “compelling governmental interest.”

Copyright © 1994-2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

BHP - Affirmative Action Part 1 of 3

In the United States, an active effort to improve employment or educational opportunities for members of minority groups and for women. Affirmative action began as a government remedy to the effects of long-standing discrimination against such groups and has consisted of policies, programs, and procedures that give preferences to minorities and women in job hiring, admission to institutions of higher education, the awarding of government contracts, and other social benefits. The typical criteria for affirmative action are race, disability, gender, ethnic origin, and age.

Affirmative action was initiated by the administration of President Lyndon Johnson (1963–69) in order to improve opportunities for African Americans while civil rights legislation was dismantling the legal basis for discrimination. The federal government began to institute affirmative action policies under the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and an executive order in 1965. Businesses receiving federal funds were prohibited from using aptitude tests and other criteria that tended to discriminate against African Americans. Affirmative action programs were monitored by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Subsequently, affirmative action was broadened to cover women and Native Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities and was extended to colleges and universities and state and federal agencies.

Copyright © 1994-2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

BHP - Hattie McDaniel

born June 10, 1895, Wichita, Kan., U.S.—died Oct. 26, 1952, Hollywood, Calif.) American actress and singer who became the first African American to be honored with an Academy Award.

McDaniel was raised in Denver, Colorado, where she early exhibited her musical and dramatic talent. She left school in 1910 to become a performer in several traveling minstrel groups and later became one of the first black women to be broadcast over American radio. With the onset of the Great Depression, however, little work was to be found for minstrel or vaudeville players, and to support herself McDaniel went to work as a bathroom attendant at Sam Pick's club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Although the club as a rule hired only white performers, some of its patrons became aware of McDaniel's vocal talents and encouraged the owner to make an exception. McDaniel performed at the club for more than a year until she left for Los Angeles, where her brother found her a small role on a local radio show, The Optimistic Do-Nuts; known as Hi-Hat Hattie, she became the show's main attraction before long.

Two years after McDaniel's film debut in 1932, she landed her first major part in John Ford's Judge Priest (1934), in which she had an opportunity to sing a duet with humorist Will Rogers. Her role as a happy Southern servant in The Little Colonel (1935) made her a controversial figure in the liberal black community, which sought to end Hollywood's stereotyping. When criticized for taking such roles, McDaniel responded that she would rather play a maid in the movies than be one in real life; and during the 1930s she played the role of maid or cook in nearly 40 films, including Alice Adams (1935), in which her comic characterization of a grumbling, far-from-submissive maid made the dinner party scene one of the best remembered from the film. She is probably most often associated with the supporting role of Mammy in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, a role for which she became the first African American to win an Academy Award.

At the end of World War II, during which McDaniel organized entertainment for black troops, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and other liberal black groups lobbied Hollywood for an end to the stereotyped roles in which McDaniel had become typecast, and consequently her Hollywood opportunities declined. Radio, however, was slower to respond, and in 1947 she became the first African American to star in a weekly radio program aimed at a general audience when she agreed to play the role of a maid on The Beulah Show. In 1951, while filming the first six segments of a television version of the popular show, she had a heart attack. She recovered sufficiently to tape a number of radio shows in 1952 but died soon thereafter of breast cancer.

Copyright © 1994-2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

BHP - Louis Armstrong

born August 4, 1901, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.—died July 6, 1971, New York, New York) the leading trumpeter and one of the most influential artists in jazz history. Armstrong grew up in dire poverty in New Orleans, Louisiana, when jazz was very young. As a child he worked at odd jobs and sang in a boys' quartet. In 1913 he was sent to the Colored Waifs Home as a juvenile delinquent. There he learned to play cornet in the home's band, and playing music quickly became a passion; in his teens he learned music by listening to the pioneer jazz artists of the day, including the leading New Orleans cornetist, King Oliver. Armstrong developed rapidly: he played in marching and jazz bands, becoming skillful enough to replace Oliver in the important Kid Ory band about 1918, and in the early 1920s he played in Mississippi riverboat dance bands.

Fame beckoned in 1922 when Oliver, then leading a band in Chicago, sent for Armstrong to play second cornet. Oliver's Creole Jazz Band was the apex of the early, contrapuntal New Orleans ensemble style, and it included outstanding musicians such as the brothers Johnny and Baby Dodds and pianist Lil Hardin, who married Armstrong in 1924. The young Armstrong became popular through his ingenious ensemble lead and second cornet lines, his cornet duet passages (called “breaks”) with Oliver, and his solos. He recorded his first solos as a member of the Oliver band in such pieces as “Chimes Blues” and “Tears,” which Lil and Louis Armstrong composed.

In most of Armstrong's movie, radio, and television appearances, he was featured as a good-humoured entertainer. He played a rare dramatic role in the film New Orleans (1947), in which he also performed in a Dixieland band. This prompted the formation of Louis Armstrong's All-Stars, a Dixieland band that at first included such other jazz greats as Hines and trombonist Jack Teagarden. For most of the rest of Armstrong's life, he toured the world with changing All-Stars sextets; indeed, “Ambassador Satch” in his later years was noted for his almost nonstop touring schedule. It was the period of his greatest popularity; he produced hit recordings such as “Mack the Knife” and “Hello, Dolly!” and outstanding albums such as his tributes to W.C. Handy and Fats Waller. In his last years ill health curtailed his trumpet playing, but he continued as a singer. His last film appearance was in Hello, Dolly! (1969).

More than a great trumpeter, Armstrong was a bandleader, singer, soloist, film star, and comedian. One of his most remarkable feats was his frequent conquest of the popular market with recordings that thinly disguised authentic jazz with Armstrong's contagious humour. He nonetheless made his greatest impact on the evolution of jazz itself, which at the start of his career was popularly considered to be little more than a novelty. With his great sensitivity, technique, and capacity to express emotion, Armstrong not only ensured the survival of jazz but led in its development into a fine art.

Armstrong's autobiographies include Swing That Music (1936, reprinted with a new foreword, 1993) and Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans (1954).

Copyright © 1994-2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.